Request for Committee Action

Minneapolis Public Works’ Division of Water Treatment & Distribution Services main water treatment campus is in Fridley, Minnesota. Electrical improvements planned for the campus include new equipment connected to Xcel Energy’s electrical feeders. These Xcel feeders are located along East River Road. Through the electrical project planning and design process, City staff and design consultants concluded the best site for the new equipment is on a property consisting of three parcels currently owned by Anoka County located between East River Road and the campus.

Preliminary staff inquiries with Anoka County determined there was mutual interest in exchanging the parcels with Minneapolis for an equal amount of land adjacent to Anoka County’s Riverfront Regional Park north of the Fridley campus. See the attached map for a depiction of the exchange. This even exchange of approximately 0.33 acres of land results in no land purchase costs paid by either party.

Given no land purchase costs will be incurred by either party, use of each parcel’s latest assessed value is sufficient for valuation purposes. The City of Fridley approved the lot split creating the northern parcel on February 8, 2021 (Lot Split, LS #21-01). Title research has been completed by Anoka County and the County will record the deeds concurrently with their Property Records Department upon the exchange.

The three parcels Anoka County will be conveying to the City are currently part of the Mississippi River Regional Trail, which is part of the Regional Parks & Trails System.  As such, there are Metropolitan Council restrictive covenants on the parcels to be conveyed. Anoka County is seeking the Met Council’s approval on this exchange to allow Metropolitan Council to remove the restrictive covenants on those parcels. The County will reserve a trail easement over the conveyance parcels.

The three southern parcels to be acquired by the City have been developed for commercial use for over 100 years and historical use of the site includes a filling station and sign company. The site is included in the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s petroleum storage tank leak database (Leak Site 3755). The underground storage tanks associated with the filling station have been removed and the MPCA assigned a closed status to the petroleum leak. Phase 1 and Phase 2 Environmental Site Assessments (ESAs) were completed for the site. The Phase 1 ESA concluded there were no recognized controlled or historical environmental conditions but recognized environmental conditions do exist. The subsequent Phase II ESA identified petroleum-contaminated soil and soil vapor in the area of the former filling station. Additionally, groundwater in the area appears to be impacted by liquid petroleum product. The detected concentrations of contaminants appear to be consistent with the closed former release at the site. Based on the Phase II ESA results, no further evaluation of the former leak site is recommended. The soil vapor results do not indicate a vapor intrusion concern in the area of the former leak site and the proposed electrical buildings are north of this area.

Since a former leak site is associated with the property to be acquired, and to be consistent with MPCA guidelines, the ESA consultant recommended the site be enrolled in the MPCA Petroleum Brownfields Program (PBP) to facilitate the redevelopment and to obtain applicable assurances from the MPCA regarding the soil, soil vapor, and groundwater impacts. This will be done, and the costs incurred under the electrical service rehabilitation capital project.

The north parcel to be conveyed to Anoka County is currently in use for contractor mobilization and storage for the City’s on-going Fridley Filter Rehabilitation project. Once the land conveyance has occurred, the City will enter into a license agreement with Anoka County to continue to use the northern parcel for storage/construction access until the Fridley Filter Rehabilitation project is complete, anticipated to be December 31, 2022. The City will compensate Anoka County for the use of the site based on agreed-upon land value, return rate, and duration of the agreement. Compensation for the license agreement will be funded from the Fridley Filter Rehabilitation Project.