Author: Mark Weber

The Eden Prairie City Council and Eden Prairie School Board met informally Tuesday, Aug. 15, a gathering they try to hold annually to improve communication and collaboration. Most of the hour-long meeting held in the Heritage Rooms of the Eden Prairie City Center was devoted to sharing results from each entity’s latest resident opinion survey. Imagine it as the “Battle of the 90th Percentile” and, in the end, a tie. Put another way, these report cards would make a parent proud. For example, results of the city’s every-other-year Quality of Life survey, held in February and March by a company…

The Metro Green Line Extension is about 75% complete, with most progress on the 14.5-mile light-rail transit (LRT) project being on the southwest suburban end, including Eden Prairie. But, don’t expect any southwest-end, partial opening anytime before the full line between Eden Prairie and Minneapolis is expected to be operational in 2027. “I know there’s a lot of questions about getting ready for service out in the west before everything’s all done,” Project Manager Jim Alexander told the Eden Prairie City Council in an LRT update Tuesday, Aug. 15. “We just really can’t accommodate that, because the vehicles do need…

An agreement that would have the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) replace the aging fishing pier near the Staring Lake Outdoor Center is among items on the Eden Prairie City Council’s regular meeting agenda for Tuesday, Aug. 15. Under the formal agreement, the DNR would fund and deliver the fishing pier and the City of Eden Prairie would install and maintain it. According to a city staff memo, the DNR in surveying cooperative fishing piers in the metro area found the Staring Lake pier to be in the worst condition seen, and was prioritized by the state agency. The…

Jay Lotthammer, at age 56, is retiring as the City of Eden Prairie’s longtime director of parks and recreation. And so, on Thursday, with the shackles of diplomacy now somewhat loosened, he finally set the record straight on that age-old EP question: Do people move here mostly because of the good parks or mostly because of the good schools? “Well, I always hear parks AND schools,” he said with a laugh. “And maybe it’s just how it rolls off people’s tongue or the alphabetical order, but I hear parks AND schools. Maybe there’s a semicolon after parks.” Lotthammer’s final day…

As a strategy to avoid a ton of hillside lawn mowing, Jeff and Linda Rotschafer’s backyard prairie has worked amazingly well. As an escape from an otherwise noisy and hectic world, it has worked even better for the Eden Prairie couple. Before retiring, Jeff would occasionally do work presentations and include a slide with a yellow swallowtail butterfly perched on a purple coneflower. His words for the slide were, “Meet my psychiatrist.” Their little house on the prairie was documented by the local newspaper in 1994, and 29 years later their prairie patch is still going strong. It’s a place…

Opposition to the controversial Noble Hill development project in southern Eden Prairie has been dealt another setback. The Minnesota Court of Appeals on July 31 affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a challenge by a citizens group, Spring Valley Friends, which said the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District acted improperly in granting a permit for construction of the 50-home project on 28 acres near a city-owned, freshwater spring. The group’s lawsuit was undone on procedural grounds, with both the Hennepin County District Court deciding last fall – and the appeals court affirming the decision this week – that…

Eden Prairie has prohibited the use of tobacco in its city parks for more than 20 years, but park signage is being updated to make it clear that smoking or vaping cannabis is off-limits as well. Why it matters: The 2023 Minnesota Legislature legalized adult use of cannabis effective Aug. 1, and communities are scrambling to determine whether their local regulations and policies on public smoking need to be adjusted. City Parks Director Jay Lotthammer said Wednesday that no-smoking signs in city parks are being changed to read, “smoking or vaping any substance, or use of tobacco, is not permitted.”…

Supply chain issues and COVID have contributed to delays in the project, now expected to be operational in 2024.

THC-infused beverages are expected to be sold at EP Liquor stores by the end of the month. An informal discussion with Eden Prairie City Council members Tuesday, July 11, cleared the way for city staff to begin making plans to sell the new beverages alongside beer, wine, and spirits in the city’s three liquor stores. Jaime Urbina, liquor operations manager, said the products would probably be available in stores on Friday, July 21. Until then, he said, staff will be finalizing internal procedures, checking with other municipal stores to learn what’s selling best, and arranging delivery of the product. No…

Eden Prairie residents have been rattled by four major house fires resulting in two deaths over the last three months. But, while the severity of fires is up significantly over previous years, the overall number of structure fires is not. Structure fires – just a small portion of the total number of fire calls – number seven so far in 2023. This indicated that Eden Prairie is on track to surpass the total of nine structure fires in all of 2022, but perhaps not the 19 structure fires in 2021 or the 27 in 2020. And yet, the extent of…