Wakan Tipi Center Draft Environmental Assessment

National Endowment of the Humanities Public Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Assessment For Lower Phalen Creek Project: Wakan Tipi Center

To: All Interested Agencies, Groups, and Individuals

This is to give notice that the Lower Phalen Creek Project (LPCP) has conditionally received a Challenge Infrastructure and Capacity Building Grant (CHA-268798-20) from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Lower Phalen Creek Project (LPCP) will lease and operate Wakáŋ Tipi Center, a one-story cultural and environmental interpretive Center located in the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary in St. Paul, MN. The redevelopment will include the new Center, temporary parking lot, and habitat enhancement work. Development activities will take place on an approximately 3.6-acre site bound by an active railroad along the Mississippi River to the south, Interstate 94 to the north, and Kellogg Boulevard to the west. The building will be an approximate 9,000 square foot, one-story slab on grade building with frost footings and 40- to 60-foot-deep helical piers for foundation support, a geothermal system for heating and cooling, and outdoor seating and landscape work. A parcel east of the Center will be used as a temporary parking lot.

The proposed construction will take place on a +/-2.36-acre site, located to the west of SW 107th Avenue between SW 16th Street and SW 17th Street, St. Paul Minnesota 55106.

In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 and NEH’s implementing guidance, an EA is being prepared to assess the potential impacts of the proposed alternatives on the human and natural environments. This public notice invites public comments on the proposed project in accordance with NEPA. The draft EA and draft Finding of No Significant Impact are available online at Environmental Assessments and Public Notices | The National Endowment for the Humanities (neh.gov) for review between September 24, 2021, and October 25, 2021. Written comments regarding this environmental action should be submitted no later than 5 pm on October 25, 2021, to Ann Piesen, NEH Federal Preservation and Environmental Officer at apiesen@neh.gov. If no substantive comments are received by this deadline, the draft EA and associated Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) will become final and be published by NEH. If substantive comments are received, they will be addressed as appropriate in the final documents.