Council Votes Against Development Moratorium, Discusses Ending Pretextual Stops
The East Lansing City Council opted to not put a pause on development while it reviews its stormwater management standards.
Instead, city officials will put more of a focus on educating new developers on issues with stormwater management and flood mitigation strategies. City staff will review stormwater management standards for developers, and likely recommend changes sometime in the future.
The conversation came at the Oct. 1 City Council meeting, after large storms brought widespread flooding in East Lansing on two occasions this past summer. A subsequent review of the storms and other major rain events in the city by consulting firm HDR Michigan Inc. showed that the city’s stormwater standards are outdated, as climate change causes large storms that overwhelm city systems to become more and more common.
Councilmember Erik Altmann asked that council consider a pause on developments while the city reviews its standards to see if new developments are adding to stormwater issues.
City Manager Robert Belleman said a pause would need to be at least six months to give staff time to review the city’s standards. He said he believes it would be premature to put a moratorium in place. However, once staff does review standards and make recommendations, Belleman said a moratorium could be considered while the new standards are being reviewed by city commissions, before they are voted on by council.
Altmann said he trusts the city staff’s advice on this, and did not push for the moratorium. He asked if council could begin factoring in stormwater impacts when considering whether or not to approve site plans.
“I think now is an excellent time to stop making bad decisions related to stormwater,” Altmann said. “Even if they’re small ones.”
City Attorney Anthony Chubb said council generally can consider stormwater when reviewing site plans, as discretion is allowed.
Councilmember Dana Watson asked if the city could talk with developers about the stormowater issue. Belleman said city staff will talk with developers and bring the stormwater runoff issues to their attention. He said staff will also recommend mitigation strategies.
Councilmember Dana Watson calls out racism within city government.
During council communications, Watson spoke about the history of racism in East Lansing, including the city’s racist redlining and covenant housing practices. She also said the purpose of the city’s police oversight commission is lost on council members who want to keep the city in the “good old days.”
She said when she shares her experience, she is met by “white silence” from other members of council. Watson called out racism within city government.
“I watch current council members with power that lead from a lens of male privilege, white feminism and white privilege,” Watson said. “I’ve heard racist remarks that show council members still want our reputation to be a sundown town in 2024.
“Policing has a direct history to racism,” Watson continued. “Call in, pull over, beat, capture any person who you think should not be freely in East Lansing–it’s ok, they followed protocol.”
Watson said she has grave concerns about people in city government misusing their influence to “corrupt manners, unfairly, that unfairly advantage some and don’t advantage others.”
Council approves first reading of ordinance to end pretextual stops.
Later on, council approved a first reading of Ordinance 1541, which would direct East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) officers to stop pulling over or detaining drivers solely for pretextual stops. Residents who advocated for the amendment said it was a positive step in curbing racial bias within ELPD.
Pretextual stops are done by officers to conduct a speculative criminal investigation, and not because a driver is a threat to public safety. The ordinance was previously recommended by the city’s independent police oversight commission.
In the ordinance before council, pretextual stops include:
- Cracked or chipped windshield
- Loud exhaust
- Tinted windows
- Object hanging from rearview mirror
- Cracked, broken or burned-out tail lamp where at least one tail lamp remains functional and properly illuminated
- Registration plate lighting violations
- Registration plate violations regarding plate height or attachment
- Location of registration sticker
- Peeling registration sticker
- Location of temporary or paper registration plate, so long as it remains visible from the rear of the vehicle
- Defective equipment
- Other non-safety violations
- Registration tags expired less than 90 days
Council approved a first reading of the ordinance at the Oct. 1 meeting. This means, the ordinance will be back before council again, likely at the Oct. 15 meeting, for a final vote.
One of the reasons proponents for the policy change have endorsed it is to reduce the impact of racial bias in policing, as officers use discretion when deciding whether or not to stop a driver for pretextual reasons. There have been multiple data analyses over the last few years showing Black residents are stopped disproportionately by ELPD.
During public comment, multiple residents said ELPD has a reputation of being racially biased. Jonathan Forman, who is an Ingham County public defender and member of the city’s charter review committee, urged council to pass the ordinance.
Forman said he remembers speaking with a client who was a person of color subject to a pretextual stop and their mother. He said the client’s mother said she always told them not to drive through East Lansing.
“I hate that our city has that reputation,” Forman said. “This ordinance can help in reversing that reputation.”
One resident spoke during public comment to ask that loud exhaust be removed from the list. She said in recent years there has been an increase of loud cars in the city, and the noise interrupts sleep and is bothersome while walking in the city and having conversations outside.
During council discussion of the ordinance, Altmann motioned to have loud exhaust removed. He said many residents raised the issue of loud cars when he was campaigning for his seat on council last year. The motion was supported for discussion, but ultimately Altmann was not joined by any other council members in voting to remove loud cars from the list.
“Loud exhaust is a public health issue,” Altmann said. “It wakes people up at night, it triggers people who have anxiety disorders.
“People are angry and frustrated about this issue,” he continued.
Altmann said ELPD needs more tools for enforcement and more enforcement of loud car violations, and including loud exhaust in the ordinance is a step backwards.
Meadows agreed with Altmann that loud cars are a problem, however he said information given to council recently showed that these violations are difficult to lawfully enforce.
“It’s one thing to have a police officer say ‘That’s pretty loud, I better pull that guy over,’ but how do you prove that in court?” Meadows asked. “It’s an extremely difficult thing for us to do unless we have equipment in the vehicles that registers decibel levels and, I guess, demonstrates a violation of our noise ordinances… We don’t have that capability.”
Meadows said if there is a development in how noise violations are enforced, or a change in ELPD’s capabilities to enforce loud car violations, he then may be in favor of going back and amending the ordinance.
Mayor George Brookover agreed with Meadows’ assessment of enforcement challenges, saying he would not want to put officers in a position of going to court to defend these violations without scientific evidence.
Brookover also said the ordinance would not stop ELPD from enforcing these infractions. It would just stop officers from pulling over drivers solely for one of the listed violations.
“I’m guessing most criminal defense attorneys would lick their chops on a charge based solely on this,” Brookover said. “Totally apart from all the racial, class, gender implications of this ordinance and everything that we talked about, I simply think trying to enforce this is a waste of money.”
Council voted in favor of the initial reading of the ordinance 4-1, with Altmann voting against.