Implementing the Lansing Regional SmartZone is a good opportunity for East Lansing to bring reliable business into the city's rapidly changing downtown environment.

The availability for other options is running thin.

Hoping to assist small information technology start-ups, entrepreneurs and develop advanced manufacturing techniques, the SmartZone covers a variety of primary objectives.

The MSU community also has significant financial ties with the plan.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon has already pledged $40,000 to back the planning — the money coming out of MSU's Office of Intellectual Property budget.

But will pouring lots of money out of the university's budget and into these "needed" changes really be necessary?

City officials and the Lansing Regional SmartZone's financial board hope to follow the blueprint of what the tax has done to transform Grand Rapids. Since being established in 2002, the Grand Rapids SmartZone has been responsible for attracting nearly $200 million in investments into the area, including many new building developments in the health care fields.

Although it might be easier for Grand Rapids to foster change, it might not be the same for East Lansing, which in some ways is still developing. Officials are hoping that businesses and developments in East Lansing will follow Grand Rapids' lead, but it could also do nothing.

The SmartZone is necessary for the area to experiment with, but at the same time it's risky. East Lansing officials want students to feel welcome and look to get young professionals and their business into the city. More young professionals means more potential businesses, and that can bode well for the future of East Lansing.

Although benefits or consequences of the SmartZone cannot be predicted, the city needs to try something now and not wait for several years — when it's possibly too late.

Positive developments can result. The effort being put forth to move into advanced technologies ultimately translates into the effort to move ahead.