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At Tuesday’s parking deck subcommittee meeting, the group discussed what their final recommendation will look like. At previous gatherings there had been a hesitancy to be too comprehensive, and include cost analysis. The direction the panel is going now looks to be a more complete course of action, which would then be debated by the Planning Commission and the Houghton City Council before approval.
Three members of the subcommittee began to lay the groundwork for what the waterfront could become without the parking deck, a structure that was first put up over 40 years ago. Chairman Tom Merz said it is important to consider cost, because once the group starts to move in that direction the obvious suggestion is an immediate tear down, even though that may not be feasible in the short term.
Merz, City Manager Eric Waara, and Commissioner Mike Needham seem in agreement about the general path forward, with Commissioner Dan Liebau still favoring a compromise that would include the current deck in future plans. Merz said he still thinks a private developer will play a role in the process and that could mean a replacement parking structure of some kind. It seems unlikely that the new lot would have as many spaces as what exists now. Waara says the subcommittee will have a tough job reconciling what parking studies say the needs are versus what residents are used to.
Another potential sticking point is pushback by downtown businesses, which have altered their stores to allow for access from the parking deck. The committee said that all options are on the table including a skyway or other structure that would still allow for people to enter from the rear of the shops, even though vehicular access may no longer be part of the equation.
