HOUGHTON — Houghton will hold two special meetings this week.

The Planning Commission will meet 5:30 p.m. Tuesday night to schedule a public hearing on revisions to a rezoning request along Houghton Canal Road to exempt wetlands. At the same time Wednesday, the City Council will meet to discuss the future of the big parking deck area on Lakeshore Drive.

The Veridea Group of Marquette unveiled its proposal for the Lakeshore Drive site at a city meeting in December. The proposal calls for a mix of commercial and residential space, with a 100-room hotel on the eastern portion of the site, between Huron and Quincy streets.

Residents voiced a number of concerns about the project at a subsequent council meeting, including the potential loss of character in the downtown and the loss of rear access to businesses on Lakeshore. Other residents and organizations supported the move, which they said would add needed development and revenue for the city.

The rezoning request would change a parcel of land along Canal Road from R-1 (single-family residential) to B-2 (community business). JRG Development, which owns the parcel, amended an earlier request in order to keep the wetlands portion of the property as residential.

“My client feels this will address the concerns raised during previous meetings and protects the wetland area with the R-1 zoning being retained,” a JRG representative said during a city meeting in December.

The representative said JRG sought the rezoning to make the site more marketable and as complementary rezoning to that sought by a neighboring seaplane service.

While the rezoning would allow restaurants, taverns, hotels and motels, the JRG representative said she was not aware of any plans to develop the site, and did not have a statement of intent or purchase agreement from a developer.

The meeting ID for the planning commission meeting is 856 4570 2374

It can also be accessed at https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcT5HteNj.

The meeting ID for the council meeting is 813 1753 2952. It can also be accessed at https://us02web.zoom.us/u/ktwQxBAMe.