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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Stadium plan ignores public safety, railroad says—despite 50 trains a day
A driver goes off-road and nearly onto the tracks to find a parking spot during a DeLaSalle athletic event, April 12, 2006.The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway has reviewed DeLaSalle High School's stadium plan and concluded that "public safety does not appear to have been addressed for drivers and pedestrians at the railroad crossings."
The private school has proposed to build a 750-seat football stadium on public parkland abutting BNSF Railway's double set of tracks that cross Nicollet Island. The tracks are very busy. In an official BNSF statement filed with the City of Minneapolis in November 2005, the railway reported that "BNSF train traffic is 50+ trains per day thru this area."
Noting that the stadium will add traffic, both on foot and in vehicles, the railway said "our concern is drivers and pedestrians having many other things on their mind as they approach the at-grade railroad crossings."
The BNSF statement said further: "The Nicollet Street overpass provides the only way over the tracks on that end of the island and closing the east half of Grove Street would cut off direct access to the overpass from the East Island Avenue."
"A driver going north on East Island and encountering a train on the crossing would most likely make a U-turn and go to the south end of the island and back to Grove Street to reach Nicollet [Street].
"What is happening is driver behavior might force drivers to try to beat the train."
Pedestrians and cars cross the tracks after waiting for a train to pass.
BNSF Railway Nov. 21, 2005 letter to City of Minneapolis: In an official statement, the BNSF Railway warned that the DeLaSalle stadium plan doesn't address public safety around its "50+" trains per day.