In Duluth, a controversial condo proposal brings out both NIMBYs and YIMBYs
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Matt Pedersen loves sitting on the front porch of his house in Duluth, on a tree-lined street in the Woodland neighborhood, up the hill from Lake Superior. He and his wife moved there more than a decade ago to escape the hustle and bustle of Chicago.
“We had people living on top of us, every side. It was crazy. And we came here to get away from that,” Pedersen said.
Now he fears that urban density is coming to his quiet neighborhood.
About 300 yards from Pedersen’s home, a local developer has proposed two, 3-story buildings housing 60 condos, which would range in price from $450,000 to $700,000.
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Pedersen thinks the condo development, perched on a prominent hillside above a trout stream, is a bad fit for a neighborhood zoned for single family homes and townhomes.
“To change it to these massive buildings and high-density, luxury condos, it’s the city breaking the trust with the citizens who live there,” said Pedersen.
The developer’s condo plan became public a few months ago. And since then, a petition titled “Don’t Take the Woods out of Woodland” has attracted more than 1,300 signatures online from people concerned about more traffic and more people.
Pedersen and other neighbors said they’d welcome a smaller project with homes that regular families could afford. They push back against the NIMBY, or “Not In My Backyard” label, which is often attached to those who object to lower income housing in their neighborhoods.
“We just want to see something a little more scaled down, ideally something more affordable, and to also be part of the process,” said Wil Chapple, a teacher who recently bought his first home in the neighborhood.
“There’s genuine community concern, and that should be taken seriously,” said Pasha Kahn, a carpenter who lives in the neighborhood who believes the term “NIMBY” is used to discredit people with legitimate questions.
This kind of local opposition to a proposed development is by no means unique to Duluth, where the city council is poised to vote Monday evening on a rezoning proposal that would allow the controversial development to move forward.
But as the need for more housing in communities across the state and nation grows more acute, a counter-movement has also emerged, aimed at making it easier to build more types of homes in more places.
“The conversation in Duluth is happening across our state,” said Nick Erickson, senior director of Housing Policy for the industry group Housing First Minnesota.
“And as long as we’re saying ‘No’ to housing in our backyard individually, collectively we’re saying ‘No’ to new housing for everyone.”
What is ‘luxury?’
Brian Forcier, founder and president of Titanium Partners, the development firm behind the proposal, originally planned to build 15 townhomes on the site across the road from Hartley Park, a popular outdoor refuge home to a nature center and miles of trails.
But Forcier said members of the Duluth Planning Commission asked him to propose a project with more density. He said by building condos, he can fit additional units on the site while still preserving much of the eight acres as open space.
Duluth is pushing to increase housing density in some areas, said senior planner Jenn Moses, because unlike many other metropolitan areas, the city is landlocked, and much of the open space is off-limits to development.
Forcier believes the project will help relieve pressure on the local housing market. People who want to downsize into a condo could move into his properties, freeing up single family homes for other people in town.
He objects to how some residents are calling them “luxury” condos. “Is luxury a $450,000 condo? Maybe to some people. To others, it’s very entry level in today's world.”
Forcier said people calling for more affordable housing don’t understand how much building costs have risen recently. For example, he said it will cost $2 million just to bring utilities to the site, and tariffs may now add to that estimate.
“And then you’re asking me to create units that will cost less than $450,000?” he asked.
He said it’s impossible to cover costs and make a profit without either building more units or asking the city for a public subsidy.
“This isn’t your grandfather’s housing market,” said Jason Hale, former housing officer for the city of Duluth who now consults with developers and local governments across the region.
For example, Hale said, a nice, move-in ready house on the Iron Range that would sell for around $200,000, would likely cost $300,000 or more to build new.
“The market has just changed. Not only the cost of construction, but the cost of land, the cost of extending utilities. All of those things have gone up.”
Still, locals who object to the proposed condo development say Duluth has focused too much on building market rate housing—including a high-profile development perched on the hillside overlooking downtown that’s expected to add 1,200 units over the next decade— and not enough on adding more affordable housing, despite a 2019 study that estimated the city needed 3,600 new, affordable units in the next five years.
“We’re building a lot of housing for a very small portion of the city and leaving everyone else behind,” said Kahn.
NIMBYism evolves
For as long as he’s worked in housing, Hale said there have always been those who opposed certain development projects. Even when there’s clear consensus of a need for new housing, there’s often little agreement on what kind of housing to build, or where to build it.
What’s changed in the last five years or so, he said, is that opposition is no longer limited to lower income or subsidized housing.
“So while it may be the case that the residents who are welcoming of smaller, more affordable housing are not the classic NIMBYism, they’re still saying we don’t want what you want to build here because we don't think it belongs in our neighborhood,” Hale said.
As the housing shortage has intensified, a sort of countermovement has sprung up in Minnesota and around the country to make it easier to build more homes. They call themselves YIMBYs, for “Yes In My Backyard.”
For the past two years a bipartisan coalition of groups have advocated at the state legislature to reform zoning laws to make it easier, and faster, to build more kinds of houses in more places.
Recently David Schafroth started a group called North Shore YIMBY in Duluth to advocate for more housing development, no matter the price point.
“There weren’t too many folks willing to speak up and say, ‘Yes, we need more homes, even if it’s not a home that I would personally live in,’” Schafroth said.
“When you have more new homes, you create more used homes. And when you create more used homes, you create more apartment homes that are more affordable and higher quality than exist on the market.”
Several apartment buildings have been built in Duluth in recent years. But Lynn Nephew, a realtor and Duluth city councilor, says the city has added very few single family homes and condos.
“So as a community, I would say that we need to start accepting different styles of homes. I think that would be something that's important. And we need to start developing,” she said.
Nephew is one of nine council members tasked with deciding the fate of the condo proposal– to balance the interests of the neighbors most impacted by the proposal, against Duluth’s needs for additional housing.
“It’s an uncomfortable conversation,” said Hale. “It just comes down to weighing different values, and making the decision for the larger community.”