The Ann Arbor Chronicle » Business

Monthly Milestone: Draggin’ Tail, Dragon Tale

Dave Askins — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:14:28 +0000

Editor’s note: The monthly milestone column, which appears on the second day of each month – the anniversary of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s Sept. 2, 2008 launch – is an opportunity for either the publisher or the editor of The Chronicle to touch base with readers on topics related to this publication. It’s also a time that we highlight, with gratitude, our local advertisers, and ask readers to consider subscribing voluntarily to The Chronicle to support our work.

The Ann Arbor Chronicle currently has no plans to implement a choice of "skins" for the website, especially not one that would allow readers to view the publication as if it were printed on the scales of a dragon we slew.

Some eagle-eyed regular readers might have noticed that in the spot on the “masthead” where the current date used to sit are now four links: Civic News Ticker • Stopped. Watched. • Comments • Events. We’re also expecting the sad grey box at the top of the left sidebar to be retired sometime soon.

This does not signal that a major design change is in the offing. We have no plans, for example, to implement a choice of “skins” for the website, especially not one that would allow readers to view the publication as if it were printed on the scales of a dragon we slew.

That initial change – swapping out the masthead date with links we’d like to highlight – was prompted by some confusion that resulted from the appearance of a current date … on the same page as an article originally published three years ago.

It’s actually somewhat encouraging that The Chronicle has now been around long enough that this kind of confusion could result.

What I’d like to share with readers this month is a little vignette from the city council’s last meeting, which concluded near midnight – so I was draggin’ tail. And the vignette itself is a little dragon tale.

The last thought that registered in my head at the end of the council’s Jan. 23 session, which included more than 50 turns of public commentary, was this: Well, you know, dragons live in caves and breathe fire! It was a perfectly natural thought to entertain sitting there in the council chambers, filing the final briefs from the meeting for The Chronicle’s Civic News Ticker.

It was a thought prompted by Alan Haber’s public commentary at the end of the meeting. He’d addressed the council on the topic of a fundamental human right – to come in out of the cold and sit in the cave by the fire. The dragon connection was easy, because Thomas Partridge had preceded Haber at the public commentary podium and alluded to Ward 2 councilmember Jane Lumm, contending she had a “dragon lady” attitude.

And that served to reinforce the dragon-themed wishes that came from Ward 1 councilmember Sabra Briere over four hours earlier, near the start of the meeting – she’d wished everyone a happy Chinese New Year. It’s the year of the dragon, folks.

So in terms of the Chinese zodiac, this is my year. From the two years Chronicle publisher Mary Morgan and I spent living in China, I have a vague recollection that it’s a hugely positive thing to be born in a dragon year. Apparently it’s a pretty big deal, and Mary is awfully lucky to be married to someone who’s described by one authoritative source this way: “And due to their hunger for power, Dragons are not well suited to growing old. The prospect of losing power, the helpless feeling of youthful strength ebbing away is unbearable to them. Irritable and stubborn, the Dragon is a real big mouth and his words often outrun his thoughts.”

Words outrunning thoughts is a pretty apt description for this month’s milestone. So I’ll conclude by echoing Sabra Briere’s thoughts: Happy Chinese New Year!

About the writer: Dave Askins is editor and co-founder of The Ann Arbor Chronicle. The Chronicle could not survive to count each milestone without regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of local government and civic affairs. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

Milestone: Starting Small, Thinking Big

Mary Morgan — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:22:27 +0000

Not long after midnight, the Kerrytown neighborhood was treated to several tunes played by a group of folks Joe O'Neal had gathered up. Among the songs was "Danny Boy," performed by Chronicle editor Dave Askins. Joe's daughter, Heather O'Neal, guided performers by pointing to the notes as they played.

The Chronicle spent part of its New Year’s Eve – the midnight part – at a small gathering in Kerrytown Market & Shops. Owner Joe O’Neal credits Mary Cambruzzi, proprietor of FOUND Gallery, with the idea: Open up the building for a few people to toast the new year with champagne or sparkling juice, and give people a chance to ring in 2012 by playing the carillon.

We were able to join the small event, because earlier in the day on New Year’s Eve, I happened to run into Joe at the Ann Arbor farmers market.

As Joe and I chatted, he showed me a new alcove outside the building – with benches and a plaque – honoring Ginny Johansen, a former Ann Arbor city councilmember and farmers market supporter who died last year. We also talked about the success of this year’s KindleFest, which on one night in early December drew several thousand people to Kerrytown. The regular stores stayed open late, and the farmers market was filled with vendors – selling everything from holiday greenery to glühwein. The energy of the crowds was exhilarating, and made me wish for more events like that.

In that context, Joe mentioned the New Year’s Eve gathering later that night, and invited us to drop by and play the carillon. Though it’s been a small affair for the past couple of years, he sees the possibility for more. His vision 10 years from now is to draw 10,000 people to Kerrytown on New Year’s Eve. Maybe someone could build a sort of reverse Times Square ball, he said, that would shoot up instead of dropping down. There could be fireworks. And carillon-playing, of course.

His vision made me think of how some of the most special things in this town start small, with one or two people thinking just a little bit bigger. So in this month’s Chronicle milestone column, I’d like to share a few thoughts on that as we head into the new year.

Making Connections

Since launching The Chronicle in 2008, I’ve been struck by how our publication’s narrow focus – covering local government and civic affairs – actually cuts across a relatively large cross-section of this community. At some point, even people who have no ongoing interest in local government have some reason to brush up against it.

That interaction with government might stem from dissatisfaction about some action the city council or staff has taken – like eliminating the service of Christmas tree pickup. Or it might be prompted by someone’s desire to encourage the city council to take future action – like maintain funding for public art.

People who might otherwise never contemplate attending a public meeting might be drawn to attend a forum to find out what changes the city staff have planned for their neighborhood park. Folks who would ordinarily never show up to listen to city council deliberations might find themselves at a meeting being recognized with a proclamation honoring their achievements.

As we arrived at Kerrytown near midnight on New Year’s Eve, I thought about the cross-section of the community we typically chronicle. Joe is not exactly a usual suspect at public meetings, but we’ve encountered him for at least two reasons over the last three years. In his role as owner of O’Neal Construction, he was drawn to the community discussion of the future of the Argo dam – he was vocal about the fact that the concrete and steel dam his company reconstructed back in the early 1970s was still in good condition. Joe is also a driving force behind the Allen Creek Greenway Conservancy, and serves on its board.

The conservancy board’s president, Jonathan Bulkley, also attended the New Year’s Eve gathering at Kerrytown, along with his wife Trudy. Bulkley had been honored at a Sept. 6, 2011 city council meeting – the mayor read a proclamation honoring Bulkley’s contributions to the University of Michigan, the state of Michigan, the Great Lakes region and the nation. And Sept. 9, 2011 was proclaimed Jonathan Bulkley Day in Ann Arbor. Trudy has made her own mark in town – as “Mother Goose,” she regularly holds children’s storytelling events at Kerrytown Market & Shops.

Also participating in the Kerrytown gathering was Amy Kuras, an accomplished cellist who also rocked the carillon on New Year’s Eve with Auld Lang Syne. But regular Chronicle readers will probably recognize Amy’s name from our coverage of the park advisory commission – as a city park planner, she often gives reports to the commission at its monthly meetings. She also frequently leads public forums for special parks project in the city, like one held last year in preparation for work at Riverside Park.

The Next Big Thing?

So the cross-sectional slice of the community that Chronicle readers encounter isn’t as narrow as you might think, given the narrowness of our focus to local government and civic affairs. But events that include a wider swath of the community are invigorating, when people come together who might not ordinarily cross paths. That’s the appeal to me of events like KindleFest. It’s also the appeal of Joe’s vision – that a fairly intimate gathering to play the Kerrytown carillon could grow to a public New Year’s Eve celebration at Kerrytown.

Last year’s Water Hill Music Fest is an example of something that started with a small concept, and turned into an absolutely inspiring phenomenon. Paul and Claire Tinkerhess had a vision for a joyful neighborhood celebration, but their efforts crescendoed into a major community event. The day-long festival drew hundreds of people to that area to hear musicians who lived there perform on their front porches. It became an “instant classic” – it earned Paul and Claire one of The Chronicle’s inaugural Bezonki Awards. It also gave their neighborhood a name that both reflects and shapes its unique identity. And you couldn’t walk down the streets at Water Hill Music Fest without running into someone you knew – even if you didn’t live there.

I’m not a believer that big is inherently better. That’s one reason why I like the concept of Small Giants, Bo Burlington’s movement that encourages companies to be great instead of gigantic.

But a sense of connectedness – important for a strong, healthy sense of community – requires shared experiences. And I’m guessing that, for the most part, I won’t be able to get everyone in Ann Arbor to share the experience of sitting on a hard bench through an entire city council or county board of commissioners meeting.

So instead, I hope Joe follows up on his vision for a public New Year’s Eve bash. I’ll try to find a way to help make that happen.

About the writer: Mary Morgan is publisher and co-founder of The Ann Arbor Chronicle. The Chronicle could not survive to count each milestone without regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of local government and civic affairs. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

Traver Village Site Plan Approved

Mary Morgan — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:32:44 +0000

Ann Arbor planning commission meeting (Dec. 20, 2011): With four of the city’s nine planning commissioners absent, the last meeting of the year was brief, with only one action item: site plan approval for changes at Traver Village.

From left: Earl Ophoff of Midwestern Consulting talks with Jeff Kahan of the city's planning staff about proposed changes at Traver Village. (Photos by the writer.)

The owner, First Martin Corp., plans to reconfigure retail space that the Blockbuster video store previously occupied, at the southern part of the complex near Plymouth Road, converting it into three smaller retail spaces.

Plans call for adding a new 25-space parking lot to serve that location, between the south side of the building and Plymouth. Elsewhere within the complex, 128 parking spaces will be removed – primarily in the northwest area behind the Kroger grocery. More bike spaces and landscaping are part of the plan as well, which was approved unanimously by commissioners after brief discussion. ~~It will now be forwarded to the city council for consideration.~~

Communications during the 30-minute meeting included a reminder of a series of public forums on sustainability starting early next year. The first one, on Thursday, Jan. 12, will feature a panel of city staff on the topic of resource management. All forums will be held at the Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown building, 343 S. Fifth Ave., beginning at 7 p.m. It’s part of a broader sustainability initiative that began earlier this year, funded by a Home Depot Foundation grant.

Traver Village Site Plan

The only action item on Tuesday’s agenda was a site plan for changes at Traver Village, a shopping center owned by First Martin Corp. at 2601 Plymouth Road, on the northwest corner of Plymouth and Nixon.

The southern-most store in the complex, nearest to Plymouth Road, formerly housed a Blockbuster video outlet but has been vacant for more than a year. The owners plan to convert it into three smaller retail spaces, with entrances from the south side of the building. As part of that change, they want to build a new 25-space parking lot between the south side of the building and Plymouth.

In addition, the plan calls for removing 128 parking spaces in other parts of the site, mostly in the northwest area behind the Kroger grocery, where a shallow bio-retention area will be built instead. Other parking spots will be removed and replaced with landscaped islands. Overall, the number of parking spots will be reduced from 609 to 506 – closer to the city’s maximum parking requirement of 492 spots for that development, according to a staff report.

The site plan for changes at Traver Village indicate where parking will be added and removed. Plymouth Road runs along the right side of this map, with Nixon Road at the top. (Links to larger image.)

The new parking area will cover 9,530 square feet, but 16,334 square feet of impervious surface elsewhere in the complex will be eliminated. The result is a net reduction in impervious surface of 6,804 square feet. To build the new parking lot, 13 evergreen trees will be removed. The plan calls for planting 46 new trees, and adding new landscaping between the edge of the new parking lot and Plymouth Road.

More bike spaces will also be added. Currently there are 38 uncovered bike spaces throughout the complex. The plan calls for adding 22 covered bike spaces and 26 more uncovered spaces.

The staff report on this proposal notes that the developer is required to pay $3,075.15 into a street tree escrow account, to conform with Chapter 57 Attachment C of Ann Arbor’s city code. The escrow fund is for the planting and maintenance of trees on the public street right-of-way abutting a development. The fee must be paid before the city issues building permits.

Eric Ophoff of Midwestern Consulting and Chris Grant of First Martin Corp. attended the Dec. 20 meeting. No one spoke at a public hearing on the plan.

Traver Village Site Plan: Commissioner Discussion

Bonnie Bona clarified with city planner Jeff Kahan that new trees would be located on the northern side of the sidewalk – Kahan indicated that the city’s forester preferred that location so that the trees wouldn’t interfere with utility lines. Bona noted that from a pedestrian’s perspective, it’s preferable to have trees between the sidewalk and the street. Placing trees so that there’s no conflict with utility lines does not comply with the concept of “complete streets,” she said.

By way of background, at its March 7, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council adopted a resolution expressing its commitment to the concept of “complete streets” – the idea that streets should be constructed to accommodate a full range of users, from pedestrians, to bicyclists, to public transit vehicles, to privately owned automobiles. The impetus for the city’s proclamation came from the state of Michigan’s enactment in 2010 of Public Acts 134 and 135, which amended the state’s planning enabling statute and the transportation funding law. The city’s resolution was meant to ensure that Ann Arbor continued to qualify for state transportation funding.

Bona said she hoped that in the future, the city can head in the direction of the “complete streets” approach.

Tony Derezinski noted that the staff report mentioned the owner had mailed out 786 postcards to nearby residents, but that no one had responded. “That says a lot,” Derezinski said, adding that the complex is located in Ward 2, which Derezinski represents on city council.

Ophoff said most of the residents live in multi-family complexes, and getting no response is not uncommon.

Derezinski also wondered whether the Traver Village entrance onto Nixon Road was near the roundabout there. It is, Ophoff said, but the reconfiguration and new parking in the complex isn’t expected to change the traffic patterns there. The entrances off Plymouth Road are used the most.

Diane Giannola asked where the new bike spots will be located. The bike spaces will be spread along the eastern and southeastern frontage of the shopping center, Ophoff said.

Outcome: Planning commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of the Traver Village site plan. ~~It will now be forwarded to city council for approval.~~ No further approval is required.

Misc. Communications

There are several opportunities for public commentary and communications from staff and planning commissioners during any meeting. On Tuesday, no one spoke during public commentary.

Misc. Communications: Sustainability Forums

Jeff Kahan of the city’s planning staff reminded commissioners of the upcoming series of public forums on the topic of sustainability. All will be held at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library building, 343 S. Fifth Ave. starting at 7 p.m.

Jan. 12, 2012: Resource Management – including natural areas, waste reduction, recycling, compost, local food systems, water and air quality. Panelists will include Matt Naud, the city’s environmental coordinator; Kerry Gray, the city’s urban forest & natural resource planning coordinator; Tom McMurtrie, Ann Arbor’s solid waste coordinator; and Dave Borneman, manager of the city’s natural area preservation program.
Feb. 9, 2012: Land Use and Access – including transportation designs, infrastructure, land uses, built environment, and public spaces.
March 8, 2012: Climate and Energy – including an overview of Ann Arbor’s climate action plan, climate impacts, renewable and alternative energy, energy efficiency and conservation.
April 12, 2012: Community – including housing, public safety, public art, recreation, outreach, civic engagement, and stewardship of community resources.

The four forums reflect categories in a framework that the city is developing to organize its existing goals as they relate to sustainability. The project, which began earlier this year, is being led by Jamie Kidwell and funded by a $95,000 grant the city received from the Home Depot Foundation. Four city commissions – park, planning, energy and environmental – participated in a Sept. 27, 2011 joint working session focused on prioritizing existing goals for the city that touch on sustainability issues. [For additional background, see Chronicle coverage of Kidwell's briefing at the Nov. 15 park advisory commission meeting.]

Misc. Communications: Public Notice of Land Division

As an item of information, planning commission chair Eric Mahler read a public notice of a request to divide a 2.8-acre parcel at 500 Huron Parkway into two parcels. Access to both parcels is to be provided via a shared driveway from Huron Parkway. Public input on the land division can be made by calling the planning staff at 734-794-6265, or emailing planning@a2gov.org. The deadline for feedback is Jan. 11, 2012.

Land division requests are handled administratively by the city planning staff, and do not require planning commission action.

Present: Bonnie Bona, Tony Derezinski, Diane Giannola, Eric Mahler, Evan Pratt.

Absent: Eleanore Adenekan, Erica Briggs, Kirk Westphal, Wendy Woods.

Next regular meeting: The planning commission next meets on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012 at 7 p.m. in the second-floor council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of public bodies like the city planning commission. If you’re already supporting The Chronicle, please encourage your friends, neighbors and coworkers to do the same. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle.

Public Gets View of 618 S. Main Proposal

Mary Morgan — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:21:30 +0000

Residents gathered in the sewing room of the former Fox Tent & Awning building on Friday night for the first public meeting about 618 S. Main – a proposed apartment building that fronts Main, Mosley and Ashley streets.

That part of town is perhaps best known for the local landmark Washtenaw Dairy, located less than a block away from the proposed development. At Friday’s meeting, donuts from the shop were offered as refreshment, next to a wall of drawings and maps of the project. Washtenaw Dairy owner Doug Raab was among the 50 or so residents who attended.

This architectural rendering of the 618 S. Main project was posted on a wall at the Nov. 11 neighborhood meeting about the project. This view is from the perspective facing northeast, from the intersection of Ashley and Mosley streets. (Photos by the writer.)

The building – a six-story structure, with additional apartments on a penthouse level – will consist of about 180 studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, with rents likely in the $950 to $1,400 range. Two levels of underground parking are planned, with about 140 spaces. The project targets young professionals in their mid-20s to mid-30s, developer Dan Ketelaar told the group on Friday – people who are interested in an urban lifestyle, within walking distance of the downtown and University of Michigan campus.

Ketelaar hopes the project will transform that section of Main Street and perhaps encourage the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to make improvements in that area, as it’s doing now along Fifth and Division.

Because the project as designed is about 80 feet at its highest point – 20 feet taller than what zoning would allow – it will be submitted to the city as a “planned project.” Planned projects allow for some flexibility in height or setbacks, in exchange for public benefits. They don’t allow as much flexibility, however, as a planned unit development (PUD). Ketelaar cited a large courtyard along Ashley as a benefit to the neighborhood. Another benefit he cited was the provision on site of double the amount of required parking.

Parking was among several concerns mentioned by residents during a Q&A on Friday with Ketelaar and his project team, which includes a landscape architect who also helped design the new plaza and rain garden in front of city hall. Several residents said parking and traffic are already an issue in that neighborhood.

City councilmember Mike Anglin – who represents Ward 5, where the project is located – urged Ketelaar to work toward narrowing Main Street south of Packard from four to two lanes, to slow speeds along that stretch. Ketelaar had mentioned the idea of improving that part of Main Street earlier in the meeting. He said he could suggest narrowing the road, but noted that it’s up to the city to make that decision.

Other issues discussed at the meeting include the need to integrate the development with the neighborhood, the project’s financing, and details of the building’s design. Environmental issues covered at the meeting included: the site’s brownfield status; stormwater management; and relation to the floodplain.

This is the second project to go through the city’s new design review process. The first project to be reviewed in this way – The Varsity Ann Arbor – had been approved by city council the previous night. The design review board will meet at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at the former Fox Tent & Awning building at 618 S. Main. That meeting, which is open to the public, will be followed by another community forum on Tuesday, Nov. 22 from 5-7 p.m. at the same location. Ketelaar has previously met with local business owners and members of the Old West Side Association board to discuss the project.

The project is expected to be formally submitted to the city later this month. After review by the city planning staff, it will be considered by the planning commission, which will make a recommendation to the city council. Construction could begin in the fall of 2012.

618 S. Main: Background & Presentation

Dan Ketelaar began by noting that the site sits on about an acre of land – roughly 44,000 square feet – bounded by Main Street and Ashley to the east and west, respectively, and by Mosley to the south. The property’s northern edge falls midblock, south of the Happy’s Pizza lot on Main and Affordable Vet Services on Ashley. Single-family houses line Ashley Street across from the site; all other sides face commercial property – South Main Market is across the street on Main.

The neighborhood meeting was held in the building of the former Fox Tent & Awning, which closed in late 2010. Other buildings on the site house Ivory Photo, Deluxe Drapery and Overture Audio. These commercial buildings – which were constructed in the 1930s – would be demolished to make way for the project.

Dan Ketelaar, president of Urban Group Development Co., the developer of the 618 S. Main project.

Ketelaar said his team began working on the project in March, looking for examples of the style they wanted to reflect. He pointed to photos posted on the wall of the room – images of Bach Elementary School, the old Argus building, Liberty Lofts – that evoke the character he says he wants to bring to this project. The buildings he cited are older, with brick facades. Liberty Lofts, at First and Liberty, is a former manufacturing plant that was converted to condos a few years ago.

The site is zoned D2, a designation for areas that transition between the densest zoning allowed (D1) and residential areas. For this site, D2 zoning allows for a maximum 400% FAR (floor-area ratio). FAR, a measure of density, is the ratio of the square footage of a building divided by the size of the lot. A one-story structure built lot-line-to-lot-line with no setbacks corresponds to an FAR of 100%. A similar structure built two-stories tall would result in an FAR of 200%.

With a 400% FAR, a building could be constructed up to 60 feet tall with 170,000 square feet of floor space, and still meet the zoning requirements.

Ketelaar noted that the site is in the southern part of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority district, and he hoped his development would encourage the DDA to improve the Main Street section south of Packard – perhaps in a similar way to the DDA’s current Fifth and Division streetscape project.

He also contrasted his vision with that of Ashley Mews, a condo development up the street at Main and Packard. Ketelaar described that building as a “hardscape,” saying he’d like his project to have a “soft streetscape” by comparison. He pointed to photos of a residential urban development in Portland, Oregon, which converted old railroad cars into housing, with a stepped-back front entry of greenery. Ketelaar also hopes to evoke the ambiance of Portland’s Hotel Modera, which features outdoor gathering spaces with fire pits and other amenities. [Ketelaar's daughter lives in Portland.]

Mike Siegel of VOA Associates – the Chicago-based architecture firm that’s working on this project – reviewed previous designs that had been considered by Ketelaar for the site. The team had begun by conceptually envisioning what a building would look like as permitted by zoning. When he described it as a glass block that’s 60 stories tall, he was quickly corrected to 60 feet. “It’s been a long week,” he quipped.

The team initially considered putting in two buildings, with a narrow courtyard in the center. The structure facing Main Street would have been apartments, while the building on Ashley would have included townhouses and duplexes. Both would have been six stories tall. However, “we didn’t feel it was very sensitive to the neighborhood,” Siegel said.

A second version was designed, with a smaller building on Ashley. But that version didn’t create enough density to cover the cost of construction, Ketelaar said. He noted that it’s true with any business – if you’re making donuts, but you sell the donuts for less than it costs you to make them, you won’t stay in business very long. “It’s a reality of business,” he said, “and that’s what we all need to deal with.”

Residents and representatives of the developer look at drawings for a proposed six-story apartment building on 618 S. Main during a Nov. 11 neighborhood meeting, held in the sewing room of the former Fox Tent & Awning building.

Siegel said the development team worked with Ann Arbor’s planning staff and came up with the design they’re proposing. The intent is to soften the edge facing the neighborhood on Ashley, which is lined with single-family homes. The main massing of the structure faces Main and Mosley, with a large courtyard area off of Ashley.

The development team also knew that the project needed more than the minimum amount of required parking, Siegel said, “or the neighbors are going to scream.”

Ketelaar noted that the site requires only about 70 parking spaces. They could have designed a surface parking lot, like Liberty Lofts, but “that didn’t seem right,” he said. Their current proposal calls for building two parking levels underground, with between 130-140 parking spaces.

One issue is that the water table in this area is high, he said. They hit saturated soil about 10-12 feet below ground. So while one level of parking will be completely underground, the second level will be about halfway above ground – and that drives up the height of the building, he said.

At the tallest point – the top of the elevator shaft – the building is about 80 feet high, as currently designed. That’s about 20 feet taller than the D2 zoning would allow. So the development will be submitted as a “planned project,” a designation that allows for flexibility in height and setback requirements, in exchange for public benefits.

A “planned project” allows modifications of the area, height, and placement requirements related to permanent open space preservation, if the project would result in “the preservation of natural features, additional open space, greater building or parking setback, energy conserving design, preservation of historic or architectural features, expansion of the supply of affordable housing for lower income households or a beneficial arrangement of buildings.” However, all other zoning code requirements must still be met – including the permitted uses, maximum density, and maximum floor area.

Ketelaar pointed to the additional parking and greenspace in the courtyard as among the public benefits of the project.

Shannan Gibb-Randall – a landscape architect with Insite Design Studio, the Ann Arbor firm that also built the new rain garden in front of city hall – described the landscaping and other exterior features of the project. On the Main Street side, the 9-foot width between the street and the property line seemed too narrow, so the building will be set back an additional 5 feet from the property line, she said. Gibb-Randall also cited the Portland railroad car project as a model, with the intent to create layers of greenscape and richness to soften the front of the building. Balconies will also create a recess on the side facing Main Street, she said.

Ideally, the city and DDA would eventually allow parking along that stretch of Main Street, she said, which would help to calm the traffic. Vehicles tend to pick up speed along that part of Main Street, she noted, as the road widens to four lanes south of Packard.

For stormwater management, the project will use surface infiltration rather than underground detention, Gibb-Randall said. Large planters and porous pavement are among the strategies they’ll use – much like the design of the plaza and rain garden in front of city hall, she said.

Siegel concluded the presentation by noting that the project will use sustainable building techniques and aim for LEED Silver certification.

618 S. Main: Questions from Residents

The meeting was attended by about 50 people, including nearby neighbors as well as people who are active in development issues citywide. Among others, they included Ray Detter of the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council; former planning commissioner Eppie Potts; Christine Crockett, president of the Old Fourth Ward Association; Alan Haber, who’s spearheading an effort to create a community commons on top of the South Fifth Avenue underground parking structure; Ann Arbor Ward 5 councilmember Mike Anglin; and Barbara Murphy, vice president of the Old West Side Association.

For this report, questions and responses are summarized and organized thematically.

618 S. Main: Questions from Residents – Traffic, Parking

A woman identified herself as the owner of a house on Ashley, between Madison and Jefferson, that was built in the 1800s. Often, there’s no parking along Ashley now, she said, and traffic is heavy. She said she can’t imagine what it will be like with this new development. It will likely be worse, she noted, “and I don’t want that.”

Ketelaar said he didn’t think they could solve that problem – any development would have the same issues. Siegel noted the project will have about 140 parking spaces, double the number of required parking spaces. The development team also plans to have some vehicles on site from the Zipcar car-sharing service, as well as bike storage areas to encourage the use of alternative transportation.

Mike Siegel of VOA Associates, a Chicago architecture firm, points to a detail in the courtyard of the proposed 618 S. Main apartment complex.

In response to another concern raised about parking, Ketelaar said that the site is part of downtown, and the project is intended to attract young professionals in their mid-20s to mid-30s. About three-quarters of the apartments will be studios or one-bedroom units, he said. The apartments will be attractive to people who work in the growing high-tech sector, he said, like Barracuda Networks, which earlier this year announced plans to add several hundred employees here. These young professionals are active, he said, and the reason they live downtown is so that they can walk.

One resident said the 25-35 age range might be low – the apartments would also appeal to people in their 40s or older, she said. Ketelaar agreed, observing that people his age often had the same kind of desires, in terms of urban living, that young professionals had.

Another resident pointed out that the area is in a transition. The reality is that there’s no grocery within walking distance, for example, so most tenants would use their cars for that kind of trip. Someone asked whether the Ashley Mews condo development was fully occupied – that complex didn’t seem to have much impact on parking. It is full, Ketelaar said, and each unit has its own parking space within the structure.

Siegel noted that if a “by-right” project were built on the 618 S. Main site, it could have about 200 units and 70 parking spaces, which would be allowed based on the D2 zoning. The project that they’re proposing would have fewer units – about 180 – but double the parking (about 140 spaces).

Another resident noted that he lived on South Main and walked in that area frequently. From Jefferson to Hoover, parking in the neighborhood is already full, he said, adding that he didn’t there would be much difference in parking caused by the new development.

Siegel asked whether neighborhood parking permits might be a solution. A resident noted that in some areas of the neighborhood, residential parking permits are already required.

One resident asked whether the DDA is helping finance parking for the project. No, Ketelaar said, but he hoped the DDA would consider making improvements along Main Street south of Packard, including possibly adding onstreet parking to that stretch.

In response to a concern about the visibility of the first-level parking, Ketelaar said it will be enclosed so that passers-by wouldn’t be able to see it. There might be some kind of greenery screen used as well. The two parking levels won’t be connected – one will have an entrance off of Ashley, with the other accessed from Main Street. There will be some guest parking available, possibly as surface spots in the courtyard area.

618 S. Main: Questions from Residents – Building Structure

A resident asked how tall the building would be, and why it would be allowed to go higher than 60 feet. The proposal calls for six stories plus a penthouse level: The first three stories would form a “street wall,” with three additional stories above that set back a few feet. A penthouse level on the roof would be set back even further, allowing the units there to have verandas.

Ketelaar explained that a “planned project” designation allows for variances in height or setback. This project will ask for a height variance, he said. The public benefits that the project offers in exchange for that variance include a 17,000-square-foot courtyard and additional parking. He allowed that not everyone might agree that these are public benefits, but he thinks they are.

He also noted plans to install solar panels on the roof, to reduce the building’s energy costs. When asked whether the use of large windows throughout the building will contribute to energy loss, Siegel said the building will use insulated, high-performance windows, possibly tinted. Residents will be able to open the windows, he said.

One resident asked whether the mechanicals on the roof would be enclosed – does LEED certification address sound requirements? No, but the city’s building and zoning codes do, Ketelaar said. Siegel added that the mechanical systems will be surrounded by walls, but open on top.

In response to a query about more details regarding the units, Siegel said there will be three sizes for two of the apartment types – studio and one-bedroom units – and five different sizes for the two-bedroom units. Rents will likely range from $950 to $1,400 per month.

Another resident asked where the garbage and recycling would be located. There will be an area for trash and recycling on each floor, Siegel explained. Building staff will then empty the trash and recycling into a dumpster and containers on the north side of the building. The developer is negotiating an easement with the property owner on that north side to allow for trash and recycling trucks to make pickups from Ashley.

In response to another question, Siegel said the public entrance to the building will be off of Ashley Street. Residents will have another entrance off of Main.

How committed are the designers to the use of brick masonry? a resident asked. A decision on materials hasn’t been made yet, Ketelaar said. Siegel added that they’re very committed to using brick with steel detailing on the first three stories. He indicated a range of other architectural detailing that he hopes to include, including cornices at the street level and other ornamental touches.

618 S. Main: Questions from Residents – Neighborhood

One resident said he’d like to see the first floor be retail, adding that it would be “great for the neighborhood.” Ketelaar said he’d thought about it, but couldn’t figure out what might work.

Ketelaar said that when he first came to town in the late 1960s, there were a lot of businesses to serve downtown residents, such as drug stores and groceries. Though there aren’t that many now, he acknowledged, the idea is that with growth of developments to bring more residents, the services will follow.

Doug Raab, owner of Washtenaw Dairy, talks with Ann Arbor city councilmember Mike Anglin at the neighborhood meeting for the 618 S. Main apartment project. Washtenaw Dairy is located a block away from the proposed development.

A resident asked whether Ketelaar had considered putting his building on the empty lot where the Glen Ann project had been proposed. Glen Ann was a 9-story residential project that another developer had proposed and that the city approved, but it was never built. The vacant parcel is at the corner of Glen and Catherine streets, across town near the University of Michigan medical center.

Ketelaar said he hadn’t considered that. The 618 S. Main property is in a unique location, he added, close to downtown and the UM campus.

The same resident noted that neighbors are concerned about the impact of the development on the neighborhood, in part because apartment dwellers aren’t as invested in the neighborhood as condo owners, who would be less inclined to trash the neighborhood.

Ketelaar noted that condos aren’t selling now, and that apartments appeal both to young professionals as well as to older people like him, who have the same interests in finding places to live where you can walk downtown, and that require far less maintenance than a house. One of his goals is to create a community, he said – that’s why they’re designing the courtyard space with seating, a small pool (though not one for swimming), and an indoor common living room on the first level, where people can hang out.

When asked about public access, Gibb-Randall clarified that the courtyard isn’t a public park. It’s intended for use by residents. Ketelaar described it as the equivalent of someone’s back yard.

A resident noted that the neighborhood already is a community. How will residents of the development interact with the existing neighborhood? They’ll become part of it, Ketelaar replied. Just because people are new to the area doesn’t mean they’ll be bad, he said.

When asked about putting in a coffee shop as a way to help integrate the neighborhood, Ketelaar said he was concerned about competing with the existing coffee shop – presumably referencing Washtenaw Dairy, located less than a block away at Madison and Ashley. Doug Raab, an owner of Washtenaw Dairy, was sitting across from Ketelaar at Friday’s meeting. One of the residents responded by saying that with 200 more people in the neighborhood, they could use more than one coffee shop.

Ketelaar was asked about other projects he’s been involved with, and what the impact was like on the neighborhoods for those. He said he hasn’t done a lot of development in Ann Arbor recently. He had been a principal in the 601 S. Forest project, but was bought out. That residential development is being constructed now and was controversial when it went through the city’s approval process – Ketelaar noted that some people who had been vocal about that project were also at the current meeting. He also cited Ridgewood condos, on West Liberty east of Stadium, as another project he’d developed.

618 S. Main: Questions from Residents – Environmental Issues

In response to a question about the floodplain, Ketelaar said the site isn’t located in the floodplain – it’s a few hundred feet from the edge of the floodplain, which is to the south, he said. One resident commented that in the flood of 1968, waters covered that area, and that while new federal floodplain maps will be released in April 2012, he wasn’t convinced they’ll be accurate. Bob Wanty of Washtenaw Engineering, who is also working on this project, said they have to use the maps that are available.

Alan Haber, top center, asks a question while Julie Weatherbee raises her hand with another query. Dan Ketelaar, developer of the 618 S. Main project, is seated at the far left. Behind him is Shannan Gibb-Randall, a landscape architect for the project.

A resident asked how the stormwater system will work, given the building’s large footprint on the site, and the fact that there will be two levels of underground parking. Gibb-Randall said they plan to “max out” the courtyard in terms of greenspace to absorb the water. When asked if this approach will work in the winter, Gibb-Randall said yes. Her firm has done over 70 rain gardens in Ann Arbor, she said, and while there is a limited palette of plants that can handle the seasonal changes, it’s possible to do. She described how when plants put down roots, about a third of those roots eventually die – creating channels underground that allow water to flow through. She plans to use as many native plants as possible.

Mike Anglin – one of two Ann Arbor city councilmembers representing Ward 5, where this project is located – asked Ketelaar about the project’s brownfield status. The site is considered a brownfield because it includes an underground fuel tank. The site across the street – Armen Cleaners, at the northwest corner of Mosley and Ashley – is also a brownfield, and there are monitoring wells in the area because of contamination there.

The 618 S. Main project is developing a brownfield plan, which will be submitted to the city along with the site plan. Ketelaar said they’ll apply for tax increment financing (TIF) to help remediate the site, but he wasn’t sure what amount they’d seek at this point. Anglin said it would be useful for the community to have results from any environmental testing that’s done on the site. Ketelaar noted that those tests would be submitted as part of the brownfield plan.

The city had approved brownfield credits for 601 S. Forest in 2008, when Ketelaar was still involved in that project.

618 S. Main: Questions from Residents – Financing

In response to a query about taxes, Ketelaar said that the owners of Fox Tent & Awning were paying about $18,000 in taxes each year, because they had owned the property since the 1930s. After the new development is built, he said the taxes will increase to over $500,000 annually.

Ketelaar was asked if he is confident he can build the development, from a financial perspective. He explained that typically, a project like this is 65% debt financed, with 35% equity. In this case, he said, the project is eligible for financing from the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), through a 40-year loan – that will be part of the financing package. He noted that even now, many banks aren’t lending.

Next Steps

When asked what would happen if the city didn’t approve a planned project for the site, Siegel replied that they would still want to develop a site that will improve the community. If all goes according to plan and the planned project is approved, construction could begin in the fall of 2012. However, Siegel added, sometimes it’s hard to predict what Ann Arbor’s city council will do or how long the process will take. It was a line that drew laughs from many of the residents, but Ketelaar called out to councilmember Mike Anglin, “Mike, you weren’t laughing!”

[Anglin perhaps found no humor in the situation because of recent developments in the saga of a project on South Fifth Avenue. Demolition of seven homes occurred earlier in the week as the start of City Place, a by-right residential project that many people see as inferior to another project – Heritage Row – previously proposed as a planned unit development on that same site. Anglin was one of four councilmembers who voted against Heritage Row. Most recently, he attempted to forestall City Place from moving ahead by proposing a second time to form a historic district study committee for that area, but did not get enough support from other councilmembers. For additional background, see Chronicle coverage: "Chapter Added to Fifth Ave. Historic Saga"]

Following Ketelaar’s quip, Anglin said he wanted to encourage Ketelaar to think about working to make Main Street a two-lane road along the section south of Packard. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be just one lane in each direction, Anglin said, and it would help the community for Ketelaar to make that happen.

Ketelaar responded by noting that “all we can do is suggest it.” [Changes to city roads would involve the city government and, for trunk lines, the Michigan Dept. of Transportation.] He said he’d had a brief conversation about it with Susan Pollay, executive director of the DDA, but that the DDA and city council would make any decision regarding Main Street traffic lanes.

Anglin asked whether at least the group could leave the meeting that night with the idea that a traffic study will be done. Ketelaar replied that a traffic study will be done as part of the required site plan submission. He also said he’d be happy to talk with Anglin about making a presentation on this issue to the DDA.

Describing the meeting as wonderful, Ray Detter noted that this is the second project that will go through the city’s new design review process. The first project to be reviewed in this way – The Varsity Ann Arbor – had just been approved by city council the previous night, he observed.

The city of Ann Arbor adopted design guidelines in February 2011. New developments must be evaluated by the design review board, but compliance with the board’s feedback is voluntary.

Detter urged people to attend the design review board meeting at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16 in the same location, at 618 S. Main. That meeting will be followed by another community forum on Tuesday, Nov. 22 from 5-7 p.m. Ketelaar has previously met with some local business owners and members of the Old West Side Association board to discuss the project.

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Public Hearing Starts Without Aparkolypse

Dave Askins — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:48:15 +0000

Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board meeting (Nov. 2, 2011): At a meeting that included no business requiring a vote, the Ann Arbor DDA board began a public hearing on possible parking rate increases for the city’s public parking system.

Deanna Relyea spoke to the Ann Arbor DDA board at the Nov. 2 public hearing on behalf of the Kerrytown District Association. (Photos by the writer.)

The hearing will continue at the board’s Dec. 7 meeting, after a Nov. 14 joint working session with the Ann Arbor city council, when the two bodies will discuss proposed increases. A vote by the DDA board on the rate increases would not come until January.

Around a half dozen people spoke at the initial opportunity for public comment on the proposed rate increases, most either downtown merchants or representatives of merchant associations. They were uniformly in support of one feature of the proposal – no extension of meter enforcement past 6 p.m. Extension of enforcement hours has been actively on the table for at least two years. Based on board discussion at Wednesday’s meeting, evening enforcement could eventually be implemented – but not for the current rate increase cycle.

Those who spoke at the initial part of the hearing were generally opposed to increasing rates, but also acknowledged the financial decisions the DDA faces. And some speakers put part of the blame for that situation on the city of Ann Arbor. Under a new contract, the city of Ann Arbor now receives 17% of gross public parking revenues, which could otherwise be put back into the parking system, reducing the pressure to raise rates. Under the contract, the DDA operates the system, and is responsible for ongoing maintenance. Rates are controlled by the DDA in consultation with the city council.

The details of proposed parking rate increases were first announced towards the end of last week, most of which would be implemented starting in September 2012. Some increases would be implemented starting in February. [.pdf of DDA proposed parking rate changes]

Highlights of the changes to be enacted in September 2012 include predominantly $.10/hour increases: hourly structure parking rates would increase from $1.10/hour to $1.20/hour; hourly parking lot rates would increase from $1.30 ($1.50 after 3 hours) to $1.40 ($1.60 after 3 hours;) hourly parking meter rates would increase from $1.40/hour to $1.50/hour; monthly parking permit rates would increase from $140/month to $145/month.

The board’s meeting included the usual range of reports, including the quarterly financial numbers and parking report, and updates on the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage construction as well as the most recent development in the Nov. 8 sidewalk millage ballot proposal.

At the city council’s Oct. 17 meeting, the council passed a resolution clarifying how the millage proceeds would be used inside the DDA’s geographic district. And at the DDA’s Wednesday meeting, mayor John Hieftje gave the clearest public indication to date that he does not want to take a position on the sidewalk millage, saying that residents would have to “figure it out for themselves.”

The board also held a closed session, under the provision of the Michigan Open Meetings Act that allows such a session to discuss the meaning of legal advice contained in a written document protected under attorney-client privilege.

Parking Rate Public Hearing

The main focus of the board meeting was the public hearing on parking rates and the associated discussion by DDA board members. Remarks included not just comments on the rate increases, but also questions about the need to build the underground parking garage, which is currently under construction on the so-called Library Lot on South Fifth Avenue, between Liberty and William streets. Speakers also complained that revenue from the parking system was being used to backstop the city of Ann Arbor’s general fund.

Terms of the new contract (ratified in May 2011) under which the DDA operates the city’s public parking system include a provision whereby 17% of gross revenues are paid directly to the city of Ann Arbor. The payments are made quarterly, by the end of the month after the quarter ends. So the first of those payments was made on Oct. 31. The 17% figure came to $662,471.

Parking Rate Public Hearing: Introduction

The contract between the city and the DDA, under which the DDA manages Ann Arbor’s public parking system, provides for a mechanism the DDA must use in order to implement rate increases. It involves three separate board meetings: one to announce an intent to raise rates, another to hold a public hearing, and a third for a vote.

… DDA shall not implement any increase in the Municipal Parking System’s hours of meter operation or parking rates intended to persist for more than three (3) months without first:
(i) announcing, and providing written communication regarding, the details of such increase at a meeting of the DDA Board;
(ii) providing all members of the public an opportunity to speak in a manner similar to a public hearing before the DDA Board at its next regularly scheduled meeting on the subject of the proposed increase (“Public Hearing”); and
(iii) postponing any vote on the proposed increase until at least the regularly scheduled meeting of the DDA Board after the Public Hearing.

The DDA board completed the first step of the process at its Wednesday meeting and opened the public hearing early, so that it could receive input from the public before its Nov. 14 work session with the city council.

Bob Guenzel opened the hearing by noting that the recently signed contract with the city of Ann Arbor requires that a hearing be held. Some of the rate changes are proposed to take effect in September 2012, while others are proposed for February, he said. However, the pubic hearing would welcome comments on both sets of changes.

Guenzel noted that the DDA board would be meeting with the city council on Nov. 14 to talk about the modifications. Guenzel went on to explain that the public hearing would be adjourned and then re-opened at the Dec. 7 DDA board meeting, so there would be time both before and after the city council work session to hear from the public. Unlike working sessions for the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, the city council work sessions have historically not provided time for public commentary.

Parking Rate Public Hearing: Public – Round 1

Maura Thomson, executive director of the Main Street Area Association (MSAA), began by asking if she needed to give her home address as Guenzel had indicated. Quipped Guenzel, “No, we know where to find you!” Thomson thanked the board and staff for their work and for their thoughtfulness in arriving at their recommendations. She said she understood the complexities the board faces. Specifically, the board needs to satisfy its financial obligations, she said, as well as the needs of the board’s “customers.”

As “customers” Thomson identified the public and downtown businesses. She called satisfying both sets of customers a “tall order.” She noted that many business were opposed to extending evening enforcement hours. She said she really appreciated the fact that the board had elected not to extend hours of enforcement. She said felt encouraged that the board had really listened to concerns of members of the MSAA and really heard them.

Maggie Ladd, director of the South University Area Association, told the board she echoed Thomson’s remarks and said she appreciated the fact that extension of enforcement of meters would not be recommended. She also said that she had no objection to the increases for parking during Ann Arbor’s art fairs. [That increase is proposed to go from $10 to $12 for entrance into the downtown parking structures. Ladd is director of the South University Art Fair, one of four fairs that take place each summer in downtown Ann Arbor.]

Ali Ramlawi introduced himself as the owner of the Jerusalem Garden restaurant on Fifth Avenue and resident of Ann Arbor. He described the construction of the underground parking garage, which is taking place immediately adjacent to his restaurant, as the “nightmare on Fifth.” He said he’d been watching actions of the board and its decisions, and the steps it’s taking. As a business owner and community resident, he said he believed that the board’s set of recent steps and decisions are “choking off” downtown. The effect of continued increase rate increases and increased complexity of the pricing structure is to choke off businesses, he said. Other than night clubs and restaurants, businesses are struggling to stay alive, he said. Extended hours of parking meter enforcement would have been the nail in the coffin.

DDA board member Keith Orr makes a point during board deliberations. Visible in the background is the mission statement of the DDA: "The mission of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (DDA) is to undertake public improvements that have the greatest impact in strengthening the downtown area and attracting new private investments. "

Ramlawi went on to describe the relationship between the city and the DDA as uncomfortable. The mission statement of the DDA is not to balance the city’s budget, he said. It’s a “weird relationship,” he said, that includes the DDA paying the city $2 million that wasn’t required under its contract, then the forgiveness of excess TIF funds captured by the DDA. He described the situation as the “lines are getting blurred.” The DDA should get back to focusing on the needs of the downtown. People need to live within their own means, he said – that’s what we all have to do as businesses and as citizens. If the city keeps “going back to the well” of the DDA, the well is going to run dry, he cautioned. He allowed that the DDA does not have an easy job, but concluded by saying that continued parking rate increases are harming business downtown.

Andrea David spoke on behalf of Herb David Guitar Studio, located on the corner of Fifth and Liberty, a few parcels down from the ongoing construction of the underground parking garage. She said she appreciated that the extension of enforcement hours into the evening was not part of the proposal. But she told the board that the construction activity had practically killed the studio, and the restaurants Jerusalem Garden and Earthen Jar. Students who take lessons at the studio can’t find parking. She asked the board to consider raising the rates only after the underground parking structure is open, not before.

J.C. Potts of Pangea Piercing told the board in a friendly drawl that everything the board does makes it unattractive to drive downtown. He allowed that it would be nice to be able to get around only as pedestrians or cyclists, but said that the No. 1 complaint he hears is about parking. It’s not the cost or lack of parking, but rather the aggressive enforcement.

Potts said that in a time of limited resources, the city seems to have a whole army of officers who are assigned to enforce parking regulations. He regularly receives tickets, he said. Pangea Piercing is expanding its business, he said, but not in Ann Arbor. They’ve chosen Pittsfield and Ypsilanti, because the parking situation is easier there. He cautioned the board that the goose with the golden eggs can be killed.

Herb David, owner of Herb David Guitar Studio, said he endorsed what everybody else had said. If the goal of the construction of the underground parking garage was to make the downtown more vital, it had in fact de-vitalized long-time businesses.

David alluded to an old blues song by Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) called “Bourgeois Blues” which includes a lyric: “I tell all the colored folks to listen to me/Don’t try to find you no home in Washington, D.C./’Cause it’s a bourgeois town.” Washington D.C. might be a bourgeois town, David said, but Ann Arbor is becoming a franchise town.

He told the board that the Herb David Guitar Studio is threatened, and might go out of business. Long-time customers don’t want to deal with the construction zone situation. He told the board they’d done a lot of good things. But after 50 years in business, where each year it would increase 4-5%, now it was down 40-45%. Sunday, he said, is better than the rest of the week, because you can get free parking. “We can’t pay our bills,” he told the board. For the first time in 50 years, the store had been broken into. He attributed the break-in as caused in part by a dark alley resulting from a missing street light. They’d been given a string of Christmas lights, but that didn’t help.

Deanna Relyea spoke on behalf of the Kerrytown District Association. She thanked the DDA board for the improvements that had been made to downtown over the years. She echoed Thomson’s remarks, telling board members she was sorry that they, as the DDA board, had to deal with city of Ann Arbor’s shortfall. There were plans for the Fifth Avenue streetscape improvements [involving additional brickwork in the area of Detroit Street] that had to get axed.

Relyea told the board that raising parking rates and aggressive enforcement go together to make Kerrytown customers think twice about coming to Ann Arbor. She noted that Kerrytown has a somewhat different character from other downtown districts – it’s a destination, and people come and stay for hours. She said that merchants don’t necessarily mind rate increases, they just need to know that parking will remain convenient. She noted that the DDA mentions cities that have higher rates, like Grand Rapids and Lansing. But Ann Arbor is not like those cities, she said, and shouldn’t aspire to be that way.

Ray Detter reported to the board that the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council had gone over each recommendation for rate changes and fully supported them. No no one wants to raise rates in a time of economic hardship, he said. But the increases were necessary in order to keep the parking structures in good repair and meet the DDA’s financial obligations. He reminded the board that the parking system didn’t always pay for itself. When the DDA took over the parking system in 1992, some of the structures were falling apart. With the city council’s approval, the DDA had taken responsibility for repairing and rehabbing structures and has made the system financially self-sufficient, he said.

Parking is only a small part of the full range of the transportation options that the DDA promotes, in concert with the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, Detter said. The analysis of that entire transportation system, he said, had led the DDA to build the underground parking garage. The nature of that construction has caused problems for neighboring businesses, he acknowledged, calling that unfortunate. The whole system has more people using it than before. He passed around some articles taken from the Ann Arbor District Library archives from 1938. There’s a photo of a woman who had a sign that read: “Keep parking meters out.” It illustrated that parking rates had always been a point of controversy. [AADL Old News: Parking]

Andrea of Pangea Piercing said she wanted to argue the point that downtown was vital. There were four stores going out of business, she said. Trying to imagine Ann Arbor without Herb David Guitar Studio made her want to cry, she said. Ann Arbor doesn’t want a CVS and a Starbucks on every corner. “We don’t want a cookie-cutter city,” she said, with a chain store everywhere. She reiterated Potts’ point that Pangea’s is opening another location, but in another city, because people don’t want to come to downtown Ann Arbor.

Parking Rate Public Hearing: DDA Board Commentary

Responding to some of the remarks made during the public hearing, mayor John Hieftje said that a speaker’s suggestion that parking meter rates not be raised until after the underground structure is open is a good idea. He noted that September 2012 is after the underground parking garage is expected to be open (it’s scheduled to open in the spring of 2012). And September 2012 is when the majority of increases affecting the average parker are proposed to be implemented.

Newcombe Clark responded to the comments during the public hearing by saying that the board was aware of all the data, and the revenue needs. “We’ve all known this was coming,” he said, noting that the board has listened to the feedback it’s heard. Not having enough parking and having parking that’s too expensive are both problems. While it’s true that the board needs the revenue, this is a function of choices the board has made, he pointed out.

Clark talked about the parking policy choices driven by “best practice or best politics.” He said the board should try to err on the side of best practices. The parking rate increases the board is proposing take a first stab at revenue generation, Clark said. As the board thinks about parking policy, the best-practices-based plan calls for evening enforcement. So that may have to come back on the table, he said. Even though evening enforcement was a best practice, it’s not best politics. Clark noted that MyBuys, which employs Clark as a manager of business development associates, has 80 downtown employees, and sees no benefit to a lack of evening enforcement. But there’s no advocate for that position. Regarding the DDA board, he noted, “We’ll be yelled at no matter what we do.”

Parking Rate Public Comment: Public – Round 2

During the time allotted for regular public commentary at all DDA board meetings, Ali Ramlawi of Jerusalem Garden reprised the sentiments he’d expressed at the public hearing. He said he wanted to reinforce the thought that the DDA is a separate agency, and needs to act independently of the city’s financial woes. He told the board to focus on their mission statement. The DDA does not exist in order to fund gaps in the city budget, he said. Ramlawi said he respected Ray Detter, but as rates increase 10, 20, 30, 70 cents, you get to a point of no return.

Ramlawi noted that people compare Ann Arbor to other cities – the fact of the matter is that Ann Arbor is a university town. The university keeps the city afloat and keeps Ann Arbor from facing some of the same problems that other cities face, he said. Ann Arbor’s success is due to the University of Michigan. For his restaurant, business is off 30-40%. [Although Ramlawi didn't make the point explicitly that he appeared to be headed for, on other occasions he's mentioned that the catering part of his business, for which UM is a client, has helped stabilize the business.]

Ramlawi said that Fifth Avenue was originally supposed to be open in time for the art fairs in the summer of 2011, but it’s still closed. [During his construction activity update later in the meeting, DDA board member John Splitt indicated that the goal is to reopen the street by early 2012.] Ramlawi said he had a feeling that some of the need for rate increases are due to previous financial irresponsibility that has “caught up with today’s balance sheet.” He repeated the point that Ann Arbor is a successful city because it has one of the best university’s in the world in its backyard. It’s time to live within our means, he said.

Andrea David of Herb David Guitar Studio also returned to the podium. She said that the city has to move forward, but she told the board to do that with caution. The DDA built the underground parking structure, but doesn’t know if you can fill it. That’s prime parking not far from Liberty Street.

Pangea Piercing's Liberty Street location, east of Sam's and Sole Sisters, is near an alley entrance where parking is prohibited.

J.C. Potts of Pangea Piercing returned to the podium, too. He took up Clark’s point, by acknowledging that people will yell at the board no matter what they do. He said he recognized the need to build more parking. But he suggested easing enforcement or keeping rates the same as a goodwill gesture. He suggested that parking could be a “loss leader.” Now, people worry about coming to park in downtown Ann Arbor, because they think they’ll get a ticket and get “harassed by five bums.” The idea would be to take less from each downtown visitor, but if there are more visitors, the city can get more revenue. Ann Arbor needs to get people to come to downtown and “see the freak show,” Potts said.

Herb David, in his second turn at the podium, asked the board if they would be facing the same problem tomorrow. Based on the projected population growth in the next 50 years, he said, no one thinks the underground parking garage would be justified. He suggested building an atrium next to the downtown library as a replacement space for artists who previously worked out of space in the collection of buildings where the new Y was built on West Washington.

Parking Rates: Board Response, Discussion

Responding in more detail to remarks made at the public hearing, Roger Hewitt said there were some misstatements he wanted to correct. Responding to the idea that Ann Arbor is being taken over by chain stores due to decisions made by the DDA board, he pointed out that many members of the board are independent business owners in the downtown. They’re acutely aware of the challenges faced by independent businesses. The board is not associated with franchises of chains, he said. [Hewitt owns the Red Hawk Bar & Grill and Revive + Replenish downtown.]

Responding to the suggestion that enforcement activities should be eased off, Hewitt pointed out that the city of Ann Arbor handles enforcement of parking regulations. As part of the new parking contract, Hewitt said, the DDA and the city’s enforcement staff now have a monthly staff meeting to coordinate the city and the DDA’s thinking on the issue of enforcement. Hewitt stressed that it’s not the DDA who writes the tickets. Hewitt also noted that with the set of proposals the DDA has made about rate increases, there’s not currently a plan to begin enforcement of parking meters in the evenings.

Hewitt said the biggest concern they’ve heard is not that people don’t want to pay – it’s the concern that if people receive parking tickets, it will send an unpleasant message. Hewitt alluded to technological advances in the parking industry that might allow fees to be charged for on-street meters without risk of parking tickets. [Hewitt was alluding to "hockey puck" sensors that would be installed in the pavement under a space and could monitor when an automobile is in the space. Patrons would pay for the time they used.] But evening enforcement is not part of the proposal for the coming year, Hewitt said.

Hewitt then ticked through each of the proposed increases. [.pdf of DDA proposed parking rate changes]

The break-even point for the parking system, Hewitt said, is roughly $16 million a year – that includes debt service as well as the cost of maintaining the structures. Hewitt said he appreciated that Detter had pointed out that the parking structures were in very bad repair when the DDA assumed responsibility for the city’s parking structures in 1992. Hewitt called Ann Arbor’s public parking system one of the best maintained municipal parking systems in the country. The maintenance costs for that system run about $2 million a year, he said. In contemplating the rate increases, the DDA is trying to balance its fiduciary responsibility to maintain the system against the issues that the speakers had identified during the public hearing.

With respect to the need to build an underground parking garage, Hewitt said that beginning about five years ago, it was noted that the parking system was reaching capacity. But measured in terms of “hourly patrons,” use of the parking system continues to grow. Hewitt clarified that an hourly patron is someone who pays hourly either at a lot or a structure.

Here’s a summary of parking revenue and hourly patronage trends over the last two years, compiled by The Chronicle from DDA monthly year-over-year comparisons:

DDA parking revenue. The red revenue line for the most recent year shows an overall pattern of slight increases compared to the blue bars of the previous year. (Image links to higher resolution file. Any errors are the responsibility of The Chronicle.)

DDA hourly parking patrons. The red parking patrons line for the most recent year shows an early pattern of slight decreases with slight increases more recently, compared to the blue bars of the previous year. (Image links to higher resolution file. Any errors are the responsibility of The Chronicle.)

Compared to five years ago, there are 450,000 more hourly patrons a year, reported Hewitt. [For the most recent year, there were roughly 2.2 million hourly patrons.] For the current monthly parking report [September 2011 versus 2010], Hewitt said, the number of hourly patrons has gone up 6%. Use of the system is now growing steadily, Hewitt said, after experiencing a somewhat flat period starting with the 2008 economic downtown. Without adding a new parking structure, Hewitt said, business couldn’t grow.

Sandi Smith said the board had heard a lot about parking demand management – which involves different pricing of parking options based on demand. She said it appeared, based on the proposed rate increases, that the DDA had stepped away from any implementation of that.

Hewitt told Smith that a “stepped approach” had been considered for off-street meters, but one barrier to that is that ePark stations had not yet been installed throughout the downtown. [The ePark stations are wirelessly-connected payment kiosks that allow different rates to be set for different geographic areas and different times of day, and to be easily adjusted. The capital expenditure of the stations has been put on hold in light of the need to meet the condition of the 17% gross revenue payment to the city of Ann Arbor, under the requirements of the new contract.]

South Ashley looking north. Meters along that section are half the cost of other meters in the city of Ann Arbor – $0.70 compared with $1.40 an hour. Those meters also allow for 10-hour parking. Most other meters allow only 2-hour parking. (Image links to .pdf file of map with current meter and rate locations.)

Hewitt noted that on the fringes of the metered areas, the DDA wanted to establish “park and walk” meters, which are 10-hour meters that are half price. That’s consistent with the parking demand management approach. Hewitt’s comment prompted Russ Collins to recall a joke made by Geoff Larcom, director of Eastern Michigan University media relations, who says EMU doesn’t have a parking problem, it has a walking problem.

DDA executive director Susan Pollay noted that there are locations where such meters are already in place, on North Ashley, North First, and South Division. These meters would be branded, Pollay said, as part of the effort to expand use throughout the system. As the rates are increased in September 2012, Pollay said, the half-price meters would increase as well. [Later that day, Republic Parking employees were observed adding signs to the half-price meters.]

Mayor John Hieftje expressed his astonishment at the 450,000 figure Hewitt had given on the increase in the number of yearly hourly patrons compared to five years ago. He noted that there were also a lot more people using the go!pass and concluded that this reflected a lot more visits to the downtown.

Newcombe Clark wanted to know what the revenue implications are: How much money would the parking rate increase bring in? Hewitt told Clark he did not have the numbers in front of him. He said the DDA is in the process of revising its 10-year budget plan.

Sandi Smith wanted to know if historical decreases in parking system use correlated to rate increases. Hewitt told Smith he hadn’t seen use go down during the seven years he’s served on the board, though he allowed it’s been flat at times. In 2009-2010, things were flat for a little while, he said. Russ Collins recalled some history back when Main Street was dying due to the opening of Briarwood Mall, in the mid-1970s. If there was a desperate time, then that was it, he said. At that time there was an economic downturn and parking rates were doubled. Collins then quipped that WEMU’s reporter, Andrew Cluley, was not taking notes about his remarks, so it was obviously not important.

John Mouat said the message about the opening of the new underground structure should be: “We’ve got parking!” The board needs to remember that it’s a great thing to be able say that to people who’ve been trying to come downtown for years. The capacity of the new underground structure will also allow various kinds of growth, Mouat said, including allowing more downtown residents. Mouat looked forward to the time when the bonds are paid off and the DDA would be able to manage costs. He said the board has to keep in mind the future – 10-20 years from now.

Building off of Mouat’s remarks, Collins said as far as long-term vision, it would be great if the parking system were used less 30-40 years from now. When the Maynard parking structure can’t be maintained any longer, he said, it could be removed and replaced with commercial space. Building the new parking spaces underground is the right place to build them, he said. Collins said he was in complete sympathy with businesses affected by the underground parking garage construction. He quipped that he always blames architects. [Mouat, seated to Collins' right, is an architect.]

Hieftje added that it’s important to remember that the parking system is close to capacity and that some of the parking might disappear due to development. He pointed out that the Brown Block could be developed. [The entire block –bounded by Huron, Ashley, Washington and First – is a surface parking lot on land owned by First Martin Corp. and leased to the DDA.] Business owners who have been severely impacted by the underground parking garage construction obviously have grievances, he said. He recalled the lawsuit some of them had brought against the city before the project started. Hieftje then echoed the same sentiment that Hewitt had expressed – that the DDA board includes small business owners among its members. Others of the board work downtown, he said. The DDA is in every respect reflective of the small business community, Hieftje concluded.

Parking Rates: Board Response – Downtown Climate

John Splitt noted that the 2010 census indicates a 30% increase in the number of downtown residents in the last 10 years, which translates to 1,000 more people.

Reporting on transportation issues later in the meeting, John Mouat offered some anecdotal evidence of a change in the dynamics of downtown. Nancy Shore, director of the getDowntown program, had related how some employees at Google say they rarely leave downtown, and don’t own a car. Mouat said some things that people have talked about for a long time are beginning to happen.

Also later in the meeting, mayor John Hieftje cited some anecdotal evidence he’d heard at a neighborhood association meeting off of Hill Street, to the effect that there was a change in climate near downtown. One attendee, said Hieftje, described how there were now homes coming on the market that aren’t being snapped up by investors. The attendee had described it as the “steamroller” having been stopped, and attributed it to more students living downtown.

Communications, Committee Reports

The board’s meeting included the usual range of reports from its standing committees and the downtown citizens advisory council.

Comm/Comm: Quarterly Financial Report

Highlights from the first-quarter financials called out by Roger Hewitt included the dramatically lower capital expenses, because invoices for the Fifth and Division streetscape improvements haven’t been received yet. Maintenance expenses are high, because part of the underground parking structure is being paid out of maintenance, but will be reimbursed out of the bond sale.

Hewitt said he doesn’t anticipate the DDA will be paying out the $500,000 grant this year, which it made to the nonprofit Avalon Housing for the Near North housing project, due to delays in that project.

Comm/Comm: Construction Update – Underground Parking Garage

John Splitt reported that for the dogleg on the east side of the construction site, sidewalks exist and Library Lane now exists. Splitt said you can get a great look at it from behind the credit union building. The plaza-level slab was to be poured soon in a large 1,000-cubic-yard pour.

Library Lane looking east towards Division Street. The Ann Arbor District Library's downtown building is located south of Library Lane.

The speed ramp on Division Street was being poured that day, Splitt said. He reported discussions with the design team and Christman Company (the construction manager) to get Fifth Avenue open as soon as possible. Weather does present a challenge, he said. Splitt noted that it’s possible to pour concrete in the middle of January, but it’s expensive and cost prohibitive. At minimum, Splitt said, the sidewalk on the east side of Fifth Avenue should be finished in December or January.

Comm/Comm: Construction Update – Fifth/Division Streetscape

Trees are being planted on the 200 block of South Fifth, John Splitt reported. The punch list for the streetscape project is 80% complete. He also noted that 11 sidewalk ramps were completed this year in connection with ADA compliance. By next year, they will all be complete, he said.

Comm/Comm: Sidewalk Millage

Reporting on transportation issues, John Mouat noted that on Nov. 8, city voters will be asked to vote on a 0.125 mill tax to support sidewalk repair. He reviewed the city council’s decision on its resolution of intent for use of the sidewalk repair millage.

By way of background, voters will be asked to approve two separate proposals: (1) a 5-year renewal of a 2.0 mill tax to support street repair projects; and (2) a 0.125 mill tax to pay for sidewalk repair.

Over the last five years, the city has conducted a sidewalk repair program that has included systematic inspections of sidewalks, and citations given to property owners who had sidewalk slabs adjacent to their property in need of repair. Property owners then had a choice of hiring contractors to do the work themselves or waiting for the city to do the work and getting a bill from the city. The five-year cycle took different sections of the city in turn, so that over the five-year period, the entire city was covered once with the inspection program.

At the Oct. 17 city council meeting, councilmembers considered a resolution of intent for the use of proceeds from a street/sidewalk repair millage. The council had previously considered the resolution of intent at its Oct. 3 meeting and before that at its Sept. 19 meeting.

The resolution of intent specifies that the street repair millage will pay for the following activities: resurfacing or reconstruction of existing paved city streets and bridges, including on-street bicycle lanes and street intersections; construction of pedestrian refuge islands; reconstruction and construction of accessible street crossings and corner ramps; and preventive pavement maintenance (PPM) measures, including pavement crack sealing. [.pdf of unamended Oct 3, 2011 version of resolution of intent]

At its Oct. 3 meeting, councilmembers had questions about the need to have any resolution of intent, as well as the status of millage revenue use inside the geographic area of the Ann Arbor DDA.

The resolution of intent had originally stipulated that sidewalk repairs inside the Ann Arbor DDA district would not be funded by the sidewalk repair millage, except when the sidewalks are adjacent to single- and two-family houses. A Sept. 28 meeting of the DDA’s operations committee revealed a measure of discontent on the DDA’s part about the intended restriction inside the DDA district and the lack of communication from the city of Ann Arbor to the DDA about that issue.

At its Oct. 17 meeting, the council took up the inequity identified by commercial property owners under the original language – they’d be included in the repair millage but excluded from the benefits. An amendment added the following language:

3. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph II.2, if the City and the Downtown Development Authority (“DDA”) execute an agreement whereby (i) the DDA agrees to perform sidewalk repair within the Downtown Development District (“DDD”) adjacent to all properties against which the City levies property taxes; and (ii) the City agrees to transmit to the DDA annually 1/8th mill for parcels located within the DDD and not otherwise captured by the DDA; then the 2012 Street and Bridge Resurfacing and Reconstruction and Sidewalk Repair millage may be used for sidewalk repair within the Downtown Development District adjacent to all properties against which the City levies property taxes. The 1/8th mill shall be subject to the Headlee rollback. [.pdf of complete resolution of intent as amended on Oct. 17, 2011]

The original version of the resolution of intent had assumed that the DDA would repair the sidewalks within the district that are adjacent to commercial properties, based on the incremental tax capture in the DDA district for the millage. The impact of the amendment is to provide the entire millage amount to the DDA (not just the captured increment), but only if the DDA agrees to take responsibility for sidewalk repair inside the DDA district.

City councilmembers Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) have stated in the course of their re-election campaigns that they only reluctantly support the sidewalk repair millage. Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) has characterized the sidewalk millage as simply offering voters a choice.

Though not up for re-election this year, mayor John Hieftje stated at the DDA’s Oct. 5 board meeting that he did not think councilmembers are out in the community saying that the city absolutely needs the sidewalk millage or that it’s essential. Like Rapundalo, the mayor characterized the sidewalk millage as offering residents a choice of having the city take over the responsibility for sidewalk repair.

At the DDA board’s Nov. 2, 2011 meeting, Hieftje was somewhat more emphatic in his lack of a position on the sidewalk millage. He said that overall, he doesn’t have a particular position on the issue and said people would need to figure it out for themselves. He allowed that it would be a new tax, but the city would be taking on a new task.

Comm/Comm: Percent for Art

In his report from the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council meeting the previous night, Ray Detter said that there’d been a lot of discussion of the city’s Percent for Art program. The city council’s Nov. 14 work session will include Percent for Art as a focus, he noted. The CAC expressed its continued support of the program, he said, adding that the recent dedication of the Dreiseitl sculpture shows the program has achieved some success.

The previous day, Detter had met with other members of the task force that is working on selecting three additional pieces of art for the new municipal center. Three artists had been selected from over 100 applicants. Detter acknowledged that some in the community had expressed continued interest in selecting local artists for the city’s Percent for Art projects. Detter said that only 15 of the 100 artists who applied to create art for the interior of the municipal center were local. Those (non-local) artists who were selected were really top notch, he said. He concluded that portions of his remarks by contending that the Percent for Art program is working.

Comm/Comm: Village Green, City Apartments

Also during his report from the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council, Ray Detter addressed a future development on the western edge of downtown. Expected to be on the city council’s Thursday, Nov. 10 agenda, Detter said, would be an item to approve the sale of the city-owned parcel at First and Washington to Village Green, to build the City Apartments project. It’s a high-density project in the downtown, and would add 150 units– a portion of which will be offered at rents affordable to tenants earning 60% of the area median income. The project has not been easy, Detter said, but the developer made necessary design and parking adjustments and sought out input from neighboring property owners. It’s taken a long time and overcome various setbacks, he said.

Comm/Comm: Revenge of the Electric Car

John Mouat, reporting out on transportation issues, noted that there would be a screening of “Revenge of the Electric Car” at the Michigan Theater on Nov. 11-13. For two of the showings, the filmmaker Chris Paine will be there for a post-screening Q & A.

Comm/Comm: Graffiti

As part of her report from the partnerships committee, Sandi Smith said that chief of police Barnett Jones and deputy chief John Seto attended the committee’s meeting. They’d tried to give the committee a feel for what’s actually happening, compared to the perception. Smith noted that she’d heard mayor John Hieftje say that crime is going down, but incidents in graffiti and panhandling have created the perception that crime is up.

Up to now, graffiti has been been complaint-driven, but it will no longer be just a function of complaints, as the city is now planning to step up enforcement efforts. Smith noted that Anderson Paint and Fingerle Lumber are a source for a product called Elephant Snot, which is provided to downtown property owners at no cost through a DDA grant. The process works as follows:

1. A downtown building or business owner finds their building or sign tagged with graffiti.
2. They visit one of the following businesses to obtain free anti-graffiti supplies:
Anderson Paint, 2386 W. Stadium Blvd | (734) 995-4411
Fingerle Lumber, 617 S. Fifth Ave | (734) 663-0581
3. Necessary information includes business name and address to ensure the location is within the DDA boundary, and thus eligible under the grant program. (DDA boundaries)
4. Graffiti is removed or covered up in accordance with the city ordinance.

Comm/Comm: City-Owned Surface Lot Redevelopment

Sandi Smith said the partnerships committee had received a review of a meeting of the leadership and outreach committee, which is working on a public engagement process for thinking about alternative uses of city-owned surface parking lots in the downtown area. [The city council had given direction to the DDA to undertake that work, after long wrangling that included the negotiation of the parking contract under which the DDA operates the city's public parking system.]

Smith described the committee as a bunch of people not typically around the table. In response to some of the proposed public engagement events, Smith said, some of the group had responded by saying, “My friends wouldn’t come to this.” That group had immediately challenged the DDA with a fresh perspective, Smith said.

Comm/Comm: Regional Rail

Mayor John Hiefjte reported that he’d attended a meeting sponsored by the Michigan Environmental Council (MEC), which had included Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, assistant secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation John Porcari and administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration Joseph Szabo, as well as chief executive officer of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce Rich Studley. [The president of the MEC is Chris Kolb, a former Ann Arbor city councilmember and former state representative for District 53.]

Hieftje characterized it as an interesting bipartisan mix of people. He said now is the best chance in the last 100 years that Michigan has had to improve its rail system. He reported that Snyder had said Ann Arbor’s Amtrak station is in the wrong place. [Hieftje supports moving the station to a location currently used as a parking lot in Fuller Park, to create an multimodal facility called Fuller Road Station. The first phase of FRS would be a parking structure used primarily by the University of Michigan, and bus terminals.]

For a recent Chronicle roundup of various transportation initiatives, see “Washtenaw Transit Talk in ‘Flux‘”

Present: Nader Nassif, Newcombe Clark, Bob Guenzel, Roger Hewitt, John Hieftje, John Splitt, Sandi Smith, Leah Gunn, Russ Collins, Keith Orr, John Mouat

Absent: Joan Lowenstein

Next board meeting: Noon on Wednesday, Dec. 7, at the DDA offices, 150 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 301. [confirm date]

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Heritage Row Proposal Withdrawn

Chronicle Staff — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:52:07 +0000

According to a city council source, developer Jeff Helminski has withdrawn the revised proposal for Heritage Row, a planned unit development on South Fifth Avenue. A different project, City Place, is now expected to be built on the same site by the same developer, though some possibility exists to contest the City Place project via the city’s zoning board of appeals.

The plan for the matter-of-right City Place would demolish seven houses and construct two apartment buildings separated by a parking lot. The two City Place buildings would comprise 144 bedrooms in 24 6-bedroom units. By contrast, Heritage Row would have constructed three buildings behind the row of seven houses and either rehabilitated or reconstructed the seven houses. That project would have included up to 85 units with 180 bedrooms.

At its Oct. 17 meeting, the city council gave initial approval to a version of the Heritage Row PUD that was considerably revised from a version it had rejected in June 2010. The second and final vote on the revised Heritage Row project would have been taken place at an extra meeting scheduled for Oct. 24. That meeting is still scheduled to take place. The vote on Oct. 17 was 8-3. Voting against the proposal were Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).

The project has a long and controversial history dating back four years. The city council voted at its Oct. 3 meeting to reconsider the Heritage Row, which it had previously rejected about 14 months ago. The council then voted to postpone a decision on the project so that negotiations could take place between the developer, city staff and councilmembers about possible revisions. By offering concessions that could make the project more financially viable, the council hoped to induce the developer to divert from his imminent intention to construct City Place.

At the council’s Oct. 3 meeting, a letter was discussed which councilmembers had received from the developer, Jeff Helminski. That letter outlined his requirements for concessions that he would need in order to build Heritage Row instead of City Place. At the Oct. 3 meeting, councilmembers expressed clear dissatisfaction with elements of Helminski’s letter. However, all the key points from the letter, including the elimination of any on-site parking requirement, appeared to have been incorporated into the revised proposal considered at the council’s Oct. 17 meeting.

[.pdf of marked up Heritage Row supplemental regulations as presented on Oct. 17][.pdf of comparison chart between original Heritage Row and revised proposal as presented on Oct. 17] [.pdf of Oct. 3 letter from developer]

Ann Arbor Library Set to Publish “Old News”

Mary Morgan — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:04:48 +0000

Ann Arbor District Library board meeting (Oct. 18, 2011): On Friday, the public will get online access to 18,000 articles, 3,000 photos, and an index with over 160,000 names – the initial phase of a massive digitization of The Ann Arbor News archives being undertaken by the library.

Old bound copies of The Ann Arbor News from the early 1900s. The archives are stored in a climate-controlled office complex on Green Road.

Andrew MacLaren – one of the librarians who’s been working on the project since the library took possession of the archives in January 2010– gave board members a brief preview of what AADL is unveiling at a reception on Friday. Called “Old News,” the online archives will initially feature items selected for digitization primarily by library staff, with a focus on the 1960s and ’70s, but with other eras included as well.

The hope is that future additions to the collection will be driven in large part by queries from the public. As librarians respond to research requests – people seeking newspaper articles or photos about specific events, institutions, or individuals – AADL staff will digitize their findings to be posted online for anyone to access.

The launch will also include special features from the collection that the library staff felt would draw more interest, including hundreds of articles and photos related to John Norman Collins, a serial killer whose killings in the late 1960s drew national attention. Other features include the history of West Park, and the 1968 Huron River floods.

Podcasts will be posted of interviews with former Ann Arbor News staff – including long-time crime reporter Bill Treml and photographer Jack Stubbs. AADL staff is also interviewing owners of “heritage” Ann Arbor businesses. Initial podcasts include conversations with David Vogel of Vogel’s Lock & Safe, and Charles Schlanderer Jr. and Charles Schlanderer Sr. of Schlanderer & Sons Jewelry. Additional podcasts will be added to the collection over time.

Though the cornerstone of this collection is from the 174-year-old Ann Arbor News – which its owners, New York-based Advance Publications, shut down in mid-2009 – another 97,000 articles from local 19th century newspapers will be part of the initial launch, too.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, AADL director Josie Parker praised the librarians who’ve been the primary staff working on this project – MacLaren, Amy Cantu, Debbie Gallagher, and Jackie Sasaki – and thanked board members as well for their support. It was the board’s decision in 2009 to move ahead with the project that made the resulting work possible, she said. The library does not own the originals or hold the copyright to the material, but the library did not need to pay for the archives. AADL still incurs costs related to the project, including staff time, insurance, and leasing of the Green Road offices where the archives are located. That location is not open to the public.

A reception for the launch is planned for Friday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. in the downtown library, 343 S. Fifth Ave. The event will feature a talk on the digitization of newspapers by Frank Boles, director of the Clarke Historical Library at Central Michigan University.

The News on “Old News”

In 2009, the AADL struck a deal with Herald Publishing Co. – a unit of Advance Publications – to take possession of most of The Ann Arbor News archives, including photographs and photo negatives (except for those related to University of Michigan football and basketball), clipping files and bound copies. The deal gives the library the right to digitize these materials, excluding the bound copies. The company retains ownership of the originals. AADL has the rights to control the use of the digitized content, but doesn’t have the right to sell the digitized work.

The bound volumes can be used by the library, but not digitized. That’s because the company owns microfilm copies of those volumes and plans to digitize the full newspapers. There are also copyright issues related to non-News content, like wire service articles and ads. However, library staff say the bound volumes are valuable as a research tool – for example, to figure out which of the photographs in the collection were actually published.

The digitization process is being handled by staff of the AADL’s information technology and production department, led by associate director Eli Neiburger. Each of the four librarians involved in the digitization devote half of their time to the project, working out of a windowless, climate-controlled office on Green Road – a set of rooms that formerly housed computer servers.

At that facility, one large room is filled with filing cabinets crammed with clips – about 90,000 envelopes categorized by names and 72,000 envelopes by subjects. Binders and boxes of photographs and negatives make up a large portion of the collection. Many of the photographs have never been published – a photographer might have taken and developed dozens of shots from any given assignment, but only one or two would likely be printed in the newspaper.

Andrew MacLaren with shelved, bound copies of The Ann Arbor News archives, located at a Green Road office complex.

A separate room contains tall shelves on which the bound, full-issue copies of The Ann Arbor News and other local newspapers are laid flat and stacked to avoid warping. The older issues have begun to deteriorate – the newsprint is yellowed and crumbling around the edges – and some copies are missing. [For decades, the archives had been stored in a basement at The Ann Arbor News building on Huron & Division, and though the room was locked, security was casual.]

The archives also include older newspapers that AADL has acquired separately from The Ann Arbor News. That includes issues of the Ann Arbor Courier from 1880-1881 and 1883-1888; the Ann Arbor Argus from 1888-1889 and 1891-1898; and the Ann Arbor Argus-Democrat from 1898-1899. These issues have been digitized and will be part of the initial “Old News” launch. The library has previously digitized the full run of the Signal of Liberty – from 1841-1848 – and the first four months of the paper it became in 1848, Michigan Liberty Press.

At Tuesday’s meeting, MacLaren told the board that the first few months of work involved simply trying to figure out and organize what they had received. Over the years, different filing systems had been used by the newspaper’s librarians, duplicate files were kept under different names, clippings were misfiled, and in general there had not been a consistent approach to organizing the collection. Part of the work by AADL staff was to create an index for all of the envelopes, files, binders, boxes and other material – much of the contents haven’t yet been explored.

There were discoveries along the way, as AADL staff went through the collection. Most dramatically, they found a silent film – a farce – made by the Ann Arbor News advertising staff in 1936 called “Back Page.” That film has been digitized and is posted on the AADL website, with an original score written and performed by the organist Steven Ball. It was shown for the first time this summer at the Michigan Theater, with a live performance by Ball. [See Chronicle coverage: "Milestone: The Past Speaks in a Silent Film"]

The staff used several approaches to help organize the collection and select initial content to digitize, MacLaren said. For guidance regarding the earliest newspapers, they relied on the seminal book “A History of the Newspapers of Ann Arbor 1829-1920,” by Louis W. Doll, published in 1959 by Wayne State University Press. That book has also been digitized and will be included in the “Old News” collection, he said.

In prioritizing the content to digitize, librarians who worked on the project selected topics they thought would be of historical value or of most interest to the public, based in part on research requests. There was also broader staff input – AADL employees could vote on which photos to digitize through a process that Neiburger calls the “Photomic Selecterizer” – a staff-only mode of the library’s online Points-O-Matic Click-O-Tron game.

In response to a question from board president Margaret Leary, MacLaren estimated that far less than 1% of the Ann Arbor News collection has been digitized at the point. The initial set going online – 18,000 articles and 3,000 photos – is a “drop in the bucket,” he said. For example, when the collection was delivered, the News estimated there were 900,000 photo negatives, which MacLaren now believes to be an estimate that’s extremely low.

“We’re not racing against time,” he said. “We’re racing against how much we have.” New material will be digitized each week and posted into the “Old News” collection. The public will be able to make research requests – emailing oldnews@aadl.org – which will help prioritize the content.

At Monday’s board meeting, Prue Rosenthal asked whether there is grant funding available to help pay for the digitization work. AADL director Josie Parker said they tried to apply for a grant but weren’t qualified – the grant specified that the digitization should be done from microfilm, not from original source material. Most grants also aren’t geared toward this type of unique situation, in which a newspaper has turned over its entire archives to a library. The staff will keep looking for grant opportunities, Parker added. Now that they have something to show, she said, there might be funding available for additional work related to the collection.

Leary said the project is a spectacular example of AADL seizing an opportunity that’s unusual for public libraries. It has tremendous current and future value to the whole community. She also praised staff for its work in adding this responsibility without outside funding and without reducing other services. It’s a credit to the staff and to Parker and her managers, Leary said.

The presentation concluded with the board giving MacLaren a round of applause.

Shelves of bound copies of The Ann Arbor News, stored in climate-controlled offices that are leased by the Ann Arbor District Library.

Bound copies of The Ann Arbor News. The stack in the lower right corner represents the final years, when the newspaper editions were considerably smaller than in previous years. The 174-year-old newspaper was closed by its owners in 2009.

Boxes of photo negatives from The Ann Arbor News.

A layout page from an Ann Arbor News special publication commemorating the newspaper's 150th anniversary in 1985. Several of these pages are posted on walls in the entryway to the offices that AADL is leasing to store the News archives. Many of the pages – like this one, with an ad from Jacobson's – feature companies that are no longer in business, like the News itself. (Links to larger image)

Present: Rebecca Head, Nancy Kaplan, Margaret Leary, Barbara Murphy, Jan Barney Newman, Prue Rosenthal. Also AADL director Josie Parker.

Absent: Ed Surovell.

Next meeting: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the library’s fourth floor meeting room, 343 S. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of public bodies like the Ann Arbor District Library board. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

Despite Concerns, The Varsity Moves Ahead

Mary Morgan — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:39:22 +0000

Ann Arbor planning commission meeting (Oct. 4, 2011): At a meeting that started later than usual to accommodate the dedication of city hall’s new Dreiseitl water sculpture, planning commissioners approved two projects that had previously been postponed.

Stephen Ranzini looks up at the water sculpture by Herbert Dreiseitl, during a public reception and dedication for the piece at city hall on Tuesday evening. Ranzini, president of University Bank, later attended a planning commission meeting inside city hall, where he told commissioners that No Parking signs are ugly. It's not clear what he thought about the sculpture.

Changes to a University Bank site plan for property at 2015 Washtenaw Ave., known as the Hoover Mansion, were approved unanimously, despite some concerns voiced by neighbors during a public hearing on the proposal. The changes – which primarily relate to creation of a new parking lot – required amending the supplemental regulations of the site’s planned unit development (PUD) zoning district originally approved in 1978.

Also back for review was The Varsity, a proposed “planned project” consisting of a 13-story apartment building with 181 units at 425 E. Washington, between 411 Lofts and the First Baptist Church. Intended for students, it’s the first project to go through the city’s new design review process. Only minor changes had been made since the proposal was first considered at the planning commission’s Sept. 20 meeting.

Fourteen people spoke during a public hearing on The Varsity, including several residents of the nearby Sloan Plaza who raised concerns about traffic at the Huron Street entrance, as well as aesthetic issues with the building’s facade facing Huron. The project was supported by a ~~paster~~ pastor at the First Baptist Church and the head of the State Street merchant association.

In addition to public hearings held on these two projects, one person spoke during public commentary at the start of the meeting. Rick Stepanovic told commissioners that he’s a University of Michigan student, and that Wendy Rampson – head of the city’s planning staff – had spoken to one of his classes last year. Among other things, she’d mentioned the city’s need for more student input, he said. Since then he’s been elected to the Michigan Student Assembly, and was offering to provide that input, either as a resident – he lives in the neighborhood near Packard and Hill – or by taking an issue back to MSA for broader student feedback.

Stepanovic indicated his intent to attend future planning commission meetings, but noted that MSA meetings are held at the same time – on Tuesday evenings.

University Bank PUD

The planning commission first reviewed University Bank’s proposal at its Oct. 19, 2010 meeting. Bank officials had requested approval to revise a planned unit development (PUD), allowing an increase in the total number of employees and parking spaces permitted at the bank’s headquarters at 2015 Washtenaw Ave. – the site known as the Hoover Mansion. The proposal included a request to build 14 new parking spaces on the east side – behind the main building – for a total of 53 spaces on the site. At the time, planning staff recommended denial, stating that the project impacts natural features and doesn’t offer an overall benefit to the city, as required by a PUD.

Rather than denying the proposal, planning commissioners voted to postpone it and asked staff to work with the bank in finding an alternative parking option.

Nearly a year later, a revised proposal was on the agenda for the commission’s Sept. 8 meeting, reflecting a consensus that had been reached among planning staff, neighbors and bank officials. However, commissioners ended up postponing a recommendation again, because the final site plan had not yet been submitted by the bank.

By the Oct. 4 meeting, all pieces were in place. The proposal would increase the number of allowable employees from 50 to 59 at the bank’s headquarters and add a new parking lot on the site, with a setback of 24 feet from the eastern property line. That’s an additional nine feet away from the property line than originally proposed.

A continuous six-foot-high wall is proposed along the eastern and southeastern property lines, to screen the parking lot from 2021 Washtenaw Ave. and 2107-2109 Tuomy. Two landmark trees and 19 woodland trees totaling 186 caliper inches will be removed as part of the project, but the bank has proposed planting trees throughout the site totaling 223 caliper inches – more than is required.

The changes require amending the supplemental regulations of the site’s planned unit development (PUD) zoning district, which was originally approved in 1978.

University Bank: Public Hearing

Five people spoke during a public hearing on the proposal, including two representatives from the bank.

Dan Dever introduced himself as an attorney representing the Serwers, a couple who own a home that’s the closest residential property to the bank. He thanked planning staff for their work, but noted that there are two issues that are of serious concern to the Serwers. Nowhere in the supplemental regulations does it state that bank employees “shall not park on the driveway.” [The driveway into the Serwers' property is accessed via the bank's driveway.] He noted that for the past year, bank employees have been parking along the driveway leading to the bank building. Dever then read an excerpt from a letter that Ranzini had sent to the planning commission on Oct. 21, 2010, following the Oct. 20 planning commission meeting. From Ranzini’s letter:

We HATE the alternative proposal of building up berms that encroach into the lawn and parking spots alongside the driveway. This was foisted on us by the planning staff and at the suggestion of Kem-Tech, since it is the second least worst alternative to the proposed 13 unit parking lot. To illustrate to you and the neighbors how impractical the planning staff’s suggestion of parking alongside the driveway is and how this will damage the view shed, we will conduct the following experiment until the parking lot is approved: While previously we had taken a variety of measures to actively discourage our employees, visitors and bank examiners from parking in the driveway, we will remove those restrictions and encourage them to park there. I hope you have the opportunity to drive by over the next few weeks and take a look and how unsightly the cars in the front lawn area are.” [.pdf of Ranzini's letter]

Dever asked commissioners to add stronger language in the supplemental regulations: (1) adding that vehicles can’t be parked on either side of that driveway, and (2) requiring more than just one No Parking sign along that stretch. It’s important, he said, because bank officials “do not historically observe the written word.”

Ken Sprinkles of University Bank said he’s been working on this project for three years. The reason that cars are parked along the driveway is that there’s insufficient parking, he said. If the city approves additional parking, the bank would enforce a no-parking requirement along the driveway. The bank also plans to start issuing parking permit stickers for employee vehicles – that’s something they don’t currently do, Sprinkles said.

Gerald Serwer, who owns the home with a driveway that’s accessed via the bank’s driveway, told commissioners that changes to the bank’s site plan would affect the financial value of his home, as well as his ability to enjoy living there. If the bank has no intention of parking along the main driveway, he said, then it didn’t seem like bank officials should object to adding more No Parking signs. He also wanted to ensure that there’d be no parking along that driveway during construction of the new parking lot. Serwer also noted that he’s asked the bank to use stone veneer on the side of the 6-foot-high wall that faces their house, to match the house’s exterior. But the main issue is parking, he concluded.

Stephen Ranzini, president of University Bank, began by noting that the bank began this process 36 months ago. Since September, the bank has hired 30 people, he said, but only one of those is working in Ann Arbor. University Bank is the 11th largest employer of any bank in Michigan, he said, but job growth is happening at the bank’s offices in Farmington Hills and Clinton Township, instead of Ann Arbor, in part because of delays with this project.

Regarding No Parking signs, Ranzini said his preference is for one sign, because signs are ugly and affect the viewshed. In reference to the removal of trees, he noted that 100 years ago, the site was a sheep farm – every tree on the property is less than 100 years old. Regarding parking on the driveway, the bank started its “experiment” in having employees park along the driveway after the city requested alternatives to a new parking lot, he said. He wanted everyone to see what that would look like. And because the process to get approval has been so slow, he said, the experiment has lasted a year.

Ranzini urged the commission to approve the project, so that it can be considered by the city council. He hoped commissioners would do their part to help preserve an historic building, which he said is expensive to maintain. One of the biggest problems since the building was converted to offices in 1978 has been inadequate parking, he concluded.

Sheryl Serwer noted that it’s also been three years that she and her husband have been dealing with this issue – she first heard about it on her birthday three years ago. “Now I’m three years older and still worrying about it.” She said she’s come to accept the loss of trees on the site. But she’s still concerned about the parking – she’d like to get out of her driveway safely. In the winter, if it’s icy and there are cars parked on both sides of the entrance to her driveway, she said she’s afraid her car might slide into the parked vehicles. No Parking signs should be posted, she said, and parking shouldn’t be allowed there. She concluded by congratulating Ranzini for the growth of his business, and the recent birth of his child.

University Bank: Commission Discussion

Tony Derezinski began by asking planning staff to respond to the questions raised during public commentary, related to parking. How would the supplemental regulations be enforced? He said he thought the parties had reached an agreement – was this a new item?

Alexis DiLeo noted that this isn’t a public street – it’s not even a private street. It’s a driveway. The number of signs is discretional, she said, and the bank’s preference is for one sign.

If it meant that the project wouldn’t otherwise be approved, would the bank be willing to add another sign? Derezinski wondered. Ranzini said he wanted to make clear that bank employees didn’t start parking along the driveway until the planning staff suggested there might be a more viable alternative to the new parking lot. Parking in the driveway is ugly, he said. The experiment is done, so there won’t be parking there any longer. The bank might reluctantly put up another sign, he added, but signs are ugly.

Derezinski asked whether it would be possible to add the requirement of an additional sign in the supplemental regulations. “A beautiful one,” he quipped.

DiLeo suggested a possible place within the supplemental regulations to insert a sign requirement, and Derezinski made a motion to do that. Kirk Westphal clarified with DiLeo that previously, there was no mention of a sign at all. When asked about enforcement, DiLeo said a violation would be handled just like any other zoning violation – for example, if the bank removed a tree that had been stipulated to be preserved by the PUD’s supplemental regulations.

Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning staff, said the city wouldn’t ticket or tow cars parked on private property. If someone complained about a violation, the city could fine the property owner. She indicated that adding something like the sign requirement was highly unusual.

Derezinski then expressed frustration, saying ”it’s too bad we’re getting formal.” This shouldn’t be a problem, he said, but there’s been a lot of history regarding this project. He thought the parties had moved past that, but now they’re quibbling over a small thing.

Derezinski said he’d made a motion to amend the supplemental regulations so that everyone could reach resolution. But now he felt there’s a clear understanding of expectations, so he was withdrawing the motion to amend.

Evan Pratt hoped that people felt all of the issues were being addressed. When changes to a PUD are requested, it requires give and take, he observed. He applauded the bank’s parking experiment. The original thinking was that it would be good to avoid adding more pavement, he said, and the experiment tested whether other parking options were viable. It’s taken a year, but it sounds like they now have a good outcome, he said.

Outcome: Commissioners voted unanimously to recommend approval of changes to the bank’s site plan and supplemental regulations. The project will now be forwarded to the city council.

The Varsity at Ann Arbor

At their Sept. 20, 2011 meeting, the planning commission had made an initial review of The Varsity, a 13-story building at 425 E. Washington, stretching from East Washington to East Huron in the block between South State and South Division. The proposed development is located east of the 411 Lofts building and west of the First Baptist Church, and is currently the site of a two-story office building that formerly housed the Prescription Shop. Alexis DiLeo of the city’s planning staff told commissioners that the design hasn’t altered significantly since that meeting.

Minor modifications include narrowing the walkway on the building’s east side, mounting lights on the building instead of poles along the east side of the path, and removing decorative pillars at both ends of the walkway, previously proposed on the east side of the path and on the First Baptist Church property. Because the church is located in an historic district, any changes on its property would have required approval by the city’s historic district commission.

The main features of the project are unchanged. The 177,180-square-foot apartment building is to include 181 apartments with a total of 415 bedrooms, to be marketed to university students. The plan also calls for 70 parking spaces, both underground and on the street level, with entrances off of East Huron and East Washington. In addition, two spaces would be provided on adjacent property (owned by the same developer) to use for a car-sharing service like Zipcar. A total of 121 bike spaces are also proposed for the project.

The Varsity at Ann Arbor: Public Commentary

Fourteen people spoke during a public hearing on The Varsity.

Hugh Sonk spoke on behalf of the Sloan Plaza Condominium Association, and restated many of the concerns that he raised at the commission’s Sept. 20 meeting. Sloan Plaza is located at 505 E. Huron, just east and across the street from The Varsity site, and residents are concerned about the development’s impact on their quality of life. Specifically, they are concerned about increased traffic congestion as vehicles turn into the building’s Huron Street entrance.

People who currently have monthly parking permits at the existing site will be displaced, Sonk said, potentially causing parking problems in the area. Sonk’s final concern related to the Huron Street facade, which he described as bland. It doesn’t reflect the character of the adjacent historical buildings, he said, and it needs to be treated as an important front to one of the city’s major thoroughfares. The current design doesn’t do that, he said.

Ethel Potts, a former planning commissioner, described the public hearing as an important one, since it’s a new major building downtown and the first one that’s gone through the city’s new design review process. She noted that city officials have said the recent downtown zoning changes and design review process will be reviewed next spring, to see if it’s delivering what residents want.

This building and its review show some flaws in the process and in the city’s ordinances, she said. For one thing, the design review doesn’t deal with height and mass, Potts noted – and The Varsity isn’t compatible with the scale and character of surrounding buildings. How will the small, elegant, historic church live with a tall, broad wall along its lot line? Potts also pointed to a lack of green space in the design. “Weren’t we seeking downtown livability?” she asked.

Christine Crockett introduced herself as president of the Old Fourth Ward Association, and a member of the committee that helped write the city’s design guidelines. The design review board, neighbors and people who’ve spoken during public commentary have all been emphatic that design of The Varsity’s north facade is unacceptable, Crockett said. It’s been tweaked a little, but is essentially 13 stories of yellow brick that’s unrelieved by pattern, texture or sympathy with the surrounding character district, she said.

The building will be there for decades, Crockett noted, so it’s important to make it as attractive as possible, adding that the architect should be ashamed. The Varsity developer and design team have the chance to make that block of Huron Street better and more pedestrian friendly, she said. “There are ways they can do it, but they won’t.”

Another issue is the walkway on the building’s east side, Crockett said. The design review board had indicated this summer that the walkway is too narrow, but now the developer has narrowed it even more, she said. It’s going to be like a tunnel – unattractive and dangerous, she said.

Stephan Trendov, an urban planner, said he’s in favor of the project. This summer he had attended a 2.5-hour meeting about The Varsity at the Michigan Union, and the group there had spent time talking about the building facade and pedestrian walkway. The vision is to move pedestrians from Huron all the way to East Liberty, he said, but this walkway doesn’t do that. There are opportunities for improvements, like adding a pergola or landscaping. The community is watching, he said, and so far, the reaction to what’s been discussed hasn’t been impressive. There haven’t been enough changes.

Donnie Gross, the project’s developer, told commissioners that he’s proud of the project. He could have designed a box-like by-right project, he said, but they’ve done more than that. Despite what people during the public hearing have indicated, Gross said, he and the design team have listened to input and changed the design 20-30 times. Turning to some of the previous speakers, Gross told them that just because they didn’t get everything they want doesn’t mean he hasn’t listened and made changes.

One of the first things his team did was to meet with the neighboring church, Gross said. It’s important to get the church’s approval, because they’ll be neighbors for the next 100 years. They’ll also be asking the church for an easement, so that the walkway on the east side of The Varsity can be widened, he said.

Gross said he’s not opposed to retail in the building, but he’s seen the difficulty that the neighboring 411 Lofts has had in finding tenants. “I’m opposed to retail that’s empty.” Instead, The Varsity is designed so that residents of the building will be like a “3-D billboard,” using a fitness area and lounge in the lower levels. The building would look naked and drab if the first floor were dark, but as long as there is light and activity, it doesn’t matter if the activity is someone getting a pizza or using a computer. The Varsity will add life to East Washington, he said. He noted that the plaza area on East Washington will include a green roof.

Noting that he owns the historic house next to The Varsity site, Gross told commissioners that even the soil beneath the house is declared historic, so he’s unable to excavate it. If he could excavate, he could add more underground parking and have only one entrance – but that’s not possible. He concluded by noting that citizens can say anything to make developers look bad, but there are reasons behind these decisions.

Maurice Binkow, another Sloan Plaza resident, said he joined others in objecting to the unsightly design of The Varsity’s Huron facade, along a road with so many distinguished buildings. He also expressed concern about the Huron entrance into the parking garage, noting that cars would likely be backed up onto Huron as they wait to enter. It would also be a problem for cars coming out onto Huron, if they were making a lefthand turn. He asked that the developer put a lease restriction in place that would prevent left turns onto Huron.

Noting that she is Maurice Binkow’s wife, Linda Binkow said that some of the city’s greatest assets are the properties along Huron Street– they are an exceptionally attractive and valuable part of the city. The city collects tax revenues from those properties, she added. Putting a building like The Varsity on Huron will cause traffic problems and greatly decrease the value of property in that area, she said. It’s not in the city’s interest to do that. She suggested that the building could be designed with a setback, and additional stories.

Tom Heywood, executive director of the State Street Area Association, observed that The Varsity could be built by-right, and that although the design review is mandatory, compliance is voluntary. He said he respected the views of neighbors in the area and residents of Sloan Plaza, but noted that the association’s board has reviewed the building plans and had voted unanimously in support of it. The association has been told that parking spaces will be freed up in Tally Hall [Liberty Square] as soon as the underground parking structure on South Fifth Avenue is completed. That should help the parking situation.

The plaza on the East Washington side is an essential buffer for the church, Heywood said. And while the association would prefer retail on the first floor, that can’t be mandated – and the association doesn’t want to see empty space there, like it’s been for 411 Lofts. He noted that the space could be easily convertible into retail or commercial use, if a good proposal comes forward in the future. The association board respectfully requests approval of The Varsity, he concluded.

Ray Detter of the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council (CAC) told commissioners that he appreciated the building’s green roof – this was the first time he’d heard about it. This whole design review process is new, he said, and it’s an educational process too. Everyone’s had a chance to discuss the design, even though changes aren’t compulsory. He noted that CAC supports the plaza setback on East Washington, and the mews on the east side. The developer didn’t have to do those those things. The CAC would like to see the first-floor parking moved underground, and wants the mews walkway expanded even more, Detter said. That walkway, leading to a crosswalk across Washington and into the alley next to Tally Hall, would result in improving the alley, he said, so that it’s ”not the dump it is now.”

Stacey Simpson Duke, co-pastor of the First Baptist Church, handed out a letter she’d written in support of the project. [.pdf of Simpson Duke's letter] She said she never wanted a high-rise building next to the church – she liked seeing the sun set from the church – and she had spoken against the A2D2 zoning changes for downtown that were ultimately approved.

However, the people involved with The Varsity have been the best neighbors they could possibly be, Duke said. The design team has met with church representatives monthly, have listened to input and have explicitly incorporated design elements to address the church’s concerns. Simpson Duke said she’s especially excited about the walkway and the plaza next to the church. She’s also excited about the 400 students who’ll be living there, and the increased foot traffic in that area. She thanked the developer and his team for being good neighbors.

Joan French, a resident of Sloan Plaza, urged commissioners not to allow the Huron Street facade to be a back door. People along Huron can see the beautiful buildings like Campus Inn and the University of Michigan’s new North Quad. She supported the project, but wanted to see details on the Huron entrance that will make people say “wow.”

Brad Moore, an architect on The Varsity project, brought up a panel with samples of the materials that would be used on the building. The renderings of the building that were projected on-screen during the meeting showed a color of brick that was more yellow than it actually would be, he said. The brick evokes the exterior of UM’s original chemistry building, and is intended to be distinctive from the bright red brick of 411 Lofts.

There will be architectural detail, Moore said. Regarding the walkway, there’s no objection to widening it, Moore said, but The Varsity developer can’t do a site plan on the church’s property. Moore said he was certain that in the future the walk would be widened – that action might be handled administratively by city staff, or with the help of the church working through the historic district commission process.

Moore also reported that there will be a lease condition that specifies “right in, right out” only turns for the entrance off of Huron Street. There will be video surveillance cameras to monitor compliance, and if there are complaints, the building’s owner can impose sanctions against tenants who violate that condition, Moore said.

Bob Keane, a principal with WDG Architects in Washington D.C. who also spoke at the Sept. 20 meeting on behalf of the developer, addressed design concerns of the Huron facade. He described several ways in which the design has been changed. For example, the former metal garage door now will have frosted glass panels and look very elegant, he said, evocative of a storefront. There’s also a pedestrian entrance on the Huron side. People will drive by and think it’s the front entrance, Keane said, describing it as an “elegant urban facade.”

The final speaker was Rita Gelman, a resident of Sloan Plaza. (Her husband, Chuck Gelman, attended the meeting but did not speak during the public hearing.) She handed out a letter to commissioners, and said her main concerns are parking, green space and traffic. It’s important to keep the quality of the Huron Street corridor, but the proposed building looks humongous and commercial, she said. In contrast, Sloan Plaza is a building that looks residential, she said.

The Varsity at Ann Arbor: Commission Discussion

Kirk Westphal noted that the city had received a letter from Laura Houk, chairperson of the Ann Arbor Cooperative Preschool, a tenant at the First Baptist Church. [.pdf of Houk's letter] Houk had expressed concern about possible hazardous materials, noise and traffic during the demolition and construction phases of the project, and the impact on the preschool, which uses an outdoor playground year-round. She wanted the city to ensure that the developer mitigate the effects of the demolition and construction.

Westphal asked how those concerns would be addressed. Alexis DiLeo said she planned to meet with the preschool director, and go over the basic process for projects like this. The developer has had at least one meeting with the preschool too, she said. Regarding hazardous materials, if there are any on that site, there are state and federal regulations that govern the handling of those materials. She said she trusted that the developer would take steps to minimize the impact.

Erica Briggs noted that the developer’s ultimate intent is eventually to widen the walkway – that’s great, she said. In response to a query from Briggs about lighting, Brad Moore said there’s not currently room for pedestal lighting along the walkway – lights will be mounted on the building. But the intent is to include pedestal lighting in the future, and the developer would pay for it.

Briggs expressed concern that the sidewalk in front of the East Washington entrance isn’t clearly defined – that might be a safety issue, she said. She encouraged the design team to give more thought about how to make the pedestrian experience as safe as possible, especially in the driveway area leading to the parking garage.

Briggs also asked whether the developer planned to add any amenities for bicyclists – she had broached this subject at the Sept. 20 meeting, suggesting that things like a free air pump would be a public amenity. Donnie Gross, the developer, said he couldn’t make a commitment about that, but said they would explore that possibility.

Diane Giannola said her only concern is parking. She realized that the project includes the minimum number of parking spaces required by the city, and noted that the intent is to encourage people not to use cars. But she’s more of a realist, she said, and worries that there’ll be an even bigger parking problem in that area than there is now. [This issue was also addressed in an email sent to the planning staff by Jerry Weaver, manager for the Firestone shop at the corner of Division and Huron. He stated that because of parking needs at 411 Lofts, people are parking at other lots in the area and more cars have been impounded this fall than the prior 10 years combined. .pdf of Weaver's letter]

Giannola said that the way The Varsity selects its tenants will determine whether the development is a good neighbor. She asked that the owner find ways to discourage people from bringing cars. Eric Mahler, chair of the planning commission, quickly added that the city doesn’t advocate for discrimination based on anything.

For his part, Mahler pointed to the development agreement for The Varsity, citing the section stipulating that plazas on the site are intended to serve in lieu of a financial contribution to city parks:

(P-8) For the benefit of the residents of the PROPRIETOR’S development, in lieu of a contribution of $112,000 to the CITY Parks and Recreation Services Unit prior to the issuance of building permits, to construct and maintain as an integral part of the development the proposed amenities in the north and south plazas and the walkway along the east side of the site as generally illustrated and described in the exhibits to this Agreement. [.pdf of draft development agreement]

Mahler wondered whether the city can seek an injunction against the developer, if the plazas aren’t built as envisioned. DiLeo said the city won’t issue a certificate of occupancy unless the project passes a site inspection and meets all the requirements outlined in the development agreement.

Westphal weighed in again with several observations. He said he can see how the plazas benefit the church, but it gets tricky when zoning is bent to fit one neighbor.

By way of background, The Varsity is a “planned project,” which allows some limited flexibility in design. The setback to accommodate the plaza on East Washington, for example, is greater than would otherwise be allowed for a by-right project on that site. It differs from a planned unit development (PUD) in granting far less flexibility. From Chapter 55 of the city code [emphasis added]:

Planned Projects. 5:68. The intent of this section is to provide an added degree of flexibility in the placement and interrelationship of the buildings within the planned project and to provide for permanent open space preservation within planned projects. Modifications of the area, height, placement requirements, and lot sizes, where used for permanent open space preservation, of this Chapter may be permitted if the planned project would result in the preservation of natural features, additional open space, greater building or parking setback, energy conserving design, preservation of historic or architectural features, expansion of the supply of affordable housing for lower income households or a beneficial arrangement of buildings. A planned project shall maintain the permitted uses and requirements for maximum density, maximum floor area and minimum usable open space specified in this Chapter for the zoning district(s) in which the proposed planned project is located.

Westphal praised the plans to eventually widen the walkway, and said he appreciated the bike parking. Regarding vehicle parking, he said things won’t change until the message gets out that the city doesn’t want to see large portions of land used for car storage. He doesn’t have a problem with limited parking on that site.

He also commended the design review board, saying that they didn’t suggest changes that are too burdensome. He hoped that people would stay tuned for a review of the design process next year.

Noting that he hadn’t attended the Sept. 20 meeting, Evan Pratt asked whether the design of the Huron facade had changed since then. No, DiLeo replied, but the design had changed since the developer’s team met with the design review board in the summer.

Tony Derezinski said the planned project approach is a creative way to work with The Varsity’s neighbor and create an attractive plaza, even though it’s larger than what would otherwise be allowed by code. He indicated that some people wouldn’t be satisfied with any design, and at some point it’s the commission’s responsibility to say enough is enough. The developer has shown willingness to make some changes, he said, and if retail eventually becomes viable, the developer will include that. Derezinski concluded by saying The Varsity will add to the area and improve the city’s tax base.

Giannola asked whether it would be possible to require a No Left Turn sign – could that be added to the development agreement? Gross said he’d welcome that. Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning staff, said the city can’t require that a sign be added to the public right-of-way – that’s the purview of the Michigan Dept. of Transportation, since Huron is a trunkline. Rampson said the developer could certainly put a sign on his property, but she didn’t recommend altering the development agreement to address traffic engineering issues like this. No amendment was made.

Outcome: Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the site plan for The Varsity at Ann Arbor. It will be considered next by city council.

Present: Eleanore Adenekan, Erica Briggs, Tony Derezinski, Diane Giannola, Eric Mahler, Evan Pratt, Kirk Westphal.

Absent: Bonnie Bona, Wendy Woods

Next regular meeting: The planning commission next meets on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. in the second-floor council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

Monthly Milestone: Measuring Time, Activity

Dave Askins — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 16:15:22 +0000

Editor’s note: The monthly milestone column, which appears on the second day of each month – the anniversary of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s launch – is an opportunity for either the publisher or the editor of The Chronicle to touch base with readers on topics related to this publication.

Ann Arbor Active Against ALS (A2A3) is sponsoring a two-way swim across the English Channel to raise money for ALS research. This image links to the website, where non-channel swimmers can help the cause by keeping track of their own swimming and running milestones.

It’s also a time that we highlight, with gratitude, our local advertisers, and ask readers to consider subscribing voluntarily to The Chronicle to support our work.

The appearance of this monthly column does not mark any particular quantifiable achievement, but rather the simple passage of time. It’s just an occasion to note that another month is in the books for The Chronicle.

It’s a measurement of survival.

Other kinds of milestones are easy enough to contemplate as well. Among those are the finer-grained milestones – the odd statistics that reflect the actual activity that goes into the survival of a publication. For example, a query of the Chronicle’s database shows 540 government meeting reports filed in a little over three years. Included in 141 of those reports is the public commentary of Thomas Partridge. The database also contains 2,832 Stopped.Watched. observations. Of those, 614 were made along Liberty Street.

These smaller kinds of incremental milestones are important, too, because they reflect not the passage of time, but the actual stuff out of which survival is made. I was reminded of this by news of an upcoming event, sponsored by Ann Arbor Active Against ALS (A2A3), which continues that organization’s effort to ensure survival for patients with ALS – a neurological disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

The event itself will take place next summer. It’s a six-woman relay swim across the English Channel, in both directions. That’s 42 miles of swimming. As part of the fundraising effort, A2A3 is inviting people to do their own swims (or runs) locally. They’ve computed a running-miles equivalent of 73.5 miles for a one-way channel swim. The six-woman relay hopes to break the world record for such a channel swim of 18 hours 59 minutes.

Thinking about people who want to participate in the event locally, most of them would not be able to hop into Half Moon Lake and swim for 19 hours. And most local runners would not be able to lace up a pair of shoes and hit the pavement, knocking out 73.5 miles all in one go.

So A2A3 is providing a log sheet for those who register to participate. That way people can keep track of their miles over a longer period of time. There’s no requirement that people complete their miles at the same time the channel swim takes place, in the summer of 2012. You can start right now.

Those log sheets will measure milestones that aren’t counted with a calendar. And those are the kind of milestones I want to think about this month.

A2A3′s basic approach is to find ways for others to participate in the events they sponsor. So in that spirit, I think it would be worthwhile to open up The Chronicle’s monthly milestone column for readers to share their own milestones with the community.

"Worth a Detour, October 14, 2011" It's been almost exactly a decade since friends from Indiana visited and presented us with a brass plate rating our home on the AAA scale. During that 10-year period, I wonder how many times the door has been opened and closed.

Personally, I’m interested in milestones you can’t count with just a calendar. For example, a couple of months ago, the Motown to Tree Town blog marked its 100th entry.

Another example: Last February, Ann Arbor’s Community Television Network (CTN) broadcast the 500th episode of the For Your Information (FYI) news and information magazine.

That’s not to say that purely calendar-based counting isn’t important, too. That’s what The Chronicle has been doing every month for three years.

But if your seafood restaurant has been in business for 35 years, the first thing I wonder is: How many pieces of cod have you seared during that time? Or if your barbershop has been in business for 50 years, how many haircuts have you given, and how many pounds of human hair do you figure you’ve swept up off the floor? Or if you worked for the city of Ann Arbor driving a snowplow for 30 years, how many miles of road do you figure you plowed over that period?

So here’s an open invitation. Share your milestones – either in the comment section, or by sending an email [mary.morgan@annarborchronicle.com] for inclusion in next month’s column. It’s fine if it’s a milestone counted with a calendar. If you’ve survived to age 50, or if your marriage has survived 20 years, or whatever number you’re proud about, for heaven’s sake, feel free to share.

But I’d also like to encourage the sharing of milestones you can’t count with a calendar. Often, those are harder for the rest of us to see.

Column: Book Fare

Domenica Trevor — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:59:21 +0000

So after Borders, now what?

What will it take for another bookseller to open shop in the Borders/Shaman Drum neighborhood at State and Liberty, and operate a browseable place with content deep and wide? We’re talking about a books-and-mortar store a stone’s throw from the University of Michigan campus. A spot where you arrange to meet up with your husband after the two of you go your separate ways for an hour. Where you hang out until the movie starts at the Michigan Theater. Where you actually buy a book now and then – sometimes a title other than the one that got you in the real, live door.

The No. 1 Borders bookstore at Liberty & Maynard in Ann Arbor.

Keith Taylor, the poet, UM creative writing teacher and veteran local bookseller, says “it will take idealism, a lot of 80-hour work weeks, a willingness to be constantly present.”

Check, check and check. This is Ann Arbor, after all.

And then there’s Taylor’s fourth condition: “A landlord willing to rent space for less than the going rate.”

“Rents in central Ann Arbor right now will not allow for an independent bookstore, or an independent anything,” he says, “until the business owner owns the building the store is in.”

Karl Pohrt concurs – and the owner of the former Shaman Drum Bookshop, but not the building that housed it, should know: “It’s essential to own the building. If they don’t, they’ll be vulnerable.”

“Rent,” replies Nicola Rooney flatly when the proprietor of Nicola’s Books is asked why she won’t consider a move from Westgate Shopping Center to the State Street area.

We knew that, really. This is downtown Ann Arbor, after all. The market apparently won’t bear an independent bookstore in that neighborhood – Shaman Drum, which was located on South State just around the corner from Borders, closed in 2009 after nearly 30 years in business. Its former storefront is now a burger joint.

So the real question is this: If the market won’t bear a full-blown downtown bookstore, how will the community respond?

The Business of Bookstores: Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Pohrt warns, with a laugh, that opening a bookstore is like setting up shop “on the boulevard of broken dreams.” More seriously, and out of respect for his “brother and sister booksellers,” he says that “people need to know how hard this is and what’s at stake.”

Taylor says Petoskey now easily outclasses Ann Arbor as a book-buyer’s town. He has his doubts about whether even a non-traditional bookstore – a co-op, for example – could work. “I’m not sure that the book culture now is such that can support that.” (As an aside, it’s worth noting that Taylor had his doubts decades ago, too. He was working at the original Borders store when Tom Borders announced his grand expansion plans to staff. Taylor didn’t respond favorably, prompting Borders to say: “Keith! Why so negative?” It took a while, but now it’s pretty clear why.)

Taylor estimates that rent at $10,000 a month would require $2,000 a day in retail sales – “and you have to sell an awful lot of books to get to $2,000.”

The distinctive storefront of the former Shaman Drum Bookshop at 313 S. State, now a burger joint.

Especially now that Borders et al succeeded so well in institutionalizing the discount. The profit margin for the book business is 40% to 50%, Pohrt says, which to a bookstore means “2% to 3% after rent, utilities and wages.” So even with publishers starting to factor the discount into list prices, who can survive on selling books alone? Not Nicola’s, though the store never confuses the clearly segregated gifts, cards, pens and chocolates with its main event.

Do we really need to ask how many of us buy online just because we can – maybe not all the time, but often enough? Not to mention the lowest of the low: the “browsers.” Pohrt remembers them well – people who’d head out his door with nothing but an ISBN.

“If you have a bricks-and-mortar store, somebody can always undersell you,” he says. “So why should people buy books from you instead of the Internet?”

The Survivors

Our surviving indies in Ann Arbor have done so by finding more affordable space, serving niches and cultivating loyalty: Aunt Agatha’s on Fourth Street for mystery fans, Common Language at Braun Court for the LGBT community. (Owners Keith Orr and Martin Contreras, who own the neighboring \aut\ BAR, held their second annual Last Bookstore Standing fundraiser on Aug. 25.)

The book selection at beautiful Crazy Wisdom on Main Street, while more varied than you’d think, largely reflects the store’s focus on the spiritual experience. Nearby Falling Water (a little fiction, a little poetry, a little wit amid a lot of gentle self-help) is where you can happen on a lovely book for yourself while buying a lovely gift for somebody else.

Dawn Treader is an adventure; Motte & Bailey is a treasure – but used inventory, while invaluable, is another creature entirely.

But whatever their attributes, none of these sellers are – or aspire to be – what Shaman Drum was before the textbook market collapsed, or what Borders managed to remain for at least a little while until Paperchase, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, and the long limp toward liquidation.

The storefront of Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookstore on Fourth Avenue.

In Ann Arbor, according to Pohrt, more books were sold per capita in the 1960s than anywhere else in the country. When my husband and I moved here in 1990, it was immediately clear to me that two things mattered most to Ann Arbor: food and books. Ann Arbor is where Borders was born.

Yes, yes – but that was then and this is now. Locally owned Nicola’s Books is left standing; Barnes and Noble, the national chain that’s a relative newcomer to town, is wobbling. Ann Arbor is a plugged-in, uploaded, wired and wifi-ed, downloaded, World Wide Webosphered, test-marketed-for-a-no-newspaper place. We’re victims of our own success, says Taylor, who reminds us that UM faculty sat in front of glowing screens while Shaman Drum was shuttered. Rooney is fully mindful of all those students out there whose podlets are their link to whatever life of the mind they’ve of a mind to search out.

Is this what the community wants – is it enough?

Another Model: The Community-Based Collaborative

As Shaman Drum was reaching its crisis point in 2008-09, Pohrt says, “I woke up one morning and I didn’t know how to fix it.” The nonprofit approach wasn’t tried in time, he says.

But now Pohrt has another idea. “Start with a group of people,” he says. A representative from city government. Someone from the Downtown Development Authority. A person from UM who’s committed to book culture. “A good lawyer, a good real estate person, a good numbers person,” Pohrt says. “And somebody who knows the book business – and there are a number of these in Ann Arbor.”

And a millionaire?

One of those would be useful, too, Pohrt says, “but you also need people to buy into the idea. And this is a test for the community.”

Common Language Bookstore in Braun Court.

Pohrt envisions a community-level project resembling the Michigan Center for the Book, an initiative of the state’s Library of Michigan that’s based in Lansing but, Pohrt says, “belongs in Ann Arbor.” On the local level, such a project would nourish and promote the myriad aspects of a local book culture: Book arts, like those fostered by Hollander’s, the Kerrytown shop. Youth literacy efforts led by such operations as the nonprofits 826michigan and the Family Book Club (Pohrt’s on the board of the latter). Writing groups and “rent-a-carrel” opportunities for authors looking for both a quiet place to work and a way to support a community that will support writing.

It would also include a bookstore, of course, but one that is part of a community-wide operation that involves and fosters all the booksellers in the community: booksellers that serve markets for literary fiction and graphic novels, for antiquarian volumes and used paperbacks, and yes – for ebooks and audiobooks and all those other technologies for which people are going to spend money.

Pohrt admits that “there are problems with what I’m proposing” – not the least of which is making sure that nobody among those dogged booksellers we already have is left out of a wider effort. “Maybe each of these pieces already here would have a stake in it,” he says.

In a recent piece for The New York Times Sunday Review, fresh-off-a-book-tour author Ann Patchett (“State of Wonder”) gave a shout-out to indie bookstores around the country – including her “most beloved McLean & Eakin in Petoskey” (score one for Taylor’s street cred). She’s “so convinced that the small, locally owned and operated independent bookstore was a solid business model” that she and a partner are opening Parnassus Books next month in Nashville. One assumes that Patchett herself was able to pony up at least part of the cool million such an enterprise might require, and that she can afford to lose some of it, as Pohrt and Taylor say is almost certainly part of the deal. And more power to her.

But is Ann Arbor so different from Nashville, or Iowa City, or Milwaukee, or Oxford, Miss.? We can’t support a State/Liberty shop dedicated to selling books at the “reasonable profit” Rooney says she manages at Westgate? Will it take a community project dedicated to preserving a culture of readers and reading to keep a first-class, non-niche bookstore in the downtown neighborhood?

Pohrt acknowledges that his is a daunting proposal. “Say it’s impossible. OK, let’s go.”

The Presence of the Shopkeeper

Rooney does it, and of course the keystone is the fact that Westgate rents aren’t what @Burger had to pay (until students went home for the summer, and that Liberty Street restaurant closed). She even takes time off to visit her nonagenarian mum in England – though granted, those winter visits are in November and February, bracketing the feverish Christmas retail season – and had an honest-to-god summer vacation this year.

She does it, she reminds us, because she’s cultivated a fine staff and can trust them to hold down the fort – rather, to keep the fort open to all those savage readers out there.

The storefront of Nicola's Books in the Westgate shopping plaza, at Jackson and Stadium.

Rooney says she’s willing to be there for anybody who “wants a hand-hold” while building a State/Liberty business; she knows how it’s done. In fact, she’d consider an arrangement with a bookseller in it for the long haul who, perhaps, could master the art and science of bookselling under her tutelage and “essentially inherit it from me” when that day comes.

Still, as Taylor reminds us, a big reason for Nicola’s success is the physical presence of Nicola Rooney herself. On a recent Friday afternoon I spent the better part of an hour browsing her shelves for my husband’s birthday presents – I came in for Charles C. Mann’s new “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created” and collected a few discoveries as well.

Thanks to her distinctive British accent – equal parts charm and steel – it was easy to eavesdrop on Rooney’s sales technique. Somebody was looking for a book whose author recently had a reading at the store. “Oh, yes, a lovely man.” Small talk with shoppers about the massive, damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t preparations for Hurricane Irene. “They’re stopping the buses and the subway!” Another wanted the latest mystery in a favorite series. “If you like we can give you a call when it comes in.” Turns out the customer is from Tecumseh and was in town, stopping in the store just in case. “We could send it to you ….”

Rooney is, in all the fine senses of the word, a shopkeeper. She knows her wares and she knows her customers. She’s trained her crew to be shopkeepers, too – various customers have their various staff favorites. And they all spend lots of time on the other side of the counter, tracking down that title that should be “in history or in The Times’” but might be “tucked behind another one.” And because of all that – and, of course, a rent the market will bear – Nicola’s Books turns a respectable profit.

Rooney and two of her staffers spent a good 10 minutes – a long time in a small shop – determined to hunt down one of the three copies of “1493″ that were, the computer indicated, in the store. None were to be found. So she took my info and promised to let me know when the next copy came in (it was expected, and indeed arrived, on Monday).

I was so grateful for the attention. Once again, I was so grateful for the place. We talked for a while about books and bookselling in Ann Arbor. Then she rang up a couple of history paperbacks for me, and I handed her my Amazon.com Visa card.

About the writer: Domenica Trevor lives in Ann Arbor – her columns are published periodically in The Ann Arbor Chronicle. The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our columnists and other contributors. If you’re already supporting The Chronicle, please encourage your friends, neighbors and coworkers to do the same. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle.