[LMich]

I finally got around to reading those articles you linked to about the development along Arboretum Parkway. I find most of the Arcadia residents' concerns pretty Nimbyish. What I was getting from them was just your basic tone of "We don't want anything to change."

Honestly, looking at the West Side Area Plan, the city has been pretty consistent in following it. Walden Woods looks pretty much at the kind of density the plan envisions the site to be. It literally calls for low-density residential with open space, which is exactly what Walden Woods is. Parkway Flats is a change of plans, as the plan envisioned this area as commercial space (even some big-box stuff), but you'd actually think the change would be something they'd like given that big-box stuff would have likely generated more (and faster) through-traffic on the parkway than something like Parkway Flats.

In fact, if there is anything wrong with the planning in the area is that it should have allowed more higher density residential to save even more of the open space. Walden Woods goes according to the plans, but it's kind of a suburban waste of perfectly space. So the NIMBYs down in Arcadia are actually hurting themselves with their demands in the end.

They even got the density down further than it would have been in the West Side Area Plan by saying that 856 units would be allowed in the area, but then counting the 240 units at the Arboretum Apartments, which isn't even in the study area, against that 856 units.

Anyway, rant over. lol