What is the best option for the Ordean site in a long-range plan for Duluth schools?
Ordean is a successful middle school with an existing pool and a good-sized auditorium. Parking is adequate for staff. The site holds a stadium and baseball, multipurpose and soccer fields -- fields for which taxpayers are still paying.
As a high school, Ordean would not have enough on-site parking, and there's no room to expand. Traffic to and from the site would increase by 2,800 vehicles per day, according to an estimate, with 680 of those vehicles between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Turn lanes on Superior Street and 40th Avenue East would be needed, yet traffic would still be backed up. Delivery trucks would access the site from 40th Avenue East, creating more safety and traffic concerns. To make the Ordean site work, zoning changes and special use permits would be needed. There's also a "Special Concerns Consideration" related to a buffer zone for a nesting eagle. There are two eaglets in the nest this spring.
On this small site, 12 acres would be graded or excavated, with 115,000 cubic yards of soil moved. The massive earth-moving would be needed to fit in an unneeded and unwanted new sports stadium. Much of the work would be done within the flood plain and shoreline of the 40th Avenue East creek. The new stadium would add noise and light pollution, while not providing enough event parking.
Neither the city of Duluth Planning Commission nor the Minnesota Department of Education has approved this site. Yet the district has scheduled its demolition and site work for this summer.
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Let's not rush a high school campus of the future onto a middle-school site.
Brian Ronstrom
Duluth
