NIMBY vs YIMBY: A new Duluth housing fight develops

DULUTH, Minn. (Northern News Now) - In this world of extreme division, there’s one issue most Duluthians agree on.

We need more housing.

But it turns out, one of the biggest barriers to creating housing is Duluthians.

It’s a city full of NIMBY’s (not in my backyard).

A lot of people in the city want more housing, but don’t want to lose a patch of woods near their home. And they don’t want more traffic. And they don’t want housing that doesn’t match the current makeup of their neighborhood.

Talk to any developer or housing leader and they’ll tell you we’d have more places to live in Duluth if there was a citywide attitude adjustment.

So in the midst of this housing crisis, there’s a growing, bipartisan movement aimed at shoving NIMBY’s aside and building everywhere.

“We can bike, we can snowshoe and ski in the winter,” said Craig Ellingson, as he walked through Hartley Park with his wife Barb in late March.

Nature serves as the lifeblood of the couples relationship. They’ve called the Woodland neighborhood home for 50 years.

“We like things the way they are now,” said Craig.

However, a proposed development right across the road from Hartley is seen by the couple as a barrier to their Woodland way of life.

“It’s a big concern,” said Barb.

The eight acres off Woodland Avenue is where a company wants to construct two buildings. Each would house 30 condos for purchase.

“My concern right off the bat is the safety of people pulling in and out of this area,” said Barb.

“If they expanded they would take down a lot of those beautiful trees,” said Craig.

It’s a sentiment shared by more than 1,000 of their neighbors who’ve signed a petition titled ‘Keep the Woods in Woodland.’

Some of them even showed up at a recent Planning Commission meeting to voice their concerns.

In the world of real estate and construction, such resistance to new development by existing residents is called NIMBY, or Not In My Backyard.

“I’m kind of a NIMBY I guess,” said Craig Ellingson.

It’s resistance we’ve seen to a lot of development plans in Duluth, often resulting in delays, fewer units, hesitance by developers to even make a proposal, and the denial or withdrawal of construction plans altogether.

That happened in the Lester Park neighborhood a year ago.

Many Hawk Ridge Estates residents vocally opposed plans for a new development on a neighboring plot of land.

After heavy protest, the developer walked away.

“People don’t like change, and quite frankly, we haven’t been a community that’s had a lot of growth,” said City Councilor Lynn Marie Nephew.

In addition to her city council duties, Nephew is a real estate agent who sees and hears NIMBY protest in both lines of work.

“We have a lot of land that hasn’t been developed in Duluth, and a lot of people assume it’s theirs and it’s part of the park system,” said Nephew. “And it’s not, it’s privately owned.”

According to the City of Duluth, when it comes to public parks and natural lands, we have two to three times that of other U.S. cities of similar size and demographics. That’s why housing advocates here say, if it’s not meant for the public, it should be meant for development.

“We need to accept that and get out of the way of developers,” said Nephew.

“Every year, without fail, my rent goes up $100,” said Duluthian David Schafroth.

Schafroth has lived in Duluth for eight years. He says he’s been unable to save for a house because of rising rent and home costs, fueled in part by a low housing stock.

“Personally, I’ve had to put off getting married, had to put off the whole plan of having kids and start a family, because the cost of housing is too dang high,” said Schafroth.

City figures show the average monthly rent in Duluth has risen 21% in those eight years.

The median Duluth home price over that time has jumped 40%.

That as Minnesota is more than 100,000 housing units short.

Duluth is more than 3,000 short.

Schafroth’s disillusionment, combined with his background in construction estimation, led him to a group called Northshore Yimby, which stands for Yes In My Backyard.

“A YIMBY is someone that wants to see Duluth thrive,” said Schafroth.

The movement calls for more housing. It opposes density limits and many zoning practices, and its members say one of the biggest NIMBY’s of all is the City of Duluth itself.

“You might spend more on attorneys’ fees than you would just actually building something,” said Schafroth.

Duluth has something called a UDC, or Unified Development Code. It contains all development-related regulations. It was just 34 pages back in 1927. Today it spans 400 pages of development and building regulations. Some of that stands in the way of new housing.

However, new legislation in St. Paul aims to send a lot of the UDC to the trash bin.

“Today, we as a group of republicans and democrats stand together in addressing the issue that is core of every Minnesota community -- housing,” said Northern Minnesota State Rep. Spencer Igo. The republican opened a bipartisan news conference about housing last month in St. Paul.

Conservatives and liberals locked arms, unveiling a very YIMBY package of bills called ‘Yes to Homes.’

In doing so, Minnesota joined 43 other states introducing legislation aimed at removing rules and regulations used by NIMBY’s to slow new construction. That’s according to the Urbanity Project at George Mason University.

The bills would take a hatchet to portions of Duluth’s UDC:

-Requiring expedited reviews of housing proposals.

-Requiring less public input.

-Calling for more density, including triplexes and fourplexes.

-Eliminating of parking requirements.

-Potentially doing away with planning commissions.

“It’s not a scary thing, its an opportunity to improve our housing density, which improves our economic base,” said DFL Duluth Rep. Pete Johnson.

Both Duluth State Reps champion the legislation, alongside all Northshore Yimby’s.

“We need more homes everywhere of every shape, every variety, every finish, and just because you personally might not like something, doesn’t mean someone else shouldn’t have the opportunity to build their future in Duluth,” said Schafroth.

“Do you feel like that takes away the voice of the people who already live in a neighborhood?” asked Northern News Now’s Dan Wolfe.

“I think that is a fundamental debate going on in America right now,” replied Schafroth.

However, the debate is settled as far as the Ellingson’s are concerned.

They believe the woods should stay in Woodland, since they’re the reason they call the neighborhood home.

“I think we’ve accommodated a lot of things that have changed in our neighborhood,” said Barb Ellingson. “So I don’t see us as NIMBY’s at all. As long as it makes sense. I don’t think this makes sense.”

A lot of Minnesota cities don’t think the ‘Yes to Homes’ package of bills make sense.

They’re lobbying against it out of fear of losing local control.

Northern News Now reached out to the city of Duluth to see where our administration stands.

A city spokesperson provided a statement:

“We are tracking these bills as they move through the committee process and on to potential votes in the House and Senate. The City of Duluth supports efforts to improve access to housing across all income levels, while also recognizing it is important to maintain local control as communities adapt to their unique, evolving needs.”

Experts tell us that if the bills do pass, they won’t help solve Duluth’s housing crisis, but would help.

We’ll keep you updated.

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