Community Advisory Committee crams for super-block end game

By JANE MCCLURE

One month into its work, the Snelling-Midway Community Advisory Committee has bounced around many ideas for a future Major League Soccer stadium and redeveloped Midway Center site. Among the ideas raised are: transit and transportation; how a stadium would be used for events other than soccer games; where green space could be located; and, whether a redeveloped shopping center could accommodate locally owned businesses.

The group is working toward an end-of-March deadline to weigh in with suggestions for the entire 34.5-acre block bounded by St. Anthony, Snelling and University avenues and Pascal St. After several weeks reviewing site plan ideas, the committee hopes to look soon at site plan concepts.

The group meets from 4-6pm the first and third Thursdays at the former American Bank building at Snelling and University avenues. The meetings are open to the public to observe, but public comment is being taken at community open houses and on the city’s Open St. Paul website. See the inset box for notice of an open house on Jan. 26.

Deputy Mayor Kristin Beckmann urged the committee members to bring forward as many ideas as possible, on all facets of site development. She describes the committee as a filter for all of the ideas the greater community brings forward.

“We’re looking for a lot from this 35-acre site,” she said. The promise of a new soccer stadium and a redeveloped Midway Center is an exciting and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “But it’s going to be hard, and it’s going to require a lot of conversation with the community.”

The committee is looking at community needs and what is desired for the project, discussing everything from the desires of hardcore soccer fans to neighbors who don’t want the stadium built at all. The committee will review plan concepts and provide input in major themes and design elements. Ideas brought forward by the committee, and the greater community, will be considered.

One master plan will be developed by RK Midway LLC, which owns everything but the former bus barn site (eyed for the soccer stadium). The Minnesota United FC ownership group is working on a site for the stadium itself. Both site plans will have to go to the St. Paul Planning Commission and City Council for final approval. The soccer stadium owners and their architect are working with RK Midway to coordinate the site plans.

Bill McGuire, who leads the soccer ownership group, said the chance to plan a soccer stadium site in conjunction with Midway Center redevelopment is going well. “We’re pleased to say that there have not been conflicting views about what could be done here,” he said. “We think of this as building a neighborhood, and we want to integrate with and be respectful to the surrounding community.”

But McGuire warns that there are time constraints, which is why the community advisory committee needs to wrap up its work in March. Plans call for the stadium groundbreaking in the spring, with team play as soon as 2018. The stadium will hold about 20,000 people. The soccer ownership group is looking for tax breaks from the 2016 Minnesota Legislature, which convenes in March.

Thus far the committee has reviewed current and past plans for the superblock, including land use, transit, traffic, bike access, green space, storm water and transportation.

One issue that has drawn much attention is a way to get people to the stadium and a redeveloped Midway Center. The area is already served by light rail and bus, with bus rapid transit on Snelling starting this year. Transit service in the area is heavily used, with the Snelling light rail station ranking as the fourth busiest at an average 2,200 weekday boardings. Pedestrian and bicycle safety issues are a concern for the committee, in the wake of fatal and serious injury accidents in recent weeks.

Another issue is transportation constraints. The four streets around the site are under state, county and city jurisdiction. Any changes to Snelling or St. Anthony will require Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) approval, said Erik Ludens of the St. Paul Department of Public Works. Snelling is, and will always be, a truck route as a result of the I-35E consent decree from the 1980s.

Snelling carries about 34,000 vehicles per day, down from about 43,000 a decade ago. University, which is a county road, carries about 15,000. That’s down from a high of 22,000 before light rail was built. About 15,000 to 16,000 are on St. Anthony, while about 8,500 are on Pascal. Ludens said that Pascal is nearing the end of its lifespan and may have to be rebuilt soon.

One concern committee members have is safety, not just for pedestrians and bicyclists getting to and from the site, but also regarding crime. Metropolitan Council member Jon Commers said it would be helpful not only to have more statistics but also look at the experience near Lowertown’s CHS Field as well as past experiences near the former Midway Stadium site on Energy Park Drive.

Read more about the planning process and learn about upcoming meetings at https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/planning-economic-development/planning/snelling-site-redevelopment-opportunity.