Heritage Hall

• Rain garden

• Lambert Creek

A rain garden is a specially designed planting with a bowl shape to capture and filter rainwater from surrounding hard surfaces. 

This 3,500 square foot rain garden captures and treats water runoff from Heritage Hall's building, parking lot, and surrounding turfgrass area before it drains to Lambert Creek. 

This rain garden:

• Has areas of mixed rock to reduce erosion and hold back sediment as water flows into the garden from the parking lot.
• Contains well over 350 native plants that provide pollinator habitat and filter pollutants from water runoff.
• Is one of the first public space rain gardens installed in the VLAWMO watershed.

The City of Gem Lake provided funding through local cash match and VLAWMO provided grant funding through its Landscape grant program.

The City of Gem Lake and White Bear Township partnered on the construction of Heritage Hall to serve as the City Hall building for Gem Lake and as another meeting location for both Gem Lake and White Bear Township residents. Its construction provided a perfect opportunity to add a water quality treatment practice while the landscaping was still incomplete. 

This rain garden is estimated to annually capture about 229,692 gallons of water, which is the equivalent of almost one football field covered in water one foot deep.  It also annually removes about 0.7 pounds of total phosphorus and 119 pounds of total suspended solids from water runoff.