Population Projected to Continue Growth in Maple Grove

Since 1980, the population of Maple Grove has nearly tripled in size to more than 60,000—and experts expect it to only grow.

If projections for the next 20 years prove to be accurate, at least another 20,000 people will be living in the city by the year 2030.

Add those residents onto the already 63,484 living within the borders of Maple Grove, according to the 2010 U.S. Census figures, and we could be looking a city with about 84,000 people by 2030.

Growth isn’t a new concept to the Maple Grove. Location, its proximity to Minneapolis and other suburbs, schools, residential and retail establishments are some of the reasons people continue to be drawn to the community. 

“Location is certainly a key factor to the growth in Maple Grove,” Maple Grove City Administrator Al Madsen said, indicating there is not “one single reason” behind the city’s growth.  

Plus, the city developing a “very comprehensive land use plan” has helped the city clearly lay out how and the type of development happens in Maple Grove, he said.

The method behind managing the city’s growth has been beneficial. It has allowed Maple Grove with the option of providing very few subsidies to lure in nonresidential development. According to Madsen, the city has only done a handful of tax increment financing projects over the years, such as the Boston Scientific headquarters and the Wedgewood Commerce Center.

“If you look at the entire general downtown area, this was all accomplished without incentives to the developer,” he said. “A lot of that had to do with location and our residential base. People will ask what incentives the city can provide for their business to come into Maple Grove and their first thought is dollars. But there is more than just the dollars. It is the housing, quality of life, parks, trails, educational system—all of that, to me, is incentives. It’s not just dollar signs.”

Councilmember LeAnn Sargent has experienced the growth firsthand as a resident and member of the City Council since 1991. She said managing the city’s growth is the result of many different people with diverse opinions maintaining a “good working relationship” with one another and “respecting one another’s opinions.”                      

However, the growth hasn’t come with some growing pains.

Transportation used to be a “big challenge” for Maple Grove especially at a time when residential subdivisions were being approved before roads were in place in the late 1990's and early 2000, according to Madsen.

“We did play catch up for a long time. Now, in 2011, we’re in good shape,” he said. “Most of our road and transportation network is in place. I think we’ve got transportation ahead of the residential growth instead of behind.”

Along with the residential growth came an explosion of single family home building permits, upwards of 1,400 a year—which challenged not only city staff but the planning commission and City Council.

“Managing the growth was a challenge,” Madsen said. “When you're trying to manage growth like that, now and then things fall through the cracks. It was tough for inspections to keep up. Now we have a good handle on that.”

Looking toward the future potential growth of the city, many pieces of the city infrastructure have already been built for the full development of the city. Buildings like the were designed with extra space to accommodate future growth. Madsen doesn’t anticipate adding a sixth fire station and indicated growth in public safety in the future might come in the way of more staff. For Sargent, she sees the need for additional mass transit options in the city if gas prices climb and continued diverse residential development.

“We don’t need to be the best city,” she said. “But, it needs to be a place where people want to live and visit here.”

Editor's note: Population and projected population figures were provided by the city of Maple Grove and the U.S. Census.