I get that same feeling too. Even cities like East Lansing that claim to be a "Tree City" don't seem to have an issue with BWL butchering tons of trees.
I know we have a lot of trees but they are important for many reasons. I have read that the number of trees in urban areas has decreased by millions in the past decade. The trees do fill in but they really butchered some of them and cut down others altogether. I know there must be people into powerline poles, and how the grid of them are laid out. The BWL should sponsor tours for those folks, "and here you have a tree-free view of the powerlines all the way down Mt. Hope to East Lansing, over here we have the new complex of above ground steam pipes and six-story high line poles from downtown to Grand Ledge!" The trees would have to fall up to hit those suckers! :}
Does anyone have any insight to the build that's happening on Holmes, just East of Beacon Field and Quality Dairy? It seems relatively large scale for the area, maybe an apartment building or something.
Do you mean just west? Because some kind of placemaking statue is going up in the shopping plaza there. I know of no other development planned for this area.
As for the trees, again, it's been mentioned a few times that the storage building property is being greened.
I was thinking that they might have saved the mature trees that were part of the old landscaping, and make them part of the greener landscape. Sorry, I try to keep the tree rants down, I just noticed this was the first thing that was done at the site.
Not the statue- that hasn't quite started yet. This is east, towards MLK. They tore down some old homes, graded the property and are laying foundation. It looks like it could be apartments, but as fast as it's going we should know soon enough.
Now you have me intrigued. Could you be a bit more specific about the location? Are we talking the properties immediately east of the Simken intersection, or are you talking single family homes plots that were tore up even further east or even further east within the commercial properties east of the old Our Savior Lutheran complex? This is a really long stretch between blocks. That whole area would have been better off had it been platted in a more urban way.
Sure, attached is the map. North is at the top of the image, you see Beacon SW as the red box to the west (left) of the image. The area under development is the gold outline, give or take a few feet.
I think any development of that part of town is great, kind of strange that such a large piece of land is being developed without some notice of what is being built there.
Thanks, Sabatoa. I went and looked up the properties on the city website...and it seems only two of those lots are owned by an entity that could not be considered homeowners, which I found weird if they are all being redeveloped. 1733 West Holmes - second property to right - appears to be owned by the county land bank, and 1827 West Holmes appears to be owned by some out-of-state commercial real estate company based in California.
Beyond that, all the rest appear to be local owners or homeowners, so I have no idea what this is. I'm also curious about what could be going on given that they don't appear to have been rezoned. They are currently zoned the lowest density residential, which only allows 1 house per lot. Are we sure they just aren't bulldozing vacant red-tagged homes?
BTW, the depth of these lots is ridiculous given their zoning. The ones furthest west are 676.5' deep; ones in the middle are 629.3' deep, and the ones on the western end are 1,322.6' deep. 1801 West Holmes is nearly 4 acres in the middle of the city; that's crazy. These really need to be subdivided and probably need to be rezoned, eventually, as they fall out of private hands.
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I get that same feeling too. Even cities like East Lansing that claim to be a "Tree City" don't seem to have an issue with BWL butchering tons of trees.
I know we have a lot of trees but they are important for many reasons. I have read that the number of trees in urban areas has decreased by millions in the past decade. The trees do fill in but they really butchered some of them and cut down others altogether. I know there must be people into powerline poles, and how the grid of them are laid out. The BWL should sponsor tours for those folks, "and here you have a tree-free view of the powerlines all the way down Mt. Hope to East Lansing, over here we have the new complex of above ground steam pipes and six-story high line poles from downtown to Grand Ledge!" The trees would have to fall up to hit those suckers! :}
Does anyone have any insight to the build that's happening on Holmes, just East of Beacon Field and Quality Dairy? It seems relatively large scale for the area, maybe an apartment building or something.
Do you mean just west? Because some kind of placemaking statue is going up in the shopping plaza there. I know of no other development planned for this area.
As for the trees, again, it's been mentioned a few times that the storage building property is being greened.
I was thinking that they might have saved the mature trees that were part of the old landscaping, and make them part of the greener landscape. Sorry, I try to keep the tree rants down, I just noticed this was the first thing that was done at the site.
Not the statue- that hasn't quite started yet. This is east, towards MLK. They tore down some old homes, graded the property and are laying foundation. It looks like it could be apartments, but as fast as it's going we should know soon enough.
Now you have me intrigued. Could you be a bit more specific about the location? Are we talking the properties immediately east of the Simken intersection, or are you talking single family homes plots that were tore up even further east or even further east within the commercial properties east of the old Our Savior Lutheran complex? This is a really long stretch between blocks. That whole area would have been better off had it been platted in a more urban way.
Sure, attached is the map. North is at the top of the image, you see Beacon SW as the red box to the west (left) of the image. The area under development is the gold outline, give or take a few feet.
I think any development of that part of town is great, kind of strange that such a large piece of land is being developed without some notice of what is being built there.
Thanks, Sabatoa. I went and looked up the properties on the city website...and it seems only two of those lots are owned by an entity that could not be considered homeowners, which I found weird if they are all being redeveloped. 1733 West Holmes - second property to right - appears to be owned by the county land bank, and 1827 West Holmes appears to be owned by some out-of-state commercial real estate company based in California.
Beyond that, all the rest appear to be local owners or homeowners, so I have no idea what this is. I'm also curious about what could be going on given that they don't appear to have been rezoned. They are currently zoned the lowest density residential, which only allows 1 house per lot. Are we sure they just aren't bulldozing vacant red-tagged homes?
BTW, the depth of these lots is ridiculous given their zoning. The ones furthest west are 676.5' deep; ones in the middle are 629.3' deep, and the ones on the western end are 1,322.6' deep. 1801 West Holmes is nearly 4 acres in the middle of the city; that's crazy. These really need to be subdivided and probably need to be rezoned, eventually, as they fall out of private hands.