The City of Houghton Invited the Public to Talk Life After the Parking Deck

The City of Houghton and the public convened Wednesday night to discuss the future of the downtown parking deck. The first half of the public forum was headlined by a presentation with Pat Coleman, a renowned city planner, who has worked on a number of projects in Houghton over his career. Coleman says that the deck has had a number of issues going back to 1999. Coleman also says that by today’s standards the deck is inefficient.

The meeting then flowed into small group discussions. Among the issues and solutions discussed between community members, a number of ideas came to light for what the city can do with the space. But concerns over parking spaces in the city and access for commercial space were also voiced by multiple citizens.

The community voiced that they want to see more green space in the downtown sector. However the public does not want to forget about the many small businesses that rely on the parking deck for either deliveries or general access for the public. More questions were raised but the city will need to work on solutions for the space, and how to finance such a project.