Dave Lindahl, Eden Prairie’s economic development manager for 23 years, began as a city intern in 1985 and became full time in 1986. He retires after 39 years with the city. Photo by Jeremy Peyer
Few people can say they worked for their hometown city government, and even fewer can say they spent their entire career there. But Dave Lindahl can.
Lindahl began working for the City of Eden Prairie in 1986, following a year as an intern. His connection to the city began long before that — his family moved here in 1963, when he was 4 years old.
At that time, the city was largely undeveloped, a collection of cornfields, Lindahl said. Now, decades later, Eden Prairie is home to more than 60,000 residents and about 60,000 workers, and Lindahl — the city’s longtime economic development manager — is retiring Friday.
Growing up
“I still remember it like it was yesterday, because we had a brand-new house and we didn’t have a yard, so it was full of mud, which my brothers and I loved,” Lindahl said.
A number of other young families moved into Lindahl’s neighborhood around the same time, he said, so there were loads of friends to play with. The undeveloped fields and woods made great places for kids to play.
His neighborhood was across the street from what would become Eden Prairie United Methodist Church — at the time, just farm fields, Lindahl said.
“(They were) great places to build forts and play,” Lindahl said. “All we had to do was basically run across the street, and we were wide open, doing whatever we wanted.”
He reminisced with a chuckle about a time he and his younger brother followed some of the older kids in their neighborhood, including his older brothers, into a cornfield and got lost for about an hour.
“Somehow we just came back out,” Lindahl said. “We were all scraped up from running through the corn and all panicked, but there are hundreds of stories like that. It was just a really fun place.”
Lindahl said that when development finally started coming to Eden Prairie as he grew older, he and his friends weren’t happy about it.
“When we knew that development was coming, we were totally against it and actually thought we could somehow do something,” Lindahl said. “But we couldn’t, because obviously, change is inevitable.”
Lindahl attended Minnesota State University, Mankato — then known as Mankato State University — where he originally planned to major in history. He had always been interested in city growth throughout his academic career.
After taking a class called Intro to Cities his freshman year, Lindahl said his interest in city development grew. During his junior year, he met with the provost of the Urban and Regional Studies Institute to learn more about it.
“By the time I walked out of his office, I had changed majors,” Lindahl said.
Early career
Lindahl needed a six-month internship to get credit for his degree, he said. He started making phone calls to see what he could find, and one of the first places he called was the City of Eden Prairie.
“It was just pure luck that just at that moment, the city planner was like, ‘We’ve got so much going on. We need help,’” Lindahl said.
He interviewed with the city planner and was offered an unpaid internship. Six months in, the city planner told him that if he could hang on for another six months, they could offer him a full-time role approved by the City Council.
The city hired him in 1986 as an assistant city planner, where he worked on redrawing the Metropolitan Urban Service Area (MUSA) line, which at the time separated southwest Eden Prairie from the rest of the city, Lindahl said.
The MUSA line is drawn by the Metropolitan Council to designate which areas can get services such as sewer and water. It also sets a cap on how densely an area can develop.
Eden Prairie was developing at a rapid pace that the Met Council had not accounted for, Lindahl said, so the MUSA line cutting through the southwest portion of the city made growth difficult.
“I spent a lot of time going down to the Met Council and convincing them with reams of permit data that we are not only growing,” Lindahl said. “I was doing a lot of population forecasting, and it was like, we need that line moved so that we can accommodate more growth.”
The city and Met Council went through two comprehensive plan amendments to move the line, Lindahl said. It took several years in the early 1990s.
“That was exciting and rewarding because then we were able to open up some more area for development,” Lindahl said.
The start of Lindahl’s career happened to line up with a period of massive growth in the city, he said.
“Some of the most, you know, the most rapid growth happened from about 1986 to 1991. For a few years, we were the fastest-growing city in the state of Minnesota,” Lindahl said. “And so the permits, the projects — it was just incredible.”
He said it was common for public hearings during City Council meetings to go until midnight or even 1 a.m.
“There were just so many projects,” Lindahl said.
Living in Eden Prairie
Over the years, Lindahl and his wife briefly considered moving to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, where she grew up. But they ultimately decided to stay in Eden Prairie, joining many residents who are choosing to age in place.
He and his wife, Leann, raised their three children — daughters Hannah and Hayley, and son Sam — in Eden Prairie, where they attended Prairie View Elementary School. Raising a family in the community had changed a lot since Lindahl grew up here, he said.
“I used to tell stories about growing up, and they were always kind of like, ‘I wish it was like that now,’” Lindahl said. “But you kids have so many unbelievable opportunities now that I didn’t have.”
His children were able to find activities in the school district tailored to their own interests, Lindahl said.
“Our schools had extracurriculars, but not like they did when our kids were coming up,” Lindahl said.
One of his daughters started playing viola in fifth grade and continued through high school, he said. When Lindahl attended Eden Prairie schools, they offered band but not orchestra.
“I don’t remember that there were many dance clubs, and both of my daughters did dance,” Lindahl said.
Career highlights
Lindahl, who became the city’s economic development manager in 2002, said one of his favorite things he did throughout his career was visit different businesses around the city to get to know them and hear feedback about what the city did well or could do better.
The practice started in the early 2000s, when Nancy Tyra-Lukens was mayor. She, Lindahl and the city manager at the time, Scott Neal, met with business owners to forge personal connections, he said.
Over the years, Lindahl said he took part in more than 400 meet-and-greets — with companies ranging from large firms like Optum to small, one-person operations run out of someone’s home.
“It was very rewarding for the most part, because, generally, the leaders, CEOs and owners of companies were happy to be here,” Lindahl said. “A lot of times they lived in Eden Prairie, but they also shared things we needed to hear, like we needed to do more with our transportation system.”
Lindahl was instrumental in bringing light-rail transit to Eden Prairie, helping decide where stations should go, where the line should run, and communicating with business and property owners who would be impacted, he said. The planning process took more than 10 years.
He helped develop transit-oriented projects, including vertical, mixed-use development near SouthWest Station. The project includes the restaurant Brick and Bourbon and the apartment building Elevate at Southwest Station.
Lindahl said some of the projects he worked on still cross his mind because he interacts with them in his day-to-day life — like securing funding to improve the Highway 169 and Highway 494 interchange. The project took about five years and required meetings with representatives from the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the City of Bloomington.
“I think it was around $125 million to get the project moving forward,” Lindahl said.
The old interchange was known to cause accidents and fatalities, he said. Cars would often get backed up onto the freeway and be rear-ended until the Washington Avenue bridge was added.
“Once in a while, when I drive by and I’m using it, I’m going, ‘I’m glad we have this,’” he said.
Lindahl worked on many housing projects, particularly during his time as housing and redevelopment manager, he said. Many of the projects were affordable housing units.
One senior housing project, Summit Place, particularly stood out to him. The building is south of the Eden Prairie Center mall.
“I knew when I was doing it, that someday my mom and dad … could end up living there,” Lindahl said. “Of course, that’s what happened. My mom ended up spending the last four years of her life at Summit Place in one of the affordable units.”
What’s next?
Lindahl said he intends to take full advantage of his retirement and does not plan to work anytime soon. He hopes to find more volunteer opportunities to fill his days, as he has been involved with the Eden Prairie Schools Foundation, Eden Prairie Community Foundation and Eden Prairie Local News, where he served on the board.
Lindahl recently stepped down from the EPLN board and is now exploring new opportunities, he said.
He plays electric guitar in a band called Wondercure and plans to continue playing gigs with them. Just this month, the band performed at Fat Pants Brewing for its Halloween party and at LuceLine Orchard in Watertown.
“The band stuff is fun,” he said. “It’s been a fun hobby pretty much my whole life.”
Lindahl said he plans to take advantage of Eden Prairie’s trails and park system to ride his bike during the warmer months and spend more time reading.
He and his wife also enjoy traveling and plan to visit Portugal and France in 2026, as well as explore new places both abroad and across the United States.
When he reflects on his career, Lindahl said it’s rewarding to look back on the many projects he worked on, but the people he met were the best part of the job.
“I had my fingerprints on all different things, but the things I’ll remember the most are the people and the relationships I had,” Lindahl said. “I was fortunate enough to stay friendly with a lot of people.”