Scott County plans major trails

The outlines of a series of major hiking and biking trails across Scott County are beginning to emerge.

In the north, through the bigger suburbs along the Minnesota River, there is talk of a new trail corridor skirting the corporate users of the riverfront itself and instead meandering by the surprisingly large natural areas south of Hwys. 13 and 101.

And in the countryside to the south, planners have given citizens a broad peek at the corridors they want to create to connect the county's regional parks, and are ready now to start drawing up a detailed master plan that brings those general thoughts down to ground level.

"We're taking some major steps forward," said the county's parks and trails chief, Mark Themig. "We're doing things that haven't happened in Scott County before."

And they're doing them against the backdrop of new sources of money. Funds that will flow from the Legacy Amendment, one of the biggest land-buying splurges any state has ever authorized, may help make trails happen sooner than expected.

The message to landowners is that decisions are beginning to be made on whether a trail will go through your front yard or the Back Forty or on the other side of the highway. And the message to trail advocates is to stay involved, because there will always be pressure to move trails out to blustery roadways rather than routing them through the prettiest scenery, much of it privately owned.

"It's more challenging to talk about overland trails, versus always being on the road -- and how do we make it work?" Themig said. That's especially true because the county doesn't have the benefit of the abandoned railbeds used in the making of the Cannon Valley and other pioneering trails.

Important steps

On the northern edge of the county, where government officials on all levels have long hoped to run trails along the pathway of the Minnesota River from Fort Snelling to Belle Plaine and beyond, important steps are being made in Savage. That's one of the toughest links, because there isn't ready access to the riverfront in the same way that there is at other points.

But an effort to run a big trail on the other side of the highway instead has gotten a boost from two partnerships:

• A new half-mile trail has opened at the base of a bluff below the Trout Run housing development, off Hwy. 13 at 132nd Street. With stairs and a boardwalk, it is on state property and was built by the city in a partnership with Trout Run's developer, Ron Clark Construction and Design.

• The Trust for Public Land is in talks with landowner Karl Bohn to acquire 80 acres of property along the delicate Savage Fen. The state Department of Natural Resources would be a player, as would the city and county, which want to run a trail through the land.

"Karl loves nature, loves birds, and wants to do something cool for the community," said Becca Nash, project manager for the trust. "We're in the middle of fundraising for it. In fact, we just submitted a grant request yesterday."

Jon Allen, parks superintendent for Savage, said one trick in shifting the trail's alignment would be to "make a crossing over or under 13, and up to the bluff along County Road 16," and then another crossing of 13 where it turns southward toward Prior Lake -- "probably under 13," the sort of move that is no small undertaking itself.

Trail planners say they are always caught between the public's desire for more and better trails closer to their homes -- "it's the most popular thing we do," said Dakota County Commissioner Tom Egan -- and the potential effects on landowners and natural resources such as the fen.

At a recent open house in rural Scott County to get reaction to trail alignments and other plans, Themig said, "The most common question I heard about trails was, 'When will these get built?' I didn't have a single person opposed to them."

But the fact that it's not totally imminent, he conceded, meant that the atmosphere around the issue can remain "relaxed, versus 'we have the money and we have to figure out where it's going to go'" -- a stage at which landowners tend to get more nervous.

What's done, what's next

Specifically, Themig said:

• A countywide "gap analysis" of trail segments that exist, and the gaps that need to be filled, is done, and the next step is to work with highways people and city officials to talk about "where to focus limited resources, and how can we partner to make it happen. That's pretty exciting."

• Next year a comprehensive regional trail plan will be drawn up, covering the northern part of the county from roughly Cleary Lake north. "We'll take the large 'blob lines' we have now and get more specific."

• In 2011 the same exercise is to be extended to the southern part of the county. "That will be more challenging because we will be talking about overland trails vs. roadsides."

Having those plans, though, he said, opens up possibilities for money: bonding requests to the Legislature, grants from the Legacy Amendment funds and cash from other sources. Themig expects Scott's trails to be more of a local than a regional attraction.

"But the longer ones like a trail from Elko to Blakeley," running all the way across the county, "have great potential to be a more regional draw."

Jordan, he said, "could become a trails epicenter for the entire area, with trails running northwest into Carver County, north to Shakopee, south to Belle Plaine and New Prague. They have a real opportunity here, and I know they have a strong interest as well."

David Peterson • 952-882-9023