Escanaba City Council approves 2026 Master Plan
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ESCANABA -- The Escanaba City Council adopted the 2026 City of Escanaba Master Plan, a planning document that outlines guiding principles intended to help city officials make decisions that align with the community’s goals and values.
The plan was adopted by the Escanaba Planning Commission on July 10 and was prepared by Beckett & Raeder, an Ann Arbor-based planning and landscape architecture firm, in cooperation with the commission.
According to the city’s website, the Planning Commission is responsible for conducting an in-depth review of the master plan every five years to determine whether significant changes have occurred within the community.
The master plan is based on public input gathered over more than a year through an online survey available on the city’s website, as well as charrettes available at public meetings and hearings.
During Thursday’s regular council meeting, Planning and Zoning Administrator Joey Walker highlighted several of the plan’s guiding principles, beginning with supporting a range of quality housing options with access to public and non-motorized transportation.
"Everybody knows we have a housing problem," Walker said. "The country has a housing problem. In Escanaba, it's actually probably not as bad as everywhere else or as we'd like to think. Housing here is still quite affordable, especially when you compare it to the rest of the state."
Walker also said the city lacks housing diversity.
"What we want to do is promote a lot more infill - things like duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, things that create a little more affordability in some of our single-family areas," Walker said.
The plan’s second guiding principle focuses on preserving and enhancing connected, livable neighborhoods. Walker said consultants on the plan praised the city’s street grid on the south side, noting it makes neighborhoods more walkable, easier to navigate and helps disperse traffic.
However, Walker said the grid system also limits opportunities for housing development on the city’s west side and reduces options for dispersing traffic in that area.
The master plan also includes a map documenting traffic crashes throughout the city, including those involving pedestrians and cyclists. While most crashes are concentrated on the south side, Walker said many are relatively minor because traffic generally moves more slowly and is spread across the grid system.
Walker also discussed the plan’s third guiding principle: advancing place-based economic development rooted in Escanaba’s unique assets.
"We have hundreds of millions of dollars in legacy infrastructure, specifically in the place I want to talk about on our North Shore. We have talked about the Northshore for decades… Nothing has ever advanced there," Walker added.
Walker said many of the plans on the North Shore that never progressed included mixed-use developments, restaurants, condominiums and service establishments.
“While I think there could be some of that in the future, realistically, we have deep water ports, we have rail infrastructure, we have transmission lines, we have cooling infrastructure from the coal power plant. There is hundreds of millions here that is currently not being tapped into," Walker said.
According to Walker, he and former City Manager Jim McNeil discussed developing an integrated working waterfront along the North Shore, an approach Walker said would be more realistic for the city to pursue.
The fourth guiding principle Walker discussed focuses on strengthening the vitality of commercial districts and corridors.
"We have seen a lot of activity along North Lincoln lately. There's new stores coming in, new developments… we draw a lot of people from outside of town passing through, and we capture those dollars," Walker said. "Our downtown has historically, or recently, not done as great. It's harder to draw in those passerbys into the downtown."
Walker noted the city needs to create a more captive audience downtown by encouraging greater residential density, improving walkability and expanding housing opportunities.
He added that much of the city’s multifamily C zoning district -- intended to contain the city’s highest residential density -- is located around downtown, but many of the lots are small and have not been redeveloped.
Council Member Ronald Beauchamp commented on the broad language used throughout the master plan while acknowledging the extensive work involved in preparing the document.
"Looking at the report, it takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and research. There's a lot of statistics with sources cited," Beauchamp said. "But one thing that always seems to get me is that the takeaways or conclusions seem to be written in a way that are vague, in some cases, and I guess that's to allow counsel when it comes time to make a decision to interpret what the master plan really intended."
The master plan is intended to serve as a guiding document and is not legally binding.
In other business, the council:
-- Accepted a proposed city manager employment agreement that was negotiated by the city's hiring committee with Brian Chapman, contingent upon the successful completion of a background check and subject to any non-substantive revisions or corrections recommended by the city attorney. Chapman brings close to 20 years of experience in municipal leadership, most recently serving as the city manager for Sault Ste. Marie from 2019 to 2025. He also previously served as city manager for the City of Vassar, Michigan, from 2015 to 2019, with other roles in city management in Michigan and Wisconsin. Becotte noted Chapman would not begin the role for another four to six weeks.
-- Hired Arrow Constructions, a sub-contractor for Five Star Energy Services, to replace approximately 550 linear feet of curb along Washington Avenue North at a cost not to exceed $14,850. Arrow Construction will be doing the sidewalks and curb work for Five Star Energy Services along Washington Avenue, as well.
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Sophie Vogelmann can be reached at 906-786-2021 or svogelmann@dailypress.net.