2025 Vol 19, Issue 2 March Gem Lake News

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Gem Lake News Page 4 of 8 Metropolitan Council Visits One of Gem Lake’s representatives on the Metropolitan Council paid a visit to the Gem Lake City Council on January 21. Gail Cederberg, PhD, who represents District 11 on the Met Council, gave a presentation during the monthly Gem Lake City Council meeting. During this presentation she reviewed the vision and core values of the Met Council’s 2050 development guide, which is an overall plan for what the metro area is projected to look like in the decades ahead. She also gave updates on several current projects. The Metropolitan Council was created in 1967 as a regional solution to regional problems such as sprawl into sensitive natural areas, uncoordinated planning and economic development, water quality concerns, wastewater treatment and fiscal inequality between local governments. The Twin Cities Metropolitan Region covers 7 council, 16 Met Council Districts, 182 cities and townships, people from 11 federal recognized Tribal Nations and other indigenous communities, just over 3.2 million people as of 2023 and projected growth of 610,000 people by 2050. Every 10 years the council is required by State Law to prepare and adopt a regional development guide and is now in the process of working on what they call Imagine 2050. This includes system plans for land use, parks, water resources and transportation. It also adopts policies for housing and water supply. The goal is to help facilitate orderly development of the metropolitan region through convening and bringing together communities to develop a shared vision. In this proposed plan, Gem Lake remains classified as “Suburban” with a minimum density target of 7 units per acre. This means when larger plots of land become available for residential or mixed-use development, the Met Council ideally wants to see the city target projects that provide at least an average of 7 housing units per acre. Cederberg also reviewed current transportation projects. Metro Transit is the largest regional transit provider and serves as the region’s federally required planning agency. It performs long-range transportation system planning. Recent accomplishments include increased ridership and declining crime between 2023 and 2024 and a new contract for transit fare collection system improvements. Upcoming activities include reopening the bus route between Maplewood and Rosedale Malls, the ongoing construction of the METRO Gold line in Woodbury, which will open in 2025 and a Micro Transit Pilot Program, which will operate between Woodbury and Roseville. Get your NOAA Radio at 50% Discount! April 7-11 is Severe Weather Awareness Week in Minnesota. To mark this important event, Gem Lake residents can get a high-quality NOAA weather radio for 50% off through a new program approved by the Gem Lake City council in November. This program is the result of an initiative happening at the county level to help citizens be more prepared for emergencies. Ramsey County recently completed work on a draft of an encompassing plan to identify and prepare for various emergencies such as flooding, severe weather, pandemics, etc. The Ramsey County Hazard Mitigation Plan assigns each city with several goals to do their share of preparation. For Gem Lake two of these goals are to consider installing a whole building power generation system (such as a Generac), and also to encourage the widespread use of NOAA weather radios in Gem Lake households. NOAA stands for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency. NOAA is a science-based federal agency within the Department of Commerce that works to understand and predict changes in weather, oceans, coasts and climate. The NOAA weather radio is an automated 24- hour network of FM and VHF weather stations in the U.S. that broadcasts weather information directly from nearby National Weather Service stations. Each radio is then programmed by the owners to provide urgent weather alerts that are relevant only to the owner’s living area. NOAA weather radios are invaluable for alerting residents to approaching severe weather. If you are interested in getting one of these radios, simply call Melissa Lawrence at Heritage Hall and put your name on the list. They will be ordered in bulk, and you will be alerted when they are ready to be picked up. The radios cost $40.00 each, of which the city will pick up $20.00 and the homeowner will pay $20.00. Please note: As part of Severe Weather Awareness Week in Minnesota, the tornado siren systems will be activated and tested throughout the state on April 10 at both 1:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m.