County Farm Put On List Of Federal Building Sites

County Farm Put On List
Of Federal Building Sites

The County Farm at Wash-
tenaw and Platt Road has
been added to the list of pos-
sible sites for the proposed
federal building in Ann Arbor.

The Washtenaw County
Board of Commissioners
Tnr^y agreed to add the
( arm to two other
sites ine county is proposing
for the building: the block on
which the County Jail is locat-
ed, 119 W. Ann, and the Coun-
ty Building Annex, 1°0 fitbp-
rine St.

A prospectus furni&m.u <.iAi-
gresssman Marvin L. Esch,
R-Ann Arbor, by the General
Services Administration last

week stated another location
under consideration for the
building was the block be-
tween City Hall and the Coun-
ty Building on Huron Street.

Planning Director Thomas
Fegan, reported to the board
the federal government is
looking for a site with about
70,000 square feet of space —
roughly the size of a city
block.

Fegan told the board the
flinty Jail block contains

;l 69,350 feet of building
.syu-c. and that there were se-
ven other tenants on the block
besides the count v

He added U x site

contains 69,821 square feet
and that there were also se-
ven other tenants on that par-
.cel, including the Post Office
branch.

The County Jail block is
valued at about $1,311,000
while the Annex site is valued
at about $1,475,000. Fegan
gave no s ""•'"vim ate value
for the n land at the
County Farm.

The General Services Ad-
ministration has indicated it
intends to build a $3.7 million
^niiriinrt here, preferably in
' town area. Fegan ad-
government hoped to

narrow the location choice to-
. three possible sites by mid-
»Tuly.

t The county's Property Com-
blittee had originally voted to
feliminate any consideration of
Iselling land on the County
gfarm for the building.

r l^gan ioid the board,
however, that while the gov-
ernment had said it would
|;like to locate in the downtown
larea, the only real restriction
Iwas that the building would
have to be somewhere in the
^City of Ann Arbor.

[ Cmsr. James Cregar, D-
;Ypsilanti Township, said that
'while he did not understand
I why the eastern portion of the
county was overlooked as a
possible location, he thought
the county should present the
i- County Farm as a possible lo-
cation when presenting its

•; proposals to the federal gov-

, eminent.

' "I can't really see where
they could locate in downtown
Ann Arbor, Cregar said. "It is
so crowded and congested
now."

; Cmsr. Frederick Schwall,

*D-Ypsilanti Township, added,
i "it borders on insanity to talk
'about putting a building like
that dowi

Fegan i ; 'e board that
while he would suggest the
County Farm as a site he felt
the commissioners needed to
make some decisions about
the future location of various
,. county offices.