Focus Narrows in Planning for Light Rail Line

Larry North said he's eager to use the Southwest Light Rail Transit line when it opens in a few years, but he'd also like a local shuttle bus to bring people to a station.

This was just one of the ideas thrown out Tuesday night, as St. Louis Park residents, business owners and city staffers discussed station planning at the proposed Beltline Avenue stop. Current plans call for the Southwest Light Rail Transit line, which would connect downtown Minneapolis with Eden Prairie, to open in 2018. There would be three stops in St. Louis Park—at Beltline, Louisiana and Wooddale avenues.

Construction of the $1.25 billion line is scheduled to start in 2015.

"My interest is getting to and from the station," said North, who lives about a mile south of the proposed Beltline stop. North, who said he tries using his car as little as possible, also wants to see rental bikes as an option for getting to the train.

, who owns the new Steel Toe Brewing, is less concerned with travel time to the station—his business is only a few blocks away from the proposed stop.

"Foot traffic would be a tremendous help," Schoneman said. "(And) I would be able to ride (light rail) from where I live into work."

Planning around the Beltline station is the first part in what figures to be a long process. The Met Council gave the city a grant to study the Beltline station and is expected to eventually fund studies of the other two local stops.

As part of that process, the city will form advisory committees to look at each proposed station. Those committees are expected to be set up this month, and they'll meet monthly from January until next spring.

For more on the light rail project, see our .