Why all the Cottage Grove hate?

[WoodburyWoody]

Originally Posted by Stanton1433

It was more of a regional comparing and contrasting. Cottage Grove is in many ways competing with Woodbury. Woodbury is closer to shopping and the amenities that make up a desirable suburb. Cottage Grove is just left behind. I would choose to live in CG because it seems less snooty than Woodbury.

There is a lot of new residential development and retail in CG in the past five years, with a lot more housing developments planned for the farm land to the east and north which are still in CG city limits, up to Bailey Road. There are plans in place for more retail on the south side of Bailey as well.

Between what is left in Woodbury to develop on the south side east of Woodbury Drive (not much), in Cottage Grove on the north side east of Woodbury Drive (quite a bit of ag-zoned land right now) and Afton along Manning Drive (N-S; Afton is on the East side and Woodbury on the West), the whole area may be filled in in the next ten years with housing, retail, churches (there "future home of ..." signs for two or three already on the Afton side of Manning), etc.

CG, Woodbury, Newport are all South Washington County SD 833 and they are planning for growth.

In 2015, a big bond was passed by voters to build a new middle school in northwest Cottage Grove to replace an existing one and add improvements to other middle schools in the district (the plan is to convert that existing middle school that is being replaced an elementary school to house 833's Spanish Immersion elementary program that is next door in an 833 elementary school there but at capacity - very popular option within the district).

There are three main high schools - Park (in CG), Woodbury (western Woodbury) and East Ridge (south side of Bailey at Woodbury Drive in Woodbury, basically between Woodbury and CG). All are getting close to capacity and in 2015, another bonding bill to expand all three plus other elementary schools in 833 was not approved but I imagine it will be up again for vote.

There will likely be a lot of shifting of school boundries in that area as things grow and schools are built, so something to keep in mind if you have young kids - what is your neighborhood school today may not be in three or five years (not necessarily a bad thing, but something to keep in mind). The district just did a bunch of boundary changes for Fall 2017 for elementary schools along the northern side of the district (all in Woodbury, but moved some kids to Stillwater's district).

[iNviNciBL3]

Its not bad, its just sort of over shadowed by its northern neighbor (Woodbury)

It is not a snobby place at all, Woodbury would be the stereotypical snobby suburb.

Cottage Grove however is very much like Woodbury, its safe, nice and open, good schools, close to nature, nice city parks and trails everywhere however it has more character and it is cheaper than Woodbury. only bad thing is that there arent many good options for shopping and dinning however Woodbury and West St Paul are just down the road and those places have literally everything.

[iNviNciBL3]

Originally Posted by PullMyFinger

Cottage Grove seems to have the worst of all worlds to me. It's too far away and no easy way to get anywhere from there. It has a oil refinery just a few miles north. It has huge oil tanks pretty much right in the city. It has urban sprawl and decay along with bunched together new housing. It's just a poorly planned city, just my opinion.

61 takes you to 494 and 94. you can go anywhere in the world!

[nharer]

Originally Posted by nbtmn

I live in Woodbury, but we go to church in Cottage Grove, and am part of a social media group "based" in CG. I have a fairly positive perception of Cottage Grove. It seems to be a friendly and tight knit community based on what I have seen, and has nice quiet neighborhoods and good parks. I wouldn't hesitate to live there except for the fact that where I live now in Woodbury has better freeway access, better/closer amenities, and the schools here are supposedly better (though I don't have kids in school yet). I asked a question about Woodbury vs. non-Woodbury 833 schools a long time ago, and the answer I got was that CG is more of a "blue collar" area, so there might be less focus/expectation on going to college after HS, but there's nothing "wrong" with them. Knowing more people that live there now, that sounds somewhat accurate, though I will also add there are definitely white collar families there too, but none of them I know are "snobby" or concerned with status, or need to be zoned to the "best schools" for their kids, but they still care about their kids' education and future success.

I do understand what some are saying about the housing stock in CG, but that doesn't bother me since I live in "old" Woodbury and prefer it to the new developments to the east. I prefer established neighborhoods.

Couldn't have said it better myself, my friend.

[nharer]

Originally Posted by iNviNciBL3

Its not bad, its just sort of over shadowed by its northern neighbor (Woodbury)

It is not a snobby place at all, Woodbury would be the stereotypical snobby suburb.

Cottage Grove however is very much like Woodbury, its safe, nice and open, good schools, close to nature, nice city parks and trails everywhere however it has more character and it is cheaper than Woodbury. only bad thing is that there arent many good options for shopping and dinning however Woodbury and West St Paul are just down the road and those places have literally everything.

I would have to agree with you here, CG resident myself, I believe Cottage Grove has all of the makings of what a great suburb should be, a very good representation of a friendly Minnesota hospitality.

[TwinsFan1975]

Originally Posted by nharer

Couldn't have said it better myself, my friend.

I never cease to be amazed at the people on City Data that have so much time on their hands that they can deep dive into the archives to resurrect posts that are 1 1/2 years old.