Lilydale Receives a Lion's Share at County Level

Editor's Note: Dakota County Commissioner Tom Egan represents Mendota Heights, Lilydale, Mendota and a portion of Eagan. He was elected to office in 2004 and is now serving his second four-year term. Egan will write regularly to Patch readers about county government. In this report, Egan notes that Lilydale has been in the forefront of county discussion this spring.

During this spring, the City of Lilydale has drawn quite a bit of attention upon itself with Dakota County perhaps to an extent greater than might be expected considering its over all size.

FIRST, in March of this year the Dakota County Board authorized the Dakota County Parks and Open Space Department to submit three grant applications to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for Parks and Trails Legacy Grant funding.  One of the three requests was for $150,000, which if received will be used for construction of an 800-foot extension to the Big Rivers Regional Trail from the north parking lot to Lilydale Regional Park.

This request is fully consistent with the study of the Dakota County Greenway Collaborative undertaken by the County Board this Spring. The Greenway Collaborative is scheduled to include the North Creek Greenway proposed to be 14.5 miles long, connecting Lebanon Hills Regional Park and the Minnesota Zoo to the Vermillion River, traveling through four communities and following the North Creek and Vermillion River.  The Greenway Collaborative is also scheduled to include the Minnesota River Greenway proposed to be 17 miles long, following the Minnesota River, connecting the Lilydale Regional Park to Scott County and traveling through five communities.  Hopefully nature and recreation lovers living in and near Lilydale and the Lilydale Regional Park will someday soon be able to benefit from the availability of these recreational resources.

SECOND, the Dakota County Community Development Authority (CDA) Board of Commissioners, which I chair, held a public hearing March 15 and approved an application from Lilydale Senior Living, LLC for approximately $17,155,000 of multifamily housing revenue bonds to finance the acquisition and construction of a multifamily senior housing development in Lilydale on the site of the former Lilydale Tennis Club.  While the breakdown of units is subject to adjustment, at the time of the public hearing the 120-unit development was proposed to consist of 48 independent living units, 48 assisted living units and 24 memory-care units.  To qualify for financing, 20 percent of the units will be set aside as affordable housing.


THIRD, the Dakota County Community Development Authority (CDA) offers a unique program entitled the Redevelopment Incentive Grant (RIG) Program, which has as its aim to assist Dakota County cities in achieving their redevelopment goals and promoting the development of affordable and supportive housing. $1,000,000 is available for funding in 2011. After a thorough review by the CDA Application Review Committee, a recommendation was made to the CDA Board to fund either fully or partially applications made by the cities of Burnsville, Eagan, Hastings, Lilydale, Rosemount, and South St. Paul.  An application by West St. Paul was recommended for denial because they have received so much other funding from the CDA through other sources.  Concerning the application by the City of Lilydale, the review committee noted that this represents "…the extremely rare opportunity of redevelopment in Lilydale."  The money is scheduled to be used by the City of Lilydale for bluff restoration, storm water management improvements and site clean-up of the Lilydale Tennis Club property. Lilydale Tax Increment Financing (TIF)  funding will make up the difference in the estimated $901,600 cost of that aspect of the project. It is estimated that 37 new jobs will be created through this project with 21 of those jobs at a wage of greater than $15 per hour. I am pleased to report that the CDA Board of Commissioners at its meeting of April 19, 2011 unanimously accepted the recommendations made by the review committee—including the application by the City of Lilydale— and approved these projects.

FOURTH, anyone who has lived through this past winter in Minnesota  knows how much snow we received and the consequential flooding that has occurred.  Lilydale unfortunately has been no exception. County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 45, also known as the Lilydale Road, has once again been flooded.  Every effort was made to keep the road open to the Lilydale Pool and Yacht Club, but even that has been closed for part of this spring. Hopefully, the clean up effort for this road by Dakota County will not need to be as significant as it has been in years past.

I am pleased to see Dakota County go to bat for all its communities no matter their size . . .  and that certainly includes Lilydale.