Archive for September, 2010

At its Sept. 15, 2010 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave initial approval to backing a bond for a Western Washtenaw Recycling Authority Public Works project. The $2.8 million project would expand and upgrade WWRA facilities, including the addition of equipment for single-stream recycling. The facility serves Chelsea and the townships of Bridgewater, Dexter, Lima and Lyndon. The board is expected to vote on final approval of the transfer at its Oct. 6 meeting.

This report, filed from the board meeting, will be followed by a detailed article: [link]

At its Sept. 15, 2010 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners set a public hearing for Oct. 6 to get input on levying an economic development millage of 0.043 mills. Known as the Act 88 millage, it is expected to generate roughly $611,266 annually and would cost homeowners $4.30 for every $100,000 of a home’s taxable value. Because Act 88 predates the state’s Headlee Amendment, it can be approved by the board without a voter referendum. Last year, the board levied 0.04 mills under Act 88, and allocated funds to Ann Arbor SPARK and several other groups. The board is expected to vote on the millage at its Oct. 6 meeting.

This report, filed from the board meeting, will be … [Full Story]

At its Sept. 15, 2010 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners adopted a five-year master plan for the county’s parks and recreation department, spanning 2010-2014. Highlights of the plan were presented at a Sept. 2 working session of the board, and a draft is posted on the parks and recreation website. The master plan must be updated and adopted by the county every five years in order to qualify for certain state grants.

This report, filed from the board meeting, will be followed by a detailed article: [link]

At its Sept. 15, 2010 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners gave final approval to transfer the use of $10 million in federal Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds from the county to the Washtenaw Community College. WCC plans to use the bonds to fund construction of a parking structure. The county has been allocated just over $22 million for this type of bond as part of the 2009 federal stimulus bill, but has not used any of its allocation, which expires at the end of 2010.

This report, filed from the board meeting, will be followed by a detailed article: [link]

At its Sept. 15, 2010 meeting, the Washtenaw County board of commissioners held a public hearing and gave final approval to levy 1/40 mill for indigent veterans’ relief. The millage does not require voter approval and would raise an estimated $362,415 for services to local veterans. It was first passed two years ago, and cost homeowners $2.50 for every $100,000 of a home’s taxable value.

This report, filed from the board meeting, will be followed by a detailed article: [link]

Xconomy publishes a Q&A with Ken Nisbet, executive director of UM’s Technology Management Office: “We do a lot of research with the auto companies, especially GM and Ford, on work process, on emissions, on batteries. There are a lot of connections with particular startups that have close relationships with the auto companies. One new invention that was invented here, and is going to be applied to not only autos but also elsewhere, is a new type of machining fluid that is based on vegetable oil as opposed to crude oil. It’s cheaper, faster, better; it has a bunch of advantages over the traditional type of machining fluid that is used in a number of industries, not just auto. So we’re … [Full Story]

The Detroit News reports on Rep. John Dingell’s speech at a conference of the American College of Cardiologists in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. One attendant was his challenger for the 15th District Congressional seat: Dr. Rob Steele of Ann Arbor. Steele attended the conference as a cardiologist, though The News reports that he did wear a “Steele for Congress” sticker, and will return to Michigan on Thursday after meeting with Republican leaders in Washington. [Source]

The New York Times reports on “clean energy” research partnerships between the U.S. and China, quoting UM professor Dennis Assanis, who’s the lead investigator for a new clean vehicles consortium funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy: “When this was announced, it was simply music to our ears. … This new consortium is allowing us to knit together a web of partners – and the partners of the partners.” [Source]

The Ann Arbor Public Schools board of education’s planning committee heard a presentation this morning on a “lab school” partnership being planned between the University of Michigan and Mitchell Elementary and Scarlett Middle schools.  The Mitchell/Scarlett/UM lab school, as it’s currently being called, has been under development for six months.

At today’s meeting, Mitchell principal Kathy Scarnecchia described the lab school as creating an integrated K-8 campus between the Mitchell and Scarlett buildings, as well as extending the function of the schools to serve as a community center for local families. She also noted that the lab school will use a year-round, extended-day academic calendar. Scarnecchia highlighted the professional development opportunities that the lab school will create, including those for intern … [Full Story]

At the Aug. 5, 2010 meeting of the Ann Arbor city council, councilmembers considered a resolution originally drafted by city attorney Stephen Postema to impose a temporary moratorium on the dispensing and growing of medical marijuana. The city council ultimately passed a modified version of the moratorium, with exemptions for patients and caregivers, a grandfathering-in of existing facilities in the city and a reduction in the length of the moratorium from 180 to 120 days. The moratorium ends Dec. 3.

Ann Arbor planning staff and members of the planning commission's ordinance revisions committee discuss existing zoning areas and implications of ordinance changes at their Sept. 13 meeting. Clockwise from left: Wendy Rampson, Jill Thacher, Kirk Westphal, Jean Carlberg. (Photo by the writer.)

The resolution passed by the council also directed the city staff and planning commission to look at possible zoning ordinance changes, with the intent of regulating medical marijuana in Ann Arbor. The resolution does not mention other regulatory approaches, such as licensing.

Since then, the city’s planning staff and the ordinance revisions committee of the planning commission have been developing recommendations to change the city’s zoning code. The changes would regulate medical marijuana dispensaries as well as marijuana grown by registered caregivers as a “home occupation.”

At a Monday, Sept. 13 meeting of the ordinance revisions committee, the group mentioned a parallel track that’s being pursued by the city attorney’s office: licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries. Wendy Rampson, head of the city’s planning department, said that Postema has also been working with the Michigan Association of Municipal Attorneys regarding an approach to licensing medical marijuana. Postema is president of that group. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Historic District Commission meeting (Sept. 9, 2010): The last-minute addition of a closed session – which lasted nearly an hour, just prior to deliberations on the Zingerman’s Deli expansion – added a bit of drama to Thursday’s meeting. But ultimately commissioners unanimously approved all projects on their agenda, with only a few concerns cited.

The highest-profile of those projects, of course, was a plan to expand the Zingerman’s Deli operations at the corner of Detroit and Kingsley streets, in the Old Fourth Ward historic district. About a dozen representatives affiliated with Zingerman’s attended the meeting, including co-founder Paul Saginaw and managing partners Grace Singleton and Rick Strutz.

In 2008, commissioners rejected the company’s first attempt to gain HDC approval – in the form of a “certificate of appropriateness,” which included asking permission to tear down a small house on their property that had been gutted by fire. Since that initial rebuff by the HDC, Zingerman’s has been working on an alternative path, gaining approval from the city’s planning commission and city council, and returning to the HDC for a “notice to proceed.”

On Thursday, the commission granted the notice to proceed, which will allow the project to move forward. Several commissioners addressed concerns raised during public commentary about this project setting a precedent, saying that Zingerman’s is a unique business and this expansion is unique as well.

But commissioner Lesa Rozmarek, while noting that she would support the project and that overall Zingerman’s is an asset to the community, also said she wanted it on the record that she felt Zingerman’s had threatened the commission with the prospect of leaving the area if they didn’t get approval. The project sets a bad precedent, she said, adding that “it’s opening a big door that hopefully we can shut after this application.”

Later in the meeting Saginaw responded to Rozmarek’s comments, denying that anyone from Zingerman’s threatened to leave the city – though at one point they did consider moving out of that location to another site within Ann Arbor, he said. Saginaw said he believed the HDC was able to approve the project on its merits.

In other business, the commission issued certificates of appropriateness for three projects: 1) a solar panel installation at 217 S. Seventh St., 2) a request to add an exterior sign near the front door of 209-211 S. State St., where a CVS pharmacy is being constructed, and 3) a proposal for a 1.5-story addition on the back of 442 Second St.

The solar project is being installed on the home of Matt Grocoff, founder of Greenovation TV. Grocoff had attended last month’s HDC meeting, when two other solar panel installations were approved, including one at the historic Michigan Theater building on East Liberty. On Thursday, Grocoff told commissioners that when his solar panels are installed, his home will be the oldest in the nation to achieve net zero energy status, using only energy generated on-site. [Full Story]

Democratic Virg Bernero announced that he’ll show up for an Oct. 21 gubernatorial debate, even if GOP candidate Rick Snyder doesn’t, according to a Detroit News article: “Bernero announced he accepted an offer to attend the debate in Detroit on WXYZ-TV (Ch. 7) after Snyder ended negotiations Friday. … The Ann Arbor business mogul will not participate, Snyder spokesman Bill Nowling said this morning. ‘We’ve ended the negotiation on debates. We had a fair offer on the table they walked away from. For him to now come and start agreeing to debates after the fact seems a bit disingenuous.’” [Source]

A post on the Ann Arbor Schools Musings blog highlights a Sept. 13 Saline school board policy meeting to discuss including sexual orientation and gender identity/expression in the district’s non-discrimination policy: “One of my closest friends in 9th grade had a brother who could not go to our high school, because of harassment based on his gender identity and sexual orientation. (I didn’t have the words for it then. I just knew that he was a boy, but dressed like a girl, but liked boys.) So this note is for Bobby. I find it morally reprehensible that decades later schools would dither about putting an expanded non-discrimination policy on the books.” [Source]

During the Ann Arbor city council’s Aug. 5, 2010 deliberations on a medical marijuana moratorium, councilmember Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) described how the council had discussed the issue and given the city attorney a directive to draft a moratorium so that it could be brought to that evening’s meeting. Later that night, Rapundalo told The Chronicle he’d been referring to a discussion that took place during a closed session on July 19.

If accurate, Rapundalo’s original comments seem to describe a violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, which does not allow the council to develop legislative strategy and public policy in closed session. During council’s meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 7, Rapundalo said he may have “misrepresented” the activities of the closed session with his earlier comments, rejecting the labels “discussion” and “directive” – but still allowing that a councilmember had told the city attorney that they wanted to see legislation drafted to come before the council.

Rapundalo’s comments, even taken together with remarks made by the city attorney at the council’s Sept. 7 meeting, still leave many questions unanswered. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor City Council meeting (Sept 7, 2010): The council handled its relatively light agenda without taking a recess, taking a little over two hours to finish its Tuesday-after-Labor-Day business.

Before the meeting, Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who's seated in his usual spot at the council table, chats with city attorney Stephen Postema. During Tuesday's meeting, Rapundalo and Postema insisted that there had been no directive given to the city attorney regarding a medical marijuana moratorium – despite the fact that previously both men used forms of the word "directive" to explain the attorney's actions. (Photo by the writer.)

An item that could have prompted extended deliberations – the so-called “porch couch ban” – was instead postponed until the council’s next regular meeting on Sept. 20. At the start of the meeting, the council heard a staff presentation on the fire hazards posed by porch couches and their negative visual impact.

Mayor John Hieftje and the sponsor of the measure, Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), indicated early in the evening that a postponement of the couch ban was likely, but several people still addressed the council during a public hearing on the issue. The public hearing will be continued until Sept. 20, when the council is likely to take a final vote on the matter.

Among the business the council did vote on at Tuesday’s meeting was a tax abatement for NanoBio worth around $30,000 over the next five years. The biotech company is a University of Michigan spin-out, which has developed nano-technology platforms in the area of topical antibiotics and nasal sprays. The abatement is on NanoBio’s investment of roughly $200,000 in building improvements and $483,000 in equipment purchases for its Green Road facility.

Also affecting the Green Road neighborhood was an application to the Michigan Dept. of Transportation for Thurston Elementary School’s Safe Routes to School program, which the council authorized. The grant from MDOT, worth $157,555, would pay for infrastructure improvements – like pedestrian islands on Green Road. The grant would cover all of the construction costs, with the design and contingency costs of $30,000 to be drawn from the city’s alternative transportation fund, which ultimately comes from the state through Act 51 [gas tax] monies.

The city’s alternative transportation fund was lurking in the background on Tuesday night in an additional way. A public hearing took place on the special tax to be assessed on property owners whose land abuts a proposed non-motorized path along Washtenaw Avenue between Tuomy and Glenwood roads. The project is to be funded from $826,727 out of the alternative transportation fund, $694,039 from an MDOT grant, with a special assessment on property owners paying for the remaining $59,234. Several of the property owners addressed the city council Tuesday night to object to the assessment, which will cost them around $3,500 each.

In addition to the meeting’s usual range of communications and announcements, Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) attempted to clarify some comments he’d made at the council’s Aug. 5 meeting about a closed session that council had conducted on July 19 regarding a medical marijuana moratorium. The Chronicle will report on those comments – and the council’s possible Open Meetings Act violation – in a separate opinion piece. [Full Story]

On the blog “Hey, There’s A Dead Guy in the Living Room,” Robin Agnew writes about her experiences putting together panels for the Kerrytown BookFest: “There are so many wrong ways to put a panel together, and I think I’ve done them all, but I’ve gotten steadily better. It’s always a chemistry experiment: how will the panelists interact? Will they spark off one another, or will it be a flat discussion? That’s beyond my control, though I try to bring together good matches.” She says this year’s panelists are among the strongest. The festival runs Sunday, Sept. 12 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market. [Source]

USA Today reports on the increase in immigrants opting to take accent modification classes. Judy Ravin, president of the Ann Arbor-based Accent Reduction Institute, comments, “We’re doing business like gangbusters.” A growing number of universities are offering accent modification programs – Ravin’s businesss has had contracts with UM’s School of Business and College of Engineering. But accent reduction is controversial. Andrés Tapia, chief diversity officer at Chicago-based Hewitt Associates, argues that in a global economy, “the accent of your employee might be more comprehensible than yours, to a growing number of your consumers.” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press reports on the recent resignation of Jayne Miller as director of the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority, which oversees the Metroparks system. Miller, an Ann Arborite, had held the job for just over six months. From the report: “Using reorganization consultants from her previous job running parks, housing and development in Ann Arbor, Miller presented a plan to the authority’s Board of Commissioners about three weeks ago, said board member Robert Marans, a University of Michigan architecture and urban planning professor. The board called a special meeting Wednesday to discuss the proposal, which Marans said met with ‘mixed reaction.’ Miller apparently stopped her presentation midstream amid criticism.” She subsequently resigned. [Source]

The Ann Arbor Greenbelt Advisory Commission meeting (Sept. 8, 2010): At their September meeting, commissioners got a financial update on the city’s greenbelt program, reviewing unaudited statements from fiscal 2009-10.

Lindsay-Jean Hard, standing, gives a presentation about Real Time Farms to the Ann Arbor greenbelt advisory commission. In the foreground is Cara Rosaen, marketing director for the business. Peg Kohring of The Conservation Fund, which manages the greenbelt program, looks on. (Photo by the writer.)

Financial manager Kelli Martin reported that revenues from the 30-year open space and parkland preservation millage, which funds the greenbelt as well as land acquisition for parks, were $2.262 million in FY10. Combined with grants and other sources, total revenues for the year reached $3.413 million.

Some commissioners questioned a sharp drop in investment income – from $815,261 last year to $130,011 in FY 2010 – and Martin agreed to ask Matt Horning, the city’s treasurer, for a more detailed report on that issue.

Total expenditures rose 19% to $5.087 million, an increase mostly attributable to greenbelt projects – $3.427 million spent during FY10, compared to $2.641 million in FY 2009. The program bought development rights to three properties during the fiscal year: the Nixon farm in Webster Township, the Girbach farm Lodi Township, and the Webster Church property in Webster Township.

The Sept. 8 meeting began with a presentation by two representatives of Real Time Farms, who asked the commission to help them market their business – an online guide to local foods. [Full Story]