Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Critical Mass this Friday

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 24. April 2005


Ypsi~Dixit writes about this month’s Critical Mass bike ride, complete with song-writing contest:

hello people of ann arbor,

we are holding a song-writing contest for CRITICAL MASS. SING!
it is not difficult to enter or win. SING!

the basic rules are, or should be:
1. a song
2. a catchy song
3. a brief catchy song with words (or without words…)
4. a memorable, easy melody on top of all the above
6. anything a group of people can sing about (bike/crit mass
related) whilst riding a bike or skateboard or rollerskates…

...

your prize? your song will be sung by a mass,

and heard by millions.


The ride, as always, is on the last Friday of the month; so that’s April 29th. Should be a fun one since U-M commencement is this coming weekend.

> Upcoming.org entry

Emails more damaging than cannabis

Posted by MarkDilley on 23. April 2005

Are the police going to start busting Blackberry users?

Those distracted by incoming email, phone calls and text messages saw a 10-point fall in their IQ, more than twice that found in studies of the impact of smoking cannabis, according to the researchers.

via vnunet.com

Comment [4]

County Jail expansion forums scheduled

Posted by Murph on 22. April 2005

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has scheduled four public forums on “Washtenaw County’s public safety and justice needs” – an expanded jail and Sheriff’s patrols of rural townships.

The forums will be held,

> April 26, 2005 5:30 pm, Forsythe Middle School Media Center 1655 Newport Road, Ann Arbor
> May 4, 2005 5:30 pm, Washington Street Education Center 500 Washington St, Chelsea
> May 10, 2005 7:30 pm, Superior Township 3040 N. Prospect, Corner of Cherry Hill & Prospect
> May 11, 2005 7:00 pm, Southwest Council of Government, Manchester Village, 912 City Road, Manchester

The Criminal Justice Collaborative Council has several relevant resources on their website.

Comment [4]

McKinley Towne Center goes chain-chasing

Posted by Murph on 21. April 2005

Michigan Business Review provides a glimpse of McKinley’s plans for the old TCF building on Liberty, plans that will drastically overhaul the building physically, but also serve exclusively national chains.

McKinley is charging $30-35 per square foot for Class A office space that includes parking, and about $40 per square foot for retail and restaurant space.

Both of those rates are at the high end of any building downtown, where State Street restaurants can pay around $35 per square foot and office tenants have balked at some buildings charging in the range of $25 per square foot.

To seek those rates on a corner that historically has marked the end of the campus district signifies belief that the area can command the price.

McKinley’s confidence comes in part from the building redesign, Polsinelli said. Walkway and façade improvements should draw people along Liberty, and around the corner where the lower concrete walls will be replaced with glass, an entry area will be converted to outdoor restaurant seating and other design changes are planned. They could include changing the color of the building.

MBR says the chain-oriented prices will contribute to the “potential sophistication” of Liberty Street, which also includes an American Apparel store in the old Mast Shoes location (Sam’s is thrilled) and, says MBR, Harry’s location will soon be filled with an Aveda salon.

Comment [12]

'Baghdad Bulletin' in Stores

Posted by Ari Paul on 20. April 2005

‘Baghdad Bulletin’, the first book by David Enders, a former reporter for the Michigan Daily, can be found at fine bookstores near you.

Rumor has it that Enders will be back in the states within a month to do a few talks in selected cities. AU will break whatever plans he has in the future.

You can also buy the book online.

Comment [2]

University Planner seeks input on North Campus vision statement

Posted by Murph on 18. April 2005

The University Planner’s Office is soliciting feedback on a draft vision statement, which will be used to direct a North Campus master planning process:

Dear students who attend classes and/or live on North Campus:

The Planning Advisory Committee of the university is undertaking a master planning study of the North Campus, with the first step being the development of a vision statement for the North Campus, which will identify key concepts and areas for study, as well as planning principles to guide future development. The committee is interested in receiving input on the vision from as many stakeholders as possible. You, as a student who takes classes and/or lives on North Campus, are a key constituent. We hope you will take a few minutes to consider the draft vision statement and e-mail us your comments and input on land use (types of academic facilities and services), transportation, parking, or open spaces, per the proposed draft below.

*************

Draft Vision Statement
North Campus is envisioned as an increasingly dynamic and vibrant hub of creativity and activity which houses a variety of academic and research uses. It is an integral part of the University in Ann Arbor. In order to improve and increase the sense of community, it is important to maintain and increase the lively and diverse mix of uses – research, academic/instruction, housing, recreation, and additional amenities such as cultural venues and retail services. Facilities and activities aligned with the academic mission will draw more students, faculty, staff, and the community to North Campus, thereby increasing the density and diversity in uses and destinations.

Physical linkages between campuses must be improved, including an enhanced transportation system, with buses, biking, walking, and possibly other types of transit. Parking should become more conveniently located, and some of it needs to be accommodated in structures to reduce surface parking. In order to best utilize the remaining land resources, the campus core must be more compact and walkable, with a diverse mix of destinations. Any disposition of land should be approached with extreme caution, with an eye toward reserving appropriate sites for future unknown institutional needs and aspirations.

Environmental stewardship through the preservation and management of natural resources, open spaces, and woodlands, will help maintain and sharpen the distinctive image and unique qualities of North Campus.

*********************

Please comment on this statement or other issues and opportunities you see or ideas you have concerning North Campus.

Thank you,
The Planning Advisory Committee

Input should presumably be e-mailed to plannersoffice@umich.edu, the address this e-mail was sent from. If you send a response to the Planner, please consider copying it into a comment to this post.

It looks like the previous North Campus Plan is from 1987.

Comment [12]

Planning Commission preview, 19 April

Posted by Murph on 18. April 2005

Tomorrow night’s Ann Arbor City Planning Commission meeting (7pm, City Council chambers) has an extensive agenda (pdf), with 14 public hearings. Most are tame: single lot annexations that probably won’t have any public comment or Commission discussion. Others merit mention:

i. Action on Glen Ann Affordable Housing Recommendation – Staff Recommendation: Approval

The “action” in question is to approve on-site provision of affordable units (15% of total units); the project was approved two weeks ago with the affordable issue outstanding.

j. Public Hearing and Action on North Sky Site Plan, 26.82 acres, west side of Pontiac Trail, south of Dhu Varren Road. A proposal to construct, in six phases, 182 residential units in single-family, duplex and townhome buildings – Staff Recommendation: Approval

The site plan uses the label “Traditional Neighborhood Development” (complete with a note at the entrance reading, “proposed AATA bus stop to promote a healthy walkable community with a decreased dependency on automobiles”), and the developer, Blue Hill, has included a number of features to back this label up.

The project has a density of about 7 units/acre, with a mix of detached, duplex, and townhome structures, clustered densely around two central “community open spaces”, with a few multi-acre natural areas along two sides of the site, including a “trail easement” for a regional pedestrian trail called for in the city’s Draft Non-Motorized Transportation plan. The developer has also applied for variances to provide narrower street right-of-ways than required by code. The main criticism in the Staff Recommendation is that “private community open space tends to discourage anyone but residents of North Sky from using them.”

l. Public Hearing and Action on Upland Green Annexation, Zoning and Site Plan, 2.64 acres, 1771 Plymouth Road. A request to annex this site into the City, zone it C3 (Fringe Commercial District), and a proposal to construct a 6,142-square foot, one-story building for restaurant use and a 23,844-square foot, two-story building for office and retail uses and 146 parking spaces (some underground) – Staff Recommendation: Annexation – Approval, Zoning and Site Plan – Table

This one is almost In My BackYard, across Plymouth from the west end of Northwood Family Housing, and just west of Willowtree Apartments. My reaction: “Not!” The proposed development appears to reinforce the ex-urban character of Plymouth Road, with the single-story restaurants (between the BP station and Willowtree) set back 124’ from Plymouth, and the office and retail uses 89’ from Upland Drive, in the furthest corner from the road. The retail uses proposed will have zero visibility from the street, and almost no visibility from the sidewalk. The development is completely auto-dependant, with even the parking lots set 40’ to 50’ back from the sidewalk.

The Staff Recommendation recommends tabling the site plan until outstanding issues are resolved, but completely fails to act on the proposal’s obvious disregard for the Northeast Area Plan, which the petition cites at length. On this site, the NEAP recommends ground-floor retail, with office uses above, close to the Plymouth Road lot line and sidewalk accessible, states that parking should not front Plymouth, and recommends a neighborhood-oriented commercial zoning and not an “auto-oriented C3 zone”. The petition claims that it “attempts to address a number of the goals and objectives of the plan,” yet it appears to have been transplanted from Canton Township into northeast Ann Arbor.

Expect me to speak against it, on the grounds of being not dense enough and too pedestrian-hostile. The proposed uses could easily be combined into one 2-3 story building close to the Plymouth Road lot line, with parking accessible from Upland behind the buildings. This would both better meet the NEAP and leave the developer with the back 80% of the site open (parking or unused) for future development.

Comment [56]

AA cops take on dangers of vagrancy

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 18. April 2005

I have the fortune of living across from one of the city’s 147 parks—Forsythe Park, in fact, where many of Ann Arbor’s homeless gather in the warmer months. Today at around 3:30, a police car pulled up and parked alongside the park next to Jack’s Hardware. Out of it came a uniformed officer and a younger (20’s) woman in civilian clothes. They approached two men in the park who had an array of bags and belongings with them, including a shopping cart.

After a brief exchange, the officer dumped liquid from a bottle into the trash, and returned to his car. He wrote one of the men a ticket, and both he and the woman got back in the squad car. They drove off after about 10 minutes, during which the apparent civil offender packed his things and left.

I feel safer now.

Comment [1]

Giant Jail Lite: half the expansion, none of the services?

Posted by Murph on 18. April 2005

After February’s jail millage failed, blogger and County Clerk Larry Kestenbaum provided analysis opposite to the popular interpretation on this site: that the mental health diversion and treatment programs included in the millage were not so much a bribe to Ann Arbor progressives to make jail expansion easier to swallow, but that jail expansion was going to happen regardless, and the “tough-on-crime” campaign that we all saw was an attempt to make the mental health parts of the millage easier to swallow for the rest of the County. Larry noted that the February millage was probably the best chance Washtenaw had to make sure that something other than just cell expansion occurred.

A second-choice proposal (pdf) has been issued by County Administrator Bob Guenzel, reflecting this. While Guenzel notes that he still believes everything in the original package to be needed, the new proposal is cut down to closer to those things that the County will be forced to do by the state: expanding the jail, though by only half of the original capacity expansion, upgrading infrastructure and support (kitchen, medical, etc) facilities to reflect the expanded capacity, and providing some security enhancements at the Courthouses. $1 million annually is included for mental health diversion services. The implementation of this proposal would likely mean reducing the County’s spending on other services.

Guenzel concludes by again noting that this is not a long-term solution, but one meant to meet the County’s State-mandated needs:

It is my belief that this proposal is the best compromise to providing the immediate needs of the Public Safety & Justice system. It is, however, a watered down version of the original and will not result in all of the benefits that would have been gained had the millage passed. This proposal allows for short-term relief of overcrowding once the elements are implemented, not just through increased beds at the jail, but also through programming and efficiencies. . . It will gain us much, but the long-term solution is still in question. Many believe that even this will result in overcrowding, just at a higher level of capacity than it is now. That is possible, but this is the beginning rather than the end.

Comment [8]

Jackson's $25k Cool Cities contest, 7 May

Posted by Murph on 18. April 2005

If we ask really nicely, perhaps Brandon will tell us more about this event,

Students from UofM will be presenting their design proposal for the Cool Cities Design Competition at 9am on Saturday, May 7th at the Jackson Chamber of Commerce. UofM is competing with students from MSU, Harvard Design, MIT, Wayne State, Arizona State, CalTech, and Cleveland State for a $25,000 prize that is based on the best proposal for the revitalization of an 8-acre site in downtown Jackson, MI. Presentations are open to the public.

which he (in a group with 11 other planning students)a group of his classmates has entered. Jackson last year won a Michigan Cool Cities grant for the Armory Arts project, a plan to rehab part of the old state prison into affordable artists’ live/work space, and has been trying to build on that success.

Comment [11]

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