Certainly, making conversion of single-family homes to student-oriented rentals unprofitable is the best way to achieve the maintenance of owner-occupancy, and the conversion back of multiple-unit properties, if that's your goal. And, if your goal is to get fewer rental conversions and more owner-occupied homes, and you plan to do that by cutting into profitability, I think that adding high-quality supply to the market is a better method than bluntly downzoning, as is being considered in my old 'hood over in "Lower Burns Park". (After all, if it remains profitable but is simply made illegal, all you've done is create an enforcement problem and reward the landlords who are willing to break the law.) Not that I, personally, place a high value on protecting the imaginary sanctity of single-family, owner-occupied neighborhoods - responsibly-managed rental properties make fine neighbors, as I, the only owner-occupant on my street, can testify - but many in Ann Arbor (and Ypsi) certainly do.

I'll be interested in seeing the plans. I'm not opposed to this project (nor for it - need more information); my shock is with the developers' estimation that there's a market for this particular project, and my dismay with the type of public discourse that I expect to result.