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RESOLUTION ADOPTING GUIDELINES FOR SELECTION OF TAX FORFEIT OPEN SPACE PARCELS FOR CITY OWNERSHIP AND PROTECTION.
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CITY PROPOSAL:
WHEREAS, the city’s comprehensive plan, adopted in June 2018, includes policy recommendations to “Examine the value and need for all of Duluth’s publicly owned open spaces” (Open Space Policy #2); and to “Improve Duluth’s resiliency to flooding and natural disasters” (Open Space Policy #1); and
WHEREAS, implementation strategies for the referenced policies call for improved alignment of ownership of public lands for public benefit and for economic development; and
WHEREAS, in anticipation of continued collaboration between St. Louis County and the city of Duluth related to economic development and permanent preservation of tax forfeit properties in the city of Duluth, guidelines for evaluation and selection of parcels appropriate for permanent preservation were developed, attached hereto as Exhibit 1 (the “Guidelines”); and
WHEREAS, the Guidelines were evaluated, finalized, and recommended for adoption by the Natural Resources Commission (July 1, 2020) and the Planning Commission (July 14, 2020).
RESOLVED, that the Guidelines are hereby adopted.
Statement of Purpose
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: The Imagine Duluth 2035 Comprehensive Plan Open Space chapter calls upon the City to acquire and permanently protect county-administered tax forfeit properties that have significant ecological, recreational, and/or stormwater management value. This resolution adopts the guidelines and processes attached as Exhibit 1 that the City will use to select which specific tax forfeit open space parcels it wishes to acquire and protect. Parcels not selected for protection will be more readily available for housing, economic development, or other applicable public or private uses.
The process of selecting tax forfeit parcels for acquisition from more than 4500 parcels citywide then negotiating conveyance of selected parcels with St. Louis County will take several years. To break the process into manageable pieces, the City has divided Duluth into eleven public land project areas (Exhibit 2) with the intention to proceed one project area at a time.
The parcel selection process for each public land project area has three phases. The initial phase will utilize a GIS analysis founded on an enhanced version of the Sensitive Lands Overlay from the Comprehensive Plan. The list of candidate parcels derived in the initial phase will be subjected to a deliberative phase two technical review by professionals in natural resource management, planning and economic development, stormwater management, and parks and recreation. Phase two will yield a list of tax forfeit parcels proposed for acquisition that will be presented for a final phase of review by the public, the Natural Resource Commission, the Planning Commission, and the City Council. Final parcel selections for each public land project area will be subject to the consent of St. Louis County and approval by the City Council.
Initial draft guidelines were developed by collaborating staff from the Property, Parks, and Libraries Department, the Planning and Economic Development Department, and the Public Works Department. The Natural Resources Commission finalized the language of the guidelines and recommended approval to the City Council on July 1, 2020. The Planning Commission reviewed the guidelines and recommended approval to the City Council on July 14, 2020. The Planning staff memo is attached as Exhibit 3.