Stories indexed with the term ‘wall street parking structure’

A Wall Street sign at the intersection of Canal.

Amid a slew of multimillion-dollar projects that Tim Slottow presented to the University of Michigan regents on Thursday, one was notable for not moving forward – a controversial parking structure and office building previously proposed for Wall Street.

Slottow, UM’s chief financial officer, told regents at their monthly meeting that the university’s purchase of the former Pfizer property – a deal that closed on Tuesday – resulted in enough additional parking spaces to meet their current demands for the medical campus. Regents had given initial approval for the $48.6 million parking project at their September 2008 meeting, despite vocal protests from residents in the Wall Street neighborhood. It would have been a structure with 500 parking spaces and offices for UM’s Business Engagement Center, which now leases space at 1214 S. University Ave. Slottow characterized the project as being on a “pause” indefinitely. [Full Story]

Eli Cooper, transportation program manager with the city of Ann Arbor, discusses the possible location of a transit center nestled between Fuller Road and East Medical Center Drive, just east of Fuller & Maiden Lane.

On Tuesday evening, way after hours at Northside Grill, a collection of city staff and city councilmembers met with around 40 residents to discuss the relationship of the University of Michigan with the city of Ann Arbor – both generally and with specific regard to the proposed UM expansion along Wall Street.

That construction is currently proposed to include an office building, parking structure and transit center. It was not news to neighbors that UM plays by a different set of rules (its own). What could have been a revelation were the general mechanisms by which city staff work in an environment where they can attempt to nudge UM to adhere to the vision outlined in the city’s planning documents – documents that were created with participation of UM staff.

So there were no magic bullets offered that could kill the parking structure component of the current UM Wall Street expansion. But the vision of a possible transit station along Fuller Road, which would include a substantial number of parking spaces serving a variety of needs, was held out as a possibility that could attract the university away from building more parking along Wall Street. That potential transit station would be nestled between Fuller Road and East Medical Center Drive, just east of Fuller & Maiden Lane.  [Full Story]

Eliana Moya-Raggio, a Wall Street resident and former UM faculty member, explains her objections to UM's proposed parking structure. She spoke at a Tuesday evening meeting held at the Kellogg Eye Center.

There were two distinctly different agendas on view at Tuesday’s Wall Street neighborhood meeting, hosted by University of Michigan staff. University representatives, led by Jim Kosteva, were there to deliver information about environmental and safety issues related to the proposed UM expansion in that area. The neighbors wanted answers to questions they’d been asking for many months – and their frustration was palpable.

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You can pack a lot into a two-hour meeting if there’s virtually no discussion on any of the agenda items, and the University of Michigan Board of Regents did just that on Thursday afternoon.

UM President Mary Sue Coleman, at the head of the table, talks to regents at their Thursday board meeting. To her right is Rebecca McGowan. On her left are Larry Deitch, Andrea Fischer Newman, Olivia Maynard and Kathy White.

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The University of Michigan Board of Regents will meet this Thursday, Sept. 18, at 3 p.m. in the Fleming Administration Building, 503 Thompson St. A limited number of public comment slots are available. You get 5 minutes, but you need to sign up by 9 a.m. the day before the meeting. The sign-up form is here.

Here are some items on their agenda:

• A $48.6 million project to 1) build a parking structure on Wall Street to provide 550 new spaces and a small transit center “to encourage the use of buses and shuttles”; and 2) build a 40,000-square-foot office building to house the Michigan Business Engagement Center. The center “is to function as the gateway to the university for … [Full Story]