The Lansing City Council approved two more steps Thursday in the process of getting the city’s Towne Center development moving.
During a meeting June 17, the council approved the revised development plan for the project after a new majority stakeholder, Dan Carr, took the reins.
But during that meeting, several council members and the city’s director of public works expressed concern with a few of the features on one part of the project — namely, the way access to a McDonald’s restaurant was proposed to work.
There was a right-in right-out access off of West Mary Street stipulated in the development plan for the restaurant that representatives of the developer said was considered “essential” by the McDonald’s company, though several council members and an independent traffic study cited possible traffic problems if that access were allowed.
Councilman Harland Russell said his fears were not allayed as the council reviewed the revised construction documents and revised facilities use agreement Thursday. He asked John Young, the city’s director of public works, why there were no mechanisms included in either of those documents that requested the developer set aside money as a contingency fund in case future improvements would need to be made if traffic problems did occur.
“It is our intent to recommend that that be done through the revised development agreement,” Young said, which is the most likely place for that type of stipulation.
He said the developers had been approached about that option.
Russell said he had one other concern — the median that was shown to be built for West Mary Street in front of the restaurant to discourage left-hand turns into the right-in right-out was not to be built until the third phase of development after the McDonald’s opens.
To that, Young said there was also a short piece of median in the first phase directly in front of the right-in right-out and improved delineators for the traffic lanes.
Councilwoman Janette Holdeman asked about lighting. She said according to the construction documents, lighting for the portion of Towne Center where the McDonald’s is proposed to be will not be installed until a late phase.
“That was an economic request,” Young said.
To get the development moving again, he said the developer requested a delay on the installation of lighting until more businesses were secured for the site.
However, he said the lighting at Centre Drive and West Mary Street should be sufficient to light the area.
