ESCANABA — The Escanaba City Council took steps Thursday to remove a controversial site plan approval requirement, which could open the door for the city to recertify as a Redevelopment Ready Community.

Thursday marked the first reading of an ordinance to remove the requirement for public hearings on site plans for projects that are considered permitted uses under the city’s zoning ordinance. These public hearings, held at the planning commission level, have been championed by many on the city’s planning commission who feel the requirement draws in residents and allows them to express concerns they may have about projects with the developers. However, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has raised concerns over the hearings, because permitted uses cannot be denied as a result of the hearings and the hearings can cause delays in the development process.

The debate over the future of the hearings was further complicated late last year, as the city began nearing the end of its Redevelopment Ready Community certified status. Being RRC certified gives the city access to a variety of free assistance and tools through the MEDC and brands the city as a friendly location for developers, but dropping the hearings is a recertification requirement. After months of discussion and multiple meetings with representatives of MEDC, the city decided in June to pump the breaks on recertification and reenter the “engagement” phase of the program — typically reserved for communities pursuing first-time certification.

During Thursday’s meeting, Council Member Tyler DuBord argued the public hearing requirement should stay in the city’s code of ordinances, going so far as to propose a motion to scrap the idea of removing the hearings. However, that motion died for lack of a second.

“I remember further discussion with them (MEDC) and they felt this was never a deal-breaker in the first place, that we could keep this and still move forward with certification, and since our planning commission is the board that we appoint and this board itself feels that they like it and would like to continue to see it, I don’t see a need to move forward with removing it,” said DuBord.

A discussion of recertification was also on the agenda Thursday, and DuBord questioned what changed that was pushing the two issues forward. City Manager Patrick Jordan explained the major issue that had arisen since June was that developers from Proxima, the development company working to bring a hotel complex to the site of the former Delta County Jail, were concerned they would have less access to MEDC grants for the project if the city was not certified.

“I followed up with Jen Tucker from MEDC and she confirmed for me that our status currently is ‘engaged’ and that we have the same access, the same rights, to grants as a certified status, which was a big relief and I sent that information off to Proxima, but it just seemed that there may be enough advantages to staying in the program to make it worthwhile,” said Jordan.

Even if the public hearing requirement were to be removed after the second reading of the ordinance and the public hearing set for Oct. 1, the city would face challenges recertifying quickly because MEDC has outlined other changes it would like to see in the city’s zoning ordinance.

“In speaking with Christopher Germain (of MEDC), we came to the conclusion that we probably needed a complete overhaul of that zoning ordinance, and so that would be a part of that,” said Escanaba Planning and Zoning Administrator Roxanne Spencer. “If we don’t have funding to do that within the next year, then that year timeline is actually going to stretch out to a year, two years, however long it takes to get through that process of overhauling the zoning ordinance — if and when we have the (money) budgeted for it.”

Ultimately, the city council unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance to remove the public hearing requirement, with Mayor Marc Tall expecting there to be further discussion on how the planning commission can still engage with residents on projects at the Oct. 1 meeting. No decisions were made on the recertification process, however, most of the council members expressed at least some level of support for moving forward with recertification.

In other business, the council approved the sale of used chunks of asphalt to Payne & Dolan, Inc. of Gladstone at a cost of $1.50 per ton, approved adding heavy equipment and trailer sales as a permitted use in heavy equipment districts, and approved the sale of a parcel of land to Bay Bank for $45,000 for the construction of a new bank branch at the site of the former Elmer’s Restaurant.