Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The west entrance to the parking deck on Lakeshore Drive is seen in Houghton. Officials with the City of Houghton and The Veridea Group said the process for the potential development is already offering opportunities for public input, and said their approach would not change after a recently passed proposal asking the city to delay the sale until residents could weigh in on alternate uses for the site.

HOUGHTON — Officials from the City of Houghton and The Veridea Group said the process for a potential development on Lakeshore Drive already allows for public input, and will not be affected by a nonbinding proposal overwhelmingly backed by Houghton voters asking for the process to be halted to allow for more public input. 

“We said that’s what we were going to do, and we were in the process of doing that,” City Manager Eric Waara said Monday. “Looking at that today, I don’t see where it changes anything we were planning to do.”

The city voted last year to enter into negotiations with Veridea on possible mixed-use development on the site. Studies have found the parking deck on the site, built in 1978, is nearing the end of its useful life. 

Residents criticized the city for not asking the public for what it wanted done with the site prior to pursuing a development. The proposal, put on the ballot by the Houghton Waterfront Redevelopment Citizens Group, asked to postpone any sale until after an open process, including residents and other stakeholders, exploring other options for the site. The measure passed with nearly 80% of the vote. 

Waara and Bob Mahaney, president of the Veridea Group, said they did not think the ballot language represented the level of public involvement leading up to the project. Waara said the development came out of the city’s master planning process, which included a city-wide survey and open houses where the public gave their feedback. 

In addition to public forums, there have also been smaller meetings with members of the citizens group and local business owners. 

A flow chart of the process provided to the public last year also outlines several future points for public input, including a site plan review by the Planning Commission, forums provided by Veridea and when the agreement is presented to the council. 

“We still look forward to moving forward on this,” Waara said. “There’s going to be a lot of opportunities for public engagement with this. It’s just no matter how many times you shout it from the mountaintops, nobody seems to want to believe that.”

Waara also criticized renderings circulated by supporters of the public input proposal purporting to show the dimensions of a proposed development. Veridea is still in the process of designing its proposed building. 

An image included as part of Veridea’s response to request for qualifications was only a rough demonstration of what Veridea could do, not what the finished project would look like, Mahaney said. 

“Basically the city wanted to see, ‘Will your plan fit on the site?'” Mahaney said. “And that’s all the RFQ asked us to do … it would have been irresponsible — and frankly, misleading — on our part if we tried to do anything more than that, because we didn’t have enough information to do anything.”

Before creating a design, Veridea needed a structural analysis of the parking deck, and a study of the parking needs in the downtown, both of which have been completed, Mahaney said. Renderings of the actual proposed building should be available in a couple of months, Mahaney said. 

The community feedback so far has already factored into Veridea’s design, Mahaney said. Veridea is looking at ways to use the project to create more green space and waterfront access for the community, he said. Also, Mahaney added, they’re trying to minimize the size and scale of the building while still reaching the minimum return on its investment. 

“We’re undertaking a more holistic approach on the entire approach working with Eric and his team,” he said. “When the public does see our renderings, I think they’re going to be surprised by the increased public access to the waterfront that the project has.”