PCAgenda_08Mar25 - Laserfiche WebLink

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V. Natural and Historic Resources 1. Natural Resources The City of Falcon Heights has no lakes, streams or protected wetlands and only a relatively few manmade ponding areas, many of which are located on University owned lands. It has no woodlots other than residential street trees and it has relatively little topographic relief. This is not to say that the City is devoid of character, only that its most significant resources are not water based thus requiring considerably less regulation. The City also has virtually no privately owned vacant land that is environmentally sensitive or possessing aesthetic character to warrant consideration for public acquisition for public use. Certain privately owned lands, however, may require protective action, such as the garden lots north of Lindig Street. 2. Historic and cultural resources The City's most important and meaningful resources are manmade orman-shaped and they include huge expanses of permanent open space, wooded residential areas with tree lined streets and historical sites as manifested in the Gibbs Farm, the Gibbs schoolhouse and the University of Minnesota agricultural research lands. • Gibbs Farm is the only site in Falcon Heights in the National Register of Historic Places. • The farmstead was settled in 1849, and the farmhouse built in 1854, making Gibbs Farm one of the oldest non-native settlements in the area. The site was registered in 1975 and is now owned by the Ramsey County Historical Society, which operates it as a museum, featuring the 1854 farmhouse, the 1910 barn and an old one room school moved from another site. The museum property is designated public land and will incorporate the adjacent parcel that has previously been used as asingle-family residence and bed and breakfast inn. Although they have not been added to the National Register, there are a number of historic structures on the grounds of the University of Minnesota campus and the Minnesota State Fair. The City encourages efforts by these public institutions to preserve those buildings that have a historic value to the community. The City is home to a number of architecturally significant structures, most notably the TIES building at the southwest corner of Snelling and Larpenteur. The unique University Grove neighborhood between Cleveland and Fulham is a district of individually built architect-designed homes constructed from the 1920s through the 1970s for the use of University faculty and staff. • Falcon Heights Comprehensive Plan Draft January, 2008 Page IV - 8 Part IV: Parks, Community, Economic Development, Implementation, Appendices