Topics: Pedestrian Crossing Ordinance; RecyleBank; Vision papers; Percent for Art; Annexation; DDA and Development; Fuller Transit Station; Medical Marijuana; Stadium Bridges; Argo Dam; PUD proposals; Broadway Village; Infill Development; University Relations; ParkingMillages; Charter Amendment;
Council is considering a revision to the Pedestrian Crossing Ordinance. The revision passed First Reading. There will be a public hearing and second reading -- and likely vote -- on December 19th. The Council heard from City Staff about RRFBs (Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons) and other types of signs and signals that could improve pedestrian crossings, especially at multi-lane streets such as Plymouth Road. Here's a link to that presentation.
The Council will also consider amending the budget to allocate funds for RRFD installation on Monday, December 19th.
Here's the current draft ordinance.
Recycle Ann Arbor and the Recycle Bank
You answered a survey about recycling. Here's the basic response to the survey.
Now the City is running its own survey. Please feel comfortable giving your feedback to the City on this issue. The survey will close on November 30, 2011.
The Council will vote on amending the contract with RecycleBank on November 10.
Vision for the Future: survey and white paper
I recently asked constituents to fill out a survey related to creating a vision for downtown. Here's the results of that survey and a copy of the survey itself. Let me know if you'd be interested in helping create a vision for Ann Arbor's future. We should talk.
Some of us -- on Council and in the community -- strongly support public art. In November, 2007, the Council voted to provide funding for the acquisition of public art, and allocated 1% of all eligible funds spent on capital improvements to be used for providing public art.
Others question whether the dollars allocated to public art are being spent well or wisely. They ask whether these dollars have resulted in a significant benefit for the community.
The City Council The Council will vote on whether to amend the Percent for Art ordinance on December 5th. Here's the current draft of the ordinance revision.
Here's a breakdown of the dollars allocated and spent as of September 30, 2011 and a projection for what would be allocated to the Percent for Art fund over the next three years..
The City staff prepared a report with recommendations regarding annexation of properties that are currently township islands. The Council may consider amending the City’s current annexation policies and the agreements with the townships of Ann Arbor, Pittsfield and Scio.
There are several considerations and options included in the staff report. Here is a link to the report and one to the map of township islands. The First Ward has several significant township islands, including along Newport Road and DhuVarren.
The Mutually Beneficial Committees (both the City Council members and the DDA members) have agreed that the DDA could do a better job of managing Requests for Proposals (RFP) for City owned lots in the downtown area than the City has done. As a result, the City Council voted to have the DDA take on the responsibility for this task. Managing RFPs does not mean that the DDA will decide about planning. It does mean that the design of the RFP would be under the DDA's supervision, and that the DDA would evaluate the responses and make recommendations, most likely as part of a committee function. The selected proposal would still need to come before Planning Commission and City Council for all approvals.
Here's the results of the survey on creating a vision for downtown.
In July, 2008, the City Council passed a resolution calling for increased cooperation between the City and the UM regarding UM development in the Wall Street area. The University had been proposing two, 600-car parking structures on Maiden Lane and Wall Street as well as a bus depot for UM and City busses. After this resolution, the UM continued to work on their plan, but stopped that work after the City passed a resolution (November 7, 2009) that created a Memorandum of Understanding with UM regarding the initial planning for FRS. The City invited UM to join in the construction of a parking structure at FRS. The City had been planning to build a train station, and had selected the Fuller Road site as the best piece of city-owned land for this project. In March, 2009, the City staff prepared a preliminary feasibility report.
The Planning Commission approved the Phase I plans for the Fuller Transit Station at the September 21, 2010 meeting. The Council has not yet voted on this issue. For historical background on this site, I've received at 2004 appraisal from the City that you can read by clicking here. For the draft proposal, you can see that by clicking here. For images of the proposed structure, you can click here. For the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the City and the University, you can click here.
The City Council held a working session on Fuller Transit Station on January 10th, 2011. No other working sessions are currently scheduled.
The City Council voted on June 20th, 2011 to approve funding to replace a sanitary sewer line that runs under the Fuller site. This sewer, however, is a major trunk line that services the northwest and westerly parts of the city, and extends directly to the wastewater treatment plant. While rebuilding the line may not be an emergency, the new line will handle more waste, and won't need to be replaced for many years. The current line is over 30 years old. The Mayor issued a letter on July 27 regarding Fuller Road Station. Those in opposition have created a website to present an alternative view.
PAC (the Parks Advisory Commission) has recently issued a resolution in support of a better hiking/biking trail system involving this site. The Public Arts Commision (another PAC, but AAPAC) has also submitted its annual report, which includes plans for art at the Fuller Road Station, although at a subsequent meeting of AAPAC the staff recommended postponing plans for Fuller Road.
The City Council held a public hearing at the June 20th Council meeting, and passed licensing and zoning ordinances on that date. For more information, see the final licensing ordinance , zoning ordinance and staff report.
The City received about $17 million in Federal and State dollars to help fund the reconstruction of the Stadium bridges over State Street and the Ann Arbor Railroad. The entire project is expected to cost about $23 million. Construction has begun!
Any changes to the status of the bridge will be available on the city’s Web site at www.a2gov.org.
City Council voted to reconstruct the head race at Argo, creating a new water feature. This construction is nearly finished, and I've heard nothing but compliments for the new headrace..
DTE has requested that the City postpone work on the whitewater aspects of the design, while DTE cleans up some environmental problems on their site (letter from DTE). By postponing and working with DTE, DTE has committed to paying that portion of the costs for the whitewater features. Reconstruction of the headrace will continue; Council has not yet approved the postponement.
Resources: The HRIMP Report; Argo Facilities Report, Sept. 8, 2009; Argo Vegitation Management Plan; Argo Consent Agreement;More information is available on the City's website.
There is one pending PUD proposals -- to add more off-street parking to the University Bank property on Washtenaw.
Broadway Village at Lower Town
The PUD for Broadway Village was extended in 2008 to October 7, 2010. The developer has not indicated an ability to develop this site, although the web page shows an anticipated construction start date of Fall, 2009. Maintenance on the site is being handled by McKinley Property Management.The University of Michigan may seek permission from the site owners to temporarily establish a surface parking lot on this site.
Several master planning documents refer to infill policies that have never been clarified by the City. Each document was drafted with citizen input, and each anticipated that more staff involvement, more planning commission involvement and/or more citizen involvement would result in clear policies for the planning staff, Planning Commission, and ultimately City Council members to follow. This work has not been done.Lacking this guidance, planning staff members approach each new project as if it were unique. No Planned Unit Development sets precedent; none relies on precedent.I've been looking at existing infill in Ann Arbor. I've also been looking at documents and books that relate to infill developments to help me understand what might make for good -- and bad -- development.Here, here and here are some documents I found interesting and helpful to me.
The University has decided that its acquisition of the Pfizer campus changes much of its plans for the north side of town. While it isn't willing to commit to NOT building parking structures on Wall Street, for instance, it is willing to put those plans on hold for the near future. (see Fuller Road Station, above)
It's also willing to work with the City to develop plans to build an intermodal transit center that would provide a parking structure, train station, bike, bus and other transportation hub on Fuller Road that would serve the needs of the City and the University as the new commerter rail service begins. This transit center and parking structure would provide sufficient parking for the medical center and would also serve the commuters who are expected to use the east-west rail system, beginning in Fall, 2010. The transit center would be complete in 2012.
Recently, the City and the University agreed to a contract that pay for some of the traffic control work the City has traditionally done to expedite travel on football game days and for other events. Although the University's visitors provide a significant benefit to the local economy, little of that benefit actually hits the City's budget. It's appropriate that the Univesity pay for extraordinary services.
Several people have begun being interested in the original plans for the underground parking structure, in part because they are no longer focused on preventing approval of a conference center and hotel. Here are the plans as presented on January 11, 2008.
There will have been changes, but I don't have those changes handy.My July, 2010 newsletter has information about parking; the results of the survey and a copy of the survey in PDF format are here.
The DDA will be presenting proposed changes to the fee structure for parking at a Working Session on November 14th. The City Council no longer has the ability to approve or deny any proposed changes to parking fees or parking times. The City remains responsible for enforcement.
One particularly important document is the Parking Management Plan from the DDA. Finally, here's the link to the current Parking Fine Structure, so you can see what a ticket costs, and what a delay in paying that ticket costs, effective July 1, 2010.
Renewal of the Street Maintenance millage and a proposed Sidewalk millage
The Council placed a renewal of the Street Maintenance millage on the November ballot. At the same meeting, the Council placed a new millage for Sidewalk Maintenance. These millages passed.
The staff provided their report at the working session on June 13. Here’s a link to the staff report. Here's a link to the results of the street millage survey.
Want to know what the City's been doing with the existing money? Here's a report on the Street Millage expenditures and planned expenses.
Charter Amendment on the Retirement Board
In 2005, the City received a report from the Blue Ribbon Committee with the charge of reviewing the policies, administration, and management of the City of Ann Arbor Employees’ Retirement System. That committee made several recommendations for improving the accountability and independence of the City’s Employees Retirement Board of Trustees. Among those recommendations were to remove the City Administrator from the Board and to increase the number of non-employees as trustees.
This Charter Amendment passed.
If you are interested, here’s a link to the Blue Ribbon Report.
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