The history of this partnership dates back to 2010. The county board voted initially to join the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office (SEMREO) – a separate entity from the SEMREO Community Alliance – at its March 17, 2010 meeting. At the time, SEMREO was a division of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance, a Ferndale-based nonprofit that’s led by county commissioner Conan Smith. Smith abstained from the March 17, 2010 vote, following conflict-of-interest concerns raised by other commissioners. SEMREO later split off from the Michigan Suburbs Alliance as a separate organization, but Smith serves on its board of directors.

Washtenaw County became involved in the SEMREO Community Alliance in 2011. On Aug. 3, 2011, the county board voted to join the SEMREO Community Alliance and approved the original interlocal agreement. According to Sam Offen – SEMREO director and co-director of the SEMREO Community Alliance – the alliance was created in order to pursue certain grant funding that’s not available to municipalities directly. It includes six partners: Washtenaw County, and the cities of Lathrup Village (in Oakland County); Sterling Heights and Roseville (in Macomb County); and Lincoln Park and Southgate (in Wayne County). [.pdf of original interlocal agreement] Smith was absent from the Aug. 3, 2011 meeting when the Washtenaw County board voted to join the alliance.

On Feb. 6, Smith was also absent for the vote to amend the SEMREO Community Alliance interlocal agreeement, arriving at the meeting after the vote had been taken. However, he asked the board if he could record affirmative votes for all items that he had missed – which included the SEMREO Community Alliance item. None of the other commissioners objected.

According to a staff memo, the amended interlocal agreement includes 13 changes, summarized in the county board’s resolution. [.pdf of interlocal agreement resolution] Changes include: (1) clarifying local government appointment and removal powers; (2) allowing video conferencing for quorum and voting; (3) allowing teleconferencing for participation, but not voting or quorum; (4) adding forms and rules for additional parties to join the alliance; and (5) clarifying the entity that determines how costs and expenses are to be distributed. A full copy of the amended interlocal agreement was not provided in the board’s Feb. 6 meeting packet. Offen emailed it to The Chronicle following the meeting. [.pdf of amended interlocal agreement]

Washtenaw County is the last of the six partners to authorize the amendments. The amended agreement has been reviewed by the state attorney general’s office and will now be sent to Gov. Rick Snyder for his approval.

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

Jeff Speck’s “Walkable City” was a volume brought to the Jan. 9, 2013 Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board meeting by local developer Peter Allen. (Photos by the writer.)

The budget adjustments to FY 2013 were made in order to account for roughly $2.6 million in construction costs associated with the Library Lane underground parking garage. They had been allocated in the previous year’s budget, but not paid last year – because the completion of the construction extended into this fiscal year.

The FY 2012 audit report, which the board also approved at its Jan. 9 meeting, shows that for FY 2012, the DDA spent about $2.5 million less than anticipated for that year – because the construction invoices were not all submitted to the DDA by the time books closed for the year.

The result of those changes leaves a budget with $22,237,924 in revenues against $26,339,555 in expenses for the year – which translates to a planned use of the DDA’s fund balance reserve of $4,101,632. That’s about half of the existing fund balance.

Not a part of the revised budget was the approval of two allocations made by the board – one of $50,000 in connection with the DDA’s existing energy grant program, and another of $150,000 for a grant to Dawn Farm, a nonprofit offering both residential and out-patient services supporting recovery for alcoholics and drug addicts. The energy allocation will essentially attempt to leverage energy audits completed through the DDA’s program for use in the Michigan Saves program, which offers low-interest financing for energy improvements.

The board also approved recommendations to be forwarded to the city council on the future redevelopment of five city-owned sites currently used for parking. The project, which is now named Connecting William Street (CWS), began with an April 4, 2011 city council resolution that directed the DDA to seek “robust public input” from experts, stakeholders and residents to develop a plan for those parcels.

In connection with the parcels in that area, the board also adopted a policy on possible grants from the DDA’s tax increment finance (TIF) funds to support development of the CWS properties. The policy makes clear that the DDA would not forgo its TIF capture on any property – but the amount of the grant would be calculated based on TIF revenue.

Also in connection with the CWS project, the board heard remarks during public commentary from representatives of the city’s park advisory commission as well as the State Street Area Association. The board also invited Doug Kelbaugh, a University of Michigan professor of architecture and urban planning, to share his thoughts on parks versus plazas – and why he thinks the site on top of the Library Lane parking garage is more likely to succeed as a plaza instead of a park.

FY 2013 Budget Revisions, Audit

The board was asked to consider $2.6 million in changes to the current year’s budget – FY 2013, the 12-month period starting July 1, 2012. They stem primarily from costs that had been budgeted for the previous year for construction of the Library Lane underground parking garage, but not paid for.

The result of those changes leaves a budget with $22,237,924 in revenues against $26,339,555 in expenses for the year – which translates to a planned use of the DDA’s fund balance reserve of $4,101,632. That’s about half of the existing fund balance. The FY 2013 budget projects a fund balance at the end of FY 2013, on June 30, 2013, of $4,380,341. [.pdf of revised FY 2013 DDA budget]

The budget originally approved by the DDA board on March 7, 2012 showed revenues of $22,097,956 against $24,101,692 in expenditures – for an excess of expenditures over revenues of $2,003,736.

Much of the roughly $2 million in additional expenses in the adjusted budget is attributable to construction costs of the Library Lane underground parking structure, which was completed in July 2012. That money had been budgeted, but not spent in FY 2012. To account for Library Lane parking structure construction, the adjustments to this year’s budget show an additional $850,000 to be expended from the DDA’s tax increment finance (TIF) fund and $1,792,388 from the DDA’s parking fund.

The DDA’s audited finances show that for FY 2012, the DDA spent about $2.5 million less than anticipated for that year – because the construction invoices were not all submitted to the DDA by the time books closed for the year. The board was also asked to adopt the auditor’s report.

Budget Adjustment: Board Deliberations

Roger Hewitt introduced the agenda items by explaining that the completion of the Library Lane underground parking structure had come near the end of the fiscal year.

In addition to the construction cost adjustments, Hewitt highlighted changes to the DDA housing fund budget. Those changes included the additional expense of a $246,000 allocation made as a grant to replace the roof on Baker Commons – an Ann Arbor Housing Commission property. That was balanced against the $400,000 that would not be spent to support the Near North affordable housing project, because that project has fallen through.

But given the energy saving grant allocation ($50,000) and the Dawn Farm grant ($150,000) approved at the board’s same meeting, Hewitt noted that the budget adjustments the board would be approving were already $200,000 off from the actual expenditures.

Outcome: Without substantive deliberations, the board unanimously approved the budget adjustments.

Audit: Board Deliberations

Roger Hewitt noted that the audit report, from Rehmann, had been reviewed previously at a meeting of the operations committee, which Rehmann’s Mark Kettner had attended. The highlight that Hewitt wanted to draw out from the report was this: “The results of our tests disclosed no instances of noncompliance or other matters that are required to be reported under Government Auditing Standards.” [.pdf of DDA FY 2012 audit]

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to accept the auditor’s report.

Dawn Farm Grant

The board was asked to consider awarding Dawn Farm a $150,000 grant to reduce the debt on two of the organization’s existing properties. By way of background, Dawn Farm is a nonprofit offering both residential and out-patient services supporting recovery for alcoholics and drug addicts. In 2001, the DDA had made a $135,000 grant to Dawn Farm to assist with the purchase of the property at 112 Chapin St.

The current request being made to the DDA is for $150,000 to help pay down the debt on two other Dawn Farm properties, at 343 Beakes and 324 Summit. The grant from the DDA would free up cash to expand the existing total 159 beds in Dawn Farm’s residential treatment facilities to 200 by early 2013, according to the nonprofit.

Jim Balmer, president of Dawn Farm, had addressed the DDA board at its Dec. 5, 2012 board meeting, asking the DDA to support the request.

Dawn Farm: Board Deliberations

Joan Lowenstein introduced the item on Dawn Farm, saying that the organization had approached the DDA to ask for money that would help the nonprofit refinance existing property. That would allow Dawn Farm to provide additional transitional housing units and free up money for services in the downtown area.

Newcombe Clark said that independent of all the work Dawn Farm does, the organization has very detailed capital expenditure and depreciation schedules. Dawn Farm has been setting money aside for capital costs. The reason the DDA asks for that, Clark said, is because it shows rigor. He indicated that in general, helping an organization to pay off debt is not something he thinks the DDA should get in the habit of doing. But in the case of Dawn Farm, he was satisfied that the DDA would not be backfilling a legacy of a failure to set aside sufficient funds. He described it as “refreshing” to see an organization have rigor in the way it approached capital costs. He felt that fact made it easier to approve Dawn Farm’s request without contention.

John Splitt indicated his concern that the DDA housing fund was being tapped to provide the funding – because he felt that Dawn Farm was more of an “outreach program” than a housing program. If this were the “housing and outreach fund,” he said, he’d be more willing approve the grant – but he added that the work Dawn Farm does is marvelous. Clark pointed out that Dawn Farm would be able to add beds as a result of the DDA’s grant – but Splitt indicated he already knew that when he’d made his comments.

Outcome: Despite reservations from Splitt, he joined his board colleagues in voting unanimously to approve the grant.

Energy Audit Grant

The board was asked to consider a $50,000 allocation to its existing energy saving grant program to support additional costs for energy audits ($40,000) and the administrative support of those audits ($10,000). The idea is to leverage energy audits completed through the DDA’s program for use in the Michigan Saves program, which offers low-interest financing for energy improvements – in the form of loans from $2,000-$150,000.

The DDA’s energy grant program provides funds to cover the complete cost of energy audits for downtown businesses and a rebate on the cost of undertaking the actual improvements indicated by the audit.

Sandi Smith reviewed the point of the energy saving grant program and described the connection to the Michigan Saves program. Michigan Saves has offered to provide food and staff support to help the DDA promote the new program.

Mayor John Hieftje pointed out that the city’s Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program staff could be tapped for expertise and assistance as well.

Outcome: The board unanimously approved the $50,000 allocation to the energy saving grant program

Varsity Parking Permits

The board was asked to consider granting the right to purchase two monthly permits in Ann Arbor’s public parking system to The Varsity, in order to satisfy the project’s 76-space parking requirement under the city’s zoning regulations. The project, located on East Washington Street, is a 13-story, 173-unit, 178,380-square-foot apartment building for approximately 418 people. Construction on the project is well underway.

The request from The Varsity was before the DDA board, because the DDA manages the public parking system – including parking permits – under contract with the city. The DDA in turn subcontracts out the day-to-day parking operations to Republic Parking.

The developer of The Varsity had originally planned to satisfy part of its parking requirement through a contract with Zipcar, a car-sharing service. That arrangement turned out not to be feasible.

The purchase of the two monthly permits will be arranged through the city’s contribution in lieu (CIL) program, which allows a developer to meet a parking requirement by making an upfront payment of $55,000 per space or by purchasing monthly permits in the public parking system for an extra 20% of the current rate for such permits – with a commitment of 15 years.

The D1 zoning district, where The Varsity is located, does not have a parking requirement for construction that has less than a 400% floor area ratio (FAR). However, if a development exceeds 400% FAR – which is allowed for projects that include residential units – then parking spaces must be provided. The number of spaces provided is based on a formula of 1 space per 1,000 square feet in excess of 400% FAR.

The approval of The Varsity’s monthly permits is just the second time the CIL program has been invoked. On Oct. 3, 2012 the DDA voted to approve the purchase of up to 42 monthly permits by the 624 Church St. project, another residential development.

The specific parking structure where the permits can be purchased has not been determined for either of the two projects. The topic of location – and the idea that a general policy should be developed to guide the choice of which parking structure can be used for permits sold under the CIL program – was part of the DDA’s operations committee meeting on Dec. 19, 2012.

Roger Hewitt described the arrangement for his board colleagues.

Outcome: The board voted unanimously to sell two monthly permits to The Varsity, with the location of the parking structure to be determined.

Connecting William Street Parcel Plan

On the board’s Jan. 9 agenda were recommendations related to future development of five city-owned parcels in the DDA district – known as the Connecting William Street project. The recommendations cover: (1) the Kline lot (on the east side of Ashley, north of William), (2) the lot next to Palio restaurant (northeast corner of Main & William), (3) the ground floor of the Fourth & William parking structure, (4) the old YMCA lot (on William between Fourth and Fifth), and (5) the top of the Library Lane underground parking garage on South Fifth, north of the downtown library. [.pdf of presentation made at Dec. 5, 2012 board meeting]

The recommendations stemmed from a directive given to the DDA by the Ann Arbor city council in an April 4, 2011 resolution to engage in a public process with experts, stakeholders and residents, and then to develop a plan for those parcels. The council’s resolution describes a step in the process when the city council and the planning commission would adopt the recommendations on the five parcels into the city’s downtown plan. The downtown plan is one component of the city’s master plan. Other components include: the land use element, the transportation plan, the non-motorized transportation plan, parks and recreation open space (PROS) plan, and the natural features master plan.

Streetscape view looking down William Street toward the east from Ashley Street – a schematic rendering of the Connecting William Street recommendations.

Based on the phasing described in the council’s April 2011 resolution, any request for proposals (RFP) to be made for the five parcels would come after the planning commission and the city council formally adopt recommendations on the five parcels into the downtown plan.

The vote on the recommendations came as preparation for the DDA’s presentation scheduled for a joint DDA/city council work session on Jan. 14. That session will begin at 7 p.m. in the second-floor council chambers at city hall, 301 E. Huron.

Also on the DDA board’s Jan. 9 meeting agenda was a policy on grants to be made by the DDA in the Connecting William Street area of study. Among other things, the policy gives priority to projects that promote public benefits related to connectivity and walkability improvements; environmental design features; significant architecture and design investment; public landscaping & plazas/urban open spaces; and infrastructure investments.

The grant policy makes clear that the DDA would not forgo its TIF (tax increment finance) capture on any property, but the amount of the grant would be calculated based on TIF revenue. The policy would apply only to the four city-owned properties in the area of the CWS study that are currently surface parking lots. [.pdf of grant policy draft]

CWS: Grant Policy

Sandi Smith pointed out the similarity of the language to that of a policy the DDA had adopted to guide the award of grants for brownfield projects. [The brownfield policy was created to provide guidance on the 618 S. Main project. The policy and the project grant were given approval at the DDA board's June 6, 2012 meeting.]

The policy establishes the public elements that the DDA would consider as items qualifying a project for a grant. The 17-25% of TIF capture that’s specified in the policy is a way to calculate the potential amount of a grant, but Smith stressed that the DDA will not forgo its TIF capture to help.

Joan Lowenstein echoed Smith’s characterization that the grant policy really is similar to what was done with the DDA’s brownfield policy. The idea is to give developers some criteria.

Newcombe Clark drew out the fact that the grant policy applies just to the city-owned parcels in the CWS geographic area, not to all parcels in the area.

Roger Hewitt floated the idea of a friendly amendment, which was accepted, that would characterize the grant calculator as 17-25% of the first 10 years of TIF capture for a completed project.

In discussing one of the criteria in the policy – “Environmental design exceeds City requirements” – DDA board members mulled whether that meant LEED requirements and wondered if there were other standards. From the audience, Doug Kelbaugh – a UM professor of architecture and urban planning – suggested that relevant standards could be found in Architecture 2030.

Outcome: The TIF grant policy for Connecting William Street parcels was unanimously approved.

CWS: Public Comment – Parks, Plazas

Addressing the board during public commentary on behalf of the city’s park advisory commission (PAC), was Ingrid Ault. She told the board she was there primarily because she had attended the CWS forum on Jan. 3, and she wanted to update the board on how PAC had been approaching the issue. She said her takeaway – shared by PAC members Bob Galardi and Alan Jackson – was that there’s a lot of support for some kind of open space in the downtown. But she described the evening’s discussion as yielding no real consensus one way or the other, calling it a spirited discussion.

Ault described a recent retreat held by PAC. An outcome of that retreat was to form a subcommittee to talk about downtown open space. She and Jackson serve on that subcommittee. One of the steps the subcommittee will take is to take an inventory of what’s in place, and talk about what works and doesn’t work – before thinking about what PAC might want to add.

There are 157 parks in Ann Arbor, Ault said. She said that PAC is concerned about adding space that has no active use. PAC doesn’t want to add open space that just sits empty, she said. PAC at this point is in the early stages of its discussion, she said, and had talked about different land uses in the CWS area. There’s no initial consensus on that. She said that the next step for PAC was to provide the DDA board with information, so that they could move forward in a thoughtful manner with the community. [For more background on PAC's discussions, see Chronicle coverage: "PAC: Downtown Park, More Input Needed."]

Introducing herself for public commentary as the new executive director of the State Street Area Association was Frances Todoro. She indicated that the former executive director, Tom Heywood, would still be around for a year to help with the transition.

She was interested in speaking to the board on the subject of adding parks downtown – by first focusing on an existing park downtown, Liberty Plaza, located at the southwest corner of Liberty and Division. [Todoro holds a masters in urban planning and geography from the University of North Carolina.] It’s been a struggle to make the park work on a consistent basis, but she allowed there’d been spurts here and there when it’s been cleaned up and it’s worked for a few months. She noted that Sonic Lunch, sponsored by the Bank of Ann Arbor, is a hugely successful program – for a few days out of the year.

The State Street Area Association, she said, would want to see the park maintain a consistent success year round. SSAA was interested in focusing first on that success before bringing any additional parks online, she said. A lot would be learned from solving the existing problem of Liberty Plaza park, she said. And learning from those solutions would be beneficial to the existing community. It would help SSAA realize its vision of a clean and safe community.

During public commentary Eileen Ilene Tyler reported that she attended the Jan. 3 meeting on the CWS, but couldn’t stay until the end. She agreed the city should be proactive in defining the opportunities for development that are compatible with the central area plan. She supported the inclusion of a greenway-streetscape connection between downtown and the University of Michigan campus. She appreciated that the DDA had contracted with a local design professional [SmithGroup JJR] to illustrate the designs, saying she respected their work. [Tyler is an architect with Quinn Evans.]

However, Tyler didn’t see any actual “connecting” going on – especially along William Street. She asked that this be articulated in a more detailed way in the schematics, by adding nodes or oases along the route. That approach would break up the linear street, which is depicted as a straight and narrow “chute,” with a little bit of green cover around the street edge. Things like benches should be included, she said, or variation in paving material, and additional greenery. By including such elements in schematics now, developers might be more inclined to include them, instead of deferring only to minimum zoning requirements – which require no setbacks.

She wanted to be able to point to the CWS project as a positive force by the city to encourage better design from developers. Lawyers and developers are too quick to use precedence, she said, as the sole argument against the need to provide better design. She wanted to encourage the features of good urban design to be included in the final documents.

CWS: Public Comment – 413 Huron Street

The conversation at the board meeting connected concerns about the CWS recommendations and a proposed project outside the CWS area – at 413 Huron St.

The 413 Huron St. project is a proposed 14-story building at the northeast corner of Huron and Division – which calls for 213 apartments, about 3,000-square-feet of street-level retail space, and 163 on-site underground parking spaces. The complex would consist of two main towers and an “inset upper level garden and pool courtyard,” according to the proposal.

Toward the end of her remarks, Tyler noted that the lack of adequate setbacks of buildings in the schematics for CWS was one of the same problems with the 413 Huron St. project.

And when Ray Detter reported out from the previous evening’s meeting of the downtown citizens advisory council, the main highlight of his remarks was the CAC’s strong opposition to the 413 Huron St. project.

Detter supported the commitment to good architecture in the CWS proposal. He called the best public art a good building that’s well designed. Pedestrian-friendly setbacks should also be encouraged. He said he was very pleased that future projects undertaken in the CWS area will allow the planning commission to ask developers how they have responded to the design review board (DRB) process. He allowed that compliance with DRB recommendations was voluntary.

Detter noted that the city’s historic district commission had approved a resolution critical of the 413 Huron St. project, because it would have a negative impact on the Old Fourth Ward historic district. Regarding two members of CAC who live in Sloan Plaza, Detter said that as a result of the 413 Huron St. project “their sunlight will be gone forever.”

And during a presentation made to the board by Doug Kelbaugh, a University of Michigan professor of architecture and urban planning, he offered as an aside that he agreed with comments by Detter and Tyler about the proposed 413 Huron project – adding that it did not lie within the area he considered to be the “downtown core.”

CWS: Board Response to Commentary

Mayor John Hieftje responded to remarks from Ault and Todoro, by commenting on Liberty Plaza. He said the city is just now in the beginning stages of taking a look at Liberty Plaza. The parks staff have developed a preliminary timeline, he said, but he appreciated the comments people had made. He contended that he feels comfortable in Liberty Plaza, but allowed that some community members don’t feel comfortable there. He said that it needs to be improved so that it’s more inviting to all city residents. [Hieftje had made similar comments in a presentation at the Aug. 21, 2012 meeting of the city's park advisory commission.]

John Splitt indicated that as a member of the State Street Area Association board, he wanted to thank First Martin for doing the best job they can, by contributing their help in emptying trash and helping with the upkeep of the public park. [First Martin owns the building adjacent to Liberty Plaza.]

Sandi Smith responded to Tyler’s points about the specificity in the CWS drawings by saying that the leadership outreach committee had struggled to balance the amount of detail shown in the buildings. They’d started with “blocky” buildings, and by giving them a little more design they didn’t want to go down the path of designing an entire building. Tyler responded that some of the elements she was talking about could be put it in the narrative to the recommendations, if not in the schematics.

Joan Lowenstein told Tyler that she loved Tyler’s use of the word “oasis,” saying that was the intended concept.

CWS: Executive Summary

Susan Pollay, executive director of the DDA, began by thanking the board and others who had worked on the Connecting William Street project. She sketched an overview of the process, but did not go through the PowerPoint presentation that had been shown at the last board meeting and at two subsequent public meetings. [.pdf of CWS presentation made at Dec. 5, 2012 board meeting]

She reviewed how the process had been undertaken over the last 15-18 months, when the DDA got approval from the city council to take charge of an RFP process for city-owned properties in the downtown. The DDA had set out with a belief that the process would build on a lot of good planning that had already been done, she said, without starting from scratch. So the first step was to review all the existing city planning work – the downtown plan, the central area plan, the A2D2 process, the Calthorpe study and the city’s design guidelines.

The community was then asked to speak to that planning in a more granular way. In the past, she said, when the city had issued vague RFPs, potential developers had essentially been directed to those plans and told, “Just look to those plans, they’ll tell you what to do.” The result was “strange polarities,” Pollay said, which were reflected most recently in competing visions for the top of the Library Lane underground garage – as people talked about an ice-skating rink versus a hotel/conference center. She compared the issue to one where you try to choose between a stick or a bagel.

So the Connecting William Street project was a chance for the community to decide for itself what it would like to see on the five sites, without immediate development pressures.

Pollay noted that part of the public input had included a survey to test whether the goals distilled out from previous planning efforts were still embraced. She stressed that the survey was not an attempt to conduct a vote for a particular use on a particular site. What they’d heard consistently was that the values reflected in previous planning were confirmed – walkability, density, diversity of use, and quality of buildings.

Scenarios were developed to test in more detail what public reaction was, and Pollay said that what they’d heard in several different meetings was consistency. People might not have agreed with the building height as depicted in a scenario, but weren’t opposed to having a building there at all. Or people did not oppose having active uses on the first floor. They’d found many areas of agreement, she said.

There are many areas where the plan has to come together and work together, Pollay said. As an example, she said there are opportunities to pursue jobs in the downtown by providing for large floor-plate office space. But there are also opportunities to provide housing for the workers who might be employed in those jobs. There are a great number of opportunities not just in the downtown, but also specifically in the area of downtown that makes up the study area, she continued, pointing out that the AATA’s Blake Transit Center is located there. Something like 600,000 people a year visit the downtown location of the Ann Arbor District Library, she said, which is a great strength. [The downtown library is located at the northeast corner of Fifth and William.] But that meant that surrounding uses needed to be complementary to that.

Pollay said that for 95% of the plan, there was very little controversy. There was some quibbling about density, but generally there was a lot of agreement, she said. They’d strived for a diversity of voices in gathering input, and made a point to reach out to as many neighborhood groups and civic organizations as possible – at least 100. A mailing list of interested citizens was developed that had over 700 people on it. A total of 300 people had attended meetings and over 2,000 people had responded to a survey.

They’d strived for a diverse and robust response, she concluded. About the question of parks and open space, Pollay ventured, “We are saying different things, yet saying the same thing: We want more open space downtown, whether it’s a park or a plaza, whether it’s green, whether it’s sized this way or that.” She said there was still some dialogue going on.

The previous evening, she’d met with the housing and human services advisory board (HHSAB) and talked about affordable housing. There was no one of the five sites that seemed to call for affordable housing – but instead there seemed to be a lot of consensus at HHSAB for selling the property and rebuilding the city’s affordable housing trust fund. That would give flexibility for the location of affordable housing.

The idea was discussed that a contribution in lieu program could be provided for the density incentives that are available under by-right zoning. [Currently, up to 900% FAR (floor-area ratio) is allowed in by-right projects, if the use of a project includes a suitable amount of affordable housing.] There was a strong willingness to explore a contribution to the affordable housing trust fund in lieu of providing the affordable housing units within a project.

She concluded by thanking everyone, and cautioning that there is a lot of work yet to be done.

Sandi Smith noted that some of the outreach for the project that had been directed was to connect to the University of Michigan. So she invited Doug Kelbaugh, a UM professor of architecture and urban planning, to present some of the work his students had done.

CWS: Kelbaugh Connection

In the summer of 2011, Kelbaugh had pitched his services to facilitate a public process for the Connecting William Street project [though it had not yet been given that name], but ultimately the DDA board declined the offer.

Kelbaugh began by discussing the question of whether the open space on the top of the Library Lane underground parking garage should be a plaza or a park. He offered three reasons why it should be a plaza, not a park.

1. Urban rationale – downtowns need outdoor living rooms that are:
   (a) spatially well defined, enclosed by buildings on at least three sides (ideal width is 100 feet – which is the distance at which you can recognize somebody’s face);
   (b) activated by programmed, spontaneous and informal activities for diverse demographics – so that it’s not dominated by rich, poor or anybody in between;
   (c) with lots of entrances, windows, retail on the edges, as well as “eyes” on the plaza. Kelbaugh contended that Ann Arbor has great streets and great parks but not a lot of good plazas, i.e. “outdoor living rooms.” These characteristics meant that Liberty Plaza will never actually be a plaza – it will always be a park. It could become a better park, but would never be a plaza – because the historic building to the south [Kempf House] would never have windows and doors opening onto it from that side. However, the Library Lane site had the potential to be a plaza, he said. Kelbaugh said that the side of the Earthen Jar restaurant would never be an adequate activator of a plaza.
2. Architectural rationale – a plaza is better suited structurally for construction on top of a parking garage than a park, which needs deep soil for trees and berms.
3. Environmental rationale – it’s greener to have a dense, complete downtown than suburban sprawl (urban residents have smaller ecological footprints per capita).

Kelbaugh then showed the board some student projects for the top of the Library Lane underground parking garage, highlighting how they made a connection from a plaza on the Fifth Avenue side of the parcel to the Liberty Plaza park. For one of the buildings that the students had designed, the connection went through the buildings – with an elevated exterior “public street” that led past retail shop entrances. When you come out the other side, he said, you are greeted with a “true green park” – where Liberty Plaza is. That would require the cooperation of Bill Martin and his son, Kelbaugh allowed – because of property that is owned by Martin, situated between the Library Lane parking garage and Liberty Plaza.

Kelbaugh included in his remarks a sketch of how he imagined it might be possible to get from the Kline lot on the western edge of downtown to the University of Michigan campus, using mid-block cut-throughs.

CWS: Board Deliberations

Newcombe Clark ventured that what the DDA board would be approving was a snapshot – saying that the minute you collect data, it starts to degrade. It could become more or less relevant as time goes by and various macro forces act on the situation. He ventured that the plan will be trotted out years later as proof of something. He felt it might not hold up well if it’s put on a shelf.

Mayor John Hieftje indicated that he appreciated all the work that had been done. He asked for an amendment to the resolved clause [added text in italics, bolded type for contrast]:

Resolved, The DDA approves the Connecting William Street Plan, and anticipates that the Plan will be presented to City Council later this month, with the expectation of working to implement this Plan in the future, following further input from city commissions and the public.

Sandi Smith indicated that unfortunately she didn’t consider that amendment to be friendly. Joan Lowenstein suggested tweaking the change as follows, which was amenable to Smith and to Hieftje:

Resolved, The DDA approves he Connecting William Street Plan, and anticipates that he Plan will be presented to City Council later this month, with the expectation of working to implement this Plan in the future, in conjunction with further input from city commissions and the public.

Smith called it a significantly different statement. John Mouat expressed some caution about the added language, saying that the project had already lasted one and a half years, so he hoped to see some timely action on it. Clark ventured that the next step could be for the DDA to develop an RFQ (request for qualifications).

Outcome: The board unanimously voted to adopt the Connecting William Street recommendations.

Communications, Committee Reports

The board’s meeting included the usual range of reports from its standing committees and the downtown citizens advisory council.

Comm/Comm: Parking Report

Roger Hewitt delivered the report on monthly parking, which has been covered in more detail in previous reporting: “Parking as Residential Incentive: Where?”

Comm/Comm: Downtown Marketing Task Force

Mayor John Hieftje, who sits on the DDA board as mayor, reminded DDA board members of a first-Tuesday monthly meeting – of the downtown marketing task force. He called the meetings productive and encouraged DDA board members to attend.

Comm/Comm: WATS

John Mouat reported that the executive director of the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study (WATS), Terri Blackmore, had resigned. Blackmore is taking a position at North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization in Fort Collins, Colorado. Mouat indicated that Leigh Greden is leading the effort to find a replacement for her at WATS. [Greden sits on the WATS policy committee – in his capacity as the executive director of government and community relations for Eastern Michigan University.]

Comm/Comm: River Up!

Elizabeth Riggs, deputy director of the Huron River Watershed Council (HRWC), addressed the board on the topic of River Up! She told the board that she and HRWC director Laura Rubin had met with DDA executive director Susan Pollay a couple of times, and that Pollay had suggested Riggs make a presentation to the DDA board.

Left to right: DDA board member Sandi Smith and Huron River Watershed Council deputy director Elizabeth Riggs.

She said the point of the presentation was to start a dialogue and to promote future communication between the DDA and HRWC about River Up! She described River Up! as “nothing short of a renaissance for the Huron River.” She said the partners on the project were “thinking big.” Partners include the HRWC, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, National Wildlife Federation and a group of community and business leaders called the Wolfpack. [For previous Chronicle reporting on River Up!, see "River Up! Focuses on Revitalizing Huron River"] It’s a group that has worked in the past on environmental initiatives on the state and the national level, she said. River Up! is an initiative to look at an asset in “our own backyard – the Huron River.”

Riggs told the board that the HRWC has been around since 1965 working to protect the river and the eco-system. She called River Up! a bold initiative to turn the communities on the river to face the river – as a new Main Street. In the past, the Huron River has been a working river, she said, and it showed signs of that. It was understandable that people wanted to put their backs to the river – because it didn’t smell very good. But in the last few decades, she said, there’s been quite a turnaround, and the river is now something to celebrate. It’s the only river in this part of Michigan with a “natural river” designation. It’s an important place for recreation and respite. The river could be a part of the place-making effort for Ann Arbor, helping it to be an economic engine. Other river towns besides Ann Arbor are Milford, Dexter, Ypsilanti, and Flatrock. The concept is very broad but there are three specific areas that the River Up! project involves: (1) fix up; (2) clean up; and (3) build up.

Fixing up means investing in the river, making it safer and more accessible, she explained. The creation of a 104-mile paddling trail is part of that effort, which includes fixing portages and installing wayfinding. And soon a waterproof flipbook map of the whole river will be available.

Cleaning up means supporting ecological improvement. The DTE cleanup of the old MichCon site on Broadway, adjacent to the river, fits in with part of that effort, she said. That cleanup will help establish the connection between the river and the downtown, she said.

Riggs concluded by saying she looked forward to potential future collaboration.

Comm/Comm: Connector Study

Roger Hewitt reported that a meeting had been held by the funding partners for the connector study – an effort that’s exploring alternatives for high-capacity transit in a corridor that swoops in a boomerang shape from the northeast part of the city to the south. The corridor runs from US-23 and Plymouth southward along Plymouth to State Street and farther south to I-94. The city council approved its part of the funding on Oct. 15, 2012 to support an alternatives analysis phase of the study, which will result in identifying a preferred mode (e.g., bus rapid transit, light rail, etc.) and the location of stations and stops.

At the group’s meeting they’d received a report on the first public outreach effort, which had taken place at six different locations – including Briarwood mall during the Christmas shopping season. The point of the outreach, Hewitt said, was to gauge the public response to the concept of a high-capacity connector. The people who’d been asked had reported their priorities for transportation in the following order: higher frequency of service, extended hours of service, and reduced emissions.

The result of asking people to put dots on maps indicating their desired travel destinations showed a large cluster in the area of downtown Ann Arbor, Hewitt said. Around 90% of people said they wanted some kind of enhanced system – compared to the current bus system. About 275 people total had been contacted at the six locations, he said. The next outreach effort would take place in a couple of months, Hewitt concluded. [.jpg of dot map]

Present: Newcombe Clark, Bob Guenzel, Roger Hewitt, John Hieftje, John Splitt, Sandi Smith, Leah Gunn, Joan Lowenstein, John Mouat.

Absent: Nader Nassif, Russ Collins, Keith Orr.

Next board meeting: Noon on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2013, at the DDA offices, 150 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 301. [Check Chronicle event listings to confirm date]

The Chronicle could not survive without regular voluntary subscriptions to support our coverage of public bodies like the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. Click this link for details: Subscribe to The Chronicle. And if you’re already supporting us, please encourage your friends, neighbors and colleagues to help support The Chronicle, too!

At its Aug. 3, 2011 meeting, the board had held a public hearing and subsequently approved an interlocal agreement with the Southeast Michigan Energy Office Community Alliance (SEMRO). The Ferndale-based nonprofit (SEMRO) provides technical services to the county in identifying and implementing federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant projects. [.pdf of interlocal agreement]

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. Smith was absent from the Aug. 3 meeting.

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

A report from the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, drafted by a task force on infrastructure led by county board chair Rolland Sizemore Jr., laid out steps that SEMCOG hopes to take to address the situation – including, most immediately, lobbying Lansing lawmakers to raise the state’s gas tax, which funds road construction and upkeep. The briefing prompted commissioner Jeff Irwin to express frustration at SEMCOG’s approach, which he indicated wasn’t bold enough to tackle the underlying problems that have fostered sprawl.

At their May 20 session, commissioners also got an update on what’s known as the Chevron project – a multi-year, multimillion-dollar effort to cut energy usage in county facilities. And staff of the county’s energy and economic development office asked for feedback from commissioners about what type of pilot project the county should pursue, as part of a recent federal energy grant. Some commissioners are leaning toward a solar photovoltaic installation.

The meeting also included a presentation by county administrator Verna McDaniel on a request for more funds to complete the county jail expansion and new 14A-1 District Court facility. The Chronicle covered that topic in a previous report.

SEMCOG: Regional Infrastructure Needs

Paul Tait, SEMCOG’s executive director, began the presentation with a grim statement about the region’s infrastructure: “We’re really headed for a train wreck.” The goal of SEMCOG’s infrastructure task force was to try to get ahead of the challenges, he said, and to figure out potential solutions.

Chuck Hersey, manager of SEMCOG’s environment department, described their first step, which was to assess the current situation, and it didn’t look good. The revenue base is declining on several fronts: Gasoline sales, which provide gas tax revenues, are falling. Travel is decreasing, and with new fuel economy standards, gasoline sales are expected to decline even more, Hersey said. Property values – and thus taxable values – are also falling, which impacts revenues for local governments. Water usage is down as well, which means revenues from water usage fees are also falling.

Bottom line: Current revenues are insufficient to maintain the infrastructure that’s in place – as revenues fall, investment in infrastructure is cut. Hersey noted that some believe cutting investments in infrastructure saves money. But underinvestment doesn’t save in the long-term, he said – it actually leads to increased costs, especially in the case of infrastructure like roads, and water and sewer systems.

Another problem: funding formulas and policies are outdated, he said, inasmuch as they depend on increased consumption. Yet increased consumption conflicts with newer “green” policy goals that push for less use of gasoline, water and electricity. These conflicting approaches are on a collision course, Hersey said.

The region’s shrinking population is another challenge, and it’s expected to drop even more in the coming years. As a result, the region has more capacity than it needs – and though it might offend some people to say this, Hersey added, the region needs to “right-size.” These changes aren’t something that are going to blow over in six months or a year, he said.

There are also fewer jobs, and per-capita income is falling – which means people’s ability to pay is falling, too, Hersey said.

He discussed how a consumer’s needs and expectations of service drive costs. Under the current paradigm, consumers expect a full level of service at all times. Service providers, like water plants, design systems that can deliver that expectation. This results in high fixed costs, Hersey said. For example, when people turn on their faucet to water the lawn, they expect water to flow at the same level of pressure – even if it’s been dry and hot for several days or weeks. So water systems are designed to meet that expectation. For roads, the expectation is that there will be little or no congestion at any time – so roads are designed to meet peak rush-hour needs.

The model is unsustainable, Hersey said.

There are several components to a solution, he said: 1) restructuring revenue-collection systems, 2) taking a holistic view of needs and outcomes, rather than just looking at silos of interest, like transportation or water, 3) pushing for service providers to collaborate, 4) reducing costs, 5) strategically investing funds, focused on where infrastructure currently exists, and 6) developing a legislative strategy.

Hersey passed out a nine-page draft of action steps in these categories, developed by SEMCOG’s infrastructure task force but not yet approved by its executive committee. When approval is given, they’ll start working to implement these steps, he said. [.pdf of draft action steps]

SEMCOG: Commissioner Questions, Comments

Rolland Sizemore Jr. said he’d like to see Washtenaw County become a pilot program for implementing some of these changes. He said he thought that Janis Bobrin, the county’s water resources commissioner, would be willing to help (she attended the May 20 working session, but did not address the board), as would the road commission and the board of commissioners. If they’re successful, they might be able to leverage their work to get more funding from the state, he said.

Leah Gunn pointed out that the county has a patchwork of delivery for infrastructure services, which makes it difficult to coordinate. There are 28 jurisdictions in the county, and many of those local governments deliver services. There are also privately owned utilities for electricity and natural gas. As for the tension between relying on gas tax revenues while at the same time discouraging consumption, she wondered what SEMCOG would advise the state legislature to do.

SEMCOG’s Paul Tait said a gas tax increase is needed in the short term, but ultimately there needs to be a different mechanism for raising revenue, such as a tax on vehicle miles driven. Chuck Hersey said that utilities like DTE Energy are willing to work with the public sector – in many cases, better communication is a place to start. For example, DTE officials aren’t always aware of road projects undertaken by state or local governments. That would be one place to start collaborating for efficiency and reduced costs, so that DTE could do utility upgrades and repairs while the roads are already torn up for construction.

Ultimately, Gunn noted, the government needs more revenues for infrastructure projects. Citing an anti-tax sentiment in Michigan, she said, “I wish you well!”

Wes Prater said he didn’t see anything about performance or management in the SEMCOG report – that’s a key factor in reducing costs, he noted. He hoped the information they were compiling would be distributed to people who could make a difference.

Barbara Bergman said she worried about taxes that were regressive, putting an unfair burden on the poorest residents. Raising the sales tax would be “grossly unfair,” she said. Bergman hoped the current situation hurt enough so that state legislators would risk their careers to set things right. She also expressed concern for the environment, noting that the funding priorities needed to be the basics of food, clothing and shelter – making environmentalism “a luxury.”

Mark Ouimet pointed out that the data were snapshots, and they really needed something more like a movie – especially projecting into the future as much as possible. He said that because the revenue pressures and needs are so great, he imagined it would prompt entities like DTE to recognize the need to partner.

Kristin Judge commented that SEMCOG could serve an important role, as a place for entities in the region to work together. She suggested that SEMCOG make sure to coordinate its efforts with the Michigan Association of Counties and Governmental Consultant Services Inc., the Lansing-based firm led by Kirk Profit that Washtenaw County and other local governments pay to lobby for their interests at the state level.

Tait replied that their biggest effort at the moment was working to increase the gas tax, and that they “haven’t been able to turn the corner” on that.

Ken Schwartz noted that the economy has been declining for a decade, and that governments need to control their costs. He also spoke about the need to find small things that people can do to help the situation. Almost every storm drain is clogged, he said – somehow, they need to find ways to urge people to get out and take care of things like that in front of their own house. He cited the example of how putting a sign on the storm drains – stating that the drains lead directly to the river – dramatically reduced the amount of motor oil that people dumped. It takes political leadership, he said. They need to look at their history – when they’d been in economic difficulty before, what did they do? How can they learn from the past?

Jeff Irwin raised the issue of “right-sizing,” which Hersey had mentioned in his presentation. Irwin said it was unfortunate that Hersey backed off his statement, because the region does need to face reality. Thirty to forty years ago, the population was roughly the same, Irwin said, but now it’s spread out over a vast area of sprawl. “It’s just insane,” he said, destroying our communities and leading to financial and environmental disaster. How is the region going to focus the investment of transportation dollars on its core communities? Irwin asked.

Irwin noted that there was no mention of public transportation in the SEMCOG presentation, but it needs to be discussed. He described the public transportation network as a joke – other regions are ahead in that regard, and they’re “eating our lunch.” He cited his frustration at the delay in the commuter rail project between Ann Arbor and Detroit, which SEMCOG is spearheading. He asked whether they were going to talk about actually reducing infrastructure.

Hersey pointed to an editorial in the May 9, 2010 Detroit Free Press with the headline “Too Much Stuff, Too Few Dollars,” which he indicated was prompted by SEMCOG. It made the same point, he said – the region can’t support, and doesn’t need, the infrastructure that’s currently in place. He said SEMCOG talks about the need to invest strategically, and to collaborate.

Irwin asked whether it was reasonable for SEMCOG to draw circles around the region’s six largest urban cores, and to say that they’ll focus their efforts only on those areas. Or will the organization continue down the same path, he wondered, trying to make everyone happy, which he said ends in failure. [Irwin had earlier noted that SEMCOG is a member-organization, getting its financial support primarily from the local governments that join.]

When Irwin said he didn’t feel that these issues were being addressed seriously, Tait said, “We hear you.”

Wes Prater questioned how collaboration can be accomplished when the state constitution requires home rule. It’s impossible, he said, unless the constitution changes and you can form a continuous district, rather than having so many government jurisdictions.

Jessica Ping asked how SEMCOG was spreading the word about this infrastructure report. Tait replied that the task force had just signed off on it earlier that week, and the next step was to have it approved by SEMCOG’s executive committee in July. After that, they could start working to implement it – including reaching out to government leaders as well as getting a grassroots effort to push for these changes.

County Energy Use & Investment

Later in the meeting, staff from the county’s energy and economic development office gave an update on what’s known as the Chevron project – a multi-year, multimillion-dollar effort to cut energy usage in county facilities. They also asked for feedback from commissioners about what type of pilot project the county should pursue, as part of a recent federal energy grant.

Chevron Project Results

In the summer of 2004, the county board authorized a $6.088 million long-term contract with Chevron Energy Solutions. The company’s efforts under the contract, financed by a 20-year bond, consisted of 26 energy-efficiency projects at 18 county facilities. The projects included replacing boilers and chillers, installing new controls for HVAC equipment, replacing air handlers and rooftop units, upgrading lighting and adding insulation, among other things. They also agreed to track energy usage for four years after their work was completed – that tracking period ends this July.

At the board’s May 20, 2010 working session, Anya Dale – a specialist with the county’s office of economic development and energy – described the impact of the Chevron project.

Chart showing financial impact of Chevron project in Washtenaw County since 2006 for five county-owned facilities. (Links to larger image)

Energy savings were tracked by Chevron at only five of the 18 buildings where improvements were made, Dale noted – the five buildings where the most extensive work was done. Tracking began in August 2006, with the first year running through July 2007. In that period, Chevron had guaranteed $215,158 worth of total savings, and reported that actual savings reached $265,114 for the five buildings they tracked. Of that, $144,187 was in energy savings and $120,927 was an estimate of avoided maintenance or replacement costs, Dale said.

For the following years, Chevron said savings reached $264,290 in 2007-08, $416,974 in 2008-09, and $73,380 through February of this year.

Actual reductions in electricity and natural gas usage were also tracked for the five buildings: the administration building at 220 N. Main and the courthouse building at 101 E. Huron (both in downtown Ann Arbor), the Eastern County Government Center at 415 W. Michigan Ave. in Ypsilanti, the Dept. of Human Services building at 22 Center St. in Ypsilanti, and the county building on Towner Street in Ypsilanti.

Using data collected by the county between 2003 and 2007, Dale said, all but the administration building saw double-digit reductions in electricity usage. For natural gas usage, three of the buildings saw double-digit reductions in usage. An increase in natural gas usage at the Eastern County Government Center is possibly due to poor insulation, she said.

Energy Usage 2003-2007
Building         % change       % change
                 electricity    natural gas
Admin                0            -57
Courthouse         -14            -23
Eastern County     -32             +9
Human Services     -14            -20
Towner             -35            -26

-

Dale said there hasn’t been consistent data collection for other buildings that aren’t being tracked by the Chevron contract. She presented a general snapshot from 2007 to 2009, looking at electricity usage in 28 buildings and natural gas usage in 22 buildings. (The Washtenaw County Parks Commission covers utility bills in its facilities, and those figures weren’t included in the analysis.)

Chart showing energy usage and utilities costs in county facilities from 2007-2009. (Links to larger image.)

Of those county buildings examined between 2007 and 2009, overall energy usage appears to have declined, Dale said – though she cautioned that incomplete data in 2009 for natural gas likely means that the usage was likely higher. The staff estimates that from 2007 to 2009, the number of kilowatt hours used has dropped 15%, while therms (natural gas) have declined 26%.

The county needs to do a better job of tracking this data, Dale said. To do that, they plan to streamline the utility-tracking process and gather data in a more consistent format. After initially focusing on quantitative data, they’ll then focus on gathering qualitative data – like outside temperatures and space usage – with help from a new Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office, which the county is paying $76,690 to help fund.

Chevron Project: Commissioner Questions, Comments

Some commissioners questioned the data provided by Chevron. Wes Prater said he’d like more information about how Chevron arrived at its amounts in the “other savings” category – he wanted to pin them down on that data. The company made over $1 million in profits off this job, Prater said, and part of it was a guarantee of savings. The county should make sure those savings are real. [In a follow-up conversation with The Chronicle, Dale said that Chevron made a $450,000 profit on the project, or a 7.4% profit margin. She said Prater's reference to a $1 million profit might have included the firm's charges for general administrative overhead.]

Ken Schwartz asked whether the staff was auditing the numbers that Chevron provided, or whether that data was simply being accepted at face value. Dale reported that the staff tracked utility bills, and those direct savings as stated by Chevron are accurate. Schwartz followed up, asking if weather conditions had been factored in. If it was a particularly warm winter, then energy usage would be lower anyway and wouldn’t necessary reflect energy efficiency efforts. Dale said that temperatures hadn’t been tracked.

Schwartz noted that the county was paying $420,000 a year for the project – those costs needed to be part of the calculation of savings. After those payments are made, is the county still saving money? he asked. Brett Lenart – also on the staff of the county’s office of energy and economic development – pointed out that new equipment had been put in place that the county would have needed to buy anyway. He also reminded commissioners that the data from Chevron included just five buildings, but that many more facilities had been part of the project.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Project

Brett Lenart made a presentation describing efforts that are funded by a $766,900 three-year Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy. There are four projects, including retrofitting county facilities and upgrading energy efficiency, developing energy policies for the county, and establishing a revolving loan fund for energy-related efforts. But Lenart’s presentation on May 20 focused on the fourth effort: developing a renewable energy demonstration project.

He told commissioners that the staff was looking for feedback on what type of project they should pursue. He laid out four options to consider:

1. A rebate program for solar hot water systems. Lenart said the advantages to this project include dispersing grant dollars into the community, creating jobs for the workers who install these systems, and making the systems more competitive with solar photovoltaic systems that are currently cheaper because of available incentives. Disadvantages, he said, would be that it wouldn’t directly benefit the county government, and would require more overhead to administer the program, process applications and gather data.
2. A grant to one or more nonprofit housing organizations for solar hot water installation. Lenart described several advantages to this project: It would provide grant dollars to local nonprofits, create jobs, and result in energy savings for the county’s low-income residents. However, there would be no direct energy savings to county government facilities, and it would require a certain amount of administrative overhead to select the nonprofit for the project.
3. A solar hot water system on a county facility. This project would provide a direct energy savings benefit to the county, Lenert said. It also presents an educational opportunity, showing the payback for using a solar hot water system. The county would have direct access to data to track these savings. On the downside, there would be less job creation than in the first two options, Lenart said.
4. A solar photovoltaic demo on a county facility. Currently, financial incentives are available (through DTE Energy’s Solar Currents program) for photovoltaic systems that generate electricity – having a demo project with this technology would highlight the availability of those incentives for local residents. There are also federal tax incentives available as well. Without incentives, he noted, the payback period for solar photovoltaic is much longer than for solar hot water systems. This project would also yield direct energy savings to the county, Lenart said. [The county has already installed a photovoltaic demo system at its Zeeb Road facility.]

In rating these projects, staff saw more advantages in installing a solar hot water system or solar photovoltaic system on a county facility, Lenart said. But they were hoping for feedback and direction from the board.

Energy Projects: Commissioner Questions, Comments

Leah Gunn said that given the county’s financial situation, she thought they should look at their own costs first when considering which option to pursue.

Wes Prater supported the solar hot water project, saying it fit well with the county’s existing weatherization program for low-income residents. He noted that the plumbers and pipefitters union Local 190 is interested in solar hot water systems, and has built a model in their training facility on Jackson Road. It was important to provide savings to the area’s residents who need it most, he said.

Ken Schwartz suggested that residents should provide the direction – if solar photovoltaic systems are more popular, then perhaps that should guide the county. Tony VanDerworp, who leads the county’s office of energy and economic development, pointed out that solar photovoltaic systems are more popular now because there are financial incentives to install them. It’s not clear how long those incentives will last. [The incentives are designed to help DTE reach its mandated Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which requires that utilities get 10% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015.]

There was no clear concensus from the board – Barbara Bergman asked whether commissioners could email the staff with their thoughts. VanDerworp urged commissioners to provide feedback as soon as they can, and Lenart noted that the staff is under a fall deadline to submit its proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Energy, as part of the grant funding.

At left: Nancy Thelen, director of the Washtenaw County MSU Extension program, talks with county commissioner Leah Gunn after the board of commissioners' March 4 working session. (Photo by the writer.)

Nancy Thelen, the long-time director of the Washtenaw County MSU Extension program, gave commissioners an update on the changes at their March 4 working session. One major change is that the county director positions are being eliminated, to be replaced by district coordinators who’ll be responsible for multiple counties.

Several commissioners expressed strong support for Thelen and her staff, but said they weren’t pleased about what’s happening. Said Wes Prater: “Quite frankly, I’m not sold on what’s being done.”

Also at Thursday’s session, commissioners were briefed about plans for the county to join the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office – they’ll be asked to vote on this move at an upcoming meeting.

And Verna McDaniel, who’ll be replacing county administrator Bob Guenzel when he retires in May, gave an update on planning initiatives, focusing on ways that the county is preparing to respond to external trends like the depressed economy.

MSU Extension Restructures

Last year, the Washtenaw MSU Extension, which offers services ranging from 4-H to financial counseling, faced budget cuts both locally and from the state. As Washtenaw County worked to address a potential $30 million deficit, funding for the extension was among the programs on the table. Residents turned out at county board meetings during the summer, voicing their support for the extension’s services. [See Chronicle coverage: "4-H Fans, Others Lobby County for Funds"]

Ultimately, the board did cut funding for the extension in the 2010 and 2011 budget – along with a range of other programs. For 2010, the county has budgeted $639,155 for the extension, down from $697,256 last year. At their Nov. 4, 2009 meeting, commissioners also approved a millage, known as Act 88, that would raise $603,000 annually for economic development and agricultural-related purposes. A portion of those funds – $60,000 – were earmarked for the extension.

Separately, in October 2009, Gov. Granholm had signaled she might cut funds for the entire MSU Extension program – local operations throughout the state, including the Washtenaw office, were making plans to close. Granholm did not act on that threat when she signed the budget in late October. [See Chronicle coverage: "Local MSU Extension Saved from Closing"]

Meanwhile, MSU has been struggling with its own budget challenges. Last year, the university’s president, Lou Anna Simon, directed MSU’s colleges and departments to cut their budgets by 20% over the next four years. The MSU Extension was given five years to complete that task, Thelen told commissioners on Thursday. [This week, an article in the Detroit News outlined MSU's budget cuts, calling it "one of the biggest contractions in academic programs in the college's 154-year history."]

In her presentation to commissioners, Thelen said Simon believed the extension was  administratively too top-heavy – the reorganization aims to address that. Most of the changes are designed to deliver programs more efficiently, Thelen said, with the expectation that cost savings will follow. No jobs are being cut, she said.

Under the restructuring, the state is being divided into 13 districts. Washtenaw will become part of a six-county district that includes Livingston, Jackson, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties. Each district will have a coordinator, who will become the point-person for the extension. “You’ll see a different face here,” said Thelen, who has served as Washtenaw County’s extension director since 1989. Those district coordinators haven’t yet been selected.

The restructuring calls for forming four major statewide program areas:

• “Greening Michigan”: A catch-all category that includes forestry, land use, financial services, community development, and farm-to-consumer programs, among others.
• Agriculture and agribusiness
• Children and youth, which includes the 4-H programs.
• Health and nutrition

Current staff, including Thelen, have been asked to identify the program areas in which they’d like to serve. She’s chosen children and youth, but said it’s still unclear how those will be assigned. The intent is to focus staff on developing expertise in specific areas, and to provide that expertise to communities within the new districts, rather than within one county. These “multi-county educators” will report to the district coordinator.

Thelen said she nominated Verna McDaniel, who’ll be the next Washtenaw County administrator, to be on the transition team for this district. Details of that transition are still being worked out, Thelen said: “You’ll never hear me say ‘I don’t know’ as much as I’ll say it tonight.”

Within the next few months, the extension will be asking each county to sign a memorandum of understanding – or some type of agreement – laying out a commitment of financial support. A proposal hasn’t yet been determined, Thelen said, but it might be a flat fee based on county metrics, like population size or property tax revenues. The hope is to have those agreements in place by July 1, 2010 – though it might take longer to actually implement whatever changes are in the agreement, she said.

MSU Extension: Commissioner Comments, Questions

Leah Gunn said Thelen was putting a brave face on a situation that “sucked.” Gunn was concerned that local residents would lose the personal connections they’d had with the extension’s staff, and the continuity of programming. Thelen said she believes the district coordinators will put an emphasis on building personal relationships, too.

Several commissioners were concerned about how resources would be allocated among the six counties in the district. Saying the situation seemed to be like a slowly evolving “train wreck,” Jeff Irwin asked what level of financial support other counties were currently providing. Thelen said she wasn’t sure, but that Livingston County probably provided the least amount of support among the six. It’s not clear how resources will be allocated, she said.

Irwin said he wouldn’t support paying for services that would be delivered in other counties. He was fearful that this concern would also prompt other counties to reevaluate their financial commitment to the MSU extension. Another issue was the way in which counties might be asked to pay, based on population or property tax revenues. In either case, it seemed that urban counties would be bearing more responsibility than rural counties, he said.

Jessica Ping asked whether other counties supported the extension with a millage, as Washtenaw County does. Not in the district that Washtenaw will be part of, Thelen answered.

Ping noted that Washtenaw County has made the extension a priority, while other counties haven’t. She didn’t want that priority to get diluted when the county joins a larger district.

Several commissioners thanked Thelen and her staff, and sympathized with the difficult transition. Thelen promised she’d bring the board more updates as soon as she learned more about the changes that would be occurring.

Energy Efficiency Grant

Earlier in the meeting, Brett Lenart – with the county’s new office of energy and economic development – gave an update on plans to join the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office. It’s one piece of a strategy to implement programs and services that are funded by a $766,900 three-year Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy. Commissioners will be asked to approve membership in the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office at a meeting later this month.

Lenart briefly outlined five primary projects that the grant will fund: 1) $242,500 to retrofit county facilities and upgrade energy efficiency, 2) $275,000 to seed a revolving loan fund, 3) $115,000 to create a solar energy demonstration project, 4) $57,710 for staff to develop energy policies for the county, and 5) $76,690 to join the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office, which will provide technical assistance for the other projects. [More details on these projects were provided in a previous presentation by Lenart at the board's Nov. 19, 2009 working session.]

On Thursday, Lenart focused on the Southeast Michigan Regional Energy Office. The office is a partnership of the WARM Training Center, Michigan Municipal League, SEMCOG (Southeast Michigan Council of Governments) and the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. [County commissioner Conan Smith is executive director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. At the board's March 3 meeting, he addressed some conflict-of-interest concerns related to this project.]

The regional office would provide a range of services for the county, Lenart said. Those include helping collect and analyze data to track the county’s energy use, benchmarking with other communities, identifying other grant opportunities, identifying potential vendors and evaluating bids for the solar energy demonstration project and the county facility retrofits, among other things.

The next steps for the board of commissioners are to vote on a resolution to execute a participation agreement, Lenart said. This would also entail appointing a representative and an alternate to the board of the regional energy office.

Also attending Thursday’s working session was Jacob Corvidae of the Detroit-based WARM Training Center, on of the partners in the regional office. He spoke briefly, telling commissioners that they’ve already hired 3.5 full-time equivalent positions for the regional office and are hiring more. The partners have secured more than $3.5 million for the regional office, he said, which will be used for direct services as well as to build an endowment intended to provide a sustainable funding source in the future.

Energy Grant: Commissioner Comments and Questions

Jeff Irwin said he supported the move, noting that intergovernmental collaboration is one of the county’s guiding principles.

Jessica Ping asked where the office would be physically located. Jacob Corvidae of the WARM Training Center said that staff would work out of the partners’ offices – WARM and SEMCOG in Detroit, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance in Ferndale, and the Michigan Municipal League in Ann Arbor.

Ping also wanted to know how many other counties had already joined. Corvidae told Ping that 15-16 partners had signed up, but no other counties so far. Organizers are talking with officials in Macomb and Oakland counties about the possibility of joining, he said.

Rolland Sizemore Jr. asked how the board would know if the regional office was doing a good job. The last project like this, he noted, the county hadn’t tracked results very well. He was alluding to the Chevron Energy Performance Project. Later in the meeting, Wes Prater echoed Sizemore’s sentiments, and asked the county administration to provide an update on whether the Chevron project achieved the energy savings they had anticipated.

Ping asked about the county’s current solar energy project, and wondered whether data from that effort would be wrapped into reports about the new solar energy demonstration project. “We’ll make sure all that data gets to you,” Lenart said.

Lenart told commissioners that in developing the county’s energy policy, as part of this grant, they’d be setting realistic goals and tracking their performance, with regular reports to the board.

Update on Major County Initiatives

At the end of Thursday’s working session, Verna McDaniel gave the board an update on planning initiatives underway. McDaniel – who’s now deputy county administrator and is being hired to replace retiring county administrator Bob Guenzel in mid-May – focused her report on external trends. She told commissioners that the administration’s planning team will be developing white papers in five areas, to help them analyze the trends and plan strategies to mitigate their impact.

From McDaniel’s report, the external trends to be analyzed include:

• Ongoing economic challenges, including depressed property values, stagnant job growth and a declining population. The ability of local governments to sell municipal bonds might be affected by these factors, which could also increase the cost of capital. The economy could also affect the ability to raise revenue through new millages, or could impact the ability to renew existing millages, given voter sentiment.
• Increasing human service needs. A greater demand for these kinds of services could make it difficult for local governments to adequately respond.
• State and local government restructuring. Economic strains statewide are driving support for a new state constitution to address issues like the need for a new tax structure, the viability of the township government model, reform of school financing and districting, and other issues that could dramatically reshape county government.
• Increased emphasis on accountability, transparency and direct participation, in response to citizen demands for greater openness.
• Emerging strategies: Collaboration and consolidation, increased use of technology, alternative approaches to delivering services, and funding consolidation.

McDaniel said she’d be returning to the board with updates in the coming months.

Members of International Association of Firefighters Local 693 waited past midnight until their president finally was able to take his turn at public commentary during unreserved time at the end of the meeting. (Photo by the writer.)

Two rows of firefighters from the International Association of Firefighters Local 693 – layoff notices have already been sent to some of them – sat in the audience through the whole meeting, which lasted until midnight.

Like the firefighters, sitting at least in the background of nearly every item on the agenda, were the looming budget issues that the city council faces.

When they came to the foreground, the concerns about the budget managed to connect topics as seemingly disparate as Verizon antennae and parking revenues.

Even a garden-variety contract with a consultant for the greenbelt provoked some brief discussion related to the budget shortfall.

The impetus behind the council’s committee reorganization was again … the budget. What was previously one budget and labor committee was split into two committees: (i) the budget committee, and (ii) the labor committee, which is now combined with the council administration committee. That reorganization was pitched as a way to allow representation from each ward on the five-member budget committee.

Councilmembers and the city administrator also made robust use of the communications section of the agenda to provide status updates on their recent work – much of it related to efforts to identify new revenue streams and ways to cut expenses as part of the effort to meet budget goals.

In other business, the purchase of carts for single-stream recycling was authorized, plus an energy grant totaling over $1 million was accepted.

Council Committee Assignments

Without a great deal of discussion, the council adopted new committee assignments, which were needed in light of Leigh Greden’s replacement as Ward 3 representative by Stephen Kunselman, who defeated Greden in the August Democratic primary. Kunselman was unopposed in the November election.

Committee assignments had been postponed from the council’s previous meeting. The original assignments, which had been put forward by Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), had most notably replaced Mike Anglin (Ward 5) on the budget and labor committee with Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

After Greden’s defeat in the August primary and the results of that election had been confirmed through a recount, Greden stepped down from the budget and labor committee before the conclusion of his term, as did Margie Teall (Ward 4). Though Teall did not face an election this past year and will continue on council through the year,  Mayor John Hieftje indicated that Teall was stepping down from budget and labor due to other time commitments. [Chronicle coverage: "City Council Begins Transition"]

So from Sept. 8 up to now, the council’s budget and labor committee has consisted of Mayor John Hieftje, Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), plus the replacements for Teall and Greden – Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5).

A partial explanation of Rapundalo’s recommendation to replace Anglin with Taylor, as he put forward on Dec. 7, might be found in an email Rapundalo wrote to Greden, Teall, and Higgins last November. In that email Rapundalo wrote about Anglin’s possible continued service on the liquor committee, which Rapundalo chairs: “I’d like to have a rational person with me if Anglin continues.”

The revised committee assignments adopted on Monday took the budget and labor committee and split it into a budget committee and a labor committee. In addition, the labor committee has also been melded with the council’s administration committee.

In the brief commentary by Hieftje, he noted that each of the city’s five wards was now represented on the budget committee. [The newly formed council administration and labor committee, however, now has representation of two of the city's wards.]

The structure adopted by council for those committees is as follows:

Budget Committee

• Mike Anglin (Ward 5)
• Marcia Higgins (Ward 4)
• Christopher Taylor (Ward 3)
• Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2)
• Sabra Briere (Ward 1)

Council Administration and Labor Committee

• John Hieftje (mayor)
• Tony Derezinski (Ward 2)
• Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2)
• Marcia Higgins  (Ward 4)
• Margie Teall (Ward 4)

[.pdf file of all 2010 Ann Arbor city council committee appointments]

Verizon Antennae, Greenbelt Consultants

Two items on the agenda that would otherwise have likely moved through without discussion were identified by Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) for further deliberations.

Verizon Wireless at Plymouth Road

An item on the consent agenda that allowed Verizon Wireless to set up antennae on the Plymouth Road water tower site was pulled out for separate consideration at the request of Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3). [Consent agenda items are considered by the council as a set, without discussing each one, or reading each title.]

Kunselman noted that the agreement between the city and Verizon called for Verizon to pay an annual fee of around $35,000 to erect its antennae at the site. The amount increases at a rate of 4% a year. After getting confirmation that the money would go to the general fund, he asked whether the money could help with the closure of the budget hole that Sandi Smith (Ward 1) had been working to bridge.

The specific issue Smith has been working on concerns $380,000 the city calculated it could generate for the current fiscal year through installation of parking meters in residential areas outside downtown. [See Chronicle coverage of Part I of this same meeting: "Most Aspects of Parking Deal Approved"]

In responding to Kunselman, city administrator Roger Fraser explained that there was no effort on the city staff’s part to relate that additional revenue from the Verizon deal to any one budget item – the council could do that if it wished, he said.

Smith then ventured an on-the-fly amendment to the resolution that would have earmarked the revenue to “offset” any shortfall in the parking meter revenue. Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) objected to the amendment, partly on the philosophical grounds that it was not good public policy to “nickel and dime on the fly without examining the whole budget structure.”

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) took issue with the relative vagueness of the term “offset,” saying that it was possible to think conceptually of the additional funds as offsetting a specific shortfall, but that it was not clear what the amendment was meant to actually do.

Any remaining enthusiasm on Kunselman and Smith’s part, for further exploration of the amendment earmarking the additional revenue from Verizon, was diminished when Fraser pointed out the effective date of the Verizon agreement: July 1, 2010. The shortfall Smith is trying to address is for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010.

Outcome: Smith withdrew her amendment and the council unanimously approved the Verizon deal.

Greenbelt Consultant

The greenbelt advisory commission uses the services of a consultant, The Conservation Fund, to help make decisions about the use of money collected through the city’s greenbelt millage. In response to a request for proposals sent to 10 land conservation firms, The Conservation Fund was the only one to respond – it is the current consultant for the city on greenbelt management.

In 2007 council approved a three-year contract for the Conservation Fund at $209,879 for the first year, $222,175 in year two and $233,460 for year three.

The agenda item considered on Monday night called for a one-year contract for $119,565 and for possible renewals at $113,661 for a second year and $106,797 for the second year.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) announced that he’d be voting against the contract. Saying it was a time to cut back, he said that city staff could evaluate land acquisition and that instead of paying The Conservation Fund, the money could flow into the city departments with the staff doing the analysis – the planning department or the chief financial officer’s department.

In responding to Kunselman, Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) and Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) – who serves on the greenbelt advisory commission – both stressed two points: (i) greenbelt millage money could not be used for other general fund purposes, and (ii) city staff did not have the specific skill set for land preservation and acquisition.

What Kunselman appeared to be proposing – and which he confirmed for The Chronicle after the meeting – was not that greenbelt millage monies could be saved and re-purposed for general fund uses. Rather, he was suggesting that if city staff performed analysis on behalf of the greenbelt, then that city staff effort could be invoiced against the millage money.

Outcome: The council approved the contract with The Conservation Fund, with dissent from Kunselman.

Firefighters

We begin with some background before summarizing remarks made during public commentary.

Background on Firefighter Layoffs

The city of Ann Arbor does budget planning in two-year cycles, but formally adopts a budget one year at a time. The current fiscal year, FY 2010, is the first year of a two-year cycle. So the plan for FY 2011 has not yet been formally adopted. Formal adoption of the FY 2011 budget will happen in May 2010.

The FY 2011 plan, presented to the city council in January 2009, included the layoff of 14 firefighters. But when the FY 2010 budget was adopted, city administrator Roger Fraser warned that possible additional mid-year cuts might be required – such as accelerating the layoff of firefighters by six months. At the Dec. 5 city council budget retreat, Fraser told council that the firefighter layoffs would be implemented the following week, unless he received different direction from the council. The council did not give any alternate instructions, and the 30-day notice of layoff was sent on Dec. 9, 2009.

Based on the closed session that the city council undertook at its Dec. 21 meeting, there may exist some outside chance that layoffs might yet be forestalled.

Public Commentary from Firefighters: What Do They Do?

Matt Schroeder, president of the firefighters Local 693 union, had signed up for a reserved slot for public commentary at the start of the meeting, but was bumped out of the first 10 slots, and thus had to wait until the end of the meeting.

[The council makes 10 3-minute slots available at the start of the meeting that must be reserved with the city clerk in advance. It's a first-come, first-served basis, with the provision that remarks on agenda items are given priority over those who wish to address a topic not on the council's agenda. Speakers have a second opportunity to speak at the conclusion of the meeting, where no reservation is required and the topic is unconstrained.]

Schroeder was followed at the podium by firefighter Craig Ferris.

Schroeder said that the Local 693 had attempted to negotiate in good faith and that they recognized the budget constraints that the city faced. He said that the union had offered a one-time cost reduction that should have been sufficient to forestall layoffs, but that the city contended they had not identified enough savings.

Schroeder and several other firefighters attended the Dec. 5 city council budget retreat. Schroeder said that he’d been disappointed to hear talk at that retreat to the effect of “don’t let the union get the upper hand.”

Ferris dealt mainly with the question of what the firefighters’ responsibility was – at the Dec. 5 budget retreat, they’d heard councilmembers ask city staff how many “actual fire calls” they went on and the answer had been around 250. In his remarks to the council, Ferris focused on the material that he’d compiled into a report that laid out the several thousand other calls besides fire suppression that the firefighters handled [.txt file of "What We Do"]. Among those were over 3,300 medical emergency calls, plus over 1,000 calls in the category of either a “false alarm” or “good intent.”

City Employees: Benefits, Meeting

City staff as a group came up twice during the council’s meeting.

Tweak to Benefits

The council approved a change to the city’s pension ordinance affecting non-union employees. What is currently a 5% post-tax contribution to the pension fund was changed to a pre-tax contribution. It will not change the amount of money contributed to the pension fund, but will reduce the amount of income tax now paid by employees.

The change was brought forward by the city’s head of human resources, Robyn Wilkerson, who’s now been with the city a little over a year.

All-Employee Meeting

City administrator Roger Fraser announced during his communications to the city council that on Jan. 12, 2010 there would be a two-hour all-employee meeting to discuss the budget environment that the city is facing.

Environment: Recycling and Energy

Two items related to the environment appeared on the agenda.

Single Stream Recycling Carts

Though it received no discussion, the council authorized purchase of 33,000 recycling carts for $1,428,620. Tom McMurtrie, the city’s solid waste coordinator, was on hand in case of any questions, but there were none. The council had heard details of the plan at a work session, and authorized the modification to the materials recovery center for single-stream processing at a previous meeting. [Chronicle coverage: "Council OKs Recycling, Transit, Shelter" and "Work Session: Trains, Trash, Taxes"]

Energy Grant: Special Financing District

The council voted to accept an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) from the U.S. Department of Energy for $1,243,400. Andrew Brix, the city’s energy coordinator, explained to council that the money will be used by the city in a variety of ways: (i) Phase II of the LED streetlight replacement, which would replace all streetlights outside of downtown with LED lights, (ii) some small renewable energy demonstration sites for photovoltaic panels, solar hot water, and windmills, and (iii) a community program to assist homeowners in making energy improvements. [Chronicle coverage: "Special District Might Fund Energy Program"]

This third use would require passage of some enabling legislation by the state legislature – a bill is in the works in Lansing.

Other Public Commentary

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Pedestrian Crosswalk Issues

Kathy Griswold addressed the council at the conclusion of its meeting during general public commentary.

King Elementary School crossing's current location next to the driveway entrance to the school. (Photo by the writer.)

She reiterated her frustration about getting some action on the mid-block pedestrian crossing near King Elementary School. [Griswold has previously conveyed her concerns to the council through the fall of 2009 on several occasions – at Sunday caucus meetings and regular council meetings.]

Griswold reminded council that the request to move the crosswalk – from mid-block to the intersection where cars are already required to stop – had been requested by the PTO president and supported by the school principal and signed off on by city staff.

Griswold reported that the city had responded to a request she’d made under the Freedom of Information Act with a message from city administrator, Roger Fraser, to a city engineer. In that message, Griswold said, Fraser asks the engineer to talk to him before scheduling a meeting with all the various stakeholders.

The proposed crosswalk location is at the intersection with the stop sign. The school is behind the photographer. The asphalt path at the left is on the school-side of the street. It's between the end of the asphalt path and the intersection that a sidewalk would need to be constructed. (Photo by the writer.)

[By way of background, putting the crosswalk at the intersection would put children on the school-side of the street at a location where there is no sidewalk leading the rest of the way to the school. So the construction of a sidewalk for that stretch – about 100 feet by The Chronicle's guesstimate, based on visual inspection – is part and parcel of moving the crosswalk.]

Griswold contended that it boiled down to the fact that one of the stakeholders – the property owner on the adjoining property where the sidewalk would need to be constructed – did not want to shovel the snow off the sidewalk. [In Ann Arbor, property owners are responsible for keeping sidewalks free of snow and ice, as well as replacing cracked slabs.]

Griswold’s remarks to the council comes during a period of recent heightened publicity about specific pedestrian safety issues in the city [Chronicle coverage of "7th & Washington" and  [YouTube video].

Palestine

Henry Herskovitz spoke to the council during general public commentary time at the end of the meeting. He began by thanking the council for allowing him to speak and wished them a merry Christmas. He reminded them that last year during Hanukkah, Israel had launched a military operation “Cast Lead” that had resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians.

The name of the operation, Herskovitz said, stemmed in part from an allusion to the dreidel, which is a spinning top used in a game traditionally played during Hanukkah. A dreidel is traditionally made of cast lead. [The dreidel is a four-sided top and can land with any of the four faces facing up – the Hebrew letter on each face dictates what happens in the game.]

The timing of Israel’s military action and its name had led some to call it the Hanukkah Massacre, Herskovitz said. He then read aloud some of the subheadings from a report on the action compiled by Richard Goldstone for the United Nations – they included “indiscriminate attacks by Israeli soldiers,” and “certain weapons,” which Herskovitz described in greater detail as white phosphorus, flechettes, and DIME (dense inert metal explosives) weapons.

He concluded by suggesting that at Christmas we should reflect on why our government supports the Israeli government.

Updates from Councilmembers and Administration

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Task Forces: Mack Pool and Senior Center

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) gave an update from the Dec. 10 meeting of the Mack pool task force, which was formed to explore possibilities of reducing expenses and increasing revenues to a level where the pool could remain open. It’s slated for closure as part of the FY 2011 budget plan. [Chronicle coverage of the meeting Hohnke described: "More Options for Mack Pool." The task force for the Ann Arbor Senior Center, which is also slated to close, met recently too: Chronicle coverage: "Task Force Tries to Save Senior Center"]

Parks Parking

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) gave his colleagues a heads up that the park advisory commission, on which he serves as a representative from the city council, would be sending along a resolution to the council on football Saturday parking. Their recommendation, which might generate around $30,000 per year to contribute to the budget, would allow football Saturday parking in two city parks: Allmendinger and Frisinger. [Chronicle coverage: "Parking in the Parks, Art on the River"]

Library Lot Proposals

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) gave an update on the review of development proposals for the top of the underground parking garage on Fifth Avenue. Key points were that two of the proposals had been dropped, with in-person interviews for the remaining four scheduled for Jan. 18. An RFQ would be issued around the first of the year to identify a consultant to help with the analysis. [Chronicle coverage: "Two Library Lot Proposals Eliminated"]

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) weighed in, saying that he thought that dropping the two proposals from consideration now was a disservice, because the public had been led to believe that they would have adequate opportunity, as owners of the land, to comment on the proposals. He described how the space might be configured to allow graduations to take place or to allow the mayor to address thousands of people. He questioned whether a hotel was even viable, given current hotel occupancy rates.

Rapundalo responded to what he called misperceptions about the process. He noted that one of the key criteria was the financial benefit to the city of Ann Arbor, and that the two dropped proposals would likely cost the city in maintenance and possibly also in construction.

A second misperception, Rapundalo said, was the assumption that a hotel of some kind would be built on the lot.  He rejected that assumption, saying it was quite possible that none of the current proposals would be accepted.

A third point, Rapundalo said, was the idea that the public would have no opportunity to comment on the proposals. On Jan. 18, when the in-person interviews were scheduled, there was would be a robust public participation component, both in the formal question-and-answer session as well as at an open house, he said.

During public commentary, Alan Haber, who had helped conceive and submit one of the two dropped proposals for the Library Lot, said that he wanted to correct the minutes of the Downtown Development Authority’s Nov. 4 meeting, which he characterized as highly inaccurate. He said that he had risen to speak about the partnership model for the operation of the space, and he had not advocated for a small building as the DDA meeting minutes had stated. He said he’d supported a large community center as a gathering place. He said that the review committee, which had dropped the two proposals for open space, did not hear that the benefits of such space are immeasurable and priceless. He called upon the council to use their imaginations to see the larger public benefit.

Transportation: WATS, Washtenaw Avenue

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) reported that the Washtenaw Area Transportation Study, which is responsible for transportation planning in the county, was celebrating its 35th anniversary. For 29 of those years, the organization had been led served by Terri Blackmore, he said. [Blackmore began her work with WATS in 1979, first as research coordinator, then as deputy director, before being named executive director in 2001.] Hohnke serves as the city council liaison to WATS.

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) reported that as part of the Ann Arbor Region Success Initiative, progress was being made on re-thinking what Washtenaw Avenue might look like. Topics being addressed by the working group include setbacks, parking, non-motorized infrastructure, transportation nodes and coordination of traffic signals.   The corridor crossed through four communities, he said: Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor Township, Pittsfield Township, and Ypsilanti. Leading the effort, he said, was Anya Dale, who’s a planner with Washtenaw County.

City Hall Elevators

When The Chronicle arrived at the Larcom building for the council meeting, we waited for a few minutes at the elevator before concluding that it was not in working order. As we reached that conclusion, city administrator Roger Fraser entered the building. He explained that this was a perhaps once-weekly occurrence.

During his communications to the council, Fraser reported that to address the problem, the one non-working elevator had been shut down – the two work in synch, and when one is on, but out of order, the other one will stop moving, too. He could not commit to the elevator working when people left the meeting, but said that it would be “more likely.”

Budget Meetings: Staff Meeting, Council Workshop

City administrator Roger Fraser announced during his communications to the city council that on Jan. 12, 2010 there would be a two-hour all-employee meeting to discuss the budget environment that the city is facing.

He told the council that there would be a budget workshop for them beginning at 6 p.m. on Jan. 25. The meeting is open to the public.

Stadium Bridges, Trees, Water Mains

City administrator Roger Fraser said that he’d met Friday with state Rep. Rebekah Warren, U.S. Congressman John Dingell and representatives of the Michigan Department of Transportation on the question of funding for the replacement of the East Stadium bridges. The local alternative, if none of the usual sources of funding materialize, said Fraser, was money from the street repair millage – it would take about two years’ worth of that millage, he said. They’d received conflicting information about the timing of any announcement about the city’s TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant application.

Fraser reported that the city had had a goal of planting 1,000 trees in the current fiscal year and that by halfway through the year, they’d planted 700 trees.

He also said that a water main leak had occurred in the area of Washtenaw Avenue, Huron River Drive Street, and Palmer. He said there currently did not appear to be a danger of flooding that would stop traffic and that the city was addressing the situation.

Argo Dam

Fraser reported that data had come back from piezometers that had been installed on the headrace embankment near Argo Dam and that the readings indicated there was no immediate threat of collapse. Mayor John Hieftje chimed in to say that it validated the position of the city that perhaps the toe drains did not need to be worked on – the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has admonished the city to address maintenance problems with the toe drains for several years. [Chronicle coverage: "City-MDEQ Agree: Argo Headrace Shut"]

Snow Removal: Pittsfield Village

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) reported that the city had struck a deal to subcontract out snow removal with the Pittsfield Village Condominium Association. In that area, Taylor said, the city had a hard time doing snow removal well – due to the winding streets and the lack of lawn extensions.

Taylor said that Melissa Brown of the association, former Ward 3 councilmember Leigh Greden and Sue McCormick, who’s the city’s public services area administrator, had worked to come up with the arrangement.  The association would be able to use a snow removal provider that could use smaller vehicles to navigate the tighter quarters, and street snow removal could be coordinated with sidewalk snow clearing.

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

Absent: Sabra Briere, Marcia Higgins.

Next council meeting: Monday, Jan. 4, 2009 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]