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, . . -r,"'b~ ~ 7.rpJ \.f /,/ 1 a~;7 I,.d.(r--- h/~( J>tartribune.com Close window . Editorial: Playing post office / Wait and see on Arden Hills site Publisbed 06/09/2003 Things tend to get messy when hopes and dreams collide. That's the case in a rolling regional dispute over what's to become of the sprawling Twin Cities Army Ammunitions Plant in Arden Hills, as well as the U.S. Postal Service's riverfront buildings in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, and the St. Paul Union Depot. Start with the dreams of St. PauL The city has long wished for the downtown post office to relocate in order to open more riverfront property for development and to allow the Union Depot enough room to develop a transit hub, eventually with high-speed trains to Chicago. Minneapolis, too, would like to see its massive riverfront post office converted to commercial and residential uses. Moving is fine with the Postal Service, now studying the feasibility of consolidating regional mail processing on one big site, the most viable seeming to be a comer of the Army's old arsenal property near the intersections ofHwys. 35W, 10 and 96. The roads would provide good access to the 500 daily truck trips generated. The land, already federally owned, would involve a simple swap. And pollution mitigation would be far cheaper than cleaning up land intended for homes and shops. But that's where Arden Hills' dreams diverge. The suburb has long anticipated beefmg up its tax base by taking over some of the Army's land forresidential, commercial and industrial development. In 1994, . Rep. Bruce Vento helped the city craft a plan for the Army site. After Vento's death, Rep. Betty McCollum began honing the plan to include a consolidated postal center on an industrial portion of the ammunition site. But Arden Hills and its bevy of developers went (excuse the expression) ballistic, declaring a new postal center incompatible. Enter Sens. Norm Coleman and Mark Dayton. Each acted last week to undercut both McCollum and the Postal Service by declaring the Arden Hills site off limits as far as they were concerned. These were hasty, unfortunate actions, especially since the Postal Service study won't be finished until July. It may turn out that the Army land is polluted enough to make housing impossible, or that a small suburb like Arden Hills could never bear the cleanup expense. It was also curious that neither senator had a backup site in mind. McCollum scrambled to find a site in Rosemount, saying the more options the better. But this has become a three-ring circus in search of a ringmaster. A logical choice for the job is Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell, whose agency is charged with regional planning. But Bell is understandably reluctant to get into an elbowing contest with three members of Congress, several federal agencies and a horde of local interests without first seeing the Postal Service's July report. His patience is commendable. All parties should wait and see, and take it from there. (9 CODvright 20J!1 Star Tribune. All rights reserved. .