Duluth Ponders City's Future Look in LCI Update

Not everyone on the Duluth City Council agrees with everything in the Living Centers Initiative 10-Year Update being considered for adoption. So the council directed Planning Director Glenn Coyne during a work session Monday (July 25) night to prepare an executive summary of the update. Council members also asked Coyne to incorporate their comments and changes in the actual update and to make it more general.

The draft LCI update was prepared by Jacobs Engineering, a consulting firm hired by the city with input from two community meetings, and already has been forwarded to the Atlanta Regional Commission. Bleakly Advisory Group worked on the study in conjunction with Jacobs.

The update “gives the city access to ARC resources, grants and studies,” Coyne said. It has been presented to the Downtown Development Authority, the Duluth Planning Commission and to the city council in a previous work session. Coyne assured the council that if the council adopts the update it can be amended as often as necessary.

In 2000, Duluth was awarded a Phase I Living Centers Initiative (LCI) grant by the Atlanta Regional Commission and used it to plan projects like the Town Green and other downtown amenities that were subsequently built. The city was awarded a $100,000 grant for Phase II by the ARC to plan future improvements. 

Phase II LCI planning will see the city through to 2020. LCI grants help cities like Duluth look at ways to get away from their dependency on automobiles and to live, work, and play within the community.

The update includes short- and long-term elements, Coyne said. “It’s very difficult to predict what will happen 10 years down the road.”

Five catalyst projects for redevelopment in the city are identified in the update including: 

Proctor Square – The update proposes a mixed-use redevelopment of office, commercial and residential uses surrounding a central green space. Three-story buildings could include 50,000 square feet of ground floor retail space with nearly 100,000 square feet of office space on the upper stories. About 114 residential condominiums could be located in buildings to the rear of the site. A pedestrian bridge would link the development to a proposed multimodal transit station on the northwest corner of Buford Highway and Ga. Hwy. 120. The realignment of Ga. Hwy. 120 and extension of Dogwood Street would be essential to the project. 

Hill Street – A variety of mixed-use buildings could accommodate 24 live/work townhouses and a parking deck. Also proposed on the site is a three-story building with ground floor retail and 72 condos above along with a small 3,000 square-foot retail/office building. An additional 9,000-square-foot office/retail building could occupy an adjacent lot.

Old City Hall Block – The initial proposal includes reuse of the Old City Hall building with a mixture of commercial spaces and residential lofts. Many of the other buildings on the block would remain and continue in current uses including retail shops at the corner of West Lawrenceville and Main streets. A potential new building fronting on Ga. Hwy. 120 could contain retail spaces and residential units. The new building and Old City Hall would accommodate 22 loft residences. The long-term plan features a 70-room boutique hotel, retail and restaurant spaces, and landscaping to link the block to the Town Green.

Davenport Road – A mix of residential and commercial uses is proposed for this area including a 150-unit senior living community, a recreation center, and retail/office buildings. The recommendations include two new stand-alone retail buildings on the north side of the intersection of Buford Highway and Davenport Road. The remainder of the site could be used for mixed-used development with offices located over retail spaces. This redevelopment project would be contingent on the extension of Davenport Road across Buford Highway to tie into Hill Street, Main Street and Hardy Industrial Boulevard.

Main Street – The redevelopment concept for Main Street includes a new public library, a station for a trail linking downtown Duluth to the Southeastern Railway Museum, and a small mixed-use commercial building similar to the existing Mathias/StreetSmarts building. A proposed pedestrian tunnel under the railroad would link Buford Highway, the library and the railroad greenway trail.

Councilwoman Marsha Bomar and Councilman Billy Jones questioned whether proposed retail on Hill Street would be successful. “A lot relies on the Davenport Road extension,” Jones said. Coyne pointed out that the Hill Street retail included in the update is based on current zoning.

Bomar also expressed concern about the density of townhomes proposed in the Hill Street project. Councilman Jim Dugan suggested taking out the number (72 units) and generalizing by referring to it as housing. Coyne noted that the update recommended increasing the density of certain downtown parcels to accommodate redevelopment.

The update also includes current and future transportation projects. Councilmen Doug Mundrick and Jones both said that extending Davenport Road should be the city’s highest transportation priority. “The Davenport Road extension is huge,” Bomar said. “It opens up other corners and areas for development.”

“We need a revised document based on the comments we’ve all made,” Councilman Greg Whitlock said.

Dugan referred to the update as a wish list. “With some tweaking and refining, we might be able to adopt it,” he said. “I don’t look at this as a wish list,” said Mayor Nancy Harris, “more like a skeletal framework. There are some things in here I hope we never get.”

The executive summary and revised update are expected to be prepared by Coyne for discussion at the council’s August work session and considered for action by the council in September. Coyne remarked during the lengthy discussion that it is important for the city to show support for the update, but it is not necessary to adopt it. Coyne also said that having the plan shows that city officials have thought about how they'd like to see the city developed.

The full draft of the LCI 10-Year Update is available on the city’s website.