Rollin' Down the River to St. Paul

Among the proposal for the St. Paul master plan is renovating Island Station, home to defunct coal power plant less than a mile up-river from downtown. The National Park Service envisions the island for the headquarters for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Island Station L.L.C. aimed to build condos on it, but that never panned out.

The St. Paul, Minneapolis City Council has launched a 300-page land-use master plan to transform the city's 17-mile Mississippi River shoreline over the next 30-50 years into continuous parkland that's accessible from many neighborhoods, reports the Star Tribune.

Whitney Clark, executive director of Friends of the Mississippi River, said the plan has a list of priorities to create the "Great River Park" proposed more than 20 years ago by Boston architect Ben Thompson.

Officials told the local media the plan isn't just going to sit on the shelf and be quickly forgotten. For more than two decades, city leaders like former Mayor Norm Coleman (1994–2002) have promoted the river's recreational assets as a means to further downtown development. In 2006, the city began some piecemeal development along the river, projects overseen for three years by Don Ganje of St. Paul Parks and Rec Department. Ganje sees the new plan as a bigger, unifying force to connect neighborhoods to the river, and the means to do it.

St. Paul used a $1 million state grant to fund the new plan. How much would it cost to implement? Estimates range from $300 million to $500 million over the next half-century, mostly using state and federal funding.

The plan is generally conceptual regarding facilities and attractions, such as creating a "river balcony" here or a "leafy parkway" there. More concrete proposals are for a preserve at Pig's Eye Lake, a large natural area in southeast St. Paul, and building an environmental education center at the "unsightly" Watergate marina, a project that would cost $20-30 million alone. The master plan also proposes renovating Island Station, a long defunct coal power plant less than a mile up-river from downtown. The National Park Service wants to make the island its headquarters for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. Island Station L.L.C. purchased the property in 2003 with the aim of building condos and a marina, but that project was never realized, and the company is looking to sell.