I thought I heard this mentioned before, but City Pulse has a story on a developer who will be leasing part of Riverfront park north of Saginaw to build a zipline over the river: Let it Zip - City Pulse
I think I'm glad they chose a more isolated site than the other sites they considered. It'd have to be quite a bit more aesthetic for me not to view it as a blight. The location is also good since the west bank in this area isn't being used for anything, anyway. I always thought it was an underutilized area. I wonder if this is actually going to happen?
Oh, it seems the city sold off parking lot #24 to help make way for the East Town Flats. The city netted $50,000 from the sell. Also, certain parcels of land at the School for the Blind were formally rezoned to allow for higher density residential development. The new four-story affordable units building will include 72-units and be about 50-feet tall. The site plan in the city council packet also speaks to there being a mix of 1, 2 and 3-bedroom units, 16 bicycle parking spots along with the car parking spots. There is also 600 square feet in the apartment building for a police substation, which I think is a smart move. Willow Street in this area would do well to have some extra public safety presence in the actual neighborhood.
Yeah, I think the location for the zipline is right also, it's high profile but not highly utilized. My bet would be that this will happen, it seems like a relatively modest proposal and I expect it should do well. Little things like this can help a lot, I would think that this thing could easily bring 100+ people per day down there on nice days, more on the weekends. More people in the downtown area for just about any reason is a good thing.
It's good to see the School for the Blind project moving forward, I'm cautiously optimistic that it's for real this time. The neighborhoods north of Willow are really a problem for that area though, the neighborhoods to the east and to a lesser extent, the south, seem like they might make a comeback in the foreseeable future. I wonder what purpose a 600 sq ft police substation is supposed to serve though?
Hopefully the zipline would encourage the city to build a sidewalk along Grand Avenue between Saginaw and Oakland. How there isn't one already with a CATA bus stop there, I will not understand. I see people every once in a while walking in the street or trudging through the snow/grass after getting dropped off because there isn't one.
While I like to see sidewalks everywhere, since there is literally nothign between the Grand and the river, and the street only continues two more blocks, it's not a heavily traveled area, either. You can simply use the sidewalk on other side of the street. However, since they stretched the River Trail under Saginaw on the westbank, now, it does seem odd not to continue it at least up to Oakland.
Hood, a substation of that size would allow for probably a neighborhood officer to patrol the area, to take walk-in police reports, maybe even detain someone temporarily until they could be taken downtown. Whatever the purpose, any additional presense along Willow would be nice. Walnut and Old Forest, which are generally south and southeast of Willow really aren't that bad even if a bit run down. Knollwood Willow, which is generally the area to the north of Willow, however, has been a persistent problem, particularly the area west of the Consumers Energy service center. The little neighborhood commercial center at West Willow and Knollwood where the little liquor store is bad enough that it's where on of the few police cameras in the city's neighborhoods are. Haven't been up in the are regularly for a few years, so the cameras may have cut down on the open-air drug deals and such, but it was certainly one of the very few areas in the city where I was a bit more careful when I used to ride my bike around there.
I think a bit problem is the relative isolation of the neighborhood, and how the city kind of ignored it so the housing stock has deteriorated so much. I think this new affordable housing is a good start to stabilizing it, and the Ingham County Land Bank recently demolished the worst-of-the-worst of the housing stock up in this area that was abandoned. Maybe, if they could find a way to squeeze in some neighborhood retail along Willow, or maybe even clear out part of one of the side streets for some neighborhood retail, that would help. So, I guess the good thing is that it's not getting worse.
A big thing that really helped Walnut (the neighborhood that inclues the west end of Old Town up to Walnut Street) was Niowave moving in. Niowave bought up a lot of properties immediately around the old school and renovated them and sold them at market value, which in being in Lansing would be "affordable" anyway. They really messed up with the polebarn, but they really did bring back that neighborhood. Neogen did the same thing around Oak Park when they redid that old elementary school there for their corporate headquarters. That used to be a really rough area, too, and now I have no problems being in the area. It's why I'd still like to see some business presence on the site at the School for the Blind. There is more than enough land on the campus to find a place for some kind of creative business to locate. There is a small business in the old dean's houses or whatever near the corner of Pine and Willow, and then there is the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, but there might need to be more jobs in the immediate area to really change things.
Looking at some of the public hearings posted in Wednesday's City Pulse:
- Rezoning request for South Edge Lofts. All parcels to be reznoed to G-1 Business District, which is the city's basic mixed-use zoning classification. The request also clarifies something I wondered about, and that is that it leaves alone 605 South Capitol (repurposes four-square house), 105 West Hillsdale (beautiful repurposed Greek Revival home), and modernist office building at 616 South Washington.
- There is also a special land use proposal to put a 150-foot cellphone tower in the natural area that is Crego Park. I really wish Lansing would tighten its rules on cellphone towers to include aesthetic requirements. I have family out at nearby Evergreen and there is a tower in the nearby apartment complex behind the cemetery, but right at its corner and the ugly thing looms overhead. I know we need these, but I have seen other places where they try to disguise them, or at least make them look better. Anyway, they have to get an SLU because it's in the 100-year floodplain.
- There is a rezoning request for the empty land immediately west of the gas station at 3000 Dunckel Road (right off of 496) to allow for commercial use, most likely a convenience store or a small office building or something. Like pretty much everything east and south of Dunckel, it's currently zoned CUP (Community Unit Plan), which is basically the zoning for large suburban-style, multi-building apartment complexes.
- Lake Trust Credit Union wants the south half of their former headquarters site along Lenawee from office to G-1 Business District to allow for mixed-use development. Seems like this one is gearing up. Can't wait to see what's planned. We've seen the initial concept, but nothing solid.
Regarding the neighborhood north of Willow, I'd always thought the houses up there looked like they were a significant notch down in quality relative to the neighborhoods south and east of there. They seem to be smaller with less of the craftsmen touches that make many of the other older homes desirable for rehabilitation. I think that doomed the neighborhood a long time ago, although I'd definitely agree that the relative isolation and lack of a strong commercial corridor have done a lot to help in it's demise. The neighborhood north of Willow is one of the few older neighborhoods in the City that I don't believe has much chance of turning around. Beyond digging in to the specific reasons, the neighborhood just feels as though mediocrity is the absolute best it could hope for.
I'm very curious as to what they come up with for the Lake Trust site, development west of the river has been far too rare. Hopefully this is more than just a speculative rezoning and there's a real proposal around the corner.
Yeah, I don't have much hope for Knollwood Willow without it being totally redone. I don't think any single-family home neighborhood isolated by the river has much of a chance, these days. The isolation really just kills these neighborhoods as it concentrates the problems. Anything like this has to be built high quality from the beginning and it has to remain at least middle class and it's better if the units are in multi-unit buildings or attached single-family. Forever whatever reason, single-family rentals seem to be the death of neighborhood unable to keep their wealth over time. Landlords usually forget about them and the city doesn't regulate well enough, whereas they do seem to pay attention to rental multi-unit buildings a bit more. Same thing happened to Cherry Hill downtown (though, the rowhomes have helped a bit), and Riverpoint south of downtown. Cherry Hill also had a better housing stock. I think another big thing is the long north-south blocks which can make these neighborhoods unwalkable and places everything so much further from commercial districts. Same thing happened to the state streets on the northeast side. More cross streets would be necessary short of rezoning some areas along the existing long streets for neighborhood retail/business.
BTW, something else to bring back up. I was at the city website and noticed they have up the 2013 EPA's Greening America's Capitals program and report for Lansing. I remember when the city initially went into this and the concept was a park between the Hall of Justice and Capitol Complex to beautify and environmentally help the area. Well, after site planning and and some charrettes, they came up with something quite a bit more developed called Forever Park. It's really beautiful, especially the expanded Forever Park concept. They also restreetscape Allegan and Ottawa around the area. I think of the facts they give in the study, even though you just instictively know there is a lot of parking usage in the area in and immediately around the Capitol Complex (bound by Ottawa, Walnut, Kalamazoo and MLIK), I was surprised to find there are 717 public parking spots and 5,504 state employee parking spots (of 2,629 surface parking spots), and this does not even include the on-street metered parking. In the Forever Park site, itself, there are 838 parking spots split between three lots, one public and two state employee. This is important for the EPA to note as they are really concerned with using the park to help clean the river. Presently, the stormwater in the project area is funneled down eastward into the lower level of the parking garage beneath the Hannah and Ottawa buildings of the Capitol Complex expansion and then piped under that untreated straight to the Grand.
Anyway, if you want to go straight to the punch, the full concept rendering is on page 34. As for how to implement this project, since almost all of this is state property, nothing much can be done without their cooperation. The city can be the point person, but only as the state lets them, which is probably why we haven't heard much of this since the announcement. The report points to a proposed schedule starting on page 35 which includes things like a working group to hash things out between city and state and funding mechanisms. Interesting read.
Reading over the Forever Park proposal and seeing the site plan/rendering I'm pretty disappointed in the design they came up with, the proposal from the 80's was vastly more interesting. The design they show seems like nothing more than a grassy field with various plantings, the various streetscaping improvements they show are more significant than the park itself. It also bugs me that they didn't attempt to integrate the Vietnam Memorial and its surrounding land into the park, since this design was only conceptual they really should have been more adventurous. If this moves forward I hope it ends up with a better design, one that includes water features and perhaps some space for public art, it should really encompass the strip of land with the Vietnam Memorial also. I guess there's no reason to worry about it now though, it's long ways off from becoming reality and I'm sure if it does happen there will be plenty of changes along the way. I'm all for less surface parking downtown either way.
This would be great, but when looking at all the nice drawings of what it could look like,I get that sinking feeling that I have when I have looked at Lansing plans in the past. It all looks great but will they ever build it. Everything they have planned in the Capitol Complex once had a more ornate plan, a more beautiful landscaped park, beautiful friendly facades on the buildings. What is there is not really any of those things, just lots of walls and huge parking lots. Politicians who generally seem to hate the city of Lansing,always get a hold of the plan and that is the end of anything grand or special. Maybe somehow this new plan will get done. I am very impressed with the Capitol Building renovation, it looks so beautiful, especially right at sunset when the dome looks almost translucent in the new lighting. So may be there is hope after all.
Comments
Oh, it seems the city sold off parking lot #24 to help make way for the East Town Flats. The city netted $50,000 from the sell. Also, certain parcels of land at the School for the Blind were formally rezoned to allow for higher density residential development. The new four-story affordable units building will include 72-units and be about 50-feet tall. The site plan in the city council packet also speaks to there being a mix of 1, 2 and 3-bedroom units, 16 bicycle parking spots along with the car parking spots. There is also 600 square feet in the apartment building for a police substation, which I think is a smart move. Willow Street in this area would do well to have some extra public safety presence in the actual neighborhood.
It's good to see the School for the Blind project moving forward, I'm cautiously optimistic that it's for real this time. The neighborhoods north of Willow are really a problem for that area though, the neighborhoods to the east and to a lesser extent, the south, seem like they might make a comeback in the foreseeable future. I wonder what purpose a 600 sq ft police substation is supposed to serve though?
Hood, a substation of that size would allow for probably a neighborhood officer to patrol the area, to take walk-in police reports, maybe even detain someone temporarily until they could be taken downtown. Whatever the purpose, any additional presense along Willow would be nice. Walnut and Old Forest, which are generally south and southeast of Willow really aren't that bad even if a bit run down. Knollwood Willow, which is generally the area to the north of Willow, however, has been a persistent problem, particularly the area west of the Consumers Energy service center. The little neighborhood commercial center at West Willow and Knollwood where the little liquor store is bad enough that it's where on of the few police cameras in the city's neighborhoods are. Haven't been up in the are regularly for a few years, so the cameras may have cut down on the open-air drug deals and such, but it was certainly one of the very few areas in the city where I was a bit more careful when I used to ride my bike around there.
I think a bit problem is the relative isolation of the neighborhood, and how the city kind of ignored it so the housing stock has deteriorated so much. I think this new affordable housing is a good start to stabilizing it, and the Ingham County Land Bank recently demolished the worst-of-the-worst of the housing stock up in this area that was abandoned. Maybe, if they could find a way to squeeze in some neighborhood retail along Willow, or maybe even clear out part of one of the side streets for some neighborhood retail, that would help. So, I guess the good thing is that it's not getting worse.
A big thing that really helped Walnut (the neighborhood that inclues the west end of Old Town up to Walnut Street) was Niowave moving in. Niowave bought up a lot of properties immediately around the old school and renovated them and sold them at market value, which in being in Lansing would be "affordable" anyway. They really messed up with the polebarn, but they really did bring back that neighborhood. Neogen did the same thing around Oak Park when they redid that old elementary school there for their corporate headquarters. That used to be a really rough area, too, and now I have no problems being in the area. It's why I'd still like to see some business presence on the site at the School for the Blind. There is more than enough land on the campus to find a place for some kind of creative business to locate. There is a small business in the old dean's houses or whatever near the corner of Pine and Willow, and then there is the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, but there might need to be more jobs in the immediate area to really change things.
- Rezoning request for South Edge Lofts. All parcels to be reznoed to G-1 Business District, which is the city's basic mixed-use zoning classification. The request also clarifies something I wondered about, and that is that it leaves alone 605 South Capitol (repurposes four-square house), 105 West Hillsdale (beautiful repurposed Greek Revival home), and modernist office building at 616 South Washington.
- There is also a special land use proposal to put a 150-foot cellphone tower in the natural area that is Crego Park. I really wish Lansing would tighten its rules on cellphone towers to include aesthetic requirements. I have family out at nearby Evergreen and there is a tower in the nearby apartment complex behind the cemetery, but right at its corner and the ugly thing looms overhead. I know we need these, but I have seen other places where they try to disguise them, or at least make them look better. Anyway, they have to get an SLU because it's in the 100-year floodplain.
- There is a rezoning request for the empty land immediately west of the gas station at 3000 Dunckel Road (right off of 496) to allow for commercial use, most likely a convenience store or a small office building or something. Like pretty much everything east and south of Dunckel, it's currently zoned CUP (Community Unit Plan), which is basically the zoning for large suburban-style, multi-building apartment complexes.
- Lake Trust Credit Union wants the south half of their former headquarters site along Lenawee from office to G-1 Business District to allow for mixed-use development. Seems like this one is gearing up. Can't wait to see what's planned. We've seen the initial concept, but nothing solid.
I'm very curious as to what they come up with for the Lake Trust site, development west of the river has been far too rare. Hopefully this is more than just a speculative rezoning and there's a real proposal around the corner.
BTW, something else to bring back up. I was at the city website and noticed they have up the 2013 EPA's Greening America's Capitals program and report for Lansing. I remember when the city initially went into this and the concept was a park between the Hall of Justice and Capitol Complex to beautify and environmentally help the area. Well, after site planning and and some charrettes, they came up with something quite a bit more developed called Forever Park. It's really beautiful, especially the expanded Forever Park concept. They also restreetscape Allegan and Ottawa around the area. I think of the facts they give in the study, even though you just instictively know there is a lot of parking usage in the area in and immediately around the Capitol Complex (bound by Ottawa, Walnut, Kalamazoo and MLIK), I was surprised to find there are 717 public parking spots and 5,504 state employee parking spots (of 2,629 surface parking spots), and this does not even include the on-street metered parking. In the Forever Park site, itself, there are 838 parking spots split between three lots, one public and two state employee. This is important for the EPA to note as they are really concerned with using the park to help clean the river. Presently, the stormwater in the project area is funneled down eastward into the lower level of the parking garage beneath the Hannah and Ottawa buildings of the Capitol Complex expansion and then piped under that untreated straight to the Grand.
Anyway, if you want to go straight to the punch, the full concept rendering is on page 34. As for how to implement this project, since almost all of this is state property, nothing much can be done without their cooperation. The city can be the point person, but only as the state lets them, which is probably why we haven't heard much of this since the announcement. The report points to a proposed schedule starting on page 35 which includes things like a working group to hash things out between city and state and funding mechanisms. Interesting read.