Mary Stevens, For the Gazette A sign on Houghton's Shelden Avenue reminds everyone that bicycles and skateboards are not to be ridden downtown. The city council codified several city ordinances Wednesday including the restriction of bikes/boards on Shelden Avenue.

HOUGHTON — The Houghton City Council approved amendments to two city ordinances during Wednesday’s meeting regarding offenses against the peace and blighted premises within the environment ordinance. The approvals came after a public hearing overviewing the proposed changes and explanations from City Manager Eric Waara.

Ordinance 2025-340, Chapter 34 once considered blight to be in residential areas, but will now be applied to the entire city. Waara said the current ordinance does not apply to other non residential zoning districts such as commercial areas.

“So we added some specific conditions based on what we can see, and then we were also consulting with the city attorney on how we would make citations into enforcement,” Waara said.

The change made was Chapter 50 of Ordinance 2025-341, which encompassed offenses and miscellaneous provisions. The definition of unlawful accumulation was added, which pertains to waste materials that were not generated within the City of Houghton and were brought into the city with the intent of the people transporting the waste material to be disposed by city disposal services. Waara said the city had a significant issue regarding that problem, and he thanked Bob LaFave from the Village of L’Anse for assisting with the ordinance as the village had similar problems.

Other updates or additions included telecommunications used to harass people, mooring of boats or other watercraft to city docks with intent to subvert posted rules, updates to the fireworks rules to be compliant with state law and prohibited acts on Sheldon Avenue’s sidewalk. The rule regarding Sheldon Avenue states no person shall ride bicycles, scooters, skateboards, hoverboards, one wheels, segways, roller blades, roller skates, unicycles and motorized or mechanized versions of the same on the Shelden Avenue sidewalks, from Bridge St. to Franklin St., and other sidewalks as posted. The rule concludes wheelchairs, strollers and mobility scooters are permitted.

“The council had previously I guess you want to call outlaw bike use on the sidewalks on Sheldon avenue for safety reasons, but it was never codified in the ordinance. It was only done through Michigan title law, which allowed the city to put up a sign and say ‘You can’t do this,’ and therefore you’re in violation of Michigan law because you didn’t obey the sign placed by municipality. This would place it in the ordinance, and those are probably the big things in there,” Waara said.

Waara said the changes were mostly clarifications and modernizations.