@sabatoa I'm torn with a project like this. I would strongly prefer to see the land developed but I agree that it sucks to see such a mediocre development get built there. I'd like to know why developers make the choices they make sometimes, I get that building with certain materials and to certain design standards can be impractical for this areas wealth level but it doesn't cost much if anything to lay out roads and parking differently or place buildings differently relative to them.
For whatever it's worth, from what I remember of the site plan I last saw for this project it really didn't seem bad by suburban standards. I can't remember where I saw it before, if it was posted around here somewhere or not.
The site plan is just all right. It should be better given the excellent location.
I kind of wish they'd save a whole corner or a third-of-a-slice of it for dedicated parkland, which would have the benefit of saving some of the unique geographical features in full, and also making the rest of the site plan more dense/gridded.
Yeah, that site plan is pretty much as I remembered it, just "meh". It's not bad but I do agree that having more of a grid-like layout would be good. It looks like they're trying to isolate each area of retail, apartments, townhouses and single family homes; I get the logic behind that but I don't agree with it. I'd like things within the site to be less segregated and flow more naturally from one use to another. I think the southern end of this site would be a perfect spot to try out a more traditional neighborhood design with narrower lots, smaller houses and possibly alleys. The single family homes could give way to townhouses and then to apartments that buffer the commercial areas. Some small retail storefronts on the Michigan Ave side would probably be a good idea also.
It really makes me hope I get the opportunity to be involved in something like this someday to see what I could come up with.
I agree, there could be a lot of green space included in a better plan, it is such a large parcel of land you could have a quarter or a third densely developed leaving the rest green. a more progressive or environmentally considered plan could have the same amount of development in a smaller footprint and have value-enhancing green space surrounding the more urban space. I can dream right! I fear it is going to look like what they built on the east side in the former fields of the boy's reform school, a suburban layout with a low-density development spread out over the landscape. Not inspiring at all.
I'd like to be clear that the graphic above was an early concept for the site. I'm not sure what the actual site plan looks like. It's why I wish Lansing Township would post packets on their website. A new clerk was elected this month, though, and she sounds like she's going to try and modernize the department (and thus the website), so maybe we'll see something more this century. lol
More bad news to deliver. I was looking through the Lansing Township Planning Commission agendas, and it seems in June they considered a special use permit for 5 acres of the golf course site (right across from the nice homes fronting Saginaw) to be use as a mini-warehouse and storage facility. First the car wash, and now this. This is not what the developer sold this project as. The Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the special use, and the township board unanimously approved it. The developer's representative claimed that someone compiling the plans "forgot" to put this usage in the plans.
This is going to be such a tacky, low-rent redevelopment. Lansing Township is not a serious jurisdiction. All the under-utilized land in other parts of the township (**cough** GM sites **cough**) where this would be appropriate development, yet they are going to put tacky-ass development along one of the few frontages left in the township where they could development something nice and make it a destination, because they absolutely lack imagination. I'm embarrassed for them, and they make our region look bad.
What a shame. That area had some real potential but it sounds like they are squandering it for an immediate gain rather than a long term one. At this rate it is just going to look like the rest of the infill on Saginaw to the west of that area. I'm glad we will get to look at a car wash and storage facilities every time we drive by that area. /s
I hate Lansing Township as a jurisdiction. Everything about their existence, their borders, and the way that they operate as a government is an abomination. I know annexation isn't happening, so I wish that Delta residents and Lansing Township residents would finally come together to form "Waverly" as they talked about in the 60s-70s. At least Delta shows some indication that they want an identity and community.
Comments
For whatever it's worth, from what I remember of the site plan I last saw for this project it really didn't seem bad by suburban standards. I can't remember where I saw it before, if it was posted around here somewhere or not.
I kind of wish they'd save a whole corner or a third-of-a-slice of it for dedicated parkland, which would have the benefit of saving some of the unique geographical features in full, and also making the rest of the site plan more dense/gridded.
It really makes me hope I get the opportunity to be involved in something like this someday to see what I could come up with.
This is going to be such a tacky, low-rent redevelopment. Lansing Township is not a serious jurisdiction. All the under-utilized land in other parts of the township (**cough** GM sites **cough**) where this would be appropriate development, yet they are going to put tacky-ass development along one of the few frontages left in the township where they could development something nice and make it a destination, because they absolutely lack imagination. I'm embarrassed for them, and they make our region look bad.
/rant