The old MichCon property on Ann Arbor's north side (near the Amtrak station) shouldn't be exhibiting as much life as it is these days. The property is one of the most polluted in the city - usually a development death sentence. Not for these couple of acres along the Huron River.

In a way that could only seem to happen in Ann Arbor, local stakeholders are generating interest and green projects on the site. Such projects include the disassembling and recycling of a building, proposals for redevelopment and even serious conversations about turning it into a cog in the Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter train line.

DTE Energy, which owns the property, disassembled an old industrial building there. That resulted in recycling between 95-99 percent of the building, including donating parts of it to Habitat for Humanity and a Michigan school. The now empty space is being seriously considered as overflow parking for the Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail line.

Such actions allow for use of the site without stirring the environmental demons buried in it. Part of the Huron River was filled in there with a pollutant called coal tars at the end of the 19th Century and early 20th Century.

"The best science I have seen is you don't want to disturb those coal tars," says Peter Allen, a local developer and associate professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. "The best option is to entomb them."

Allen had a couple of teams from his development class make detailed proposals for the site. Those called for capping the western half of the property where the pollution is concentrated and developing the eastern half. The proposals, all of them viable business plans, called for dense, urban building there.

DTE is currently working with the state to determine what can be done with the site now that it is dormant.

Source: Peter Allen, developer and John Austerberry, spokesman for DTE Energy
Writer: Jon Zemke