[CPEO-BIF] Trowbridge Plaza, East Lansing, Michigan

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

'Red Cedar Village' fears
Early skepticism from East Lansing City Council members on proposed  
housing at Trowbridge Village Lifestyle Center

by Andy Balaskovitz
Lansing City Pulse (MI)
January 15,2014

A student ghetto. Burning couches. A loss of commercial enterprise.
It's a housing image the city of East Lansing has struggled with for  
years, and one City Councilwoman Ruth Beier hopes to avoid at  
Trowbridge Plaza. She fears a major redevelopment project there will  
devolve into a "Red Cedar Village."

...

Beier believes the site is dated and needs to be redeveloped.  
However, she also said she is opposed to any tax incentives that  
suggest the site is blighted or contaminated, such as a brownfield  
credit.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Darcy Schmitt confirmed that McGraw  
is seeking brownfield assistance to clean up the site. Approval for  
that is separate from the various special-use permits being  
considered by the East Lansing Planning Commission. Only the City  
Council votes on the tax abatements, she said.

"I don't think you can make the case" for a brownfield, Beier said.  
"From what I have read so far, there is no contamination there. And I  
don't know if it qualifies as blighted. Unless I find some reason to  
change my mind, I wouldn't support a brownfield credit or any kind of  
develop ment credit. I don't think the city needs to subsidize it."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-9741-lsred-cedar- 
villagers-fears.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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