The Duluth City Council met on Monday, September 14, 2026, at 6:00 PM in Council Chambers. The meeting covered a wide range of agenda items including a public hearing on a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan for the Legacy Housing project, adoption of a consent agenda with 24 resolutions, first and second readings of several ordinances, and discussion on a proposed code of conduct and traffic modifications on 4th Street. Several members of the public spoke on agenda and non-agenda items.
The following resolutions were approved unanimously (9-0) as part of the consent agenda:
Agenda Items (First Public Comment Period):
Non-Agenda Items (Second Public Comment Period):
Public Hearing – Legacy Housing TIF (Resolution 26-0793R): A public hearing was held on the proposed Tax Increment Financing plan for the Legacy Housing District, a 148-unit development (mostly studios and one-bedrooms) adjacent to Lake Superior College, including 30 affordable units at 50% AMI. David Klein (Vice President at Lake Superior College) spoke in support, citing benefits for student and employee recruitment. No other speakers testified. After the hearing, the council suspended rules to welcome a delegation from Ohara-Isumi City, Japan (sister city) for introductions and a photo.
Legacy TIF Vote: Councilor Tomanek moved approval, seconded by President Nephew. Councilor Clanaugh moved to table, citing that supporting materials (pro forma, but-for test) were not made available to the public in a timely manner. After debate, the motion to table failed 2-7 (yes: Clanaugh, Durrwachter; no: Desotelle, Tomanek, Forsman, Johnson, Randorf, Kennedy, Nephew). The main motion then passed 8-1 (nay: Durrwachter). Several councilors noted that the level of documentation was consistent with past practice for HRA TIF districts.
Code of Conduct (Resolution 26-0810R): Vice President Kennedy and Councilor Johnson presented a revised resolution to amend standing rules to include a code of conduct. The text had been shortened per agenda session feedback. Some councilors expressed concern about receiving the final version only on the night of the meeting and requested more time for review. A motion to table was made by President Nephew, seconded by Councilor Durrwachter, and passed unanimously (9-0), tabling the resolution to the next meeting.
4th Street Traffic Modifications (Resolutions 26-0742R and 26-0743R): The administration had requested these items be sent back for further work. Councilor Desotelle made motions to return both resolutions to administration, seconded by Councilor Tomanek (for the bike lane) and Councilor Clanaugh (for the no-parking zone). Both motions passed unanimously (9-0). The items will be revisited after administrative review.
Short Term Rental Ordinance (Ordinance 26-038-O) – Second Reading: The ordinance to regulate STR licensing and permitting in Chapters 29 and 29A was moved by President Nephew, seconded by Councilor Clanaugh. Councilors discussed the need for a starting point despite acknowledged loopholes, particularly regarding owner-occupied shared rentals and enforcement. Deputy Chief Otis was commended for leading the effort. Councilor Forsman raised concerns about potential impacts on existing licensed STRs under stricter state health requirements but was reassured by staff. Councilor Durrwachter noted an estimated 400–800 illegal STRs in the city. The ordinance passed unanimously (9-0). Several councilors committed to ongoing amendments and a one-year review.
Other Ordinances – Second Readings:
Ordinances – First Readings:
The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:30 PM (based on transcript length).
All right, we'll begin in one minute. All right, good evening, counselors. We will begin our finance committee meeting. We're pleased to welcome General Manager Chris Belden for the twenty twenty-seven tool with Transit Authority budget presentation. Mr. Belden will have thirty minutes to present his budget to us. We'll leave ten minutes for counselor QA. So if you want to make your notes, we'll open that up and do that. So please, Mr. Belden, uh begin any time you're ready. Thank you very much. Uh Chris Belden, I'm the general manager of the Jewish Transit Authority. And James Barg is our uh CFO, so he's been with us for uh a couple of years now, so second levy meeting, I believe. First, I'll kick it off right away with what our levy request is for this year, and then give a bit of a background on what we've been up to, and then Jim will get through the budget a little bit, and then we'll we'll wrap it up. So start off with the levy request. A little bit of history. So in 2024 and 2025, due to the pandemic and all the state transit agencies running into financial issues, they decided to lower the local match requirement, which is typically 20%. They dropped it all the way to five. For the size that we are, that saved a ton of money, which ended up being a reduced local levy, and then that expired last year, so that we had a big increase. So it's it's quite a mix of different funding sources. Um for 2026, that local match went from 5% to 15%, uh, still a little bit short of the usual 20%. What we weren't expecting is this year it remained, or for 27, it'll remain at 15%. But then after that in 28, it will go back to the normal uh statutory 20%. So to give you a little bit of context of just how much that saves us for our 2027 budget is uh just under 1.2 million. So the levy request itself, um, we're seeking a new growth only increase in our levy. So this would uh keep our net tax capacity rate the same as it was last year. Our actual levy percent is a slight decrease, but that would generate in the new growth um about 228,000. Um and then to give some context on uh that home value number we've been using at 275,000, that would that would stay the same. And then uh based on the new new growth within uh the boundaries of the city of Duluth, St. Louis County figures our actual uh voter approved tax levy maximum is all the way up to 8.7 million now. So we're asking less than half of what has been uh approved through referendum. So a little bit on the the DTA. So most of you are probably pretty familiar with who we are and what we do, but I'll give a quick overrun. Um for those that want to come and visit us down in Lincoln Park. Anybody's welcome, just give me a call and we'll give you the full-blown tour. So we were created by the Minnesota legislature back in 1969. Uh we we primarily serve Duluth and Superior. We have a little bit on the the other cities, but primarily those two cities. Um we've got 17 routes, which is an increase of service from what we had, what we presented last year. I'll get into that uh soon. We serve around 7,000 to 9,000 passengers a day on average. Um and then we've got 200 employees, and then we have a board of directors with nine members on it. Sorry, I missed that slide. All right. So a little bit on just our our uh legacy and history of excellence. We've always been a really high performing transit agency, especially in the region. Uh outside of the Twin Cities, we are the largest urban uh public transportation system, and we carry a third of greater Minnesota's um total passengers. Um nationally, we always rank really high. Uh there's a site called All Transit, which is kind of like a WAP score type of website, and they rank us fourth out of 131 other similar size agencies. And out of all the those greater Minnesota Transit Agencies, we've recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic better than any of them.