Leaders aim to create another 'cool city'

January 22, 2007
By Eric Gaertner
Chronicle Staff Writer

City leaders are prepared to take their first significant step in improving Whitehall's downtown through the Cool Cities Blueprint for Michigan's Downtowns program.

Staff members from Muskegon Area First, the countywide economic development corporation hired by Whitehall to manage its downtown improvement project, will be introducing strategies and forming subcommittees at an invitation-only meeting Tuesday.

Dan Rinsema-Sybenga, main street manager for Muskegon Area First, said the meeting is a "kickoff" for the project, a five-year plan created by community members and national consultants from HyettPalma to revitalize the downtown. HyettPalma consultants presented Whitehall's blueprint June 1. Since being hired by Whitehall last month, Muskegon Area First staff members have been reviewing the blueprint plan and formulating strategies.

Members of the process committee -- a group of city officials, business people and area leaders who helped in the preparation of the blueprint -- will be assigned to work on the subcommittees. Rinsema-Sybenga said each of the three subcommittees will consist of five or six residents and one Muskegon First staff member.

The three subcommittees are:

* Design -- provide design guidelines for downtown buildings and create a grant program for downtown businesses to improve building facades;

* Promotion -- work on creating a Web site for the downtown blueprint project and other promotional materials;

* Business development -- determine the downtown vacancies and begin targeting businesses that may be available to fill the vacant spaces.

The city's Tax Increment Finance Authority, which collects taxes from downtown businesses for promotion and economic development, is the lead government board for the blueprint project. TIFA agreed with a staff recommendation last month to contract with Muskegon Area First for four years.

Among the highlights in the city's course of action proposed by HyettPalma, a national consulting firm, were connecting the downtown with White Lake, constructing a gazebo as a social gathering place in Goodrich Park and recruiting a broader mix of specialty shops.