Council Roundup: Council Moves Forward With Manager Search, Amends Housing Requirement

The East Lansing City Council voted to loosen an ordinance that is intended to diversify the downtown’s housing stock, but developers have argued has prevented new housing from being built downtown.

The city’s diverse housing requirement came into focus last year when a developer proposed building a 15-story apartment complex downtown, but said a requirement that 25% of units be dedicated to moderate income housing or another purpose to diversify the area’s housing stock made the project prohibitively expensive.

Eventually, developers shrunk their proposal to 12 stories to avoid a height threshold that triggered the requirement and the apartment was approved to be built at a site off Grand River Avenue that has hosted the Student Book Store and other businesses.

Under the revised ordinance, which was passed unanimously at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, developers must dedicate 10% of units to diverse housing in projects built in the DDA district that require a special use permit, down from 25%. Additionally, the ordinance now allows diverse housing units to be built south of Saginaw Highway, instead of in the district, and developers will be allowed to choose to pay a fee to a city fund that supports diverse housing, instead of building the units.

A chart that shows how much the city would have collected through a fee-in-lieu program if it were applied to recent downtown developments. The chart is inflation adjusted to reflect estimated 2026 costs. (From meeting agenda)

Immediately after the council voted to give flexibility on the diverse housing requirement, the body considered an ordinance that has received strong pushback from business owners because it could expand the area that the diverse housing requirement applies to.

There were three versions of an ordinance for council to consider. City officials pitched the ordinance as a means to clean up existing rules, however, some of the ordinance drafts being considered would expand the diverse housing requirement to new zoning districts.

A map showing the section of East Lansing that has a diverse housing requirement for some new large apartments. (From agenda packet)

Carrie Freeman, a local attorney who works with East Lansing developers, presented the council with a protest petition with 175 signatures from landowners whose property would be impacted by the change.

Two of three versions of the ordinance being considered would expand the areas that require a special use permit for upper story developments, which petitioners argued would stifle development by tacking on the diverse housing requirement and make unique projects, like mass timber structures, harder to build.

Ultimately, the council opted to pass a version of the ordinance that does not expand the diverse housing requirement.

After the meeting, Freeman told East Lansing Info in an email that she is happy with the council’s decision and that the decision honored requests from petitioners.

Council approves RFP to find firm for city manager search.

The City Council is moving forward with a search for East Lansing’s next city manager, as the body approved a Request For Proposals, or RFP, to solicit bids from firms to conduct the search. The firm selected will be asked to search nationally.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the council decided to provide more time for firms to respond to the RFP than was initially proposed, pushing the council’s tentative decision date on a firm back from Oct. 13 to Oct. 20. The city will begin accepting proposals on Sept. 15.

Once a firm is selected, they will conduct an extensive search that is expected to include public meetings, a background check and more.

An estimated city manager search timeline. The City Council has set an Oct. 20 deadline to select a firm to conduct the search. (From meeting agenda)

According to an estimated search timeline Interim City Manager Annette Irwin said is based on the 2023 search that brought in former City Manager Robert Belleman, it will take months after a search firm is selected to pick a new city manager.