Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park keeps growing.

The Washington County Board of Commissioners has approved the purchase of 11 acres of vacant land on the southern portion of the park along East Point Douglas Road. The sale price is $525,000.

The private seller will retain three acres of their land; their portion includes a house and outbuildings, said Sharon Price, land acquisition specialist for Washington County.

County officials will pay for the 11 acres with funds from the county’s Land and Water Legacy Program funds. The county will request this year that the Metropolitan Council reimburse the Land and Water Legacy Program fund for 75 percent of the acquisition costs, Price said.

The land will be a “great buffer on the south end of the park,” Price said. “It also will allow us to eventually complete a trail to a proposed lookout on the park’s south hill.”

Once the purchase is completed this summer, the park will be 526 acres in all, Price said.

Washington County officials and partners have used Land and Water Legacy Program funds to complete 40 land-protection projects on more than 1,300 acres in the county since the program was created with the 2006 passage of a $20 million bond referendum.

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