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THURSDAY, Aug. 22 — University of Michigan Health-Sparrow is opposing a proposal to the Lansing City Council to create a commission of inquiry to determine whether the old Eastern High School should be declared a historic district.

Such a study would “ultimately hamper University of Michigan Health-Sparrow’s plans to resolve the health care crisis in Lansing,” Margaret Dimond, regional president of UM-Health, wrote in an email to the council today.

Dimond said Old Eastern’s site was the “lynchpin” of the $800 million commitment to improve access to world-class healthcare in our community when the company acquired Sparrow in 2022.

“A vote on historic district designation puts at risk not only the proposed mental health facility, but all future efforts to serve the people of Lansing,” she wrote.

The city’s Historic District Commission voted unanimously last week to conduct the study. It has scheduled a special meeting for 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Neighborhood Empowerment Center, 600 W. Maple St., to decide on the wording of a proposed resolution to be presented to the council.

In her email, Dimond incorrectly referred to the commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor and city council, as the “Lansing Historic Preservation Society.”

If the council approves the resolution, the mayor and council would appoint a commission of inquiry that could take up to a year to complete a study and determine whether the east side landmark qualifies for historic district designation and then report back to the council, which would have the final say.

During that process, city officials said, the University of Michigan cannot tear down the old Eastern and replace it with a $97.2 million, 120-bed psychiatric hospital, as UM-Sparrow has proposed. However, in addition to establishing the review committee, the City Council may also have to approve a moratorium to prevent the U of M from continuing construction.

The university council and the state must approve the plan.

“I implore you to vote against any study, moratorium or any other action that would delay or prevent life-saving treatment for the people of Lansing,” Dimond said.

Dimond’s letter revealed that UM-Sparrow has other long-term plans for its east side campus that could be affected by the fate of the old Eastern.

“We are also exploring opportunities to address other urgent needs through our expanded campus, including increased access to cancer care, improvements to our birthing center and neonatal intensive care facilities, and more convenient surgical care,” she wrote, using the acronym for neonatal intensive care unit. “We also see an opportunity to use this property to address urgent issues and overcrowding in our emergency department, which is designed to accommodate 75 patients per day and currently sees up to 200 patients per day.”

She said that at Old Eastern, which has been closed for five years, “there are significant safety and quality deficiencies that make it impossible for us to use it as a health facility.”

She also addressed UM-Sparrow’s opposition to historic preservation restoration of the building. “As a nonprofit health organization, we have a responsibility to focus our resources on our mission to improve community health, not on complex historic renovations.”

Efforts to reach UM-Sparrow spokesman John Foren for comment on how UM-Sparrow determines the level of complexity of such renovations were not immediately successful.

Dimond promised that UM-Sparrow will “continue to work with the community to honor its heritage,” meaning Old Eastern, “from a memorial garden to a memorial wall.”

City Council member Ryan Kost, one of the leaders of an initiative to preserve Old Eastern, called Dimond’s message “disingenuous at best.”

“I agree with Ms Dimond’s assessment that we need additional beds for mental health care,” he said today.

“However, to claim that they are working with the community when they have not responded to me in weeks and have cut off all communication with community organizations is dishonest at best.”

Kost is co-chair of the Committee to Preservation of Historic Eastern and Advance Mental Health, which is comprised of alumni, East Siders and historic preservationists. He represents the 1st District, where the UM-Sparrow Hospital campus is located.

Dimond and other UM-Sparrow leaders met with committee members last month. Dimond planned a tour for committee members but declined requests to include a photographer and a historic preservationist. Kost said the committee was disappointed but did not object.

After Kost posted on Facebook that the committee’s two requests had been denied, Dimond canceled the tour.

In the meantime, UM-Sparrow granted the Lansing State Journal a tour, but with the condition that no photographs were allowed.

The article quoted Forums as falsely stating that plans for the tour had “stalled” because the Citizens’ Committee had not kept its agreement to limit its participation in the tour to the same committee members who had met with UM-Sparrow.

City Pulse subsequently published a portion of the meeting minutes showing that no such agreement existed and that the committee had asked preservationists to inspect the building with UM-Sparrow representatives rather than committee members.

In response to the incident, UM-Sparrow ended the discussions, arguing that committee members were behaving in a hostile manner and were not acting in “good faith.”