Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Architectural Review Committee is made permanent

The Birmingham City Commission gave a strong nod to its concern about aesthetics Monday night when it voted unanimously to make the Architectural Review Committee a standing advisory board.

The commission gave Michael Willoughby an additional one-year term, Christopher Longe a two-year term, and Scott Bonney a three-year term.

The committee has had limited input in the year since it was formed on a trial basis, but the commission has referred numerous pending items to the committee.

Friday, April 08, 2005

HDDRC snubs Deyer, picks new leaders

The Historic District & Design Review Commission picked a new chairman and vice-chairman Wednesday night in its first meeting since the appointment of two new members.

Gordon Rinschler was elected chairman, and John Henke was elected vice-chairman by a majority that included themselves and new members Robert Hewer and Shelli Weisberg. (Weisberg is an editor of the Buzz.)

Former Chairman Keith Deyer, who was absent from the meeting, had requested that the election be put off. Members Marcia Rowbottom and Jeff Sadowski obliged Deyer with a motion and second to postpone, but the motion was defeated and the election proceeded.

The change in leadership is significant because the reputation of the HDDRC suffered under Deyer’s leadership. The Board was often viewed as antagonistic by those who had to come before it. Deyer, Sadowski and Rowbottom formed a majority with former member Jan Stephenson. All were appointed by the former City Commission.

In addition to its duties regarding historic residential districts, the HDDRC reviews the site plans of all new or substantially reconstructed downtown buildings for architectural aesthetics in order encourage originality, flexibly and innovation.

Deyer, Rowbottom and Sadowski, along with former members had a tendency to micro-manage as they took control away from staff for items that were more properly in the realm of administration approval. Meetings were long and redundant as the Board often required applicants to come before them time and time again to satisfy the members’ highly subjective opinions.

The former majority had pushed hard for a $200,000 historic survey of Birmingham's housing stock, even though the ultimate goal was obscure. The new commission reined in the old majority on this and several other matters, including a push to outlaw neon "open" signs in retail shops throughout the city.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Eagle reporter does a great job

Kudos to Rebecca Jones of the Birmingham-Bloomfield Eagle for doing a great job of covering Birmingham city government. If you don't read the Eagle regularly, we strongly recommend it. (We wish they had a website for news, but they don't.)

In just the most recent edition, Rebecca had stories on the Shain Park plan, the doctor accused of sexual assault who skipped town, two stories on credit card acceptance by the city, one on free golf privileges and numerous shorts and press release rewrites.

Keep up the good work, Rebecca, and keep those other papers on their toes!

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Nip skate park problems in the bud

The Birmingham schoolkids who stood before the City Commission a couple of years ago and lobbied in favor of a skate park should not now feel like they can't use the park. But that's just how they feel, since young adults from out of town who smoke pot, drink alcohol and use profanity have shown up and effectively taken over the park.

City Manager Tom Markus, when told of the situation, promised without hesitation to do whatever is necessary to make the park safe for kids. Police who responded to an incident at the park urged parents to speak up, and their voices are being heard.

We want our parks to be safe and accessible to everyone. But we also have to recognize, as the mother of one child said, that the skate park has the potential to draw older kids whose behavior is unacceptable and, in some cases, illegal.

If the city has to put cops on skates to make sure the park is safe and sound, that's what they should do.

Markus promises safe skate park

City Manager Tom Markus says the city "will do what it takes to make sure [the Birmingham skate park] is what it was intended to be -- a safe place for kids," after police were called to the park recently over a confrontation between Birmingham kids, a dad and a Clawson man and his friends who had been frequenting the park.

The dad told the Buzz he confronted the 19-year-old Clawson man after he spat in the face of one of the dad's children. He said the men accompanying the Clawson man, in their upper teens or early 20s, were smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and using profanity. He said they surrounded him and threated to "gang-bang" him. Police were called, and the dad said the responding officers were sympathetic to him and his kids, and effective in identifying and dispersing the offending men.

The dad said he was concerned that the skate park is unsupervised, and suggested the city place someone at the park during peak hours.

The kid's mom said younger kids, who lobbied the City Commission to fund the park and who frequented the park when it was new, are now staying away. "You have to recognize the type of kids you're going to draw, and you have to be prepared for that.... They're doing drugs, and they sit in their cars and smoke pot, and they harass the younger kids. It's unacceptable."

Markus said he would ensure that adequate police patrols and supervision were provided.

Google alerts keep you informed

Google alerts are a nifty way to keep informed of web and Google News postings on topics of interest. Include names or other search terms in quotation marks to narrow the search a little, and get your alerts as the stuff is posted, once a day, or once a week.

News highlights Shain plan

Monday, March 28, 2005

Oops: Here's the Shain plan key

We forgot to include a letter to the city from the anonymous architect of the Shain Park plan, along with the architect's key to the plan. Click here for the full text.

By the way, any educated guesses on the identity of the anonymous one? Why do you think it is him or her?

News weighs in on Barnum

A Sunday Detroit News editorial on Barnum says, "All options should be on the table, including selling off part of the land for home sites despite the opposition from some residents..."

Check it out by clicking here.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Jakes demolition nears completion

Views from atop the N. Old Woodward parking deck taken this morning. The heavy equipment actually stands on the first floor of the building, with the basement -- its ceiling shored up, of course -- below.

Shain plans posted

Top drawing shows the concept drawing of Shain Park by an anonymous Birmingham architect.

Bottom drawing shows the single level of underground parking contemplated by the plan.


Click here for a larger .jpg image of the park plan.

Click here for a larger .jpg image of the underground parking plan.


Right-click here and select Save Target As... to download a VERY LARGE SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION .pdf of the park plan.

Right-click here and select Save Target As... to download a VERY LARGE SUPER HIGH RESOLUTION .pdf of the underground parking plan.

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Ring Road update

If you're wondering what's up with the following projects, we checked with the city today, and here's the bird's-eye lowdown:

* Landscaping at Old Woodward and Oakland, on the east side of Old Woodward. Michael Dul-designed streetscape was approved some time back by the BCC. Will be bid this spring, with construction in mid- to late-summer 2005.

* Conversion of the Ring Road curve at Willits and Chester from a pedestrian-terrifying racetrack to a city street corner: Project is tied to resurfacing of entire stretch of Willits between Chester and Old Woodward, said resurfacing to await completion of the new Burton-Katzman building, slated for early 2007. Likely contruction: summer 2007.

Shain plan advances

The City Commission Monday night sent the mystery plan for Shain Park to its advisory boards for review, seeking their approval to move forward with the plan as a general concept for improvements.

The Planning Board, the Parking Advisory Committee, the Parks & Recreation Board, the Historic District and Design Review Commission and the Shain Park Parking Study Committee will all get a crack at the plan over the next few weeks.

The commission intends to use the plan as the basis for a request to voters to approve a bond issue to fund the underground parking garage.

Planning Board, HDDRC changes

The City Commission Monday night reappointed George Dilgard to the Planning Board, and appointed Sam Haberman to the position being vacated by Jean Holland. Dilgard was a strong supporter of Dante Lanzetta in the last commission race, and is a frequent visitor to City Hall, where he keeps close tabs on city staffers and plans submitted by property owners. Haberman is a longtime resident who owns Haberman Fabrics in Royal Oak. He has been involved in the planning process in Royal Oak for several years.

The commission also appointed Shelli Weisberg and Rob Hewer to the HDDRC, and reappointed Keith Deyer. Weisberg is an editor of the Buzz. Hewer, an architect at Chritopher J. Longe & Assoc., takes the place of John Jickling as the architect on the panel. Member Jan Stephenson, whose term expired, did not seek reappointment.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Barnum proceeds must pay off bond

City Manager Tom Markus says any proceeds from the sale of a portion of the Barnum property must be used to help retire the bonds with which the property was purchased.

Any such sale would have to meet with voter approval. The City Commission discussed selling some of Barnum at its meeting last week. Markus said he obtained a legal opinion that the proceeds must be used to pay off the bond.

City Commissioner Scott Moore had suggested using proceeds to pay for further parks improvements.