Since we're talking about it, now, does anyone know - since plans have changed over time - how many homes have been built/have since been planned at College Fields? I see that Mayberry is doing Northpointe, Parkside, and the Village, right now. Just trying to see how many developers and phases they ended up farming out development of this area to.
BTW, looks like the Village is just about totally sold out. Same with Parkside along Baulistrol and Kittansett. Further up Baulistrol you have the community at Carnoustie by Eastbrook Homes which they split into Gardenview, Vista, and Townhomes phases. Townhomes is acutally surrounded by Mayberrys Village. Is that it?
So, basicaly that's four different developments, Northpointe, Parkside and Village by Mayberry and then the three-phase Eastbrook section. There is also a little cul-de-sac off Carnoustie near Hullett (Par Place). I'm not entirely sure if this is part of Eastbrook's phases or a private development.
Anyway, I'm really interested if the city is yet bringing in property tax money from this development for the wealthy. I kind of forgot when this started. Lansing has OPRAs (for existing renovation properties) and NEZs. This wouldn't qualify for an OPRA, but I wonder if this is an NEZ zone? NEZs give you 12 years of reduced taxes in that zone.
It's not contiguous, but the city has four non-contiguous parts in Delta, Meridian and Alaiedon (and the contiguous spread into DeWitt) townships:
In fact, the Meridian Township section of College Fields was the first of these "conditional land transfrer" agreements the city made (1999) with a surrounding township. Essentially, these Act 425 Agreements are temporary annexations (usually 50 years, usually renewable) that allows a township to use the economic development tools of a city that they don't possess, and in return the township and city split the tax revenue generated from whatever is developed in these areas. In the case of the one for Alaiedon to allow for Jackson National Life, the rural township didn't have the sewer infrastructure to support a corporate headquarters of that size so Lansing and the Board of Water and Light agreed to go into a 425 with them. The Lansing-Meridian Township 425 Agreement is the only one done with residential development. The others one are for things that generate much higher taxes (GM plant, auto suppliers, Jackson National Life, and the airport).
Anyway, anyone interested in some of the problems that comes with theese can read these two links:
For whatever reasons, these conditional annexations have been more popular in the Lansing area than anywhere else in the city. Aside from Lansing, East Lansing has entered into three different ones with Bath, DeWitt and Meridian townships, and Bath and DeWitt have entered into one.
Thanks for the write-up, I didn't know the part about sharing the economic development tools (or at least, not when said in that way). Every time I hear about JNL I wish they would have been more central-city focused instead of out in the suburbs. They could have had one or two large buildings in either downtown Lansing or East Lansing.
They now have a training center in downtown East Lansing for college students, but I'm not sure so many college graduates will want to work where their headquarters are. I believe many of them might consider the job prospect more if their headquarters is where the training center is.
Yeah, most township (any?) don't have things like NEZ and OPAs and other such things cities have. So when a developer is looking to develop in a township, but they want more incentive, these things can help a township land a development they otherwise wouldn't have.
This is exactly why DeWitt finally allowed for Lansing to have some say in the airport. It was an effort to land the "aerotropolis" designation (a state incentive that actually covers all kinds of transportation projects fron the New Michigan Development Corp.), which allows for state tax incentives to develop around the airport. Using Lansing's economic development tools as a selling point, it allowed the airport and DeWitt Township to make the case for these highly competitive state designations. There are only seven of these designated since they were passed in 2010 and Lansing got one of them because of the partnership with DeWitt Township.
As the links show, though, it's not without its faults. Really, all it does is to make sure central cities benefit somewhat from its surrounding sprawl. JNL, for instance, has no business in a township which couldn't support it without help from Lansing's BWL or East Lansing's water department. Lansing had all kinds of underutilized space (and off a highway no less) for JNL, and JNL knows Lansing because it's where it was headquartered before the move. There old location in south Lansing had all kinds of room for expansion and renovation.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of them. They have basically made sprawl more affordable. I don't know if East Lansing would have had all the development up Chandler Road if it wasn't for the 425. It would have been great to see those get built closer to campus.
It's kind of hard, because the other argument is that these things would have happened, anyway. Sprawl existed well before 425s, so if these were going to happen, anyway, at least a city gets some tax revenue from them that they wouldn't have otherwise had. For instance, plenty of stuff got built outside the 425 Agreement area between Bath and East Lansing. The difference is that East Lansing is getting half the tax revenue generated from the stuff inside the 425 Agreement area.
In the past, for instance, the Lansing BWL - despite being a city-owned entity - has supplied to water and sewer services to areas that the city got no benefit from. 425 seems to encourage more coordination between the city and the BWL about who they supply this city service to, at least. I think a case can be made for them for commercial and industrial developments. There honestly wasn't enough room in Lansing, for instance, to build the new GM plant they built out in Delta Township, and the airport deal with DeWitt makes sense. I'm not sure I support them for residential sprawl, though.
So Lansing, East Lansing and Meridian Township are redoing their master plans/zoning. I had no idea they were all doing them at the same time. From the City Pulse:
Revisions to the Meridian Township master plan were forwarded to the planning commission for action, possibly as soon as Nov. 9. That’s after a public hearing Tuesday night where three residents weighed in on the plans.
No one proposed significant changes to the existing master plan draft. However, some minor cosmetic changes were recommended, including the addition of names of individuals that had been left out of the master plan’s acknowledgments. The draft document encourages higher density developments in both Haslett and Okemos.
That will likely feed an ongoing debate about how the township develops itself. Does it continue as a series of sprawled-out, lower-density suburban neighborhoods, or does it direct resources into pushing for urbanizing parts of the community?
That would mean higher-density living spaces, designed for a more walkable, big-city feel.
As far as zoning is concerned, it looks like they are doing to upzone centers like downtown Okemos, Haslett, and Carriage Hills; these districts (Mixed Use Core) will also be covered by form-base code. They also condense a lot of their zoning districts outside these areas into a few, as their current code is super (overly) detailed. For instance, they have nine different mixed/multi-family residential districts they condense down into one district. Anyway, take a look at what they plan to do at the link.
Comments
I think you mean "I wasn't demanding" ? If so, an unfortunate typo
Since we're talking about it, now, does anyone know - since plans have changed over time - how many homes have been built/have since been planned at College Fields? I see that Mayberry is doing Northpointe, Parkside, and the Village, right now. Just trying to see how many developers and phases they ended up farming out development of this area to.
BTW, looks like the Village is just about totally sold out. Same with Parkside along Baulistrol and Kittansett. Further up Baulistrol you have the community at Carnoustie by Eastbrook Homes which they split into Gardenview, Vista, and Townhomes phases. Townhomes is acutally surrounded by Mayberrys Village. Is that it?
So, basicaly that's four different developments, Northpointe, Parkside and Village by Mayberry and then the three-phase Eastbrook section. There is also a little cul-de-sac off Carnoustie near Hullett (Par Place). I'm not entirely sure if this is part of Eastbrook's phases or a private development.
Anyway, I'm really interested if the city is yet bringing in property tax money from this development for the wealthy. I kind of forgot when this started. Lansing has OPRAs (for existing renovation properties) and NEZs. This wouldn't qualify for an OPRA, but I wonder if this is an NEZ zone? NEZs give you 12 years of reduced taxes in that zone.
Lansing goes all the way down there? I never knew that!
It's not contiguous, but the city has four non-contiguous parts in Delta, Meridian and Alaiedon (and the contiguous spread into DeWitt) townships:
In fact, the Meridian Township section of College Fields was the first of these "conditional land transfrer" agreements the city made (1999) with a surrounding township. Essentially, these Act 425 Agreements are temporary annexations (usually 50 years, usually renewable) that allows a township to use the economic development tools of a city that they don't possess, and in return the township and city split the tax revenue generated from whatever is developed in these areas. In the case of the one for Alaiedon to allow for Jackson National Life, the rural township didn't have the sewer infrastructure to support a corporate headquarters of that size so Lansing and the Board of Water and Light agreed to go into a 425 with them. The Lansing-Meridian Township 425 Agreement is the only one done with residential development. The others one are for things that generate much higher taxes (GM plant, auto suppliers, Jackson National Life, and the airport).
Anyway, anyone interested in some of the problems that comes with theese can read these two links:
https://ippsr.msu.edu/sites/default/files/MAPPR/ARPA425.pdf
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.605.3566&rep=rep1&type=pdf
For whatever reasons, these conditional annexations have been more popular in the Lansing area than anywhere else in the city. Aside from Lansing, East Lansing has entered into three different ones with Bath, DeWitt and Meridian townships, and Bath and DeWitt have entered into one.
Thanks for the write-up, I didn't know the part about sharing the economic development tools (or at least, not when said in that way). Every time I hear about JNL I wish they would have been more central-city focused instead of out in the suburbs. They could have had one or two large buildings in either downtown Lansing or East Lansing.
They now have a training center in downtown East Lansing for college students, but I'm not sure so many college graduates will want to work where their headquarters are. I believe many of them might consider the job prospect more if their headquarters is where the training center is.
Yeah, most township (any?) don't have things like NEZ and OPAs and other such things cities have. So when a developer is looking to develop in a township, but they want more incentive, these things can help a township land a development they otherwise wouldn't have.
This is exactly why DeWitt finally allowed for Lansing to have some say in the airport. It was an effort to land the "aerotropolis" designation (a state incentive that actually covers all kinds of transportation projects fron the New Michigan Development Corp.), which allows for state tax incentives to develop around the airport. Using Lansing's economic development tools as a selling point, it allowed the airport and DeWitt Township to make the case for these highly competitive state designations. There are only seven of these designated since they were passed in 2010 and Lansing got one of them because of the partnership with DeWitt Township.
As the links show, though, it's not without its faults. Really, all it does is to make sure central cities benefit somewhat from its surrounding sprawl. JNL, for instance, has no business in a township which couldn't support it without help from Lansing's BWL or East Lansing's water department. Lansing had all kinds of underutilized space (and off a highway no less) for JNL, and JNL knows Lansing because it's where it was headquartered before the move. There old location in south Lansing had all kinds of room for expansion and renovation.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of them. They have basically made sprawl more affordable. I don't know if East Lansing would have had all the development up Chandler Road if it wasn't for the 425. It would have been great to see those get built closer to campus.
It's kind of hard, because the other argument is that these things would have happened, anyway. Sprawl existed well before 425s, so if these were going to happen, anyway, at least a city gets some tax revenue from them that they wouldn't have otherwise had. For instance, plenty of stuff got built outside the 425 Agreement area between Bath and East Lansing. The difference is that East Lansing is getting half the tax revenue generated from the stuff inside the 425 Agreement area.
In the past, for instance, the Lansing BWL - despite being a city-owned entity - has supplied to water and sewer services to areas that the city got no benefit from. 425 seems to encourage more coordination between the city and the BWL about who they supply this city service to, at least. I think a case can be made for them for commercial and industrial developments. There honestly wasn't enough room in Lansing, for instance, to build the new GM plant they built out in Delta Township, and the airport deal with DeWitt makes sense. I'm not sure I support them for residential sprawl, though.
Wow technical read I'm glad you explained this here.
So Lansing, East Lansing and Meridian Township are redoing their master plans/zoning. I had no idea they were all doing them at the same time. From the City Pulse:
Here's the new masterplan redo:
http://www.meridian.mi.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=4222
As far as zoning is concerned, it looks like they are doing to upzone centers like downtown Okemos, Haslett, and Carriage Hills; these districts (Mixed Use Core) will also be covered by form-base code. They also condense a lot of their zoning districts outside these areas into a few, as their current code is super (overly) detailed. For instance, they have nine different mixed/multi-family residential districts they condense down into one district. Anyway, take a look at what they plan to do at the link.