Determining ways to address affordability in housing, while maintaining balanced growth in a community are challenges that are not easily solved. On Tuesday the Houghton planning commission chose to not recommend rezoning the parcel from RSV to R-3 in a vote of 6 to 3. Houghton’s council will wait for the commission’s official report before making any decisions.
Us considering the request does not rely on a recommendation from the Planning Commission. Planning Commission can recommend or not. Us considering it starts with the requester officially asking the council to consider it. So I think that it would be good to get that report at the next meeting and the minutes and whatever statement and then we can continue that and decide as a council if we want to pursue any further action with that request. – Mike Needham, Councilor, City of Houghton
Councilors will also hold off on decisions with the waterworks rezoning ordinance that was passed unanimously by the planning commission. Councilors heard concerns from two residents pertaining to the rezoning consideration.
This is a small parcel of land relative to a large R1. These are the factors that are considered for spot zoning. The Master Plan clearly talks about traffic congestion and developing in the Huron Creek area and moving away from the M26 corridor. – Dean Johnson, Resident, Houghton
I agree with all the points that Dean listed. There was a bevy of people that had objections to this ordinance change. I don’t think that all of their complaints were addressed by the Planning Commission. I think that they should be addressed and it should go back to the Council to do that or be rejected here. – William Atkinson, Resident, Houghton
The Houghton Housing Commission plans to use its 5-acre parcel of land to create housing types that fall in the category of the “Missing Middle”. The duplex and quadplex homes, as housing commission properties, would have income requirements. Capping the rent stabilized dwellings to a household income up to 120 percent of the city’s median household income, approximately 84,000-dollars annually.
Houghton’s council will wait for the planning commission’s report on the waterworks rezoning ordinance. Additionally, the council will schedule a public hearing to take place, after an initial discussion, on October 22nd.
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