Tuesda cshopping center proposal sparks protest By DAVID STOLL A year after Briarwood, a ba.t- -, e is brewing in the city over Mans to build yet another shop- ng center - this one at the corner of Packard and Platt in 4e south east part of town. The proposed Packard-Platt *laza would contain a Chatham permarket, an Osco drug store, nd six smaller stores, for a combined floor area of approxi- mately 60,000 square feet on six acres of land. Ralph Johnston, spokesman for Residents Against Packard-Platt Plaza (RAP III), says the new shopping center would consti- tute a "nuisance" because of the noise, trash and litter, increas- ed traffic and safety problems, and declining property values which he contends it would gen- erate. Single-family residences surround the general area and directly abut the property to be developed on its northern edge. The City's Planning Commis- sion and Planning Department staff have both announced their opposition to the new shopping center, recommending that the property rezoned from commer- cial (C-1) to "R4A" - a classi- fication which would permit only the construction of multi-fam- ily dwelling units. Local representatives of the developer, the Roger Meyer Com- pany of Chicago, point out that the property has been zoned C1 since 1946 - well before the houses to the west and north were built. The City Assessor's office has estimated the property would lose approximately half its mar- ket value if it is rezoned resi- dential. The developer's representatives also say that the Meyer C o m- pany has made "extensive and legally binding" financial corn- mittments, based not only upon the long-standing zone classifica- tion, but also upon the planning staff's "Guide for Change." According to the developer, this statement of planning staff goals "indicates that the pre- sently zoned commercial land will be devoted to commercial usage." In reply John Hyslop, assist- ant director of the planning staff, says that the "Guide for Change" was meant only to be a proposal for "broad general land uses", not a "hard-and- fast guide" to the planing staff's recommendations for particular parcels of land. Representatives of the M e ye r Company also claim the plan- ning staff has not shown "suf- ficient" reason for its recom- mendation to change the proper- ty's zoning. Market studies un- dertaken by the developer and its two major tenants indicate there is a "need" for a new shopping center. According to Hyslop, however, the planning staff is concerned not with profit potential, b u t with the 'concentration' of com- mercial activity in the area and problems caused by "excessive traffic." "The existing commer- cial activity in the area fulfills the need as we view it," he says. RAP III spokesman Johnston says "30 stores and retail serv- ices" are now located "within three blocks of the Packard-Platt intersection." There are "just too many shopping centers in the south- east part of the city," says city council member C. William Col- burn (R-3rd Ward), in whose ward the proposed shopping cen- ter would be located. Arborland, Meijer's, and Topps are all in the general area. The controversy is currently before city council in the form of an ordinance to rezone the property from commercial to residential. Because the owner of the pro- perty has objected to the pro- posed rezoning, nine votes are required for the measure to pass. See SHOPPING, Page 7 E4te 1idii n aI 4J COMFORTABLE High-75 Low-53 Mosly sunny Vol. LXXXII, No. 49-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, July 26, 1972 Ten Cents Twelve Pages y- *-.-'~WON n o k or es N:."': :::v . ":},. ...: ..::: .p o lice.,?1. x.'.h ":vs c la shi. ..:$ .v~t.. 45r at Lonon ai :.f:. n nV .v,":a~r":: ... ..:.: ":;.:.: v :::::..: :.:.ND..:::: .::: Hundreds. ..of. policemen:..battledF..with 26 otinafuiusseca ssio are b nsls n tepe anrus Heah Hefse ntdyeld otoieen atrete im- p O D N 1?-q r < A' government : repeal {a King of the mountain These local youngsters told our photographer that they don't care too much for modern art, but they sure had a good time playing on top of "The Cube" in front of the Administration Bldg. yes- terday. FEDERAL SYPHILIS STUDY: Blacks used as guinea pigs WASHINGTON W) - During a 40-year federal experiment a group of poor black syphilis vic- tims were deliberately denied medical treatment in order to test the effects of the potential- ly fatal disease. As a result sev- eral of the human guinea pigs have died, and it is now too late to treat the others. The experiment, initiated by the Public Health Service (P- HS) in 1932 involved around 600 residents of Tuskeegee, Ala- bama. Promises of free hot lunches, free medical treatment, for diseases other than syphilis and free burial were used to persuade the men - largely poor' farmers -- to participate. Of the 600 men tested about 200 had syphilis but were left as an untreated control group. Even when penicillin was in- troduced 15 years later it was not used to save the men's lives. Now it is too late. There have been seven confirmed deaths caused by the disease among the experimental. Another 154 deaths of undetermined origin have occurred amongthe origi- nal 200. Sen. William Proxmire (D- Wisc.) - a member of the Sen- ate appropriations subcommit- tee which oversees the PHS budget -- yesterday called the study "a moral and ethical nightmare." He called on Con- gress to grant compensation to the families of those involved in the experiment. PHS officials responsible for initiating the Tuskeegee Study hate long since retired and cur- rent PHS officials said initially they did not know their iden- tity. But later a PHS official said the study was initiated in 1032 by Dr. J. R. Heller, assistant surgeon general in the service's venereal disease section, who subsequently became division chief. Of the decision not to give penicillin to the untreated sypi- litics once it became widely available, the official, Dr. J. D. Millar, said: "I doubt that it was a one man decision. These things seldom are. Whomever was director of the VD section at that time, in 1946 or 1947, would be the most logical can- didate if you had to pin it down." Dr. Millar, current chief of the venereal disease branch of the Center for Disease Control, (CDC) said he did not know who headed the VD section in those years. Earlier, Dr. Millar said. "I think a definite moral prob- lem existed when the study was undertaken, a more serious problem was overlooked in the post-war years when penicillin became available but was not given to these men, and a moral problem still exists." new labor laws. Fighting flared outside Pen- tonville prison, as protesters hi- jacked two buses and a truck in a bid to barricade the jail gates. Britain already appeared to be stumbling toward paralysis: -Around 50,000 stevedores walked out, shutting down all the country's ports and idling hundreds of ships. -Some French dockworkers resolved to boycott British car- goes. -Newspapeis failed to pub- lishi for the third straight day because electricians refused to work the presses. -Production workers laid down tools at the plant that prints the London Gazette, the official bulletin of the govern- ment. -More than 3,000 ground workers at Heathrow Airport voted for a 24-hour token stop- page beginning this morning in support of the jailed steve- dores. This could halt all flights. -Thousands of coal miners, truck drivers, autoworkers and ship and aircraft factory em- ployes stayed away from their jobs or voted to walk out across the country. -Thousands of b r e w e rs struck in London, threatening the capital with a beer short- age. A fight broke out at the pri- son after the marchers came up against four-deep lines of policemen. After the attempt to crash the gate, hundreds of po- lice reinforcements moved in and cleared away the marchers. City sign law wins in appeal The city won a mnajor battle in the fight over its sign ordi- nance, yesterday when the state Court of Appeals upheld all but one section of the con- troversial' law. The decision overturns a rul- ing by Cii'cuit Judge Paul Ma- hinake last year which held the 1966 ordinance unconstitutional. The ordinance, which seeks to regulate the sizes and loca- tion of advertising in the city has been challenged by Central Advertising Co. and several other smaller concerns. In March 1971. Mahinske found against the ordinance, and City Council drafted an- other covering only billboards which was aleo voided by Ma- hinske. The city is also appeal- inag the secoind ruling. The Appeals Cort inling, yesterday found only tine sec- tion of the signs ordinance deal- ing villa a coompensation for- nmula for nensovinag oneonsforns- iiag signss to be unscceptable. A spokesman for City Attor- ne y Jenold Lax said yesterday that if the decision is appealed to the state Supreme Court the city will seek reiiastatement of the compens.alion seetion.