Big Lake better do some potato easements before it is too late.

Star Tribune Mon, 17 Dec 2007 06:17:26 GMT
Cities along rail line plan for big growth

Northstar's economic impact could be close to $1 billion. Just south of the site of the future train station in Big Lake are hundreds of acres of potato fields and worlds of possibilities. For Northstar commuters, this is the end of the line. For Big Lake and other stops along the line, it's just the beginning. "There's so much potential here, now that Northstar has put Big Lake on everybody's radar screen," said Chuck Heitz, a Big Lake City Council member for 21 years who remembers when only 960 people lived in this city, 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis. "In the spring, we're going to bring in developers, movers and shakers -- and I suspect the other Northstar cities with train stations are thinking of doing the same." ... Getting the community to come on board may take time. A Nov. 20 open meeting at City Hall attracted only a half-dozen citizens, said Katie Larson, Big Lake's senior city planner. But after last week's authorization of federal funding of $156.8 million -- which will pay for half of Northstar's expenses -- a meeting this Wednesday is hoped to draw a significant crowd. "We're rural-suburban, not really one or the other, but somewhere in between," Larson said. "From my perspective, this is really exciting. For others, change can be difficult. I can appreciate that not everybody has come around yet." If a change in attitude has not fully reached Big Lake, folks in Washington think Minnesotans who have yet to climb on board will fall in love with the trains. Five years ago, potential riders focused on the environmental values of trains, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in a phone interview from Washington. For a middle class struggling with gas prices, it's now an economic issue, she said. "It's easier, cheaper, better than driving through congestion and parking," she said. "It's not a bad deal." It's a great deal, say Northstar boosters like Heitz, who dreams of the day people will take a train from Big Lake to a Twins game, or to the Mall of America, for $6. "This," said Anoka County's Novak, "is only the beginning of a good story."

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