The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board this month approved buying a $1.8 million parcel of land on NE Marshall Street for a price of about $49 per square foot.

But at the same meeting it pitched a fit when asked to pay $5 per square foot for a tiny chunk of land a scant third of a mile way.

The reason?

Some park commissioners feel the city's development officials are gouging them by charging $14,090 for the smaller parcel. But the city has a different explanation.

The Park Board's view, argued most passionately by Commissioner Jon Olson, is that the city has no other feasible buyer for that small parcel. It's about half the size of a typical city lot and sits in the shadow of a rusting high-voltage transmission line tower.

The Park Board wants the land for a planned East Bank trail that will stretch from nearby NE Marshall St. to Boom Island Park. What frosted some commissioners is that they last year approved to a no-cost agreement down river on the West Bank that allowed the city to build a trail that runs through Bluff Street Park to connect with the end of the bike-foot Bridge 9.

So why not return the favor, they asked. "It's completely ridiculous," Olson fumed, arguing that the remnant parcel at 1326 NE Water St.is otherwise unmarketable for the city. He suggested rejecting the price, for which the city has supporting appraisals. Then the Park Board should put up signs where the trail would end at the parcel telling the citizenry why, he said.

But the city's response is that this is connected to a larger deal in which the city previously sold land to the park system for the partly developed Veterans Memorial Park. According to Wes Butler, the city's manager of residential finance, the parcel in question was held out of that sale because it was encumbered with a railroad easement. The railroad agreed to lift that easement for a price, to be paid for by the city and the Park Board. So the sale price was the city's way of collecting the Park Board's share of the easement price, plus the land's fair market value.

Commissioner John Erwin argued that the trail planned for 2016 will pay dividends for the city in increasing property values. "I mean this is the gift that keeps on giving," he said. But some of the posturing may be with an eye on the upper riverfront's future. "I shudder to think what they're going to charge for the upper harbor if they're going to charge $14,000 for this little triangle," Erwin said, referring to a piece of city-owned land that will be divided between city plans for a business park and Park Board plans for a parkway and recreational paths.

The board sent its staff back to do some harder bargaining with the city.

(Photo above: The land lies alongside this transmission tower, with the BNSF railroad bridge in the background. Aerial photo below: The disputed parcel, outlined in yellow, is close to the Mississippi River. That's the 1400 block of NE Marshall St. at right. )