1999: Voters Decide on Dakota County’s Northern Service Center

Thanks to Block Portrait Studios, Clothesline Laundromat, and Jameson’s Irish Bar for their support.

On March 16, 1999, West St. Paul voters went to the polls in a special election to decide if West St. Paul should host the proposed Dakota County Northern Service Center. At stake was an18-acre site, a $40-million project, the city’s second largest employer, and angry neighbors who gathered enough signatures to force a city-wide election.

Why it matters: History repeats itself as many of the same arguments and issues raised in 1999 came up again in 2022 with debate over a proposed mental health crisis center to be located on the same Northern Service Center property.

Results: Voters approved the Dakota County Northern Service Center by an 11-point margin.

	Number of Votes	Percent of Votes
Yes:	2,338	55.5%
No:	1,871	44.4%

Turnout: 35% of voters turned out for the referendum, which is considered high for a special election where average turnout might be closer to 10%.

The Service Center Proposal

What was the idea?: Back in 1987, Dakota County developed a strategy to serve the entire county with three separate government centers spread throughout the county offering a range of county services. The Hastings facility opened in 1990 and the Apple Valley location opened in 1991. By the late 1990s, Dakota County was looking to add the third government center to serve the northern-most portion of the county.

Vying proposals: More than 18 months of study and debate whittled proposed sites down to three locations in Inver Grove Heights, South St. Paul, and West St. Paul.

Decision: In late 1998, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners selected the West St. Paul location for a proposed building that would ultimately be 243,392 square feet on 18 acres and cost $40.3 million.

The site: The final location was on West St. Paul’s southern border fronting Mendota Road. It would combine the industrial Schanno Transportation site and the vacant lot owned by the nonprofit Wedum Presbyterian Homes. At the time, Strkyer Avenue connected with Mendota Road but would be cut off to accommodate the project.

Aerial photos showing the Northern Service Center in 2000 before construction began and 2022.

The Debate

While the Dakota County board had made their decision, that was just the beginning. Neighbors, many of whom were just learning about the project, confronted the West St. Paul City Council with their concerns.

The issues varied wildly:

• Loss of property tax revenue.
• Lack of notification.
• Concerns about the impact to property values.
• Suggestions the project would be bad for business.
• Fears of increased traffic on Robert Street.
• Located near an elementary school and next to a neighborhood with families with young children.
• Proposing an office building in a residential area.
• Lighting.
• Future control over the site.
• Concerns about “welfare recipients” and “criminals.”
• Rumors of the facility housing a jail (untrue) or truck parking for the county (especially ironic, considering the site already hosted a trucking operation).

Summing up the debate: “For every myth we dispel, another one will take its place,” Dakota County Commissioner Patrice Bataglia said in a Sun-Current article.

The Path to a Special Election

The vote: West St. Paul needed to vacate Stryker Avenue to make way for the proposed county building.

• First vote: After hearing from the community, the City Council split. Council Members Kevin Finnegan, David Meisinger, and Lee Walker voted no. Council Members Greg Shepherd, Dick Vitelli, and Greg Whebbe voted yes. Mayor Michael Bisanz had to break the tie, voting yes.
• Petition: Opponents to the project collected 1,126 signatures in a petition to bring the Council’s decision to voters in a special referendum election.
• Shenanigans: The petition was called into question when the city clerk deemed 136 signatures ineligible. Then another 78 of the petitioners asked to be withdrawn, some noting deceptive tactics and false information. That would be enough to derail the push for a special election, which required 928 signatures. But the city’s charter doesn’t have a provision to withdraw support from a petition, so the 78 were not withdrawn and the petition was successful.
• Second vote: The first step of a successful petition referendum is for Council to reconsider the issue. City Council voted again, and reaffirmed their yes vote by a 5-1 margin with Meisinger the lone no vote (Finnegan and Walker switched to yes; newly elected Vivian Hart, who replaced Shepherd, voted yes).
• Special election: With Council reaffirming the vote, the issue went to a city-wide special election on March 16 for voters to decide.

Fun fact: The West St. Paul City Charter gives residents the power to bring issues directly to the voters, by forcing City Council to consider a proposed ordinance in an initiative or let voters reconsider a Council action in a referendum. Charter allows for these actions with a petition of at least 10% of voters from the last election. This 1999 referendum is likely the only time this power has been used in West St. Paul history.

How to Word the Question

The question on the ballot read as follows:

“Shall the city of West St. Paul vacate the southern 440 feet of Stryker Avenue nearest Mendota Road/Southview Boulevard, which adjoins the property proposed for the Dakota County Northern Service Center?”

Even wording the ballot question drew debate. Council Member Meisinger argued it shouldn’t mention the service center since that wasn’t specified in the original ordinance.

“I voted against the vacating of Stryker Avenue but I did not vote against the service center,” Meisinger said, as reported in the Sun-Current. “[If] this ballot question goes out for ballot, it looks like I voted against the service center.” The two stances were effectively the same thing. (In a straw poll after the referendum vote, Meisinger was the only Council member who admitted to voting no; Hart declined to say how she voted.)

Meisinger’s proposed changes were rejected, as was a suggestion by Council Member Vitelli. City Attorney Rollin Crawford wasn’t entirely happy with the language either, but no other changes were proposed and the language passed on a 5-1 vote with Meisinger the lone no vote.

Run up to the Special Election

Heading into the special election, the City Council created a task force to gather confirmed facts and dispel rumors. Council Members Hart and Meisinger co-chaired the committee, along with both proponents and opponents of the project. Residents served as contact people for their respective sides, Jill O’Rourke for opponents and Darlene Lewis for proponents.

• The task force created two positions papers for each stance that were published in the local newspaper (see below for the full text of these papers).
• The city provided 75 pages of answers responding to 105 questions about the project.
• A live debate about the issue was broadcast on cable TV.
• The local newspaper ran multiple letters to the editor on both sides of the issue.

Voices at the Time

• The mayor: “This is life or death to the City of West St. Paul,” Bisanz said in a 1998 Sun-Current article. “A no vote on this center will be the worst thing to happen to this city in 25 years.”
• Council member in support: “I know in my heart that this is the best thing for the community,” Vitelli said in a 1998 Sun-Current article. “And I plan to do everything possible to make sure it comes here and benefits our community.”
• Council member opposed: “I’m skeptical,” said Meisinger in a 1999 Sun-Current article. “I’m a numbers man and I just haven’t seen the proof yet.”
• City staff: “We had sent that out and gotten community support, what we had felt was strong community support,” said West St. Paul City Manager Dianne Krogh in a 1998 Pioneer Press article. “Not one time in the last 18 months have we heard one negative comment about the Northern Service Center coming to West St. Paul.”
• Leading voice in the opposition: “This was a very hush-hush deal. In two days we were able to acquire 300 signatures, and we probably went to 150 homes in that area. That means to me that somebody was fooling somebody when they said there was no opposition. The reason is that we didn’t know.” -Roger ‘Skip’ Felton in a 1998 Pioneer Press article
• Resident in support: “People are always afraid of change. We have to look at this in the long run and in that view this is a win-win situation for the city and people of West St. Paul.” -Tom Gotofski, who volunteered for the ‘Vote Yes’ committee, in a 1999 Sun-Current article
• Resident opposed: “These people are trying to sneak something in to West St. Paul without the knowledge or consent of the people. We don’t want the Northern Service Center in this community. We don’t need any more traffic on Robert Street.” -Howie Wold in a 1998 Sun-Current article
• Stakeholder in support: “It’s the most easily accessible by bus, and it’s easy to find,” Kurt Erickson, a business representative with AFSCME who represents many of the county’s employees, said in a 1999 Pioneer Press article. “These people (the opponents) are basically saying we don’t want these unwashed single mothers bringing their hungry children into our town to get their welfare benefits. It’s just wrong, and it’s terrible class-based bigotry.”
• Opposition leader after the vote: “I’m disappointed that we weren’t able to show people that this was not a good thing for the community, but I’m glad that we had the opportunity to go through a political process and make ourselves heard.” -Joel Knoepfler, resident who helped with the petition process in a 1999 Sun-Current article

Northern Service Center Opens

After the controversial special election, the project moved forward with unprecedented community input on the building design. The Dakota County Northern Service Centered opened in July 2002 with an open house in August.

“It was important to us to construct a building that would be here for decades to come, something that citizens would be proud of, but that isn’t extravagant,” Dakota County Board Chair Donald Maher said in a 2002 Sun-Current article.

And the concerns of neighbors? “It just didn’t happen,” Vitelli said as a Council member in 2022.

History Repeats

In late 2022, a proposed mental health crisis center to be located on the same Northern Service Center property rekindled many of the same arguments heard during the late 1990s.

• Perennial concerns include traffic, neighborhood impacts, and broad stereotypes about the potential people involved.
• Local governments are continually criticized for not properly notifying residents. Invariably there are always multiple opportunities to learn about a project, but it’s never enough and people generally aren’t paying attention. [Plug for supporting local news that keeps residents informed: You can support West St. Paul Reader by becoming a member.]

Familiar names: More than a few familiar names crop up in this story that also crop up in the 2022 mental health crisis center debate.

• In 1999, Joe Atkins and Kathleen Gaylord were mayors of Inver Grove Heights and South St. Paul, respectively, and pushed for the service center to be located in their cities. In 2022, they were both Dakota County commissioners supporting the mental health center.
• In 1999, Joel Knoepfler served on a five-member committee circulating a petition opposing the project, while Dick Vitelli served on City Council and supported the project. In 2022, both Knoepfler and Vitelli again spoke up, again on opposite sides of the issue.

Addendum: Position Papers

In 1999, the West St. Paul City Council created a task force comprised of residents opposed and in favor of the Northern Service Center (NSC). The group created separate position papers to advocate their views. Those papers are presented below, as they appeared in the Sun Current.

NSC Proponents: Vote Yes	NSC Opponents: Vote No
Clientele/Public Safety and Clarification of Services It will not be a jail or day reporting center, nor are there any future plans to include them. The County Board has not endorsed a day reporting system anywhere in the county. Should it ever be approved the staff would not support placement in the NSC. The county provides numerous services and many of these services are now in West St. Paul or have been in the past, including probation reporting. The concern that some clients are on probation is lessened by experience. Similar services in Hastings and Apple Valley have not created problems for these cities. The clients that will use the NSC are you, your children, your parents, and your neighbors. The NSC will also be a workplace. We believe the location of the NSC should be more an issue of usefulness and convenience rather than of “social class.”	Clientele/Public Safety and Clarification of Services The NSC will bring more than 20,000 visits by convicted criminals annually to West St. Paul. Fully 38 percent of these visits would be from criminals living in places like Hennepin or Ramsey County, and imported directly into a single family residential neighborhood. Only 184 current probationers live in West St. Paul. Of the total of these criminals, 63 percent will have committed felony or gross misdemeanor offenses. County wide, 4 percent of criminals are sex offenders and a third of these are pedophiles. The NSC will be located less than 1,000 feet from an elementary school and adjacent to neighborhoods heavily populated by families with young children and senior citizens. The proposed NSC only offers the addition of a Service and Information Desk to government services already offered in West St. Paul and South St. Paul. If the NSC were to be located at one of the other proposed locations, these services would still be conveniently located for residents of West St. Paul
Traffic The closing of 440 feet of Stryker will reroute only 800 cars a day to other streets. The cul-de-sac at Stryker Avenue should make the neighborhood more desirable and private. County engineers estimate 90 percent of the traffic will come from the south and the city has agreed to work with neighborhood associations to address the traffic concerns.	Traffic The county projects and additional 5,000 vehicle trips a day to the NSC. No studies have been completed or commissioned to determine what impact this increase in traffic will have on the already congested intersections at Mendota Road and Robert Street or Highway 110. The increased traffic in these areas may actually act as a barrier to NSC employees’ patronage of West St. Paul businesses, since it will be much more difficult to access Robert Street. This site also makes it very difficult to get to the businesses in West St. Paul. A majority of the current county employees who would be transferred to the NSC live south of West St. Paul. It is very doubtful that these employees will fight traffic to get on and go north on Robert Street into the heart of West St. Paul for shopping or eating. It is more likely they will make the trip south to Eagan or Inver Grove Heights.
Site Design Final design for the $35 million premier office building is not complete but it will occupy the proposed 18-acre parcel bisected by Stryker Avenue. Half of this site is now currently occupied by Schanno Transportation and the other half is vacant land, which is currently off the tax rolls since it is owned by the non-profit Wedum/Presbyterian Homes Inc. To preserve the privacy of nearby homes the county’s preliminary design locates the NSC almost three football fields (800 feet) away from current residents.	Site Design The county has yet to provide a detailed design of the NSC at this site. We don’t know the building height or final size, both important issues. Additionally, the county has not committed to any limitations on future expansion or changes in use. A recent discussion about the potential day reporting center is further evidence of this lack of control. While county staff has not supported the location of this service for monitoring criminals, the County Board has asked for a study of cost effectiveness at this site. A presentation at a County Board meeting in October 1998 indicates that the NSC is the most economically favorable site for this service for criminals. Further, since the city of West St. Paul has no oversight over this project the county is free to build whatever it chooses. Neither the city of West St. Paul nor the citizens will have any say in what will be built on this site, just as they had no voice in the placement of pawn shops along Robert Street.
Economic Impact We believe the economic opportunities will have a tremendous impact on our city and far outweigh the property tax loss of Schanno property. The NSC will be the largest employer in our city with 570 professional jobs paying an average of $42,000 per year. The West St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, whose members include the South Robert Street Business Association and the Smith Dodd Business Association along with the Signal Hills Merchant Association all said these employees would spend money on goods and services throughout the city. The NSC is an important first step in the much-needed revitalization of South Robert STreet and the city. We can’t afford to miss this opportunity; it may never be there again.	Economic Impact Those proposing this site have painted a rosy picture of revitalization of the city by having the NSC at this site. The proposed NSC site is at the southernmost border of West St. Paul. The lion’s share of any benefits will certainly be going to Inver Grove Heights. The site is actually closer and more accessible to the new commercial areas in Inver Grove Heights than to the northern shopping area on Robert Street, the area with the most pressing need of revitalization. If the NSC is located elsewhere, not only with the current 57,000 square foot county building on Wentworth be available for private businesses to bring jobs to the city, but the Schanno/Presbyterian Homes site can be developed to bring even more jobs into the city. The owners of both of these sites would pay real estate taxes, the county will not. An additional burden will be the cost of providing services to the NSC. This building, like any other, will require city services like ambulance, fire, police calls and other regular and expensive city benefits. The county will not pay anything for these services. In fact, the city has agreed to waive its normal inspection fees for the construction of the NSC, depriving the city of more than $160,000 in fees.
Environmental Impact Except for some pockets of poor soil making the property unsuitable for development of single family homes, there are no known environmental issues that would prevent the construction of the NSC. The county will hire a consulting firm to prepare the Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) to ensure the proposed development avoids damage to environmental resources. The county’s practice is to retain as many trees as possible and provide alternative professional landscaping. The opposition fears possible fuel leks on the Schanno site. Although none are known to exist, if excavation reveals leaks Schanno is required to pay the costs to remedy.
Property Tax Impact A much discussed issue. When the county vacates and sells its property at 33 E. Wentworth the $75,000 annual property tax will offset the $45,000 annual taxes currently paid by the Schanno property. This is a $30,000 tax gain. Even if a major retailer built on the Schanno site, the taxes would not be a net gain for the city over the NSC if the value were less than or equal to the current value.	Property Tax Impact The city will actually gain if the NSC goes elsewhere through increased real estate tax revenue. Both the proposed NSC site and the county building on Wentworth could pay significant real estate taxes if they were privately owned. By the county’s estimate, this tax revenue could exceed $160,000 annually, thereby relieving the residential taxpayer of that burden. If the NSC is built at this site, the county tax revenue will be reduced by at least $45,000 annually, perhaps more.
Government Process The city of West St. Paul, along with four other cities, has been vying to secure the NSC for the last 18 months. Countless public meetings have been held on this issue, including the City Council, the Economic Development Commission, and the Planning Commission. More than eight newspaper articles and three separate city newsletters attempted to inform the citizens about this process. The Schanno property is zoned industrial and the Wedum/Presbyterian Homes site is zoned residential. Municipal centers such as the NSC are permitted uses in both these zones. Construction of the NSC on the Schanno property eliminates the threat of the land being sold for industrial purposes. The mayor and City Council acted in good faith because there was no opposition prior to their decision.	Government Process The city of West St. Paul failed to adequately inform citizens about the proposed building at the NSC site. This is another example of government ignoring your opinion. There has never been a public hearing regarding this or any other site in West St. Paul. When questioned about the lack of public discussion on what the city has deemed the most important development issue in years, the response was that, we didn’t have to tell you. If this is the solution to the economic vitality of the city, why didn’t the city announce it in the very early stages? The answer is that the city knew it was controversial, unjustified and poorly planned. Neighborhood associations, touted as the link between the city and its neighborhoods, were never informed. The city kept its plans to place the NSC in this residential neighborhood low key until the hearing on the closing of Stryker Avenue, too late for any citizen objections.
Site Selection The West St. Paul site was chosen because it was the best site for the NSC, and this became apparent to the County Board after an 18-month search process. The county chose from 28 possible sites. It determined this site best fit the 12 established selection criteria. The two strongest features are its proximity to customers and population, and its accessibility to major highways. It’s easily accessible from Interstate 494, highways 110 and 52, Robert Street, MTCO, and DARTS.	Site Selection The logic of placing a 210,000 square foot office building (with plans to expand to more than 300,000 square feet) in a residential zoned (R1) parcel would not be acceptable to anyone in their neighborhood. The Apple Valley Western Service Center is in a downtown commercial area; Hastings was placed in a rural area with no previous development around it.
Civic Pride The challenge of this one page position paper was to summarize the 75 pages of answers provided by the city and the county to the 105 questions raised by the opponents of the NSC. We, who are in favor of the NSC, believe it is the best thing to happen to West St. Paul. It was a great day when our city was selected for Dakota County’s $35 million premier office building. The NSC is a boost that will ignite redevelopment and civic pride. It’s this type of development that will make our city grow and proper. This will make our city an even better and safer place to live, work, shop, and raise our families. For a better West St. Paul, vote “yes” on March 16.	Civic Pride Those citizens of West St. Paul who believe in and are proud of their city should have the confidence to reject inadequately researched, poorly planned and simply incorrect developments like the NSC. Our elected officials should have the imagination and creativity to lead our city in the future. By accepting any development simply because West St. Paul has the available site is not in our best interest. Every voter should vote “no” to this $35,000,000 government facility for the same reasons they would object to another pawn shop or check cashing business. Help make West St. Paul a great community by being willing to limit what is acceptable in our city. Vote “no” on March 16!

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