Appeals Court rules University of St. Thomas sports arena does not need more environmental studies

The Minnesota Court of Appeals sided with the city of St. Paul on Monday, agreeing that no further environmental review of the University of St. Thomas’s new hockey and basketball arena was necessary.

The court decision came after more than a year of pushback and legal challenges from neighbors and community members. Construction of the 5,500-seat Lee & Penny Anderson Arena on St. Thomas’ St. Paul campus began in January 2024 and is nearly completed.

The University of St. Thomas said in a statement that it was “pleased” with the decision.

“St. Thomas looks forward to opening the arena next month,” the statement said.

Dan Kennedy, a spokesperson for the nonprofit that is continuing to pursue legal action against the arena Advocates for Responsible Development, said the group’s fight is not over yet.

“It still remains a bad idea,” Kennedy said. “This combines a whole bunch of factors that make this a particularly bad location. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always mean that something is not allowed to proceed.”

The arena sits just south of Grand Avenue between Cretin Avenue and Mississippi River Boulevard.

That lawsuit will determine if the arena’s height is too tall. Kennedy said he is unsure what the court would do if it is determined to be too tall since it has already been built. The Minnesota Court of Appeals said in its Monday decision that the Advocates for Responsible Development’s concerns about height were out of its scope, deferring to the Ramsey County District Court.

The arena was initially proposed in 2023. The construction required Cretin Hall, the Service Center and McCarthy Gym to be torn down.

The court battle began in November 2023, when Advocates for Responsible Development petitioned the court to review the environmental impacts of the University of St. Thomas’s new arena plans.

The City of St. Paul reviewed the environmental impact of the arena and found it would not have significant enough impacts on parking, traffic and greenhouse gas emissions in the surrounding Macalester-Groveland neighborhood to need a more exhaustive Environmental-Impact Statement.

In July 2024, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ordered the city and university to conduct a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet. The court said the previous assessment did not do enough to study the arena’s potential harm to the neighborhood’s parking, traffic and air quality.

The city redid its Environmental Assessment Worksheet in October 2024 and came to the same conclusion as its first assessment.

Monday’s court decision said there was “substantial evidence” supporting the city’s second assessment. The court added that the city “adequately analyzed the cumulative potential effects of the project.”

“The record supports the city’s determination,” court documents said.