Independent and Assisted Senior Living Complex Proposed for East Lansing’s North Side

Above: Planning Commission Vice Chair Kathy Boyle at the Sept. 11, 2019 meeting. Boyle has long advocated for more senior housing options. (Photo by Ray Holt.)

The East Lansing Planning Commission gave its stamp of support last Wednesday to a complex of healthcare facilities and living quarters for senior citizens proposed for a 23-acre plot on the north end of town on Abbot Road.

If built as proposed, the phased project would ultimately include an assisted living and memory care building, independent-living villas, and a four-story independent living building.

The plan from Provision Living East Lansing is for property currently owned by local Rockwood Development Group. The facilities would be developed by PVL Investments of St. Louis, Mo., which has the land under contract to purchase.

According to the site plan application, “The Assisted Living and Memory Care community will contain best‐in‐class building amenities that maximize the resident experience; including a beauty salon, exercise room, therapy space, a theater, restaurant style à la carte dining experience through chef prepared meals, and a private examination room to allow residents to see a visiting physician without having to leave the community.”

The memory care unit will be geared specifically to residents with Alzheimer’s or related memory loss. The independent living building will have fitness programs, housekeeping, dining and social activities but otherwise does not have staff to help with basic activities of daily living like at the assisted living facility.

Provision Living also promises a quality work environment for nurses and physicians with about 85 new jobs, and about 25 people working at the facility in peak hours.

Planning Commission’s unanimous recommendation came with 17 conditions, including proper approvals from the city engineer, the installation of bicycle racks and electric vehicle charging stations, and the widening of the sidewalks along Abbot Road.

Commissioner John Cahill also insisted that a proposed dead-end drive on the property should be wide enough to accommodate a firetruck turning around.

“I was really happy to see this application come forward,” said Commissioner Chris Wolf. “I think this is a great resolution for what to do with this property.”

“It fills a real market need,” added Commissioner Joseph Sullivan.

PVL plans to construct 83 units of the assisted living and memory care building and 12 independent living villas in the first phase. If the plan is approved by the City Council, construction could begin in the spring.

If the initial development is successful, developers have plans to add 24 units to the assisted-living facility as well as 40 more independent villas, and then to construct a large building on the north side of the property with 160 independent senior apartments.

These later phases of the complex may not be finished until 2025.

“We want to have flexibility,” said applicant Dave Baylis.

Earlier this year, the last City Council voted to mandate electric vehicle charging stations in conjunction with private commercial redevelopments. Baylis told Planning Commission they had not installed these on other properties around Michigan, so they were not sure about the technology and cost.

“Very few of our residents drive, let alone have an electric car,” he told the Commission. But, he said, his team would accommodate East Lansing’s rules.

The site, along Abbot Road just before it turns into Chandler Road, consists of former agricultural land and acres of wooded land. It currently includes a single-family home and a pole barn that would be torn down.

PVL plans to leave 40 percent of the property, or about nine acres, as green space, not counting the 3.5 acres of land that will be included in the setback from the property lines on the periphery.

About one acre of wetland on the property will not be disturbed.

According to a staff report, the zoning for the property had been changed in April from Meridian Township low-density multi-family to a conditional planned-unit development, on the condition that “100% of all residential units in the project have at least one resident that is 55 years of age or older.”

The project is expected to come for a public hearing and likely vote at City Council on January 21. Citizens can speak to Council about the project at the public hearing or write to Council via email at council@cityofeastlansing.com.