Council Approves New Building on Meijer Lot Over Neighborhood Objections

Above: Architect’s drawing of the planned new building

Over strong objections from people who live across from the project site, East Lansing’s City Council last night approved plans for a new Lake Trust Credit Union building on the southeast corner of the Lake Lansing Meijer parking lot. The vote was 4-0 in favor.

Lake Trust is planning to leave its Frandor location to instead occupy this new one-story building, designed to be about 20 feet tall with about 3,000 square feet in retail space. The property will include four drive-through lanes, including a 24-hour ATM lane. People who live across Lake Lansing Road from this project objected that it will bring unwanted traffic, noise, and 24-hour light pollution, including from headlights and the building itself.

During the public hearing, Peter Priggooris, who has lived at 1363 West Lake Lansing Road for almost forty years, said emphatically to Council, “Please don’t approve that building.” He said he spoke for the neighborhood owners and renters across Lake Lansing Road from the project. He emphasized how the people there felt they had been repeatedly misled and abused in development at the Meijer site.

Priggooris told Council that, before the Meijer store was built, the neighborhood had been promised Meijer would only be open from 6 am to 10 pm and that all the parking lot lights would be shut off by 11 pm. The plan, he said, was also not to build any building less than 600 feet from the center of Lake Lansing Road. But, he said, Meijer soon asked for and got permission to be open 24-hours-a-day, and since that time, there has been further development with a bank, restaurant, and hotel on the west end of the lot. Meijer has also added a garden center and a drive-through pharmacy to the east of the building.

Priggooris told Council that previous applications to build a gas station, a convenience store, and a drive-through restaurant in the lot had been turned down. He said his neighborhood “opposes completely” the credit union building plan.

Architect David VanderKlok of Studio Intrigue, who designed the building, told Council he tried to find information about the alleged 600-foot setback covenant and could find nothing. Planning staff Darcy Schmitt said she didn’t find anything about it in the property records at the city.

Paul Sweitzer, president and property manager of Hometown Properties, including residential duplexes across the street from the site, also objected to the plan during the public hearing. He said there are three duplexes there with families with “a lot of kids” and that this would be very disruptive to their lives. Although he said the design right now looks good, he expressed concern that the credit union property will become blighted over time.

Architect VanderKlok of Studio Intrigue told Council the design attempts to deal with the neighborhoods’ concerns about lights and tries to include landscaping to diminish disruption to the neighborhood. But, he said, security concerns limit what can be done in that area.

Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris said she didn’t want the project to be a “glowing box” like one down the street. At Goddeeris’s request, a condition was added to the approval requiring that light not extend beyond the property line, although Council seemed to remain confused about whether this means there will be no “glowing box” from this design, which includes walls of glass, or whether this just means there would be no light of use to the eye beyond the property line. (By analogy: If you leave the bathroom light on at night, it may not give you reading light in your bed, but you may still see it from your bed.)

Goddeeris also asked for a condition that would require the credit union to close by 7 pm, although the ATM would be 24-hours. That condition was also added to the approval.

Ralph Monsma of Red Leaf Lane (near the property) said it was good that representatives of Lake Trust and the architect had met with the neighborhood and that he thought the berms were a key issue. He wanted to make sure they would block headlights.

Staff member Darcy Schmitt told Council that the parking lot would be a foot lower than the curb, there would be 24-inch earthen berms, topped with plants that are two-feet high, suggesting a five-foot barrier to lights spilling from the site to the neighborhood. VanderKlok corrected her saying the curb would be six inches and the earth plus plantings would add only two feet, bringing it to a total of 30 inches. He said the credit union needed that the visual barrier be no taller than 30 inches for security reasons.

Before and after the vote occurred, Goddeeris personally apologized to Priggooris for voting in favor. She said it was “with a heavy heart I have to do this,” and said it was better than what else might be built there.

Councilmember Kathy Boyle said she thought there was always going to be interest in developing this corner and that a credit union is much less intense than what else might be built. She said she was a member of the credit union and thought this would be a quiet business.

The project was approved 4-0, with Goddeeris, Boyle, Mayor Nathan Triplett, and Councilmember Ruth Beier voting in favor and Councilmember Susan Woods absent.

Reminder: You can communicate with Council in person at its weekly meetings or write to Council directly at council@cityofeastlansing.com. You can speak or write on any issue involving the City, not only what is on the published agenda.