Vacant land in East Lansing's Northern Tier could one day be home to a mixture of renters and permanent residents. However, the East Lansing City Council plans to hold off on making any decisions until it has all the facts.

The City Council is holding a public hearing at 7:30 p.m. today in City Hall, 410 Abbott Road, to hear community members weigh in on amending the city's zoning code. The amendment includes plans to guide developing neighborhoods so they contain buildings that are friendlier to young professionals and families with children than students.

"It is a plan for growth and development in the north," said Jim van Ravensway, planning and community development director for the city of East Lansing. "We would like for the community to develop in a compact way."

Enrollment in the East Lansing Public Schools has declined during the past 20 years. To make up for the lost per-pupil funding, the district has used the Schools of Choice program, which allows students from other districts to attend school in East Lansing.

Mayor Pro Tem Vic Loomis said the council will most likely listen to comments made at the meeting and wait to make a decision on a later date. Amending the city's zoning ordinance is a serious change and it deserves hefty review and discussion by the council, he added.

"I've had some feedback that we are a little premature with that," Loomis said. "I want to make sure I understand it a little better. Maybe we haven't looked at it quite as closely as we could."

The potential long-term effects of the ordinance must be determined by the council, Loomis said.

"There will be more time to look deeply into the ordinance," he said. "I've not spent a lot of time reviewing it — you have to read them and think about them. When you are doing planning ordinances, you have to try and figure out what some of the consequences are. That is likely to happen with this ordinance tomorrow."

The construction of rental homes in some of the redeveloped areas would be limited to 10 percent, according to city documents.

Matt Hagan, an agent at Hagan Realty, which owns about 150 rental homes throughout the city, said he isn't in favor of redevelopment projects that could eliminate or force out existing rental housing.

"Anything that gives the city or a developer the ability to take our property, we are against," he said.