A pair of recent court decisions make it more likely that a watershed district’s purchase of 28 acres in southern Eden Prairie will stand.
The Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District was sued by Larry Koch, then one of the district’s county-appointed managers, after the board of managers voted 4-1 in November 2023 to purchase 28 acres along Spring Road for $5.775 million to preserve the land and protect it from development.
Koch, the lone vote against the purchase, is no longer a member of the board of managers.
A Hennepin County District Court judge on Sept. 19 ordered that Koch’s lawsuit be dismissed, and the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed Sept. 30 that Koch’s request for a temporary restraining order regarding the purchase has no legal standing.
Koch still has appeal options. He could not be reached for comment regarding the latest court rulings.
Terry Jeffery, the watershed district’s staff administrator, acknowledged that continued court action is possible but added, “Obviously, I’m cautiously optimistic we can put this chapter behind us.”
Koch claimed the watershed district went beyond its statutory powers in purchasing the property near historic Fredrick-Miller Spring to prevent it from being developed with single-family homes.
The board’s majority disagreed. It contended that amending the district’s 10-year water management plan to reflect the property acquisition and proceeding with the purchase will protect nearby waters and wildlife habitat and also provide a critical link to publicly owned land along Riley Creek, which crosses a corner of the property.
Meanwhile, the watershed district has applied for $3.0125 million in grant money from Minnesota’s Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council to go toward the purchase and permanent protection of the property, which includes dry prairie, wetland, woodland, and savanna. The district says a threatened plant species, kitten-tail, is in the area, and there is high potential for rusty patched bumble bees, which are federally endangered.
The heritage council makes recommendations to the state Legislature on how tax money collected for the state’s Outdoor Heritage Fund should be used.
Jeffery said the district may find out on Oct. 3 if it is a finalist for the grant money and, if so, how much.
The district was earlier awarded $500,000 from the Outdoor Heritage Fund to secure a permanent conservation easement for the property, via the Minnesota Land Trust.
As for the property purchase, last spring the district and landowner signed a contract for deed and a promissory note as a financing “bridge” until Hennepin County can assist with long-term bonding, likely in 2025, Jeffery said. The district would use its tax levy to repay the bonds.
No plant or wildlife restoration work has been done on the property yet, the administrator said, though a University of Minnesota ecology class has conducted an evaluation.
The 28 acres is no stranger to controversy.
The Eden Prairie City Council and the watershed district in 2021 approved the construction of 50 single-family homes on the sloping property, a project called Noble Hill. Multiple lawsuits were subsequently filed by a citizens group, Friends of Spring Valley, that opposed the housing development on environmental grounds. Meanwhile, the housing project stalled.
However, in a turn of events, the watershed district began exploring the purchase and conservation of the 28 acres in March 2023, putting the matter on its meeting agendas 18 times – many of those meetings occurring in closed session – as well as appraising and evaluating the property before approving its purchase.
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