LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Big changes may soon be coming to the Logan Square following a virtual court hearing Wednesday morning after a mass shooting injured five at the site in July.
The city vowed to take action against the owners of the shopping center, and it did so in court — all in hopes to curb violence at the location.
“The city filed a lawsuit in the Ingham County Circuit Court to have the court appoint a receiver of the property so that there could be a management of the property that would not allow what happened during that bad event,” said Lansing City Attorney Jim Smiertka.
It didn’t last long before the two sides went into a private virtual meeting room to try and reach an agreement, something that’s apparently been in the works.
“For the past couple of days, we’ve been trying to work on a settlement, could we go in a breakout room? I have both of my clients Kevin Zhang and Mike Zhang and I know Amanda O’Boyle and Attorney Smiertka are here as well,” Jeff Klug asked in court, who’s representing the owners of Logan Square. “I think there’s just a couple points and I think we can probably have this resolved.”
The groups entered a private room and outlined actions that needed to be taken.
According to Smiertka, areas covered include how units within the center are leased and what should be in their agreements, notifying the city and cooperating with the Lansing Police Department, new surveillance cameras with signs, provisions for on-site security guards licensed by the state, monthly meetings between the city and the shopping center ownership, and the removal of disabled vehicles in the area.
He also added that if one side feels the other isn’t cooperating, it can always be brought back in front of the judge.
“When the other side comes forward with something that seems reasonable where we can always go back to the judge, we decided to reach the settlement agreement,” Smiertka said.
The request from the city for a receiver to take over the day to day management of the property was dropped as part of the deal, Smiertka said.
He went on and said they’re hoping to avoid future incidents because of the outlined measures.
“Hopefully everyone complies, we know we will, and we’re just banking that the owners and management of Logan Square will comply,” the city’s attorney said.
The points within the settlement must be in writing and given back to the judge within a week for approval.
6 News reached out to the firm representing the ownership of Logan Square for their thoughts and have not heard back.
