Preserve Lashbrook Park

May 2nd, 2008 by Scott

Archery Design PlanA proposal to make about half of Lashbrook Park into an archery range is now before the Northfield Park and Recreation Advisory Board. The proposal was made by the Cannon Valley Sportsmen’s Club on September 11, 2007, and is almost ready for final action.

Lashbrook Park, the natural area on the Cedar-Greenvale corner, was once a corn field. When Mary Ann Larson wanted to sell it in 1987, she told the Northfield City Council, and a developer proposed 98 apartments. Residents rose up in great opposition, and the proposal was altered to 50 condos.

Residents still objected, and proposed a park instead. Through a state grant of $75,000, a contribution of $25,000 from Saint Olaf College, $25,000 from neighbors in the area, and $25,000 from the City of Northfield, a “passive park” of 11 acres was eventually created from this land.

Now, the Cannon Valley Sportsmen’s Club proposes to take almost half of the land for an archery range.

In the original Master Plan for Lashbrook Park, written in 1994, the park was to be “openly programmed, ecologically-and-functionally-based public open space.” More of the Master Plan follows that:

It is an important pice of the connected elements of the city and the colleges’ wealth of open lands…Its design as a pastoral clearing recalls, subliminally, the use of the site by the previous owners, Albert and Edna Lashbrook, who raised prize Holsteins here.

From conversations with Northfield resident, Gloria Kiester, she notes that “The Lashbrooks were the COWS in our town motto of Cows, Colleges, and Contentment.”

The Center for Sustainable Living is dedicated to the preservation of our agricultural and natural lands. Lashbrook Park is a treasure which harkens back to Northfield’s historic roots. It should be preserved as a passive park of trees, grasslands, wildflowers, and sustained trails - for all to enjoy.

If you agree that the park should remain open to all people in all seasons, we urge you to contact the members of the Park Board to voice your concerns. As well, you can attend the next meeting of the Park Board to speak, or simply show your support. Bring documents, memories, stories, and thoughts that will help establish Lashbrook Park as an open space to be enjoyed by all people in all seasons.

The Park board will meet:
7pm, Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Northfield Community Resource Center, Room 105
1651 Jefferson Drive
Northfield, MN

2 Responses to “Preserve Lashbrook Park”

  1. on 03 May 2008 at 5:58 am1 Blake Lake

    “passive” parks are a waste of space and public money

    if neighbors of the “passive” park want to preserve their private “lawn” (which is all it is) they should buy the land and do the caretaking themselves and not expect the rest of us to fund their life style

  2. on 03 May 2008 at 8:32 am2 Scott

    Thanks for your comment, Blake. I’ll take off my CSL webmaster cap and put on my “resident of the neighborhood” cap here.

    I live less than a block from Lashbrook Park, and walk my dog there daily. I do pay property taxes which help fund city services - one of those services is park maintenance. There are other costs with increased traffic and use of the park that will impact residents greatly that we may not want to pay for.

    • Increased traffic, cars parking in the roundabout at Highland Ave - increased road maintenance.
    • Excavation equipment, contractors, etc, etc, in the neighborhood building the range, clearing land, closing off the park while it’s being constructed, noise, equipment everywhere, etc - that I can’t walk my dog through.
    • The increased liability of an archery range in the park, insurance, etc.
    • The some 50+ kids under the age of 15 who may roam in the woods, walk through the park to get home, skateboard nearby, will not have a wide open space near them
    • A retirement community adjacent to the archery range side of the park would not have the open land near them.
    • The cost to the city and taxpayers now is minimal with this park. The only costs are maintaining mowed trails, as the prairie grass and wild vegetation are self-sustaining.

    I’d say that my “lifestyle” cost is minimal compared to the alternative.

    I’m not against Archery. I think it’s an awesome sport. I think there are other places that it could and should happen - places where residents won’t be impacted as much, and places that don’t have so much heritage of open space associated with them.

    Scott Schumacher
    1103 Highland Avenue

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