There goes the neighborhood: Vikings stadium threatens way of life in Arden Hills

I have fond memories of playing in our yard as a young boy growing up in Arden Hills. Some of my favorite times involved hanging out in the front yard and coaxing the Army trucks to honk their horns as they lined up to create a convoy. Then they would head off to Camp Ripley for the weekend.

Our house was across the street from the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant, now the location of a proposed stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.

The U.S. Army instilled in me a sense of pride in my country and those who served it. Without fail the trucks would honk, we'd exchange waves and they'd proceed, and I'd stay to wage imaginary battles against the fictitious enemy in my yard.

Living across the street from the "Arms Plant" was always mystical. Having never been allowed inside, I could only imagine what unseen things happened within its fenced borders. My father built our family home in the early 1950s, directly opposite the plant. For decades we watched as employees came and went. They were there, we knew, to support the production of .50 caliber rounds that were used in World War II, Korea and later in Vietnam.

My brother recalls seeing tracer rounds ricochet off the bullet traps and illuminating the dark sky. I recall the noise of the machine guns too, but my more vivid memories are of the protesters during the Vietnam War, and specifically the memorial to one who was later hit and killed by a freight train in the 1970s.

Later the plant was mothballed and put up for sale. Initial development plans fell through, however, and the interested developers have all since lost interest, having learned that the soil itself presented major challenges. The plant's history as a Superfund site meant that to develop the land for residential purposes would require cleanup costing millions of dollars. Later concepts involved the U.S. Postal Service and a massive mail handing facility. That project died amid strong local opposition, including from Ramsey County officials. They envisioned a green space and residential housing.

That vision, it seems, has changed.

For those of us who have lived in the shadow of the Arms Plant, the stadium proposal is not a matter of mere politics. It's home. There was always a risk, living next door to an ammunition-producing facility. That's the whole reason that the Army built the earthen bunkers that still stand today. If there were an explosion, the Army wanted it minimized.

Beyond the potential risk of an accident were the physical impacts. After 50 years of producing munitions, the land and groundwater contamination have taken their tolls. The land is unfit for residential use, but somehow acceptable for industrial standards. My family has had health issues that could be coincidental, or could be a result of drinking contaminated water all those years.

We were and are a patriotic family. Dad served in the Air Force in World War II and Mom made aircraft parts in St. Paul. Dad's flagpole stands on the family property today. We are not bitter about our neighbor.

Oddly, after the Hwy. 96 traffic dies down, it's a peaceful and quiet place to live. At night you can see the Northern Lights. During the day we see deer, pheasants, turkeys, fox and falcons. The Army still lines up on Hwy. 96 and heads off to Camp Ripley, as it did years ago. But now it's my sons waving to the troops. After 60-some years, our family and the Army have become accustomed to each other as neighbors.

I understand that change in inevitable, but change at whose expense? The county and city claim that the Vikings stadium will bring construction jobs and permanent jobs to the site. Agreed, it would. They also claim that it will bring closure to an eyesore of a facility. Yes, that is partly true. But have we become so dependent on growth to support our infrastructure that we must build on every last inch of vacant land? Is a Vikings stadium better than a park and letting the land heal itself? Should we let "cleaned to industrial standards" be good enough, and settle for a stadium over something else?

My wife, children and I have plans to take over from Mom and Dad the family homestead they created 60 years ago. Our intentions have not changed. But the prospect of living next to a Vikings stadium makes the prospect less appealing. I'd ask Mark Dayton, Zygi Wilf or Tony Bennett if they would like to live next door to the Metrodome today.

I'm told that 10 games a season are all I'd have to worry about. I'm not stupid; there will be the Monster Truck rally, the concerts, bars and more bars, and traffic on those 10 Sundays that would make any person want to leave.

In a flashback to the imaginary battles of my childhood, I'm fighting in the yard again. This time the enemy is clear and identifiable and it's approaching fast.

There has never been a clearer example of taxation without representation than there is here. But above and beyond that argument is the simple need to protect my family's home and quality of life in Arden Hills. The Arms Plant was created in World War II to fight an opponent that threatened just that, our quality of life. How ironic that the proposed use of this same land now threatens our way of life and our families.

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Hans Molenaar is a strategic alliances director working in the financial services sector and serves as a volunteer director at a St. Paul-based credit union. He is a source in MPR's Public Insight Network.

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