DeLaSalle decision heads to City Council after Planning Commission denial
Last week, the city’s Planning Commission denied several major aspects of DeLaSalle High School’s plan to build an athletic field on Park Board land on Nicollet Island.
Following the recommendation of planning department staff working on the project, the commission voted nay on conditional use permits to build an athletic field and to allow light fixtures more than 35 feet tall.
The Planning Commission also declined to recommend that Grove Street be closed between Nicollet Street and Island Avenue East, although decisions on such street vacations fall to the City Council.
Although it did approve permits “to allow development within 40 feet of a steep slope,” the other denied aspects also meant a denial of the site plan review for the athletic field.
The decision on the street vacation — and DeLaSalle’s expected appeal of the Planning Commission’s denials — will go to the city’s Zoning and Planning Committee on Aug. 9 and to the full council on Aug. 17.
Then, City Council could overturn the Planning Commission’s decision and grant approvals to DeLaSalle, similar to its reversal earlier this year of denials by the city’s Heritage Preservation Comission (HPC).
Much of the concern revolves around the vacation of Grove Street, which carries more traffic than any other street on the island, according to the staff report. “Associated traffic changes to a small island are likely to significantly impact the use and enjoyment of other property in the vicinity,” states City Planner Tara Beard in her staff report, noting that a Travel Demand Management Plan has not been approved yet by the city.
The report also states that the “proposal does not adequately incorporate the historic site of Grove Street” and “would block an existing view corridor down Grove Street.”
The report also includes language questioning whether the field — intended to be available at times to the public as park space — would “encourage the sort of public uses that are often related to tourism on the island.”
Friends of the Riverfront, an organization that opposes the building of the athletic field, cheered the July 16 decision, highlighting in a press release commissioners’ comments about the importance of public parkland and open space in the city and against vacating the portion of Grove Street.
Eric Galatz, attorney for DeLaSalle, said he believes the parking and traffic issues can be addressed, but that DeLaSalle has no alternative to the Grove Street vacation. “We’ve explored… eight different ways of laying out the field on the island, ways that would try avoid closing Grove Street,” he said in an interview. “There’s no way to make it fit and be a regulation-size field with sidelines spaced for viewing without closing the street.”
“We’re pretty confident we’ve got a project that can get approved the way it is,” said Galatz.
last revised: July 23, 2007