The MPRB never promised to build an athletic facility for De La Salle - it just promised the MCDA that it would build a neighborhood rec/athletic facility next to De La Salle. Without a reciprocal agreement from De La Salle, the MPRB has already exceeded its obligations under this contract. The MPRB neighborhood rec/athletic facility was built. It is on property adjacent to De La Salle. The MPRB's source of funds, a Met Council Open Space grant, prohibited construction of the football field but the tennis courts have been completed. The MPRB maintains the neighborhood rec facility - the parkland and tennis courts.
Here is more - quoted from Scott Russell's excellent report on this provision that appeared in the Skyway News:
"It is a provision with some mystery. It appears to contradict the 1979 contract with the Met Council, which said the parkland should remain open space. Further, DeLaSalle is not a party to the '79 contract
Who asked for the DeLaSalle language four years later?
[Al] Whitman, the senior park planner and point person negotiating the contract, said the MCDA requested it. DeLaSalle supporters "had some influence with MCDA members," he said. "It was not something the Park Board would have volunteered."
Met Council minutes show that its open-space commission was concerned about the Nicollet Island Agreement. Stefferud wrote a May 1983 memo that stated "construction of the football field and tennis courts as a neighborhood recreation facility would not be consistent with regional park uses. [R]egional park funds could not be used to acquire the land upon which the facility is located."
Stefferud still works for the Met Council. He said he only recently learned the Park Board had built tennis courts on the open-space land, a use he now calls "iffy."
Whitman noted the 1983 contract says the Park Board is not obligated to build the DeLaSalle athletic facility until DeLaSalle and the Park Board have "a reciprocal agreement" for using the athletic facility and "existing facilities of DeLaSalle." The Park Board envisioned DeLaSalle sharing not only the outdoor athletic field but its inside space as well, such as the gym and meeting rooms.
He noted, "There has never been a reciprocal agreement written out."
The current battle centers on Park Board tennis courts at Grove & Nicollet streets, built by the Park Board on parkland.
DeLaSalle has proposed expanding the athletic fields across Grove Street and onto the site of the current tennis courts.
The Park Board paid $1.1 million to acquire that property, the former home of Island Tile and Marble, according to Board documents.
Some residents say that DeLaSalle has a football field already - and got it by expanding into part of Grove Street, making it narrower. [Phyllis] Kahn said the residents have accommodated previous DeLaSalle requests; for instance, the school gets first call on the tennis courts.
(The court has no sign indicating it is a public facility.)"
The complete article is online http://www.skywaynews.net/articles/2005/03/15/news/news01.txt.
Shawne FitzGerald Powderhorn
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