HOLLAND, Mich. — The city of Holland is asking voters to approve a land swap for a major waterfront property development, but a group of people hopes the project ends up dead in the water.
“This is a pivotal point in a five-year process,” Mayor Nathan Bocks told FOX 17. “A mixed-use development that includes a hotel, condos, restaurant on the water, ice cream shop, boat slips, kayak launch and, most importantly, to align with the vision of the community and public access through it.”
The city expressed a vision in February 2022 after Geenen DeKock Properties submitted its proposal for the property.
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To make that vision come true, at least 60 percent of the voters need to approve a land swap— trading the property of the former James De Young Power Plant to Verplank Dock Co., along with trading the Verplank property to the city.
Mayor Bocks says the city still needs to work out the pricing details.
Meanwhile, FOX 17 talked with Stacy Hurd who is among the group of people voting “no” on the project.
“We don’t feel that it honors the request that the city spent a long time gathering four years ago through public meetings and charettes and tours of this power plant site for accessibility and for inclusiveness of the waterfront and that it’s accessible and inclusive to all income levels, all backgrounds, all abilities,” Hurd explained.
Additionally, she believes accessibility and inclusiveness are possible on the JDY site.
“Mixed-use centers with housing and restaurants and shops, museums of science and industry, arts and cultural centers and performing arts centers,” Hurd named as examples.
Another major concern— traffic.
“For years and years to improve the pedestrian crosswalk to Kollen Park and to make that safer…nothing significant with that has changed or improved,” Hurd said. “And now we’re going to add all of this development right here.”
However, Mayor Bocks believes the Verplank Docking Co. site would better connect the downtown to the waterfront.
“What’s wonderful is the developer has said, ‘absolutely.’ They want to make sure that the public has access to the water around and through this site to the point where they’ve designed it in a way that it’s simply not economically viable if they don’t have that public access,” he said. “They put the restaurant and the ice cream shop at the farthest points out in the process.”
He says even if voters do approve the land swap, there’s still a long road ahead and it’s not a done deal.
The planned development will then have to go through the city commission process of having public hearings and votes.
The election is Tuesday, May 2.
