MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) – A social district could be coming to downtown Marquette.
It’s a designated area where people can purchase alcoholic beverages from downtown businesses and drink them outside in that designated area. The first of two public forums was held Tuesday evening yo answer question and receive community feedback.
“We have talked to the majority of the bars and restaurants in town and quite a few of them have expressed interest in this,” said Tara Laase-McKinney, Executive Director, Marquette Downtown Development Authority. “We met with them first just to make sure that there was that interest in it before we pursued it to make sure we had businesses that would be participating.”
There are several more steps in order to make the social district official in Marquette.
“Basically what we’re going to do with this information is kind of gather it together, make sure that we have the support that we’re looking for to take this to our board and get that passed,” said Laase-McKinney. “Once it gets passed, it’s going to go to the city commission and it’s ultimately up to the city commission to decide that this is a thing for downtown Marquette. If everything goes as planned, ideally we’d like to get this going in late spring/early summer to make sure we can get it going before the big tourist rush comes in and so we can kind of practice with locals first and make sure that they get a chance to experience it before we get the big influx of people coming into town.”
Another public forum will be held on Wednesday, March 1 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at Marquette Commons.
For more information on social districts in Michigan, click here.
