Fall-Out from the No Vote

Tonight at City Council, Mayor Nathan Triplett spoke with disappointment about yesterday’s failed vote to authorize City Council to proceed without the need for further direct-voter-approval on developer DTN’s Park District proposal. But City Manager George Lahanas said he saw the vote as sending an important reminder or message to City Council and the City planning staff.

The ballot question at issue asked voters whether to authorize City Council to sell three City parking lots—essentially in support of the proposal put forth by DTN—and it required 60% approval to pass. “Yes” votes reached 56.58%, falling short by about three hundred votes. The vote did not itself end the proposal--a proposal which was still far from reaching full governmental review and approval. Nevertheless, DTN decided today to withdraw it now that the company could not be assured in advance of voter approval of the parking lots’ sale.

DTN’s statement today suggests the company may well come back and try again:

As of now, DTN will be reconsidering our options for the DDA owned land within the Park District.  If in the future the East Lansing City Council is able to discuss the sale of the Park District parking lots, we look forward to being part of those conversations and working together with the community and City Council to help shape a vibrant and world class college town we all want East Lansing to be.”

DTN thus appears to be planning to keep its hand in redevelopment of the area, possibly even with a very similar project to the one technically withdrawn.

Lahanas told Council tonight that the fact that 43.42% of those voting voted against authorizing Council to sell the parking lots

does give us a good indication that though there are people who want to see downtown development and that sort of more urban mixed-use look, there’s also a large contingent of people who want us to balance that—want us to balance that with the way the community is now, perhaps, or it could be that they want us to slow that pace down. So there are legitimate competing interests in terms of this development.”

Both Lahanas and Triplett thanked all those who had participated in development of DTN’s project. Lahanas praised what he called the highly transparent and “outward-facing” process of the proposal development with DTN.

In development of the project plan, DTN participated in--and often organized and led--an unusually large number of meetings with members of the community, including at Peoples Church, in three open charettes, and in meetings with nearby neighborhoods’ associations. Lahanas praised the approach as a model for future proposals.

Check back this Friday for a special Ask ELi to Investigate related to the ballot question.