Residents ask St. Paul City Council to block German Immersion School expansion, church demolition

John Forliti, a retired priest in the Twin Cities, lives across the street from the former St. Andrew’s Church in St. Paul. A Como neighborhood group is mobilizing to ‘save’ the former church from a possible tear down as the Twin Cities German Immersion School expands. (Jean Pieri / Pioneer Press)

Residents opposed to the planned demolition of a former Como Avenue church building have filed appeals against a recent decision on the matter by the St. Paul Planning Commission.

The appeals will be heard by the St. Paul City Council, which will have final say over whether the German Immersion School can demolish the former St. Andrew’s Church at 1031 Como Ave. to build new classrooms, cafeteria and gym space.

The appeals were filed by a group of residents calling themselves Save Historic St. Andrew’s, as well as the District 10 Como Community Council, which has raised technical concerns about whether a site plan and a series of variances to it are enforceable given the order in which they were voted upon.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis vacated the 1920s-era church building in 2011, and a subsequent church group used the building only briefly. It was deconsecrated and sold to the German Immersion School, a K-8 charter school that uses the gutted space as a rudimentary gym and cafeteria.

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