Comments on: Shouts, Songs Occupy UM Regents Meeting

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:37:10 +0000

You know, I was thinking that if the NWNA intends to be a real neighborhood organization and not just a single-issue thing, it seems very strange to include Murray and not Mulholland. Those two are really sister streets and share a lot of issues, not least the flooding.

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:52:57 +0000

A correction on a typo – that would be Jim Kosteva for the UM Community Relations office. He is an excellent person to advocate for the neighborhood’s interests, congratulations.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:17:59 +0000

From what I have heard, originally the houses on Murray were housing for the factory workers and the “now parking lot”, provided gardens spaces for the residence. I doubt the UM will reestablish the original use of this property.

Also, I don’t think the parking lot ever had a mechanical gate but there was I time when there were parking meters put in for people who did not have permits: they did not remain long.

By: Linda Diane Feldt

Linda Diane Feldt — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:31:56 +0000

I’ve noticed a significant increase in noise from this parking lot recently, as far away as a couple of blocks, and some people on Liberty have reported their houses shaking with the recent construction. I hope the NWNA has good luck working with the UM.
I have been curious about how this lot came into being, and what it was before being a UM parking lot. Was it once a park, like the German type parks in other parts of the OWS? It is such an odd piece of land with Krause dead-ending, the alley from Liberty, and the two levels of parking. How did it end up being a parking lot in the middle of a residential area?
The NWNA seems to have very reasonable requests. It is a problem that the UM and the AAPS are exempt from city noise restrictions. That means that living adjacent to or even near properties owned by these entities is dependent on good will, legal remedies are very limited. My experience with the public schools responsiveness to complaints has ranged from infuriating to fantastic.

By: Chip Smith

Chip Smith — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:03:11 +0000

Murph and Rod – I can answer some of your questions:

The Krause Street lot is reserved M-F from 6 am-5pm for Orange and Blue permits. Orange permits are for students and the lot has a pretty broad range of users – from folks working in the argus building to other folks who somehow qualify to purchase a permit. Daily foot traffic from the lot generally heads east into town and by my casual observation, primary use of the lot is by 9-5 employees, not students.

Generally, permit parking does not exceed 2/3 of capacity on any given weekday. It’s been a UM parking lot for as long as most of us can remember, but was a gravel lot until the late 1980s and as recently as the 1990s, had a mechanical gate regulating entry into the lot.

YMCA users are the biggest after-hours users and peak use of the lot is 5-7 pm. YMCA members (and others using the lot after hours) do not pay for the use of the lot. This use, for what it’s worth, creates pedestrian safety, parking, and traffic problems for the residents of Krause Street to say nothing of the noise and lighting impacts to the neighborhood. Saturday mornings are also busy with YMCA users and Kiwanis customers and staff. While we have significant long-term concerns with the traffic generated by the lot, we want to address the construction and design issues while we have a chance.

We formed the NWNA as a response to a suggestion from Councilman Mike Anglin during a meeting with those of us affected by the recent construction in the lot. The NWNA also includes properties on West Washington Street between 7th and 3rd, Third Street between Huron and Liberty and West Liberty between Third and Murray. We have met once and formed an email group to improve communication between the neighborhood, UM and city officials. The specific purpose of the NWNA is to address traffic, parking and pedestrian safety issues that arise from the UM lot and the YMCA. Should other neighborhood issues arise, I would imagine our group would address those as well.

Just to set the record straight – the lot has been a rotten neighbor. During the winter months, it is not uncommon for snowplowing to occur between midnight and 4 am. It takes the contract snowplow operator an hour to clear the lot and creates an unimaginable amount of noise. Also during the winter, the UM uses heavy construction equipment to load snow into semi-trucks to move off-site – also occurring between midnight and 4 am, despite the violation of Ann Arbor’s noise ordinance. During summer months, the lot is a popular late night hang-out spot for all sorts, leading to all kinds of assocviated issues. I’m sure you can imagine the types of issues this creates – underage drinking/drug use, noise, vandalism and property crimes etc. Ann Arbor police will only respond to emergency calls about the lot and while the UM DPS is good about responding to calls in a very timely manner, the lot is not on a regular patrol route, leaving the monitoring of the lot to the neighborhood. These are in addition to the problems created by the lighting and conventional unsustainable treatment of stormwater that we addressed in our presentation to the Regents.

Until Mr. Kotseva became our primary point of contact last September to communicate the process of reconstructing the south retaining wall, all of our complaints fell on deaf ears. As I noted in my presentation to the regents, we hope the UM will work with us to select mutually acceptable, energy-efficient and context sensitive light fixtures and to implement some of the Stormwater Best Management Practices required elsewhere on campus. We’re not asking for the moon, we just want to help the UM be a better neighbor.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:55:41 +0000

All the houses south of Washington are adjacent to it, I think. I imagine the ones on the north side of Washington (both sides) are heavily impacted by Y patrons parking on the street, so there’s some similarity of interests maybe. The houses on Huron feel like they’re in a different world, though.

By: Murph

Murph — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:42:41 +0000

“The association consists of 24 historic homes…that border a UM parking lot off of Krause Street,”

This makes it sound like the association consists only of those homes, and/or is defined by adjacency to the lot. From the map, it looks like the W11-adjacent homes are only a portion of the NWNA?

Like Rod, I’m curious about that lot’s purpose, use, and history. Anybody have details?

By: fridgeman

fridgeman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:41:07 +0000

I don’t know about UM personnel during the day, but after hours, the Krause street lot is heavily used by people going to the YMCA (it often is full, or nearly so), and it needs adequate lighting for safety reasons.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:27:45 +0000

I’ve always been puzzled by that Krause Street lot. Who uses it? It’s pretty far from any UM building, except the Argus complex, which has a decent amount of parking on site.