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Council Perspective: September 2025

Woodbury City CouncilTuesday, October 14, 2025
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Transcript
As your mayor, one of the most exciting parts of my job is seeing how our community continues to grow and thrive. I often say that we enjoy a high quality of life in Woodbury today, thanks in part to our wellplanned and managed growth over the past 40 plus years and our optimal location at the intersection of three major interstates, a powerful catalyst for our expansion. Our residential growth has been a vehicle for so many of the improvements and amenities that we all enjoy. It has allowed us to support and enhance essential city services from public safety to streets maintenance and utilities. It has also enabled us to add to our extensive parks and trail system which now includes over 180 m of walking and biking trails and to provide incredible recreational amenities like M Health Fairview Sports Center and the soon to reopen remodeled and enhanced Central Park. Growth also makes Woodbury an attractive place to do business. These businesses provide a variety of goods and services that we all need while helping to diversify and strengthen the city's tax base. This means our city is less dependent on residential property taxes, which is a benefit for every homeowner. As the state's seventh largest city with a population of more than 80,000, we're now attracting new types of businesses and services that we haven't had before. Our population continues to provide new and exciting opportunities in our commercial market, and I've been thrilled to see the attention we're getting from businesses looking to enter the Minnesota market for the first time or to expand into the east metro. When I talk with business owners and developers, a common theme I hear is that they see a vibrant, growing community. They're drawn to our strong demographics and the clear demand for new services. It's a wonderful validation of our city's success, and I have the pleasure of attending countless groundbreings and ribbon cutings to celebrate these new ventures. This fall, we'll see the opening of Top Golf, a regional attraction that will bring visitors to Woodbury from across the Twin Cities area. Some exciting commercial recreational businesses are slated to open in the future. Slick City, an indoor slide park coming to the Northeast Business Park, main event, and two new indoor pickleball facilities that have been approved. Beyond entertainment, growth has been a major driver for the expansion of health care services. While none of us enjoys needing health care, it is invaluable to have that readily available. Woodbury is now home to a wide range of top tier healthcare providers, including the recently opened Health Partners Specialty Clinic. Dining options also continue to grow with more than 130 restaurants now operating in the community. I'm excited about the new establishments coming soon, including Feast Buffet and Banquet, Hangry Joe's Chicken, Paris Baguette, and Saw My Village. This is an addition to the recently opened Hope Breakfast Bar, Southern Social, Northern Tap House, and Liliana, just to name a few. For a full list of restaurants, I encourage you to visit Destination Woodbury's website at destinationwoodwbury.com. For many years, residents have told me that one of the things they enjoy most about living here is that they don't have to leave our community for the goods and services that they need. The addition of new businesses and services strengthens our community self-sufficiency. As we continue to grow, the convenient options available right here in Woodbury will also expand, ensuring that our city remains a desirable place to live, work, and play for years to come.