Griggs Street residents speak out about the loss of Veterans Park

What an expanded Civic Campus means for one Roseville neighborhood

On a warm Friday evening in October, a multi-generational group of Griggs Street residents gathered on the front lawn of Amy and Grant Determan’s home to talk about the City of Roseville’s plan to build the new Public Works and Parks Operations Facility on Veterans Park land. Ten homes on the 2700 block of Griggs St. N are directly adjacent to the western edge of the park, their backyards looking out to the ballfield and soccer fields.

The Determan family’s backyard which looks out to Veterans Park. Photo ©2024 by Naomi Krueger

“The park was one of the first things we noticed when we bought our house, and the playground beyond. The ability to send our kids out was a big draw,” Amy Determan said.

Children in the neighborhood regularly play in the fields, running and flying kites. During the conversation, children were riding bikes and playing soccer in the street. It’s a quiet street without much traffic. Many residents have lived in the neighborhood for generations.

“There’s not much turnover here,” said Marilyn Jacobson, who has lived on Griggs for 19 years.

Tyler and Kelley Kloos bought their home six years ago from Kelly’s mother who bought it from her mother.

“It’s a great street. That’s also why thinking about moving is a whole lot harder,” Amy Determan said.

The Roseville City Council identified Veterans Park land as the ideal location for an expansion of the Civic Campus in 2016 and worked with an external consulting group on a city space-needs assessment in 2017.

According to the City’s “Invest in Roseville” website, the current facility has only about one-third of the space it needs to operate efficiently.

“With parts of the building dating back to 1957, the facility is too small and too old to adequately manage the variety of operations and essential city services it supports,” the website states. Much of the operations facility is outdated, falling behind present-day safety and security standards too.

The Determans attended a community meeting in August 2022 and had an opportunity to view some initial design renderings and offer feedback to the design consultants the City hired.

“When questions came up about how awful this would be, they just told us to talk to the City Council,” Amy Determan said.

The neighbors recall receiving information about the plan in mailings and postcards and in articles from the City News newsletter, but say no one from the City staff or Council has reached out for their feedback directly since 2022.

The Pre-Design plan concept rendered by the BKV Group and presented to the City Council on October 10, 2022. The residents of Griggs St live alongside the area marked with the number 9 on this graphic.

Griggs residents expressed concern about how replacing the park with a large maintenance facility might impact their daily lives as well as their property values.

“I get it, the city needs a bigger facility . . . but they’ve got to think about our property depreciation too. That’s huge!” said Tyler Kloos.

Matt Drwall has attended some City Council meetings over the years to express his concerns about the project and the impact on their neighborhood during the public comment portion. At the September 23, 2024 City Council meeting when he spoke up about his concern about his property value, Mayor Dan Roe indicated that final design of the project has not been finalized and they would be taking neighborhood concerns seriously as they moved forward. City Manager Pat Trudgeon invited Drwall to follow-up directly for further conversation.

Drwall reached out to Trudgeon to coordinate a meeting with him and the neighborhood group. As of the time this article was published, they are planning to meet the week of October 28.

“Ideally, they would not build a public works facility here. But short of that, they need to compensate us financially for the impact on our property values,” Drwall said.

Grant Determan agreed saying, “Not only will we no longer have a park, but we’ll also have a big building back there.”

The neighbors are worried about noise from snow plows and trucks going in and out of the property, and they also expressed concern over how the construction phase will impact them.

“During the construction, the quality of my life is going to decrease significantly,” Hannah Weaver said. She expressed worry over how the noise might impact her ability to work from home or enjoy being in her backyard.

The Determans’ seven-year-old daughter has sent handwritten letters to each City Councilmember asking them not to build a maintenance facility in her backyard. Their eight-year-old son said the only good thing would be “watching the construction.”

A photo of a letter the Determans' seven-year-old daughter wrote to Councilmember Wayne Groff. The second image has been altered by parental request to blur the child's name and address from the photo. Photo ©2024 by Naomi Krueger

The current pre-design plan includes a 30-foot-wide landscaped berm and a screen wall in front of the paved fire lane adjacent to the back wall of the Operations Facility. The City is also looking at creating a 30-foot green buffer on portions of the northern property line next to Lexington Apartments.

“The City acknowledges the concerns from the neighbors regarding the impact to their property values and will continue to have a dialogue with them regarding any potential impact. We do believe that having green buffers and screening walls will aid in mitigating potential impacts to home values,” City Manager Pat Trudgeon said.

The layout and design of the Operations Building has not been finalized, Trudgeon emphasized. The “Pre-Design Plan” created in 2022 is not set in stone. If the sales tax referendum passes, City Council and staff will have a lot of work to do to hammer out the details of the building design before construction can begin. He anticipates more community conversations with Roseville residents and the Griggs Street neighbors in particular in the weeks and months after the election.

If the ballot measures fail, the City would “go back to the drawing board” Trudgeon said, revisiting the plan and come up with a new way to address the space-needs challenges the City is facing. If the projects aren’t funded through a sales tax, then the budget would need to come from funds generated through property taxes as part of the annual budgeting process that is approved by City Council. It would not come back to voters to decide on a future ballot.

“Everyone I talk to is saying we’re getting two false choices for how we’re going to pay for this, so I’m going to choose the one that affects me less. But none of the questions are should we build this. I don’t think they’ve made a reasonable case for why they need it,” Grant Determan said.

Relocating activities at Veterans Park

A view from the eastern edge of Veterans Park near sunset. Photo © 2024 by Naomi Krueger

In addition to the impact on neighbors, the City will be navigating the loss of Veterans Park for the wider community. The park includes a playground, half-court basketball, green space, and a ball field. Current programs using the park, including senior softball, youth softball, and youth soccer, will need to be relocated.

“Building on the land of Veterans Park is a loss for our parks system,” Councilmember Jason Etten said. “A smaller park space next to the main City Hall building is part of the campus master plan. That new space will be named for our veterans which is very important to those who have served in our military, the City Council, and residents.”

City staff intend to conduct a system-wide needs assessment in order to relocate the programs that currently occur at Veterans Park, according to City Manager Trudgeon. The City will consider multiple options, including relocating programs to other park facilities, developing facilities in parks that may be underutilized, and discussing collaboration opportunities with the Roseville Area School District. At a May 2024 Roseville School Board meeting, City staff presented a proposal to collaborate to develop some district land into a park. No final decisions have been made regarding this potential collaboration.

The VFW is also impacted. In collaboration between the City and the VFW, a new building is being proposed south of Woodhill Drive right next to the proposed new License and Passport Center. The rebuilding of the VFW is not included in the projected costs and would not be funded by the proposed sales tax that is on the ballot. The City will be purchasing the land currently occupied by the VFW.

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Previous articles in this series on the civic campus expansion include:

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Note: An article is in process about the current space-needs and challenges of the Public Works and Parks departments and how the new proposed Operations Facility will address those needs. Subscribe to be one of the first in Roseville to get the next article directly in your inbox.

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