Margarita Lara won a free month of rent Tuesday night for planting free flowers and grass seed.
The fisheries and wildlife graduate student entered a raffle for the University Apartments Council of Residents’ beautification project.
“It was a really good opportunity because I like flowers,” she said.
The council, made up of residents from all three on-campus apartment communities, offered the free rent as an incentive to increase participation in the activity. The group received support for the project from University Housing, and Grounds Maintenance Services and Residence Life.
But other East Lansing residents have different incentives for planting flowers and cutting their lawns.
Last year, the city’s Parking and Code Enforcement division issued 290 warnings and 25 tickets for unkempt yards.
Patricia Brogan is a member of Growing Pride, a volunteer group that encourages local residents to plant flowers in public areas. The group receives support from Meijer, 1350 W. Lake Lansing Road.
“We care about our environment and having our community look like it’s full of pride,” Brogan said.
Enforcement division supervisor Rob Linton said student rental properties are taken care of by landlords, but other forms of student housing can cause difficulties.
Housing cooperatives, fraternity houses and sorority houses can be a problem, he said, especially if the houses are empty during the summer.
Linton said it takes longer to resolve problems with greek houses during the summer because the city has trouble contacting the alumni associations that own the houses.
Interfraternity Council President Paul Hage said greeks are not the only violators and any problems with empty fraternity houses can be taken care of easily by calling about it.
“People go home,” he said. “(But) all it takes is a phone number to get someone up here to take care of it.”
Beal House co-operative resident Chris Roberts said his house at 525 M.A.C. Ave. received a warning last week.
Roberts said he thinks there might be a higher standard for his house because it is in the city’s historic district.
“Some of the laws seem a little silly,” the Lansing Community College student said. “We keep our yard decent.”
