Park Board chair Cherry Ingraham opened the Nov. 5 meeting by moving the agenda to the business items and turning the Nov. 5 Big Willow Park master-plan presentation over to staff. Staff emphasized the session was for input, not a vote: "there's no formal action required with this. It's just about listening and providing feedback as necessary," Leslie said.

Staff member Matt walked the board through the master-planning process and background documents that will guide the work, including the city's Parks, Open Space and Trails Plan (2021) and the Natural Resources Master Plan. He described Big Willow as a roughly 101-acre park with about 2.3 miles of trails, a ball complex (one full-size field, three little-league fields and two softball fields), the Minnehaha Creek corridor and multiple small parking lots. Matt said the planning effort is inventory-driven and will evaluate whether features should be retained, restored or changed.

The presentation highlighted five concept areas across the park: Area 1, the ball-field complex; Area 2 north of the railroad tracks; Area 3, a creek-overlook section with former residential parcels; Area 4, Mills Landing and a newly acquired parcel; and Area 5, the western commercial corridor adjacent to Minnetonka Boulevard. Staff framed the master plan around several guiding principles, including environmental sustainability, trail connections, promoting community health and advancing equity and inclusion.

Key issues described for the board included trail connectivity and several dead-end informal paths, accessibility gaps (for example, steep approaches to a bridge and thresholds at some restroom entrances), seasonal flooding of trails under the railroad bridge tied to Grays Bay Dam operations, and parking shortfalls at peak tournament times. Matt said staff is exploring design options that range from low-cost trail loop completions and signage to larger items such as bridge replacement and potential boardwalks through wetlands. He noted long-standing volunteer restoration work in the park and recommended the master plan emphasize that role.

Staff reported early outreach metrics and said they would appear in the draft: approximately 1,400 unique visits to the project page on Minnetonka Matters, 49 downloads of the restoration and maintenance plan, and 308 survey responses so far. Matt characterized some ideas as "throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks"; he added the planning process will narrow concepts into a draft plan for public review in early winter and a final plan to be recommended to city council in late winter or early spring.

Board members asked about overflow parking and whether Public Works can assist during tournaments; staff confirmed overflow often uses grass areas and adjacent lots and that parking expansion is constrained by topography. Members also raised connections to regional trails and local businesses, the potential for picnic/gazebo reservation opportunities, interpretive signage near historical features (including a Burwell family mill site and remnants of an old mansion and pillars), and a low-cost canoe launch idea. Several board members recommended formalizing frequently used informal trails and stabilizing creek-edge access to reduce erosion.

The presentation closed with staff's schedule: continued outreach while the survey remains open, publication of a draft master plan for public comment early this winter, a follow-up presentation to the board, and finalization and council referral in late winter or early spring. The board offered feedback but did not vote on any measures.

For background materials and to comment, staff noted the project page and the QR signage in the park directing residents to Minnetonka Matters.