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Mapping Northwest Main Master Plan Project
The Mapping Northwest Main Planning Process is complete. On Monday, August 25, 2025 the Lino Lakes City Council unanimously approved the proposed Lino Lakes Main Street Master Plan for the 962-acre study area in the northwestern quadrant of the city. Now the City is working on amending the 2040 Comprehensive Plan to reflect the guidelines detailed in the approved master plan. For additional information on the Comprehensive Plan amendment, please visit the City website.
This process has fulfilled all city, county and state guidelines and processes for creating a development master plan. A master plan will allow the City to confidently guide proposed developments for the area.
As Lino Lakes continues to attract new investments and development opportunities, the city must plan for future growth. That includes meeting increased demand for housing, infrastructure and city services as well as the requirements set by the Metropolitan Council (Met Council), the regional planning agency that helps guide development across the seven-county metro.
In response to multiple development proposals for 962-acres of land in the northwestern quadrant of the city and based on the recommendation of the 2040 Comp Plan to complete a master plan for the corridor, the City Council approved a one-year moratorium to undertake a planning process. This process, called Mapping Northwest Main, was initiated to go above and beyond traditional pre-development processes to guarantee potential concerns were heard and addressed.
The end goal of this process was to create a master plan for the area to serve as a set of development guidelines that balance private property rights, resident priorities, and regional requirements—positioning Lino Lakes for thoughtful, sustainable growth over the next 30+ years.
The most critical part of the Mapping Northwest Main process was the creation of potential development scenarios and review of their associated environmental impacts. The City of Lino Lakes listened carefully to resident input throughout this Mapping Northwest Main process, using community feedback to help narrow down scenarios and then refining the preferred scenario even further. An Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) evaluated the potential environmental impacts of the development scenarios and identified required steps developers will need to take mitigate impacts to wildlife, traffic, noise, groundwater, and other factors for each of the studied scenarios.
After a year of refining potential development scenarios with input from residents, experts and stakeholders, the 572-page AUAR report was finalized and approved by the Lino Lakes City Council on August 11, 2025. The proposed Lino Lakes Main Street Master Plan was then presented to the Planning and Zoning Board on August 13, 2025. That meeting included a public hearing on the proposed master plan before the Planning and Zoning Board unanimously recommending adoption by the City Council. On August 25, 2025, the Lino Lakes City Council unanimously approved the Lino Lakes Main Street Master Plan for the 962-acre study area in the northwest quadrant of the city.
The City of Lino Lakes listened carefully to resident input throughout this process. Feedback from residents helped the City narrow four initial development scenarios down to one. This scenario was further refined to incorporate feedback heard from residents before being evaluated by the AUAR process alongside the existing Comprehensive Plan guidelines. The Comprehensive Plan scenario was included in the AUAR to provide a baseline to compare the new development scenario against. We thank residents for their patience and extensive input into this planning process.