MUSKEGON, Mich. (WOOD) — Lakeshore residents are eager to learn more about a revised plan that would add luxury condos and homes along the Muskegon Lake waterfront.
The Docks, a proposed residential development, would go in the middle of the city’s Beachwood-Bluffton neighborhood.
The developers, MiCoast Properties, received planning commission approval of its preliminary plan in October.
The waterfront residential community is set to include 280 units, a pool, boardwalks, a pickleball court and a massive boat basin.
“Where are the roads going to go? I think that’s the biggest problem for most of the neighbors,” said Daniel Bailey.
Bailey has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years.
He welcomes new development, but questions how the narrow roads like Edgewater Street will handle exponential traffic growth.
“I don’t think it’s a bad development. It looks like they’ve thought out the houses. It looks really nice,” Bailey told 24 Hour News 8. “It’d be kind of a neat addition. It’s the volume of people.”
In its plans posted on the city’s website, MiCoast acknowledges that its developers heard several residents’ uneasiness about traffic.
The developer writes that traffic density was “the most common” resident concern.
Chris Willis, President of the Beachwood-Bluffton Neighborhood Assocation, told 24 Hour News 8 that the 12-acre boat basin is also of concern.
She believes it could potentially create an unwanted divide of the tight-knit community.
“We live already on a peninsula, on the bluffton side of Beachwood-Bluffton neighborhood, and the boat basin effectively carves another division between half of our neighborhood,” Willis said on Wednesday.
Muskegon city officials are conducting a traffic study for more information on the impact this project may have on the area.
The developer must also bring back more research on The Dock’s environmental impact.
Roberto Villate said he doesn’t believe there’s been enough attention on that.
“It’s a whole different story if they were building out in a cornfield, out in the middle of nowhere. There’s a lot of things going on around here. We’ve got Muskegon Lake. We’ve got Lake Michigan. We’ve got the dune system. It’s complicated,” Villate said.
Willis said that the final plan should be presented in the next month or so.
“We have been assured that we’ve been heard and we look forward to seeing the new plans to see if our concerns have indeed been addressed,” she said.
In their preliminary plan, developers hoped to start construction on the community’s entrance in 2019.
The main residential construction would happen sometime between 2020 and 2026.