The Cherette Group, one of the developers that responded to the Grand Haven City Council’s request for proposals (RFP) to create a family-friendly space for the city at Chinook Pier, proposed building a children’s museum. A group of local citizens, led by Rachel Dody, has already been exploring this idea for over two years. Dody and her team are jumping at the chance to construct a children’s museum on the waterfront. Through their investigation, the children’s museum non-profit has determined 20,000 square feet of space is required to operate a museum that matches their vision, and they estimate the museum will receive 170,000 visitors per year.
My question is how many buildings and additional infrastructure do you think downtown Grand Haven can handle and still be a pleasant place for visitors and locals? In addition to the proposed children’s museum, there is also talk of a 131-room hotel and increased public transportation (July 15, 2024, city council meeting – 2:28:30). When I was a kid, it was easy to drive downtown to get an ice cream cone or to visit the beach. Even today, I typically opt to ride my bike, eliminating the chore of finding a parking spot. Chinook Pier used to be a quaint little shopping center that was easy to access, and I miss the days before Peerless Flats, Tribune Lofts, and other high-density housing units were built.
For comparisons sake, the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum has two floors of interactive hands-on exhibits, 12,000 square feet, and entertains over 200,000 visitors per year. The estimated 170,000 Grand Haven Children’s Museum visitors per year averages out to approximately 470 visitors per day. If people come in groups of four from outside of walking distance, the facility would see an additional 117 cars per day. Furthermore, the museum is expected to generate 59 jobs, so it’s likely that a high number of employees would also need parking spaces.
Grand Haven City Council member Karen Lowe is concerned about the lack of parking. During the July 15, 2024, meeting she asked, (1:17:10) “If those statistics are correct, do we even have adequate parking?”
According to meeting discussion, community members indicated interest in the idea of a children’s museum, but were hesitant about the waterfront location. The concerns of these community members seemed to resonate with Lowe as she stated, (1:13:55) “I have my doubts about the location on the waterfront.” Then later asked for more explanation. (1:35:18) “Why no fire barn building? [] Why not try incubating in the Central Park Place and expanding out? [] Why the waterfront specifically?”
President of the proposed Grand Haven children’s museum, Rachel Dody, responded. (1:37:00) “Why the waterfront as opposed to elsewhere. I would say, like Denny said, children’s museums are on the waterfront throughout the United States; Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Buffalo, NY, South Carolina, Tampa, FL, Lake Champlain has one on the waterfront. And like I said at our last meeting, children’s museums welcome children into the community and teach them things we value. The waterfront matters, especially in Grand Haven. There’s really no organization better than a children’s museum to make sure generation after generation of people know that. Environmental stewardship of water resources is important to us. [] It will allow partnerships with key organizations.”
I hear two significant points in this response that I disagree with:
The waterfront location is desirable because everyone else has their children’s museum on the water. I’m sorry, but ‘Keeping up with the Jones’ isn’t a good enough reason for me.
There is a potential for stakeholder partnerships. Perhaps that means wealthy donors will be happy to pull out their checkbooks because of the nice location, but my intuition tells me that this is more likely a way of accessing grant opportunities. Grant funding should be a huge concern for everyone because it is just another form of taxation. If a museum is not self-sustaining, should it even be built?
There is no doubt that there is a huge potential for children to benefit from a museum, but I think the city council needs to carefully pursue this opportunity. Further, I believe the city council should first determine better requirements of what they would like to construct at Chinook Pier, and then request concept proposals. If the city decides that it is in the community’s best interest to build a children’s museum in Grand Haven, the council should evaluate multiple locations. Increased building development on the waterfront is not necessarily a good idea because it will increase crowding in the downtown and obscure views of the waterfront. It’s important to everyone that Grand Haven maintains its small-town feel.