The Ann Arbor City Planning Commission plans to recommend construction approval by the Ann Arbor City Council for a condominium complex, reserved especially for University faculty and staff over the age of 55.
After 10 years of planning, the University Commons project is taking another step forward. The living community is slated to include 95 living units and a common space available to active and retired University faculty and staff seniors.
"They will be very nice," said University Condominiums Association's project planner George DeMuth, an emeritus pediatrics professor. "The idea is to have a place where faculty and staff seniors can live together and have meals together, if they wish. It is an enrichment community."
The University Commons will be built on an 18-acre site on Huron Parkway, of which the University Board of Regents authorized the sale in May.
"The University is selling the property to the (University Condominiums Association), and the organization plans to build the complex," said interim Chief Financial Officer Chandler Matthews.
City Planner Jeff Kahan said the proposal will go to the city council on April 21. Kahan said he can not predict whether the plan will be approved.
"One major issue that will be raised is (in) regard to tree replacement," Kahan said, referring to a discrepancy in funding for the installation of necessary replacement trees. "The petitioner is denying to replace that number."
Kahan also said there was concern raised about traffic congestion at the intersection of Glazier Way and Huron Parkway, north of University Commons.
"Northbound traffic has to virtually make a U-turn on Glazier and come back to the other side to enter the site," Kahan said. "Some people are still going to be concerned."
Units in the complex will have from one to three bedrooms, the commons area will include a lecture and recital hall, and the complex will include exercise and craft areas.
Demuth said the project has had a complicated history. The original backers of the project wanted the complex to be located closer to downtown Ann Arbor, but those plans fell through, DeMuth said.
About five years ago, professors emeritus Alfred Sussman, Isadore Bernstein and Ronald Friedman formed a sub-group to emulate the pursuits of a similar complex at the University of Minnesota, DeMuth said.
Since May, the committee has further developed plans for the community, Demuth said. Demuth said the units will range in price from $150,000 to $300,000. The projected cost of the project is close to $24 million, Demuth said. Preliminary deposits have been put down on nearly half of the units, DeMuth said.
"We hope the units will be pre-sold, and we can begin construction by next fall or least the following spring," he said.