Minneapolis is gearing up for a makeover of the trails in Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park, with plans to kick off a series of improvements aimed at enhancing connectivity within the park in 2024. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) rolled out the blueprint for the upgrades, which are part of the Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park Master Plan, an ambitious vision adopted in 2015 that targets the future of Lake Nokomis, Lake Hiawatha, and the surrounding trails and parklands.
Fresh funds have been unlocked for the project, giving the green light to the MRPB to delve into public participation last summer, where they collected a mixed bag of feedback through public meetings and an engaging online platform, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board noted. Not all the dreamy trails under the park's long-term plan and the ones wished for by the locals might see the light of day, though, because, as the vicious cycle of public projects goes, there's only so much coin to pass around, and the MRPB had the public rank each segment.
Trail improvements at Nokomis-Hiawatha Regional Park have been ranked by community preference with Area C, the trail link between Nokomis Parkway and Cedar Avenue Bridge, hogging the spotlight. It could even score an additional walking path under the Cedar Avenue Bridge if the purse strings allow after the main events. Trailing behind in popularity is the pedestrian bridge over Minnehaha Creek and an array of other connections and crossings, including Cedar Avenue Bridge, 22nd Avenue, and Lake Nokomis Parkway. However, the plans for Area H, which would bridge Nokomis Community Center with Woodlawn Boulevard, and Area E, targeting the intersection of Cedar Avenue and 50th Street, are on the bench owing to dependencies on bike lanes and county funding, respectively.
Pencils are scratching and boots are on the ground now, mapping out the terrain with staking and field surveys to sharpen the final design of these trails -- a necessity since the early concept sketches relied on the bird's-eye view from aerial shots which, while pretty as a picture, aren't the same as an old-fashioned topographic map. The forestry and environmental experts are tagging along with the MRPB design squad, tweaking trail blueprints to shield habitats and expand native vegetative cover. In one specific heartwarming twist, the project crew's huddle with Friends of Lake Hiawatha led to an agreement to shuffle the trail and bridge locations, all to save more green and offer an olive branch to the owls nesting nearby.
Last but not least, the construction timelines are shaping up with the drawing board set to pump out construction sketches in the coming months and shovels expected to hit the dirt by the summer or fall of 2024, wrapping up in 2025. Residents can keep tabs on the evolving trail layouts and updates over on the park's project page, advised the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
