Several trees on the University of St. Catherine’s campus were cut down to make way for a new parking lot projected to be completed by the end of June.

The announcement of the project has sparked an uproar from several neighbors who are losing their beloved green space.

“The Joni Mitchell song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot has been brought up an awful lot,” St. Kate’s communication specialist Sara Berhow said.

Prior to establishing the new parking lot plan, St. Kate’s brought in a team of arborists to evaluate every tree on campus.

Arborists classified every tree under three classifications: green for healthy, yellow for ones needing care and red meaning dead, diseased or could be dangerous if the tree were to fall over.

“In the area where the parking lot is going, the arborists that evaluated all these trees determined that 77 percent of the trees in that area were dead or diseased and needed to be removed regardless,” Berhow said.

In addition to trees on the parking lot site, any trees that were classified as dead or diseased were removed from the property.

The prospective parking lot site has served as an easily accessible place for neighbors to go on walks or take their kids.

“Despite not being an actual city park, that might be the most green space used in Highland Park,” St. Kate’s neighbor Tom Basgen said.

To further educate himself of the university’s plans, Basgen went to the Highland district council meeting where St. Kate’s presented and spoke with St. Kate’s facility manager who oversaw the parking lot planning. At council meetings, Basgen and other neighbors expressed their disapproval. Basgen said the council listened to the neighbors but held their ground.

Before plans of the parking lot were finalized, Basgen wrote an opinion piece for streets.mn, a website made to expand conversations on land use and transportation issues in the Twin Cities.

“This parking lot proposal is a waste of money, time and a timeless amenity,” Basgen wrote. “It’s a fool thing for St. Kate’s to pursue, and it’s my hope that they ask the city for an exemption to the parking minimum.”

While neighbors and the community may be disappointed about the finalization of the plans, the parking lot is much needed for students or any other St. Kate’s faculty according to Berhow.

“We’re not currently in compliance with the city code for the minimum number of parking spots needed on campus,” Berhow said. “We have more parking permit holders than we have spots for.”

Berhow said that they have 1250 parking spaces on campus currently. According to city code, they should have 1920. Even with this additional parking lot, city code requirements will still not be met.

St. Kate’s has already cut down trees that needed removal, all needed permits have been received and workers are continuing to make sure tree stumps or anything else that would interfere with the asphalt are removed.

The process of laying down asphalt won’t be able to begin until weather permits.

Taylor Shupe can be contacted at shup9397@stthomas.edu.