Mount Pleasant Master Plan draft presented at planning commission meeting
The draft for the Mount Pleasant 2050 Master Plan was presented during the Oct. 3 Planning Commission meeting.
The meeting took place in Mount Pleasant City Hall and the draft was presented by Paul Lippens from McKenna & Associates, who is the city’s project consultant for the Master Plan. He briefly spoke about each part of the draft and how the ideas in it came to be.
Back in April, the city and McKenna & Associates held a four-day event where members of the public came in to share their vision of the future, said Mount Peasant City Planner Jacob Kain. These helped sketch out ideas for the Master Plan.
The Master Plan will be used as a guide for Mount Peasant to follow for things like transportation, parks and recreation, infrastructure and land use, according to the Master Plan website. The plan was expected to be adopted in 2020, according to a press release from the city.
Lippens’ speech briefly went through each component of the draft, which is divided into six different books that can be found on the Master Plan website. He said these books are:
· "Sustainable Land Use," which maps out how land should be used in the future, encourage different kinds of housing and a zoning plan.
· "Connected Mobility Systems," which discusses the transportation plan, re-routing M-20 and adding a series of roundabouts on Mission Street.
· "Focused Redevelopment," which discusses a civic center and connection of the downtown area and Central Michigan University.
· "Exceptional Parks and Public Spaces," which discusses the parks’ administrative structure and the inventory of the parks.
· "Innovative Services and Aspirations," which discusses how the city can prioritize goals and aspirations.
Some of the planning commissioners had some questions about the draft. Commissioner Corey Friedrich asked about the rerouting of M-20, which would no longer go through Mission and High Streets under the current draft. Instead, going east on M-20 would have drivers go north on Lincoln Road, then continue east on Pickard Street all the way through the city.
Lippens said this was done to bring High Street back to more of a neighborhood center and had a lot of support from people who attended the event back in April.
Similarly, Kathy Rise wanted to know more about how Mission Street would change under the current draft. Lippens said Mission will be a two-lane corridor that has access control, on street parking, and frequent crossings. Mission will be like a Grand Boulevard, he said.
William Dailey also asked how often ideas and projects under master plans tend to get implemented by the cities that approve them. Lippens and Kain said master plans rarely have every plan get implemented. However, Lippens said these plans are meant as a guide, and can change as the city progresses through the plan.
Mount Pleasant has examples of things being built and implemented based on past master plans, including the city’s water plant, roadway extensions and town center changes. However, he said the M-20 re-route has been in past master plans but has yet to be implemented.
While some big projects from past master plans may have not been implemented, he said changes do happen on a smaller level.
“There’s many other smaller changes that have happened over time as a result of policy decisions the Master Plan has called for over the course of decades,” Kain said.
