City Growth Study Will Start Monday

A study of growth in Ann Arbor'and I the surrounding area will get under vvay I Monday. City Council gave its approval I to proceed with the project yesterday. -City Planning Department Director I Michael R. Prochaska assured council I the study can be completed by July 1. I Yesterday's special meeting of council I was to review the study design for the I comprehensive project. No changes were made in the study plan, although Prochaska noted that comments obtained from citizens and or' ganizations over the past week will be taken into consideration as the study progresses. The study design calis for six major areas of concentration: the causes of growth, the effects of growth, the effects of alternative growth policies on housing prices, the effects of alternative growth policies on schools, a series of policy proposals, and a determination of what the city can do legally regarding growth. Responding to council questions, Prochaska said he knows of three cities which have similar studies under way. One has been completed - in Princeton, N.J. Discussing the Princeton study, Planning Commissioner John P. Crecine said that city is as similar to Ann Arbor as can be found. He said 10 years ago Princeton set a policy of no additional physical growth within the city's boundaries. The conclusions reached in Princeton, Crecine said, were that "basically it is not possible to escape the area's problems by stopping growth." After some commissioners and councilmen had made specific suggestions regarding the study, Harris commented, "Many of the specifics could be spinoffs of the study. If we went around the room and added to the study all that people wanted, we wouldn't have enough staff to do the study." Prochaska said members of his staff involved in the study would have been doing long-range planning anyway. Jïe said he will use results of the study asgart of the city's developing general dfeelopment plan. Assistant Planning Director John Hyslop will be heading the six-man study team. Draft reports of findings will be made available during the four-month study period, Prochaska said. When it is completed, all information will be included in the final document. The study will not result in specific recommendations regarding city growth, but it will give the effects on the city of the various alternatives which can be followed.