Things are definitely moving in the right direction
By Barb Pert Templeton
When it comes to population numbers Marine City was projected to keep losing residents but in reality, they are moving in the opposite direction according to administrators.
“We’re bucking that trend, we’re going the other way, maybe it’s just 19 houses, (and 180 new apartments) and maybe that’s only 40 people but it’s going the right way and that’s not happening in a lot of places around here,” Current Marine City Project Manager Scott Adkins said.
At the Feb. 19 meeting of the Marine City Commission City Manager Michael Reaves introduced a discussion about future development in the city. He said the city has very few large parcels that might attract development but a lot of the work on the topic lies in redevelopment of parcels that sit vacate or are only partially used now.
“One of the charges that you require of us is to develop a business and get people to come to the community and I know there’s been a strong push on our half to attract housing and bring more residents to the town,” Reaves said, adding that along those lines he wants to share the tools to accomplish those things but only an overview at this point and then dive in deeper going forward.
Marine City Project Manager Scott Adkins addressed the city commission at a recent meeting.
He said over the course of the next few months he will introduce and go over each tool that will help development going forward while getting the commission’s thoughts on the parameters for the topic.
“Right now, we have to kind of erect this on our own, we’ll utilize the services of the EDA …but in terms of bringing this to our communing we’re going to have to do it on our own,” Reaves said.
He explained that setting those rules in place is important because they will have developers coming to throw everything but the kitchen sink at them. If they plan it out, they will already know what’s allowed in Marine City and documents will state what we’re willing to and what we’re not willing to do here, Reaves said.
“Long term it will help us save time in terms of talking to these groups and at times it tends to separate what I call the contenders from the pretenders, we talk to a lot of pretenders when it comes to developers, until you get into the meat and potatoes and then we find out all’s they did was take up our time,” Reaves said.
Adkins shares development so far; looks ahead
Marine City Manager Micheal Reaves told the city commission the plan for economic development will be laid out in phases over the coming months.
The city manager then introduced former city manager and current city Special Projects Manager Scott Adkins. He said he’s been working with Reaves on the economic development project and their plan to introduce the topic to the commission.
He said projects they approved already include 19 single-family homes to be developed along 7th and 8th streets in the city and a 180-unit apartment complex on South Parker.
When speaking with the apartment developer just last week, Adkins said they had to handle some wetland issues with the DEQ but they envision having the county sign off on things in the spring and the developer will likely begin clearing land for the project in the summer.
“Now all the stars are aligning and we have pieces of property that were not on the market before that are now there,”
Marine City Project Manager Scott Adkins
“We’ve got single family units and new couples’ units and starter units and we have a strategy – we want to be able to springboard people from a rental situation to an owner occupied,” Adkins said.
He said the idea is to have people start out in the apartments and then move into nice starter homes in the city afterwards. Adkins added that the city never had a lot of “something for everyone” feel in the past but soon they hope to be open for that possibility.
As for other new development Adkins said the city just learned that 143 acres off King Road with access also off S. Parker was placed on the market. The owner had it as farmland in the past and it’s a huge opportunity for the city for new residential development.
“Now all the stars are aligning and we have pieces of property that were not on the market before that are now there,” Adkins said.
He also noted that smaller projects include working to bring small businesses to town. Adkins said the city has good relationships with the chamber of commerce the EDA, the small business administration and the Michigan Municipal League.
The city gets a couple inquiries a month from people interested in starting new business in the city and the administration does their best to help them out.
Adkins also addressed the main complaint people seem to have about the downtown area and that’s the lack of parking. He said actually the city has “ample parking but people don’t like to walk a block or two blocks”
“We understand that but I think we have to reinforce the fact that we do have ample parking for the retail and commercial activities going on where we struggle is for the residential side,” Adkins said, noting that if people are looking to live in some of the upper unit apartments downtown on Water Street they have access behind the building but not every lot on the street has that option.
He also touched on incentive programs that are allowed by state statutes. Adkins said the city needs to establish parameters for those at some point by putting the framework around the programs and putting ground rules in place for future developers.
“We also want the right project, in the right place, that’s right for Marine City and we’re not afraid to say no,” Adkins said. “Because not everything is going to fit.”
Reaves and Adkins plan to bring new development issues to the commission and even host workshops on the topic over the next few months.
