St. Louis Park Delves into Plans for Louisiana Station Area

St. Louis Park is taking its first detailed look at how to plan development, trails and traffic around the planned Louisiana Station of the Southwest Light Rail line.

Pedestrian walkways near Minnehaha Creek, connections to Cedar Lake Trail, park-and-ride locations, the accommodation of a freight rail switching wye and the construction of roadway loops to ease station congestion were among the topics discussed during a Monday city council work session.

An advisory committee, representing neighborhoods, business and property owners in the area, has met three times since May. The committee presented formulated ten guiding principles, from which a planning and architectural firm, Hoisington Koegler Group, Inc., drew mock-ups of the Louisiana Station area.

Two station locations are being considered: A north station, right on the Cedar Lake Trail, and a south station, which would cost $18 million to $23 million more but would be located a few blocks closer to the Methodist Hospital medical complex.

Council member Anne Mavity said the north station did not seem safe to her for medical workers walking at night.

“When the line opens up, all this development will not have occurred,” “The idea that people will walk to this station before everything gets built out—which could take five, ten, 20 years—does not feel safe.”

Plans for the Louisiana Station area—and for St. Louis Park’s other stations—hinge on a so-called “right-of-way swap”, that crosses the light-rail line to the south side of the freight rail tracks starting in Hopkins, near Cargill. The city of Hopkins also is hoping to implement the swap, and city staff are hopeful it will be approved.

“If you have the freight rail on the south side, you end up with the station trapped up on the berm,” said Kevin Locke, the city’s community development director.

A community meeting is planned on Sept. 25, followed by two more meetings of the advisory committee before a final plan is presented to the city council on Dec. 2.