At last night’s city commission meeting, Big Rapids Community Development Director Michelle Stenger gave an update on the city’s master plan.

Some highlighted portions of the review mentioned feedback from the community, which included the want for better pedestrian crossings near the river, more affordable housing, and recreational infrastructure and activities.

“We've done a lot of information gathering and had a survey that went out to the public,” Stenger said. “We did pop up events at Farmer’s Market and Summerfest, neighborhood meetings with six different neighborhoods in the community, and multiple steering committee meetings.”

Within the pedestrian safety portion, the city wants to find a safer way for bikes to the river. This includes along the main roads as well as on other side roads and even smaller sidewalks.

“Besides the pedestrian bridge, there's not a very safe way,” Stenger said, “Bike lanes along the roads and the possible use of alleyways may improve bike intersection. It might be safer than putting them on some streets.”

Affordable housing has been a topic of discussion within the city for a long time in Big Rapids. The discussion centered around the need for more affordable housing in the community, focusing a lot on single family housing, but different types of single-family housing and not just the typical detached single-family home, Additionally, adding more development downtown was also mentioned in terms of new businesses. 

“The main focuses were reinvestment and redevelopment,” Stenger said. “We have prime spots for investment in the downtown, the Northeast and the East Side neighborhoods. Filling some of our big vacant spaces and the undeveloped or underdeveloped parcels in different neighborhoods is top priorities.”

In terms of recreational development, there was a lot of positive feedback about the effective trail connections to local parks. Many people in the community believe this can create a heightened interest in more activities on the trails, at the parks, and by the river.

Within these three key points, Stenger mentioned the biggest chapter of the plan is land use. Encompassing these focal points, the Planning and City Commissions are going to map out the usage of the lands in the upcoming master plan. This will eventually lead into a zoning ordinance update and policy changes.

“We are in the final stages of the master plan process. At the next meeting, we are hoping we’ll have approval from the City commission to allow the draft plan to go for public review.”

Once the draft of the plan is finalized, it will go out for public review for 63 days. This will allow final feedback and then eventual final approval by the City Commission.