Northern Tier Development

2

Comments

  • Oh haha my post saying this was missed was *directly* beneath your post. Sorry!

    Most of the listings for this development say that the prices have been reduced. Probably not a good sign for that other building. This might also be what happens in Okemos if the pricing/planning is off target from demand.
  • Looks like a '60s motel, I guess the market for "student beds" is endless.

  • edited March 2019

    Looks like East Lansing & Meridian Township will finally be holding their joint meeting next Wednesday for the consideration of rezoning the land from 6290 to 6350 Abbot Road to allow for a large development. The land is between the East Lansing Aquatic Center and Gaslight Village. Because this land was brought into the city by a shared-land agreement (425), the township has some say over specific aspects of development of these lands and via this combined body (3 members from the city and 3 from the township) they will get a vote.

    The developer now wants to develop this 24 acres into a large senior citizens housing complex, which will include everything from duplexes to a large assisted living facility. Details are all still up to change since this is only a rezoning requests and not a consideration of whatever is ultimately proposed, but for now they are looking to build 2-story, 105-unit assisted living facility, a 4-story, 180-unit independent living building, and 52 duplex "villas" units. That's 337 units and over million square feet.

    Anyway, the current developer has been trying to develop the site since 2006, but because of concerns from both township, city and neighbors, they've never been able to compromise until now. Previous developments included lots of student housing and commercial development. The planning commission narrowly voted to recommend the council/joint body approve the rezoning last May, even before the idea of this senior housing development had been brought up. And the joint body met last October where they postponed approving this while the developer worked out some details. The compromise - making this a senior housing complex - is apparently what's up at next Wednesday's reconvening of the joint body. I'd imagine given that they've been working on this iteration of the rezoning since last May that this has a good chance of actually passing this time.

  • edited March 2019

    Speaking of the wrangling over the site plan modification for Gaslight Village's long-anticipated second phase, it looks like the city council denied the modification (unanimously) at there March 5th meeting. I'd originally read it as that they'd approved it unanimously and got excited. :( As a reminder, the modification was to allow for 18 duplex units and 2 additional single family homes (two of these were already built) where 29 single family homes with 11 granny flats above some of the garages was originally approved.

    Kind of sad about this one. The developers seemed to have dealt with the city in good faith, amd jumped through almost all of the hoops the planning commission and city council held up. I feel like they aren't going to allow the developer to put up anything more behind the existing building than single family homes or something else they can be sure will repel potential student tenants like senior housing (see above).

  • Seniors and students! Oh no! Seems like people in East Lansing would be used to them by now. The way they use zoning as a tool to discriminate against certain groups or classes of people seems wrong even while understanding people always resist change of any sort. It is understandable to see too many or too big when looking at development, it seems wrong to worry so much about who is going to live there.

  • Yeah I agree gbd. I would prefer if they looked more at density, access to public utilities and transportation, and traffic concerns.
  • edited April 2019

    Looks like East Lansing & Meridian Township will finally be holding their joint meeting next Wednesday for the consideration of rezoning the land from 6290 to 6350 Abbot Road to allow for a large development. The land is between the East Lansing Aquatic Center and Gaslight Village. Because this land was brought into the city by a shared-land agreement (425), the township has some say over specific aspects of development of these lands and via this combined body (3 members from the city and 3 from the township) they will get a vote.

    The developer now wants to develop this 24 acres into a large senior citizens housing complex, which will include everything from duplexes to a large assisted living facility. Details are all still up to change since this is only a rezoning requests and not a consideration of whatever is ultimately proposed, but for now they are looking to build 2-story, 105-unit assisted living facility, a 4-story, 180-unit independent living building, and 52 duplex "villas" units. That's 337 units and over million square feet.

    Good news. According to the short synopsis posted of the meeting, the joint East Lansing/Meridian Township joint legislative body actually approved the rezoning! This doesn't mean that this gets built as presented, but, again, developers have been trying to introduce a project the township and city would agree on since 2006.

    It will be curious to see what the city finally let's the developers down the road at the second phase of Gaslight Village build. Seems like the only thing the city and neighborhood will be able to form a concensus on is regular, market-rate housing or senior housing.

  • edited August 2019

    The Planning Commission will be taking up a new site plan for the second phase of Gaslight Village on July 10. This redo will include: 3 five-unit apartment buildings, 7 four-unit apartment buildings, and the conversion of a part of the existing commercial space in the first phase to 2 units.

    Guess we'll get to see the site plan when they put the packet out for that meeting, soon. The commission last rejected 38 units mostly in duplexes, so I'm interested to see how they think they'll be able to get away 43 units in actual apartment buildings.

    EDIT: They didn't go through with the July 10th public hearing on this one, and it was rescheduled for August 14.

  • edited October 2019

    The Planning Commission held a public hearing for the modified site plan for the second phase of Gaslight Village (The Cottages), tonight. This one is now 50 units in a number of different attached buildings. I'm still confused why the developer keeps bringing this to them.

    https://eastlansing.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=1967&meta_id=82045

    EDIT: Watched the video after they posted the meeting online. It's more units, 50 vs. 43, but is actually quite a bit decrease in density from 152 bedrooms to 100 bedrooms, because the old proposal consisted of four-bedroom units marketed to students which the council was not happy about and the reason they voted it down last time, and the current proposal addresses their concerns by allowing only two unrelated persons or a family.

    Also, the planning commission in a seperate item removed the condition that said that the new units could only be leased for periods of two years or greater.

    It looks like they may have FINALLY gotten this one right, and that the council may finally support this after years of picking it to death.

  • edited October 2019

    The Planning Commission recommended approval for The Cottages at Gaslight Village, last night. The vote was 7-1, so it looks like this may finally get past council. The developer seems to addressed all of the major concerns with this one - widened the street through the complex by a required 2 extra feet for the fire marshal, will be condos so it won't turn into a student complex, etc.. They've been trying to get something done on the back of the property, here, since 2003.


    One concern was raised that didn't have anything to do with the approval process, really, and it's the excessive amount of parking. The original building was building is built with a huge setback from Abbot and the parking up front was originally meant to serve the entire complex, including the back of the site. But because the back of the site will now be marketed to longer-term tenants/owners, the developer wanted parking back there for those residents, so now the amount of parking on the site will need a waiver since it's over the maximum allowed (Lansing should really have a parking max). So one planning commissioner asked the developer to consider tearing up some of the parking out front that will not be used for some additional green space. The representative of the developer said that they will definitely consider it.

    Just glad to see this finally get done.

Sign In or Register to comment.