Cedar Lake Park Association Records

Cedar Lake Park Association (CLPA), founded as Save Cedar Lake Park (SCLP), was a citizens group formed in 1989 to establish a nature park on the north and northeast shores of Cedar Lake and along the railroad right-of-way from Cedar Lake to Highway 100. Its official name was Cedar Lake Park Preservation and Development Association, Inc.

In 1989, 48 acres of this land was for sale by Glacier Park Company, a land liquidating subsidiary of Burlington Resources. The goals of SCLP were to ensure that this land would become a park, raise at least one-third of the $1.7 million purchase price, negotiate with an intermediary agency to acquire the land and hold it until the purchase could be funded through public and private sources, develop a foot and bike trail corridor that connects the Chain of Lakes and the Mississippi Riverfront Park, and extend the trail corridor west.

By 1991, SCLP had grown to more than 500 members, with Laurie Lundy as coordinator. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) commissioned Wirth Design to develop a design study of using the land as a nature park. In November 1989, the Metropolitan Council’s Open Space Commission approved the design study and added Cedar Lake to its Chain of Lakes Regional Park Plan. SCLP collaborated with various existing entities including the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis and the James F. Bell Foundation to raise funds and gain support. Later in 1991, the Minnesota State Legislature approved the additional funding needed to purchase the 48 acres of land in Minneapolis and St. Louis Park. The land was purchased by the MPRB on November 25, 1992, for $1.7 million. On September 9, 1995, Cedar Lake Trail was dedicated.

In 2000, the group renamed itself the Cedar Lake Park Association (CLPA) and refocused their efforts to further extending the Cedar Lake Regional Trail through Downtown Minneapolis to the Mississippi River. During the 2000s and 2010s the group remained an active force for promoting the development of trails and parkland in the Cedar Lake area.