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NEGAUNEE -- The vacant Negaunee City Council seat left by former Councilor Dana LaLonde has been filled.
Out of the four candidates, the council decided that the vacancy would be filled by Negaunee resident and business owner Jon Becker.
During last week's council meeting, Negaunee Mayor Dave Kangas allocated three minutes for each candidate to speak as to why they should be chosen by the council to fill the vacant seat.
Kangas also allowed time for council members to answer or ask questions to the candidates.
"I am thinking that once Jon gave his comments, the council agreed with his assessment -- which he felt with his years of experience working with the council, and specifically as a planning commissioner and being involved with downtown activities that have been occurring the last couple of years, that he was a well-rounded candidate (who was) in the know of what was going on with the community," Negaunee City Manager Nate Heffron said.
Heffron said Becker's comments at the meeting pointed out that the position was only going to be there for 11 months and then up for election. Becker said the council should pick someone who is "well-versed" in what is going on versus having somebody new that would need to be trained.
Thursday's meeting also had several comments concerning the possible rezone of some property that the city would like to see used for housing, Heffron said.
"I gave short presentation as to why we got the point where we are at, meaning why was this piece of land chosen and what led us to get to the point where we're suggesting that this property be rezoned for housing," he said.
The piece of land being considered for rezoning into housing is five acres from the 320 acres left from the original purchase of Cleveland Cliffs by the city.
Heffron explained that in the early 2000s, a land reuse study was conducted by the city to determine what could be done with the property.
"Initially the property wasn't specifically purchased for just recreation purpose, it was purchased for redevelopment," he said. "The biggest thing to keep in mind is that we lost a third of our community with those properties being taken away from folks due the Cliffs action at one point. We are simply saying as a city that we would like to rezone roughly five acres of the 320 acres that are left."
Heffron said the rest of the property is under a special status by the Department of Natural Resources called encumbrance, which places restrictions on the property so only recreational activities can occur on the property, meaning the remaining acres would not be turned into housing.
The council voted to hold a public hearing for the possible rezoning due to an ordinance change if rezoning moves forward. The public hearing will be held at the Jan. 18 regular council meeting.
"Anybody who wishes to make a public comment are more than welcome to," Heffron said.
Should the council be successful in rezoning the property, several public forums would be held to get feedback on what type of housing can be on the property.
"It doesn't necessarily mean that at the end of the day all the comments will prevail but the council will have to weigh out what's the best option should that property be rezoned for housing," Heffron said.
The city, if successful in rezoning, would enter into a development agreement with a developer down the road, Heffron said. If it not rezoned, the city would not pursue conversations about building homes on the property.
"The surveys, our master plan and other comments throughout the last several years since I've been here have been asking for more housing for people and even throughout the entire county," Heffron said. "This is just one creative way that the city of Negaunee has to help lessen the costs of building homes in the city in order to provide an attainable or affordable housing for folks looking to buy homes in Negaunee."
The next meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18 at the Negaunee Senior Center.