DOWAGIAC — At the Dowagiac Planning Commission meeting on Monday, the commission approved goals, strategies and an implementation program for the city’s master plan.

Also discussed were the master plan’s ties with the housing initiative project.

The city’s goal for the month of July is to finish the draft of the master plan, said Natalie Dean, the assistant city manager. This will involve gathering pictures and maps from consultants.

Monday, the planning commission verified that with the city incentivizing construction by offering free land in the form of city lots, banks can see those lots as having value. Therefore, a lot value can be considered towards a down payment, Dean said.

“I just learned this last night. Maybe a young couple wants to move, just starting out, here to Dowagiac, but the houses they’re finding are not what they want or not in the price range they want,” Dean said. “If the city hypothetically gives the couple a $6,000 lot then the bank says, ‘oh you have $6,000 down already,’ so they may be able to afford a small home of their choice on one of those lots.”

The planning commission also used to oversee lot splits, but that is going to change, Dean said. Lot splits will now be done administratively, but will still be submitted for the planning commission’s review. Lot splits will now be decided between zoning and assessing, which is a good progress piece, she said.

In the beginning of August, the planning commission will review the master plan draft. Then in late to mid-August, the city would like to host master plan/housing initiative open houses in all three wards of the city, Dean said.

“We want to unveil the housing initiative to people who may not have heard about it,” Dean said.  “We want to talk about the city pretty much giving away land and free utility connections for people who would like to build on a city lot. We want to talk about how the quality of life in Dowagiac here is great, but it’s also tied into the places that we live.”

City officials realize the homes in Dowagiac are older, but need to confirm that homes are viable and sustainable places to live, Dean said.

Since the announcing of the housing initiative in May, Dean said the city has not seen many people taking advantage of the initiative, which aims to bring newer, energy efficient homes into neighborhoods.

“We are welcoming anybody with any circumstance to come and talk with us about it,” Dean said. “We prefer built single family homes and the city does have a tie in with zero energy homes, which is the efficient solar panels built into the roof. They really are billed at the same price point that a normal house would be billed at.”

In terms of the Neighborhood Enhancement Program Grant, which is funding for housing-oriented activities, Dean has been working with Michigan State Housing Development Authority every day and is close to getting the program guidelines approved, she said.

The area of eligibility has changed to align with the initial application and sample houses sent to MSHDA.

“The initial one stated we would do our neighborhood enhancement programs in our southwest neighborhoods,” Dean said. “Probably the cutoff will be W. Division [Street], and we are going to have to do our work down there, according to MSHDA.”

Every day, more people are coming in and want to be included in the grant, Dean said.

“If you aren’t chosen for the first round of grants don’t worry because we are going to apply again with every intention of moving the areas that we do these enhancement programs in,” Dean said. “We would apply for the north and northeast, and I believe there’s another grant round coming up in the fall that I will make sure we are a part of.”

Dean has seen an overwhelming amount of positivity from the public about the housing initiative and the NEP grant the city is implementing.

“When I first got here and I discussed administrating the NEP grant, what I heard is, ‘we probably are going to have to go out and find people,’” Dean said. “Well, people have come knocking on the door. … There’s no reason why a person who has invested in their lives here shouldn’t have a little hand up to get things the way they want them.”

For residents interested in home improvements at any time, the city always administers a home improvement program with grants up to $750 and the application can be found online, Dean said.