University of St. Thomas arena construction to continue despite Supreme Court ruling - KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News

Construction continues on a new arena at the University of St. Thomas despite a decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court this week.

Work began on the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena about a year ago.

The 5,500-seat multi-use arena will be the home for Tommies hockey and basketball games and will also be used for other purposes, such as commencement ceremonies and career fairs.

However, some neighbors oppose the project, citing environmental concerns, including an increase in traffic.

RELATED: Not all neighbors are fans of the new sports arena planned for University of St. Thomas

They formed a group called Advocates for Responsible Development.

“Wait a second, this is right on the river bluff. You can’t have an arena of this scope on a river bluff without affecting what goes on there,” said ARD President Daniel Kennedy.

Kennedy said he lives right next to the development site.

“There’s nothing wrong with them having hockey and basketball programs, but they have to do it in the right way in the right spot in a way that makes sense. This spot does not make any sense,” Kennedy said. “The streets are one-way streets coming and going. There will be congestion. There will be traffic.”

ARD sued back in July, arguing an Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) for the arena was incomplete and contained no effective measures to mitigate adverse effects of the arena.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the group, requiring the university and the City of St. Paul to complete a revised EAW.

The University of St. Thomas appealed the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

Then, on Tuesday, the state’s highest court denied the university’s petition to appeal.

That means the court will not review the appeal, so the ruling for a revised EAW must be completed.

“We won in the courts. Then we won again in the courts and yet they’re still building. How can that be?” Kennedy said. “It is bold. It is brazen. It is unusual. They have erected a large part of the arena even without an EAW, which is really contrary to the purpose of the environmental review process.”

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS asked a legal expert if construction on the project can continue without an approved EAW.

“Typically, if you want someone to stop building, you have to ask the court to stop them from building. You’re going to have to file for an injunction,” said James Coleman, a professor of law at the University of Minnesota, who specializes in environmental law related to infrastructure and construction. “You might be surprised how often projects are built, even while their environmental reviews are potentially being struck down. What we should expect now is for the city to do some more review basically on the environmental impacts of this project.”

The St. Paul Mayor’s Office provided the following statement:

“The City of Saint Paul has prepared an updated Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) for the University of St. Thomas Multipurpose Arena and is accepting public comments through Thursday, November 7 at 4pm.”

University officials told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the updated EAW includes greater clarity on how they will handle traffic.

“The concerns neighbors have about traffic and parking, we share those concerns and we’re working through the details and … we should make sure that when guests come to an arena event, they don’t experience terrible traffic and parking issues, so we share that momentum to work through those issues and we are,” said Amy McDonough, chief of staff for the president’s office at the University of St. Thomas.

McDonough said there are detailed plans for parking, which include rolling out a new app for parking.

“One of the exciting things is we’re going to implement an app-based parking system, so when you’re coming to the game you’ll be told where to park. That will really help avoid people driving through city streets trying to find off-street parking. Whatever we can do to take those cars out of the neighborhood and get them to an assigned place on campus, that’s really important,” McDonough explained. “If and when we sell out the arena and there are games a lot of people want to come to, we’re also going to offer some shuttles. We want people to return to the arena, right? So they have to have a good experience with parking and with traffic.”

The university said construction will continue on the arena since it is currently permitted by law.

“We are confident the arena is going to continue to be built and we’re also going to continue to work on some of the concerns the neighbors brought forward,” McDonough said.

Construction is expected to continue through next fall.

However, some neighbors vow to keep fighting the project.

“I think the only reaction we can have is to take legal action again,” Kennedy said. “I suspect this will be a continued rollercoaster ride.”