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221 West First Street Duluth, MN 55802 218.529.7541 800.232.0707 |
Duluth and Superior Port Land Use Plans
The purpose of the Duluth and Superior Port Land Use Plans is to recommend specific land uses that would best utilize the waterfront areas while protecting natural and economic resources, providing opportunities for future development, and ensuring compatibility between commercial, industrial, maritime and recreational uses.
The purpose of the Duluth and Superior Port Land Use Plans is to recommend specific land uses that would best utilize the waterfront areas while protecting natural and economic resources, providing opportunities for future development, and ensuring compatibility between commercial, industrial, maritime and recreational uses.
- View Superior Port Land Use Plan (June 2003)
View map of recommended land uses along the Superior waterfront (Map 11, p.77, Superior Port Land Use Plan).
View Duluth Port Land Use Plan (October 2005)
View map of recommended land uses along the Duluth waterfront (Map 11, p.75, Duluth Port Land Use Plan).
| Background
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| In 2002, the Metropolitan Interstate Council (MIC) was discussing work program projects and harbor issues. It was recognized that the existing Duluth Comprehensive Port Development Plan was ten years old. There was a desire to update that plan and also to examine the harbor as a whole—although it is located in two states, the working waterfront functions as a single harbor. To approach this project, it was decided to examine Superior and Duluth separately to identify and address issues unique to each state. The Superior side was chosen for the first half of this planning effort. As the process got underway, the study committee felt that approaching it as a land use plan would be more appropriate than as a development plan. The study methodologies determined for the Superior Plan, which was completed in June 2003, were then followed and refined for the Duluth Plan, completed in October 2005. |
| Stakeholder Input/Public Outreach
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| Port stakeholders harbor-wide were contacted to obtain their input on issues and needs in the port area. Port area businesses in both Duluth and Superior were contacted and asked a series of questions about port related infrastructure, land use issues, regulatory issues and bigger picture Great Lakes shipping issues. A public outreach effort was also conducted to engage port related groups and receive their input on issues they felt important. Presentations were done at monthly or quarterly meetings of the International Shipmasters, Propeller Club, Grain and Elevator Processing Society, Duluth-Superior Transportation Association, and St. Louis River Citizens Action Committee. Some common themes that we heard included land uses in the study areas are better suited to maritime and industrial uses with some opportunities for limited recreation uses. The port area needs a land use plan so land use decisions are made with consistency and continuity. The federally designated shipping channel is a resource that should be protected. The feedback that we received was valuable and was considered in the development of the future land use map. |
| Public Trust Doctrine
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| One of the biggest differences between the states on how rules and laws have evolved is in the area of public trust. In Wisconsin, the Public Trust Doctrine is imbedded in its State Constitution and in Minnesota it is not. Wisconsin has developed some specific rules as to what types of development are allowed on lands created by filling navigable waterways. The State of Wisconsin charged its Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with enforcing the Public Trust Doctrine. The Superior Plan (pg. 25) contains a matrix developed in 1989 to assist local governments, developers and the public to understand the allowable uses on filled lands. In Minnesota, the Public Trust Doctrine is not defined as specifically as in Wisconsin. Minnesota also charges its DNR to uphold the concepts of public trust. This can be accomplished through permitting requirements for water projects, court action, and statutes authorizing local zoning ordinances that address development along navigable waterways. The Duluth Plan includes in the Appendices some of the more pertinent state statutes and rules that apply to the Public Trust Doctrine and navigable waterways (pg. 93). The primary reason to include information on the public trust is to inform local decision makers, port stakeholders, and the general public that public trust issues may impact land use along the working waterfront. |
| Current Land Use
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| One of the biggest differences in current land use between the two cities is the amount of available land. Superior has more land available along the waterfront for port related development. In Duluth the majority of port land are currently developed with the exception of Garfield Docks C & D which are currently available for development. Some of the issues surrounding land use and the availability of land are how long does a city hold onto land awaiting port dependent development. Another issue key to port land use is compatible land uses. Current businesses that transship bulk commodities by their very nature as noisy and generate dust. That type of land use is not compatible to certain types of recreational and commercial land uses. Locating a marina next to a facility that generates dust and has large ships docking nearby are not compatible land uses. Each plan also contains information about waterfront facilities. The information was drawn from a variety of sources including each city, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Coast Guard. The information provides the reader with a description of each facility and some information about each company that operates the facilities. Potential uses of this information include marketing inactive facilities to prospective buyers. |
| Funding
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| Many of the funding sources are unique to each state and apply to port facilities, rail and waterfront businesses. On the Wisconsin side the Harbor Assistance Program (HAP) is designed to help harbor communities maintain and improve waterborne commerce facilities. Since the completion of the Superior plan, the City of Superior has been successful in obtaining a HAP grant to improve the dock at General Mills Elevator S&X. On the Minnesota side the primary funding program is the Minnesota Port Development Assistance Program, which aids Port Authorities in rehabilitating and improving port infrastructure and is patterned after the Wisconsin HAP. The Duluth Seaway Port Authority submits projects to the Minnesota Department of Transportation and has been successful in the past in obtaining harbor grants for projects such as the development of Helberg Drive in the port terminal area. A number of funding sources listed in both plans are targeted toward cleaning up brownfields. This would help get some useable land along the waterfront cleaned up and back in productive land uses. Other funding sources outline tax breaks for various activities that would benefit the port community. |
| Policies and Recommendations
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| The policy and recommendation chapters are structured to briefly summarize information from each plan. They include policies and recommendations from prior planning efforts as well as new ones. The final section of these chapters contains an action plan and implementation schedule which displays each recommendation and who is responsible for implementing it and when it should happen. The recommended policies from each plan include similar elements, such as utilizing the Future Land Use Maps, considering the Public Trust Doctrine in development decisions, promoting beneficial reuse of dredge materials, protecting natural areas, encouraging reuse of underutilized dock structures, and giving priority to maritime commerce in land along the federally designated shipping channel. Unique to the separate plans are the recommendations that the City of Superior re-establish its Board of Harbor Commissioners and that the City of Duluth should update the Memorandum of Understanding from the 1992 Duluth Comprehensive Port Development Plan. |
| Plan Updates
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| It will be the charge of the MIC’s Harbor Technical Advisory Committee (HTAC) to review this document every three years. Many of the same people that served on each study advisory committee would be primary candidates to serve on this review subcommittee. The review will include a status report of the action plans as well as examining the recommendations to ensure they are still valid. In the short term, MIC staff will continue to work with all port stakeholders toward implementation of all elements of the plan. |
| For More Information
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| Contact MIC Principal Planner Andy McDonald by phone at (218) 529-7514 or send a message by email. |
Quick Links
| Meeting Information
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| Click here to view current MIC meeting materials. Click here to view calendar of all upcoming committee meetings. |
| MIC Staff
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| Click here for list of MIC staff members, their current projects and email contact information. |
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| We Need Your Input!
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| We are seeking public review and comment on the following planning initiatives: DRAFT 2011-2014 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the Superior Metro Area |
| Featured Planning Project
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| Long Range Transportation Plan - Directions 2035 |
| Current Planning Initiatives
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| Click on a project link, below, for information about current MIC planning efforts: Bike-Ped Advisory Committee (BPAC) 2011-2014 Duluth Urbanized Area TIP |
| Recent Plans and Studies
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| Study Shows Arrowhead Region Rich in Transportation Assets
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| A recent study released by the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), Arrowhead Region's Transportation Assets: A Case Study of the Twin Ports Region of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin, highlights the assets and opportunities related to multi-modal transportation systems in the Twin Ports area of Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. |