In Lilydale, a small plot of land is causing a big fuss

In the tiny city of Lilydale, a lonely for-sale sign swings in a harsh winter wind, beckoning to a diminutive forest alongside Sibley Memorial Highway. It's here, at this postage-stamp plot of land, that a king-sized dispute festers.

The city's attempted sale of these little woods above the Mississippi River -- donated nearly 30 years ago by a Lilydale businessman intent on preserving it as open space -- has so far fallen flat. Nobody's made an offer on the .85-acre property, reduced in price to $279,900, but the controversy over its sale has made it the most talked-about property in Lilydale, population 736.

Longtime resident Lucille Collins said that John M. Thompson donated the land to the city intending that it be preserved as a bird sanctuary. "It was really meant for the people, not to be sold," she said.

Mayor Tom Swain wants the land sold to pay off a city debt of $230,000. "It has no useful purpose to the city," he said. "This bird sanctuary stuff, that's ludicrous."

Although the Lilydale City Council voted 4-1 last summer to rezone the property as multi-family housing, the dispute over the proposed ordinance change is far from over. Several residents petitioned to stop it, the Mendota Heights City Council opposes it, and the Metropolitan Council will review the change in the comprehensive plan Feb. 13. After that, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, which is involved because the land lies within the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area, will review the land deal.

The DNR has oversight on water runoff, scenery and protection of steep slopes like the Thompson land.

"It's a tempest in a teapot," said the DNR's Rebecca Wooden, describing how even small tracts of open space get big attention when proposed for development inside the river's critical area.

The landowner's intent

Nobody has found evidence that Thompson took legal steps to protect his gift, such as restricting the deed or placing the property in conservation easement with a land trust. He died in 1981, his wife June after that, and they had no children.

But Collins, who knew them, said Thompson was a philanthropist and City Council member known as "Mr. Lilydale" and probably figured that a handshake agreement on the land was good enough.

"He was a jolly guy, he was a nice guy," she said. "Years ago people trusted people a little better than they do now. You didn't need all this legal business."

A city ordinance dated March 16, 1978, shows the land registered as a gift to Lilydale and "dedicated as permanent open space," said City Council member Marilyn Lundberg, who cast the only vote against changing it. Residents opposing the land sale say that ordinance is sufficient evidence of Thompson's intentions.

Money matters

But Swain, who took office a year ago, said the City Council was within its legal rights "to dispose of it" to pay off ongoing debt.

"I learned to my distress the city had spent more than it had taken in for the previous seven years," said Swain, a retired executive vice president of St. Paul Companies, a large insurance firm now known as St. Paul Travelers. "I come from a background that says you should be fiscally responsible. By selling this lot we can get back on our feet."

Lilydale is one of several cities that lies within the critical area and must conform to guidelines despite the urban setting, Wooden said. "We're not talking about wilderness," she said. "There's quite a bit of development."

That's why Mendota Heights leaders want Lilydale to leave the land alone. "It's a significant piece of land consisting of green space which, if kept open, helps preserve all of this area as a natural bluff line," City Engineer Sue McDermott wrote to Lilydale's city clerk, Joan Olin.

Another opponent is Steve Johnson, who's in charge of resource management for the National Park Service's Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. He said the site is too steep for housing anyway and said that many of Lilydale's condos perched on a bluff above the river were built before the critical area was established.

"There's no buffering vegetation to speak of," he said. "They're a good example of why that program exists -- to prevent that kind of thing from happening again."

One of those condo residents, Kay Frye, has a sweeping view of the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers from the deck outside her living room. She lives across Sibley Memorial Highway from the land that Thompson donated and opposes the ordinance change and pending sale largely on principle.

"Just ethically, the people are furious," she said. "How could you do this against his wishes?"

Kevin Giles • 651-298-1554