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Council hears public concerns as staff recommend ‘Concept B’ for Minnetonka Boulevard reconstruction
Summary
City staff recommended Concept B — shared use paths on both sides — for Minnetonka Boulevard Phase 2, presenting a roughly $39.2 million project with Hennepin County covering about $26.2 million; council and residents pressed staff for more data on safety, tree impacts and the cost of undergrounding utilities ahead of a June 1 vote.
City engineering staff on Wednesday presented a preferred design for the Minnetonka Boulevard reconstruction project and told the St. Louis Park City Council the next step is a June 1 report and possible preliminary layout approval.
Mark Elgar, the city’s engineering project manager, and Nick Turner, a design consultant with Alliant Engineering, presented three concepts for the corridor west of Highway 100 to Aquila Avenue and recommended Concept B — shared‑use paths on both sides of the street — as the best balance of mobility, maintenance and streetscape goals.
“Concept B provides the best all‑ages, all‑abilities network for both pedestrians and cyclists,” Turner said, adding the design eliminates the need for many bicyclists to cross the street to reach a bikeway.
Why it matters: staff estimated the total project at about $39,220,000, with Hennepin County expected to cover roughly $26,200,000 and the city responsible for roughly $13,000,000 (split among general obligation bonds and utility funds). Staff also described two sections of overhead utilities that could be undergrounded. Preliminary Xcel Energy estimates shown to council put the east section (east of Blackstone) at about $200,000 and the west section (west of Oregon to Aquila) at about $5,300,000; those figures exclude right‑of‑way easements and the cost for private property owners to reconnect to underground service.
Council and residents raised two recurring themes: safety on shared‑use facilities and the long‑term maintenance and costs of different layouts. Staff said Concept B would require removing about 175 trees (39 larger than 6 inches) but would also allow planting up to about 320 new trees along the corridor in preliminary spacing estimates.
Several council members asked whether a citywide surcharge (the city‑requested special facility surcharge, or CRFS) would be applied to spread undergrounding costs; Elgar said a CRFS would be citywide and that Hennepin County’s cost share for undergrounding is capped at $500,000. He said staff would provide more finalized Xcel numbers before the June 1 meeting.
Public commenters supplied a mix of support and concern. Eric Judge, who identified himself as an avid bicyclist, told the council he worries about safety, emergency vehicle response times, economic impacts and spillover traffic onto parallel streets if the corridor is narrowed: “I’m asking the city council to please ask Hennepin County to do a system‑wide study. $39,000,000 is a staggering sum of money.”
Dave Carlson, a long‑time member of Hennepin County’s bicycle advisory committee, and other commenters urged the council to consider alternatives that preserve higher‑speed on‑road bicycling (similar to the Cedar Lake Road treatment) or hybrid designs that keep faster cyclists on the road while providing protected multi‑use paths for other users.
Council member commenters pressed staff for concrete safety data from comparable shared‑use facilities; staff said they would share incident and usage data gathered from regional trails and from the project’s public engagement (the team reported more than 1,500 engagements to date). Council members also asked whether the decision on undergrounding could be deferred; staff said that depends on when Xcel finalizes costs but that the goal is to supply additional information before the June 1 meeting.
The council did not vote Wednesday. City staff said the timeline anticipates final design work in 2026–27, a cooperative construction agreement with Hennepin County in 2027, private utility relocation in 2027–28 and major construction in 2028–29. Council directed staff to return with more detailed cost breakdowns, safety data for shared use facilities and options that explore placing the bike path and sidewalk adjacent with a back‑of‑curb boulevard as a hybrid alternative.
Next steps: the council expects preliminary layout materials and a staff recommendation on June 1; any decision on undergrounding utilities will depend on supplemental cost information from Xcel Energy.
