City Council approves taxicab post move, votes down rental ordinance

Although the East Lansing City Council had a light agenda for yesterday’s City Council meeting, council deliberated about issues regarding rental districts and taxicabs in downtown East Lansing.

Overlay districts
The council voted to approve three public hearings on Dec. 1, moving forward three proposed rental restriction overlay districts planned the city.

Parts of the Whitehills Neighborhood and the Pinecrest Neighborhood, which both are located north of Saginaw Street, are the sites for the three districts, which would stop any new rental licenses from being approved in the area. However, any existing rentals will be allowed to remain.

The Whitehills Neighborhood, which spans north from Saginaw Street to Lake Lansing Road and east from Abbot Road to Hagadorn Road, includes two of the proposed districts. The Pinecrest Neighborhood spans north from Woodingham Drive to Lake Lansing Road and east from Coolidge Road to Harrison Road.

Ordinance 1212
Also at the meeting, council unanimously voted down Ordinance 1212, which would allow residents who are having difficulty selling their homes the option to rent them to as many as two unrelated people until the homes are sold.

At council’s Oct. 27 work session, Councilmember Nathan Triplett said he was unsure whether the ordinance would help because of its extensive restrictions and he predicted the ordinance would be thrown out.

Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris said she didn’t think the ordinance would help the housing problem in East Lansing but wanted to continue looking into other options.

“I am not ready to give up doing something to help what’s going on there,” she said.

Taxicab moratorium
Council approved a traffic order control to relocate taxi stands to M.A.C. Avenue from Albert Street to help reduce congestion.

The move first was proposed Oct. 27, after City Clerk Nicole Evans and the Taxicab License Task Force, which is comprised of several East Lansing department heads, determined the spot to be the best place for the cabs.

The task force was created in response to a moratorium placed on taxicab licenses, which runs until Nov. 25.

Evans said the task force was considering extending the moratorium to give the members more time to evaluate if the move to M.A.C. Avenue alleviates the congestion downtown. Evans said with the moratorium ending at the end of the month and students leaving for winter break in December, the task force might need more time to determine whether the traffic control order is successful.

Councilmember Kevin Beard said he commended the work of the task force in trying to solve the problem. However, he said in talking with some owners of local cab companies, he found they were not as confident as City Council.

“They have yet to be convinced,” he said.