Duluth City Council Agenda Session – October 15, 2024
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Duluth City Council Agenda Session – October 15, 2024
The Duluth City Council held an agenda session on October 15, 2024, to review and set the agenda for the regular meeting scheduled that same evening. The session covered numerous resolutions and ordinances, including bonding, tax abatement, development agreements, and code amendments. Council members discussed each item, asked questions of staff, and made decisions regarding which items would be placed on the consent calendar, pulled for separate votes, or moved to a first reading.
Discussion Items
- Resolution 785 – Inger Park Golf Tax Abatement Bonds: The bond amount was reduced from $4M to $2M, with the remainder funded from tourism tax, general fund reserves, and ARPA funds. Debt service will be paid from golf revenues, though legally structured as a tax abatement pledge.
- Resolution 786 – General Obligation Bonds Series 2024B: Three separate bond issuances (golf abatement, annual CIP, and capital equipment) were combined into one $7.79M issue to save on issuance costs. Bonds will be competitively bid and are expected to maintain the city's AA rating.
- Resolution 787 – Spirit Mountain Restoration Interfund Loan: A $13M interfund loan from the general fund will provide proof of full funding for the state grant application. The city plans to later issue bonds, with debt service split equally between tourism tax and Spirit Mountain revenues.
- Resolutions 796, 813 – Sofidel Development Agreement and MIF Grant: The mayor's office stated that a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) is still being negotiated with trades groups, and staff promised to provide clarity before the regular meeting. Councilors expressed concerns about honoring the PLA and the 160 permanent jobs. The city does not recommend tabling the item due to Sofidel's tight construction timeline.
- Resolution 801 – Civic Center Plaza Improvements: A $3M project to be funded equally by the federal government, St. Louis County, and the city. Design has not begun; the city's share will come from future capital budgets. The project will address historic preservation and possibly EV charging.
- Ordinance 49 – Vacation Dwelling Unit Exemption: This ordinance would allow vacation dwelling units in R1 and R2 districts within 300 feet of an MUC district (near the new hotel in Cole's area). The planning commission previously voted it down 4-3. Councilors debated whether to create an exception and whether the city should undertake a comprehensive review of vacation rental policies.
- Ordinance 51 – Repeal of Park Dedication: Repeals Ordinance 10908 due to an undiscovered gravesite overlap on the purchased property. The dedication will be corrected and brought back.
- Item 41 – Snow Emergency Code Amendments: The ordinance was filed without proper strikeouts, raising notice concerns. The city attorney recommended moving it to a first reading, which was accepted. This may delay implementation past the 30-day ordinance effective period.
Key Outcomes
- Agenda set for the October 15 regular meeting.
- The following items were pulled from the consent calendar for separate votes: Resolutions 785, 786, 787 (tax abatement and bonding), and Resolutions 795, 796, 813 (Sofidel-related items, at Councilor Nephew's request).
- Ordinance 43 (snow emergency) was moved to a first reading due to insufficient notice documentation.
- Staff will provide additional information on projected golf revenues (by Monday), details on PLA negotiations for Sofidel (before Tuesday), and a history of vacation rental discussions and prior applications by neighbors.
- No public comments were made during this agenda session.
Meeting Transcript
I know. All right, good evening, everyone. We'll start the agenda session. I just want to highlight something for everyone for Tuesday's meeting on October 15th. We do have four public hearings that we'll kick off with. So we'll prepare you for those. And those are on the front of the agenda. Okay. Next up we will go to uh my committee, it's committee of the whole. We're on item number three. Resolution 742 is a resolution providing for the imposition of service charges within the Duluth Waterfront Special Service District. Item 4, Resolution 743 is a resolution authorizing entering into a service contract with the Greater Downtown Council to provide services to implement the downtown waterfront special service district. And item five, resolution 744 is a resolution authorizing entering into a memorandum of understanding with the Greater Downtown Council doing business as downtown Duluth, setting forth the established level of services for the downtown waterfront special service district. And again, we will be having uh public hearing on that on Tuesday, October 15th. Any questions from the counselors on items three through five. Seeing none, we'll move on. Uh we have uh uh Councilor Forzman on finance, he couldn't be here tonight. Um I'll go ahead and read those in for him. Item six is resolution 785, a resolution relating to a tax abatement granting the abatement for the Inger Park Golf Course Project. Resolution 786, item seven is a resolution providing for the issuance sale and delivery of general obligation bonds series 2024 B in the approximate principal amount of 7,790,000, establishing the terms and for from uh form thereof, creating a debt service fund thereof and providing for awarding the sale thereof. Item eight, resolution 787 is a resolution authorizing inner interfund loan from the general fund to the capital improvement fund for the Spirit Mountain Restoration Project in the amount of 13 million to provide financing for the Spirit Mountain Restoration Project. Item nine, resolution eight fifteen is a resolution establishing establishing support by the City of Duluth for a newly constructed academic health sciences center in the downtown regional exchange district. Item 10 is resolution 815 is a resolution establishing support by the City of Duluth for a newly constructed academic health sciences center in the downtown regional exchange district. And just a quick clarification. Um Mr. Johnson, what's the difference between item nine and item 10? President Randorf, that looks to be a clerical error, and uh the same resolution was duplicated. Removed. Okay, thank you so much. We'll cross off item 10. All right, I will pause there. I know we have um uh we have some folks to talk about some of the bonding. Uh I'll first open it up to the counselors. Uh who has the first question on item six through nine? I see Councilor Mayo. Thank you, President Randorf. Um, this might become clear with some presentation. I'm just wondering um about the tax abatement, obviously, for Inger and if that's a change in how we were going to fund it from previously uh and how that kind of factors into our general obligation bonds. But uh I know Jen Carlson has some additional information and Mr. Montgomery. I don't know uh if you want to chime in as well about the Inger project specifically. Uh no, President Randorf, Councilor Mayo, uh I'll have Director Carlson come up. Uh and we also have our consultant from Ellers as well, and two of them can walk you through all you need to know about this. Thanks. Thank you, President Randor. Um, Councilor Mayo, to answer your question. Um we have intended to issue golf um tax abatement bonds for the golf project. The only difference is originally we had intended to issue about four million dollars in abatement bonds, and we have since reduced that to two million dollars and um substituted that with some uh tourism tax, general fund reserves, and some American rescue plan funds. So that was previously approved by um council, and that leaves two million dollars in abatement bonds that we're gonna issue for that project. Okay, thank you.
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