Lilydale Park open house April 5th! Learn about, help shape the future of this regional park
As remediation of the thorniest pollution and dumpsite in Lilydale Park progresses, directions are being set on the details of some major improvements to the area. Come learn about the important work in this riverfront regional park and provide your thoughts Tuesday, April 5th, 6-8 p.m. at The Wellstone Center/Neighborhood House on St. Paul's West Side. Help write the next chapter in the life of St. Paul's Lilydale Regional Park!
The open house will focus on four core improvements: a redesigned and rerouted Lilydale Road through the park, a new picnic area at a clearing on Pickerel Lake, a new bridge, and new signage for the park's eastern gateway. (Click here for an overview map.)
Picnic and parking areas
Three concepts for picnic shelter designs will be discussed in more detail at the April 5th open house: The most traditional (top) draws upon historical architecture and the former Lilydale brickyard for inspiration. Another (middle) evokes the bluffs and natural landforms that dominate the park. The most cutting-edge (bottom) integrates a green roof tying the shelter to its surroundings.
Photo: City of St. Paul/LHB Architects
Designers have presented three different concepts (see sketches at right) for the picnic and restroom buildings at the Pickerel Lake clearing. The chosen designs theme will likely carry through the bridge design and gateway signage.
The first, and most traditional option incorporates a design based on the roofline and profile of former buildings in the old Lilydale village. With brick elements, it echoes the brickyard that once dominated the bluff-side at the site. A second design uses rough-hewn piles of stone to evoke the surrounding limestone bluffs along with clay-tile roofing supported by log timbers. The third and most cutting-edge design option is more minimal and airy and features a flat green roof, which serves to both minimize runoff and blend the structures into their natural surroundings.
The St. Paul Department of Parks and Recreation has convened a task force of stakeholders, including FMR staff, to help shape key improvements. Several stakeholders asked to reduce the scale of the picnic area and parking. As a result, designers decreased the number of structures to be built in the picnic clearing by Pickerel Lake from four to two, however the option of adding two small additional picnic shelters remains a possibility should community members see a need for them later. Likewise, the largest shelter shrank in height and size, reducing the number of tables it could accommodate from 10 to eight the minimum necessary to provide for school groups expected to use the park.
Similarly, designers substantially reduced the number of parking spaces initially planned for the park from 197 to 147. Again, however, parking could be expanded in the future if there is a clear need. Data compiled as part of the process suggests the amount of parking that would be provided is easily on the low end of similar Twin Cities facilities.
From dumpsite to regional amenity
Work began last year on the remediation of an old dumpsite at the former Lilydale Marina, just east of the St. Paul Pool and Yacht Club at the park's western end. Remediation involved the removal of many tons of concrete and other debris, along with the necessary clearing of some scrub and invasive trees growing out of the debris. A truly impressive amount of junk was removed from the site in the extensive clean-up process (see photos).
Some of the decontaminated soil from this area is being moved to build up a picnic clearing near the existing gravel lot along the central northern shore of Pickerel Lake. (See locator map.) The small hill is needed to keep the planned restroom building out of the floodplain.
At this point, the design and engineering details for the roadway, bridge and picnic facilities have been fully funded. However, facilities construction depends on promising but not yet secured funding. The newly organized St. Paul Parks Conservancy provided one of the first gifts to the project, funding gateway signage for the park. Other planned elements from a rerouted trail system to a dog park to a boardwalk will be addressed in future phases of implementation.
Join us! Lilydale Park Open House
See the suggested designs and plans and help write the next chapter in the life of Lilydale Regional Park Tuesday, April 5th, 6-8 p.m. at the Wellstone Center/Neighborhood House, located on the corner of State & Robie on St. Paul's West Side. (Directions)
Learn more
- City of St. Paul Lilydale Park Planning Page
- Friends of Lilydale Park website
- Background articles from FMRs website: