Drastic Stormwater Management Measures? BWL to Explain Rate Increases? Folk Fest Returning? Questions Emerge from Council Meeting

The Sept. 17 City Council meeting was uncharacteristically short, but the stage was set for a much larger decision when Councilmember Erik Altmann asked for support on exploring more drastic measures to combat stormwater in the city. 

Altmann has previously floated the idea of putting a moratorium on developments while the city figures out how current actions are impacting the city’s ability to stand up to stormwater. 

At last night’s meeting, Altmann said the city’s Environmental Sustainability and Resiliency Manager Cliff Walls suggested the city increase building standards temporarily to better protect against stormwater. During that temporary period, the city could review its code to see if permanent changes need to be made. 

“Cliff Walls had a better idea, which was to expeditiously update our stormwater management code to reflect some of the data we heard from the HDR report at our last meeting,” Altmann said. “The idea would be to update our ordinance aggressively, so as to not prevent developers from building. But requiring, at least in the interim, that they adhere to very high standards for stormwater management. So we can be sure that anything that gets built is not going to do further damage. 

“I think the idea would be to adopt standards that are as aggressive as we can for a period that maybe is temporary, perhaps six months, until we figure out what the [permanent] standards should be,” Altmann said. 

Altmann said he would need support from at least one other council member for the item to be added to council’s next meeting agenda on Oct. 1. Mayor George Brookover said he’d support the discussion and that it will be on the meeting agenda, pending communication Walls and City Attorney Anthony Chubb. 

The discussion will be the next part of the city’s fight against flooding, after large rainstorms brought widespread flooding to East Lansing twice this summer.

Last week, City Council received an update on the city’s Wet Weather Resiliency Plan that hopefully uncovers longterm solutions to reduce flooding. The plan is about 1/3 complete right now, and is projected to be finished in 2026.

Council votes to send a letter questioning BWL rate increases. 

On the consent agenda, council voted in favor of sending a letter to the Lansing Board of Water of Light (BWL) questioning rate increases that were recently announced. 

The rate increases were described in an Aug. 27 press release from BWL. The utility provider explained there will be rate increases this October and in October 2025. Not only will the increases impact residents, they will cost the city more than $416,000 over the two-year period, according to the Sept. 17 City Council meeting agenda. 

When the increases were discussed at the Sept. 3 council meeting, Councilmember Mark Meadows said some of the money raised would be used to build a fossil fuel powered plant, but that wasn’t made clear in the release BWL sent out. 

Meanwhile, a BWL representative has said the increased rates will support the company’s clean energy goals. 

Because the letter was approved on the consent agenda, there was no discussion among council. The letter requested a BWL representative come to council’s Oct. 8 discussion-only meeting. 

“​​The City Council respectfully request the BWL provide the detail breakdown on what the approved electric rate increases will finance and how an average usage for residential and commercial customers in East Lansing could expect the monthly increase to cost,” the letter reads. 

City accepts property donated on Cresenwood Road.

Council accepted a property donation on Cresenwood Road. The property is to be used as green space or park space. The parcel is roughly .24 acres and located in a residential area. 

The property has a home on it that is no longer habitable because of fires that damaged it in November 2023 and January 2024. It is estimated it will cost between $60,000 and $80,000 to demolish the house and restore the site. The city has about $15,000 from the fire insurance to help with this cost. 

City Manager Robert Belleman said there will be a neighborhood engagement process to determine what the park or green space ultimately looks like. 

The conversation quickly pivoted back to stormwater management. 

“I think this is really timely and potentially a really interesting approach, in terms of using properties to manage stormwater,” Altmann said. 

Following the meeting, Altmann told ELi he was envisioning a rain garden on the site, which could be combined with elements that make up a park.

Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Cathy DeShambo added that the property is next to a street layout forming a triangular traffic island. She said the property could potentially be expanded to the island, increasing green space and cutting back on paved surface – a key part of stormwater management. 

Council voted unanimously to accept the property donation to be used as a park or green space. 

Folk Fest revival? Meeting to discuss bringing back the community event to be held.

During the council communications portion of the meeting, Meadows used his time to announce that a meeting to explore ways to bring Folk Fest back will be held Sept. 30 at 5:30 p.m. at the Hannah Community Center. 

Previously known as the Great Lakes Folk Festival, the event was held in East Lansing from 2002-2017. The city’s Arts Commission and Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission have previously kicked around the idea of bringing the festival back, and now it looks like there is movement on that front. 

Meadows said he will be at the meeting, and he encourages all residents interested in reviving the festival to attend.