Northstar puts the big in Big Lake

Article by: PAUL LEVY , Star Tribune
Updated: May 6, 2008 - 11:42 PM

A groundbreaking ceremony for the commuter rail line's westernmost station focuses on the city's future growth as a magnet for commuters heading to Minneapolis.

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With hundreds of acres of potato fields to the south and Minneapolis a good 40 miles east, it's hard to envision tiny Big Lake as the "center for commuter rail for the state," as longtime Big Lake City Council Member Chuck Heitz did Tuesday.

But just wait until next year.

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the Big Lake commuter rail station took place Tuesday, a week after a similar event in Coon Rapids. But the station site in Big Lake marks a beginning -- both for the Northstar line, which extends to Minneapolis, and for Big Lake.

"It really puts Big Lake on the radar screen," said Heitz, head of Big Lake's Transit Oriented Development Committee.

He said he envisions a "spider web" stemming from the Sherburne County city of 9,200. In addition to the Northstar line, which is scheduled to open in November 2009, new bus routes are expected to funnel commuters into Big Lake so they can hop on the train to Minneapolis.

The original western endpoint for Northstar was supposed to be St. Cloud. When delays and funding cut the line in half, bus routes from St. Cloud to Big Lake were developed, often with college students in mind.

"With the price of gas, driving back and forth from St. Cloud State, or from technical college in Anoka becomes a negative," Heitz said. "A lot of the bus organizing we're doing is with students in mind."

As Big Lake progresses from rural to exurban, much of the Northstar talk is about developing the area around the train station.

"There's part of the old guard that doesn't want to see this developed, but that's the way things are headed everywhere," Heitz said. "It's going to happen.

"The difference is that because of this Northstar station, Big Lake has options other cities don't."

Paul Levy • 612-673-4419