Arab American National Museum Gets Green Light to Expand
The Arab American National Museum is growing.
The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted Thursday to grant several variances that will allow the museum to expand into two closed businesses immediately to its east — the former Zamboni Room sports bar and A to Z Medical Equipment.
The museum, open since 2005, is at 13624 Michigan Ave., across from City Hall. It’s operated by ACCESS.
The project will allow the 30,000-square-foot museum to add a little more than 4,000 square feet of gallery space, said Tom Taylor, ACCESS’ facilities manager and the manager for this project. The project, for which the social service agency is receiving money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is scheduled to be finished this fall. Construction is under way, and the public will see exterior signs of the work soon, he said.
ACCESS already owns the two empty business spaces, and the exterior design of the building will be extended to those spaces. It plans to combine the three parcels, with the two other addresses being deactivated.
“I just thing it’s going to be a great improvement to the street,” Commissioner Christine Sickle said.
The variances include: the building not having a setback when 1 foot is required behind the building and 10 feet in front; it not having space for landscaping; and it not having at least five parking spaces directly related to the building, though behind it is a city-owned lot with 526 spaces.
The building is only supposed to cover 50 percent of the lot, but it covers 97.5 percent, and the facade transparency is supposed to be 70 percent, but it’s 55 percent.
Tom Paison, city zoning administrator, explained that with the building being in a downtown area, several of the rules are difficult to enforce to the letter, especially when an existing building is being filled. And, the museum expansion is a way to fill what had been two empty spaces in a high-profile location.
“We’re looking forward to completing these projects and making the eyesores go away,” Taylor said.
The galleries will be a place for local artists to display their work, and the goal is for it to create more foot traffic for the museum. Officials started looking at designs last fall, Taylor said, and the decision was made in the spring to do the project.
“We’re hoping it’s going to generate a lot of positive looks in the area,” he said.
It also could fit into the potential “art” theme of the area. The City Council recently approved selling City Hall to Artspace for artists’ live/work spaces and gallery and performance spaces, with the goal of closing the deal by June 30, 2014. City operations would be moved to the Dearborn Administrative Center, which is one building west of Henry Ford Centennial Library.
Artspace paid a $50,000 nonrefundable deposit to the city and recently submitted a $6.9 million tax credit application to the state, for which it will hear the results in November. The agreement is for the building to be sold for $1.65 million, and Artspace plans to spend nearly $17.4 million on renovations.
Taylor said the Artspace issue was a contributing factor in the museum’s expansion.
“ACCESS is the epitome of culture,” he said. “We definitely want to look at other art venues and see how we can collaborate.
“We’re hoping this is going to generate a lot of positive things for ACCESS and the community.”
In other ZBA approvals:
n On Aug. 14, Shamrock Automotive, 2040 S. Telegraph Road at Scott, was granted two variances so it can sell a maximum of 10 used cars at a time to complement its repair business. Co-owner Scotty Sutherland told the board that customers periodically want to buy another used car instead of repairing the one they have because it proves to be too expensive.
City rules say that an auto repair shop should be an accessory part of the business’ auto sales, and auto sales lots must be at least 2 acres. Shamrock has just shy of 1 acre.
The business, though, has space to store vehicles in a fenced-in area, and likely will be part of a land swap if LaFontaine Automotive Group follows through on its plans to buy the former city Department of Public Works yard just north of Shamrock. Shamrock owns a storage lot next to LaFontaine Volkswagen, across Scott Street from the shop.
As part of the ZBA approval, Shamrock can sell no more than 10 used cars at a time, it must store the cars on its lot and it must own the cars it sells. In other words, it can’t sell cars on behalf of other dealers.
The Planning Commission already gave its approval.
n The board granted a variance for a resident to build an attached rear patio canopy on his house at 5953 Steadman. Variances were needed because the rear setback would be 8 feet, with city rules calling for 10, and the canopy would increase lot coverage to 37 percent with the limit normally 35 percent.
There’s an alley behind the house that only one resident uses to access their garage. If the alley were to be closed, the added property would put the resident in compliance.
Over the years, the city has closed as many alleys as possible, but some residents still use them to access their garages.
All of the votes were 5-0 with the exception of Shamrock, which was 4-0. Sickle recused herself because she previously voted for it as part of the Planning Commission.
Joe Slezak
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