Lake Minnetonka landing redesign reignites fight over who manages the lake

The North Arm public access on Lake Minnetonka hums with activity — anglers casting from shore, families launching kayaks and boats, and contractors hauling equipment on and off the water.

Now, a Hennepin County plan to upgrade the site has stirred a debate about how public landings should be used and who decides what happens on one of the Twin Cities’ most popular lakes. Residents worry about commercial and recreational uses colliding on the lake, and it’s often unclear who is responsible for setting the rules among a tangle of local agencies.

The county’s redesign would overhaul the popular access in Orono with new pavement, lighting and shoreline improvements. Planned work includes realigning the ramp so drivers no longer need to make a backing turn, angling parking congestion and adding redesigned stormwater controls. The project also adds shoreline “pods” for anglers, kayak and paddleboard access, and solar features meant to improve water quality and energy efficiency.

County officials say the goal is to make the site safer, more accessible and more sustainable. But early drafts of the plan included a second “vertical” access point meant to separate commercial loading from recreational use — a feature that residents and city leaders said would invite industrial barge traffic into a quiet residential area.

Former Orono Mayor Gabriel Jabbour, a longtime marina operator, said the county’s intentions may have been practical, but the proposal blurred the line between public access and commercial use.

“You can’t mix kids with semis, bulldozers and boulders,” he said. “There’s a need for commercial access — just not in the middle of a neighborhood.”

Nearby residents said that kind of activity is already happening. Matt and Amy Herman, who have lived near the landing for 27 years, said they’ve watched landscaping barges, weed harvesters and pontoon rental companies use the access to haul equipment and offload trash.

His wife added that trucks and skid loaders often block the small parking lot: “It starts to feel like an industrial port.”

After hearing those concerns, the county revised the plan to remove the second access and replace it with a picnic area.

Hennepin County Commissioner Heather Edelson, who represents much of the Lake Minnetonka area, said she’s now focused on bringing agencies together to create consistent standards across the lake.

“North Arm got caught in the middle of a larger issue,” Edelson said. “Commercial access has increased across the lake, and residents are raising that concern. We need to figure out how to handle the use of public landings by commercial entities — that’s a conversation that’s been missing for a long time.”

Orono Mayor Bob Tunheim said the city informed the county early on that the original concept conflicted with local zoning, which bans commercial or industrial use in residential districts.

But the dispute, Tunheim added, revealed a larger issue: “Every city has its own ordinances, the county manages some landings, the DNR others — and no one’s really coordinating it.”

That lack of coordination is what Edelson hopes to fix. She said the North Arm project highlighted how 14 lakeshore cities, Hennepin County, the Lake Minnetonka Conservation District, the Department of Natural Resources and the Three Rivers Park District all oversee different pieces of the lake, yet none sets shared rules for commercial operators.

Eric Evenson, executive director of the Lake Minnetonka Association, said such coordination is overdue.

“Mixing heavy industrial use with families fishing off the dock is a recipe for danger,” he said. “We need commercial services on the lake, but they have to be separated from recreation.”

County staff say the updated North Arm design reflects those lessons. The second ramp has been eliminated, the layout adjusted for safety and new features added to protect the shoreline. Construction is expected to begin in 2026 and finish the following year, with public access maintained through the busy boating season.