To keep a trail or vacate a right-of-way?
Neighbors in one Roseville neighborhood disagree about what path to take
An informal, wooded trail in a Roseville neighborhood is at the center of a debate at City Hall this week.
City staff are recommending to city council to vacate a right-of-way (ROW) and return the land back to the property owners. They city will keep ROW access for the stormwater sewer and sanitary sewer beneath this 50-foot-wide stretch, but the city has no plans to put a road there.
The segment of land goes between Roselawn Ave on the south end to where Aldine St. intersects with Ryan St at the north end. The trail is nestled between private properties on Mid Oaks Lane to the East, and private properties bordering Roselawn and Ryan to the west.
Over the course of notifying the neighborhood about the public hearing and the resolution to vacate this ROW back to the property owners, it came to light that an unofficial trail through that area has been used for decades as a shortcut from Ryan to Roselawn.
Here’s Roseville Reader video footage of the trail, walking south toward Roselawn Ave:
The city held a public hearing on April 21 during the city council meeting, and several residents of the neighborhood came forward to express support or opposition to the resolution to vacate the right-of-way. All eight property owners along the right-of-way spoke or signed a letter in support of the resolution to return the land back to them. Five residents from the surrounding neighborhood spoke against it, hoping the trail could remain.
“It’s always enchanting to walk through it and come out into the farm fields where you can see the full sky,” Stephanie Kiihn Aschenbrenner, a resident on Herschel St, said at the hearing.
Cindy Gallaher, also from Herschel, said she’s been using the trail for thirty-five years and is grateful for the access to the University of Minnesota agricultural fields, on the south side of Roselawn Ave.
“I’m always wondering if I’m trespassing because you’re walking along somebody’s yard,” Gallaher said. “I want to be hopeful that [the trail] will continue. It’s really a nice spot in our neighborhood and it does connect the two neighborhoods.”
Because the trail is not an official city pathway, there is no signage and no maintenance by the city. There is also no sidewalk on the north side of Roselawn where the trail connects and no crosswalk to the other side.
“It was never put in the master pathway plan, it wasn’t brought up in the past. Why, I don’t know . . .” Jesse Freihammer, public works director, said. “This one was new to staff.”
Kevin Watson, from Aldine St, spoke up in favor of the trail remaining, saying that his neighbors use it regularly. Watson referenced the city’s strategic plan, saying keeping the trail was aligned with the city’s priories for neighborhood connectivity, environmental sustainability, and inclusivity.
“My family uses it all the time to walk our dog. We certainly walk through the fields, we walk to the State Fair through this pathway,” Watson said.
To access the trail, you need to pass through what appears to be the front yard of the home at the south east side of the Aldine and Ryan, to the left of this street sign:
The path comes out at Roselawn Ave, but once out of the woods, the path is less clear. Here’s a photo of the path where it emerges from the woods, seemingly into the driveway of this private home.
From Roselawn, the informal trail looks like this:
Why this trail is here is not fully known, but Freihammer made a guess during the meeting that when the sewers were installed here decades ago, trees might have been cut down for it, leaving what looked like a natural walking path.
Rachel Brown, resident on Roselawn Ave, shared her perspective as one of the property owners along the trail, coming with a letter in hand signed by all eight of the adjacent property owners affirming their support for the vacation of the ROW.
“We’ve been learning what a right-of-way is, what an easement is. We’ve been working together as a community to talk about how we would use this property if it is returned to us,” Brown said. She described the neighbors’ intent to take better care of the mature oak trees, remove invasive Buckthorn, and add native plantings.
“Let us start tending the land the way we really want to,” Brown said.
Brown also expressed frustration that she hasn’t been able to expand her one-car garage or convert her gravel driveway into a paved driveway, due to the right-of-way. If that land were to be returned to her, she could improve her garage and driveway.
“I’ve been absolutely gracious as people walk by, but . . . people just walk by whenever they want. It’s really intrusive,” Brown said.
Tim Brown, from Mid Oaks Ln, also spoke up in favor of returning the land to the property owners. If the city chose to keep the right-of-way and instead turn it into an official pathway, he’s concerned that it could mean clearing out some of the mature oak trees.
“Those are magic for us. We have about twenty of these oak trees, including four in that zone. If the pathway were formalized, it would really change the character of this magic anyway,” he said.
Olivia Galt, of Hershel Street, expressed a hope that the wild nature of the trail could be maintained, even if the city keeps the right-of-way.
“If we formally know where we can be, that will be helpful. If it can be just a slightly maintained, wild trail, as opposed to a sidewalk, that would be wonderful,” Galt said. “It really is used by the neighborhood constantly. It’s a wonderful part of our neighborhood.”
Several letters from neighbors adjacent to the right-of-way were also submitted to the city council before or during the meeting, expressing their support for vacation of the right-of-way.
After hearing all of the comments, the city council asked follow-up questions to city staff and knocked around different options for how to proceed. Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to table the resolution to vacate the right-of-way and directed staff to survey the area and gather more details about what it would mean to hypothetically add the trail to the city’s master pathway plan.
No specific timeline for next steps was established during the meeting, but Pat Trudgeon, city manager, told the Roseville Reader that the next meeting with this on the agenda is tentatively planned for June.