A Burnsville property owner wants to turn a former garbage dump into a high-tech driving range and pickleball stadium, an ambitious concept that has drawn scrutiny from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency over plans they say fail to address decades-old underlying contamination at the site.
Michael McGowan recently unveiled development plans for Big Hits at the Gateway, an entertainment complex centered around a three-story golf driving range, restaurant and pickleball complex with indoor and outdoor courts. Currently, the Chalet Driving Range sits on the site, which rests along Interstate 35W and the Minnesota River in Burnsville. McGowan is the second-generation owner of the site, where the long-closed Freeway Dump once operated.
While McGowan’s Freeway Properties development team has celebrated what could be a regional draw for the area, MPCA officials are concerned with the pollutants in the ground. Those pollutants, left in place, eventually could contaminate area drinking water. The MPCA is also concerned with the old dump’s proximity to the Minnesota River.
The Freeway Dump operated from 1960 to 1969, when few regulations concerning the operation and location of landfills or dump sites existed. The waste is currently covered with grass and other vegetation. There is also a nearby landfill site that was operated by the McGowan family, northwest of the Chalet Golf site, known as the Freeway Landfill. The unlined landfill accepted refuse from 1969 to 1990.
The Big Hits development would not involve the Freeway Landfill site.
McGowan said his father, Richard, has been trying to redevelop the land for 55 years, since the dump closed. Decades ago, there was talk of a furniture store. Then, murmurs about a car dealership, he said, recalling preliminary chats with the Walser and Luther automotive groups. In 2000, a large-scale amphitheater to be placed on top of the old Freeway Landfill reached planning stages, in partnership with then-ownership of the Minnesota Wild.
But over time, nothing came to fruition.
“The common stumbling block has always been the MPCA,” McGowan said. “All the McGowans want is to be treated fairly like similar brownfield sites. We have absolutely not been treated like other landfills.”
MPCA officials said they talked to the developers about plans last year, but have not had discussions about the most recent concept. Representatives from Freeway Properties said they have reached out to the MPCA to discuss plans.
In terms of how the MPCA views the site compared to other former dumps, MPCA Assistant Commissioner for Land Policy and Strategic Initiatives Kirk Koudelka said this site brings several unique characteristics, particularly due to the proximity to drinking water and the Minnesota River.
“The specifics matter,” Koudelka said. “We have to be protective of those drinking water sources in the area.”
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Through the last few decades, the McGowans and MPCA officials have gone back and forth about how to best mitigate the site. Two main options from the MPCA emerged.
The first option involved creating a new, modern landfill on the old Freeway Landfill site and moving the refuse from the old Freeway Dump to the new landfill at an estimated cost of $117 million.
The second option was excavating both the old landfill and the old dump and moving the contents to a different, modern landfill site, with projected costs of anywhere between $165 million and $538 million.
At the end of the day, the concerns are the same, Koudelka said.
“At this time we have a number of concerns, and they don’t address the underlying issue,” Koudelka said. “The previous plans we have seen do not address the actual source of waste.”
Garbage to golf
Plans for Big Hits at the Gateway — so named for how the parcel of land has been referred to as the “gateway of Burnsville” — call for a three-story structure with 100 golf driving bays, a full-service restaurant and bar, and corporate and event center space.
The concept also includes 17 pickleball courts spread across indoor and outdoor facilities, with one of the courts outfitted to attract professional tournament play, LSE Architects CEO and co-founder Mohammed Lawal said. His firm has been brought into the fold as part of the project development team.
The plans also include trail connections to the Minnesota River Trailhead, Lawal said.
On the west side of the proposed driving range, a lined and capped berm would be created to store the old waste excavated in creating the site’s new building. (Courtesy of Freeway Properties)
On the west side of the driving range, a lined and capped berm would be created. That would store the old waste excavated in creating the site’s new buildings, he said. A lined stormwater collection pond would rest along I-35W, along with pollinator gardens throughout the property.
The McGowan development team has created websites detailing the history of the area, and their development efforts, at FreewayLandfillFacts.com and BetterforBurnsville.com.
The plans have been submitted to the city of Burnsville. The Burnsville planning commission will formally review the project and make a recommendation by late summer or early fall. The Burnsville City Council would then review the project proposal.
Worries about future water
While the groundwater table is currently safe, and drinking water is healthy, MPCA officials maintain they are concerned about the future.
The cities of Savage and Burnsville pump drinking water from the nearby Kraemer Mining and Materials quarry. The quarry currently pumps water for its operations, too, thereby depressing the groundwater table and keeping groundwater away from the underground dump sites.
The fear, Koudelka said, is that once the Kraemer quarry stops pumping water, the groundwater table will rise, flooding the old polluted sites, and contaminating the drinking water of Savage and Burnsville.
The timeline of when Kraemer Mining will stop pumping has not been announced.
The MPCA has already installed a network of groundwater monitoring wells, showing that contamination is widespread within the waste footprint and also has moved outside the perimeter of the old dump sites. Tests have shown elevated levels of heavy metals and chemicals like per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), vinyl chloride, benzene and 1,4-dioxane.
For their part, McGowan’s development team said they have engaged with four different engineering firms, and that they believe the site in its current state is not a hazardous risk to the public. Freeway Properties officials are confident they could control groundwater at the old dump sites in order to mitigate any potential contamination.
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“We feel the site is developable,” McGowan said.
They believe the new plans, with ongoing monitoring of the site, would suffice.
The MPCA, however, believes differently.
Building a new project on the site without properly disposing of the contaminants below would also make future efforts to clean up the area even more difficult and costly, Koudelka said.
“We’re supportive of getting the sites cleaned up, but plans need to address the underlying issue,” Koudelka said. “The contamination is needed to be addressed to protect the drinking water for the communities of Burnsville and Savage.”
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