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Executive Summary The Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) has been in operation since 1942, producing conventional ammunition and weapons components. The sole remaining on-site contractor is Alliant Techsystems, Inc., which manufactures explosives that are assembled into shells and other weapons elsewhere. lu 1994, the US. Army Industrial Operations Conunand (JOe) annouuced its intention to declare TCAAP as excess federal property. Although uo formal declaration of excess has yet been issued (as of February 1996), it became clear that, within the next few years, some or all of the property would become available for other uses. The City of Arden Hills began taking steps to respond to the auticipated excessing of the property by soliciting statements of qualifications from planning and engineering consultants nationwide to assist in preparing a concept plan for reuse of TCAAP. As the consultant selection process moved toward completion, it became clear that the City needed not only technical support but assistance in navigating the increasingly complex political landscape surrounding TCAAP: > Congressman Bruce Vento, who represents Minnesota's 4th Cougressional District, appointed the TCAAP Reutilization Committee in the sununer of 1994. This group was charged with developing a conununity-based reuse plan for the site. The Conunittee's roster incuded an official representative from Arden Hills, in which TCAAP is located, as well as represeutatives from the three adjacent communities (Shoreview, New Brighton and Mounds View). The Committee also contained representation from Ramsey County, the State of Minnesota, organized labor, environmental groups and other local and regional interest groups. > A grassroots organization called the Arsenal Clean-up and Conversion Project, a spinoff of Minnesota Jobs with Peace, began holding public brainstorming sessions to help determine the future ofTCAAP. These sessions continued throughout the spring and summer of 1995 and the information they gathered became input to the Reutilization Committee. > lu the spring of 1995, the Prairie Island band of the Mdewakanton Sioux expressed an interest in the TCAAP site, which, under federal property disposal rules, they might claim through the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior. At first, the band stated that they merely wanted another site on which to build housing, so that band members could relocate away from the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant adjacent to their home reservation. Less than a week later, though, it was revealed that they might also put a gaming facility on the site. On April 19, 1995, the City awarded the consulting contract to a team comprised of Camiros, Ltd.; SEH (Short-Eliot Hendrickson), Inc.; and Larking Hoffman Daly Lindgren, Ltd. These three team members brought all the necessary expertise to bear on this project: planning and fiscal analysis; engineering and envirOIunental analysis; and legal and lobbying support. (See Chapter J, Context, for background on Arden Hills, TCAAP and the federal excess-property regulations.) Camiros, Ltd.lSEH, Inc./ LHDL, Ltd. TeAAP Framework Plan Page J Executive Summary I .- - - I I I - I .. - I - - - - .- - I