Development and Planning

Image: Nathan Triplett and Susan Woods during the Council debate last November on campaign donation disclosure

As ELi previously reported as part of our regular, in-depth City Council coverage for our readers, last November the current City Council debated “how, if at all, it should work to make sure East Lansing citizens know from whom Councilmembers have taken campaign contributions.”

Image: The blighted PDIG-owned property now scheduled for a mortgage foreclosure sale and the subject of an additional lawsuit.

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.

Image: 329 MAC Avenue (foreground) and 343 MAC Avenue, just north of St. John’s Church.

Image: The old Michigan State Police headquarters, now demolished, on the site of the property at issue; courtesy of Google.

Note: For a follow-up on this story, click here.

City Council will tonight review a request from an owner of a downtown house that currently has Landmark Designation to have that designation revoked, and to also remove it from an East Lansing historic district. Objections are being raised by those who say the house is of substantial historical significance to East Lansing.

What were they thinking? And why do so many of us love it?

According to an email message yesterday sent from Tim Dempsey, Director of Planning for the City of East Lansing, to City Manager George Lahanas, a recent inspection of the new residential apartment building at Trowbridge Plaza turned up “insufficient fire separation between the commercial and residential spaces (first floor and second floor).”

Following a good deal of argument, East Lansing’s City Council voted 4-1 last night to approve River Caddis developer Kevin McGraw’s latest request for Trowbridge Village: this time for 45 additional parking spaces to deal with what McGraw now says is inadequate parking at the nearly-completed development.

Image: Proposed southern elevation view from the CAHP plan for redevelopment of the Bailey Community Center structure

As Michigan State University students graduate, they are faced with the decision to either leave East Lansing for good, or to stick around.

Cirea Rodgers