Lakeville to pay tax, receive new bus service

Lakeville commuters, take heart: Buses are on the way.

The Lakeville City Council has approved a Metropolitan Council offer that will bring buses and two new stations to the city by September 2009, along with $15 million or so in roadwork on Interstate 35.

In exchange, Lakeville residents will join other metro-area cities that already pay the transit tax. It's a better offer, local leaders say, than previous efforts to force Lakeville into paying the tax. And the deal comes with deadlines and guarantees that buses will actually pull up in town.

But it still means adding a new tax in tight economic times, which the Lakeville City Council acknowledged when it unanimously approved the plan Monday night. So it decided to cut the city's budget to offset the new tax, which will run the average Lakeville homeowner about $36.

"We finally have an offer on the table that's a real offer with real service," said Council Member Wendy Wulff, who added that it's still the city's duty to counter what she called a "taxapalooza" of a legislative session in St. Paul. "We have to protect our residents, and people are hurting."

Some residents have spoken out against the new tax, arguing that few people ride the bus in Lakeville. In a 2007 survey, more than half of Lakeville residents said they would oppose paying the transit tax, while 8 percent said they regularly rode public transit to the Twin Cities.

But others, including Tim Milne, said the tax would be "no problem."

The Lakeville bus stops will be among a smorgasbord of Twin Cities transit projects planned with a $133 million federal grant to reduce congestion, including improvements on I-35 and Cedar Avenue in the south metro.

New park-and-ride lots

Lakeville will get two park-and-rides on I-35 and Cedar Avenue, as well as an extension of a high-occupancy-vehicle lane on northbound I-35W in Burnsville that will widen a bottleneck where 35W and 35E split.

The Met Council is depending on county transit funds to pay for the cost of running buses on I-35, but if those funds aren't approved by early December, the deal is off.

The agreement likely ends a longtime feud between Lakeville and neighboring cities that already pay the transit tax. Some commuters have complained that bus riders from Lakeville crowd parking lots at stations in Apple Valley and Burnsville while avoiding a tax that helps build stations and buy buses.

Local legislators have even tried to force Lakeville to pay up -- efforts that city leaders have resisted in the past.

"I have said that you would have to drag me kicking and screaming into the transit taxing district," said Council Member Mark Bellows. "What is different this time is there an incentive to do it, and we will, I'm told, be forced to join regardless, so this may be our best option."