MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — City commissioners approved Muskegon’s largest housing development since the 1980s this week and it’s not going to be downtown.
The Docks housing development will feature condos, townhouses and beach homes.
Scott Musselman, chief financial officer of Sand Products Corporation, shared details of the plans with 24 Hour News 8 on Thursday, two days after city commissioners approved them.
The Docks will go in at the former site of Pigeon Hill.
“It’s sat idle in this state since mining stopped in 1965,” Musselman explained. “Most (people) recognized that it was inevitable that it was going to be developed. The time is coming now.”
The entrance to the development begins at Waterworks Road and Plum Avenue.
“This was the former Bluffton School site,” Musselman said.
The entrance will be a gradual hill up and over a dune that’s already there.
Musselman explained that the amount of units has been scaled back since the initial plans. The final plan also included other changes.
“The biggest change was the way we’re connecting our marina basin to the water,” he said.
The marina basin is approved for the south end of the property. He said there was concern expressed about congestion if The Docks development shared a Muskegon Lake channel with Harbour Towne. Now, SPC plans to build its own. They also placed wetlands between Harbour Towne homes.
Musselman explained that 65 townhomes will surround the marina. There’s also room for 30 condominiums. 145 property lots will be sold, making the property home to 240 units total. Buyers can bring in their own builders for the lots, but SPC must approve each design.
SPC’s parent company has owned the property for about 100 years, Musselman said. While they will develop it, about 29% of the land will remain undeveloped.
“We’re going to leave as much as we possibly can — all of this area, all of this high-ridge dune area,” he showed 24 Hour News 8. “The opening for the road is the only thing that’s going to be touched. So in total out of the 80 acres, approximately 23 are not going to be developed.”
There’s one road in and out, besides an emergency gate on the property.
The Beachwood-Bluffton neighborhood chairperson told 24 Hour News 8 in December that residents worried about added traffic crumbling narrow roads and interrupting lakeside tranquility.
Mussleman said it was “about a dozen or so residents” and that there is no reason for worry. He said SPC conducted an additional traffic study to calm concerns.
“Obviously 240 homes is going to add additional traffic. What the studies says is the road is capable of handling it,” he said casually.
Entrance construction picks up this fall. SPC hopes to have lots on the market by the end of 2020.
>>App users: Renderings of the development
