The East Lansing City Council voted against the highly disputed Hagadorn Road conversion Tuesday, laying to rest a heated debate between community members that originated in 2005.
The proposal called to convert Hagadorn Road from four lanes to a three-lane cross-section with designated bike lanes between Grand River Avenue and Haslett Road. It was shot down unanimously during the meeting at City Hall, 410 Abbott Road.
In opting to keep Hagadorn Road in its current form, the council refuted the East Lansing Transportation Commission’s recommendation from September to proceed with the conversion.
The proposal spurred stockpiles of public input at Tuesday night’s meeting, last week’s City Council work session and last month’s commission meeting.
The decision angered safety advocates, pedestrians and bicyclists, who felt the change would have made the road safer.
“I don’t see the parade of horribles that have been talked about here by a number of speakers and certain neighborhoods,” East Lansing resident Alex Sagady said.
The decision appeased other residents, who said the conversion would have resulted in extremely long traffic delays during peak traffic hours.
“In its current configuration of four lanes, (Hagadorn Road is) serving fairly well as the community arterial road,” said Jeff Kacos, MSU’s director of campus planning and administration. “We feel that the four lane design is necessary in order to preserve the arterial function.”
Also at the meeting, the City Council also passed a resolution to change the name “Abbott” Road to “Abbot” Road so it corresponds with the spelling of the third president of the Michigan Agricultural College, Theophilus Capen Abbot.
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