Yeah, the county treasurer has been big on emphasising that they are really going after the worst-of-the-worst such as homes damaged by fire that have stood for years, or just homes that have stood empty for so long they've become structurally unsound. I'm most familiar with Northtown and I can tell you that a lot of those old homes were thrown up quickly for factory workers and were never really nice to begin with.
I forgot to mention that this has been a collaborative effort unlike what we see in a lot of cities in that the landbank has said that if neighborhoods want to contact them to disputed labeling a property blighted, they will consider the neighborhoods view to see if it needs to be removed from the list. Also, the land bank is being very proactive in that they just are demolishing and clearing the sites, but are actively working on a comprehensive post-demolition. Three considerations for the empty lot after demolition including:
1. Sell the property to an adjacent homeowner - where one exists - so that the homeowner can expand his-or-her yard, build a new house, etc...
2. Keep the property in the land bank for future development. The plan is to keep the stuff downtown, near schools, along bus lines, on parks, etc...in the land bank as its the stuff most likely to be redeveloped or where we want redevelopment to happen as the city grows.
3. Lastly, a kind of middle plan is to put some of these through the Land Bank Garden Program.
I love how comprehensive and vigilant Schertzing has been about this stuff. Lansing has been recognized as one of the top land banks in the country in terms of how creative and effective it's been. All demolitions should be completed by next summer.
I was wondering if they attempt to recycle any thing from the houses that are to be torn down. Of course Detroit has far more vacant homes. There are a couple of companies that go in there and take lumber, doors, moldings, piping and the like. I guess the houses here may have not been so great to begin with and are from the 20th century so there may not be enough to bother with, but in the older house there can be wood like old growth white pine and oak and some kinds of wood that are no longer available for lumber. I have been looking at houses for sale and the ones that the land bank have redone are really nice, and at a very good price.
They do an intial salvage operations to see what kind of value they can take out (probably things like hardwood stair railings, interesting old light fixtures, etc...). But, no, they are not full-on deconstructing the homes. They are already spending more than a lot of towns do on demolition because they are not just bulldozing the homes into their basements (the ones that have them), but taking out the basements and fill the hole.
The old Days Inn property in Delta Township is being redeveloped into a 5-story Hilton Garden Inn. This is the hotel at the southeast corner of the Saginaw/I-69-I-96 interchange. It's a major upgrade. Now, all they need to do is redevelop the dumpy hotel next door. It'd have been nice if Delta Township would have been a bit more forward thinking about the Saginaw Corridor years ago, particularly clustering things a bit tighter (higher density) around the interchange to begin with. But I guess this is a start.
Well, these are chain hotels, so, the layout and design are going to be rather cookie-cutter, to be sure. In suburban areas, they are generally five or six stories tall.
Certainly an improvement over what's currently there, but this isn't unique architecture we're talking about. BTW, while the site is large, it's really no larger than the site of the podunk hotel next door, that is to say it's not unusually large. If I had to guess, they'll probably stretch the hotel out along Saginaw like the current building on the site is and simply go more vertical than the current hotel. It looks like it'll fit like the current building does.
I am sure they do have planning boards and zoning laws, but all of W. Saginaw is a unattractive suburban mess. This is not unique to Lansing or anywhere in the country. So I guess maybe rather than pointing out the obvious, what is wrong. Delta could look toward streetscape, providing sidewalks,more trees, better and nice lighting, perhaps turn outs for bus stops so to be out of the traffic lane. Making Saginaw a boulevard with Michigan Ave. type lefts could work. That would calm traffic make if safer and easier to take in the business signs that are on the right while giving a safe way to reverse direction to go the businesses on the other side. A big rotary at the Lansing Mall and Meijer's would move traffic more smoothly than the detected traffic lights. Those lights take a long time to go through each direction and lefts, this backs up traffic into large packs, also makes people race to beat the light. Build new buildings fronting the sidewalk and street, parking lots behind. I have been through small towns like Hale and Gladwin that have new street scapes why not Delta?
Thank you answering my questions, I am glad to hear they do recover the valuable parts of the houses and got to the effort toward making the lots attractive and safe. It is nice to hear when they do it right.
The Under the Bridge campaign reached it's $50,000 fundraising goal. The colored lighting will go in in a few months, and the murals will go in next spring.
Comments
I forgot to mention that this has been a collaborative effort unlike what we see in a lot of cities in that the landbank has said that if neighborhoods want to contact them to disputed labeling a property blighted, they will consider the neighborhoods view to see if it needs to be removed from the list. Also, the land bank is being very proactive in that they just are demolishing and clearing the sites, but are actively working on a comprehensive post-demolition. Three considerations for the empty lot after demolition including:
1. Sell the property to an adjacent homeowner - where one exists - so that the homeowner can expand his-or-her yard, build a new house, etc...
2. Keep the property in the land bank for future development. The plan is to keep the stuff downtown, near schools, along bus lines, on parks, etc...in the land bank as its the stuff most likely to be redeveloped or where we want redevelopment to happen as the city grows.
3. Lastly, a kind of middle plan is to put some of these through the Land Bank Garden Program.
I love how comprehensive and vigilant Schertzing has been about this stuff. Lansing has been recognized as one of the top land banks in the country in terms of how creative and effective it's been. All demolitions should be completed by next summer.
Certainly an improvement over what's currently there, but this isn't unique architecture we're talking about. BTW, while the site is large, it's really no larger than the site of the podunk hotel next door, that is to say it's not unusually large. If I had to guess, they'll probably stretch the hotel out along Saginaw like the current building on the site is and simply go more vertical than the current hotel. It looks like it'll fit like the current building does.
Thank you answering my questions, I am glad to hear they do recover the valuable parts of the houses and got to the effort toward making the lots attractive and safe. It is nice to hear when they do it right.