Developer Lingg Brewer presented an application to modify plans to his site at 500 Albert Ave., an apartment building.

The changes to the building would include construction of a third story and modifications to the building’s interior to increase the number of apartments, said Tim Schmitt, community development analyst for East Lansing.

The East Lansing Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend the modified plan to council in its Dec. 8, 2010, meeting.

Schmitt said the proposed additional space would give students more affordable downtown housing options and likely would benefit the city.

“It should cater toward students and bring some more people downtown to patronize the businesses,” Schmitt said. “All in all, it would be a pretty positive change.”

East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis said the project has been before council in a previous work session, and didn’t foresee any major issues with the material being presented.

“We will work our way through the public hearing and see what comments we may receive,” Loomis said.

Council also is scheduled to vote on a resolution of conditional support to select the Bus Rapid Transit, or BRT, alternative bus route as an appropriate plan for the Michigan/Grand River Avenue Corridor.

The Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, discussed the matter with council at its meeting last week and addressed concerns such as cost, safety of the proposed changes and the width of the proposed median.

East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said city officials are in favor of the plan and will continue to support it as long as initial concerns continued to be looked at by CATA.

“(The resolution) says we conditionally support the BRT proposal, assuming the kind of concerns we’ve articulated get addressed in this next phase of the study,” Staton said.