Yeah, zoning regulations in both Lansing and East Lansing that have been passed recently are quite stringent. The product can not be visible from outside the building; it has to be in a locked room apart from the waiting area, etc.
Check out all of these proposals (site plans and elevations/renderings) for East Lansing from January:
Was just through downtown. I must say the masonry on The Hub is far-and-away the best on any of the current high-rises, at least until I see what The Graduate and The Abbot are going to look like. The Hub looks better than it does in the renderings, at least the brickwork.
On the other hand, the sides of the Landmark (Grand River building) at Center City look terrible, already. I never liked the facade scheme on this one to begin with, but at least the windows on the front look nice. I just don't see this one aging well.
The Abbot looks to be up to its second floor - well, really third floor with the mezzanine. The Graduate hotel must still be in foundation work phase, because nothing is peaking over the fence, yet.
Oh my, this seems like quite the overreaction, though hardly surprising. At next week's council meeting, they are proposing a total moratorium on construction downtown until the form-based code is finished, which will be on September 11:
I can't help but think there's something else behind this. Maybe a developer is about to propose something for the lot behind Peanut Barrel and the city wants to keep using it as a parking lot. So this is their negotiation tactic to block anything from getting built there.
I wish the city would stop saying they're worried about too much "multifamily" housing (just call it like it is and say student housing) downtown. As long as more apartments keep getting built north of Lake Lansing the proof of the demand is still there.
I feel like all that is happening is that new student housing is built and then the students move from the previously-new units to the new ones, leaving the old ones partly empty. I've heard from a few people that Chandler Crossing is horrible to live in now. It sounds like it was cheaply built and not really taken care of, and they are having problems attracting tenants. Evidently they are nowhere near capacity.
It just bothers me that the city didn't care to prevent the expansion north of Lake Lansing but is very worried about those units becoming vacant. It would have been so much more productive if the developments were built in better locations such that they weren't so fragile with respect to new housing being built.
Yeah, many of us said it was stupid for them to be sprawling up into cornfields when it happened. Many of us saw what would happen; it was incredibly short-sighted.
I guess the silver lining is that they are so cheaply built, that it won't be anything to get rid of them.
Was it "cool" to live out there at one time? I only hear about shootings fires and worse going on out there. I remember when I lived in Mass. watching Spartan games and seeing the ad for Chandler Crossings on the side court ad wall. I checked where it was located and thought that would be a long walk to class, why would students want to live out in the sticks? Maybe they don't build regular single family home developments any more but it seems like this would have been a better option out there.
They were very popular. In fact, it was solely because of construction up that way that Clinton County was Michigan's fastest-growing county from 2000 to 2010. Over that same span of time, Bath Township grew by 54%. BTW, nobody walked to class from there; there aren't even sidewalks along the entire stretch because so much of it is in the township. This area is served by regular buses.
It's been kind of obvious for a few years now that out-of-area drug dealers staked out territory there. It's crazy how quickly they went from super-popular student apartments to whatever they've become.
When it first opened it was cool to live there because they had so many amenities that other apartments didn't offer and many people had friends that lived out there too. I don't know if the quality of the amenities has kept up and the newer buildings built downtown are offering the same amenities. Many of my friends who lived out there later regretted it because the bus ride was so long.
Comments
Yeah, zoning regulations in both Lansing and East Lansing that have been passed recently are quite stringent. The product can not be visible from outside the building; it has to be in a locked room apart from the waiting area, etc.
Check out all of these proposals (site plans and elevations/renderings) for East Lansing from January:
http://eastlansing.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1092
Was just through downtown. I must say the masonry on The Hub is far-and-away the best on any of the current high-rises, at least until I see what The Graduate and The Abbot are going to look like. The Hub looks better than it does in the renderings, at least the brickwork.
On the other hand, the sides of the Landmark (Grand River building) at Center City look terrible, already. I never liked the facade scheme on this one to begin with, but at least the windows on the front look nice. I just don't see this one aging well.
The Abbot looks to be up to its second floor - well, really third floor with the mezzanine. The Graduate hotel must still be in foundation work phase, because nothing is peaking over the fence, yet.
Oh my, this seems like quite the overreaction, though hardly surprising. At next week's council meeting, they are proposing a total moratorium on construction downtown until the form-based code is finished, which will be on September 11:
https://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1852&meta_id=79353
I wish the city would stop saying they're worried about too much "multifamily" housing (just call it like it is and say student housing) downtown. As long as more apartments keep getting built north of Lake Lansing the proof of the demand is still there.
I feel like all that is happening is that new student housing is built and then the students move from the previously-new units to the new ones, leaving the old ones partly empty. I've heard from a few people that Chandler Crossing is horrible to live in now. It sounds like it was cheaply built and not really taken care of, and they are having problems attracting tenants. Evidently they are nowhere near capacity.
It just bothers me that the city didn't care to prevent the expansion north of Lake Lansing but is very worried about those units becoming vacant. It would have been so much more productive if the developments were built in better locations such that they weren't so fragile with respect to new housing being built.
Yeah, many of us said it was stupid for them to be sprawling up into cornfields when it happened. Many of us saw what would happen; it was incredibly short-sighted.
I guess the silver lining is that they are so cheaply built, that it won't be anything to get rid of them.
Was it "cool" to live out there at one time? I only hear about shootings fires and worse going on out there. I remember when I lived in Mass. watching Spartan games and seeing the ad for Chandler Crossings on the side court ad wall. I checked where it was located and thought that would be a long walk to class, why would students want to live out in the sticks? Maybe they don't build regular single family home developments any more but it seems like this would have been a better option out there.
They were very popular. In fact, it was solely because of construction up that way that Clinton County was Michigan's fastest-growing county from 2000 to 2010. Over that same span of time, Bath Township grew by 54%. BTW, nobody walked to class from there; there aren't even sidewalks along the entire stretch because so much of it is in the township. This area is served by regular buses.
It's been kind of obvious for a few years now that out-of-area drug dealers staked out territory there. It's crazy how quickly they went from super-popular student apartments to whatever they've become.
When it first opened it was cool to live there because they had so many amenities that other apartments didn't offer and many people had friends that lived out there too. I don't know if the quality of the amenities has kept up and the newer buildings built downtown are offering the same amenities. Many of my friends who lived out there later regretted it because the bus ride was so long.