City Council - Regular Meeting

If you've played a round of golf at Braemar lately, you've likely noticed a fleet of autonomous lawnmowers keeping the course tidy. They're just one piece of a much larger effort to make the park more sustainable. Edina TV shows us where visitors to the Greater Braemar Park are witnessing sustainability improvements.

Keeping a golf course looking this good takes a lot of work. A dozen autonomous lawn mowers move at a good clip, allowing Braemar staff to focus on other tasks.

You know, when it rains out there, it's hard to get out there and mow. Our little units just keep going, rain or shine.

Machines staff can set and step away from, including this fully electric ball picker at the driving range.

It goes out there, does all the work. It allows other staff to do other things to help customers to clean up around the shops.

The electrification of other maintenance equipment and golf carts have reduced carbon emissions and increased the playing experience.

Much quieter, doesn't disturb the golfers with the noise.

At the golf dome, a new pickleball court and expanded parking will be added this year, along with three new electric vehicle chargers.

So this project is a really great example of balancing safety, sustainability, while also adding amenities for our community to take advantage of the larger Braemar Park.

Back at the golf course, nature is reclaiming more space near the tee boxes.

The advantage for having some less green area is less wear and tear from mowers, less water usage, pollinators for monarchs and other insects that we want out here.

adding up to between 2.5 and 3 acres across 18 holes.

So right here is one of our irrigation heads. We adjusted it to line up with the new mole line right now, which is roughly about 180 degrees.

Investments that are paying off over time.

We figured maybe we'd save in $35,000 in diesel usage and labor with the rough mowers that we don't use anymore in the championship 18 course.

Keeping the greens green with fewer resources while making room for our smaller neighbors.

The golf course is in tremendous shape right now. It just keeps getting better and better. It's maturing over the years. And we do a lot of stuff throughout the season just to make it that much better every day.

I'm Dan Carpenter for Adyna TV.

The tree canopy at Braemar Park is also being expanded over time. Eventually, 35% or more than 55 acres of the 445-acre site will include wooded areas. That's up from 13.6% back in 1947.