Highland Park residents fear apartment project will evict neighborhood eagles

A pair of eagles have made their home near S. Woodlawn Avenue and Mississippi River Boulevard in St. Paul for a decade now. Their perch, about 60 feet up in a backyard tree, is a prime spot from which to swoop down for fish from the river or spy roadkill on nearby streets.

It's also a prime spot for luxury apartments. And that's what worries Wendy Neurer and her neighbors.

For months, a cadre of residents has opposed a planned four-story apartment complex to be built nearby, lobbying the city and developer to, if not derail the project, at least scale it back. They fear, Neurer said, that the building or its construction will chase away the eagles.

"They're here during winter. And they adapted to this quiet area. They like this neighborhood," Neurer said on a recent morning when the eagles didn't seem to be home. "The eagles' direct flight path goes right over [the site]."

Officials with Paster Properties, a St. Louis Park developer, appear to have no intention of dialing back their plans. The new complex, which will stand directly across the street from a 23-story apartment building, will replace a more modest three-story apartment building and neighboring church.

Mike Sturdivant, Paster's vice president of development, said in a statement that the proposed project at 706 Mississippi River Blvd. "meets all existing City of St. Paul zoning requirements and no special considerations from the City of St. Paul are being requested."

In addition, he said, Paster Properties has made some changes suggested by the community, including putting fencing along the eastern property line, relocating a dog run area and installing additional landscaping.

Neurer and several neighbors say that's not enough — and that in addition to adversely affecting the eagles, it could harm other wildlife that make their neighborhood special.

Wild turkeys roost at night in centuries-old trees that are certain to be lost, Neurer said. Cardinals nest nearby. Pelicans and falcons, too, call the area home.

"We have a tapestry here that's beautiful," she said of the wildlife in the area. "It is their land. We're encroaching on their land. And as you start building on it, they become disoriented and where do they go? They become displaced."

Dave DeGree moved into an upper apartment in the high-rise at 740 Mississippi River Blvd. eight years ago. The eagles, he said, are popular with the neighbors.

"Everybody looks at them," he said of morning walks through the area. "Every time."

DeGree and Neurer said that, at the least, they would like to see City Council limit the building's height to 35 feet, in keeping with impending state zoning rules for the Mississippi River corridor. They have written Council Member Chris Tolbert for his help.

Tolbert, who represents the area, said he met with about 40 neighbors in September and gets daily emails from opponents to the project. "This is the first I've heard about the eagles," he said in a recent interview.

Paster Properties, Tolbert said, has the ability and the right to build what the company is proposing. Restricting building heights to 35 feet in the river corridor, he said, is on the state's timeline and will eventually take effect. But it's not in place now.

The Highland Bridge development, in which several multiple-story buildings are rising, is just a few blocks away.

While the Paster project is near Neurer's backyard, she said her oppositionis not a case of NIMBY, as in "not in my backyard." An area resident for 66 years — she lives in what was her parents' home — she said she's seen decades of development harm what had once been a quiet, pristine area.

Her parents, she said, opposed construction of the high-rise.

"It's not NIMBY," she said. "Aren't we the stewards of the environment? Of wildlife? If you take down the habitat, you don't get that back."