Overlay districts restricts the addition of new rental licenses in a neighborhood but allow existing rental properties to remain as rentals.

Neighborhoods have the option to petition to set an overlay district in place, but two-thirds of the property owners in a neighborhood must sign a petition for council to consider the application, East Lansing Planning and Zoning Administrator Darcy Schmitt wrote in an e-mail.

Two of the districts that will be discussed tonight are in the Whitehills Neighborhood, which spans north from Saginaw Street to Lake Lansing Road and east from Abbot Road to Hagadorn Road, and one is in the Pinecrest Neighborhood, which spans north from Woodingham Drive to Lake Lansing Road and east from Coolidge Road to Harrison Road.

Once the public hearings are held, council can deliberate on the petition the same day to approve or deny the request, or council can defer the issue to a later date, Loomis said.

Loomis said he anticipates council will receive “quite a bit” of public comment, but asked that anyone planning on attending keep their comments between two and three minutes.

There currently are 13 neighborhoods in East Lansing with overlay districts, according to the city’s Web site.

Also on the agenda is an amendment to the Master Deed of the Avondale Square project, which is located in the 600 block of Virginia Avenue.

The Avondale Square project will create 30 units of permanent housing units in an area formerly targeted at student renters. Four homes have been completed in the
area.

The change in the Master Deed would add lots for the second phase of the project, East Lansing Community Development Analyst Tim Schmitt said in an e-mail.

Schmitt said two properties on the west side of Virginia Avenue and five lots on the east side would be added in the deed.

He said the east alleyway has been completed, and the city expects to begin construction on the west alleyway during the spring.

Infrastructure construction is scheduled to be completed by the spring, but home construction will depend on the housing markets, Schmitt said.

The plans for alleyway construction have been slightly altered because of the city’s inability to obtain a property on the end of the block. Schmitt said all plans have been altered to work around the property.