How'd the vote break down? Like I said, I'm really surprised they'd propose, again, basically the same plan which is out of conformity with the code on a number of issues.
Really interesting read. I was surprised to see the student group against the project, especially the part about the project destroying the "agricultural nature" of campus. lol
Really just blows my mind that Core Spaces would waste their time in pushing this forward instead of trying to first discuss this with council and the community to see what they might accept. Because as proposed, there is no way this would get built under the current code.
Oh, well. Like I've advocated for before, I don't see why the city doesn't just raise the max height in the downtown zoning district and East Village zoning district to 180 feet (what it is in Ann Arbor) or 200 feet with bonus components like affordable units, unique aspects, etc. Obviously, 140 feet is too small for the market, and 180 or 200 feet is still a full 100-120 feet off of what is generally considered the start of a skyscraper (300 feet). East Lansing is not a village; it's a full city of 50,000 permanent residences. But it still thinks of itself as a little college village. It's weird.
It seems interesting that they would say this plan is too tall. The street is a wide boulevard at that point and the college buildings are set back even further, seems like there would be no shadow problems there, I guess it is the density or number of "beds" they want to market to students. I think EL should be careful about turning down this project and going back to the bad old days of micro-managing these projects to death. It has taken decades to get this building boom rolling why stop it now?
Apparently, the University Student Commission. lol
I had to look them up. It's actually a city commission of 11 students who are supposed to help facilitate student/city relations, of which there appear to be some representation by the official student bodies on campus. The ASMSU appears to be represented along with Inter-Cooperative Conferece, the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council.
It appears from the article that they said the Farmhouse frat refused to sell (and would be sandwiched between the two towers), so maybe it has something to do with that since the frats are represented on the commission.
Talking about the agricultural nature of the campus near Bogue and Grand River is, of course, a joke. That said, even I tend to agree that these buildings are a little tall as their proposed. I'm not totally against the height of these buildings but if I were dictator of EL I would go with 8-10 floors here. I still love the design of these buildings and if the city can reach some sort of bargain ensuring more high quality materials will be used up to the higher floors and along more sides of the buildings then that's the kind of bargain I'd like to see made when negotiating things like zoning variances or even tax incentives. It's the quality of design and construction that should matter to the city and long term residents, it's what ensures the building will be desirable for decades to come, long after the initial developer is out of the picture.
This one goes to the city council for a public hearing. They can always move this to the business agenda and vote on it, but I seriously doubt that. It appears after the unanimous rejection by the planning commission, the developer has come back with some revised plans which included lowering the building heights to approximately 140 feet to match the max height limit by cutting off a floor from each building, cut the number of units by 157 going from 707 to 550 (though the number of beds wasn't cut much, only 9 fewer beds), added 3-and-4 bedroom units to the mix, and did something with the setbacks. Still doesn't address all concerns and is not completely compliant with the East Village zoning district, but they are going in the right direction. Here is the packet; new renderings and site plans start on page 35:
Should also be noted that requested changes to the East Village zoning district to help this project through the approval process as also up at this council meeting, and it looks like the city is allowing very few changes requested by the developer. No increased height, density, or anything. The changes the planning commission agreed with are largely cosmetic. So it looks like there will have to be further revisions of this one to get it to "fit" into the district.
Long story short, these new buildings will likely have be the same size as the first phase of The Hub and not a centimeter bigger if they hope to be approved by the city.
Comments
https://eastlansinginfo.org/content/planning-commission-airs-opposition-more-even-bigger-hub-towers
Really just blows my mind that Core Spaces would waste their time in pushing this forward instead of trying to first discuss this with council and the community to see what they might accept. Because as proposed, there is no way this would get built under the current code.
Oh, well. Like I've advocated for before, I don't see why the city doesn't just raise the max height in the downtown zoning district and East Village zoning district to 180 feet (what it is in Ann Arbor) or 200 feet with bonus components like affordable units, unique aspects, etc. Obviously, 140 feet is too small for the market, and 180 or 200 feet is still a full 100-120 feet off of what is generally considered the start of a skyscraper (300 feet). East Lansing is not a village; it's a full city of 50,000 permanent residences. But it still thinks of itself as a little college village. It's weird.
That is an embarrassing statement.
I had to look them up. It's actually a city commission of 11 students who are supposed to help facilitate student/city relations, of which there appear to be some representation by the official student bodies on campus. The ASMSU appears to be represented along with Inter-Cooperative Conferece, the Interfraternity Council and the Panhellenic Council.
It appears from the article that they said the Farmhouse frat refused to sell (and would be sandwiched between the two towers), so maybe it has something to do with that since the frats are represented on the commission.
https://cityofeastlansing.civicweb.net/document/26110/Consideration of a Site Plan and Special Use Pe.pdf?handle=A1BBC911977D49F396439ADF2529D453
Should also be noted that requested changes to the East Village zoning district to help this project through the approval process as also up at this council meeting, and it looks like the city is allowing very few changes requested by the developer. No increased height, density, or anything. The changes the planning commission agreed with are largely cosmetic. So it looks like there will have to be further revisions of this one to get it to "fit" into the district.
Long story short, these new buildings will likely have be the same size as the first phase of The Hub and not a centimeter bigger if they hope to be approved by the city.