Dakota County Western Service Center

The Dakota County Physical Development Division operates various departments, including parks, transportation and environment management departments. Its parks department oversees all physical property owned and managed by the government of Dakota County, Minn. The parks department manages more than 4,500 acres of land that includes several regional parks, park reserves, a regional trail, county park and off-leash dog park. The Dakota County Physical Development division s staff uses an advanced geographic information system to look at their data. The geographic information system allows its staff to access data from all of departments within the division. Its staff can browse, view and query the data, as well as print out the related maps. The division, located in Apple Valley, Minn., also operates a transportation department, which builds and maintains roads.