Could the fight over the 601 Forest project just be prelude to another fight down the road? It might turn out that way if its developers' revised plans for a smaller version of the high-rise development are approved next week.
The new designs shrink the original plans by half. The 'adjusted' building would be 14 stories tall instead of 26. It would house 150-175 rooms with 570-610 beds for students at the nearby University of Michigan. That's down from 342 residential units with 1,100 beds in the original plans.
601 Forest would replace the Village Corner party store and a nearby apartment building at the corner of South University and Forest streets. The adjacent Mud Bowl would be left alone. The new proposed building's footprint is almost half its original size.
"That remaining parcel is about a half acre," says Matt Kowalski, a city planner for the city of Ann Arbor. "It's a significant parcel."
The developers, Hughes Properties and Omena Real Estate Investments, haven't proposed doing anything with it yet. They could come back with another proposal for a high-density, high-rise development down the road if the new plans are approved at City Council's meeting Monday evening.
If such a scenario played out, it could achieve the same density as originally proposed but with slightly smaller buildings. When you consider that the ugly national economy and skittish lending markets are making it harder for big-ticket projects, splitting the project into two buildings over time could be a viable way of achieving the same goal.
Attempts to reach the developers for comment proved unsuccessful.
The battle over 601 Forrest has been raging for months now as Ann Arbor struggles with the idea of expanding vertically at its core in an urban fashion or continuing with horizontal, suburban-sprawl-style growth. The city has already approved a handful of other mid-rise and high-rise residential projects and has several more awaiting approval.
The argument in favor of vertical developments like 601 Forest is that their density and proximity to the city's center are in sync with sustainable practices and smart growth.
Opponents claim such tall buildings create more density than infrastructure can handle and create adverse natural phenomenon, such as wind tunnels.
Stay tuned for more on this subject.
Source: Matt Kowalski, city planner for the city of Ann Arbor
Writer: Jon Zemke
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