Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

City Council and Planning Commission, Patriotic Edition

3. July 2006 • Juliew
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City Council Meeting Monday, July 3, 7:00pm
Ann Arbor City Hall

Highlights of the Council’s agenda include:

  • Crime Statistics presentation
  • Update to the political signs ordinance
  • Rezoning of “Bristol Ridge” sprawl development from township to multi-family
  • Approval of Calthorpe work plans
  • Approval of an addition to the Fourth and Washington William parking structure

Planning Commission Meeting Thursday, July 6, 7:00pm
Note: The Planning Commission meeting has been moved to Thursday, July 6 at 7:00 due to the holiday.

Highlights of the Commission’s agenda include:

  • Election of new officers and Commission housekeeping.
  • Public hearing regarding the addition of the definition of “High-Water Mark, Ordinaryā€¯ to the zoning ordinance.



  1. Correction, obvious from the linked document: the addition (another floor) would be to the Fourth and WILLIAM parking structure, not the Fourth and Washington structure.


       —Larry Kestenbaum    Jul. 3 '06 - 06:58AM    #
  2. (“commission housekeeping” is a highlight? There’s a CPC meeting to skip, if there ever were one…)


       —Murph    Jul. 3 '06 - 05:25PM    #
  3. Whoops, thanks for catching that Larry.

    As for the Planning Commission Meeting, it might be kind of interesting actually. I mean Review of Bylaws, resolution of appreciation for Jennifer Hall, committee assignments, what’s not exciting there? Although, I think the new Planning Commissioner (Jean Carlberg’s replacement) starts with this meeting (it isn’t in the agenda though—don’t they do some sort of introduction?). I’m also hoping the “Public Notice and Input Overview” item has to do with a change in the way stakeholders are notified of Commission agenda items, especially after a tabled item. The way it works now is not very effective.

    Oh, and it looks like Blaine, et.al. will be at the Council meeting tonight so it might be kind of fun to watch the brouhaha in the beginning.


       —Juliew    Jul. 3 '06 - 05:38PM    #
  4. There are three Planning Commissioners whose terms expired on June 30, although they can “hold over” until their successors are appointed.

    Who are the new Commissioners? Did any Commissioners whose terms just ended get reappointed?


       —Dave Cahill    Jul. 3 '06 - 07:58PM    #
  5. Juliew wrote: “Oh, and it looks like Blaine, et.al. will be at the Council meeting tonight so it might be kind of fun to watch the brouhaha in the beginning.”

    CTN live coverage began at 7:15 at the start of Chief Jones’ presentation of crime statistics.


       —HD    Jul. 4 '06 - 03:18AM    #
  6. Memo to Council or CTN sound person: we can barely hear you. Councilmember Johnson is totally inaudible with the sound turned all the way up.

    David, Craig Borum (an architecture professor) was approved for PC.

    Council postponed a decision on the Dolph Park addition zoning because of the (surprise!) objection of some neighbors. Note: this was the ZONING of the park, not a major improvement. The neighbors complained that people from outside the neighborhood might come and enjoy “their” park.

    Council also postponed the downtown development work plan (two weeks, though it was nearly postponed until after the primaries). This is ridiculous. Can this council even DO anything?

    Also, a justification to postpone was to spend more time on the urban design guidelines because there is always a lot of concern about “what buildings look like and their materials.” If a reader is involved in this process, please tell me that this is not what the urban design guidelines are addressing. Those are architectural guidelines. Urban design guidelines deal with how a building (whatever its materials or whatever it looks like) relates to the street and the surrounding buildings. (HINT: start with David Sucher’s three rules—1) build to the sidewalk; 2)make the building front visually permeable; 3)no parking lots in front of the building).


       —Dale    Jul. 4 '06 - 05:38AM    #
  7. Bringing the “patriotic” comments back here from the Broadway Village thread, I’d like to share that I’ll be taking in water only for the next 24 hours as part of the nationwide Troops Home Fast!

    I hope that the late start of the televising of the council meeting wasn’t intentional. There are rules and ways to enforce them. It would be a shame, to say the least, to blackout dissent of any kind on the day before Independence Day, or any other day.


       —Steve Bean    Jul. 4 '06 - 06:12AM    #
  8. Here’s the Troops Home Fast link without the extra leading material that breaks it.


       —HD    Jul. 4 '06 - 06:22AM    #
  9. I posted some about the Dolph Park zoning stuff. The Palestine crowd always complains that they’ve been protesting for years and thus deserve some action to be taken; this is ridiculous, but when you look at how any group of residents with a complaint about some change to their neighborhood can get anything postponed, it almost looks like they have a point.

    And what was up with Rapundalo arguing that the downtown can’t handle a postponement of the Calthorpe stuff, but we should postpone it?

    These meetings are getting really entertaining lately. I liked Greden pointedly snarking that whatever materials people supposedly hadn’t had time to review had been out for two weeks.


       —ann arbor is overrated    Jul. 4 '06 - 10:28PM    #
  10. RE my Comment [5] and Steve Bean’s [7] : Looking at the agenda for the Council Meeting, Public Commentary was ordered after the crime statistics presentation. I didn’t have the stamina to last through the entire presentation of crime statistics, so I’m not certain whether the Public Commentary was broadcast or not. I assumed, apparently erroneously, that the Commentary was always the first item.


       —HD    Jul. 4 '06 - 11:01PM    #
  11. It was indeed broadcast and as entertaining as ever.


       —Dale    Jul. 5 '06 - 07:31AM    #
  12. Congrats to Jennifer Hall for being nominated to fill a vacancy on the DDA Board!


       —David Cahill    Jul. 8 '06 - 08:18PM    #