2006 Parks, Trails and Open Space Plan - City of Lakeville

Greenways
The Comprehensive Plan encourages the creation of greenways as means of protecting
the community’s natural resources and preserving open space. Greenways are
intended to be a combination of linear parks and conservancy areas. The greenways
will accomplish the following functions:
1. Preserve areas of contiguous open spaces as a means of maintaining the City’s
natural features, defining urban land use patterns and neighborhoods, and
connecting community parks with protected natural open spaces.
2. The greenways preserve the ecological functions of the City’s environmentally
sensitive areas, including but not limited to wetlands, waterways, lakes, wood
stands, etc. The establishment of greenway buffers along the City’s tributaries
serves to promote water quality within the streams through storm water filtering
and infiltration. Urban land uses are allowed at the periphery of the greenways
with subdivisions and site design that preserve the vistas into the greenways.
Infrastructure planning (i.e., street and utilities) is designed so as to have the
least disruption possible of the greenway.
3. The greenways provide a diversity of natural features and habitat. The
greenways provide for wildlife habitat and to facilitate wildlife movement through
areas dominated by human activities. In this respect, the greenways have been
configured to include both low lands and upland areas.
4. The greenways are intended to provide recreational trail opportunities to Lakeville
residents. This allows all community residents the opportunity to enjoy the
natural amenities of Lakeville. The City will pursue additional greenway corridors
in conjunction with new development requests along the balance of the City’s
tributaries.
5. Where compatible and appropriate, the City will attempt to provide snowmobile
trail corridors within future greenways providing user connections between the
City’s urban and rural areas. Snowmobile compatibility will be evaluated on the
basis of environmental impacts as well as land use nuisance concerns to
determine if a corridor will be appropriate within a given greenway.
The park classifications outline the following service characteristics for greenways:
Service Area:
Community-Wide
Per Capita Standard:
Not Applicable
Desirable Size in Acres: Variable. Greenway size will be determined based on the
area needed to properly protect existing environmental features as well as provide for
linear parks and trails. Minimum corridor width desired is 100 feet.
City of Lakeville, Minnesota
Chapter Six
2006 Comprehensive Parks, Trails, & Open Space Plan Page 165