Live News Updates for Oct. 30-Nov. 5
Interim Director of Planning, Building and Development Tim Dempsey is leaving for job in Saginaw.
The East Lansing Planning Commission’s Oct. 25 meeting lasted just over an hour, beginning with updates from City of East Lansing Principal Planner Landon Bartley.
Bartley announced that Tim Dempsey, City of East Lansing Interim Director of Planning, Building and Development since March, would be leaving in the coming weeks to accept a position as a senior vice president with Saginaw Future. Bartley, who was hired in August, also shared that the position for the city’s senior planner had netted several candidates whom he will be interviewing in the coming week.
The majority of Bartley’s comments focused on his proposed updating of the city’s master plan.
“[Michigan’s] Planning Enabling Act requires municipalities to at least review their previously adopted master plan at least every five years,” he said, “and make a determination of whether the previous plan should be amended at all, called good, or if a new one should be adopted altogether.”
Bartley said his proposal for the master plan update is not an overall rewrite.
“In fact,” he said, “not even looking at the whole thing at all…[but] trying to identify items that are high priority planning items for the city.”
Among those issues, he said, were affordable, workforce housing, and the possibility of East Lansing becoming a climate haven.
“I was just speaking to someone who was talking about coming to Michigan, coming to East Lansing specifically, and said, ‘I’m looking for a climate haven,’” Bartley told commissioners. “We need to understand how this could affect us and how should we change our environment, if at all.”
Only two pieces of business were on the agenda.
The first was a hearing considering a rezoning request from Michael Zawacki to rezone 730 Grove St., hoping to turn the current rental property into a bed and breakfast. The developer, Dan Lewis from VK Civil, spoke on behalf of Zawacki.
Commissioners asked questions about traffic implications. In addition, there was one speaker and two submitted letters from the public, all concerned about the implications of rezoning the property from a current R-2 medium density single-family residential district to RM-32 city center multiple-family residential district.
The commission will revisit the proposed ordinance at its Nov. 8 meeting.
The final issue discussed by the commission was revisiting a request by Mister Car Wash to approve a 6,530-foot car wash at 2110 Merritt Road. The Commission unanimously agreed to recommend City Council approve the site plan.
Reported by Dustin DuFort Petty (Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023)
Editor’s note: This report has been updated to correct that the Planning Commission makes recommendations to City Council about site plan approvals. (Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, 3:13 p.m.)
The East Lansing Public Library has welcomed four new staff members.
The East Lansing Library Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 11 provided updates on new staff hires and reflected on a successful September at the library.
The circulation department of the library hired Rowan La Barbera as a library technical assistant, Chris Bachuwa as a customer service assistant, and Riley Johnson and Jean Holland as pages.
“The backroom is looking really great right now,” Interim Library Director Angelo Moreno said, acknowledging the good work of the new staff members.
Following up on community concerns about teens at the library, ELPL is looking to hire a full-time Teen Services Librarian. They had a pool of 30 applicants, which was narrowed down to four. Interviews were held the week of Oct. 9-13.
With concerns about the often high number of teens in the library and sometimes problematic behavior, Moreno said the library staff is looking forward to having a full-time employee to interact and form connections with teens.
Moving forward in their search for a permanent Director of ELPL, the search committee met twice in the past month. Board President Amy Zaagman and Secretary Pamela Smith shared the draft job description the subcommittee worked to put together.
The board discussed changes they wished to see in the job description, which included inserting a salary range, adding bullet points about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) experiences and a few word modifications in order to provide clarity.
The board also recognized October as Library Appreciation Month in Michigan, as proclaimed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and thanked the staff for all their hard work.
The next Library Board meeting will be 4:30 p.m. Nov. 15 in the library’s large meeting room
Reported by Mya Gregory (Monday, Oct. 30, 2023)
From the EL Insider Saturday Mailer – Oct. 28
Happy Halloween! The streets will be filled with ghosts and ghouls Tuesday (Oct. 31), as children participate in trick-or-treating to celebrate the holiday.
For the ELi Team, this week will be spent helping residents prepare for the Nov. 7 election. Three seats on City Council are up for grabs and voters will decide on three ballot initiatives. With the numbers rolling in Friday (Oct. 27), we are working on a report on the eight candidates’ financing and endorsements.
You can access ELi’s recent election coverage and voter information here.
And if you want to vote early, in person you can!
This past week, Reporter Elijah Taub reported on the East Lansing Early Voting Center that will open Monday (Oct. 30) in the East Lansing Public Library. A kickoff event was be held at 9:45 a.m. Monday and featured speakers like Mayor Ron Bacon and Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou. The report is a top story in the ELi Now live news updates column for Oct. 23-29.
City Desk Editor Luke Day broke the news that $550,000 of city funds are in jeopardy after a sophisticated cyber scam. The city sent a payment to the vendor, however, the scammers had changed the routing number. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Michigan State Police (MSP) are working with the city to attempt to recover the funds.
Reporter Dustin DuFort Petty sat down with new City Manager Robert Belleman to discuss his history as a municipal administrator and the management style he plans to use in his new role. Belleman has now been on the job in EL for just over a month and expressed optimism about the future of the city.
Also this past week, Culture Reporter Sarah Spohn brought us a feature story on MacDonald Middle School sixth-grader Tristin Martin. The 11-year-old helped organize the Dollars 4 Dyslexia Fundraising Open House held Saturday (Oct. 28). The event was at Spartan Ninja Warrior and put participants through obstacle courses.
Here are the meetings on this week’s calendar.
Looking ahead, there are four city meetings on the week’s docket. Tuesday (Oct. 31), the University Student Commission meets. Wednesday (Nov. 1), the Police Oversight Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals will each gather. Then Thursday (Nov. 2), the Housing Commission will convene. When meeting agendas are posted, they can be found here.
Along with the story about the Early Voting Center, ELi Now’s live news updates also features a report by ELi Reporter Mya Gregory on the East Lansing Arts Commission and plans to bring more art to the city.
Have something you want featured in ELi now? Contact us! ELi Now starts fresh every Monday and will keep you updated with live news reports through the next week.
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The ELi team kicked off its sustainability campaign with a journalism movie-watch night Wednesday (Oct. 25) at the Robin Theatre in Lansing. Attendees were treated to the funny, quirky and powerful movie “Vengeance.” Stay tuned for more details about this crucial span of fundraising for ELi through November and December. Support your local nonprofit news service today!
