City residents and employees sat around four, big tables and discussed ways to improve the city of Hillsdale at the Master Plan Charrette meeting Tuesday.
Amongst the more than 40 proposed ideas included suggestions for unique restaurants, extending coffee shop hours, turning abandoned buildings into entertainment venues, and installing transportation to encourage students to come downtown.
To introduce the meeting, Hillsdale Board of Economic Development member Dean Affholter explained he wanted the 30 attendees to talk amongst themselves and brainstorm ideas for the city and write them down on the sticky notes.
“We want to generate as many thoughts, ideas as possible — maybe they all won’t work, that’s not the issue — we just want ideas,” Affholter said. “Any idea is good, there are no bad ideas. Everyone has unique experiences. What can we do to have a more vibrant, family-oriented, more desirable place to live and even a southern Michigan destination?”
Participants picked up Sharpies and wrote on yellow sticky note pads scattered on the tables.
Starting with one person’s thought to build a skate park, the ideas were soon flowing as fast as community members could write them.
To focus on different methods of developing Hillsdale, Affholter divided all the sticky notes into four categories: Vibrancy, Family Life, Place to Live, and Destination.
A recurring theme was a desire to connect more with Hillsdale College. One person said the college and city should work harder at promoting each other.
“Students coming to things like this is a way to get involved,” sophomore Liz Pickard said. “This was an opportunity for students to connect with the community, since they’re always complaining about it.”
Affholter suggested building a trolley that runs between the college and downtown, so students can access the city more easily.
“[We need] to realize we have a lot of assets here, we just need to see it and promote it,” Director of Economic Development Mary Wolfram said. “We need to assess and promote our local talent. We have so much to work with, we just have to pull it together.”
City Planning Commission Chairwoman Laura Smith said the city is required to hold a “Master Plan Charrette” every time the city updates its Master Plan, which is about every five years in Hillsdale.
“The entire city is supposed to be pulling together the Master Plan,” Smith said. “Sometimes we do series [of charrettes] so we might potentially do another one in a couple months. We want to be done by the end of the year.”
Updating the Master Plan does more than just involve the community, Smith said. When a city clarifies its goals, it becomes eligible for state funding.
“We have to update the census inforomation, which we’ve already done, and the city’s objectives and goals,” Smith said. “If your goals can be shown, that opens you up for grants and things.”
For Hillsdale, the charrette was an opportunity for college students and community residents to bond and connect over common interests and propose innovative ways to improve the city.
“We’ve created this chance for you to come and give us input,” Smith said.
Those who didn’t attend the charrette can fill out a questionnaire on the city website, www.cityofhillsdale.org, or email their city improvement ideas to Zoning Administrator Alan Beeker at abeeker@cityofhillsdale.org.