Video of the planning commission meeting for the showroom shine project is online. The building was initially constructed with the plans to support three more floors on top of the detailing portion. They will use metal for the construction so they can get it built faster and are trying to go for a Scandanavian look. They're not described as being in the back but in the middle of the building depth wise. There will be balconies on all sides except the west side. Due to the small size of the site and limited parking, all tenants who wish to park on site will have to use valet parking. Otherwise they can purchase permit parking from the city at Valley Court Park.
I watched the recent Planning Commission meeting and at the end of it (around the 52 minute mark), it was mentioned that the Gateway Project is now on hold due to concerns from an earlier Planning Commission meeting.
Any idea what concerns are being addressed or just the usual NIMBY stuff? I was actually really happy with the look and scale of the building, I'm a bit unsure about spanning the street, but they seem pretty set on that aspect of it.
The Showroom Shine project gets another greenlight. There was concern from some on the planning commission about vehicle parking, but it was made clear that we're talking student-oriented housing which would require much less vehicle parking and that the amenity here is parking but access to downtown, and there will be substantial bike parking. It was also made clear that there are a number of ways parking can be dealt with if the project's parking arrangement (there will be twelve parking spaces in the existing lot dedicated to the apartments) doesn't work out.
Speaking of Gateway, it appears that DTN has pulled the project, temporarily, from the approval process to try and assuage concerns of the nearby NIMBYs. They are saying that they are completely within their right to keep it as-is, but realistically, this means the NIMBYs have won and this thing will be downsized. The LSJ has DTN specifically bringing up the height of the project as something they might be willing to negotiate on. East Lansing is way too "small town", still, for my taste. If those that cared about development could keep it a small village, they would.
You know, I sent a letter to one of the EL councilman a while back just to say that I really don't like the veto power residents seem to have over developments in their neighborhoods. Yes, I get that you probably moved there because you liked the way it was on the day you moved in... but just imagine how much longer it would have taken our beloved downtowns to develop if all along the way we'd insisted that new construction not change the character of an area.
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