The City of St. Paul Park has a new 2026 preliminary tax levy. Meeting Sept. 15 in council chambers at city hall, the St. Paul Park Council approved a maximum city property tax levy of 13.5 percent, with city staff to work that number down by the Truth in Taxation hearing, set for Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. to set the final tax levy.
The preliminary tax levy can be lowered at the Truth in Taxation hearing, but not raised. Both the city administrator and finance director were hired earlier this year, with more budget work to be done by the setting of the final tax levy in December.
As things stand a motion to adopt the 2026 preliminary tax levy for St. Paul Park followed a workshop earlier that night and was made by Council member Jeff Swenson, seconded by Council member Jeff Haggerty. The city budget as a whole is made up of property taxes, public safety aid reimbursements, permitting processes (minimal), and Local Government Aid (LGA), with this year’s LGA at $797,822, same as last year.
Property taxes for individual residents meanwhile are impacted by things like equalized property value, the overall tax base and number of overlapping taxing jurisdictions, the latter including county and school. The county’s preliminary levy seeks to raise $150.2 million and represents a 6.9 percent increase over the previous year, while the School District 833 set its levy Sept 18.
Also from St. Paul Park, meanwhile, the city should soon get new homes, growing the tax base and city revenues.
Meeting Monday, Sept. 29 in a special meeting for public hearing following a special Sept. 22 Plan Commission meeting, the St. Paul Park City Council approved the final plat for Geneva Meadows, after a presentation by Nate Sparks of WSB.
The plat with road extensions off Summit and Lincoln Avenue will see 61 new single family homes built in the city, courtesy of Lennar. Included with meeting business related to Geneva meadows Sept. 29 was the final plat, a developer’s agreement with the developer, and a joint powers agreement with Cottage Grove, the latter to allow a road to be placed if needed to help develop the property to the east in Cottage Grove, which will be maintained by Cottage Grove.
Conditions of the approval include a right of way on the border of Cottage Grove to expand with a development into Cottage Grove, park dedication fees and a trail along Lincoln, as well as meeting the requirements of the city engineer. The final plat approval for Geneva Meadows follows site grading work, authorized through formal agreement.
Nate Sparks of WSB presented on the general details of the work.
“If the final plat meets the city conditions you are required to approve it, essentially,” Sparks shared with the St. Paul Park Council on Geneva Meadows, backed up in this by city attorney Ron Batty. With grading work to end soon approval would make way for faster completion of prep work.
“By approving this tonight, you are making it so some of these impactful actions happening at the site will end soon,” Sparks said, with piping and bituminous going in this year, home building to take place next year.
Lennar has put $4.4 million in a letter of credit as security to the city for the work, representing 125 percent of the cost of the improvements.
Council member Tim Conrad asked the time frame for completion with Sparks directing the Lennar representative. If the development were to fail the letter of credit would be used to remedy the situation and finish the development.
“That’s the point of the developer’s agreement,” Sparks said of remedy. “That if you fail, this is what we do.”
Answering questions on the development itself was Steve Troskey of Lennar.
“I would be a bit more conservative and say probably two weeks a this point,” Troskey answered Mayor Keith Franke on when the company would be done bringing dirt into the development. Troskey also said the firm will be working with the oil company on a pipeline near the developers’ entrance. Crews from the oil company were expected from Illinois to address the pipe and reinforce it.
Also covered at the Sept. 29 St. Paul Park special council meeting for Geneva Meadows, meanwhile, was a joint powers agreement. A revised joint powers agreement (JPA) was received from Cottage Grove earlier that day, the city in discussion with Cottage Grove. The only other access to the Cottage Grove side involves a private driveway with a potential buried gas line, meaning that access through Geneva Meadows would be required for safety to bring construction equipment to the property in Cottage Grove.
“He may not choose to develop this property,” Sparks said of the property adjacent to Cottage Grove affected by the joint powers agreement. “But if he does, because of the pipeline, you can’t have trucks driving over the pipeline.” The road access would be through Geneva Meadows only, not the rest of St. Paul Park.”
The purpose of the joint powers agreement was to protect St. Paul Park taxpayers.
“The purpose of the JPA is to say that St. Paul Park taxpayers money will not be used to serve that road,” Sparks said of Cottage Grove. “That’s the point of the JPA.”
Among those speaking at the public hearing following presentations was Larry Krennar, owner of the adjacent property in Cottage Grove.
“My question is, will the gravel road stay exactly the same from this point to the end of the project?” he asked. Driveway access was vital to maintain.
“Well I guess that’s something that you’d have to take up with Cottage Grove,” Franke said. “I’m sure Nate can reach out to you and convey what their intent is on that, but we just felt like having one city have control it becomes less hassle and haggle. Cottage Grove is still going to take care of it.”
“That’s what I was told today,” Krennar said.
Also speaking was Tim Samp of 1696 Lincoln Avenue.
“I just have a few issues, sweeping is the main thing,” he said. “They haven’t been by there in a week. I don’t know why they can’t just clean it up. The other thing is safety fencing.” Lennar needed to put safety fences in, not just silt fences. Geneva Avenue included places with steep drop, making safety a priority.
Third to speak in the public hearing was Tim Willard.
“Our concerns are with my neighbors we’ve already been assessed $10,000 on this project 10 years back. And with the heavy trucks going down the road we’re going to do seal coating. But is that going to be enough?” With inflation rising, Willard wanted to know that there was funding to cover road cost needs.
“Since we’ve already had it done once, I don’t think we should be paying $15,000 a house all the way from Hastings to 85th. It’s just not fair to us residents,” he said.
Franke answered Willard by saying that a study done by the city on the pavement on Lincoln showed it was in “pretty good shape,” and that the city was fortunate, as it could have been told to “pound sand.”
With one more resident speaking and council interacting, the public hearing was closed and council meeting reopened.
Franke said he thought the process was a little backwards,
“We’re being asked to approve something on the day we hear your concerns,” he said. Also going on in the city and separate from Geneva Meadows and Lincoln Avenue rebuild was a separate Xcel Energy project. The city had worked on improving communication with Xcel.
“I feel everybody’s frustration,” Franke said, saying that the Xcel Energy project was compounded by the fact that Xcel didn’t realize St. Paul Park was built on bedrock.
“These holes in people’s yards, you’ve got to put them back, you better get it done,” Franke said of utility work and resident’s issues in the city. The only city project at present is Lincoln Avenue, with other entities also working on projects.
The city was working to gather information on who to contact for non-city projects to improve communication.
“You deserve to ask more questions,” Franke told residents of projects in the city, even as the process was set up to require decisions that night.
With that the council meeting moved forward, the final plat, developer’s agreement, and joint powers agreement with Cottage Grove all approved. The joint powers agreement was approved on condition of staff revisions being made.
“If we do not get that we will bring it back,” Franke said of staff revisions to the joint powers agreement received late Monday. “We want to show in good faith that we can work with our neighbors on this.”
With the special council meeting held Sept. 26, the St. Paul Park Council meeting for Monday, Oct. 6 has been cancelled.
St. Paul Park Council meetings are regularly held the first and third Monday of each month. During regular City Council meetings an open forum is included on the agenda for those who wish to directly address the City Council on subjects that are not already part of the regular meeting agenda. The meetings are streamed live and archived on the city’s YouTube channel, as well as carried on cable channel 799.