Posted Jun 8, 2011, 11:50 PM
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Detroiter4life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Back home in Georgia!
Posts: 4,061
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Should new Ann Arbor retail development be 7 times proposed size?
Quote:
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.
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http://www.annarbor.com/business-rev...proposed-size/
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