Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: February 22, 2022


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

The evening kicks off with a deep, 20-item consent agenda. There are four street closings on the agenda: CA-11 for the Goddess 5k on April 3rd; CA-12 is for Take Back the Night on April 7th; CA-13 is for the Annual Soapbox Derby on April 10th; CA-14 is for SPARK's Tech Trek on October 14th. But there's tons more: insurance, grant applications to protect Lake Erie, and much, much more!

There is one public hearing tonight. PH-1/DB-1 is on a routine township island annexation. C-1 is an ordinance first reading that seems to make some minor and highly technical changes to the City's pension plan. 

Elsewhere on the agenda we have DC-1 to appoint a non-elector to the Renter's Commission. DC-2 which appoints new members to the Environment Commission. DC-3 is a resolution to request a legal opinion on requesting changes to Jennifer Salvatore's Dec. 7th report. And finally, we have DC-4 a resolution urging reform of the state's no-fault auto insurance reform.  

And that's it. What items are you most looking forward to seeing? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag.



Monday, February 7, 2022

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: February 7, 2022


Gentle reader, tonight is the first February meeting of #a2Council. Here's the agenda, and here's the A2AF episode on tonight's meeting. Please take a listen to the A2AF episode--it is so, so good. 

The meeting kicks off with a reasonable, 10-item consent agenda. Of note, CA-4, which is a street closure for the Time to Teal 5k. Also, CA-5 which is for Art Fair. 

There are no public hearings tonight nor ordinance first or second readings. There are some real spicy chilies on the resolution docket tonight. DC-1 is a resolution to resume deer management research. DC-2 is resolution requesting a "corrected" version of Jennifer Salvatore's memo. I don't think I have enough time to go into this one. DC-3 is a resolution to provide a report on the ownership of 68 parcels that are being considered for TC1 (transit corridor rezoning). I am just going to quote what CM Briggs said about this in her newsletter: 

"There are important reasons that we do not consider who owns a property when making rezoning decisions.  If Council and staff were to investigate who owns a property before determining whether to grant or prevent zoning action, it could lead to discriminatory or preferential actions.” 

This will be a spicy chili. And finally we have DC-4. This is to remove some of the design constraints that Council put on the rebuilding of the East Medical Center Drive Bridge. The TL;DR here is that the bridge needs to be repaired, and U of M wants to widen it while it's rebuilt. They also don't want to add any good pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure. This would go against Ann Arbor's climate and safety goals and council should not pass this. If U of M wants the bridge to be widened, they should pay for robust protected cycling and walking infrastructure as well. Alternately, we can just not widen the bridge. Here's another great quote from CM Briggs's newsletter:

I reject the premise that we should approve a substandard project design that is in conflict with our transportation and climate action plans, as well as the University’s carbon neutrality plan.  Our priority needs to be on rehabilitating this bridge, which is in poor condition.  If the University wishes to widen the bridge, then it needs to fund a project that improves conditions for all users in an area that is known to be both dangerous and uncomfortable to navigate.


And that's it. What items are you most looking forward to seeing? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag.