Campaign season, 2026 tax levy, pickleball courts, and more

Greetings!  Here’s city-related news for residents of Ward 1 and beyond. 
 
It’s local election season: Campaigns have launched, early voting has started, and there some competitive races out there. In Ward 1, three candidates are running for city council in a ranked-choice election: Daniel Bashore, Jerry Peterson, and Sarah Steffen. Here’s a list of candidates for the other three ward seats, along with school board candidates. Eight candidates are competing for just three available seats on our school board, with Sarah Davis the sole incumbent on the ballot. To get educated before you vote, I encourage you to watch recordings of city council and school board candidate forums hosted earlier this month by the SLP League of Women Voters. You can also reach out to the candidates themselves, of course. Help shape the future of our schools and community by voting in this year’s municipal election! Find information on where and when you can vote here.

2026 City Budget & Preliminary Levy: There’s really no way around it - 2026 is going to be a tough tax year for homeowners. This isn’t due to significant new spending in our city budget (just $535,000 in new spending is proposed, of a total $54 million budget), but a shift in value from commercial to residential in the city. Residential property values in SLP are up 3% for a median value, single-family home, continuing their steady increase, while commercial property values (office buildings in particular) are down 7.9%, continuing their decline. As a result, the residential sector will bear a greater burden of the overall tax burden than the commercial sector. Even with a 0% increase in the city levy 2026 – which would result in a reduction of services for residents as well as staff layoffs – owners of a median value home would see a 9.4% increase in the city portion of their property taxes. 

Earlier this month, council approved a preliminary levy increase of 8.02%, which would translate to an additional $326/year in the city portion of property taxes for owners of a median value home in 2026. Primary drivers of the proposed increase are (1) maintaining or replacing our current assets like roads, watermain, parks, and city buildings and (2) city staff salaries and benefits (e.g., cost-of-living adjustments and health insurance). Proposed new spending is for police overtime; in-house management of our municipal brush site so we can continue to offer this valued service to residents; modest parks and recreation staffing aligning with program growth; and small investments in tree programs and other city services to meet demand.  

While I support the work of our staff on the 2026 budget, including proposed new spending, I voted against the 8.02% preliminary levy increase upon learning how hard it will land on homeowners. In my view, we could levy less in 2026 (via our EDA and potentially HRA levies, for the tax wonks reading this) which would not impact staffing, programs or services in 2026 but would reduce, albeit only modestly, the financial burden on homeowners. 

Our annual Truth in Taxation hearing takes place Dec. 1 and residents are invited to attend and comment prior to the vote. You can also reach out to me via email to learn more and share your thoughts. Staff will return to council on Dec. 15 with a final proposed levy, which is likely to be lower than 8.02%.

Related: SLP's Popular Annual Financial Report is designed to help the public understand how money is spent, sources of city funding, and how the city plans its financial future. The link is to the latest available report. 

Most Valued Tree! The winner of our community’s first M.V. Tree (Most Valued Tree) contest is a magnificent Bur Oak on 24th Street. Trees play a vital role in our community and while infrastructure and development projects sometimes, sadly, result in their removal, the city is increasingly committed to preserving, replacing and increasing our tree canopy. Check out SLP's many programs and resources in support of trees here. Congrats, beautiful old oak! 

3rd of July fireworks? This year, for the first time, the city hosted our annual fireworks display on July 3. Now, council is being asked to ponder a permanent shift to July 3 to make staffing the event easier and less expensive. I’d really like to hear from residents on this. Please email me here. Thanks!

Happy 100th birthday, Lenox! Lenox Community Center, home to our community’s wonderful senior program, is a vibrant hub for wellness and lifelong learning. Program staff are hosting a centennial celebration on Monday, Oct. 6, from 4-7 pm, kicking off a weeklong series of events that includes daily tours of the historic building that was once an elementary school. All are welcome!

Bickham Court awarded big grant: When nonprofit Perspectives filed for bankruptcy in late 2023, it threatened the housing stability of 60+ women in recovery and their children who call SLP home. Now the development, purchased by nonprofit Trellis last year and renamed Bickham Court, has been awarded $1.2 million from Hennepin County to make upgrades to plumbing, mechanical systems, and roofs; enhance building exteriors, unit interiors, and common areas; and add a community room for children’s programming. I’m so glad families still have access to this deeply affordable supportive housing in our community and that residents can soon enjoy upgrades to the 60-year-old properties. 

Multifamily housing planned for Ward 1: At the moment, there are no development projects in the queue awaiting council approval – unusual given the flurry of multifamily development that’s occurred over the last few years. Check out our development dashboard for a more in-depth look. 776 new units have been approved, however, and not yet built; of those, 464 units, or 60% of the total, will be in Ward 1. They include the Beltline Station Development in the Triangle neighborhood, which broke ground earlier this month and will include 380 new apartments (82 affordable) along with ground-floor commercial space. Parkway Residences in Triangle (behind the Shoreham) will add 73 market-rate units as part of a multi-phase project. And the Minnetonka Boulevard Twin Homes Project in the Sorensen neighborhood, my favorite as it will provide opportunities for wealth-building through homeownership, will provide eight affordable new homes near the intersection of Minnetonka Blvd. and Hwy 100. Building more homes of all types is how we make housing more affordable, easing pressure on the overall housing market where supply is currently not meeting demand. 

Electrification grant: The federal government may be abandoning sustainability initiatives, but our state, county, and city remain committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change. SLP was recently awarded a $30,000 grant from Hennepin County to purchase outdoor landscaping equipment including an electric lawn mower, electric leaf blowers, chainsaws, and a concrete saw. These tools will replace gas-powered equipment we currently own and avoid two metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. 
 
Aircraft noise this summer: We moved from a cute house and neighborhood in south Minneapolis 30+ years ago for one reason – to escape aircraft noise. I’m so glad we landed in SLP, but aircraft noise over our neighborhood this summer felt like an unwelcome flashback. According to the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), persistent weather patterns this summer kept the MSP airport in “south flow” longer than normal, creating extended periods of concentrated flight activity over parts of SLP. Here’s a cool tool where you can track flight activity over your own home, both in real time and archived. The MAC tracks complaints and shares them out at bimonthly Noise Oversight Committee meetings; I encourage you to add the MAC complaint line (612.726.9411 or online) to your contacts and share a quick message when the noise is bothersome. It can’t hurt. 

SWLRT testing this fall: We're getting closer! This fall, the Metro Transit Commission (MTC) will begin testing light rail vehicles between SLP and Eden Prairie in preparation for the Green Line Extension to begin serving customers in 2027. MTC has issued the first in a serios of safety videos to raise awareness and help people adjust to seeing and hearing the trains along the line. Check it out!

Popular new bridge: The Dakota-Edgewood Bikeway and Bridge, part of our citywide Connect the Park plan and one of few north-south bike/ped connections through the city, is getting used. A recent two-week count of users showed the bridge averaged 120 pedestrians per day and 145 bikers per day, with several days exceeding 325 bikes/peds per day. If you haven’t traversed the bridge, you should! It offers some great views of SLP and Minneapolis.

Related: Council has included modest funding in our 2026 proposed budget (unobligated funds from 2025) to complete public art components of the bridge, originally envisioned as honoring and celebrating the Dakota people and culture after whom the bridge, park, and street are named.  

New pickleball option in Ward 1: In case you didn’t know, the city resurfaced courts at Fern Hill Park this summer and added pickleball lines. Anyone want to teach me this game someday? I’ll have more time on my hands soon. 
 
Here’s a select list of upcoming events in our community: 
 
Early voting at SLP City Hall, Mon-Fri, 8-4:30, now through Oct. 31; also Sat., Nov. 1, 9-3 and Monday, Nov. 3, 8-5. Info on voting by mail and on Election Day Nov. 4 here. 

Greenway-Cedar Lake Trail connection open house, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 6:30-8 pm, SLP Municipal Service Center. Learn about the design of the planned trail connection from Methodist Hospital to the Cedar Lake LRT Regional Trail from City and Minnehaha Creek Watershed District staff. 
 
Lenox Centennial Celebration, Mon., Oct. 6, 4-7 pm and through the week, Lenox Community Center. Info here. 
 
Bronx Park Pavement Management Open House, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 5:30-7 pm, Lenox Community Center and Bronx Park Pavement Management Pop-up Event, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 4-6 pm, Bronx Park. Find out what’s planned for 2026. Info here.
 
SLP Storytelling, Thursday, Oct. 9, 6:30-7:45pm, SLP Library. SLP resident Marsha Wolk will share her special love of Halloween and other stories about her interesting life. 
 
St. Louis Park Friends of the Arts Birthday Fundraiser, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 6-8:30 pm, Canvas Convergence at the West End. All are welcome to come and celebrate 30 years of supporting local art and artists. Info here.

Thanks for reading and please stay in touch! 
​
Margaret