[DetroitMan]

Should new Ann Arbor retail development be 7 times proposed size?

Plans for Arbor Hills Crossing generated a collision between planning principles and market forces when they went before the Ann Arbor Planning Commission — for the first time — on Tuesday night.

The developers went into the meeting knowing that a decision would be delayed, due to some missing information from state road officials.

But they — and others — may have been as surprised as me about the comment from Planning Commission Bonnie Bona made during the meeting about the size of the project.

In a town that's expressed a whole lot of fears about density over the past decade, Bona raised the question: What kept Campus Realty and North Shore Properties Group from taking this project from the proposed 90,000 square feet to the maximum allowed by zoning: 649,066 square feet?

Some of that could be office and residential, aided by underground parking.

But really: 649,066 square feet on the 7 acres fronting one of the busiest roads in Washtenaw County?

On the planning front, we need rules that can deliver an overall vision for a community. Raising the question when preparing to evaluate plans is an important component of that.

Yet there's a practical element driving that, too. I often use the catchphrase "market forces," but really what has to happen in development, for it to be successful, is that people have to want to be a part of it.

http://www.annarbor.com/business-rev...proposed-size/