Kalamazoo city commission hosts special session to discuss city's top priorities
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The Kalamazoo city commission held a special session Saturday morning to discuss the city’s top priorities and how they should spend community resources.
City officials said the top five priorities were set by the previous commission and they include housing, youth development, economic development, infrastructure and safety.
The meeting started at 8:30 a.m. at the local restaurant The Foundry on 600 east Michigan Avenue.
- Youth development: Kalamazoo City Commission creates subcommittee to focus on youth development
City leaders also discussed where and how to allocate city funds, federal funds and the Foundation for Excellence funds.
The city’s housing director introduced a $8 million dollar housing strategy in which $3.5 million dollars will go toward new affordable housing.
About $2.7 million dollars will go toward homeowner and rental property repairs.
Before the discussion of priorities, community members weighed in on the issues during the public comment section.
One resident at the meeting says she’s had issues with flooding for years and wants the city to fix what’s broken before they build something new.
"I'm hoping that they recognize the south town neighborhood and let residents talk with them and meet with them and help decide what we’d like in our neighborhood," said Tina McClinton. "Not just shove stuff in there and hope we deal with it, every time they develop in our area we flood even more."
In an effort to curb gun violence, the Kalamazoo department of public safety said they are focusing on the people who are driving the violence.
They said they will provide more resources and programs to address trauma and engage the at-risk population.
"It's not just a one prong approach. We know it can't be just public safety, it can't just be the of city of Kalamazoo's parks and recreation department," said Chamberlain. "This has to be a collaborative effort with a number of people in the community."
Unlike other city commission meetings, this special session was be streamed not online, it was an in person meeting only.
For more information on the special session and to see the meeting agenda, visit the city's website.
Connect with Emirrora Austin on Facebook and Twitter. Send story ideas to eaustin@sbgtv.com.
