February 3, 2025: Ramsey County released an updated Plat map, N23-30-22, showing the south easterly easement boundary per the agreements with the City of White Bear Lake. The boundary is along 4367 Cottage Park Road (Block 2, Lot 1). For some unknown reason the north westerly easement boundary to the lake didn't get updated.
August 2023: Bob S., one of the three original volunteers that maintained the easement, moved away from Cottage Park. He helped maintain the grounds, made sure people respected the easement boundaries, and notified the city regarding issues related to their responsibilities. One of the original goals of the homeowners was to maintain the easement as a park so that no one could ever again claim that it was abandoned or neglected. Recently he paid to remove wood piles and brush dumped on the easement over the last twenty years, worked with the City to remove an old large concrete slab, and worked through the remainder of that summer to remove any remaining glass, fencing, and stumps.
Early 2021: E. G. Rud and Sons did some survey work for the recently sold property at 4372 CPR (Cottage Park Road). They marked the corners of the lot. The northerly side of the lot coincides with the 4376 CPR lot line. As part of the work they checked the boundaries for the Cottage Park Homeowners Easement but did not mark anything.
The southeasterly corner of the Walkway does not coincide with the corner of lot for 4376 CPR. There is an iron a couple of feet away from the corner just as it appears on the survey map. This means that although the Walkway is eight feet wide the actual entrance width is greater than eight feet. This entrance is also used by property owners to the west to gain access to the back of their lots.
Also, the two offset makers for the 4376 CPR northerly property line is roughly inline with the back of their garage.
They did not find any legitimate markers along the lake for either boundary of the Homeowners Easement. So maybe there were never any "permanent" markers. After rereading the property description in the agreements, there is an angle from a marker to the lake but not a distance from the marker to the lake.
Spring 2022: The City Engineer and company inspected the easement area. Some damaged trees were identified for removal at a later date. City employees removed some damaged tree limbs. Thank you everyone.
Fall 2021:The "canoe" rack has been been removed. Finally, more usable lake front!
2021-09-16:The Association actually had a meeting on the Cottage Park Homeowners' Easement! A milestone; never happened before. Of course, the meeting was called to complain about the person that cleaned the area where the meeting was being held.
Summer 2021: This year the Association installed the dock headed in the right direction. Looks good!
Summer 2020: After all these years, the Association finally obtained a license for the dock on the easement.
Summer 2020: The City removed a tree near the Easement boundary as part of the Cottage Park road reconstruction. They planted two evergreens at the entrance on Cottage Park Road. Thank you.
Winter 2019-2020: Someone cut down some trees that were in the lake and dumped the wood on private property and limbs in a pile on the Easement shoreline. As pointed out by a City employee, removing trees or other plant growth from the lake requires a DNR permit. (Resolved)
2020-02-20: The Cottage Park Homeowners' Association held a meeting at the Boatworks Commons Community Room at 7:00 PM. All were invited but not everyone was welcome. The meeting was about how to rectify their blatant disregard of DNR/WBLCD dock and boat regulations since 1983.
Fall 2019: The White Bear Lake Conservation District (WBLCD) found that Cottage Park Homeowners' Association docks violated DNR/WBLCD regulation requiring that more than one dock and four boats had to be licensed.
Summer 2019: The City requested the Association move a dock and lift beyond the agreed shoreline location from the Cottage Park Nature Preserve. The Association is also not allowed to remove any vegetation or trees from the Nature Preserve without City authorization.
Spring 2019: The good news is that the Association removed old dock paraphernalia from along the Homeowners' Easement shoreline. The bad news is that they only removed half of it.
Fall of 2018: The concrete slab on the Cottage Park Homeowners' Easement has been removed. This concludes the cleanup that started in 1983 when the Cottage Park Homeowners' Easement was created. See the before and after photos on the photos link on the easement table of contents web page. Thank you to the City of White Bear Lake for their help.
Spring and Summer 2018: All the accumulated brush, wood and brush piles, fencing, and other "stuff" has been cleared from Homeowners' Easement by a neighbor to the Easement with the support of the City.