Underwater obstacles in Lake Superior stand in the way of the city's waterfront development plans.
Consultants gave an update to the Waterfront Development Committee on Tuesday about the condition of the land Pool 6 sits on. Their environmental assessment found artifacts such as a wooden barge filled with concrete.
City Manager Tim Commisso said the discovery shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone since that area has been a lake fill for generations but the challenge now is how they should move forward.
“We don’t have the money for the assessment let alone the work that would have to be done,” Commisso said.
“One of the options is to leave it alone. Because we had our mind on phase one of Prince Arthur’s Landing it is now time to really come back and talk about the phase two and there is actually four levels just for the archaeological study. So there’s significant dollars just to be studying it and then obviously dealing with it. We don’t have that kind of money for phase two.”
Phase two includes the development of about 300 boat slips and redevelopment of the former Pool 6 property.
Commisso said phase two may take a different form but the project will continue to move forward in some way even if it means they are in the water or from a different perspective. There have always been alternatives to the next phase that the city was going to be looking at, he said.
For now, he said there’s no rush in dealing with the barge as there still has to be an assessment and added they would probably bring up the issue again at council in the fall.
