Stories indexed with the term ‘DDA’

Discussion of the role of the Downtown Development Authority morphed into venting about panhandlers at Thursday morning’s meeting of the Main Street Area Association. Saying that customers are complaining, several merchants are concerned about panhandlers becoming more aggressive since the city pulled its beat cops from the street earlier this week.

The topic came up after a presentation by DDA executive director Susan Pollay, who was filling in for Rene Greff, a DDA board member and co-owner of Arbor Brewing Company and Corner Brewery. Greff had been scheduled to give the same talk she gave at a DDA retreat in May, outlining the organization’s history, how it works and what it has accomplished. 

So how did panhandling usurp parking as the most-discussed topic related to the DDA? Why aren’t beat cops patrolling downtown? What do merchants think about “Arthur,” one of the regulars who asks passers-by for change along Main Street? It all comes down to money. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor District Library Board meeting (June 15, 2009): A light agenda for Monday’s AADL board meeting included a discussion about how state funding cuts might affect library services, a video presentation on future broadband needs for libraries, and an update from director Josie Parker about negotiations over a utility easement the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority wants for its proposed underground parking structure. [Full Story]

On May 26, the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission spent several hours focused on developing its plan for the coming year. This included a joint meeting with the Downtown Development Authority about collaboration between the two groups, and a planning meeting later in the day with just AAPAC members to decide which public art projects to include in its annual plan for the next fiscal year.

Though no decisions were made, the meetings gave some insight into priorities for public art in Ann Arbor, who’ll be choosing and funding projects, and what’s ahead for the coming year. [Full Story]

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (June 3, 2009): The start to Wednesday’s DDA board meeting paralleled the beginning of its recent retreat two weeks ago – the board met in closed session with their legal counsel to discuss pending litigation over the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage. Board chair Jennifer Hall recused herself from the session, as she had at the retreat’s closed session.

Later in the meeting, she removed herself from the DDA’s “mutually beneficial” committee, appointing board member Russ Collins to take her place. More on that after the jump.

In other board business, the theme of the balance between university and city funding responsibilities was reflected in board consideration of two transportation-related issues: (i) a feasibility study for a north-south connector service along the Plymouth-State Street corridor, and (ii) the LINK circulator buses – familiar to some downtown visitors as simply “the purple buses.”  The board approved an $80,000 contribution for the north-south connector, but did not renew the grant – last year around $70,000 – that funds the LINK. The LINK is ordinarily suspended during summer months, but the lack of DDA grant renewal likely means that in the fall the purple buses will re-appear only on their eastern UM loop.

Further, a $12,000 evaluation of the getDowntown program was approved, budget amendments were made to reflect allocations already approved, and a resolution was passed approving final recommendations to city council for the A2D2 rezoning package. The board also heard updates on the DDA’s website and data policy, the Fifth & Division streetscape improvements project, the underground parking garage, and the valet parking service. The valet service has been suspended for the summer after the pilot showed less-than-successful results through the first five months of the year. [Full Story]

During the most recent regular monthly meeting of the Downtown Development Authority board, its treasurer, Rene Greff had asked Mayor John Hieftje, “When are you seating the committee?” At that regular board meeting, a clear answer was not forthcoming.

But at the board’s mid-year retreat, held on Wednesday morning from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the Michigan Theater stage, Hieftje was more candid about why city council has not yet formed a committee.

What committee were Greff and Hieftje talking about?

The committee in question is a city council ad hoc committee that would  begin discussions with its already-formed counterpart from the DDA board. The discussions between the two bodies would focus on establishing “a mutually beneficial” financial arrangement – one that is already reflected in the DDA’s recently adopted budget as a $2 million contingency.

The DDA board voted to place that contingency in its budget in response to a city of Ann Arbor FY 2011 budget plan that assumes a $2 million payment from the DDA to the city – a payment that the DDA is not (yet) contractually obligated to make.

In the course of the retreat, Hieftje explained that the city council’s delay in seating a committee of its own was partly related to pending litigation – a topic addressed during a nearly 50-minute long closed session that began the board’s retreat.   [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Public Art Commission (May 12, 2009): Members of the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission spent much of their recent monthly meeting talking about their plan for the next year and projects they should tackle. They also discussed upcoming events, including AAPAC’s open house on May 21, a joint meeting with the DDA board on May 26, and the Golden Paintbrush awards on June 1. [Full Story]

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (May 6, 2009): At its regular Wednesday meeting, the DDA board passed a resolution expressing skepticism about a new city plan aimed to generate an additional $380,000 in parking revenue. The plan, which was introduced to the board by Mike Bergren and Pat Cawley of the city, would achieve the additional revenue by installing more parking meters in residential areas adjoining downtown.

The resolution was amended in a way that, for the time being, headed off a direct confrontation between the DDA and the city over control of DDA dollars.

Another theme running through multiple parts of the meeting – including a discussion among interested parties afterward – was the issue of access to data, and the use of technology to share information.

In other business, the board heard a presentation on a city pilot plan to install automated trash cans in the downtown area, plus heard the usual reports from its subcommittees, including one from the operations committee that portrayed the DDA’s finances still in good order, despite the gloomy economy. [Full Story]

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (April 1, 2009): The board of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority held its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday and passed  a resolution – with some dissent – recommending that city council eliminate the character districts from the A2D2 zoning proposal.

The board also authorized spending around $75,000 to help start a business district in the Main Street area – an idea mentioned in our report on the board’s December 2008 meeting.

Additional spending, totaling around $25,000, was authorized for bicycle parking – some of it on-street.

The board also heard a report from its ad hoc committee on the discussion of the parking agreement with the city of Ann Arbor. Initial indications are that there was clear (but not unanimous) sentiment on the committee against renegotiating the existing agreement, but for exploring other alternatives.

Accessibility was a theme that came up in the form of DDA meeting material as well as real-time parking data. [Full Story]

On Monday evening, March 23, several Ann Arbor residents took advantage of an entire city council session devoted to public comment on the recent A2D2 zoning revisions. The  zoning revisions apply to an area that  coincides almost exactly with the Downtown Development Authority district. We thus take the opportunity to focus on this district, and how taxes are collected in this geographic area, in light of recent community discussion on the topic.

The Chronicle has previously reported a remark by made by Mayor John Hieftje at a recent Sunday night caucus, in which he stated that the parking agreement between the DDA and the city was renegotiated in 2005 due in part to the fact that the DDA area represented a disproportionately greater burden on city services. Also previously reported, Kyle Mazurek, vice president of government affairs for the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, posed several questions to the DDA board at its meeting on March 4, including one about the possibility of disproportionate use of city services in the DDA district: [Full Story]

We’ve been talking about getting rid of our car for a long time, and I’ll admit I’m the one who’s been dragging my feet. For me, having a car is a habit – an addiction, really – and unable to go cold turkey, I’ve been edging toward carlessness in nicotine patch-like phases.

Zipcar has driven me into the final phase. We joined in February, and last week I took my first Zipcar excursion to the Ann Arbor Public Schools budget forum at Scarlett Middle School. What a sweet, unremarkable ride it was.

But before we go there, let’s talk a bit about freedom. [Full Story]

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (March 4, 2009): At Wednesday’s monthly board meeting of the Downtown Development Authority, Rene Greff asked the rhetorical question: “Do you want to hook that cart to a controversial horse?” And she was not talking about a new transportation option for downtown. But the “cart” was the idea of transportation demand management. The “horse” was city council’s recent request that the DDA increase its revenues to assure adequate reserve fund balances. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor City Council Sunday caucus (March 1, 2009): At Sunday’s caucus, Mayor John Hieftje assessed the Ann Arbor city council agenda for Monday as “fairly light.” That’s also an accurate description of the kind of loads the Stadium Boulevard bridge over State Street can currently bear – with deterioration of the structure leading to two weight limit reductions in the last year, and a reduction of traffic to two lanes last week.

Even though it is not yet reflected on the agenda for Monday, it’s expected that Sue McCormick, public services director of the city of Ann Arbor, will brief council on the bridge at the start of its meeting.

Some of the handful of residents at caucus were there to inquire about the bridge (and city finances in general), while others were there to weigh in on the A2D2 (Ann Arbor Discovering Downtown) rezoning process, which the planning commission is literally in the midst of deliberating. [Full Story]

“I’m confused,” she said. “Well,” he replied, “you need to work out your own confusion!”

That conversational exchange is unlikely to occur when a proposed parking customer service phone line goes live. The plan for the phone service was conveyed to the Downtown Development Authority’s operations committee by DDA deputy director, Joe Morehouse, at the committee’s meeting this past Wednesday.

But it’s exactly the back-and-forth that unfolded between board chair Jennifer Hall and board member Russ Collins during the operations committee meeting. The seeming exasperation conveyed by Collins came well into a discussion that had started before his arrival at the meeting. [Full Story]

On Wednesday morning, the Downtown Development Authority board operations committee got an update on the new parking payment kiosks which will soon begin replacing downtown Ann Arbor parking meters. The plan to install the devices, which will allow flexibility for payment and for rate-setting, has been reported in The Chronicle at least as long ago as last October.

The bases of the existing meters will remain in place, but they’ll be decapitated, with the coin receptacle to be replaced with a sign indicating a number for each parking space. The numbers are needed when parkers pay for their spaces.

On Wednesday, Joe Morehouse, deputy director of the DDA, said that the first of 25 units will be shipped on April 1 for deployment in the State Street and Liberty Street area. The 25 units represent an initial phase of assessment, with the idea that as many as 150-175 of these “smart meters” could eventually be installed. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority (Feb. 4, 2009): “Let’s plunge into the most controversial part,” declared Roger Hewitt, chair of the DDA board’s operations committee, at Wednesday’s meeting of the full board. The controversial part was a resolution to increase parking rates in downtown Ann Arbor, starting July 1, 2009, which represented a delay compared with the originally planned schedule. After plunging in, the board voted to approve the rate increase schedule and sent it along to city council. Council will review it at its Feb. 17 meeting – along with the site plan for the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage, which the parking rate increase will help fund.

In other business, the DDA board approved its 2009-10 and 2010-11 budgets, approved a management incentive for Republic Parking, and received updates on a variety of ongoing projects and initiatives. As part of his monthly update from the Downtown Area Citizens Advisory Council, Ray Detter alerted the DDA board to an apparently downward trend in the quality of the property management for residents of Courthouse Square. [Full Story]

Downtown Development Authority Board (Jan. 7, 2009) The Main Street Area Association had hoped for a year-long delay in the parking rate increases that were approved by the DDA board at its Nov. 5 meeting. But after discussing that possibility – and the borrowing of $3.65 million from the TIF fund that the year’s delay would require – the board left their original proposal intact. However, it will not be put before city council for final approval on Jan. 20, as originally planned.

Instead, the rate hike, which is part of the same packet of materials as the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage project, will be placed on the agenda for the second council meeting in February. The board settled on this delay when mayor of the city of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje (who serves on the DDA board in that capacity) announced that the council’s budget and finance committee had indicated a preference to see that packet delayed until February. Hieftje warned that if it were placed on the Jan. 20 agenda, it would simply be postponed by city council. [Full Story]

DDA Transportation Committee (Dec. 18, 2008) The Downtown Development Authority‘s transportation committee addressed the north-south connector study and had a “big picture” discussion about transportation issues before hearing from getDowntown director Nancy Shore, who gave an overview of that program. The context of her presentation was $100,000 of funding for alternative transportation authorized by the DDA in September 2008, part or all of which could be allocated to getDowntown. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor City Council (Dec. 15, 2008) City council heard extensive public commentary and suspended its own rules to allow for more deliberation on the topic of appointing a study committee for a new historic district possibly to be called Germantown. But in the end, the proposal garnered only one vote in addition to those of its two sponsors. In other business, council moved an anti-graffiti ordinance to a second reading (the next step for any amendment to the city code), and approved an intent to issue $9 million in bonds to fund the parking structure portion of Village Green’s City Apartments project. [Full Story]

People keep throwing snowballs at Keith Orr. But not in real life. They only do it on Facebook, which is a social networking website. Or at least The Chronicle witnessed no snowballs thrown in his direction at the aut BAR on Tuesday morning for the hour before it opened for lunch at 11 a.m. The Chronicle spent that hour talking to Orr about his recent appointment to the board of the Downtown Development Authority. His first board meeting was Dec. 3.

By way of background, the DDA board needs to meet certain objective criteria as a group: 1 seat for the mayor or city administrator; 1 seat for a resident of the DDA District; 7 seats for downtown property owners, downtown employees or individuals with an interest in downtown real estate, 3 seats for citizens-at-large. [Full Story]

Wednesday’s noon meeting of the Downtown Development Authority board saw one transportation initiative move forward: funding for a fourth Zipcar for downtown was approved. A second resolution was returned to the transportation committee: the board was not ready to approve an increase from $50,000 to $160,000 for its share of a north-south connector study.

Also on the agenda was an amendment to a parking agreement between the city, the DDA, and Village Green, which is developing the City Apartments project on the southeast corner of First and Washington. Even though the resolution was passed, Jon Frank, VP of development for Village Green, didn’t get the language he needed in the resolution, which means that City Apartments project will require some additional back and forth before the final Ts are crossed.

Among other news, in verbal summaries of various committee reports, came word from operations committee chair Roger Hewitt that the pilot valet parking program will begin on Dec. 15 at the Maynard Street structure. [Full Story]

At its annual retreat held at the end of October, the DDA board agreed on a work plan for the coming year that included a new committee focused on transportation. That subset of the board met for the first time on Wednesday, Nov. 26 – the day before Thanksgiving.

The chair of the committee, John Mouat, had hoped to focus on sketching out a general strategy for how the committee would approach its work on this fairly broad topic – one that ranges from the ways that various transportation systems in southeast Michigan interconnect to the clearing of snow from a particular stretch of sidewalk. But that plan had to be balanced with the need to discuss two specific resolutions coming before the whole board at its next meeting on Dec. 3. [Full Story]

A somber Ann Arbor District Library board voted unanimously this morning to suspend its ambitious project to build a new downtown library, though they held out the possibility of resuming the plan if and when the economy improves.

“I think we’re talking about a detour – at least I’m talking about a detour,” said board chair Rebecca Head.

The board called a special meeting for this morning which began in a closed session with the library’s real estate attorney, Jim Adams of Butzel Long. They reconvened for a public meeting at 10:15 a.m., and Head announced that Adams had delivered disturbing news about the bond market that was “very sobering.” [Full Story]

Ann Arbor’s Downtown Development Authority board held its annual retreat on Tuesday morning, which began with a scrumptious hot breakfast and ended with a giant pie. What the pie offered in size, it lacked in taste: it came in the form of a chart. More on the chart later. Fran Alexander, of Alexander & Associates, acted as the facilitator for the four-hour meeting, which began on time at 8 a.m., and was uninterrupted except for a strictly enforced 10-minute break. It covered three main agenda items: (i) celebrate achievements of 2007-08 (ii) identify priorities for 2009 (iii) establish committee structure for DDA board work. [Full Story]

The DDA board met at its regularly scheduled time on the first Wednesday of the month. Topics of discussion ranged from new developments to the DDA on TV. [Full Story]

Just a brief note to alert Chronicle readers to two events on the western edge of downtown tomorrow (Oct. 2). At the DDA Board meeting today, Ray Detter, of the Downtown Area Citizens Advisory Council, announced that there would be a dedication ceremony at 5 p.m. of the new wall displays at Ashley and Washington streets, which is a part of the Downtown Ann Arbor Historic Street Exhibit Program. “At lunchtime workmen bought beer by the bucket from nearby saloons,” reads part of the text from one of the installations.

The second event is not an “event” per … [Full Story]

“On the low end, mid 60s, to low 70s on the high end,” said Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library, in her remarks to the DDA board. And she wasn’t talking about the weather forecast. Or an age bracket of heavy library users. She was talking about dollar amounts. Millions of dollars. But before diving into money talk, it’s worth noting that some things are free.

For example, one detail not often reported about the noontime meetings of the Downtown Development Authority board is that lunch is provided – to anyone who shows up and would like to partake. Susan Pollay, executive director of the DDA, explained that they started providing … [Full Story]

Starting at noon and going for around an hour and a half, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority Board held its regular monthly meeting at the DDA offices today. [Full Story]

When Ann Arbor residents leave their corrugated cardboard out (before 7 a.m.) for curbside pickup by Recycle Ann Arbor, sometimes it doesn’t disappear by the time they’ve returned home in the evening. It will be sitting in the same neat pile they left it in – with one difference. Stuck to the top of the pile will be an orange sticky note declaring: “Your corrugated cardboard wasn’t prepared properly.” [Full Story]

The newly-planted trees at the surface parking lot created in place of the old YMCA building, which was demolished earlier this year, sport green bags at the base of their trunks. Most casual observers might guess the bags are used for watering. In this case, a guess based on a casual observation is … exactly right.

What’s not as easily guessed is that these Treegator® slow release watering … [Full Story]