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Planning staff presents final edits to comprehensive plan update, adds social‑equity materials
Summary
Planning staff presented final edits to the city’s comprehensive plan update, including new social‑equity text and redlining history; the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the draft July 23 and staff expects to forward the draft to City Council for review July 15.
City planning staff presented a near‑final draft of the City of East Lansing comprehensive plan update at the July 9 Planning Commission meeting, highlighting newly added social‑equity language and historical material for commission review.
Staff said the updated content positions social equity, housing and climate resilience as primary priorities identified in early community engagement and recommends placing an equity explanation and a short history of redlining early in the plan. "We wanted to describe what social equity means," planning staff said, and they noted community input ranking equity, housing and public health highly during outreach.
The social‑equity insert includes a short table of equity topics aligned with draft plan responses and a small inset using historic HOLC redlining maps to show racial distributions and past discriminatory practice context. Staff told commissioners the material includes references to civil‑rights milestones and to a 2022 Michigan bill that clarified how homeowners may remove racially restrictive covenants.
Commissioners praised the draft and thanked staff for the research. One commissioner with expertise in local history called the redlining section "really impressive" and urged staff to correct minor typos before final publication. Staff said a corrected, fully formatted draft should be in the City Council packet for the July 15 council meeting and that the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the comprehensive plan update July 23; final changes can still be made up through formal adoption.
Commissioners asked for clarifications about wording and titles in the acknowledgments section; staff said they will correct small errors and asked commissioners to provide edits promptly. Several commissioners requested comparative materials and noted the plan’s linkages to other ongoing projects and committee work.
No formal action was taken; staff will forward the draft to City Council for review next week and return to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and a potential vote on July 23.
