At the work session, the council will review the boundaries of the Collegeville Historic District, which includes the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, 334 Michigan Ave., said Tim Schmitt, a community development analyst for East Lansing.

“One of the things the city’s been looking into is just trying to add a lot of the fraternity houses and some of the sorority houses into their own significant district,” said economics junior Chris Kulesza, member of the Historic District Commission.

The reason for this is to protect their history, he said.

In the Historic District, a house cannot have renovations that change its historic significance, Kulesza said.

“If (the owners) want to make a renovation, they have to get extra approval from the Historic District Commission — there’s extra codes, and extra guidelines,” he said. “We’re trying to preserve the … historic effect of that certain district.”

The re-evaluation of the boundaries is a general review process being undertaken because of the amount of time passed, Councilmember Roger Peters said.

“It’s been about 20 years since we adopted that code, since the districts were created,” he said.

“The state statute permits, and probably encourages … cities to take a look at their historic boundaries because changes occur.”

A preliminary report was formulated in July, and both the planning department and the state have commented on it, Schmitt said.

This will be the first step in the process of getting the information to the council, he said.

In the upcoming weeks, the Historic District Commission will hold a public hearing to discuss comments from the state of Michigan, and to give property owners a chance to comment, Schmitt said.

The commission will then make the choice whether to recommend the issue to the council, and the council will make the final decision.

Other issues the council will discuss tonight include the construction containment plan for the City Center II project and the possibility of contract rezoning 0.5 acres of vacant land at the northwest corner of Delta Street and Grand River Avenue.