HELP SAVE OPEN SPACE ON NICOLLET ISLAND
Friends of the Riverfront has filed three lawsuits challenging the plan to build a football stadium on Nicollet Island and the process by which local government has approved it. The first case ended when the Minnesota Supreme Court declined FOR's petition to appeal a ruling by the state Court of Appeals, but two more cases are still pending at the Court of Appeals. Friends of the Riverfront was joined in the first two cases by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. The three citizen groups are asking that the City of Minneapolis and DeLaSalle be made to comply with state law and explore alternatives before destroying natural or historic resources. Donate to the legal fund online or send a check to Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, 219 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth St., St. Paul, MN 55102-1406 (put "Nicollet Island" on the memo line).
Preservation magazine features stadium threat to Nicollet Island
The National Trust for Historic Preservation publication highlights development threats to the St. Anthony Falls Historic District. Click here to read more.
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Preservation panel upholds city council ban on fake turf
The Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) voted unanimously Feb. 5, 2008 to deny a permit for artificial turf at the football stadium a private school proposes to build on public parkland on Nicollet Island.
The HPC action upholds a Minneapolis City Council decision that only natural grass is appropriate for the St. Anthony Falls Historic District and that DeLaSalle High School may not install artificial turf.
A DeLaSalle appeal of this latest HPC denial would mean asking city council members to reverse their strongly-expressed ruling that artificial turf does not belong in the national historic district.
Late in 2007, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board passed a resolution asking DeLaSalle to return to the city council for permission to use artificial turf. The park board's 2006 agreement with DeLaSalle was supposed to allow the public to use the planned stadium during the summer, but that deal left the question of field surface material undetermined. Now the park board says natural grass would suffer so much wear from DeLaSalle's use during the school year that the public wouldn't be able to use the stadium.
Twice before the HPC unanimously ruled the entire project unfit for the St. Anthony Falls Historic District, only to be overruled by a city council led by President Barbara Johnson, who was simultaneously an officer on DeLaSalle's Board of Trustees.