Planning Process

After leaders from the City of Lansing, Lansing Township, City of Lansing and Michigan State University launched the Michigan Avenue Corridor initiative, an exploratory committee was formed to draft a Conceptual Development Plan for Michigan Avenue.

 

The exploratory committee met with staff from each of the three municipalities for more than a dozen working sessions between March and December of 2008. The committee felt that community involvement and support would be crucial if the authority was to succeed. The committee solicited stakeholder input by conducting a survey of community members and holding a series public work sessions. Invitations to public workshops were mailed to corridor property owners, local media covered the committee’s activities and a website was created to provide the public with progress reports and to gather feedback via an online survey. Members of the exploratory committee also took a bus tour of the entire corridor and met individually with various key stakeholders.

 

A series of three public workshops was conducted during the summer of 2008. Results of these workshops are contained in Appendix A of Conceptual Development Plan (here).

 

1.    The first public workshop was attended by more than 30 members of the community who helped identify the corridor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

2.    At the second public workshop, the committee used these comments as a basis for discussion of a vision for the future of Michigan Avenue.

3.    At the final public workshop, goals and objectives were presented to members of the community for additional deliberation.

 

Timeline:

• The Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority Exploratory Committee was established in spring of 2008.
• The first public workshop was held on Aug. 14, 2008 where staff and the committee conducted a SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the Michigan Avenue corridor.
• The second workshop was held on Aug. 26, 2008 where participants discuss the overall vision for the corridor.
• The third workshop was held on Oct. 2, 2008 wgere participants discuss draft goals and objectives.
• On Dec.17, 2008, the committee approved the Conceptual  Development Plan.
• The plan was reviewed by all three participating municipalities throughout 2009.
• The City of East Lansing Corridor Improvement Authority (CIA) was formed – 2009.
• The City of Lansing Corridor Improvement Authority (CIA) was formed - 2010.

Future steps:

• The formation of a joint Michigan Avenue Corridor Improvement Authority
• The CIA will create a development and finance plan
• The CIA will implement improvements from development plan