East Lansing’s Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Project and Infrastructure subcommittee met this Tuesday to hear revised plans for White Oak Place, a project planned for the northeast corner of Grand River Avenue and Spartan Avenue. The developer presented a new Brownfield plan lowering the tax increment financing (TIF) ask from $9.5 million to about $6 million. The developer also provided a revised site plan.

Image: Rep. Lee Chatfield, left, and Mayor Mark Meadows

Representative Lee Chatfield, Chair of the Michigan House Local Government Committee, announced at yesterday’s meeting of that committee that, following a conversation with East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows, he had decided to defer action on HB 5041. If passed into law, the bill would allow East Lansing landlords to make certain kinds of improvements to nonconforming rental properties that are not allowed by current East Lansing ordinances.

Photo: Ingham County FOIA Coordinator Becky Bennett speaks at last night’s hearing.

Last night, the Ingham County Board of Commissioners heard Alice Dreger’s appeal under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). As Publisher of ELi, Dreger has been requesting records of all communications between County Clerk Barb Byrum and “the person who called himself or herself ‘Steve Meadows’.”

East Lansing’s City Council heard from City staff last night about various options for dealing with the City-owned parking garage and land under the Marriott Hotel downtown. Investors have expressed some interest in purchasing the garage and/or the land under the whole “University Place” complex, a parking garage and land which the City currently owns.

Image: The six candidates: top row, Erik Altmann, Shanna Draheim, Mark Meadows; bottom row, Steve Ross, Jermaine Ruffin, Nathan Triplett.

More than $112,000 was spent in total by the candidates in the very costly November election for East Lansing City Council, according to post-election financial statements filed last week. And this amount does not include the cost of unprecedented involvement in an East Lansing election by the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce.

As the year comes to an end, parents and loved ones scramble in search of the perfect holiday gifts for college students. Even a semester on campus is long enough to change a person’s taste in music, clothes, and hobbies.

Instead of waiting for the holiday wish list that arrives the day before Chanukah, Christmas or Kwanza, or the “but I don’t know what I want this year,” we’ve compiled some suggestions from East Lansing area college students to help guide your shopping.