Government

Above: A River Trail bridge near Potter Park Zoo

Just as the summer recreation season hits, the City of East Lansing has received an allocation of $788,863 from the Ingham County Board of Commissioners to repair the asphalt on more than thirteen miles of trails in East Lansing. The money comes from a voter-approved county trails and park millage.

Above: the property at issue under construction

The question of whether a new Bailey-neighborhood rental apartment complex can have balconies has been sent back to City Council, as the developer has explained to ELi why the balconies didn’t go to Council for approval in the first place.

Above: Councilmember Ruth Beier (right) talking to ELPD officers at the Zemer root beer stand last summer

The controversy over a vendor’s display of the Confederate flag at last year’s downtown Folk Festival arose at East Lansing’s City Council again last night, as Council members discussed how the City might push MSU to select only vendors unlikely to display such a politically-charged image.

East Lansing’s City Council voted unanimously tonight to give a tax abatement to a company seeking to build a large solar array on MSU’s campus—but the abatement was not nearly as big as the company and two council members were hoping.

Above: an artist’s rendering of a solar array project from the application for the tax exemption

A Michigan-based company wants to install a large solar array at MSU, and its request for a related tax exemption from the City of East Lansing is causing debate at City Council.

East Lansing’s Financial Health Team has asked for a consultant to study a possible income tax for people who live and work in East Lansing. This is but one of many possible approaches being considered by the volunteer team of advisors as it tries to tackle the City’s budget woes.

Above: an East Lansing basement floor drain through which sewer back-up has occurred

The City wants you to know that, if a sewer backs up into the drains in your East Lansing home and creates a big mess, odds are high the City will not help you financially and that your homeowner’s insurance will be inadequate to managing the cost of cleanup. That’s the message of a brochure recently distributed by the City on basement flooding.

A reader asks: Is CATA’s bus rapid transit plan a done deal?

Above: the project site at the northeast corner of Grand River Avenue and Spartan Avenue.

The East Lansing City Council voted yesterday on both the site plan and Brownfield Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan for the White Oak Place project at Spartan and Grand River Avenues (just west of Brookfield Plaza). But in both cases, what the Council approved was significantly different from what the developer had proposed.

Above: Architect’s rendering of the proposed development.