First Route To Bypass Main Urged

First Route To Bypass Main Urged

An ad hoc committee representing seven organizations has recommended that the city follow the originally-proposed route for the Packard-Beakes bypass.

This recommendation will go to the Planning Commission which will make its advisory opinion Tuesday night. City Council is scheduled to vote on the issue at its Jan. 31 session.

The committee was formed Dec. 14 in an effort to resolve differences over the route.

As originally proposed, the Packard Bypass of the Main St. shopping area would connect with Beakes and Kingsley via First and Ashley. This route was part of the 1966 roads bond issue but council granted a series of delays because of the thoroughfare’s impact on the model Cities neighborhood.

Groups composing the committee were the Downtown Ann Arbor Property Owners Association, the Northcentral Property Owners Association, the Old West Side Association, Kerrytown, the Market-Town Association, Chamber of Commerce, the Ecology Center and Planning Commission.

The resolution to endorse the original Packard-Beakes route passed unanimously with Model Cities and the Planning Commission not casting votes.

Three conditions were attached to the proposal, however. The subcommittee recommended that Beakes remain a two-lane roadway with parking permitted on one side, that alternate parking facilities be made available should parking on the street be removed, and that signals be installed on Beakes for pedestrian crossing where necessary.

Model Cities, although abstaining from the vote, remains opposed to the Packard-Beakes proposal. That group’s Policy Board earlier recommended an alternative plan which would bring the Packard bypass further north and cross the Huron River to connect with a Fuller penetrator route. The cost of that plan — estimated at $30 million — was too high for city officials.

The latest alternate plan called for basically the same alignment except that Beakes and Kingsley would be closed at N. Main. Residents living on Beakes opposed this plan.

Another alternate which has been given some consideration is one which would extend Ashley and First to connect with Main at a point north of the Ann Arbor Community Center near Depot. This plan too would cost considerably more than the original route because of the properties which would have to be purchased or torn down, including the city’s garage.