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Community involvement: Lino Lakes

To equip city planners with “magic eyeglasses” that could see into the future, the city conducted a telephone survey to 400 randomly selected homes in early 2006 and held two public forums in the fall.

In August, a group of residents, selected at random, was invited to serve on the 2030 Vision Steering Committee. Seventeen of those chosen volunteered, but the final group included 28 people, explained Mary Alice Divine, Economic Development Coordinator for Lino Lakes.

“The additional members were people who attended the public forums and expressed interest in participating,” Divine said. “What’s great is that most of these people had never participated in anything to do with the city before. They became so engaged that a number of them applied for city advisory board positions and five are now on city boards.”

In a city named for lakes, the natural resources vision defines that value: Residents will have well-maintained parks, inter-connected trails, open space and greenways, and recreational opportunities, while enjoying the preserved and enhanced natural environment.

Natural resource goals suggest “collaborating to address, restore and improve water quality and wetlands” and “cooperating with other government agencies to address ecological challenges.” One portion of the city’s comprehensive planning process does both. Lino Lakes is partnering with Rice Creek Watershed District to prepare a Resource Management Plan. The plan, a conservation-based framework, is the state’s first to cover an entire city, and will be integrated into Lino Lakes’ comp plan.

Public participation will continue as Lino Lakes moves into plan development. Future activities include an advisory board formed of city commission members and visioning committee representatives. The city also plans more public forums and a public hearing.

“Doing nothing is actually doing something,” said city mayor John Bergeson. “Taking part in the process can assure we don’t end up with results we didn’t want or can’t go back and fix . . . at the end of the process we should be ready to say, 'Let’s go!’”