The energy office is a division of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. County commissioner and board chair Conan Smith is CEO of the alliance. The board voted initially to join the energy office at its March 17, 2010 meeting. Smith abstained from that vote.

This brief was filed from the boardroom of the county administration building at 220 N. Main St. in Ann Arbor. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) and Ann Arbor chief of police Barnett Jones chat during a break in the July 19 council meeting just after passage of a new pedestrian ordinance. During deliberations on that ordinance, Jones had cited the Canadian cultural practice of pedestrians standing on the curb and simply pointing to the crosswalk, which prompts motorists to stop for them. The remark had earned a thumbs-up from Rapundalo, who is a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen.

Intended as an extra measure of support for Zingerman’s was a third resolution communicating to the city’s historic district commission (HDC) the council’s view that the project represents a substantial benefit to the community. The proposal includes demolition of one house and the integration of another house into the architecture of the proposed new construction. Because the site is located in the Old Fourth Ward, the HDC will need to give its approval, in order for the project to be built. The message sent by the council to the HDC was clear: We want this project approved.

The council also sent a clear message to its firefighter and police unions, which the city hopes will soon ratify contracts that will save the city money. At the meeting, the council approved labor agreements with two other groups – the Teamsters civilian supervisors and the Teamsters police professional assistants. That added to bargained changes with the police deputy chiefs union that were approved at the council’s previous meeting on July 6. All three agreements reflected cost savings to the city through greater contributions by union members to health and retirement benefits and no increase in wages.

The implicit message to the firefighter and police unions was given explicit form through a position statement from the council’s labor committee and read aloud by Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), the chair of that committee. The statement calls on those unions to follow the example of the three who have already ratified contracts.

The council also gave final approval to a new pedestrian safety ordinance, which requires motorists to stop for pedestrians who are in, or even approaching, crosswalks that lack any traffic control device. During deliberations, the council swapped in “stop” to make the ordinance stronger than the originally proposed “yield.”

In other business, the council authorized the specific allocation of over $1 million in already-budgeted funds to nonprofits providing human services, approved liquor licenses for two downtown businesses, authorized the hire of a community energy coordinator using federal funds, got an update on the future of the Library Lot, and heard public commentary on a range of issues.

Zingerman’s Deli Expansion

Before the council were three resolutions involving the proposal by Zingerman’s Deli to expand their facility, located at Kingsley and Detroit streets in the Kerrytown district of downtown Ann Arbor.

Zingerman’s first brought forward a proposal in June 2008 that was submitted to the city’s historic district commission (HDC) – it called for the demolition of two houses. One of the houses, at 322 E. Kingsley, was fire-damaged. The other house is the Zingerman’s Annex, also known as the “orange house.” The city’s HDC turned down that proposal.

This time around, Zingerman’s met twice with the HDC during working sessions, but started the approval process with the city’s planning commission, followed by the city council. The planning commission has already given the project its unanimous recommendation for approval by the city council.

The site plan still calls for tearing down a house at 322 E. Kingsley, but would integrate the Annex into the design of the new construction. The new building is planned as a two-story, 10,340-square-foot addition that would be connected to the 5,107-square-foot deli building via a glass atrium. They’ll add underground tanks for stormwater detention and several environmentally-friendly design elements, including a green roof on the deli’s existing one-story wing. Phoenix Contractors of Ypsilanti is the project’s construction manager and general contractor.

All along, Zingerman’s executives have cited concerns over the project’s expense, particularly the cost of renovating the Annex. The overall project is expected to cost about $6.7 million. Roughly $500,000 is associated with renovating the house, which is relatively small – less than 900 square feet. Renovation will entail moving the Annex off its existing foundation, replacing the foundation, renovating the house, then moving it onto the new foundation and incorporating the structure into the new deli addition.

Previous Chronicle coverage:

“Zingerman’s: Making it Right for the HDC”

“Zingerman’s Deli Expansion Moves Ahead”

“Zingerman’s Project Seeks Brownfield Status”

“DDA Approves Grant for Zingerman’s”

The three Zingerman’s resolutions covered: (i) approval of the the site plan, (ii) approval of a brownfield application, and (iii) encouraging the HDC to grant a “notice to proceed.”

Zingerman’s Public Comment: Site Plan and Brownfield Plan

Around a dozen letters of support accompanied the city council’s electronic agenda. One representative sample is from Jeremy Peters, director of creative and business affairs for Ghostly Songs:

We have come to know many members of the staff, management, and ownership over the course of the past few years, and can speak volumes to what we have learned from them as a “good” business who invests in their staff and community. Zingerman’s has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to this community and its citizens through continued investment in our area and generous philanthropic support of efforts aimed at community betterment. Zingerman’s is, in every sense, a community partner and one of Ann Arbor’s most valuable assets.

We hope to follow in their model of success as much as possible.

Allowing Zingerman’s to grow its business at its present location will be of substantial benefit to the community. It will inject capital into our local economy by creating both temporary construction and permanent retail jobs.

Grace Singleton, a managing partner with the deli, led off the public hearing by reiterating much of the same material she’s previously presented to the planning commission and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. The deli has grown quite a bit since it started in 1982. In the first year, they’d sold 2,000 sandwiches, she said, but last year they estimate they made over 300,000. They’d begun with three employees and have now grown to employ 180. But they still have the same kitchen, she said.

Singleton stressed how they’d made improvements in one-off, “hodge podge” fashion, adding some seating capacity in a tent behind the Annex, and adding some outside storage units. What they are now proposing, she said, is a large upgrade that would last a long time into the future. There are inherent challenges in the project, she said, which include the removal of one house, the construction of a two-story building, plus the restoration of another house, all while keeping the deli open for business, she said.

Next up for the Zingerman’s project team was Christy Summers of Beckett & Raeder Inc. She described Zingerman’s as an “iconic” business of Ann Arbor. She described the project as providing Zingerman’s with more flexibility. She also stressed the greater accessibility the project would afford Zingerman’s patrons, citing the ramps, slopes and handrails that would be a part of the project. She noted the stormwater management system that would re-use some of the water and allow some to infiltrate into the ground naturally.

Ken Clein of Quinn Evans Architects.

Ken Clein of Quinn Evans Architects continued the presentation for the project team, and talked about how the project was designed to fit into the historical context of the neighborhood, partly through the choice of appropriate materials. He also discussed various acoustical controls that would help damp down possible noise from mechanical systems. He said the project was planned to achieve LEED certification on either the silver or gold level. Among the environmental features he mentioned were green roofs, a highly-insulated building envelope and heat recapture. Clein noted that city council approval was the “last hurdle” before historic district commission approval.

Jim Mogensen began by noting that the Star Wars episodes were not released in chronological order. He was alluding partly to the fact that the proposal was getting approval from the planning commission and city council, before seeking approval from the city’s historic district commission.

By way of background, the sequencing was explained in a recent memo prepared by Jill Thacher, a city planner specializing in historic preservation issues:

All [other] approvals are required so that the HDC has as many assurances as possible that the applicant seriously intends to build the project and is in a position to do so. This is necessary since the Notice to Proceed will result in the permanent removal of historic resources. In order to apply to the HDC for a notice to proceed, the project must have an approved site plan from City Council, have proof of financing, and have any other zoning or environmental approvals that may be necessary to build the project. In order for the HDC to grant the project a Notice to Proceed, Zingerman’s must prove that their project will be of substantial benefit to the community. How that benefit is defined and whether it is substantial enough to warrant the removal of contributing resources is determined by the HDC.

From the city code on issuance of a notice to proceed:

8:416. Notice to proceed.
(1) Work within a historic district shall be permitted through the issuance of a notice to proceed by the commission if any of the following conditions prevail and if the proposed work can be demonstrated by a finding of the commission to be necessary to substantially improve or correct any of the following conditions:
(a) The resource constitutes a hazard to the safety of the public or to the structure’s occupants.
(b) The resource is a deterrent to a major improvement program that will be of substantial benefit to the community and the applicant proposing the work has obtained all necessary planning and zoning approvals, financing, and environmental clearances.
(c) Retaining the resource will cause undue financial hardship to the owner when a governmental action, an act of God, or other events beyond the owner’s control created the hardship, and all feasible alternatives to eliminate the financial hardship, which may include offering the resource for sale at its fair market value or moving the resource to a vacant site within the historic district, have been attempted and exhausted by the owner.
(d) Retaining the resource is not in the interest of the majority of the community.

Mogensen, however, was also using the topic of chronological sequence as an opportunity to riff on some of the zoning history of Ann Arbor. First, he said, it was thought to be beneficial for students to be able to live off campus – so the R4C zoning district was created, which he suggested stood for “residential for cash.” When matter-of-right apartment buildings started to get built, he said, historic districts were established to preserve the character of the neighborhood. The zoning, together with the historic districts, combined to allow students to live off campus in multi-unit houses in a way that preserved the neighborhoods.

Mogensen urged the council to approve Zingerman’s proposal, but asked councilmembers to reflect on what might happen several years down the road. What if the Ann Arbor Public Schools decided that Community High School – on the property adjoining Zingerman’s – was no longer needed? What if that parcel, too, became a part of a huge Zingerman’s project?

Thomas Partridge drew a connection to the project and the need for increased affordable housing and a transportation system that so that Zingerman’s workers would have a place to live and a way to get to work.

Jared Belka, part of Zingerman’s legal team, spoke to the issue of the brownfield redevelopment plan. He described Zingerman’s total investment in the project as amounting to $6.7 million. He reviewed with the council how the brownfield application was being made under the provision that allowed for redevelopment of functionally obsolete buildings. The plan would cover up to $817,000 in eligible activities, Belka said, including site preparation [$534,800], demolition [$100,000], infrastructure improvements [$41,300] and lead and asbestos abatement [$25,000].

Also a part of Zingerman’s legal team, Gary Bruder indicated that the reason Zingerman’s was applying for brownfield financing was that the project is very expensive because it’s being undertaken in a historic district. But Zingerman’s is committed to Ann Arbor, he said, and to that site in particular. They’ll be using a surgical, even “micro-surgical” process in the construction, Bruder added. A specific example is that they’ll use pile and timber lagging in the course of construction, he said.

Singleton returned to the podium for the second public hearing, on the brownfield plan, to reiterate her earlier point about past growth at Zingerman’s and to suggest that in the next five years, they expected to add as many as 65 more jobs, having added 35 over the previous five years. She also mentioned the philanthropic work done by Zingerman’s, having founded Food Gatherers and the Delonis Community Kitchen, and donating 10% of profits to local nonprofit organizations. Singleton said she realized that the tax capture mechanism of brownfield development was not popular with some in the community, but she pointed to the return to the city’s nonprofit community as something that helped to counterbalance that.

Zingerman’s: Council Deliberations

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) led off deliberations on the brownfield plan, which had been reordered at the start of the meeting to appear first on the agenda. She urged support of the plan, saying Zingerman’s is an excellent corporate citizen, noting that they gave back to the community. They are good neighbors with the North Central Property Owners Association and the Old Fourth Ward, she said. Zingerman’s is the second most-requested location when visitors are seeking directions, she said – first is the University of Michigan hospital. The brownfield plan would allow Zingerman’s to stay in the city, she said.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) described the Zingerman’s project as exactly the kind of project meant for non-environmental brownfield plans. He noted how there were a lot of things going on in a tight space.

Margie Teall (Ward 4) echoed the sentiments of Smith and Hohnke.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) said that as a member of the brownfield committee, he supported the plan because the buildings in question were functionally obsolete. He also noted that the implementation of stormwater detention is an important use of the tax credits.

Kunselman also reflected on the fact that Zingerman’s had existed for 28 years – he remembered a time when it was not there. He’d attended Community High School, before Zingerman’s was located there, and noted that it was not as “likeable” an area as it is now. He recalled how the entire area had been planned for urban renewal – everything had been planned for demolition. Alluding to Jim Mogensen’s speculation that Community High might be eliminated by the school system, Kunselman said that there was active speculation when he was in school there that the school would be eliminated, and fortunately, that had not taken place.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve Zingerman’s brownfield plan.

Deliberations on the site plan were brief. Sabra Briere (Ward 1) acknowledged that Zingerman’s was a valued community member. She noted that it was a sensitive site plan for a difficult site.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve Zingerman’s site plan.

While the site plan and the brownfield plan for Zingerman’s were before the city council for consideration as a standard part of the approval process, a third resolution fell outside that process. The measure called upon the city’s historic district commission to take note of the city council’s support of the Zingerman’s project:

RESOLVED, That City Council respectfully requests that the Historic District Commission consider this resolution during its deliberations as some evidence that the Zingerman’s Deli site expansion will be of substantial benefit to the Ann Arbor community; and

RESOLVED, That City Council directs the City Clerk to transmit this resolution to the Historic District Commission.

In deliberations on the resolution, Christoper Taylor (Ward 3) noted that in order for the project to move forward and grant a notice to proceed, the city’s historic district commission must reach the conclusion that the project will be a substantial benefit to the community. Taylor acknowledged that the HDC would come to its own conclusions on the matter, but contended that the city council, as elected representatives of the citizens of Ann Arbor, is competent to speak to the issue of what constitutes a benefit to the community.

So the resolution, Taylor contended, seeks to “affirm for all the world, not that it requires our affirmation, but nonetheless” that it’s the HDC that will make the determination on the community benefit. But the resolution also seeks to affirm, he continued, that it’s the city council’s judgment that the proposal constitutes a substantial benefit to the community.

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) echoed the sentiments of Taylor and noted the “iconic” status of the business as expressed during the public hearing. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) indicated that when asked what would happen if the project did not go through, Zingerman’s had indicated that they would have to move from that location. Smith said that would be devastating to the area, but that Zingerman’s would be fine – their fans would follow them, she said.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to pass the resolution communicating to the historic district commission the council’s support of Zingerman’s.

Union Bargaining

The city council also communicated a clear message to its firefighter and police unions, with whom the city is currently bargaining.

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2)

Before the council were labor agreements with two other groups – the Teamsters civilian supervisors and the Teamsters police professional assistants. That added to bargained changes with the police deputy chiefs union that were approved at the council’s previous meeting on July 6. All three agreements reflected cost savings to the city through greater contributions by union members to health and retirement benefits and no increase in wages.

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who chairs the city council’s labor committee, indicated that the previous council meeting had run so late [concluding just past 1 a.m.] that he did not think many people noticed the approval of the agreement with the police deputy chiefs union.

From The Chronicle’s report of the July 6 meeting:

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) said that as chair of the council’s labor committee, he was pleased to see the agreement and the resolution come forward. The terms provide savings to the city, he said, specifically in the area of increasing their own contributions to health care benefits. The health care plan they were voting on, Rapundalo said, is the same one enjoyed by the city’s non-union workers, with the same contribution level. Rapundalo also highlighted the fact that there’ll be an increase in the pension contribution made by employees and no across-the-board increase in wages.

Rapundalo thanked members of the union for stepping up and making sacrifices to help the city work within its budgetary constraints.

Ann Arbor is not unique in the need to achieve savings, Rapundalo reminded his council colleagues. He ticked through several other Michigan cities where safety services personnel had accepted significant percentage decreases in total benefits.

With the council’s approval of the two additional bargained agreements, with similar terms to the previous one, Rapundalo made the implicit message to the police and firefighter unions explicit. From the position statement by the council’s labor committee:

Currently, the firefighters, the police officers and the police command officers pay only a deductible of $250 per person or $500 per family. They do not pay a monthly premium or co-insurance. The new plans ratified tonight include an increased deductible, a 20% co-insurance and the option of a monthly premium for lower deductibles and out of pocket maximums.

We are hopeful that negotiations with the remaining groups will be successful and lead to the type of savings that other bargaining units have already achieved and ratified. However, if negotiations are unsuccessful, we are supportive of staff pursuing Act 312 binding arbitration to resolve these contracts.

The collective bargaining units which have not yet ratified contracts should be aware of the current economic conditions facing the City and we hope they will act accordingly. We encourage all members of the remaining bargaining units to become more engaged in their respective negotiations and especially in learning the specific details of what is being bargained on their behalf.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve the agreements with the Teamsters civilian supervisors and the Teamsters police professional assistants.

Crosswalks: Pedestrian Ordinance

Before the council for its second reading was a proposed change to the pedestrian crosswalk ordinance.

Before the change, it read:

[Old Language] 10:148. Pedestrians crossing streets.
(a) No pedestrian shall cross a street at a location other than at a crosswalk into which vehicle traffic is then restricted by a traffic control device unless such crossing may be done safely and without interfering with motor vehicle and bicycle traffic on that street.
(b) When traffic-control signals are not in place or are not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way, slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield, to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a crosswalk when the pedestrian is on the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling or when the pedestrian is approaching so closely from the opposite half of the roadway as to be in danger, but a pedestrian shall not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into a path of a vehicle that is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.

The ordinance revision provides greater protection for pedestrians approaching crosswalks. The revision requires motorists to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians not just in crosswalks, but also approaching them. Previous language was stricken, which limited the requirement on motorists to yield only to pedestrians in the half of the roadway on which the vehicle is traveling.

In the course of deliberations, the “yield” language was strengthened to include “stop.” Additional language amended at the council table is in italics.

[New Language] 10:148. Pedestrians crossing streets.
(a) When traffic-control signals are not in place or are not in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop and yield the right-of-way to every pedestrian approaching or within a crosswalk.
(b) A pedestrian shall not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into a path of a vehicle that is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.
(c) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

The ordinance change came at least in part due to advocacy from Ann Arbor resident Matt Grocoff, who contacted Ward 5 councilmembers Mike Anglin and Carsten Hohnke as early as Jan. 9, 2009 alerting them to the relatively weak protections that Ann Arbor’s ordinance provided to pedestrians, compared with other communities. From an email he sent to them and posted on the Washtenaw Biking and Walking Coalition‘s GoogleGroup:

The recent conversation about Roundabouts and neighborhood Mini-Roundabouts raised questions about pedestrian crosswalk and cyclist safety at both types of roundabouts. Roundabouts have been proven to be among the safest traffic tools available.

However, I strongly urge that these conversations MUST include revising the current Ann Arbor pedestrian right-of-way ordinance. Without absolute pedestrian right-of-way and strict enforcement of the rule, NO crosswalk, roundabout, or any other traffic device will make our roads as safe as those in other states. [...]

The fact is, Ann Arbor’s ordinance does not give true right-of-way to pedestrians. It is overly broad, complex, and ambiguous. When read carefully, drivers need to yield to pedestrians only if they are about to hit them.

In communities with clearly stated rules (Essex, NJ; Sarasota, FL; Boulder, CO, the entire State of California, Seattle, Portland, etc), cars come to a FULL STOP when a pedestrian APPROACHES a crosswalk in a roundabout or mid-roadway.

Crosswalks: Public Comment

Kathy Griswold spoke specifically about the mid-block crosswalk at King Elementary School, which she has for more than a year advocated be moved to a four-way stop intersection. She reviewed the history and work of the Transportation Safety Committee, which had evaluated the King School crossing. She indicated that the project had been engineered, funded, and staked out, with part of the expense for an asphalt path to be provided by a $500 contribution from an anonymous donor. She characterized the halt to the project as due to “good-old boy cronyism.”

On the more general issue of the proposed crosswalk ordinance, Griswold said during the public hearing that she fully supported it, but noted that she’d been unable to read the text of the proposed ordinance online as of 10 a.m. that morning. [According to the city clerk's office, the issue related to how that agenda item was submitted to the online Legistar system by the community services department – it had been marked as "not viewable via the web." By 2 p.m. the status of the item had been changed by the clerk's office to be visible.]

But Griswold likened the ordinance to giving a kid a bicycle and telling them we’d buy them a helmet later. She called for greater attention to sight-line issues at intersections and at other points along the roadway. Sight-lines, she said, can be obstructed by vegetation as well as utility boxes. A specific example she gave of utility boxes causing sight-line problems is eastbound Glazier Way at Huron Parkway.

Calling the council’s attention to the crosswalks like the one at State and William was Jim Mogensen during the public hearing. He said that due to limitations on his mobility, he only crossed when the walk signal indicated it was okay for him to go. But at that intersection, he pointed out, the walk signal coincided with a conflicting left-turn arrow for motorists. [A related column on the timing of walk signals was published almost two years ago in The Chronicle: "Column: Waiting Too Long for the Go"]

Kris Talley of the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition speaks in favor of the pedestrian ordinance.

Speaking during the public hearing on behalf of the Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition, board member Kris Talley indicated the group had been working on the issue for more than a year. She pointed the council to a video that they’d created to illustrate what motorist behavior is like towards pedestrians who are trying to enter crosswalks. What had been particularly striking, Talley said, was a forum attended by city transportation staff, a city attorney, a police officer and advocates for non-motorized transportation where there’d been a lack of consensus about what was required by the city’s current pedestrian ordinance – for pedestrians and motorists alike. The proposed revision, she said, is language that makes crosswalks meaningful.

Crosswalks: Council Deliberations – Stop versus Yield

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who co-sponsored the ordinance change along with mayor John Hieftje, led off deliberations by saying that the change had come about through their work with a number of city staff and community members. He characterized the ordinance as one tool among many to help improve the environment for pedestrians in Ann Arbor – other tools include targeted enforcement, education, and engineering solutions [e.g., traffic islands].

Under the current ordinance, Hohnke said, a pedestrian has to actually “take ownership” of the crosswalk by entering it, before a motorist is required to yield. Hohnke described the video, to which Kris Talley had alluded during her remarks, as “scary to see.” He talked about how it depicts people trying to cross streets around Ann Arbor with motorists failing to yield and included images of young children dashing across the street after first hesitating but noticing other kids in their group crossing.

Hohnke identified the specific challenges that they had to work through as: (i) ambiguity – how do you know when someone is approaching a crosswalk? and (ii) change in culture – how are motorists supposed to know something different is expected? He said they’d concluded that the kind of ambiguity that might be present was no different from other kinds of ambiguity in traffic laws – like that associated with yellow lights, he said. And the changes in behavior that will be required, he concluded, would likely be similar to the adjustments that are necessary when a new stop sign is installed somewhere. He thanked the WBWC for their work on the issue.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) noted that she’d seen people trying to cross Plymouth Road – they know they have the right-of-way, but nobody stops. How will we get them to stop?

Chief of Ann Arbor police, Barnett Jones, told Briere that they’d need to “hit the community hard” with education. He said he would actually prefer language that was somewhat more blunt than “yield,” saying that the interpretation of “stop” is universal and clear.

Jones then cited the Canadian cultural practice of pedestrians standing on the curb and simply pointing to the cross walk, which prompted motorists to stop for them. The remark had earned a thumbs-up from Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who is a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen. Jones said it was important that citizens are “not playing Frogger” trying to cross the roadways.

Hieftje noted that the educational effort was made difficult by the fact that half the motorists on Ann Arbor roadways at any given time do not live in Ann Arbor.

Margie Teall (Ward 4) asked from a motorist’s perspective whether the new law meant they would need to yield to pedestrians at the second crosswalk of a four-way stop if they’d already begun through the intersection – she noted that at an intersection like Forest and South University Avenue, the pedestrians just “stream across.” Jones indicated that yes, you need to yield in that situation. Hohnke also pointed out that the new ordinance applies to crosswalks were there is no traffic control device.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) picked up on the remark by the police chief to the effect that the chief would prefer the ordinance say “stop” and pointed out that the current ordinance had similar language, which the revision proposed to strike: “slowing down or stopping if need be to so yield.”

Kunselman proposed that the new ordinance be amended to include the “slowing down or stopping” language. Hieftje was not inclined to entertain the possibility of changing the language, saying that he and Hohnke, along with the WBWC and the city attorney’s office, had worked on it. Rapundalo weighed in for keeping things simple. He didn’t see the need for “stopping or slowing down” if that’s what “to yield” means. Teall contemplated removing “yield” and simple using “slowing down or stopping.”

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) responding to Hieftje’s remarks, said that just because the language was vetted didn’t mean it isn’t ambiguous. She focused away from “yield” to the question of “approaching,” asking how close someone needed to be to the crosswalk to be considered to be “approaching” it. Hieftje responded by saying that under the old ordinance, a pedestrian would have to “dance out into the intersection” in order for a motorist to be required to yield. He contended that “approaching” isn’t ambiguous.

Rapundalo inveighed against “overthinking” the question, saying that currently “the car rules” and the ordinance should simply state that the pedestrian gets the right-of-way, period. There should not be language available, he said, that would allow a motorist to “worm their way out of it.” He concluded that no further massaging of the language was necessary. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) said she’d been impressed by her visit to Calgary nine months ago, when she’d been a curb and a car had stopped for her as a pedestrian, even though the car had a green light. Briere echoed Rapundalo’s sentiments.

Higgins then brought forward an amendment that won the day, which she suggested reflected the council’s real intent: insert “stop and” before “yield.” The resulting line, which Hohnke accepted as a friendly amendment, reads: “the driver of a vehicle shall stop and yield the right-of-way to every pedestrian approaching or within a crosswalk.”

Outcome: The council unanimously adopted the pedestrian ordinance requiring motorists to stop for pedestrians approaching crosswalks.

Downtown Liquor Licenses

Before the city council were two recommendation to the Michigan Liquor Control Commission that downtown development district liquor licenses be approved for two downtown businesses: @Burger, which will open at 505 E. Liberty St.; and Revive, located on the ground floor of Zaragon Place at 619 E. University.

The liquor licenses were recommended under Public Act 501 MCL 436.1521A(1)b, which enabled the MLCC to grant additional licenses to businesses located in development districts.

The city council’s liquor license review committee consists of Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and Tony Derezinski (Ward 2).

From Chronicle coverage of the city council’s May 17, 2010 meeting:

Before the council was a resolution to approve issuance of a downtown development district liquor license to the New York Pizza Depot. It came before the council on a 2-1 vote from the council’s liquor license review committee. Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who chairs that council committee, indicated that he had been the dissenting vote and would not be supporting the issuance of the license. He noted that such licenses are meant to be an economic development tool and that he had tried to make his decisions on such licenses consistent across applications.

Specifically, such licenses are meant to provide a benefit to the community. In the case of the New York Pizza Depot, he contended, the petitioner could not show any anticipated growth in employment due to the issuance of the license. In addition, Rapundalo said, a consideration for issuance was the location – is it unique? The existing density of licenses in the area, he said, did not indicate to him a dire need for an establishment of that kind.

Liquor: Council Deliberations

At the request of Mike Anglin (Ward 5), representatives from @Burger gave a presentation to the council on how the business would work at the East Liberty location.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the recommendations that @Burger and Revive be granted downtown development district liquor licenses.

Human Services Funding

Before the council were the specific allocations to various nonprofits providing human services funding for FY 2011. The city funds for the allocations were approved as part of the city’s FY 2011 budget, which was adopted at the city council’s May 17, 2010 meeting.

The city allocates funding to these nonprofits based on a formal request for proposals (RFP). The RFP for this year’s funding cycle, as well as for last year’s funding, was issued in January 2009. The RFP indicated that the funding would be allocated for both FY 2010 and FY 2011. A total of 47 nonprofits applied, making 67 proposals for grant funding totaling $3,773,435.

Making the recommendations was the human services review committee – a nine-member body consisting of three members appointed by the Ann Arbor city council, three members from the Urban County and three community development staff members. In addition to making recommendations for the city’s allocation of human services funding, the review committee made recommendations on county funds as well as HUD’s community development block grants (CDBG).

          City of Ann Arbor

$  25,500 Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living, Inc.
    5,850 Ann Arbor YMCA
   80,750 Avalon Housing, Inc.
   20,000 Barrier Busters Action Group
    9,000 Big Brothers Big Sisters of Washtenaw County
   12,100 Fr. Patrick Jackson House (CSS)
   10,000 The Oaks (CSS)
   22,000 Maximizing the Independence (CSS)
    6,300 Emergency Food Program (CSS)
   17,550 Employment Skills/Goal Setting Workshops (CSS)
   50,000 Neighborhood Senior Services (CSS)
  210,000 Child Care Network
   20,400 Preventing Evictions (CAN)
   23,800 School Comes First! Hikone and Green Baxter (CAN)
    8,500 Food & Health Care Hikone and Green Baxter (CAN)
    8,500 Community Housing Alternatives
   19,295 COPE
   38,250 Domestic Violence Project, Inc.
   26,076 Family Learning Institute
  123,200 Food Gatherers
   13,200 HIV/AIDS Housing Assistance Program (HIV/AIDS RC)
    5,000 Harm Reduction Program (HIV/AIDS RC)
   25,000 Home of New Vision
   38,500 Interfaith Hospitality Network of Washtenaw Co.
   10,000 Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County
   73,000 Legal Services of South Central Michigan
   34,000 Housing Supports Team (MAP)
   18,121 Representative Payee (MAP)
   38,250 Packard Health Inc.
   15,000 Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan
   10,000 Meal Delivery to Under Age 60 (Meals on Wheels)
   16,000 Weekend Meal Delivery (Meals on Wheels)
   16,250 UM Nurse Managed Centers/Maple Meadows
   24,000 UM Housing Bureau for Seniors
   19,500 The Student Advocacy Center of Michigan
   30,000 The Women's Center of Southeastern Michigan
  117,700 Washtenaw County CSTS/Project Outreach (PORT)
   27,500 Washtenaw Literacy  

1,268,092 SUBTOTAL
    7,652 Human Service Contingency  

1,275,744 TOTAL

CDBG Public Service Funds

$  40,885 Northfield Human Services
   51,700 Ozone House, Inc.
   58,300 Shelter Association Service Center (SAWC)
  151,015 Night Shelter Program (SAWC)
   32,500 Delonis Center Health Clinic (SAWC)
    8,600 SOS Community Center

  343,000 TOTAL      

Washtenaw County General Funds

   46,400 Housing Crisis Services (SOS)
   13,200 Homeless School-Aged Children's Program (SOS)
   20,000 The Corner Health Center
   20,400 Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels

  100,000 TOTAL

-

Human Services: Public Comment and Deliberations

Jim Mogensen’s red ribbon presentation has become an annual event associated with the allocation of human services funding. It includes the unfurling of a red ribbon as a bar in a bar chart representing the rest of the city’s budget excluding human services allocations. As the ribbon is unwound and stretches across the council chambers, the point is illustrated that the amount spent on human services is relatively small.

Coverage of last year’s red ribbon presentation: “Ann Arbor Allocates Human Services Funding.”

Though Mogensen attended the council meeting, he did not make the red ribbon presentation this year. When The Chronicle conveyed its disappointment after the meeting, Mogensen accepted the message with typical good cheer.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved its human services allocations.

Library Lot

Background for some public comment and councilmember communication at the meeting is the issue of what, if anything, should be built on top of the city-owned Library Lot – currently the construction site for an underground parking structure. The city issued a request for proposals last year, with the idea that if one of the proposals were approved, the underground garage design could be tweaked to accommodate certain design features.

Alan Haber addresses the council on the topic of the Library Lot.

The responses were all presented in a public forum, and the committee tasked with reviewing them subsequently winnowed them down to two proposals. Along the way, a citizen-generated proposal for a community commons was eliminated from further consideration, then added back to the pool, then finally eliminated. The two finalist proposals selected by the review committee were for hotel/conference center projects.

The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority authorized money to hire a consultant to evaluate the financial merits of the two proposals, but that consultant has not been hired. The committee has not met in several months. The window of opportunity to make any design tweaks in the underground parking garage passed back in the spring, and the sense of urgency that drove the committee’s initial work has ebbed. A starting point for Chronicle coverage: “Hotel/Conference Center Ideas Go Forward.”

Library Lot: Public Comment

Addressing the city council during public commentary reserved time was Alan Haber, who had helped put together the proposal for a community commons on the Library Lot. He ticked through a number of specific questions for the council:

1. Will you call on the advisory committee to deliver its report?
2. Will you allow the city council to consider the proposal for the community commons?
3. Will you call for public hearings on the best use of the Library Lot?
4. Do you think that paving the top of the garage for use as a surface parking lot is the best use of the land?
5. Will you consider directing the DDA to re-allocate the bond funds allocated for paving the lot for landscaping materials like earth and bulbs?
6. Will you consider the idea of a conservancy for a community commons, which would be the entity charged with the maintenance of the commons?

Library Lot: Update from Council

During his communications, Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who chairs the RFP review committee, gave an update on progress. He reviewed a recent update he’d given about a month ago at the council’s June 7, 2010 meeting. From The Chronicle’s report of that meeting:

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) responded to Haber’s comments on the Library Lot by describing the process as being in a “holding pattern.” The committee had been prepared to engage a consultant to assist in the review of the two finalist proposals, and the potential consultant had been reviewed by city administrator Roger Fraser and executive director of the DDA Susan Pollay, but they’d stopped short of signing a contract with the consultant. An unanticipated change in personnel within the consultant’s organization had led them to re-evaluate the pool. Rapundalo said it was unfortunate that Fraser himself was not there at the meeting to provide more details.

At Monday’s meeting, Rapundalo indicated that concerns centered on the “glitch” that had arisen on the consultant’s part – the staffing change – had now been eliminated. They were in discussions with the consultant to develop a work plan, he said, and they’d determined that the DDA would also use an intern to provide additional comparative analysis. In the coming week, Rapundalo said, they would sit down with the two Library Lot finalists, Valiant and Acquest, and “with a little bit of luck,” he concluded, by late August the committee would be able to pick things back up and continue their work.

At a recent candidate forum, Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) expressed the view that the community conversation should begin anew with a completely clean slate.

Floods

A couple of items related to the impact of heavy rains in the area were brought up during the July 19 meeting.

Floods: Task Force for Bryant Neighborhood?

Speaking on behalf of the Community Action Network (CAN), during public commentary reserved time, Joan Doughty requested that the city council appoint a task force to address flooding in the the Bryant neighborhood. She asked that the charge of the task force specifically be to identify a remediation plan and a funding source. She allowed that nobody on the city council was responsible for causing the flooding, but noted that it was a long-standing and frequent problem. She cited the recollection of a civil engineer with the city 20 years ago who said it was already a problem back then.

Flooding is not a rare event in the neighborhood, Doughty said, but rather happens with every heavy rain, several times per month. She noted that Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) had some experience dealing with similar issues in the Orchard Hills neighborhood, while allowing that every neighborhood is unique. The Bryant neighborhood, she said, had lacked a political voice up to now.

Previous Chronicle coverage of the Bryant neighborhood flooding issue: “Bryant Neighbors Dig into Drainage” and “Water Main Project Set for Bryant Area.”

Floods: Insurance Board of Review

Also tangentially related to floods and heavy rains was confirmation of Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) as a member of the city’s insurance board of review. At the city council’s previous meeting, there had been a call for a council volunteer to serve on the city’s board of insurance administration – a three-person body consisting of the city treasurer and two councilmembers. Rapundalo volunteered at the last meeting to accept the mayor’s nomination and to join his Ward 2 colleague, Tony Derezinski, on the board.

Before the council on Monday night was confirmation of Rapundalo’s nomination.

The function of the board is to supervise the city’s self-insurance fund, to review all employee worker’s disability compensation claims and to handle any claims by citizens filed against the city.

The board’s composition is governed by chapter 8 of the city code, which addresses the organization of boards and commissions:

1:193. Board of Insurance Administration.
The Board of Insurance Administration shall consist of 2 members of Council appointed by the City Council, and the City Treasurer, ex officio. Said board shall supervise the self-insurance fund of the city, also referred to as the risk fund of the city, shall make recommendations concerning the actuarial sufficiency of said fund and the investment of accumulated reserves.

The board meets on the fourth Thursday of every month, so its next meeting is July 22. At that meeting the board will hear claims from residents on Iroquois Place, who experienced backups of sewage in their basements as a result of the heavy rains in early June of this year.

State law lays out the specific conditions that must be met to overcome governmental immunity for sewage backups:

(3) If a claimant, including a claimant seeking noneconomic damages, believes that an event caused property damage or physical injury, the claimant may seek compensation for the property damage or physical injury from a governmental agency if the claimant shows that all of the following existed at the time of the event:
(a) The governmental agency was an appropriate governmental agency.
(b) The sewage disposal system had a defect.
(c) The governmental agency knew, or in the exercise of reasonable diligence should have known, about
the defect.
(d) The governmental agency, having the legal authority to do so, failed to take reasonable steps in a
reasonable amount of time to repair, correct, or remedy the defect.
(e) The defect was a substantial proximate cause of the event and the property damage or physical injury.

Previous Chronicle coverage of the drain disconnect program, which is intended to ameliorate the basement sewage backup problem: “Drain Disconnect Time for Homeowners.” Ann Arbor has separate sanitary and stormwater sewers systems. Under the disconnect program, houses that have storm drains connected to the sanitary sewer are connected to the stormwater sewer system instead.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved Rapundalo as a member of the insurance board, with the mayor thanking Rapundalo for stepping up to serve even while his other committee obligations were already heavy.

Energy Coordinator

Before the council was a $260,000 contract with Clean Energy Coalition (CEC), an Ypsilanti-based nonprofit, to hire a community energy program coordinator. The coordinator, to be hired by CEC with input from city staff, will be supervised by Andrew Brix, the city’s energy programs manager.

The contract also includes technical assistance from CEC to a community energy financing program such as a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program. The funds for the contract come from a U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) worth $1,243,400.

Outcome: The council approved the contract without discussion.

Clean Communities

Before the council was an amendment to the city’s solid waste management code related to regulations on trash left outside. As the cover memo describes it, this is the ordinance used to compel clean up after parties:

Community Standards officers often use this ordinance to compel the clean-up of any type of solid waste strewn about on the exterior premises of a property. Solid waste includes, but is not limited to, party-related debris, paper, cardboard, building materials, appliances, and other solid waste.

The substantive change to the ordinance was laid out by Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). It was motivated by situations where there is a rental property, and it is tenants who have strewn the waste. Many landlords require tenants to pay fines associated with tickets issued under the ordinance. The fines are tiered based on the number of offenses at a property. However, a current tenant may not be guilty of every prior offense resulting in an increased fine amount. That inherent unfairness, said Taylor, can result in a “judicial downcharging” with lessor fines being imposed than they would otherwise.

So the amendment prevents landlords from requiring tenants to pay any fine amounts due to offenses committed prior to their own tenancy at the property [emphasis added]:

(e)  No property owner, landlord, or agent who incurs fines and costs for a violation of this section shall require tenant(s) or occupant(s) to pay fines and costs for or reimburse the owner, landlord, or agent for payment of fines and costs, except in keeping with the following requirements:
For a first violation within the period of time that the tenant(s) or occupant(s) reside(s) on the property, the owner, landlord, or agent shall not require the tenant(s) or occupant(s) to pay more than $200.
For a second violation within the period of time that the tenant(s) or occupant(s) reside(s) on the property, the owner, landlord, or agent shall not require the tenant(s) or occupant(s) to pay more than $400.
(3)     For each additional or subsequent offense within the period of time that the tenant(s) or occupant(s) reside(s) on the property, the owner, landlord, or agent shall not require the tenant(s) or occupant(s) to pay more than $1,000.

Outcome: After brief discussion, the council unanimously approved the amendment to the city’s solid waste code.

Rail Transportation

Added to the council’s agenda the same day as the meeting was a resolution expressing support for development of high-speed and intercity passenger rail service in Michigan, as well as the city’s interest in participating in a municipal rail caucus. The resolution had been requested from Ann Arbor by the The Michigan Municipal League (MML). The league is trying to enlist the support of cities located on three Amtrak routes for railroad initiatives.

Outcome: The resolution expressing support of rail transportation was passed unanimously.

Rail Transportation: Public Comment

Jim Mogensen addressed the council at the conclusion of its meeting on the topic of transportation. Several years ago, he said, the Federal Transit Administration had issued a report on the civil rights implications of rail versus bus service, he said. There is no plan for what happens to people who live on MacArthur Boulevard or other areas of Ypsilanti, he said.

There’s an Aug. 3 ballot initiative in Ypsilanti to fund transportation, he said, but it “doesn’t count” – the state attorney general has ruled that the proposal must be voted on during a general election, not a primary election. Still, he said, if it fails, people might come to the conclusion that the voters have spoken.

In the June 23, 2010 AATA board meeting packet, he said, there was an indication that $75,000 of Ann Arbor millage money had been allocated for the commuter express service to Ann Arbor from Chelsea and Canton. What, he asked, are the demographic differences between Canton and Ypsilanti? This is something that will “vex this community, if we don’t get it right,” Mogensen cautioned.

He noted that the AATA had a large public engagement process going on, but feared that we would find ourselves in a situation where people don’t understand the impact that it will have if there is no bus service to Ypsilanti. He noted that everybody adjusts and everybody will try to figure out how to cope, and stressed that he is not against rail service. But there has to be both rail as well as bus service for those who use public transportation to get around, he suggested.

Other Comment and Communications

A variety of topics were brought up during the meeting.

Communication: Design Guidelines

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) indicated that the committee working on the design guidelines as part of the A2D2 downtown rezoning process was on schedule, had really gelled as a group and might even finish its work sooner than expected.

Communication: Streetlights

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) reported on a field trip at night he’d made with neighbors of the Brockman area to assess the initial result of a city program to deenergize some streetlights in order to save money. The measure was approved as part of the city’s FY 2011 budget, adopted in May 2010, and is expected to save around $120,000. The reaction of neighbors, Taylor said, was uniform: “They did not care for it.”

Communication: Sidewalk Repair

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) reads the city's public service ad about the sidewalk repair program from the Ann Arbor Observer.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) read aloud a letter from a somewhat dissatisfied constituent who had repaired their sidewalks in accordance with the city’s sidewalk repair program, but whose neighbors had not all complied.

Kunselman asked what the status of the sidewalk repair program is, noting that the city’s advertising in The Ann Arbor Observer seemed to provide conflicting information about when it ends – 2009 or 2010. Kunselman noted that citizens who complied with the city’s requirements to replace defective slabs are wondering why “scofflaws aren’t being held accountable.”

In response to Kunselman’s query, city administrator Roger Fraser indicated that the follow-up is in process.

Communication: Misc. from the City Administrator

City administrator Roger Fraser told the council that the city’s park advisory commission (PAC) would be hearing a presentation on Argo Dam at its Tuesday, July 20 meeting. The consent agreement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment, as well as the request for proposals on repair and reconstruction of the earthen berm, would be discussed, Fraser said.

Fraser also gave an update on the city hall construction site. The DDA Fifth and Division streetscape project had come through the section of Fifth where the building is located and improvement in appearance is significant, he said. Interior work on the new building is continuing, as well as work in the basement of the old Larcom building, he reported.

Comment: Resolution Against Arizona’s Immigration Law

During public commentary reserved time, Joseph Miriani criticized the council’s resolution, passed at its last meeting on July 6, which opposed the law recently passed by the state of Arizona. The Arizona law requires local law enforcement officials to investigate the immigration status of a person, when there is reasonable suspicion they are in the country unlawfully. Miriani noted that the law explicitly prohibits racial profiling, and noted that there’s a difference between people who legally immigrate – like Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) – and those who enter the county illegally.

Comment: Partridge

Thomas Partridge introduced himself as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for 18th District state Senate seat. He called for a “Washtenaw Promise” that would assure middle- and lower-income residents that they would be protected. He called on the city council to address significant issues like job creation, affordable housing, transportation, health care and education.

During his communications time, Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) indicated that Partridge’s comments had provoked a thought – there’s been a group studying the Washtenaw Avenue corridor with respect to transportation and development. The group includes Eric Mahler of the city’s planning commission, Derezinski said, as well as Washtenaw County planner Anya Dale, who was recently appointed to the board of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority.

Present: Stephen Rapundalo, Mike Anglin, Margie Teall, Sabra Briere, Sandi Smith, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Kunselman, Marcia Higgins, John Hieftje, Christopher Taylor, Carsten Hohnke.

Next council meeting: Aug. 5, 2010 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

Cecile Green blows air through a metal tube to fan a fire in an earth oven at the July 19 Re-Skilling Festival, organized by Transition Ann Arbor. Green taught a class in how to build these ovens, which are made of clay. She described this one as cupcake-sized. (Photo by the writer.)

“I want to demystify canning and make you feel powerful!” quipped Molly Notarianni, holding up a Mason jar full of jam. She was speaking to a group crammed into a room at the Rudolf Steiner High School, who’d come to learn about canning, oven building, medicinal plants and other skills of self-reliance.

This day-long event wasn’t just a dabbling into traditional domestic arts. Saturday’s Re-Skilling Festival – which drew about 150 people to Steiner’s bucolic campus on Pontiac Trail – fits into a broader effort, one that aims to strengthen the local economy and gird the community for a time of dramatically reduced resources.

Called Transition Ann Arbor, it’s led by a small group of residents who aren’t elected officials, aren’t business leaders, aren’t even all among the usual suspects of community activists. So who are they, and what exactly are they doing?

Transition Ann Arbor: The Beginnings

The Chronicle first heard of this effort late last year, as word spread that a Transition Towns training session would be held here in January. Though its focus is local, this is an international movement, started in Kinsale, Ireland by Rob Hopkins. He was teaching a permaculture course there several years ago and assigned a class project: Design a plan to move away from dependence on oil, and create a local culture of self-reliance. That project has now spawned initiatives in over two dozen communities worldwide, including Ann Arbor.

About 50 people turned out for the January session, which was facilitated by Michael Brownlee and Lynette Marie Hanthorn, who lead a similar effort in Boulder, Colo. Five people who attended that training – Jeannine Palms, Jeanne Mackey, Lisa Dugdale, Nate Ayers and Jeannine LaPrad  – formed a local “initiating group,” and since then have been chipping away at a Transition Towns plan that’s structured after popular 12-step programs, but focused on society’s “oil addiction.”

The assumption behind Transition Towns is that we’re reaching a convergence of three crises: 1) a moment when oil production can’t meet demand, forcing us to confront a future of dramatically lower energy use; 2) climate change, which requires a drastic reduction in carbon emissions; and 3) worldwide economic instability. The Transition Towns movement is all about preparing communities to retool for this future, and the 12-step program is an outline of how to do that.

Participants in a Transition Town meeting in May at the Ann Arbor Friends meeting house. (Photo by the writer.)

Understanding the 12 steps was the focus of a May 27 event The Chronicle attended, organized by the initiating group at the Ann Arbor Friends Meeting house on Hill Street. That’s where we first met Palms and Mackey, two of the group’s five members. When Palms, a preschool teacher who’s long been interested in sustainability issues, told us when she came across the Transition Towns concept “it seemed so right on.”

About a year ago, she joined a book discussion that Sustainable Ypsi was holding, focused on the Transition Handbook. Mackey, an instructional designer at the University of Michigan, eventually joined the discussion group, too. (Ypsilanti has its own Transition Town effort under way as well. Their initiating group meets at 10:30 a.m. on the fourth Friday of each month, at Beezy’s Cafe.)

The 12 Steps

So what are the 12 steps that Transition Ann Arbor is following, more or less? The steps are described in detail on the Transition Ann Arbor website, and the YouTube videos are posted there, featuring Hopkins talking about each step. In the simplest form, they are:

1. Set up a steering group (also called “initiating group”) and design its demise from the outset.
2. Raise awareness.
3. Lay the foundations.
4. Organize a “Great Unleashing.”
5. Form working groups.
6. Use open space technology.
7. Develop visible practical manifestations of the project.
8. Facilitate the “Great Reskilling.”
9. Build a bridge to local government.
10. Honor the elders.
11. Let it go where it wants to go.
12. Create an Energy Descent Plan.

There is certainly structure here, but there’s also a lot of latitude. That approach is actually part of the plan: Step #11 – “Let it go where it wants to go.” With the small group who gathered in May, Palms emphasized flexibility.

The program included a Q&A. One of the questions was how the Transition Towns model, which was first launched in a town of 6,000 people, could work in a city the size of Ann Arbor, with more than 100,000. Palms conceded that it might evolve into something different here, though she noted that there were Transition Towns in larger cities too, like Los Angeles. Maybe it will evolve into smaller neighborhood groups, she said.

A Transition Ann Arbor video viewing at Arbor Brewing Company in June. (Photo by the writer.)

The May meeting was one of four held that month to “raise awareness” (Step #2), with a repeat of that cycle of meetings in June, held at Arbor Brewing Company.

Also in June, three members of the initiating group – Palms, Mackey and Nate Ayers – addressed Step #4 (“Build a bridge to local government”) by meeting with city staff, Mayor John Hieftje, Anya Dale of the city’s environmental commission, and planning commissioner Kirk Westphal. In introducing the session, Matt Naud – the city’s environmental coordinator – said the environmental commission has a sustainability group that’s interested in these same issues. “I’ve always said, if residents are interested in working on something, we’re interested in supporting it,” Naud said.

Nate Ayers of Transition Ann Arbor gave a presentation about their efforts, emphasizing that “very much so, this is a social experiment.” A large part of the movement is focused on “relocalization”: 1) expanding local food, energy and goods production; 2) developing a local currency, like the Berkshire region in Massachusetts has done with its BerkShares system (or on a smaller scale, the local Dexter-Miller Community); 3) reducing energy consumption while improving environmental and social conditions; and 4) be a model community for these kinds of changes.

During a meeting last month at city hall, Nate Ayers of Transition Ann Arbor and Anya Dale of the Ann Arbor Environmental Commission listen to Kirk Westphal, a planning commissioner. (Photo by the writer.)

“I can’t really think of a better place than Ann Arbor to be a model,” said Ayers, an educator with the Ann Arbor Public Schools and founder of the Burns Park Green Energy Association.

In a discussion following the talk, Naud said the Transition Ann Arbor effort dovetails nicely with the 10 environmental goals that city council approved in 2007. Those goals include achieving local food sufficiency and 100% renewable energy. Naud offered to help by providing data and information – as an example, he said the city’s recently completed tree inventory included the locations of street trees with edible fruit, and those with medicinal uses, which might prove useful.

Hieftje offered to propose a resolution at city council supporting Transition Ann Arbor.

There was discussion about how people might react to the effort, with Naud pointing out that some residents might resist using a local currency or object to the assumption that oil production has reached its maximum supply – a concept known as “peak oil.” It’s important, he said, that people can get involved at different levels.

Jeannine Palms, a Transition Ann Arbor organizer who attended this city hall meeting, agreed that there could be different levels of buy-in. She said people could liken it to insurance – they’re preparing for self-sufficiency in case the crisis occurs.

Molly Notarianni, who manages the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, led a canning class at the July 19 Re-Skilling Festival, organized by Transition Ann Arbor. (Photo by the writer.)

What’s Next?

Sunday’s Re-Skilling Festival (Steps #8 and #10) was enough of a success that organizers hope to do a similar event in the fall. About 20 instructors covered topics that included keeping backyard chickens, darning socks, spinning and weaving, making medicine from plants, and heating water with solar power.

Transition Ann Arbor organizers are also forming work groups (Step #5) – the first two will likely be on food and energy, Ayers said. When the work groups take over, the initiating group will dissolve (Step #1).

Meanwhile, they’ll be working to get more people involved, and holding more events to raise awareness (Step #2). All of this is leading up to the “Great Unleashing” (Step #4), an event to mark a critical mass of involvement from the community. That will likely happen in six months or so, organizers say.

But nothing is set in stone, and the transition could occur in any number of ways. As Ayers told city staff in June, “Any sense of control is illusory.”

Looking north from the southwest corner of Main and William streets in downtown Ann Arbor at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Can you spot the evidence that Earth Hour is taking place? (Hint: Look closely at the street lights.)

This year, Earth Hour fell on Saturday between 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., so The Chronicle decided to head downtown and see how much impact this international event was having in Ann Arbor.

It was hard to see the dark.

Street lights were off along Main Street between William and Huron (three blocks), on Liberty between Main and Ashley (two blocks) and, somewhat oddly, only on the south side of Liberty between Fourth and Main. What this seemed to reveal more than anything is how bright the downtown area is without street lights.

We covered as much ground as possible during the 60 minutes of Earth Hour, an event designed to heighten awareness of global warming. In most places, it seemed like well-lit business as usual – certainly nothing as dramatic as what some cities around the world witnessed. Here’s a chronological sampling of what we saw.

8:40 p.m.: Lights on at the Ann Arbor District Library's downtown branch on Saturday night. The library closes at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

8:45 p.m.: This Fox News van was generating its own light as it sat parked on South State in front of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The news crew was on hand to cover UMMA's re-opening to the public, a 24-hour event which started at 6 p.m. Saturday.

8:50 p.m.: Looking into the new wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. The public opening of the museum's new expansion drew lots of people – and light.

9:11 p.m.: The entrance to UM's School of Natural Resources and Environment.

9:21 p.m.: Lights on at the Ann Arbor News building at Washington and Division, and at the 411 Lofts apartment building behind it.

9:25 p.m.: Looking west down Washington Street.

By this time it was cold and drizzling rain. We headed west toward Main, then north toward Huron. Just as we were wondering how many minutes remained in the hour, the street lights on Main flashed back on – 9:30 p.m., and Earth Hour was over for 2009.

Laura Russello, executive director at Michigan Peaceworks, presented background on the collaboration between the nonprofit she leads and Veterans for Peace on the Iraq Water Project.

Ann Arbor City Council meeting (March 2, 2009): Whatever chance for controversy that might have been present in the Ann Arbor’s City Council meeting agenda on Monday evening was eschewed in favor of values statements. These expressions of values were reflected in many of the agenda items themselves. We’ve organized our account of the meeting in terms of values related to the following topics: water, the arts, land, energy, history, and democracy.

Ann Arbor Value: Water

Iraq Water Project (Clean Water): As a part of the section of the agenda called “Introductions” that starts every council meeting, Laura Russello, executive director at Michigan Peaceworks, presented background on the collaboration between the nonprofit she leads and Veterans for Peace, who joined together to work on the Iraq Water Project. As a result of the destruction of much of Iraq’s infrastructure during the Iraq war, Russello said that only 1 in 3 Iraqis have access to clean water. The goal of the project is to restore access to clean water. So far the national organization has raised $200,000 to repair six water treatment facilities in Iraq, Russello said.

She explained that the goal of Michigan Peaceworks is to help involve the entire community in the project led by Veterans for Peace so that it becomes a “human-to-human” issue. To that end, a variety of events had been organized, continued Russello, including a showing of the movie “Flow” at Michigan Theater, a rally on the University of Michigan campus, op-ed pieces written for the Ann Arbor News, with door-to-door canvassing planned.

Members had a poster depicting a water filter of the sort that the Iraq Water Project is raising money to send to Iraq. It consists of a sediment filter, followed by a carbon filter, with sterilization achieved through an ultraviolet bulb. About 30 of the units have been sent so far.

After presentations made during the “Introductions,” councilmembers sometimes ask questions to elicit more detail from the presenters. Mayor John Hiefte stated that he knew something about water filters and queried Russello about the filter’s processing rate. Eight gallons a minute, she said.

Russello asked for council’s support of the resolution on their agenda, saying that an endorsement from city council would help lend the local effort credibility.

Later, during council deliberations on the resolution, Tony Derezinski  thanked Michigan Peaceworks and Veterans for Peace from his perspective as “a veteran of an earlier unpopular war” and said that he was pleased to support it. Hieftje said he really appreciated the fact that they came and talked to him about the project, saying that it can have an immediate impact on people’s lives.

Outcome: The resolution, which featured a “resolved” clause commending Michigan Peaceworks and Veterans for Peace for their work on the Iraq Water Project, was passed unanimously.

Dreiseitl Project for Municipal Center (Storm Water): During public commentary reserved time at the beginning of the meeting, Margaret Parker, chair of the Ann Arbor public art commission, spoke to the agenda item on  the professional services agreement with Herbert Dreiseitl to create a piece of public art for the new municipal building, which will integrate with the building’s storm water control system. The cost of the preliminary design is $77,000, which was on the agenda for authorization, with the project itself expected to cost around $700,000.

At a recent art commission meeting, some commissioners had expressed concern about some lack of support for the Dreiseitl project among the public. At its October 2008 meeting, there was some surprise expressed by commissioners about the large amount of money available to fund the project, as well as the rapid time line for the project’s selection. At a Sunday night council caucus in early February, Marcia Higgins had also expressed surprise at how much money had accumulated through the one-percent for art program, prompting her to wonder if a half-percent of all capital projects would be sufficient to meet the program’s goals.

Margaret Parker: Parker thanked the city council for its planning by putting the percent for art program in place and said that the Dreiseitl proposal was the first project to be funded through the program. She then gave some brief background on the mechanics of the funding, including the fact that funds from all capital projects that feed into the program can be pooled as long as they’re related to the same funding source. The funds need not be spent in the same year that they accumulate, she said, but they can’t be spend on anything other than public art.

She then began to walk council through the steps that led to the decision to commission Dreiseitl to create a storm water-based project for the new municipal center [which breaks ground in a few weeks, with preparations already underway around the Larcom Building.] First, she said, it was unanimously decided that the new municipal center was the place to focus time and funding. Second, the task force, consisting of many members of the community not on the art commission, had dtermined where in the municipal center the project would be sited. The site selected was the rain garden. With that, Parker’s time was up (three minutes is the time limit for public commentary), and she left the podium saying that she hoped council had read their “little packets and make the right decision.”

Councilmember Margie Teall said she was excited by the fact that Dreiseitl had agreed to do the project. Councilmember Carsten Hohnke said he’d seen a presentation when Dreiseitl was in Ann Arbor last year for the Huron River Watershed Council’s State of the Huron conference. He said it would bring storm water control out into the open and would thus be both educational as well as aesthetically pleasing art.

Outcome: Passed unanimously.

Ann Arbor Value: Art

State Funding: In voting to fund the design of Dreiseitl’s storm water-based art installation, council gave a thumbs up to both water and art. But it spent a fair chunk of time on the subject of just plain art. The topic was first mooted by Shary Brown during public commentary reserved time, who encouraged city council to pass the resolution on its agenda calling on Gov. Jennifer Granholm to maintain Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs funding at a level of $6.1 million in fiscal year 2010. The funding is in jeopardy as the state looks for ways to cover budget shortfalls.

Shary Brown: Brown introduced herself as director of the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, which will be 50 years old this summer. The organization also  sponsors the Townie Party preceding the fairs. She pointed out that the art fairs draw .5 million visitors to Ann Arbor each year, who spend $5 million on hotels, $25.3 million on dining and $48.7 million on shopping. It would be short-sighted, she said, for the state to cut funding to the arts.

Kenneth Fischer: Fischer introduced himself as president of the University Musical Society and a proud member of Tony Derezinski’s ward (Ward 2). He said he was there to support the resolution supporting arts funding. He drew a connection between state funding and federal funding, saying that when the federal government looks at state funding levels and and sees no money, it has a negative impact on the likelihood of federal funding. [The idea is that the feds prefer to allocate monies where there is matching local support.]

Fischer recounted how the Michigan Economic Development Corp. had used the 2006 visit from the Royal Skakespeare Co. to leverage the arts to entertain out-of-state CEOs. He cited an assessment by Mary Kramer of Crain’s Detroit Business, who had written that the MEDC had “hit a homerun” with its investment.

Councilmember Teall said she was happy to see the resolution come before council and that she hoped it helped change some minds in Lansing. Councilmember Hohnke encouraged the public to visit www.a2artsalliance.org and to look at the economic impact study to familiarize themselves with the impact of arts on the economy. It’s not direct, he allowed, but it’s significant.

Mayor Hieftje highlighted the language in the resolution, ticking through points like 2,600 jobs that are tied to the nonprofit arts sector and the $57 million in household income that the arts generate.

Councilmember Sandi Smith said that she did not envy Gov. Granholm’s position. She said that Ann Arbor was having difficulty, and in Lansing there would be a similar diffiulty. They’re going to have to go line by line, she said, and the arts seems easy to cut. She said it was ironic, because the state was giving money specifically for the arts through the Cool Cities program a few years ago. Continuing to fund the arts, she said, was going to help Michigan go forward.

Councilmember Stephen Rapundalo urged everyone who cares to put in a call, letter or email. [The website mentioned by Hohnke above provides a form for contacting Governor Granholm.] Rapundalo suggested contacting state Senate majority leader Tom George, saying that there are those who see the benefit from continuing to fund the arts. He said we need to get behind those folks.

Councilmember Mike Anglin stated his support of the resolution. He mentioned that the University of Michigan was going to be re-opening its art museum and urged citizens to contact their legislators.

Councilmember Derezinski said he saw some wonderful people at Monday’s meeting in support of the arts, like Margaret Parker and  Ken Fischer, a “resident of my ward” – an allusion to Fischer’s earlier statment that he was a proud member of Derezinski’s ward, which drew a few chuckles. Derezinski stated that the arts were a wonderful component of Ann Arbor that makes it unique.

Councilmember Sabra Briere was fairly brief. When they send this resolution off to Lansing, she said, they should remember that bread feeds our body, and roses feed our soul. Art, she said, is the roses. Briere was kind enough to send along to the The Chronicle the full text of the poem to which her remark alluded, “Bread and Roses” by James Oppenheim, published December, 1911 in American Magazine:

As we come marching, marching in the beauty of the day,
A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill lofts gray,
Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses,
For the people hear us singing: “Bread and roses! Bread and roses!”

As we come marching, marching, we battle too for men,
For they are women’s children, and we mother them again.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes;
Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!

As we come marching, marching, unnumbered women dead
Go crying through our singing their ancient cry for bread.
Small art and love and beauty their drudging spirits knew.
Yes, it is bread we fight for – but we fight for roses, too!

As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler – ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!

Outcome: Passed unanimously.

Ann Arbor Value: Energy

Burning Coal: Council had on its agenda a resolution stating the city of Ann Arbor’s opposition to the continued burning of coal to generate electricity. The resolution was recommended by the city’s energy commission, and public commentary included remarks from the chair of that committee, Robert Black, who asked for council’s support of it.

Robert Black: Black introduced himself as the chair of Ann Arbor’s energy commission and advocated for the elimination of the burning of coal to generate electricity. He stressed that there was a certain urgency to the issue, and said that the council’s stand was needed because of Ann Arbor’s role as leader. Ann Arbor  is being watched, said Black.  He pointed out that Dave Konkle, until recently the energy coordinator for the city of Ann Arbor, was in Washington D.C. working with international organizations on the issue. Black said that $20 billion goes out of the state to pay for energy.

Mayor Hieftje led off council deliberations by saying he believes that no more coal-fired plants should be built, and that there was no such thing as “clean coal.” The increased levels of mercury in Great Lakes fish, Hieftje said, were in large part due to the burning of coal. Given that Michigan has the 14th best wind resource in the country, Hieftje concluded that there was no need for the seven new coal-fired plants that were currently proposed.

Councilmember Briere noted briefly that the other side of burning coal is mining coal, which is itself a problem.

Outcome: Passed unanimously.

Earth Day, Earth Hour: Council considered a resolution endorsing Earth Hour, an initiative from the World Wildlife Fund that  asks all citizens, businesses, government agencies, and commercial and non-commercial establishments to turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. on Sat., March 28, 2009.

Councilmember Smith noted that the time specified was local time, and that Earth Hour would move progressively around the world. She said that it would include streetlights on Main Street plus the lights in city hall.

Councilmember Briere noted that the more lights that go off, the better the chance to see the sky.

Councilmember Marcia Higgins was concerned about the practical side of turning street lights off.  “Are we turning them all off? Have merchants been made aware?” The answers seemed to be “No” and “Yes,” respectively.

Councilmember Hohnke talked about the Earth Hour effort reflecting a “global vote” for global climate treaty negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009. [The Chronicle learned later that Hohnke is pursuing the possibility, via city staff, of getting data from DTE to measure the impact of Earth Hour locally.]

Mayor Hieftje said that when the lights did get turned off on Main Street for Earth Hour, it would represent an even further reduction from the already small amounts of  energy used  by the LED lighting system.

Outcome: Passed unanimously.

Ann Arbor Value: Land

Greenbelt: The city’s Greenbelt program stems from a millage passed by voters in 2003, which raised funds to purchase additional parkland and to preserve land within the greenbelt district. A central strategy in land preservation is through the purchase of development rights on working family farms. Before Monday’s council meeting, around 750 acres had been protected through the Greenbelt program. Tom Partridge is one of the program’s critics. During his turns at public commentary, he often calls for the money that is spent on greenbelt acquisitions to be spent on other areas instead. With a purchase of development rights for 146 acres through the Greenbelt program on council’s agenda, Partridge rose to comment, and revealed that he has not changed his mind on the question.

Tom Partridge: Partridge reaffirmed the need to stimulate the economy in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County, and southeast Michigan by taking steps to access federal stimulus money and other public funds. He called for directing public money away from buying up farmland, instead putting it towards a transportation system. He also called for reform of the general practice that puts conditions on certain pools of funding, restricting their use on capital projects as opposed to operational expenses.

Councilmember Hohnke said that the acquisition on the agenda meant that more than 400 acres of operating farmland between Ann Arbor and Dexter had been preserved. He described the acquisition as “going to the sweetspot for the vision of the greenbelt, and emphasized that Ann Arbor taxpayers contribute less than 50% of the cost, with the remaining percentage coming from federal taxes and Webster Township.

Mayor Hieftje put the land acquisition in the context of local agriculture becoming increasingly important.

Outcome: Passed unanimously.

Plastic Bags: Council had on its agenda for the third time a proposed ordinance that would ban the use of plastic bags by retail establishments – the bags with handles used to bag groceries, for example. One of the reasons for such a ban that has been cited by the proposed ordinance’s sole sponsor, Councilmember Stephen Rapundalo, is the litter stemming from such bags. As partly a litter issue, we group it in the “Land” section of the meeting report.

Rapundalo moved for a postponement to June 1 to allow city staff to have a little more time to take in information and to have a discussion with retailers. Rapundalo asked Bryan Weinert, the solid-waste coordinator for the city of Ann Arbor, to give an update on staff efforts. Weinert said that on March 22-23 staff would be meeting with retailers to get feedback on the already-drafted ordinance. He said there would be information on city’s website and a public information survey, acknowledging that there was some controversy surrounding the issue.  Weinert said that based on feedback from the public and merchants, staff would bring forward a recommendation. Weinert did not state what the range of possibilities for such a recommendation would be.

Outcome: Postponed for a third time by unanimous vote.

Solid Waste: As it relates to space in landfills, we include two resolutions regarding the new commercial recycling program in the section on “Land” values. The first of these resolutions was for a waste collection contract with Waste Management of Michigan not to exceed $900,000 per year, and the publication of the ordinance laying out the new franchise system for commercial recycling.

Councilmember Teall, who had worked on the development of the new commercial recycling program, called Bryan Weinert, the city’s solid-waste coordinator, to the podium. Weinert explained that the Waste Management contract addressed the refuse collection side of recycling.

Queried by Councilmember Higgins, Weinert said that to combine the recycling into a single stream where paper and other material was mixed together (for commercial or residential) would require upgrades to the materials recovery center, but that such an approach could eventually be rolled out and was a part of the solid waste plan.

Higgins said she’d received some calls from constituents concerned that moving to a national contract would push smaller operators out of business. Weinert said that an inventory of dumpsters was done and that there were only a very few dumpsters that were handled by anybody but the top three or four haulers. Higgins was given the assurance that businesses like 1-800-GOT-JUNK would continue to do what they do.

During deliberations on the ordinance, Councilmember Leigh Greden said that he thought it was amazing that in a fiscally challenging environment, the city was able to move forward with the commercial recycling initiative. He reiterated a sentiment he’d expressed at an earlier council meeting, when he said that the commercial recycling program was “one of the hallmark things we’ll do this year.” He concluded by saying, “This is an amazing feat.”

Mayor Hieftje said that the issue of low tipping fees in Michigan would need to be addressed, because that was what allowed Canada to dump garbage in Michigan cheaply.

Outcome: Unanimously passed.

R4C Zoning in the Central Area: The ordinance before council called for a direction to city planning staff to begin looking at zoning nonconformities in the central area of Ann Arbor and to work with the public to provide council with recommendations for potential ordinance changes to the residential districts within the the central area. It was brought for consideration by Councilmember Derezinski, who is council’s representative on the planning commission.

Councilmember Higgins expressed some concern that this new direction – together with the A2D2 initiative and the re-evaluation of area height and placement outside the central area –  meant that every piece of zoning legislation in the city was now under review. She wondered about the impact on staff and how the timing of the various initiatives would come together.

Jayne Miller, community area services director, said that for A2D2, there would be a council working session on Monday, March 9, 2009. At council’s March 16 meeting there would be a resolution to begin public process on area, height and placement outside the downtown, Miller said. Based on staff committments, Miller said she thought a committee could be assembled in the summer with work to begin in the fall.

For the work on area, height and placement, Mayor Hieftje announced that each ward needed a resident as a representative on the committee, and that councilmembers needed to identify a representative from their wards to join a collection of representatives from planning comission, city council, and commercial property owners. Hieftje asked councilmembers to move with haste, because the committee would be established at the next council meeting.

Outcome: Unanimously passed.

Ann Arbor Value: History

Ann Arbor District Library: The evening began with a presentation from the AADL about a historical collection of minutes from city council meetings dating from the early part of the 20th century. The Chronicle has already published a more detailed account of the historical online minutes project.

Women: In her communications to her council colleagues, Sabra Briere noted that March is Women’s History Month and briefly called their attention to two women: (i) Virginia Watts, who in 1878 was the first African-American woman to enroll at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1885, and (ii) Ella Bareis Prochnow of Ann Arbor, who in 1930 was the first woman in Michigan to own and manage an automobile dealership.

Ann Arbor Value: Democracy

Citizen Participation: On council’s agenda was a revision to the recently passed citizen participation ordinance, which requires developers to meet with residents in the vicinity of a proposed project early in the planning phase. The ordinance as originally passed allowed for no exceptions, and the revision called for exceptions to be granted for  single-family residential annexation and zoning petitions of less than two acres. During public commentary, Tom Partridge criticized what he saw as an attempt to curtail public participation.

Thomas Partridge: Partridge declared that he opposed the enactment of the ordinance and that he was opposed to all similar ordinances that curtailed public access. He said that it had been a theme of Hieftje’s administration to limit public commentary and to take up matters in closed-door sessions on subjects that should be laid out in detail. He called on council to enact an ethics policy for city government that addresses access by the public to public hearings. He said that public commentary should be possible without requesting the name, address, phone number and topic of speakers.

In the minimal deliberations on the revisions to the ordinance, Mayor Hieftje called the ordinance itself “revolutionary in Michigan,” saying that it goes a long way towards the goal of including the public. He stressed that the revision to the ordinance that night was  just a tweak.

Miscellaneous

Stadium Bridges: The topic of the safety of the Stadium Boulevard bridge over State Street warrants separate coverage, as opposed to relegation to a “Miscellaneous” section. It’s worth noting, however, that at council’s meeting, Sue McCormick, the city’s public services director, gave council an update on the situation with the bridge, which she said was being monitored closely. We hope to be able to provide more details as the city reaches what McCormick described as a “decision point” in the next 30 days about proceeding with a repair or waiting for funding to materialize for a complete reconstruction. For some limited coverage of the topic, see this previous Chronicle article on the bridge.

Michigan Inn: City attorney Stephen Postema announced that the former Michigan Inn on Jackson Road could see demolition this month.

Present: Sabra Briere, Sandi Smith, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Rapundalo, Leigh Greden, Christopher Taylor, Margie Teall, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Mike Anglin, John Hieftje

Next Council Meeting: Monday, March 16, 2009 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. Note: Council will be holding a working session on March 9, 2009 at its usual time and location, to discuss the downtown plan and the A2D2 zoning, recently passed by planning commission. [confirm date]

Ann Arbor City Councilman Stephen Kunselman, right, works his day job as one of the organizers of this year's UM Energy Fest. He was talking with Rick Richter, who coincidentally is the second person in Ann Arbor awarded a permit to keep backyard chickens. That takes energy, too.

The sun was out for Tuesday’s 13th annual Energy Fest on the University of Michigan Diag, an event that drew students, faculty and other passers-by with the allure of giveaways (who doesn’t want another reusable grocery bag?) and information.

The centerpiece of the Energy Fest was the distinctive yellow Solar Car, parked prominently in the middle of the Diag.

Jeff Rogers, a senior majoring in computer science, has worked on the Solar Car Team four years, and was part of the crew that won this year’s North American Solar Challenge, a 3,862-km race from Texas to Calgary. His job was to ride in the lead support vehicle, monitoring data on a computer that was fed in from the solar car.

The data was important for both strategy and safety, he explained. With lithium-based batteries, “if you abuse them, they’ll explode.”

Jeff Rogers, left, part of the UM Solar Car Team, talks with Allan Afuah, a professor with the Ross School of Business.

The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Student Council also had a booth. The group was formed by UM students interested in creating sustainable energy solutions for developing countries, said Jojo Amonoo, a master’s degree student in mechanical engineering. They’re also pushing for more renewable energy use in the U.S., said Randy Schiffer, a sophomore in the nuclear division of the electrical engineering department.

This year’s Energy Fest – organized by UM’s Utilities & Plant Engineering department – is part of the university-wide Initiative on Energy Science, Technology and Policy, established by UM Vice President for Research Steve Forrest. That broader effort also includes a themed semester this fall for students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, who’ll be studying “human and social behaviors associated with energy demand,” according to the university.

Homecoming week, from Sept. 29- Oct. 4, gets in on the sustainable energy theme, too, with this year’s motto being, “Go Blue Live Green.” (But not Sparty green.)