Sara Harris, Executive Director of the Midland Development Corporation, said that the MDC board has authorized negotiations for a new downtown master plan and that the previous plan has a lot of success achieving nearly all of its objectives marking significant progress for the community. Harris was a guest on a recent episode of the Best of Midland Podcast.
"The MDC board just authorized the chairman to negotiate and execute a contract for a new downtown master plan," said Harris on a recent edition of the Best of Midland Podcast. "The last master plan for downtown was completed in 2007, and the really cool thing about that plan is, if you look at it, almost everything they wanted to do got done—awesome!”
“One of the objectives was to either rehabilitate or bring down some of those vacant buildings that had been empty since the 80s and 90s," Harris said. “We've now only got one remaining vacant or unrehabilitated building downtown. They also wanted to build a new convention center, and that's done, and they wanted to construct a park or event center at the heart of downtown, which is also done—check! Basically, that plan led to some really exciting things and came to fruition, so now it's time to take the next steps forward with the new plan."
Harris serves as the Executive Director of the Midland Development Corporation (MDC), which supports businesses currently in Midland and those considering relocating to the area.
Best of Midland Podcast is hosted by Ryan Shewchuk and Terra Avery. It is an extension of the broader Best of Midland program, which aims to support small, local businesses by showcasing them and the people behind them. Their website lists top businesses and upcoming live events happening in the area.
The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.