It looks, then, that this will be developed an at least a half-way urban nature and built to the corner, hopefully. It also doesn't require the demolition of any existing buildings. It'd kind of make sense to me to either retain a lot of what's left and use the Harrison street frontage in Spartan Village for commerical/retail. Maybe reconfigure some of the housing for employees that want to live nearby (i.e. combine units to make larger ones, add more square footage on to exist buildings, etc.). You've got a school you could eventually reopen on the site (Spartan Village Elementary), Trowbidge commercial area just a few blocks north...
Harrison street could have 3-5 story buildings creating a street wall with bigger sidewalks and bike lanes. This area could look much more dynamic with an urban form.
City council unaninmously passed the personal property exemption for TechSmith, reminider, this is like a $225,000 abatement on personal property over ten years on a $15 million investment by TechSmith. Developers usually ask for much more. Though, in this case they are renting the land from the MSU Foundation, so they don't really need a property tax abatement. Anyway, I think this mostly clears the way for the project. TechSmith has conservatively calculated between income and real property (land) taxes, the city will get $1.5 million from the project over 10 years. They are currently paying Alaiedon Township about $42,700 in taxes over 10 years. So, quite a leap for them for the better city services and location.
The city council also unanimously passed a pretty substantial update of the zoning code. The two big things is that the city council will be given more latitude in deciding parking minimums, and in the downtown district, buildings will have to be a minimum of 4 stories and will be able to be 8 stories and 112 feet by right, instead of having to go through the special use permit process. The 140 and 160 feet maxes will still be governed by special use permit. The other fairly substantial one that has caused some hiccups in development is that businesses which sell alcohol where less than 25% of the floor area is for alcohol sales will now be exempt from the extra requirements for alcohol sales in the zoning code. This one tripped up the Walgreens in the Abbot when first proposed. The extra requirements are distancing from public facilities like churches and schools and such, and also distancing from the same business type. Walgreens, for instance, had to go and get permission from the People's Church since it was so close. This new exemption applies to businesses were alcohol sales are mostly incidental/secondary to their overall business.
It appears MSUFCU was going to close on the sale of Lot #4 for their new downtown building on Nov 6th when they announced Nov 5 that the property own to the north seemed to be blocking a construction easement they'd need to construct the building. So, to be safe, they are asking council for an extension to April 21 for the sale of the lot. This is the Vlahakises and Dublin Square (the old post office building). BTW, looking up the property on the county website, the owner has paid property taxes since Winter 2016?! How long do you have to be deliquent before a county starts foreclosure on a property?
Looks like a few years of back and forth, the council finally considered the plan to fill in part of the hard-to-lease commercial space on the ground floor of 300 Grand with 6 efficiency units, instead. This project already had 15 different conditions appended to its application which is another example of the city micro-managing projects. Well, the vote came down 2-2 Tuesday night, which meant the site plan application failed (Councillor Ron Bacon was absent).
It's been harder and harder to lease out retail space with the likes of Amazon taking away a lot of that kind of business. The pandemic, of course, accelerated this trend. A lot of other cities, then, have changed their zoning codes to allow interesting - and much needed - housing in these vacant retail spaces. Grand Rapids just did a huge update to its zoning code over this last month.
I really hope DNT comes back with this application and make sure Councillor Bacon is there so at least you have a full vote to see whether this would win approval or not. It's my opinion that East Lansing needs to relax even more of its code and change its mindset, because it's created all kinds of problems for developments the city needs. They need to be able to be more flexible and nimble, but also to the degree that you turn it into a free-for-all atmosphere for anything to get built.
I understand the hesitancy from the council, putting residential space into what was designed and proposed as commercial space is less than desirable. That being said, IMO it's very important to get ground floor storefronts in most of these sorts of developments for both the pure aesthetics of the streetscape and for the prospective business activity. Many of these developments may be in a spot that can't really support retail now but would seem likely to be able to later on, in those cases allowing ground floor commercial space be used for residential units makes tons of sense. It would certainly seem better than projects not getting built or being designed with permanent ground floor residences in what will likely become commercial districts.
Regarding government involvement in planning in general, I'm always torn because I think over the long term adopting a more free-for-all attitude would likely result in a much more interesting, varied and organic-feeling urban landscape, many of the neighborhoods and districts that people love now were built in times of much less control over what people built and how. I just remind myself that the generic suburbia we know and hate today is largely a result of tight zoning laws and the powers at be thinking they can plan and control everything.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- In an effort to increase the city’s housing stock, Grand Rapids elected leaders are allowing ground-floor residential units in business districts around the city, including downtown.
The zoning ordinance change goes into effect March 1 and will allow first-floor residential units like apartments in nearly half of the city’s 6,000 commercially-zoned properties, according to Grand Rapids planning officials.
The move, officially approved this week, is expected to create not only more opportunities to address the city’s housing shortage but also different avenues for property owners struggling to find commercial and office renters to fill their first-floor spaces.
“The impact of the public health crisis has exacerbated an already challenged commercial market,” said Grand Rapids Planning Director Kristin Turkelson, “and, although the demand for commercial space has lessened, the amount of available space has not changed. Additionally, the need for housing units, generally, and affordable units, specifically, is well documented.
“These changes were necessary and critical to the continued vitality of our neighborhood business areas.”
They are smart to have allowed this option by-right in certain areas and conditionally in others.
Anyone have some good updated aerials or drone shots of Downtown East Lansing? I'm sure its quite a site with the skyscraper boom of the past couple years.
I don't have any drone shots but I was impressed the other day with the look of the new Graduate Hotel. It is looking very nice with light greys and darker brick work and very large windows as it nears completion. I noticed there is a very cool looking glassed in space on the roof. I think this hotel is going to booked all the time.
But when asked to respond to Vlahakis’ statement to ELi from last week, credit union CEO and President April Clobes suggested in her reply that perhaps Vlahakis has got the roles reversed.
In fact, Clobes dropped something of a bombshell: earlier this year, Vlahakis told the credit union he wanted a big redevelopment deal including his Dublin Square property – a deal in which MSUFCU would effectively partner with him.
“If agreement could not be reached for joint development,” Clobes said, “Mr. Vlahakis said he would not provide any construction easement.”
Clobes outlined Vlahakis’ idea for a joint development: Across both the Lot 4 and Dublin Square properties would stand a building 138-feet tall with 265 apartments designed to house 630 people. The credit union would have space in this mixed-use building, and there would be parking for 220 cars.
Clobes points out that this is not what the voters approved when they agreed to give City Council permission to sell Lot 4 to the credit union.
I completely believe the credit union on this one knowing the Vlahakiss. And I completely understand why they didn't want to wait for him to try and develop his vision and get it through an often fickle council.
“We asked our architects to reduce the size of the building by three feet along the north side to avoid any encroachment during construction,” Clobes explains. The credit union is also getting an assist in construction from the DDA, which voted to demolish two of its own buildings to help.
Comments
https://cityofeastlansing.civicweb.net/document/41314/Approve a resolution to set public hearing for .pdf?handle=FB36EE94628D44079EACD7614A467525
It looks, then, that this will be developed an at least a half-way urban nature and built to the corner, hopefully. It also doesn't require the demolition of any existing buildings. It'd kind of make sense to me to either retain a lot of what's left and use the Harrison street frontage in Spartan Village for commerical/retail. Maybe reconfigure some of the housing for employees that want to live nearby (i.e. combine units to make larger ones, add more square footage on to exist buildings, etc.). You've got a school you could eventually reopen on the site (Spartan Village Elementary), Trowbidge commercial area just a few blocks north...
The city council also unanimously passed a pretty substantial update of the zoning code. The two big things is that the city council will be given more latitude in deciding parking minimums, and in the downtown district, buildings will have to be a minimum of 4 stories and will be able to be 8 stories and 112 feet by right, instead of having to go through the special use permit process. The 140 and 160 feet maxes will still be governed by special use permit. The other fairly substantial one that has caused some hiccups in development is that businesses which sell alcohol where less than 25% of the floor area is for alcohol sales will now be exempt from the extra requirements for alcohol sales in the zoning code. This one tripped up the Walgreens in the Abbot when first proposed. The extra requirements are distancing from public facilities like churches and schools and such, and also distancing from the same business type. Walgreens, for instance, had to go and get permission from the People's Church since it was so close. This new exemption applies to businesses were alcohol sales are mostly incidental/secondary to their overall business.
And that's a wrap for the year!
It's been harder and harder to lease out retail space with the likes of Amazon taking away a lot of that kind of business. The pandemic, of course, accelerated this trend. A lot of other cities, then, have changed their zoning codes to allow interesting - and much needed - housing in these vacant retail spaces. Grand Rapids just did a huge update to its zoning code over this last month.
I really hope DNT comes back with this application and make sure Councillor Bacon is there so at least you have a full vote to see whether this would win approval or not. It's my opinion that East Lansing needs to relax even more of its code and change its mindset, because it's created all kinds of problems for developments the city needs. They need to be able to be more flexible and nimble, but also to the degree that you turn it into a free-for-all atmosphere for anything to get built.
Regarding government involvement in planning in general, I'm always torn because I think over the long term adopting a more free-for-all attitude would likely result in a much more interesting, varied and organic-feeling urban landscape, many of the neighborhoods and districts that people love now were built in times of much less control over what people built and how. I just remind myself that the generic suburbia we know and hate today is largely a result of tight zoning laws and the powers at be thinking they can plan and control everything.
Grand Rapids leaders allow ground-floor apartments in nearly half of city’s commercial spaces
They are smart to have allowed this option by-right in certain areas and conditionally in others.
I completely believe the credit union on this one knowing the Vlahakiss. And I completely understand why they didn't want to wait for him to try and develop his vision and get it through an often fickle council.