I walked down Michigan in front of the Red Cedar development the other day. I found walking on the sidewalk/street level that the businesses are up a half a story up from the street. You cannot really see into the shops, they are easily overlooked, and I walked right by. This seems like a design flaw to me, IMO, there should be an easy and more welcoming way to access the shop level. I also wonder what is holding up the repaving of the street. I have read that the whole drain water works will be finished by the end of August. To the west, Michigan Ave is open and rebuilt [but not finished] down to about Foster Street. The road is so smooth and nicely paved until you get to the US-127 underpass, is paving this area in the plans?
The Red Cedar buildings are elevated to get above the floodplain. There was no way around that except to install other floodproofing (thick membranes and waterproof shutters over doors and windows). This is the purported hang up for 'Roeco', Gillespie Group is waiting for new floodplain maps so they don't have to do that.
This section of Michigan Ave. is being transferred from Lansing to the State so that is probably why it hasn't been repaved yet.
Yep. If anyone remembers the golf course before the development, it was a lake during a good stretch of the year because it's literally in the floodplain, which is why there was so much haggling over the plinth they had originally proposed to build, which I'm disappointed they didn't end up doing because the city didn't want to pay for it.
citykid, what exactly are they looking for. The 1% annual flood extent or the floodway? I assume the former, in which case, part of the site is almost certainly in it. I can't see any scenario in which at least some of the site isn't in the that first measure.
@citykid Perhaps not your department, but I was wondering if you might have any insight as to whether MDOT is going to do anything to aesthetically improve bridges in the Frandor area similar to what you see in the Detroit and GR areas or if the city could lobby them to do so? I've also wondered if it'd be fruitful to ask them to build a shared use sort of circulator path on both sides of the freeway along Howard/Homer connecting to the Clippert St trailhead, it'd help greatly in navigating the area on foot or bike. I've been trying to watch out for MDOT's community meetings for the next phase but haven't seen anything yet.
I know why the buildings are above street level, I lived in Laning from'55 to '82 I saw a lot of big floods, my thought was that the store front level could have a more "welcoming/accessible" walkway, I have never seen anyone strolling down the walkway up there. I understand they have a huge amount of parking so maybe they did not care about foot traffic. The one sunken lot looks like a monument to surface parking lots! imo
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This section of Michigan Ave. is being transferred from Lansing to the State so that is probably why it hasn't been repaved yet.
citykid, what exactly are they looking for. The 1% annual flood extent or the floodway? I assume the former, in which case, part of the site is almost certainly in it. I can't see any scenario in which at least some of the site isn't in the that first measure.