Rejecting an appeal from a small but impassioned group of neighbors, the St. Paul City Council voted 6-0 on Wednesday night to allow Luther Seminary to expand its south campus parking lot off Hendon Avenue and Branston Street in St. Anthony Park.

The seminary is in the process of shrinking its 26-acre campus, consolidating its operations within its 10-acre south campus. To accommodate the change, the south parking lot will expand from 12 to 19 parking stalls, according to city staff, who said the expansion is in keeping with city zoning codes.

Claiming a factual error in the city’s project description, residents opposed to the project said several of the existing parking stalls are located within two multi-stall garages currently located on the site, virtually inaccessible to visitors, and the parking lot will in reality expand from six surface stalls to 19 stalls.

Branston Street residents Don and Meri Hauge, the appellants, told the council on Wednesday that the parking lot expansion would bring more traffic into the vicinity of Hendon Triangle Park, a playground known affectionately within the neighborhood as Monkey Island.

Branston on the south side of Hendon is a one-block, one-way cul-de-sac that loops around the playground, making traffic access awkward, according to two additional neighbors who also testified against the expansion.

“We believe that this expansion will provide unnecessary vehicular danger to children who play at Triangle Park,” Meri Hauge told the council on Wednesday.

The Hauges attempted without success to block the expansion through a site plan appeal to the St. Paul Planning Commission, which was rejected in January.

Council Member Mitra Jalali, who represents the area, said she could find no factual errors in the Planning Commission’s findings. The council on Wednesday then denied the Hauges’ further appeal, 6-0, with Council Member Dai Thao absent.

A spokeswoman for Luther Seminary told the council that the parking lot plans had been reviewed by the city’s zoning administrator, the Department of Safety and Inspections, and the Planning Commission for adherence to zoning codes.

Most cars will be parked in the 19-stall lot — a secondary lot for the seminary — for most of the day, she said.