At the State of the City address on Feb. 26, Woodbury Mayor Anne Burt highlighted the major projects the city has embarked upon and milestones achieved by the city in 2025.
Mayor Burt began by acknowledging the three state representatives who were also present inside a full Central Park room: Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, the new state senator representing District 47; Shelley Buck, Woodbury’s house representative from District 47A who was elected to the seat vacated by Hemmingsen-Jaeger; and Ethan Cha, house representative for District 47B.
City residents, former and current city council members, city officials, Washington County and Metropolitan Council officials were also among those present.
A notable accomplishment made last year was the completed renovation of Central Park. The mayor explained that the previous social park was built more than 20 years ago and, since that time, Woodbury’s population had doubled and was in need of further developments. Before plans for the redevelopment were finalized, a lot of public input was sought.
New amenities in the park include added benches and tables in communal areas as well as routers to easily connect devices to the building’s Wi-Fi. Overall, the project totaled $48 million with funding coming from various forms, including grants, partner contributions and city funds.
The mayor then moved on to talk about how, since the early 1990s, the city has published an annual performance measurement report with over 350 data points.
“’How quickly do we respond to EMS fire calls or police calls?, Do we get all of the roads plowed in a reasonable period of time?’, All of this goes to inform things around our strategic planning, how we as city council make decisions, where we have areas of success, where we need improvement,” Burt said. “It does offer accountability to the public that we are focused on the work we’re supposed to be doing.”
She then segued into the three existing strategic initiatives that have a four year (2025-2028) focus: drinking water, environmental stewardship and public safety.
“Environmental stewardship is an area that we are very focused on, as we live in this wonderful community, a great green space. We want to make sure that we can maintain this again for generations to come,” she said. “Our Public Safety department has been focused on being a safe community, through culture, connections and events to educate the public. We have added 13 police officers and firefighters and EMS people to our community in the last few months.”
The mayor talked about approaching elected representatives at state and federal level to fund some part of the city projects in 2026 and beyond.
She also talked about ensuring that, along with retail, there is a proper focus to grow non-retail commercial. She mentioned the affordable housing near Jerry’s Foods as well as two new complexes under construction around Settlers Ridge Parkway. Together, they would add around 490 affordable housing units.
2050 Plan
The mayor announced that the planning process to look at the next 10 years going forward, called the 2050 Plan, has begun and a task force of Woodbury residents set to oversee the process has been assembled.
“It is due to the Met Council in late 2028 or so,” Burt said. “But again, that look at, what are we looking like, 2020, 2030 to 2050? It’s really about land use and how we develop and there’s a lot of detail that goes into it. It’s a lot of work. It’s a good commitment, but we couldn’t do it without citizen involvement.”
Road Closures in 2026?
Of course, that is a given!
Mary Van Millgen, the city’s Public Works Director, shared that it will be a challenge to get around the city this summer as well.
“It all depends on where you live and where you are going,” Van Millgen said.
Valley Creek Road and Bailey Road are the two roads that will be affected.
Van Miligen emphasized that the construction on both roads would not be undertaken simultaneously if they were not related to the issue of water quality.
In 2025, Woodbury installed 25,128 feet of pipes that take water to and from the permanent water treatment plant. The plant itself is 25 percent complete and is scheduled to be fully done by 2028.
Re-Election
The mayor announced that both she and City Council member Steve Morris will run for re-election later this year. City Council member, Jennifer Santini, said that she would not be running again due to professional and personal commitments.
The city urges residents to stay in touch through their website which updates road construction and closure details every Friday and also gives other relevant info.You can view a recording of the State of the City address here.
