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Duluth Competing in Final Round for $75 Million in National Resiliency Competition

[Duluth, MN] - The City of Duluth partnered with the State of Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), Ecolibrium3 and Duluth LISC earlier this year to apply for funds from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development for the Community Development Block Grant National Disaster Resilience (CDBG-NDR) competition. In 2012, Duluth was among several communities hit hard by devastating floods. Damages totaled about $100 million. With Duluth as a pilot study area, Minnesota’s participation in the National Disaster Resilience Competition is seen as a stimulus for linking local, state, and regional conversations, identifying actionable steps that can be implemented in the next two years to increase resiliency and establish a framework of communication for residents to understand climate adaptation and disaster mitigation.    

“Duluth is a community that has faced many challenges, one of which was the 2012 flood. We came together as a community to overcome this devastation with incredible fortitude. It’s this mindset and collaborative spirit that allows Duluth to be successful and to build the foundation for a thriving community. We are appreciative of the opportunity to partner with DEED and community partners in this competition but also want to recognize that intensive public participation was critical in shaping what we deem to be a stellar application,” said Mayor Don Ness.  

The application is titled Minnesota’s Big Water: Ripples of Resilience CDBG-NDR Application and includes projects that total about $75 million. The application is due on October 27, 2015. The City and DEED were selected in the first round among 67 applicants from communities around the country and was one of 40 communities eligible to submit for phase two.

The projects and their anticipated outcomes are:

1. Neighborhoood Needs: Remove, Repair, Reuse, & Revitalize– Remove 25 at-risk homes, resiliently repair 250 homes, adaptively reuse 4 historic structures (133 mixed-income units), and demonstrate resilient housing models with micro-manufacturing to replace lost housing from the June 2012 floods. Revitalize low-income neighborhood commercial corridors through a Small Business Resilience Revitalization fund and development of 2 new housing projects (50-unit supportive housing project & 150 mixed-use development).
2. Connecting Communities: Nature, Nurture, & Net- Repair and remediate 72 acres of park and 55 miles of trails connecting LMI neighborhoods, serve 18,000 LMI residents through relocated and expanded community gathering facilities.
3. Infrastructure Investments: Retain, Redirect, & Renew[able]- Implement green infrastructure strategies including extended detention wetlands & reestablishment of natural floodplains. Develop resilient power demonstration projects and modify the flood-affected district heat distribution system to provide long-term resilience, greater efficiency, and opportunity for conversion to locally derived biomass instead of coal.

If awarded, Duluth would serve as a cornerstone community for the development of future resiliency framework and strategies that can be replicated around the state and nationwide. HUD is expected to announce recipients by January 2016.

A Committee of the Whole presentation to the Duluth City Council is planned for today, October 26 at 6:30 PM in Duluth City Hall Council Chambers to update Councilors on the final application and the proposed project needs.

The full application is available at www.bigwatermn.com

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