With Poll: Are the entrances to Ann Arbor ugly? Some think so

Pratt's comments came during a discussion about future planning initiatives at the Planning Commission's annual retreat. He and other commissioners supported the idea of getting started on new corridor studies in the coming year, providing a guide for future land use and design along the city's major transportation arteries.

That includes the entrances to the city.

"I think there's an opportunity there," Pratt said during a break in the meeting. "The state House of Representatives passed probably three or four years ago legislation that would allow increment finance districts to come along — just corridor section areas — and that seemed like an opportunity to create a funding source to really upgrade those corridors. I mean, the Main Street corridor could be upgraded significantly. Maybe it could be like a three-lane boulevard."

Planning Commissioner Evan Pratt voiced support Tuesday night for the idea of a corridor study.

Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com

There was talk Tuesday night that a corridor study of one or more of the city's major arteries could be included as part of an upcoming update to the city's master plan.

Wendy Rampson, the city's planning manager, noted in a report that the city already has been exploring strategies for improving the Washtenaw Avenue corridor along with Washtenaw County and a joint task force of planning and elected officials from the city of Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Township and Pittsfield Township.

The group is now considering whether to apply for a grant for technical assistance to help put together a corridor redevelopment plan. The goal would be to have a draft of the plan completed later this year. 

The plan would have specific recommendations regarding transportation (motorized, transit and non-motorized) and design along the corridor, as well as less-specific recommendations for land use.

"I think people see corridors as a way to bring a lot of different ideas together, whether it's sustainability or economic development," Rampson said. "At this point, the Washtenaw Avenue corridor is the one that has some energy behind it in a multi-jurisdictional effort."

Planning commissioners also have voiced interest in the State Street corridor because of opportunities for new development and redevelopment they see there. And given the University of Michigan's acquisition of the former Pfizer campus, the Plymouth Road corridor also may be the center of future study efforts.

"That may change the whole look and feel of the corridor, and so that may be something they want to tackle, too," Rampson said.

Ann Arbor completed its last corridor study for West Stadium Boulevard in the mid-1990s as part of the city's West Area Plan. Rampson said many of the recommendations in that report — such as uniform lighting and sidewalk improvements — have been implemented.

"But I heard the Planning Commission talk even about land use changes, looking at bringing buildings closer to the front and making corridors more pedestrian oriented," Rampson said of the kind of corridor studies being talked about now.

Rampson said such studies could address the concern that the current gateways to Ann Arbor aren't that attractive.

"I think one of the pieces of a corridor study is how people enter the corridor and usually they're entering from another community or from the freeway," she said. "So there are many opportunities, and a lot of communities put energy into that to welcome people into their city."

Pratt said he hopes to see taller buildings greet visitors to Ann Arbor in the future - but he's talking years into the future.

"To see one-story buildings around freeway interchanges just doesn't make any sense, unless you're into sprawl," he said.

Pratt said he's glad some of his fellow planning commissioners are talking about the issue, and he's glad the city likely has funding in its budget to at least study it. He acknowledged the future redevelopment of the city's major corridors will require private investment.

"The taxpayers of the community are not going to be the ones who can afford to redevelop and improve the stuff that we've got around all four quadrants of the city," he said. "It's all going to be on private development coming in, and they're not going to come in with the current kind of zoning that we have. It doesn't make much sense. It just makes sense to keep renting out the same little strip malls."

Bonnie Bona, chairwoman of the Planning Commission, said the discussion going forward will be: Does the city focus on all of the corridors or does it start to pick and choose?

"In my mind, the corridors are defined by where major mass transit already exists," she said. "I think where land use comes in is the stops along that corridor, and often transit-oriented development is mentioned as how you actually develop immediately adjacent to that bus stop — in order to create the ridership and not have to get out into the residential neighborhoods around it.

"In my opinion, if we create more pedestrian-friendly, experientially vibrant nodes along these corridors, the development that produces that is going to be more appealing than the typical strip center that gets pushed to the back of the site with a big parking lot out front," she said.

Bona also mentioned bringing buildings closer to the street and increasing height as ways of improving corridors. But she said focusing on the entryways to the city is not the solution.

"I think it's all along the corridor, and it happens to start at the edge of the city," she said. "So I think that's where the entrance starts to look better, but we're not building monumental arches at each of our entryways."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.