New plan for City Center II to be discussed

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As the City Center II development hits the East Lansing Planning Commission’s agenda for a public hearing, city officials and committee members expect a long conference, as commentators come to the 7 p.m. Wednesday meeting at 54-B District Court, 101 Linden St., to discuss the $116.4 million project.

Although the commission will consider an amended site plan to a five-story building in the project to allow office space in a parcel originally slated for residential and commercial use, bringing the entire proposal back to the open forum format could make for a lengthy meeting.

Still, planning commission member Sheryl Soczek said she hopes more people will be satisfied with the accommodations made for office space in the development that is bounded by Abbot Road, Grand River Avenue and Valley Court Park.

“I would hope the opposition to it won’t be as great as before because we adjusted it to be more offices instead of housing,” she said. “A lot of opposition was to housing.”

The five-story building is a mixed-use space with commercial area on the bottom floor. It was supposed to have 25 rental units, but that number could be less if the planning commission and then City Council approves the new site plan.

The City Center II project has been marred by financial difficulty, including delinquent taxes and the developer’s woes with projects in other cities.

Despite this, Scott Chappelle, president of City Center II developer Strathmore Development Co., said in an e-mail he expects to begin construction this summer, and he is working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to secure a $28 million loan.

Phil Bellfy, an MSU associate professor of writing, rhetoric and American cultures, said the city missed an opportunity to re-evaluate the entire project when its site plan and special use permit expired Dec. 17, 2009. By allowing Strathmore a second chance, Bellfy said the city made a major mistake.

“We warned the city this developer has all kinds of problems,” he said. “We don’t think he can carry this project, and we were right.”

Sally Silver, a Bailey Community Association board member and East Lansing resident, said the site plan amendment shows the city lacks foresight for the development, as it is responding to immediate market concerns even though the project will take several years to complete.

“The City Council and people acting on these have been changing their view depending on the circumstances of the day,” she said.

East Lansing Community Development Analyst Tim Schmitt said given the success of the Technology Innovation Center, 325 E. Grand River Ave., the city’s new IBM facility, and the addition of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams project, there has been an increased demand for office space in the city’s downtown.

East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said the project won’t have to go through the same channels of approval — such as an environmental and traffic analysis — the original application had to maneuver, which will accelerate the bureaucratic aspect of the process.

He also said that since the project remains intact aside from the potential amendment, the planning commission will have fewer elements to consider, which would expedite decision making.

“Every board and commission either unanimously or near unanimously supported the project as it was planned,” he said. “I said 18 months ago that it was the most thoroughly vetted project in the history of East Lansing and probably deserved to be because of the size and scope of the project.”

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