Not too long ago, Marquette’s Lower Harbor was a dirty, industrial site — a blemish on Lake Superior’s shoreline that stood out like a spot of black mold on an old green pepper.

With some imagination though, along with collaboration and a healthy dose of financial investment, the harbor area is now a beautiful waterfront park and marina, complete with amenities for boaters and kids, and plenty of green grass and trees. It’s used for festivals, Sunday lounging, evening strolls and Frisbee games, and it’s got a view of history, too, with the retired ore dock looming in plain sight.

It’s not a perfect park, though. There are a few things that might need some upgrades, but it’s a vast improvement from the toxic area that once stood there years back.

It’s no secret the city of Marquette’s treasured waterfront has been the subject of some controversy in the past, with developers seeing an easy money train they’d be foolish to pass up, and preservationists fighting to keep it more natural, their rally cry being, “We’re not Traverse City!”

The developers may be winning that battle for the stretch of shoreline close to the city’s downtown, but there’s a waterfront plan in the works that might even please some of those naturalists out there.

The Marquette City Commission is looking into reusing an old wooden pier at Founders Landing as a public dock and fishing pier.

The plan, in general terms, is to build on top of the existing pilings — or long wooden cylinders driven to bedrock which supported the old dock system. Apparently, this project is estimated to cost about $5 million, and the city has already secured roughly $6.4 million through a brownfield plan and the Marquette Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.

Admittedly, these are estimates, but if those financial figures hold true — which seems rarely to happen these days — it could be just a matter of time before area residents had one more public amenity to enjoy on the waterfront.

Then again, talks and ideas about reusing the old piers at Lower Harbor have been kicked around city hall for decades.

At this point, though, we like that the plan aims to include reusing what we already have, rather than simply removing it or building something entirely different. Public access to the waterfront is also a plus, and those financial figures discussed earlier sound positive at this stage.

It also adds to the transformation of Marquette’s Lower Harbor in general, which in many ways centers around the preservation of the ore dock.

Continuing with the theme of reusing what we already have and historic preservation, the Friends of the Ore Dock BotEco Center group is still out there, working on its plan to redevelop the ore dock into a botanical garden and an educational community hub. Sure, we wouldn’t be able to shoot off fireworks from inside the ore dock anymore, like what’s done for the Fourth of July, but imagine seeing it lit up from the inside with actual lights.

That soft glow bouncing reflections across a shimmering Lake Superior, alongside a public pier, would be a warm and welcoming sight to anyone visiting the city’s Lower Harbor area.

So long as the entire view isn’t obstructed by monstrous buildings and new privatized developments.