May 08 2007
Arrested development
In 2003, Ann Arbor Township voters passed a dedicated tax of 0.7 mils to fund the purchase of property development rights (PDR) within the township. The township recently made its first purchase by purchasing the development rights of the Kapp farm on the east side of Nixon road at Pontiac Trail. The PDR purchase was for $2.2million, with $689,500 from the US Department of Agriculture, $757,000 from the City of Ann Arbor greenbelt program, and $757,000 from the township PDR fund. The Kapp family has been actively farming in Washtenaw county since 1838, the Nixon road farm has been in operation since 1931. The purchase ensures that the farm will be farmland forever and never developed.
Across Nixon from the Kapp farm, a cluster development of 38 homes will be constructed by the Silverman company on about 200 acres. The remaining 153 acres of the parcel was donated by Silverman to the township and that parcel will be preserved as farmland. The interesting thing about the parcel to be developed is that the residences will be clustered together on comparitively small lots, instead of spread out on 5 to 10 acre lots as is normal for this development. This means that much of the 200 acres will be open land. This kind of development is a good thing, I think. The property owner can sell his property, the developer can build an economically feasible development, but much of the land remains open. Since development of the rural areas of the county cannot be completely halted, this seems like a good compromise.
More information about the Kapp PDR purchase and the Silverman development can be found in the township’s newsletter.