Lakeville bus service deal is no free ride

The Lakeville residents who want bus service to downtown Minneapolis range from a 79-year-old retiree who loves seeing plays at the Guthrie Theater to a commuter mom who doesn't have time to drop her kids off at school and still board the nearest bus to work.

"It's something I've been waiting for since I got here three years ago," said Steve Weckman, who envisions riding his bike to a new park-and-ride proposed in Lakeville and taking the bus to his job in Minneapolis.

Weckman's vision could be reality as soon as 2009 -- but only if the city approves a deal with the Metropolitan Council that would bring buses to Lakeville for the first time in exchange for residents paying an extra transit tax.

That deal, which the City Council is slated to vote on Monday night, would come with well over $25 million in transit and highway improvements for Lakeville residents, including two park-and-rides and a high-occupancy lane extension in Burnsville that would relieve a major bottleneck where Interstate 35 splits.

At an open house on Tuesday night, dozens of residents showed up at City Hall to learn more about the offer and weigh in, with many expressing interest in the Met Council's proposal.

But support isn't universal: The plan would require the average Lakeville homeowner to pay an extra $36 a year, joining most metro-area residents in the transit taxing district that helps pay to build buses and stations.

"I think this is going to be a very hard decision for this council to make, to impose additional taxation," said Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville.

"It is a very nice offer," said Lakeville Mayor Holly Dahl, who said she hasn't decided how she will vote. "We were offered nothing for many, many, many years."

Element of fairness

If Lakeville approves the deal by its May 5 deadline, it will likely mean the end of what City Administrator Steve Mielke described as a longstanding "kerfuffle" between Lakeville and cities to the north, where some residents resent that hundreds of Lakeville commuters drive north to Burnsville and Apple Valley every day to take the bus, even though they don't pay the extra tax.

The improvements, part of plans to spend a $133 million federal grant to relieve congestion in the Twin Cities, would have two bus stations up and running in Lakeville by September 2009.

The Met Council deal would also include a $15 million extension of the high-occupancy vehicle lane that starts near Burnsville Parkway on I-35W, pushing the northbound lane south to the point in Burnsville where the freeway splits.

The Met Council would depend on Dakota County to approve bus operational costs, but the deal comes with a condition allowing Lakeville to back out if the Met Council can't prove by August that it has all its funding ducks in a row.