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ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS WWW.TWINCITIES.COM ST. PAUL ST. PAUL, MINNEAPOLIS Wanted: More urban parks Cities might require builders to set aside open space for them BY JASON HOPPIN Minneapolis officials are drive up the housing value. A Pioneer Press exploring similar options. With recent study by the group hundreds of millions of dollars Embrace Open Space found that Someone once said the best in new housing and a boom in Twin Cities residents would pay investment on Earth is earth. growth downtown and along the 10 percent to 25 percent more But while land is often Mississippi River, the city is for a home if it were within judged by what's built on top of looking for ways to preserve walking distance of open space. it,the Twin Cities are looking at open space. St. Paul's proposed ordi- the value of leaving it alone. "We're working on it right nance would cap the total St.Paul and Minneapolis are now. We hate to send that red amount of park space donated exploring whether to make flag up to developers, but the at 14 percent of any given devel- developers convert some of their idea is we are working on it opment's footprint. i land into city parks.Though the right now," Minneapolis Parks The donated land doesn't practice is common in the sub- Superintendent Jon Gurban necessarily have to be part of a urbs, neither of the state's two said. "If the developer is a good new development, but it must biggest cities requires it. developer. ... They're not going be nearby. hi other words, the St. Paul may ask builders to to care about this." new park must serve the resi- contribute a fraction of an acre Unless something is done, dents of that development. of new parkland for each new Gurban added, downtown Min- The city also can ask for home built. If the rule had been neapolis and the riverbank are money in lieu of parkland That in place during the city's recent- going to turn into a "concrete option is likely to be invoked in ly completed Housing 5000 build- jungle." St. Paul, which has many more ing program,it would have creat- Developers say such rules so-called infill projects than the ed 40 acres of new city parks. aren't unusual and can be appro- suburbs.But the money must be "The early developers of the priate. But they do increase the used to add parks or improve city planned the parks in a real- price of housing,since the cost of existing ones. ly wise way. But with more creating the park is passed on to St. Paul Parks and Recre- housing density and population, the homebuyers."Any additional ation Director Bob Bierschied it puts a strain on the parks sys- development dollar that's added said he would prefer a land tem,"said Peggy Lynch,a parks to the bottom line is paid for by donation to add to the city's advocate who has worked on someone," said Matt Anfang, a' 4,500 acres of parks. "I don't the proposed rule for years. developer with Centex. know how it will work in St. "The park dedication ordinance But proponents of such ordi- Paul because St. Paul's a differ- is really an important thing for nances say the homeowners get ent animal,"compared with the the future of the city." that money back because parks suburbs,Bierschied said.