Density Talks: Ann Arbor Should Listen

Building density in downtown areas is a long, fractured process in the best of circumstances. But figuring out how to build density in a university town can be downright maddening.

In a university town, "any time you get 10 people in a room you get 15 opinions people argue over passionately," says Christopher Leinberger, professor of practice and director of the graduate real estate development program at the University of Michigan. "They're very tough to get any type of direction to do anything because of that posturing, and Ann Arbor has that challenge."

Leinberger should know. He's seen that challenge repeated in urban areas across the nation. A visiting fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, Leinberger researches and creates strategy for developing or redeveloping "walkable urban" places. It's something he has written about, discussed, and studied for decades.

Ann Arbor ranks in Leinberger's "top five" of great university cities in the nation. But "the thing is," he says, "we do need to densify. … Not just because the market wants it; but also because we know from a greenhouse gas emissions view, living and working in walkable urban places is far more environmentally sensitive." About two percent of Ann Arbor's residents currently live downtown, a dismal amount compared to other similar cities.

And while the city's plan includes efforts to untangle complex zoning downtown to encourage walkable density in Ann Arbor's city core, wrangling over which buildings constitute its essential character has created what seem like intractable standoffs.

It's what Wendy Rampson, interim planning and development services manager for the city, calls "generational differences."

"There are definitely different visions for the city," she explains. "People who have been here longer, they're more interested in preserving the historic character. Younger folks that have participated [at meetings] and through blogs have expressed that what's missing is more activity and excitement, and the way they see to do that is through density."

The ongoing tug-of-war over City Place (chronicled by Concentrate's Jon Zemke) is a prime example of the "different visions" of Ann Arbor that are competing for attention. But other cities have made this work, Leinberger points out, and they're reaping the benefits because of it. Exhibits A and B, he says, are cities such as Boulder, Colorado and Charlottesville, Virginia. Both are university towns with unique historic districts and the ever-desired "sense of place."

The key difference, he says, is that they figured out how to save the historic character of their cities without sacrificing new development. Ann Arbor can do the same, he says. But the clock is ticking; both cities Leinberger cites did the heavy lifting on downtown redevelopment between five and 10 years ago.

"You get one chance to save your history," Leinberger says. "But there's a lot of nondescript buildings [in Ann Arbor] that just happen to be old."

"In my mind, it comes down to, for those judgment calls that are in the middle, you've got the butt-ugly buildings that don't contribute – tear those down. Iconic buildings, obviously, save them and restore them. But the ones in the middle, you really have to ask yourself if it's dragging down the vitality and not contributing to a solution."

If the answer is yes, Leinberger says, then you likely need to move in favor of urban vitality and climate change. Easier said than done, perhaps; but a couple of case studies and one work in progress show it can be done, and done well.

Boulder was a sleepy mountain town that happened to be home to the University of Colorado in the 1970s when a fad swept the nation to close main drags to cars to form pedestrian walkways with retail and eateries lining the course. Boulder succumbed and created the Pearl Street Mall, and like many others, failed; at least at first.

Learning from its mistakes, Boulder laid the groundwork for a dense, urban downtown that still retains a healthy stock of its historic buildings. "Boulder is something to really learn from," Leinberger claims. "It's doing the same things that Ann Arbor is doing, but it started doing them five to 10 years ago."

Much of the rural land around Boulder has been turned into a green space doughnut around the city, Leinberger said, for preservation. Then, attention was turned to downtown, with the revved up Pearl Street as its key anchor.

Sean Maher, executive director of Downtown Boulder's Business Improvement District, says the key was to be very "strategic" in assessing which historic buildings were vital to retaining, and which had little value beyond simply being old. "When there was clearly a better and higher use [for the space]," Maher says, "the city has been cooperative and let us scrape off those buildings [to produce] higher density."

Boulder's Downtown BID was created in 1999, when the threat of a large shopping mall made fundraising to market the downtown as a vital place to live, work and play more urgent. Now between 20,000 and 25,000 of Boulder's roughly 94,600 people are within walking distance of anywhere downtown, Maher says.

The key to maintaining vitality on the city's sidewalks, Maher says, is to tend to four things: UC students who more often than not do not drive; tourists who flock to the city for its quaint feel and Rocky Mountain view; young professionals and empty-nesters that call the city home; and employees of the downtown architecture and law firms that lunch or meet for martinis after work.

"Any of those four elements goes away, and we would be in trouble," Maher claims. But so far, it looks like Boulder is holding its own. The city only has one or two remaining undeveloped properties.

"It's been a long time getting here," Maher said, "but it's a great city."

Like Boulder, Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, also initially failed with its effort to build downtown vibrancy with a pedestrian mall. But these days, the city with 150 shops and more than 30 restaurants at the core of its busy walkable downtown area is home to students, tourists, workers, and residents alike.

Charlottesville, like many cities, benefited from the greater interest among young professionals and empty-nesters to live in urban environments. But according to its website, a 2003 downtown rezoning effort also eased the way for building more mixed-use development featuring street-level retail with residential space up top.

The vibrancy of the city ranked it fourth in Kiplinger's best cities report , but has also helped cultivate a core creative class as well as a range of business interests.

But you don't have to look any further than Detroit to see yet another University town that's finding a way to build density by building a bridge between the past and the present, without losing what made it great to begin with. Midtown Detroit, home to Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies, and the city's cultural district,  is pushing two key initiatives that aim to not only revitalize and repopulate the area, but also build a creative class to give just the right amount of funkiness and urban vibe that the storied area deserves.

The University Cultural Center Association is working on a $2.5 million plan to create a three-block arts district adjacent to the Detroit Medical Center. Called the Sugar Hill Arts District , after the neighborhood that used to reside there, plans for the area call for mixed-income housing as well as commercial and arts-related use of vacant property in the area.

A number of historic buildings are already being rehabbed, says Sue Mosey, president of the UCCA. A prime example? MOCAD, or the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, a transformation of an old auto dealership to an urban art space. The second phase of the Sugar Hill development plan calls for constructing two complementary buildings. The whole area will be connected with a series of green walkways and green alleys, two of which are already underway.

"Clearly there are a lot of initiatives trying to attract and retain [people in the area]," Mosey says. "Most downtowns attract younger creatives, students, and empty-nesters; the professionals. It's a big bucket of people."

Midtown was called out in one of Leinberger's books as an urban area with bonafide walkability cred. Along with posh suburbs like Birmingham, it helps the Motor City rank a respectable 18 amongst the nation's most walkable cities.

It's hoping to attract still more people to downtown with an initiative dubbed 15:15. That effort aims to attract 15,000 young professionals and creatives to Detroit by 2015, and has found strength in numbers.

"The vision of attracting and retaining 15,000 new young, talented Detroiters to Greater Downtown Detroit by 2015 is a vision embraced by many partners," explains David Egner, president of the Hudson-Webber Foundation in an emailed statement.

Hudson-Webber Foundation is one of many organizations (including UCCA), business leaders, nonprofits, and institutions such as Wayne State, pushing the 15:15 initiative forward, and with good reason.

Beyond building residential and business density in greater downtown Detroit, a recent study by CEOs for Cities of 51 metro areas including Detroit showed that a one percent increase in the number of college graduates in metro Detroit would yield an annual benefit of $3.4 billion, Egner says. CEOs for Cities is a national network of urban leaders looking to build and sustain the next generation of American cities.

Comparing downtown Detroit to Ann Arbor is hardly apples to apples, Leinberger points out..

But there may still be lessons to be gleaned. Could Ann Arbor find enough cooperation to commit to several thousand more residents in downtown? Both Mosey and Egner point to a groundswell of cooperation among Detroit nonprofits, business leaders, and institutions, all willing to roll up their sleeves and work towards a common vision: walkable urban density.

"It's been seamless," Mosey says of the Sugar Hill development. "There's not a lot of controversy."