Plans to create a Clough Island resort community in Superior are unlikely to develop.
With little progress on the plan and new priorities for the St. Louis River Estuary, where the 315-acre island is located, Progress Land Co. based in Savage, Minn., is unlikely to receive needed city support for the project, said Mayor Dave Ross.
The proposal included an 18-hole championship golf course, a 200- to 400-room hotel, retail village, marina and about 700 homes. However, it's not likely to become a reality because a number of issues that require City Council approval.
To date, the council has never received the plan it would have to approve for a zoning change to go into effect.
Progress Land Co. also would need council support to create a tax-increment finance district to pay for a road and bridge to the island, and eight councilors would have to OK the ordinance change to allow that road to be built along Chases Point in the Superior Municipal Forest.
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With what has transpired so far, Development and Government Affairs Director Jeff Vito said: "They're going to have a hell of an uphill battle on anything else they try to do."
LITTLE PROGRESS
It's been more than five years since Progress Land Co. paid $1.2 million to a trust that held the island's deed and more than four years since the council met in closed session to discuss the island proposal.
"We waited a long time before we went public with this project," Ross said. "It was a project proposal that existed prior to my election and was part of the discussion during the election. ... It took awhile to go public, because we felt they were at the place to start making tangible and significant investment in the project. That didn't occur."
In fact, while the company unveiled its plan to the Duluth News Tribune in 2003 -- just weeks after Ross took office -- it wasn't until 2005 that city officials stood with principals of Progress Land Co. to unveil the plan. At that time the council was considering rezoning the island.
In July 2005, the council granted tentative approval to change the island's suburban zoning, which allows residential development on five-acre parcels, to a planned development district, which would allow the proposed mixed-use development. Since that tentative approval was granted, Progress Land Co. has yet to present the plan that could allow the zoning change to take effect. City ordinance requires an approved plan as a condition of the development district zoning.
"Pretty much nothing" is happening with the proposal to develop the island, Vito said. "We've had a couple different parties contact us about buying it from Progress Land, but thus far nothing has transpired. There's been no plan brought forward, so we're just sitting here in waiting mode to see if they're going to bring something to us."
Though Progress Land Co. project manager John Stainbrook said the company's plan hasn't changed, Vito said the last meeting the city had with company officials -- within the last few weeks -- was "in the context of what's happening with a potential purchaser of it."
