Apartment Choice

Residents check out the plans for a 294- unit apartment complex on Nixon Road at a meeting Tuesday night at the Traverwood Branch Library in Ann Arbor. Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com Neighbors of a proposed 294- unit apartment complex at Nixon Road and M-14 say they're concerned about adding more traffic to an already congested area. "It's hell right now," said Cathy Baker , who lives in the Barclay Park condominiums and says traffic regularly backs up on Nixon Road during rush hour. About two dozen residents attended a citizen participation meeting hosted by the developer Tuesday night at the Traverwood Branch Library in Ann Arbor. A map of the site location provided by the developer. Traffic repeatedly came up as a main concern with the project. Residents who live in neighboring apartments and condominiums said they're particularly worried about worsening traffic backups where Nixon Road meets Green and Dhu Varren roads — an unconventional four-w...

Hull City owners Assem and Ehab Allam have submitted new plans to convert a disused foundry in Caroline Street for residential use. They want to turn the Grade II listed Hennebique building into 26 apartments and retain two adjacent derelict factories for residential use. Their company, Allam Developments, has also applied for outline planning permission to build up to 70 new homes on nearby land. Assem and Ehab Allam A similar proposal at the same site was rejected by planning councillors five years ago. Hull housing charity Giroscope plans a self- build housing scheme But the new application says the current scheme would address previous concerns about potential noise from nearby industrial premises . However, the major development scheme has this time triggered fears it could squeeze out one of Hull's oldest engineering firms . It says it aims to "create a high quality and sustainable urban extension to Hull." The concrete- framed Hennebique building d...

Mountain View's rent- control program has already survived political and legal trials -- but what about the business test? An increasing number of apartment owners appear to be cashing out rather than working under the new restrictions. If the trend continues, some say it will lead to a cascade of redevelopment spearheaded by large corporate buyers . This scenario would result in older apartments being phased out and replaced with new housing that is exempt from rent control. Those looking at the data with a more critical eye point out that sales of apartment buildings are up throughout the South Bay, and that the number of buyers indicates a healthy interest in investing in Mountain View housing , regardless of rent control. To take one example, Fremont residents Ann and Paul Lethers decided in June to sell their 18-unit complex on Del Medio Avenue in Mountain View, which they created from separate purchases of two adjacent nine-unit buildings. They say they h...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...