Development plans for a vacant East Lansing property were decided Tuesday after a public hearing during an East Lansing City Council meeting.
The property, which sits at 1427 W. Saginaw Street and once housed the Albert Pic Motel, has been the focus of a heated debate between developers with Strathmore Development Company, city officials and residents in the surrounding neighborhood.
Many people attended the meeting and more than 15 residents expressed their concerns to the council. Some residents circulated a petition throughout the city, gaining more than 250 names, which was presented at past meetings. Residents had expressed concern with increased noise and traffic due to the development.
Two motions were raised during the meeting and both unanimously passed.
The first allowed for a special-use permit on the property, which sets the guidelines for how Strathmore could develop the site. A total of 20 conditions are attached.
Left turns will be prohibited onto Grand River Avenue and support was issued to transform Coolidge Road into a two-way street.
The special-use permit will allow Strathmore Development to begin a site plan for the property before beginning to build.
The second motion officially rezoned the property from office to retail space, something that needed to be done before a site plan could materialize. But the rezoning came with a series of conditions.
The only retail shops permissible in the new development are a bakery and a coffee shop, which is not allowed to have a drive-through. Total retail space cannot be more than 50 percent of the space in the one-story building, and the larger building that faces Saginaw Street is not allowed to contain any retail.
Kevin McGraw, an attorney representing Strathmore, said that the current office classification of the property is what has kept it vacant since 2000.
"We knew going all-retail may not be appropriate for the neighbors," McGraw said.
As a result, Fifth Third Bank was supported as a tenant, which also will house an ATM.
"I think that the council has tried very hard to give as little to the developer and as much to the neighborhood ? as humanly possible," East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows said. "We aren't taking this decision lightly."
