Appeals court orders new environmental assessment for St. Thomas arena in St. Paul

If University of St. Thomas officials were still hoping to complete a new on-campus basketball and hockey arena by August 2025, their timeline suffered a blow this week.

In a ruling Monday, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ordered the city and university to conduct a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet, saying the previous assessment didn’t do enough to study the arena’s potential harm to the neighborhood’s parking, traffic and air quality.

The ruling was welcomed by neighbor Donn Waage, who said the city and the university decided to go ahead with the arena before considering the consequences for the neighborhood. Nothing can move forward until a more detailed analysis is completed, said Waage, spokesman for a group called Advocates for Responsible Development.

The university issued a statement late Monday night: “The University of St. Thomas is currently reviewing the decision from the Minnesota Court of Appeals related to the City of Saint Paul’s environmental review process for the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena project. As a Top 50 Green College, St. Thomas remains confident in the sustainable design and development plans for the new arena, which will create new green space on the Saint Paul campus and improve water runoff infrastructure, while replacing old, inefficient buildings with a new facility designed to meet LEED Silver Certification.”

Jennifer Lor, a spokeswoman in Mayor Melvin Carter’s office, issued a statement saying, “The City received the Court of Appeals rulings today and are reviewing the findings to determine next steps for these two projects.”

For months, neighbors of the university’s south campus have argued that the city and university have brushed off their concerns about gameday traffic jams and parking woes — never mind the exhaust from vehicles trolling the neighborhood for a place to park. The university has no plans to add parking, officials have said.

The Appeals Court said the city needed to take a longer look at the traffic, parking and air-quality impact — and require concrete steps to mitigate any potential harm. Noting that hockey would be moving to the area from its current off-campus arena, judges wrote, “By overlooking how spectator travel would impact the project’s [greenhouse gas] emissions, the city ‘entirely fail[ed] to address an important aspect of the problem.’” They continued: “The city’s determination that the project does not have the potential for significant environmental effects due to spectator transportation is, therefore, arbitrary and capricious.”

“The city’s revised EAW may likewise revise its conclusions on the potential environmental effects in parking, traffic, and [greenhouse gas] emissions by spectator traffic,” the judges wrote.

Construction of the $183.4 million Lee and Penny Anderson Arena was paused earlier this year because of opposition mounted by neighbors. Construction resumed nearly a month ago after the St. Paul City Council denied opponents’ appeal. The facility is being built on St. Thomas’ south campus and will be the dual-purpose home of the university’s hockey and basketball programs, with seating for up to 5,500 fans. The arena is next to the Anderson parking facility, and away from Goodrich Avenue.

A number of potential sites were explored, including the Highland Bridge development at the former Ford plant site and the Town and Country Club. The school approached the country club a couple of years ago but was rebuffed.

Waage said opponents now “have to sit down and, you know, figure out what that next step is going to be.” One possibility is for neighbors to hire their own experts, if the city continues to downplay their concerns, he said.

“Fundamentally, what this is all about is trying to get all the environmental information out on the table, instead of just sort of, you know, whitewashing the project,” Waage said.