The Columbia Heights City Council last week cleared the way for Prodeo Academy, a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school, to be built on the site of Oak Hill Baptist Church on NE. University Avenue.
The council unanimously approved a conditional site permit, site plan and variances for the project and agreed to issue up to $24 million in conduit bonds to be paid with lease revenue from the school.
"All right, we have a new school coming," Mayor Donna Schmitt said after the vote.
Prodeo, which now operates campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul, is in the process of buying the Oak Hill site. It plans to raze existing buildings and build a school to accommodate up to 700 students, a project that will include a gym, playground, landscaping and parking lot.
KEVIN DUCHSCHERE
CHANHASSEN
Interpretive farm opens at arboretum
Farm at the Arb, a $5.4 million interpretive farm designed to educate the public about agriculture, was slated to open this weekend at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
The farm will have fields of fruit, vegetables and Minnesota crops including corn, soybeans and wheat. Interpretive exhibits and educational programs will focus on crops and farming practices, and produce developed at the University of Minnesota's nearby Horticultural Research Center will be featured.
The farm, which is paid for with private donations, sits on 40 acres. The fields surround a bright red barn built around 1917. The property passed down through generations of farmers before the U, which operates the arboretum, bought it in 1967.
KATY READ
