Councilor Hobbs: Reduce Speed Limits In Neighborhoods, Change Parking Requirements For Developers

DULUTH, Minn. – Newly appointed Duluth City Councilor Noah Hobbs is giving us an idea of what issues he’d like to tackle over the next two years of Derek Medved’s term.  Medved recently resigned to focus on his growing business.

Hobbs said he’d like to lower the speed limit on residential streets from 30 miles an hour to 20 to make neighbors safer for families and kids.

He’d also like to reduce or eliminate the city’s parking requirements for new development because he says modern-day living shouldn’t revolve around automobiles, and he says it’s simply too expensive for some developers to have to figure out parking.

“It may entice folks, developers to take a chance and build something downtown that otherwise would have been finically unfeasible because of they have to have so many parking spaces or if there’s an underground parking garage that they have to have — or above.  That’s something that’s cost prohibitive and I don’t know if its necessarily fully needed on think it’s necessarily fully needed on every development,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs was first elected to the Duluth City Council in 2015 and served all four years. He said he has no plans to continue after serving the next two years.