HELP SAVE OPEN SPACE ON NICOLLET ISLAND
Friends of the Riverfront has filed three lawsuits challenging the plan to build a football stadium on Nicollet Island and the process by which local government has approved it. The first case ended when the Minnesota Supreme Court declined FOR's petition to appeal a ruling by the state Court of Appeals, but two more cases are still pending at the Court of Appeals. Friends of the Riverfront was joined in the first two cases by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. The three citizen groups are asking that the City of Minneapolis and DeLaSalle be made to comply with state law and explore alternatives before destroying natural or historic resources. Donate to the legal fund online or send a check to Preservation Alliance of Minnesota, 219 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth St., St. Paul, MN 55102-1406 (put "Nicollet Island" on the memo line).
Preservation magazine features stadium threat to Nicollet Island
The National Trust for Historic Preservation publication highlights development threats to the St. Anthony Falls Historic District. Click here to read more.
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St. Anthony Falls Historic District archaeology on Ten Most Endangered List
Development projects that threaten to destroy archaeological resources have put the St. Anthony Falls Historic District in Minneapolis on the list of the state’s Ten Most Endangered Historic Places for 2008, the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota announced May 1, 2008.
The next day the Minneapolis City Council voted to proceed with the destruction of recently-discovered archaeological remains on Nicollet Island, a major feature of the national historic district with its intact neighborhood of 19th-century houses. A private developer, DeLaSalle High School, intends to remove the last remains of the island’s mansion district – some on public property – to build a football field. DeLaSalle’s plan for mitigating this destruction doesn’t consider alternatives that would preserve archaeological resources, such as building the field at grade or re-using excavated historic materials.
Other sites under threat within the St. Anthony Falls Historic Districts include mill ruins where a residential development called “The Wave” is proposed, and historic tunnels that served city’s 19th-century flour milling district and even the falls themselves, which might not survive construction of the proposed Crown Hydro project intact.