Star Tribune: Lake Of The Isles Looking Less Like A Swamp
The $440,000 renovation of the west bay is just one step in a five-year, $10.2 million lake upgrade that started in 2001. Funding came mostly from the Metropolitan Council, which funneled state-bond money from the Legislature into the project. Neighborhood contributions also helped, Swenson said.
The lake, a former swamp, was inching back toward its original state -- which meant frequent flooding, eroded shorelines and dead trees, among other problems. The city is trying to reverse the process by giving the lake its biggest makeover since the 1970s.
Improvements to the Kenilworth Lagoon were made in 2001, and stabilization of the east shoreline was completed last year.
More shoreline stabilization and wetland creation, along with path renovations and other projects, are scheduled in coming years.
Some say the changes are long overdue.
"It's just not good," resident Paula DeCosse said of the lake's condition. "I walk it every day. It's been flooded. And aesthetically, it's been going downward."
Concerned citizens
A few years ago, DeCosse was part of a citizens' group called ACT NOW that urged the park board to hurry along with renovations. She said she's thrilled the project is moving forward. "It really has been more than three years of monkeying around."
In the beginning, debate among area residents -- some for the changes, some against -- delayed the project. In 2001, some residents formed the Concerned Citizens for Lake of the Isles Improvements after the first phase of the renovation was underway. Some worried that too much parkland would be turned into wetland near the Kenilworth Lagoon and that walking paths would be moved too close to the street.
Then last year, proposals to cut down trees on the east shoreline were met with some resistance.
But compromises from both sides -- most notably a revision to have more parkland than wetland on the west bay -- have allowed the project to continue.
"The plan has evolved as we'd hoped it would," said Pat Scott, a former council member and member of the now-defunct concerned citizens group.
The group dissolved as members' concerns were addressed, she said. "Now we're looking for a good result."
Funding problems have also created obstacles. The Park Board is waiting for about $5 million more from the Legislature to finish the project, Swenson said, and he's wondering when the money will materialize.
"If the funding is delayed, we'll be delayed," he said. "Right now there's some questions about what we'll be doing and when we'll be doing it. But if the funding continues to come, we'll be OK."