After years of city planning, debate and delay, the St. Paul City Council on Wednesday is poised to approve sweeping new development standards along the Mississippi River that would loosen height restrictions downtown while requiring a tiered or stepped-back approach, effectively dropping the roof line of new construction as it gets closer to the river’s edge.

It’s a decision at least seven years in the making.

Nearly a decade ago, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources mandated that the state’s riverfront cities rewrite height standards and other requirements for new real estate development overlooking some 72 miles of the Mississippi River. The state published a model set of regulations in 2019 to serve as a regulatory roadmap of sorts.

Minneapolis and St. Paul were among the first of 25 impacted cities to volunteer to take the lead on drafting their own development rules for the “Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area,” with St. Paul agreeing to have its ordinance finalized by January 2021.

That deadline was not met. On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council is poised to approve the capital city’s MRCCA ordinance, making St. Paul the last of 25 metro cities to complete their river corridor rules.

“Of the other 24 cities and townships, none of them had a delay this long from their deadline,” said Colleen O’Connor Toberman, land use and planning program director with the Friends of the Mississippi River. “It’s been tough to get answers from the mayor’s office about why.”

On the other hand, “now all 25 cities and townships have a consistent standard in place … basically from Dayton down to Hastings,” she said. “We’ve never had that before, and this is a very, very long process.”

Six new riverfront districts

Under the new rules, St. Paul’s riverfront zoning will be separated into six distinct districts.

The downtown St. Paul area — which will have the loosest requirements around building heights — is considered the “urban core” district, as opposed to the more restrictive zoning area surrounding the Watergate Marina in Highland Park, which is dubbed the “rural and open space” district.

“Those are like the two ends of the spectrum in terms of development intensity,” Toberman said.

The new “Mississippi River Corridor Critical Area” regulations are not expected to lead to major development changes along the riverfront, but they do seek to put to bed concerns raised by developers that the rules could impede future projects, such as Ramsey County’s long-delayed RiversEdge housing-and-office tower at Wabasha Street and Kellogg Boulevard.

Early drafts of the MRCCA rules called for imposing numerical standards, allowing an extra foot of building height for every five feet of distance stepped back from the river’s edge, as calculated from midway up the downtown bluff. The sloping or layer-cake effect is intended to preserve views of the city from the river, and vice versa.

A rendition of a proposed RiversEdge development along the Mississippi River in downtown St. Paul.
The project would feature four towers of mixed development as well as a bridge extension over Shepard Road and the existing railway to the edge of the Mississippi River, to create a public plaza space. (Courtesy of AECOM)

For the five-acre RiversEdge project, that would likely have limited building heights to 35 feet, or just a story or two above the bluff top near Kellogg Boulevard, before triggering an additional permit process. Proposals, ever in flux, once called for the development to rise as many as 40 stories above Kellogg Boulevard.

“That could chill development from the outset, if a developer says ‘man, I’m never going to meet 35 feet, and I’m going to have to apply for a conditional use permit,’” said St. Paul City Council President Rebecca Noecker, in an interview Monday.

Development advocates weigh in

During a Nov. 19 public hearing before the city council, Claudia Klinkhammer, a redevelopment program manager with Ramsey County, asked the council to loosen height limits downtown in light of the RiversEdge project, which could generate as much as $10 million to $15 million in annual property taxes.

Klinkhammer urged the council to promote the county’s fiscal health while promoting “a more vibrant, a more resilient, and a more economically inclusive downtown.”

Those comments were echoed by John Perlich, a representative of the St. Paul Area Chamber, Jon Fure, executive director of the downtown CapitolRiver Council, and Jacob Hooper, a representative of the pro-development group Sustain St. Paul.

They pointed to the recent loss of downtown commercial properties like Lunds and Byerlys, in contrast to public-facing waterfront projects in cities like Seattle.

“I hope we don’t set back downtown with setbacks,” Hooper said.

Removing numerical standard

At Noecker’s urging, the city council agreed to amend the draft ordinance this month and remove the numerical standard, leaving the more general rules in place surrounding tiered development. The city would still retain some development controls through a site plan review process.

The decision to drop the numerical standard drew some mild pushback at first from the Friends of the Mississippi River, which ultimately accepted the proposal after working closely with the council president.

“The city wants to give developers predictable standards. You don’t want everything to be a public debate,” acknowledged Toberman.

“On the other hand, the downtown riverfront is pretty unique … and the city will want to retain a bit of power over how (downtown riverfront projects are) developed,” she added. “The process this ordinance puts in place will be an OK way to do that.”

Why the delay?

In explaining the delay in 2023, former Planning and Economic Development Director Nicolle Goodman said city planners needed to model how various conceptual projects might fit into the six proposed riverfront zoning districts, including RiversEdge.

“We’re very close to finishing our analysis in the next few weeks, looking at each of those development sites or projects,” said Goodman, in September 2023. “Then we need to decide.”

Goodman stepped down from city employment this year, but Toberman noted the finished plans presented to the St. Paul Planning Commission this fall seemed to reflect hours — not two years — of additional staff analysis.

“Honestly, I think there was some disagreement in the (mayor’s) administration about what direction they wanted to take,” Noecker said. “I think it took way too long to get in front of us. It caused some good questions in the community, and some distrust.”

Bird safety

Even after the council adopts the new rules, some outstanding questions about bird safety remain up in the air, so to speak. Bird advocates have called upon the city to include requirements for bird-safe glass in the riverfront development regulations. St. Paul officials noted that no other city along the Mississippi River corridor had done so, though Minneapolis has created bird-safe standards for its skyway windows.

Still, the St. Paul Planning Commission agreed to conduct a study of how bird-safe glass might eventually be woven into the riverfront zoning rules, “given what a major migratory fly-way the river is for migratory birds,” Toberman said.

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“They’ll be looking at the possibility of putting in a bird-safe standard, possibly citywide, maybe for buildings of a certain size,” she explained. “There’s a lot of good information out there they can use. My concern is not with the study. My concern is with the timing. I don’t think advocates have a lot of confidence in the city following through.”

Noecker said she has asked the city’s department of Planning and Economic Development to update the city council on its progress and findings over the course of the year-long study, rather than waiting until the work is complete.

Today is Tuesday, Dec. 9, the 343rd day of 2025. There are 22 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Dec. 9, 1965, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the first animated TV special featuring characters from the “Peanuts” comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, premiered on CBS.

Also on this date:

In 1979, scientists certified the global eradication of smallpox, a disease which killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century.

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In 1990, Solidarity founder Lech Wałęsa (lek vah-WEN’-sah) won Poland’s first free presidential election since 1926.

In 1992, the first U.S. Marines made a predawn beach landing in Somalia in support of Operation Restore Hope; they were met by hundreds of reporters awaiting their arrival.

In 2006, the space shuttle Discovery launched on a mission to add to and rewire the International Space Station.

In 2013, scientists revealed that NASA’s Curiosity rover had uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars.

In 2019, an island volcano off New Zealand’s coast called Whakaari, or White Island, erupted, killing 22 tourists and guides and seriously injuring several others. Most of the 47 people on the island were U.S. and Australian cruise ship passengers on a walking tour with the guides.

In 2021, a cargo truck jammed with migrants crashed in southern Mexico, killing at least 53 people and injuring dozens more.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Judi Dench is 91.
Actor Beau Bridges is 84.
World Golf Hall of Famer Tom Kite is 76.
Actor John Malkovich is 72.
Singer Donny Osmond is 68.
Actor Felicity Huffman is 63.
Empress Masako of Japan is 62.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is 59.
Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers) is 56.
Actor Simon Helberg is 45.
Olympic gymnastics gold medalist McKayla Maroney is 30.
Actor Nico Parker is 21.

Rudy Gobert was ejected in the third quarter of Minnesota’s loss to Phoenix on Monday after the center delivered a forearm shove to the back of an airborne Mark Williams as the Suns big man was going up for a shot attempt.

After review, the officials ruled the foul to be a flagrant-penalty two, which results in an immediate expulsion from the game.

Williams received a flagrant foul, penalty-one earlier in the game for hitting Gobert in the face while swiping down hard to attempt to thwart a Gobert finish at the rim.

Gobert’s push marked his second flagrant foul in two games after he was also cited for a flagrant-penalty one via an overzealous closeout on a James Harden triple Saturday against the Clippers.

Gobert has now been whistled for four flagrant fouls this season — Monday’s penalty-two along with three penalty-one infractions. That puts him at five flagrant foul “points” just one-third of the way through the season.

The next flagrant foul he accrues will result in a suspension. If Gobert’s next two flagrant fouls are penalty-one infractions, he’ll be suspended one game for each. After that, every flagrant foul would result in two-game suspensions between now and the end of the regular season.

It seems highly unlikely the Frenchman will go the rest of the year being assessed another flagrant foul given how physical he is while protecting the paint.

Just last year, Wolves guard Anthony Edwards was suspended for a game in Utah after exceeding the NBA’s technical foul limit for a season.  Now Gobert is in high danger of missing games for disciplinary reasons.

Minnesota needs all the wins it can get while trying to position itself amid a crammed top half of the Western Conference race. That means it needs its best defensive player on the floor.

“You can’t make up for Rudy’s absence,” Edwards said after Monday’s loss. “When he’s in the game, they don’t want to go down there and finish. Of course, he’s truly missed when he’s not on the court.”

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On a night that might ultimately prove costly, the Minnesota Wild got a third period goal from Marcus Johansson and survived a slugfest in Seattle, fighting through injuries and inconsistency for a hard-fought 4-1 win over the Kraken on Monday.

Johansson had a picture-perfect redirection of a Joel Eriksson Ek shot to break a 1-1 tie, and Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had 23 saves as Minnesota snapped a two-game losing streak and ended its lengthy western road trip on an optimistic note.

But the two points came at a price for the Wild, who lost forward Mats Zuccarello, defenseman Jake Middleton, forward Matt Boldy and forward Nico Sturm at various times throughout the game.

“Obviously it was a physical, highly-contested game, by both teams,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I liked liked our response. I thought we played hard and we played smart, and I think that’s what you want to do in those situations.”

Eriksson Ek had a second period goal for the Wild, who likely employed plenty of ice packs on their late-night charter back to the Twin Cities. Kirill Kaprizov and Vladimir Tarasenko added late empty net goals.

“It wasn’t easy tonight, a few guys short. We dug in there and I think we showed a lot of character and grit today,” said Johansson who was red hot in November, then snapped a five-game drought without a point by scoring on Monday. “It was a fun game and a big two points for us.”

Facing the NHL’s worst penalty killers, statistically, the Wild had early opportunities, first when Boldy was tripped barely a minute into the game, and again when Kaprizov took an inadvertent high stick to the cheek. They gave Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer plenty of first period work, including a Ryan Hartman breakaway, but he was up to the puck-stopping task.

Then things went downhill, quickly, for the Wild with five minutes left in the first. Zuccarello, skating through the neutral zone with the puck, was taken out by a high, hard check from Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn. Initially called a major penalty on Dunn, referees looked at the video and downgraded it to a clean hit, and Seattle ended up with a power play.

The bigger loss was Zuccarello, the team’s top-line wing, who headed down the tunnel to the locker room and did not return. With Zuccarello unavailable, the Wild went with an all-Russian top line much of the rest of the game – rookie Danila Yurov centering Kaprizov and Tarasenko.

“He’s doing OK,” Hynes said when asked for an update on Zuccarello after the game. “I saw him back there now, but I don’t know what the timeline would be.”

The coach said there would be updates on Zuccarello, Boldy, Middleton and Sturm — who returned and played the game’s final two minutes — once the team is back in Minnesota and the players can be more fully evaluated.

Minnesota finally broke the scoreless deadlock early in the middle frame when Eriksson Ek slipped a low shot between Grubauer’s knees after a pass from Boldy, who was behind the net.

But the lead, and the momentum, went away relatively quickly. Seattle scored on a power play before the game’s midway point, and Grubauer was again on his game, stopping a Yakov Trenin shorthanded breakaway later in the second.

Just nine seconds after Johansson’s go-ahead goal, Seattle briefly thought it had re-tied the game, when Tye Kartye swatted a puck out of the air, off Gustavsson’s back and into the net. Officials almost immediately ruled no goal, and replays confirmed that Kartye had played the puck with a high stick.

Trenin, who has led the NHL in hits for much of the season, continued his high-contact game on Monday, recording a season-high nine hits in the win.

Grubauer finished with 25 saves for Seattle, which has now lost five in a row. The Kraken host Minnesota again in a month, with the Wild closing out a seven-game road trek on Jan. 8 in Seattle.

The Wild will play their next four at home, starting Thursday when the Dallas Stars make their first visit of the season to Grand Casino Arena.

Briefly

The Wild went with 11 forwards and seven defensemen on Monday, scratching fourth-line forward Tyler Pitlick and adding reserve defenseman Daemon Hunt to the lineup. Hunt had been a healthy scratch for the previous eight games. Pitlick has played in 18 games for Minnesota this season, and is still looking for his first point with his home state NHL team. The alignment made things tougher when Zuccarello left the game, leaving Minnesota with just 10 forwards for the final two periods.

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