Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

"Smart Growth Ann Arbor" calls for strong design guidelines

Posted by Murph on 3. September 2009

I received the following this afternoon from “smartgrowthannarbor@gmail.com”. SGA2 urges attendance at tonight’s community open house for the A2D2 design guidelines draft, 7-9pm at the Kerrytown Concert House (415 N. Fourth), as well as the Sept. 14 joint working session of Council, Planning Commission, and the DDA. The design guidelines draft is available from the City’s A2D2 webpages.

SGA2 pitches its take into this site’s ever popular discussion topic of downtown development and design – the message appears to be very open to new development, including large/tall development, “but again, only if there is at least some basic level of protection against future buildings that will hurt the downtown experience further,” and expresses alarm that the current draft would make design review voluntary for developers.

The complete message after the cut…

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Candidate questionnaire, August 09: Grow, shrink, develop?

Posted by Murph on 30. July 2009

Continuing our candidate questionnaire results…

#3 – How do you see Ann Arbor growing, shrinking, and developing over the next 15 years? Where should growth be encouraged or discouraged, and how should the City manage the impacts of these decisions?

Kunselman: I see Ann Arbor being fairly stagnant over the next decade and then possibly picking up. When we review the real estate development cycles in Ann Arbor, it’s pretty clear that every 10 years we peak and crash. My observation is this: during the 60’s, at least 2 very large apartment buildings were built downtown (Tower Plaza and U-Tower). Then the economy tanked in the 70’s and nothing was built. In the 80’s, 3 large buildings were built: One North Main, 301 E. Liberty, and Sloan Plaza. Then the Savings and Loan crash happened and nothing was built during the 90’s (except for the DTE building on Main which was heavily subsidized by DTE). And during the last decade (2000’s) we had Zaragon Place, 411 Lofts, and Ashley Terrace – and subsequently the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression leaving no doubt in my mind that there will not be any buildings of significant size being built in Ann Arbor for another 10 years. As for encouraging growth, let’s be real, the only policies Council has promoted to actually encourage building is to subsidize private development with tax abatements, tax credits, partnerships with developers, and direct payments to developers. All of these “tools” have been tried by Council, and none of them have led to any substantial economic growth (i.e. building construction) – in fact, every partnership the City has engaged in with a private developer has failed so far, but those developers that avoided council partnerships have all built their buildings – so, maybe we should take a hint and try something else rather than assigning staff to be “speculative developers.”

Greden: Ann Arbor – along with Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo – is one of three urban centers that will drive Michigan’s economic growth in the coming decade. If Ann Arbor does not prosper and enjoy economic growth, our region and State face serious problems that will have a devastating impact on every aspect of our life, including schools, parks, and human rights. I support the A2D2 plan, which will encourage downtown growth while protecting nearby neighborhoods. I will continue to support initiatives to draw new jobs to Ann Arbor, which – despite the false claims of one of my opponents – cost the City nothing.

(Candidates Bullington, Anglin, and Rosencrans did not provide responses.)

Comment [8]

Development in Ann Arbor: Finding Common Ground

Posted by Nancy Shore on 20. July 2009

Recent discussions of proposed developments, such as New North, City Place and the Moravian highlight a real division in our town.

On the one had there are those who say they are supportive of development and density, but argue that all of the proposed developments are “bad”. These folks seem to suggest that if the right type of development came along, they would certainly support it. But that hasn’t happened yet.

On the other hand are those who want density and development no matter the scale in order to attract the people who will keep Ann Arbor vital. These folks argue that all density is good density, regardless of some of the consequences.

So where’s the middle ground? If Ann Arbor is going to grow (which some would argue is inevitable while others would argue isn’t going to happen) how should it grow? What does good development look like?

Comment [50]

Upland Green (finally) sees a grand opening

Posted by Murph on 19. September 2008

A tenant of Upland Green, at Plymouth and Murfin, requested we post on their grand opening next week. While this site is typically disinclined to post outright advertisements, particularly for national chains, the project itself has been the topic of enough past discussion that I believe any opening will be of interest to AU readers.

In small part, the interest is from the long mid-construction stall that the project went into. More interesting to me, having served a 6-year term as North Campus resident/student/employee, is that the project is the most “urban” site plan on Plymouth Road, a notoriously car-centric corridor. While parking ratios are still high, the front building is three stories, mixed-use, with parking in the rear.

But most notable is how the process played out. The development initially proposed single-story stand-alone restaurants, with parking in the front yard; the revised project was a result of the Planning Commission asking for more density, and lower setbacks, making everyone who weighed in happier. (Notably, David Cahill and I both thought it was a good development.) Hopefully it will live up to the hype and be a positive contribution to that stretch of Plymouth Road. I’ll post the advertisement with the hopes that somebody will check out the site and report back:

Panera Bread will open on Friday, Sept. 26 at 6 a.m. The new bakery-cafe will be located at 1773 Plymouth Road (across from North Campus). To commemorate the opening, customers who bring a non-perishable item to donate to Food Gatherers of Washtenaw County between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., Sept. 26 through Oct. 3, will receive a free small coffee and a post-consumer recycled tote, while supplies last.

Comment [5]

Election Day public hearing for A2D2 master plan

Posted by Murph on 3. August 2008

The City of Ann Arbor’s Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing on Tuesday, August 5th to discuss the A2D2 amendments to the City’s Downtown Plan.

The City is also considering zoning amendments to implement the Plan elements; the zoning changes were tabled by the Planning Commission in May to allow comments to be addressed.

Comment [1]

Downtown Zoning & Design Public Open Houses

Posted by Juliew on 30. April 2008

Thursday, May 1
3:30 to 5:00pm and 6:30-8:00pm
Kerrytown Concert House (415 North Fourth Avenue)

Two public open houses on proposed amendments to the Downtown Plan and city ordinances will be held on Thursday, May 1 at the Kerrytown Concert House, 415 N. Fourth Avenue. The first session will be from 3:30 to 5:00pm and the second from 6:30 to 8:00pm (the sessions are the same so you only need to attend one).
Each session will start with a short presentation on the proposed zoning map and ordinance changes, followed by informal meetings with staff on elements of the proposal, including: Downtown Plan amendments, new downtown zoning districts, rezoning of downtown properties, proposed design review process, and draft design guidelines.
Opportunities for comment will be provided at these meetings. See the Ann Arbor Discovering Downtown (A2D2) website for details of the proposals and other commend opportunities. For questions, contact Wendy Rampson at 734.994.2802, email wrampson at a2gov org.

City Council's 3-site/greenway hearing...the short version

Posted by Murph on 14. June 2005

Here’s my highly abbreviated (and moderately irreverant) account of the hearing, meant as a starting point for conversation rather than as actual content. Enough AUers were there that the important details will emerge. Apologies for potential name misspellings of speakers.

Susan Pollay (DDA): The Three Site Plan comes with all sorts of good things. Here’s a landscape architect to explain why the park proposed in the TSP for 1st/William is good and to talk about what greenways require.

Margaret Wong (Friends of the Ann Arbor Greenway): A full-scale greenway would be much better than what the TSP proposes. We should strive for the most we can achieve, rather than the least we can get away with. We could be like Rochester, MI!

Linda Brower (Parks Advisory Committee): We really like the “full-scale” version of the greenway. Please take us seriously, Council.

Janis Bobrin (Washtenaw County Drain Commissioner): “This is going to be the non-advocacy part of the meeting. I’m going to stick to facts.” Here are issues that affect watersheds. And now, here’s somebody to talk about watershed management through public art.

Norm Cox (Greenway Collaborative): Here are nine well-reasoned, and, in combination, quite devastating reasons why a greenway along the railroad and Allen Creek is a silly idea. At all. Let’s direct this energy towards a real greenway, like along the Huron River.

Amy HarrisKuras (Parks Department): I’ll pretend I don’t know anything about 1st/William and talk about 415 W. Washington and 921 N. Main instead. Here’s where a greenway could run on those sites, leaving the rest of the space for things like artists’ studios and affordable housing.

City Council members: We’re now going to ask formulaic and very predictable questions that make it clear what each of us thinks.

Public input (3 minutes each):
> We think the Three Site Plan is good! (23 variations.)
> We think the Friends’ plan is good! (27 variations.)
> We have opinions that Murph will not be able to categorize easily into one of those! (5 variations.)

Mayor: We’re going to stop now, and pick up again next Monday, 20 June, at the end of the City Council meeting, which will probably be around 10pm.

Best quote: the person who came over to me after I spoke and asked, “Is it just me, or do other people get really annoyed when Doug Cowherd stands up and claims to speak for 4,000 people, and then claims that 90% of the people here support the Friends, when input has been really very evenly divided?”

UPDATE, 11:30am: The Ann Arbor News puts the “score” at 24 DDA supporters, 25 greenway supporters, 7 neutral. I think at least some of their “neutrals”, “just advising the council to be deliberative,” went into my “greenway” column for hitting the “wait for FEMA and Calthorpe” points pretty hard and just not explicitly stating greenway support.

The article also mentions that the Mayor intends to host a town hall meeting – a much less formal event than a public hearing – at 7pm, 27 June, in the Council chambers.

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