City Place continues strange journey in Ann Arbor

Wednesday, July 22, 2009 | Source: Concentrate

The bad news is that Ann Arbor is no closer to a resolution on City Place, the controversial downtown development. The good news is at least we don't have to hear about for a few months.

The City Council in essence punted earlier this week, postponing any action on the development until January. The developer, Ann Arbor Builders, requested a decision be postponed until at least later this year. The City Council also put off deciding the fate of a controversial moratorium on approving downtown developments until Aug. 6.

The development has been kicked around and reshaped in a number of different ways, culminating in a suburban-style apartment building with no sustainable features on the edge of downtown. It would replace seven historic homes, including one of the city's oldest, along Fifth Avenue just north of Packard.

The latest incarnation (there have been several) includes two apartment buildings separated by a surface parking lot. The 3-story buildings will have 144 bedrooms in 24 units geared for college students and 36 surface parking spaces. The buildings will be clad in cement board siding with high-pitched roofs and large dormers.

This is far from what the developer originally proposed. Those plans called for 90 brownstone-style condos in a long 4.5-story building that is reminiscent of Beacon Hill. The original proposal also included green, urban features such as 98 underground parking spaces and a geothermal heating-and-cooling system. The 750-1,500-square-foot units were geared toward young professionals looking to live near a vibrant downtown.

The development has met with fierce resistance from local residents and the Germantown Neighborhood Association. Both sides and city officials tried working together for months, going through a number of costly redrawings for the project. Are lawsuits on the horizon? Only time will tell.

Source: City of Ann Arbor
Writer: Jon Zemke