Zeeland Record
The Zeeland City Council Monday adopted a master plan for the expansion of the city’s snowmelt system.
The plan, adopted on a 6-0 vote, proposes the expansion of snowmelt beyond Main Avenue to the Washington Avenue corridor, as well as side streets connecting the city’s two main east-west routes.
The plan is meant to serve as a guide for city leaders to make decisions on expanding snowmelt, Assistant City Manager and Finance Director Kevin Plockmeyer said.
“We see Washington Avenue as the next area poised for redevelopment and we see snowmelt as a possible catalyst for this redevelopment,” Plockmeyer wrote in a memo to council. “Building on the vision for the corridor, we felt that including snowmelt (along Washington) from State to Maple would complement this vision nicely.”
The city currently has 103,000 square feet of snowmelt in the downtown district, serviced by two boilers – one in the basement of City Hall, the other in the basement of the Howard Miller Library and Community Center, Plockmeyer said.
Expanding the snowmelt system will require the purchase of additional boilers. The city plans to acquire boilers to be installed at the 17 E. Main mixed-use development now under construction. Plockmeyer proposed the city consider bonding for the cost of the boilers, estimated at $2.5 to $3 million, while waiting to recapture new tax revenues generated by the development to pay off the bonds.
The master plan also proposes the inclusion of snowmelt as part of plans for the reconstruction of Church Street next year, and that decisions would need to be made soon whether to add snowmelt to those plans, Plockmeyer said.
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