Excelsior is looking to expand docks next to its Lake Minnetonka park this winter, in an effort to draw more revenue to support the park and eventually revamp it.
The small west metro city long has wanted to revitalize the Commons, a 13-acre waterfront city park. This fall, city officials held numerous focus groups and sent out a community survey. Feedback results will be compiled in a report to be released in mid-November.
"There really is no public land on the lake like the Commons," said Jennifer Caron, a City Council member who is on a committee the city started a year ago to head up the park master plans. "It's amazing land and space and views."
Across the lake, Wayzata also has added docks, part of a larger effort to make its lakefront — which is cut off from its downtown by railroad tracks — a bigger and more accessible attraction.
Excelsior is seeking simpler changes for the Commons, which has been in the public domain for more than 160 years. A vintage band shell and bathhouse date to the 1950s and '60s, and the city has long sought to improve its facilities and concessions to resemble those at Minneapolis' lakes, such as the Tin Fish on Calhoun.
In the meantime, the city is seeking approval to extend three of its five piers, doubling their size to accommodate more boats, and turning another dock into a transient one — all to increase revenue for the Commons. The Lake Minnetonka Conservation District is slated to vote on the request in January.
Funding changes
After failing to get state bonding funds, the city started the park committee and gathered public input to put together more formal plans. A park conservancy group, Community for the Commons, was established last year to lead private fundraising; it has since launched an endowment fund.
"The park doesn't really get any focus without energy from an organization like ours to push for it," said Deb Rodgers, the founder and chairwoman of the conservancy. "The Commons always kind of falls to the bottom [of priorities]."