Not a huge development - though, every little things helps - but CATA is upgrading many of its bus stops on Cedar (Route #5/#46) with benches an post-attached trash cans. Didn't see any shelters, but even just adding a bench gives the stops a bit more a sense of permanence.
The Lansing City Pulse is reporting that the city council approved the reporposing of the old hotel at Dunckel and US 127/I-496 into a 142-unit apartment complex. I believe the project is called "The House." Better yet, they aren't requesting any tax incentives for the project.
Interesting column comparing Lansing and Gd Rapids downtowns. Though much of it we've heard before. Downtowns
Some thoughts:
Not sure how much the suburban malls are affecting Lansing's downtown (granted Knapp's etc closed years ago)? While they doesn't seem to have as much of an effect in GR?
I agree benefactors have benefited GR. Who can Lansing look to for larger development proposals?
I think Lansing has a "real" downtown, just different. Though it's still behind the progress of GR. example: The westside of downtown is mostly government/state buildings, not as much excitement in terms of entertainment/night life there.
I've often considered MSU's effect on downtown Lansing. (Don't get me wrong, MSU IS a tremendous asset to Greater Lansing.) While GR has DeVos Hall, Van Andel arena, and GR Art Museum downtown, Lansing's equivalents are on MSU's campus (Wharton Center, Breslin, Broad Art Museum, etc.) Chances of a minor league hockey team downtown are perhaps diminished with Munn on campus?
[/ulist]
East Lansing and Lansing competing with each other hurts when trying to build a single solid downtown. Add to that some very fractured governments in the area that are pushing to create their own downtowns (Lansing Township and Bath Township). Having 127 cut right between the two cities creates an easy barrier for students to stop themselves from crossing (I wish 127 would have been built as a sunken and covered freeway for the crossings between Kalamazoo and Saginaw).
Lansing's downtown has been directly hurt by poor long-term development plans that only included office space and failed to include residential. Tons of surface parking lots and failure to incorporate some of the very valuable assets such as the Grand River and connection to MSU.
East Lansing's downtown has been limited by overly restrictive zoning laws that have blocked large scale development from being a possibility. There are too many ordinances that are designed to fight against student housing, which has done nothing but push the students out to the edges of the city.
East Lansing really has Grand Rapids beat when it comes to sporting events (football=70,000; basketball=16,000; etc), but MSU has done a poor job of trying to connect these large attractions to the rest of the city (with the only exception being the new Broad Art Museum). For instance, MSU owns the land across from the Breslin Center, and could easily sell it to a developer who could build a large mixed-use development on the site. Instead the area sits as a surface parking lot now. But it would have been great if MSU had built the Breslin Center closer to Michigan Ave/Grand River.
I thought Schneider's blog post was really lazy, to be honest, and he steps all over his argument in the very first line. First, Grand Rapids really does have a better downtown, but that's mostly because of the size difference and the pull of the cities. Grands Rapids urban area and metropolitan population is slightly over twice as large as Lansing's. These are tow different tiers of cities. Grand Rapids also pulls from a significantly larger region. Lansing's metropolitan area is literally wedged between and abuts Grand Rapids, Flint and Detroit. This means a smaller airport, and it means apart from MSU smaller or no venues for large concerts and such, at all, since people simply use the venues in the other areas.
But, the biggest mistake of the column was admitting that he was comparing a Lansing afternoon/evening to an afternoon or evening at ArtPrize. This will skew your view of things no matter what. Again, Grand Rapids has a larger and livelier downtown, regardless, but let's compare apples-to-apples as far as the time of day is concerned.
I REALLY agree with Jared's observation that bad planning is what has really prevented downtown Lansing from realizing it's potential. The biggest mistake the city ever made was basically leveling everything west of Walnut, and then also turning all of the streets one-way giving priority to the car. Lansing made a mistake very early in its history of building wide roads. Roads like Capitol and Grand are much wider than they'd be in other cities of this size. One of the first thing you notice driving around Grand Rapids, for instance, is how much more human scaled even the major roads are.
I'd really like to see the west and south sides of downtown filled back in with neighborhoods, because that would mean more support for the businesses in the core of downtown (east of Walnut). It'd increase density along Washington and Grand and such. With the lack of an actual neighborhood to the west, anymore, you essentially have an drive-in/drive-out office/entertainment park. There needs to be a neighborhood to support the kind of local businesses that make for a vibrant neighborhood.
Another not-so-big piece of news, but I was driving by East Village on Saginaw yesterday evening. Along with all of the homesites coming along so well, I notice they are planting a significant amount more trees than I've seen. This will really help it blend in a bit more when the subdivision ultimately matures into a neighborhood decades down the road. I've always thought a huge part of a lot of new suburban subdivisions is that many don't plant trees out front. It makes me wonder if Allen Edwin Homes was required by the city to do this, or if this has always been the plan? Either way, it's going to look nice in the future.
It's a small thing, but there is a sign on the empty lot west of Grand Traverse Pie Co at Jolly/Okemos saying MSUFCU is going to be building a new branch there.
Good catch, I did notice that too. Interesting is that there is no mention of that location yet on the MSUFCU web site. The new Mason branch is under construction (southside of Mason near Kipp Rd/Cedar St) and is listed in the locations section ('coming soon') on the credit union web site. There also is a second location that opened near Oakland University recently. I wish they would have opened a location in Holt, near Holt Rd perhaps. The nearest locations from Holt are probably the southside/Jolly Rd or Farm Lane branches. Seems like suburbs -- DeWitt, Grand Ledge, Williamston -- would be logical locations for future branches.
Just got around to reading last week's City Pulse and noticed a Notice of Public Hearing (November 6) for the rezoning of the old Moores Park Elementary at 316 Moores River Drive right on the park, there. Apparently, some company wants it rezoned to D-1 Professional Office District to allow for "an experimental, research, and development laboratory" in the building with a Special Use Permit.
I do recall years ago hearing about interest in the school for something like this, but my memory is really hazy. I guess we'll just have to November 6 to hear about exactly who "Moores River Holding, LLC" is and what they do. I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's Neogen. lol
Comments
Downtowns
Some thoughts:
Not sure how much the suburban malls are affecting Lansing's downtown (granted Knapp's etc closed years ago)? While they doesn't seem to have as much of an effect in GR?
I agree benefactors have benefited GR. Who can Lansing look to for larger development proposals?
I think Lansing has a "real" downtown, just different. Though it's still behind the progress of GR. example: The westside of downtown is mostly government/state buildings, not as much excitement in terms of entertainment/night life there.
I've often considered MSU's effect on downtown Lansing. (Don't get me wrong, MSU IS a tremendous asset to Greater Lansing.) While GR has DeVos Hall, Van Andel arena, and GR Art Museum downtown, Lansing's equivalents are on MSU's campus (Wharton Center, Breslin, Broad Art Museum, etc.) Chances of a minor league hockey team downtown are perhaps diminished with Munn on campus?
[/ulist]
Lansing's downtown has been directly hurt by poor long-term development plans that only included office space and failed to include residential. Tons of surface parking lots and failure to incorporate some of the very valuable assets such as the Grand River and connection to MSU.
East Lansing's downtown has been limited by overly restrictive zoning laws that have blocked large scale development from being a possibility. There are too many ordinances that are designed to fight against student housing, which has done nothing but push the students out to the edges of the city.
East Lansing really has Grand Rapids beat when it comes to sporting events (football=70,000; basketball=16,000; etc), but MSU has done a poor job of trying to connect these large attractions to the rest of the city (with the only exception being the new Broad Art Museum). For instance, MSU owns the land across from the Breslin Center, and could easily sell it to a developer who could build a large mixed-use development on the site. Instead the area sits as a surface parking lot now. But it would have been great if MSU had built the Breslin Center closer to Michigan Ave/Grand River.
But, the biggest mistake of the column was admitting that he was comparing a Lansing afternoon/evening to an afternoon or evening at ArtPrize. This will skew your view of things no matter what. Again, Grand Rapids has a larger and livelier downtown, regardless, but let's compare apples-to-apples as far as the time of day is concerned.
I REALLY agree with Jared's observation that bad planning is what has really prevented downtown Lansing from realizing it's potential. The biggest mistake the city ever made was basically leveling everything west of Walnut, and then also turning all of the streets one-way giving priority to the car. Lansing made a mistake very early in its history of building wide roads. Roads like Capitol and Grand are much wider than they'd be in other cities of this size. One of the first thing you notice driving around Grand Rapids, for instance, is how much more human scaled even the major roads are.
I'd really like to see the west and south sides of downtown filled back in with neighborhoods, because that would mean more support for the businesses in the core of downtown (east of Walnut). It'd increase density along Washington and Grand and such. With the lack of an actual neighborhood to the west, anymore, you essentially have an drive-in/drive-out office/entertainment park. There needs to be a neighborhood to support the kind of local businesses that make for a vibrant neighborhood.
I do recall years ago hearing about interest in the school for something like this, but my memory is really hazy. I guess we'll just have to November 6 to hear about exactly who "Moores River Holding, LLC" is and what they do. I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's Neogen. lol