After three years of planning, pondering, proposing and puttering around, the East Village project may finally begin – in a few more years.
The project could displace more than 2,000 residents in the region bound by Grand River Avenue, Hagadorn Road, Bogue Street and the Red Cedar River in favor of a shopping avenue, a man-made canal with an island, possibly a hotel and movie theater and new housing for permanent residents.
Demolition can begin as soon as a formal development agreement is reached by the city and the master developer acquires all the necessary land.
City Manager Ted Staton said August 2009 is a conceivable start date, and Lori Mullins, senior project manager, expects to break ground in two years if all goes well.
The $500 million development plan will replace Cedar Village and the surrounding student apartments, houses and fraternities with a 2,500-capacity, mixed-use housing. But the area going under the knife is intimately connected with campus.
The idea that permanent residents can live next to campus while students are pushed farther and farther away from downtown East Lansing to the outskirts of the city and to surrounding cities is absurd. About 45,000 students attend MSU, and the majority are undergraduates.
The city will have to eventually accept that those thousands of young people will have to live somewhere, and they’ll probably make some noise.
City officials hope the revamped area will attract more permanent residents – some of whom complain about noisy students, ruckus and parties.
Many people see the Cedar Village area as a run-down student ghetto, but every university in the United States has such a place.
The areas directly around campus are the most appropriate places for students to run around, be loud and meet friends.
Staton said the main hurdle to the entire project is determining what there is a market for in the area, however, it’s unlikely many permanent residents will want to raise a family next door to a university famous for parties and riots.
Students deserve an area close to campus where they can act like students, for better or worse, just as permanent residents deserve a place far from campus, where the streets are a little quieter.
East Lansing wouldn’t exist as it is today without MSU, and the students invariably play a huge role in the fabric of the city.
MSU needs to step in more and stand up for students’ rights to exist near the school they attend, and the city needs to recognize students’ importance to East Lansing.
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