SerpApi.Org
ANN ARBOR, MI — Ann Arbor officials are paving the way for construction of 50 apartments in two buildings at 3785 Varsity Drive on the city’s south side.
City Council voted Monday night, July 20, to rezone a nearly 1.3-acre vacant property from an M1 limited industrial district to a C2B business service district, which is a mixed-use zoning category that allows what’s planned.
The rezoning represents a shift in thinking about land use, as the city aims to broadly allow more housing to be built to address what city leaders call a housing crisis.
The city’s Planning Commission determined in May the proposed zoning would be consistent with adjacent zoning, surrounding land uses and the city’s comprehensive land-use plan, City Planner Michelle Bennett told council in a memo.
The city’s new land-use plan designates the historically industrially zoned area as a transition district with flexible uses envisioned, including residential, Bennett noted in a staff report.
“Historically, zoning was created to protect residents from harmful land uses,” she wrote. “Typically, this meant separating residential from industrial uses to protect the public health, safety and welfare of the city’s residents. Modern planning has moved toward greater mixtures of land uses.”
The shift in thinking, as evidenced by the Varsity Drive site, is that housing would now be permitted where there is not a complete sidewalk network, where neighbors with large surface parking lots receive deliveries from semi-trucks, and the same scale of neighborhood business and amenities that are imagined in residential zones are not present here, Bennett said.
“However, staff acknowledges its proximity to jobs and a bus line, and that it has the potential to be connected to adjacent residential development,” she wrote. “It is also possible that for some residents, the envisioned project could be suitable for their needs.”
The project is emblematic of a transition in terms of uses and scale, and how to reimagine the area to meet city goals without causing nuisance for new residents, Bennett said.
The surrounding land uses include Zingerman’s Mail Order, three fitness facilities, a biotech lab, a food delivery facility, Mitsubishi research and development office, a hardware store and an unknown office and storage/warehousing building, an HVAC contractor’s office, garage door supplier, a cannabis retailer, and an automation and supply store, she said.
Southfield-based Prime Development Group LLC is behind the project, working with Jarratt Architecture and the Umlor Group.
Council unanimously approved the rezoning with conditions that short-term rentals would be prohibited.
Those conditions, voluntarily offered by the developer, will stay with the property even if it changes hands, said Council Member Lisa Disch, D-1st Ward.
The total floor area of what’s proposed is about 40,000 square feet and there would be 55 automobile parking spaces under the apartments and in a surface parking lot.
Bennett noted what went before the Planning Commission in May was only an area plan, not a full site plan, so more details about landscaping, natural features, utilities, architectural drawings, grading and soil will be required during site plan review.
Other than Disch’s note about short-term rentals, council approved the rezoning and area plan without discussion Monday night.
Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page.
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
