General Lansing Development

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  • edited May 2019

    Almost nothing in this month's planning board agenda. But the one little thing I did catch was the final rezoning of the properties the city annexed from Delta Township last fall at the northwest corner of Jolly and Waverly.

    https://lansingmi.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_05072019-2614

    Every property annexed into the city is given an interim zoning, and then the city must decide 180 days after the annexation the final zoning. The city is recommending (for the properties that aren't the single family home on Jolly) either E-2 Local Shopping or F Commercial. The former is kind of self-explanatory; it allows for convience/neighborhood retail/commercial uses. However, only one property in the area is currently given that zoning, and it's the little gas station on the northeast corner. F Commercial allows for everything in E-2 Local Shopping + a whole bunch of other commercial uses. Every business currently existing on this strip would be allowed under F Commercial, so this is the one I hope they choose. F Commercial also has the added benefit of allowing residential apartments as a secondary usage.

    What's hilarious is that the owner of 4880 South Waverly sent a letter requesting that his own property be zoned G-2 Wholesale with a whole letter about how retail isn't working in this area. lol Like, even if you agree with that premise, there shouldn't be a single property along that part of Waverly that should be zoned for warehousing and such.

  • edited May 2019

    moved to existing thread

  • edited May 2019
    Covered, deleted.
  • Another slow month in city council-related development news, so far. But I did catch the transfer of a liquor license from 1908 East Michigan to Block600 under construction. I assume this must be for the hotel restaurant and market portions, though I'm not sure if they have to have seperate liquor licenses. 1908 is the Michigan Market party store on Michigan at the corner of Regent, so I wonder if this store is closing or something? It's a pretty big property, about a third-of-an-acre. It was an office building and warehouse I think until about 2013. The building was built in 1939 but has been covered in corrugated steel siding for as long as I can remember; it'd really be interesting to see what's under it.

  • edited May 2019

    Written about the revocation of the OPRA certificate for the old Holmes Street School project that had dragged for years back in February. Well, it looks like there is another redevelopment planned, but there are few details.

  • This is great news. I have been waiting to hear about this one since I moved back here in '15, it really is a nice building and finally, it is going to get a new life. [I hope]

  • edited May 2019

    Saw this a few days ago, but it looks like three old homes from 729 to 737 West Shiawassee have just been totally cleared. The further one east is at the corner of Dorrance Place, a block-long street that links Shiawassee with Oak Park, and the furthest one west was next door to the old Lansing Parks & Rec. facility that Neogen purchased a few years back and turned into a laboratory.

    It also appears that Neogen owned all three; I hope to god it's not for more parking, as Neogen had already turned a lot up against the railroad tracks into extra parking for the Shiawassee Street facility in addition to the parking already on site.

    I was really disappointed to see these three missing given how much was renovated or infilled in the neighborhood in the last 20 years. The three homes were built between 1885 to 1900, and none of them were vacant or in bad shape from my recent memories.

    Anyway, demolition permits were issued on April 25th. I really do hope this is for the expansion of the lab or that they do infill housing, here. And to end, I don't want to be too tough on Neogen not knowing anything about these demolitions, yet. Neogen has been an excellent neighbor in Oak Park; almost all of their facilities are renovated older buildings, and they got their rezoning recently for a little house on Lesher Place to renovate it. Also, the three homes were zoned H-Light Industrial, so they were never meant to stay homes forever. It was just shocking to see them demolished with no warning.

  • edited May 2019

    This week's City Pulse has an update on the study for the proposed performing arts center, which came back with both good and bad news. The good news is that it's not a pie-in-the-sky dream; it can actually happen. I guess the not-so-great news is that they say a conventional hall with 2,000 is not going to work. What they did find is a flexible space would work with 1,000 to 1,500, but the "flexible" part is also not great for the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, whold likely be the tenant with the most conventional needs in the new space. What also shouldn't be a surprise is that there isn't a well-heeled enough philanthropic community in the area that you could get away with managing it without a public subsidy of some sort. Though, they did say some entertainment or hotel tax could be a major part of funding the center. That would fall on customers and such.

    Long story short, if this happens it will be because the community really wants it.

  • Well, I've been following along and not participating because my computer was s broken and I hate typing on my phone...

    The news on Holmes St school is great.That neighborhood is really struggling and it could use something positive to help stabilize it. It was really weird how they got as far as putting steel up for the new atrium or whatever and suddenly stopped. It's been what, 10+ years?

    The "flexible space" scares me regarding the performing arts center. I don't know what that really means so I'll try to hold judgement but it sounds like something potentially not even resembling a concert hall. I find it incredibly hard to believe that downtown couldn't support a 1500 seat true concert hall, as long as it can accommodate more traditional bands it should do well. In the back of my head I've wondered if one of the previously mentioned proposals may be related to the old Michigan Theater, could Gentilozzi rebuild a theater on the back side as part of his development?
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