Comments on: Fountain & Felch

By: Ruth Kraut

Ruth Kraut — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 02:07:59 +0000

Here is the history of Upper Water Hill. Three years ago I had a conversation with Paul Tinkerhess about his use of the name "Water Hill." He said it was for the water treatment plant. I said, "Wait a second, that is my neighborhood!" We agreed that he could call his neighborhood (which does have "Fountain" and "Spring" streets!) Water Hill and we could call ours Upper Water Hill. Now we've started a nextdoor.com neighborhood site--also at Paul's urging. If you live in the neighborhood, find the next door site here: [link]

By: George Hammond

George Hammond — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:29:03 +0000

“I went to the city website and tried to use their search box… and no matter what I entered, the result was the current page translated by Google into Spanish. Does that happen for anyone else?”

I’ve had that happen too. On many, but not all, of their pages they have a Google Translate feature down at the bottom. It’s supposed to work by clicking on the flag icons in the bar at the bottom of the page. For some reason, if you put text in the search field and hit the return key, it triggers the translation feature. If instead you type your text in the search field and click the magnifying glass icon next to it, search works normally. It’s been a problem for a long time. I think I might have sent feedback about this in the past, but now that I’ve typed it up here, I’ll send it again.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 03:57:15 +0000

The best thing about living in Waterhill (and specifically, Lower Waterhill), is that we make it what it is. Registering our neighborhood would secure its geography for others to understand, but our neighbors define what it actually is. Want to find out more? Come hang out!

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:33:59 +0000

For the curious, the interactive plat map is here: [link]. It's quite fascinating. You can look at the original platting documents (inlcuding a map) for each plat. Much of Water Hill, for instance, was originally part of Hiscock's Improved Plat or Hiscock's Addition, which were platted in the 1850s, back when Miller was (apparently) called Graham Road.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:22:07 +0000

Ha… I was curious about when the various plats were created and what they are–at some level those are the underlying “neighborhoods” in the city–so I went to the city website and tried to use their search box… and no matter what I entered, the result was the current page translated by Google into Spanish. Does that happen for anyone else?

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:15:08 +0000

George, that's awesome, thanks. For the curious, here's Mapquest's version, which includes a neighborhood called "Plansmart."

By: Vivienne Armentrout

Vivienne Armentrout — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:11:57 +0000

I “made a study” of neighborhood associations some years ago when I was trying to find representatives for a county committee. It turns out that many of these are inactive, but there is no mechanism that I know of to terminate them. At the time, I found that the contact person had moved away, etc. and often associations did not have meetings or any activity.

If there is an active group working on behalf of a neighborhood, they should be registered so that they are accessible, and also so that they receive those notices. Sometimes the city has satisfied a requirement for public notice simply by notifying these associations.

I can tell you that Greater Sunset/Brooks has taken no action since establishing the Sunset Brooks Natural Area (about 8 years ago). This association was formed in response to a specific development proposal, which was derailed with the purchase of the area for the park. I suspect that this is the case for many dormant associations – they were formed at a time that a specific threat or problem surfaced, then no further activity ensued.

By: George Hammond

George Hammond — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:18:15 +0000

Here's a link to a large map of all the neighborhood associations in the city. It's a large file (11.1. Mb) in pdf format: [link] It looks like there are already overlapping associations in the Water Hill area. Friends of West Park covers some, also North Area, Greater Sunset/Brooks, Spring-Brooks-Summit. So I take it back, no need for yet another! Maybe just a name change or re-alignment?

By: George Hammond

George Hammond — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:03:50 +0000

I meant to end my comment by saying that since Water Hill does seem to have a real neighborhood identity, it seems to me that it would be a good idea for them to register.

By: George Hammond

George Hammond — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:02:11 +0000

I wondered what the utility of registering neighborhood associations with the city was, and found this useful page on the city website: [link]

Registered groups are notified about proposed developments in their area and invited to meetings regarding these proposals. They are invited to participate in other city-wide processes such as zoning code amendments and parking improvements as well. Recommendations and comments made by registered associations are taken into consideration by City Planning Commission. City Council, by resolution, is committed to protect older or established neighborhoods. There are approximately 111 registered residential or commercial associations in Ann Arbor.

The page links to listings of all the registered associations, and each association has a detailed map. So if somebody wanted to correct the neighborhood names in Google or Bing databases, there is an official source they could use. Seems like it wou