MUSKEGON, Mich. — Muskegon city leaders failed to pass an amendment on a proposed development of a boat storage facility on Muskegon Lake.
There's debate within the commission and community on whether or not public access will be preserved, as well as an ongoing lawsuit on the matter.
City leaders discussed the amendment for more than two hours Tuesday night on the Parkland Marina development.
The land was sold by the city about two years ago for one dollar to Parkland Properties. The company wants to build a dry boat storage facility there, as well as maintain public lakefront access.
Mayor Ken Johnson said this agreement with Parkland Properties will restore and preserve public access to this area. This was previously not allowed, but it was also not enforced.
Several city commission members said the language in the agreement on public access needs to be clearer. The vote on the amendment failed after leaders discussed the need for clarifications on things like timing and physical amount of public access.
City leaders plan to continue to revise it and potentially do more community outreach on it.
There are community members that want to see this clearer language because they worry that public access could be restricted by the company at any time.
Those concerns are shared by the neighboring business behind the lawsuit, West Michigan Dock and Market.
"There's several provisions that are deceptive and don’t address the point and don't address the problem," President Max McKee said.
"These are places that are valuable because they have view sheds of Muskegon Lake," one woman said during public comment. "They're valuable to the city. They're valuable to the residents and they're valuable to the community. Intermittent public access isn’t public access.
"We do not presently have a legal right to access it, whereas this amendment does immediately restore the legal right to public access," Mayor Johnson said.
With this matter still in court, some city commissioners expressed the desire to let this play out in court, but the entire commission did not agree on that.
Court proceedings are currently stayed for 60 days at the moment.
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