East Lansing resident Helen Hagens and Delta Township and group mediator Rick D’Alesandro put building blocks in possible future structure areas Oct. 16, 2013, at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. The group invited members of the public to give their input for the second Park District charrette. Margaux Forster/The State News
—A change of venue and an influx of student attendees characterized the second of three community meetings about a project that could change the face of East Lansing’s downtown.
The second public meeting regarding the Park District project, also known as a charrette, took place at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum Wednesday.
The project is a massive overhaul of the former City Center II site, which many council members and the project’s developer, DTN Management Co., hope will be a mixed-use complex filled with retail, dining and hotel options.
The goal of the second meeting was for residents to visually imagine the Park District. Residents and students were given building blocks to make a 3-D plan of how they wanted the space to look.
DTN Vice President Colin Cronin estimated that more than 100 people came to the art museum on Wednesday — about twice as many people as the first public meeting. He also said he noticed there was a higher student showing than there was at the first meeting, held Sept. 30 at the Marriott at University Place.
Cronin attributed this increase to a meeting DTN held with students in early October to gauge ideas and plans from the student population.
“It’s a good tie-in to work with them (the students) and work with their classes. It’s very positive for student input,” he said.
Landscape architecture junior Julie Gunther said she believes the student voice is being heard by DTN, but feels it could be lost to the needs of the permanent residents.
“This spot, I feel, will really mostly be used by students. At this charrette (the permanent residents) are focusing so much on parking spaces and roadways instead of pedestrian paths, because most students will be walking,” she said.
Community Relations Coalition intern and urban planning and economics senior Conor Ott said student participation at events like the charrette is important.
“During the school year, almost half the population of East Lansing is students. Most of us live off campus, so we’re members of the community, and we need to have our input (heard),” he said.
Planning, Building and Development Director Tim Dempsey said this meeting was especially important for the city and DTN because it incorporated the design element of the process.
“People are deciding where they want to see particular elements from a physical standpoint, where they might want that laid out,” he said. “It really drills down the specifics of the design.”
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