Ann Arbor City Council Preview for Oct. 15, 2018, or Duck yes: City poised to legalize backyard waterfowl

An image of a duck from the Damn Arbor Photo Archive.

Gentle readers, the days when you had to dress your majestic backyard ducks as common chicken may be drawing to a close. That's right, the City Council is poised to legalize backyard ducks. Looking at the agenda for tonight, the first reading of the Duck Ordinance (C-1) may be one of the lest controversial items on the agenda.

The #a2council agenda starts off with a stacked consent agenda docket with 24 items. Of note, there are 4 sanitary sewer easements on the Consent Agenda tonight. Two of tonight's public hearings (PH-1 and PH-2) are on the annexation of Township Islands. This issue has been contentious at recent #a2council meetings. When the city annexes a township parcel there can be an increase in taxes of $1k to $3k per year and fees of up to $100k for sewer and water connectivity. You can read more about the township annexation program here.

There are a couple of other especially spicy items on tonight's agenda. First, PH-4/B-2, the Mayor's Police Oversight Ordinance, has not been received well by members of the Police Oversight Commission Taskforce and by those who seek robust civilian oversight of the police.

The other spicy item on the agenda is DC-4, is a resolution to approve a Deed with Core Spaces for the Library Lot. Whoa. This will pit the faction of the city council that are in support of the development agains those that would rather see the Library Lot undeveloped.

Gentle reader, what are you most looking forward to at tonight's #a2council meeting? We are well into campaign season so there may be some political fireworks. Make sure you tune in tonight at 7 to watch CTN's live stream and follow the blow-by-blow action on #a2council hashtag on Twitter.