CITY PLANNING COMMISSION REJECTS DELASALLE STADIUM PLAN
( from the Friends of the Riverfront website)
The Minneapolis City Planning Commission voted July 16, 2007 to deny DeLaSalle High School's application to build a stadium over an historic street and public parkland on Nicollet Island. The Planning Commission followed the recommendations of the Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED) department to deny a street vacation and conditional use permits for the stadium.
The planning commission also passed a resolution asking the Minneapolis City Council not to take action on the proposed vacation of Grove Street until pending court appeals are resolved and the Metropolitan Council decides whether to lift the current restrictive covenant that prohibits stadium construction on the Nicollet Island parkland. Planning Director Barb Sporlein told the commission that staff were researching whether it is possible for the city council to grant a "conditional vacation" -- in order to avoid permanently vacating a street that the Minnesota Court of Appeals could decide must be protected, for a project the Met Council could reject because it removes regional parkland and violates the land's public open space covenant.
Planning Commissioners, in upholding myriad city plans the stadium would violate, had this to say: - Commenting on the stadium's design and site plan, Commissioner Ted Tucker said, "It needs to look like a public park, not like a part of the DeLaSalle campus." - Commenting on the importance of public open space in the city, Commissioner Lara Norkus-Crampton said the DeLaSalle stadium "would be a tipping point in the wrong direction" for Nicollet Island. - Commenting on Minneapolis initiatives to connect to the Mississippi River, Commissioner Lauren Huynh said, "Vacating Grove Street is against what we're trying to do as a city."
Speaking in support of the CPED recommendation to deny the stadium application were representatives from: - National Park Service - Mississippi National River and Recreation Area - Friends of the Mississippi River - Sierra Club - North Star Chapter - Preservation Alliance of Minnesota - Nicollet Island-East Bank Neighborhood Association
For links to the planning commission findings Friends of the Riverfront