Final draft of Baraga Avenue redesign plan released

MARQUETTE — The plan to redesign Baraga Avenue in Marquette has been in development for about a year now, and the final draft of the plan has now been released.

The Marquette Downtown Development Authority received a grant last year to get help redesigning Baraga Avenue from Lakeshore Boulevard to Third Street. Marquette was one of eight Michigan communities to get the grant. The goal is to assist economic development by making downtown districts more walkable.

“We spoke to representatives of the Michigan Municipal League, and they will be returning sometime (in the) early spring (or) late winter to actually present to the City Commission the results of the concept drawings,” Marquette Downtown Development Authority executive director Mona Lang said.

The Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan State University urban and regional planning program and the Michigan State Housing Development Authority helped create the designs. A great deal of public input has gone into them, and the city will still listen to feedback on them.

“We’re going to step back a little bit and let the DDA and the city lead on where they take the next step, so I’d recommend they go through the city planning, city manager’s department or the DDA,” Michigan Municipal League program manager Luke Forrest said. “They all have copies available, both on their websites and physically in their office.”

If you want to read the 59-page plan, you can find it at http://placemaking.mml.org/placeplans-marquette/. To download a copy of it for free, you can click on http://placemaking.mml.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Marquette-PlacePlan-Oct2014.pdf .

Once funding can be found to help pay for the expected $1.5 million in costs, the project is likely to begin either late next year or in 2016.