At present, the lifestyle center can best be likened to a sleek roadster built on the chassis of a family sedan. Although its architecture provides a visual richness absent from the run-of-the-mill enclosed shopping mall, it is still built on the model of the old open-air motor court shopping centers of the 1950s and 60s.

The car metaphor is also reflective of the physical plan of the lifestyle center, which is organized principally around the movement and placement of cars, not people. Although a great deal of attention has been paid to site amenities including a well appointed pedestrian alley, the activity of the lifestyle center is one-dimensional and focused inward, resulting in an isolated activity center that is generally empty when stores are closed. As the economic and social center of the DDA district, the lifestyle center must connect with, and contribute to, the vitality of other activity centers in the district to create a unified and diverse community.

BALANCE OF USES
A well rounded-mix of uses has proven to be a critical ingredient to the success of many new lifestyle centers, and anecdotal evidence suggests the office and housing in these new communities have generally outperformed early expectations of market absorption and price. Non-retail employment opportunities will diversify the district, deepen its tax and employment base, and help support the retail components in off-peak periods, such as midday during the week. It will also help create a more market feasible environment for multi-family/multi-story housing.

Residential development not only provides a captive market, it also allows anchor spaces to be adapted to a variety of alternative uses from grocery stores to branch libraries, should an anchor tenant pull out. A well-rounded mix of land uses will also diversify social activities and encourage a wider array of amenities that offer a unique quality of life.

URBAN SCALE AND TEXTURE
Getting the lifestyle center to look and function more like a traditional shopping district and community focal point rather than a suburban mall will require higher density development that gives stronger physical definition to the internal street system, accentuates corners and street edges, and allows other activities to “spill” into retail areas. Equally as important, a seamless transition from the large buildings of the lifestyle center to pedestrian scaled development will be necessary to help create a true community environment in the district.

PARKING
Densification of the district will require one or more parking structures to free land for new infill construction. Creative configurations, such as wrapping the ground floor with small-bay retail spaces, tucking the structure into grade changes, or using the structure as a platform (literally and figuratively) for new mid-rise office development, will encourage integration with the surrounding land uses and ensure convenience. These structures could potentially be financed under a cost sharing agreement with the DDA, with their significant costs amortized by the higher gross rents and tax revenues realized from a more robust build-out of the project.

BUILDING HEIGHT
The 28-foot height limitation exacted by Wal-Mart for all buildings within the ring road that surrounds the lifestyle center encourages continuation of the low density, large footprint development pattern of existing retail buildings, and may limit where taller buildings may be placed. Lifting these standard restrictions through negotiations with Wal-Mart may be assisted by providing view corridor easements and improved signage along Lake Lansing Road, or, as a last resort, the exercise of special municipal powers. More intensive development, including increased building heights, is part and parcel of a distinctive design, pattern, and urban profile for the DDA district.

ADJACENT LAND USE
Development pressures along the Township’s borders make it important to work with our neighbors. By tempering the intensity of development and carefully regulating its design, adverse impacts can be minimized on adjacent properties, public facilities and services, such as police, fire, water and sewer. By working towards a shared vision with our neighbors, consistent land use regulations can be developed in each jurisdiction to achieve that vision.

DISTRICT PORTALS
The entry points of the district should set the stage and the bar for development within the district and help unify the district through complementary urban design. Currently, neither the eastern portal to the district via the U.S.127 interchange nor the western portal via Lake Lansing Road announce entrance into the district, nor set a tone for future development. The U.S. 127 interchange should be enhanced to create a more attractive, unified, and functional portal to the Township, and the Cities of Lansing and East Lansing, and improve pedestrian movements across Lake Lansing Road and U.S. 127. At the western Township boundary, the extension of the Groesbeck Golf Course and Greenway, or redeveloped land just outside the township boundary should host a well designed entry feature that would provide a purposeful visual break to separate the Township from the City of Lansing.

GOLF COURSE/GREENWAY EXTENSION
The Groesbeck Golf Course and Greenway is a major public amenity that could help drive development of the Medical Campus. Extending the course/greenway into the district via reclaiming the BW&L fly ash pit/landfill would create an attractive market for residential development in the surrounding area and could augment the Drain Commissioner’s efforts to reconfigure the stormwater management system in this area. Such an extension may also provide a greenway connection between the developing DeWitt Township recreation area north of Granger Landfill, the interior part of the DDA district, Bancroft Park, and the remnant open spaces that extend nearly to downtown Lansing and into the City of East Lansing. Thus, this extension could be a key link of a future recreational spine that connects the district to other places in the urbanized area.

BROWNFIELDS
The Medical Campus is littered with properties that maintain real or perceived environmental contamination. Beyond requisite due diligence, coordination of redevelopment with Michigan Department of Environmental Quality Michigan brownfield redevelopment authorities and the prospective developer(s) will be necessary to create a site design that maximizes the potential of the site and facilitates environmental closure.

STORMWATER RETENTION
The DDA district is within numerous drainage districts, some of which require extensive stormwater management improvements. The area west of Wood and north of Lake Lansing Roads cannot support new development until the retention system proposed for the area north of Groesbeck Golf Course is completed. Redevelopment of the area south of Lake Lansing Road and east of Wood Road requires heightened attention to stormwater management for each development site in order to maintain each district’s boundaries.

As demonstrated in the nearby Tollgate project, stormwater management facilities can and should be used as amenity features and organizing elements for new neighborhoods.

UTILITIES
In addition to the requisite stormwater system improvements, the DDA will need to construct expanded sanitary sewer service west of Wood Road to support the higher densities proposed in the plan. Power service to the district is more than sufficient, allowing for significantly increased electrical loads. The district is also laced with fiber-optic lines to serve the wide band needs of information-based industries. Wireless fidelity service, not currently available, could further enhance the district’s business attraction potential. (See Appendix B for further details.)