General Lansing Development

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  • edited September 2018

    So, this is currently happening:

    Apparently, Lansing United would become "Lansing Ignite" under this proposal and owner of the Lugnuts would run and manage the team.

    I think that CLSP is already kind of awkward for baseball as it is; soccer seems an even odder physical fit within the confines. But, I guess that's better than them coming to the city asking for subsidies to built a purpse-built soccer stadium in the city, though that would definitely be a more enjoyable fan experience, I'd think.

  • Yeah this layout looks really awkward to me. I do expect that they will ask for city money to pay for changes to the stadium, of which I hope they're denied. Public money should stop going towards professional sports.

  • edited September 2018

    I guess the good thing about a shared stadium, and that the owner owns another team which already plays in the stadium, is that they won't be asking for a lot. I'm really not a fundamentalist on the issue; very few teams get by without requesting capital costs from their respective cities. I don't suspect this will be an exception. Anyway, this won't be anything to change for soccer. And fortunately for the city the last time their contract opened back up when they built the Outfield, they were able to clay back some of the revenue from the team.

  • I think overall it is good news. I assume this means that Lansing United is moving up to a higher league (I recall reading something earlier about that). This may be the best move available for the soccer team. Not sure where else in the Lansing area it would work. (Spartan Stadium, while too big, is also to narrow, with soccer fields being wider than football fields.) DeMartin Stadium at MSU is possible, though not a large facility. I always thought Lansing United's current field in the norther tier was a bit underwhelming. I agree that combined baseball and soccer (or football) facilities are a bit awkward. In the big leagues, I believe that the Oakland CA Coliseum is the only combined baseball/football facility still in use (and the football team is departing there soon). Just not ideal from a fan experience.

  • With regards to Cooley Law School stadium, to me it's not the best ballpark ever, though I think it is fine architecturally. Curious what you feel is awkward there? Lugnuts games there, in my opinion, are enjoyable. The Outfield Apts make the stadium unique. The most awkward thing to me is the stadium feels a bit squeezed between Larch and Cedar streets. I like the downtown location (contrast with WhiteCaps's field "5/3 Park" north of Grand Rapids along the expressway. A nice facility, but the location 5 miles north of the city is underwhelming.) That's actually one thing I think Lansing got right back in the mid-90s. Without the Stadium we wouldn't have the Stadium... District. It makes for another thing to do downtown.

  • I was commenting on the dimensions. Yes, being squeezed in between Larch and Cedar creates some interesting (awkward) dimensions and angles. It also cuts down on the number of seats. Not that I don't enjoy the park; like you said, it's one of the things the city did right. But the site does have its constraints.

    Anyway, yes, the team is going up division. The other big piece of this is that the club supporters are not - and were never happy about even the idea - of this move, and they announced in the Journal article that they are basically pulling their support. Not a good way to start out, but hopefully they can get some new cross-over Lugnuts fans, and perhaps just new urban fans from being located in the growing downtown. I can tell you that as someone who's not really a soccer fan and thus wouldn't have ever thought about going to a Lansing United game, that I'm definitely going to check out Lansing Ignite if this proposal goes through.

  • edited September 2018

    Looks like the council unanimously (kind of rare these days to get an 8-0 vote from council) approved the framework for the street parking permitting system.

    It has not yet been determined exactly how much a parking permit will cost. Council will set the fee at a later date. Additionally, City Council has yet to vote to draw the boundaries for zones where overnight street parking will be allowed.

    The cost of a street parking permit would likely be less than the cost of a parking pass in a downtown garage, Spadafore said. Parking rates for city-owned garages range from $90 to $170 per month.

    Currently, Lansing bans parking on all city streets between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.,although that ban is rarely enforced. The new ordinance allows City Council to create areas known as residential street parking zones, in which that ban would not apply, assuming that people who live within those zones obtain a permit.

    Because Lansing's downtown is busiest when state workers congregate during daylight hours, Spadafore said the ordinance is intended to make use of parking spots that would otherwise sit vacant overnight. Spadafore suggested the Reutter Park area of Lansing's downtown might function well as the first designated permit parking zone.

    >

    Spadafore introduced the ordinance and said he modeled the system on parking policies in other cities like Madison, Wisconsin and Seattle.

  • edited September 2018

    Not anything new for Monday's Development & Planning Committee, just things looking to move foward.

    • Public hearing will be set for 930 West Holmes (Midwest Self Storage). That will likely occur on October 8th, which is the next scheduled council meeting.

    • Brownfield and planned residential development special land use permit for Volaris/Waypoint Lansing down at 3600 Dunckel are up again, stopped in the process last week (regular meeting of the committe on Monday, and special meeting of the committee on Friday) because the council wants formal confirmation that the developer will work with local labor. Developer has already said they've had discussions, but the committee wanted proof. We'll see if they can produce the proof on Monday.

    That's it for next week.

  • It is really very exciting that this building is going to be repurposed, and hundreds of people will soon be living there.
    I listened to an interview with Jody Washington that I found on Urban Systems website and she seemed to say that many more projects are in the pipeline for her ward and for Lansing in general. She said she was not at liberty to tell what they are going to be, but she did mention The Wing on Hazel among others. When I see another year flipping over the calendar soon and many projects have yet to start it was reassuring to hear a councilperson speaking so confidently about these long-awaited developments. Let's get some shovels in the ground sooner than later.

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