Plans for Redesigned Albert Park & Officer Scott Patrick Memorial

Thanks to Minnesota Locks for their support.

With the planned reconfiguration of the Smith/Dodd intersection next year, West St. Paul is also redesigning park space. Initial plans were shared with the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee last month and the city is now asking for public input.

Short version: The new spaces include an expanded Albert Park, a new memorial space for a police officer killed at the intersection in 2014, and enhanced landscaping on the south corner. The designs are preliminary and vary based on potential redevelopment (that may or may not happen) with work expected in 2026.

Intersection Redesign

First, it helps to picture the redesigned intersection and how new park spaces are expanded and created. Here’s a visualization from the city:

Preliminary Designs

The preliminary designs focus on three spaces—Albert Park, Officer Scott Patrick Memorial, and the currently empty lot at 1010 Dodd:

Albert Park

The smallest park in West St. Paul, Albert Park has a quirky history. It’s not actually the smallest park in the U.S. as claimed, and it’s going to get bigger and more useful. The designers started with four concepts and narrowed it to two, presenting concepts 2 and 4 to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.

• Expanded: The road realignment means vacating a portion of Dodd Road between Smith and Bernard, which will expand Albert Park.
• Even more expansion: It could expand even further, depending on potential redevelopment. The owner of Doddway Center proposed redeveloped in 2021, though their plans have not been finalized and are still up in the air. The Albert Park expansion is being planned with and without the redevelopment, one that works with the existing site and one that incorporates the redevelopment, swapping unused portions of nearby Dodd Park to expand Albert Park. This is perhaps the biggest unknown in the park plans.
• Features: The Albert Park plans include seating, a walkway/plaza area, pergola, sculptural elements including large WSP letters that could be brushed steel or colored, and more.
• Obelisk: What about the existing obelisk in Albert Park? That’s yet to be determined. The city isn’t sure if it can be safely moved.
• Smallest: The city is considering embracing the quirky nature of Albert Park and potentially creating a tiny “Albert Park” within the larger “Albert Plaza” to make a claim at “smallest park” status (Mill Ends Park in Oregon is a two-foot circle, so smallest in the U.S. is unlikely, but maybe it could be the smallest in Minnesota?).
• Preference: The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee preferred concept 2 if there’s no redevelopment and concept 4 if there is redevelopment.

Officer Scott Patrick Memorial

Mendota Heights Police Officer Scott Patrick was killed during a traffic stop near the Smith/Dodd intersection in 2014. There’s been a temporary memorial at the site since then and a monument in Mendota Heights installed in 2018, though the family wants something permanent at the location.

• Family input: The park designers consulted with the Patrick family on the design and they wanted a welcoming space that invites the community in. They wanted something more than a simple plaque (like the existing monument in Mendota Heights). Other elements they mentioned included comfortable seating, fruit trees, and a meandering path.
• Location: The road realignment shifts the intersection to the south, creating new city land on the northwest corner that is the proposed site.
• Other features: A swing bench, memorial plaques, and water feature are some of the potential elements proposed.
• Access: The design will also include a reconfiguration of the Zak’s Auto Service parking lot that exits onto Smith Avenue.

1010 Dodd

Shifting the Smith/Dodd intersection south will take up most of the empty lot at 1010 Dodd, but there will be some space there and the city plans for enhanced landscaping to make the most of it. Potential elements include plantings, wrapping utility boxes in art, and bird/bee habitat.

What’s Next

Public engagement: The Smith-Dodd Public Space Improvement Project plans are available on the city website and the city is asking for input through a community survey.

Timeline: While work on the intersection realignment is planned for 2025, the work on the park space will come in 2026. That gives more time for potential redevelopment to happen as well as finding more funding sources.

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