By Rochelle Olson
Gov. Mark Dayton is asking the Metropolitan Council and his stadium czar to quickly analyze and determine the remaining issues on the Minnesota Vikings stadium proposal for the Arden Hills.
"At a minimum, an analysis of potential risks should include, but not be limited to, an examination of the requirements of an Environmental Impact Statement and Alternative Urban Areawide Review, remediation needs, transportation needs, costs and cost-overrun exposures, scheduling issues, funding projections, and permitting and approval issues for each of the local, metropolitan, state and federal jurisdictions involved," Dayton wrote in the letter released Friday and dated Wednesday.
The governor said the goal is to remove "as many uncertainties as possible before a transaction is finalized."
The letter went out a day after Ramsey County and Arden Hills hosted an open house on the stadium at the county's public works facility. At the low-key event, Minnesota Vikings Vice President Lester Bagley reiterated the team's commitment to the north metro site at a former munitions plant.
The county and the team announced an agreement in May to build a $1 billion stadium in Arden Hills. The was virtually ignored by the Legislature as state leaders tried to reach agreement on the two-year budget.
Dayton says now is the time to take a harder look and he wrote, "time is of the essence."
Mondale said he expects the review to take 30-40 days. "There's a series of unknowns in the Arden Hills site that given some time now we can try to take the unknowns out," he said.
