Heritage Row Apartments a better option for South Fifth Avenue area

The new concept is strikingly different from City Place, the 144-bedroom apartment complex that Ann Arbor City Council gave site-plan approval for last fall, with extreme reluctance. But even then, de Parry told the city that he was reworking the project to address the concerns of neighbors.

One of our main objections to City Place was that it would have resulted in the demolition of seven homes that have stood in the Germantown neighborhood for a century or more. The oldest was built in 1838 and the “newest’’ in 1902.

For more information To read the city planning staff report on Heritage Row, click here to download a PDF. To read the position of the Germantown Neighborhood Association on the project, click here to download a PDF.

The new Heritage Row project would preserve these seven houses and tuck behind them three new apartment buildings with a total of 99 bedrooms. The project would include 15 units that are designated as affordable housing. Equally important is de Parry’s stated willingness to renovate the existing homes according to federal guidelines for historic buildings.

The debate over the future development of the 400 block of South Fifth is the same one that has played out repeatedly in Ann Arbor in recent years. People who live in the areas that immediately surround downtown see the character of their neighborhoods being threatened by high-density housing projects that they think should be concentrated instead in the city center.

We consider it essential that neighbors have a real voice in the development process, and that neighborhood preservation remain a priority. At the same time, we continue to believe that neighbors should not have a veto over projects that meet the city’s master plan, and that Ann Arbor cannot be hermetically sealed in its current state.

Although residents of Germantown insist that Heritage Row project should not be viewed as a downtown project, it’s a stretch to claim that. That block falls within what’s defined as the Central Area in the city’s master plan, and Heritage Row is consistent with the multiple-family housing envisioned for that area. What more, it looks to meet or exceed most city requirements for a project sitting on the very border of downtown.

The Germantown Neighborhood Association has said it “recognizes and appreciates’’ the improvements de Parry has made in his new plan, though it still has some concerns, particularly over the height of the new buildings and the total occupancy of the project. City planners are more receptive, calling Heritage Row an “innovative’’ design that preserves a historic streetscape while “increasing density to contribute to downtown liveliness.’’

Given that we panned City Place in a previous editorial, we feel it’s only fair to recognize the responsiveness of de Parry in producing this much more appealing alternative. We still have some doubts about whether there’s a demand for this type of housing right now and about the ability to finance it, but those are market considerations that will take care of themselves.

What de Parry has now put on the table is worthy of the city’s consideration. It represents what appears to be a sincere effort to meet the city’s requirements and answer the neighbors’ concerns. That being the case, he deserves good faith in return.

Ann Arbor has a reputation for putting developers through a frustrating and tortuous approval process, when approval comes at all. The much-improved Heritage Row plan offers the city a chance to show it can consider a project in a timely and straight-forward way based on the project’s merit and its conformance to the city’s vision for future growth.

(This editorial was published in today's newspaper and reflect the opinion of the Editorial Board of AnnArbor.com.)

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