What’s the first thing you would do to revitalize the south end of Port Huron?
Board members of the city’s newly formed Southside Neighborhood Improvement Authority got some advice from a panel of specialists Thursday.
But next month, local residents will get their own chance to throw in ideas.
And according to Joe Bixler, who co-chairs the authority with fellow south-end organizer Mary Williams, the two planned engagement sessions are critical.
“Those are our first opportunities for significant input into what they want to see. We’re going to kind of do workstations to do that,” he said Thursday.
The authority, which meets the second and fourth Thursday each month, was established late last year to lay the groundwork as an eventual tax-capturing body to finance improvement goals on the south end. Those goals are still being established, and community workshops are set for each 6 p.m. meeting in March.
On March 14, the workshop will ask attendees for ideas for changes in three areas: New development in housing and business, improvements to infrastructure like parks, for pedestrians, and on the waterfront, and programming, including recreational and social services.
The March 28 workshop will ask for redevelopment ideas for specific locations in South Park. The neighborhood improvement authority itself encapsulates Lake Huron Medical Center and nearly everything south to the city’s border at Ravenswood Road, excluding the industrial park.
Hoping to accommodate a crowd, Bixler said they’d also have a free food truck on site for both dates near the usual meeting location at the Harvey Reinvestment Center, 3013 24th St.
“We’re pulling out all the stops,” he said.
Previously, in late 2022, third-party consultants working with the city — and who ultimately recommended the formation of the Southside NIA with City Council support last year — worked with residents on what they’d like to see improved.
That insight went into a report released to the public.
This time, however, Bixler, who’s also president of the Southside Initiative nonprofit, said more people are coming to the table.
“Far more people,” he said. “We have spent almost a year collecting people and partners and other connections to schools and churches. There’s so many more people here now than there were a while ago. So, we really have to put our best foot forward to get people to understand that this is their chance.”
Wat was the advice from panelists on first steps?
So far, the Southside Neighborhood Improvement Authority has met a few times since early December.
And as of Thursday, they were still weighing draft mission and value statements.
For nearly two hours, authority members and meeting attendees heard from a panel that included Peter Chapman, founder and CEO of Urban Policy Innovations, Marilyn Chrumka, vice president of development for Michigan Community Capital, Port Huron City Manager James Freed, Randy Maiers, president of the Community Foundation of St. Clair County, and local home builder Steve Smith.
They discussed a host of issues from housing and grocery store needs to common community development tools.
On recommendations for the next steps of the NIA, each of the panelists differed.
Maiers said they should get to work on the micro level, getting specific with properties they’d like to see redeveloped, such as around Lincoln Park or the hospital.
“I think the theory you should think about is (to) build on existing assets,” he said, particularly pointing to the vacant land owned by SONS Outreach.
Smith pointed to waterfront assets, such as the site of the former Reef Restaurant, adding, “People love the river.” Chrumka said to identify a project that’s supported by the strongest community consensus.
Chapman recommended striving for something mixed-use and mixed-income on the residential side.
“And you should be extremely entrepreneurial about putting the capital (staff and assets) together so that you can have a significant portion of the residential component be market ready,” he said. “ I would also invest a lot into design so that what you create is aesthetically effective and could be considered a signature project and lays the project for other, high-quality (work).”
Recounting bringing his family to visit the south end, Freed said they should “tell the world you’re here.”
“A large segment of those who work and traverse in the city to work come through South Park and the south end,” he said. “There’s no real brand identity. There’s no real gateway into South Park, no big signs that say, ‘Welcome to South Park,’ (or), ‘Welcome to the Conner Street Corridor.’ I think your first, most immediate thing is: Throw up the flags, throw up the signs, let people know you’re here, we exist, and make your presence extremely vocal to those that are traveling through.”
For more information, visit PortHuron.org under boards and commissions.
Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Learn the latest on South Park’s revitalization — and how you can help
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