Cottage Grove will get a new city park

Cottage Grove is getting a new park as part of the final stage of a major housing development, which will include 21 new homes to be built this year and next.

Those houses will bring Lennar's Pinecliff development to 179 homes, said Jon Aune, director of land operations for Lennar, the Florida-based homebuilder.

About five acres of the property in the development area, west of Ideal Avenue, has already been dedicated to the city for use as Sunny Hill Park, which will be open to the public.

City Council members are expected to take action on July 18 so the city can build the first part of the park this year.

The second part of the park, roughly another 10 acres east of Ideal Avenue, will be built once another developer builds to the east of Pinecliff, on land that's privately owned but expected to be sold to a developer in coming years, said City Administrator Ryan Schroeder.

The first portion of the park will include a playground, a sport court, a bocce ball court, a shelter, a sidewalk and a landscaped berm to screen the park from adjacent housing.

Future development will include a storm-water pond and native prairie grass area as part of the expanded park, which also will have another shelter and a play field.

"They have been steadily building all along," even though construction slowed during the recession, Schoeder said of Lennar.

The final addition of the Pinecliff development will be in the area of Radio Drive and 62nd St. S., and will have single-family homes with prices ranging from about $278,002 to $468,000, Aune said.

In order for this phase to occur, officials had to work out an agreement to buy some land from Roger and Ruth Ann Bothe so the city could finish the infrastructure, Schroeder said.

The couple own more land that they might sell to another developer, so the city also is taking steps to ensure that the existing park will grow then, Schroeder said.