Ann Arbor City Council Preview: July 1, 2024

 

Gentle readers, it's #a2Council night in Ann Arbor. Here's the agenda. 

The meeting kicks off with a respectable, 19-item consent agenda. CA-1, CA-2, CA-3, and CA-4 are all street closures for Firefighter Spray Park in the District, Sonic Lunches, Student Move-In, and UM Football Games. 

There are also a 4 conservation easements in items CA-15, CA-16, CA-17, and CA-18. 

There are no public hearings on the docket this evening so on to the resolutions. DC-1 is a resolution to appoint Bentley Johnson to the Geenbelt Advisory Commission. DC-2 is a resolution to endorse the use of a broker for the sale of the Kline's Lot. DC-3 is a resolution to reallocate the ARPA funding that was going to fund the unarmed response program. This is kind of disappointing. The money will go to:

• The Barton Dam Embankment Project ($2m)
• Emergency Operations Center ($500k)
• Ambulance Acquisition ($395K) 
• Bicentennial Park Improvements ($400k)
• Support for Safe House ($100k)

That's it, gentle reader. What items are you most excited for? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag or on a2mi.social. 

Endorsement: vote for the progressive choice, Desiraé Simmons, in Ypsilanti's Ward 3 Recall.

 

There is an election in Ward 3 tomorrow. Click here for more information on voting in the City of Ypsilanti. 

There is a recall election tomorrow in Ypsilanti's Ward 3. I strongly endorse the incumbent candidate, Democrat Desiraé Simmons. In her time on council, Simmons has been a strong advocate for new housing, and making Ypsilanti a more equitable community. 

The recall against Simmons, and her opponent Rod Johnson, have largely been funded by landlords, out of town business interests, in town business interests, and a dark-money PAC. Please read Ruth Cassidy's well researched article on the finances behind Johnson and the recall. Here's an exerpt:

Newly-posted paperwork of “Ypsilanti Forward” reveals its donors. The recall campaign group is funded almost entirely by landlords who do not reside in the city of Ypsilanti. 92% of the recall campaign dollars came from donors who do not reside in Ward 3. 89% of the recall campaign donors are landlords and 79% of recall campaign dollars came from landlords. The only recall-funder who appears to be registered in Ward 3 is Linda French, who owns Sidetracks and other properties in Ypsilanti. 

Linda French’s nephew and owner of Aubree’s, Andrew French, is another notable donor to the recall. He is also a donor to Republican causes; his donor contributions reveal donations to WINRED, Republican Nikki Haley, and the conservative-leaning Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association, of which he serves as president and director. He resides in Ann Arbor.

Other Republican donors who also donated to the recall campaign include Mitch Jerden of Plymouth, Rick Fischer Jr. of Brighton, and Bob Barnes of Ann Arbor. Despite landlords Barnes of Barnes & Barnes and Fischer Jr. using their business addresses on their donation receipts, their registered home addresses are actually in Ann Arbor and Brighton, respectively. Fischer owns a Honda dealership in Ypsilanti and was the business owner who inflated the cost of a property the city sought to purchase in order to connect the Border to Border trail.

Johnson seems like a nice guy, by all accounts. He has a long history in Ypsilanti. That said, I just don't think it is wise to elect someone who represents the will of the landlord class. In this election, there is clearly a progressive choice (Simmons) and a conservative choice (Johnson). Here I mean conservative in the sense of supporting established hierarchies. 

To reiterate, if you are in Ypsi's Ward 3, I think you should vote for Councilmember Simmons. She is clearly the progressive choice. You should also make sure your friends and neighbors vote. Remember, we have same-day voter registration now. If you want to, you can stop reading here. 

This next section is going to get a little speculative. You've been warned. 

Some may say that race between Simmons and Johnson represent a clash between two competing visions for Ypsilanti. They might suggest that Johnson represents the vision of ex-mayor Farmer, the architect of the Water Street debacle. Indeed, Farmer is one of Johnsons donors and one of his fiercest supporters online. This article from Mark Maynard in 2006, as well as the comments give a decent glimpse of ex-Mayor Farmer's philosophy. 1996-2006 was Farmer's term as mayor; beyond Water Street, her signature initiatives were the West Cross neighborhood plan (circa 2003 or 04?)This resulted in the downzoning of everything between the river and campus. It covered something like 800 parcels, including a few hundred that it rendered non-conforming by unit count, and that was the point. Some might say ex-Mayor Farmer and her faction are dedicated to (a) reducing rental properties, (b) increasing property values, and (c) decreasing tax rates. All of that helps the bigger landlords who see their monopoly position strengthening as smaller landlords exit, while increasing the value of their assets (which they can refi to acquire more property) and decreasing their operating costs. Wins all around. The Simmons faction wants (a) more housing, (b) strong renter protections, and (c) increased tax base going to fund strong public services (vs) tax cuts. And the landlords and business owners are less excited about this. 

Indeed, you can see many of the complaints against Simmons are centered around her support for two housing developments (one of which, 220 N Park, she was not even on council when it was approved). It is unsurprising that landlords are against competition, the benefit from housing scarcity. I think the city is much better though when we make sure that anyone who wants to can live here with dignity. 

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: May 6, 2024

 

Gentle readers, it's #a2Council night in Ann Arbor. Here's the agenda, and who boy, it's a big one. 

The evening kicks off with a stacked, 26-item consent agenda. The first 4 items are all street closures. CA-1 is for the Bicentennial Birthday Celebration. CA-2 is for Top of the Park. CA-3 is for the YMCA Community Block Party. And CA-4 is for Sonic Lunch. There is also CA-12 which is a special assessment for closing the Stone School sidewalk gap. 

There are nine (9) public hearings on the docket this evening! PH-1/B-1 is the second reading of changing the way the city assess traffic associated with large building projects. This change will replace standard traffic studies (which, tend to favor automobile traffic over all other modes of transportation) with more holistic multimodal transportation impact analyses. This is good. 

PH-2/B-2 along with DS-1, later in the agenda, are for the 711 Church Street PUD and development agreement. This is for a 17 story apartment building across the street from a Umich dorm and the Forest Street Parking Structure. It's kitty-corner from a block of high-rise apartment buildings. 

A rendering of the proposed 711 Church Street

This area should clearly be D1, unfortunately it is not yet so this project has to come up as a PUD. This proposal was also turned down by Planning Commission. I still think council should pass it. Ann Arbor is in the midst of a housing crisis, and in need of tens of thousands of new units. This project will provide much needed housing. It will also make a sizable (~$6M) contribution to the affordable hosing fund. If you are so inclined, I'd recommend calling into this public hearing and sharing your thoughts with council. 

PH-4/B-3, PH-5/B-4, PH-6/B-5, PH-7, and PH-8 are all on changes to fees. Specifically, they are on water rates, stormwater rates, sewer rates, public services area fees, and community service area fees, respectively. Incase someone calls in to complain about the 4-tiered water rate system, send them this article from the Damn Arbor Vault. 

Finally we get to PH-9, a hearing on the resolution to adopt the city budget and property tax millage rates for the 2025 fiscal year. 

There is one ordinance first reading tonight. C-1 is for the 732 Packard PUD. This is for a 14-story apartment between Packard and State. I think this project is good too, under the assumption that housing abundance is good. I am disappointed that the owner of the Domino's building on that corner held out and is preventing the construction of a Flatiron building here. 

A rendering of 732 Packard

On to the resolutions. DS-2 is a resolution authorize a summary publication of the Multimodal Transportation Impact Analysis. DC-1 is a resolution to determine a ballot question for a charter amendment for the creation of a sustainable energy utility (SEU). This is pretty exciting. 

That's it, gentle reader. What items are you most excited for? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag or on a2mi.social. 

Legalize Cottage Courts

 

2 and 4 Marshall Court are located on lots that are 26' by 66' or 1,716 sqft. 

Last year, U of M purchased the properties on Marshall Court to build a new dorm. People lamented the loss of this quaint cottage court and rightfully so. Cottage courts are a good use of Ann Arbor's precious urban land. 

Ann Arbor has several notable cottage courts: Beakes,  Bucholz, and Braun, to name a few. They feature cute houses on small lots. You would be hard pressed to find someone who objects to these, unfortunately, under Ann Arbor's current zoning, cottage courts are illegal to build. The smallest residential lot size permitted is 4,000 sqft in R1E. Most of Ann Arbor's single family residential area is zoned R1B or R1C with 10,000 sqft and 7,200 sqft minimum lot sizes, respectively. And don't even get me started on the obscene R1A where lots have to be at least 20,000 sqft. To put that in perspective, you could fit approximately 1.25 Bran Courts on the smallest legal R1A lot. That's room for 10 homes where you can legally only build one!

Braun Court is about 16,000 sqft. You could fit Braun Court and 2 more similar lots on the smallest legal R1A lot. 

Ann Arbor should legalize Cottage Courts. Specifically, Ann Arbor should make a text change to its residential zoning ordinance to make the minimum lot size for all R1 (and R2) lots 1,400 sqft. Furthermore the city should get rid of lot width minima, set minimum front setback to 6 ft. Side setbacks should be 3 ft or 0 ft if the adjoining property owner agrees. Rear setbacks should be a minimum of 10 ft. Finally, maximum lot height should be set to 45 ft for all of these lots. Why 45 ft? Because you get the lowest cost per sqft with three story buildings. Here's my proposal in chart form: 

Proposals for new R1 lot size requirements. Original table here. 

The great thing about making this as a text change, is that it would not require any revision of the comprehensive land use plan. The city can (and should) do this quickly. The city could do this quickly, in as few as 2 city council meetings, spaced 6 weeks apart. 

Why should the city do this? Ann Arbor is in a housing crisis. The city is short tends of thousands of homes. Allowing people to split residential lots to build new homes is one way the city can allow people to build more housing. Allowing the changes I'm proposing in the chart above will also help reduce the cost of new housing. First, this will help reduce the cost of building new housing by decreasing the amount of land one needs to own in order to own a house. Gyourko and McCulloch (2023) found that on average, allowing smaller residential lots reduced home costs by about $30,000. Also, allowing 3 story houses in all R1 zones, by right, will also help decrease the cost of building new homes. 3 story homes are a sweet spot with construction costs being lower than both 2 and 4 story homes per square footage (Eriksen 2021). Finally by allowing gentle urban density, we can allow more people to live in Ann Arbor as opposed to new greenfield developments in the hinterlands, which benefits the environment. 

The great thing about these changes is that if you currently own a large lot and like it, you can keep your large lot. Nobody is requiring you to change anything. This will just allow people who want to the ability to build on smaller lots. The current residential zoning essentially requires people to have huge lawns, which is fine for people who want that, but not everyone does. Ann Arbor should not force people to have large lots against their will. Requiring large lots has real negative consequences to Ann Arbor residents. For example, at the March 27 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, a resident who lives in a 19,937 sqft R1B zoned property asked for a variance so that he could split his lot. He had to come to the ZBA because his lot is 63 sqft too small to allow a lot split for R1B. Shockingly, the ZBA denied this variance. If Ann Arbor allowed smaller lots, splits would be by right and not subject to the whim of ZBA committee members. 

In conclusion, I just think we should allow people to build handsome three-flats on small lots in any residential part of Ann Arbor. 

Hyde Park Three Flat by Phil at Wonder City Studio. 

Addendum: Ann Arbor should do something similar for setbacks in the R4X districts. This would allow things like City Place to be replaced with better projects. 

Addendum 2: Ypsi City should do something similar with setback reform, etc. But I think Ypsi is already better w/r/t allowing small residential lots than Ann Arbor. 

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: April 15, 2024

 

It's #a2Council night gentle readers. Here's the agenda. 

The evening kicks off with the Administrator's proposed 2025 budget. 

After that we come to a scant, 5-item consent agenda. Of note, CA-1 a street closing for the 2024 Glacier Highlands Neighborhood Association annual Memorial Day Parade.

There are two public hearings on the agenda this evening. PH-1/DS-1 and PH-2/DS-2 are on releasing part of the road easement at 2845 South State. This parcel is essentially the parking lot around the 777 Building and is part of a very exciting TC1 development. 

There are four ordinance first readings tonight. C-1, C-2, and C-3 are routine amendments to the water rates, stormwater rates, and sewer rates. If you're looking for a good primer on water rates, check out this classic article form the Damn Arbor vault: Revisiting Water Rates in Ann Arbor. C-4 is a routine township island annexation. 

On to the resolutions! DC-1 is a resolution to issue a Downtown Development District Liquor License to Uplift Ann Arbor, LLC, Located at 210 S. First St. DC-2 is a resolution to revise and amend the list of establishments participating in the Main Street Social District. DC-3 is a resolution to acquire an easement for the Nixon Corridor Improvement Project. 

That's it, gentle reader. What items are you most excited for? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag or on a2mi.social. 

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: April 1, 2024

 Gentle readers, it's #a2Council night in Ann Arbor. Here's the agenda.

The evening kicks off with a modest, 14-item consent agenda. CA-1, CA-2, and CA-3 are street closures for the Dexter Ann Arbor run, The Event of Main, and Arbtoberfest, respectively. CA-9 is to accept a hazard mitigation grant from FEMA to Purchase and Demolition of 124 Felch Street and 112 E Summit. 

There is one ordinance first reading on the docket tonight. PH-1/B-1 is the second reading of changes to the Open Space and Parkland Preservation ordinance AKA the Greenbelt. This would, among other things, include some areas of Ypsilanti Township within the Greenbelt and also change some of the rules governing conservation easements. 

There are two ordinance first readings tonight. C-1 is for the PUD for 711 Church, which probably deserves it's own article. This would rezone 1.06 acres from R4C (one of Ann Arbor's most broken zones) to a PUD that would allow a 12-17 story LEED Gold building with 273 units. It would also make a sizable contribution to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Despite being across Willard street from the Forest Parking Garage and another high rise, this project has faced opposition from city staff and it also did not pass planning commission. Gentle reader, you will not be surprised to find that I do think this is a good project and that I support it. I hope this passes first reading tonight. 

C-2 is the first reading of an ordinance that would make it so that the city does a Multimodal Transit Impact Analysis (MTIA) instead of a level of service analysis for new projects. This is good, because level of service analysis only cares about car throughput. 

Finally we get to the resolutions. Tonight there are 4 economic development resolutions on the docket. DC-1 establishes an office of economic development and the administrator to "Prioritize Housing Development at all Income Levels to Support Housing Affordability, Sustainability, Tax Base Development, and Placemaking as the City’s Strategic Priorities for Land Development." DC-2 is a resolution to direct the City Administrator to implement new processes and programs for housing development at all income levels to support housing affordability. DC-3 directs the administrator to implement new processes and programs to support sustainability. DC-4 is a resolution to direct the city to implement new processes to support placemaking and tax base improvements. These seem good. Housing affordability is badly needed and a broader tax base helps everyone. 

That's it, gentle reader. What items are you most excited for? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag or on a2mi.social. 

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: March 18, 2024

 

Gentle readers, it's #a2Council night in Ann Arbor. Here's the agenda. 

The evening kicks off with a scant, 8-item consent agenda. Of note, CA-5 and CA-6 which combine to be just under $1 million for sidewalk repair and cutting. CA-7 is exciting too. Ann Arbor is getting a $1,000,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for the splashpad at Bicentennial Park. CA-8 is for the sale of 123 W. Summit (formerly part of 721 N. Main) to the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corporation for affordable housing. It's nice to see so many affordable projects moving forward. 

There is one public hearing on the agenda tonight. PH-1/B-1 is the second reading of the changes to the GreenBelt rules. 

On to the resolutions. DC-1 is a resolution to support TheRide's proposal to explore alternatives options on the US-23 Corridor Project. I think this is BRT. DC-2 is a resolution to implement anonymous hiring. DS-1 is a resolution authorizing publication of notice of intent to issue capital improvement bonds (not exceeding $9 million) to fund the improvement bonds to fund the development of 121 Catherine as Affordable Housing. 

That's it, gentle reader. What items are you most excited for? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag or on a2mi.social. 

Dad Arbor: Ypsilanti Cooperative Preschool Open House Tomorrow

 

I've long joked/threatened to start Dad Arbor, an imprint of Damn Arbor for parents. Well, looks like it finally happened. Stay tuned for more Dad Arbor content. 

Gentle reader, there is an open house for Ypsilanti Cooperative Preschool (YCS) tomorrow from 4-6pm Chapelle Elementary School building at 1111 S. Wallace. 

Our 4 year old has been at YCS for the last two years and EJ and I have really loved it. It has been great to see toddler-Damn Arbor mature grow from a somewhat shy toddler into a confident pre-schooler ready to take on kindergarten. YCS is a cooperative preschool, so parents are expected to volunteer in the classroom 1-2 days per month and have a classroom job. We're currently co-president of the non-profit board that runs the school. 

All this is to say YCS is a wonderful school, if you're looking for a good pre-school option for a 3 or 4 year old next fall, check out the open house tomorrow. 

Downtown Panning Workshop tonight at Downtown Library this evening

 

Gentle readers, as you may know, Ann Arbor is revising its Comprehensive Plan and yours truly is on the steering committee. 

The final of three public workshops on the Comprehensive Plan revision is Tonight from 4 - 7:30 at the Downtown Library. I'll be there for the presentation at 6 pm. And I hear there might be free pizza. Please stop by and share how you think we can make Ann Arbor more equitable, more sustainable, more affordable, and more vibrant. 

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: March 04, 2024

 

Gentle reader, it's #a2Council night in Ann Arbor. Here's the agenda. 

The meeting kicks off with a modest, 13-item consent agenda. CA-1, CA-2, and CA-3 are all additions to the Greenbelt. Fans of 99% Invisible will be excited about the Heydon property in particular. CA-8, CA-9, CA-10, and CA-11 are street closures for Take Back The Night, The Monroe Street Fair, Burns Park Run, and the MIOCA Time to Teal 5K and Fun Run, respectively. 

There are 3 public hearings on the agenda this evening. PH-1/B-1 is on tightening up the early leasing ordinance. PH-2/DS-1 is on updated fire and ambulance fees. PH-3/DS-2 is changes to the Fire Department bills for basic life support. 

There is one ordinance first reading on the docket tonight. C-1 is on some changes to the Greenbelt ordinance, including expanding the target area for the program. 

On to the resolutions! DC-1 is a resolution to appoint Sean Duval to the Economic Development Corporation Board as a Non-resident Elector. DC-2 is perhaps tonight's spicy chili. It's a motion to reconsider Reconsider the February 20, 2024 vote that defeated the resolution to approve a golf cart lease and appropriate funds for the purchase of lawnmowers. At the last meeting in February, a motion to drop $500k on leasing golf carts was defeated. Councilmember Radina is bringing a motion for reconsideration tonight. Check out Michelle Hughe's opinion piece on it here.  

That's it, gentle reader. What items are you most excited for? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag or on a2mi.social.