Lake Superior’s municipalities are looking to the waterfronts that created their past as they consider a “sustainable” future.

Both Duluth, Minnesota, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, point to makeovers of their downtown waterfronts as key to refreshed city identity and to future ability to attract economic growth. For Thunder Bay, Ontario, and smaller municipalities, the process of waterfront “reclamation” from strict industrial commerce into broader community use is gaining resident and financial support.

Not everyone sees such development as “sustainable.” City planners counter that the change inflicts less environmental stress than past uses.

“We’ve moved from a very industrial waterfront … to make it a pedestrian friendly place,” says Sault city planning director Don McConnell when giving examples of the city’s “sustainable development.”

The city created its St. Marys River boardwalk in about 1996. Stretching along much of the downtown waterfront, the walk emanates from the lock that became active in 1998 after years without use. The Canadian lock serves only non-commercial vessels, with the exception of the lock tour boats. In December, the city announced another development that will link to the walkway: a downtown casino run by the province. It’s one of four new casino developments approved within the province.

A by-product of the boardwalk in 
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has been 
increased fish habitat for the living 
versions of these carved salmon 
on the waterfront. LAKE SUPERIOR MAGAZINE

McConnell makes no apologies about the waterfront renovation’s main purpose: to attract tourism and tourist dollars. But the process of cleaning up the area and building that walkway attached the two other legs on the three-legged sustainable development stool.

The walkway and gathering place at Roberta Bondar Park has helped Sault residents to re-identify with the waterway that generated the city’s reason for being.

“On the social side of it, that’s a wonderful opportunity for people to go down there,” McConnell says. “You always take (visitors) down to the waterfront … to walk on the boardwalk. It’s part of a community identity now.

“That’s what makes Sault Ste. Marie unique, and people are very proud of it.”

The project’s environmental leg could be twofold. Less industrial use of the area puts less environmental pressure on it.

Meanwhile, creation of the boardwalk coupled with other waterfront projects boosted the fish population in that part of the St. Marys River.

“With our boardwalk development, we created a very good fish habitat,” explains McConnell. “It beats the heck out of old industrial development.”

Now the fish have become a renewable resource. The city hosts fishing derbies twice a year and locals take advantage throughout the season. 

“Where else can you go and stand in front of city hall and catch fish during your lunch hour?” chimes McConnell. “You can’t do that in Toronto.”

Duluth, too, looks to its waterfront as a renewed resource. It and other waterfront projects are what Business Development Director Tom Cotruvo calls sustainable development.

“I think people may be doing ‘sustainable development’ and don’t call it that,” he speculates. Cotruvo recently went as Duluth’s emissary to a sister city in Bulgaria to create a sustainable development council.

“We have not been seeing economic development at any cost,” Cotruvo outlines changes in planning philosophies. “We’re looking for industries that are clean industries.”

Cotruvo cites Cirrus Design, an airplane manufacturer, and the “technology village” under construction as “sustainable development at a very high level.”

Construction of the city’s technology “soft center” meant removal of older, some say historic, buildings. But the new developers have promised construction that blends with historic downtown. And Cotruvo says the businesses that will locate there will have low environmental impact while creating jobs with higher economic and social benefits. This kind of development allows residents with advance educations to find appropriate local employment rather than needing to leave. That translates to sustainability of a community’s social foundations.

Duluth, Minnesota, planners view lower impact 
projects along the waterfront as part of sustainable 
development, like these plans for HarborPlace 
along Superior Bay. Not everyone agrees such 
projects constitute “sustainability.”

Duluth’s latest bayfront plan, while controversial for some, tries to incorporate the natural attributes of the water with a blending of retail, entertainment, educational and green spaces. The expanded area will incorporate retail options near the Great Lakes Aquarium, currently under construction, and guards open space for community events like the popular Bayfront Blues Festival.

“Certainly the whole Canal Park plan is using the natural resource … the lake being our greatest natural resource,” says Cotruvo.

Preserving, as well as employing, the natural resource is par for the sustainable course. Cotruvo, who’s been with the city for 25 years, says there’s been a change from heavy industrial development to economic plans with a more moderate environmental impact. With unemployment of only 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent, “we’ve achieved real success in our economy without sacrificing the environment and without sacrificing the social (aspects),” claims Cotruvo.

In its long range plan for economic diversity, the city does want to attract more industrial enterprises. Manufacturing accounts for only about 6 percent of Duluth’s economic base, well below the state average of about 18 percent.

While the “soft center” demolished some buildings, Cotruvo points to other downtown historic buildings that have been renovated thanks to grants and city encouragement. “This is sustainable development, I believe, because we’re going back to our resources, renovating them to give them another 100 years of life.”

Even the downtown system of skywalks are called “sustainable development” by Cotruvo because they make existing retail space more attractive to shoppers. “It’s addressing one of the limitations that we have which causes urban sprawl,” he explains.

Cotruvo says the city is evolving with slow, steady progress rather than dramatic change - another way to control development and its impacts.

Like his Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, counterpart, Cotruvo believes making the waterfront attractive to residents and visitors boosts the city’s pride. 

The same is true to the north of Duluth, where Lake Superior’s largest municipality is tapping its water assets.

“We, too, are working toward the development of our waterfront,” says Mark Smith, Thunder Bay’s manager of long-range planning. 

Smith says the city has been buying waterfront property and plans to seek help from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, available to various projects leading to economic development and job creation.

“We are going to be submitting an application for several million dollars to undertake work that will enhance our connection to the lakefront,” Smith says.

Plans for the south side of the city include a park on the shore of the Kaministiquia River. Such development again addresses the social and environmental needs of the area while using the resource.

“(Sustainable development) is a term that gets flipped around a little bit too frequently,” Smith cautions. “It must be consistent with preserving the value of the natural environment.”

In examining its next steps, the city of Thunder Bay released in January 1998 a plan called “The Next Wave,” outlining a variety of development, according to Smith.

Mapping of fish and wildlife habitat far beyond the urban limits will be part of the information gathered to assess environmental impacts of any plans.

“This process is taking a long time, longer than we had anticipated,” acknowledges Smith.

A change in planning philosophy can be illustrated in Thunder Bay with a specific reclamation project, according to Jake Vander Wal, manager of Lake Superior Programs Office.

Workers bring shrubs to 
Sanctuary Island, a fish habitat 
created along the waterfront in 
Thunder Bay, Ontario.
LAKE SUPERIOR PROGRAMS OFFICE

Vander Wal describes a contaminated area in Thunder Bay Harbour, impacted by the former manufacturing practices of a wood-preserving facility. 

Rather than simply clean up the damage, Vander Wal says, project planners considered wider implications and opportunities. He calls this process a reflection of the three-legged sustainable development model.

“The original thing was to clean up the sediments,” Vander Wal says. Negotiation with the company resulted in plans for a general cleanup of the area, plus improvement of public access and environmental enhancements.

The resulting $10 million project “improves the viability of the company to do work here, creates habitat, creates esthetics,” Vander Wal says. “We’re going to end up with value-added stuff.”

Planners say cities will look more and more toward value-added attributes when considering projects.

The change in attitudes about interaction with the environment will demand such consideration.

“The degree to which we value that component of the natural environment,” says Smith, “has grown by leaps and bounds.”

Copyright 1999 Lake Superior Magazine