Reporting like this only happens with your financial support. Donate to WKAR today!
The city of Lansing is backtracking on plans to demolish a historic structure in Old Town.
City Council members voted Monday to rescind a demolition order for the Preuss Building in Old Town.
The building was constructed more than 100 years ago and once hosted the Star Market, a meat and sausage market founded by Frank Preuss. City Council members voted last year to require it to be brought up to code or demolished.
But the building will soon become city property after it was acquired by the Ingham County Land Bank in a tax foreclosure, City Attorney Greg Venker said.
He said the Lansing Economic Development Corporation has agreed to fund the repairs necessary to prevent the building from collapsing, with an initial investment expected to be less than $100,000.
“There was a desire to save the property, and an effort was made to locate funds to actually stabilize the structure, because it is in a very bad state of disrepair,” Venker said.
Monday’s vote is the second time City Council members have rescinded an order to demolish a historic structure.
They voted in November to rescind a make safe or demolish order from the first house designed by late 19th century architect Darius Moon, who built more than 250 buildings in the Lansing area, most of which are no longer standing.
The November vote was the first time dating back at least two decades that City Council members have taken such a step.
Venker said that in both cases, the property owner had demonstrated a meaningful change in circumstances, with funding lined up for repairs.
The city is revamping its approach to properties that are not up to code, introducing a new system meant to give officials more flexibility to deem a property unsafe to occupy without sending it through the process that could end in its demolition.
City Council members voted Monday to move from a two-tier system for public notices to a four-tier system.
Currently, the city posts a red placard on any properties deemed unsafe to occupy, which can set in motion a process that ultimately ends with the building being demolished.
But the addition of a new black placard would allow officials to distinguish properties with significant structural damage from those deemed unsafe to occupy for other reasons, like not having power, Councilmember Adam Hussain said.
“The red tag does not necessarily mean a property is in imminent danger, nor is it necessarily a candidate for the make safe or demolish process,” Hussain said. “Whereas with the black placard, that would actually indicate a dangerous building, potential imminent threat, and that it’s certainly at the level of potential demolition.”
The city would also begin posting white notices on properties that don’t have a rental certification and would place yellow notices on properties that failed a rental inspection.
Currently, the city uses a single pink tag for properties that fall into either category.
Council President Peter Spadafore said some make safe or demolish orders are being held in the Public Safety Committee so that Council members don’t have to go through the process of passing them only to later rescind them.
