I am thinking[I don't know for sure] there is an underground or covered stream that is the Montgomery Drain, that would flow even during dry spells, I also do not know for sure but I think the upswelling you see is the drain outfall from Frandor. It is going to be interesting to watch how they do this and see how it works.
I think the idea is that the water is going to collect in those ponds at Ranney Park and they would probably provide a more or less constant flow of water travelling down stream through the water features towards the big Red Cedar Park holding pond, then to the river.
I read that some members of the City Council will vote against the plan as is without commitments to hire locally at prevailing wages. Lansing is spending a lot of money on this development and they should have these issues addressed. I am hoping that this will not slow down or stop this development. I do see the council member's point about the downscaling of a grander plan, but to me, it still looks pretty good and I hope I live long enough to see something built on that spot. Has there been a date set for the drain project groundbreaking?
I agree with the council members that want to require a prevailing wage if public funds are used in the development. Enough profits will be made from this project that paying a prevailing wage should not kill the project. Maybe it adds a couple years to break even but in the long run the owners and developers of the project will all make much more than the prevailing wage.
I personally think they are asking too much, and I'm a pretty steadfast supporter of unions. They aren't just asking for prevailing wage, which I think is fair, but also that all workers be local. There might not even be enough in each field to do that. I'm glad to see the city finally attaching strings to developments it helps fund, but the unions are getting unreasonable with all of the demands.
Anyway, the agreement goes to the council early next montha according to the City Pulse article. Also, given how much they've coordinated together, the only way the public drain project starts is 1.) the agreement is signed with the private developers for that part of the project or 2.) the agreement is formally scrapped. They aren't going to jump the gun on the process.
If anyone's interested, here is the purchased and development agreement, again, in the Committee of the Whole agenda that they'll be voting on on June 4th. It begins on page 16, though, all of it hasn't yet been scanned in. They'll probably end up adding the missing pages in next week:
I don't really follow city politics, has there been any indication about how the people on the council/committees feel about this? There's still going to be bonds issued involving the city somehow, isn't there?
Some of the council members want to make sure that prevailing wages are paid and local workers are hired if the city is going to have so much money involved. I believe the developers said they will address these issues.
Bond issue is cleared up; they downsized the project. As gb said, the sticking point is labor issues and a few councillers are very vocal that if the development agreement stands as-is, they aren't voting this out of committee. The only question will be if they are in the minority, or if they are the majority. I'd guess this will pass committee when it goes before them committee of the whole on June 4, but it's not 100%.
Guess we'll have to wait until the media reports on this or until the minutes come out, but the Committee of the Whole had scheduled a vote on the development agreement last night. I noticed another page had been added to the packet, though, that speaks to some changes in the plan, all of them for the good if you ask me:
The number of rooms in the dual-brand hotel has been increased from 250 to 264.
There has been a huge increase in market-rate housing from 170 units to 298. This really speaks to the project going back to original roots, where there was much less student housing.
The senior village at the corner of Clippert and Michigan has a very modest increase from 112 units to 116.
Finally, there has been a slight reduction in units for student apartments from 1,248 beds to 1,222.
This has resulted in changes in the site plan, particularly around the main entrance avenue. It looks like the buildings will have a smaller footprint, which makes me think that at least the market-rate housing buildings will be taller than last rendered. Without new renderings, however, I can't tell. Look at the last page of the of the packet to see the changes:
Comments
I am thinking[I don't know for sure] there is an underground or covered stream that is the Montgomery Drain, that would flow even during dry spells, I also do not know for sure but I think the upswelling you see is the drain outfall from Frandor. It is going to be interesting to watch how they do this and see how it works.
I think the idea is that the water is going to collect in those ponds at Ranney Park and they would probably provide a more or less constant flow of water travelling down stream through the water features towards the big Red Cedar Park holding pond, then to the river.
I read that some members of the City Council will vote against the plan as is without commitments to hire locally at prevailing wages. Lansing is spending a lot of money on this development and they should have these issues addressed. I am hoping that this will not slow down or stop this development. I do see the council member's point about the downscaling of a grander plan, but to me, it still looks pretty good and I hope I live long enough to see something built on that spot. Has there been a date set for the drain project groundbreaking?
I personally think they are asking too much, and I'm a pretty steadfast supporter of unions. They aren't just asking for prevailing wage, which I think is fair, but also that all workers be local. There might not even be enough in each field to do that. I'm glad to see the city finally attaching strings to developments it helps fund, but the unions are getting unreasonable with all of the demands.
Anyway, the agreement goes to the council early next montha according to the City Pulse article. Also, given how much they've coordinated together, the only way the public drain project starts is 1.) the agreement is signed with the private developers for that part of the project or 2.) the agreement is formally scrapped. They aren't going to jump the gun on the process.
If anyone's interested, here is the purchased and development agreement, again, in the Committee of the Whole agenda that they'll be voting on on June 4th. It begins on page 16, though, all of it hasn't yet been scanned in. They'll probably end up adding the missing pages in next week:
https://lansingmi.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06042018-2178
If approved at the committee, it goes to the full council.
I don't really follow city politics, has there been any indication about how the people on the council/committees feel about this? There's still going to be bonds issued involving the city somehow, isn't there?
Some of the council members want to make sure that prevailing wages are paid and local workers are hired if the city is going to have so much money involved. I believe the developers said they will address these issues.
Bond issue is cleared up; they downsized the project. As gb said, the sticking point is labor issues and a few councillers are very vocal that if the development agreement stands as-is, they aren't voting this out of committee. The only question will be if they are in the minority, or if they are the majority. I'd guess this will pass committee when it goes before them committee of the whole on June 4, but it's not 100%.
Guess we'll have to wait until the media reports on this or until the minutes come out, but the Committee of the Whole had scheduled a vote on the development agreement last night. I noticed another page had been added to the packet, though, that speaks to some changes in the plan, all of them for the good if you ask me:
The number of rooms in the dual-brand hotel has been increased from 250 to 264.
There has been a huge increase in market-rate housing from 170 units to 298. This really speaks to the project going back to original roots, where there was much less student housing.
The senior village at the corner of Clippert and Michigan has a very modest increase from 112 units to 116.
Finally, there has been a slight reduction in units for student apartments from 1,248 beds to 1,222.
This has resulted in changes in the site plan, particularly around the main entrance avenue. It looks like the buildings will have a smaller footprint, which makes me think that at least the market-rate housing buildings will be taller than last rendered. Without new renderings, however, I can't tell. Look at the last page of the of the packet to see the changes:
https://lansingmi.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06042018-2178
To sum it all up, the project has been expanded again, after having been downsized, previously.