Knight’s Market is located at the northeast corner of Spring and Miller. The market’s owner, Ray Knight, also owns two separate, adjacent parcels. (Knight is perhaps best known for his family’s restaurant, Knight’s Steakhouse, located at 2324 Dexter Ave.) The grocery store is on land zoned zoned C1 (local business) and M1 (light industrial). Another parcel at 306-308 Spring St. is zoned R2A (two-family dwelling) and M1, and contains two single-family homes and part of a parking lot. The third parcel at 310 Spring St. is zoned R2A and MI, and contains the other half of the store’s parking lot. All three parcels are currently non-conforming in some way, according to a staff report, and are located in the 100-year Allen Creek floodplain.

The proposal from Knight’s involves several steps. The request calls for 306, 308 and 310 Spring to be rezoned to C1. That rezoning would allow the building at 306 Spring to be converted into a bakery, although the intent is to leave the exterior of the house intact. The rezoning would also allow for approval to build a 1,200-square-foot addition to the existing grocery store and to expand, reconfigure, and improve the existing parking lot. In addition, the plan requests that 418 Miller Ave. – the site of the existing grocery – also be rezoned to C1.

The proposed work to the parking lot includes providing three additional spaces (for a total of 17 parking spaces), a designated snow pile storage area, solid waste and recycling container storage enclosure, right-of-way screening, conflicting land use buffer, and rain gardens for storm water management. An unused curbcut on Miller Avenue would be removed and the curb and lawn extension would be restored there. A temporary storage building at 418 Miller would be removed. The house at 310 Spring would remain a single-family dwelling.

The staff report notes that a neighborhood meeting in September 2011 drew about 10 people, who raised concerns about the proposed bakery at 306 Spring, as well as possible future uses for adjacent land also owned by Knight at 314 and 422 Spring, which are not part of the current proposal. A public hearing held at the May 15 meeting drew 10 speakers, including several neighbors who praised the Knight family and their business, but expressed concerns about “commercial creep” and increased traffic. Commissioners echoed those concerns, including fears about what might happen if the ownership of the property changes hands.

City planning staff recommended postponement so that several project reviews can be completed, but indicated support for the rezoning. A date for the project to return to planning commission hasn’t been set.

This brief was filed from the second-floor council chambers of city hall at 301 E. Huron, where planning commission meetings are held. A more detailed report will follow.

John U. Bacon

Ann Arbor’s Parthenon Restaurant closed last week after almost 40 years at the corner of Main and Liberty. For me and my friends, it marked more than the passing of a favorite spot, but the end of a time-honored ritual.

On our last visit, we filed in, and walked to our favorite table in the back. A little warmer, and we’d sit outside, but it was still March, so whatya gonna do? The owners and waiters nodded. They’ve seen us more than a hundred times. When I needed to sell ads for the Huron Hockey program to help fund the team, the Parthenon signed up every time – something the chain coffee shop across the street would never consider.

BW and I started coming here in the fall of our sophomore year in high school. We both ran cross-country – a near-death experience – but that meant we could eat anything, and not gain a pound. For us, that meant a jumbo coke, a basket of fries, and two gyros – each.

We’ve since added a few friends from our high school days: Scotty, a hockey teammate of mine; TP, the tennis captain; Sevvie, a soccer star; and Barney, whom I was nice enough to drive to practice every day, so he could take my job. I was cool like that.

We have no need for menus, but no need for two gyros each anymore, either. The lightweights get salads, and we all get gyros. TP once made the double mistake of looking at the menu and ordering a shish-ka-bob – who knew they even made those? – for which he is still roundly chastised. Mainly by me.

The highlight, always, is the saganaki. The waiters know we tip in direct proportion to the height of the flame they create, so they douse the cheese in brandy. Then the poor guy lights it, it goes “whooof!” and creates a mini mushroom cloud. I know a few waiters who no longer have eyebrows.

Ostensibly, we meet to celebrate someone’s birthday, but being guys, we’re lucky if we get together within a month of the actual day. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who knows even half the birthdays, anyway.

We still recognize the division between the four former high school seniors at our table, and the two lowly juniors. We’ve been doing this for well over a decade, but it only occurred to us about five years ago that the juniors might also have birthdays. And, as it turned out, they did – but we usually fail to remember them. Because they’re juniors.

Think that’s ridiculous? It gets worse. We often debate the merits of Tappan Junior High versus Clague, which is – and I say this with complete journalistic objectivity – the greatest junior high school of all time. The Tappan guys do have an ace: they played with quarterback Jim Harbaugh, who went on to become Michigan’s Big Ten MVP, an NFL star, and the San Francisco 49ers’ head coach. BW and TP were his tailbacks at Tappan, ultimately replaced by NFL Hall of Famers Walter Payton and Marshall Faulk.

We can still recount football, baseball and basketball games we played against each other years ago – the most pointless conversation anyone is having anywhere in town.

Well, almost. We also repeat stories so many times, everybody at the table can finish them, like an ancient tribe passing on its oral traditions.

Take the homecoming queen who rejected both Scotty and BW in the same month. Scotty was kissing her on her front step when – pardon me in advance – he farted.

“Could she hear it?” we asked.

“I could,” he said. “And my ears were just four inches from hers.”

A few weeks later, BW dropped her off, and didn’t make any moves. But when he tried to drive away, his car got stuck in the snow. He had to ring her doorbell and ask her to come help dig him out – thereby erasing any question whatsoever that it was, indeed, their last date.

The stories go on and on, and in this way, we share our innermost feelings.

Women never join us, but it’s not because they’re not welcome. Our girlfriends and fiancés and wives all wonder about these lunches, and what we talk about, until they come see for themselves, and discover that we’re morons. None of them have ever asked to return.

The baskets get removed, the bill comes, and it’s time for us to say goodbye – not just to each other, but to this old friend, the Parthenon, forever.

We could go somewhere else, and I suppose we’ll have to soon enough, but it won’t be the same. Where are we going to find a place that plays lyre music and ignites dairy products? There are fancier restaurants just down the street, but none will be more comfortable for us.

So, no. Wives and girlfriends, you’re not missing out on anything.

But we will.

About the author: John U. Bacon is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football.” He also co-authored “A Legacy of Champions,” and provided commentary for “Black and Blue: The Story of Gerald Ford, Willis Ward, and the 1934 Michigan-Georgia Tech Football Game,” which has been airing on various stations in Michigan and nationally.

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our publication of columnists like John U. Bacon. 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!

Nina Juergens of Acme Mercantile with a cake marking the downtown Ann Arbor store's 9th anniversary in November.

When I worked on the business desk at The Ann Arbor News, we were awash with press releases about various business anniversaries, awards and other achievements. In hindsight, it’s fair to say we did not treat these accomplishments with the respect that many of them deserved.

Perhaps it takes being closely connected to a small enterprise – whether it’s a business, nonprofit or independent professional, or a program you launched or service you’ve been providing  – to appreciate the milestones that might seem trivial to an outsider. If you understand that making it through the day without quitting your business can be a pretty significant achievement, it gives you a visceral connection to those announcements.

That’s one reason why here at The Chronicle, we’ve started allotting some of our monthly milestone columns to congratulating others who’ve reached some kind of marker. Generally, large institutions are more likely to log higher numbers and get more attention for that. The University of Michigan, for example, is gearing up to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2017, and is already marshalling its considerable resources for that event.

But I have a soft spot for smaller, human-scale endeavors.

This month, we’re highlighting three such ventures: Local businesses – Acme Mercantile, Le Dog, and Anderson Paint – that all celebrated recent anniversaries, and whose owners have strong ties to this community.

And because tonight, Midnight Madness and Kerrytown Kindle Fest are launching many Ann Arbor shoppers into the holiday shopping season, with several downtown stores open late and offering special deals, I’d like to start by sharing a couple of thoughts about that, and by sharing a Twitter hashtag: #a2shoplocal. 

Local Shops, Local Shopping

What I enjoy about spending money locally is seeing the direct link between what I spend and the livelihood of the people – my neighbors, in some sense – who are getting my business.

It’s not abstract.

The ownership isn’t dispersed worldwide through shares of stock, or at a corporate headquarters in New York or Los Angeles or Bentonville, Arkansas. You can actually talk to the person who makes decisions about the business. You run into them at Michigan Theater or Michigan Stadium, at Arbor Brewing or Knight’s Market, The Ark or Power Center. They might, when sufficiently provoked, even turn up at a city council meeting.

The global economy has reached a level of complexity that we might feel like we have no control over what happens in our local communities. But in a very concrete way, we do have that control. We can choose where we spend our money, and how. And that has a tangible impact on where we live, work, play – and shop. It doesn’t take rampant consumerism to make this work. But it does take a shift in our spending habits.

So in the spirit of taking action and not (simply) wringing my hands, I’ve started highlighting local options on Twitter, using the hashtag #a2shoplocal – stores, restaurants, events, online businesses (run by local folks) and items like gift certificates for Ann Arbor parks and recreation. It’s an idiosyncratic collection of things that strike me as worth noting, as I come across them, and obviously not all inclusive.

But anyone can use the #a2shoplocal hashtag – and I hope you readers who always keep your Twitter feed within arm’s reach will do that, too. At least for the Twitterverse, it could be a low effort, possibly high impact way to share suggestions and keep the “Buy Local” meme alive. While this message gets more traction during the holidays – when almost everyone is on the hunt for gifts – it needs to stick beyond December.

Three Local Business Milestones

People deciding to shop at locally-owned businesses have made it possible for the following folks to celebrate their own milestones.

Nina Juergens once told me that she opened Acme Mercantile because it’s the kind of store where she wanted to be able to shop downtown. Nothing like it existed, so she created it herself. (She also owns Salon Vertigo on Fourth Avenue, so it’s not like she needed something to fill her days.)

The West Liberty store, which celebrated its 9th anniversary in November, reflects the quirkiness of Nina’s vision. It’s a place where you can buy shoelaces and duct tape, dish soap and rubber gloves, chew toys for your pup, lovely flax clothing, tea, gag gifts, clocks, pens, gum – you get the idea. Nina also makes her own “Canned Acme” by filling what looks like an oversized soup can with merchandise, then using a device that seals a metal lid on it. You don’t know exactly what you’ll get, but that’s the charm.

Nina has also been a long-time supporter of the Ann Arbor skatepark, and is a member for the Friends of the Ann Arbor Skatepark board of directors. (The group is working toward a goal of $1 million, to build the skatepark at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park.) That passion is reflected in the store, which sells skatepark merchandise – T-shirts, mugs, keychains, skateboard decks and “Canned Skateboard” – to promote and raise money for the project.

And since it’s the season, Acme is selling skatepark Christmas cards, too.

Le Dog's Main Street location, managed by Ika Dyck-Dobos, opened in 1996. The metal sculpture adorning the napkin box is by Middy Potter, an artist at the neighboring WSG Gallery – which is celebrating its 12th year anniversary.

While Acme is celebrating nine years, around the corner, Le Dog is marking 15 years at its “satellite” shop in the former Kline’s vestibule at 306 S. Main.

Jules Van Dyck-Dobos opened the original Le Dog in 1979, and if you don’t know the small red hut near the corner of Liberty & Thompson and the amazing soups concocted there, I’m not sure you really can claim to be from these parts.

In many ways, Jules and his wife Ika – who runs Le Dog’s Main Street location – are my heroes. There is no one else doing what they do. Le Dog is extraordinary, eccentric and grounded in this community. It’s a place where the personality of the owners is front and center, where the signs are hand-written, and where you’ll find a photo of the family’s third-generation newborn posted on the window.

There are no empire-building, franchise-proliferating expansion plans. No focus-group-driven decisions about what to serve, no social-media-savvy campaigns to bring in more customers. It’s a small, old-school business that provides a living for a family and jobs for a few other employees.

In rummaging around the Internets for this column, I stumbled onto a 2007 review of Le Dog written by Domenica Trevor – who coincidentally now writes an occasional book column for The Chronicle. Here’s an excerpt that captures some of the reasons why Jules and Ika have staying power:

Among some in town, Van Dyck-Dobos is considered to be, well, curt (OK, he’s been called Ann Arbor’s very own Soup Nazi), a reputation reinforced by such Le Dog signage as “If you’re talking on your cell phone, don’t talk to me!” and “No Coke! No Pepsi! No soda! Ever!” One could argue, however, that the clown who requests that he “hold the cream” or the cretin asking for the salt shaker deserves a measure of disdain.

And consider this: A friend whose mother was laid up with a broken leg explained the sad situation to Van Dyck-Dobos, who agreed to make her a few gallons of his freezer-friendly Italian wedding and six-bean soups. Loving daughter drove them to upstate New York, divided them into serving-size portions and stashed them, providing soul-deep sustenance until Mom was back on both feet. So. Meditate on such kindness. And be glad he won’t sell you soda – that stuff rots your head. Have the lemonade!

Another family business passed a milestone that’s also measured in decades. Bob Anderson of Anderson Paint Co. runs the business that was founded by his grandfather and that’s now located on West Stadium Boulevard. In a recent newsletter, Bob included some reflections about those early days:

This year marks our 60th year in business, so we thought it would be nice to talk a little bit about the founder, and our Grandfather, William Brady Anderson. After a year long stint of working at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York as a Chassis Lecturer for General Motors, Brady decided to move his young family back to Pontiac, Michigan. There he found a job working for the Pontiac Varnish Company as a Bookkeeper.

There were opportunities for promotion within the company at that time managing the various stores located all around the state, so Brady jumped at the opportunity to manage the Ann Arbor store in 1946. In 1949 Pontiac Varnish Company decided to get out of the retail paint business and offered each manager the opportunity to purchase their store. Brady saw this as an opportunity to be his own boss, sold his small side business of renting radios, took the proceeds of that sale and bought the Ann Arbor store.

In the late 1940s there was plenty of competition right smack dab in downtown Ann Arbor. Our store was located at the corner of Fifth and Washington, currently where the Garris Law Firm is now located. At that time Sherwin Williams, Pittsburgh Paint, and Glidden all had company-owned stores within a four block radius of Anderson Paint Company.

Brady decided to focus on the do-it-yourselfer, rather than the paint contractor at that time to differentiate himself from the competition. He figured out that to be successful selling to retail customers, he needed to provide higher quality products and exceptional service. It was not uncommon for Brady to make “house calls” for his customers to help them solve problems. This philosophy of providing high quality products and exceptional service for all of our customers is still our goal 60 years later. Our family is indebted to Brady for having the courage and entrepreneurial spirit to start his own business.

Congratulations to Bob, Jules and Ika, Nina and all the other local business owners who’ve carried on despite the odds.

Do you have a milestone to share? Drop me a line at mary.morgan@annarborchronicle.com and we’ll try to include it in an upcoming Chronicle monthly milestone column.

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!

A Jacobson's ad in a 1985 publication commemorating the 150th anniversary of The Ann Arbor News. Both institutions are now out of business. This page proof is hung on an office wall where the Ann Arbor District Library is storing The News' archives.

This fall when I visited the Green Road offices where the Ann Arbor District Library is keeping The Ann Arbor News archives, I was fascinated by the page proofs that lined the walls of the entryway.

The proofs are from a 1985 publication commemorating the 150th anniversary of The News. In addition to the usual hagiographic articles you’d expect to find, the pages also were full of ads from local businesses, many of them congratulating The News for its milestone anniversary, and noting their own longevity in the community.

There was so much optimism in those pages – and now, so many ghosts. The News, of course, was shut down by its owners in 2009. Many other advertisers in that publication – Jacobson’s department store, Bill Knapp’s restaurant, Schlenker Hardware, a menswear shop called Marty’s, Fox Tent & Awning – are now found only in places like AADL’s Old News, where articles from newspapers’ past are being archived in digital form.

One of my takeaways from that visit – and I’ll admit it’s no great insight – is to take nothing for granted. Having now run this publication for just over three years, I more fully appreciate just how much work, luck and support it takes to keep something afloat – whether it’s a business, nonprofit, religious institution, marriage or anything else that counts its longevity in years, decades or centuries.

That’s one reason why, as noted last month, we’ve decided to use The Chronicle’s monthly column to celebrate other people’s milestones, too. This month, we’ll share milestones from a church, a holistic health practitioner, a nonprofit and a business. We’d love to hear from you, too – what’s worth counting in your life?

Stacey Simpson Duke, co-pastor of First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor, wrote to say the congregation just celebrated its 130th anniversary in its current location, at 517 E. Washington St. The congregation itself is 183 years old, she noted, and existed in two other locations prior to its current site. Members celebrated this milestone, and the rededication of their newly renovated sanctuary, in a worship service last month. She writes:

We haven’t typically celebrated the milestone of existing in this space – we usually just acknowledge our anniversary as a congregation every 25 years – but this year we did some renovating of the sanctuary and wanted to rededicate it; our historian noted that this would coincide with the anniversary of our presence in this location, so we decided that was worth celebrating. It’s interesting to consider having been here this long, given the recent changes in our neighborhood (411 Lofts, North Quad, and – soon to come – the Varsity next door). So much is changing in this area of town, but First Baptist and First Methodist remain.

I wish I had records of how many baptisms, how many weddings, and how many funerals have happened in this space over those 130 years. By my rough count, there have been at least 6,760 sermons preached in that room (though I feel certain the actual number is somewhat higher than that – 6,760 assumes only one sermon a week). More interesting to ponder, but less easy to quantify, is the idea of how many prayers have been prayed there, and how many life questions pondered, and how many friendships forged.

Another Chronicle reader, Linda Diane Feldt, wrote about her milestones as a holistic health practitioner:

Once in a while I try and figure out how many sessions I’ve given. I don’t have full records. But I started giving massages on Feb. 17, 1973. I was keeping a journal then, so I know the exact date. I worked on people throughout high school, at least one a week. About 100. Then, about 2 a week until 1980. About 350 more. Business started slowly, so about 10 sessions a week for 3 years. Another 1,500. Once things took off, I’ve averaged a very steady 15-20 people a week, with a few slow times. So 15 a week, 50 weeks a year is a solid number. 1984 to now, that’s 23 years – taking away some vacation time (although I rarely took two weeks off) as well, 1,140 weeks, just over 17,000 sessions.

I feel confident that most of this is an underestimate. So my milestone would be Feb. 2012 will begin my 40th year doing bodywork. And by then, I will have given approximately 20,000 sessions. So glad that I get to be doing work that I love.

From the nonprofit sector, Donald Harrison – executive director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival – notes that the festival will be celebrating a significant milestone next year:

Not New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago. And not Sundance. Ann Arbor is actually the home of the longest-running film festival focused on independent and artist-made cinema in the country. Since its humble yet visionary beginnings in 1963, the AAFF has screened more than 5,000 films and championed the early work of thousands of filmmakers, including luminaries like Gus Van Sant, Agnes Varda, Andy Warhol, Brian DePalma, Yoko Ono, Kenneth Anger and Barbara Hammer. On March 27, 2012 the Ann Arbor Film Festival will reach its 50th anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, the AAFF has launched 50FORWARD to share films and stories from Ann Arbor’s rich history with independent cinema, as well as raise both awareness and support for its 50th season.

Kristi Gilbert from the landscape architecture firm JJR contacted us about a milestone for the company: JJR recently received the Landscape Architecture Firm Award for 2011, given by the American Society of Landscape Architects in recognition of work that’s had a lasting influence on the profession. Another milestone is a move that the company will be making next month, after being located on or near Main Street in downtown Ann Arbor for 50 years.

In 1961, William Johnson, a professor of landscape architecture at U of M, joined with his brother, Carl Johnson, and another colleague, Clarence Roy, to start Johnson, Johnson & Roy. In 1969, JJR moved into the Dobson McOmber building at 301 North Main after restoring and rehabilitating the historic steam printing company building. In the early 1990s, JJR moved into a new building, which was right next door at 110 Miller Avenue, and this December we are moving to our new place at 201 Depot.

One of the things I love about my work at The Chronicle is the chance to see connections – to figure out the web of relationships that knit this community together. I most recently encountered Stacey Simpson Duke at an Ann Arbor planning commission meeting, where she spoke in support of The Varsity development that’s proposed for the property next to First Baptist Church. Linda Diane Feldt – who’s also an author, herbalist, and frequent Stopped.Watched contributor – lives nearby, and I often see her downtown, walking her dog Nala.

Donald Harrison and I ate breakfast together last month at Selma Cafe, where we chatted with host Jeff McCabe about the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority – yes, there are people who talk about the DDA over breakfast. And in The Chronicle’s early days, I covered the Ann Arbor public art commission when its meetings were held in the JJR conference room – one of the public art commissioners, Cheryl Zuellig, works for the business.

Everyone experiences these kinds of links – the cliché of six degrees of separation often seems more like one or two. I’d like to think that in some ways, The Chronicle is helping make those connections – and I hope we’re able to do that for many years to come.

Do you have a milestone to share? Drop me a line at mary.morgan@annarborchronicle.com and we’ll include it in an upcoming Chronicle monthly milestone column. We’d like to create on ongoing archive of community accomplishments, both large and small – and we hope you’ll be a part of that.

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!

According to the staff memo accompanying the resolution, Arbor Networks was granted a tax abatement in 2008. The abatement agreement in 2008 required Arbor Networks to move 74 jobs to their Ann Arbor facility and add at least eight jobs. However, as of December of 2010 there were only 74 jobs at this location.

The staff memo on the current request for a tax abatement states that the digital information business is continually changing with new and faster technology. Arbor Networks needs new test equipment and digital equipment, and according to the memo, anticipates adding 20 new employees to the Ann Arbor facility.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Biercamp owners Walt Hansen and Hannah Cheadle want to rezone the property to C3 (fringe commercial district), which would allow their business to sell a wider variety of merchandise, including products not made on site.

The commission first considered this request at its Aug. 16, 2011 meeting, along with a request to annex the land from Ann Arbor Township. The annexation request was approved. However, at that time planning staff recommended postponing the zoning request until Biercamp received a certificate of occupancy from the township, which would grandfather in the business under light industrial zoning that allows it to sell items produced on site. That certificate has been received.

Planning staff recommended against rezoning to C3, stating in a memo to commissioners that commercial zoning isn’t consistent with the city’s master plan for that area.

This brief was filed from the second-floor city council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron, where the planning commission meets. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

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.

Treecity Health Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary on South State Street. (Photos by the writer.)

One request was the first tied to the city council’s recent approval of zoning regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries. The operator of Treecity Health Collective, a dispensary at 1712 S. State, asked that the location be rezoned from O (office) to C1 (local business). In June 2011, the council approved amendments to the city’s zoning ordinances that prevent medical marijuana dispensaries from operating in office zoning districts. Rather than relocate the dispensary, the operator was asking for the zoning change. The property is located on the west side of State, south of Stimson.

While expressing sympathy for the operator, commissioners recommended denying the rezoning request, noting that the master plan calls for an office district in that area. It will now be forwarded to the city council for final action.

The commission considered a separate request for nearby parcels on the opposite side of South State, where the new Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky opened about a month ago. The property – 1643 and 1645 S. State St., south of the Produce Station – is in Ann Arbor Township, and requires both annexation and zoning. The commission recommended approval of annexing the land, but postponed a decision on zoning. Biercamp owners are hoping for commercial zoning, which would allow them to expand the retail component of their business. The city’s master plan currently calls for light industrial zoning in that section.

In discussions for both Treecity and Biercamp requests, some commissioners pointed to the need for a comprehensive study of the South State Street corridor. Such a study has been planned, but earlier this year the city council voted against funding a consultant to conduct the work.

In other action, commissioners recommended annexing several Scio Township parcels that are located in a recently expanded well prohibition zone related to the Pall/Gelman Sciences 1,4 dioxane underground plume. Pall is paying for the hook-ups to city water and sewer, according to city planning staff.

Commissioners also recommended approval of a site plan at 3590 Washtenaw Ave., at the southwest corner of Washtenaw Avenue and Yost Boulevard. The plan calls for building a 9,500-square-foot, single-story addition to the existing 15,769-square-foot retail building that currently houses the Dollar Tree. It’s in the spot where Frank’s Nursery formerly operated, along the same stretch that’s part of the Reimagining Washtenaw Avenue project.

Wendy Rampson, the city’s planning manager, gave several updates to the commission. Among them, she noted that four projects previously approved by the city council are now asking for two-year extensions on their site plans: (1) The Gallery planned unit development (PUD) on North Main, at the site of the former Greek Orthodox church; (2) the 42 North residential development at Maple and Pauline; (3) the Forest Cove office building on Miller; and (4) the Mallets View office building on Eisenhower. Those requests are being reviewed by city planning staff.

During his communications from city council, Tony Derezinski, who also represents Ward 2 on council, mentioned that a final meeting for the R4C/R2A advisory committee is tentatively set for Sept. 21. He noted that the 21st is also Saint Matthew’s Feast Day, which he quipped might help the group finish up the project.

One member of that advisory committee is former planning commissioner Jean Carlberg, who received a resolution of appreciation from the commission at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting. Her term ended June 30 – she served on the commission for 16 years.

South State Annexation & Zoning – Biercamp

The planning commission was asked to consider annexation of two parcels located in Ann Arbor Township “islands” – 1643 and 1645 S. State St., south of Stimson and next to the Produce Station. The property is owned by Stefan Hofmann, but the request was spurred by a new business – Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky – that Hannah Cheadle and Walt Hansen opened at 1643 S. State about a month ago.

Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky is located at 1643 S. State – the building on the left.

The parcels cover about 0.6 acres and include four non-residential buildings. In addition to Biercamp, other businesses on the property include Zak’s Auto Shop and Hofmann’s Furniture. The building at 1645 S. State is used for storage.

In the township, the site is zoned for light industrial. Hansen and Cheadle have requested that the parcels be zoned by the city for commercial use. This would allow them to expand the business – they eventually would like to sell Michigan craft beer and wine at the shop.

They have also applied to the township for a certificate of occupancy at that site, which would allow the business to be grandfathered in under zoning that permits it to sell items produced there. The city’s master plan calls for light industrial zoning in that area, but only allows for retail space to occupy 20% of the building’s floor area, to sell products made on-site.

Planning staff recommended annexing the properties, but postponing the zoning request until the issue of a certificate of occupancy is resolved with the township. Staff also recommended postponing action on a request to waive the area plan requirement for the site. A waiver is requested because no changes to the site are proposed.

South State Annexation & Rezoning – Biercamp: Public Hearing

The only speakers during a public hearing on the issue were Biercamp owners Walt Hansen and Hannah Cheadle. Cheadle noted that they’d come to the meeting straight from work: “We probably smell like smoked sausages.” She told commissioners that she and Hansen were originally from northern Michigan, but had lived in New York City for six years before moving to Ann Arbor about six months ago to open their business.

Walt Hansen and Hannah Cheadle, owners of Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky.

She said they felt the zoning to C3 (fringe commercial district) was appropriate, since the property is located near commercially zoned land along Stimson and South Industrial. The store is directly adjacent to the Produce Station, which is located to the north on State.

An appraisal done on the two properties included a zoning analysis, Cheadle said. The appraiser had talked to city planner Matt Kowalski, who had said C3 zoning would be appropriate in the context of other zoning in the area, she reported.

Cheadle told commissioners that during the month that the Biercamp has been open, the response from customers has been amazing. More than 300 people have already signed up to receive the store’s email, she said. Cheadle noted that one of the city’s concerns is if the parcels were zoned C3, it would be possible for other types of businesses – like drive-through fast food restaurants – to open there, if Biercamp went out of business. Biercamp is there for the long-haul, she said, but they would be limited if the land is zoned for light industrial.

Hansen added that they hope to eventually start selling Michigan beer and wine in the shop.

South State Annexation & Rezoning – Biercamp: Commissioner Discussion

Diane Giannola led off the discussion, saying she didn’t support zoning the land as C3 or C2B (business service district). She said she felt for the owners, but this would amount to spot zoning, which she said the courts have shown is illegal. Even though it’s a great business and the kind of company that the city hopes to see, the problem is what type of business might want to operate there later, she said. If the city approves this type of zoning, then owners of the parcel next to them could use the same excuse to change the zoning too – and it would just continue down State Street. The city needs to be consistent with its master plan, she said.

Further, planning staff and commissioners have talked about the need to do a comprehensive study of the South State Street corridor, Giannola noted. But the city council hadn’t approved funding of the study. To her, that action showed that councilmembers aren’t interested in rezoning the area.

There are many other places in the city where the business could operate and be successful, Giannola said. Just because the owners didn’t do their due diligence before locating there doesn’t mean the city should make an exception about the zoning and risk a lawsuit, she concluded.

Tony Derezinski said he appreciated Giannola’s heartfelt comments, but there’s another side. Sometimes an area is zoned for one purpose but it evolves to be appropriate for other uses, he said. In this case, having Biercamp located next to the Produce Station is a benefit to customers of both businesses, he said. It’s a unique parcel, he added, in part because it’s a township island. For those reasons, Derezinski didn’t think it would set a precedent for zoning, and it’s the type of business the city wants to encourage.

City planner Chris Cheng clarified that the reason for the annexation related to the need to hook up to the city’s sewer system. That has now occurred – the site had already been hooked up to city water. He noted that the township’s I-1 light industrial zoning is very similar to the city’s M-1 limited industrial zoning. The main difference is that the township would allow products made on site to be sold in 100% of the floor area. For the city, M-1 zoning only allows sales on 20% of the floor area. But if the township grants Biercamp a certificate of occupancy before annexation occurs, that would allow the city to grandfather in the business under the township’s zoning, Cheng said.

Cheng noted that the city planning staff feels that M-1 zoning is appropriate for this site.

Erica Briggs strongly supported zoning the parcels as commercial – probably C2B would be best, she said, since it would prevent drive-through businesses. If commissioners simply looked at the south area plan, then M-1 zoning would apply, she observed, but that plan is out of date. Looking at more current indicators – including environmental and sustainability goals – all point to this kind of use, she said: locally produced food, and neighborhood businesses that people can reach by biking or walking. It would be crazy not to support and nurture this, she said. If this type of business continues down State Street, she added, “I say great – all the better.”

The original plan for that area had envisioned it becoming a tech corridor, Briggs noted, but on the ground, it’s evolving into something else. She said she’d support C2B zoning for the parcels.

Kirk Westphal drew out the fact that Biercamp was operating without a certificate of occupancy from the township, and that this was somewhat unusual. He clarified with Cheng that the township’s light industrial zoning was more permissive regarding how much of the floor area could be used for retail.

Westphal confirmed this is not the first time that a zoning change has been requested in that area. Cheng reported that the property management firm McKinley had previously requested rezoning from light industrial to commercial for a property further south on State Street, where Tim Horton’s was interested in building a shop. That request had been denied.

In that case, Westphal said, it was a fairness issue – coupled with the fact that the city intends to study that entire corridor in the future. For those reasons, he was inclined to defer to the planning staff regarding their zoning recommendation for the two parcels. The commission also needs to think long-term, he said, and if ownership of the property changes hands, other businesses might open that don’t fit in that area. Westphal said he’d be in favor of doing a corridor study as soon as possible, and he hoped that Biercamp could continue to operate in that location in the meantime.

From left: Planning commissioners Wendy Woods and Diane Giannola.

Wendy Woods was curious to know what would happen if the parcels were annexed, but the zoning remained unresolved. What would it mean for the business? Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning staff, said that was tricky. The city doesn’t want to inherit an unresolved situation, she said, and it’s currently in the township’s hands. So far, there’s been good collaboration between the two jurisdictions, she added.

Woods said it seemed like there’s an informal agreement with the Produce Station to use parking for Biercamp customers – is that the case? No, there’s no agreement, Cheng said, although it’s true that some customers who park at the Produce Station do walk over to Biercamp’s shop.

Bonnie Bona wondered why this was coming forward now – why did the business need to connect to water and sewer now, if that hadn’t been an issue previously? Cheadle came forward and responded, saying that she and Hansen had approached the township for an analysis of the parcel’s septic system, after being told by a state health inspector that this was a requirement prior to opening their business. At that point, they were told by the township that the property needed to be hooked up to the city’s sewer system instead, because Biercamp was a new business. The property had previously been hooked up to city water.

Rampson clarified that the property owner, Stefan Hofmann, had been told in 2009 that he needed to connect to a city sewer. He had not come forward voluntarily to do that, she said, so that’s why the issue emerged when Cheadle and Hansen approached the township.

Hansen then clarified that the only reason he and Cheadle were requesting a certificate of occupancy was so that they could be grandfathered in under the township’s zoning. Cheng reported that the township is expected to issue the certificate soon, based on his conversations with township planning staff.

Bona said she hoped the certificate of occupancy would be granted, so that Biercamp could continue to operate there, rather than having them risk being annexed into a zoning category that wouldn’t permit their business. She noted that she struggled with conflicting issues. The master plan is about more than just land use – it relates to transportation, traffic and other issues. The State Street corridor has some of the most intense traffic in the city, she said, especially near Stimson, where the road narrows down from four to two lanes. All she can do, she added, is push for a corridor study so that the zoning is well-planned and not arbitrary.

Meanwhile, Bona added, she hoped that Hansen and Cheadle had a backup plan. She noted that there are a lot of commercial vacancies in the city, especially along Washtenaw Avenue. Bona also asked that a better explanation of the parking arrangement with the Produce Station be provided.

Eric Mahler asked what would happen if Biercamp doesn’t get a certificate of occupancy, and the parcels are annexed under the city’s M-1 zoning. In that case, Cheng said, Cheadle and Hansen would likely be back to the planning commission to lobby harder for C3 or C2B rezoning.

Outcome: Commissioners unanimously voted to approve recommending annexation – the request will now move forward to the city council for approval. A request to zone the properties as C3 (fringe commercial district) was postponed, as was a request to waive the site’s area plan requirement.

After the vote, Derezinski asked Cheadle and Hansen when their shop is open. The store hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Biercamp is closed on Sundays.

Treecity Health Collective Rezoning

In the first such request to the Ann Arbor planning commission following the city council’s approval of zoning regulations for medical marijuana dispensaries, the operator of Treecity Health Collective, a dispensary at 1712 S. State, asked that the location be rezoned from O (office) to C1 (local business). A waiver of the area plan requirement for that location was also requested.

Planning staff recommended denying the request, because C1 zoning is not consistent with adjacent zoning, land uses and the city’s master plan. City planner Chris Cheng told commissioners that the type of zoning requested would be considered spot zoning, and not appropriate.

The Treecity Health Collective opened in 2010. This summer, the Ann Arbor city council approved amendments to the city’s zoning ordinances that prevent medical marijuana dispensaries from operating in office zoning districts – those changes are set to take effect on Aug. 22, 2011. Rather than relocate the dispensary, the business owner – Dori Edwards – is asking for the zoning change. The property is located on the west side of State, south of Stimson, and is owned by Francis Clark.

Treecity Health Collective Rezoning: Public Hearing

Dori Edwards was the only person to speak during the public hearing on these requests. Treecity is a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary, she said, and provides other health practitioner services. Although the building is located in an area zoned for offices, the neighboring businesses are non-traditional – a masseuse and a palm-reader.

Dori Edwards, employee of Treecity Health Collective, during a public hearing at the Aug. 16, 2011 Ann Arbor planning commission meeting.

The city council has broad discretion to deviate from the city’s master plan, she noted. Edwards said she’s not a planner, but she did read through the city’s master plan online, and could not find anything that indicated her zoning request would be illegal. The city already allows spot zoning to occur, via planned unit developments (PUDs), she said. That kind of zoning requires public benefit, and Edwards said it’s a public benefit to allow her nonprofit to operate at its current location, because of the nature of her clientele. She urged commissioners to approve the rezoning request.

Treecity Health Collective Rezoning: Commissioner Discussion

Diane Giannola began by saying that this request proved the point she made during the Biercamp discussion. The site was located across the street and a couple of parcels south of the Biercamp location. So how could the city approve one request and not the other? It’s arbitrary, she said. The city needs to do a study of the South State Street corridor so that rezoning doesn’t occur arbitrarily.

She asked why the recent zoning ordinance for medical marijuana dispensaries didn’t allow that type of business in areas zoned for offices. City planner Chris Cheng said the reason was that dispensaries seemed more akin to pharmacies, not medical offices.

Bonnie Bona asked why the request was for C1 zoning, not C3 or C2B. Cheng replied that C1 was the minimal intensity of commercial zoning that would still allow the dispensary to operate – it doesn’t allow for uses like auto shops or manufacturing. But city staff wouldn’t recommend any type of commercial zoning, he said.

Then directing her comments to Edwards, Bona said that PUDs require additional public benefits tied to the site plan – the public benefit isn’t simply the type of business that’s located there.

Wendy Woods acknowledged that she hadn’t followed the council deliberations on medical marijuana closely. She wondered if the council’s intent was to restrict dispensaries to certain districts in town. She assumed they’d discussed the possibility of grandfathering in the locations of existing dispensaries?

Tony Derezinski, who also represents Ward 2 on city council, said the council wanted to avoid legal challenges to the ordinance. However, they also wanted to plan for dispensaries to be located in certain areas, with restrictions like distances from schools and churches, he said. There were no specific discussions about instances like the one now being considered by the planning commission, he said.

Derezinski went on to describe the state referendum regarding medical marijuana as poorly written and very ambiguous. For the council’s part, the general notion was to take a more restrictive approach to zoning, he said.

Woods asked if there were other dispensaries located in areas where the newly-enacted zoning would no longer allow them to operate. There are several located in office districts, said Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning staff. One dispensary held a citizen participation meeting in July, but decided not to pursue rezoning. Cheng noted that no one showed up for the Treecity citizen participation meeting related to the rezoning request.

Erica Briggs said she was frustrated and torn by this situation. This dispensary seemed to her to be an appropriate use of office space, fitting with compatible businesses in the area. No one came to the public hearing to complain, she noted. So she wished that dispensaries were allowed in office districts – but acknowledged that they’re not.

This request differed from the Biercamp request because the Treecity property isn’t located adjacent to other commercially zoned land, Briggs said. She supported extending commercial businesses along South State, but there’s not a precedent for doing that yet. She expressed sympathy for Edwards’ situation.

Kirk Westphal asked whether the fact that Treecity is a nonprofit has any bearing on the request. It does not, Cheng replied. Westphal confirmed with Cheng that any change in zoning would be attached to the land, not the business. Westphal said it was a shame that the state law is vague and that livelihoods are being disrupted, but he couldn’t support the rezoning request.

Giannola asked whether Edwards could apply for a special exception use, to allow her to operate the dispensary at that site. Cheng said he didn’t believe that would be possible. Rampson explained that the zoning ordinance would have to be amended in order to allow a special exception use for the dispensary. That process would begin with the planning commission, she said.

Outcome: Commissioners unanimously voted against recommending approval of the rezoning request. The recommendation will be forwarded to the city council.

Site Plan for Former Frank’s Nursery

Commissioners were asked to approve a site plan for 3590 Washtenaw Ave., at the southwest corner of Washtenaw Avenue and Yost Boulevard. The plan calls for building a 9,500-square-foot, single-story addition to the existing 15,769-square-foot retail building that currently houses the Dollar Tree. The new space is designated for an additional tenant.

The building addition would replace an existing unenclosed canopy area used by the former tenant, Frank’s Nursery. The site is part of a larger retail center along Washtenaw Avenue that consists of five parcels with the same owner. The site plan includes construction of a new public sidewalk in the Yost Boulevard right-of-way fronting the site. An existing 22-foot service drive on the north part of the site would be converted from pavement to turf, and a new 10-foot-wide non-motorized path is proposed.

The project had previously received approval from the Washtenaw County water resources commissioner for its stormwater system, using bioswales and underground pipes in the parking lot area. Since then, changes were made to the city’s landscape ordinance, which now requires additional modifications to the bioswales and an additional review by the water resources commissioner. That approval is required before the site plan will be placed on a city council agenda. The bioswales will be planted with native vegetation, including trees, and will also act as the required interior parking lot landscaping.

Site Plan for Former Frank’s Nursery: Public Hearing

Two people spoke during the public hearing. Damien Farrell, the project’s architect, said he was there on behalf of the owner [Renken Associates] to answer any questions.

Dennis Ritchie told commissioners that he’d lived for 35 years in a home just south of the Washtenaw Avenue property, and he was pleased to see improvements in the shopping district. It would do nothing but improve his experience as a homeowner if a viable business was located there, he said. The Dollar Tree is less of a problem for him than Frank’s Nursery was – now there’s no one on a PA system saying there’s two bags of sheep shit to be loaded, he quipped.

Ritchie noted that the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority intends to create a pullout along that stretch of Washtenaw Avenue. He wanted to ensure that the site plan wouldn’t have an impact on that project.

Site Plan for Former Frank’s Nursery: Commissioner Discussion

Tony Derezinski agreed that having a vibrant business was better than a vacant property, as is now the case. The site is one of the major pieces in the Reimagining Washtenaw Avenue project, he said, noting that it was part of the bus tour that commissioners had taken earlier this year during their retreat. [The revitalization effort focuses on a five-mile stretch between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, which also crosses land within Pittsfield and Ypsilanti townships. It's the county’s most congested – and, in many sections, blighted – commercial corridor. For background, see Chronicle coverage: "County Board Briefed on Washtenaw Corridor"]

Wendy Woods asked where the pedestrian crossing would be across Washtenaw Avenue. At the intersection with Pittsfield Boulevard, Rampson answered. Woods then asked whether the Reimagining Washtenaw project team is still meeting, and if another crossing is being considered? [Arborland is located across the street from the site that was being discussed by the planning commission. There is no bus stop currently in that area on the Arborland side, so people using the bus must walk across Washtenaw, a high-traffic roadway.]

Derezinski said that the AATA had been unceremoniously thrown out of Arborland – the owners of Arborland no longer wanted a bus stop within the shopping complex, and it had been removed in 2009. The stop is now located on the opposite (south) side of Washtenaw Avenue. There’s the possibility of putting a stop on the north side, he added, on property not owned by Arborland, but that hasn’t been finalized.

As for Reimagining Washtenaw, there had been a personnel transition, he said. Anya Dale, the former Washtenaw County planner who staffed the project, has taken a job at the University of Michigan. Derezinski said he’s talked with Mary Jo Callan, head of the county department that’s now overseeing the project – he reported that Callan is determined to keep it alive.

Rampson noted that while the only pedestrian crossing now in that area is at Washtenaw and Pittsfield, the Michigan Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) is working on an pedestrian underpass project at Washtenaw and US-23. As part of that, there’s discussion about the possibility of a pedestrian crossing at Washtenaw and Yost, she said. City planning staff will be meeting with MDOT officials later this month to talk about these possibilities.

Kirk Westphal asked about the materials that would be used on the building. Farrell said his client had been negotiating with a potential tenant for a long time, and they hadn’t yet settled on specifics. If the tenant signs on, they’ll have some of their own requirements, he said.

Bonnie Bona questioned why there’s a 40-foot-wide lane in the parking lot – is that necessary? Farrell said that’s the way the site is currently configured, and there are no plans to change it. Bona suggested alternatives that would narrow the lane, such as increasing the size of traffic islands or adding more landscaping.

Bona also pointed to landscaping on the building’s east side, and said that might be an opportunity to create some public space, like an area for outdoor seating.

Outcome: Commissioners voted unanimously to approve the site plan. It will now be forwarded to the city council.

Annexation of Scio Township Parcels

On the agenda was a request to annex seven parcels from Scio Township – totaling about 2.94 acres – and to zone them R1C (single-family residential). The sites are: 545 Allison Drive; 427 Barber Ave.; 3225 Dexter Road; 3249 Dexter Road; 3313 Dexter Road and a vacant adjacent lot; and 305 Pinewood Street. The annexation and zoning also requires city council approval.

The sites are located in a recently expanded well prohibition zone related to the Pall/Gelman Sciences 1,4 dioxane underground plume. Pall is paying for the hook-ups to city water and sewer, according to city planning staff.

No one spoke during a public hearing on the annexation.

Chris Cheng of the city’s planning staff clarified that the master plan calls for all parcels there to be zoned R1C.

Outcome: Planning commissioners unanimously recommended annexing and rezoning the Scio Township properties. The request will be forwarded the city council for approval.

Honoring Jean Carlberg

At the start of Tuesday’s meeting, the commission presented a resolution of appreciation to former commissioner Jean Carlberg, whose term ended June 30. She served on the commission for 16 years.

Jean Carlberg with her husband, Bunyan Bryant Jr.

Carlberg is a Democrat whose 12 years on the city council – representing Ward 3 from 1994 to 2006 – overlapped with her time on the planning commission. After stepping down from the commission, she is no longer serving on any other city government boards or commissions. She is a board member of the Washtenaw Housing Alliance, a nonprofit consortium of groups working to end homelessness in the county.

The resolution of appreciation – read by planning commission chair Eric Mahler – cited Carlberg’s “thoughtful and pragmatic approach to projects and issues being considered by the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission,” and stated that she “provided innovation, leadership, equanimity and tireless diligence to the City Planning Commission and the City of Ann Arbor in the interest of the City’s planning efforts.” The resolution stated that the commission will miss her “knowledge, expertise, thoughtfulness and quiet humor.”

Carlberg was on hand to accept the resolution, which was given to her on a wooden plaque. She told her former colleagues that she learned a lot during her tenure, both from the planning staff and from the other commissioners, who bring a breadth of experience to their discussions. The diverse backgrounds of commissioners are a benefit, she said, with each person raising individual concerns from their perspectives.

”I miss you all. I miss the work,” Carlberg said. She received a round of applause from commissioners.

Eleanore Adenekan was appointed in July to replace the position vacated by Carlberg.

Misc. Communications

Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning staff, gave several updates. She reminded commissioners that their next regular meeting would be on Thursday, Sept. 8, following the Labor Day holiday. Their next working session, on Tuesday, Sept. 13, would be devoted to a talk on sustainability by Dick Norton, chair of the University of Michigan’s urban and regional planning program. [Planning commissioners had been briefed on the city's efforts to develop a sustainability framework at their working session earlier this month. The park advisory commission received a similar briefing at their Aug. 16 meeting.]

Rampson also said that the Summers-Knoll School project is being revised. At its May 17, 2011 meeting, the planning commission had granted a special exception use to allow the school to move to a building at 2203 Platt. At that meeting, commissioners had asked that the school add a continuous sidewalk along the east side of the building, and ensure clearly defined walkways to all of the entrances. In addition to that work, Rampson said, school officials have also decided to change the configuration of the parking lot, and have asked for an administrative amendment to do that work. It does not require additional commission approval.

Rampson also reported that developers on several projects are asking for site plan extensions. These are site plans that have been approved by the city council, but that haven’t yet been constructed. City code allows for extensions of that approval in two-year increments, she explained. Now the city staff are reviewing the projects to make sure they still conform with city ordinances, which might have changed since the projects were initially approved. For example, the city council gave final approval in January 2011 to a set of changes in the city’s zoning code for regulations affecting area, height and placement (AHP). The city’s landscaping ordinance has also been recently revised.

There are requests for site plan extensions on four projects: (1) The Gallery planned unit development (PUD) on North Main, at the site of the former Greek Orthodox church, (2) the 42 North residential development at Maple and Pauline, (3) the Forest Cove office building on Miller, and (4) the Mallets View office building on Eisenhower.

During his communications from city council, Tony Derezinski, who also represents Ward 2 on city council, mentioned that a final meeting for the R4C/R2A advisory committee is tentatively set for Sept. 21. He noted that the 21st is also Saint Matthew’s Feast Day, which he said might help the group finish up the project. [See Chronicle coverage: "No Consensus on Residential Zoning Changes"]

Present: Bonnie Bona, Erica Briggs, Eleanore Adenekan, Diane Giannola, Eric Mahler, Kirk Westphal, Wendy Woods, Tony Derezinski.

Absent: Evan Pratt.

Next regular meeting: The planning commission next meets on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. in the second-floor council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor. [confirm date]

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The building addition would replace an existing unenclosed canopy area used by the former tenant, Frank’s Nursery. The site is part of a larger retail center along Washtenaw Avenue that consists of five parcels with the same owner. The site plan includes construction of a new public sidewalk in the Yost Boulevard right-of-way fronting the site. An existing 22-foot service drive on the north part of the site would be converted from pavement to turf, and a new 10-foot-wide non-motorized path is proposed.

The project had previously received approval from the Washtenaw County water resources commissioner for its stormwater system, using bioswales and underground pipes in the parking lot area. Since then, changes were made to the city’s landscape ordinance, which now requires additional modifications to the bioswales and an additional review by the water resources commissioner. That approval is required before the site plan will be placed on a city council agenda. The bioswales will be planted with native vegetation, including trees, and will also act as the required interior parking lot landscaping.

This brief was filed from the planning commission’s meeting in the second floor council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron St. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

John U. Bacon

It wasn’t that long ago that if you wanted to buy a book, there was no Kindle or Nook or Amazon.com – or the Internet. There weren’t even big-chain bookstores. You had to go to one of those narrow stores in mini-malls that sold paperback best-sellers and thrillers and romance novels.

But then the Borders brothers changed all that. They decided to go big, opening a two-story shop on State Street in Ann Arbor. They stocked almost everything, they gave customers room to relax and read, and they hired people who weren’t just clerks, but readers.

When I applied for a job there in college, they didn’t just hand me an application, but a test on literature – which I failed.

But if they wouldn’t let me sell books there, they still let me buy them, so perhaps it was just as well. I bought everything from Mark Twain’s “Innocents Abroad” to Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five.” Typically, I’d walk in for one book, and walk out with four – an hour later. I spent over a thousand dollars a year there, then a few hundred more on book shelves.

When Borders became a national chain, we Ann Arborites took an unearned pride in seeing the rest of the country love it as much as we did.

But Borders conceded the Internet to Amazon.com, then seemed to embark on a strategy designed not to create a stirring comeback, but a slow retreat. Finally, Borders announced it was going out of business this summer.

This week I visited my local Border’s store, Number #1, right downtown, one last time. I toured my favorite sections, literature and history, but also stopped by the children’s department, where I bought Dr. Seuss books for my nieces years ago, one of whom is now in college. I visited the travel stacks, where I planned trips to Turkey and Thailand, Spain and South America. I also picked up books to teach me just enough of those languages to get me in trouble, but not quite enough to get me out of it. I must have bought the cheaper ones.

But I didn’t need to get on a plane to go places. Pick up a good book – completely portable, no plugs or batteries needed – and you can go anywhere you want, even back in time, in just minutes.

In 1989, at the original store’s reference section, I picked up a copy of “Writer’s Market,” because my teacher told me it was the bible for freelance writers. I saved it. In the back pages I listed all the publications where I sent my articles, and which ones rejected them. That first year, all but one did. Thank you, Motor Trend. I bought 10 copies of that issue at Borders, too.

But I kept buying “Writer’s Market”and sending out my stories. After a decade, I published my first book. I wrote my second book in Borders café, where I also listened to readings by my friends, and the famous.

A few years ago the Borders in downtown Ann Arbor sold more copies of my last book, on Bo Schembechler, than any store in the country. I spent hours signing them, and the staff became colleagues, even friends.

During my last visit, one of them said, “Hey John, can I help you find anything?”

“No, thanks,” I said, then waved my hand over the entire store. “I just came to say goodbye to an old friend.”

I shook his hand. “Thanks for everything.”

He nodded, but kept a stiff upper lip, and walked off to help someone else.

About the author: John U. Bacon is the author of the upcoming “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football,” due out Oct. 25. You can pre-order the book from Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor or on Amazon.com.

The Chronicle relies in part on regular voluntary subscriptions to support our publication of columnists like John U. Bacon. 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!