Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone to this special City Council work session for August 17, 2026. Marie, would you call the roll?

Fritz?

Here.

Calio? Here. Lyon? Here. Dora? Here. Manetza?

Here. This evening we have a presentation on the Center Town Vision Plan. Brian, would you like to lead this off?

Good evening, council. Brian Urquhart, city planner. What you have in front of us today is a presentation, an update to the center town vision plan. And so in 2014 was the last time the center town vision plan was created. There were some great ideas that were in it. This was an idea out there to realize that this is a very critical component area of town that had a lot of neighborhood characteristics, seeing a lot of interest in development. And so I identified this as a sub-area plan we wanted to look at updating. So earlier this year or late last year, we decided to seek out assistance with some technical assistance dollars for the Redevelopment Ready Communities Program and put out an RFP and we selected McKenna to help us through that process. So since January, there has been focus groups, a community open house, an online survey, and a steering committee have been comprised of getting the data and some of the visions of what we want to see with the center town update and also recognizing some of the good things that have been done that we may not have officially quantified. So some of the main elements of the plan that you'll see will ideally result in zoning revisions and some design guidance, streetscape and access enhancements, and then some also marketing initiatives and property improvements. The process was is that the draft plan was prepared and presented to the DDA because it was a joint effort with them as well. They gave the support and then last Tuesday it was presented in front of the Planning Commission for their presentation and review. And now for the Michigan Planning Enabling Act, We're giving a presentation of an update to city council, and then as an item under a consent after this meeting would be to authorize the distribution and the public comment period, which is about 42 days per the state statute, then it would come back before the city for final adoption. So this is a culmination of a lengthy area of public engagement, stakeholder involvement, and working with our stakeholders, our partners, on getting an interesting and yet try to do the best we can process with the Sentinel Vision Plan with a focus on implementation. So tonight we have Chris Corey and Ayush Patel of McKenna to go over the plan and highlight details and answer any questions that you may have.

All right, thank you.

Thanks, Brian, and thank you to council for convening early on a beautiful evening to hear about this process and keep it moving forward. As Brian said, my name is Chris Corey. I'm a vice president with McKenna, and my clicker's not working.

It has to be turned on on the side.

I figured you did that. There it goes. Thank you. And the project director overseeing this project with me tonight is Ayush Patel, who was one of the leaders of the design team that put this all together. And he's going to really take you through a lot of the details tonight. It's kind of overview of the process. We convened right around Christmas and through the winter. There's some pictures in here of people in big jackets and stuff, which is interesting, in August. We did community engagement and really took a deep dive, which is nice when you're working in a small geography like Centertown. You can get to know each and every part. and all the different things going on, which is quite a bit, even right now, before this document is adopted. There's plenty going on. So as Brian mentioned, the Centertown Vision, this is an update to a document that was originally created back in 2014, and it is a substantial update because a lot has happened. A lot that was in the 2014 document has already been achieved. So what have we done? Organization of the Center Town Business Group, quite a few programs that go on throughout the year. One of our engagement events was at Wine About Winter. There have been updates and improvements to private property, streetscape improvements on Washington, and smaller things like public art and benches and that kind of thing. And we know there are redesigns to both 7th Street and Beacon Boulevard in the works. And those were in the works. before, during, and will be after this process. So this process informed the work being done at the city and with his consultants on 7th Street and what MDOT is working on on Beacon Boulevard. So it's sort of a two-way street with this process and both of those design processes. So what we learned over the course of this process, we took a look at, obviously, the previous planning documents, including 2014, 2016 citywide master plan, and then its update in 2023. And we learned a lot. So Center Town, it has this name for a reason, right? And that is that it is central to a lot of things, to a lot of residents. I think residents is a key aspect here, right? Obviously, this is a community that prides itself on being welcoming to visitors and has BEAUTIFUL THINGS FOR VISITORS TO ENJOY. BUT CENTERTOWN IS A YEAR-ROUND RESIDENT DESTINATION. DOESN'T MEAN WE DON'T WANT TOURISTS SPENDING MONEY THERE OR HAVING A GOOD TIME THERE. BUT IT IS A YEAR-ROUND RESIDENT DESTINATION. I WILL PRESENT SOME MARKET DATA THAT SHOWS THAT WELL. It's also an area where there's quite a bit of mobility going on. So there's traffic running through the area in terms of automobiles, but also in terms of pedestrians, in terms of bikes, and that kind of thing. You see the traffic map there. Obviously, Beacon Boulevard is the big thick line that's going to be the busiest road. And to the west, Fifth Street being a relatively major regional corridor. Seventh is not, except the fact that wayfinding signage has directed visitors down Seventh to get to the beach for decades now. I think locally we know that's not the quickest way, but that's where we're directing visitors on the signage. And so you do see that there's decent traffic running down that roadway. At this point, I'm going to turn it over to Ayush to talk about market data and then talk about some of the design recommendations in the plan.

Thanks, Chris. Good evening, Council. So as a part of this entire process, we baked into it was a market analysis aspect. What this does is kind of grounds the plans like these, which are somewhere between super aspirational and super realistic. As a part of this analysis, we have here is a map of three rings, a five-minute walking radius, a 10-minute walking radius, and a 15-minute walking radius. The data we use is from Esri Business Analyst and it gives up local demographics from a point perspective. The point is the center of center town. What you can see from this is really the population around that point is around the 270, 280 resident mark. But the daytime population is around the 800 marks. This is interesting because it kind of validates the, you know, what we have kind of spoken, what Chris has kind of mentioned until now. It's kind of a gateway into the Grand Haven community. You have workers, you know, a mix of workers, residents, visitors. People who just come there to visit, either the downtown or either the southern neighborhoods or even Beacon Boulevard. As you see the ring getting bigger into the 10-minute and the 15-minute walk, the number is just building up on that. What it matters, why it matters is kind of, you know, because it has its own activity. It's not just a residential neighborhood. It has its own kind of spread across the neighborhood. And we're going to, like, you know, dive into the next slide, which actually speaks about, you know, and visitors are actually kind of spending money on. There are two tables on here. The one on the left is called an index called a spending potential index. And on the right is called a market potential index. Let's start from the left one. The spending potential index, it's called SPI on that table. it actually means is basically how much this population actually spends on the categories listed in that table. And the MPI, the market potential index, is what the population has the potential to spend on, on those particular categories. So without delving into further detail or the numbers of it, 100 means the national average here. So, as you can see, the spending potential, you know, we are trying to study a neighborhood, so it is actually going to be lower than the national average. It is completely natural. The market potential, however, depending upon, you know, median income of the neighborhood is close to what, you know, the national averages are. And for some of those categories, it's actually higher than the national average. Now, make a note that those are some of the businesses which are actually present in the neighborhood. You know, oil and motor change, car washes, auto-oriented, some of the uses. The 10 and 15 minute walk bands, you know, kind of take those numbers to the next notch because obviously you have existing businesses on the northeastern side of the neighborhood, you know, and then you also have the downtown kind of, you know, getting in the loop from the west end. So just to put together and make sense of this table is like, you know, Center Town is not a market for, like, destination retail now. But it is a very good place for having neighborhood services, say, you know, casual dining, you know, cafes, neighborhood services, salons, and all that kind of stuff. And this kind of, you know, informs the next part of, you know, in the coming slides we'll understand why this market analysis was important for the study. Before that, let's just dive into like what we heard. As we, as our jobs, you know, as consultants was to like kind of look at, you know, past reports and, you know, running all these numbers and market analysis and stuff. I'm just going to focus, I'm also going to be focusing on what we heard from the community as I think Brian mentioned that this was a extremely heavy community intensive kind of an approach. These pictures are just highlights of some of the steering committee meetings, some of the workshops we have done. We have done walking tours, open houses, multiple open houses. We had an online survey. Similar questions on the online survey as well as open houses to kind of make a sense of what the people actually want, what the residents actually want from this plan and from the neighborhood. So this is a kind of a compilation of a set of images we kind of presented and it's a compilation of The images for which people voted the most during their visual preference surveys, we did online as well as in-person during the open houses. Some of the things are self-explanatory, nice shaded sidewalks, seating spaces, streetscape elements, buildings closer to the street, walkable, nice porches on the residential townhouses. buildings up to three floor maximums so so these these are the kind of things we actually wanted to learn and I'm so glad for this community to actually these open houses and tell us about it

Let's go.

What we also included as a part of this was something which we learned from the 2014 plan and the 2023 master plan was a development of a patent book for the center down. THIS STUDY WAS DONE BY ONE OF OUR SUBCONSULTANTS WHO ACTUALLY JUST ASKED OUR STAIRING COMMITTEE MEMBERS TO DRAW AND NOTICE SOME OF THE THINGS WHICH JUST STANDS OUT IN BUILDINGS ACROSS THE NEIGHBORHOOD. Some things like, you know, arched windows, you have bricks, you know, the community's proud of its bricks is what we understand. And the sort of kind of, you know, how the buildings are kind of, you know, the skyline works across the neighborhood, all those things. So, making the plan is also a kind of, you know, a starting point for the patent book to kind of develop further. So just like, you know, I want to close this engagement part by, you know, going through some, you know, summarizing the engagement points we had. You know, 401 unique site visitors in a very short amount of span, that's really nice to kind of view for our neighborhood plan. We had 64 online survey respondents, two workshops, one in, I think, during the design phase, and one during the open house. We had more than 100 people show up at both the open houses, which one was in May and one was in January. We also interviewed four property owners for their input on how they view this as a marketable area. And I think more than 20, 25 hours of meeting time between just us and the city staff. From all of this, what we heard is kind of summarized into this vision statement, which we want you guys to kind of use as the core of this plan. I'm just going to read it out. Centretown, an established, vibrant, welcoming, and unique local destination where there is something for everybody. Daily life happens in a walkable neighborhood center. There are shared spaces to sit and gather around and a strong sense of community and family of ours. So the vision statement, obviously, we fleshed out six of these priorities and design intentions. The improved pedestrian safety and connection, enhanced public spaces, streetscapes, enhanced properties, and strengthened businesses. with vitality with a small-town character, sustain local visibility, viability, and boost destination awareness, support housing and year-round activation through balanced growth, and provide convenient vehicular access and parking. These are all the words which came out literally from the public engagement efforts. So some of the next slides are exercises which us as consultants undertook. These are draft design concepts. They're not plans, but they are directly derived from the vision statement, from what we heard during the public engagement. And they're kind of created based on earlier ideas from the center town business and stakeholders and all that stuff. These are meant as visual tools to kind of encourage further dialogue about the neighborhood, exploring potential opportunities and how the neighborhood can look in a span of 30 plus years, keeping in mind we are in Grand Haven. OK, so the map on the left is sort of a framework plan. It's really the bones of a structure. The circles on the north and on the east are kind of the gateway elements where you want to have all those nice . The yellow are opportunity zones. parcels of land which might have more opportunities in them to kind of explore into like you know various programs like We'll see further And then you have the blue streetscape spine running mostly along 7th Street from north to SAP and And the plan on the right is basically what happens when you actually put the framework to realization. Notice how the built form merges with the streetscape, with the sidewalks, how the building enclosure is placed in front of the streets rather than with a setback for making space for the parkings behind those structures. So remember the market analysis. In the plan, you will have certain categories kind of called out of some of the programs and some of the businesses which might work. And we just wanted to demonstrate how those programs can work within the center town. Instead of having one big mixed youth building or just one block being super intense, the idea was to have that sort of a small town character intact. Some of the areas, some of the blocks have good residential character to them and we wanted to maintain that. And all these programs are kind of inter-spread across the neighborhood. So mainly along 7th Street. There's an idea in urban design where you place the buildings near the street so that you open up more space behind those buildings for parking. All of these apartment buildings ideas, townhouses, all of these programs, we understand that it's going to demand more parking. But as we understand land use, it's really about how you place the building. It's how efficiently you place the building to have a more walkable and safe space. For the parking study, we also undertook, you know, we counted literally all the parking, you know, publicly available parking on street and public parking lots, kind of, you know, and then kind of, you know, estimating the parkings generated due to the, you know, as a result of this programming and kind of baked it into the plan. Obviously some of those numbers can be worked out on and there are further steps which the city can take to actually go into the direction of having reduced parking minimums. So I'm just going to, like, you know, I think we're on time. But starting from south, this is just a bird's eye view of the area of North 7th Street and Washington. The kind of massing study we did for this plan was just to show that, you know, the skyline of the city center town, basically. The white are the existing buildings and all the other colors resemble land use colors. Yellow are residential. Orange is a bit more intensive apartment style residential structures. Blue is more of a sort of office building, mixed use kind of a situation. And then you come further north to Washington and North Street, just another view of the plaza. That's the kind of things which we heard a lot during our engagement process was that there's not enough space in Center Town to actually gather. So we wanted to kind of ideate with the idea of having a plaza in center town, and what better place to actually kind of test it out than 700 Washington. So this is kind of how a view of Washington Avenue looking east. Also incorporating in the architecture of Grand Haven, our center town in it. And make a note that there are these elements which came up during our character exercises. So they are kind of influenced by these. Moving north, you have Fulton Street and 7th Street corner, you know, testing out with more residential. Fulton Street is very residential, so we wanted to keep that intact. So you have townhouses, single-story commercial buildings, kind of just, you know, with an infill level of intensity. And then you have the Northern Gateway. where Madison and 7th Street meet and you come off Beacon right here. With the new streetcape elements and a kind of a gateway sort of an architecture elements with like step backs, balconies, some more verticality for kind of a gateway situation happening here. But yeah, those are just kind of highlights of the plans. I'M GOING TO HAND IT OVER TO CHRIS. HE'S GOING TO RUN IT FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN HIGHLIGHTS, PUT UP FOR QUESTIONS AND THE NEXT STEPS.

THANKS, AYUSH. OBVIOUSLY THE QUESTION IS WHAT COMES NEXT? WE DREW SOME NICE LOOKING PICTURES AND THEY SHOW DIFFERENT BUILDINGS AND DIFFERENT PLACES AND HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET THERE? SO IMPLEMENTATION STUFF. One of the big ones is, of course, zoning and design guidance. I mean, this is the way that you can influence what the private sector is going to do. People are going to do what they want with their property, and that's how the system works. But our influence on that is zoning and design through the Planning Commission. So that's going to be a key portion is to amend your zoning ordinance to hopefully be able to SECOND IS THIS MEETING AND SUBSEQUENT MEETINGS, WHICH WOULD ADOPT THIS AS PART OF THE MASTER PLAN, WHICH GIVES IT SOME IMPRIMETER THAT CAN BE FACTORED INTO THINGS LIKE ZONING DECISIONS AND BUDGETING DECISIONS AND OTHER THINGS LIKE THAT. AND THEN AS THE PROCESS MOVES FORWARD, THERE ARE A NUMBER OF PUBLIC INVESTMENTS THAT CAN BE MADE BY THE CITY, BY THE DDA, ET CETERA. in things like road redesigns, which are obviously ongoing, in things like streetscapes, in things like public spaces, things like benches, public art, all of that kind of thing. You're going to see your planning commission doing quite a bit of work, which you're seeing on these slides, in supporting that, as well as seeing the DDA doing work in supporting The question is, what about this body? What about our electorate officials here? Once this document is finally adopted, it will, of course, become official city policy, and you can use it in your decision-making processes as appropriate. With kind of an eye from your perspective on capital improvements and that kind of thing in terms of, hey, how can we invest in the center town area? I know you have a lot of different parts of the city you want to prioritize in different ways. And to some extent, this document advocates for the investment in this particular neighborhood. Additionally, as you work on public policy decisions, some of which may be brought to you as recommendations by the Planning Commission, others may arise from this body itself, keeping in mind that vision statement that I just showed you, and keeping in mind the long-term goal of continuing to activate this neighborhood and bring more people, bring more economic vitality to it, as well as capitalizing on its existing strength. immediate next steps as you see we have our adoption process laid out and we're we have two check marks on there we did take this to the DDA and got kind of a thumbs up from them we have an official recommendation from the Planning Commission to this body to open the distribution window and comment period which as Brian mentioned is 42 days under state law because this is a master plan amendment we will that will rollout into the fall, and then the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing and send this document back to you for final adoption, which you will see in a couple of months here. And now we'll take any questions you have. Thank you.

All right. Well, thank you. So I guess I'll turn it to members of council who would like to offer an opinion or thoughts or questions.

I've been involved with this as everybody knows since just about day one and I think it is an excellent opportunity for us to Look at this take advantage of it goes hand in hand with our 7th Street renovation that we're looking at it all kind of just groups in and I I think it would be something that would be just a great thing for that area i mean our center town group has put a lot of effort into building things and events to go on down there and and stuff to draw the community to that area and i think what we're looking at here only makes it adds more use to it adds more spacing more more homes more people i think it's just a fabulous thing that we should really look at seriously so I appreciate the time and effort that everyone has put into it, and I think it's just a good direction for us to go.

Yes, and thank you for your efforts as well and your support.

Anytime.

I mean, honestly, I'm really impressed. There's a lot here. It was really fun to go on Wine About Winter Night and build our city and realize how small my thinking was compared to what was shown to us with those little blocks and what could be done. Because I was going really two stories, no higher. And he's like, no, you can stack all these together. And I'm like, oh, yeah, duh. You can do that. And I think what you come up with is really beautiful and could really bring a lot of opportunity, not only to Center Town, but our town as a whole.

Thank you.

yeah i'm super excited about it um i really enjoyed all the interactive meetings i think your group has handled it really professionally and i've i think it's been very valuable for our city to have as much feedback as you've taken in and you've listened to so i appreciate that all very much um i would love to just be like okay let's go ahead and do that but um obviously that in lies the issue um and so i think my concerns are as you have laid out how do we make sure that this doesn't um kind of turn to the same place that the 2014 plan did i believe that 2014 had a lot less um next steps that were as obviously laid out so i'm hoping that part of it will help this continue forward i think i'd love to just ask a couple questions about kind of the public sector versus the private sector i think even just the public sector of this is valuable for center town so the streetscape design all of the shaded areas the places to gather those can be done by our city with proper planning and proper budgeting. Where in your plan does private get in the way of public? So are we limiting moving forward with any areas of public because we're waiting on someone to take this up from a private standpoint? And how do we really make sure, I don't want to use the word make sure, but how do we encourage private users to comply to what this plan is suggesting?

Well, a couple answers. As far as is anything going on the private sector that could block some of your public investments, the only reason I could see that happening is if you had a private development that was sort of percolating but hadn't happened yet. And if you were to then invest in, say, the streetscape right in front of it, that would end up getting torn out again when the construction happens. I don't know, Brian, if we have anything that would kind of fit that description right now. where the timing might be awkward?

I would just say we're working through that with the Flatiron building in relation to 7th Street, but we're communicating regularly with the private developer.

And that sort of thing can come up from time to time, but so long as the communication is good, you can actually turn it into a positive because you can mobilize all at the same time, close things down all at the same time and get everything done. But yes, sometimes the timing has to work, and sometimes it means... ONE PROJECT OR THE OTHER IS READY TO GO AND THE OTHER IS NOT READY TO GO AND THE OTHER IS NOT QUITE. QUITE. BUT I DON'T KNOW THAT ANYTHING BUT I DON'T KNOW THAT ANYTHING WOULD MAKE IT SO SOMETHING WOULD MAKE IT SO SOMETHING COULDN'T OCCUR. COULDN'T OCCUR. THERE ARE SOME IDEAS IN THERE THERE ARE SOME IDEAS IN THERE LIKE THE PLAZA IDEA WHERE YOU LIKE THE PLAZA IDEA WHERE YOU MIGHT NEED TO BE A PUBLIC-PRIVATE MIGHT NEED TO BE A PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP BECAUSE THAT IS PARTNERSHIP BECAUSE THAT IS CURRENTLY BEING SHOWN ON CURRENTLY BEING SHOWN ON PRIVATE PROPERTY BUT THE IDEA WOULD PRIVATE PROPERTY BUT THE or maybe there would be a sale or a lease or an easement or something like that. There's a lot of different options, but certainly you'd have to work together in order to achieve something like that. And then, you know, how can we help make sure the private sector, you know, sort of on board? I think one thing we've worked with those stakeholders and the property owners, so we have a lot of positivity. And we've also made adjustments to the plan to meet some of their visions. That's also why we said specifically these are concepts, not plans, as in we are saying this is an idea and here are key concepts. AND EVERYONE AGREES MAYBE ON THE CONCEPTS BUT THEN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THOSE BY A PARTICULAR PROPERTY OWNER MAY LOOK A LITTLE DIFFERENT THAN IT SHOWS IN THE PLAN. AS LONG AS THEY HAVE THE KEY ASPECTS IN PLACE THEN I THINK THAT'S, YOU KNOW, IT'S STILL CONSISTENT WITH THE PLAN. OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE YOUR ZONING ORDINANCE IN ORDER TO ENSURE THINGS LIKE WE HAVE A FRONT DOOR THAT IS ON THE STREET THAT IS EASILY WALKABLE FROM THE SIDEWALK AS OPPOSED TO I'VE PUT MY BUILDING WAY FAR BACK BEHIND PARKING OR SOMETHING OF THAT NATURE. We also have a zoning ordinance to encourage things like you may have noticed that to the extent there are taller buildings, they tend to be over towards Beacon Boulevard because it's a wider street. So wider street, taller buildings. Aisha's an urban designer would tell you that's generally the ratios you want so you don't create too many shadows and that kind of thing. But then also there's opportunities for infill development like townhouses and those aspects. So you already have a center town overlay in your zoning ordinance and that's a tool that can... to work. The other thing that would come to this body and how you can support some of these things is through some of the financial incentives that may be requested, whether it's a housing brownfield or something of that nature. And when you get those requests, you may want to think about, well, if we're going to put some financial stake in the game through a tax incentive of some description, is it advancing our plan? Not just do the finances work out, but is it advancing the plan? I know some communities have started thinking about, okay, well, this is approvable by zoning, but advances our plan such that we'll invest is a higher bar. But now you have a plan and you can say yes. When folks say, hey, well, why are we giving these tax breaks or incentives or something? Well, it's because it advances the plan. And the alternative would be us spending the money directly or something like that. So keeping that in mind. as you move forward is probably a good use of this.

Yeah, and that'd be a conversation I'd love to continue to have, see how we can create an economic development plan kind of forethought on this tiered or whatever. We've talked about that, so that would be a great conversation from here. Any negative feedback? I mean, any... consistent negative feedback or is there stuff that keeps coming up?

Well, I think what we found though that may fall under that would be just property owners that have specific reasons for their property. And I don't know that there's anything that came out that is just like wildly different, but we definitely adjusted the plan to ensure that the drawings that we showed If we showed a particular piece of private property different than it is now, we did vet that through the private property owners. And over the course of the process, they did have to make changes because they said, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do that. I want to do this. And so some of the nuances you see are because of that.

Well, thank you. I appreciate it very much.

Yeah, I want to say thank you for that. having such a large amount of people stopping by and telling you what they would like to see down there. It was well attended, and you did a very good job of it. Just the only thing I want to do is I want to stress out there, we're going to have more vibrancy down there. You'll have a lot more people. It's really good, but we have to remember that we like to still keep our small town feel. Where I live, I just talk to all my visitors because it's a lot of short-term rentals, and I just have... One that came in from Dearborn, and I had another one that came in from Germany. It was over there. And the reason why they come to Grand Haven is because they like that small-town feel, so we have to remember that. I don't know if we have to go with some kind of designs that we need to stay with, if we can put that into an ordinance of some sort to do that. But the plan that you gave is really nice. It's really out there, and I think it'll really make Center Town a place that you want to be attractive to. but I think we need to make sure that we stay within our means and make it look still not these modern flat, we don't want to look like every other town. We want to make this town look just a small town like we have, but we still want to grow up and we want to be something. And this is a good plan for it. Move us forward. I appreciate it very much. So thank you again.

Yeah, I think we did a lot of work. Actually, I won't personally take credit for this. The designers did a lot of work on ensuring that the scale is still small town. Again, taller buildings go near Beacon Boulevard. That helps with that. Quality architectural materials works with that. And some of the... Some of the architecture you see modeled is because, hey, this is the kind of thing that matches or is consistent or is appropriate to what you've already got. I think you see a lot of glass and steel or modernism or things like that that might come off a little differently. So right now that stuff's not coded in the zoning ordinance, but it definitely could be.

What I like about this plan is it's very walkable. It looks really good. And that's exactly what everybody keeps telling me. They just love this area because it's very friendly, very open for walking, and they can get around. And the way you have this set up right now, the planning you have going for it, is giving us that opportunity to get more walkability in the area. So that's a long-term perspective. We're looking from way up here down at it right now, but I tell you, it's appreciable.

But a lot of this stuff is already, there is some of this already in place. You're not working with nothing. You're working with, what did we find, Ayush, just 2,000 people in a 15-minute walk, something like that? And even more, of course, during the summer, and even more during the workday. And that's a lot of people who can walk there within reasonable ease, and that's pretty exciting. Very good.

Right, and I think also for the effort, this is a lot of work here. I was on the Planning Commission when we adopted the 2007 zoning ordinance, and when we did that, we took a business district and kind of diluted it with our neighborhood mixed use, and we kind of lost our identity here. In 2014, they were attempting to reclaim some of that, so they had a vision plan, which once again identified Center Town as a place in itself. Had a lot of good ideas, not a lot of implementation. A lot of the implementation that was designed into that plan was for various parties to do something with their land or with something very localized to them. And not a lot of that actually happened. There wasn't a big push for it at the time. We did do some work on Washington Street. We did have to adopt the overlay that you mentioned. That was largely because when we rezoned it, we created some nonconformities. We wanted to fix those. And so when we go through and if you don't have a good plan or a good vision as you change your zoning ordinance, you end up with problems. And that's why we did this now. because we are embarking on restoring identity to Center Town, restoring some of the physical infrastructure, which is tired and old and needs to be replaced, and that's going to happen. So this is all timely, and we want to enable our property owners and our business owners to do the things that they think are appropriate there. And so this was a good study on what that is. When we started this plan, I was on the steering committee as well, And I challenge you for a couple of things. One is to have an implementation plan, which actually had steps that we could follow through on, and that's in here. And I think it's broad enough, but also specific enough that if something is everybody's job, then it's nobody's job. So I think there's things that are somebody's job, and that's important to have. I think that one of the things that I asked for was, are we sure that we have identified geographically where Center Town is? What are the boundaries? And zoning is one thing, and the 2014 plan is another, and this is another. I don't know how much effort went into drawing the lines that are on here now. It also includes some residential areas, which are not commercial in nature, which maybe are better suited to be part of the Old Town area. So that's one of the things that I really wanted to see was a careful delineation of what Center Town is, where it is, and when we lay out new uses, where they ought to be. So I guess I'd like a little feedback on exactly where Center Town is and why it has the boundaries that are shown on here as opposed to other boundaries. The other thing that we were interested in was identifying What additional uses would be appropriate? I think the market analysis addresses some of that I think that the study you did with the public about you know the Legos and all that kind of stuff like What kind of density would you like where would you like it and what ought this to look like? Private property owners will build what they want to build we can enable that or we can incentivize that or we can forbid that I mean It depends on how we do the regulations. But as you say, they should advance the plan as long as the plan is thoughtful enough for that. Anyway, a couple of questions there that I just kind of threw at you. Is this actually where Centertown is and should the lines be there? Were they chosen deliberately for that place? And the uses that we want to encourage to be incorporated into our zoning.

Yeah, so I think that the boundary lines for this particular plan, I think, serve the plan well. I do think that the plan shows the nuance of the area. I think you pointed out the difference between Washington Street and Fulton Street, which means there may be blocks of Fulton and Columbus that where Center Town ends pretty soon after you get off 7th. They were included in the plan, but what the plan says about them is these are residential blocks. as opposed to on Washington where you may get a little further west before you end Center Town. Maybe it's this building or something like that, and you're actually past the line that we used for the particular plan. Beacon Boulevard is part of Center Town, but also it's its own thing. State Highway, traditionally not walkable or not designed to be walkable, and we think there are opportunities to make it walkable. You can see them in the plan, but The differences between Beacon and Center and between Washington and Fulton, I think they all came out. I would say it's all Center Town, but not all of Center Town needs to have the same character. You're going to have parts of Center Town that are very residential. You're going to have parts of Center Town that are mixed use. You're going to have parts of Center Town that are taller buildings and shorter buildings. But so long as there is a... clear vision that it all works together, right? Such that if you live on one of those residential blocks, you're walking to the more commercial blocks, such that if you're looking for density, you're putting it in places where the infrastructure supports it, the bigger, wider roads. And if you're looking to invest in streetscape, you're doing it where the pedestrians go. And that when developers come in and they say, hey, I just got to have this many housing units to make money where we're going to have to say, Okay. But that's not the site to do it, but I can introduce you to this property owner who has the site where it might work. Right. And that way I think that we can within a broad definition of center town, we can have some of these sub little sub sub areas. They're all, they're all center town, but they're, they're not, it doesn't mean they're all the same. Right. It doesn't mean that they're all, well, they did that. So I get to do the same. No, because over on your block, It's all residential, things of that nature.

Right. And we're looking for guidance from our planning commissioner for ourselves as time goes by that this will tell us where those places and those uses ought to be.

Yeah. And I think, again, I showed you some of the massing drawings, but they're also colored. The colors indicate different land uses and different housing types. Not only did we say residential versus commercial, we also said residential. the yellow versus the orange, right? Which is the bigger housing units, lower density versus the smaller housing units, bigger or higher density. Because both are appropriate, but not necessarily in the same places.

Okay.

Well, anyway, I'm encouraged by the plan. I like what I see. I think that there's a lot of interpretation and nuance here that we need to make sure we're clear on. But I'm not sure it requires a drastic change of the plan because the plan has any planning documents broadly based. It's not lot by lot. It's not specific things. It's the general interpretation or the general feel of it, where we're trying to go in the future.

Yep. And some of those are conversations that will happen in the weeks and months and years to follow about some of those nuance aspects, for sure.

Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Brian, anything else from you?

Just want to add that we have all the ingredients there to have a great plan and with the private investment and the public partnerships and working with the DDA and having a consultant, I think this is a great opportunity. And like anything, you know, a plan, you can make the best plan there is, but there has to be some type of implementation And there has to be one to be able to plan big to make change. And I think center town is right for that. And we have the right people and the right partners to do that. So this is definitely so far been a great, exciting project with all the public engagement and certainly looking forward to what we can see because we have some things already in place and possibly to really get this thing moving, especially with the planning commission, some of those recommended changes once this becomes adopted. So that's it.

The action before tonight is to distribute the plan for comment.

Okay.

Anything else from staff? Okay. Well, if there's no other comments, then thank you for your presentation. Appreciate that. I think every time you expose the plan to the public, it becomes a little more clear what we're up to, and then we can get better engagement there as well. And on that note, this is the only item on this work session agenda, so I will close the work session at this time, and we will reconvene in about 13 minutes for our regular meeting.

That's a good one. That's a good one. Thank you.

Welcome everyone to this regular City Council meeting for Grand Haven City Council for August 17, 2026. Scott, are we on?

Yes.

Okay. Mary, would you please call the roll?

Fritz?

Here.

Callio? Here. Lyon? Here. Dora?

Here.

Manetza?

Here. We have no invocation this evening, but please rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. This evening we have two new appointments to boards and commissions. Maria, would you read those?

Item A, appoint Carol Walker to the Musical Fountain Committee with the term ending June 30, 2030. And item B, appoint Bill Ellingboe to the Planning Commission with the term ending June 30, 2027.

Can I get a motion on these? So moved.

Second.

Motion by Dora, second by Lyon. Questions or comments on either of these appointments? Welcome back.

Yeah. Thank you, as always.

Please call the roll. Dora? Yes.

Lyon? Yes. Fritz? Yes. Calio? Yes. Meneza? Yes.

All right, thank you. Welcome aboard. Okay, that brings us to the approval of the consent and regular agendas. Can I get a motion, please? So moved. Second. Okay, motion by Fritz, second by Calio. Are there any changes or adjustments to either the consent or regular agenda? Anyone? Please call the roll.

Ritz?

Yes.

Caglio? Yes. Dora? Yes. Lyon? Yes. Meneza?

Yes. All right. We concluded our work session early, so we don't need to continue that. So it brings us to our first call to the audience. This is the first of two opportunities. This time, members of the audience may address counts on any item, whether on the agenda or not. Those addressing council are asked to provide their name and address and will be limited to three minutes of speaking time. Council will hear all comments for future consideration but will not have a response at this time. Those not physically present who would like to call AMA dial 616-935-3203. Who would like to address council?

My name is Jeffrey Miller. I live at 1120 South Harbor Drive. I'm here tonight to talk extemporaneously about the BLP and their last board meeting. Again, where they showed an interest in meeting with council later this week as they had intimated. Don't know if you guys have met or will be meeting, but I trust that it will in fact be an open meeting despite the fact that BLP board members wanted it to be a closed meeting. So hopefully, If and when you do meet, you allow the public enough notice to be able to attend on all issues that don't require legal sequestration. At that same board meeting it was noted that the new emergency electric plan was determined as to if and when the grid to which we are dependent on our electricity is Required to shut down based on determinations by the folks down in Carmel, Indiana What's going to be shut down they have it planned as two-hour rolling operation Two hours here, two hours there, two hours wherever. Well, how does that affect public service? Do the police know that they're going to have to staff officers at the different intersections where lights are turned off? Do people who live at home who are dependent on electricity for, say, home dialysis or other life-carrying necessities, is there a full inventory from FEMA or from the Ottawa County Health Department to know how to address those needs? There's a plethora of issues that I think need to be addressed. that goes outside of the actual purview of the blp involving the different agencies within city government and county government and to engage the public and i know of no solicitation from the blp to find out what the city and the people's reactions are to their rolling blackouts were the grid to go down because of lack of Fortunately, this year, only two days did the grid folks managing it down in Indiana tell everybody who had generation capabilities to put their equipment on full bore or to turn all of your electric generation on. So that was only two days. And out of one through level five of critical importance, the infrastructure and the electricity level of critical value, what have you, was just the level two. That's not to say that it can't get back to level three or level four, which is when they start talking about brownouts or blackouts. But we, the public, don't know what is going on at all. Thanks very much. Thank you, Jeff.

Who else would like to address council?

Good evening. Jim Hagen, 400 Lake. I'd like to talk a little bit more about e-bikes. I'm a member of the Sustainability and Energy Commission. And we had quite a discussion on it. And we saw some documents produced by various members. And what's being seen is there's been a degradation of our trails in Mulligans, Hollow, Duncan Woods from e-bikes. So I said, you know, I'll speak my three minutes on it because I'm sort of passionate about retaining what we have and we're planning to spend money on improving our forests and our trails. So I did a little bit of research on it and the League of Michigan Bicyclists has actually done quite a bit of work. They've got an extensive website. And they had some very interesting sections. And one was actually a compilation of Michigan law on it. And they sort of wrapped up the section that had quite a few paragraphs by saying all three classes of e-bikes are prohibited on any trail that is designated as non-motorized. and that has a natural surface tread that is made by clearing and grading the native soil with no added surface materials. This means that e-bikes are not allowed on mountain biking trails. However, again, local governing bodies have the power to permit e-bikes on their non-motorized natural surface trails. And where they say they are allowed is on asphalt, crushed limestone, the crushed CCA. aggregate made from crushed concrete, those kind of things. So, you know, I interpret that as basically hard surfaces. So I would like to move, accelerate, instead of going slow on all the e-bike stuff, accelerate it to having it posted that these aren't, you know, our trails out in Mulligans and Duncan are non-motorized trails where e-bikes are prohibited. Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Who else would like to address council?

There are no public hearings tonight, so you won't be able to address any business as it comes up. There will be a second call to the audience at the end of the meeting. By that time, we will have concluded our business. So if anyone would like to address council before we continue, now would be the time. Seeing no one, I will close the call to the audience. And tonight we have a presentation by the city manager. on our goals.

Yes, thank you. Just to go ahead and get us started here, at the time you had set your goals last December, we had committed to you at that point in time we would give periodic updates on where we are, what we're looking at, and what our current focus has been as it relates to the goals that you've set. Just as a reminder for those watching and for yourselves, as far as the timeline and process goes for goal setting. So we kick off our budget season with a community survey that is completed in the month of November. So we completed that last November. Your goal setting with the community survey results as a frame of reference is typically in December or January. Our budget approval or adoption is in the month of May. AND THEN THE FISCAL YEAR AT WHICH WE LOOK TO IMPLEMENT THE COUNCIL STRATEGIES AND GOALS IS FROM JUNE 30 THROUGH JULY 1, MATCHING OUR FISCAL YEAR. AND THEN AGAIN JUNE 30, 2027 IS THE END OF THIS CURRENT FISCAL YEAR. THAT SAID, THIS IS A VERY EARLY UPDATE, SO WE ARE ONLY A less than two months into our fiscal year. Granted, we do get a head start knowing what your goals are prior to the start of the fiscal year, so we get a little bit of a jump start. But tonight, I'm just going to look to give you a brief update at a high level, bullet pointing some of the progress that we've made to date, things we're working on as we go forward as well. What I handed out to you and is in the packet as well is a copy of your 2026-2027 strategic priorities. In your specific copies that are before you, I've highlighted in blue things that staff at this point in time have touched or working on or are in the process of some sort in looking to either facilitate, accomplish, or we have checked it off. So the items that are still blacked out remain to be started. But again, we are early in the fiscal year as we get going. So again, just to bullet point some of these at a high level in relation to what I've highlighted blue in your sheet that we have touched, BLP engagement. We continue to work on building positive relationships with the Board of Light and Power. We had a joint meeting back in May. We're working on a follow-up meeting that we're currently working through a date for as we get our remedial action alternatives report from our environmental consultants. And then we've also completed a joint tour within the last month. So we continue to build that integration communication and positive trajectory. revenue opportunities with our budget process. We updated the fee schedule to again make sure we're on an annual basis evaluating our fees as they relate to the actual time input on the services that we provide. So we're recovering those costs. We've reengaged with city-owned property opportunities. We're exploring the optimization of, for example, the city airport property with things like community solar. We are evaluating the future use of the Harbor Transit building once Harbor Transit moves to their new facility in the spring. And we anticipate movement on the former Shell Oil site off of Third Street that we will be coming into ownership of within that first quarter of 2027 as we look to complete some environmental phasing testing, hopefully in the near future, with a potential partnership with the county to complete that. As far as outside funding goes, our staff does a really exceptional job with this. We continue to pursue external funding opportunities. Really, from May to this point, there's over $2.5 million that have been awarded, again, with additional opportunities consistently being pursued by all of our departments for a variety of different equipment, projects, and so forth. With environmental stewardship, With our forest management efforts, we continue to make really significant progress on this front. This year, in our current fiscal year, we have over $119,000 invested at Mulligan's Hollow, and we'll have over $45,000 at Lake Forest Cemetery. Just in our current fiscal year, in the last couple of years, Since 2024, we have over $525,000 invested into our forest management efforts in the treatment of our tree diseases. We also, within this current budget, funded and supported a community tree canopy survey that was recently awarded. That bid was awarded within the last few meetings that we've just had. And we're also looking, you saw a presentation by Dr. Burns, at new innovative ways to treat beech tree disease within our forests. With regard to native landscaping, we're actually currently working with Avon Marsh and their landscape architects to redesign parking lot perimeters using native landscaping as a model for future projects. Our sample or trial will be the Tippefew parking lot as we look to replace that landscaping. So stay tuned with that. We're also partnering and working closely with the DDA to support transitioning the downtown flower planters to more native and low-maintenance plantings. We're also reviewing ordinance language as it relates to this and looking to prepare draft revisions for the Sustainability Commission's review, potentially within the first or second quarter. With Harbor Island, as I mentioned just moments ago, the remedial alternatives will be evaluated this fall. So we continue to make progress on that front. And we're targeting selection and submission to EGLE and EPA within the first quarter or second quarter of 2027. And again, with water conservation on the environmental stewardship front, our public works department is installing new irrigation sensor technology to improve scheduling and better account for different weather conditions. For example, forecast rain, we may not need to necessarily be running our sprinkling systems. So we've completed that at Central Park, Escanaba Park, and the cemetery so far. community livability in that category as it relates to your goals. Erin and I, as members of the Harbor Transit Board, have been working diligently to encourage regional connection. So Harbor Transit has connected to the Ottawa County campus this year. So that is progress on that front as it relates to connecting to the Holland transit system. And additionally, we continue to aspire to reach Grand Rapids, whether that be an alternative method or connecting to the Grand Valley campus. Pedestrian connectivity. As you know, this year we were awarded the Safe Streets for All grant, amounting in about $384,000 to complete the citywide evaluation for safety and connectivity. So that, we're awaiting the grant agreement, and we'll be kicking off very excitedly. Sidewalks, we increased sidewalk repair budget in this fiscal year from $80,000 to around $200,000, allowing for over 12,000 square foot of sidewalk to be replaced in the southeast quadrant of the city, and also allowing us to round out completion of several different sidewalk ramp improvements for accessibility. And then corridor improvements, something we're continuing to work on. through various projects that we have, whether that be the 7th Street project as it relates to the Center Town Vision Plan. And again, other projects like Chinook Pier, how that creates corridor enhancements. And hopefully on the near future, our next on the list is Washington Square. But we continue to focus on different place-making efforts within those specific projects, but also working with the DDA on a way-finding replacement program. And they should be kicking that off in September, actually, with a starting point. Economic development affordability, continuing to strengthen partnerships with local nonprofit housing partners, including the likes of ICCF, Good Sam, and several others. Planning Commission has done a lot of diligence in reviewing ordinance updates for recommendation, and we're hoping to get a joint meeting with them yet this fall or later this fall. We're continuing to pursue housing-related training and education opportunities as a group, as a staff, as a council. For example, most recently, the West Michigan Housing Summit. So we're seeking those out and taking advantage of them and also working on proposed amendments to our incentive policy to better align current priorities with our policy direction. should appear. Exciting progress on that front. As of last week, site plan approval with conditions was received. So on the goals list, we continue to make progress on that. The project is now trending towards the spring of 2027 groundbreaking. With our health and safety for all category, we've enacted our full-time code enforcement position. with a focus on proactive enforcement. Just in the time frame from June 2nd to August 7th, over 326 cases were identified, most self-initiated rather than complaint-driven, so that's great progress on becoming a more proactive enforcement mechanism for us. And we're working through a lot of accumulated cases and reinstating door hangers to emphasize education and voluntary compliance versus just strictly... again, penalizing homeowners or business owners. Emergency management training, we're expanding staff training in emergency management and incident command. Training activities that we've sent staff through include assailant preparedness, FEMA courses, tabletop exercises, joint training with neighborhood departments, Ottawa County, as well as the BLP. So we've enhanced those opportunities. created additional opportunities as far as community engagement goes with relation to health and safety and emergency management. We continue using Nixle for community communications. We held the first community craze training, and additional sessions are planned this fall. We're developing a citizens workshop later this fall that will include emergency management subject matter. And we're expanding our fire open house to include emergency management resources and education also in October. Engaged, informed, and connected community in relation to the goals that we had set in this category. Dana has an RFP in draft form that's undergoing or about to undergo some internal review for anticipated release in later September. We're currently looking through the current website to make edits that would make a transfer hopefully less cumbersome for whoever we do award that bid to. Staff is also working on updating our public participation policy based on some of the feedback we've gotten to date. We also have engaged Lakeshore Advantage to work on convening a meeting with our manufacturing business owners for the end of the year. So we anticipate a schedule for that, hopefully very soon. And also, we're looking at different public communication opportunities, including revamping our newsletter for reissue. So we're doing some internal dialogues and exercises just to make sure we're hitting the mark on that. And that is a very high level of the things we are touching and working on. Again, very much active. Not a lot just completely checked off yet, but we're making great progress considering how early we are in the fiscal year and continue to adjust, revise, revamp as the policy direction is set. and making sure we're targeting having executed your directives by the end of the fiscal year. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. Well, it's a marathon and not a sprint.

Yes.

So we'll do their step-by-step. Questions, comments?

That's a lot that you guys have already started working on or that has already been implemented in a short time. So well done. Thank you.

I would congratulate you on the progress made as well. It appears that with only 17% of the timeframe gone, you've accomplished a larger percentage of the stuff on the list. So congratulations on that and appreciate all the effort from not only you, but staff as well. Yes. Because I know it takes everyone. So thank you.

Yeah. Thank you very much for all your hard work on this. And this is our council goals, but this is a small, example of what Everyone in our city staff is doing on a day-to-day basis.

So I appreciate that very much and I appreciate the update Thank you for the update it's nice to hear we're moving along with it so it's good to see also so thank you very much you know, and this is there's always business as usual which every everybody must do all the time and then there's

goals which we set out which we think are reasonable and you're working on those so all works together thank you thank you okay and then that brings us to our consent agenda marie would you read that item a approve the regular city council meeting minutes of august 3 2026 item b approve the bills memo the amount of three million three hundred twenty nine thousand two hundred ninety eight dollars Item C, approve Taylor Heft as officer delegate and Jordan Behrens as employee delegate to the 2026 Merge Annual Conference. Item D, approve a grant application to the Michigan Department of Treasury Fire Equipment Grant Program in the amount of $50,000 with no local match for the purchase of new fire gear, SCBA masks, and thermal imaging cameras. Item E, approve the proposal of $55,350 from Fishbeck of Grand Rapids, Michigan for engineering services required to complete regulatory required five-year water reliability study of the Northwest Ottawa Water Treatment Plant. Item F, approve the terms of MDOT Aero Sponsor Grant 2026-0673 in the amount of $91,295.63 with no local match for the replacement of two runway and identifier lighting systems, hanger painting, replacement gas nozzles, and static discharge reels. And item G approve a resolution to distribute the updated center town vision plan.

Right, can I get a motion on the consent agenda? So moved. Motion by first second by I think I heard door. Calio. Point point point part is we got a second. Comments, questions, anything on this? Please call the roll.

Fritz?

Yes.

Calio? Yes. Lyon? Yes. Dora? Yes. Meneza?

Yes. All right. We have an unfinished business this week. That's a good thing. That brings us to our first item of new business. Would you please read that?

Item A, consideration by City Council of a resolution to approve a proposal with Abbott Marsh in the budgeted amount of $128,500 for engineering services to line approximately 4,680 feet of water main along Ferry Street from Robbins Road to Grant Avenue. Administration recommends approval.

Can I get a motion on this item?

So moved.

And a second. Motion by Calhoun, second by Fritz. Mr. Englund.

Good evening. Since my time here at the city, we've had probably four water main breaks along this area. This is a newer, rebuilt road, and I was lucky to attend a meeting with Abbott Marsh and look to see how they line water mains. It's quite the intense process. They go in there at each intersection, take out the valves, go in there, roto-rotor it out. It's kind of like arteries in a heart valve and clean it out and then put a fiberglass lining in it. So it's a very good alternative instead of digging up Ferry Street again. So kind of happy to bring that one to you so that way we can get this taken care of. I think total unaccounted, I think we're at 10 water main breaks in that area. So this is very much needed for this water main.

Okay, questions? No, we've done cured in plastic before on quite a few lines around here since I've been here. So this is a good move for us. It'll increase the life of the pipe for probably, what, another 50 to 75 years. I think it is 50, yes.

If I remember correctly. Yes. Thank you.

Just out of curiosity, I mean, obviously we don't want to dig up a road if we don't have to, but is there a large cost difference?

Yes, we'd have to rebuild the whole road again.

No, I'm saying without the road part, is just this method more expensive than how we would typically?

This is a lot cheaper than what we would normally have to do. Okay. This is actually putting in new valves in every intersection also at the same time, so this will be a vast improvement from what we have over there now.

Great.

I just had one question, um, under phase 200 phase two, the geotechnical investigation is said it already happened. Did we do something with the county or like March of 2026?

I think that was with the township.

Yeah.

Yes, it was.

Oh, okay. Cool. I was just like, it's just, it was, you know, in the middle of a schedule, but backdated. So just wondering about, okay, great.

Great cost savings for us. Sure is. I see no reason to not pursue it and see what we can do.

Yeah, I'm very excited about it. The guys spend a lot of time over there in the winter repairing stuff.

Of course, we have to make sure that nobody drills through it with a fiber optic line. Oh, yes. So I know we've lined sewers a number of times. Have we done water lines before?

We have not done water main before. We've lined a lot of sewers. So this was new. They've been doing it on the east side. They do a lot in Detroit area right now, and it's slowly moving over here. East Grand Rapids is doing it. They're doing it in Rockford right now. I can't remember where else he said he was doing it, but yeah, Rockford and East Grand Rapids is on board, and they're starting to do this less invasive in their town also.

Yeah, I get the less invasive part because we just repaved that road. Of course, that was redoing. South Ferry wasn't really our project. That was the township's project, and we just made some new connections. So when you realign this, I know we're prone to breaks now for various reasons. Does this give you the structural integrity with this lining where you have a compromised shell and then you put a fiberglass liner in it?

It will strengthen everything up. It's almost a half inch thick from what we saw at the luncheon, so it's going to re... Most of the liner is half inch thick? Yes. What does that do to the capacity of the line? It doesn't reduce it by much. It actually helps increase the flow again because right now the rust and particles and calcium Build up on there and reduces the C factor.

This will help increase it but compared to a brand new line How would it how would the slider compare? I know if you're full of carbuncles and things that slows you down From what he said that helps increase the flow Just because of reduced friction. Mm-hmm Okay, that's seems a little seems a little Hard to believe that that much smaller of a pipe has water flow.

It's pretty unique what they're doing. It cures in place. It's really, really nice.

So then do you have to go back in and drill in all the access points?

Yes, yes. They go back in with a sewer camera. It's not actually a sewer camera. It's a clean camera. But they go in and then it has a diamond wheel on the head of it. And it goes to each corp and opens up the water surfaces back for people.

Okay. All right, and then did we examine all these on this main when we had the road open? Did we look for lead service lines?

Those have been replaced at the same time that that was done.

Those were done, okay. So we don't have to do that again either? No. All right, sounds good. And this budgeted amount of $128,500 is actually below what we budgeted?

That's just for the engineering and permitting for it. Right.

I know the cost of the project would be far more.

Yes, yes. That that was right along the 15% that I just I just checked the budget.

Look like we had a bigger number that we planned for engineering. Yeah, so it's so came out good.

Yeah.

All right, good. I have no other questions. Anyone else? Ready to vote good. He's called the role.

Calio, yes, Fritz, yes, Lion, yes, Dora, yes, yes.

Next item don't go away.

Item B, consideration by City Council of a resolution to approve a proposal with Abbott Marsh in the budget amount of $50,500 for design and construction and engineering services to improve the Oaks Avenue lift station. Administration recommends approval.

Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Doris. I think I heard lines. Second by line.

Lines.

Okay. Mike?

Well, this one's important. This one keeps the sewer moving for the industrial area. For you that don't know what a lift station is, there comes a certain point where the water has to be lifted back up, the sewage lifted back up, and jetted out in order to make it a wastewater plant. So all the pipes would get too deep, so we have to put in lift stations to lift it back up. Abin Marsh and Logan and myself went around and looked at all of our lift stations and came across oaks. The guys have been telling me that the concrete was starting to spall, started to take a little deeper dive in it. It's really rough looking. The pipe is actually starting to delaminate, so the pipe that brings the sewage back up. Those need to be replaced. There needs to be a liner put into place. It was determined at that time that the vent was not big enough for it, so H2S builds up hydrogen sulfide, and that is what's corroding everything in this lift station, and we need to put a bigger vent in, line it, and put some new pipes in.

Questions?

I mean, we've budgeted $600,000. Is that enough?

Yes, it should be. I think the whole industrial lift station was right around $800,000 when we did that two years ago, three years ago, two.

So that's why we're not looking at the rest of them that also need work at the moment.

This is actually one of the newer lift stations, so it shouldn't need pumps, it shouldn't need a new electrical panel, so it should be at a reduced cost. Hopefully we can use some of that $600,000 that we, whatever the bids come in for this, we can still use some of that $600,000 and update some of the other lift stations too. So we're waiting to see what the numbers come in for this first.

Great.

Thanks. And you said this is one of the newer lift stations?

2020.

Yeah, I was going to say I recall that it wasn't put in that terribly long ago.

Yes.

So I was curious why it has so many deficiencies if it's one of our newer lift stations.

From the engineer that was out there from Abermarsh, the inlet pipe drops down too far, and it makes more H2S, and it needs to have an actual drop pipe in it. So this was pre-me, and we're trying to fix it as best as we can.

Okay, so it was... Not the best design or not the best implementation?

It needs a drop inside of it so that way when the water actually drops in, it doesn't stir up and create the H2S. So that should eliminate that problem at that time.

Okay. Well, I did have that recollection. This is the lift station just east of Griffin on Oaks?

Mm-hmm. It's all the way at the dead end there.

Yeah. I remember this one. That's why I was surprised to see that this is one we were addressing. I thought it was fixed.

Yes. It is one of our newer ones, but it does need some attention.

All right. Well, then I guess we better give it the attention. Anything else? All set. Ready to vote?

Dorham?

Yes.

Lyon? Yes. Fritz? Yes. Calio? Yes. Meneza?

Yes. All right. Next item, please.

Item C, consideration by City Council of a resolution to approve a new event request to allow the Grand Haven Lighthouse Conservancy to host a volunteer appreciation luncheon at Escanaba Park on September 19, 2026. The Parks and Recreation Board recommends approval and administration recommends approval.

All right, can I get a motion? So moved. Motion by Frith, second by Lyon.

That'll be me.

Okay, Dana.

Mayor, I'm going to help Brian out this evening. Dana's the new Brian. I'm pinch hitting. So before you, as Maria had noted, was a request by the Lighthouse Administration to host a luncheon for their volunteers. So they're looking to recognize those that have been actively engaged in helping them with the lighthouse tours and getting the facility ready for those tours. So they're proposing to use Escanaba Park on September 19th, and they'll be out there from noon until 3 p.m. for that event with a set-up time of 10 a.m. and tear everything down by 5 p.m. if you'll allow it.

Okay. Any questions?

No. Visitors to date. Yes. How many? 30,721. That's wonderful. That's a bunch. And as of started on 6-23, and that includes numbers through this weekend.

How many volunteers are we talking about? Do you know?

I don't know the exact number anymore because they can sign up online. So we don't see them. They used to come through us to sign up and we'd give them times. Now they just go in and pick a slot all online. Last I knew there was about 15, maybe 20. Could be more by now.

That's a lot of

a lot of visitors for that group to handle yeah um when you think of that number since you know 623 over almost 31 000 people through the lighthouse it's amazing wonderful and they're still looking for volunteers all right we're ready to vote brits yes lion yes calio yes dora yes manetsa yes all right next item

Item D, consideration by City Council of a resolution to approve the use of Central Park for event displays from September 30, 2026 to November 1, 2026 for the Grand Haven Main Street DDA's annual Bones About Town. MSDDA recommends approval, Parks and Recreation Board recommends approval, and administration recommends approval.

Can I get a motion? So moved. And second. Motion by Doris, second by Fritz. Dean, are you pinching? Oh, Shandi stepped up. Oh, Shandi's here.

I'm here. Shandi Poppy, Executive Director for Main Street DDA. This will be our fourth. It's been a very, very popular event in the community. It is an opportunity for our retailers and any business and any stakeholder within the DBA to decorate skeletons throughout the downtown area. And we've been fortunate enough that it drives a lot of traffic through the month of October, which is typically the calm before the storm. with the holidays right around the corner. So it's a great way to lead up to our fall festival at the end of the month with trick-or-treating and things like that. So with that popularity, we have had a lot of outside of the DDA businesses such as Grand Fun and some others from the east side of town that would like to participate in this event. And since our scope is to keep people within the downtown, we had a stakeholder in the community that suggested that we activate the Central Park space and allowed them to put up displays in Central Park. What I love about this is it kind of meets a couple of our strategic priorities by activating that space because it is a little slower and a little quieter, but also connects center town to downtown so that we can keep people moving back and forth between the. So.

Alright, questions, comments.

Well, the only thing I know is that you were putting skeletons back into Central Park after we we removed him and put him out at Lakeshore. Yeah, so now we're going to bring him back. So this is a good event, so I'm happy.

Yeah, most of the displays are very, very tasteful and fun. So, yeah, it's been about 140, 120, 140 years since we moved them.

You're saying is there still some there? Yeah, maybe.

We won't talk about the rumors.

Now there's going to be a whole bunch more. That's good.

Yeah, I think it's great, super fun, and a great way to, again, like you said, create that connection between Centertown and downtown for the fall. Thank you.

Thanks. I just want to say thanks for even like this is such a great idea. I think it's going to be really, really fun. I can't wait to see all of the dressed up skeletons and whatever they happen to be doing. But I mean, just to get to be able to, you know, as somebody who works in the east side of town. to be able to participate because I know a lot of us have wanted to do that and do still do that in our own way. I think this is really a good full community. Yeah, full community access and I love that. Thanks.

Another great opportunity for everybody to participate in. Sounds great.

Yeah, and I agree with that sentiment. I know that there's been interest outside the DDA. It is a DDA event. It's something that you sponsor, you promote the downtown with it, but the fact that you have so much interest from around town. They're willing to come here and set up and they'll get recognized for that. And that's good. It just kind of pulls us all together, I think. And it is a really fun event. So yeah, and it's caught on really well. So many more years, I'm sure.

Yes.

All right. Thanks. Call the roll.

Dora.

Yes.

Fritz. Yes. Lion. Yes. Calio. Yes. Vanessa.

Yes. Next item, please.

Item E, consideration by City Council of a resolution to approve a proposal with Abbott Marsh in the budget amount of $21,500 for design and construction engineering for the four Edwards retaining wall project. Administration recommends approval.

Can I get a motion? So moved.

Second.

Motion by Fritz. Second by Calio. Mike?

It was brought to our attention last fall that this retaining wall looked like it was failing. We had Abbott Marsh go out there and take a peek at it. It is indeed having a little bit of where it's starting to bow out, so we need to shore it up with some sheet pile where you're going to put the sheet pile in front of the wall and backfill with stone so it gets the drainage and what it's need in order to drain. Evan Marsh also looked to the adjoining properties at the same time, said there is no concern with it at this time, but there is an expiration date on that. We don't know when that will be, but this one, get shored up so it's safe again, and it's just starting to fail.

And this is in the public right-of-way?

Yes, it is. Naderveld did a survey of the property and sent it over to Brian. Brian, at that time, determined it was into the city right-of-way, and then we also had the city attorney look into it at this time to make sure that it was indeed our property.

All right, well, I know that in those areas, they go back and forth. Okay, well, we have to keep our roads open.

Yes.

Okay, questions, comments?

Is the funding that's budgeted left over the $48,500? Do we think that's going to be enough to cover the actual construction costs?

We will see. Sheet pile prices, according to Evan Marsh, have been up and down because of the war right now.

Cross our fingers. Yeah.

Are you concerned about the vibration when you drive these things?

Not that has been brought to my attention at this time.

Yeah, well, it's a big sand dune, so maybe it's not a big deal.

Yes, nothing has been brought to my attention.

Every time we do this, like downtown here, everybody around complains about vibration.

Yep, I haven't seen the design yet. I don't know how deep they have to go for the sheet pile. That's why we're here to get this tonight, so that way we can determine what that will be. And King Company has been in communication with Abbott Marsh on this, too, and letting them know what prices are doing.

And additionally, we'll obviously monitor the project on site, but also it'll undergo all EGLE permitting and so forth to ensure everything's appropriately handled for the dune.

Yes. Okay. It is a critical dune area.

Is this in a critical dune?

Yes, it is. Okay.

That line kind of meanders.

I'm not sure where it is. It 100% is. And that's why this fee is for the 21,500 is so high because of the permitting that we have to do in order to do the work.

Okay. All right. Any other questions?

Are there any design standards that you're looking at for that? Or is it just concrete?

sheet pile so steel wall steel ships oh yeah okay it's like around the pier okay i just saw the two by two by five not sure if you were involved or not but about five years ago maybe six years ago we did a survey of all the retaining walls around in this area an inventory of them all, and I think Abb and Marsh was involved in that, kind of assigned them all a number of one to 10 as to where they were in their lifespan and predicted when we would possibly have to be replacing a lot of these or doing more work to them. Is that anything that we've kept up with or look at or utilize at all? Do you know?

The short answer is yes and no. It's a little complicated. That is very much on our radar. I think the last probably two and a half fiscal years we've had more imminent urgent requests from property owners or adjacent property owners on very specific walls. So we haven't necessarily been able to work to strategize going down that in necessarily order of events. Based on that report, but it's something we anticipate really needing to lean into for upcoming budgets. So we are not surprised the one in the Before this one was an unexpected budget expense that we had to come back for a Budget however It pushed out the timeline a little bit on a failing wall So we do need to get ahead of these anticipated retaining wall expenses very much on our radar Just I was just curious if it was something that we were still utilizing and and kind of Give us an idea of where we are in this overall project of all these because there was a considerable Yes, there is a very considerable considerable amount and unfortunately, we've been a little reactive the last two years, but it's on our On our plate to get ahead of the game with these because they are not inexpensive Thanks, okay Just call the roll

Fritz? Yes. Calio? Yes. Stora? Yes. Lyon? Yes. Meneza?

Yes. That brings us to our report by city council. So who would like to begin?

I had a great time at Walk the Beat. Loved seeing everybody. I love seeing that event grow. The weather was 1,000% better than it was the year before. But it's always, the music's great. It was really fun to see so many people in the street this year really enjoying it.

I have to agree. I had a great time. I think we ran into each other probably about three, four times up and down here. It was such a good event. And it's always good to see... bands from all over, and different age groups, too. It's just phenomenal to see that. When I was growing up, we always had Battle of the Bands and stuff like that, and then Garage Bands around, you know, the Gersois, and Mike knows who I'm talking about. But anyways, we had a whole bunch of them there, but it's very good to see that. It was a very well-attended event. I think, I don't know how many people I ran into, but it was astronomical. It was really packed. My nephew was here from Germany. He brought his daughter with him, and they were just amazed at what was going on in the whole community there. They thought it was really good for him. Other than that, I just still... Want to make sure that we maintain when we have buildings done in our downtown area. We met with our former mayor and he wanted to point out to make sure that we keep our buildings looking like they should be, like they fit into our, and we don't want to make sure that if we have any kind of design standards or whatever we can do or what we can do forward to try and maintain our downtown look and that so it doesn't get too overwild, because as I said before, I have people that come in my neighborhood, and they rent all the time, and they're from all over, they're all over the country, they come here, and they come here because that small town feel, the way it looks, the friendly people, I mean, Grand Haven is just a great place to be. You can walk the streets. You don't have to worry about your kids so much. You know, you're with them. They can just go. And it's a great place to be, and we just want to make sure that we maintain that integrity for everybody wherever we go. And I have to agree with Mr. Hagan on the e-bikes and our trails. There's something we have to do. I know it's very difficult because even though we passed these ordinances, now we have to. But whatever it takes, they are destroying our habitat back there. If you watch some of these guys, they just got power and they just spin the tires. It's not like you're on a bicycle and you got manpower. It's totally different. And I have to agree there's something we should do or if we can try to ban them from off in those areas. Those dunes, they don't need them. It's bad enough we have people going up down Five Mile Hill and pushing the sand down and we still got to dump sand over it. I have to agree and not get onto one subject Tigers. I don't know man, I tell you what they had an opportunity this this weekend to do something and it's just they had to lead and just kind of like lose it. So anyways. Onto another subject.

I was very honored to be able to be in the audience for the Purple Heart Ceremony at Escanaba Park. It was of beautiful ceremony and very touching. And the work that's being done to honor our local residents is very impressive, particularly since we live in a town that honors the Coast Guard so much. It's just a nice place to be. part of what makes our city so special is that recognition. So I appreciated that very much. Um, and the, that was a busy day. So the, the red, uh, the cut, the, what am I trying to say?

Lighthouse too.

And I just want to thank everyone at the lighthouse about how much work that they put in and the volunteers that have put so much time and effort into, uh, really recognizing such a treasure of our community. So I appreciate that so much. And then I'd like to second what Mike just said about our buildings, particularly in downtown, and how important our historical legacy is. And I would just really encourage everyone that our historic council is used as much as possible when we're recognizing new opportunities for buildings to be either rebuilt or built from new in designated areas in our town. Once we lose that historical context, it's gone. So it's a very important part of what makes us special, and I think it's something that we should continue to promote.

Okay, thank you. I had probably the same meeting with Roger as some other folks have had, and he expressed some concerns about the buildings that were going to be taken down and what they were going to be replaced with. We do have in our ordinance a list of materials that are allowed to be used in replacing those facades and what have you. So it may be something that would bear some looking at if it's not meeting the, you know, the desire of the community with what is being allowed. Maybe we could have a planning commission take a look at it and see what the... I know that there is a list of approved materials that they can use that aren't necessarily just brick. So that's one direction. But I did attend the Purple Heart ceremony, very touching ceremony. Appreciate everything that they do for that. It's unbelievable, the time and effort that they put into it. The wooden plaques that the fellow made for the families, those were just amazing. He said, 50 hours it takes him to make one. So it was really a lot of, I think, heartfelt work on his behalf to produce those. I thanked him for that as well and everyone that was involved with that. The ribbon cutting was great. There was a lot of fog and a few people.

Yes, there was.

We started out there, and you couldn't see the first lighthouse, let alone the one at the end. And when you got to the end, you couldn't see the one in the middle or the shore. And it cleared up and went away. There was quite a few people that attended it. It was a great event. Kind of recognized the volunteers as well, and it was great for that. Sidewalk days were busy, was down there for those. Looked like everybody was down, showed up to attend them, the Jeep Fest as well. Some meetings, the DDA, Center Town meetings, Walk the Beat was great. Beautiful weather. You couldn't beat it. I think I saw Erin, I don't know how many times. One time I was walking behind WAWL's trailer, waving at people, and she's like, oh, you're in the parade again. I was like, well, not quite, but almost.

Felt like it.

But we have some great weather, and that's going to hold for the week, and we'll just enjoy it. Everybody get out, enjoy things around town, and be safe. And I agree with your comments on the paths and the e-bikes. I mean, even if we post them that just say no motorized vehicles or something to kind of keep people off from them for now, but do what we have to do.

All right. It was a great weekend a lot of good events. I appreciate the Purple Heart ceremony and ribbon-cutting and Like a busy weekend like earlier in the summer might have been so summer's not over Comment on the I guess is a caution how prescriptive we want to be and our demands about how new buildings should look a ribbon renovated building should look in our downtown and We want it to look cohesive. We want it to look like it fits together. If we get really prescriptive and say it must look just like it always did or just like the building next to it, I think it will stifle some creativity, and I think it will also be kind of a drag on innovation, new ideas, and what younger people might like to see in their city. So I think we want to be cautious about being overly prescriptive. Our downtown development guidelines have certain things that have been put in them as potentially materials that can be used. They aren't necessarily brick, but I think they do provide some opportunity for new thinking and for a new design. I think that's healthy. We have a very eclectic downtown. If you go up and down and look at the buildings, they don't all look like each other. They range in age from the 1870s to the 80s. 1960s. I mean, and everything in between. And I think that's actually kind of stimulating. I kind of like that, and I think that's part of our character. I think the fact that we have room for different ideas and different tastes, and we can make it work together. I think that's the key, is to make sure the stuff fits together rather than fit a specific, very narrow model. So I know that the Historic Commission has talked about this somewhat. I know that Planning Commission has kicked it around a bit. And I know that in the past, property owners have wanted to have some freedom to do things with their property that weren't just exactly what's been there before. So I think we wanna approach that with some caution, sympathy, sensitivity, but a little bit of caution and some room for new ideas. So I think we can make our downtown work without making it into a big museum of itself. The e-bike thing, I think that we'll find that you recall at our previous meeting, I think it was last meeting, we were going to go further with some of our definitions we were going to adopt. We pulled that because this is like pick-up sticks. You touch one thing and there's more things out there that you need to adjust. So as we work through the regulations on e-bikes, the definitions, exactly where they may be and where they may not be, It impacts other ordinances. We have to coordinate everything. So I think that we're in the process now of looking at what more do we need to do to make this into a comprehensive, well-thought-out regulation that touches so we don't have inconsistencies in our ordinance. So that's kind of where we're at now. We're going to be working through other things which might need to be addressed, whether they're allowed or forbidden on natural trails, whether they're whether we need to make room for them on our roads, whether we need docking stations for them, all the different things. I mean, they're not going to go away. They're a fact of life. We want to make sure people are operating them safely in a manner that the city can absorb without causing a lot of grief. We definitely don't want injuries. So there's a lot of thoughtful work that still remains to be done. I think we took a first step addressing the immediate problem of heavily congested pedestrian areas where people have to work around fast moving, relatively quiet, relatively heavy vehicles zipping in and out of pedestrian traffic. So we've taken our step. Yes, it will take some time to get there. We should do things with some level of priority and appropriate urgency, in a carefully thought out manner. And I think that's about all I've got. So I'll turn it over to Ashley.

Thank you. I think the only thing, and it's hard to believe, but we will not be convening again until after Labor Day, which feels crazy to say out loud. But with that being said, I just wanted to remind you as well as the public that the city does facilitate a Labor Day bridge walk. It is not as exciting as it sounds coming over the drawbridge, but we instead start on the 3rd Street Bridge. And we start at the 3rd Street Bridge, have a little kickoff there. You receive a raffle ticket. We then kick off as a group, walk the extent of the boardwalk all the way to the end of the pier, and then end back at the Waterfront Stadium, at which point in time the prize drawings will have been drawn. Dana has done an excellent job once again in securing a ton of, and is continuing to secure, so if anyone's interested in donating, prize drawings from our local businesses who are always so generous. So a very fair amount of the participants typically walk away with one of our prize giveaways. Again, just a great local event that we put on. It starts at 9 a.m. Quick, easy, very enjoyable. So we encourage anyone that is available to come on out

All right. It usually is fun. You see people you haven't seen all summer because they've been hiding from the tourists.

The locals reemerge.

Yes, they reemerge. That's a fun event. I've walked that other one before, too, the one farther north. But yeah, that's got nothing on us.

Not quite the same.

All right. Thank you. So that brings us to our second call to the audience. At this time, members of the audience may address counsel on any item. If you do, so please give us your name address and your limit to three minutes of speaking time And we will not have response at this time and you may call six one six nine three five three two zero three We'd like to address council

My name is Jeffrey Miller. I live at 1120 South Harbor Drive. Excuse me. For those of you who haven't heard, a city councilman and former BLP board member, John Nassar, died. And I'd like to read part of his obituary. John Nassar, age 87, of Grand Haven, passed away on Friday, July 31st at Grand Pines Assisted Living Center. He was born on July 12th, 1939, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. John graduated from Tecumseh High School and went on to attend Albion College and the University of Michigan, where he earned his bachelor's degree in engineering. John had a deep interest in local politics and was dedicated to serving his community in many capacities. He served for nine years on the Grand Haven City Council, 12 years on the Grand Haven Board of Light and Power, and three years with this Tri-Cities Historical Museum. He was also involved with the Grand Haven Main Street Development Authority Recruitment and Retention Committee, and proudly served as president of the JCs for six years. John and his wife Sharon attended the First Presbyterian and Christ Community Church, where he served as elder at both churches. In his free time, John enjoyed watching the University of Michigan football and basketball games, caring for his lawn, working on his home projects, playing golf, and most of all, spending time with his family and friends. John is survived by his loving wife of 63 years, Sharon, and his four children, Jeffrey, Rebecca, Missy, and Jennifer. For those who are interested, the Clausen family funeral home are managing his services. So you can go to www.ClausenFuneralHome.com to sign his guest book and find out when there will be a memorial service for him. On a personal note, John was a gentleman of the highest order, well-educated, always professional, dapper, with a sense of self-confidence, but with an air of humility. He always wanted what was best for the community. He loved. His dedication to public service is well documented. His principles were uncompromising, but he appreciated what the value of compromise could bring. While serving on the BLP Board of Directors and later as a vocal remonstrator against the construction of a new power plant out on Harbor Island, John's convictions were readily known. John and I first forged a friendship being U of M men when I moved to Grand Haven 13 years ago and started attending BLP monthly board meetings. I appreciate John's preparation for the meetings through his transparency and for his constituents. Even as an octogenarian, he was getting friends to sign petitions, install yard signs, and get out the vote. On a personal note, he was very proud of his children and his beloved wife. I would often run into him in the aisles at Meijer or see him and Sharon cruising on Harbor Drive. He could tell a good tale, and his laugh was infectious. I will miss him.

Thank you, Jeff. Everyone who knew John respected him. Anyone else would like to address council at this time? If not, I'll close the call to the audience. And at this point in time, I'd entertain a motion to go into a closed session to consider the periodic personnel evaluation pursuant to section 81A of the Open Meetings Act at the written request of the employee. Can I get a motion?

I'll make a motion.

motion by Fritz, second by Callio to go into closed session. Would you please call the roll?

Fritz?

Yes.

Callio? Yes. Lyon? Yes. Dora? Yes. Meneza?

Yes. So for those of you in the audience, when we come back out of closed session, we'll have no further business, and so you're welcome to stick around, but this is pretty much the end of the show.