Grand Traverse Pie makes the best pie in the world. Their Long Berry Crumble (I think is what it's called) is awesome. Apples, strawberries, and rasberries, under a cinnamon-brown sugar crumble top, I wish I had a piece right now.
The Ingham County Landbank has rejected a proposal for apartments to be built on the site of The Dollar nightclub. The apartments would house up to 200 students and professionals. I would like to see a mixed-use building built, and I'm not sure if the current proposal was for mixed-use. I do agree that a bar is probably not the best idea for the location, and with the large housing units being built across the street, it would fit the character to match it on the north side of Michigan Ave.
At the meeting, the developer said the problem with mixed use at that site is that it's in the flood plain. It makes it much more difficult to do street-level retail or offices - although he emphasized that plans could change as he and the county worked through the process and talked more about what they each wanted (and how it could be paid for).
I found it really interesting, though, that there was so much neighborhood support for housing at the site, yet the authority board turned down the only housing proposal they received. (Apparently five or six developers expressed interest in the site, but only two proposals were turned in.) I wonder if it all could have something to do with this authority - made up of county commissioners - having no experience in this kind of development process.
If I remember correctly, the only thing Campus Village and Riverwalk have at street-level is parking. Any living or commercial space is raised above flood level - which puts those spaces up in the air nearly a story from the street.
Could there be some way to get street-level commercial use in a flood plain? Maybe. But the construction cost probably goes up to meet insurance requirements. That was the developer's point.
The existing buildings in the flood plain area near Frandor were built at a different time, with different rules (either on the part of government - from the locals to the state DEQ - and insurance companies, which don't want to insure places that are sure eventually to flood).
Right, and the drainage for the older buildings is simply taking all the excess water and pushing it to the Red Cedar Golf Course and the Red Cedar River. That is why there needs to be reconstruction to stop relocation of rain water, and newer buildings have to incorporate a different strategy for handling the accumulation of rain water.
This is pretty cool and I REALLY hope that this project becomes a realization.
At Tuesday's council meeting:
Consideration of a resolution to provide a 20% local match to construct a non-motorized pathway along Saginaw between Coolidge Road and Hagadorn Road.
Saginaw is one of the least accessible roads in East Lansing. With sidewalks only on the south side of the street between Harrison and Abbott, sidewalks only on the north side between Coolidge and Harrison, and no sidewalks between Abbott and Hagadorn. This will also make it easier to connect the East Lansing trails system with Lansing's RiverWalk trails.
I agree, Saginaw really needs some non-motorized facilities... Pathways alongside highways have a very high collision rate though, usually with turning vehicles, so they'll have to be careful when/if they design it.
Bikers would already be able to connect between the proposed route and Lansing River Trail by proceeding down the River Corridor (the east-west trail on campus) until they got to Kalamazoo Street, then head north to Abbott Road, and then just use the bike lanes up Abbott to get to Saginaw. Since the River Corridor section between Brody and Kalamazoo is scheduled to be redone with separate bike/ped paths in the very near future, a biker could get between the two trails with only the two small bike-lane "gaps" on Abbott to deal with... and even those are (in the long-term) going to be filled.
Comments
Ingham Co. Rejects Proposal for Dollar
I found it really interesting, though, that there was so much neighborhood support for housing at the site, yet the authority board turned down the only housing proposal they received. (Apparently five or six developers expressed interest in the site, but only two proposals were turned in.) I wonder if it all could have something to do with this authority - made up of county commissioners - having no experience in this kind of development process.
Could there be some way to get street-level commercial use in a flood plain? Maybe. But the construction cost probably goes up to meet insurance requirements. That was the developer's point.
At Tuesday's council meeting: Saginaw is one of the least accessible roads in East Lansing. With sidewalks only on the south side of the street between Harrison and Abbott, sidewalks only on the north side between Coolidge and Harrison, and no sidewalks between Abbott and Hagadorn. This will also make it easier to connect the East Lansing trails system with Lansing's RiverWalk trails.
Bikers would already be able to connect between the proposed route and Lansing River Trail by proceeding down the River Corridor (the east-west trail on campus) until they got to Kalamazoo Street, then head north to Abbott Road, and then just use the bike lanes up Abbott to get to Saginaw. Since the River Corridor section between Brody and Kalamazoo is scheduled to be redone with separate bike/ped paths in the very near future, a biker could get between the two trails with only the two small bike-lane "gaps" on Abbott to deal with... and even those are (in the long-term) going to be filled.