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What is a Master Plan?
The City of Muskegon Master Plan is the document that guides future land use, development, and zoning decisions. The plan includes historical and demographic information about Muskegon and a future land use map supported with narrative describing the intended development pattern and building form in each of the areas. In addition, implementation strategies are included that suggest updates and revisions to the City’s Zoning Ordinance.

Why is the Master Plan Changing?
While some people may think that the existing plan works just fine, the Master Plan should be updated to reflect all the changes and recent additions to the downtown and lakefront areas. The City of Muskegon is emerging as a tourist hot spot, and this transition has implications on the community’s character, design, infrastructure, and land use. The plan should also be updated to provide guidance on how the City should continue to grow and redevelop in the future. Given the development pressure in the downtown and on the waterfront, the City has elected to focus an update to the plan on those two areas. Therefore, the Downtown/Lakefront Redevelopment Plan - an element of the broader Master Plan - will be updated with a focus on implementation and streetscape design.

Additionally, the Michigan Municipal Planning Act requires cities to review and update a Master Plan once every 5 years. The most recent edition of Muskegon’s Master Plan dates back to 1997; and the Imagine Muskegon! Community Design Workshop was completed in 2003. Therefore, an update to the plan would fulfill a legal obligation, as well as address the present evolution of the downtown and lakefront.

What is the schedule for the process?
The nine to twelve month process to create the new Downtown and Lakefront Redevelopment Plan is broken down into three primary elements. The first is the Startup phase where a workgroup including members of the City Commission, Planning Commission, City Staff, and consultants will gather and analyze data and information on the community.

The second phase is where you can really make a difference. This phase includes a public design and implementation charrette that will build on past efforts and help advance them to fruition. The planning and design team will lead this participatory activity, which will span a period of two days. The charrette will provide the opportunity for the planning and design team to obtain a great deal of public input regarding the preliminary design and implementation concepts, quickly communicate the input graphically, and develop the ideas. In this manner, concepts can be visualized and evaluated by the public so they can quickly understand the potential impact of proposed solutions.

The third and final phase is plan finalization and adoption. This process will consume more than half of the time frame to complete the plan and includes an open house where the public is welcome to come and review the first draft of the plan update and discuss more ideas and concerns.

How can you participate?
Citizen participation is strongly desired! You will have a number of opportunities to participate at various points in the process. The first opportunity is the two-day charrette where you can come to share your ideas and concerns regarding downtown and the lakefront. Planners and landscape architects will be on hand to listen to your ideas and create a visual representation of those ideas.

Additionally, you will be invited to the open house where the various elements of the plan will be presented. This will be a second opportunity for you to voice your thoughts on the work completed up to this point and make further suggestions for the final plan.

For additional information, to offer comments, and to be added to our mailing list, contact Michael Franzak, Planner II at (321) 724.6982 or via email.

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