Mound City Council exploring the sale of land at several parks

Mound residents raise concerns over park sales

Many residents in Mound are pushing back on talks to sell the land of several parks throughout the city.

This week, some city officials and council members held a workshop to discuss the idea.

Sprinkled all around this west metro community are small parks, some with playgrounds, green spaces, or even access to Lake Minnetonka.

“That’s how we access ice fishing, and kayaking, and canoeing,” said Ashley Klatte-Olson, who lives in Mound.

Klatte-Olson often brings her family to the park.

“Best thing you can do is get outside and run around, and spaces like this allow us the opportunity to do that,” Klatte-Olson said.

But right now, the city council is exploring the idea of selling the land at seven of the 38 parks.

“I was genuinely shocked because my family, we love coming to the parks,” Klatte-Olson said.

“My concern with selling the parks is once you sell them, you don’t get that land back,” said Joanna Kahn, Mound Parks Commission Chair.

Kahn said she is firmly against the move.

“Mound City Council is looking to sell the parks to fund the water treatment plant, and the water treatment plant is desperately needed here, but no matter how many parks you sell, the math does not work; selling the parks does not fund that water treatment plant,” Kahn said.Mound Councilmember Kathy McEnaney sent 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the following statement regarding the situation:

“I initiated a workshop to review our 38 parks for the council to better understand how well they are meeting the needs of our community and to identify areas for improvement. It is the Council’s fiduciary responsibility to evaluate our parks and budget to determine long and short term goals. In order to raise the bar and create a thriving park system, our workshop was an opportunity to begin a high-level discussion to pinpoint if any of our 38 parks or green spaces could be repurposed or sold in order to focus more attention on boosting other park areas.

The City Council is very proud of our abundance. Our objective is to enhance our parks system, with careful consideration of usage, in order to set a high standard for community enjoyment, ease and pride.

Nothing has been decided, we are in the beginning stages of evaluation.”

“It’s really critical that we keep what we have here,” Klatte-Olson said.

As these park discussions continue, Kahn hopes transparency is a priority.

“If city council wants to sell the parks, they need to be transparent and get citizen feedback and input, and if this is what the citizens want to fund the treatment plant, that’s fine, I would accept that answer,” Kahn said.

It’s unclear how much money the city would get for this land.
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