The University of Minnesota is looking to harness the vast amount of wasted and polluted land now referred to as UMore Park in Rosemount and change it into some sort of utopian community centered on sustainable living, mass transit, and a bunch of other hippie bullshit.

Now, I’m all for being “green” (whatever that means these days), sustainable, and riding mass transit as Kim and I do quite a few of those things including CSA participation, riding mass transit and owning only one car, etc, etc, etc. What I’m not all about is taking a piece of property that was once used to create, house and store harmful chemicals and munitions for the government and convert it into a place where 25 to 30 thousand people will live. I personally don’t give a flying fucking rat’s ass what the EPA says, the land is not safe — especially after the EPA decided that a +55ppb increase in the level of acceptable chloroform was all right in only a matter of only 4 years. If they were doing that for chloroform what other numbers are they fudging? The Star Tribune says that there will be even more cleanups done and that should quell the concerns of some of the neighbors of the contaminated lands. Based on what they’ve done so far including piling more dirt on top of it and “sealing it” in concrete, I’m not quite sure that’s adequate enough.

The most interesting piece of this sustainable housing area would be the possibility, one of four presented, that includes a light-rail line linking downtown St Paul with Rosemount. I’m all for this idea but the details, of course, are sketchy and even more sketchy in the newspaper articles I’ve been reading. Thankfully there are some public meetings about the details being held 6/19 and 6/23 beginning at 6pm and include a “light meal”. We are RSVPd for the 23rd and if you’re interested in attending you can register here and view more information about the whole thing here.

The University is really pushing for this to happen and the news has spread like wildfire. In addition to the Star Trib and Pioneer Press articles linked above, there are several other sources of the same information here (Star Tribune), here (MNSun), here and here (Rosemount Town Pages) and finally here (Rosemount News).

Related posts:

1. UMN’s Public Forum on UMore Development
2. UMore 2030 Vision: What Do You Notice?
3. UMore Lands Still Contaminated After EPA Report Says Otherwise
4. Dakota County Wasting Tons of Money on Transit Station
5. Apple Valley Cedar Ave Bus Rapid Transit Display