Council to dedicate more time to Water Street next year

By Dan DuChene
Dec. 16, 2008    ·    4:45 a.m.

Starting in January, City Council will be dedicating one meeting a month for Water Street discussions.

In a motion adopted unanimously by City Council last night, the group decided to meet on the fourth Tuesday of each month until June for special Water Street work sessions. They will be held at 7 p.m. on each evening.

There are two stipulations, however. The first session will be held on the third Tuesday, Jan. 20. Finally, Democratic 1st Ward representatives Lois Richardson and Mayor Pro Tem Trudy Swanson were absent at the meeting. The dates and times will need to be run by them as well.

Assistant City Manager April McGrath, who has been working on the project with City Planner Richard Murphy and other city staff, recommended the measure for City Council approval.

“This is the only time in my life I’m actually excited to create more meetings,” McGrath said to City Council. “Murphy and I already have January’s agenda full.”

The meeting last night was a special session dedicated to the discussion of Water Street. At the meeting a progress report was given, based on a City Council approved action plan for the site from May.

In September, city staff worked with the Ypsilanti Planning Commission to amend the city’s Master Plan, which allowed for the 38-acre site to be divided into several plots and developed independently. A zoning concept is expected to be put in front of City Council early next year which will stream-line zoning and usage approval based on previous concepts for Water Street.

In addition, McGrath said staff are creating an “ad-hoc advisory group” to deal with vetting development proposals presented to the city. She said local and regional developers and professionals have been discussed for the group, but no formal offers have been made.

She said this group would make recommendations to City Council regarding approving site plans.

“That’s all it will be, a recommendation,” McGrath said.

The criteria she said the group would evaluate could include viability, sustainability, quality and reusability. This group could vet any proposals that come arise from current offers for development.

Aside from discussing potential developers on the site, the City Council also unanimously approved options to clear the remaining buildings off the site.

Since June 2007, McGrath said more than $34,000 has been spent keeping the site clean through lawn maintenance and securing abandoned buildings. She said the fire department has spent nearly 300 hours on inspections and fire calls and police are forced to patrol regularly to stem criminal activity.

“A lot of man hours are going into these buildings,” McGrath said.

Aside from the cost to keep the buildings, it was also pointed out that the buildings on the site could actually be deterring potential developers away from the property.

The city applied for $600,000 worth of grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month. McGrath estimates an additional $300,000 will be needed to complete clearing the site if the city is awarded those grants in April.

“Clearing the site means nothing more than tearing building down and minimal remediation,” she said.

Aside from demolition from EPA and city funds, two pull-barns on the property could be sold off. Additionally, there are some buildings on the site that the fire department could use for live-burn training.