Among Minnesota's fastest-growing cities from 2010 to 2011, Woodbury comes in at No. 3, according to the Metropolitan Council.

Only Minneapolis and St. Paul added more people over the year than Woodbury’s 1,182, according to data released Monday by the Met Council. (The seven-county metro grew by 0.8 percent during that span, bringing the population up to 2.87 million.)

And Woodbury is still poised for growth.

The city will soon look at opening up development for the Phase 2 area, where housing companies have shown interest, and a mixed-use “urban village,” Bielenberg Gardens, is planned for the southwest corner of Radio Drive and Bailey Road.

Mike DeVoe, president of Ryland Homes, told the Woodbury City Council earlier this year that his company has plans to develop 40 acres in the northern part of Phase 2.

“There’s definitely demand in Woodbury. … We’re anxious to move forward,” he said then.

The latest Met Council numbers are a continuation of the figures from 2010 U.S. Census, which showed that Woodbury grew by a third over the previous decade to bring its population to more than 61,000. City officials have said that Woodbury will have a population of about 80,000 when fully built-out.

In a statement, Met Council Chair Susan Haigh said she’s “pleased to see growth occurring primarily where there’s infrastructure to support it.

“Growth that occurs where infrastructure already exists creates economies of scale and promotes efficiency, which improves the region’s ability to focus energy and resources on economic development,” she said.

The “modest growth” is also good to see as the nation continues to recover from the recession, Haigh said.

“Now, more than ever, Council policies of guiding growth primarily to those areas where infrastructure investments have and are being made will help the region thrive and compete globally, in spite of drastically different and changing national and world economic circumstances,” she said.

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