Well it looks like the GOOD GUYS are winning a round here in East Lansing.
Here is my update for this evening
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/a...0391/1001/NEWS
SHAME ON LCAP, OUR NATIONAL FRATERNITY and ANY AND ALL "STAFF MEMBERS" WHO CALL THEMSELVES BROTHERS THAT HAVE HAD A HAND IN THIS DISGRACE.
I Hope that our brothers at Gamma Omicron will save their house and further embarrass all of the above people- they certainly deserve it!!
Zax
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East Lansing council gives fraternity a month to rescue its house
By DAWN PARKER • dlparker@lsj.com • March 19, 2010 • From Towne Courier
EAST LANSING - Michigan State University's oldest fraternity has another month to try to save their landmark East Lansing house.
At its March 16 meeting, the city council voted 4-0 - Mayor Victor Loomis was absent - to defer any decision on a site plan for the conversion of the Lambda Chi Alpha house into 15 three- and four-bedroom apartments.
By the same margin, the council also voted to send the site plan to the Historic District Commission.
The commission will be asked to determine whether proposed additions to the rear of the Tudor-style house at 128 Collingwood would be visible from the street.
"We're very appreciative of what the council did tonight," sophomore William Readdy said.
"It's an avenue we were trying to explore for an extended period. It's an extra step that we feel is very necessary in terms of preserving the historic integrity of our home."
The house, built in 1927 and part of the Bailey Historic District, is bound by Historic District regulations to keep its façade unchanged.
It has been used as a fraternity house for its entire existence.
Landlord woes?
The house was purchased for $300,000 in 1993 by the national fraternity, and then sold to Lambda Chi Alpha Properties in 2003.
LCAP has entered into a contract with developer Dale Inman and partner Michael Dowdle to convert the fraternity house for another residential use.
Dowdle told the council that LCAP has "acted in good faith" throughout the process, even giving the fraternity an 11th-hour attempt to regain ownership of its home.
While the exterior is well-preserved, current members and alumni alike crowded the meeting room to talk about the interior, which they say has not been properly maintained.
Calling the national fraternity "essentially the bad landlord," alumnus Joe Manzella detailed things like a $150 fix that, left unrepaired, led to the house's boiler burning up.
"What we need and did not get was due process," Manzella said. "Speak the truth instead of lawyer talk."
Alumnus David Lyons, an employee of LCAP, said his employer's "genuine disinterest" in maintaining the property was apparent.
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Unusable kitchen
Toilets were in bathrooms without stalls for nine months, and the house's kitchen has been deemed unusable by code for the past four years.
The Historic District Commission has yet to review the site plan. The project was on the commission's agenda for its most recent meeting on March 11, but was not formally considered after it was determined the proposed addition "did not distract from the historic nature of the building," the city's planning and zoning administrator Darcy Schmitt explained to the council.
Council members, however, would prefer the site plan go through the commission before it comes back to their body.
"I think there is an open question there," noted council member Nathan Triplett, referring to whether the proposed redevelopment meets the requirements of the city's Historic District Ordinance.
The Historic District Commission's next meeting is Thursday, April 8.
Readdy said the fraternity will abide by whatever decision is made.
"In the event they receive (the commission's) approval, I think we will at least feel that we've tried to do what we could do," he said.