HOUGHTON — Residents weighed in on the next five years of city planning during the second and final open house for Houghton’s master plan Tuesday night.

The plan, updated every five years, helps guide the city’s development. Projects being included in the plan also improve their chances of receiving state or federal grants, said Planning Commission Chair Tom Merz.

“We can point to our master plan and say, ‘Look, this is something we really wanted,'” he said. “That scores more points in the grant application.”

The transformation of the city’s waterfront from an “industrial wasteland” to the current network of trails and parks dates back to planning decisions from the 1970s, Merz said.

“One of their primary goals was to get as much public access to the waterfront,” he said. “For almost four miles, we have it. That was vision on their part.”

Sections of the 2018 master plan were put up around the council chambers. People could stick green dots next to the goals they thought were most important. They could also add post-it notes to elaborate or to suggest things not included in the last plan.

Pat Coleman of North of 45, who facilitated Tuesday’s open house, will summarize the findings for the planning commission.

Rick and Lenora Rollenhagen came in part to see the plans for Lakeshore Drive once the big deck gets removed next year. Lenora liked the rendering prepared for the city’s Revitalization and Placemaking grant application, which showed sidewalks, outdoor seating areas and green space.

“It’ll look pretty,” she said. “Right now it looks kind of scary.”

Rick was writing a note regarding the traffic hazards at Fourth Street and M-26, near the Well Red Raccoon.

Between the narrow street and the traffic at that intersection, it was a dangerous corner, he and Lenore said.

Juxta Sprague thinks Houghton is moving in the right direction on Lakeshore Drive by taking down the big deck. But he thought the current vision for the street was uninspiring and still relied too much on motorized traffic. He thought the city should consider making the street pedestrian-only.

“When they actually try those experiments out, they suddenly become major gathering places,” he said. “But you have to take that step and say, ‘We’re going to reclaim this street and turn it into a pedestrian boulevard,’ which is a really big thing to do.”

He also said the city should consider moving away from R-1 zoning and open more areas to denser development.

Shannon Healy, who lives and works in the city, said there’s the potential for good changes in the city. She thought it was important to give feedback to help guide the city’s direction.

Two of her biggest issues were improving public transportation and adding more mixed-use housing. Walkability and safety are also intertwined, she said.

Mixed-use development on Lakeshore Drive, combined with public green space, could

“People live here, they stay here, they’re walking around safely,” she said. “All of that ties together, which is important.”

The open houses weren’t the only way for residents to make their voices heard. The city also sent out postcards to residents asking them to fill out a survey about their priorities for the city.

Those results will be presented to the Planning Commission in February, the same month committees are scheduled to begin work on revising the chapters of the master plan.

“The number of surveys returned this year is much higher than we got five years ago.”

The Planning Commission is tentatively scheduled to approve the draft chapters in August before sending them to the council for review. The council can either approve the plan itself or delegate final approval to the planning commission.

If the council approves the draft, the chapters will be sent to local agencies and governments for review in September. The public will also get 42 days to review the plan before a public hearing.

The Planning Commission would then hold a public hearing on the plan in November, and vote on whether to approve it. If the council also wishes to approve it, it would vote in December. That would include the city’s recreation plan, which must be turned in to the Department of Natural Resources by the end of the year.

The Planning Commission also met before the start of the open house for a special meeting. In the only item on the agenda, the commission approved the minutes of the Sept. 25 meeting, where it had reaffirmed its approval of the site plan for 326 Shelden Ave. The expedited turnaround time on approving the minutes had been recommended by the city’s attorney.