Liberty Classical Academy, May Township resolve federal lawsuit

Yahoo

09-05-2025

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Liberty Classical Academy against the May Township Board of Supervisors has been settled now that the school no longer requires a conditional-use permit for its planned expansion, an attorney for the township said Friday.
Officials with the private Christian school have revised the school's expansion plan and no longer need the conditional-use permit for its septic system from the township 'due to the removal of the accessory building originally associated with the project,' said Paul Reuvers, the attorney assigned by the Minnesota League of Cities Insurance Trust to defend the township in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is expected to be dismissed in the next few weeks once the township issues a permit for a septic system and holding pond for the school's new wastewater treatment facility, Reuvers said.
'Once that permit is issued, Liberty Classical Academy will dismiss this federal lawsuit for no money, attorney's fees or future assurances concerning any further activity on the site,' he said.
Reuvers said he recommended that township officials settle the lawsuit because of 'the massive financial exposure' – $1 million-plus uninsured – to the township.
'Quite frankly, the town was likely to lose this litigation,' he said. 'I also was concerned that losing this case would set a bad precedent for any future action (Liberty) may pursue in the future on the site.
'This was the best resolution to a very difficult situation, in my opinion,' Reuvers said. 'I thought this was in the town's best interest, and they agreed.'
Liberty officials opted to move the accessory building needed for the treatment facility onto the Hugo side of the property, said Rebekah Hagstrom, the academy's headmaster and founder.
The portion of the project in May Township now only involves a septic field and holding pond and no other facilities such as athletic fields, township officials say.
The academy, which serves students pre-K through 12th grade, moved part of its lower-school programming two years ago from rented space at the Church of St. Pius X in White Bear Lake to the former Withrow Elementary School building in neighboring Hugo. School officials also bought the neighboring 88-acre Zahler farm, which is located in Hugo and May Township.
Liberty officials want to build an approximately 33,500-square-foot building addition to the existing school and associated parking on the Withrow property. The Hugo City Council in June 2024 approved the expansion plans, which will effectively double the size of the school building.
But May Township officials, in a 2-0 vote in August 2024, denied the academy's CUP request saying it was 'inconsistent with the terms of an interim ordinance establishing a moratorium around non-residential, commercial and institutional type uses in the rural-residential district.'
The school sued the township in September.
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Some residents have expressed reservations about the school's plans, citing concerns about an increase in traffic and the sewage treatment system.
Officials with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency are reviewing the school's application for an underground wastewater treatment facility that would treat 25,625 gallons per day and discharge to 21 individual mounds.
Permits are required for all systems with flows greater than 10,000 gallons per day, said Municipal Wastewater Manager Suzanne Baumann.
'We have no information to suggest that, with proper operation and maintenance, this wastewater treatment system can't be operated in a way that protects groundwater and surface water and meets all requirements applicable,' Baumann said.
If granted, the permit would be good for 10 years, she said.
The public-comment period on the draft permit runs through May 20. The MPCA also received requests to hold a public informational meeting for the draft permit; that virtual meeting will be 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Baumann said. Go to pca.state.mn.us/events-and-meetings to find a link to the meeting and a comment form.
The draft permit for Liberty's wastewater treatment facility proposes sampling and reporting of ammonia, nitrate, alkalinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature and pH, through the system, among other factors, Baumann said.
Chris Hause, who lives east of the proposed facility, wants the MPCA also to require testing for volatile organic compounds, drugs and PFAS.
'PFAS are in a lot of chemicals that we use on a daily basis,' he said. 'They're right there in there in dishwashing agents, they're in carpet cleaners, they're in floor wax. A school, in my opinion, is different from a house. I mean, we try to keep a clean house, but we're not cleaning daily, right? … How many gallons of chemicals are going to get rinsed and washed down to this wastewater treatment facility that I don't see has any means to filter this, to filter those chemicals?
'Allowing a private wastewater treatment facility of this size, at this location, so close to numerous private wells, Goggins Lake, wetlands and the headwaters of Browns Creek would be reckless and lacking common sense,' Hause said.
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Baumann said the draft permit prohibits discharges into the system of anything besides sewage, 'so we would not expect these pollutants in significant quantities.'
The MPCA has clear and detailed guidelines for the design and siting of a large subsurface wastewater treatment system, she said, and undertakes rigorous technical and regulatory reviews to evaluate the design and the suitability of any proposed site.
Permits, which are enforced through a combination of self-reporting and compliance monitoring, are regularly reviewed and updated as they expire, allowing the MPCA to incorporate new information about the impacts of pollutants on the environment in future permits, Baumann said.
'We live in a changing world, and we're gaining a lot of new information, and we want to take that into consideration,' she said.