Northeast Minneapolitans oppose riverside maintenance ops building

A proposal by park officials to run a short-term maintenance center on the Mississippi riverfront in ­north Minneapolis is running into fierce opposition.

Residents are questioning how temporary the building will really be since park officials are looking to spend $4 million to spruce up the building and land.

"That's not temporary," said Jenny Fortman, a longtime Sheridan Neighborhood Board member. "We were shocked. … It's not really a good fit."

The issue is intensifying long-standing complaints from northeast residents who want more parkland in the area. They say that park officials' willingness to use scenic riverfront land for an operations center is the latest sign that their neighborhood loses out to other areas of ­Minneapolis.

The proposed maintenance yard at 1720 Marshall St. NE. would consolidate the ­Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's north and northeast operations centers, while providing some public access to its 354 feet of riverfront.

The Park Board would install benches, public bathrooms and an overlook on the river edge of the property, which looks across at a sand and gravel yard. Contamination on the site would be addressed in part by planting deep-rooted vegetation to wipe out pollutants. A swale would filter rain and snow before runoff hit the river.

But a full-scale park would wait.

Some neighborhoods even wrote letters asking the Metropolitan Council to help purchase the long-vacant warehouse site two years ago. But they say they were expecting a useful and scenic urban park, not a riverside operations center full of mowing and tree-cutting equipment.

"This sense of entitlement that a park maintenance building be on the river is appalling," said area resident Chris Koelfgen.

Park officials say that their building needs have changed in the years since the existing park maintenance yards were built.

These days, they have more and bigger equipment and fewer workers, said Cliff Swenson, a park design developer. He added that some of the most expensive equipment lasts longer if stored indoors, creating an overall saving for taxpayers.

Adding to their problems, Swenson said, the Park Board's northeast facility at Columbia Park and its North Side yard at Webber Park are too landlocked to expand.

Park Commissioner Brad Bourn estimated that they might need the facility for 35 years.

Commissioner John Erwin said he favors using the site for maintenance operations over the long term. Other commissioners say it could be decades before the Park Board has money to develop the site as a park.

Park commissioners insist that they've been stepping up park development in the city's north half. But the three small fully developed parks on the East Bank between St. Anthony Parkway and the Plymouth Bridge add up to just 12 acres, or two-thirds the size of 18-acre Boom Island Park in the central riverfront.

Citizen opposition has caused park commissioners to at least temporarily delay the maintenance facility project. At a recent community meeting, residents favored removing the warehouse and its parking lot and planting grass. Some said they are willing to allow the warehouse to be used for up to five years while the Park Board seeks another site.

"It's very hard to find a location that does not provide angst," said Bruce Chamberlain, a former assistant park superintendent.