By Mollee Francisco 

Apologies abounded Monday night, but they weren’t enough to appease residents of the Points West neighborhood.

Several members of the Chaska City Council apologized that Points West residents weren’t notified earlier about specific development plans for a community park, including a baseball field, just to the east of them.

The council then voted 4-1, with Councilor Jay Rohe dissenting, to proceed with amended plans for Veterans Memorial Park.

“It takes a community effort to provide facilities for our children, our residents,” said Councilor Gino Businaro. “I don’t have a better answer (for where to put a baseball field) than what administration came up with.”

“We have to represent the entire community,” said Councilor Bob Lindall. “Not just your neighborhood.”

Points West residents opposed the baseball field element of the park with concerns of noise, light, litter and increased traffic in their neighborhood.

“We don’t like crowd noise,” said resident Christian Ward. “We don’t like lights. We don’t like drawing a certain type of crowd into the neighborhood on a regular basis.” 

Mark Fancher, of the Chaska Area Baseball Association, said that a lack of facilities in Chaska has meant that many youth baseball games have to be played out of town. Fancher estimated that “half to three quarters” of their games are played outside of Chaska.

“How come my neighbors and I have to take it for the team?” asked resident Taylor Hubbord. “What about us? What do we get? How come we have to take sacrifices for everyone else?”

May approval

The council first approved plans for the park in May 2007. It would be located between Victoria Drive and new Highway 212 and called for a veterans memorial on the east side of the park and a lighted baseball field on the west side, closest to the Points West neighborhood. A parking lot and playground would be located between the two large elements.

Points West residents contacted the council in October in the hopes of blocking the plans, with a petition signed by a majority of area residents. In late November, the council voted to stop work on the park in order to send plans to the Park Board for review and comment.

The Park Board reviewed the plans earlier this month and recommended approval of modified park plans which included relocating the parking to “promote use” of Victoria Drive instead of private neighborhood streets. The amended plans also moved the ball field 30 feet northeast to create “more separation” from homes and create “better interaction between the field and parking.” Parking was upped from 66 to 80 spots and the playground area was tripled in size. 

“You have been heard,” Mayor Gary Van Eyll told Points West residents Monday night. “We have changed some things and we’ve improved (the park).”

Rohe said that he understood the need for facilities in Chaska, but also acknowledged that he “probably wouldn’t want the lighting” in his backyard. He said discussion had also left a question in his mind as to whether or not this was the right location.

But despite his objections, Rohe saw the plan proceeding.

“This is gonna happen,” he said. “I don’t see things changing. I see three, four, or five votes here.”

Notification

What the council did hope to change was notification policies for developments on city-owned land. 

“I think we all agree we made a mistake,” said Van Eyll.

“I feel the beginning of the process didn’t work the way we wanted it to work with communication,” agreed Rohe.

The council directed staff to look into policy changes including the possible adoption of a posting policy that would allow for signage indicating future development sites.

Grading on the Veterans Memorial Park site is expected to continue this year and could be completed as soon as April.