Holland remains divided days before transformative land swap vote
HOLLAND — As city council prepared to host an open house on its upcoming land sale ballot proposal Wednesday, a group of residents gathered outside city hall to campaign against it.
During next week’s election May 2, voters in the city of Holland will decide on a proposal allowing the city to sell the former James DeYoung Power Plant at 64 Pine Ave. and a piece of land at 255 Kollen Park Drive.
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The former power plant site would be swapped with Verplank Dock Co. at 233 W. Eighth St. — allowing GDK to develop the current Verplank site along the waterfront next to Boatwerks Restaurant.
The land sale proposal must receive 60 percent support from voters in order to pass.
The city scheduled a “ballot question open house” for 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, April 26, giving residents a chance to ask questions about the proposal. Prior to the event, opposition gathered along River Avenue.
About a dozen people held signs with “publicly owned waterfront” and “vote no on land swap” emblazoned on the front. Just up the street, GDK posted a series of its own signs promoting the project. Organizer Stacy Hurd said residents are concerned with the proposal, which includes public waterfront access, condos, a restaurant, an ice cream shop, a hotel, a cruise ship dock and boat slips.
Hurd said residents want more public space and argues the proposal doesn’t do enough to align with the years of feedback gathered from community members.
“We want to see more public space,” she said. “We don’t feel this proposal honors the feedback that the city spent years gathering from its citizens. We want to see more friendly amenities, more opportunities for recreation, more opportunities to enjoy being on the waterfront.”
Holland Mayor Nathan Bocks said the city has to navigate between providing what residents requested and doing something economically feasible. He said some private development is needed because the city doesn’t have the resources to develop the property without raising taxes.
“There needs to be some sort of private development, profit component to this, otherwise it’s not going to happen,” Bocks told The Sentinel on Wednesday. “What we’ve got to do is navigate between what the public has told us they'd like to do and what is economically viable and feasible to do. I think this plan really hits the mark on that.”
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Bocks and city staff have said there is no “Plan B” if the land sale is voted down. In that case, Verplank would maintain its property on Eighth Street, leaving the property fully private.
“If this vote doesn’t go through, Verplank is going to stay there for the indefinite future. There’s not another plan,” Bocks said. “Nobody has been able to come up with anything that is viable to do.”
The absence of an alternate plan is another concern for residents like Hurd.
“Since there’s no Plan B, there’s no other option, we feel like, because we don’t like this proposal, we’re forced to vote ‘no’ on May 2 to force the city’s hand,” she said. “We’re not necessarily against development, we’re not necessarily against the sale of the land. We’re just against what this current proposal represents.”
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Bocks said Tuesday’s vote only decides if the city can sell the land to enable the swap and doesn't finalize any development plans. All developments will still go through normal approval processes for the city.
“The question before us next week is a very simple question — can the city sell the property? That’s it,” Bocks said. “(Any potential development) has got to go through the planning commission, it’s got to line up with the Unified Development Ordinance and the city council is going to have to vote on it. There are a whole lot of steps yet in the process.
“We’re just at a crucial point of, do we move forward or don’t we? That’s really the question before the people next week.”
— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Holland remains divided days before transformative land swap vote
