Archive for November, 2013

SmithGroupJJR and Nelson\Nygaard have been selected by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to work on a streetscape plan for the city’s downtown. Action to select the two firms came at the DDA board’s Nov. 6, 2013 meeting.

A budget for the project was authorized by the board at its July 3, 2013 meeting – $200,000 over the next two years. The Nov. 6 resolution sets a not-to-exceed amount of $150,000 and indicates that the project scope still requires refinement. The resolution establishing the budget referred in general terms to the DDA’s development plan, which the resolution characterized as including “identity, infrastructure, and transportation as key strategies, and also recognized that an enjoyable pedestrian experience is one of downtown’s … [Full Story]

A revision to a proposed residential development at 624 Church St. in downtown Ann Arbor has resulted in approval by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board for the purchase of additional monthly parking permits – up to 48 such permits. The action was taken at the DDA board’s Nov. 6, 2013 meeting. The spaces will be provided in the Forest Avenue parking structure.

The original proposal for 624 Church, which received site plan approval from the city council at its March 4, 2013 meeting, was for a 13-story, 83-unit apartment building with approximately 181 beds. And for that version, the Ann Arbor DDA had authorized the project to purchase up to 42 monthly permits through the city’s contribution-in-lieu (CIL) … [Full Story]

The four of five city councilmembers whose seats were up for re-election were returned to office by Ann Arbor voters in the Nov. 5, 2013 election: Democrat Sabra Briere (Ward 1), independent Jane Lumm (Ward 2), Democrat Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Democrat Mike Anglin (Ward 5).

In Ward 4, Democrat Jack Eaton was unopposed on the ballot and won easily, with 88.9% of the tally, against declared write-in candidate William Lockwood.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools sinking fund millage won easily with a 13,321 (80.34%) to 3,259 (19.7%) margin.

The outcome makes Eaton the only new member on the 11-member council. He’ll replace Democrat Marcia Higgins. Eaton and Higgins contested the Aug. 6 Democratic primary, which Eaton won in decisive fashion – with about 65% of the vote.

The composition of the council will not change before its Nov. 7, 2013 meeting, which features a very heavy agenda. Eaton will join Ward 4 colleague Margie Teall at the table for the Nov. 18 meeting, but will be officially sworn in on Nov. 11.

Ward 2 featured the closest race, with Lumm’s 2,071 votes (55.9%) still a clear margin over Democratic challenger Kirk Westphal’s 1,549  (41.8%), and independent Conrad Brown’s 71 (1.9%). Lumm’s relative share of the votes was slightly less than the 60% she received in her 2011 win against Stephen Rapundalo, but came within eight votes of matching the number of votes she received in 2011 (2,079). [Full Story]

Editor’s note: We experienced some accuracy issues with data entry into a Google Spreadsheet shared among several people for some of the later results. They’ve been corrected, but these should still be considered unofficial results.

Early returns of Ann Arbor city council races based on paper tapes from precinct locations are published here with the most recent updates. Results here are unofficial. For unofficial results compiled by the Washtenaw County clerk’s office, see: Election Results.

Ward 1 Ann Arbor City Council Race

With results from 4 of 8 in-person polling locations informally reported, Briere has received 592 votes (67.4%), Hayner has received 274 votes (31.2%), and Vresics has received 9 votes (1%).

Updated at 8:20 p.m.: With results from 5 of 8 in-person … [Full Story]

As we have for the past few years, The Chronicle will be touring Ann Arbor polling stations on Election Day and providing updates throughout the day. Polls are open today from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

This year voters in the general election will be confronted with two issues – a city council race and the Ann Arbor Public Schools sinking fund millage. Ann Arbor city council seats have contested races in all five wards, but not all official candidates are on the ballot. Three candidates have filed as write-ins.

Voters in Ward 1 will see three names on the ballot: incumbent Democrat Sabra Briere, independent Jeff Hayner and independent Jacyln Vresics. Vresics has withdrawn from the race, but did not make that decision soon enough to prevent her name from appearing on the ballot.

Voters in Ward 2 will choose between incumbent independent Jane Lumm, Democrat Kirk Westphal and independent Conrad Brown.

In Ward 3, voters will choose between incumbent Democrat Stephen Kunselman and independent Sam DeVarti.

Ward 4 Democratic primary winner Jack Eaton, who prevailed against incumbent Democrat Marcia Higgins, does not face an opponent on the ballot. However, William Lockwood has filed as a write-in candidate for Ward 4.

Incumbent Democrat Mike Anglin was unchallenged in the Ward 5 primary, and does not have an opponent on the ballot for the general election. However, Thomas Partridge and Chip Smith are declared write-in candidates.

Not sure where to vote? To find your polling place and view a sample ballot for your precinct, visit the Secretary of State’s website.

Check back here throughout the day for briefs filed from the field, or add a comment with your own Election Day observations. [Full Story]

The University of Michigan’s Architecture, Engineering and Construction website now includes a notice seeking proposals for the “sale and removal of the house located at 439 S. Division, Ann Arbor, Michigan.” The house was once home to Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Arthur Miller. For anyone who’s interested in purchasing and moving the house to a different location, proposals are due Dec. 10, 2013. A tour will be offered of the site on Nov. 19, 2013, starting promptly at 4 p.m. [Source]

The moving of historically significant houses has relatively recent local precedent in the Albert Polhemus House, which was moved in 2006 from Washington Street in downtown Ann Arbor to a location on Pontiac Trail. The Albert Polhemus House now … [Full Story]

The Nov. 7, 2013 meeting of the Ann Arbor city council is the last one with the current composition of the 11-member council. The agenda is relatively heavy, featuring at least 34 voting items. This preview includes a more detailed explanation of several of those items, but first provides a thematic overview.

The city’s downtown factors prominently on the agenda in at least three ways. The city council will be asked to consider passing a resolution to direct the city administrator to negotiate a sales agreement for the city-owned property on William Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, known as the old Y lot. The council will also be considering a revision to the city ordinance regulating the tax increment finance (TIF) capture of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. That’s been under consideration by the council since February, but now a committee of councilmembers and DDA board members has put forward a competing recommendation, which will also be on the Nov. 7 agenda.

Also related to downtown, the council will be formally accepting a report completed by the city’s park advisory commission with recommendations on downtown parks.

Non-motorized issues also factor prominently as a theme of the Nov. 7 agenda. In addition to an update of the city’s non-motorized transportation plan, the council will consider establishing a pedestrian safety task force. The council’s agenda also includes the first of a series of resolutions for two separate sidewalk projects – one on Stone School Road and another on Scio Church Road. The council’s resolutions for those projects, directing the design work and detailed cost estimates, are the first actions necessary for some of the funding of the sidewalks to be special assessed to the adjacent property owners.

An additional project related to non-motorized issues, but not obviously so, is a contract with the Michigan Dept. of Transportation to resurface a portion of Huron Street from Main Street westward as Huron becomes Jackson Avenue on to I-94, as well as a section of South Maple. The intent is to re-stripe the roadway, reducing the lanes from four to three and adding bicycle lanes.

The sidewalk and street projects are among several capital improvement-related items on the agenda, including one that would help stabilize the earthen berm adjacent to Barton Dam. The council will also be considering a half dozen resolutions that will authorize applying for state grants that could fund capital asset projects for the city.

In addition to the items related to the city’s physical infrastructure, the council has several items that could be described as relating to the city’s social infrastructure. Those items relate to grants from the state and federal government to the 15th District Court for several of its specialty courts that focus on drug offenses, domestic violence, and veterans issues. The council will also be asked to approve a modified continuation of its coordinated funding approach to human services.

The agenda includes some council initiatives announced at the council’s previous meeting on Oct. 21. One of those is a resolution requesting that the University of Michigan decommission a recently constructed digital billboard near the football stadium.

Another one is a resolution directing the education of city officials on professional conduct. Related tangentially to those ethical considerations are the approvals of new bylaws for two of the city’s boards and commissions – the planning commission and the design review board.

This article includes a more detailed preview of many of these agenda items. More details on other meeting agenda items are available on the city’s online Legistar system. The meeting proceedings can be followed live Thursday evening on Channel 16, streamed online by Community Television Network. [Full Story]

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A resolution added Friday to the Ann Arbor city council’s Nov. 7, 2013 agenda would direct city administrator Steve Powers to negotiate a sales agreement with Dennis Dahlmann for the purchase of the city-owned property north of William Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues in downtown Ann Arbor. Dahlmann has offered $5.25 million for the property, known as the Y lot. It had been listed at $4.2 million. [.pdf of Dahlmann offer 10.17.13]

If those negotiations are not successful, then the resolution directs the city administrator to negotiate with CA Ventures (Clark Street Holdings).

The memo accompanying the Nov. 7 resolution states:
The offers from Dennis Dahlmann and CA Ventures are the strongest (cash, no contingencies, sales agreement, close in 2013) of the … [Full Story]

Editor’s Note: Laura Bien’s regular column this month would be suitable for publication as a Veterans Day column, on Veterans Day itself – which is observed on Nov. 11. But we’re publishing the piece in Bien’s regular rotation as a way of noting that it’s not required to wait until Veterans Day to remember the service of veterans.

A rumble builds into a growl. Silver flashes between treetops and a leviathan emerges into open sky. The magisterial craft draws gazes below, as it did seven decades ago, but this time without fear. Leaf-rakers in eastside Ypsilanti yards pause to watch its unhurried passage.

In its periodic passenger flights ($425 per person) and summer airshow circlings, the B-17 bomber passes within sight of 150 additional upturned faces. Beneath the roar of the polished martial icon lie some veterans, now silenced, and seldom remembered as part of the Greatest Generation. Their ambitions and bravery were likely scorned in their day and largely forgotten in ours.

They were laid to rest in a now-abandoned, segregated cemetery.

Just south of Ford Lake and east of the Ypsilanti Township Civic Center lies Woodlawn Cemetery. To drivers on Huron River Drive, it flits past as a grassy field. The adjacent dead-end dirt road Hubbard extends to the cemetery’s far southern end.

From that vantage point, only two man-made features rise above the site’s uneven surface. One is a homemade wooden cross bearing worn cream paint and stick-on mailbox letters spelling “BERTHA CAMPBELL.” The other is a small American flag. A brass military grave marker underneath is labeled “MARION F. FRIERSON” followed by Army acronyms and dates. [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor city council’s post-election meeting agenda for Nov. 7, 2013 would be heavy enough without the addition of an item that will almost certainly serve no purpose except political theater.

The council will be considering a resolution that asks the University of Michigan to decommission the $2.8 million digital marquee recently constructed by the university’s athletic department. I don’t think the university is going to give that any thought.

In this unnecessary drama, Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) appears to be playing the role of Don Quixote, with four councilmembers auditioning for the role of Sancho – Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Margie Teall (Ward 4), Sally Petersen (Ward 2) and Jane Lumm (Ward 2). Those five are co-sponsoring the resolution. [If the council really wants to tilt at windmills, the city could have a literal one soon enough.]

The council’s Nov. 7 resolution cites the city’s own recently enacted sign ordinance, which constrains the deployment of digital technology for outdoor signs. According to the resolution, the marquee inflicts the same harms on the community that the city’s newly amended ordinance sought to prevent. [Petersen and Higgins, however, voted against that ordinance.] Those harms are described in the resolution as “distract[ing] motorists and substantially degrad[ing] the community viewshed…”

As the text of the council’s Nov. 7 resolution itself concedes, the University of Michigan is “without any obligation to comply with the ordinances of the city of Ann Arbor” – so the fact that the UM’s marquee rather flagrantly flouts the city council’s sign ordinance is of no consequence.

What is semantically bizarre about the text of the resolution is its contention that by turning the marquee off, or by limiting its use, the Ann Arbor community would be delivered a “material benefit.” If the council’s position really is that the marquee is doing harm, then by no rational standard should the mere mitigation of that perceived harm be labeled a “benefit,” much less a material one.

By way of analogy, if a chemical company is dumping toxic sludge onto my property and jeopardizing my health, then it’s not really a “benefit” to me if the company were to stop doing that. But it could be considered a benefit if the company allowed me to take my own personal toxic sludge and add it to the company’s pile, which the company then removed from my property.

If the city councilmembers who crafted the resolution had taken the phrase “material benefit” seriously, it might have given them pause to ask: Hey, could city residents derive some actual benefit from this situation? And that might have led them to reflect on the reason the UM athletic department wanted to construct this marquee. I think it’s an attempt to meet a communications challenge.

And guess what: The city of Ann Arbor has its own communication challenges. Can you see where this is headed? Or are you too distracted by the constantly changing display in the dumb little animated .gif at the top of this column?  [Full Story]