At its January 3, 2011 meeting City Commission voted to formally adopt the Master Plan.  A copy of the Final Master Plan can be found under the documents sections.

Thank you to everyone that participated in the planning process.

A Public Hearing will be held on Thursday, October 21, 2010, at 5:30 p.m. before the Planning Commission of the City of Benton Harbor at City Hall located at 200 East Wall Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022, to consider the possible adoption of the City of Benton Harbor’s updated Master Plan. The proposed Master Plan has been prepared for the entire City of Benton Harbor. 

A copy of the DRAFT Master Plan has been posted under the documents section.

A special thank-you to everyone that attended the Public Open House to review the draft plans and recommendations.  Currently, the Consultant is working to updated the Draft Plans based upon the input received from the meeting.  The next step will be to meet with the Master Plan Advisory Committee to reach final agreement on the Draft Plans prior to moving through the final input and review stages to adopt the Plan (dates and times of the future meetings to be determined).

A MPAC meeting will be held on May 6, 2010 at 5pm at 200 Paw Paw Avenue to discuss the draft Master Plan.

A public open house will be held from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the Carl Brown Center (200 Paw Paw Avenue).  Members of the consultant team will be on hand to discuss the preliminary plans and recommendations included in the Draft Plan.

A special thank-you to everyone that attended the Visioning Charrette!  The summary of each table's discussion is included under the "documents" section.

The next public meeting will be hosted by the Master Plan Advisory Committee on March 23rd, 2010, at 5:00 pm at the Carl Brown Center (200 Paw Paw Avenue).  The meeting will include a presentation of the preliminary Vision, Goals and Objectives and draft plans and recommendations for the City's updated Master Plan.

The next step in the process is to hold a public workshop, designed as a "charrette", on January 13th, 2010, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at Michigan Works (499 Main St.).

Based upon Steering Committee review and input.  The Draft Existing Conditions Report has been revised and uploaded under the documents section.

Please go to the "documents" section of the project website to download a PDF of the Draft Existing Conditions Analysis.

A special thank you to those residents that attended the two community workshops that were held yesterday, July 23 at 10am and again at 6pm.  Please continue to participate in the process over the next several months.

On Friday, July 10th, 2009, the Consultant Team met with the youth of the community to gather their comments and vision for the future of Benton Harbor.  A large youth group was already meeting at the Mendel Center at Lake Michigan College which provided an excellent opportunity for the Consultant to reach as many youth as possible early in the planning process. 

The planning process for the City’s Master Plan began on June 24^th, 2009 with a daylong project “kick-off” and orientation. Throughout the day, members of the Consultant Team conducted meetings and site visits of neighborhoods in the City. The Team met with key City Staff, the Planning Commission, Mayor Wilce Cooke, and the Master Plan Advisory Committee (MPAC). In addition to these meetings, the Consultant Team toured the community with City Staff.

Give us your opinion and insight . . .
This community workshop is the first of many face-to-face community outreach events scheduled throughout the planning process. The purpose of this first workshop is to allow residents to tell us what they think, before even preliminary plans and recommendations are prepared.