Lansing, Delta Township voters decide annexation request

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A sign points voters to the precinct at Lansing's Foster Community Center. Lansing voters were asked whether to annex about 11 acres of land from Delta Township.

Dana Kolker

A sign points voters to the precinct at Lansing's Foster Community Center. Lansing voters were asked whether to annex about 11 acres of land from Delta Township.

All voters in the city of Lansing and a small number from Delta Township decided the fate in Tuesday’s election of about 11 acres of township land.

Voters considered whether to remove the land from Delta Township and annex it into the city of Lansing. The potential annexation would impact only a few residents and several commercial properties.

Commercial property owner Craig DeVoogd told the Lansing State Journal that he has had issues getting renters and hopes that the regulations in the city of Lansing will give him a better turnout. He also said that he has a potential future occupant that wants to use DeVoogd’s land as a medical marijuana business.

But other residents seemed to not be following the issue closely.

“I saw it on there but I hadn’t heard about it and I wasn’t even sure what they meant by ‘annex,’” Lansing resident Laura Drotar said. “I just didn’t vote on it because I didn’t want to influence it one way or another.”

Canvasser and Lansing resident Alanah Durfee said she couldn’t make much sense of the proposal.

“I didn’t really know what it was about. I kind of had to read through it and I still really wasn’t too clear about it,” Durfee said. “I haven’t heard much, if anything, about it until today.”

Another voter in Lansing, Mauricio Portillo, read about the proposal in the news, but he said that did not influence his opinion much.

“I had not read any negative news about what was being asked, so I figured that the city was trying to make a measure that would let them do any kind of land development,” Portillo said. “So, I thought that it would be OK to vote yes on that, but I didn’t have any big opinion about it.”

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