ESCANABA – After months of discussion about the future of Escanaba’s Redevelopment Ready Community Status, the city council pumped the brakes on recertifying through the program and instead shifted the city back to the “engagement phase” of the program.

Escanaba was the first city in the Upper Peninsula and the 10th city in the state to become RRC certified in 2016. The RRC program, which is part of the Michigan Department of Economic Development, allows cities access to consultants and technical assistance, as well as other services to make a city more attractive to development.

Earlier this year, the city council and the city’s planning commission clashed over whether it was appropriate to remove a public hearing requirement for developments that are permitted uses under the city’s zoning ordinance. Removing the public hearings brought the city in compliance with the RRC’s required best practices, but even though projects could not legally be rejected based on the hearings, planning commission members thought removing the hearings would reduce public participation. Ultimately, the hearing requirement was removed by the city council, but the delay and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led the city’s certification to lapse on April 19.

During Thursday’s city council meeting Christoper Germain of MEDC informed the council the MEDC was being flexible with the communities whose certification lapsed during the pandemic by giving them a list of required steps for recertification and deadlines for each step.

However, meeting the requirements by the deadlines is a tall order for the city. Zoning Administrator Roxanne Spencer has been struggling to process an influx of permits in the zoning department, the planned rollout and training needed for new software, and her responsibilities with regular planning commission and zoning board of appeals meetings. In addition, the Downtown Development Authority — which normally would have assisted with meeting the requirements — is still actively searching for a new executive director following the resignation of for former Executive Director Ed Legault.

“Certainly I would do my best, but we’re stretched pretty thin right now in this department,” said Spencer.

After some discussion, the council came to the conclusion that meeting the requirements would be too difficult to accomplish in the given timeline. Instead, the city will drop back to a stage in the certification process typically reserved for communities applying to the program for the first time.

“While no one’s ever done it, it’s entirely possible to say, ‘we’ve enjoyed certification, we’d like to get back there eventually, but right now we don’t have the resources and the time to do it.’ We’d move you back to the ‘engagement phase’ where you’d pretty much have all the time you’d need to work on these items, but you would lose some of the benefits of certification,” said Germain.

According to Germain, the city will remain competitive for community development incentives and the city will still have access to people at the RRC. However, the city will lose access to the RRC’s Redevelopment Services Team and some of the additional benefits of certification.

In other business, the council

– Approved the removal of a stoplight at the corner of 12th Street and Ludington that allows 12th Street traffic to enter onto Ludington Street. The removal of a second stoplight at 5th Street and Ludington was also discussed, however the council felt the availability of a signaled crosswalk for residents of Harbor Tower was still needed.

– Approved outdoor dining permits including alcoholic beverage service for Leigh’s Garden Winery and Herford & Hops.

– Approved the purchase of property and liability insurance from the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority in the amount of $222,389.

– Approved the retainment of services with HydroCorp of Troy, Mich., by the water department for cross connection inspections at commercial accounts at a cost not to exceed $35,496.

– Approved the purchase of a push box to service water lines at a cost not to exceed $37,500.

– Approved service line replacements with any contractor, excavator, or plumber who is licensed, insured and equipped to install the price side of water services on private property for $2,800 per site in the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The decision allows the city to open to project up to multiple contractors.

– Amended the appropriations ordinance to balance out the 2019-2020 fiscal year budget as required by state law.