Scott County: To seek or not to seek money for prime land

Guns and kids may not mix, Scott County worries as it ponders a potential addition to its store of protected open space.

By DAVID PETERSON, Star Tribune

Last update: November 3, 2009 - 4:35 PM

Scott County is looking a gift horse in the mouth.

A huge pool of free money for buying land has come along, just at the moment the housing market's free-fall has put a prime parcel right next to one of its future parks into foreclosure, with the bank eager to sell.

But that doesn't mean the county is interested.

"I'm not sure it's an asset," board chairman Jon Ulrich said last week. "In fact, I'm questioning whether it's an asset."

Parks chief Mark Themig had to acknowledge there's a rub. "Is it the ideal situation?" he asked commissioners. "No. ... There are trade-offs."

The catch is that the land would have to be open to hunting. And commissioners aren't sure they want a lot of guns going off, or arrows being fired, right next to a regional park.

At issue are 280 acres of land that roughly connect three different lakes, just east of the future Doyle-Kennefick Regional Park. The park is in Cedar Lake township, between Prior Lake and New Prague, in the central part of the county.

It was to have been a sweet deal for future homebuyers in a development called St. Catherine on the Lake, who would have been surrounded by lakeshore and permanently protected parkland. But that project has gone kaput, even as the 2008 state constitutional amendment known as Clean Water, Land and Legacy created a vast pool of money for land conservation.

As part of an effort to do more for hunters and anglers in the metro area -- as opposed to spending it far off in rural Minnesota -- Scott County is being encouraged, Themig said, to put in for $3.9 million for a Porter Creek Preserve.

With just days left before the deadline to apply, commissioners agreed to ask for the money but reserve the right to back out, depending on how it would all work.

Considering that people can fish in other parks, commissioner Jerry Hennen said, and the long-term decline in the number of hunters, he wonders about the usefulness of the land. "Everyone in our family used to hunt," he said, "but I don't know of any who do anymore."

Themig conceded that a new wildlife area open to hunters could alter the uses of the Doyle property. "If there were hunting, we'd have to take that into consideration. If we're not comfortable with the grants, we certainly don't have to submit them."

Ulrich said he worries that if the county does get that much money, it could hurt its efforts to get money for other projects. "I would guess if you get a grant like this, your turn isn't going to come up again real soon."

The request will go to the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, which will recommend a package of grants for next year's legislative session. The county board made clear its approval of the request is only to preserve its options and not to commit to anything.

Paul Nelson, administrator of the county's Watershed Management Organization, defended the purchase from the standpoint of the county's ecosystem.

"It's the intersection of three lake areas, with a horse and hunt club to the northwest, and a wildlife area nearby," he said. "It's a hub and focal point for wildlife, and a very good opportunity."

David Peterson • 952-882-9023

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