Yes, to help you orient yourself, Waverly is the border on the west and Jolly to the south. It's everything within Lansing prior to the massive and final annexations of the 60's. There were a few annexations post 1965, I believe, but it was mostly just annexing the stuff on the other side of Waverly in Eaton County.
Sabatoa, those are cool old clippings. Don't ever apologize for adding in some history. lol Anyway, it looks like that "D" parcel was rejected for annexation that year. As we know, there must have been a similar (and successful) annexation proposal in that area, because there is largely a piece of the city that shape, today, but you can notice some key differences. Most notably, this looks like it would have annexed the southern end of the Groesbeck neighborhood where as the city now ends up with the northern half. If I had to guess some of the other unmarked boundaries on that Groesbeck section I'd estimate we'd have gotten into the neighborhood as far east as Foster, and then it looks like the "leg" connecting to the existing Coolidge and Clippert rectangle would have been bordered to the south by Woodruff and to the north by Hopkins.
It seems the article just cuts off before we can see the description of the "D" area. lol I always wondered the story behind why only part of Groesbeck opted to be in the city. The weirdest part is that we don't get much on Wood Road south of David, but then we jump a block over and get everything along Fairview north of Hopkins. Anyway, the whole area is a nice little spot a lot of people don't really know much about.
Speaking of borders, East Lansing and Lansing are suing each other over their border near the wastewater treatment plant, and WLNS reported over a week ago it has something to do with Red Cedar Renaissance. This is literally the only thing I've seen on this, and there is not enough information in that little WLNS piece to even know what piece of land they are seeking a ruling on.
Anyone know anything about this? Lansing's next Committee of the Whole meeting will discuss this, but they will do it in closed session, and because of that, the packet for that meeting is essentially blanked out. Does East Lansing's agendas say anything about this?
It's weird this isn't bigger news, or that there is nothing publicly available about the dispute. The only thing I can guess is that it may be important to both cities because of possible responsibilities for drains and such for the Red Cedar project. But that's just a guess.
Has anybody heard what's going on at the old Pro Bowl site? It appears they have graded the northern portion and it looks like ground plumbing is installed. I'm curious, any clues?
All very interesting, it is a very flat area I could imagine a grass field airport over there. It is strange that I never heard of this airport, as I grew up near by. Colonial Village and Church Hill Downs were all there when I was a kid. New homes were still being built over there behind Dwight Rich when I went there in the late 60's.
I know it is an old rant of mine but I walked the river trail over to Potter Park the other day for the first time in a while. I noticed that the old Knapp's warehouse building was still under construction, which looks pretty good. What does not look good is the river bank they clear cut last winter. I was thinking they must have had some reason to do so but the whole area in now weeds and shrubs growing around the stumps. One of the two trees they left is dead and the other doesn't look healthy. I thought they must be planning landscaping there,but it looks really bad now. Does anyone know about the plans for this area?
Also they had posted trail improvements coming signs along the trail in that area. Has any trail improvement project begun? When are these projects set to get underway? All I have seen is the signs.
The property was rezoned some months ago. I vaguely remember it having something to do with something auto (racing) related on the manufacturing end.
As for the River Trail (capital projects are awarded from Ingham County, now), the 2017 applications opened in late July and will close early next year. Looking at the awards granted for the last round, it appears the location you are talking about is planned for (river)bank stabilization, which is why they had to cut down the trees.
You could contact the city park's director (brett.kaschinske@lansingmi.gov) if you have any more questions about this. He's usually always gotten back to me when I've had questioins. You could also contact the Friends of the Lansing Regional Trails (http://lansingtrails.org/Contact/). An August 23rd post on their facebook page talks about bridge repairs starting in December, possibly, with repaving beginning next April.
Just looking at next week's council agenda, a little project has made it under the radar. A developer is requesting a Special Land Use permit for vacant property immediately south of the Pere Marquette townhomes. They need the SLU permit because they want to build an apartment building in what is an area zoned as light industrial. In fact, most of the stadium district (between the railroad tracks and the river) is still zoned light industrial for some reason, though the eventual adoption of the Form-Base Code in the 2012 master plan has the area designated "Downtown Mixed Use Center: Edge" which something like this would be deemed compatible.
Anyway, the of the departments of the city that had anything to say during the review of the permit, Development questioned if there would be enough on-site parking, and Public Service had a lot to say about the underground infrastructure of the site. As for the actual building, very few details are given though the city council packet does mention a "4-5 story building" and the conceptual rendering does seem to show that (looks like the top floor is double-height or contains two-story units).
I hope that you are right about the river bank stabilization, but the trees the were cut down are on the other side of the river from the river trail, in front of the old Knapp's warehouse that is being redeveloped. I believe that it is private property on the south bank. I have been thinking they would landscape the area they clear cut, but nothing has happened there since they cut down about 40 or 50 large mature trees and everything else in front of the building all the way down to the rail bridge. It just looks bad now, maybe they have not gotten that far yet, as work is still being done on the building.
I sese what you meant, now. I haven't been down in the area in so long I was having a hard time pictureing it. If the trees were cut down at the old Knapp's warehouse (Potter Flats), then it doesn't have anything to do with the river trail.
Anyway, I poured over the city council minutes and planning board minutes and planning and development community minutes...and could find nothing accept all of the talk over the brownfiled plan (#65). It was so weird I couldn't find anything related to the actual plan.
Since we're talking about that project, I'll give you yet some more email addresses for contacts for who would know something like this. Bob Johnson (rjohnson@lansingmi.gov) is director of planning & development for the city, and Sue Stachowiak (susan.stachowiak@lansingmi.gov) is the city's zoning administrator who is incredibly knowledgeable about projects going on in the city. Sue always answers her emails (I haven't written Bob in years).
For some reason I thought brownfield plan documents were on the city's website at one time, but I can't find them. I'm actually kind of curious how this project got going being that the entire parcel is in the 100 year floodplain. You can file for a Special Land Use permit for this kind of thing, but, again, I couldn't find any records for such a thing which is weird for a project of this size.
I imagine there has to be some good reason for them to cut trees as part of the project since it costs money to cut them. It's not like they did it for the views given the buildings future usage. Just spitballing, but maybe they are going to build a access pathway back there (maybe for emergency vehicles/personnel) and given how incredibly close this is to the river they had to cut the trees down to build the pathway?
Comments
Oh thanks! I see it now. Yeah I was looking in the wrong area.
Yes, to help you orient yourself, Waverly is the border on the west and Jolly to the south. It's everything within Lansing prior to the massive and final annexations of the 60's. There were a few annexations post 1965, I believe, but it was mostly just annexing the stuff on the other side of Waverly in Eaton County.
Sabatoa, those are cool old clippings. Don't ever apologize for adding in some history. lol Anyway, it looks like that "D" parcel was rejected for annexation that year. As we know, there must have been a similar (and successful) annexation proposal in that area, because there is largely a piece of the city that shape, today, but you can notice some key differences. Most notably, this looks like it would have annexed the southern end of the Groesbeck neighborhood where as the city now ends up with the northern half. If I had to guess some of the other unmarked boundaries on that Groesbeck section I'd estimate we'd have gotten into the neighborhood as far east as Foster, and then it looks like the "leg" connecting to the existing Coolidge and Clippert rectangle would have been bordered to the south by Woodruff and to the north by Hopkins.
It seems the article just cuts off before we can see the description of the "D" area. lol I always wondered the story behind why only part of Groesbeck opted to be in the city. The weirdest part is that we don't get much on Wood Road south of David, but then we jump a block over and get everything along Fairview north of Hopkins. Anyway, the whole area is a nice little spot a lot of people don't really know much about.
Speaking of borders, East Lansing and Lansing are suing each other over their border near the wastewater treatment plant, and WLNS reported over a week ago it has something to do with Red Cedar Renaissance. This is literally the only thing I've seen on this, and there is not enough information in that little WLNS piece to even know what piece of land they are seeking a ruling on.
Anyone know anything about this? Lansing's next Committee of the Whole meeting will discuss this, but they will do it in closed session, and because of that, the packet for that meeting is essentially blanked out. Does East Lansing's agendas say anything about this?
It's weird this isn't bigger news, or that there is nothing publicly available about the dispute. The only thing I can guess is that it may be important to both cities because of possible responsibilities for drains and such for the Red Cedar project. But that's just a guess.
Has anybody heard what's going on at the old Pro Bowl site? It appears they have graded the northern portion and it looks like ground plumbing is installed. I'm curious, any clues?
All very interesting, it is a very flat area I could imagine a grass field airport over there. It is strange that I never heard of this airport, as I grew up near by. Colonial Village and Church Hill Downs were all there when I was a kid. New homes were still being built over there behind Dwight Rich when I went there in the late 60's.
I know it is an old rant of mine but I walked the river trail over to Potter Park the other day for the first time in a while. I noticed that the old Knapp's warehouse building was still under construction, which looks pretty good. What does not look good is the river bank they clear cut last winter. I was thinking they must have had some reason to do so but the whole area in now weeds and shrubs growing around the stumps. One of the two trees they left is dead and the other doesn't look healthy. I thought they must be planning landscaping there,but it looks really bad now. Does anyone know about the plans for this area?
Also they had posted trail improvements coming signs along the trail in that area. Has any trail improvement project begun? When are these projects set to get underway? All I have seen is the signs.
Quakerrocker,
The property was rezoned some months ago. I vaguely remember it having something to do with something auto (racing) related on the manufacturing end.
As for the River Trail (capital projects are awarded from Ingham County, now), the 2017 applications opened in late July and will close early next year. Looking at the awards granted for the last round, it appears the location you are talking about is planned for (river)bank stabilization, which is why they had to cut down the trees.
You could contact the city park's director (brett.kaschinske@lansingmi.gov) if you have any more questions about this. He's usually always gotten back to me when I've had questioins. You could also contact the Friends of the Lansing Regional Trails (http://lansingtrails.org/Contact/). An August 23rd post on their facebook page talks about bridge repairs starting in December, possibly, with repaving beginning next April.
Just looking at next week's council agenda, a little project has made it under the radar. A developer is requesting a Special Land Use permit for vacant property immediately south of the Pere Marquette townhomes. They need the SLU permit because they want to build an apartment building in what is an area zoned as light industrial. In fact, most of the stadium district (between the railroad tracks and the river) is still zoned light industrial for some reason, though the eventual adoption of the Form-Base Code in the 2012 master plan has the area designated "Downtown Mixed Use Center: Edge" which something like this would be deemed compatible.
Anyway, the of the departments of the city that had anything to say during the review of the permit, Development questioned if there would be enough on-site parking, and Public Service had a lot to say about the underground infrastructure of the site. As for the actual building, very few details are given though the city council packet does mention a "4-5 story building" and the conceptual rendering does seem to show that (looks like the top floor is double-height or contains two-story units).
EDIT: Another ugly little thing. lol
I hope that you are right about the river bank stabilization, but the trees the were cut down are on the other side of the river from the river trail, in front of the old Knapp's warehouse that is being redeveloped. I believe that it is private property on the south bank. I have been thinking they would landscape the area they clear cut, but nothing has happened there since they cut down about 40 or 50 large mature trees and everything else in front of the building all the way down to the rail bridge. It just looks bad now, maybe they have not gotten that far yet, as work is still being done on the building.
I sese what you meant, now. I haven't been down in the area in so long I was having a hard time pictureing it. If the trees were cut down at the old Knapp's warehouse (Potter Flats), then it doesn't have anything to do with the river trail.
Anyway, I poured over the city council minutes and planning board minutes and planning and development community minutes...and could find nothing accept all of the talk over the brownfiled plan (#65). It was so weird I couldn't find anything related to the actual plan.
Since we're talking about that project, I'll give you yet some more email addresses for contacts for who would know something like this. Bob Johnson (rjohnson@lansingmi.gov) is director of planning & development for the city, and Sue Stachowiak (susan.stachowiak@lansingmi.gov) is the city's zoning administrator who is incredibly knowledgeable about projects going on in the city. Sue always answers her emails (I haven't written Bob in years).
For some reason I thought brownfield plan documents were on the city's website at one time, but I can't find them. I'm actually kind of curious how this project got going being that the entire parcel is in the 100 year floodplain. You can file for a Special Land Use permit for this kind of thing, but, again, I couldn't find any records for such a thing which is weird for a project of this size.
I imagine there has to be some good reason for them to cut trees as part of the project since it costs money to cut them. It's not like they did it for the views given the buildings future usage. Just spitballing, but maybe they are going to build a access pathway back there (maybe for emergency vehicles/personnel) and given how incredibly close this is to the river they had to cut the trees down to build the pathway?