Home/Featured/Lakeshore Drive Proposal Draws Criticism
Lakeshore Drive Proposal Draws Criticism
December 17, 2020Featured, Local News, NewsComments Off on Lakeshore Drive Proposal Draws Criticism1,819 Views
Reaction to the initial proposal for the Lakeshore Drive Redevelopment Project has been mixed.
Comments about the plan lasted more than an hour at last night’s Houghton City Council meeting.
Most citizens who spoke were unimpressed. Patty Vilman was concerned that the reconfigured Lakeshore Drive will be too tight…
“You have businesses there that are going to lose their back door service, such as the KBC and Swift’s. There’s going to be a walkway, bit it’s going to be too long to get from the store to the car, especially if you have your arms full of cans of paint.”
Gail Neufeld didn’t think the reduced parking would be enough to handle increased demand…
“There’s a hundred-room hotel. They did not indicate how many apartments – let’s say there’s 30. So, if you’re talking two cars per apartment, and one car per hotel room, we’re already talking 160 spaces.”
City Clerk Ann Vollrath read an email sent by Swift Hardware owner Marilyn Swift…
“No additional parking, no access for my customers carting heavy items from my business – gallons of paint, concrete and pieces of pipe. Veridea has also blocked my receiving area by putting in the sidewalk-above pillars on the sidewalk below.”
Other speakers objected to the size of the development, and what they perceive as a lack of public input to this point.
Economic development experts were cautiously optimistic. Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance Director Jeff Ratcliffe acknowledged that change can be uncomfortable…
“We often do not like change, especially when it makes changes to the building environment, or forces us to do things differently, but economic development is a must if the community wants to survive into the future.”
Former Houghton City Manager Scott MacInnes ticked off the positives…
“It will take away the burden from all city taxpayers, including downtown business owners, who’d have to pay to replace the parking structure downtown. It will provide a significant amount of new tax revenue for the DDA, the Houghton Schools, and Houghton County. More people living and moving downtown will result in additional revenue for downtown businesses. I would predict that many building values will start to increase following the completion of this development.”
Mayor Bob Backon promised that there would be more opportunities for public input…
“We’ll be scheduling some forums specifically for talking about this, getting more input, answering questions, and so on.”
You can see drawings and information about the proposal in the story we posted yesterday at KeweenawReport.com.
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