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<br />Page 1 of 3 <br />Parks Commission Minutes <br />November 15, 2023 <br />Minutes <br />Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Commission <br />Meeting of November 15, 2023 <br /> <br />Present: Meredith St. Pierre, Valerie Boyd, Ranell Tennyson <br />Absent: Emily McGinnity, Cathy Moore-Arcand, Mat Rauschendorfer, Jim Compton, Sr., <br />Staff Present: Shayla Denaway, Parks Planner <br />Max Gort, Associate Planner <br /> <br /> <br />Chair St. Pierre called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. <br /> <br />1. Approval of Minutes from the September 20, 2023 Meeting <br /> <br />This action has been tabled due to the Parks Commission not having a quorum. <br />No motion. <br /> <br />2. Glacial Hills Regional Trail Open House <br /> <br />Parks Planner Denaway spoke about the open house held earlier in the evening on November 16, 2023. <br />The Glacial Hills Regional Trail (GHRT) is a planned regional trail under the jurisdiction of Washington <br />County to connect several destinations including Hugo, Big Marine Park Reserve, William O’Brien State <br />Park, and Marine on St. Croix. Denaway stated that the timeline for the GHRT’s construction is at least a <br />decade out, since it is one of the few regional trails that does not have a master plan. The purpose of the <br />open house was to engage public interest in identifying the potential alignment of the trail. Originally, <br />CSAH 4 had been identified as the most viable alignment to connect the destinations in the trail vision, <br />but there has been some desire to connect the trail to more scenery. The largest group that attended <br />the open house was from the equestrian community, requesting that horse facilities be prioritized in the <br />trail planning. Denaway said she’d encourage the trail planning team to focus on having a mix of uses on <br />the trail corridor, similar to the multimodal characteristics of the Gateway State Trail. <br /> <br /> <br />3. Keystone Woods WMA <br /> <br />Denaway presented background on the Minnesota DNR’s process of acquiring land to create the <br />Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA). The 1,820 acres of land, some of which is in Hugo, <br />was part of the Kelley Land and Cattle Company until its ownership by the Trust for Public Land, which <br />will donate the land to the DNR. Denaway stated that the new WMA will be a “pilot project” which is <br />intended to maintain the same uses as other WMAs, but also attract new user groups by enhancing the <br />visitor experience with amenities. The draft improvement plan includes maintaining some current farm <br />roads as trails and accessible paths, creating four entrances with two featuring enhanced parking lots, a