As a nearby resident, I am excited about the future amenities which currently call for the city’s first universally accessible playground. I will not go into details about the park’s development, except to say it looks very cool. The design advisory group began meeting in 2012. The fill was placed in 2011, bringing the land up to recreational standards.
#NOVA HIGHLAND PARK APARTMENTS FREE#
The city received free infill from dirt from the Central Corridor project. Newly-opened Victoria Park Apartments developed by ChaseĪt the same time, plans began for the park. That changed to smaller apartments and town homes that included 12 units. It was not until 2014 that Brighton was able to complete a portion of the housing. The plan at that time called for two condo towers of up to 120 feet. Brighton Development was the master developer for the site at that time and put off building its proposed housing. The second wrench, which occurred at the same time, was the recession that started in 2008. The Master Plan was then revised from 850 housing units to 655.Īlso in 2009, the first part of the commercial/office use came into being when the Mississippi Market Co-op opened at West 7 th Street and Perlman Street and the Sholom Home built their east campus, providing 108 units of long-term care and short-term rehabilitation housing units. The HRA ended up buying ExxonMobil’s portion for $1 and is required to only use the land for a park – no housing can go on that portion. The city started condemnation proceedings in 2004 and ended up in court for four years. They were concerned about future liability on the polluted site if it were used for housing. The first wrench thrown into the works was when ExxonMobil refused to sell their portion of the site (about 36 acres) due to concerns that housing would be built on it. from the Victoria Park Plan Things Change Its vision included a mix of apartment homes, condominiums, town homes, senior units, single-family homes, and mansion-style buildings. The original plan called for 850 housing units, “neighborhood-scale” commercial/office use along West 7 th Street, and return to a traditional street grid. In 2000 the City of Saint Paul adopted the Brewery/Ran-View Small Area Plan, which included the site, and in 2001 the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) adopted the Koch Mobil Redevelopment Project Area Plan. In 1995, ExxonMobil and Koch Refinery ceased operations of oil tank farms on the site. Their involvement in the development becomes an interesting part of the plot, but I, personally, have no opinion about the school’s land acquisitions.) (In the interest of disclosure, I should note that my children attend Nova Classical Academy, a charter school on the site. This is a short history of the 65-acre site and the changes that occurred from plans that had original goals of a “mixed-use urban village” that would be “pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented community that provides a range of housing choices and prices” that would “reweave’ the urban fabric. The history of development of Victoria Park, which is bounded by West 7 th Street, Otto Avenue, and Shepard Road, offers a lesson in plans changing over time. The vigorous and spirited debate about the future of the Ford Plant site in Highland Park got me thinking about another large, polluted, previously industrial site in Saint Paul.
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