Monday, July 6, 2020

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: July 6, 2020

Today is the first #a2council meeting of July. Here's the agenda.

The evening kicks off with a 26 item deep consent agenda. CA-3 and CA-4 are resolutions to enter participation agreements with Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission to purchase some properties. CA-26 is the new contract with the AAPD union. My understanding is that this has not changed from the last time it was on the consent agenda.

There are two public hearings on the docket. PH-1/B-1 is the second reading of an ordinance that modifies Chapter 55, the old Unified Development Code. If memory serves this cleans up some redundancies and confusing areas in the code. PH-2/B-2 is the second reading of an ordinance modifying the Housing Commission Ordninace. I have not looked into this that much.

On to the resolutions. DC-1 is an ordinance to supporting the EPA's active involvement in the Gelman Site. Will this be postponed yet again? Is the seventh time a charm? DC-3 is healthy downtown streets. I think this removes on street parking in some select streets to expand the area that pedestrians and cyclists can use and be safely distant cause of COVID. Seems like a good idea. It was postponed at the last #a2council meeting.

Be warned gentle reader, things are getting spicier as we go. DC-9 is a moratorium on all new development or expansion of existing development that requires site plan approval in the C1A and C1A/R zoning districts, or rezonings to C1A or C1A/R. This seems pretty narrowly tailored to target the Morningside Development. If you'd like to learn more read Scott Trudeau's letter to council about this rezoning.

DC-11 is a resoulution to support HB 4738, a statewide crosswalk law that seems like it would replace Ann Arbor's stricter Pedestrian Safety Ordinance. The state law would require pedestrians to physically enter a crosswalk to make a driver yield to them. Ann Arbor's ordinance is much better because it requires drivers to yield to pedestrians who are waiting to cross at a marked crosswalk. There is an incorrect narrative that Ann Arbor's crosswalk ordinance has lead to an increase in pedestrians being hit by drivers. The majority of pedestrians who are hit by drivers are hit when drivers are turning and fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections. These situations are not covered by the crosswalk ordinance. The real tragedy of DC-11 is that recently Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo have adopted crosswalk ordinances that are modeled after Ann Arbor's. It would be a shame to eliminate those city's ordinances in addition to Ann Arbor's. Scott Trudeau also wrote about this.

Finally I want to talk about DS-1, pre-entitlement for 415 W. Washington, the old County Road Commission Building. This is essentially pre-approving a specific plan for the site before selling it to a developer. The plan is to use the proceeds from this site to fund affordable housing so it makes sense to approve a moderate density development to maximize the money the city can dedicate to affordable housing. Earning himself a hat trick, Scott Trudeau also wrote about this.

Gentle reader, I am probably forgetting some very important items here. What agenda items are you most looking forward to seeing. I am guessing that tonight will be another late night around the virtual council table. Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2council hashtag.

2 comments:

  1. "The majority of pedestrians who are hit by drivers are hit when drivers are turning and fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections. These situations are not covered by the crosswalk ordinance." How does this disprove the fact that there was a rapid increase in reported pedestrian/vehicle crashes after the ordinance was implemented at the end of 2010? Most pedestrian/vehicle crashes being at intersections would be true both before and after the law change. Where was the safety improvement?--It is not a measure of the percentage of cars stopping for pedestrians at crosswalks!

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  2. Glad to see people digging into the crash data, the authors of the original pedestrian crosswalk law had no intention of doing that despite claiming that the law was going to improve safety. We need less specious analysis of the actual crash data--love the way your so confident that, "There is an incorrect narrative that Ann Arbor's crosswalk ordinance has lead to an increase in pedestrians being hit by drivers" You have yet to prove it!

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