More Neighbors say No to NeNo

David Santacroce: Let me begin by being clear that I do not oppose the project based on the proposed demographics it will serve. I spend my days teaching at the University of Michigan Law School, where, with the aid of students, I represent low income people primarily in housing matters. They, like all Ann Arbor citizens, deserve affordable housing in all parts of Ann Arbor. My opposition to the project is simply based on its size. As a matter of aesthetics, a building of the size and character proposed belongs downtown, not in a residential neighborhood.
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Rachael Seidler: I urge you to hold to the Central Area Plan’s commitment to protect, preserve, and enhance near-downtown neighborhoods by disallowing this project. The proposed scale and design would simply overpower the street and neighboring houses. This is a clear example of developers trying to recover from a bad investment - they admit that they can’t make money on any project that complies with the site’s zoning. Bailing them out would clearly come at the expense of this lovely, diverse, and friendly neighborhood.
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Ovide Pomerleau: The local residents and our neighborhood association have made repeated attempts to work constructively with the developers to re-scale their proposal to protect the residential character of the area as well as to be in conformity with Ann Arbor's development and zoning regulations. To date, despite numerous entreaties in well attended community meetings, the developers have ignored our suggestions and have chosen, instead, to submit a proposal that only minimally addresses the neighborhood's concerns.
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Julie Pomerleau: I am a resident of Chicago, but a frequent visitor to the neighborhood, where my parents have been living for the last several years. . . . I have been impressed most of all by the quality of this closeknit, multi-generational and diverse neighborhood. I would hope that any plan for development takes the special character of this neighborhood into careful consideration.
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John Hilton: Near North would demolish five . . . homes and replace them with a five-story, institutionally styled apartment building. Such a building would instantly and permanently reset the block’s “scale and character” to its own downtown scale. Once it’s built, it will be the houses that are “out of scale and character.” And the City would have accepted a precedent that would encourage similar developments all the way south to Kingsley.
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Share your own comments with the City Planning Commission and Staff by mail (PO Box 8647, 100 N Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48107-8647), or by email to planner Matt Kowalski. We'd appreciate a copy by mail (608 N. Main St., Ann Arbor, 48104), or by email to John Hilton.