Volunteers of America for North End voted down by St. Paul City Council

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By JANE MCCLURE

The Volunteers of America (VOA) must decide its next steps after the St. Paul City Council upheld one appeal and rejected another July 3. The council’s actions prevent VOA from using 1394 Jackson St., a former residential facility, as a halfway house for up to 74 people leaving the federal prison system. The agency could either seek another location or challenge the City Council decision in court.

The City Council memorialized its decision July 11.

VOA has lost its lease at its longtime Roseville facility and needs to move. In June the St. Paul Planning Commission granted VOA a conditional use permit for 32 residents, not the 74 requested. That prompted VOA to appeal that decision. The nonprofit agency’s attorney Tom Johnson called the number “arbitrary” and said it has been “plucked out of the air.” Planning Commission members said they chose the number because the property could have 16 residents under city regulations and 32 was seen as a compromise.

But the council rejected the VOA appeal and upheld a District 6 (North End-South Como) Planning Council appeal asking that the permit simply be denied. The district council representatives said that while they have respect for VOA and its decades of helping federal prisoners transition into society, the Jackson Street site isn’t appropriate.

Ward Five Council Member Amy Brendmoen agreed and praised VOA. But she asked that the District 6 appeal be upheld, saying that the halfway house use isn’t in compliance with area and citywide plans. “District 6 has longstanding concerns about underutilized industrial land,” she said.

The area is poised for redevelopment and that has to be recognized, Brendmoen added.

The nonprofit VOA, which has worked with federal prisoners for 40 years, hoped to operate a residential facility at 1394 Jackson St., south of Arlington Avenue. The organization is losing its lease at its Roseville location and is looking to move.

The proposed new location, just south of the Arlington-Jackson intersection, is zoned industrial and is surrounded by industrial and commercial uses. Years ago it did house a community residential facility for women, Norhaven. More recently is has been used as adult day care, a restaurant and office space. Johnson said that the building is appropriate for VOA’s proposed use and that the institutional use continued into the 1990s. The VOA use would have provided 20 jobs.

VOA representatives, including a man who was able to make a successful transition back into society thanks to the program, said their use is a good fit for the building and the area. VOA Minnesota CEO and President Paula Hart said the nonprofit would pay the city the equivalent of the property taxes for the site, if the program could locate there. If VOA ever left the site, the city would have first right of refusal for the land and it wouldn’t be sold to another community residential facility user.

Hart also pointed out that one in five of the agency’s re-entry clients are from St. Paul.

Opponents said the issue is not VOA but one of land use. District 6 Community Organizer Kerry Antrim said that the plans for the site call for industrial reuse and job creation. “We are clear on job creation, we are clear on keeping our industrial land industrial,” she said.

Attorney Kirsten Libby represented the District 6 Planning Council. She said the project doesn’t meet the city’s standards for a conditional use permit and that the number of residents proposed is a 400 percent increase over what is allowed.

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