Additional Committee for Downtown Tabled

A proposed 10-person citizen committee to study options for proceeds of the sale of city-owned downtown Ann Arbor properties was tabled by the city council at its Oct. 1, 2012 meeting. The resolution’s sponsor, Mike Anglin (Ward 5), moved for the resolution’s tabling in light of many other concurrent conversations among several groups in the city.

The resolution had been added by Anglin to the agenda of the council’s previous meeting on Sept. 17, 2012, but was postponed until the Oct. 1 meeting. Anglin’s resolution called for establishing a committee of 10 residents – two from each ward, to be selected by councilmembers from each ward – plus other city officials to address the issue of city-owned parcels in downtown Ann Arbor.

Anglin’s resolution was somewhat vague about how the committee was supposed to address the issue or in what timeframe, and was met with questions at the Sept. 17 meeting about the scope of the committee’s intended purview or its deliverables.

At the Sept. 17 meeting, Anglin’s resolution was one of two resolutions the city council had been asked to consider. The other one had been brought forward by Sandi Smith (Ward 1), who first outlined the idea to other councilmembers in an email written three weeks prior to their Sept. 17 meeting. It involved directing the proceeds from city-owned land sales to the city’s affordable housing trust fund. That resolution was postponed at the Sept. 17 meeting until Oct. 15.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link]