When Jeff Luedtke, a city kid, spent summers with his grandparents, he told them that someday he'd live on their 80-acre spread on the Rum River.

When he and his wife, Hope, married, they moved into the old farmhouse. They raised three daughters, who roamed the woods and meadows on horseback and camped on the riverbank.

This past week, the Luedtkes finalized an agreement with the city of Andover to preserve 38 acres of the property through the city's first purchase under the open space bond proposal voters approved in 2006. The idea, floated in the midst of the housing boom, was to make sure that some of the city's open land would remain in its natural state, for all to enjoy.

"Hope and I figured the window of opportunity wasn't going to stay here forever," Luedtke said. "We prayed a lot about it. What would Grandpa wish? He'd want to keep it the same as he knew it. It wouldn't be OK if we sold 70 acres two years later to put blacktop roads and houses in here."

The city and the Luedtkes hope to close on the $930,000 purchase by the end of the year. That would be a little less than half of the $2 million that Andover has set aside under the program to buy land and preserve it from development.

The city's Open Space Commission has worked over the years to educate the public about the program, identify willing property owners and assess parcels for their preservation value.

The most promising properties have the least ecological disruption and are connected to other open spaces.

"We can try to restore an area, but it's not the same as preserving an area that's in good condition already," said Deric Deuschle, Open Space Commission chairman. "That would cost far more than the investment in preservation."

In addition to being a plum spot on the banks of the Rum, the Luedtke parcel is adjacent to Grow Oak View Park to the west and to Rum River Regional Park across the river to the north. Only 8 acres had been cleared for farming, years ago, and that area is returning to prairie. The parcel also includes a mature silver maple floodplain, areas of sedge meadow, wetlands, a dry oak wood and a natural seep, or spring, that runs down the bottom part of the bluff and feeds into the river.

After the sale is closed, residents will be able to access the land from the river or through Grow Oak View Park. It will stay undeveloped to preserve the natural features, with the potential for low-impact trails and educational kiosks.

Luedtke's grandparents and great-grandparents bought the land to start a fox farm in 1934. His grandfather, Martin Luedtke, gave up the farm after a few years and went to work for Anoka County, but Luedtke remembers riding on the path to the river on his grandpa's tractor.

He gave his own tour of the woods one afternoon last week. His old chocolate lab, Grizzly, rambled on ahead. In an area set back from the river, Luedtke showed visitors the seep and described the hollow's cool, fern-filled summer state. At one point, the quiet was broken by the gibber of a flock of turkeys crashing through branches on the bluff. "Grizz flushed 'em out!" Luedtke cried, laughing, as he watched a couple dozen of the birds fly overhead.

In addition to turkeys, Luedtke said he's seen deer, fox, coyotes, owls and other animals on the property.

City officials were hoping to make use of state and federal grants to stretch their buying power, but those funding sources have been thin this year, Bednarz said.

"We're still evaluating others [purchases]," Deuschle said. "Having one completed is really going to demonstrate that this can be a successful program. Once people have seen it be a success, it's far easier to be the second person to do it than to be the first."

Luedtke is happy that on sunny afternoons he can still grab his fishing pole and while away an hour on the river.

And the land, which is likely to be named Martin's Meadows, can be enjoyed by others, too.

"We just want to share it with other people," he said. "It's time to let everybody else that wants to walk around and see this."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409