Duluth City Council Meeting - May 11, 2026
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Duluth City Council Meeting - May 11, 2026
The Duluth City Council convened on Monday, May 11, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers. Prior to the formal meeting, the Council held a Committee of the Whole session featuring a presentation on affordable housing funding opportunities. The regular meeting included approval of a 21-item consent agenda, adoption of two regular agenda items, and first readings of five ordinances. Councilors Durrwachter and Tomanek were absent.
Committee of the Whole – Affordable Housing Presentation
- Housing planner Lena Fancook presented the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) Multifamily Consolidated Request for Proposals (RFP), the primary state funding mechanism for affordable housing. She noted that Duluth needs over 2,000 affordable housing units by 2030.
- Two local applicants who were not selected in the previous year’s cycle introduced their projects:
- Decker 2 (One Roof Community Housing): A mixed-income workforce housing project with 42 units, including seven units for high-priority homeless individuals and five for families with a disabled member. Half of the units would be assisted by state “Bring It Home” vouchers.
- Mission Heights (Union Gospel Mission and HRA): A 40-unit apartment building with a ground-floor engagement center offering a triage drop-in space (100 mats overnight), dining hall (200 seats), medical care, showers, laundry, and a mental health decompression room. The project requires $8.856 million in state bonding for the first floor; $250,000 in local fundraising has been raised.
- Both projects request a $400,000 pre-commitment of 2027 HUD funds. The council will vote on supporting resolutions at the May 26 meeting.
- Councilors discussed per-unit costs (Decker 2 ~$533,000; Mission Heights ~$511,000) and the impact of inflation. Staff noted that construction costs have stabilized in the past year.
- Councilor Forsman asked about the value proposition of such high per-unit costs; Vice President Kennedy suggested reframing them as public health and safety investments.
- Councilor Johnson inquired about East Duluth affordable housing; staff noted the ongoing land use study in the Lester Park area could identify future sites.
Public Comments
- First Public Comment Period (Agenda Items): No speakers.
- Second Public Comment Period (Non-Agenda Items): Cody Pals (precinct 55806) spoke about conflict of interest, urging councilors to declare whom they serve (capital or the people). He also expressed strong opposition to a proposed data center in Hermantown, citing concerns over dirty air, water pollution, noise, and the ethical implications of AI replacing humans. He directed comments toward an unnamed councilor.
Consent Calendar
- Approved unanimously (7-0) without discussion. Items included:
- Temporary on-sale liquor license for Mesabi Symphony Orchestra (26-0422R)
- Election of a member to the Duluth/North Shore Sanitary District Board (26-0369R)
- Confirmations of appointments: Patrick DeGrood (Airport Authority), Amber Burns (Public Arts Commission), Wayne Gannaway (Heritage Preservation Commission), Jason Hirt (Parks and Recreation Commission) (26-0428R through 26-0431R)
- Agreement with Minnesota Association of Workforce Boards for $15,196 in regional planning funds (26-0362R)
- Vacating a slopes and fills easement on West Second Street (26-0413R)
- Development agreement with Amity Bluffs, LLC (26-0415R)
- Amendment to development agreement and easement acceptance with Lotus Realty Services (26-0419R)
- No parking zone on West College Street (26-0364R)
- Contract to Triple E Water and Sewer for lead service line replacement – Endion 1 project, $1,485,190.90 (26-0388R)
- Acceptance of tax-forfeited land for road purposes (26-0416R)
- Sole source purchase of natural gas regulator station heater, $346,450.00 (26-0418R)
- Emergency management mutual aid agreement with Minnesota Department of Public Safety (26-0406R)
- Acceptance of reimbursement from Arrowhead Library System (26-0361R)
- Contract to KTM Paving for storm damage civil sites repairs, $2,251,588.27 (26-0380R)
- Mud Lake habitat restoration project agreement with MN DNR (26-0381R)
- Hartley Dam flow restrictive culvert assessment agreement with MN DNR (26-0382R)
- Amendment to grant contract for Lake Superior Zoo pre-design services (26-0389R)
- Second amendment to zoo operations agreement with Arrowhead Zoological Society (26-0417R)
Regular Agenda
- 26-0410R – Pole Attachment License Agreement with Minnesota Power: Authorized an annual rate of $18.50 per pole, subject to annual increase. Councilor Forsman abstained, citing employment with Minnesota Power. Passed 6-0 (one abstention).
- 26-0414R – Amended Parking Agreement with Hermantown Church: Allowed up to 47 reserved parking spaces in the West Medical District (Hillside) Ramp at no cost to the church. Councilor Clanaugh thanked Councilor Desotelle for clarification on perpetuity. Passed 7-0.
Ordinances – First Readings
- 26-010-O: Granting Independent School District 709 a concurrent use permit to pave and stripe the easterly portion of 101st Avenue W right-of-way.
- 26-012-O through 26-015-O: Granting AT&T concurrent use permits to install small cell wireless facilities on Minnesota Power poles at four locations (Parkwood Lane, N. 53rd Ave E, N. 50th Ave E, N. 58th Ave E).
- All five ordinances were read for the first time; no further discussion occurred.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda approved 7-0.
- Resolution 26-0410R (pole attachment) passed 6-0 with one abstention.
- Resolution 26-0414R (parking agreement) passed 7-0.
- Five ordinances introduced for first reading; second readings and potential adoption will occur at a future meeting.
- The council will consider resolutions supporting the two affordable housing projects (Decker 2 and Mission Heights) on May 26, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
So it's high fox. Good evening. Do we want to gather and start uh getting ready for the committee of the whole thing? Are you sitting by yourself? Is it your show? Cool. Okay, can I turn on you? Can you hear me? Okay. Am I good to start? You can go ahead and start if you want to give us your name. Yeah. Thanks for having me tonight. My name is Lena Fancook. I'm the housing a housing planner. Um the planning and economic development. Um planning and academic development department here at the city. Um and tonight I'm here to talk to you about Minnesota Housing's multifamily consolidated request for proposals. Um this is a presentation we give every year to council. So this might be familiar familiar to many of you, but I know we do have some new counselors here. Um, first I'll uh give an overview of the process itself, what the RFP is, why it's important, um, and what your role is in this process. Um that will just uh give context for the most important part, which is um introducing this year's two local applicants that are going through this process. Um I'll give an overview then of those projects. Um then we'll open up um the floor for questions about the process and also about the projects. We do have um representatives from uh those two applications or the applicants here tonight. Dakota Sowell from One Roof Community Housing and Katie Hagland and Caleb Anderson representing UGM and the HRA for the second project. So they'll be here to answer any of your project specific questions and provide any details that I missed in the overview. Okay. So what is the multifamily consolidated RFP? This is one of Minnesota housing's biggest annual funding opportunities for affordable housing across the state. It's also the primary mechanism in which affordable housing is funded and built at scale in our community, which is particularly significant, noting the recent housing study that was done this past year that showed that Duluth needs over 2,000 units of affordable housing by 2030. So this RFP is specifically for affordable residential rental projects. And the application actually combines multiple state funding sources into one single application. So that includes maybe most notably the low income housing tax credits, but also other sources like deferred loans and bridge loans and a variety of other sources as well. Because affordable is often defined differently in different settings. For this context, MHFA is generally only looking at projects that are affordable to at that 60% or below area median income. The RFP is governed by the state's qualified allocation plan. This is a plan that's updated every two years or so and it lays out the state's funding priorities for these resources. So what type of housing and units the state is prioritizing over those cycles, as well as the eligibility requirements and scoring criteria for those applications. It really determines how the funds, these state funds are distributed across the state to all sorts of multifamily projects. This is a very competitive process with the demand for these resources up to five times the actual available resources that the state has. So applications need to be really strong and competitive to have a chance of being selected by the state. In this case, preference is generally given to projects serving the lowest income tenants for the longest periods of time. Over here in the green boxes, you can see what type of housing is eligible through this program. That includes the general rental housing, but also senior housing and permanent supportive housing. And then below that there's a few examples of what applications are scored on. The first few are some heavy hitters for the in this current QAP. If you include permanent supportive housing or housing for people with disabilities, or if you have large family housing, so units with more than two, um two or more bedrooms. But they're also looking at your transit accessibility, walkability, other sustainability measures, a variety of other criteria, but then this last one is also a big one, and it's the financial readiness of projects and the financial feasibility. Also specifically at whether or not there's local investment or yeah, local funds within that project.
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