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Planning Commission seeks mission expansion beyond parking deck

The Houghton Planning Commission is looking for a more complete overhaul of the city’s Master Plan as it begins to tackle the parking deck. The City Council decided to step back last month from that specific project after a developer backed out from the initial concept. Chairman Tom Merz said he tailored the agenda to allow for that discussion to take place.

This agenda for this meeting, I did not simply put the parking deck. That was done purposefully.

Member Michele Jarvie-Eggert says the approach has very distinct benefits and should help increase public input.

I would add that the real benefit of amending your plan piecemeal is that when you are on a commission you have more time to really look at each chapter of the plan and you have more time for public feedback because people only have to read the chapter you’re addressing for the night. They don’t have to read the whole plan.

City Administrator Eric Waara said that any overhaul of the process needed to ensure that it could produce tangible results that would provide the foundation for a solution to the items they discuss.

One thing that we are going to have to consider if we’re gonna follow that process is whether it is detailed enough to yield actionable, financially sustainable, investable results for someone.

That will most likely mean a more involved job than a typical plan update.

So everybody has their heads wrapped around this, whatever process we follow, if we’re gonna kind of follow this Master Plan revision process, there is probably going to be a lot more to it in this particular case, and I want everyone to be eyes wide open on that.

The final piece discussed was how to disseminate correspondence so that it would be available to everyone and not just the commission. There was a significantly larger audience on the call last night than a normal meeting. Waara said he would work with Clerk Ann Vollwerth to ensure that all who are interested would have relevant details at their disposal as the process moves forward.

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