A shift in the type of residents at University Village apartments will affect more than just the MSU community, East Lansing residents said.

Members of area neighborhoods said they are concerned about the possible effects redeveloping University Village will have on their communities.

The MSU Board of Trustees approved a plan at its October meeting to redevelop the complex — which currently houses mostly graduate and international students and their families — into undergraduate student housing.

"I'm a little concerned it'll flood the neighborhood with students," said John Narcy, associate professor of kinesiology.

Narcy said he has lived in his Lilac Avenue home, south of University Village, for more than 20 years. During this time, he said he has never heard one loud party and it's not often he finds beer bottles on his lawn from students.

Now, with undergraduates potentially moving in after the redevelopment, he said he's worried student behavior will negatively impact his neighborhood.

"A lot of students just don't behave when they're away from home," Narcy said.

But he said it's too early to determine the outcome.

"It could be a beautiful thing and no problem, but history (of student behavior) hasn't shown that," Narcy said.

By fall 2007, the 43 apartment buildings in the village will be replaced. The new complex will have three buildings with 300 apartments that will be targeted to undergraduate students. The plans would allow for about two-thirds of the current property to be used as recreational areas and green space.

Accounting junior Scott Judge lives on Marigold Avenue, and said he doesn't have a problem with the redevelopment.

"They're ugly buildings," he said.

Judge said as a student it won't affect him much, but for "a lot of people around here who aren't students, it'd obviously affect them negatively."

Red Cedar Elementary School, 1110 Narcissus Drive, has students from university apartments and any change in their residency could affect the atmosphere of the school.

Fifteen of the 230 students in kindergarten through fourth grade at the school come from University Village, Principal Mindy Emerson said, adding that there are more students in higher grade levels who live in the complex.

"My concern is (that) closing University Village will impact the school possibly in a negative way," Emerson said.

Red Cedar Elementary is one of two elementary schools in the district that offer English as a Second Language programs, and Emerson said these programs benefit the international students living in University Village.

Donley Elementary, 2961 Lake Lansing Road, also teaches kindergarten through fourth grade and is the only other school with the program.

Emerson said if children who live in University Village leave Red Cedar Elementary, it will be "a loss of students and a loss of services to those families."

"I would like to see the university address the needs of graduate students with families," Emerson said.

Cynthia Craig, president of the Red Cedar Community Association, addressed her neighborhood's concerns to the board at its October meeting.

She described the Red Cedar community as a "quiet, family-oriented community."

"What makes our neighborhood so wonderful is you don't hear about us," Craig, who also is an associate professor of Italian, told the board. "Our hope is that the redevelopment of this site will respect and preserve the quality of our neighborhood."

The greatest initial concern Craig said she had was the lack of communication between the university and city residents.

"We were not notified when the discussions began to take place," she said to the board. "We weren't contacted at all.

"We want you to realize that the focus of that property is going to change," she said, adding that the arrival of younger students will "change the character of what we have now."

Chuck Gagliano, assistant vice president for Housing and Food Services, said it wasn't time to speak with the community in the beginning stages, because the board had not approved the redevelopment.

"There was an initial lack of communication (with area neighborhoods) that was reduced once we talked and discussed several things," Gagliano said during the meeting.

Gagliano said the residents' concerns are based on information that isn't clear.

About 30 percent of University Village is already undergraduate students, he said adding that he plans to address residents' concerns.

"I happen to think that our students are quite capable to live in and around any community," Gagliano said. "For the most part, they don't cause trouble."