While generations of Duluthians grew up going to the Lester Park Golf Course, it now sits empty as the City of Duluth determines its future. Duluth City Councilor At Large Arik Forsman says this issue began in 2017-2018 as the City Council began looking at what to do with Duluth’s golf courses.
“The decision was made to prioritize resources at Enger Park Golf Course, and we would try to keep this course alive as long as possible. And then COVID hit, and that’s when the Larson administration decided to close it,” recalled Forsman. “I supported that decision even though I didn’t love it because the irrigation system here was near failure, and if it had failed, we would have had to shut down shop right away after that, and it was not a matter of if, but it was when it was going to happen.”
The clubhouse and other buildings are boarded up, and the property has fallen into disarray over the past five years.
“It is mostly used as a dog park right now. There’s people walking their dogs in and out as I came through the property here, and we know that that’s not the highest and best use of Lester Park Golf Course, and that’s why there’s a community conversation about what should the future of this property be,” said Forsman.
Since the course closed, there have been different ideas of what to do with the space. Last fall, the City of Duluth created a committee to complete a report on proposed projects for the 260 acres. A summary of this report can be found here.
COGGS Executive Director Ansel Schimpff quickly joined the committee, but his initial excitement faded.
“Very quickly, that committee turned into this, seemed like a way to move a developer’s plan through,” said Schimpff. “There was a development that had been proposed back in 2019, I believe. That proposal came back around, and we were told that it was a fantastic plan, and that’s just kind of the one that we should go with.”
Schimpff then came up with an alternative recreation-based plan with the Duluth Area Outdoor Alliance.
“That plan would include outdoor recreation, kind of across the spectrum of activities that we have here in Duluth, as well as a community-based area and spaces for outdoor education and recreation programming. That was presented to the City Council,” said Schimpff. “The recreation-based plan was sort of glossed over, and we were really told that what we had done would be part of the framework for a future public planning process. And that public planning process hasn’t happened yet, and now we’re here.”
Although there are several trails in Duluth, including at nearby Lester Park, Schimpff says the city is missing a “beginner trail across all activities.”
“COGGS is a mountain bike trail organization, but we’ve also talked with Duluth Cross Country and the Duluth Foot Trails Association. All these groups are looking for places where they can really introduce people to these outdoor activities, and this property presents an awesome opportunity for that,” said Schimpff.
On Wednesday, the Duluth Planning Commission had an agenda item that was to recommend transferring the Lester Park Golf Course property to DEDA. The vote was tabled for now, with the commission expected to reach a decision in November. Schimpff says transferring the property to DEDA would be “getting ahead of ourselves.”
“The issue that we see is that once you transfer to DEDA, regardless of public input, the only outcome could be a private sale and private development. DEDA does not hold parkland, they don’t hold green space, and so it seems like you’re kind of jumping ahead and skipping that opportunity for folks to say, ‘”‘Yeah, we do actually want to keep this as a park, and here’s why,’ or ‘We want to keep a big part of it as public land, and these are the areas that we feel would be best developed’,” explained Schimpff.
If the property were to be transferred to DEDA, there are some parts of it that are better than others when it comes to the ability to build houses. Forsman clarified – a transfer to DEDA would not automatically mean going a specific route in the development planning process.
“We might not be able to develop the entire thing, but I think if we come in with the lens that this is a housing development site, that informs then how we go about planning for it, and that’s the discussion that we’re in right now,” said Forsman. “We are looking at transferring the property from the city to the Economic Development Authority. But one of the things that I think I wanted to clarify is that we wouldn’t actually execute the closing of that until after we go through a public planning process. So we would initiate that with a council action this year, but then we would have to go through a land use study.”
The land study could take up to a year, and Forsman says it will include public input. In the meantime, the property will remain closed.
“You always want to be thoughtful and transparent about public process and take your time, and I know folks want to see us go through a planning process. But then I just bumped into somebody walking their dog here and was like, ‘this needs to be a golf course, and you need to do housing here, ‘” said Forsman. “There’s a lot of this pent-up impatience, rightly so, because it’s been closed for so long.”
For Related Stories: COGGS Duluth Duluth Economic Development Authority Lester Park Sabrina Ullman
