Park Board Approves Plan for North Loop Park
This fall, the North Loop will start to see the half-acre patch of grass at N. 3rd St. transform into an actual park, starting with plantings of more greenery plus construction of pathways that give a nod to Bassett Creek that runs 20 feet below. When the park is completed next year, it will rely not only on volunteers to maintain it, but also get some help from robots.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board approved the Concept Plan for the park at their August 6 meeting, bringing an end to four years of planning between North Loop volunteers and Park Board staff to make what was once a parking lot into the park.
“The North Loop Neighborhood Association started holding public hearings right after the purchase of the property by the Park Board in 2021,” said David Crary, vice president of the NLNA. “I’m delighted to see the vision of the neighborhood coming together in this much-needed public park space in the North Loop.”
A view of the park when the land was purchased in 2021
More trees, grasses, pathways and a small stage
The park’s features will incorporate elements from the North Loop’s warehouse and industrial history, plus look to the future with innovative smart technology. The park will have three elements, all designed with input from residents over the last four years:
Third Street Plaza: This will be a small area along the sidewalk for events requiring a hard surface, with room for up to four food trucks. Planners describe this as the “front door” to the park. Tall green pillar lights will be made of steel, which symbolizes the material used in neighborhood buildings dating back to the 1880s.
Loop Lawn and Stage: At the opposite end, the back of the park will have a lawn with space to enjoy an outdoor lunch or read a book, with a small stage that could host a yoga class, for example.
Bassett Creek Meadow: In between the front and back of the park, plans call for concrete and lumber pathways, like the timber used in historic warehouses. The path of the creek below will be outlined by native plants and include elements that will remind visitors how they might have once played by a creek, with timber stepping stones and a log jam. String lights will be hung between steel columns to evoke the ebb and flow of the creek below.
Preliminary design plans for the park
In a meeting last month, the North Loop Neighborhood Association assured the Minneapolis Park Board Planning Committee that the neighborhood would organize volunteers to take care of the park, much in the same way volunteers plant, weed and clean the riverfront and playground on Service Saturdays.
Minneapolis’s First Smart Park
Plans also call for the park to become Minneapolis’s first “Smart Park,” using technology for everything from trash and snow removal to mowing the lawn and watering.
“We can program the robotic lawn mowing to keep the grass cut on a regular basis, but without interrupting peak use times for the park,” said Michael Schroeder, Assistant Superintendent for Minneapolis Parks, who has been a key partner to the North Loop Neighborhood Association. “And robotic snow clearing means we don’t have to use heavy, noisy machinery to clear the snow.”
Visitors will also see full trash containers sense that they’re full, and excuse themselves from the park to make room for a robotic empty trash container.
Timeline and Funding
Work begins this fall with construction of the Loop Lawn and Stage, as wells as the walkways and new lighting.
Funding for the park comes from Park Dedication Fees, which are fees paid by developers when they build in Minneapolis. Builders can either donate land for a park, operate their own park or donate money to Park Dedication Fees. The Park Board approved the $600,000 generated by North Loop development for construction of the park.
By Mary Binkley, NLNA volunteer