NORTH MUSKEGON, Mich. — Billed as a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity, North Muskegon city leaders are calling on residents to draft a revised master plan and zoning ordinance, which could impact development for years to come.
The city’s current master plan was written in 1998.
The campaign driving the revision effort, ‘Envision North Muskegon’, will rely upon locals to guide planning efforts through the next several decades.
“Essentially, we're looking at what city building we may do in the future,” City Manager Sam Janson said. “This is kind of a once-in-a-generation process.”
The city said it would host several focus groups this week and recently launched a dedicated online resource.
On the ‘Envision North Muskegon’ website, locals are able to access the existing master plan, zoning ordinance and submit suggestions remotely via the public survey.
“Things that we may not have thought of—that's part of that process is to hear the things that you never think of,” Janson said.
Reinventing and expanding upon North Muskegon’s commercial spaces seemed a common thread.
“North Muskegon has a lot of, I think, commercial potential within it,” Janson noted. “Prior to the Muskegon mall, our city was dotted with commercial districts. Since the 1970s, those districts have dwindled.”
A vacant lot near the fire department was once a restaurant and could be well-suited for a new development to make a mark all its own, the city manager said.
Down the road in the city’s downtown core, there are plenty more opportunities, a local business owner said.
“We’ve got a great little start here, we just need to build on it,” Tresha Kidder, who owns Valkyrie, suggested. “Our downtown pretty much consists of the four corners here in North Muskegon. It would be nice if it would broaden farther down.”
Kidder said she would welcome a more diverse slate of businesses to the downtown area, including restaurants, unafraid of friendly competition.
“The more things to offer in North Muskegon and the more people will come here,” she said. “We'll all benefit.”
“We want people to be bluntly honest with us,” Janson said. “For this community, I can't tell you the next time we'll do a major overhaul like this. So it's really a great time to… work with it.”
The first of several planned public input sessions occurred last week.
Additional sessions are scheduled through the end of this year.
For more information or to submit your suggestions via North Muskegon’s public survey, visit the ‘Envision’ website.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.