Marquette Planning Commission discusses future zoning plan

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - 2023 has begun and the Marquette Planning Commission is discussing the city’s future zoning plan.

The commission held a work session at Marquette City Hall on Tuesday night.

One major point of discussion was what to do with the land formerly occupied by the Presque Isle Power Plant in North Marquette. The property is currently zoned as industrial and unused.

Commissioners agreed the land would be hard to rezone to mixed-use, as they claimed it is heavily contaminated.

Marquette Zoning Administrator and City Planner Dave Stensaas explained that one of the commission’s future goals is to zone more land for industrial use. According to Marquette’s current community master plan, only 3.9% percent of city land is zoned for industrial use.

“Industrial land is very little, it’s a very small percent of the whole,” Stensaas noted. “It’s mostly in North Marquette. I believe Commissioner Primeau would be glad to see some more land converted into industrial.”

Also at Tuesday night’s work session, Stensaas said the commission has expressed interest in creating another type of Mixed Use zoning district. According to Stensaas, this type of district could replace some of the existing Mixed Use districts and might not include some of the most intensive Special Land Uses, like hotels.

As stated in Marquette’s current community master plan, only 0.5% of the city’s land is zoned for mixed-use.

The Marquette City Commission also plans to review the city’s charter this year and plans to schedule a meeting to gather public input on this issue sometime this year.