Attorneys for a coalition of residents opposed to a planned basketball and hockey arena on the University of St. Thomas south campus have submitted a 44-page legal brief outlining their objections to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Fairmount Avenue resident Don Waage and other members of “Advocates for Responsible Development” maintain that the 5,500-seat multipurpose arena near the intersection of Cretin and Grand avenues in St. Paul should trigger a more elaborate environmental review by the city than the Environmental Assessment Worksheet published last June.

Among concerns raised in their Jan. 2 legal brief, they allege that the city failed to consider the cumulative impacts of improvements to the adjoining Schoenecker Center, which is being converted into an academic hub for the university’s STEAM (science-engineering-technology-arts-and-math) programs.

“The proposed arena, in addition to the other South Campus construction already underway, would lead to significant traffic congestion along Summit and Cretin Avenues on game nights, as well as significant parking shortages and increased greenhouse gas emissions,” reads the legal brief.

In addition to the arena and the Schoenecker Center, the university is replacing multiple surface parking lots with a new
South Campus Quadrangle, consisting of green space, new landscaping and sidewalks.

“In total, the University’s redevelopment of its South Campus would eliminate at least 392 surface parking spaces, while at the same time creating an increased demand for over 1,400 parking spaces for sporting events,” reads the brief.

University plans traffic monitoring

A site plan for the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas. (Courtesy of the University of St. Thomas)

The city, which included a transportation study with its 148-page Environmental Assessment Worksheet, has maintained that redevelopment of the 6-acre site into the arena building would not require a deeper environmental review known as an Environment Impact Statement (“EIS”).

The university has promised to monitor event attendance, traffic and parking impacts for at least two years after the arena is occupied, as well as develop, in consultation with the city, an Event Traffic Management Plan that includes strategies for traffic control tied to specific event sizes and times.

St. Thomas also agreed to establish incentives for using public transit and ridesharing and maintain a dedicated website for neighborhood relations, with an email address where residents can share neighborhood concerns. The new building will be designed to achieve an environmental design rating of LEED Silver from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Opponents have called those plans insufficient.

“UST’s only plan to mitigate the significant adverse environmental effect … is to monitor the impact after the fact,” reads the legal brief. “That gets things exactly backwards.”

Attorneys for St. Thomas and the city have until Feb. 3 to file a legal brief in reply, after which the “Advocates for Responsible Development” will have 15 days to comment on the reply brief before a date for oral arguments is set.

St. Thomas last January received a record $75 million donation from Lee and Penny Anderson toward design and construction of a shared Division I hockey and basketball facility west of the Anderson Parking facility off Cretin and Grand avenues.

The university, which only recently began playing in Division I athletics, plans to construct the arena in place of three existing buildings on the south campus — the 1890s-era Cretin Hall dormitory, the 1960s-era McCarthy Gym and an 1890s-era service center.

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