Annette Irwin: East Lansing’s Leslie Knope?

Annette Irwin looks like the quintessential midwestern mom, resembling someone you might see at the East Lansing Public Library trying to find her next read or knitting on her front porch, both hobbies she identified to ELi. The mother of two and grandmother of two – all girls – is living her best life while also serving the City of East Lansing for the 27th year.

“In 1997, when I started here,” she told ELi, “I started part-time in a position that I believe was called Problem Property Specialist, which today, I think, is the Code Compliance Officer. When I started here, [there were] a lot of changes happening with the rental licensing and ordinances. I was hired to do investigations into renting without a license, over-occupancy, to go to neighborhood association meetings, and really take on those miscellaneous neighborhood issues.”

Irwin has come a long way since taking that part-time position. She was named interim director of the planning, building and development department in October 2023, and dropped the interim tag in February. 

“My crystal ball over 20 years ago did not make this prediction,” she said, laughing about her unplanned rise through the ranks of city employment. 

“I’ve always thoroughly loved and enjoyed the city of East Lansing,” she said. “I married a fella that grew up in East Lansing, our kids went to school here and they were fourth generation Irwin kids in the school district. Sometimes I like to say I married into the city.”

Irwin leads a large department, with diverse functions and challenges. 

“We have five divisions under one umbrella,” she said. “There’s planning, zoning and building, which includes any permitted work. Then we have housing and university relations and all rental licensing in the city falls under that.”

Also included are parking and economic development.

“We work to bring businesses into the community,” she said, “and that includes affordable housing, too.”

When asked how she accounts for such a broad set of responsibilities, Irwin smiles and pauses before answering.

“It’s one of the greater challenges,” Irwin said. “It’s one of the reasons I applied for the job because I really wanted to build stability for this department and my thought was that I could do that. I had been here awhile. As you know, we had gone through a lot of change and loss, so that really is our number one priority at this point, is bringing employees here to work at our department. “

Many of the staff vacancies that impacted Irwin’s department have been filled, and there are still plans to bring on an administrative secretary, plan reviewer, senior planner, housing inspector and code compliance officer.

When asked about her priorities, Irwin gives careful consideration.

“East Lansing’s a pretty built out community so we have to be creative and careful with how we plan,” she said. “Clearly we have work in the northern tier still; there’s still land out there. So we’ll make sure to give the city council some different options up there as far as development.”

Irwin turned her attention to the city’s everchanging downtown. Specifically, she mentioned the affordable housing project known as Building C, which is finally seeing progress after years of delays.

Irwin also contributes to the larger projects that will shape the future of the community. 

“One of the things happening now is that Landon Bartley is our Principal Planner and he’s very excited to start working on updating the comprehensive plan,” she said. “That’s a community-wide endeavor and involves much, much more than city staff. Our residents are going to help us with that and it will help guide us for the next few years.”

Irwin wants residents to reconsider their concept of downtown East Lansing.

“Downtown East Lansing is more than just three blocks of Grand River or Albert Street right here where the new businesses are,” she said. “Downtown is much more than that, but how do we show people that? As we develop and think about our businesses and opportunities for folks to do things in East Lansing, how do we get them from the east side to the west side?

“We want to have diverse housing here and its certainly always been a challenge for this community,” she added. “This is not something new, but the market changes over the decades, so we have to look for and find new and innovative ways to try and bring affordable housing.”

The cost of development continues to grow, but Irwin is eager to look for creative solutions.

“It’s not just an East Lansing challenge,” she said, “but do we fund some of the things or help people be able to afford to develop here? One of the things I think we’re going to look at is our other Big Ten university cities. Last year, we talked to our counterparts in Ann Arbor, what are they doing and what are their challenges. One of the things we have on our list is to talk to and learn from them. And if there’s something that a particular state has that is allowing them to be successful, maybe that’s something we can bring to our state legislature and say hey, they’re doing XYZ in Ohio and it’s really helping them.”

Irwin has been a long time city employee who has been described by former colleagues as a “worker bee” who kept her head down when the city was experiencing high employee turnover and internal drama.

This characterization meant many were caught off guard when Irwin rose to speak at a pivotal moment during a September City Council meeting to respond to accusations about divisions amongst the staff. 

“I was definitely stepping out of my comfort zone,” she said. “As staff, we’re here to carry out the work. That’s what we’re all about. We’re here to do the work and do it to the best of our ability. And it may not always be perfect – it won’t be, I can assure you, because who is perfect? Anybody who is isn’t. That’s been a great thing about the city. We attract folks who are worker bees. We like to serve the community. I think anybody who goes into the business of working for a city, you have something in your core that you want to help serve. At least the folks who do it and stay, I should say. Local government is up close and personal and there’s no getting around that. I would just want our community to know, as an organization, our staff works very hard to serve them the best they can. And we know sometimes we fall short, but it’s not for lack of trying.”