Wow they finally have taken up "my" idea for the fish ladder. I wonder has anyone ever seen a fish going up the ladder? I was around when they built it [for the new introduced salmon] and I never saw any fish.
- A request for rezoning of 0.95-acre parcel adjacent and to the south of the old Lansing Fire Department Station No. 10 from single-family to mutlifamily to construct a two 5-unit rowhome on the site of a single-family home. There are no attached units on Pleasant grove in the immediate vicinity, but the parcel backs up unto the giant Colonial CoOp. Immediately north of it is the old fire station and south of it a BWL substation and the office for the Colonial CoOp, so it wouldn't really be out of character for its immediate area on its side of the street. It will stretch legth-wise across the parcel with a private driveway.
- The Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) proposal which was tabled in June is back up for approval. This would allow the construction of an ADU on a residential property is most of the city. To be eligible, the size of the lot has to be a minimum of 1.5 times the size of the district in which its in. So that's 7,500 sq ft for R-1, and 6,000 sq ft for everything else.
- Finally, a kind of housekeeping thing, but the city is proposing to purchase the old McClaren overflow parking lot along South Washington to formally allow for its combination with the parcel to the south for the new Public Safety Complex. I thought this had already happened, honestly, especially since construction is currently happening on both parcels, right?
BTW, had not known there is going to be a parking garage, on-site, and it begs the question of why they didn't simply make it bigger or place it behind the min building to allow for other uses on the site.
- Just two requests for variances to allow for chained-linked fences with barbed wire on two property's front yards. I think this should be rejected on their face. I've noticed a lot of dispensaries getting awat with this, and we really need to tamp down on this. If theft is a problem, that's something we need to deal with on the social end of things and/or with other on-site means of control.
To make matters worse, one of these requests is to add barbed wire in the front yard of the WLNS news studio on Saginaw. Ummm, NO. Tf outta here with that.
I hope the city would not allow a cyclone barbed wire fence in front of what could be called an historic building. Is crime that bad around there?
Over on Michigan I noticed a new building going up at the GM auto dealership.
The site plan shown for the public safety building is different than the rendering released before. I also am even more disappointed in the front parking lot now that they've included a ramp. Why not ditch the front parking lot altogether? It's really quite ridiculous that they're building like this at all, much less in an old pre-war neighborhood. Bad design.
I did not vote for the public safety millage, it felt too much like a blank check to me. I continue to be incredibly unhappy that so much of city's potential debt load will be taken up by this when the money could have went to so many more economically productive investments. Things like a new/expanded Lansing Center, significantly improved parks, a major outdoor performance venue, an expanded/improved Ovation, Michigan Ave light rail, more money for city hall (that could have included most of these facilities), I'm sure the list could go on... This is going to be a burden for a long time, to get a garbage building out of it that's detrimental to the Washington corridor and the neighborhood is salt on the wound.
I forgot to mention my disdain for this proposal in my previous post. If they really must have a fence, which I wouldn't be thrilled about in any capacity, they can fork over the money for one of those black faux-wrought iron security fences. Thankfully it sounds as though the request for a variance this will be a non-starter with the city.
Seeing that Cinnaire, which I guess is best described as a developer of lower-income housing units, appears to have bought the old Lansing Housing Commission site in late May. I think this is Riverview 220. BTW, what's going to happen to the housing proposed for the city immediately to the south that will now be city hall? Seems like they could just add it to Riverview 220, honestly.
RE: Riverview 220, I hadn't heard any of that but my guess is LHC pivoted from Boji to Cinnaire to be their developer for the project. Their architect is finalizing out minor revisions, but I know the City still wants to completely retool the block for the best building configuration. LHC still has a phase I here and then moved their phase II plans a block to the south.
I just see it listed as "Preservation Nonprofit Housing Corp", how'd you figure out that company's name? Looks like the housing commission still owns the lot a block south, I'd imagine the reason they're two different projects is just funding related. It's promising that a non-LHC entity is entangled enough with the project to own the land.
I really hope the city and the LHC can work something out to retool the block. It'd be great to see city hall on the southeast corner of the block facing Kalamazoo Plaza/the river. That being said, it doesn't sound too promising if they're continuing to work out the final details of their design without this being settled, does it?
"Preservation Nonprofit Housing Corp." was obviously a shell, so I just saw the address. I don't know if the Boji's are part of the shell, but Cinnaire definitely appears to be the lead on this, now.
BTW, what do you guys mean the "block to the south"? My understanding is that we're talking about one block and the two different lots on that block.
Comments
- A request for rezoning of 0.95-acre parcel adjacent and to the south of the old Lansing Fire Department Station No. 10 from single-family to mutlifamily to construct a two 5-unit rowhome on the site of a single-family home. There are no attached units on Pleasant grove in the immediate vicinity, but the parcel backs up unto the giant Colonial CoOp. Immediately north of it is the old fire station and south of it a BWL substation and the office for the Colonial CoOp, so it wouldn't really be out of character for its immediate area on its side of the street. It will stretch legth-wise across the parcel with a private driveway.
- The Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) proposal which was tabled in June is back up for approval. This would allow the construction of an ADU on a residential property is most of the city. To be eligible, the size of the lot has to be a minimum of 1.5 times the size of the district in which its in. So that's 7,500 sq ft for R-1, and 6,000 sq ft for everything else.
- Finally, a kind of housekeeping thing, but the city is proposing to purchase the old McClaren overflow parking lot along South Washington to formally allow for its combination with the parcel to the south for the new Public Safety Complex. I thought this had already happened, honestly, especially since construction is currently happening on both parcels, right?
BTW, had not known there is going to be a parking garage, on-site, and it begs the question of why they didn't simply make it bigger or place it behind the min building to allow for other uses on the site.
- Just two requests for variances to allow for chained-linked fences with barbed wire on two property's front yards. I think this should be rejected on their face. I've noticed a lot of dispensaries getting awat with this, and we really need to tamp down on this. If theft is a problem, that's something we need to deal with on the social end of things and/or with other on-site means of control.
To make matters worse, one of these requests is to add barbed wire in the front yard of the WLNS news studio on Saginaw. Ummm, NO. Tf outta here with that.
Over on Michigan I noticed a new building going up at the GM auto dealership.
I did not vote for the public safety millage, it felt too much like a blank check to me. I continue to be incredibly unhappy that so much of city's potential debt load will be taken up by this when the money could have went to so many more economically productive investments. Things like a new/expanded Lansing Center, significantly improved parks, a major outdoor performance venue, an expanded/improved Ovation, Michigan Ave light rail, more money for city hall (that could have included most of these facilities), I'm sure the list could go on... This is going to be a burden for a long time, to get a garbage building out of it that's detrimental to the Washington corridor and the neighborhood is salt on the wound.
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/wlns-tv-seeks-to-add-barbed-wire-fencing-at-its-saginaw-street-headquarters,105372
I forgot to mention my disdain for this proposal in my previous post. If they really must have a fence, which I wouldn't be thrilled about in any capacity, they can fork over the money for one of those black faux-wrought iron security fences. Thankfully it sounds as though the request for a variance this will be a non-starter with the city.
...Also two more stories out of City Pulse, one on Walter French and another on school reuse more generally, both worth the read:
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/white-house-visit-highlights-conversion-of-walter-french-to-housing,105284
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/repurposing-lansings-old-schools,105285
I really hope the city and the LHC can work something out to retool the block. It'd be great to see city hall on the southeast corner of the block facing Kalamazoo Plaza/the river. That being said, it doesn't sound too promising if they're continuing to work out the final details of their design without this being settled, does it?
BTW, what do you guys mean the "block to the south"? My understanding is that we're talking about one block and the two different lots on that block.