LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS DULUTH PROGRAM 2010-2011

Each year the League of Women Voters Duluth holds a planning meeting to propose program changes which are voted on at the Annual Meeting by the membership.



POSITION: CITY PLANNING

• Support of improved land use controls for open space and improved environmental planning
  
• Support of adequate transit system
  
• Support of an effective sign ordinance
  

POSITION: EDUCATION

• Support of the adoption and implementation of long range plans and procedures by the Duluth School District: the object is to ensure equal opportunity for all
  

POSITION: COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING FOR THE CITY OF DULUTH SHOULD BE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:
Guiding Concepts:

• Preserve the character of the community and promote community identity at neighborhood and city wide levels.
  
• Conserve open space
  
• Ensure that areas of new growth are coordinated with existing and proposed development. Prevent urban sprawl.
  
• Maintain or improve the level of community services
  
• Develop a community with a diversity of housing types to enable citizens from a wide range of economic levels to live within city boundaries
  
• Plan ahead to avoid environmental problems
  
• Promote aesthetics and preserve historic and cultural features
  
• Create a city wide network of streets, pedestrian paths and bike paths
  
• Provide an adequate and accessible mass transit system
  
• Encourage flexibility and innovation in development techniques to promote diversity within the community and to slow the increase in development costs
  
• Encourage citizen output
  
• Promote public safety
  

Implementation Guidelines:

• Provide consistency in the plan implementation over time and across administrations
  
• Provide consistent rules and statutes to match the plan
  
• Put structures in place to consistently implement and update the plan, including a schedule for ealuation and review.
  
• Encourage regional collaboration
  
• Coordinate citywide and neighborhood issues
  
• Make land use decisions based on a current natural resources inventory
  

Position: Duluth Infrastructure:

• LWV Duluth is opposed to the sale of the gas utility
  
• LWV Duluth supports development of a comprehensive plan for reinvestment in Comfort System utility infrastructures. The plan should be an integrated, coordinated plan of action with specific timelines, identified and committed fund sources to maintain each of the four utilities in standard operating condition at all times, and be developed with input from citizens and businesses, as well as from utility workers and management.
  

Details:
While the following have not been fully studied, and are therefore not specifically recommended by LWV Duluth, they are provided as examples of elements, which could be included in such a plan of action:

• Reduce temporary repair costs; instead, devote resources to system replacements to achieve standard operating function
  
• Replace dysfunctional sanitary sewage collection infrastructures and storm water systems not already under federal and state correction orders
  
• Replace antiquated underground utility infrastructures as streets are replaced
  
• Expand water testing to include organic and inorganic substances entering Lake Superior watershed from new mining and other human activites
  
• Expand citizen understanding, including private and commercial fee payers, with children and youth participation, to encourage water conservation and reduce waste contamination
  

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