Comments on: City Restarts 415 W. Washington Process

By: mr dairy

mr dairy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:38:12 +0000

If only Ron Mucha could be convinced to donate the old factory building at the tracks on Liberty as exhibit space for the studio/workspace and parking at 415.

That might allow some ground for residential at 415.

By: David

David — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:42:47 +0000

Andy, I have seen some of her songs on YouTube.

By: Karen Sidney

Karen Sidney — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:12:08 +0000

Andy Would you settle for a video [Link]

By: Beverly Strassmann

Beverly Strassmann — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:08:25 +0000

Residents in the proposed Germantown Historic District who live south of Packard are concerned about being left out in the cold by the committee. Our houses are just as old and just as historically significant as those that were included in the arbitrary boundary. The committee is shooting itself in the foot and the danger is that we will get NO historic district at all. I hope that the committee reverses course before this gets to Council or to the State Historic Commission.

In regard to the Elks lodge, I was pleased to read the following: “n 2007, Mayor John Hieftje said when neighborhoods come forward with overwhelming opposition, the council has to listen.” If he stands by his word, then the historic district will extend to Madison and the City will not ruin our neighborhood with the Moravian dormitory. At 78,000+ SF, it is as large as the new A2 Y. It is 25 times larger than adjacent houses and is an egregious violation of the underlying zoning. No neighborhood-friendly member of Council will vote for it.

By: Gary Salton

Gary Salton — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:43:07 +0000

Whoa!! Is Mike Anglin serious with ” “citizens committee” and asked for $50,000 of support”? What happened to representative government? Does anyone really want a group of amateurs running around spending $50,000 to define a project of this complexity? Thank GOD that Mayor Hieftje has his head on straight.

By: Vin Caruso

Vin Caruso — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:49:21 +0000

It would be “nice” if we knew the real extent of the floodway and floodplain for the Allen’s Creek, where the majority of this site sits; it may very well be all floodway for all we know.

During the 68 flood people were trapped in the 415 building for a time with little or no warning. One was soon to become the drain commissioner, people who should know when flooding is eminent.

The DDA sub watershed study for the AC just upstream of this site was never delivered (yet budgeted for $1/4-1/2M), the city wide ‘watershed study’ seems to be on hold with questionable preliminary results (budgeted for $1M), the FEMA flood map is 5 years overdue and not in site, the Drain Office RFP watershed study was withdrawn under pressure a few years ago, the Homeless Shelter’s initial plan shown to be in the floodway and scraped ($1M lost), FEMA did a limited Map Revision just for the Washington-Huron area next to the railroad in 2007 and raised the floodplain 25% with very limited data. We are still using anecdotal 1968 flood data for our “city planning”.

No funds for a meaningful watershed study yet we will be spending just under $1M for art about rainwater at city hall.

A million here a million their and your starting to talk real money.

Will all the added imperviousness since 68 and the big rain events predicted with Global Warming it may very will be a lot more to pay.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:19:30 +0000

As usual, my favorite parts were the Musical Interlude and the weekly sermon from a certain other public commenter who will remained unnamed but who I’m sure is quite familiar to all. It would be even more wonderful if in addition to their thorough written summaries, Chronicle reporters could start posting mp3 recordings of such highlights.

By: David

David — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:15:52 +0000

On the bright side, it would provide construction employment for a couple of years during construction, and then possible employment for a handful of artists.

By: Glenn Thompson

Glenn Thompson — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:20:44 +0000

This seems intended to be failure by design.

The economics did not work when it was offered for sale for any use. So now our council thinks it will work when offered for use by artists, typically one of the lowest paying rent segments. Throw in historic district restrictions, ADA compliance, and LEEDS certification just for good measure.

By: Alan Goldsmith

Alan Goldsmith — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 17:41:00 +0000

“He also worried that a citizens committee – that allowed any resident of Ann Arbor who wanted to participate to be on the committee – could wind up with 100 people. Such a large group was not consistent with the kind of shortened time frame that some of the public speakers called for, he said.”

No we need the process controled by a select group of the Mayor’s friends and supporters and not open it up to the rest of the voters and taxpayers in the city. My GOD allowing “ANY RESIDENT OF ANN ARBOR WHO WANTED TO PARTICIPATE” is so against what the Mayor stands for. I understand why he would be agaisnt it.