City officials also voiced concern about how the project would remake the surrounding area.

Lynsey Clayton, a member of the planning commission, questioned whether the city was examining all options for parking in the area.

She also expressed doubts about the effort to replace student housing with apartments and townhouses geared toward high-income residents.

“The market here is for student housing,” Clayton said.

Without a spike in local jobs, Clayton said she didn’t see a market for the housing.

Jim van Ravensway, director of East Lansing’s Department of Planning and Community Development, said the city has seen market studies showing a demand for the housing, much of it from alumni and young professionals.

“Part of the motivation for this project and the design of it is to bring those types of housing units into our marketplace,” van Ravensway said.

Alice Dreger, who lives near the area where the city wants to build the parking garage, said the thought of living near such a development is troubling.

The excess traffic it could bring past her home on Sunset Lane and the elimination of housing threatens to remake the neighborhood she has lived in for 10 years, Dreger said.

“Knocking down housing and putting up parking isn’t in the interest of preserving the Hill District,” she said.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Dreger criticized the city for not offering residents enough information about the development.

“I’ve been talking with neighbors as much as possible about what’s going on and one of the things I’m finding is people don’t understand what’s going on,” Dreger said.

Peter Dewan, chairman of the planning commission, said the commission is working with the city to understand the project.

Until the commission understands project details, it won’t decide whether to rezone the area for parking, Dewan said.

“Given the magnitude of the investment there are multiple aspects of the project to examine,” he said.