PORTAGE, MI – Portage has long had the hallmarks of a post-World War II suburb, with residential neighborhoods separated and distinct from the city’s commercial strips.
Now city officials are looking to shake that up by creating “walkable villages” and mixed-use neighborhoods that should provide Portage residents with a new kind of housing option and simultaneously address the city’s shortage of affordable homes.
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“It’s been the No. 1 goal of the city of Portage to create more housing, generally and specifically housing that’s affordable” for moderate and lower-income residents, says Peter Dame, head of Portage’s Community Development department.
“I think anyone who has tried to buy a house lately realizes that it’s a very difficult market out there,” Dame says, citing interest rates and the dearth of new housing due to rising labor and building supply costs. “It adds up to a very difficult situation as to what people can afford.”
Last summer, the Portage Planning Commission adopted a new city master plan that includes “multiple ways to encourage more housing development,” Dame says. “So we are now embarking on an entire overhaul of our zoning code as it relates to development.”
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City of PortageOne option for changes to Portage Road, near Clarence Drive, included in the 2021 Lake Center District Corridor & Placemaking Study. This option depicts sidewalks with a landscaped buffer, pedestrian islands and fewer vehicle lanes.In recent years, most of the new housing in Portage has occurred in planned development units that have allowed for more flexibility, such as allowing for smaller houses on smaller lots.
“So we’re already heading in that direction,” Dame says. “What the zoning changes would do is allow that in the basic zoning code” so every homebuilder would have more flexibility without needing to seek a zoning variance.
Portage also is looking to create more mixed-use neighborhoods, where residential and commercial buildings are in close proximity.
“We have these huge expanses of parking lots that are excessively sized because that was the standard at the time for commercial developments,” he ssays. “We’ve found over the last 20 years that those standards were too high, and there’s opportunity in these designated commercial areas to create mixed-use housing.”
The three areas identified in Portage
This winter, the city rezoned its first mixed-use neighborhood, the Lake Center District, along the Portage Road corridor between Centre Street and Osterhout Avenue.
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City of PortageProposed ordinance changes detail building standards for residential and commercial buildings in the Lake Center District. These standards would apply to new, renovated and expanded buildings.Currently, the 2.6-mile corridor is a mish-mash of commercial, industrial and residential lots.
Single-family homes currently in the corridor would be grandfathered in, but the rezoning would not allow construction of new single-family detached homes along that stretch of Portage Road.
Instead, the city is looking to encourage “more village or urban-style development, which includes housing types such as townhomes or a multifamily buildings or a building with ground-floor commercial and upper floor residential,” Dame ssays.
The core of the district would be a “walkable village” area where Portage Road passes between Austin and West lakes, near Lakeview Park and The Cove restaurant.
Ideally, Lake Center District residents “would be within walking distance of a grocery store and the hardware store and stuff like that,” Dame says. “It’s an attractive way of living that, currently in Portage, is not available.”
In that same area, in a 14-acre parcel just off Portage Road and Woodbine Avenue, the city is developing a 42-home plat called
Stanwood Crossings with new single-family detached homes that will be sold to buyers with an income between 80% and 120% of the area median income, which is about $80,000 to $121,000. To make the homes affordable, the project is being subsidized by a $3 million grant funded by Kalamazoo County’s housing millage.
Portage’s new master plan also calls for two other similar mixed-use neighborhoods: One around Portage City Hall and the other around The Crossroads mall.
The area around City Hall already has a number of facilities to create a “walkable village” residential community, including the Portage library and senior center and “a little bit of shopping,” Dame says. “What you don’t have there is people, so that area is targeted for higher-density housing.”
As for the mall area, “malls are declining and (The Crossroads) is surrounded by a huge parking lot that’s no longer filled to the brim,” Dame says. “So there are opportunities in that corridor for higher-density housing, and it’s not going to make any of the neighborhoods angry because it’s currently a commercial area. … That’s a very big part of our potential housing strategy.”
As Portage moves ahead, it’s important to listen to community concerns, Dame says. But it’s also important for residents to recognize how the housing market and society have changed.
People in planning are realizing the post-World War II principles of keeping residential and commercial districts separate — making cars a necessity — “was a mistake,” Dame says.
There’s much more appreciation now for a lifestyle in which people are in walking distance to commercial centers, he says.
“Those of us in municipal governments are recognizing that for many people, that’s a nice way to live,” he says. “It creates more of a community, a better place, through this style of development.”
There are also the economic realities of the current housing market, Dame says.
“My parents came to Portage, got their first job out of college and owned a home within two years. That’s a difficult scenario to repeat in this day,” he says.
“That makes me sad, because we don’t want the home ownership dream to go away,” Dame says. “So anything that cities can do within reason to help the problem, I think we should be working towards.”
This story is part of Southwest Michigan Journalism Collaborative’s coverage of equitable community development. SWMJC is a group of 12 regional organizations dedicated to strengthening local journalism. Visit swmichjournalism.com to learn more.
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City of PortageA map shows land-use plans along Portage Road as it passes between Austin and West Lake. City of Portage