Housing the Homeless

"40 units at Near North will be set aside as supportive housing for persons with special needs"

--developers' website

We've constantly been surprised that so many well-informed people think the NeNo site plan includes forty units of "supportive" housing. In fact, only one-third of the building--fourteen units--would serve people with special needs. The developers have always acknowledged this during the Planning process, and it's documented in the June Planning Staff report.

Thanks to Cindy Pomerleau, we've finally tracked this error to its source--which turns out to be the developers's own website!

As noted previously, the great majority of the units in NeNo will have little or no value to the community. They're supposed to be targeted at working people--but because 3 Oaks wants so much money for the site, they would be more expensive than thousands of existing Ann Arbor apartments.

We hope this web posting is an oversight, not a deliberate attempt to mislead. Many Avalon supporters, including Paul Saginaw of Zingerman's, have argued that the county's Blueprint to End Homelessness justifies blowing away fifty years of planning for our neighborhood. It's past time for Avalon to come clean about just how few homeless people NeNo would house.

Test Your NeNo Knowledge

1) If Avalon Housing has 600 people are on its waiting list, and Near North is built, how many people will be left on its waiting list?

a) 300
b) 560
c) 586

2) The eight homes that will be demolished to build Near North have a total of 26 bedrooms. Before 3 Oaks vacated these houses, what was the rent per bedroom?

a) $337 per month
b) $555 per month
c) $774 per month

3) Near North will have 24 “workforce” apartments targeted at people earning no more than 50% of the area’s median income. How much can the developers charge for these units?

a) $337 per month
b) $555 per month
c) $774 per month

4) How many such "workforce" units does the county Affordable Housing Needs Assessment recommend building in the Downtown and Campus areas?

a) 5
b) 50
c) 500

5) Which of these will NOT be part of Near North?

a) housing for people with substance-abuse issues
b) underground parking for every unit
c) a liquor store


Answers:

1) c: 586. The people on Avalon’s waiting list need “supportive” housing. However, Near North will have just 14 “supportive” units.

2) The developers have never revealed how much they charged when they rented the existing houses. However, comparable houses and apartments on this block rent for an average of $337 per bedroom

3) c: $774 per month, including utilities.

4) a: 5 units. The county's Blueprint to End Homeless seeks to add 500 units of "supportive" housing. However, "workforce" units are a much lower priority. The Needs Assessment calls for building 100 citywide, with just 5 in the Downtown and Campus areas.

5) None of the above. Near North will have housing for people with substance-abuse issues, underground parking for every unit, AND a liquor store in the building!


Comments:

1: Many people who support Near North mistakenly assume that it's a classic Avalon project, made up entirely of supportive housing for formerly homeless people. In fact, the building is THREE TIMES the size needed to accommodate its 14 “supportive” residents.

2: The other 26 units are described as “workforce” housing. That is exactly what the existing homes provided--before the developers moved their tenants out.

3: Because 3 Oaks wants to be paid more than $2 million for the property, the "workforce" units will rent for more than many existing Ann Arbor apartments.

4: The study notes that "the private sector and the market will absorb many of the units needed for lower-income households." With 2,000 new student bedrooms recently opened or under constuction, rents are falling citywide.

5: Sad, but true. Contrary to city policy to limit retail sprawl along major arteries, the Near North site plan includes commercial space. The developers have said repeatedly that they want to move the Summit Party Store into the Near North building.

North Main Street Today - and Tomorrow?

To minimize NeNo's impact, the developers' renderings make the existing houses appear as barren as their own site plan. Here is the rendering from their latest submission to Planning:

Here's how the neighboring houses really look, from the sidewalk across the street:

At Planning Commission, Jean Carlberg repeatedly criticized the neighbors for saying the site plan would destroy the scale and character of our residential neighborhood. But that is exactly what it would do.

This block is now a neighborhood of one- and two-family homes. The city's Central Area Plan calls for it to continue in that use. NeNo, in the developers's own words, would be a "gateway to downtown."

If Downtown doesn't end at Kingsley Street, where does it end?

Near North vs Liberty Lofts

"the large industrial-looking structures provide a nice contrast to the surrounding traditional two-story homes."

The quote is from the developers' website, where an unnamed West Side resident compares Near North to Liberty Lofts, the condos in the former GT Products factory downtown.

As Margaret Schankler pointed out at Planning Commission last week, it's quite a stretch to compare the two projects:

• There have been factories on the Liberty Lofts site for a century.
• There have been one- and two-family homes on the NeNo site for a century.
• Liberty Lofts occupies an entire city block.
• NeNo would demolish 8 houses in what is now an entirely residential block.
• Liberty Lofts' addition is more than 100 feet from the nearest neighbors.
• NeNo would be 12-24 feet from the nearest neighbors.
• Liberty Lofts is in the Downtown zone.
• NeNo would be in the North Central Neighborhood, two blocks from Downtown.

Liberty Lofts creatively reused an existing Downtown building. NeNo would insert a Downtown building into a residential neighborhood.

Planning Commission Recommends Denial

Planning Commission reopened its public hearing last night to allow citizens to comment on the developers' latest plan for NeNo. (Above, Damien Farrell and Bill Godfrey answer questions). Thanks to all 17 (!) speakers who opposed to the project.

The revised plan would demolish the 3 northernmost houses, as requested by Planning Commission at its May meeting. It also expanded the rear setbacks, as requested in our May letter to Planning Commission.

Unfortunately, as our speakers pointed out, the developers just moved that space to the front of the main building. It's now more supersized than ever, towering 55 feet above Main Street. The plan still calls for a new retail space that's contrary to all planning for this block, and detracts from the PUD's intended purpose--it would put a liquor store inside a building housing a vulnerable population!

And of course the core problem remains: the project would rip open the fabric of an intact residential block. In the words of Commisioner Eppie Potts, it will create a "new edge" from which future developments will encroach on our now-fragmented neighborhood.

Planning staff recommended DENYING the PUD zoning and site plan. Their report concluded that NeNo would have limited benefits, would have a detrimental effect on surrounding properties, and that it needlessly violates the Central Area Plan. Click here to read their full report.

The bad news: only two commissioners heeded the staff recommendation. Both Potts and Kirk Westphal clearly articulated how far NeNo deviates from what the site's zoning and planning would permit, and the enormous damage it would do to the "scale and character" of the neighborhood.

As noted in an earlier posting, the "workforce" units will actually be much more expensive than existing housing in the neighborhood. At the hearing, we cited evidence from a rentlinx.com search that found more than 800 units within a mile of the site that meet the developers' definition of "affordable"--renting for less than $774 per resident per month.

Unfortunately, the other five commissioners present either missed or doubted the information provided by their staff and the neighbors. Their comments showed they'd accepted the false choice offered by the developers, and believed that failing to approve this project would hurt the homeless and the working poor.

On the contrary, we believe that both populations would be poorly served by this expensive boondoggle, and that the government money spent on it could benefit many more people at a less expensive, less hilly site. We'll expand on this in a future post.

The good news: with pro-NeNo Commissioner Tony Derezinski absent, the project's proponents still fell one vote short of the majority needed to recommend the project. It will go to City Council with a recommendation for Denial.

Avalon's TARP

"We figure we can recover our costs and make a reasonable profit." --Bill Godfrey


The Ann Arbor News reported that 3 Oaks spent $3 million on the proposed Near North site. At the January public meeting, Bill Godfrey said that was too high. He said that they'd offered to sell it for $3.5 million, but had paid just over $2 million.

According to neighborhood landlords, though, even $2 million is far more than those houses are worth. We believe that if they had to sell the property in this market, they'd be lucky to get $1 million.

No wonder 3 Oaks wants the City to change its zoning to bail out their bad investment. That's what makes partnering with Avalon such a brilliant move.

Five years ago, 3 Oaks sought a PUD for a supersized condo project, the Terraces on Main. It was practically laughed out of City Hall. Now politicians are tripping over themselves trying to find a way to approve the still-supersized Near North.

The partnership with Avalon brings 3 Oaks more than political respectability. With the condo market dead and the commercial credit market frozen, it's also their only chance to redevelop this property.

But a good deal for 3 Oaks is a bad deal for Avalon. They're not only putting up the political capital, but the financial capital as well - the money to build NeNo would come entirely from federal tax credits and state and local grants. Avalon would even find the tenants. As far as we can see, all 3 Oaks is bringing to the partnership is the "opportunity" to buy some very expensive land.

In effect, Avalon is running its own Troubled Asset Relief Program. But if they really want bail out private failures with public money, they can do better elsewhere.

In this economy, there are plenty of other developers who are underwater on Ann Arbor real estate. Once this project is defeated, Avalon should put out a Request for Proposals, inviting offers from anyone who's willing to get rid of a vacant parcel in exchange for a share in an affordable housing project. I bet they'll find plenty who'd be glad to make a deal.

Only next time, if Avalon really needs a downtown-sized building, they should put it downtown.

note: this entry has been revised since its original posting.

Sign Us Up

Embarrassed by the dozens of "No Giant PUD" signs in the neighborhood, Near North's developers are faking support by putting up pro-NeNo signs on their own vacant property.

But they don't need an "astroturf" campaign. We'd be glad to put these signs up ourselves.

No one in the neighborhood opposes affordable housing on Main Street. In fact, there's more affordable housing there now than there would be if the entire Near North project were built.

We opposed the developers' original plan to build expensive condos here because the building was too big. We're fighting the supersized Near North for the same reason: it's 3 times the maximum scale permitted by the zoning!

All the developers have to do right-size this project, and we'll be at Planning next week to support it.