University of Michigan to demolish 2 Ann Arbor houses to expand parking lot

Officials plan to demolish houses at 716 and 726 Oakland St. and expand an existing parking lot near the Law School, creating 34 new parking spots at the Ann Arbor campus.

Those spots are intended for law school faculty and staff, but will be accessible to anyone with a gold or blue parking permit.

Although the Ann Arbor campus has more than 23,000 parking spaces, it has twice as many faculty, staff and lecturers. Parking on or near central campus is limited and many employees shuttle to their offices after parking on the south or north campuses.

“We continue to make adjustments where we can to better address the needs of our campus community,” said Steve Dolen, executive director of Parking & Transportation Services.

In addition to leveling the properties on Oakland, the school has also listed a home at 126 E. Hoover Ave.

Although the university is set on getting rid of the houses, it always lists residences before demolishing them to give interested persons a chance to "relocate" the house with the assistance of heavy machinery and cranes. As one might imagine, such a process is extremely rare.

Additional demolition of houses is under way on South Division, near the Institute for Social Research. A residence on 417 S. Division St. was demolished on Oct. 8.

The university is considering razing a 3,210-square-foot wooden house at 439 S. Division St. that used to be the residence of Arthur Miller when he lived in Ann Arbor in the 1930s. Presently, the university is using the house, which dates back to the 1800s, as a construction office during the $29 million expansion of the ISR building.