Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Members of the Houghton Planning Commission discuss revisions to the city’s master plan during Tuesday’s meeting.

By GARRETT NEESE

gneese@mininggazette.com

HOUGHTON — Houghton may apply for a state grant seeking improvements to Dee Stadium.

Houghton Planning Commission members backed the idea of applying for a grant for community centers through the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.

The program will have a pool of up to $60 million to give Michigan municipalities and organizations to expand programming or work on capital projects, according to the LEO website. Individual municipalities can receive up to $2.5 million.

“I do think a project at Dee Stadium would fit very well with what they’re looking for,” Waara said.

Infrastructure improvements at the Dee, including an elevator, are already included in the city’s master plan.

“The Dee is a bit of a community center,” Waara said. “It could be more if there was accessibility, if there was proper HVAC in the ballroom, things like that. It’s a historic building, it’s the birthplace of professional hockey.”

The basic plan would call for a two-story addition on the west end of the building with an elevator. Waara said the architectural style would be a homage to the Amphidrome, Dee Stadium’s predecessor, which burned down in 1927.

The addition could also provide more meeting space for community groups, Waara said. Planning Commission member Joan Suits also suggested adding a hockey museum.

Waara will also bring the idea to the city council.

The grant application is due on Aug. 31. The state will release further details, including match requirements, to municipalities in later webinars.

Also Tuesday, a number of current and former Houghton residents asked the Houghton Planning Commission to add a downtown condominium as a goal in the city’s master plan. Several wrote letters to the commission in advance of Tuesday’s meeting.

Speakers Tuesday included former Councilor Rachel Lankton, former Planning Commissioner Brad Baltensperger and Joanne Blumhardt, now of Mesa, Arizona, the wife of former mayor Bill Blumhardt.

The commission received 20 letters, some signed jointly by couples, in advance of Tuesday’s meeting. Adding a condominium would enable people to stay in the area when they reach a stage where upkeep of a house becomes too difficult, they said.

Baltensperger said he became interested in the idea about six years ago when half a dozen of his friends in the same age range began talking about where they would move when the time came.

“Essentially the choices here are so limited that people start talking about moving away, and it seems to me the value of getting something about the importance of mixed housing in the downtown area in the master plan is that it sends the message that the city values residential development, not just up behind Walmart, but in the downtown area,” he said.

Waara said development on the Lakeshore Drive site would involve a charrette, or series of charrettes.

“I don’t think it’s time for that right now,” he said. “I think the time is going to come soon, but not right soon. There’s too much on everybody’s plates right now to start trying to go there.”

Other sites discussed included land on College Avenue formerly used by an apartment complex, possibly paired with the move of the Chamber of Commerce out of the adjacent Hodge building.

A planning process involving the public at the Hodge building and the RV park could serve as a good prototype for an eventual Lakeshore Drive development, said Planning Commissioner Ben Ciavola.

Aside from a specific location, commissioners said adding the housing as a goal would make sense in the plan.

“Putting it in the plan does indicate that we’re aware of it, and anybody looking at the plan realizes that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Commissioner Kristine Bradof. “It hasn’t been in there as explicitly as it probably should have been up until this point, but now’s the point to put it in there.”

In other action, the planning commission:

• Discussed the city’s ongoing rebranding. The city is attempting to develop a cohesive brand strategy. As part of its Redevelopment Ready Certification, the city is working with The Marketing Department on coming up with a plan, expected to be finalized later this year.

• Reviewed draft chapters of the city’s master plan on the downtown, M-26 and resiliency and sustainability. Discussion on the latter chapter will continue at the commission’s August meeting.

• Discussed volunteers to attend a watershed advisory committee. Several members, including Waara, Chair Tom Merz and Commissioner Kristine Bradof, said they planned to attend.