The East Lansing City Council will continue discussion of an ordinance that may limit the maximum allowed height for buildings throughout the city at today’s work session.
Council members requested to amend the ordinance at the Feb. 13 work session. The amendment would give the city council the power to override the ordinance in case of special projects that it feels would improve the city.
Bob Owen, a community development administrator, said the changes to the ordinance will provide the city with more flexibility - a change he thinks makes sense.
“Right now, it’s kind of like you can have very high heights by length,” Owen said. “In most cases developers don’t take advantage of that, but they could. This brings heights down to more traditional levels.”
The unamended ordinance was unanimously approved by the East Lansing Planning Commission last year, but the Downtown Development Authority disagreed, saying the ordinance could limit projects in the city’s future.
Councilmember Beverly Batensaid she thinks it is necessary for the city council to be able to override the ordinance, but she is concerned with the possibility of tall buildings in the city’s downtown.
“I just have concerns that our downtown isn’t big enough to support towering buildings,” she said. “When I look over at campus and see Hubbard Hall and see all the land around it, that’s okay. But we don’t have that kind of land.”
Currently, height limits in the downtown area are eight stories, or 14 with a city permit. The highest downtown building is the seven-story Marriot hotel at University Place, 300 M.A.C. Avenue.
“I just don’t see tall buildings in East Lansing,” Baten said. “I’d have to look at it and see if it’s something that would benefit the community. It’s not a strolling kind of an atmosphere with tall buildings like that.”
Council members have the option to send the amended ordinance back to the planning commission, or schedule a public hearing for discussion of the issue. The decision about the ordinance is expected to be finalized by the end of May.
City Manager Ted Statonsaid buildings that are above or below average size can appear out of scale and cause problems with shadows and lighting.
“If you don’t allow buildings to go up, they have to grow out,” Staton said. “Some people would say that creates urban sprawl. But too dense a development with too high buildings creates problems too.”
Other items for discussion are the possibility of working with the East Lansing Public Schools to find an area for storage of school buses. The city currently maintains the buses, but does not store them.
