ANN ARBOR, MI — A lawsuit over Ann Arbor’s approval of a 15-story skyscraper will continue under a new judge in 2025.

Outgoing Judge Tim Connors on Friday, Dec. 20, denied the city’s decision motion to dismiss the case filed against the city by 716 Packard LLC, owner of the Domino’s Pizza property next to the Five Corners development site off State and Packard streets.

The case is now assigned to Judge Tracy Van den Bergh and will continue in Washtenaw County Circuit Court.

The LLC, whose registered agent is Faramarz Farahanchi, says the city had a legal obligation to pay more attention to the project’s potential negative impacts, including the shadow it would cast on the pizzeria’s smaller building.

Domino’s is not a party to the lawsuit filed in July.

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City lawyers say the City Council properly exercised its legislative authority when approve the project with special zoning in June and said the plaintiff failed to demonstrate any particular harm or substantial right adversely affected by the rezoning.

The Council approved plans by Chicago-based developer Core Spaces and Schenk Realty to rezone 12 properties, including Jack’s Hardware and several surrounding buildings, into a nearly 1.3-acre planned unit development site, or PUD.

Jack’s Hardware closed on Packard Street, but moved to Ann Arbor

The court docket says a further evaluation of the case is scheduled for March 19, then a status conference on April 24.

If the project is allowed to move forward as approved, the new residential tower would contain 387 apartments with nearly 1,000 beds intended for University of Michigan students, ranging from studios to six-bedroom units.

Andrew Sugerman and Nicole Ajami, the plaintiff’s attorneys, said in court Dec. 13 that the case involves the city’s “complete disregard for its own laws and procedures” and a “pay-to-play” development practice.

They said the development plan didn’t adequately describe the Domino’s Pizza property, so planning officials couldn’t do their job properly when reviewing it.

“If the Five Corners development is built, according to the proposed drawings, the plaintiff’s property will be squeezed very closely between Packard Street, State Street and the Five Corners development,” the plaintiff’s attorneys wrote.

They also argued the city engaged in “illegal zoning” by requiring the developer to make a $6.6 million payment to the city’s affordable housing fund as a condition of PUD approval. Michigan courts require zoning conditions to be voluntary, which is not voluntary, they said.

“Plaintiffs allege violation of due process, illegal spot zoning, and illegal contract zoning,” they wrote.

They are asking the court for more than $25,000 in damages in addition to seeking to invalidate the rezoning.

The city responded to the plaintiff’s arguments in part by asserting that even under previous low-density zoning, the developer could have erected a building tall enough to produce similar alleged shade, wind and runoff impacts on the city. neighboring property.

The applicant has not demonstrated that the city acted arbitrarily or capriciously in approving the rezoning, nor that the applicant was denied notice and a meaningful opportunity to be heard, according to the city.

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