Spotlight A changing downtown and the fight against urban sprawl With several proposed and approved multi-level, mixed-use buildings hoping to make their mark on downtown East Lansing, the next several years could bring a whole new look to the city BY JAKE ALLEN JALLEN@STATENEWS.COM
Gerald Scott graduated from MSU in 1980 and he still uses CDs instead of downloading music. On his day off of work, the now-Warren resident found himself in his old college town shopping around for CD’s and other things when he realized that Flat, Black & Circular as well as Curious Book Shop are the only stores left in downtown East Lansing from when he was in school. In his own words, Scott is “one generation behind.” He said he feels the downtown area is a lot more diversified with a broader outreach of retail and dining these days. This is by no means an accident, East Lansing Planning, Building & Development director Tim Dempsey said. SMART GROWTH Dempsey said the city, with input
from the community, has put together a comprehensive plan to bring a greater number of people into the downtown through diversification of businesses, but also to ensure the city is growing efficiently. Dempsey called this plan “smart growth” and said that compact urban development is a good way to ensure it. “East Lansing is a growing community and like all growing communities we have a fundamental choice to make. We can grow out or we can grow up,” East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett said. Triplett said the city has made a very conscious decision to follow the idea of smart growth and not sprawl out. The idea is to promote high density, mixed-use development in the downtown, which he said is more economically and environmentally stable. Darcy Schmitt, East Lansing’s planning and zoning administrator, said
by promoting smart growth in the downtown area, better use of the already-built and recently updated infrastructure is made. FIGHTING URBAN SPRAWL Smart growth also eliminates the need to spread the downtown out and take over green field area. The taking over of this green field area is called urban sprawl, said Rex LaMore, director of the Center for Community and Economic Development at MSU and faculty member of the MSU Urban and Regional Planning program. “Sprawl is the inefficient use of land for residential and commercial development,” LaMore said. The underutilization of roads, sewers and sometimes even schools comes with urban sprawl and are costly financially to many communities, LaMore said. Preventing urban sprawl, he said, can be done
by having a good master plan and a diverse commercial district. One way the city is looking to further diversify its commercial district, specially the B-3 district, is through a new ordinance introduced at the June 16 meeting. GROWING UP Ordinance number 1348 is still in planning commission and will ultimately have to come back to city council for a final decision, but has the potential to set a minimum building height of four-stories or 64 feet in the B-3 district. The B-3 District, according to the city’s zoning map, includes the area from Collingwood Drive to the People’s Church of East Lansing. The southern border of the district is Grand River Avenue and the northern border is Albert Avenue, and a couple blocks past in spots. The ordinance is part of the smart growth
effort, Dempsey said. “(The ordinance) continues to push our downtown as a more urbanized downtown with more people living here, which will bring more shoppers, (it) helps businesses and (it) creates a more diverse downtown in terms of level of activity,” Dempsey said. Triplett said that although the ordinance is new and has potential for impact, it is important to remember that there is a “multi-pronged” effort in place to re-vitalize downtown and has been in place for years. This effort has included the redevelopment of the Ann Street Plaza to create a stage space, incorporating public art into downtown and inviting concessioners and food trucks into the city. All of these things put together has drawn the attention of developers, more importantly developers who want to build according to the smart growth plan, he said.
Rendering of the proposed five-story building on the site of the former Taco Bell building at 565 E. Grand River Ave. The mixed-use building would feature mostly four-bedroom apartments on the higher floors, with space for commercial use available on the first floor. RENDERING COURTESY OF CRON MANAGEMENT 6
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