St. Paul officials are choosing between two competing designs for a new half-acre park downtown over the objections of several residents appointed to help with the design.

One of the two plans — which have been posted to a slide presentation on the city’s Pedro Park website at stpaul.gov/PedroPark — will be shared with the Ackerberg Group. The Minneapolis-based development firm has promised to devote $1 million or more into park maintenance and construction as it develops a building next door.

The plans include:

Concept A, dubbed “Open Space,” calls for a wide, open gathering space surrounded on its perimeter by play areas, dog areas, tables and chairs, parking and shade structures.

Concept B, called “Expanded Streetscape,” is a social layout featuring a central water feature and play area. Flexible event space, tables and chairs, public art and other amenities would be situated toward the outer edges.

Clare Cloyd, a spokeswoman for St. Paul Parks and Recreation, said a selected design will be submitted to the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, which is composed of the city council, before the council makes any final decisions on granting Ackerberg official developer status.

“The directive (from the council) was for us to design it so it can be put into the final development proposal that Ackerberg puts forth,” Cloyd said. “They wanted the public to have input, so that the concepts were developed through a public process.”

Some residents say as badly needed as those amenities are downtown, they’ll continue to oppose both concepts.

RESIGNING IN PROTEST

On a Thursday evening in late June, Doug Throckmorton listened as Ellen Stewart, a landscape architect for St. Paul, detailed the two possible visions for the new downtown park.

He thanked her for her hard work, and then resigned in protest.

“Ellen had two designs for the truncated space (the city) allocated to us,” said Throckmorton, a representative of Central Presbyterian Church. “We felt she did a good job of squeezing essential components onto the space and thanked her for asking us to give input to the plan.”

But as the third and final design meeting of the city’s Pedro Park advisory committee came to a close, Throckmorton again expressed his longstanding concern that city council “would claim the tightly restricted work of the advisory committee was citizen input approving of their plan for a truncated park.”

His resignation is at least the seventh departure to affect the committee, which began meeting May 3 to outline priorities for the 0.45 acres of vacant land where the Pedro’s Luggage store once stood. Those resigning represented residents living in the area upset earlier ideas for a larger park have been left out of the discussion.

Throckmorton said his resignation from the group was a protest of “what I believe is the council’s ethically questionable and short-sighted intention in regard to the gift and plan for Pedro Park.”

A 20-YEAR VISION

For next door, St. Paul has a preliminary agreement with Ackerberg Group to redevelop the city’s former public safety annex building into office space. The proposal calls for the company to buy the vacant building and fund at least $1 million in adjoining park improvements for 20 years.

Residents say they feel misled.

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St. Paul City Council relaxes housing density restrictions near transit corridors Members of the Friends of Pedro Park Expansion noted that the Pedro family donated their store lot to the city in 2009 with the expectation that St. Paul would someday establish a larger park, possibly stretching across the full city block. A city staff report in November said a 2.1-acre park is still possible, though clearly not in the near future.

On June 28, five members of the Friends of Pedro Park Expansion — including former advisory committee member Rod Halvorson and Marilyn Pitera, the last surviving member of the Pedro siblings — signed a protest letter to St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and City Council President Amy Brendmoen.

Noting the city’s Comprehensive Plan has called for more green space and parks amenities in the area, they wrote: “We ask that the city abandon the current process for one that matches its own policies and that keeps faith with its citizens.”

WHERE DOES MAYOR CARTER STAND?

Carter, who during a campaign forum last October called for a “full park with real neighborhood amenities,” more recently spoke in favorable terms about the Ackerberg proposal. During a neighborhood forum in February, he described it as “the first viable plan to build out this block in over a decade.”

The Friends of Pedro Park Expansion have raised $3,200 to retain attorney Joe Lawder, though they’ve estimated a full legal battle with the city and potential court trial over how the land donation is being used could cost 10 or 20 times as much.

READ THE LETTER