By: Daniel Huss
September 27, 2000

Talk about timing, Sunday's Tour de Sprawl, an event organized to highlight the issues surrounding urban and suburban development, was held the day after President Clinton agreed to tap into the government's emergency petroleum reserves. "It's so counterproductive, it's ridiculous," said Tour de Sprawl participant Tom Eyre. "Instead of complaining about the high costs of petroleum products, we should be changing our habits."

In a nutshell, changing habits was what Tour de Sprawl sponsors - Alliance for Metropolitan stability, Friends of Birch Island Woods, Jewish Community Action, Minnesota Public Interest Research Group, St. Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium, Sierra Club, and Transit for Livable Communities - hoped to convey.

Tour sponsors strengthened their argument with stops at an affordable housing apartment complex in the heart of downtown Hopkins, Eden Prairie's Birch Island Woods, a road construction site along Highway 212, Chanhassen's Seminary Fen, and downtown Chaska - a small town downtown that's becoming an integral part of a big city.

Making noise

Although the slogan "Honk If You Love the Environment" appeared on T-shirts sold at the start of Sunday's event, the saying appeared to play second fiddle to the inspirational words of Betty Anne Murphy, a Hopkins resident and affordable housing advocate.

"If you really believe in something," she said, "be sure to make plenty of noise."

Mat Hollinshead, the event's MC, picked up where Murphy left off. He sounded off on Highway 212, a yet-to-be completed expressway that will no doubt serve as the urban sprawl poster child.

Admitting there's not much that can be done to stop construction of the $180 million project, Hollinshead said Highway 212 is "a solution looking for a problem."

He added that the original rational to build the road - initially planned to move grain from outstate Minnesota to downtown Minneapolis - doesn't exist anymore.

"The main terminals are no longer in Minneapolis," he said, "they're in Shakopee."

When asked to justify the road's existence, Hollinshead thought for a minute before he said, "I know one thing for sure, they're not doing it to move grain to market.

"I'm only speculating," he added. "But by dumping 40,000 additional vehicles onto Highway 494 they'll put so much pressure on the already overcrowded highway that they'll be able to justify the need to expand it."

Fiddlin' around

The 18-mile journey, which began on Mainstreet in Hopkins, eventually connected with the SW LRT Trail. The 70 some bikers then traveled north to Eden Prairie.

The only traffic they encountered were a few woolly-looking caterpillars who dared to venture from one side of the trail to the other.

Shortly after the bikers entered Eden Prairie, they traded the comforts of the LRT trail for that of a narrow walking path that sits atop an abandoned railroad bed that cuts through the Birch Island Woods.

While transitioning from the LRT trail to the narrow Birch Island path, bikers were serenaded by a singing violin and a strumming guitar.

The 37-acre woods-wetland complex, currently owned by Hennepin County, is in the middle of a life or death struggle. The county, which wishes to dispose of the property, has given the City of Eden Prairie a Dec. 31, 2000, deadline.

If the city can't figure out a way to purchase the property, which has a market value of $1.23 million, the property will be sold to the highest bidder.

"That would be a shame," said Eden Prairie resident Jeff Strate. "Natural areas like this are much too valuable to develop. If you think these area are important now, imagine how valuable they'll be 15-20 years from now."

The tour's third stop, Eden Prairie's Miller Park, sits adjacent to Highway 212 construction.

Even though John DeWitt, a co-founder of Transit for Livable Communities, concedes that the project is virtually a done deal - "The only thing left to decide," he said, "is whether the road is built north or south of Riley Lake" - he hopes the project can be used as a catalyst for change.

"It's time to rethink our transportation policies," he said. "We need to look at alternatives to moving cars on freeways."

The tour finally ended in downtown Chaska, a small town in the midst of big city redevelopment.

Before the tour started, Eyre remarked, "We have to look at redevelopment. We can't keep doing what we're doing and developing farther and farther out."

Eyre's statement brings the group full circle.

"Hopkins used to be considered a remote city," commented Hopkins City Manager Steve Mielke. "We were the city on the western edge. Now look at us."

The above is an article that appeared in the Thursday, September 27, 2000, Eden Prairie News. The article is copyrighted "© 2000 Southwest Suburban Publishing", who retain all rights to it. The article is reproduced here by permission.