Dear Editor,
I agree with local Chambers of Commerce, city councils and businesses who view Light Rail Transit as an economic engine and job creator for Eden Prairie and Minnetonka and as a smart, integral part of our region’s future. That future includes affordable housing for students, seniors and immigrant communities with easy access to public transit. But as final decisions about light rail alignment between Eden Prairie and downtown Minneapolis quickly approach, few Eden Prairians know how their daily lives will be affected.
One of the routes that City of Eden Prairie planners and Southwest LRT Project engineering consultants are looking at would shoe horn double tracks and a station onto Singletree Lane. This would pinch car traffic into two lanes either one way or in each direction. Additional stoplights are also being considered for Singletree and Prairie Center Drive. Trains on Singletree are such an onerous prospect that it should never have been considered.
Tens of thousands of Eden Prairie residents travel on the westerly stretch of Prairie Center Drive and Singletree Lane to reach the mall and scores of satellite stores, auto service centers, restaurants, banks and offices – Target, Bachman’s Walmart, Brunswick Bowling and Bobby and Steve’s Autoworld are among them. Each street and their walkways are beautifully landscaped befitting our great city, one of the nation’s premier suburbs. But as we know, Singletree and Prairie Center are regularly gridlocked during the midday business and rush hour drive times.
The public information, feedback meetings, websites and official oversight committees about light rail transit have been operating for more than a decade. Over the past year, public access to SWLRT planning and feedback opportunities have improved and increased. But, in Eden Prairie and Minnetonka, essentially the same small crowd of officials and pro and con LRT activists show up. The City and the SWLRT Project have yet to figure out how to reach the rest of us.
You’ve got only weeks to let officials know how you feel about tracks and trains on Singletree Lane. You can reach Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens, and Council Members Sherry Butcher Wickstrom, Brad Aho, Kathy Nelson and Ron Case at one email address: <allcouncil@edenprairie.org>
More information, notices of meetings and other contacts can be found at the Southwest LRT website at. www.SWLRT.org/
Jeff Strate
Eden Prairie