Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/category/news/community-news/ingham-county/east-lansing/page/4/)
The Lansing School District Student Development Program looks to aid high school students with getting active in the classroom and on the court after school hours.
The East Lansing City Council met on Tuesday, Oct. 3, for their first of two Regular Council meetings this month. During the meeting, the council listened to speeches from East Lansing residents about the upcoming vote to approve the construction of a five-story affordable housing apartment building at 530 Albert Avenue in Downtown East Lansing.
The council was initially scheduled to vote on the proposal during the meeting, but, a decision to move the vote to the Oct. 17 meeting was met with frustration from the crowd where many guests protested the decision to delay the vote and left the meeting.
The majority of the people who spoke argued that the building of this proposed project would have a “devastating” effect on the local businesses in the Downtown East Lansing area due to the lack of parking that would be available for the businesses in its vicinity. People expressed their concerns that if the council approves the construction of the apartment building, local businesses that are thriving will eventually close.
East Lansing City Council denied Hagan Realty’s rezoning plan for properties on the 700 block of Grove Street in September 2023. The proposal would have changed the neighborhood structure since it would increase the density of the housing options. Hagan reality was “disappointed by the result,” but they aren’t giving up new projects for that area.
After weeks of contention among East Lansing residents, the city council voted no on the project proposed for the Bailey St. parking lot.
“It’s exciting,” said Paul Martin, the manager at the Wild Goose Inn. “I thought it was going to pass but it didn’t. I’m just shocked, but I’m excited, I’m happy.”
On September 28, the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority (BRA) held a committee meeting discussing the future of brownfield sites in the city. The committee discussed the upcoming involvement of Kansas State University’s program Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB), which helps locate and plan development projects around brownfield sites.
A new plan for affordable housing in East Lansing led to public disproval at the city council meeting on Oct. 3. Residents voiced their concerns about a potential development at 530 Albert Ave. It was expected that there would be a council vote on the building plan following a public hearing, but the agenda was changed at the beginning of the meeting. “I’ll move approval of the agenda with a couple of changes here,” East Lansing Mayor Ron Bacon said.
The East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Committee recently held a workshop to gather input from residents on what actions the East Lansing Police Department should take to “minimize use of force and eliminate its disproportionate use with people of color.”
The workshop, led by seasoned facilitators Carlton Evans and Doak Bloss, was meant to generate ideas from residents which, after being compared with ELPD’s current policies, will be converted into concrete policy recommendations by ELIPOC. A subsequent meeting on Nov. 1 will be held to ensure those recommendations reflect the wishes of the community. During the meeting, members of the community worked in small groups to create policy goals which were then presented to the meeting. The most common suggestions included emphasizing de-escalation practices during training and a stronger system for internal accountability within the police department.
The main issue voiced during the public hearing were concerns about parking. The plan is for the apartment complex to be built where the Bailey street parking lot currently is, and many local business owners are worried that removing these parking spots will damage their business.
The Lansing Area AIDS Network (LAAN) celebrated its 30th AIDS walk fundraiser on Sept. 30 at Edgewood United Church in East Lansing. Even though the event was the 30th annual walk, it was the first in-person walk since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
Moving off-campus can make running errands like grocery shopping and buying cleaning supplies more difficult, especially when you don’t have a means of transportation like Michigan State University student Ben Lefere. He is like many students who live in an apartment without a guaranteed parking spot.