Residents who campaign against the sale of three city-owned parking lots are claiming their successful effort represents a vote of no confidence toward the East Lansing government.
East Lansing resident Jeffrey Hank said many residents are fed up with the decisions East Lansing City Council has made in recent years.
Hank was in charge of two petitions that did not make it to the November ballot — one asked for a public city attorney and the other for the decriminalization of marijuana in the city.
“A lot of people who voted yes on the proposal just wanted to see something done, they don’t necessarily know about all the history. They just see that corner and want to build something,” Hank said. “A lot of people who voted no also want to see something done, but they don’t trust city hall or city council.”
Hank said the 43.42 percent of “no” ballots show a lack of confidence and trust in the local government.
East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett said although the proposal did not pass, the majority of people want change.
“What it shows is that a strong majority of residents supported the proposal,” Triplett said.
Triplett said the next step is to consider all the options and try to move forward with a plan that can benefit all.
“If we know for sure who’s going to build it, what’s going to be there, and what was actually going to cost to the taxpayers of the city, they will put it to a vote again and I think it’s going to pass,” Hank said.
Eliot Singer, a long time critic of East Lansing government, said the vote is part of a momentum residents are going through.
“This is a step for major reforms and we are going to see over the next year or two ... this 43 percent minority becomes a strong majority as more people understand what the issues really were about,” Singer said.
Although 56.58 percent of voters agreed on selling the city-owned parking lots, in order for the ballot to pass it needed at least 60 percent of approval, according to the city charter. But this is just the latest in a number of failed city-owned property sales that have been put to a vote.
In 2006, the city placed a ballot proposal to sell the owned land of University Place — the proposal received 58.7 percent, falling short to pass.
In the election of 2008, two ballot proposals asking to sell the University Place city-owned ramp and land was only favored by 57 percent and 59.7 percent respectively, not achieving the 60 percent vote charter’s requirement.
DTN Management Co. had a proposed plan for the Park District and although a positive vote would not have guaranteed the sale of the land to them, the probability was high.
Hank said the “no” vote was not necessarily linked to DTN Management’s plan.
“I think very few people have a problem with DTN ... in my perspective this is not an anti-DTN vote, this is an anti-city hall vote,” Hank said.
Hank said the failure of other projects, such as City Center II, might have influenced the decision.
