Planning Commission Recommends Downtown Apartment; Opposes Rental District Change

About nine months after “The Howard,” a large apartment building proposed for downtown, was announced, the East Lansing Planning Commission recommended the project. The City Council will later consider approving a site plan for the building.

The proposal has been revised since it was initially presented, down to 12 stories from 15. The apartment would house 748 people and would host two restaurants and an amenity space on the ground floor. The building is planned to be located off Grand River Avenue, building up where the Student Book Store and adjacent units currently sit.

A lengthy discussion at its May 27 Planning Commission meeting touched on concerns raised over the preceding months, including the leasing of city parking spots for residents and conflicts raised by neighboring properties.

Addressing concerns raised by The State News about how the project might interfere with potential expansion of its building, Harbor Bay Ventures Project Manager Evan Williams said he was “confused” by the debate.

“We’re talking about a code-compliant building that is in conflict with a hypothetical building in the future,” he said. “I don’t quite know how to address it.”

Williams stated ways the proposal has evolved to address concerns from The State News and other neighbors, including a 21% reduction in height from 168 feet to 139 feet.

The commission voted seven to two to recommend the project to the City Council for adoption, with Commissioners Lauren LaPine and Chuck Overbey voting against. The recommendation includes a list of 30 conditions, like that developers submit a project schedule and limit stormwater runoff at the location. 

Chair Joseph Sullivan explained why he voted in favor of recommending the project be approved. He said he is not concerned about factors like parking, as some residents have raised concerns about the developer leasing spaces from city facilities instead of having parking on-site.

“We have a lack of housing in our downtown core,” he said. “We have a lot of unused parking spaces. I’m convinced that parking garages are not a great investment for downtowns. They just are not. They’re super expensive. With ride sharing, with autonomous vehicles, who knows what that’s going to look like 20, 30 years from now. I actually like that they’re not putting any parking on site and they’re finding a creative solution to that. So, I’m not as concerned. I appreciate all the research they did with the parking ratios and all of that. I thought that was actually really helpful for me.

“I would behoove them to really work with the city staff to work out these last remaining engineering and technical issues, but I’m not at the point where I think we need to hold this up for another two weeks when we’ve already been talking about this project on this site for what seems like over a year now. I can’t remember when we started this process.”

Commissioner Dave Chapin said the project had his support because of a “naive hope” that attractive downtown housing might draw students out of neighborhoods, allowing student rentals to be converted back into single-family dwellings.

Planning Commission votes against recommending rental restriction district ordinance be amended. 

The Planning Commission voted unanimously against recommending an ordinance amendment that would allow properties to be removed from existing rental restriction districts. 

Rental restriction districts are created when two-thirds of residents living in an area sign a petition to restrict new rental licenses in the area. There are three types of districts, with the most common and restrictive type essentially banning new licenses from being granted. 

The proposed amendment would allow homeowners who meet three criteria to opt out: The property must be on one side of a city block opposite homes not subject to the rental restriction district, must be owner-occupied and not currently rented, and must be one of no more than two unrented properties on its block.

Commissioners unanimously opposed the structure of the proposed opt-out system. Instead of having a system that can be done by meeting certain criteria, some commissioners said they would favor a system that requires residents to circulate a new petition to homeowners in the district, approving their removal. 

The proposal initially came to the Planning Commission after resident Jeff Hank and four other residents asked the City Council to consider amendments. Hank lives in a rental restriction district that was created more than 20 years ago. Of the seven parcels on Hank’s block that are included in the district, five have rental licenses that were grandfathered in. 

Hank advocated for the change because he believes homeowners who are in rental-heavy areas should have a mechanism to be opted out of the rental restriction districts and obtain rental licenses for their homes.  

“I bought a property here as a single young man, before the overlay came into effect,” he told East Lansing Info in an April interview. “Over 22 years, a lot has changed. I have a family and two little kids now. Circumstances change.”

The ordinance amendment will next go to the City Council without the recommendation of the Planning Commission.