MUSKEGON, Mich. — Muskegon City Commissioners are considering a project that would add as many as 300 additional parking spaces at Pere Marquette Beach and build a 20-foot wide bike and pedestrian "boardwalk" path between Beach Street and Lake Michigan.
The project was first floated as a possibility in the fall of 2020.
Details of the Muskegon Public Works Department's project are included in the commission's agenda packet for Tuesday, March 23rd. The Muskegon City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. on zoom.
If the $798,070.71 project is approved it would be added to an existing contract with Hallack Contracting the company currently completing a water main and street reconstruction project on Beach Street between Wilcox and Simpson.
According to the information provided to city commissioners 11 trees along Beach Street were, "in a position relative to the parking that did not allow for them to be saved." Commissioner's work packet indicates the city's horticulturist found the trees to be, "in a state of decline given the harsh environment."
If the project moves forward and the trees are removed the city has a plan to partner with Muskegon Conservation District to develop a replanting strategy for the area that includes planting around 40 new trees along the boardwalk and within the pedestrian crossing islands.
"We love this beach," Muskegon City Commissioner Teresa Emory said Monday. "Everybody agrees we need more parking out here, what we don't want to do is loose the nature, we don't want to loose the trees."
Emory says she began hearing from residents concerned about loosing the trees over the weekend. Some are asking her to vote no on the project.
An online petition to save the trees has more than 400 signatures.
"These old mature cottonwood trees can't be replaced in a matter of years," said Muskegon resident Derek Olsen who added his name to the petition.
Olsen wants the city to come up with a new design for the project that will work around the trees. Additionally he fears any new trees planted on the beach would take decades to grow tall enough to provide the shade and aesthetics the existing trees offer.
"Not all of the trees that are planted on beaches live," said Olsen. "They could plant a whole bunch of trees down here that die in four our five years where these big mature trees have hacked out a living down here on the beach."
Muskegon Department of Public Works Director Leo Evans tells 13 ON YOUR SIDE saving the trees, and building around them was considered from the very beginning of the design phase.
"We tried hard to fit our design around the trees," said Evans. "At the end of the day it just did not work."
The existing sidewalk which is shared by both walkers and bikes is only 5 feet wide. "One of our big priorities was to expand that and give more opportunities for bikes and pedestrians down there at the beach," said Evans. The "boardwalk" that would replace the sidewalk would be 20 feet wide.
The project needs approval from city commissioners to move forward. "And it will be up to them to decide if this is something we want or if it isn't," said Evans.
If commissioners do approve the project Tuesday the work would be on a schedule that would have it open prior to the 2021 beach season.
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