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Council amends Mississippi River Corridor ordinance and holds extended public hearing
Summary
The council approved an amendment to remove objective downtown height limits from the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area ordinance, opened a public hearing with multiple speakers (including bird-safety advocates and residents), and laid the item over for final adoption on Dec. 10.
The St. Paul City Council voted to approve an amendment to the Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area ordinance that removes objective downtown height limits and returns to a tiering and site-plan review approach. Council President Naker said the amendment would allow site-by-site public oversight without triggering additional conditional-use processes for every major project.
"Rather than trying to get a different height limit, my proposal is to just go back to the more subjective tiering process and review each of these projects on a case-by-case basis," Council President Naker said when moving version 4 of the ordinance.
The council then opened a public hearing and heard comments from multiple residents and advocates. Alan (who provided an address) urged objective height tiers and said conditional use permits are the appropriate venue for subjective review. Kiki Sanon, representing the Saint Paul Bird Alliance, urged stronger bird-safe building standards and warned that proposed language had removed bird-safe requirements: "The annual loss of 1,000,000,000 birds to window collisions in The US is an ecological catastrophe," Sanon said, urging the city to adopt protections elsewhere in its codes even if not tied to MRCA language.
Dr. Bebe Neumann described concerns about public safety and policing at a November 25 event and asked the council to release body-worn camera footage, radio traffic and after-action reports to ensure accountability. The president reminded speakers that testimony must relate to the Mississippi River Corridor item.
After public testimony, the council closed the hearing and laid the ordinance over to Dec. 10 for final adoption so staff can integrate the substantive changes and allow further review. The amendment passed the council vote prior to the public hearing; the item will return for final vote after the layover.
