With poll: Residents voice concerns over University of Michigan's plan to close Main Street on game days

Dalana Moore, Ann Arbor resident, says she owns property at 1300 S. Main St., across from the U-M Stadium, where she has a parking lot that fits 32 vehicles. She says she’s concerned about potential loss of revenue from parking on game days.

“In my case, I don’t sell ad hoc, I have people who have been parking in my lot for 30 plus years,” she said. “If the side streets into the neighborhoods are closed off, how do I get them down (to my parking lot)?”

She said she wants to know, “Are there passes or something I can give to all my renters so they can get through?”

“I’m just concerned, especially for the rest of the season, if they do this by November, what am I going to do?” she said.

Representatives from the university, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U-M Police spoke to the crowd about the plan and answered questions.

The plan would:

• Close Main Street to all traffic from Stadium Boulevard to Pauline Boulevard.

• Close Keech Street between Main and Greene streets.

• Limit access to parking permit holders on Green Street from Hoover to Keech streets.

• Close the westbound right-turn lane on Stadium Boulevard onto Main Street.

"The university has not formally submitted an application to the city yet," said university planner Sue Gott. "We want the chance to get this input tonight so we might consider how we would put a proposal forward to the city."

According to the plan, Gott said, barriers would ideally be removed within an hour of the end of a game or event.

The street closing plan could be in place as soon as Michigan’s home football games in November, but it also could take until next year to be put in place, campus police spokeswoman Diane Brown said.

“This plan is being made to reduce the potential for vehicle-borne bombs or attacks,” she said, adding police believe the moves will work as a deterrent for anyone looking to attack the site.

The plan comes out of a comprehensive vulnerability assessment conducted by U-M police, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other local police agencies.

“They had a number of recommendations for us to implement,” Brown said. She said the review also supported recent moves like banning bottles and bags from the stadium.

When asked whether she was concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack at the stadium, Moore said, “Plausible? Yes. Anything can happen"

"I’ve been going to games since I was an infant, 40 plus years,” she said. “I do understand there are threats for us all the time. Is it really going to happen? I don’t know. I hope not.”

Emad (Al) Shenouda, protective security advisor for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Detroit district, told the crowd while there is no “specific, credible threat” to the university or the stadium at this time, the department has seen "a very, very disturbing uptake of terroristic activities in the United States” in the last 18 months.

“I do not sacrifice security for convenience,” he said.

Ann Arbor resident Dick Raab says he is concerned about increased congestion in subdivisions and neighborhoods if the plan is put into place.

“I have great concerns over this,” Raab said. “They’re going to close the roads between Pauline Boulevard and Stadium Boulevard ... that dumps all those cars, which is a lot of cars, into the subdivisions.”

Brown said the proposal calls for the parking restrictions to be in place for all home football games, but other events at the stadium would be handled on a case-by-case basis. She said it may be in place for the Big Chill hockey game, but not necessarily for charity runs that end at the stadium. Similar restrictions were in place when President Barack Obama spoke at commencement.

Events at Crisler Arena, which is located next to the stadium, would also be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, including looking at who the featured guest is at an event.

"There's always a chance that someone will do something bad," said George Feldman, of Ann Arbor. "I think that the psychology involved here is that any threat, of any type that we can imagine is worth changing everyone's lives for."

John Simpkins, of Ann Arbor, said he doesn’t understand why this is a priority now, rather than when renovations to the stadium were being planned.

“I want to know why, after the stadium (is renovated), they’re addressing this,” he said. “Yeah, (the possibility of a terrorist attack) concerns me ... but surely after 9-11 there should have been plans (for security) when they were encroaching out on Main Street.”

As for the plan, he says, “How can we protect oursleves from someone that’s a terrorist? I don’t think closing Main Street is the answer,” Simpkins said. “By talking about it, you’re almost giving (a terrorist) more ideas than by just leaving it alone.”

After the meeting ended, Gott said she thought it had offered a "constructive dialogue."

"We came tonight to hear input and the input will help us review how to strengthen the plan and have ongoing discussion with the city," she said.

Gott said it is unclear when the university will give a formal proposal to the city.

Heather Lockwood is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at heatherlockwood@annarbor.com or follow her on Twitter.