New plan for downtown approved downtown

November 27, 2008
Muskegon Chronicle
Robert C. Burns

A newly updated master plan for Muskegon's downtown/lakeshore area was adopted by the Muskegon City Commission Tuesday, aiming the city toward its hoped-for destiny as "a prime regional tourist destination."

The plan was nearly a year in the making by the Grand Rapids planning and engineering firm Williams & Works.

It was approved by the Muskegon Planning Commission after a brief public hearing Nov. 13, and adopted by a unanimous vote of the commission on Tuesday.

By the year 2025, the 61-page Downtown and Lakeshore Redevelopment Plan foresees an "attractive and vibrant" community with a mix of retail, office, housing, arts and cultural institutions that reflect the city's history.

"Downtown has an urban feel with convenient parking, public transportation, walkable streets and strong connections to neighborhoods," the proposed master plan says in describing the city's future.

The plan was co-authored by landscape architects O'Boyle Cowell Blalock & Associates of Kalamazoo. It updates a planning document in use since 1997, but incorporates the Imagine Muskegon! community discussion of 2003, as well as a followup community planning process earlier this year, notes from which are included in the report.

The plan takes note of changes that already have taken place since the demise of the Muskegon Mall, including the restoration of downtown streets and infrastructure and new construction and new businesses in the area.

Among the challenges the city faces will be to connect the downtown with the lakeshore, now separated by Shoreline Drive. That divided, well-landscaped highway was envisioned as a gateway to the downtown, which would also show off the Muskegon Lake shoreline. But it also created a pedestrian barrier between the two.

One solution would be to build an elevated walkway between the downtown and lakeshore areas, it says.

The study notes that Muskegon is part of a nationwide trend of equalizing the use of streets among motor vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists and playing children in a process called "traffic calming." Toward that end, the plan notes that Muskegon has converted Muskegon and Webster avenues into two-way neighborhood streets, developed the Lakeshore Trail pathway and installed a traffic circle in the center of the downtown at Western Avenue and Third Street. It also has reopened other streets closed for the Muskegon Mall in the 1970s.

Although the mall slowed the flight of downtown retail business to the suburbs, it had a number of negative effects on the area, starting with the demolition of more than 100 downtown buildings.

"The downtown was plagued by an interrupted street grid and a suburban-style mall that lacked exterior character elements unique to the historic fabric of downtown," the plan says.

The ongoing conversion of the former mall property will create "an integrated and viable element of the downtown," the plan says.

Other aspects of the plan include a relocated Farmers Market and completion of the environmentally friendly condo/business park project called Harbor 31 "formerly Edison Landing" on Muskegon Lake, all within the next five years.

"The former mall site will include a variety of uses, including retail, office, entertainment, residential and eating and drinking establishments, all formed into a compact and walkable extension of the existing downtown."

The study notes that significant change already has occurred, with planned, ongoing and completed developments totaling nearly $180 million.

Want a copy?

Copies of the updated master plan for Muskegon's downtown/lakeshore area are available at the following:

- Muskegon's planning and economic development office at City Hall, 933 Terrace.

- The Muskegon Main Street office in the Hines Building at Third Street and Western Avenue.

- Hackley Public Library, 316 W. Webster.