Construction on new St. Thomas arena continuing despite appeals court decision for revised EAW

By KSTP

The University of St. Thomas (UST) posted a statement on Tuesday saying that construction will continue on the new Lee & Penny Anderson arena, as permitted by the law, following rulings from the Minnesota Court of Appeals last week regarding the project.

The school says it is certain that the city can fix the three areas the appeals ruling said needed addressing in the original Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW). However, UST disagrees with and will appeal the court opinion calling the initial EAW insufficient.

According to the court document, the Advocates for Responsible Development (ARD) had challenged the City of St. Paul’s determination that no environmental impact statement (EIS) for the arena was needed based on three reasons: that the EAW overlooked multiple stages of a phased action including the Schoenecker Center building under construction nearby, the city determination to not need an EIS is not supported by enough evidence and that that city’s traffic and parking mitigation measures are not specific, targeted, and certain.

The new multi-use arena will be the home for Tommies hockey and basketball games and used for various other purposes, such as commencement, special speakers, career fairs and more. It will have a capacity of about 5,400 seats, coaching offices, locker rooms, training rooms, weight rooms, a second ice rink, and team spaces for the softball and soccer programs.

The appeals courts determined the project is a phased project and the EAW did not take into account all the environmental effects, saying that a new EAW is needed that considers the arena and Schoenecker Center to be phased action. The court did not provide an opinion on if an EIS is needed.

Due to the court’s determination for a revised EAW, it addressed a few key aspects of the EAW. It said that the EAW needs to address parking and traffic findings for multiple stages of the phased project.

Regarding ARD’s concern about greenhouse gas emissions not being entirely accounted for, the court determined that was partially true by overlooking how spectator travel would impact emissions, and that should be in the revised EAW.

Finally, the court discussed traffic and parking issues related to mitigation measures following the completion and opening of the arena that ARD took issue with and said that only some of the key points the city laid out for the arena project traffic and parking mitigation were adequate but that others were not.

A spokesperson for St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said the city will complete an amended EAW for the arena to comply with the appeals court’s directions.

Some neighbors were also not happy about the potential impact of the new area on the local area. Despite this, the school says the project will continue forward and is anticipated to open in 2025.