The Northern tier is definately sprawl as far as I'm concerned. Maybe not as bad as some of the scattered incoherent sprawl of so many other areas, but still sprawl. I will at least give East Lansing the credit for making development in the Northern Tier dense and relatively organized.
Beyond the built-up units stretches a pre-apocalyptic vision. Eerily empty streets, complete with light poles and utility hookups, await tenants — and houses. “I have no problems with development, but the development shouldn’t be pushing the utilities,” [Jared] Wein said. “It should be following where the utilities already are.”
Van Ravensway literally jumped out of his chair at the suggestion that East Lansing is encouraging sprawl. He walked into a hallway and pointed to a gap-toothed spot on the map where Lansing and Meridian Township flank East Lansing’s northern spur.
“This is not urban sprawl,” he said. “It’s right in the center of the urban area. This is filling in where development should occur relative to the rest of the world. What’s sprawl is developing out of Williamston and Grand Ledge.”
As much as I dislike it sprawl will probably forever continue to be where most development takes place, no matter what. So if sprawl can look like the northern tier and Eastwood Town Center and the cities are still being redeveloped to a reasonable extent, I can at least remain content.
The city continues to work on feasibility of the project, including ongoing discussions with MSU regarding the museum. Its possible we may have a site plan ready in early 2008.
No demolition is planned for 2007.
It doesn't look good for the project. My guess is that with the tight university budget and the relocation of the art museum, this project may be scaled down quite a bit.
State News article today on some students/current residents in the area fighting City Center II with the fear that emminent domain would be used to acquire property beyond that already planned. The article also mentions that about 80% of the property required for the project has already been acquired.
P.S.: Jared, if this project is now just "Michigan Museum Place," and not "City Center II," I could repost this.
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The article can be found here: A college town builds a year-round downtown
P.S.: Jared, if this project is now just "Michigan Museum Place," and not "City Center II," I could repost this.