Ann Arbor residents concerned with potential floods associated with new elementary school site

CBS News

06-02-2025

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - Residents are pushing back against Ann Arbor Public Schools' plan for the new Thurston Elementary School building they claim will destroy part of the Thurston Nature Center.
They say numerous concerns came up when they first learned about these plans last September.
It's no secret the wetland is prone to flooding, which has led to numerous natural mitigation strategies over the past several decades. Some residents fear these new plans will not only undo many of these flood prevention efforts, but they'll also lead to more flooding.
An oak savanna, a rain garden, and numerous berms have all served as natural solutions to managing flooding around the Thurston Nature Center. One resident claims those will mostly be replaced by cement if the current plans for the new school go unchanged.
"Where will the water go, and where will it move? And we are in a world of, sadly, climate change where we have 100-year storms that are not every 100 years anymore," said Thurston Nature Center Chair and nearby homeowner Praveena Ramaswami.
Ramaswami claims the school district failed to do any due diligence about how the location of the new school will impact the nature center and the community surrounding it.
"Unfortunately, I think they just saw it as open land and they didn't understand what this land meant above and beneath the ground. They didn't understand the landscape of this historical, oldest environmental education center in the country, and they didn't understand what was underneath it," she said.
She says she's provided numerous reports to the district outlining these concerns, but she feels like the message is not being heard. Another resident shared those frustrations.
"We've got professional engineers, architects, people that can offer help, and they don't want it, but they haven't countered with their own Excel spreadsheets on here's what the costs are, here's why we're not doing this, here's why we're doing this. It's just been dismissive," said nearby resident Bill Hanna.
Ann Arbor Public Schools Communication Director Andrew Cluley provided CBS News Detroit with this statement in response to pushback on the location of the new school building:
"Thurston currently does not have enough space to accommodate current enrollment, forcing teaching and learning to take place in spaces that were not designed to be classrooms. After careful consideration and analysis, including the overall condition of the school, which is over 60 years old, replacement is the best option. Additionally, research and innovations in education clearly indicate that the current floorplan is outdated and ill-suited for modern teaching and learning needs.
We worked with stakeholders in good faith over the past two years, including Thurston Nature Center, meeting several times, incorporating the feedback and guidance and demonstrated a willingness and desire to collaborate with all.
As part of the plans for Thurston in particular, we have made several revisions to the site plan to reduce the impact on the Thurston Nature area, improve playspace location and size, and enhance natural buffers between the school and neighbors as a result of feedback we have heard from stakeholders."
Ramaswami and Hanna both claim to be in support of plans to build a new elementary school; however, they feel it shouldn't come at the cost of potential flood risks and environmental impacts to the Thurston Nature Center and the Huron Valley Watershed.