Kathleen Doran-Norton, member of the Bridgewater Township Board of Supervisors, forwarded the email below and photo (above) to me yesterday.  She didn’t say so but I’m guessing she’s got Thursday’s Business and Industrial Park planning open house in mind since Spring Brook/Rice Creek flows through the southern edge of the “south site” on West Armstrong Rd. in Bridgewater . . . → Read More: A Spring Brook treasure photographed; good timing]]> Spring Brook (also known as Rice Creek) “is the only trout stream in Rice County, and is an uncommon resource type in southern Minnesota” according to the Northfield Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) commissioned by the City of Northfield in 2005.

Kathleen Doran-Norton, member of the Bridgewater Township Board of Supervisors, forwarded the email below and photo (above) to me yesterday.  She didn’t say so but I’m guessing she’s got Thursday’s Business and Industrial Park planning open house in mind since Spring Brook/Rice Creek flows through the southern edge of the “south site” on West Armstrong Rd. in Bridgewater Township.  Kathleen wrote:

FYI…why protecting our community’s "green space" is important.

Brook trout only live in those streams without warm water run-off from development, and in those waters which are very clean.

——
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010
Subject: A Spring Brook treasure
From: Stephanie Schmidt

A group of students and I went out sampling for brook trout on Saturday, kicking off an assessment of the current population.  Attached is a photo of one of our better finds… a 10.5 inch brookie, the largest of the day (I will reveal its location for a small price… maybe).  It was a beautiful day to sample a beautiful fish.

Stephanie N. Schmidt, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Saint Olaf College
Department of Environmental Studies & Biology

When I first blogged about the proposed park last July (it was then generally referred to as the West Armstrong Business Park), I wrote that the proposed business park “is likely to be controversial because of the current (1999) annexation agreement between the township and Northfield, as well as the park’s location between Heath Creek and Spring Brook (Rice) Creek.” The post generated over 100 comments. I included these maps in the post:

Here’s a Google map of the area, with a few of my markers. View West Armstrong Business Park (proposed) in a larger map.

  
Here are a couple of Heath Creek and Spring Brook Creek watershed maps from an (old) page on the Carleton web site titled Environmental Aspects of Transportation Planning in Northfield.

As the map below shows, the trail would loop around Heath Creek south of Old Dutch Road and north of Armstrong Road, adjacent to the Gill-Prawer property that’s currently in annexation negotiations for the development of the West Armstrong Business Park:

The trail would obviously connect to the Mill Towns Trail at Sechlar Park. It also could connect to trails on the west and . . . → Read More: The Lower Heath Creek Bicycle Pedestrian Trail: coming soon to Bridgewater Township?]]> Now that Leif Knecht has copious amounts of idle time on his hands, he’s ramping up his efforts to create what he’s calling the Lower Heath Creek Bicycle Pedestrian Trail in Bridgewater Township.

As the map below shows, the trail would loop around Heath Creek south of Old Dutch Road and north of Armstrong Road, adjacent to the Gill-Prawer property that’s currently in annexation negotiations for the development of the West Armstrong Business Park:

The trail would obviously connect to the Mill Towns Trail at Sechlar Park. It also could connect to trails on the west and north sides of St. Olaf College’s property, possibly providing an alternate Mill Towns Trail route around Northfield to Waterford for eventual connection to the Cannon Valley Trail in Cannon Falls.

Note that Leif has written on the map:

These are concepts only. All actual routes, buffer are subject to onsite verification of feasibility and landowner cooperation.

Click the map thumbnail once for a medium-sized image. Then click the green arrow to view a very large image.

Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes. Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Mondays at 6:00 PM and Sundays at 10 AM on KYMN 1080 . . . → Read More: Podcast: 2/3 Triumvirate, PC oriented]]> Ross was AWOL yesterday so Tracy put on her PC-ZBA hat and I pretended to be interested, asking her about the latest with the annexations in Greenvale and Bridgewater townships as well as the Land Development Code. We introduced the show with lots of fun fluff, natch.

Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also download the MP3 or subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes. Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Mondays at 6:00 PM and Sundays at 10 AM on KYMN 1080 AM.

Here’s a Google map of the area, with a few of my markers. View West Armstrong Business Park (proposed) . . . → Read More: Annexation process begins for West Armstrong Business Park]]> P. 13 of this week’s EDA packet has a summary of “formal annexation requests to the City of Northfield” from Robert Gill and Ken Prawer for 456 acres in Bridgewater Township. See the PDF of the West Armstrong Business and Industrial Area Concept Plan. This is likely to be controversial because of the current (1999) annexation agreement between the township and Northfield, as well as the park’s location between Heath Creek and Spring Brook (Rice) Creek. (continued)

Here’s a Google map of the area, with a few of my markers. View West Armstrong Business Park (proposed) in a larger map.

  
Here are a couple of Heath Creek and Spring Brook Creek watershed maps from an (old) page on the Carleton web site titled Environmental Aspects of Transportation Planning in Northfield.

Update 7/12: Below is a land owner map of the area, courtesy of Bruce Morlan and his Politics and a Pint blog post.

See also:

• July 8 Nfld News, New annexation request may extend Northfield westward.
• P. 13 of this week’s EDA packet which has this summary:

Background

… on July 1, 2009, Mr. Robert Gill and Mr. Kenneth Prawer submitted formal annexation requests to the City of Northfield. The City Council is expected to give City staff directions on how this request should be addressed at its July 20, 2009, City Council meeting. The proposed annexation consists of 456 acres and, if annexed, would most likely be developed as business and light industrial.

The Bridgewater Township Board has been notified by the applicants that they have submitted applications to the City of Northfield. The City of Northfield currently has a signed annexation agreement with Bridgewater Township to allow up to 150 acres in a five-year period with no more than 60 acres in one year. Some of the proposed annexation area is not included in the annexation agreement. Therefore, as a result of these conditions, the annexation agreement would need to be amended to enable these annexations to be completed.

ALTERNATIVES FOR CITY COUNCIL:

1. The Council can request that the Planning Commission hold a public hearing on the annexation requests, and then make a recommendation to the Council.
2. The Council can decide not to pursue the annexation requests. If so, the application forms and fees would be returned to the applicants.
3. The Council can delay the consideration of the annexation requests until a market study can be completed for the Northfield area.