The East Lansing City Council will meet Tuesday and is expected to decide on several housing and retail developmental projects for the city.
One major decision involves choosing the lead developer of the redevelopment of the East Village area, in which several apartment complexes, rental homes and businesses in and around Cedar Village will be torn down within a few years and replaced with new businesses, student housing, condominiums and parks.
The lead developer is expected to have complete control of the project, with some exceptions that the council will outline at upcoming meetings.
At the council's first meeting of the month on May 3, council members approved parking agreements for some MSU faculty and staff members, discussed the 2005-06 city budget and honored East Lansing's finance director of 27 years, who is retiring Friday.
MSU has begun construction on a parking ramp near Morrill Hall, which has caused some faculty and staff members to be left without parking.
In an attempt to ease some campus parking headaches, council members agreed to allow 100 MSU employees to lease parking spaces in the City Center parking ramp at M.A.C. Avenue downtown.
The agreement could bring about $90,000 in revenue to the city, with each space costing $50 per month.
The council also discussed the 2005-06 city budget at the May 3 meeting. However, the final decision to approve the budget could take place at Tuesday's meeting, according to the council's drafted agenda.
And while the budget is the matter at hand, Gary Murphy, East Lansing's director of finance, who helped construct the city's budget, is due to retire Friday after almost three decades of handling the fiscal responsibility of the city.
The finance department, besides producing the city budget, is responsible for making investment purchases on behalf of the city, processing payroll and overseeing matters that involve insurance claims and policies that pertain to the city.
City Council members recognized and honored Murphy at the May 3 meeting. Mary Haskell, East Lansing's current budgeting and accounting administrator, will replace Murphy.
