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The Grand Marais Park Board members have a tall order ahead of them. They are in the beginning stages of updating the city’s 2009 Grand Marais Recreation Area Park Master Plan, which will involve the public and take about six months to complete.
Assisting the park board is the firm of HKGi, which was hired by the city to develop a newer Recreation Area Park Master Plan.
Meeting with the park board via Zoom on Tuesday, April 27, was Gabrielle Grinde, a vice president of HKGi, who is serving as the project manager.
While the main goal is to have the city meet all of the requirements outlined by the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission for regional park master plans and a chance to secure Legacy funding through the legislature, the project will also create good possible outcomes for the city, stakeholders, residents, and future park users, or as Dave Tersteeg said, the park plan will be “visionary and allow us to be good stewards of the land.”
Grinde went through many questions and replies with the park board. The process involved reviewing the 2009 concept plan, its goals, and policies, and discussing the initial Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission (GMRPTC) proposal application that was submitted in 2016 and scored high but needed to be completed with a master plan for the city to qualify for Legacy funding.
The park board and Grinde also discussed draft site information/analysis, demographics, recreation trends, public health values, economic development activities, and the public engagement plan.
Public engagement will be critical to the planning. Grinde said one public engagement phase will include online surveys and interactive mapping, a GIS StoryMap of the park, two stakeholder meetings, and one public event or pop-up event. In addition, several public meetings will be held throughout the planning process.
Also looked at will be existing and potential campground sites, existing buildings and future buildings, parking and access, landside and in-water master plan level guidance for the municipal marina, recreation features including trails, sledding hill, overlooks on Sweethearts Bluff, play equipment and operations and maintenance considerations.
The marina wasn’t looked at in the 2009 Master Plan and it will be a focus of this new plan. The granite rock break wall pinches off at the beach and doesn’t allow water to flow through a channel. However, to fix that problem will cost millions of dollars, so Legacy funding will be essential to fixing that problem and making the marina more functional for boats, fish and wildlife living in the marina.
The park board will meet with Grinde in July and again in the fall. There is no timetable to turn in a Master Plan, but the goal is to submit a plan sometime in the fall. During the third meeting, the park board will review and discuss public input and how it can be used in the Draft Development and Natural Resources Plans, and revisions will be made based on park board feedback before a final draft is completed and sent to the GMRPTC.
In other park news:
Dave Tersteeg said that for the first time in his 17 years at the recreation park, that due to the weather the water couldn’t be turned on by May 1. That said, Tersteeg noted turning on the water at the campground “with nine different water zones, four bathhouses, and the rec hall, is a lengthy, methodical process.”
Work on the marina has also begun. First, Dave said repairs to a finger dock must be made, and “we have the usual spreading out of the smaller docks consolidated for de-icing. Once the docks are in place, pilings are driven, and the utilities are connected. Mooring buoys in the harbor will also be placed after the yacht club dock gets floated across the harbor.” Dave said the yacht club handles floating the yacht club dock across the bay.
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