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City details construction-period engagement, development-center updates and upcoming training
Summary
Staff described engagement pilots to reduce construction impacts, encouraged prioritizing sidewalk access during projects, and provided brief development project updates and a date for an emerging-developer lunch-and-learn.
City staff briefed commissioners on planned engagement enhancements for construction-period projects, pilot tools to support businesses and residents during long disruptions, and a short development center update that included project highlights and an educational event for new developers.
A staff presenter said the Commission Night Out will feature tools the city plans to pilot during the upcoming construction season to reduce business disruption and preserve pedestrian access. "One of my long term aspirational plans is to do what other cities do, which is when we have a construction process, the last thing you lose is sidewalk access, not the first thing," a commissioner said during discussion.
Staff described the engagement effort as a "soup to nuts" process that connects area-specific planning for corridor revitalization into capital project planning and construction outreach. The work will focus first on projects with prolonged disruptions and permanent parking loss and will involve neighborhood associations, corridor improvement authorities and business groups.
In a brief development center report, Daryl Singleton of the Grow On The Center provided project updates: a five-story, 48-unit multifamily development in the First Ward called "648 Bridal" (48 units), a pedestrian bridge planned at 520 Lake Michigan Drive, and terminal enhancement work at the Kent County airport. Singleton also announced a lunch-and-learn for emerging developers scheduled for Tuesday, April 22.
Staff said the engagement team will continue to refine pilot tools after Commission Night Out and fold successful practices into regular capital project engagement processes.
