Monday, July 18, 2022

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: July 18, 2022

 


Gentle readers, tonight is the final #a2Council meeting before the August Primary. Let's dive in. Here's the agenda

The evening kicks off with a modest, 11-item consent agenda. Items 1 through 5 are street closures. CA-11 is really exciting: prohibition of on-street parking on Barton. This will allow more space for protected bike lanes, which we know make all road users safer. 

There are no public hearings on the docket tonight but there are two ordinance first readings. C-1 is several amendments to the Unified Development Code (UDC). Specifically for marijuana licenses, trees in the right-of-way, and landscape modifications. These look pretty minor. C-2 is pretty huge. It's an ordinance to remove parking minimums from the UDC. Parking minimums are bad for equity and bad for the climate. They make developers over build parking and increase the cost of housing while increasing automobile dependence. I am really excited for this. It's coming with unanimous recommendation from the Transportation and Planning Commissions but I expect this to be contentious nonetheless. 

Closing out the evening, we've got two resolutions. DC-1 is a resolution directing the administrator to expand compliance evaluations with regard to the city's prevailing wage requirements. Finally we come to DC-2, "Resolution to Organize a Joint Meeting of Interested Individuals from the Environmental Commission, Transportation Commission, Energy Commission, A2ZERO Ambassadors, and other Community Stakeholders to Identify Opportunities for Greater Coordination around Transportation, Pedestrian Safety, and Sustainability Initiatives Related to Sidewalk Expansion and Maintenance." Not only is this a mouthful, but it also looks like a meeting about a meeting. 

And that's all there is. 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.


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