City Warned On Misuse Of Site Plan Reviews

The misuse of the site plan review process for new developments could have a serious impact on Ann Arbor's land use planning ability, and even its finances, City Council has been told. Chief Assistant City Attorney R. Bruce Laidlaw warned council Monday night that two cases now pending in the Michigan Court of Appeals "could eliminate all use of the site plan process in the future and destroy controls previously obtained on existing projects via the site plan." The cases involve the Hesse Development Co., which sought unsuccessfully to build a 577-unit apartment complex in southwestern Ann Arbor, and Packard Platt Plaza Inc., which is attempting to construct a shopping center at the corner of Packard and Platt Roads. Besides eliminating the site plan review process, unfavorable court decisions apinst the city also could result in developers filingkwsuits making financial claims against the city, Laidlaw said. These claims could be for already approved, and built, developments in which the developers donated park land or other space to the city as the result of site plan reviews, and claims for cost increases caused by the city's delay in reviewing site plans, Laidlaw said. The site plan is the last stage a project must go through. It contains the technical details of the project and must, by city ordinance, be approved by council before a building permit can be issued. Laidlaw's comments came in a written memo to council in which he said both council and the Planning Commission are guilty of "misuse" of site plan procedures. "The reason that the site plan process has become more vulnerable is that it has been used f ar bevond defensible limits," he said. Site plans can be used to insure that all city code requires are met and perhaps even to impose amenities whirJJj make developments more compatib with adjacent land uses, he said. But, Laidlaw added, it cannot be used to forbid a land use permitted by the zoning chapter, or to substantially reduce' the density of land use below what the zoning chapter permits. "If a permitted use is undesirable because of excessive traffic impact, unattractive appearance or any other reason not covered by a specific ordinance, the appropriate procedure is to amend either the zoning chapter or the zoning map," he told council. Laidlaw said these changes are no guarantee against legal attack by developers, but the chances of defending them are better than prohibitions effected by site plan disapprovals. The city's legal advisers, including City Attorney Edwin L. Pear, previously warned council that the best way to controfedevelopments is at the zoning stage. However, it is customary for the zoning to be approved before a site plan is submitted. The Hesse and Packard Platt Plaza developments have both been resolved by City Council, but not necessarily by the developers. In the Hesse case, council reactgd to a i storm of protest from neighboring residents against the apartment complex by passing a compromise zoning plan allowing a combination multiple-family and single-family zonings on the parcel in question. However, the developer has not yet accepted that plan. In the Packard-Platt Plaza case, the developer and council agreed to a compromise plan reducing the size of the center. This came afïer the developer filed suit over a previous council's refusal to approve a site plan. The city's position was upheld in Washtenaw Circuit Court and is pending now before the Court of Appeals. Residents in the Packard-Platt borhood have filed a lawsuit of their own contesting the council approved compromise plan, and Circuit Court has issued a restraining order preventing the city from issuing a building permit. The irony of this is that if the Court of Appeals rules for the Corporation, the original, full scale center will likely be. built. Besides'these two cases a third similar case is coming soon, and possibly a fourth. Developers of the Bonanza Restaurant being proposed for Broadway near Plymouth have notified the city they will sue to overrule council's rejection last week of a site plan for that restaurant. The Planning Commission also has recommended that council deny a site plan for a Denny's Restaurant, proposed for Washtenaw Avenue just east of Huron Parkway. Council has yet to act on that site plan. (Other City Council news appears to-, 4ay on pages 17 and 32.) j