Park planning: Painter, Cedar-Isles

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PAINTER PARK UPGRADES

A skate park is being planned for Painter Park when the area is upgraded this year. A basketball court will be added, and the tennis/pickleball courts will be improved.
A boulder scramble and gathering area with picnic tables is planned for the south of the pickleball courts. The skate park at the corner of Lyndale and W. 33rd will be surrounded by a terraced seating area and native landscape to help with stormwater.
The 2.95-acre park at 620 W. 34th St. is part of the old Lyndale School site. It was acquired by the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board in 1976 when playing fields, playgrounds, tennis courts and a recreation center were built. Playground and field improvements were completed in 2001, with final landscaping touches added in 2002. As with the other two sites, the park board paid for the land with money it had received from the state department of transportation for park land taken for freeways in the 1960s and 1970s. The park is named after Jonathan Painter, the first industrial arts teacher in the Minneapolis school system who created the industrial arts curriculum in city schools.

CEDAR-ISLES MASTER PLAN

Two meetings were held on the draft Cedar-Isles master plan in early March. An online survey closed on March. 4. This feedback will inform the next stage in the design process: creating one preferred park concept by summer 2022.
Since the release of the initial park concepts, hundreds of public comments have been received via an online survey, social media, emails, and public meetings and events. The online survey for this project phase is closed. All comments are being compiled and findings will be shared in April.
The next Community Advisory Committee is set for April 7, 6-8 p.m. The last 15 minutes are set aside for public comment. CAC members will discuss programming and parking topics that have been raised through community engagement.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) has been working for several years on a new long-term plan for Cedar Lake, Lake of the Isles, Dean Parkway and the surrounding parkland and trails. Two draft initial park concepts, along with a plan vision and guiding principles, debuted for public comment in December.
MPRB anticipates the design, engagement and CAC process will continue through late summer 2022, before a draft plan heads to MPRB Commissioners for a public hearing and vote on the final plan, likely in winter 2022-23.
Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles are part of Minneapolis Chain of Lakes Regional Park, connecting to Bde Maka Ska on the southern border and Brownie Lake and Theodore Wirth Regional Park to the north. Visitors enjoy a multitude of year-round activities that include walking, biking, swimming, fishing, canoe/kayaking, cross-country skiing, and ice skating. The other three lakes in the Chain have been previously master planned: Bde Maka Ska and Harriet in 2017 and Brownie in 2012.
The Regional Park as a whole sees more than 7 million annual visits. It is the most visited park site in the state. To help ensure the Cedar-Isles Master Plan does not have Southwest Light Rail bias in decision-making, the MPRB did not invite the Met Council to sit on the Technical Advisory Committee and do not anticipate asking SWLRT project staff to play any review or recommending role.
The Cedar Lake/Lake of the Isles Master Plan will direct policy and design implementation for the park land around both lakes for the next 20+ years. The $470,000 cost for the master plan is being paid through 2020 Parks and Trails Legacy Funds. The breakdown of costs is: Master Plan consultants (Ten x Ten) $300,000, in-house administrative costs are $43,908, and Topographic and ALTA survey (Stonebrooke Engineering, Inc.) $126,092.

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