River Heights Park in Inver Grove Heights is no longer for sale.
The city council unanimously voted this week to keep the 7.5-acre natural area and directed city staff to work with neighborhood residents and the Friends of the Mississippi River to enhance it with signs and make it more accessible.
Splitting up the park, which is pretty much just grass, trees and a looping half-mile dirt trail, and selling three lots for single-family homes was one of the options on the council’s table. Others included selling it to a private party that would protect it as open space, and doing nothing.
The idea to sell the land was met with opposition from neighbors and the nonprofit Friends of the Mississippi River, which noted how it lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area and the river’s flyway bird migration route.
Last summer, the city considered and then tabled the idea of selling all or part of the park, which is at 8780 Inver Grove Trail. The decision came after a petition opposing the idea was signed by 140 residents.