In 1930, Kline’s department store opened in Ann Arbor at 306 S Main St. It stayed open for 64 years, before closing in 1994. Today, the building is home to businesses like The Rocket, Renaissance, and one of my favorite spots in Ann Arbor, LeDog. While the department store has been gone for over 30 years, the surface lot that shares its name remains next to the building. In 2026, the lot is one of the major wedge issues of the upcoming mayoral election. The city is proposing selling the Kline’s Lot for $17.4M to a developer to create market rate housing. The money from the deal will go to things like the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, the Sustainable Energy Utility, and a “strategic property acquisition fund to become more proactive in protecting the city’s tax base.” Mayoral challenger and County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi opposes this sale, suggesting that the city keep the lot, and use it to build permanently affordable housing. This debate has been the subject to many contentious discussions. But this is not the first time there has been a political firestorm surrounding the Kline’s Lot. For that, we have to hop in our DeLorean, get up to 88 mph, and head back to the 80s.
In 1986, the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey about how people felt about downtown Ann Arbor. The results were that people “Like the character of downtown, but think it’s too congested and lacks enough parking.”[1] Over the years, proposals like the one below got debated and discussed, and in 1988, city council approved, in concept, one of the largest housing and parking project in the history of the downtown.[2]
The project included building a parking structure where the Kline’s Lot is now, building the Ann Arbor Civic Theater atop that structure, and creating Ashley Plaza across the street, which would be a 120 units of low and moderate rental housing. At the time, there was a separate proposal regarding what to do at Packard and Main. Democrats wanted to go with a plan that would build 200 rental units for low and moderate incomes, and also have 600 parking spaces. Republicans wanted to go with a plan that would construct an office with a condominium tower next door. There would be 50 market rate condos, and no parking [4].
At the time, Republicans had a 6-5 majority on city council, including the mayor, and because of this they had the votes to move forward with their proposal for the Kline's lot and Packard at Main. But, in order to move complete their plan for the Kline's Lot, the city would need to purchase four privately owned parcels at the corner of Ashley and William, which would require 8 votes in order to authorize the city purchasing the land. While Democrats could not vote to get their way on the Packard and Main project, they could stop a vote purchasing the land required for the Kline's Lot parking structure, effectively killing the deal.
One of those private parcels was 116 W William St, and was a house owned by George Hotzel. Hotzel was a WWII veteran who had lived at his home for 46 years and he was not thrilled at the idea of selling his home to the city. When asked about the proposed parking structure. Hotzel said “I feel that I don’t have much to say about that because if they want it they are going to get it because if I don’t cooperate with them then they’ll condemn it.” [3] Hotzel was able to keep his home until he passed away in 1990 at the age of 80.
While the council debated which projects should move forward, there was also opposition to doing anything at all. In October of 1988, the Old West Side Association wrote a letter to the Ann Arbor news saying “Building plans ignore principles of [the] Downtown Plan.” They feared this project was too large in scale. They opposed both plans at Main and Packard. They opposed the Civic Theater on top of the proposed Kline’s structure because it was too large, and would create a barrier between downtown and the old west side. They opposed the affordable housing at Ashley Plaza because the building was too tall and would “create a tunnel along First Street and Tower over the houses along Ashley.” They wanted the parking structure on the Kline’s Lot to be smaller, to make sure it did not “Damage our fragile nearby neighborhoods”[5]
Also at this point, another opposition to the parking structure was growing from the Homeless Action Committee, or HAC. They demanded “House People Not Cars.” They believed the city had misplaced priorities, and should be focused on creating homes for the homeless, instead of more storage for automobiles. They organized protests, like the one seen below, on the Kline’s Lot. One of the people protesting as part of HAC was Jennifer Hall, the current director of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission
A year later, in 1989, Republicans had gained a seat on city council, to make it a 7-4 majority, but they were still one vote shy of the super majority needed to move forward with the project, and there is still no agreement on the DDA’s proposals.
At this point, the Ashley Plaza plans had fizzled out, but the city council was still trying to move forward with the parking structure. The Democrat minority, led by Larry Hunter, Ann Marie Coleman, and Liz Brater were now demanding the DDA use half of its bonding capacity on creating affordable housing. Hunter said “The DDA thus far has spend [sic] $100,000 on downtown housing but $14 million on parking. You can get an awful lot of housing with that kind of money” Terry Martin, Republican, said the parking structure was needed “to save a downtown which could collapse and become boarded up.” Brater proposed a resolution to move forward with the parking project in exchange for the DDA using $5M of its bonding capacity for housing, but that vote failed along party lines. At this point, the city had spent $200K with the architectural firm Sasaki and Associates [6]
In 1990, after George Hotzel passed away, the city would acquire his house at 116 W William St. Once it was city property, HAC got 50 volunteers to help two unhoused families move into the now empty house. [7] The city was now forced to balance “their dislike of the trespass used to move the families in with their unwillingness to appear insensitive by order the families evicted” [8] Ann Arbor went to court, and obtained a writ of eviction to remove the squatters. City government also decided rather than demolish the house, it would sell the house to a local family, and the building would get moved across the street to 340 S. Ashley St. The city also made a deal with the families living in the home, allowing them to stay until it became time to move the building. After about a year, the house was moved to its Ashley St lot. Unfortunately, it was discovered that the ground at 340 S. Ashley was contaminated with oil, leaving the house homeless. The owners of the home would end up moving the house again onto Miner St, where it still resides[9]
In March of 1991, city council voted 8-3 to approve $8.7 million in bonds to build the parking structure. A month later, Ann Arbor holds its elections, and control of city council flips. Democrat Liz Brater, who ran on a campaign of opposing construction of the parking structure on the Kline’s Lot, is elected mayor, and Democrats now hold an 8-3 majority in city council. HAC starts collecting signatures in an attempt to put the Kline’s Lot on the ballot in an effort to prevent construction of the parking structure.
In April of 1991, HAC’s efforts to collect enough failed, but in a 6-5 vote, city council approved an advisory election. Voters would be asked if they support or oppose issuing $8.7M in bonds in a special June 24th vote. Washtenaw County’s Election Scheduling Committee unanimously rejected this date because it was too close to the June 10th Ann Arbor Public Schools election, and moved the election to July 15th.
On May 5th, 1991, The Ann Arbor News wrote an oped criticizing the council for the advisory election. “Although City Attorney R. Bruce Laidlaw defends the use of advisory votes for cities under the powers of the Home Rule Act, the legal issue is overshadowed by common sense, dollars and cents concerns.”[10] A special election would cost an estimated $25,000. The Ann Arbor News also suggested this vote was “a poorly disguised strategy to duck responsibility, refuse to stand up and be counted, and hope voters kill the project” Two days later, the plan was dead. Mayor Brater told council she would not pursue an advisory election, and she would keep a previous council order to city staff to not sell bonds.
In the end, the city spent $1.5M on this project over the course of four years. and all that happened was that a couple houses on the Kline's Lot were either demolished or moved, to make room for more parking spots. The political winner of this ordeal was the Old West Side Neighborhood Association, who pushed for nothing to change. Mayor Liz Brater, who championed the cause of affordable housing being built on the lot, would end up leading a vote to expand the number of parking spots on the Kline’s Lot. In a 2024 interview, Mayor Brater would say about the proposed Kline’s Lot structure “I felt surface parking was an important thing for some older people to have and women at night aren't that comfortable going to parking structures.”
[1] July 17, 1986 Ann Arbor News
[2] September 7, 1988 Ann Arbor News
[3] May 8, 1988 Ann Arbor News
[4] September 9, 1988 Ann Arbor News
[5] October 16, 1988 Ann Arbor News
[6] July 25, 1989 Ann Arbor News
[7] April 7, 1990 Ann Arbor News
[8] April 10, 1990 Ann Arbor News
[9] Nov 15, 1991 Ann Arbor News
[10] May 5, 1991 Ann Arbor News
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