This really is unfortunate to hear. As someone who lives in the Westside neighborhood, I was really hoping this would turn out better than what they had in their plan. Guess that was wishful thinking. That stretch of Saginaw really needs some improvement. I too have to say I can't stand Lansing Township as it currently is.
I do have to wonder about their leadership. It seems the need for storage businesses is unlimited in the area. I can not understand why they would just be so complacent and seem to not really care about what is built on this huge piece of land. The City of Lansing should have kept that land. It looks like W. Saginaw will get the same treatment as the people who live on their streets on the East side, neglect and poor planning.
I can't say I'm surprised, it is Lansing Township after all. That stretch of Saginaw really needed a boost to get it pointed in the right direction, these businesses will not do much if anything to further that cause.
I still advocate my strategy to neuter Lansing Township: Do what we did in 2018 with the Jolly/Wavlery intersection annexation. It's unlikely we'd get many residents of the township to want to join Lansing, but you can take their commercial and industrial tax base away from them to make them more amenable to future negotiations. All you have to do is find some industrial or commercial properties you want in the city contiguous with Lansing, find a favorable homeowner or two, and put that up for a referendum since only those residents and city residents would be allowed to vote.
In the case of Jolly/Waverly, a landowner on Waverly who wanted annexation because of Lansing's favorable zoning code drew an adjacent home on Waverly into the process to petition for annexation. The landowner was hoping to get zoning approval for a marijuana facility (this never happened), and the adjacent household wanted to connect to Lansing's sewer service. Lansing voters approved the annexation as did 100% of the residents of the portion to be annexed: the two residents of the residential parcel in the annexation zone.
I'm about 99% sure that so long as the territory to be annexed has ANY elected voters on it, the businesses don't get a say, so you wouldn't even necessarily need approval from the business owners to go through with this. In many cases, I think this isn't done simply because few people are versed enough on state annexation law to know this exists. In other cases, it's seen as aggressive and leaves bad blood between communities; but we've already got bad blood with Lansing Township. lol One last issue that discourages this is if you attempt to do this with a large property owner/business with deep enough pockets to keep a lawsuit going; the city may not want to be involved in a fight like that. This is why you slowly eat up as many smaller parcels as you can.
But, yeah, there is definitely an option if a mayor ever had the courage to take it.
The ineptitude of Lansing Township officials continues, they are struggling to refund some overpaid taxes by Wal Mart and Sam's Club, the county is having to step in and help. I find this sort of amusing:
I'd laugh, but this is exactly why this portion of the township, at least, should be taken from them. How they continuously face bankruptcy over Eastwood take a special kind of stupid mismanagement, and their residents are paying for it with special assesments.
Were I the mayor, if I wouldn't have found some favorable residents outright to attach to the mall to help with annexation, I'd have threatened it and forced them into a 425 conditional land transfer agreement to get control of the center and work this out and get that area booming like it should have been. The township does not have the expertise to manage something like this; they've shown that over and over and over again, now.
Edit: Apparently, the township supervisor quit recently without telling someone, just as they had finally found a temporary clerk. I wish we had a more aggressive mayor; this would be the time to start pressuring the township. The options will eventually be bankruptcy or some kind of deal with Lansing; if I were them, I'd take the latter.
My Aunt recently sold her house in the Township and apparently they're somehow now coming after her for the property tax assessment related to the township debt. She said people she talked to are angry, she mentioned people talking about dissolving the township into Lansing without me even bringing it up. I really don't know how all this will play out.
Yeah, they Heights has never been able to pay back enough of the bonds put out to develop it, and the Township has had to keep putting money into paying them off so as not to default. So its increasingly eating up more and more of the townships revenues which is why the special assessment was needed.
I'd said it earlier, but the township does not have the ability to pay off the bonds. Eventually, something's gonna give. They are going to have to declare bankruptcy or merge with Lansing, which has the tax-base that could effectively pay off these bonds.
I'm just surprised no one has brought up this reality. Schor has said absolutely nothing about it; nor has the county clerk.
The stage is being set for something to happen, I wouldn't be surprised to see a merge talked about by somebody that matters at some point.
The Heights is just an odd thing, it's the densest part of Eastwood and it's an island way out on the edge of the development. If they connect to Wood and Coleman along with building more while sticking to the urban/multi-floor layout it should prove successful; a State Rd or Coleman exit from 127 would also be wise. Perhaps Eyde will just end up making a deal for more land out there or something?
Comments
In the case of Jolly/Waverly, a landowner on Waverly who wanted annexation because of Lansing's favorable zoning code drew an adjacent home on Waverly into the process to petition for annexation. The landowner was hoping to get zoning approval for a marijuana facility (this never happened), and the adjacent household wanted to connect to Lansing's sewer service. Lansing voters approved the annexation as did 100% of the residents of the portion to be annexed: the two residents of the residential parcel in the annexation zone.
I'm about 99% sure that so long as the territory to be annexed has ANY elected voters on it, the businesses don't get a say, so you wouldn't even necessarily need approval from the business owners to go through with this. In many cases, I think this isn't done simply because few people are versed enough on state annexation law to know this exists. In other cases, it's seen as aggressive and leaves bad blood between communities; but we've already got bad blood with Lansing Township. lol One last issue that discourages this is if you attempt to do this with a large property owner/business with deep enough pockets to keep a lawsuit going; the city may not want to be involved in a fight like that. This is why you slowly eat up as many smaller parcels as you can.
But, yeah, there is definitely an option if a mayor ever had the courage to take it.
https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/lansing-township-struggles-amid-3-million-owed-to-walmart,20472
Were I the mayor, if I wouldn't have found some favorable residents outright to attach to the mall to help with annexation, I'd have threatened it and forced them into a 425 conditional land transfer agreement to get control of the center and work this out and get that area booming like it should have been. The township does not have the expertise to manage something like this; they've shown that over and over and over again, now.
Edit: Apparently, the township supervisor quit recently without telling someone, just as they had finally found a temporary clerk. I wish we had a more aggressive mayor; this would be the time to start pressuring the township. The options will eventually be bankruptcy or some kind of deal with Lansing; if I were them, I'd take the latter.
My Aunt recently sold her house in the Township and apparently they're somehow now coming after her for the property tax assessment related to the township debt. She said people she talked to are angry, she mentioned people talking about dissolving the township into Lansing without me even bringing it up. I really don't know how all this will play out.
I'd said it earlier, but the township does not have the ability to pay off the bonds. Eventually, something's gonna give. They are going to have to declare bankruptcy or merge with Lansing, which has the tax-base that could effectively pay off these bonds.
I'm just surprised no one has brought up this reality. Schor has said absolutely nothing about it; nor has the county clerk.
The Heights is just an odd thing, it's the densest part of Eastwood and it's an island way out on the edge of the development. If they connect to Wood and Coleman along with building more while sticking to the urban/multi-floor layout it should prove successful; a State Rd or Coleman exit from 127 would also be wise. Perhaps Eyde will just end up making a deal for more land out there or something?