Resident urges posting planning meetings to YouTube and stricter notice to contiguous landowners; city staff says letters were sent

During the public-comment portion of the Lansing City Council meeting, resident Paul Cromer asked the council to post planning and zoning meetings to the city’s YouTube channel and asked that the city ensure contiguous property owners receive proper mailed notice for land-use actions.

Cromer, who identified himself as a county resident, told the council he wanted better access to accurate information and asked: “Mayor McNeil, will you publicly commit tonight that you will make these meeting available for the citizens of Lansing?” Mayor Tony McNeil replied: “I will publicly commit to looking into it.”

Cromer also raised concerns about notice for contiguous property owners after a project he cited (Epic Estates) failed to notify a contact address he considered appropriate. He said notice should be mailed to the address where tax bills are sent and that letters left at a vacant lot do not fulfill proper notification under state statute. “Maybe ensure some due diligence from the staff and send the notification to where the tax bills are sent,” he said.

City Administrator Tim later responded during department reports that staff had sent letters to property owners for recent rezonings and that planning commission meetings had been recorded on YouTube on occasion. He said regularizing recordings would require training personnel: “There's only a couple of people who know how to run it. We would have to train people. We'd have to ask someone to give up 1 night a month…not undoable.” The mayor and staff said they would look into making planning and zoning meetings more regularly available online.

Why this matters: The requests touch on transparency and statutory notification processes for land-use actions; the council and staff acknowledged the concerns and said they would examine procedures for notifying contiguous owners and for posting meetings online.