School for the Blind discussion

Monday, May 20 — On Tuesday, the Ingham County Land Bank and the Great Lakes Capital Fund will hold a public meeting on plans to repurpose the School for the Blind campus west of Old Town.

The 40-acre property in Lansing’s Old Forest Neighborhood has sat mostly idle for the past 17 years. The Land Bank and Capital Fund, the two main property owners, will use a blight removal grant from the state to demolish the mid-20^th-century dorms and service buildings that ring the west end of the campus.

The goal is to make the site’s oldest buildings — the Abigail, built in 1916 and a 1914 high school — “development ready,” Tom Edmiston, senior vice president at the Capital Fund, told City Pulse in April.

The campus was first developed in the 1850s as the Michigan Female College. The campus became the Michigan School for the Blind in 1879.

The state sold the campus to the Lansing Housing Commission and the Mid-Michigan Leadership Academy, which still occupies about a quarter of the site.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, 600 W. Maple St. in Lansing. RSVPs are appreciated and you can do so here.