diff --git a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
index ba084ea3f72..3209341ba77 100755
--- a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
+++ b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ ENABLE_CLUSTER_DNS=${KUBE_ENABLE_CLUSTER_DNS:-true}
 ENABLE_NODELOCAL_DNS=${KUBE_ENABLE_NODELOCAL_DNS:-false}
 DNS_SERVER_IP=${KUBE_DNS_SERVER_IP:-10.0.0.10}
 LOCAL_DNS_IP=${KUBE_LOCAL_DNS_IP:-169.254.20.10}
+DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT=${KUBE_DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT:-170Mi}
 DNS_DOMAIN=${KUBE_DNS_NAME:-"cluster.local"}
 KUBECTL=${KUBECTL:-"${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/kubectl.sh"}
 WAIT_FOR_URL_API_SERVER=${WAIT_FOR_URL_API_SERVER:-60}
@@ -849,6 +850,7 @@ function start_kubedns {
         cp "${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/addons/dns/kube-dns/kube-dns.yaml.in" kube-dns.yaml
         ${SED} -i -e "s/{{ pillar\['dns_domain'\] }}/${DNS_DOMAIN}/g" kube-dns.yaml
         ${SED} -i -e "s/{{ pillar\['dns_server'\] }}/${DNS_SERVER_IP}/g" kube-dns.yaml
+        ${SED} -i -e "s/{{ pillar\['dns_memory_limit'\] }}/${DNS_MEMORY_LIMIT}/g" kube-dns.yaml
         # TODO update to dns role once we have one.
         # use kubectl to create kubedns addon
         ${KUBECTL} --kubeconfig="${CERT_DIR}/admin.kubeconfig" --namespace=kube-system create -f kube-dns.yaml