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Enough Is Enough

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Parent Issue
Month
October
Year
1986
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
Rights Held By
Agenda Publications
OCR Text

Enough is Enough

by Ken Garber

There were 1.3 million square feet of vacant office space in Ann Arbor as of February. How much growth is desirable? As much as can fit, apparently.

ANN ARBOR- Even the most distracted Ann Arborites who come back to town after the summer months notice the changes. Tally Hall, Sloan Plaza, One North Main, and "Belcher's Building" on Liberty are just some of the new structures that didn't exist two years ago in our downtown. New apartment complexes, office buildings, hotel expansions, and shopping centers appear on the city's periphery.

We are in the middle of a building boom. After commenting on the relative attractiveness of some of the buildings (Tally Hall deservedly reaps most of the abuse), we adjust to the new surroundings and vaguely wonder what's to come. We don't realize that we have the ability - and the responsibility - to influence the coming changes to our city. Vital battles are underway right now. On Monday, Sept. 16, several hundred angry city residents jammed City Hall to protest the proposed rezoning of 27 acres on Plymouth Road from research to commercial. The reason: a proposed "regional" shopping mall named University Center meant to compete with Briarwood, Arborland, and downtown. Opponents of the mall, which was just about everyone at the public hearing, fear commercial strip development along Plymouth, believe research is more appropriate there, and that we have enough shopping areas already. City Council postponed a decision until October 27. Whatever the fate of University Center, many general questions remain unresolved by the developers, politicians, and bureaucrats orchestrating the building boom. How much of the construction is speculative and not fueled by real demand? There were 1.3 million square feet of vacant office space in Ann Arbor as of February; home costs and rents have risen much faster than the pace of new housing construction. How much growth is desirable? As much as can fit, apparently; the City Council has turned down only one major project in the last few years. Mayor Ed Pierce says that rapid general growth is inevitable. Planning Director Martin Overhiser has stated publicly that the city needs to compete with surrounding townships for projects.

The attitude of city officials is in sharp contrast with that of the general public. Although no poll has been taken, everything indicates that most Ann Arborites are alarmed at the current pace of new construction and would like to see slower growth. The election of Seth Hirshorn as the first Democratie councilperson ever from the solidly Republican Second Ward sends a clear message that citizens want these concerns heard by their representatives. Hirshorn, besides opposing University Center, is also promoting a measure which could save what's left of our valuable wetlands and woodlots: a natural features protection ordinance.

The ordinance, which would put restrictions on developers' abilities to alter or destroy our remaining "urban wilderness," is now stalled in the city Planning Commission. Meanwhile, plans to build on 77 acres in the northeast corner of the city, land containing sensitive wetlands and mature hardwood forest, are rapidly proceeding.

The Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce has publicly opposed the ordinance (which doesn't even exist yet), claiming that it could "unfairly restrict development." The Chamber is devoting much money and energy towards defeating a natural features protection ordinance, seeing the issue as a test case for its new policy of direct political lobbying.

Support for the ordinance among other key players is lukewarm or nonexistent. Planning Director Overhiser claims the current process "has worked." That is, developers must indicate large trees on a map before tearing them down. The city Planning Commission is also in no hurry.

"A year and a half or two years is not an unreasonable time to get something like this in front of City Council," states Charles Cremin, one of two commissioners on a subcommittee charged with coming up with an ordinance. "You've got to introduce the subject gradually, get people warmed up to the thing."

Unless the public rallies around an ordinance soon it will either die, emerge hopelessly watered down, or come too late to save anything.

Citizens have some access to decision making about city planning, but few choose to participate, leaving power to the moneyed interests, entrenched bureaucrats, and elected officials (who may or may not act as their constituents would have hoped.)

Effective public hearings like that of September 15 are rare, but even rarer are measures like the natural features ordinance. We should get involved in planning issues, as individuals and through organizations.

For now, stopping an unnecessary and oversized shopping mall - which could put downtown retailers out of business - is the immediate concern. To see how the process works - or doesn't - attend the public hearing at City Hall on Monday night, October 27.

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