“In our master plan for 2040, the main priority or concern that we’re working on for this region (Marquette city, township, and Chocolay Township) is managing growing pains,” said Marquette County MI Healthy Climate Fellow Grace Freed at the event. “That includes increased tourism, shortages of family-sustaining housing and jobs.”

“A master plan is a data-driven document,” said Amy Stevens, Marquette County Planner. “It’s supposed to be long-term strategic thinking about the region as a whole.”

Master plans are public policy documents required by law, which must be evaluated every five years, to ensure they are meeting the changing needs of the community.

From 2018 through 2021, the Marquette County Planning Commission went over the county’s master plan by attending planning commission meetings, township and city board meetings and surveying the public.

Last Thursday, the Marquette County Planning Division held a Map the Future event at Barrel and Beam to receive input from residents. (Journal photo by Annie Lippert)

“A lot of work went into that overhaul,” said Stevens. “This is just an update to that, to get a temperature check.”

The Marquette County Planning Commission released a public survey earlier this year to get public input on priorities and community values. In the survey, respondents indicate which region of Marquette County they are a resident of. The Borealis Beach region, which encompasses Marquette, Marquette Township and Chocolay Township, despite being the most highly populated region, had only submitted 466 responses to the survey as of Thursday’s Map the Future event.

“We’re still taking more responses,” said Freed. The survey is available at https://www.co.marquette.mi.us/newsdetail_T3_R576.php.

They hope to complete a draft of an updated plan by mid-summer, which will be adopted around the end of the year.

The Map the Future Event gave a preview to the survey’s results, and how they differ from the survey sent out in 2020. For example, the percentage of Borealis Beach residents who indicated that “safe and affordable housing options” were “very important” ro

se nine percentage points to 60%. Other significant jumps included “quality public aid and emergency services,” which rose eight percentage points to 64%, and “access to quality healthcare and social services,” which rose seven percentage points to 80%. These results are not final, as the survey is still open.

There was also time at the event for attendees to voice ideas and concerns. At Thursday’s event, some of those concerns included a call for lobbying Lansing for an increased tourism tax that could be used by the County, as well as a call for the county to place a moratorium on the building of data centers.

The event concluded with time for people to walk around and share ideas in the form of post-it notes stuck to topic-specific boards, such as housing, economy and environment.

The County Planning Division will be hosting two more Map the Future events in the coming weeks; one at the UP North Lodge in Gwinn at 6 p.m. this Thursday, and one at The Mather in Ishpeming at 6 p.m. on May 21.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.