ANN ARBOR, MI — A townhouse development just north of downtown Ann Arbor is up for approval, but the developer may need to offer more features to get the city’s OK.
The latest version of the long-planned Near North development calls for 22 condos to be built at 700 N. Main St., across from the Ann Arbor Community Center where a row of eight houses were demolished several years ago.
Auburn Hills-based Trowbridge Companies is proposing the project, working with Jarratt Architecture and Powell Engineering and Associates.
Brian Biskner, project manager with Powell Engineering, presented the latest townhouse plans to the city’s Planning Commission for feedback Nov. 17.
“With the garage underneath, they are two-story with a dormer on top,” he said. “And all parking for the units will be contained underneath the structure in the garages.”
Pervious pavers would be used for excess parking for visitors and deliveries in the floodplain part of the site, he said.
The new plans are similar to what Trowbridge proposed a few years ago, with two rows of townhouses linked by a middle courtyard area with main entrances there.
A map of the Near North development site on Ann Arbor's North Main Street.City of Ann Arbor
“One of the unique features of the building is that the residents will park underneath the units and they will enter through the garage area or they could go up some outdoor stairs on the north side of the building and they will move through that middle area,” Biskner said.
The western row of units also would have front entrances on Main Street.
Plans show 55 automobile parking spaces and 26 bicycle parking spaces.
Commission Chair Sarah Mills noted it would be significantly in excess of the 33 car parking spaces required.
Before the commission postponed consideration of the development to Jan. 5, members of the public and commissioners encouraged the development team to be more forward-looking and put more consideration into affordability and sustainability features.
Those are top city priorities for new development and it’s disappointing the project doesn’t really address either, Commissioner Ellie Abrons said.
Commissioners suggested electric vehicle chargers in keeping with a pending EV ordinance, and making it an all-electric building that does not use natural gas and has solar panels, in keeping with the city’s A2Zero carbon-neutrality plan.
Biskner took note of the suggestions and said a meeting with neighbors would be held before the project comes back. It ultimately needs City Council approval and the developer is requesting a zoning change that gives the city discretion about approving it.
Local nonprofit Avalon Housing had plans for a development on the site several years ago, but its 39-unit Near North affordable housing project was scrapped in 2012 after federal flood map changes made it ineligible for federal assistance.
The 1.2-acre site was rezoned and given a special Planned Unit Development designation for Avalon’s project in 2009. The existing PUD zoning still requires a development with 38 to 40 affordable housing units.
Trowbridge is asking to rezone it to R4C, a multi-family dwelling district, and to approve its market-rate townhouse development with “planned project modifications,” increasing the maximum height from 30 feet to just over 33 feet and decreasing side and rear setback requirements.
Approval of those variances would be subject to the development maintaining 43% open space, a 132-foot north setback and having front doors facing Main Street, according to the proposal that went before planning commissioners.
The city’s planning staff recommended approval, but commissioners and residents suggested the city should be asking for more.
Ann Arbor climate activist Ken Garber argued the city should require significant sustainability features when developers ask for special approval of projects like this, and at the top of the list is building electrification.
If the Near North townhomes are built relying on natural gas, they’ll be burning fossil fuels for 50 years or more, he said, doubting they’d ever be converted to a ductless heat pump system powered by renewable energy once forced-air gas furnaces and extensive duct systems are in place.
Garber noted the city’s A2Zero plan states all new residential and commercial buildings should be designed and built to operate without natural gas.
“The use of natural gas for heating space and water, as well as cooking in buildings, represents over 25% of our community’s greenhouse gas emissions,” the plan states. “Transitioning away from natural gas to electric, especially given our work to ensure that all electricity is powered with renewable energy, is a pivotal component of A2Zero.”
The Valhalla and Veridian housing developments, which are planned to have solar-powered, all-electric buildings, are proof it’s feasible, Garber said.
“These projects with fossil fuels keep coming through, so I’ll keep bringing the issue up,” Garber said, arguing new sustainability requirements should be written into the building code.
Other residents echoed Garber’s request to push for more.
“We have made very specific declarations about affordable housing and sustainability, and if we’re serious about meeting those goals, then we need to be bringing that up every single time a project comes up,” resident Tom Stulberg said.
“And given what we’ve asked our citizens to do through a millage to support affordable housing, I do not see why we are not asking our developers to kick in their fair share as well toward affordable housing and/or sustainability.”
Biskner discussed other elements of the development, including traffic. The Michigan Department of Transportation controls the North Main Street corridor.
“Due to our interactions with MDOT, we have a right-turn in, right-turn out ... that was requested by them to help mitigate traffic,” Biskner said. “We’ve had the proper traffic studies. It’s a minor amount of traffic.”
Biskner also noted there would be a retaining wall along the property to help preserve existing trees, as requested by neighbors.
There also would be a detention tank for stormwater, with a bioswale connection to the city’s storm sewer system.
“The bioswale provides two uses: to drain the detention tank, and we are also creating a depression there as our floodplain fill mitigation,” Biskner said.
The development includes “a small amount of fill in the floodplain to construct the driveway and surface parking area and a compensating cut to maintain the floodplain volume,” a city staff report states.
Commissioner Alex Milshteyn said he wants to see additional building renderings before the project comes back in January.
Mills emphasized the city’s pending ordinance requiring EV chargers.
“We have a citywide goal of carbon-neutrality, and so in order for that to work, we’ve got to electrify our vehicles,” she said.
As for whether more features will be added, project architect Bill Jarratt said in an email Friday, Dec. 4, “We are exploring some options here with the possibility of using solar, since the roofs are designed to accommodate this.”
A Trowbridge representative did not respond to a request for comment.
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