Three Rivers Park District is a regional park system that is one of the Met Council’s partner park systems. Minneapolis has long had a phenomenal park system rated the best in the country by the Trust for Public Land. Three Rivers Park District is maybe best thought of as Hennepin County’s regional park system excluding Minneapolis. (That’s not exact because Three Rivers has regional parks in Scott County, Carver County, Ramsey County, and Wright County.)
Just as the Met Council is drafting their 2040 Regional Parks Policy Plan—please check it out and leave comments!—Three Rivers Park District is preparing their 2040 System Plan. Check out the Three Rivers Park District’s 2040 System Plan survey. On the survey page Three Rivers Park District offers some Benchmark Inventory documents to the public. In the Land Inventory document linked to on the System Plan webpage Three Rivers lays out the park system progress since 1970 to their plan for 2030+.
Below is a screen shot the Three Rivers Park District system in 2017 from the Three Rivers Park District Land Inventory document. For the trail cyclists out there you may be interested in the future trail routes/search corridors.
Three Rivers Park District in 2017
Below is the regional plan from 1970 to 2030+, take a look at the filling in of Hennepin County with development in the northwest. Notice the large lot estates of western Hennepin County basically stay.
Three Rivers Growth From 1970 To 2000 to 2030+
Let’s zoom in to 2030+ for greater detail.
Three Rivers Park District plan for 2030+
There are many fascinating things from these maps to me. You can see how the developed area grows out over the decades with respect to the park, preserves, and trails. I would love to see many of these trails come to reality. I’d like to know how possible some of these north-south trails are.
Personally, I’d also like to see Three Rivers Park District—and the other Met Council partner park systems—consider contingency plans to rescue municipal golf courses when golf use falls below financially sustainable levels, on a case by case basis, and preserve them by converting their diminished golf use to parks in their regional park system.
There are a few more maps from the Three Rivers Park District’s Benchmark Inventory documents I plan on for a future post. But please feel free to browse them if you have an interest in the future of the Three Rivers Park District system.