Perhaps the areas east of the tracks could be cleaned enough to allow what would be a natural extension of the westside neighborhood. The city needs housing more than industrial areas. The area to the west would be a great place for smaller industrial development but in the township who have a less than stellar record in developing land.
This will almost certainly end up being an industrial park (and probably a suburban one like you see on Keystone in SE Lansing), unless there is some kind of big public campaign for it to be something else, which I do not see materializing. I'd really like it to at least have some commercial/mixed-use development on Verlinden to compliment the historic commercial development on the other side of the street. But, yeah, it probably ends up an industrial park.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn't hold my breath for residential. An industrial park is always what this has been pitched as, I'm just hoping this money can make other options feasible. I don't think it's so much a matter of the community making a push (that wouldn't hurt though) as it is a question of: Is this enough money to sufficiently clean the site for residential use? $19 million is nothing to sneeze at but I do sort of doubt it'll be enough to use any of the site as residential. Geographically, housing would obviously make the most sense and if the site were clean I'd wager housing would be an easier sell to a developer than industrial. It's a central location, the neighborhoods directly across Verlinden and to the south range from decent to quite nice and housing incentives abound right now.
Yeah, I've totally expected it to be a suburban industrial park. One can hope for something better though lol. I'd always seen it proposed to be an industrial park. The commercial along Verlinden would be nice.
I know that zoning may not allow but I could see an urban mix of small industrial, commercial, and residential. Along the lines of an organic neighborhood that grew up over time like many in Lansing. I don't know but I would like to see a little of outside the box thinking around here.
Eastwood Town Center funding is a boondoggle, we can all agree.
But with the recent news that Burlington is following Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx , is it time to admit that Delta Crossings is a disaster of a development? Three major tenents are just existing business that have left other township buildings vacant in order to move down the road. One major tenent backed out, leaving the second biggest eyesore in the region (#1 eyesore is the entirety of Lansing Township).
The development is just sprawl for the sake of sprawl, has created a traffic nightmare with poorly planned design, and has come with a bunch of legal drama.
Not to mention, these are all budget-minded stores, including the new businesses Sierra and Discount Dave's. I wouldn't be surprised to see a check cashing joint and a Family Dollar/Dollar Tree in there at this point.
Delta's long-, longtime planner that was stuck in suburbia just retired and the person who took over came from Meridian Twp. after bringing contemporary new urbanism principles, or at least broaching its concepts, into some of their planning and zoning. We'll see if he brings any of that up now?
I also wonder how much of what the metro area gets is just what is viable right now. I've spent so much time working on Lansing's zoning ordinance and researching best practices just to wind up with one auto-centric development and drive-through business after another. The slate of site plans the last two years is straight up depressing.
Yeah, I don't know how much to blame the lawsuits between developers/investors for the not so great tenants at Delta Crossings but it has been a mess and wasn't going to exactly be great looking even if completed to the original plan. I don't know if I'd quite call it sprawl for sprawls sake personally, I think the gap between Waverly and Grand Ledge getting filled in was a long time coming, but it didn't have to such a basic suburban strip mall. I didn't expect any better but it would have been nice to be surprised. Delta Twp has two good opportunities to do something better: the land at the SW corner of Creyts & Saginaw and at the NE corner of Creyts & St Joe.
It is depressing to hear about the auto centric developments, when it comes to stuff on the suburban-ish main corridors it's hard to really expect urbanist developments to just pop up in a sea of strip malls, mechanic shops, used car lots and big box stores. IMO If change comes to these areas it'll likely come in essentially two forms: big new urbanist redevelopments on the larger properties like Logan Square or in the Cedar/Jolly/Edgewood area; or it will come from smaller mixed use and residential projects along the main streets adjacent to older walkable neighborhoods, on that note I continue to hope for some sort of mixed use development(s) or dense new residential along S Cedar 496-Cavanaugh, of all the main arteries I think that stretch has the best chance to become something better. Lowering speed limits from 45 and adding some pedestrian islands could help also.
I don't know if I'd quite call it sprawl for sprawls sake
Yeah, I'm basically referring to the fact that the development is just the same businesses frog jumping down Saginaw rather than attracting new tenants to the township.
Comments
But with the recent news that Burlington is following Hobby Lobby and TJ Maxx , is it time to admit that Delta Crossings is a disaster of a development? Three major tenents are just existing business that have left other township buildings vacant in order to move down the road. One major tenent backed out, leaving the second biggest eyesore in the region (#1 eyesore is the entirety of Lansing Township).
The development is just sprawl for the sake of sprawl, has created a traffic nightmare with poorly planned design, and has come with a bunch of legal drama.
Not to mention, these are all budget-minded stores, including the new businesses Sierra and Discount Dave's. I wouldn't be surprised to see a check cashing joint and a Family Dollar/Dollar Tree in there at this point.
I also wonder how much of what the metro area gets is just what is viable right now. I've spent so much time working on Lansing's zoning ordinance and researching best practices just to wind up with one auto-centric development and drive-through business after another. The slate of site plans the last two years is straight up depressing.
It is depressing to hear about the auto centric developments, when it comes to stuff on the suburban-ish main corridors it's hard to really expect urbanist developments to just pop up in a sea of strip malls, mechanic shops, used car lots and big box stores. IMO If change comes to these areas it'll likely come in essentially two forms: big new urbanist redevelopments on the larger properties like Logan Square or in the Cedar/Jolly/Edgewood area; or it will come from smaller mixed use and residential projects along the main streets adjacent to older walkable neighborhoods, on that note I continue to hope for some sort of mixed use development(s) or dense new residential along S Cedar 496-Cavanaugh, of all the main arteries I think that stretch has the best chance to become something better. Lowering speed limits from 45 and adding some pedestrian islands could help also.