Dakota County Wants Your Input on Greenway Planned for Lakeville

Lakeville will host an open house later this month to give the public a chance to weigh in on plans for the Lake Marion-South Creek Greenway.

The draft master plan for the greenway has it starting at the Minnesota River in Burnsville and traveling 20 miles, past Lake Marion in Lakeville, ending at Rambling River Park in Farmington

The open house, the final stage of the year-long master planning process, will be held at 5:30 p.m. May 28 at the Lakeville Water Treatment Facility (18400 Ipava Ave.).

“The county has made a lot of progress in both greenway construction and planning for new greenway corridors over the last 5 years,” John Mertens, project manager for Dakota County, said in a statement in January. "Resident input during the planning process helps us ensure that greenways, when constructed, are assets to the communities in Dakota County.

More information is available on the website of the developer, the Hoisington Koegler Group:

The 2008 Dakota County Park System Plan solidifies a vision of an interconnected system of regional greenways through the urbanized areas of the county. The greenway vision suggests 200 miles of regional greenways, 2/3 of which are identified on land currently in public or semipublic ownership.

The greenway vision proposes more than a trail system - it suggests enhanced open space corridors that perform multiple functions and provide multiple community benefits in areas of water quality, habitat, recreation and nonmotorized transportation. These four categories of benefits are core elements in the greenway vision. Accommodating all four to the extent possible will be the goal for each greenway segment and is a focus of this Greenway Collaborative Guidebook.