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42 <br />As the Twin Cities grew in size, the City of St. Anthony was enveloped by <br />development, and is surrounded by industrial areas to the South and East, and <br />residential areas to the West and North. The City itself is entirely developed, with no <br />room for further parkland or open space. Central Park is the largest community park <br />and carries the most mixed-use. Two other parks in the City have limited open space: <br />Emerald Park, to the north, contains a hockey rink and an unlit tee -ball field and a non - <br />regulation soccer field; and Silver Point Park, to the South, contains a hockey rink and <br />two unlit tee -ball fields. Like Central Park, these areas have poor soil, limited parking, <br />and are hemmed in entirely by residential homes and neighborhoods. <br />Wilshire Park Elementary is a school district owned property and contains a <br />playground in addition to a small tee -ball facility, together with a reasonably large area <br />of underutilized open space. This open space has a slight incline and opens into <br />residential streets without any dividing barrier, and thus, currently cannot be used for <br />anything other than children's free -play space; and even then, because of the danger of <br />passing cars, is limited in its safe space for children's use. <br />The City has been fortunate to be the recipient o f two new parks developed within the <br />last five years: Salo Park and Silverwood Park. Unfortunately, neither park provides <br />any open space for athletics or recreational purposes, and the ability to develop either <br />for youth athletics is unlikely at best, since Salo Park is not large enough, and <br />Silverwood, managed by the Three Rivers Park District, is intended to be a nature park. <br />CENTRAL PARI{ <br />Central Park is the largest community use park in the City and contains the bulk of the <br />City's recreational amenities for its residents. It contains an outdoor hockey rink, tennis <br />courts, playgrounds for children, a skate park, two baseball diamonds, two softball <br />diamonds, one full-sized football field, and a non -regulation football field for practice <br />that doubles as a soccer field suitable for elementary aged -play. Various other soccer <br />and football fields are striped in the outfields of the diamonds throughout the year. It <br />can be said that the fields of Central Park receive continuous heavy usage between <br />snow -melt in April and snow -fall in late October. <br />r <br />The City and School District have a long-standing; unique joint operation of Central <br />Park. Since the Park is on land owned by each, the entities together control, maintain, <br />and program the Park's amenities. The School District provides scheduling services for <br />reservation of park facilities, while the City allows the School District use of its facilities, <br />including the Community Center, for part of its Community Services program. This <br />26 <br />