City of Ann Arbor would be wrong to give use of parkland to University of Michigan for transportation center

(The headline of this letter to the editor has been revised to better reflect that under the proposal being discussed, the city of Ann Arbor would not give ownership of the parkland to the University of Michigan.)

Less than two years ago, the voters of Ann Arbor overwhelmingly supported a ballot proposal requiring a public vote to approve the sale of parkland.

Presently, our city leaders are promoting "an agreement" that is quietly and rapidly progressing through the city's own approval process in an effort to circumvent the clear will of the citizens of our community to protect our parks. This agreement gives Fuller Park land to the University of Michigan, for a period of 75 years, for the erection of a parking deck dedicated for use by University Hospital.

This building is being promoted by the city to its citizens as a "Transportation Center." The university describes it to its own community as "a new parking deck near Fuller Road that could include the addition of about 1,000 staff parking places".

This "gift" of public park land to build the university a parking deck is particularly galling considering that the university is land-banking its own recently cleared Kresge buildings site on the Medical Center campus. To quote the medical school website: "The University Architect's Office anticipates that the site will be transformed into an attractive park-like setting by mid- to late-November of this year."

As proposed, this structure is a parking deck, not a transportation center: Amtrak isn't moving into this building, The "WALLY" track is nowhere near this location, the inter-urban bus services are not relocating from their current locations, and the AATA already has a bus stop on Fuller Road near this site.

If our community is serious about developing a new Transportation Center, than needs other than the university's own desire to build on our park land, while protecting its own property, should be the driving force for its placement. There are other locations in the city along the Detroit-Chicago railroad corridor that should be considered, for example: Mitchell Field ( land owned by the university and located immediately to the east of the Fuller Park site), the recently vacated DTE Energy property directly across the railroad track from the present Amtrak station, and the property located between North Main Street and the river, where the north-south and east-west tracks actually intersect.

This granting of development rights of our own public parks is contrary to the expressed will of the voters, who value and want to protect the park land of our community. It took too many years of dedicated effort and public money to create this ribbon of parks along the river to blithely begin dismantling them without voter approval. Please contact your elected city officials and raise your voice about this issue. Time is of the essence. This project is progressing quickly. George H. Gaston Ann Arbor