City Place developer talks about new 'Heritage Row' proposal

Following historic renovation guidelines, de Parry said the Heritage Row project would preserve and restore seven historic houses along South Fifth Avenue, just south of downtown, while adding three new brick apartment buildings behind them.

Click here to view the tentative plan.

The seven houses were slated for demolition - or at best major alterations - under previous plans for City Place. But now de Parry is proposing a scenario under which the houses will be rehabilitated and the streetscape preserved.

"We've tried to address a number of issues and have had a number of problems to resolve," de Parry said. "What we are really trying to do is a development that meets the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation."

By following those standards, de Parry is hoping to receive tax credits that will help pay for part of the project.

De Parry relayed his vision tonight at a neighborhood meeting attended by about 18 people at the Ann Arbor District Library, less than a block from the proposed development.

Preservation architect John Dziurman offered an overview of the new plan. He said he's working to make sure the project will meet historic renovation guidelines if the area is designated a historic district - something neighbors and city officials have been pushing to force de Parry to develop a project that fits the neighborhood.

Residents still had some concerns tonight, but not nearly as many as at previous meetings.

"It's certainly a great improvement over what it was before, but the density and the height are still issues," said Beverly Strassman, president of the Germantown Neighborhood Association, a group that opposed de Parry's earlier plans.

"We need to see the drawings, but I'm concerned this potentially is going to loom behind the old structures," Strassman said of the three new buildings. "I'm also worried about ... the fact that 163 bedrooms and 60 parking spaces is a mismatch."

De Parry said an underground parking garage with 60 spaces would serve the 163-bedroom complex.

The design for the rear of the site consists of three separate, 3.5-story buildings. Within them, de Parry is proposing 34 two-bedroom units and 10 three-bedroom units. He said the floor plans of the existing seven houses, which are broken up into apartment units of varying sizes, would not change much, though there would be upgrades to the bathrooms and kitchens.

A drawing of the new site plan shows a large plaza area behind the existing houses, providing a walkable space between the historic portion of the property and the new buildings. De Parry said he plans to make the development eco-friendly, and about 15 percent of the apartments would be marketed as affordable housing units.

Dziurman, a longtime member of the Rochester Hills Historic Districts Commission, said the seven houses will be nudged closer to the street. To put in new foundations and basements, the homes will have to be temporarily relocated.

Dziurman said one goal of the project is to get rid of "inappropriate additions" that were made to the backs of the seven houses over the years and restore them to their original state. For some of the houses, that includes undoing modernizations.

He said the three buildings will be no taller than the highest point of the houses, or about 39 feet. The first level of each of the three buildings would be below grade.

De Parry acknowledged the revised plans would not meet the city's current zoning codes and would require special approval of a Planned Unit Development. He said he plans to finish up his proposal this week and post it to his Web site, but it's still not clear how the approval process will play out at city hall.

The city still is in the process of having a committee evaluate the historic worth of the Germantown neighborhood and report back to the City Council. In the meantime, a moratorium on development in the area remains in effect.

Council Member Sabra Briere, D-1st Ward, attended tonight's meeting. She said she's glad to see that - after two years - de Parry has produced a plan that is better received by neighbors, and now it'll be interesting to see how the plan becomes embraced by the city.

"The city planning department has to embrace it, the Planning Commission has to embrace it and ultimately the City Council has to embrace it," Briere said. "And if the planning staff and the historic district study committee bring forward a proposal saying they want a historic district, then this also has to pass muster with the Historic District Commission - assuming council says yes to a historic district."

Briere said it looks like de Parry's plan is "90 percent of the way there" but still needs work.

Ethel Potts, a former city planning commissioner, said she's glad to see de Parry thinking about preservation in his latest proposal.

"That has gotten my attention," she told him during tonight's meeting. "This sounds as though your intention is to do real historic preservation, but it's too soon to say anything else beyond that."

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