Continuing to Connect Houghton. In 2024 Houghton completed a major project along Lakeshores Drive and finished smaller projects to make downtown a welcoming space after the demolition of the parking deck. The city’s work culminated in earning the Michigan Municipal League’s Community Excellence Award. Bring the title home to the Upper Peninsula for the first time since Ironwood won in 2013.
And that was a testament to what we did here, what the volunteers did in this city in 2024. And then we had Jibba Jabba again this year, look at how that went. And looking forward to this coming summer, because it’s the people that made that happen for us. We just had to show people. And that resonated with everyone at the conference. – Eric Waara City Manager City of Houghton
City Manager Eric Waara explained to the city council that that work cannot stop. Connecting Houghton will continue to work for the city as long as the city can continue sustainable growth and a watchful eye on how costs will impact the budget and services.
But if the city wants to increase the level of service or add new services, either we reduce what we spend elsewhere, we’ve got to give something up, or we have to increase revenue. How do we increase revenue? To raise taxes. I don’t wanna raise taxes, I don’t think any of you do. We can increase the population to increase the shared revenue to the general fund in our roads, and we’ll go into that in a second. We can increase our tax base, that’s development, the D word. And we charge for new services that are offered. But we’re a municipality. We don’t sell stuff. – Eric Waara City Manager City of Houghton
Houghton’s joining the MEDC redevelopment-ready community program in 2021 was a first step to preparing for future growth.
Ultimately the hope for this product and this is something we were keen on with MEDC, was it seems like how do you get from what should we do and you want to get to how do we do this. That’s really what you want to be talking about. So we wanted to remove some of that, what should we do first. So the five buildings that participated were the Den, the Print Shop, Joey’s, the Downwind, Ruukala building and then the Hall building which is Running Company, ReMax- Douglass. The study looked at the north façades, general interior flow, and other opportunities, and the work product was conceptual plans. – Eric Waara City Manager City of Houghton
Waara added that if Houghton can continue growth marked by the 2020 census leadership and the administrative team will need to figure sustainable solutions to housing, keeping taxes similar to other municipalities in the region, and smart development that puts the community’s needs first.
In 2025, Houghton hopes to see development plans continue to be on track. Waara highlighted recent funding approvals for projects with the Kirkish building and plans in place for the UP State Bank Project. Each seeks multi-use developments that will add housing units and commercial space creating bookends for the middle College/Shelden Avenue corridor downtown.
Waara wrapped his presentation, making up for a winter storm last Wednesday, informing councilors that budget work will begin next week.
