Developer presents concept plan for BNSF parcel; council signals cautious support

A developer outlined a conceptual plan on Oct. 20 for a large, multi-phase housing project on land owned by BNSF in the eastern portion of the River’s Edge area, and the City of St. Paul Park council gave preliminary support for the project to proceed to environmental study and preliminary plat stages.

Nate Sparks of WSB, the city’s consultant, said the proposal before the council would contain “just shy of about a thousand units” — a mixture of single-family lots, townhomes and apartment sites — spread across roughly 250 acres. The concept includes about 12 acres of parks and roughly a 5-acre neighborhood commercial site, and would require either a new Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) or a refresh of an earlier AUAR, Sparks said.

“This would be the BNSF property,” Sparks said. “It would be bringing this back into what we had anticipated it being originally and why this was brought into the city in the first place.”

Reid Schultz, representing Tamarack Land Development, said the company is a Minnesota-based developer working with national…