HOUGHTON — The Houghton Planning Commission subcommittee for revising the city’s master plan held its first meeting Tuesday night, appointing its leaders and determining its structure.

The other committee, which will discuss development on the Lakeshore Drive parking deck site and the history of the Veridea Group proposal, will meet 5:30 p.m. March 16.

Bill Leder, vice chair of the Planning Commission, was named as chair. Michelle Jarvie-Eggart was named as vice chair, and Kristine Bradof as secretary.

After its next meeting on March 29, the committee will hold future meetings on the first and third Monday of each month at 1 p.m.

At its most recent meeting, the Planning Commission set up two subcommittees. The master plan committee was tasked with revising chapter 10, regarding the downtown, and chapter 13, regarding the zoning plan and future land use.

At last week’s Planning Commission meeting, members discussed allowing citizen participation on the committee regarding the parking deck, which has been the subject of intense public interest over the past year and a half. Subcommittee members decided not to add other members of the public for the master plan group.

“Sometimes the more people you have, the less you actually get done,” Bradof said. “These are going to be public meetings, so … there’ll be a period where people can say something, but I don’t know how much of the public input should be focused on these committees versus the regular Planning Commission meetings.”

Jarvie-Eggart, who had been involved in a similar process in Marquette County, said there had been no additional appointments in their chapter review for subcommittees.

The subcommittee still recognized the importance of public involvement. It will recommend a precharrette process, which would define the focus of a potential charrette, a collaborative process that the city has used in forms such as the design of the skate park. As the precharrette would involve spending city expenses and possibly a bid process, the recommendation would still have to be taken up by the full Planning Commission and City Council.

“I think we’re in agreement that we’re not going to do a charrette for every part of the master plan,” Bradof said. “But this will be the most difficult part of the master plan to revise, most likely. And if we do go through a charrette, then we’ll be able to do more of that ourselves, because we’ll know how they work.”

Issues in the downtown could include garbage removal in the downtown, which has come up among business owners, subcommittee member Jennifer Julien said.

Another recommendation to the Planning Commission was putting together a resident survey through a Michigan Technological University business student working under professor Junhong Min. The surveys are customary before the city starts its five-year master plan process.

Jarvie-Eggart said if the city does a survey, it should come after any charrette so the committee has a better idea what questions should be included.