UPDATE, Feb. 18, 2025 – YAY! St. Louis Park’s city council unanimously voted YES on a zoning plan amendment that included a recommendation to rezone Rock Island Park’s north parcel to ‘park and open space.’ Read more
ALERT: Majority of St. Louis Park city council members are open to future development in Rock Island Park’s meadow on north parcel.
What happened?
In late 2024, members of St. Louis Park’s City Council were asked for their perspectives on a question: “Should St. Louis Park designate four parcels of publicly owned, undeveloped land as park and open space, or keep open the possibility for future development?”
Rock Island Park’s north parcel, the large meadow located just north of the rock garden, is one of those four parcels being considered for development.
See Rock Island Park’s north meadow photo gallery
The result.
The majority of council members wanted to keep open the possibility of future development on Rock Island Park’s north meadow parcel.
Now what?
Restore Lilac Way and the community must show the city that we want Rock Island Park’s north parcel with the beautiful, historic meadow with original 1930s lilacs to be preserved as open space.
It has been part of the south parcel’s rock garden for more than 80 years, and the tow land parcels must remain together.
How can you help?
Sign up for email updates to follow St. Louis Park’s Vision 4.0 (2024 – 2025) planning process as it unfolds in 2025, and make your voice heard before decisions are made.
For now, there is no concrete plan to develop the land, and the council does not have a pending vote regarding development on Rock Island Park’s north parcel.
As of December 2024, there is no concrete plan to develop the land, and the council does not have a vote pending regarding development on Rock Island Park’s north parcel.
If needed, Karen at Restore Lilac Way will launch a new grassroots campaign to encourage the city to maintain the north meadow parcel as open space.
Similar to the successful “Say YES to Rock Island Park!” campaign, a new “Save Rock Island Park’s meadow from Development!” campaign would include
- an email campaign to council members,
- yard signs,
- a virtual rally,
- social media and
- press releases.
We are grateful Margaret Rog shared this info with us.
A December 10th, 2024 e-newsletter from St. Louis Park city council member Margaret Rog mentions the questions asked of the council (emphasis mine).
“City-owned land: Council members were recently asked to share our perspectives on four parcels of publicly owned, undeveloped land in the city. Specifically, staff sought council direction on whether we want to designate these four parcels as park and open space, or keep open the possibility for them to be developed in the future.
“The four parcels in question are: 2800 Toledo (aka Rock Island Park), 3940 France Ave. (north of the Minneapolis pump house and the former “Weber Woods”), 9258 Club Road (between Cedar Manor Lake and Hwy. 169, north of Park Spanish Immersion School) and Quentin Ave. & Old Cedar Lake Road (the dead-end stub of Quentin east of the Hwy. 100 sound wall). My own preference was for all four parcels, which total just under 13 acres, to be preserved as park and open space.
“However, the majority of council members indicated their desire to keep open the possibility of future development on the Toledo, France, and Quentin Ave. parcels, while preserving the Club Road parcel as park and open space. Since the city owns these parcels, we have greater flexibility in determining what might be built there (including affordable housing), which was a driver in the majority opinion and which I respect.
“For me, there’s also value in preserving rare open space for habitat and other environmental benefits—a little bit of wild in our otherwise fully developed city. There’ll be more discussion on this in the future.”
The public has already voiced their support to keep Rock Island Park’s north and south parcels as community open space.
In 2021, Restore Lilac Way launched the “Say YES to Rock Island Park’ grassroots campaign. Massive community support encouraged the City of St. Louis Park to accept Rock Island Park’s south parcel’s rock garden from MnDOT.
In May 2024, the council voted YES, saving Rock Island Park’s historic 1930s rock garden from development.
Because the city purchased the north parcel in May 2024, development is not restrict on the land. This could include multi-family housing.
The city’s arrangement with MnDOT
South Parcel: MnDOT gave the 0.88 acres south parcel (including the rare 1930s rock garden) to the city for $0, requiring the city use it for park purposes.The south parcel is one of only two rock gardens in Minnesota. (The other rock garden is in Graeser Park in Robbinsdale.)
North Parcel: The city purchased the 0.81 acre north parcel from MnDOT for fair market value of $187,000.
The offer letter does not restrict development.
A favorite spot for residents, this green space may support native pollinators in decline, such as native rusty patch bumblebee and monarch butterflies, which have been identified nearby.
See just some of the supporters in this Rock Island Virtual Rally photo gallery.
