[animatedmartian]

Hopefully this doesn't become a trend.

New height limits approved for future development site in downtown Ann Arbor
By Ryan Stanton. January 06, 2015.



The Ann Arbor City Council voted unanimously Monday night to set new height limits for future development on a prime piece of downtown real estate.

The property at 425 S. Main St., at the southeast corner of Main and William streets, is being downzoned from D1 to D2, allowing less density.

The property's 180-foot height limit is being replaced with new restrictions that would allow a future building to rise as high as 120 feet at the north end of the site, but the remaining southern portion now has a 60-foot limit.

The unanimous agreement on that compromise, which came out of many months of discussion, was reached only after an unsuccessful attempt Monday night by Council Member Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, to impose even stricter limits.

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The city began looking more closely at the zoning along the edges of downtown two years ago when the controversial 413 E. Huron high-rise was proposed.

The 14-story apartment tower at the northeast corner of Division and Huron streets, which some argue is out of scale with the adjacent neighborhood, was approved because it fit the zoning, according to a majority of council members.

The city launched a review of the downtown zoning in 2013 in hopes of avoiding another controversy like 413 E. Huron. One of the recommendations that came out of that public process was downzoning the 425 S. Main property.

"We've been looking at this a long time obviously," Lumm said, noting the city doesn't want to "repeat the mistakes of 413 E. Huron."

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