It was written when the Friends were in the process of saving DW Homogenizing Ann Arbor There is nothing inherently wrong with townhouses. Of course they have their place in Ann Arbor, an important option in housing choice. But their place isn't everywhere and anywhere that they can be squeezed into. And while some developments make sense, others don't. This one doesn't. A large-mass, multi-building, attached townhouse development on Dicken Woods just doesn't make sense. In the first place, it doesn't make sense because Dicken Woods, one of the last sites of its kind on Ann Arbor's west side, is so much better used as a special natural area - for all the reasons enumerated on this web site - rather than as the host of a major construction site; and in the second place, it doesn't make sense because the proposed style of development simply doesn't fit in the Dicken neighborhood, which is dominated by single family, single story ranch houses. The West Area Plan identifies the problems:
The Crosswinds vision for Dicken Woods is the homogenization of Ann Arbor. It would force a large generic development into a special place it doesn't belong, out of character with the existing, well-established neighborhood. We can do better. And we should do better. |
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