State lawmakers are holding up $270 million in building projects at Michigan universities in a battle over who controls such projects, including a $46 million energy system project at Wayne State University. Lawmakers are demanding that public colleges and universities pass resolutions stating they\'ll abide by laws that require legislator approval of any project costing more than $1 million. Michigan\'s three largest universities so far have said they understand the laws but haven\'t passed the requested resolutions. The boards at University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University have not passed the resolution, partly because doing so may lead to other requests. \"This is a very important committee for us, (but) it\'s one committee out of 81 committees for the Legislature,\" said Harvey Hollins III, vice president for government and community affairs at Wayne State. \"This is not the only committee we are asked to respond to for certain things. We really want to be careful this doesn\'t create a slippery slope and we would be beholden to 81 different requests.\" Richard Bernstein, a member of Wayne State's Board of Governors, believes a fight with lawmakers is not wise. \"Universities have to become more pragmatic about the current and political economic situation of our state and choose their battles more carefully,\" he said. Wayne State was sanctioned earlier by the state for building a $1.7 million parking lot between Antoinette Street and York Street, west of Cass Avenue, without approval. The university realized midway through the project it failed to get approval and issued a stop-work order Aug. 17 and formally apologized to the state. The subcommittee put a six-month delay for approving Wayne State\'s project to build a steam boiler plant system on campus that would reduce the university\'s utility costs. It was a costly lesson, said Wayne State\'s Hollins. \"A dirt parking lot has already cost us more than a million,\" he said. But \"they had the option of throwing the book at us.\" A photo of the School of Medicine's C.S. Mott Center building is included.