Councilmembers Unhappy with MSU's Response on Development

Image: Looking north from the Flowerpot district sign (marking part of the Red Cedar Neighborhood) to the land set to be redeveloped by MSU along Harrison Road.

Last week all five East Lansing City Councilmembers signed a letter to the MSU Board of Trustees asking them to take seriously concerns on the part of the Red Cedar Neighborhood with regard to development planned by MSU at the site of the old State Police headquarters. Tonight at City Council, two Councilmembers expressed significant frustration with MSU’s response.

With regard to this planned development by MSU along Harrison Road, the Red Cedar Neighborhood has had concerns about four-story student apartment buildings backing up on single-family, owner-occupied properties in the Red Cedar Neighborhood; traffic potentially cutting through the neighborhood; and tailgating on game days. They have repeatedly petitioned MSU to attend to these concerns. The Council agenda packet for today includes many pages of correspondence between the neighborhood and MSU.

Yesterday, MSU Vice President for Auxiliary Enterprises Vennie Gore answered Council. According to Gore, there have been “multiple meetings with the community” and “communicating” with the neighborhood “has been an important component of our planning process from the beginning.”

Gore told Council, “MSU has offered multiple site enhancements aimed at addressing the neighborhood’s questions while still allowing the development to meet the needs of the University. We understand certain residents may have concerns, but we believe MSU, the City of East Lansing and the Red Cedar Neighborhood in particular all will ultimately benefit from the redevelopment.” (See page 9 here for the full letter.)

At Council tonight, Councilmember Kathy Boyle—who lives in Red Cedar and who organized last week’s letter to MSU—said that she was “extremely disappointed with the answer we have received.” She acknowledged there have been many meetings but said that “the university’s response to the concerns raised by the neighborhood has been totally inadequate.”

Boyle named the same problems her neighborhood has raised. She said the university “has not moved one iota about tailgating,” even though it could involve many people tailgating, with alcohol, right next to a residential neighborhood. Boyle said that MSU wants the development to have an “urban feel” and be walkable, but she said this was coming at the cost of the Red Cedar neighborhood’s right to quiet enjoyment.

Councilmember Ruth Beier said she wanted to echo everything Boyle said. She added that it seemed to her that the Red Cedar neighborhood, including the Flowerpot district, “has been generally dumped upon in recent memory.” She said the neighborhood lacks sidewalks and drains, has the worst traffic on game days, has had its school closed, “and now will have a four-story party put in their backyards.”

Beier objected to MSU’s response, saying she was “so tired” of responses that say “we’ve met and we’ve talked.” She said “we get that all the time here” at Council. She said that if talk happens and there are no solutions reached, it amounts to inefficient dialogues.

Beier said she wanted to ask the mayor to come up with steps that would allow the City to approach the university to “do something stronger than send a letter and ask ‘please.’” She said she wasn’t sure how to do this as she is “new at this” and not the mayor.

The mayor was absent because he was attending a meeting with Delta Township about the Lansing area Taxi Authority. Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris said that she would “leave it for him [i.e., Triplett] and let him take it from there.” She had no further comment. Councilmember Susan Woods had no comment on the issue.