Ann Arbor holds meeting on underground parking garage plans

Just how the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority plans to make 770 parking spaces disappear beneath the surface parking lot adjacent to the Ann Arbor District Library downtown is about to be revealed.The DDA plans to hold a public meeting on the grandiose parking project at 7 p.m. Tuesday in its offices on 150 S. Fifth Ave. There DDA officials and planners will detail the plans.The devils in those details include creating a 4-story deep underground parking garage that runs beneath the current parking lot but adjacent Fifth Avenue, too. It will connect the old YMCA site and the site for the newly proposed downtown library branch. The DDA hired two firms, Walker Parking Consultants and Luckenbach/Ziegelman Architects, to design the underground structure. That subterranean garage will also feature a number of environmentally friendly features, such as natural lighting and LED lights.City officials are still debating what to put above the underground structure but there are reports of plans for a small convention center. The City Council should vote on the plan later this year.For information, call Susan Pollay at (734) 994-6697. Source: Susan Pollay, executive director of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development AuthorityWriter: Jon Zemke