Updates to the City’s Master Plan are fairly regular, but the Neighborhood Issues section has been largely unchanged since the last major rewrite in 1997. In 2019, working with Muskegon’s neighborhood associations, the Planning Department hosted a series of public workshops to begin discussing the updates to this section of the Master Plan.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic delayed further meetings for more than a year, in November 2021, the Planning Department was able to host three drop-in public workshops to discuss the draft plans that were written in the time since the 2019 workshops. Those draft neighborhood plans, maps, and any other related content for each neighborhood from these three recent workshops are available at the following links:
Workshop #1: November 16, 2021 – Central Assembly of God (896 Home St.)
Workshop #2: November 17, 2021 – Sim Ray Community Building at Smith-Ryerson Park (650 Wood St.)
Workshop #3: November 18, 2021 – McGraft Park Community Building (2204 Wickham Dr.)
Topics being explored in this update include land use, housing/development, parks & open space, street design, and vacancy & blight. Just as important as those big-picture themes – often with long-term goals – are potential small-scale projects that could be implemented more quickly. Think of the little things that might not be working for you and your neighbors – Is there a section of sidewalk missing or in poor condition? Do cars drive too fast down a particular street? Should a vacant building be redeveloped for a specific use or a vacant lot be turned into a pocket park or additional housing? Identifying these issues in the Master Plan will help keep them on the radar and, ideally, get us all – City, Neighborhood Association, and residents – working on a solution
If you attended any of the workshops, thank you for your involvement! If you were not able to stop by, please feel free to submit questions, comments, or other feedback using the contact form below, or contact the Planning Department at 724-6702.