Planning Commissior By JOHN GOYER ding its decision to city council, which and ELEANORA DILISCIA has final say on the project. In a vote that won applause from the Speaking for Berger was Clarence audience, the Washtenaw County Plan- Roy, of Johnson, Johnson, and Roy, ning Commission last night who prepared a land use study for the unanimously rejected a proposal to project. Roy said because the city.had build a conference center-hotel on the declined to buy the land, and because Huron River bank at the north end of the proposal provided for open space, Main Street. "then the proposal does conform to the The commission decided the proposal spirit of the (county's planning) goals." did not coincide with its long-range ROY ALSO pointed out that with the goals to develop the river bank as open definition of the city's boundaries, "the space. ability of the citizens to provide needed "I HAVE heard nothing tonight that tax dollars is stretched." ' leads me to believe that our original Tom Borton, of Applied Environmen- assessment that the Riverside area tal Research, a firm that also helped should be used for recreational pur- prepare the land use study, said the are poses is inappropriate," said com- concerned was "not a pristine piece of mission member James Walter. land. It had been a lower wetland and Developer and-owner of the proposed has been filled." hotel, Richard Berger, had been Sam Rabinovitz, a 25-year resident of seeking approval to use the 32- acre site the north side, said "I am very much for a 22-story convention center in- afraid of the negative affect that River- cluding a 400-room hotel and five-story side Plaza will have on the north side condominiums. The entire development area. Nowhere is any mention made of would cost around $7 million. the north side as though we lived 50 Boyer initially planned a 30-story miles away when we live on the river conference center and seven-story con- bank." dominiums, which he later modified MILDRED KOEN, another resident under neighborhood pressure. - held up a copy of the commission's land HOWEVER, THE modifications still use policy. "I tried to color in with did not meet with neighborhood ap- yellow the parts of your policy that this provad nd eeral esit en t attend project was in contradiction of, and I proval and several residents attended found myself coloring in your whole the meeting to dissent. plc ' THe city planning department will policy." Tonsidethe c ounty plannnder m- The residents who attended the consider the county planning com- meeting were a few of the 80 members mission's recommendation before sen- of the North Side Neighborhood House panel OKs ban on permits for nuclear plants The Michigan Daily-Thursday, May 10, 1979-Page 15 1 rejects hotel proposal Association (NSNA). In response 'to neighborhood Neighboring residents formed the pressure, Berger prepared an North Side Neighborhood Association assessment of the project's impact on (NSNA) in February to oppose the de- the area. His study maintained that the velopment. The group is concerned project would leave shoreline about the environmental, visual, and vegetation and the center would be built traffic impact of such a large project. in a limited area in order to preserve The NSNA, according to Marge the riverbed. Phillips, is afraid sewage from the proposed hotel and salt washed off its A parking lot will damage the riverbed. According to the report, the plan With the exception of Main St., roads provides for adequate strm-water run through the northside neighborhood of- off "in a manner which will minimize fer the only access to the hotel, creating the effects of water quality." Further- potentially heavy increase in traffice more, the project will re-plant portions should the hotel be built. ' of the site and use "special measures of RIVERSIDE residents say they protection during the construction would prefer to see the 32-acre site period of environmentally significant become an open space park, used for areas . . . and the incorportion of small businesses as originally zoned or careful soil and sedimentation control simply left alone ' methods during this period." Senate panel OKs lighter, pot penalties i 1 Q l P LANSING (UPI) - The Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation yesterday removing criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The measure, ill-fated during the past two years, was sent to the full Senate on a 4-2 committee vote after an attempt to retain but reduce criminal penalties was defeated. UNDER THE bill, possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana - about an ounce - would be punishable by a $100 civil fine. The offender would have no criminal record. Currently, possession of that much pot is a criminal misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The bill would completely erase penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana in one's home, while possession of between 30 and 100 grams or furnishing that amount without selling would be a misdemeanor punishable by 90 days in jail and a $100 fine. PENALTIES for selling larger amounts of marijuana would remain the same as currently, except they would be stiffened in cases where an adult sells pot to a minor. The action amounted to an abrupt reversal by the committee, which last week voted to retain the criminal misdemeanor penalties but remove jail terms for possession of 30 grams or less. That compromise, similar to a bill which passed the Senate twice only to die in the House, failed to win sufficient support for committee approval. SOME SUPPORTERS of liberalized penalties feared the more radical bill providing all-out decriminalization would encounter trouble in the full Senate. Also included in the bill are provisions allowing persons to obtain marijuana on a prescription basis for treatment of glaucoma and to relieve discomfort in cancer chemotherapy. The original bid to reduce pot penalties began in the House, but the lower chamber defeated the measure after some of the most emotion-charged debate Lansing has witnessed in recent years. WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Interior Committee yesterday ap- proved a six-month ban on federal con- struction permits for nuclear power plants. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), who pushed the measure, said it would affect permits for six reactors at four sites in Arizona, Massachusetts, Oregon and Texas. Approval came on a 23-7 vote after panel members generally agreed that the ban was largely a symbolic step to show the Congress is doing something about nuclear safety in the wake of the Three Mile Island plant accident in Pennsylvania. A SIMILAR amendment to the 1980 budget authorization for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed in an In- terior subcommittee on a 11-9 vote. To stand up, the ban would have to survive tests on the House floor and in the Senate and be signed into, law by President Carter. House Speaker Thomas O'Neill said the ban probably would pass the House. "There is no question that after the Three Mile Island situation there is a go-slow feeling in the House toward nuclear power," O'Neill told reporters. "I would be surprised if it didn't pass." REP. MORRIS UDALL (D-Ariz.), the committee chairman, said he was sympathetic to a ban although he op- posed it. The panel has scheduled a sweeping inquiry into all aspects of nuclear energy andtshould make a more comprehensive decision in coming monthe, he said. Rep. Philip Sharp (D-Ind.), said, "We'll have no effect on anyone's health or anyone's safety. If we choose up sides today we'll kiss off the credibility of the committee" and its nuclear power inquiry. MARKEY SAID the ban would send "a clear message" that Congress is "serious about increasing nuclear safety. We are not going to investigate and detate the accident while at the same time the industry expands as if Three Mile Island never occurred." Rep. Phillip Burton (D-Calif.), said the ban would at least alert power com- pany investors to the danger of commit- ting money to build more nuclear power plants. Markey's measure would not affect the 70 power plants already in operation or 92 other plants already under con- struction. 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