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When the owner of the Thompson Block goes in front of City Council Tuesday morning, he will likely be presenting a plan approved by city staff.
The plan will allow two lanes of traffic both Cross and River streets, as well as allow pedestrian traffic across both roads and along the streets adjacent to the building.
Stewart Beal, who owns the 148-year-old former Civil War barracks in Depot Town, said he had just got out of a meeting with city staff Thursday afternoon and only had a few adjustments to make to the plan and would be re-submitting it before Tuesday’s special City Council meeting to discuss the issue.
City Manager Ed Koryzno confirmed Beal was working with staff to have an approved plan by Tuesday.
Tuesday’s special meeting follows City Council’s regular meeting, held last Tuesday, where the 90-day traffic control order allowing the closing of one lane of traffic and sidewalk adjacent to the building on both streets was up for renewal. City Council voted to postpone the 45-day extension to give city staff time to review the plan Beal submitted that night.
The discussion about the extension last Tuesday lasted more than two hours and became quite heated after the postponement was moved to the floor. Beal said he wouldn’t meet with city staff before tomorrow’s vote because he was afraid any work he did do would be without value if City Council eventually voted an extension down.
At the meeting, Beal also said the 15-day timeline to have work completed and traffic opened back up in Depot Town wouldn’t be guaranteed if City Council had voted for the postponement Tuesday.
However, by Thursday Beal said he had calmed down after the heated discussion, and went to work with staff right after the meeting. He said the postponement had been unexpected, and said he was upset at the time. However, he said he will still have work completed within 15 days.
City Council will meet to reconsider the extension at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, one day before the current traffic order expires and city staff goes on break until the new year.
The exterior scaffolding supporting the building since it was destroyed by a fire in September will still extend into public property, which will require Beal to ask for another extension in 45 days.
He said he will use that time to have engineers come up with a plan to permanently stabilize the building’s façade, as he said he was under the impression he couldn’t do any stabilization work from the interior until a week before Tuesday’s meeting because of the investigation into the cause of the fire.
Beal said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Neither Koryzno nor Beal could comment on the status of an abatement placed on the building by the Ypsilanti Fire Department for violation of fire code. A message was sent to Assistant City Attorney Karl Barr, but was not returned by press time.
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fate of Thompson Block postponed