Townhomes in Woodbury / Commute to Burnsville (Eagan, Lakeville: rental market, day care, neighborhood)

[brenda311]

My husband and I are looking to relocate to the Woodbury area. He will be working at 3M and I work in Burnsville. Ideally, he would bike to 3M and I would commute. What would the commute be like for me? I would hopefully miss most traffic, since I have to be at work by 7am.

We're looking to rent a townhome. We have a five month old daughter, and are interested in an area with outdoor activities - we like to hike, bike, etc. Any suggestions on where to start our search would be greatly appreciated!

[Rhody2Mn]

I work in Woodbury but am unfamiliar with housing there, so I'll let someone else respond to your question regarding town homes, but I can help with your other inquiry as I have almost the exact opposite situation - I live in Lakeville (near Burnsville) and commute to Woodbury.

The drive isn't bad at all considering the distance, as you'll mostly be reverse-commuting, and going before 7:00 AM will make it even easier since you're avoiding peak travel times. You can take the freeways (494 West to 35E South) the entire way from Woodbury to Burnsville, and best part is that traffic should be relatively free flowing. The only portion of that commute that can get a bit congested is on the Wakota Bridge (494) westbound in the morning, but you're going early enough that even that won't be a problem. 35E South into Burnsville will definitely be free-flowing for you. All things considered, it is a very doable and easy commute and depending where you work in the city, the trip should take about 20-30 minutes.

[WoodburyWoody]

Lots of 3Mers living in Woodbury.

Not sure about biking from Woodbury to 3M (Main Campus, I am guessing). There are plenty of trails in Woodbury, but I am unfamiliar about a safe place to cross I-94 to hit the north side of the freeway. But I would be surprised if there is not a 3M cycling club (they've got a club for everything, even clowns ... seriously, clowns) who have all this figured out.

Take a look at this for stuff to do: Family outings - TwinCities.com for one listing of stuff in the area. Woodbury itself is very kid/family-oriented. But most areas of the Twin Cities can make that claim - really a nice place for kids to grow up.

As Rhody2Mn writes, you will be going against the traffic going Woodbury to Burnsville, esp. if you are hitting the road before 7 in the morning and before 3 in the afternoon. Woodbury is basically a bedroom neighborhood, lots of people heading into STP, MPLS, with some also heading into the southern 'burbs and western 'burbs for work.

494 is fairly unobstructed (in good weather, snow or heavy rain kills that) going those ways at those times of day. Busy, but flowing. The biggest chunk and most frustrating part of your commute could be in Woodbury and in Burnsville, on the surface roads. Woodbury surface roads are well known for this, in part from poorly timed lights on the main East-West roads (Lake and Valley Creek) and in part because of, frankly, my neighbors' driving habits. If you are on the south side, Bailey is much better as an East-West road now that they have put in round-a-bouts, but there will be fairly extensive development going on over the next ten or so years, so traffic will increase. So, from the Woodbury point of view, the further west you can get the better for that (and for your husband's biking as it is closer to 3M).

Lots of townhomes all over Woodbury. Not sure about the rental market, but that is a good way to go.

Do you have child care set up? That is also a consideration if you are using a day care center and one (or both) parents commute. It is part of the reason we moved from Eagan to Woodbury (my wife works at 3M - we really liked Eagan but wanted to have one of us within 15 minutes of day care/school in case of emergency).

[brenda311]

We are in the processes of looking for daycare as well. Lots of decisions to make!