Neighbors of River Heights Park cleared their first hurdle Wednesday when the Inver Grove Heights Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission recommended that it be taken off a list of city properties for sale.
The recommendation followed a failed vote by the commission to “dispose” of the 7.5-acre park, which is undeveloped green space between homes east of Concord Boulevard.
River Heights Park is among 10 city-owned properties the city council deemed “excess” land in 2016. Two other parks — Marcott Woods, which is 14 acres, and Dehrer, 5.5 acres — also are on the list.
But River Heights Park was before the commission this week because a city resident is interested in building a house on one of its three 2.5-acre lots.
As part of a possible deal with the city, the resident would buy the lot and the city would buy the resident’s lot on Courthouse Boulevard Court, where it would like to build a new fire station.
Several residents near River Heights Park spoke in opposition to selling, including Mark Hatfield, who called the park an “asset that you could never replace if you choose to eliminate it.”
Irene Jones, river corridor program director for the nonprofit Friends of the Mississippi River, noted how the park lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.
“While we have no opposition to the city’s need for a new firehouse or increased revenue, we strongly believe that selling public park land to accomplish these needs is short-sighted and not in the best interest of our national park or of the residents of Inver Grove Heights,” she said.
The issue goes before the city’s planning commission Sept. 5, followed by the city council on an undetermined date.