Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program

Duluth Digital Plat & Parcel Development for

Lake Superior Watershed Protection

Richard Bunten /GIS Specialist/ City of Duluth

January 25, 2010

Project No. 306-14-10

Contract No. B17891

This project was funded in part by the Coastal Zone Management Act, by NOAA’s
Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, in conjunction with Minnesota’s
Lake Superior Coastal Program.
 Acknowledgements

NOAA – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Minnesota Lake Superior Coastal Program

City of Duluth

St. Louis County

Pro-West and Associates, Inc.

LHB, Inc.

The City of Duluth GIS Office would like to thank the above organizations for their part

in funding this project, providing data pertaining to the project or contracting to provide

services for the project’s successful completion.

Introduction
This project completes the fifth and final year of Duluth’s effort to map the
property ownership of the whole city. In 2009, with monies from the City of
Duluth, St. Louis County and the Lake Superior Coastal Program, Pro-West and
Associates and the City of Duluth were able to map the final 9,500 parcels in the
city and carry out quality control on the whole dataset. The completion of these
parcels brings the total number of parcels mapped in the City of Duluth over the
last five years to 52,500. The completion of the city’s land ownership database
marks another step in its continued effort to protect the Lake Superior Watershed
with proper management of its many rivers, streams and shoreline within the city.
It also fulfils the city commitment to assist Saint Louis County in completing its
land ownership map of the entire county by the end of 2010. The city and the
county look forward to continuing their cooperation on the development,
maintenance and improvement of the geographic land ownership database and
using this valuable tool to help in its cooperative management of the Lake
Superior watershed.

With this detailed property ownership map, the City is already using it to better
manage development and its municipal infrastructure, while protecting the natural
environment and Lake Superior watershed. This year’s project mapped property
within Duluth that is south and west of the I-35 corridor and other miscellaneous
areas around the city. Nearly all the areas mapped were on the St. Louis River or
within 1 mile of the river. Having these neighborhoods, industrial and commercial
areas mapped will give planners, engineers and technicians the information they
need to make informed decisions when working with property owners,
businesses and developers to manage land in a manner that will protect the Lake
Superior watershed.

Work Completed
This project digitally mapped the property ownership of 9,500 parcels and
surveyed over 50 monument corners. Also, over 52,500 parcels and their related
data were reviewed and corrected where needed.

Areas mapped included land in Fond du Lac, Gary, Morgan Park, New Duluth,
Rice’s Point, and Park Point. These areas include highly industrial sites, densely
populated neighborhoods and many of the most wooded and natural areas of
Duluth. Some examples include the old US Steel plant site, Magney/Snively
Park and Mission Creek Park.

Most of the survey that was needed for this year’s project was gathered last year.
Fifty-four monument corners were gathered this year, 12 of these were PLS
corners and the others were city monuments and plat corners. All of the PLS
corners and survey points were used to define metes and bounds for property
that has not been subdivided, or to register property subdivisions in their correct
location. In addition to creating parcels, 24 whole and partial Public Land Survey
sections were mapped within the city. These mapped areas included 94 platted
subdivisions, 1,050+ subdivision blocks and 23,500+ subdivision lots. Finally,
over 1650+ encumbrances were mapped, which include easements,
condemnations and vacations.

Results
The parcel layer when overlaid with other GIS layers will help the City of Duluth
protect the Lake Superior and St. Louis River watersheds. Analysis with the
parcel layer may help prevent undesired development, harmful land use and
pollution near wetlands. It can also help protect erodible soils, tributaries, and
streams within the watersheds. Used in conjunction with other layers, the parcel
layer will help the city better identify ownership pertaining to sources of storm
water runoff and storm water infiltrating the sanitary sewer. Identifying these
sources will help the city prevent sanitary overflows and design storm sewer
projects that better protect the watershed’s resources.
By knowing the exact location of property lines in relation to sensitive natural
features like wetlands, city planners and engineers will also be able to assist
developers with development designs that protect the Lake Superior watershed.
Engineering staff will be able to overlay storm water and surface water models on
the property map and be able to quickly determine ownership. Being able to
easily determine ownership of land will help the city work closely with property
owners to mitigate storm water runoff. Engineers can quickly show land owners
how storm water mitigation structures will look and reduce flow on their property.
Future planning to prevent flooding and protect water quality will be greatly
enhanced using the parcel map as a base layer to reflect the impacts of land
usages on the system.

Finally, the parcel map will be integrated into a larger county-wide parcel
database and possibly a regional or national parcel database. This information
will allow users to create highly accurate land-use and zoning maps that can be
used for planning and analysis that encompass large tracts of the Lake Superior
watershed.

Conclusions

Production of the plat and parcel map in 2009 started off slowly, picked up speed
through the summer and was complete by the middle of September. Completing
the project early gave us time to review and check the last five years of mapping
within the city. Errors were corrected, database attributes were standardized and
additional data was added.

This year’s project was a complete success and was an excellent final year to
our five year parcel mapping effort in the City of Duluth. The City knows that it
has an excellent base map on which to build additional geographic datasets of
the city.

Currently the city is using the parcel map to help it comply with the requirements
of its Sanitary Sewer ‘consent decree’ with the EPA. It is also using the parcel
map to help the city comply and exceed the EPA’s management standards for
storm water runoff.

The Planning department is using the parcel map to help develop its new Unified
Development Code and to re-map the zoning boundaries to match the city’s new
Comprehensive Plan.

Soon the parcel map will become an integral part of nearly every office within the
city. When the city deploys ESRI’s ArcServer the parcel map will become the
interface for nearly every query that can be related to a parcel. You will be able
to look up housing values, building permits, utility usage, licensing, ownership,
zoning, storm water permits, crime statistics and many other items by clicking on
a parcel.

Because of funds from the Minnesota Lake Superior Coastal Program, St. Louis
County and the City of Duluth, the City now has a foundation on which to build its
GIS. Duluth’s parcel map will become a tool that will be used by almost
everyone that has a question or needs to make a decision about the
management of the City of Duluth.