Lake Elmo launches new mapping tools for developers and residents
The Lake Elmo City Council discussed its 2026 work plan on October 24, focusing on how to manage and develop city-owned properties while improving communication with local businesses. The council also unveiled new public mapping tools that integrate local planning data with county information.
The city's Community Development Director presented the first draft of the 2026 work plan, which centers on what to do with about 180 acres of city-owned land, the former fire station, and the old city hall building. The council will ultimately decide the fate of these properties, but the plan calls for reviewing all publicly owned land using geographic information systems (GIS) and considering strategic property acquisitions. One council member expressed interest in exploring development of the city's closed landfill, proposing it be included in the work plan for potential value creation.
The council is also working to improve outreach to local businesses. A previous survey three years ago had poor response rates, with business owners citing time constraints. Council members suggested hosting open forums or conducting new surveys to better understand the business community's needs. The city is also updating its Economic Development Authority handbook and exploring facade improvement grants in partnership with Washington County.
A major announcement involved new public GIS mapping tools now available on the city website. The tools include a parks and trails map and a public parcel viewer that combines county data with Lake Elmo's local planning information—including zoning, utilities, and shoreline buffer details. The maps update automatically as county property records change, making them useful for both developers and residents. "This is a really good tool," a city official said, noting that county systems lack the city's detailed local planning data.
The council also received updates on the Urban Land Institute's technical assistance panel, which is studying the 180-acre site to recommend how it should be marketed and developed. The panel, partially funded by Washington County, is expected to deliver its report around November 18. The former fire station is expected to be under a purchase agreement by the first quarter of 2025, with potential environmental cleanup grants available. No formal votes were taken at the meeting; the discussion was meant to gather feedback for refining the work plan before a final draft is presented.
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Votes (2)
2026 Work Plan Discussion
The Community Development Director presented the first draft of the 2026 work plan, outlining goals and action items for city-owned property disposition (180 acres, former fire station, old city hall), reviewing all publicly owned property via GIS, and exploring strategic property acquisition. Communication efforts with a new coordinator, business spotlight stories, and collaboration with the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce were also discussed. The EDA handbook needs updates. Concerns were raised about business outreach effectiveness, with past surveys yielding low response rates, leading to suggestions for re-upping surveys or hosting open forums. The potential development of the closed landfill was proposed for inclusion.
Communication Updates (Former Fire Station RFP, ULI TAP, GIS Update)
Updates were given on the Former Fire Station Parks Building RFP, which is going to the council, and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) for the 180 acres site, including its timeline, stakeholder engagement, and expected report date. A major presentation covered the new public GIS tools (parks & trails map, public parcel viewer) developed with Bolton and Mink. These tools integrate county and local data, refresh automatically, and are now available on the city website, offering detailed planning and utility information to residents and developers.
Notable Quotes (6)
I think we would, you know, start to do the work internally through GIS and come back to the EDA first and then also involve the planning commission. Ultimately, the decision will be made by the council. But I think everybody would definitely be involved because some of the land like you said may not have a high economic purpose. So, you know, it maybe is better under even like parks too, like ship parks. We would want them to take a look at it also.
We did a we did a survey a business retention and expansion survey about three years ago and uh I have to say we asked businesses to give a half hour of someone's time to talk to us and a number of us went out and interviewed people but I have to say there were very few respondents were willing to talk to us. Everybody's too busy.
I'd like to add one thing. Uh I'm I'm still interested in doing something with the closed landfill and we are going to have a discussion at council about that possibility and I cannot predict what the outcome will be but I'd like to have an at least a spot open on this and it it could be part of the discussion of review city owned property or it could be part of brownfield grants or something like that. But it's it's just to keep that in mind that uh it would really be wonderful to get some value out of that.
it depends on so the easiest way for me to answer is depends on the stakeholder right so our engineering team is part of the stakeholder group they want to know the history of what's been there before what are some of the challenges for for the EDA it's just your personal background what's been discussed at the board comm you know the EDA anything that you want to bring up anything that you have knowledge of in the past that you think would be good they just want input from all the board members and you know any history there.
But it puts all that information all in one application, which is great because the county just doesn't have our our local planning and zoning shoreline buffer information. So, this is a really good tool. This is a tool that's now public and we use it when we talk to developers or anybody residents can use it. It's on our website.
That is fantastic. So, when obviously there's property sales all the time and it updates on the county level whenever they get the ECV for it. Does that mean this is then doing like a is it literally live or is it doing like a nightly jobs batch or is it
Ordinances & Resolutions (14)
Previous meeting minutes approved at the start of the current meeting.
The primary document under discussion for future city development and operations.
Reference for comparison and for updating on completed action items.
An existing document for the Economic Development Authority that requires updates.
A program managed by the Washington County CDA, funded by the city, for residents.
Currently a PDF, slated to be updated to a GIS story map.
Future interactive map for community development projects.
A collection of old documents from previous RFP processes, provided to ULI TAP panelists.
A newly released public GIS map detailing local parks and trails.
A new public GIS tool showing parcel information, utilities, zoning, and planning data, integrated with county GIS.
A planning layer available on the new public parcel viewer.
A planning layer on the public parcel viewer indicating municipal urban service areas.
A planning layer on the public parcel viewer displaying zoning information.
A planning layer on the public parcel viewer showing projected land use.
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Other Topics from This Document
Community Development and Economic Initiatives
GIS Mapping and Data Integration
Urban Land Institute (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) Update
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