Council Roundup: Discussions About Speeding, Loud Cars Resume; Stalled Sauna Park Proposal is Given New Life

A stalled development has been given a second chance, as a sauna park that was slated to open this winter has been granted a one-year extension to operate downtown. 

The 2,700-square-foot park, proposed by Timber Fire & Ice sauna company, includes saunas, cold plunges and more. The park was approved to open in an empty lot off Grand River Avenue, next to Crunchy’s. The agreement with the city runs through May 2, 2026, and was approved at the April 8 City Council meeting. 

The park was initially given the green light by council in December 2024. The developer planned for the park to operate from January until the end of April. However, after issues with acquiring state permits emerged, the developer had to come back to the city to ask for an extension. 

The vote of approval came after a condition was added banning wood from being burnt on the site, meaning Timber will have to operate without one type of sauna it initially intended to have. The company also has electric-powered saunas. 

It’s unclear if the developer will reduce the number of saunas in the park now that it is not allowed to have the wood burning sauna. The initial site plan included two saunas, a check-in yurt, two cold plunges, a restroom trailer and a storage shed. 

Timber Fire & Ice President Daniel Downes said at the meeting that the company can still complete the project without the wood burning sauna. However, it removes an element of “authenticity” from the sauna park. 

Council approved the park in a 3-2 vote, with Councilmembers Mark Meadows and Erik Altmann each flipping their votes from the last time the park was narrowly approved. 

Altmann voted in favor of the park because his issue with it previously was the smell and pollutants released by burning wood. 

Before the vote, Councilmember Dana Watson expressed concern that the city is being too critical of developments. 

“It’s always disappointing to me when there’s so much pushback to new ideas, new developments for our city,” she said. 

Meadows voted against the park, saying he liked the short window it would have been tested during the previous approval. He added that he doesn’t see the location as being viable long term for the park. 

“I’m not saying that I’m against a sauna park, I’m against it in that location,” Meadows said. 

Mayor George Brookover said he is voting against the park for the same reasons he did in December: He does not believe the location is appropriate for the sauna park, he has concerns about traffic and parking impacts, and he believes that the project is not consistent with the city’s comprehensive plan. 

Brookover added that he is troubled by the developer’s inability to get the park running after it was previously approved.

Mayor Pro Tem Kerry Ebersole Singh joined Altmann and Watson by voting in favor of the proposal.

Community members ask for solutions to speeding in neighborhoods, noisy cars.

Several residents, mostly from the Southeast Marble neighborhood, spoke during public comment to raise concerns about speeding in city neighborhoods and loud cars. Several speakers said that cars are commonly blowing past the 25 mile per hour speed limit on residential streets when cutting through their neighborhood to avoid traffic on busier roads like Hagadorn Road and Burcham Drive. 

Traffic violations and a perceived lack of enforcement has been a common complaint in East Lansing for years, and city leaders seem far away from providing a clear solution. 

“I just don’t know how much political will there really is to invest in a solution to this problem,” said Altmann, who blamed state and local factors for contributing to the problem. 

Altmann reiterated his belief that council made a mistake last year when it passed an ordinance banning East Lansing police from conducting pretextual stops in most situations. “Loud exhaust” is included in a list of violations officers should not stop a driver for. 

“We have passed an ordinance basically saying that loud exhaust is OK,” Altmann said. “I voted against that ordinance because I think that it was wrong.”

Watson, who joined the rest of council in supporting the ban on pretextual stops last year, said that language was included so people with a broken muffler wouldn’t be pulled over, not to protect drivers who intentionally modify their cars to make more noise. 

Council initially passed the pretextual stops ordinance largely to reduce racial disparities in policing. Pretextual stops are done by officers to conduct a speculative criminal investigation, not because a driver is a threat to public safety. 

Council members who favored the ordinance last year also raised concerns about ELPD’s ability to enforce a noise limit on cars because police cars are not equipped with the technology to pick up a decibel reading of a moving object–making citations difficult to defend in court.

At the April 8 meeting, Meadows said he is open to revisiting the pretextual stops ordinance.

Altmann added that he thinks under the previous council “policing was discouraged” and that has a lingering impact. He also acknowledged staffing shortages at ELPD present challenges. 

Focusing on a specific concern of many of the speakers, Meadows said the city should look into reducing speeding in the Southeast Marble neighborhood by adding a stop sign on John R Street and other side streets in the neighborhood. 

Meadows referenced his time in Dearborn as a law student, saying the city has a stop sign seemingly on every corner. 

“Apparently the former mayor there said ‘If they want a stop sign, they’re getting it,’” Meadows said. “Frankly, that’s been my rule ever since I got elected here.” 

Watson, council’s liaison to the Transportation Commission, said she’d bring the idea to the commission.

Watson added that she is from Illinois, where there are many cameras that can identify traffic violators, who are then sent tickets. She floated the idea of installing some of these cameras in areas with the most reported problems. 

Police oversight commissioners raise questions about transparency, future of commission. 

A vague closed-session item to negotiate collective bargaining with an unnamed union drew attention from a pair of East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC) members. 

ELIPOC Vice Chair Kath Edsall and Commissioner Chris Root spoke during public comment, saying they believe the contract being discussed was with the non-supervisory police union, suspicions that were confirmed when council exited closed-session at the end of the meeting to announce a tentative agreement with the union. 

Root pointed out that the last time the city was bargaining with this union, in 2022, the proposed agreement was attached to the meeting agenda beforehand. This time, the agenda doesn’t even name the union engaged in the negotiation. She said the city should be transparent about what negotiations are taking place, so residents can share their thoughts before agreements are made. 

“[In 2022], there was actually some very informative conversations that took place in those couple of days before the council meeting,” Root said. “It made a difference to have that opportunity to look at it.”

Edsall echoed Root’s belief that the proposed agreement should be public before the city makes any deals. She also said she hopes the agreement doesn’t hinder ELIPOC’s ability to carry out its work.

“The ability of the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission to provide oversight for the East Lansing Police Department must not be bargained away,” she said. 

After the meeting, ELi reached out to East Lansing Communications Director Carrie Sampson, requesting a copy of the agreement. Sampson said a final contract will not be available for weeks, but the tentative agreement will be attached to the meeting minutes of the April 8 council meeting. At the time of publication, those minutes have not been released.