Park planner Amy Kuras, left, talks with Stewart Gordon, an advocate for putting an ice-skating rink atop the Library Lane site. In the background are Andrew Walton, left, and Doug Kelly, the city’s director of golf. Walton supervises the Huron Hills golf course. (Photos by the writer.)

Commissioners discussed a proposal to build an ice-skating rink atop a portion of the city-owned Library Lane underground parking structure. They took no action on the item, but were briefed on the proposal by two advocates of the effort: Alan Haber and Stewart Gordon. The two men also attended a subsequent March 26 meeting of a PAC downtown park subcommittee. This report includes a summary of that session as well.

River-related items on PAC’s March 19 agenda included a resolution to recommend awarding a $295,530 contract to Gerace Construction Co. for repair work and repainting at Argo and Geddes dams, as well as site improvements around Argo Dam. Brian Steglitz, an engineer with the city, told commissioners that the work is being done in response to the most recent inspection by state regulators.

Commissioners also recommended awarding a $512,180 contract for improvements at the Gallup Park canoe livery to Construction Solutions Inc., which will be funded in part by a $300,000 state grant. Cheryl Saam, facility supervisor for the Argo and Gallup canoe liveries, gave commissioners a presentation on those operations, in preparation for budget recommendations that PAC is expected to consider at its April 16 meeting.

As part of her report, Saam noted that the city plans to issue another request for proposals (RFP) to design a whitewater section along the Huron River, downstream from the Argo Dam near the Argo Cascades. Parks and recreation manager Colin Smith reminded commissioners that the first attempt at this project wasn’t successful. The Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality did not approve the initial design, and would not issue the necessary permit for the project. The staff is working with the state to address MDEQ’s concerns, he said. Smith also reported that DTE Energy still intends to pay for the project, which is located adjacent to property that the utility company is cleaning up.

DTE representatives were on hand at the meeting because of a different project: To request an easement on city-owned land in Riverside Park, where utility poles are located. The easement is needed as part of an $8 million new electrical substation that DTE is building on land adjacent to the park. Commissioners unanimously recommended that the city council approve the easement.

In another presentation to set the stage for next month’s budget discussion, PAC heard from Doug Kelly, the city’s director of golf, and Andrew Walton, recreational facility supervisor at Huron Hills. They reviewed the status of the city’s two golf courses – at Huron Hills and Leslie Park – and noted that both courses have seen significant revenue gains over the past five years.

The issue that drew the most public commentary during the meeting wasn’t on the March 19 agenda: a possible dog park on a knoll in West Park. Residents in that area aren’t happy about the prospect of barking dogs in their neighborhood.

West Park Dog Park

At PAC’s Feb. 26, 2013 meeting, commissioners discussed two potential locations for a new fenced-in dog park: about 2 acres in and near South Maple Park, on the city’s west side off of West Liberty; and a roughly 1-acre section of West Park, on a knoll in the south-central area. No action was taken, but the intent is for a PAC committee to continue evaluating these options with parks staff before making a formal recommendation to the full commission. The previously recommended site – at a different location within West Park, near the parking lot off Chapin Street – was ultimately not presented to the city council, following protests from the nearby New Hope Baptist Church.

Although there was no item on the March 19 agenda related to a possible dog park, the bulk of public commentary addressed that issue. Most of the speakers were residents of the neighborhood near West Park.

Tom Fricke, who lives on North Seventh, told commissioners he appreciated their efforts to provide dog runs for Ann Arbor residents who own dogs. He knew nothing had been decided yet, but he wanted to reiterate some of the objections to the possible use of the knoll in West Park, saying “I think it’s a very bad location for it.” It violates planning and design considerations that went into the recent park renovations, which were enormously successful, he said. It would turn over a general use area to a single use. A dog park would also introduce a range of other issues related to parking problems, noise, and sanitation and watershed concerns.

Tom Fricke was one of several residents who live near West Park and who oppose putting a dog park on a knoll in the park.

Fricke said he’s become better educated about dog parks than he ever wanted to, and has been reading a lot of material, including information from the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, from other supporters of dog parks, and from other cities with dog parks. No other dog park that he could find was located in the core of an existing park. The dog parks seemed to be tucked to the side or in designated areas that are entirely apart from other park uses. He also noted that enclosing a dog park on the knoll doesn’t seem to comply with best practices for dog parks. If it were to be graded, the location would probably get a C- or D. Fricke concluded by saying that a well-designed dog park would likely be much more than the $25,000 or $30,000 budget that’s anticipated for this project. He hoped PAC would add these issues to their considerations.

Judith Connett said she lives on North Seventh, but her home doesn’t abut the park. Some of the problems, like noise, might not affect her, she said, while other problems – like parking – might be an issue. She objected to the dog park as an owner of two Cockapoos. She was worried about how it would change the use of the park, and about “how it will affect my puppies’ life in a negative way.” Her dogs weigh 22 pounds, and in the past she took them a couple of times to Slauson. [The Slauson Middle School property was used by dog owners as an unofficial dog park for a period of time.] Her dogs had been “horrified” by the big dogs there, Connett said. There will be dog fights if you have dogs of all ages and sizes in the same area, she said. Connett added that she’d like to see another dog park in Ann Arbor, but it needs to be a location where there’s room to separate the dogs by temperament or size. It should also be in a place that’s more rural, she said, so houses aren’t impacted.

Another North Seventh resident, Walter Butzu, said he can’t see the knoll from his house but he hoped a dog park wouldn’t be located there, for all the reasons that had been stated. He had supported the location on Chapin Street, because that’s in the “business side of the park,” where other activities like basketball courts, a baseball field and community gardens are located. The area on the grassy knoll is unstructured, he said. To see more of the park designated for a single-purpose use, like a dog park, would be disconcerting to him. Like Fricke, Butzu said he’s also become more educated about dog parks over the past two weeks. His hope is that the city chooses a location where noise is the primary consideration. Homeowners should be able to enjoy their back yards, and he’d support the objection of any homeowner if that enjoyment is encroached upon. He hoped commissioners would take into account the distance from residences. Part of Bandemer Park or Veterans Memorial Park – especially on the southwest corner – would work, he said. On Seventh Street, people are already chased into their back yards to get away from the street noise, and a dog park would “pretty much eliminate that [option] for us,” he concluded.

Marcia Healey told commissioners that West Park is not acceptable for a dog park. She’s lived near West Park for 15 years, and her house overlooks the knoll. She said she understands how that area is used and its aesthetics, and a dog park would be an immense change. People use this very open space in imaginative and practical ways. You might see people practicing yoga or tai chi, or meditating in the early morning or evening – looking out over the eastern side of the park. The knoll lends itself to being serene or playful, she said. Children use the area to fly kites, families have picnics, teenagers hold hands, people spread out blankets and read. It’s a very special space, Healey said. The park has a pond, wetlands and wildlife, and is a benefit to urban dwellers. She’d like to see a dog park at a different location.

Jim Mazak noted that his property would back up to the proposed dog park, and he’s against putting it there. Other locations got higher ratings, he noted. Parking would be a problem, similar to the problems near the Ann Arbor YMCA, he said. A dog park would bring people from outside the area, in addition to people who are already coming to the park for the community gardens, band concerts or baseball. Noise is also a factor, he said, and Ann Arbor has a nuisance ordinance. He’s been to Swift Run dog park and heard the dogs barking even at a distance, so he wondered how that noise would be blocked from his home. “I’m not going to listen to dogs barking all day long.” He described the dog park at Olson Park as a “mud pit,” with runoff – including dog waste – running into the pond and into tributaries of the Huron River. Finally, Mazak noted that right now, the West Park knoll has multiple uses. If a dog park is there, it would take away his ability to use the area.

Tom Egel said he was against the West Park location for a dog park because of the reasons that other speakers had already stated. Parking would be a problem, and the back yards of the houses along Seventh Street – where he and other residents go for quiet – would be affected.

Bob Dascola said he was with Friends of West Park, and had been involved in the early stages of the park’s renovation. He worked during the summer of 2011 with a group that produced Shakespeare plays in the park’s band shell – Shakespeare West, put on by The Blackbird Theatre – and he was able to observe activity in the knoll. Before that, he’d had no idea how noisy it was in the park. People at Miller Manor, which overlooks the park, make noise that projects into the park, he noted. Dascola also said he’d been to Olson Park, and the dogs there are very noisy. He agreed that a dog park in West Park would be very disruptive.

Janet Osborn told commissioners that she lives on Liberty Street. It’s loud there, and she could only imagine how loud it would be on Seventh, because of the traffic. She wouldn’t want residents there to go into their back yards for peace and quiet, only to be confronted with barking dogs. She agreed with others who had spoken, and felt that the park’s aesthetics are better suited for individuals and families. She thought it would be great to have a dog park at a location like Veterans Memorial Park.

West Park Dog Park: Staff Response

During his manager’s report, Colin Smith noted that the parks staff will continue to work on the dog park issue. It was good to get the feedback from residents, and it shows how the location is a difficult thing to resolve, he said. There are a lot of competing needs, he observed, including the need for a more centrally located dog park downtown.

Downtown Parks

The issue of downtown parks came up at various points during the March 19 meeting. During public commentary, two people spoke about the need for urban parks, particularly atop the Library Lane parking structure. And representatives of a group that wants to put an ice-skating rink on that site were invited to give a presentation at the meeting, after having lobbied the commission for several months.

By way of additional background, a subcommittee of PAC was formed last year to develop recommendations on the need for downtown parks, following up on an informal request from the city council. The effort comes in the context of Connecting William Street, an Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority project undertaken at the request of the council to help guide the future use of five city-owned downtown properties. Several park commissioners felt that the CWS “scenarios” didn’t include sufficient parkland or open space, and the DDA’s final recommendations ultimately stated that the park advisory commission should further examine the downtown’s needs in that regard.

The goal of the subcommittee is to draft recommendations that the full commission can consider and approve, which could be delivered to the city council in about six months. Members include Ingrid Ault, who is serving as the subcommittee chair, PAC chair Julie Grand, Alan Jackson, and Karen Levin. However, any park commissioner can participate.

This report includes a summary of the subcommittee’s most recent meeting, on March 26. For additional background, see Chronicle coverage: “Parks Group To Weigh In On Downtown Need” and “Committee Starts Downtown Park Research.”

Downtown Parks: Public Commentary

Two people spoke at PAC’s March 19 meeting on the subject of downtown parks.

Barbara Bach wondered: Where could she take her granddaughter, and what memory of Ann Arbor would her granddaughter have in the future? Will her granddaughter remember swan boats? A sprinkle pool? A funky favorite bench? Bach cited several other examples from memorable urban parks in other cities, and said her point is that Ann Arbor has no urban parks, and no city staff or elected body is making it a priority. “We have monster buildings, and a city hall that some can’t find,” she said, but there is no downtown public space that defines the character of Ann Arbor as a city of trees. There are real estate studies by the city and the Ann Arbor DDA, she noted, and the mayor often says there are plenty of parks. And there is a small group – with a huge mailing list – that’s been “battling mightily to be heard” about putting a park atop the Library Lane site. [She was referring to the Library Green Conservancy.]

Bach wanted the park commissioners to take the city council, DDA, planning commission and city staff to task on this issue, and to demand that an urban park become a priority. Where is the play space for all of us? Where are the setbacks? She wants to take her granddaughter to play, to rest, to see grass and a sculpture or anything that other cities have, along with new development. “I want her to remember something very special about her second city when she visits me,” Bach said. It’s great to have visitors to Ann Arbor’s restaurants and galleries, and it’s important to have people living and working downtown. All of these people need gathering places – a downtown urban park – to be developed and maintained. “Who knows?” she said. “With encouragement, we might even form a foundation to help maintain these special places that we will never regret having planned for.”

Janet Osborn also spoke about the topic of the “non-green space” at the Library Lane site. She recently moved back to Ann Arbor and was “absolutely shocked” by the number of new buildings in town. She couldn’t believe that yet another building was planned for the top of the Library Lane lot. [At this point there are no specific proposals for a building there, although the infrastructure was built to support a building.] Ann Arbor has long needed a place to gather for ordinary people – not university students – to meet their friends, Osborn said. She thinks the city can find a way to make that happen. “It doesn’t have to be a fancy place,” she said. It could be a very small area, with places to sit and meet friends. Osborn hoped the city would listen to its citizens, who overwhelmingly want a downtown park, she contended.

Downtown Parks: Skating Rink

The Library Lane site was the focus of a presentation at PAC’s March 19 meeting. Julie Grand – who chairs the commission – introduced the topic of a skating rink proposal atop Library Lane by saying that it had been raised several times during public commentary, but the commissioners hadn’t yet had the opportunity to discuss it amongst themselves. She had invited advocates for the project to make a presentation.

Alan Haber and Mary Hathaway attended PAC’s March 19 meeting. Haber addressed commissioners in support of an ice-skating rink atop the Library Lane parking structure.

The proposal is to build an ice-skating rink on part of the top of the city-owned Library Lane underground parking structure, which is now used as a surface parking lot. Commissioners have been lobbied about it during public commentary at several meetings, most recently on Feb. 26, 2013. At that meeting, Alan Haber – one of the organizers of the Library Green Conservancy – told commissioners that he hoped PAC could make a statement as a body or individually to the city council, urging them to give the rink a try for just two months.

Haber and Stewart Gordon spoke to commissioners on March 19, and provided a written proposal as well. The proposal again states the request for PAC support, as rink organizers seek $25,000 in matching funds from the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority. [.pdf of rink proposal]

Gordon told commissioners that he’s lived in Ann Arbor since 1962. Pointing to the presentations earlier in the meeting on the city’s golf courses and canoe liveries, he said it brings him great joy to live in a city that supports those recreational facilities. He wanted to tell commissioners about another project that could bring residents great joy – a downtown skating rink.

The city’s other skating rinks aren’t located downtown, he said, so they don’t draw people to the downtown. He’s seen the joy that urban skating rinks can bring, like the flagship rink at Rockefeller Center in New York. There are others in communities across the country, he noted, even as close as Dexter. People who’ve lived in Ann Arbor a long time remember skating rinks all over the city, he said. So what his group wants to do is bring back something that’s joyous, and that takes advantage of modern technology to make artificial ice-skating a possibility. He emphasized that it’s an experimental project – a two-month trial period, not a permanent installation. After the capital investment is made, the skating rink can be disassembled and located at various sites.

Gordon asked commissioners if and how they’d like to be involved in this project.

Haber reported that his group has already made a proposal to the DDA, which manages the Library Lane site as part of the city’s parking system. He described the goals of the DDA as attracting private interest in the downtown, removing surface parking lots as much as possible, and developing public activities on public land. So skating rink advocates are asking the DDA for matching funds, and will seek private investment for the rest of the estimated $50,000 cost. They’d also like a resolution from PAC and the city council supporting the project, and Haber hoped that PAC’s downtown park subcommittee will explore it further.

Haber said he’s talked with the DDA’s partnerships committee, and a number of questions were raised that would need to be worked out with the city attorney.

The written proposal provided to PAC includes a list of “local supporters and consultants,” including John Fingerle of Fingerle Lumber, Mark Hodesh of Downtown Home & Garden, Carol Lopez of Peaceable Kingdom, Elaine Selo of Selo/Shevel Gallery, and Craig Forsyth of the Ann Arbor Figure Skating Club, among others. Updated after initial publication: Forsyth has contacted The Chronicle and stated that although he met with Haber and Gordon, he is neither a supporter nor a consultant for the project. He has asked them to remove his name from their materials.

The plan calls for building a 32-foot by 72-foot temporary artificial ice rink on the northwest corner of the Library Lane lot, at an estimated cost of $50,000. An “in-kind” contribution of 15 parking spaces, which the rink would cover, is also requested from the DDA.

The downtown building of the Ann Arbor District Library is adjacent to the site, although the library has no ownership of the Library Lane parcel. At the AADL board’s March 18, 2013 meeting, Gordon spoke briefly during public commentary asking for the board’s support on this project. He provided a handout regarding the project that’s similar to the one presented to PAC. There was no discussion or response from library board members during the meeting.

Downtown Parks: Skating Rink – Commission Discussion

Ingrid Ault described it as an interesting project. She grew up in the Burns Park neighborhood, and was able to use the rink there. She said she had walked the Library Lane site, to try to understand what’s being proposed. It wasn’t clear to her what size they’re proposing. She was envisioning the entire parking lot area. Haber replied that he could also envision that, “but we’re not being quite so ambitious.” They’re looking at the 15 parking spaces on the northwest corner, although the details still need to be worked out about exactly where the rink’s surface would be.

Ingrid Ault of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission.

Gordon added that different sizes are possible, but their estimates are based on a medium size – roughly 32-feet by 72-feet, adjacent to Earthen Jar restaurant and the sidewalk along South Fifth Avenue.

Ault said the size seemed small to her. She noted that there’s a circular “island” in the middle of the proposed rink, which takes additional space away from the actual skating surface. Haber replied that there are a variety of options, but they’re simply trying to figure out what’s feasible on a short-term basis. He noted that this idea began back in November of 2012, when he learned about the possibility of using artificial ice. Unfortunately it’s now past the time of colder weather, but he reported that artificial ice can be used year-round. “It’s a little counter-intuitive in one way, but in another way it could be very beautiful,” he said.

Gordon added that they didn’t want a rink that would be large enough to tempt hockey players. It’s really more about casual skating and families, he said. There are plenty of other places to play hockey.

Christopher Taylor – a city councilmember who serves as an ex officio member of PAC – asked whether any thought had been given to locating a skating rink on the parking lot next to Palio restaurant, at the northeast corner of Main and William. Given the activity there already from restaurants and retail shops, it might be interesting place to “be watched and watch others,” Taylor said. Haber indicated that he’s interested in having at least partial public use on all of the lots involved in the Connecting William Street study, including the lot next to Palio. However, he expressed skepticism that the DDA and the city council would be interested in giving up parking on that site.

Haber noted that Liberty Plaza – at Liberty and Division – has also been mentioned as a possible location for the skating rink, because that urban plaza needs more vibrancy. That location has challenges in terms of its configuration, he said.

But his focus is primarily on the Library Lane site, Haber said. Maybe things can happen elsewhere too – the hope is that public activities would proliferate, he said. Gordon added that there’s a synergy in being located next to the library. When you come to check out books with your kids, you can also go skating, he said.

Taylor was interested in hearing how AADL board members and staff felt about the ice rink. Gordon indicated that some individual board members are very supportive, but the board as a whole hasn’t weighed in. He said the impact on the library would be minimal – for example, an estimated average of two people per hour using the library restroom. Haber added that in general, the library is reluctant to get involved with the Library Lane site. Haber indicated that the library might be more responsive if questions came from PAC rather than from the rink advocates.

Tim Berla clarified that this project wouldn’t be a park in the traditional sense – for example, no city employees would be involved. It would be a two-month project, followed by what Gordon called a fairly complex assessment, including “social science metrics” and questionnaires. If it appears that it could be a long-term project, then decisions must be made about a long-term organization to handle staff, maintenance and other issues. Gordon characterized it as a long-term capital investment – the ice man manufacturer guarantees it for 10 years.

Colin Smith, the city’s parks and recreation manager, asked if the organizers had spoken to other communities that used the artificial ice. Gordon replied that if you’re a high-level figure skater or hockey player, you’ll hate the surface – because it’s slow, and there’s not enough glide to go fast enough for jumps and tricks. If you’re a medium-level hockey player, you’d like it for working on your stick handling. Gordon noted that the artificial ice is used by Advantage Sports on West Stadium Boulevard. But if you’re a recreational skater, he said, “it’s lovely.”

Julie Grand, chair of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission.

Julie Grand asked about skates. Her understanding is that the artificial ice would require really sharp skates, which raised safety concerns for her. Both of her kids are skaters, and she said she knows what it’s like helping them get their skates on. Having potentially sharp objects in the public space is a concern.

Gordon replied that there are good models for dealing with that. One possibility would be to have lockers available at the library, he said. For the two-month trial period, however, it’s likely that people would bring their own skates. He said he’d love to have a day for people to dig out their old skates from attics and garages, and donate them for rental.

Haber said the DDA has asked for a two-year projection of this project, including expenses like staff and capital costs. One of those capital costs would be a skate-sharpening instrument, he said.

Berla asked about the process for making this happen – what would be the procedure, from the city’s perspective? Smith guessed that the city staff and DDA would need to negotiate what would happen, because the city owns the lot but it’s managed by the DDA. The council would need to pass a resolution directing it to happen, he said.

Smith continued, saying he appreciated the enthusiasm and effort that organizers have shown. His concern is that there aren’t a lot of examples of other communities using this type of artificial ice. He had asked the managers at the city’s ice rinks to talk to other communities that have tried this kind of project, and the feedback hasn’t been overwhelmingly positive, he said. A couple of recreation departments in other cities removed similar rinks after a year, because the rinks didn’t generate repeat customers. One person had described the experience of skating on the artificial ice as running up a sand dune. Smith said he’d hate to see a community group put energy and funding into a project that won’t work very well.

Gordon pointed to the rink at Advantage Sports, which has been in place for several years. He also volunteered to do additional research about the experiences of artificial ice rinks in other communities.

Smith then expressed concerns regarding maintenance. Often, the manufacturers of “synthetic amenities” will say that there’s no or low maintenance, he noted, but generally “that’s really never the case.” Other recreational departments that have used this kind of artificial ice say that it requires daily application of a spray to make the skating smoother. Gordon replied that there have been several iterations of this technology, and the most recent types of artificial ice don’t require daily spraying.

Ault again stated that the size of the rink concerns her: It’s really small. It would help to know the sizes of rinks in other communities, she said.

She also wondered if the DDA had indicated buy-in with the project. Would the DDA be willing to provide matching funds? Haber replied that he and other supporters are taking this “step by step.” The DDA’s basic view seems to be an interest in buildings, and they’re not eager to see public activity at that site, he said, because if “you let the people on, they’ll never want to get off.” But some of the DDA board members on the partnerships committee were quite interested, Haber added. The short-term nature of this proposal will be persuasive, he contended, but the DDA’s partnerships committee still wants some questions answered. “So I’m hopeful,” he concluded. It’s a big dream to think the DDA might embrace this project, but it’s within their mission to find better uses for that surface parking lot, he said.

Downtown Parks: March 26 Committee Meeting

Haber and Gordon also attended a March 26 meeting of PAC’s downtown park subcommittee, along with Will Hathaway and Mary Hathaway, who also support a park on top of the Library Lane parking structure. The meeting included the city’s park planner Amy Kuras and Colin Smith, parks and recreation manager.

Amy Kuras, the city’s park planner (far right), describes aspects of a map that shows public property within the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority district. She was attending a March 26 meeting of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission’s downtown park subcommittee, which was also attended by members of the Library Green Conservancy.

The subcommittee had previously met on Feb. 5, 2013, and had agreed as a first step to read background material from a variety of sources, including the city’s parks and recreation open space (PROS) plan, elements of the city’s master plan, and reports by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority’s Connecting William Street project.

On March 26, the group discussed aspects of the PROS plan and CWS report that relate to downtown parks. Alan Jackson observed that the PROS plan is a very “interpretable” document. You could draw conclusions that are even diametrically opposed, he noted, so there’s a lot of latitude within the scope of that plan.

The PROS plan’s needs assessment identifies two actions directly related to downtown parks and urban plazas: (1) Discussion concerning downtown open space should continue as well as to plan for developer contributions and small pocket parks; and (2) Work with the Downtown Development Authority to plan for renovation and acquisition of downtown open space, including the development of the library lot [a reference to the top of the city-owned Library Lane underground parking structure].

Kuras, who is responsible for soliciting developer contributions to parks, reported that she’s exploring whether that’s the best approach for the city to take. She typically negotiates with developers, asking them to donate parkland or cash in lieu of land, which can then be used in the parks system. The intent is to maintain a certain ratio of parkland to residents, and to encourage the owners of new developments to help fund that goal. It’s been successful in other parts of the city, but is difficult to do downtown – in part because land is so much more expensive.

Smith noted that right now it’s voluntary, and developers can refuse to contribute. He reported that the developers of the 413 E. Huron project have agreed to contribute $125,000, although it’s unclear whether that project will move forward.

One possibility would be to require this kind of contribution, Smith said. To do that would require action by the city council. Smith also suggested that the city might consider using this funding source not just for park infrastructure or acquisition, but also for programming needs, to activate existing urban parks or plazas.

Smith stressed the importance of programming – saying it plays a role in making a park is successful or not. Traditionally, he said, parks and recreation employees are tied to a facility, like a skating rink or golf course. But the PROS plan discusses the possibility of having a parks employee devoted to programming across the system, not just at one particular facility. That might be a recommendation for the subcommittee to consider, he said.

Regarding the Connecting William Street project, several people observed that the CWS report recommends further exploration of the need for downtown parks and open space. [For more background on the status of Connecting William Street, see Chronicle coverage: "Connecting William To Be Resource Plan."] A few people expressed puzzlement about the CWS proposal for a mid-block cut-through – a possible pedestrian walkway between Main Street and State Street. Kuras said she was baffled by that particular recommendation, because most of the feedback that the city staff hears is about the need for more downtown open space, not a walking corridor.

Smith urged commissioners to look not only at the CWS sites as they prioritize, but also to factor in the Allen Creek greenway, and the city-owned sites at 721 N. Main and 415 W. Washington.

The subcommittee spent a portion of the March 26 meeting looking at a map that Kuras had printed out, which highlighted publicly-owned land in the DDA district – including city land as well as the University of Michigan. They also talked about how to solicit specific input from groups like the downtown merchant associations, the Ann Arbor District Library, the university, residents and others. Their strategy at this point includes inviting representatives to future subcommittee meetings, developing an online survey and holding public forums.

Although the group had previously discussed the possibility of hiring the nonprofit Project for Public Spaces as an outside consultant, Smith reported that he had tried to contact that group but had not received a response.

Also attending the March 26 meeting was Matthew Altruda, who told commissioners that he does the booking for many music events in town, including the Sonic Lunch weekly summer concert series that’s sponsored by the Bank of Ann Arbor and held at Liberty Plaza. At the end of the March 26 session, Altruda said he agreed with the group’s assessment that programming is important, and indicated that he’d be willing to help with that, if they wanted.

The subcommittee’s next meeting is set for Tuesday, April 9 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the second-floor city council workroom at city hall, 301 E. Huron. These meetings are open to the public and include the opportunity for public commentary.

DTE Easement at Riverside Park

On PAC’s March 18 agenda was a resolution to recommend approval of an easement between the city of Ann Arbor and DTE Energy – for land in Riverside Park where utility poles are located. [.pdf of easement agreement]

DTE Energy Buckler substation site plan. (Links to larger image)

The easement agreement is needed so that DTE can remove old utility poles and install new poles and overhead lines – generally in the same location as existing poles and lines at Riverside Park. The easement will also allow DTE to provide maintenance on those poles and lines. DTE requested the easement in relation to an $8 million new electrical substation that the energy firm is building on land adjacent to the park. The Buckler substation’s site plan was approved last year by the city’s planning commission on June 5, 2012. It did not require city council approval.

The overall project entails building the substation in the utility company’s Ann Arbor service center to provide a way to distribute an increase in electrical power to the downtown area due to increased demand for electricity. The project includes two 15.5-foot tall electrical transformers and related electrical equipment on raised concrete pads, and a new power delivery center (PDC) – a 630-square-foot, 12.5-foot tall steel structure. The source of power will be transmitted through underground sub-transmission cables in an existing manhole and conduit system.

The project needed a variance to the 15-foot conflicting land use buffer requirements along the east side property line, adjacent Riverside Park. DTE requested a variance that would allow the firm to plant 23 trees along the far western side of Riverside Park instead of on DTE property. PAC recommended approval of that variance at its Feb. 28, 2012 meeting. It was subsequently authorized by the zoning board of appeals on June 27, 2012.

In addition to planting trees in the buffer, DTE plans to remove 15 trees along Canal Street, which will be replaced by 50 trees in other parts of the park. As stipulated by city ordinance, DTE also will be required to pay the city a “tree canopy loss” fee. According to the city’s urban forestry website, which provides the technical definition and sample calculations, the current canopy loss rate is $186/inch for shade trees and $172/inch for ornamental trees. For this project, DTE will pay $23,800, which will be earmarked for future improvements to Riverside Park.

Construction on the substation will take place during the summer of 2013. The easement agreement requires approval by the city council.

Colin Smith, the city’s parks and recreation manager, introduced the item, saying he’s always wanted to see a better buffer between the park and the power substation. The landscaping that DTE is putting in place will make the park look much better, he said. Regarding the easement, Smith said it wasn’t a significant departure from how things are currently handled with DTE’s utility poles in that area.

Paul Ganz, DTE’s manager of regional relations, showed park commissioners a map indicating new projects in Ann Arbor that added to the city’s energy needs.

Paul Ganz – DTE’s manager of regional relations in Washtenaw, Livingston and Ingham counties – told commissioners that the substation project is essential, and the easement is a critical piece of that $8 million investment. The project will bring nearly 30 megawatts of additional electrical capacity to the Ann Arbor area.

In order to minimize disruptions during the switchover phase, DTE needs to build a new overhead pole infrastructure, to allow for the safe transfer of the utility’s distribution lines, he said. The company will install a new set of poles, then take off the wires from the old poles and put the new distribution lines on the new poles. He noted that phone and cable companies, which also use the poles, will need to move their lines as well.

He highlighted DTE’s replacement of trees that will have to be removed, as well as the company’s payment to the forestry fund. He said he appreciated the “cooperative posture” of the city staff, as well as PAC’s previous recommendation of a variance to the conflicting land use buffer requirement.

Ganz concluded by calling it a “garden variety easement,” and he hoped commissioners would look on it favorably.

DTE Easement at Riverside Park: Commission Discussion

Tim Doyle clarified with Colin Smith that the 50 new trees would be planted throughout the park. Smith referred Doyle to a drawing – included in the meeting packet – that showed where those trees would be planted. [.pdf of planting map]

Doyle also asked about the purpose of the substation. Was it to generate more electricity for the community? No, Ganz replied. The substation doesn’t generate electricity – it distributes electricity. DTE needs to build new circuits to handle the electricity loads. Ganz showed commissioners a map that indicated new or proposed developments in the city, “and they all need new sources of electricity,” he said. [.pdf of project map]

Doyle then observed that the substation doesn’t encroach on the park itself, but he asked for clarification about the location of the utility poles. Smith explained that the utility poles are located on parkland – that’s why an easement from the city is required.

Outcome: Commissioners unanimously recommended approval of granting the easement to DTE. It will next be considered by city council for approval.

Gallup Park Renovations

The March 19 agenda included a resolution recommending that the city council award a $512,180 contract for improvements at the Gallup Park canoe livery to Construction Solutions Inc. The project budget includes a 10% construction contingency, bringing the total cost to $563,398.

Schematic of the proposed Gallup Park canoe livery improvements.

Construction Solutions, based in Ann Arbor, was the lowest qualified bidder on the project. Other bids were submitted by Braun Construction Group ($534,600); Detroit Contracting Inc. ($554,620); The E&L Construction Group ($580,700); A.R. Brower Company ($607,160); and Terra Firma Landscape ($612,137).

In introducing the item, parks and recreation manager Colin Smith noted that the project has been two years in the making. He reminded commissioners that park planner Amy Kuras had briefed them on the project in the past. At its March 15, 2011 meeting, PAC had approved applying for a $300,000 grant from the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources Trust Fund to help fund the project.

Kuras gave commissioners an overview of the improvements, which include barrier-free paths to the docks; barrier-free docks and fishing facilities; an expanded patio area to create barrier-free outdoor seating and to separate these areas from the pedestrian circulation; sliding glass doors from the meeting room; and redesign of the park entry to create a separation between the service drive and the pedestrian pathway.

The project will be funded in part through the $300,000 MDNR trust fund grant, with matching funds from the FY 2013 park maintenance and capital improvements millage. Smith noted that when the grant was awarded, it was the second-highest ranked application statewide. He credited Kuras for her work in making that happen.

As soon as approval is given by the city council, the project’s first phase will begin on the docks and livery area, with work continuing until Memorial Day in late May. Work will resume after the summer season on Labor Day, focusing on paths and the park entry reconfiguration. The entire project is expected to be finished by mid-November.

Gallup Park Renovations: Commission Discussion

Mike Anglin wondered if there would be a launch for kayaks, so that people wouldn’t tip over while getting into the boat. Kuras explained that a new ramp would allow the kayakers to actually come up out of the water, and grab a railing to help them out of the kayak.

Anglin asked if the renovated meeting space would be available to rent for events. Kuras replied that the space is rented out now, but the staff expect that rentals will increase after the renovations.

Anglin also wanted to know if local firms had been considered for this contract. Kuras noted that the city’s policy is to accept the lowest bid, unless there are reasons to reject it – like past bad performance. In this case, the lowest bid happened to be a local firm, she noted.

Graydon Krapohl wanted to know when the project will likely be completed. Kuras replied that the weather is the biggest factor, but if all goes well, the hope is to have the project finished by mid-November of 2013.

Christopher Taylor observed that a van turnaround area could also be used as a cut-through for pedestrians or bicyclists. He wondered if there will be design elements to discourage it. Kuras said pervious pavers will be used in that area, “so it’s not going to be the most comfortable surface to walk on.” The hope is that renovated walkways will be a more desirable option.

Outcome: Commissioners unanimously approved the resolution recommending that Construction Solutions Inc. be awarded the contract for Gallup Park renovations. It was subsequently approved by the city council at its April 1, 2013 meeting.

Update on Argo, Gallup Canoe Liveries

Cheryl Saam, facility supervisor for the Argo and Gallup canoe liveries, gave commissioners a presentation on those operations. The briefing was in preparation of budget recommendations that PAC is expected to consider at its April 16 meeting. [.pdf of Saam's presentation]

For Gallup, Saam highlighted the stillwater paddles on the 2.5 mile Gallup Pond, the popular 5.7-mile river trip from Barton to Gallup, a coffee shop that sells Zingerman’s coffee and baked goods, and the meeting room that’s available for rental. She also reviewed the upcoming renovations, which had been featured in a presentation earlier in the meeting by park planner Amy Kuras.

Aerial view of Argo Pond and Argo Cascades – a series of nine pools that lead from the pond to the Huron River. The large site at the bottom of this image is the DTE property that the city hopes to acquire.

At Argo, the livery provides canoe, kayak and tube rentals on the 2-mile Argo Pond, a concession stand, and river trips – a 3.7-mile trip from Argo to Gallup, and a 7.1-mile trip Delhi to Argo. The most recent feature is the new Argo Cascades, a series of pools that allow kayakers to bypass Argo Dam and connect from Argo Pond to the Huron River. Saam noted that the Cascades won the 2012 Michigan Recreation & Park Association (MRPA) park design award, and was named a “Frontline Park” by the City Parks Alliance, a national advocacy group.

Saam noted that the city hopes to expand river recreational activities onto the DTE/Michcon site in the future. That site, which DTE is remediating, is on the opposite side of the Huron River, across from the Argo Cascades. For example, Saam said, because canoes can’t go through the Argo Cascades, one possibility would be to have another canoe livery on the DTE side of the river. “There are lots of opportunities that could come up with that site,” she said.

Both liveries offer River Camps, Saam said. Last year, 101 kids participated at Argo; 258 participated at Gallup.

Overall in 2012, 50,336 people rented boats during the year at both liveries – up from 35,834 in 2011. Saam attributed that increase primarily to the opening of Argo Cascades. A busy weekend day would bring about 900 customers, she reported. “It has been a big hit.” The Argo-to-Gallup river trip was the most popular, accounting for 67% of all river trips during the year.

As a percentage of river trips, the Barton-to-Gallup trip grew from 7.5% to 27% of all river trips in 2012.

Saam reported that projected revenues for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, are $619,626 compare to $569,589 the previous year. Projected expenses of $567,645 are also up, compared to $488,421 in the previous year. She noted that seasonal staff – about 50 employees – accounts for 44% of the budgeted expenses.

Looking ahead, the city plans to issue another request for proposals (RFP) to design a whitewater section along the Huron River, between the Argo Dam and the spot where the Argo Cascades enters into the river. Saam said that the staff believe it will provide a recreational amenity unlike any other in southeast Michigan – nothing too extensive, she added, probably just a surf wave and some eddy points. Most of the public would use the Cascades, which would exit downstream from the whitewater area.

Regarding the whitewater RFP, parks and recreation manager Colin Smith noted that the first attempt at this project wasn’t successful. The Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality did not approve the initial design, and would not issue the necessary permit for the project. The staff is working with the state to address MDEQ’s concerns, he said.

Update on Argo, Gallup Canoe Liveries: Commission Discussion

Tim Berla asked about the 27% of river trips that go from Barton Pond to Gallup Park – he wondered how people using canoes can get around the Argo Dam. Do they have to get out of their canoes? Yes, Saam replied, they have to walk the length of the Argo Cascades, and put in the canoe where the Cascades exit back into the Huron River. Canoes can’t go through the Cascades, but most people use kayaks, she said.

“Is there any chance we’re going to fix this?” Berla asked. Obviously the Cascades has been a successful amenity, he said. But when it was “sold” to PAC, he added, commissioners were told that canoes would also be able to use it. At one point, the idea had been that canoes could even paddle up the Cascades, he said.

Colin Smith, Ann Arbor’s parks and recreation manager.

Colin Smith acknowledged that the project had been difficult to complete as it was originally envisioned. He noted that even prior to the Argo Cascades project, there’d been a strong trend toward using kayaks rather than canoes. The city is exploring the possibility of partnering with DTE or in some way gaining access to a portion of the land currently owned by DTE that borders the Huron River downstream from the Argo Dam – where the whitewater feature would be located. Earlier this year, DTE issued a request for information (RFI), seeking possible partners to developer that site, which is located at 841 Broadway. [.pdf of DTE's RFI for the 841 Broadway site]

If the city gains access to that side of the river, Smith said, a supplemental canoe livery could be located there so that people wouldn’t need to carry canoes from the current livery past Argo Cascades. “We’re continuing to explore options – it’s not an easy solution,” he said.

Karen Levin asked about the whitewater project: Wasn’t the company that designed the Argo Cascades also hired to for the whitewater feature? She wondered if that same company would still be working on the whitewater.

Smith reviewed the project’s history, noting that when the project was originally proposed, the resolution that PAC recommended, and that the city council later approved, was primarily for the dam bypass – later named Argo Cascades – with the option of adding whitewater. [PAC's recommendation, approved on Oct. 19, 2010, was to build a bypass channel in the Argo Dam headrace for $988,170, and to add whitewater features for an additional $180,000. The $1,168,170 project was designed by Gary Lacy of Boulder, Colo., and built by TSP Environmental, a Livonia firm.]

Smith noted that the whitewater features weren’t required as part of an agreement with the state Dept. of Environmental Quality to address issues related to the dam. [In August of 2009, the state issued a dam safety order to the city, with several deadlines that the city needed to meet in addressing problems with the dam, as well as an order to immediately close the headrace. The city closed the headrace in November of 2009 but contested the order. Negotiations with the state resulted in a consent agreement that was signed in May of 2010. (.pdf file of consent agreement)]

Smith noted that DTE later committed to funding the construction of the whitewater section, because the company needed to do remediation on its side of the river, which needed to be coordinated with construction of the whitewater area. He said DTE is still planning to honor that commitment to pay for the whitewater feature.

The city will issue an RFP for the whitewater design, Smith said, and it may or may not be awarded to the designer who did Argo Cascades.

Mike Anglin thanked Cheryl Saam, noting that it all started years ago with “drainage disconnects.” [Anglin was likely referring to the state's concerns over the condition of toe drains on the Argo Dam embankment. The term "drainage disconnect" is typically used in reference to the city's footing drain disconnect program.] “We took the hard long way,” Anglin told Saam, “but got a great product.”

Outcome: This was not a voting item.

Dam Repairs

In another river-related item, commissioners were asked to recommend awarding a $295,530 contract to Gerace Construction Co. for repair work and repainting at Argo and Geddes dams, as well as site improvements around Argo Dam.

Colin Smith, the city’s parks and recreation manager, reviewed some history on this project.

By way of background, the city council – at its Nov. 15, 2010 meeting – had passed a resolution directing the city administrator to find a new funding source for the city’s recreational dams: Argo and Geddes. [The city's other dams, Barton and Superior, generate electricity and are not considered recreational.] At that time, maintenance and other needs for the dam were paid for out of the city’s water supply system fund. The resolution stated:

RESOLVED, That City Council direct the City Administrator to remove funding for repairs, maintenance and insurance for Argo and Geddes dams from the City’s Water Supply System Fund in the FY 2012 budget and thereafter.

In 2011 when the council passed its budget for FY 2012 – starting July 1, 2011 – the costs for Argo and Geddes dams were shifted to the parks operations budget. This move had been recommended by PAC, Smith noted.

The current contract is for work that’s done on a 15-20 year cycle, Smith said. Gerace, based in Midland, submitted the lowest of four qualified bids for this work. Other bidders were Anlaan Corp. ($354,050); E&L Construction ($457,989); and Spence Brothers ($797,000). According to a staff memo, the work entails “repair and repainting of gear housings, lift equipment, tainter gate structural steel, miscellaneous concrete repair, and minor site improvements. Site improvements include addition of rip rap and constructing a path to portage around Argo Dam.”

Brian Steglitz, an engineer with the city, was on hand to answer questions. He indicated that the work is being done in response to feedback from state regulators. The two dams are inspected every three years by the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).

The project will be funded from the city’s parks maintenance and capital improvements millage.

Dam Repairs: Commission Discussion

Tim Berla observed that since the dams aren’t generating electricity or providing drinking water, the appropriate way to fund them is out of the parks budget.

From left: Park commissioners Tim Berla and Graydon Krapohl.

Smith described the rationale for funding these dam repairs out of the parks and recreation budget. He noted that a lot of recreational opportunities offered by the parks system at Argo Pond are called “pond paddles.” People might prefer pond paddles, as opposed to going down the river, if they have young children, or if they just feel more comfortable on still water. There are also times when the water flow causes the staff to suspend river trips, but people can still enjoy canoeing or kayaking on the Argo Pond, between Barton and Argo dams. In fiscal year 2012, revenue generated from pond paddles, rowboat and paddleboat activities was about $175,000.

Smith likened it to the kind of investment that the city makes in other recreational facilities, like its ice-skating rinks.

Berla clarified with Brian Steglitz that the dams are not involved in flood mitigation. That’s right, Steglitz said. The dams at this point are purely recreational. Under the existing permits, they operate as “run of the river” dams. That is, for every drop of water that enters the pond, a drop needs to go over the dam to compensate.

Berla wondered how this project fits in with the overall cost of maintaining these dams. How much money is spent every year, and when will the city need to make this kind of expenditure again? Smith said the annual cost for operating each dam is about $18,000 to $20,000. That’s already budgeted, he said, separately from the repair project.

Steglitz said this kind of maintenance hasn’t been done on these dams in about 25 years, so it’s past due. Originally, the city had planned to do this work one dam at a time – one per year. But the staff decided to combine some of the less expensive, out-of-the-water work at Argo and Geddes this year. In a couple of years, another project is planned to address the gates on the dams, he said. That will be a more complicated project, and will involve shutting down the dams and de-watering one side in order to paint the gates. Smith reported that the gate repair in the city’s capital improvements plan (CIP) for fiscal 2017, estimated to cost about $400,000.

After that second project is completed, Steglitz said, the two dams probably won’t require significant work for another 20 years.

Christopher Taylor asked if the costs were about equally divided between Geddes and Argo. Yes, Steglitz replied.

Taylor also asked for an explanation of the term “rip rap.” Steglitz described rip rap as “large aggregate” – typically rocks or concrete rubble – that’s used for erosion control. The intent is to hold back earth along the dam embankments. From an engineering standpoint, he said, the city needs to make sure it maintains the integrity of those embankments, as well as the integrity of the concrete dams.

Taylor asked where the new portage would be located. It will be constructed from the first pond of the Argo Cascades to the “tail” of Argo Dam, where people will be able to launch their canoes into the Huron River. Tim Doyle asked whether that’s the same location that the city plans to add a whitewater feature. Smith answered by noting that the city hasn’t yet received permits for the whitewater project, and that this new path isn’t a significant improvement. Doyle observed that it’s a temporary fix while the city waits on the whitewater project. Smith agreed with that assessment.

Doyle then asked whether these dams are regulated by the state. Steglitz replied that the dams are regulated by the Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality, which inspects the dams every three years. Doyle asked if this repair work is the consequence of the state’s inspection. Yes, Steglitz said. The city is responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of those dams, he said, and this project is in response to that.

Doyle asked if dams, like bridges, have a life. Yes, Steglitz said. He noted that these dams have been rebuilt. Like any structure, you can do things to extend its life, he added, “and that’s what this project is all about.” By doing this kind of work, the city can extend the life of the dam by decades. There’s no reason to believe the dams would need to be replaced in the near future, he said.

Mike Anglin asked Steglitz to describe how Barton and Superior dams differ from Argo and Geddes. Steglitz explained that Barton and Superior dams are federally regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). They both generate power – about 1.5 megawatts of power combined, when operating at full capacity. There are more stringent regulatory requirements, with more frequent inspections. Barton also provides an impoundment for the city’s water supply. Those two dams are also more complex structures, he said, because they both generate hydropower. So they’re more costly to operate and maintain. The city’s general fund receives revenue from Barton and Superior dams, and the general fund also pays for the improvements and maintenance of those dams. Capital improvements are planned at both dams as well, and are in the city’s CIP, Steglitz said.

In response to a query from Doyle, Steglitz said that at one point, both Argo and Geddes also generated electricity. All of the dams were purchased from DTE in the early 1980s, he said, for “very little to no cost,” because major renovations were needed. At that point, the hydropower components at Argo and Geddes were abandoned, he said.

Taylor questioned a clause in PAC’s resolution, which stated: “Whereas, The coating on the gear housings and portions of the gates at both Argo and Geddes Dams has failed; …” The proximity of “failed” and “dams” caused him, as a lay person, to raise a “flashing light red alert.” He joked that Steglitz appeared calm, so Taylor asked him to elaborate on that wording.

The dams aren’t in danger of failure, Steglitz replied, but the coatings have failed. There are places where the coating is gone. Coatings aren’t just for aesthetic purposes, he noted, but rather to protect the structural steel from corroding. There are now signs of corrosion, he said. If that continues, at some point you just can’t repaint the steel – you’d need to replace it, which would be a lot more expensive. There are some components that will need to be replaced, he added, but not many. “We’re doing this at the right time.”

Outcome: Commissioners unanimously approved awarding the contract to Gerace for work on Argo and Geddes dams. The contract was subsequently won approval at the city council’s April 1, 2013 meeting.

Golf Courses Update

In another presentation to set the stage for next month’s budget discussion, PAC heard from Doug Kelly, the city’s director of golf, and Andrew Walton, recreational facility supervisor at Huron Hills. They reviewed the status of the city’s two golf courses – at Huron Hills and Leslie Park.

From left: Andrew Walton, recreational facility supervisor at Huron Hills, and Doug Kelly, the city’s director of golf.

Kelly told commissioners that his overview would be similar to one he made at PAC two years ago, at their March 15, 2011 meeting. He described attributes of both courses – Huron Hills has a shorter layout that’s good for the entire golfing community, for people of all ages, abilities and economic backgrounds. During the winter months, Huron Hills also provides one of the area’s best sledding hills, he said.

Leslie Park “is our jewel,” he said, attracting golfers from across southeast Michigan and beyond with its layout that is challenging, yet playable. Golf Digest magazine has rated it as the best municipal course in the state, he said. More recently, Leslie Park golf course has been “entrenched” in a $1.4 million major Traver Creek reconstruction project.

As background, in 2007, the city council and staff examined the golf courses closely, hired a consultant and made some decisions about the future of the courses. “It was decided that if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right,” Kelly said, so the city invested in infrastructure and staff.

As a result, he said, the number of golf rounds have increased at both courses. At Huron Hills, rounds have grown from 13,913 in 2007 to 23,842 rounds in the 2012 season. At Leslie Park, 21,857 rounds were played in 2007, compared to 32,628 in 2012. Those represent increases of 70% and 50%, respectively, and come during a period when rounds of golf in Michigan have been flat, Kelly said, and when rounds have fallen 2.4% nationwide.

Revenues have also increased during that period, Kelly reported. In fiscal 2007, Huron Hill reported revenues of $242,577. Those increased 55% to $375,068 in fiscal 2012. At Leslie Park, revenues grew from $623,942 in FY 2007 to $929,071 in FY 2012 – an increase of 49%.

Kelly noted that fees haven’t changed significantly since 2008. Rental revenues at Huron Hills increased from $5,000 in fiscal 2007 – when the course did not have rental carts – to $72,000 in fiscal 2012. Leslie Park’s golf cart rental revenues grew from $122,000 to $183,000, while concession revenues grew from $28,000 to $97,000, in large part because the clubhouse now has a liquor license. The idea wasn’t to make it a local pub, he said, but rather to make it more attractive for group outings and league golfers. Some of that is due to increased rounds, but Kelly attributed about $50,000 of that increase solely to the sale of alcohol.

Revenues from Ann Arbor golf courses FY 2007 through FY 2012.

Kelly also highlighted the priorities that he and other golf staff have emphasized in the last five years: exceptional customer service, excellent facilities, environmental stewardship, collaboration with the community, and an effort to grow the game of golf.

Leslie Park golf course has been certified by the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program, which requires that the course exceed requirements of environmental laws, protect water resources and enhance the maintenance of turf grass and open spaces. The course also was designated as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, part of a national program that focuses on enhancing the habitat for wildlife on golf courses. Huron Hills is currently working to get both of these certifications, he said.

Kelly noted that several years ago he came up with the idea for a Michigan “municipal golf trail,” to promote municipal courses throughout the state. It was launched last year by the Michigan Recreation and Park Association, with a goal of getting 500 people signed up. They exceeded that goal, with about 3,500 people participating.

Andrew Walton highlighted several efforts to grow the game of golf – because most of those types of programs are located at Huron Hills, which he supervises. Efforts include family nights on Sundays after 3 p.m, when children can golf free; “nite lite” golf events with glow-in-the-dark equipment; a $100 season pass for juniors; “wee tees” – a shorter 7-hole course for kids; golf lessons and other instruction programs; power carts; and leagues.

Huron Hills also received a $12,000 grant from the National Recreation and Parks Association to help pilot a national program called SNAG – Starting New at Golf – aimed at children 4-5 years old. The city was one of only 15 agencies nationwide to pilot this program. SNAG is now partnering with the Jack Nicklaus Learning Leagues, and Ann Arbor expects to be involved in that effort as well, Walton said.

Golf Courses Update: Commission Discussion

Julie Grand recalled serving on the golf task force several years ago, and said it’s amazing to see how the golf courses have changed over the past few years.

Colin Smith, the city’s parks and recreation manager, praised the golf staff as well as the staff of the canoe liveries. He highlighted the role of seasonal staff, saying those employees are crucial to the success of the parks system.

Grand joked that she remembered a time when “a young Colin Smith” was also a seasonal employee in the parks. Smith replied: “I wouldn’t recognize that person.”

Mike Anglin said that if there’s a national parks and recreation month, he’d like to see Smith and other senior parks staff come forward to city council to be recognized for their work. The parks system has been supported by a millage for a long time, he noted, and the system just keeps getting better even though the economy has declined. That might be because people can’t afford to travel, so they stay and use the local parks, Anglin said. The city’s recreation facilities are packed, he noted, in large part due to the people on staff. Anglin concluded by saying he was on council when Smith was hired as parks and recreation manager, “and I’ve never regretted it.”

Communications: Recreation Advisory Commission

Tim Berla, a PAC member who’s the liaison to the city’s recreation advisory commission, reported that the Ann Arbor Public Schools are “strapped” in terms of their budget. It’s possible that all sports will become “pay to play,” so at the most recent RAC meeting there was a long discussion about the possibility of having a recreation millage, he said. It’s something they’ll continue to think about for the future, he added.

Present: Ingrid Ault, Tim Berla, Tim Doyle, Julie Grand, Alan Jackson, Graydon Krapohl, Karen Levin, and councilmembers Mike Anglin and Christopher Taylor (ex-officio). Also Colin Smith, city parks and recreation manager.

Absent: Bob Galardi, Missy Stults.

Next meeting: PAC’s meeting on Tuesday, April 16, 2013 begins at 4 p.m. in the city hall second-floor council chambers, 301 E. Huron St., Ann Arbor. [Check Chronicle event listing to confirm date]

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PAC also recommended authorizing the sale of 24 city-owned golf carts to the company. That sale is a trade-in of carts that are no longer suitable to rent, and will be used to offset the lease.

The city received four bids for this contract, from Club Car-Midwest Golf & Turf; Ellis Sales Inc.; Michigan Tournament Fleet; and Pifer, which was the lowest responsible bidder. The lease cost of $75,600 will be offset by the trade-in valued at $35,400, for a net bid of $40,260 – or $20,130 per year. The contract now requires city council approval.

According to a staff memo, golf cart rental at Huron Hills and Leslie Park generated about $250,000 in revenue for the city during fiscal year 2012.

This brief was filed from the second-floor council chambers of city hall at 301 E. Huron, where PAC meetings are held. A more detailed report will follow: [link]

The move is effective July 1, 2013, which is the start of the 2014 fiscal year, and will satisfy the need to have a deficit reduction plan for the golf enterprise fund. The condition of the separate golf enterprise fund had caught the attention of the state treasurer’s office in 2008, which had led the council to adopt the deficit reduction plan. That plan included a restructuring of the fee schedule to increase the number of rounds played, and the issuance of a liquor license to boost the sales of food and drink at the Leslie Golf course. [.pdf of golf fund deficit elimination plan]

The plan had a clear positive impact on the number of rounds played at the city’s two courses, bringing the total rounds played from a low in 2007 of 35,856 up to 54,500 in 2010. That outpaced the number of rounds projected in the 2008 deficit elimination plan. A slight dip in 2011 to 49,203 rounds has been followed by stronger numbers again in 2012, with 55,135 rounds through Nov. 12. But that compares with 58,571 rounds played back in 2003. [.jpg of chart showing rounds played 2003-2012] Leslie is now closed for the season, but Huron Hills will stay open in the winter as weather permits.

On the metrics used by the state treasurer’s office to evaluate a municipality’s funds, however, the golf enterprise fund is still in a negative position. Those metrics are: loss with depreciation, working capital, and unrestricted net deficit. [.pdf of golf enterprise fund data from pages extracted from the comprehensive annual financial report from 2007-2011] The city’s figures for the golf fund’s performance on a purely revenue and expense basis show that it’s improved from the 2008 fiscal year – when it needed a $507,000 subsidy from the general fund – compared to 2012, when that amount was reduced to $271,000. [.jpg of chart showing revenues and expenses] By moving the golf fund back into the general fund, the city expects to save on an accounting basis about $20,000 a year for the general fund, with that amount increasing to $120,000 when the golf fund’s debt is paid off, starting in fiscal year 2016.

The council’s decision to move the golf fund back into the general fund, made at its Dec. 3, 2012 meeting, was supported by Jane Lumm (Ward 2), who highlighted the increasingly positive performance of the golf fund. Before Lumm was most recently elected to the city council in 2011, after having served in the mid-1990s, she was active in opposing a proposal that might have led to the operation of Huron Hills golf course by a private company – Miles of Golf. As a citizen, she addressed the city council about the proposal on June 7, 2010.

The council’s support of moving the golf fund back into the general fund was based in part on the idea that the golf courses should be evaluated on the same basis as other recreational facilities.

The council’s Dec. 3 resolution about the golf enterprise fund included a similar action about the airport enterprise fund, which also shows a deficit, due to the classification of internal loans as unrestricted instead of restricted. The city’s plan for eliminating the deficit for the airport enterprise fund is simply to continue to make payments toward the outstanding balance, which is currently $943,659. Added after initial publication: The airport fund will remain a separate enterprise fund.

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

Julie Grand, chair of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission, talks with PAC member Sam Offen before the start of Tuesday’s meeting. Offen was the only commissioner to vote against support of a state grant application for the Ann Arbor skatepark. (Photos by the writer.)

The resolution for Gallup passed unanimously, but commissioner Sam Offen – without comment – cast a vote against the resolution for the skatepark grant.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, commissioner Gwen Nystuen suggested forming a committee to look more closely at the Fuller Road Station project – she felt that as stewards of the city’s parkland, PAC should take a more active role in examining the proposed parking structure, bus depot and possible train station. The project, a joint effort between the city and the University of Michigan, would be located on land that’s previously been designated as parkland, though it’s been leased to the university as a surface parking lot since the early 1990s. Nystuen did not put forward a formal resolution, and commissioners took no action on the idea.

The meeting included five presentations from various groups, including updates on the city’s two golf courses, the new Give 365 volunteer program, and a restoration project for a stretch of Malletts Creek near Huron Parkway. Commissioners also heard a proposal for a new Wednesday night farmers market, and got a mid-year financial report on the open space and parkland preservation millage.

Grant Applications for Skatepark, Gallup Livery

Two resolutions were added to the agenda at the start of Tuesday’s meeting, both recommending support for city’s grant applications to the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources Trust Fund. The grants – for $300,000 each – would help fund the Ann Arbor skatepark and upgrades to the Gallup canoe livery and park.

Colin Smith, the city’s parks & recreation manager, told commissioners that the city would include the resolutions as part of the application package.

[The issue of the city’s grant applications previously emerged during the March 9 meeting of the Ann Arbor greenbelt advisory commission. At that meeting, Tom Freeman of the county’s parks & recreation department told greenbelt commissioners that the county would be applying for a DNR trust fund grant to help buy a parcel in Ann Arbor Township now owned by a subsidiary of Domino’s Farms. The parcel would become part of the county’s natural areas preservation program.

Greenbelt commissioners discussed voting on a letter of support for the county’s application, but were dissuaded by Ann Arbor city councilmember Carsten Hohnke, who felt it would dilute the city’s own chances for grant funds from the state – for the skatepark and the canoe livery. Ultimately, greenbelt commissioners voted to recommend that the city council consider sending a letter of support for the county’s application.]

At Tuesday’s PAC meeting, Gwen Nystuen said she approved of the resolutions, but wondered whether it hurt their chances to apply for two grants instead of one. Smith said they had reviewed the applications and grant awards from last year – out of 160 applications statewide, 117 had received funding, he said – a high success rate. What matters most is the quality and strength of the application, he said. In addition, the two projects they’re applying for are very different, and serve different user groups.

Smith said they need the funding for the skatepark in order to help reach the matching funds needed to secure a $400,000 matching grant from the Washtenaw County parks & recreation commission. And the funds for Gallup are necessary for the work they need to do to improve safety and accessibility at the canoe livery, he said. They’re hoping to have improvements at Gallup completed by 2012, to prepare for increased activity following a significant upgrade at the Argo dam.

Tim Berla asked for a reminder of what work would be done at Gallup. [Park planner Amy Kuras had most recently provided an update at PAC's January 2011 meeting.] Smith reported that the work would include expanding the facility’s meeting room, improving the safety of the path approaching the livery, and giving people barrier-free access to the facility and dock area. They would also add wayfinding signs throughout the park.

Outcome: The resolution of support for Ann Arbor’s application for a state DNR trust fund grant to fund upgrades to the Gallup canoe livery and park was unanimously approved. A second resolution of support for the grant application to fund the Ann Arbor skatepark was also approved, with Sam Offen dissenting.

Fuller Road Station

During Tuesday’s meeting, Gwen Nystuen asked commissioners to consider forming a committee that would look more intently at the Fuller Road Station project. [Fuller Road Station is a joint city of Ann Arbor/University of Michigan effort to build a large parking structure and bus depot on the south side of Fuller Road, just east of East Medical Center Drive. City officials hope the initial $46 million phase will be followed by a later phase that would include a train station for commuter rail. The city-owned land, which is zoned public land but has been designated as parkland, is currently leased to the university for use as a surface parking lot.]

Nystuen said she’s been looking at this project for months, and is deeply concerned because it would mean a major change for the city’s parks. It’s an issue she’s raised repeatedly at previous PAC meetings for more than a year.

Nystuen described some of the property’s history, dating back to the time when it was a municipal golf course in the 1930s through 1968. Several transfers of ownership and changes in use have taken place over the years, she noted, and it’s time that PAC have a coordinated discussion about the current situation, given their role as stewards of the parks system.

Park commissioner Gwen Nystuen.

One of the big questions is what kind of protection does parkland have, Nystuen said. The city’s planning commission, in its discussions of Fuller Road Station, has identified several protections, she said, such as inclusion of a parcel in the Park and Recreation Open Space (PROS) plan, purchase of a parcel with parkland acquisition millage funds. One other way that planning commissioners feel parkland is protected is through oversight by PAC, Nystuen noted – so they are responsible.

The land where Fuller Road Station is to be located was assessed in 2004 by the University of Michigan for $4.25 million – Nystuen passed out a letter sent to the city in February 2004 by Gerald Alcock and Marcel Vidovic, who had appraised the property at that time. At that time, the university was looking at the land to potentially build housing there, she said.

Further, she was concerned that a complete environmental assessment hadn’t yet been conducted. As far as she knew, the firm JJR had done an assessment that was presented as a draft in June 2010. But a final assessment hadn’t been done, nor had a public hearing been held on the issue.

Nystuen also had concerns about how the county’s border-to-border trail would fit into the structure’s design. And there’s a roundabout being considered for the intersection of Fuller Road, Maiden Lane and East Medical Center Drive, she noted, where the border-to-border trail crosses. At its Feb. 7, 2011 meeting, the city council authorized a $460,139 contract with DLZ Michigan Inc. to review previous studies of that intersection and propose a design for its reconfiguration.

A lot of questions remain about the project and its process, Nystuen said. PAC needs a committee so that they’ll be fully informed and can make a recommendation to city council.

Tim Berla asked parks manager Colin Smith what the timeline is for the project. Smith reminded commissioners that he’d given them an update at their February meeting, and nothing has changed since then. The city attorney’s office is still working on the Fuller Road Station operating agreement between the city and the University of Michigan.

Berla noted that some things related to the project weren’t under PAC’s purview. But the border-to-border trail is completely within their realm, he noted, adding that he’d like to see PAC consider a resolution at their next meeting to address that issue. They should go on record identifying that as a problem to be solved, he said. Overall, though, Berla said he supports the idea of a bus or train station.

Smith reminded commissioners that they had already passed a resolution related to Fuller Road Station last summer. His recollection was that PAC gave the project its overall support, but identified some areas of concern, including how the project would be financed and how the border-to-border trail would be incorporated. He suggested reviewing that resolution before taking additional action. [For details on that resolution, see Chronicle coverage of PAC's June 15, 2010 meeting: "Park Commission Asks for Transparency"]

Nystuen said she wasn’t opposed to alternative transportation. But the area where Fuller Road Station is proposed is in a location that the city has identified as a high priority for parkland acquisition – land along the Huron River. It’s a surface parking lot now, but it could be restored and become a beautiful park – it doesn’t have to be covered with cars, she said.

Sam Offen asked Smith to check with Fuller Road Station’s project manager, and perhaps ask him to return to PAC and provide an update. Smith reminded commissioners that they’d be dealing with the annual budget at their April meeting.

Julie Grand noted that the point of the resolution they passed last year was that they wanted to be kept in the loop about the project. This is a good reminder to city staff that PAC be kept informed.

Berla asked Smith whether they could see a copy of the operating agreement when it was drafted. Smith said he would get a copy for them to review.

Nystuen again expressed her interest in having two or three PAC members sit down with the city councilmembers who serve as ex-officio members of the commission – Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5). [Anglin did not attend Tuesday's meeting.] Taylor said that for his part, he believed things would come to the city council “in their ordinary course.” While getting information is good, he said, information can be “ripe and unripe.” Regarding the border-to-border trail, he agreed that they should ask what the plans are for that effort. He agreed with Berla that there are certain things within PAC’s ambit, like the border-to-border trail. As for the roundabout, analyses are being done that are “ongoing and professional,” he said.

Berla noted that in general roundabouts are fantastic, but it’s hard to envision how someone using the border-to-border trail and trying to cross there could do so easily, given the heavy traffic in that area.

Nystuen did not put forward a formal resolution for her proposal to form a committee, and the discussion came to a close without action.

Golf Courses Update

Earlier in the meeting, commissioners got an update about the city’s two golf courses – at Huron Hills and Leslie Park – from Doug Kelly, the city’s director of golf, and Andrew Walton, golf course supervisor at Huron Hills. Kelly and Walton had previously given a detailed presentation at PAC’s Nov. 17, 2009 meeting.

Kelly began by giving brief descriptions of both courses. Huron Hills is a beautiful tract of land, he said, with vistas overlooking the Huron River valley. As a golf course with a shorter layout, it’s a tremendous asset to the entire area’s golfing community, he said, a much-needed course for introducing people of all ages and economic backgrounds to the game of golf. It’s especially important to provide opportunities for kids, to grow the game. In the winter, Huron Hills also provides one of the area’s best sledding hills, he noted.

Doug Kelly, right, the city of Ann Arbor’s director of golf, and Andrew Walton, golf course supervisor at Huron Hills.

Leslie Park golf course is their pride and joy, Kelly said. It also sits on some of the prettiest land in the city, land that was previously the site of Dr. Eugene Leslie’s farm and orchard. Kelly noted that the golf course’s logo features the red barn that’s still on the property. “We’re very proud of that barn and we love it,” he said.

Leslie Park attracts golfers from around the region. Its layout is challenging, yet playable. Golf Digest magazine has rated it as the best municipal course in the state, he said.

Since the city’s re-commitment to its golf courses in 2008, Kelly said they’ve focused on the “5 Cs”: customer service, culture, course conditions, cleanliness, and community. These are the reasons why people keep returning to the courses, he said – they’re creating a place where people are comfortable and feel like they belong.

Kelly said they are caretakers of the land. He described how last year, Leslie Park was certified by the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program, and Huron Hills is now going through that process. Certification requires that the course exceed requirements of environmental laws, protect water resources and enhance the maintenance of turf grass and open spaces. It’s harder to get than certification from the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, Kelly said, which focuses on enhancing the habitat for wildlife. He expects Leslie Park golf course to achieve the Audobon certification later this year.

Kelly showed commissioners some slides of wildlife on the courses, including one of a wild/domestic hybrid turkey watching golfers on Leslie Park’s No. 1 green last summer. He noted that eight bluebird houses had been added throughout the course last year, and so far seven of those are inhabited. Staff is also working with school groups to build bat houses that can be placed on the courses.

Also related to the environment, golf staff work with the city’s natural area preservation (NAP) program to do controlled burns in some parts of the courses – three of the four full-time golf employees are volunteer certified burn technicians, Kelly said. Scott Spooner, Leslie Park’s superintendent, is doing outreach with local schools as well, bringing student groups to the course for projects like water quality testing at Traver Creek, which runs through the property.

Walton, who supervises Huron Hills, focused his comments on that course, saying one of the main objectives there is to grow interest in the game of golf. It’s very affordable to play there, he said, and is a crucial course for introducing new golfers to the game. He described several programs aimed at that goal, including junior golf camps, a new parent/child instructional program and a new junior golf league. Adult programs also focus on beginners, he said.

Another goal is to use promotions and events to attract families, young people, seniors, and beginning golfers to the course, Walton said. One of the larger efforts in that regard is allowing juniors to play free on Sunday afternoons, when accompanied by a paying adult. Last season the city also started a program called “Wee Tees” – a set of shorter tees that are meant to make the game more playable and fun. The annual Herb Fowler memorial tournament has become a marquee event, Walton said, and monthly “nite lite” golf – when they illuminate the course after dusk – is becoming popular.

Walton also noted that adding power golf carts has made the course more accessible to seniors and the disabled – and even, frankly, to able-bodied people who just don’t want to walk, he said. Last year was the first full season that the carts were available, and they brought in about $46,000 in revenue.

Both courses also provide a source of revenue for the city’s parks & recreation scholarship fund, Walton said, contributing about $4,000 last year from player donations and tournament proceeds.

Walton compared Huron Hills to the other golf courses in the Ann Arbor region. Of the 12 local courses, seven are either private or provide limited access to the general public, he said, like the University of Michigan course. Three of the remaining five – including Leslie Park – are more difficult to play. That leaves Georgetown Country Club, which only has nine holes, and Huron Hills, which is an 18-hole course. “We are quite a unique facility in the Ann Arbor golf community,” he said.

Kelly returned to the podium for a brief financial overview. Golf rounds at Huron Hills are up 56% since 2007, from 13,913 in 2007 to 22,501 in 2010. At Leslie Park, rounds have increased during that period by 48% – from 21,857 to 31,998. This occurred at a time when average golf rounds were decreasing at the state and national levels, he said. Their goal is to grow rounds of golf played at Huron Hills to 25,000 and at Leslie Park to 35,000.

Revenues during the period from 2007 to 2010 have also increased at both courses. At Huron Hills, revenues grew from $242,677 to $310,602. Leslie Park revenues increased from $615,448 to $851,570. By FY 2013, revenues are projected to increase to $396,050 at Huron Hills and $929,044 at Leslie Park.

[Related to revenues, the city council recently voted to increase fees at both courses – the increases had been initially recommended by PAC at their February 2011 meeting.]

Revenues are trending in the right direction, Kelly concluded, and recognition for the courses is strong.

After the presentation, PAC chair Julie Grand thanked Kelly and Walton for their work. Commissioners had no other comments or questions.

[Neither Kelly nor Walton mentioned the request for proposals (RFP) that the city issued last year to solicit ideas for improving operations at Huron Hills. Two groups submitted proposals, but only Miles of Golf – a Pittsfield Township business – was chosen by a selection committee to move forward in the selection process. The business owners made a presentation at a Dec. 3 public meeting, but were informed later in the month that the city would not be pursuing their proposal.]

Malletts Creek Restoration

Janis Bobrin, the Washtenaw County water resources commissioner, attended Tuesday’s PAC meeting – along with Harry Sheehan, the county’s environmental manager, and Ron Cavallaro of the engineering firm Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment – to give an update on the county’s Malletts Creek restoration project.

Bobrin began by noting that the county and city have a strong history of partnering, including work on Olson Park, Mary Beth Doyle Park and West Park – a project that’s still underway. [PAC had received an update from city staff on problems with West Park renovations at its Feb. 15, 2011 meeting.]

Bobrin said they were attending the meeting to talk about the Malletts Creek restoration work, which affects the city’s Huron Parkway Nature Area.

From left: Washtenaw County environmental manager Harry Sheehan; Washtenaw County water resources commissioner Janis Bobrin; and Ron Cavallaro of the engineering firm Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment. The three were on hand to give the Ann Arbor park advisory commission an update on a Malletts Creek restoration project.

Sheehan, who’s leading this project, stepped forward to give the remainder of the presentation. He said the county has been working for a decade with the city on improvements to Malletts Creek. The current work will take place along a 1.6-mile stretch of the creek’s stream bank, he said, near the area of Washtenaw Avenue and Huron Parkway. The project focuses on the stream bank’s erosion – he noted the stream is a natural channel and can’t handle the roughly 11 square miles of urban runoff that now flows into it.

Erosion washes downstream and impairs water quality and habitat, he said. Phosphorus from the runoff flows downstream to South Pond and ultimately the Huron River, affecting the city’s drinking water supply. The state’s Dept. of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has created a mandate to deal with phosphorus and sediment issues related to Malletts Creek creekshed, he said, and that’s what the project is addressing.

Sheehan described several techniques that will be employed to deal with these problems. Instead of vertical stream banks, they’ll rebuild banks that are staggered back from the creek in tiers to accommodate higher flows. They’ll first stabilize the bank’s base with rock, then revegetate the bank with native plants. Another technique is to create rock structures within the stream – called veins – that direct water flow away from the banks and turn the force of the flow toward the center of the stream.

The third technique is to build different levels of channels within the creekbed – a deeper channel in the bottom center of the creek, with shallower channels carved out at the sides to handle higher flows. Finally, the project will include work to repair and upgrade infrastructure, such as cracked drains.

Sheehan said workers on the project will access the area from spots on Huron Parkway and Chalmers Drive. In response to a question from Sam Offen, who lives in that area, Cavallaro said they didn’t anticipate any traffic issues related to the work.

Sheehan said they’d work with the city’s natural area preservation (NAP) crew to coordinate with the controlled burns that NAP conducts in the area. If there are any areas that are disturbed by the work, the county will revegetate the area with native plants.

The project’s budget is set at a maximum of $4.1 million for the 1.6 miles of creek, Sheehan said. Half of that will come through a federal grant and won’t need to be repaid – it’s in the form of loan forgiveness through the Clean Water Act. The other half will be financed through a state revolving loan program – a 20-year, low-interest loan at 2.5% interest that will be paid by assessing the Malletts Creek drainage district. The city of Ann Arbor accounts for 95% of that district, Sheehan said, and funding for the assessment will come from the city’s stormwater utility fund. [It's classified as an "at large" district, so rather than assessing individuals and businesses in the district, it's paid for by the city collectively.] There’s no impact to the parks budget.

Bobrin later clarified that the other 5% is paid for by the Michigan Dept. of Transportation (MDOT), because the work benefits state roads. She noted that the project required a formal petition from the city, which city council passed in December 2010. Sheehen added that this project does not involve a rate hike to residents’ stormwater utility fees – it’s a project that was already budgeted, and included in the city’s capital improvement plan (CIP).

Sheehan said they’re more than halfway through the project’s design, and expect to finish that part by June. They’ll have a contract for the work to be approved by city council in August, with construction starting in September 2011 at the earliest, and running through next spring or early summer.

He said they’ve been in contact with homeowners’ associations in the area to alert them about the project, and also plan public meetings later in the year.

In response to a question from Gwen Nystuen, Sheehan said that Malletts Creek is a county drain, and the county’s office of water resources has regulatory responsibility to maintain its flow and improve water quality. The county has a 66-foot easement on either side of the channel, which has been in place since the 1920s.

Christopher Taylor asked if Sheehan could articulate the water quality benefit they expect to get from the project. It hasn’t been quantified yet, Sheehan replied. About 4,000 pounds of phosophorus load comes into the Huron River every year from Malletts Creek, he said, and the sediment load can be hundreds of times that amount. Those are the two things they’re trying to reduce, he said, and they’ll be calculating how best to do that as they complete the project’s cost/benefit analysis and set priorities about where to do the work.

In response to a question from Tim Berla, Sheehan said water quality monitoring is one way to measure the effectiveness of the project. He said he could provide a report on their work at Doyle Park, which included such measurements. However, they don’t currently have funding to conduct the same types of analyses on the Malletts Creek project, he said. Another way to evaluate the project is to look at how long the changes last – how stable are the stream banks in 10 or 15 years, for example.

Night Market Proposal

Molly Notarianni, the city’s market manager, gave a report to commissioners about plans for a night market pilot program. She had given a similar presentation last week at the city’s public market advisory commission meeting. [See Chronicle coverage: "Idea for Night Market Floated"]

The proposal calls for a producers-only market from 4:30-8:30 p.m., operating as a separate entity from the existing Saturday and Wednesday daytime markets, which run from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. The night market would run for a shorter season, launching this year on July 1 – the start of the city’s fiscal year – and running through September or early October. There would be a separate application process for the night market, and there would not be a seniority system as there is for the other markets, which gives an advantage to long-time vendors.

The idea would be to give shoppers more options for shopping at the farmers market, to attract new shoppers to that area, to provide opportunities for more producers to sell their wares, and to increase activity at an underused space. Notarianni said she plans to assign stalls before market day – unlike the current system for the daytime markets, when stalls are assigned on the day of the market just before the market opens. That will provide some consistency for vendors, she said, and shoppers won’t have to hunt for their favorite vendors.

The Ann Arbor farmers market building. On most days, the market is empty and used primarily for parking.

There’s a lot of action in the local food movement, Notarianni said, and this is an easy way to capitalize on that interest at little cost.

Members of the public market advisory commission had been excited about the proposal, she said. The manager for Kerrytown Market & Shops, a complex of stores adjacent to the public market, had a similar reaction, she said. The shops there often stay open later if there are special events in the area – they might keep longer hours on Wednesdays because of increased traffic from the night market.

Sam Offen asked about the logistics of transitioning between the day and night markets. Notarianni said that although the Wednesday market is open until 3 p.m., in reality about 70% of the vendors leave before then. She didn’t think that many of the daytime vendors would stay for the night market – although they could certainly apply to do so. Since they come to the market at 5 a.m., it would make for a long day, she said.

The public market is part of the parks & rec budget. Colin Smith, the city’s parks & recreation manager, said the additional revenues they expect to generate from stall fees will be reflected in the proposed budget for FY 2011, which PAC will review at their April meeting. Because it will be a change to a well-known, much cared for institution, he said he wanted to bring it to their attention. City staff have received feedback from shoppers that they want to have more options for buying fresh food at the market, and this is an attempt to provide that, he said.

Give 365 Volunteer Program

Gayle LaVictoire, volunteer outreach coordinator for Ann Arbor’s parks system, gave commissioners an update about her efforts since being hired in the newly created job last year.

On March 1, the city launched the Give 365 volunteer program, a new effort to foster a year-round culture of volunteerism for parks, LaVictoire said. They’re publicizing the program in a variety of ways, including posters and brochures at city facilities, through the Ann Arbor parks Facebook page, and by direct outreach to groups like Ann Arbor Rec & Ed and coaches for youth leagues, among others.

Gayle LaVictoire gave a presentation to commissioners about the park system’s new volunteer outreach efforts.

A page on the city’s website – a2gov.org/volunteer – provides more information, she said, and allows people to register online. They’re using the Volgistics database system to handle the logistics. It allows volunteers to sign up for exactly the type of activities they’re interested in, to search for volunteer activities on specific dates or at certain facilities, and to sign up for alerts for more general volunteer opportunities. The system also sends out automated reminders to volunteers prior to the times they’ve signed up for. LaVictoire said she’s a volunteer at the Humane Society of Huron Valley, which also uses the Volgistics database. From a user’s perspective, she said she could report that it’s easy to use.

LaVictoire noted that the last time she talked to PAC, she had outlined four programs she was planning to start. Since then, she’s added several others. They include the Friends of the Field ballfield adoption program; taking photos and writing for the farmer’s market or senior center newsletters; and helping with spring and summer “startups” at the city’s pools and canoe liveries. They’re also recruiting young people between the ages of 13-17 to join a Counselor in Training program at the city’s four day camps, she said. Other volunteer opportunities are listed on the Give 365 website.

LaVictoire noted that she was modeling a T-shirt that they gave to volunteers – she reported that her boss, parks manager Colin Smith, wanted one, but she told him that he’d have to sign up to volunteer first.

David Barrett asked whether the ballfield program could be expanded to soccer fields too. LaVictoire said that in the future, she hoped the program would grow. They’re working with the city’s Adopt-a-Park staff to coordinate those efforts.

Tim Berla wondered whether these volunteer programs could be expanded into the Ann Arbor Public Schools – the city uses some of the school district’s facilities for their programs, and vice versa. LaVictoire said they were starting small but hoped to expand – the possibilities are great, when you nurture a culture of volunteerism. Smith noted that he hoped the schools would partner with the city, but he added that because LaVictoire’s position is funded by millage proceeds, there are certain restrictions about how the money – and her time – can be spent.

Julie Grand asked how the Give 365 volunteer program was different from the Adopt-a-Park program. LaVictoire replied that there’s some overlap, but that her volunteer program focused on parks & recreation facilities and areas adjacent to those facilities – activities like trash pickup, weeding, painting and planting flowers. Adopt-a-Park focused primarily on parkland and open space.

In response to a question from Christopher Taylor, LaVictoire described how Give 365, Adopt-a-Park and the volunteer outreach for the city’s natural area preservation (NAP) coordinate their efforts. The Volgistics database manages all three volunteer programs, but there are categories that volunteers use to indicate their preferences. There are also ways that city staff can “tag” volunteer information to indicate that there might be overlap, she said – those tags aren’t visible to the volunteer, but help staff share information. “Your secret’s safe with us,” Taylor said.

He asked how many volunteers had registered so far, two weeks after the launch. One group and about 10 individuals had signed up, she said, and she’s encouraging existing volunteers to register as well.

Barrett asked what assurances volunteers had that their information wouldn’t be used for other city purposes. LaVictoire said there’s nothing to indicate that the information won’t be used for other things, but that the volunteers have control over what they sign up for. She also noted that if people don’t feel comfortable registering online, they can call city staff and give their information over the phone. The number for the volunteer office is 734-794-6230 ext. 42510.

Millage Update

Ginny Trocchio, a staff member of The Conservation Fund who works under contract with the city to manage the Ann Arbor greenbelt and parks acquisition programs, gave a report on expenses and income related to the open space and parkland preservation millage. The presentation looked at the first six months of the current fiscal year, from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2010. [.pdf file of mid-year financial report for open space and parkland preservation millage]

By way of background, Ann Arbor voters in 2003 passed a 30-year 0.5 mill tax for land acquisition – called the open space and parkland preservation millage. On the summer tax bill, the line item appears as CITY PARK ACQ. Though not stipulated in the legal terms of the millage, the city’s policy has been to allocate one-third of the millage for parks land acquisition and two-thirds for the city’s greenbelt program. PAC oversees parkland acquisitions, while the greenbelt advisory commission makes recommendations for the greenbelt program.

To get money upfront for land acquisition, the city took out a $20 million bond in fiscal year 2006. That bond is being being paid back with revenue from the millage. Debt service on that bond so far in FY 2011 year has amounted to $815,288 – the first of two annual payments.

On Tuesday, Trocchio told commissioners that total gross revenues – including millage proceeds, grants and investment income – are just under $3.5 million. Millage proceeds are $2.175 million this year, down from $2.26 million in FY 2010. Investment income is also down – $88,148 compared to $492,576 the previous year. Trocchio said the year-end investment income number will likely be higher. Federal grants total $1.235 million this year – those are reimbursements for greenbelt purchases, she said.

Christopher Taylor, a city councilmember who also serves as an ex-officio member of PAC, asked Trocchio to explain why investment income is down. She said that the city’s treasurer, Matt Horning, would be able to provide a better explanation, but that part of the reason is that the millage’s fund balance has been spent down, so there’s less money to invest. [Horning had provided a detailed explanation of this issue at the greenbelt advisory commission's November 2010 meeting.]

The greenbelt has spent about $5.7 million on purchases – it’s been a busy year, Trocchio said – while nearly $1 million has been spent on parkland acquisitions. The two major parkland acquisitions were property owned by Elizabeth Kaufman and Wes Vivian, adjacent to South Pond, for $591,006; and a parcel next to Bluffs Nature Area purchased from the Elks for $369,160.

Administrative expenses as of Dec. 31 were $66,358, and included the contract with The Conservation Fund, IT costs, advertising and other items. Trocchio noted that administrative costs are capped by ordinance to be no greater than 6% of revenues. Over the life of the millage, administrative costs are tracking well under that number. Starting in FY 2005, those percentages each year have trended as follows: FY05, 7.6%; FY06, 5.1%; FY07, 2.0%; FY08, 3.8%; FY09, 4.3%; FY10, 3.5%; and so far in FY11, 0.9%.

At year’s end, about $11.7 million remained in the fund balance, Trocchio said. The bond monies have been spent down – what remains are the funds that have accrued from the millage proceeds. After calculating the one-third/two-thirds split between parks and the greenbelt, that leaves a fund balance available for parks acquisitions of $4.36 million.

Sam Offen observed that it’s difficult to know whether these numbers are good or bad, in isolation. Was there a projection that had been done at the start of the millage, against which they could be compared in terms of anticipated revenues and expenses? Trocchio said she didn’t have that information, but that Kelli Martin, financial manager for the city’s community services unit, was working on that kind of projection going forward. They would provide that information to PAC in the future.

Communications: Parks Manager, Commissioners

Colin Smith, the city’s parks & rec manager, had several updates during Tuesday’s meeting, as did a couple of commissioners.

Smith reported that the city council had approved the Parks and Recreation Open Space (PROS) plan at their March 7 meeting – that major project is completed. There are also two parks-related public meetings later this month. A meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 23 from 7-8:30 p.m. to discuss the design of a new play area at Winewood Thaler Park. That meeting will be held at Veterans Memorial Ice Arena (in the lobby) at 2150 Jackson Road. Residents who can’t attend are invited to take an online survey. On Wednesday, March 30 from 7-8:30 p.m., a meeting will be held at the Northside Community Center, 815 Taylor St., to discuss improvements to Beckley Park. An online survey for that project is also available.

Smith said he’d recently met with the construction team for a project to build a bypass around Argo dam. [City council had approved the $1,168,170 bypass at its Nov. 15, 2010 meeting. It will take the place of the current headrace, which is separated from the Huron River by an earthen embankment. The bypass will eliminate the portage currently required by canoeists. It would also allow the city to comply with a consent order it has with the state of Michigan that requires the city to address the repair of toe drains in the embankment.] The city submitted the paperwork required to secure a state permit on March 7, he said, and site plans are being developed. He hoped to have a schedule to share with the commission about the work within the next couple of weeks, adding that it will be a busy summer.

Finally, Smith gave a brief report in response to a previous request from commissioner Tim Berla to look at how the parks budget compares to the overall general fund. The issue had first been raised by Berla at PAC’s Nov. 16, 2010 meeting, but had emerged again at last month’s meeting, when Smith had reported back to PAC about a city council budget work session. From The Chronicle’s report of PAC’s Feb. 15 meeting:

Smith laid out for the commission the main points of the city council work session presentation:

• Ways that parks and recreation would be meeting its roughly 2.5% reduction target. [Energy savings in FY 2012 and increased revenues due to the construction of the Argo Dam bypass channel, in FY 2013]
• A question about whether to continue a $287,000 supplement to the parks and recreation budget, which began in FY 2008 amid controversy over the interpretation of an October 2006 city council resolution about the administration of the parks capital improvements and maintenance millage.
• Options for the future of Huron Hills golf course.

[For detailed coverage of the work session itself, see Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor 2012 Budget: Parks, Plans, People"]

With respect to the $287,000 parks supplement, Tim Berla recalled how the city’s chief financial officer had addressed PAC in 2007 in preparation for the FY 2008 budget planning and had explained how the parks budget does not increase at as high a rate as, for example the police department, which has a greater percentage of its costs due to personnel. He also recalled how part of the explanation for the apparent disparity in parks funding that year, compared to other parts of the budget, was related to the idea that a department can’t count savings for activities that had been discontinued.

In broad strokes, the controversy that resulted in the $287,000 parks supplement involved the language of the October 2006 resolution, which indicated that parks would be treated the same as other parts of the budget with respect to any increases or decreases.

On Tuesday, Smith reported that the parks budget had increased 9.9% between FY 2008 and FY 2009, from $6.67 million to $7.33 million. During the same period, the city’s general fund budget grew 10.7%, from $76.75 million to $84.97 million. The parks budget then decreased 4.6% in FY 2010 and 3.7% in FY 2011. By comparison, the general fund budget was cut by 4.7% and 3.9% in those years, he said.

Smith said the finance staff is tracking those figures – they even make the calculations from the floor on the night that city council approves the budget, he said, in case councilmembers make changes that might affect the percentages. It’s very much in line with the intent of the 2006 resolution, he said.

In commissioner communications, Sam Offen invited PAC members and the public to attend the annual Mayfly fundraiser at the Leslie Science & Nature Center. It will be held on May 21 from 6-8 p.m.

Julie Grand reported that she’d met with city staff and the consultants hired to develop a strategic plan for the Ann Arbor senior center. It was a productive meeting, she said, and they’re moving toward a vision of offering services for seniors beyond the physical building where the center is housed. They’ll share the plan with PAC at a future meeting, she said.

Public Commentary

Only one person spoke during public commentary. A.J. Dudas introduced himself as a volunteer steward for the Olson Dog Park, working with Tina Roselle, coordinator for the city’s Adopt-a-Park program. He said that in the future, he’d return to PAC to present to them some recommendations that residents would like to see at the dog park. He would be a liaison between residents and the commission, he said.

Present: David Barrett, Doug Chapman, Tim Berla, Julie Grand, Karen Levin, Sam Offen, Gwen Nystuen, John Lawter, councilmember Christopher Taylor (ex-officio). Also Colin Smith, city parks manager.

Absent: Tim Doyle, councilmember Mike Anglin (ex-officio)

Next meeting: PAC’s meeting on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 begins at 4 p.m. in the Washtenaw County administration building boardroom, 220 N. Main St. [confirm date]

Before the Feb. 22 council meeting, Sandi Smith (Ward 1) chatted with Dennis Hayes about the medical marijuana licensing ordinance. The council delayed taking action on the ordinance. (Photos by the writer.)

However the council chose to delay some of its business due to the absences of four members – Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2). By way of explanation for the four absences, mayor John Hieftje offered the fact that it’s vacation week for the Ann Arbor Public Schools.

The delayed business included a set of proposed licensing rules for medical marijuana businesses. The council heard from advocates of medical marijuana during public commentary at the start of the meeting, but when they reached the item on their agenda, the seven councilmembers who attended the meeting decided to postpone their vote on the issue without deliberating on or amending the licensing proposal. It marks the fifth time the council has decided not to take an initial vote on the licensing, dating back to Dec. 6, 2010. The council must take two votes on any new ordinance.

Also delayed were two easements – one for pedestrian access and one for public utilities – from Glacier Hills Inc., a retirement community. Under the city charter, eight votes are required for approval of such easements. Rather than have the easements fail on a 7-0 vote, the council chose instead to postpone action.

During his communications, city administrator Roger Fraser gave the council a broad-strokes overview of potential impacts that Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed state budget could have on the city of Ann Arbor. In a roughly $80 million general fund city budget, the $2.4 million projected shortfall – on which current reduction targets are based – could increase by $0.5 million (to $2.9 million) or by $1.7 million (to $4.1 million), depending on how state revenue sharing and state fire protection grants are handled in the state budget. The state’s fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, but the city of Ann Arbor must finalize its own budget in May, for a fiscal year starting July 1.

During public commentary, the council heard a suggestion that Ann Arbor follow the example of Ypsilanti and add parking lots to its snow-clearing ordinance. And during its communications time, the council scrutinized the city’s snow removal performance in connection with a recent storm. Snow began falling the previous Sunday afternoon, accumulating to at least six inches – and more, in many areas – by early Monday morning, when the snow stopped. Highlights from city administrator Roger Fraser’s report on the snow removal effort included the fact that two of the city’s 14 large plowing vehicles were down for maintenance and the fact that forecasted amounts of snow were much lower than what actually fell.

During public commentary, the city also heard from Douglas Smith regarding a Freedom of Information Act appeal that involved redaction of police reports. Over the last several months, Smith has addressed the University of Michigan regents and the Washtenaw County board of commissioners on a range of specific cases that all relate to the general issue of civilian oversight of police power.

Medical Marijuana Licensing

Before the council again was consideration of a set of licensing requirements for medical marijuana businesses. The council has now delayed its initial vote on the licensing requirements at five meetings, dating back to Dec. 6, 2010. The most recent postponement is until March 7, 2011, the council’s next meeting.

The vote that was again postponed is the first of two votes the council must take on any new ordinance it enacts. At its meetings over the last few months, the council has heard extensive public commentary on medical marijuana, but that commentary does not constitute a formal public hearing, which will be held at the same meeting when the council votes on final approval of the licensing, provided it eventually gives initial approval to the licensing system.

At its Oct. 18, 2010 meeting, the council gave its initial approval to a set of zoning regulations for medical marijuana businesses, but it has not yet given its final approval to those regulations. The council’s strategy is to bring licensing and zoning forward at the same time for a final vote.

The context for development of zoning regulations was set at the council’s Aug. 5, 2010 meeting, when councilmembers voted to impose a moratorium on the use of property in the city for medical marijuana dispensaries or cultivation facilities, and directed the city’s planning commission to develop zoning regulations for medical marijuana businesses. Subsequently, the city attorney’s office also began working on a licensing system.

At its Jan. 3, 2011 meeting, the council heavily amended the licensing proposal. At its Jan. 18 meeting, the council was poised to undertake further amendments to the licensing proposal, including many that concerned limiting the amount of information that is required to be divulged by those associated with license applications. However, the council did not amend the proposal further at that meeting. The council undertook additional amendments to the licensing proposal at its Feb. 7, 2011 meeting.

The moratorium on additional properties in the city to be used as medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities was extended by the council at its Jan. 18 meeting to go through March 31, 2011.

Medical Marijuana: Public Commentary

Dennis Hayes, who has addressed the council on the topic of medical marijuana at several previous meetings, told councilmembers that every time he comes back to speak to them, he finds they have more and more in common. He said that as they worked through the ordinance, they are discovering that they have common interests – a common concern for patients. He told the council he’d be sharing with them a possible solution to confidentiality problems associated with labels. He asked the council to consider greater flexibility in the number of licenses granted, so they would not be assigned a false sense of economic value. He also called for protections for property owners who lease to medical marijuana businesses.

Chuck Ream – who addressed the council over a year ago on the subject of medical marijuana, and who has spoken during public commentary several times since then – thanked the council for the progress that’s been made so far on the issue. He said the current draft language on lists of suppliers is problematic: “A cultivation facility or dispensary shall keep records of the persons from whom they received marijuana in any form, and shall make the records available to the City for review upon request.” The objective, Ream said, is that the marijuana dispensed in Michigan come from the Michigan program and to make the origin of the product traceable. While those are good goals, he said, the chance of patients’ and caregivers’ names winding up on permanent lists needs to be minimized.

One approach, Ream said, would be to require that product dispensed at a dispensary come from members of the dispensary. A dispensary should be able to demonstrate compliance with that requirement, he said. Any records, however, should only be maintained for 30 days. He also called for an appeals procedure, and for the possibility of selling a businesses with an accompanying license.

Medical Marijuana: Council Deliberations

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) opened deliberations by noted that with only seven members present, and a requirement that the council have six votes to pass anything, she suggested that the ordinance be postponed until the council’s next meeting, on March 7.

Outcome: Councilmembers voted unanimously to postpone the medical marijuana licensing ordinance until its next meeting on March 7, 2011.

Glacier Hills Easements

On the council’s agenda were two easements for the Glacier Hills retirement and nursing facility. One involves pedestrian access and the other is for public utilities. By city charter, the council needs an 8-vote majority to approve the easements. With only seven members present, the council decided to postpone their vote.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to delay voting on the Glacier Hills easements.

Golf Task Force, Golf Fees

The council’s agenda included two golf-related items: (1) an increase in certain fees for the two city courses, Huron Hills and Leslie Park; and (2) the reappointment of the golf courses advisory task force.

Golf: Public Comment

Addressing the city council in support of the fee increase was Paul Bancel. He suggested bringing the decision back for review at the mid-year point. He told the council that he’d served on the city’s golf courses advisory task for the first two years of its existence. He thanked the council for adopting a 5-year plan for addressing the golf course finances, and observed that the golf courses yield more net cash than any other activity in the city’s parks and recreation program. He referenced the Jan. 31, 2011 memo written by community services area administrator Sumedh Bahl, which put the fixed overhead at Huron Hills at $269,000 per year. Against that, Bancel said, the council should consider the $350,000 of cash per year that the course brings in. Golf is the best use of the land at Huron Hills, Bancel said.

Bancel went on to suggest that the golf courses advisory task force should be a commission – that would ensure that it would have minutes, a formal chair, and include public comment. He forecast that in three years, the courses would have no debt. He suggested keeping the courses simple and profitable.

Golf: Task Force

On the council’s agenda was the renewal of the mandate of the city’s golf courses advisory task force, first appointed in 2008. Its members are: Stephen Rapundalo (city council); Julie Grand (park advisory commission); Bill Newcomb and Ed Walsh (citizens with demonstrated golf operations expertise); Thomas Allen (Ann Arbor citizen with group golf play experience); Barbara Jo Smith (Ann Arbor golf courses patron); and John Stetz (citizen and member of a neighborhood association adjoining a golf course). The task force is chaired by Rapundalo.

The council’s deliberations consisted of Mike Anglin (Ward 5) expressing his support for the work of the task force and thanking them for their work so far.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to reappoint the city’s golf courses advisory task force.

Golf: Fees

The council also considered a proposal to authorize a fee increase at the city’s golf courses.

Power golf cart rentals for 9 holes at Leslie Park and Huron Hills will increase from $7 to $8; for 18 holes, the rental fee would increase from $13 to $14. City staff estimate the increases would generate $25,000 in additional revenue per season. Weekend fees for 9 and 18 holes at Leslie Park golf course will increase by $2 and $1, respectively, and the twilight fee would increase to $16, up from $15. These increases would generate an estimated additional $12,500 in revenue per season. In addition, the council approved raising the senior citizen qualification age to 59 for the 2011 season. That’s part of a consultant’s proposal to incrementally increase the qualification age from 55 to 62 by adding one year to the minimum age annually.

The actions came to the council in advance of the regular budget, so that the rates can be in place for the opening of the courses in the spring. The new rates had previously been recommended for approval by the city’s park advisory commission at its Feb. 15 meeting.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve the increased golf fees.

Avalon Housing’s 1500 Pauline Project

Before the council was the approval of the site plan for an Avalon Housing project at 1500 Pauline Blvd. that would construct 32 dwelling units and 39 surface parking spaces. The plan includes demolition of four existing apartment buildings – known as the Parkhurst Apartment complex – containing 48 units. The new construction would include six new buildings totaling 53,185 square feet. Five of the buildings would include one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and three-bedroom townhomes. The sixth building would be a community center with a playground.

Estimated cost of the project is $8 million. That cost includes an upfront developer’s fee of 15% – typical for nonprofit projects like this – as well as costs associated with relocating current residents and paying for their housing at an alternative site for up to five years, as mandated by federal law under the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act.

Avalon expects to fund the project through a combination of sources, including Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HOME program subsidy (HUD funds allocated through the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and the Washtenaw Urban County), the Federal Home Loan Bank, and private loan funds.

The proposal complies with the site’s R4B zoning. The city’s planning commission approved the site plan at its Jan. 20, 2011 meeting on a 7-0 vote.

1500 Pauline: Public Hearing

Addressing the council during the public hearing on 1500 Pauline was Lily Au. Au also has spoken about the project at a public hearing on the annual plan of the Urban County, at the Urban County’s Jan. 25 meeting – the council did not have an action item on its agenda for the Urban County plan. She criticized as too high the overhead costs for nonprofit agencies as well as the costs associated with building affordable housing. She called for removing nonprofits from between funding sources and the target homeless population.

Au criticized the 1500 Pauline project for reducing the number of units from 47 to 32. She said that the $8 million project would result in a 10-15% developer’s fee. “We need to say no,” she said.

Speaking basically in support of the project was Levi Murphy, a current resident at Parkhurst. He said he’d attended all the meetings and that he supported the demolition of the buildings – they weren’t structurally sound, he said. He did, however, object to the decrease in the number of 1-bedroom units from 21 to 6.

Associate director of Avalon Housing, Michael Appel, reviewed for the council how Avalon had become involved in the property in early 2009, when they’d merged with Washtenaw Affordable Housing Corp. (WAHC) – 1500 Pauline had been a WAHC property, he said. It was clear that the property was suffering from deferred maintenance and high vacancy rates, he said. After representatives from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) had walked through the property, he said that MSHDA decided they were not willing to invest in the existing buildings. That conclusion was confirmed, Appel said, by Avalon’s own architects and engineers.

Responding to complaints about the reduction in density, Appel explained that the 32 units is the maximum allowed by current zoning. The proposal had been supported by the city’s Housing and Human Services Advisory Board, he said. To address the smaller number of 1-bedroom units, Avalon will try to make available other 1-bedroom units that it manages in the city.

Wendy Carty-Saxon, Avalon Housing’s director of housing development, described the new site plan as better than the current one, because it opens it to the surrounding neighborhood instead of turning it away physically from the community, as the current one does. The site and the units themselves would be completely accessible, she said. Some of the units would be townhomes and would integrate green design. Of the 32 units, 16 would be supported by project-based vouchers and 16 would be targeted for the 30% annual median income (AMI) level. The timeline includes demolition by the end of this year, she said, with new construction completed by the end of 2012.

Carole McCabe, Avalon Housing’s executive director, told the council that the whole process of merging with WHAC had been difficult and had taken longer than expected. For the 1500 Pauline property, they’d taken two years to look at every other option. She thanked the city’s planning staff for their help and invited councilmembers to go on a tour of Avalon properties in the city.

1500 Pauline: Council Deliberations

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) said he was aware of the current site’s problematic design and the condition of the property from his work as a volunteer with Meals on Wheels, delivering meals to people who live there. With respect to the site’s relative location in the city, Anglin said it is ideally situated, in close proximity to a variety of amenities on West Stadium Boulevard.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) asked for some clarification of the developer’s fee. He also wanted to know how long the units would remain affordable. Appel told Kunselman that the developer’s fee of 15% would be paid whether the property was rehabbed or new construction were built – it’s part of the rule set they work with. About the term of affordability, Appel said the tax credits they hope to use to fund the project would entail at least a 15-year affordability period, and the agreements with MSHDA require a 45-year period of affordability.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve the 1500 Pauline site plan.

Hutton Appointed to Environmental Commission

Before the council was the confirmation of Susan Hutton’s nomination, made at the previous council meeting, to fill the vacancy on the city’s environmental commission (EC) left by Steve Bean – who chose not to continue his service on the EC. Bean had served on the EC since it was created in 2000.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who serves as one of two council representatives to the commission – the other is Margie Teall (Ward 4) – had announced at the council’s previous meeting that he was nominating Hutton to fill Bean’s spot. Hutton is development director at Leslie Science and Nature Center. At that meeting, Hohnke had also announced that there would be another vacancy soon on the EC and that the council was actively soliciting applicants. [Anya Dale's term on the EC ended on Feb. 20, 2011.]

Whereas most nominations to boards and commissions are made by the mayor, then confirmed by the city council, nominations for positions on the EC are made by the city council.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to approve Hutton’s appointment to the city’s environmental commission.

Police Cars

The council was being asked to approve the purchase of five police cars – Crown Victoria Police Interceptors – for $20,730 each, a total of $103,650. The purchase was made from the low bidder, Signature Ford in Owosso, Mich. The city of Ann Arbor selected from among the bids made under the cooperative bidding programs of the State of Michigan, Macomb County and Oakland County in an effort to leverage higher volume into lower cost. In this case, the lowest bid came through Macomb County’s program.

The city’s fleet services does not generally use the age of a vehicle as an absolute metric to determine replacement. Instead, each vehicle is evaluated based on the vehicle’s age, miles/hours of use, type of service, reliability, maintenance and repair cost, and general condition. Hours of use is considered an important metric, because much of the mileage a city vehicle sees is city driving, which causes more wear and tear on vehicles.

However, the vehicles being replaced with the purchase of the five patrol cars are not evaluated with the same process as other vehicles in the city’s fleet. Police union contracts require that vehicles used by their members not exceed 80,000 miles or 6 years, whichever comes first. The five vehicles to be replaced will exceed the contractual criteria in the next year.

At the council’s meeting, mayor John Hieftje invited city administrator Roger Fraser to comment by observing that he thought the city was getting a really good price on the vehicles. Fraser noted that the price of the vehicles does not include all the various piece of police equipment –  to outfit the new cars, the department would be recycling much of the old equipment from the vehicles to be replaced. Fraser said that these were likely the last Crown Victorias the city would be purchasing – Ford is ending production. The city might decide not to buy all five Crown Victorias, and instead purchase a new model that Chevrolet is making available in late summer or early fall, Fraser said.

Margie Teall (Ward 4) wanted to know if the Chevy model would have mileage as good or better than the Crown Victorias – she was told the Chevy would have better mileage.

Outcome: The council voted unanimously to authorize purchase of five new police cars.

Communications and Comment

There are multiple slots on every agenda for city councilmembers and the city administrator to give updates or make announcements about important issues that are coming before the city council. And every meeting typically includes public commentary on subjects not necessarily on the agenda.

Comm/Comm: State Budget – Shared Revenue, Fire Grants

City administrator Roger Fraser gave the council an update on how the city might be affected by Gov. Rick Snyder’s recently proposed state budget. The main impact, he said would come from state revenue sharing.

He reminded the council of the history of state revenue sharing. Four decades ago, the state legislature had relieved local units of government of the authority to levy any taxes except for property taxes and income taxes. But they’d recognized that this hampered local governments’ ability to generate revenue. So to balance that out, they’d introduced a constitutional provision to ensure that the state shared a portion of the state sales tax revenue with local governments. This is the so-called “constitutional” part of state shared revenue.

Shortly after that, Fraser said, the state realized that they were collecting more money through the sales tax than was needed to run the state, so they enacted an additional statute that provided a mechanism to give back additional money to local units. This is the so-called “statutory” part of state shared revenue. The statutory portion of state shared revenue is discretionary, year to year, but the constitutional part depends purely on the amount of total sales taxes collected.

Fraser said that last year, the city of Ann Arbor received roughly $1.9 million in statutory state shared revenue. Its constitutional portion was roughly $7.3 million. [The city website's budget page includes a chart of the history of state shared revenue payments to Ann Arbor. The roughly $9.2 million in state shared revenue made up about 11.5% of the city's general fund budget last year.] Snyder’s budget proposal, said Fraser, reduces the statutory portion by 1/3 – replacing the roughly $300 million statutory portion allocated last year with a $200 million pool that would be distributed to local units on a competitive basis – depending on how innovative and collaborative local units have been.

Fraser said he felt that Ann Arbor is “ahead of the curve” with respect to how well the city would compete for those funds. But the city’s CFO, Tom Crawford, is now assuming a 1/3 cut, or around $600,000 less than the city had previously forecasted for the statutory state shared revenue. [Up until Snyder's announcement of his proposed budget, the city had assumed stable levels of state shared revenue.] Against that cut, Fraser said, the constitutional portion looks like it will be about 4% greater than last year – because of greater sales tax revenue statewide – which for Ann Arbor translates to an additional $300,000.

Less conspicuous than other proposed cuts by Snyder, Fraser said, was a proposal to eliminate reduce the program by which the state funds fire protection for public institutions. [Because public institutions – like the University of Michigan, for example – do not pay property taxes, yet still require fire protections from the local units where they're located, the state makes grants to those local units to cover those costs. The amount of the grant is an ongoing point of controversy for local Ann Arbor officials, because they contend that the grant does not cover the true cost of fire protection for the university.] For Ann Arbor, eliminating reducing the fire protection grant would mean a loss of an additional $165,000 per year. [Clarification: The governor's proposal is to reduce the fire protection grant program by 15%, not eliminate it, and when applied to the roughly $1.1 million received by the city annually under the program, gives Fraser's figure.]

Putting the two kinds of state revenue sharing together and adding in the fire protection grant, Fraser concluded that the net loss for Ann Arbor’s budget would be between $500,000 and $1.7 million – or 0.6% to 2.2% of the city’s general fund budget.

Comm/Comm: Snow Removal – Public Comment, Council Discussion

Jonathan Shaheen spoke to the council about snow removal, specifically in parking lots. He noted that the city has an ordinance requiring that property owners clear snow from sidewalks adjoining their property. The Ann Arbor city ordinance reads in relevant part:

All snow and ice which has accumulated prior to 6:00 a.m. on a public sidewalk adjacent to property not zoned residentially shall be removed by the owner or occupant by noon.

Shaheen noted that there is no similar rule for parking lots. He related to the council how he lives near the University of Michigan campus and pays $75 per month for a spot in a parking lot. He said the lot had been plowed three or four times this winter, but it has snowed more frequently than that. He described how his car had become stuck on Sunday evening trying to make his way to his parking spot. The city of Ypsilanti, he said, has an ordinance that applies to parking lots. In relevant part, the city of Ypsilanti’s ordinance reads:

The owner or manager of any parking lot shall remove all snow from the parking lot within 24 hours from the first accumulation of such snow.

Shaheen suggested that the city of Ann Arbor adopt a similar ordinance. Shaheen described how it’s possible to call the management company to complain, but when it comes to student housing, the tendency is for them to pass the buck. Sometimes you can get results by threatening to pro-rate rent or by calling student legal services, but that should not be the way that this kind of thing is handled, he said. He said that he and his wife, who works in Detroit, could live somewhere else, but they prefer to live in Ann Arbor. The situation with snow in parking lots, however, is a real disincentive to live in Ann Arbor, he concluded.

During communications time, Mike Anglin (Ward 5) took the occasion to acknowledge that they’d heard many complaints about the quality of the snow removal in the city. By way of background, the quality of snow removal in the city is a common topic for newspaper columnists as well as city councilmembers. At the December 2009 budget retreat, Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) broached the subject with public services area administrator Sue McCormick. The Chronicle reported the exchange this way:

Rapundalo, citing his northern Ontario roots, described snow removal in Ann Arbor as “abysmal.” McCormick countered with her own bio, growing up in the Upper Peninsula, and explained that small pickup trucks were not used to plow snow on city streets, because they would be subjected to mechanical stress they’re not designed for. She suggested that in approaching field operations staff, who manage snow removal, a useful approach for Rapundalo would be to query: “Why do I observe this?”

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Anglin noted that more snow had fallen than was forecast. Yet he’d had a guest at his bed and breakfast who’d driven in from Rochester, New York and was surprised at the poor progress of snow removal by Monday morning. The city needs to do a better job, Anglin said. He also criticized the way that city plow trucks block driveways with huge amounts of snow. He said he’d gone out and helped one resident shovel their driveway clear. He concluded that the city needed to respond better to these type of events. [Resident complaints also have included snow that gets plowed onto already cleared sidewalks.]

City administrator Roger Fraser responded to the issue by saying that he’d asked city staff to prepare a more detailed report on snow removal activity during and after the storm. He acknowledged that everybody scrutinizes the city’s snow removal performance – it’s visible to everyone. He assured the council that the city is doing the best it can with the equipment it has. The city has 14 large plowing vehicles, he said, but two of them were down for repairs. The city has additional vehicles equipped with plows, he explained, but they are used for cleanup after the heavier plow vehicles have gone through. The lighter vehicles cannot push the same volume and weight of snow as the heavier vehicles – something that was particularly relevant for the recent storm, because the snow was unusually wet and heavy.

Fraser went on to describe how pre-treatment of the streets with salt/sand mix had begun at 10 a.m. on Sunday. The city’s preparations had been based on predictions of 1-2 inches of snow followed by freezing rain, he said. In the early afternoon, the forecast changed. The snow didn’t stop until 5:22 a.m. on Monday morning. The city had completed two passes of plowing of the main streets by Monday morning, he said. When the plow trucks began heading into the residential neighborhoods, they discovered within the first five hours of plowing that the ridge left by the plows was going to trap vehicles on the street. So they extended the city’s goal of completing residential plowing within 24 hours of the snow stopping. By 5 p.m. Tuesday, he said, the plowing was complete, with the exception of the city’s cul-de-sacs.

Fraser said in the course of the plowing, city crews had helped more than 100 cars that were stuck. He characterized the city’s approach to preparations for snow in the context of the likelihood of such storms, which he put at less than 3%. Given that less than 3% of snowstorms are like the one the city just experienced, Fraser said, the city does not plan for these events – because they are rare. [By "plan for," Fraser appeared to mean budgeting and making capital investments in plowing equipment.] There are certain places around town that are trouble spots that have been recognized since the 1970s, said Fraser – Glen and Huron, for example. Fraser also noted that a water main break had hampered efforts during the recent storm.

Given that cars parked on the street hampered snow removal efforts, Sandi Smith (Ward 1) asked about declaring a snow emergency – what were the protocols? By way of background, the city’s code provides for a way to restrict parking on the street as follows:

Prohibited parking for snow removal.

(a) Whenever the City Administrator finds, on the basis of snow, sleet, freezing rain, or on the basis of a weather forecast, that weather conditions make it necessary to restrict parking to allow removal of existing or forecasted snow, the Administrator may declare a snow emergency and put in effect an odd/even parking prohibition on some or all city streets by providing notice of the prohibition in the manner prescribed by this section.

(b) When an odd/even parking prohibition is in effect, no person shall park a vehicle or permit a vehicle owned by him or her to remain parked on the following described portions of any street; provided, however, that the parking prohibition of this subsection does not apply during the hours of 8:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight, so that vehicles can be positioned to comply with the next day’s prohibition.

(i) On days having uneven dates, vehicles are prohibited from parking on the side of the street having even street addresses.

(ii) On days having even dates, vehicles are prohibited from parking on the side of the street having uneven street addresses.

Mayor John Hieftje, in subsequent comments, responded to Smith by saying that based on past experience, declaring a snow emergency would entail ticketing hundreds of vehicles, which doesn’t go over well, because many residents don’t have other options for places to park.

By way of background, on at least one occasion, the city council wound up waiving or reducing fines for tickets handed out during a snow emergency, due to complaints from the community. Related to the snow emergency declared on Dec. 25-26, 2002, the council voted on Jan. 6, 2003 to waive or reduce fines for tickets issued. Margie Teall (Ward 4) did not participate in the 2003 vote – apparently someone in her household had received a ticket.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Fraser observed that television and radio stations he listened to had been advising people not to go out unless they had to. Fraser responded to a suggestion from Anglin that the city engage private contractors on an as-needed basis when there’s a major storm. Fraser suggested that private contractors were typically already engaged – they were at capacity. It would be hard to get a guarantee from a private contractor for service, he cautioned.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) said she understood the limits of the equipment and the personnel. But she asked why the city of Ann Arbor snow plowing update page was not updated more frequently. Fraser responded by saying that it is a recurring problem of adequate staffing to update that page. A partial response to that issue, he reminded the council, was their authorization of funds last year for a pilot system to track snow plow vehicles with GPS units and sensors, which would provide a dynamic map of plowing activity.

Fraser said that the sensors for indicating whether a plow blade was flipped to its engaged position and for monitoring the salt/sand spreaders had not yet arrived from the supplier – but that GPS units were currently being installed on some snow plowing trucks.

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) reminded everyone that the people who were out driving the plowing vehicles had worked really hard – they deserved a lot of credit, he said.

Anglin asked about cross training of staff so that more people could use the equipment. Fraser indicated that in 2004-05, the city had done an assessment of its vehicle fleet. They had equipped all vehicles capable of plowing snow with a blade and provided training for the operators of those vehicles for plowing snow. At the time, that had resulted in a doubling of the number of vehicles that are able to plow, Fraser said. The city has kept the same strategy.

The basic message Fraser delivered to councilmembers was that the city staff was maximizing their use of resources based on the policy direction the council had set historically. That policy is essentially that the city will not pursue acquisition of snow removal equipment that might well be more effective than the current fleet, but that could also wind up never rolling out of the garage for an entire winter. The council could choose to revisit that policy, he said.

Comm/Comm: City Hall “Water Event”

City administrator Roger Fraser reported on a “water event” in city hall, which is getting some renovations in connection with the adjoining new municipal center. He described how the heat had been shut off in the east end of a property storage room, on the side closest to Huron Street. The lack of heat had resulted in a water valve freezing, which was attached to a 4-inch pipe. Much of the water simply drained across the garage floor to a proper drain. But there was also a 6-inch open pipe in the floor that led to the basement, where it was also open on the other end. That had led to water flowing into the basement below. It was the “worst of serendipity,” said Fraser. He did not repeat the quip he’d made towards the conclusion of the council’s last budget work session, comparing the city hall renovations to the movie “The Money Pit.”

As far as damage from the water, Fraser said that some flooring had been laid with glue that had not yet set, so that would need to be replaced. There are a number of new walls that have been constructed, which appear to be okay, he said. The delay would put them about a month behind. The contractor’s insurance will pay for the additional costs, he said.

Comm/Comm: Civilian Oversight of Police Power

Douglas Smith addressed the council on the topic of two cases involving alleged sexual assault by University of Michigan athletes. By way of background, in the last several months, Smith has addressed the UM regents and the Washtenaw County board of commissioners about a range of specific cases. Before the council meeting, Smith explained to The Chronicle that the common theme tying these cases together is the importance of civilian oversight of police power.

Smith told the council that he was appealing the denial of a Freedom of Information Act request he’d made concerning allegations of sexual assault against two University of Michigan athletes: Brendan Gibbons, a football player, and Jordan Dumars, a basketball player. Smith noted that the police reports produced in response to the FOIA request were heavily redacted. All names of suspects and witnesses were redacted, he said, which made it difficult to assess which witness was saying something about what suspect. Extensive redaction also obscured the elements of the alleged crimes.

One page of a redacted police report provided to Douglas Smith in response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.

Smith continued by saying that he was interested in how the university and the prosecutor handled the investigations. Smith said the report showed that Dumars was asked how he learned he was under investigation, and Dumars explained that a university official had told him. Smith said that if the university official had informed Dumars based on communication between police departments, then a revelation to the suspect that he was being investigated may well have been improper.

Smith added that in the Gibbons case, the victim was pressured not to press charges – a university department of public safety report includes a description of a different football player saying, “if she does [press charges], I am going to rape her, because he didn’t.”

The name of the football player who made the threat is redacted from the report, Smith said. He wondered why the city attorney’s office would protect the identity of someone who would threaten to rape someone. Smith said that an unredacted version of the Gibbons report was released to AnnArbor.com about a year ago, which Smith contended shows that the city attorney’s redactions are “arbitrary and capricious.”

Present: Mike Anglin, Margie Teall, Sabra Briere, Sandi Smith, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Kunselman, John Hieftje.

Absent: Stephen Rapundalo, Christopher Taylor, Carsten Hohnke, Marcia Higgins.

Next council meeting: Monday, March 7, 2011 at 7 p.m. in the Washtenaw County administration building, 220 N. Main St. [confirm date]

Sam Offen of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission hands off his ballot to Christopher Taylor, the Ward 3 councilmember who's an ex-officio representative on PAC. Per its bylaws, the commission elected officers by secret ballot, though only one person was nominated for each position. (They seemed to appreciate the irony.) Offen was re-elected chair of PAC's budget committee. (Photos by the writer.)

A financial report for the most recent fiscal year, which ended June 30, included news that Ann Arbor’s two golf courses performed better than expected – though one commissioner calculated that the city still paid a $10 subsidy for each round of golf played during the year.

Later in the meeting, Colin Smith – the city’s park and recreation manager – reported that an RFP for the Huron Hills Golf Course has been issued, with a pre-bid meeting to be held on Monday, Sept. 27. Several members of the public turned up at last month’s PAC meeting to argue against the RFP, which is soliciting ideas for a possible private/public partnership at the course. No one spoke during public commentary on Tuesday.

Another RFP – this one for reconstruction of the Argo Dam headrace – has yielded two responses that are being reviewed. A recommendation will likely be brought to PAC next month, Smith reported. If approved, it would change the shape of the embankment.

And an RFP for the Ann Arbor Senior Center has nearly reached the end of the selection process. On Tuesday, commissioners unanimously voted to recommend hiring Hooker/De Jong, a Muskegon consulting firm, to develop a strategic plan for the center, at a cost of $34,570. It now goes to the city council for approval.

A council directive issued last year – asking PAC to prioritize 30 recommendations made in the Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan (HRIMP) – was raised during Tuesday’s meeting by Julie Grand, the commission’s chair. She noted that the year-end deadline for completing this task was fast approaching, and they needed to carve out some time to address it. Commissioner Tim Berla said he’d like to see the council form a river stewardship committee – that’s one of the HRIMP recommendations.

The commission also heard a report from David Barrett, a PAC member who’s been assessing the conditions of the city’s ball fields. “With a few exceptions, most are in need of help,” he told his PAC colleagues.

Financial Reports: Open Space Millage, Fiscal Year Update

Commissioners heard two financial reports during Tuesday’s meeting, for 1) the open space and parkland preservation millage, and 2) the city’s overall parks and recreation budget. Both reports covered 2010 fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010.

FY2010: Open Space and Parkland Preservation Millage

Ginny Trocchio of The Conservation Fund gave a presentation on financial statements for the open space and parkland preservation millage for the fiscal year. Trocchio serves as support staff for the millage-funded greenbelt and park acquisition programs. [A similar presentation was made at the greenbelt advisory commission's Sept. 8 meeting.]

Revenues coming from the 30-year millage, which Ann Arbor voters passed in 2003, were slightly higher in FY 2010 – $2.262 million, compared to $2.232 million in FY 2009. Two-thirds of the millage proceeds fund the greenbelt program, with the remaining third – $793,000 in FY 2010 – allotted to parks.

In FY 2006, the city took out a $20 million bond that’s being paid back with revenue from the millage. The fund balance from the bond stands at $15.427 million, down from $17.1 million in FY 2009. Millage revenue exceeds the amount needed to make debt service payments on the bond – the surplus is accruing in a separate account. Of the $15.427 million fund balance, $12.475 million is the accrual of funds from the millage and $2.952 million is the remainder of the bond monies.

The $15.427 million fund balance is divided between parks and the greenbelt in the same one-third/two-thirds allocation. The fund balance available for parks is $4.77 million.

On the expense side, during FY10 $281,020 in millage funds were spent on park projects. The city bought the Patrician Homes property at the southwest corner of Miller and Chapin, adjacent to West Park. A house on the property will be torn down, with the intent of giving West Park greater visibility and access from that side. Later in the meeting, Smith said that the city would soon be soliciting bids to demolish the house, which he expects to happen later this year.

In addition, Dr. Lev Linkner donated land along Huron Parkway, between Packard and Washtenaw, that connects Redbud Nature Area and Scheffler Park. The parcel is roughly a third of an acre, and crosses Malletts Creek.

After Trocchio’s presentation, PAC chair Julie Grand told Trocchio that she shouldn’t be offended that there weren’t questions – it reflected the clarity of her report, Grand said.

FY 2010: Parks and Recreation General Fund

Colin Smith, manager of parks and recreation, gave an update on year-end finances for FY 2010, which ended June 30. He began by saying that the recreation managers did a great job of managing revenues and expenses for the year. [.pdf file of financial summary spreadsheet] The report did not show comparative data to previous years.

Smith first reviewed 12 parks and recreation line items in the general fund budget. Only three areas had been budgeted to show a surplus, and they achieved that result: Veteran’s fitness center ($3,059), Argo livery ($19,376) and Gallup livery ($59,779). The Argo livery surplus was lower than budgeted by $36,620, while Gallup’s surplus was $42,566 higher than budgeted – Smith attributed that to a staff allocation issue, with more time than anticipated spent on Argo by facility supervisor Cheryl Saam, and less of her time spent on Gallup than had been budgeted.

Revenues were higher than budgeted in four of the 12 line items. Facility rental revenues were up nearly 13% compared to budget, because of an increased interest in renting Cobblestone Park, the farmers market and other facilities, Smith said. Also outperforming the budget was the Ann Arbor Senior Center, which brought in $65,767 in revenues – about $10,000 more than expected. Revenues at Veteran’s Pool and for the administration line item – which includes revenues from leasing parking lots to the University of Michigan – were up slightly more than expected too.

Revenues were down significantly at Buhr Rink, Smith noted, because the facility didn’t open until January due to renovations there. The rink brought in $76,491 in revenues, 39% less than what was expected. However, expenses of $106,151 were also lower – 37% less than budgeted.

Overall, parks and recreation general fund line items brought in $2.109 million in revenue, with total expenses of $3.288 million – for a loss of $1.179 million during the 12-month period.

FY 2010: Parks and Recreation Enterprise Funds

The two enterprise funds for parks and recreation – the farmers market and golf – were reported  separately. Enterprise funds are operations that are expected to be self-sustaining. The farmers market brought in $161,262 in revenues, with $155,993 in expenses for the year – resulting in a $5,269 surplus.

Colin Smith, manager of Ann Arbor parks and recreation.

The golf enterprise fund includes operations at Huron Hills and Leslie Park golf courses. In total, the fund reported revenues of $1.122 million for the year, with $1.645 million in expenses – for a $523,529 total loss. Huron Hills revenue of $304,541 was 19% higher than expected, while expenses were lower than budgeted by nearly 8%.

At Leslie Park, revenue of $817,638 was 1.5% higher than budgeted. Expenses of $1.067 million were on par with budget.

Commissioner Tim Berla asked how many rounds of golf were played last year, and was told about 30,000 rounds at Leslie and 20,000 rounds at Huron Hills. Berla then calculated, based on the roughly $500,000 loss, that the city is paying about a $10 subsidy for each round of golf. He noted that this was his perspective and that others look at it differently, but he found it troubling. It seems out of balance to subsidize something that only a small percentage of residents use, he said. It might be the case that more people play soccer, Berla said, but the city pays perhaps 10 times as much for its golf courses than it does for its soccer fields. “I just wanted to note that, that’s all.”

Smith pointed out that the subsidy came from the general fund, not out of the parks and recreation budget – though he conceded that if the city council decided to change the accounting for golf, it would significantly impact the parks and recreation budget. But regardless on your perspective about a subsidy to golf, Smith said, both courses as budgeted were doing a fantastic job in an overall market that saw declining revenues and rounds played statewide.

Berla asked Smith to remind them of where the courses stood in terms of the long-range plan that had been laid out by a consultant hired to assess the city’s golf operations. FY 2010 was the second year in a six-year forecast, Smith said. For that year, the forecast had anticipated a $519,000 loss for the courses. So they’re on track with the forecast, he said, adding that the courses were never expected to eliminate their losses completely over that six-year period.

Gwen Nystuen recalled that PAC had recommended Huron Hills not be an enterprise fund. Smith confirmed that of the two courses, Leslie was more likely to be self-sustaining. Nystuen pointed out that the rest of the parks weren’t self-sustaining, and the city is willing to subsidize them. Do they calculate how much it costs someone to walk across a park? she asked. The city shouldn’t put something into an enterprise fund if the operation can’t support itself. Smith replied that the golf courses “will be part of very robust discussions come budget time.”

PAC chair Julie Grand, who serves on the city’s golf advisory task force, noted that the strategy right now for Huron Hills is to make rounds affordable so that they can draw in seniors and youth, by making play more accessible. And David Barrett pointed out that Leslie now has a liquor license – he asked if revenues from alcohol sales were “baked into” the total revenues for Leslie. Smith replied that total revenues did include alcohol sales, which were about $40,000 out of $79,000 in concession sales at Leslie during the year. Barrett asked if the liquor license had been a plus for Leslie, and Smith said that it was, especially for bringing in more leagues, outings and traveling golf groups.

As an overall comment about the budget report, Sam Offen – who chairs PAC’s budget committee – complimented Smith and the parks staff. Not only did they do a good job in sticking to their budget, he said, but they also produced a report that could actually be understood, “which wasn’t the case five or six years ago.”

Consultant for Senior Center Strategic Plan

During the previous budget cycle, the city administrator initially proposed closing the Ann Arbor Senior Center, which operates out of a building in Burns Park. It was part of a broader effort to cut expenses from the budget – at the time, the center’s operating deficit was about $150,000.

But the community rallied, and the city formed a task force to identify ways to raise revenues and cut costs. Among a raft of recommendations made – which ultimately convinced the city council to keep the senior center open – was the suggestion to develop a long-term strategic plan. The city received a $16,949 grant from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to help pay for a consultant to develop the plan, and earlier this year a request for proposals (RFP) was issued to solicit proposals. [For an update on other recommendations, see Chronicle coverage: "Shoring Up the Ann Arbor Senior Center"]

At Tuesday’s PAC meeting, Colin Smith – the city’s parks and recreation manager – told commissioners that three consultants responded to the RFP. [The three firms were Schumaker & Co. of Ann Arbor, Hooker/De Jong and The Woods Consulting Group of Muskegon, and The Kittle Group of Auburn Hills.] Two were determined by a review committee to be viable, but both were too expensive. After asking the consultants to resubmit, the committee – which included PAC chair Julie Grand – selected Hooker/De Jong for a total cost of $34,570.

In addition to the community foundation grant, Smith said the cost will be covered with $10,000 from the city’s community services administration general fund, and $7,621 from the parks and recreation services administration general fund.

Smith said Hooker/De Jong was selected because of their experience working with senior groups, their enthusiasm for the project, and their proposed approach. Jeff Straw, deputy manager of parks and recreation, reported that the consultants will begin by assessing current conditions, doing market research and talking to stakeholder groups. They’ll look at national trends and at what similar centers are doing in other communities. They’ll explore possible partnerships, rebranding, use of the center’s website and possible changes to programs and services offered at the center.

One of the challenges is the center’s building, Smith said, and because Hooper/De Jong also provides architectural services, they’ll be in a better position to make recommendations on possible changes to the buildling. Commissioner Gwen Nystuen noted that the space was originally a shared facility for theater and dance, as well as seniors – that, in part, explains its “strange” shape, she said.

If approved by council, the consultants are expected to start their work in November, with a strategic plan developed by February or March. With that timeframe, the plan’s recommendations can be considered as part of the FY 2012 budget process, Straw said.

Nystuen asked about the nearby Eberbach building, at corner of South Forrest and Wells. Smith said it’s owned by the city but being used by Ann Arbor Rec & Ed, which is part of the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Sara Aeschbach, director of Rec & Ed, was in the audience and told commissioners that under an agreement with the city, it’s leased for $1 a year. AAPS covers expenses associated with the building, and sets aside roughly $10,000 each year for future capital needs.

Outcome: PAC unanimously approved a recommendation to select Hooker/De Jong as the consultant to develop a strategic plan for the Ann Arbor Senior Center. The proposal will be forwarded to city council for its approval.

Report on Ball Field Conditions

Commissioner David Barrett gave an update on his work to assess the city’s ballparks, and thanked commissioner Tim Berla, parks manager Colin Smith and Matt Warba, supervisor of field operations, for their help. It was a simple process, Barrett said – he just went to each field and walked around it. There are 28 fields at Ann Arbor public schools, and 26 owned by the city. “I may have missed a couple, but not many.”

Barrett also went to surrounding communities to look at the condition of their ballparks. For each field, he recorded his general impressions, as well as the conditions of the infields, outfields and backstops.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Barrett read a 1.5 page memo he prepared about the condition of the fields. [.pdf file of Barrett's ballpark report] An excerpt:

From the general to the specific, the larger canvas of their state is that many fields appear to be worn down and dog eared. Some simply need some work around the edges; others need fundamental renovation. Some fields need dirt and a refashioning of the drainage from the fields so that every rainstorm does not stop play for days; others need new backstops. Some need the outfields to be fertilized so the grass in the outfield grows evenly versus in clumps; others simply need more frequent mowing. Some need decent rubbers on the mound so the pitchers have something decent to push off of when they throw the ball; others have infields that are so hard that sliding would be inadvisable if not dangerous.

The interrelationship between the City, the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and Rec & Ed is a complex tapestry that was woven together organically over the years when monies were more plentiful – but as the budgetary stresses touched all of these organizations, there was a need to clarify the exact maintenance responsibilities of each. Recently, these responsibilities have been formalized in an agreement between all parties. Whether this has helped or hindered the maintenance of the existing fields remains to be seen. That said, this on-going dialogue should aid in figuring out how to best use limited resources.

Barrett – best known outside of Ann Arbor as a songwriter, whose repertoire includes “One Shining Moment” – told his fellow commissioners that he approached this project through the eyes of a nine-year-old who used the fields. It was heartening to him that the city staff recognized the need for improvement. Ann Arbor can do better, he said.

David Barrett is spearheading an effort to improve the conditions of the city's ball fields.

The fields are well-used, and some have been in place for 30-40 years. Smith reported that in the 2009 fall season, there were nearly 14,000 participants playing baseball, softball or kickball on the fields. In the summer of 2010, that number reached nearly 40,000. The fields are maintained by the city and public schools, Smith said, and this is just the start of a conversation about how to do a better job of that.

Warba praised Barrett for his approach – not placing blame, but trying to do something positive. It was similar to Barrett’s work on the city’s soccer fields, which led to major renovations of the fields at Fuller and Olson parks. It’s not lost on the staff that maintenance has been deferred, Warba said, but they are working with limited resources. Both Warba and Smith said it made sense to add the city-owned ballparks to the capital improvements plan (CIP) – funds might be available there to upgrade the facilities.

Barrett said there were other possibilities too, like recruiting neighborhood or civic groups to adopt a field – the new volunteer outreach coordinator for parks and recreation might help with that, he said. As an example, Barrett said the field at Forsythe Middle School was in bad shape when he visited there a year ago. But recently, he’s been by there and seen an improvement, though he’s not sure who’s taking care of it. “Someone adopted this field,” he said, “and the difference was night and day.”

HRIMP Recommendations To Be Reviewed Again

Saying she almost hated to bring up the topic, PAC chair Julie Grand reminded commissioners that last year, the city council had directed PAC to take another look at the 30 recommendations made in the Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan (HRIMP). By the end of the year, PAC needs to report back to council with a list of the recommendations that are financially feasible to implement, she said.

By way of background, the HRIMP committee was established by the city’s environmental commission in March of 2006 to develop a plan for protecting and maintaining the portion of the Huron River that flows through the city of Ann Arbor. Beginning in early 2009, a series of public engagements were held as the committee entered the final stages of its work. [Chronicle coverage: "Not So Gently Down the Stream"]

The Huron River and Impoundment Management Plan produced by the committee contains 30 recommendations labeled “consensus recommendations,” with two others on which there was no consensus. The two non-consensus resolutions contradicted each other, with one calling for the removal of Argo Dam and the other calling for its preservation. Much of the public engagement focused exclusively on the dam-in/dam-out question. Part of the context for that question was a problem with toe drains, identified by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, in the earthen embankment adjacent to the concrete and steel dam, which separates the headrace from the river.

In May of 2009 the city’s environmental commission voted in support of dam removal, while the city’s park advisory commission voted for its preservation. [Chronicle coverage: "City Council To Weigh Mixed Advice on Dam"] The resolution to accept the committee’s plan was first considered at the council’s Nov. 16 meeting, but postponed until Dec. 7.

At that Dec. 7 meeting, the city council held an extensive discussion about the plan, including a somewhat tortuous debate about whether the council would “accept” it or “receive” it. Ultimately, council voted to remand the plan back to the environmental commission and PAC.

At Tuesday’s PAC meeting, Colin Smith read the directive given by council:

RESOLVED, That the Ann Arbor City Council directs the Park Advisory Commission and Environmental Commission to evaluate the 30 consensus recommendations, and to present options for implementation to City Council for those that can be acted upon at little or no cost; and

RESOLVED, That the Park Advisory Commission and the Environmental Commission complete their recommendations and report back to Council within one year.

When he read the phrase “at little or no cost,” commissioners laughed.

Grand said she hoped they could schedule a working session on the topic in October or November. A regular PAC meeting didn’t seem the best forum to take a first stab at the task, she said.

Gwen Nystuen asked whether this involved the dam in/dam out decision. Grand replied that although council never voted on that, it appears that the decision has been made to leave the dam in. PAC’s task is to look at the 30 consensus recommendations that didn’t address the dam in/dam out issue.

Tim Berla noted that PAC had voted on a resolution to recommend keeping the dam in, but that they’d dropped the ball on the other 30 recommendations. He said he wanted them to craft a resolution calling for council to create another commission that would regulate all things related to the river: noise; rules regarding motorboats; relationships between rowers, canoeists, kayakers, fishermen and others who used the river; and plant management, among other things. It’s like the sheriff’s out of town, he said, and no one’s in charge to enforce the rules.

Smith pointed out that one of the 30 recommendations calls for creation of a river stewardship committee. But they weren’t going to go over the specific recommendations at this meeting, he said.

Berla said he wanted to make sure the public had the opportunity to get involved before PAC took action regarding the HRIMP recommendations. So if PAC plans to vote on it at their Nov. 16 meeting, he wanted to get something out to the public before then. Sam Offen suggested that they talk about it at their October land acquisition committee meeting, of which all commissioners are members. Then they could draft a resolution for the Oct. 19 PAC meeting.

Grand observed that some of the issues are quite complex, and that they might need more time. In response to an email from The Chronicle on Wednesday, Grand said they hadn’t yet decided when to discuss the recommendations.

Julie Grand was re-elected chair of PAC at Tuesday's meeting.

Election of PAC Officers

The commission quickly dispatched its annual election of officers – none of the three positions were contested, and each officer was re-elected.

Julie Grand was re-elected as PAC chair, a role she has held since Scott Rosencrans left the commission when his term ended at the end of April. John Lawton was re-elected vice chair, and Sam Offen was re-elected as chair of PAC’s budget committee.

According to PAC bylaws, the elections are held by secret ballot – on Tuesday, those took the form of yellow slips of paper distributed by Colin Smith, parks and recreation manager.

There was no suspense as he counted the ballots – everyone was re-elected unanimously.

Report from Parks and Recreation Manager

Colin Smith relayed several updates to commissioners at Tuesday’s meeting, including a few that prompted discussion.

Argo Dam Reconstruction

The city received two responses last week to its request for proposals (RFP) to reconstruct the headrace at Argo Dam. They received three bids for repairing the toe drains. [Details of the RFP were presented at PAC's July 20, 2010 meeting. See Chronicle coverage: "Two Dam Options for Argo"] A committee that includes PAC commissioner David Barrett will be reviewing the proposals, Smith said. If there are any they’d like to pursue, they’ll hold interviews in early October, then bring a committee recommendation to PAC’s Oct. 19 meeting.

Also related to Argo Dam, Smith reported that a contractor had started removing dead and dying trees along the dam’s embankment. It’s part of a consent agreement that the city reached with the state in May, laying out steps that the city must take to address some of long-outstanding issues with the dam. The path along the embankment is closed every Monday through Thursday while the work is completed. About 100 trees are being removed, and the work is expected to be finished later this month.

Tim Berla asked whether PAC would receive a recommendation at its next meeting on the Argo Dam proposals, and whether they’d be asked to vote on the recommendation at the same meeting. Yes, Smith said. Berla said his understanding was that the selected proposal would likely change the shape of the dam. Smith confirmed that it would – one of the requirements listed in the RFP was removal of the portage, which would change the shape of the embankment.

Berla asked whether information about the embankment would be made public before the meeting, so that the public would be informed. The information will be available, Smith said.

Sam Offen asked whether a public hearing could be held, given that it’s unclear how controversial the proposals might be. Smith said they were working under a tight timeline because of the consent agreement with the state. That means PAC needs to make a recommendation at its October meeting, he said.

David Barrett agreed – his understanding is that the state is driving this compressed timeline. “There’s no shell game here – we simply have a gun to our head to get it done, or bad things happen.”

Berla suggested putting out a press release about the proposal at least a week before the meeting, so that people could email staff and commissioners if they wanted to “rant or rave,” and that they’d know to come to the meeting for public commentary. Smith said that the city put out a press release to notify the public about the previous PAC presentation on Argo Dam, and they might do that again.

Huron Hills Golf Course RFP

The request for proposals (RFP) for Huron Hills Golf Course has been issued, Smith told commissioners, and there’s a pre-bid meeting for potential responders on Monday, Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. [For background on the Huron Hills RFP, see Chronicle coverage: "Public Turns Out to Support Huron Hills Golf"]

Responses are due Oct. 29, followed by committee review and interviews in November. If the review committee finds a response worth recommending, they’ll send it to the golf advisory task force, then PAC, Smith said. Any proposal would have to obtain city council approval before being implemented.

Fuller Road Station

As an FYI, Smith passed out a copy of the planning staff report for the Fuller Road Station site plan, and noted that the city’s planning commission would be reviewing and voting on the project later that night. [At its meeting – which included three hours of staff presentations, a public hearing and commissioner deliberations – the planning commission voted to approve the project, with two of the nine commissioners dissenting. The joint city of Ann Arbor/University of Michigan project calls for building a five-level, 977-space parking structure on city-owned property that’s designated as parkland. The site would include a 44-space parking lot and bicycle parking. The city hopes eventually to build a train station at that location as well, but that isn’t part of the current site plan.]

Smith noted that in their report, the planning staff strongly recommends that a shared use path for bicyclists and pedestrians to the Fuller bridge be incorporated to the project’s design. This was a recommendation that PAC commissioners had discussed at previous meetings.

Sam Offen said that when mayor John Hieftje had attended PAC’s May 18, 2010 meeting, he had mentioned that the city was still negotiating an agreement with UM over use of the structure. What was the status of that – does it accompany the site plan?

Smith replied that work is still being done on the agreement, and that the administration is aware that PAC would like to see it before it goes to city council for approval. From The Chronicle’s report of that May 2010 meeting:

Heiftje’s presentation had not been on the agenda, but the commission was set to discuss a resolution that called for city council to stop the project, or at the least negotiate better terms with its partner, the University of Michigan. Several commissioners have expressed concerns about the project, which would be on city-owned property designated as parkland. Under proposed terms – which Hieftje said are not finalized – the city would receive less revenue from UM for parking than it currently gets from the surface lots it leases to the university on Fuller Road. Those revenues support the city’s parks operations.

On Tuesday, Offen said it would be useful to see the agreement before negotiations were finalized with UM – otherwise, there wouldn’t be opportunity for real input.

Berla mentioned that he’d read a comment online from someone who said there would be a 75-year lease agreement with the university. He wondered what kind of ongoing obligation the city would have to UM. Christopher Taylor, a city councilmember who’s an ex-officio member of PAC, said that he hadn’t seen a draft of the agreement and didn’t know its terms, but it was his understanding that the land and facility would always be owned by the city. The university would certainly have contractual rights under a use agreement, but Taylor didn’t know the length of the agreement being contemplated.

Given that some community members believe a long-term lease is a defacto sale of land, Berla said he hoped the city would make it clear how long the use agreement would be in effect.

Volunteer Outreach Coordinator

Gayle LaVictoire has been hired for the newly created position of volunteer outreach coordinator for parks and recreation, Smith reported. It was an internal hire – she previously served as facilities supervisor for Buhr pool and ice rink. Smith described her as energetic, enthusiastic and forward-thinking – the kind of qualities they were looking for in that position. She’ll be working with Jason Frenzel, volunteer and outreach coordinator for the city’s natural areas program. Smith said she’ll be coming to introduce herself at a future PAC meeting.

Bandemer Park and Punk Week

Smith said that Berla had requested a report on the incident during Punk Week at Bandemer Park, which runs along the Huron River north of town. A resident near the park had called police about people who were swimming naked, engaging in “lewd acts” and letting their dogs run off leash. An officer responded, and was surrounded by the group. Another resident called police after hearing someone in the group threaten to set a dog on the officer. A second officer responded and they went after the main instigators, Smith said. Park rules were being broken and the police responded appropriately, he said. Seven people were arrested for disorderly conduct, Smith said.

Berla said it was obvious that police needed to respond. If people had dispersed, he posited, then it likely wouldn’t have escalated into arrests. Smith said that was a fair assumption.

Punk Week has been part of Ann Arbor’s summer culture for more than a decade, occurring in the third week of August and including events like shopping cart races and zombie walks.

Present: David Barrett, Tim Berla, Julie Grand, John Lawter, Karen Levin, Sam Offen, Gwen Nystuen, councilmember Mike Anglin (ex-officio), councilmember Christopher Taylor (ex-officio). Also Colin Smith, city parks manager.

Absent: Doug Chapman, Tim Doyle.

Next meeting: PAC’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 19 begins at 4 p.m. in the Washtenaw County administration building boardroom, 220 N. Main St. [confirm date]

Left in the frame, scanning through the protest petition documents, is Scott Munzel, legal counsel for Alex de Parry, developer of the Heritage Row project. De Parry is seated in the row behind with his arms resting on the bench back. In the foreground is Bradley Moore, architect for Heritage Row. (Photos by the writer.)

Councilmembers were also informed that a protest petition had been filed on Heritage Row Monday afternoon, which – once validated – would bump the requirement for approval from a simple six-vote majority to eight out of 11 council votes. Petition filers have calculated that they’ve collected signatures from 51% of adjoining property owners, weighted by land area. That exceeds the 20% required for a successful petition, but as of late Wednesday, the city had not completed its verification process for the signatures. [Update: Early Thursday afternoon, the city confirmed the 20% threshold had been met.]

In other business, the council approved increases in water and sewer rates and gave initial approval to changes in the city code language on the placement of recycling carts.

A wording change in the list of permissible uses for public land was also given initial approval, but not without discussion. Thematically related to land use was a presentation during the meeting’s concluding public commentary in response to a request for proposals (RFP) for the privatization of the city-owned Huron Hills golf course.

Also receiving discussion was an item pulled out of the consent agenda that authorized $75,000 for Ann Arbor SPARK, for economic development.

Criticism during public commentary on the appointment and nomination process used by the mayor to fill seats on boards and commissions stirred mayor John Hieftje to defend shielding individual members of those bodies from public demands.

Public commentary also elicited from Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 1) an update on the development of the Library Lot – he chairs the committee charged with overseeing the RFP process.

Heritage Row

Heritage Row is a residential project proposed for South Fifth Avenue just south of William Street. In its current form it includes 79 units – 12 efficiencies, 9 1-bedroom, 43 2-bedroom, 14 3-bedroom, and 1 5-bedroom apartment. Those units will be distributed over seven renovated existing houses and three buildings to be constructed behind the existing houses. [Additional Chronicle coverage: "Heritage Row Moves to City Council"]

Heritage Row is a planned unit development (PUD), which would require a rezoning of the property. That’s because, as proposed, the project does not conform to the existing R4C zoning on the land.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) and Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) confer before the start of the council meeting.

The project has a history stretching back over two years, when it was called City Place. In January 2009 the city council considered a different version PUD, consisting of a single building that would have replaced the seven houses. Subsequently, a matter-of-right version of the project has been proposed and approved. The city also has established an historic district study area that includes the site of Heritage Row. [See Chronicle coverage: "S. Fifth Avenue: Historic District, Development"]

Events of the last two weeks have a certain déjà vu flavor with respect to the project’s long history. A procedural error on the city’s part involving proper publication of the public hearing notice for the site plan led in part to the council’s decision to postpone both votes on Monday night – for the site plan and for the rezoning. [See Chronicle coverage: "Heritage Row Vote Likely Delayed"] That was reminiscent of a procedural error last year that led the city council to remand a matter-of-right version of City Place back to the planning commission.

On Monday, the council learned that a protest petition had been filed about Heritage Row – by Tom Whitaker, who is former president of the Germantown Neighborhood Association. The petition had been filed around 3 p.m. the afternoon of the meeting.

That recalled the late-hour submission of a protest petition in January 2009, which came the Friday before the Monday meeting. From The Chronicle’s report of the Jan. 3, 2009 meeting:

[Kevin] McDonald said the protest petition had been received late Friday, then turned over to planning and development services on Monday (the day of the meeting). The calculations of area were done by a planner working with a GIS specialist. It’s a calculation made complex because public area must be subtracted. Names of owners on the petition were compared with names in the assessor’s system. McDonald indicated that 24% of the area was covered, and thus met the requirement of at least 20%. [Mayor John] Hieftje elicited from McDonald an assessment of the late-hour submission of the protest as not unusual.

As of late Wednesday, the city had not yet verified the petition submitted Monday afternoon on Heritage Row.

That meant there were two reasons for postponing the vote on the project. First, there had been a public noticing issue with the site plan public hearing, so the site plan vote needed to be postponed – and that is intimately related to the rezoning issue. Another reason for postponing was the still-uncertain status of the petition’s validation.

Heritage Row: Protest Petition

The impact of a protest petition is that it bumps the required majority for city council approval from six votes to eight. A recent vote on The Moravian – a PUD in the same neighborhood – failed when it had six votes, but not the eight required for approval. [See Chronicle coverage: "Six Vote Majority Leaves The Moravian Short"]

On the protest petition, Chapter 55 Article XI, Section 5:107 (5) of the city code specifies that:

(5) A protest against any proposed amendment to this chapter may be presented in writing to the City Clerk at or before the public hearing thereon. Such protest shall be duly signed by the owners of at least 20% of the area of land included in the proposed change, or the owners of at least 20% of the area of land included within an area extending outward 100 feet from any point on the boundary of the land included in the proposed change, excluding any other publicly owned land. Following the filing of a valid protest petition, adoption of an amendment to this chapter shall require at least 8 affirmative votes of the Council at the second reading on the ordinance.

Heritage Row: What Lies Ahead

The decision on Heritage Row, now projected for June 21, 2010, would overlap with the first reading before the city council of a proposed historic district, tentatively scheduled for the same meeting.

If the council approves the Heritage Row PUD, it’s also possible that the historic district would be approved, and that the Heritage Row project would not pass muster with the city’s historic district commission – although developer Alex de Parry has said that he thinks the project would meet historic restoration standards. [See Chronicle coverage: "Fifth Avenue Project to Meet Historic Standards"]

If the council rejects the Heritage Row PUD and also declines to establish the area as an historic district, then the matter-of-right version of the project that has already won council approval remains a possibility.

The Chronicle asked Whitaker in a phone interview whether he thought it wasn’t somewhat of a risk to file the protest petition, thus helping to defeat the Heritage Row PUD, when the historic district is also not certain, and the matter-of-right project was already approved for the R4C zoning. But Whitaker was still sanguine, pointing to the possibility of zoning reform for R4C – reforms that would address the definition of setbacks for properties without perfectly uniform edges and the definition of a dormer.

Those specific reforms would have an impact on the matter-of-right City Place project already approved. Whitaker contends the reforms could still be enacted and would apply to the City Place matter-of-right project, and at The Chronicle’s request he emailed a description of a case supporting his contention:

A Michigan case that affirms this is Belvidere Township v. Heinze, 241 Mich.App. 324, 615 N.W. 2d 250 (2000). In that case a hog farmer planned and spent a considerable sum in preparing (designs, permits, estimates, access road, etc,) to build a consolidated animal feeding operation, but in the meantime, the township changed the zoning ordinance. He had not put a substantial amount of money into actual construction of the feeding operation itself and the court held that he did not have vested rights and the new zoning would apply, so, no CAFO.

Heritage Row: Public Hearings

Ethel Potts stated that she did not think the council could approve the rezoning, citing the Chapter 55 requirement in the city code that there be a compelling justification for the requested departure from the existing zoning.

In this case, Potts said, the departures were an increase in height, a decrease in the setbacks, an increase in the density, and a request to put aside parking requirements. Against that, she questioned what the public benefit was. She asked the council to state their compelling justifications before voting, which was something that the planning commission had not done, and it left everyone “mystified,” she said.

Ethel Potts prepares to speak against the Heritage Row project.

Potts spoke at both the PUD rezoning hearing as well as the site plan hearing. She allowed that a PUD can deviate from the existing zoning, but that the amount of deviation proposed by Heritage Row was unacceptable – there would be only a 15-foot setback instead of the big backyards currently behind the houses, she said. She cautioned the council against being fooled by the new name and proposal to renovate the old houses. They would be lined up in a rigid row like a “pseudo-historic theme park,” she said.

Adam de Angeli introduced himself as a resident of 427 S. Fifth, one of the houses that is slated to be renovated as part of the project. During the construction, he said, he would not be able to live there, so the project would effectively put him out of his home. However, he noted that there was nothing in the lease that said he could live there as long as he liked. It was the landlord’s property, he said, and he did not see a reasonable cause to prevent the landlord from developing his property.

Joan Lowenstein – a former city councilmember, former planning commissioner, and current member of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board – told the council that she did not think that leaving the property the way it currently is would improve the city. As a planning commissioner, she allowed, she had voted against an earlier version of the project, saying that it “would break [her] heart” to see the houses lost.

Joan Lowenstein speaks in support of Heritage Row.

But the current proposal, Lowenstein said, would restore the houses and take off the additions that had been made over the years. She said the new construction would provide more places for people to live, provide public space that didn’t now exist, add to the amount of affordable housing available and improve the streetscape.

There were a few minor changes, she said, that needed to be made to the city’s zoning to accommodate the project. The idea that a single family would come and purchase one of the houses for half a million dollars and invest another half million to fix it up so that a family could live there was, she said, a “fiction.” She characterized the new building proposed for construction behind the seven houses as within the character of the neighborhood.

Piotr Michalowski told the council he lived one block away from the proposed project. He said he’d spoken many times before about the project – on the first occasion he’d talked about the fact that the whole point centered around where the project is proposed and how that related to plans like the city’s Central Area Plan. Plans such as those, he said, had been subject to substantial public interaction. Speaking from a “moral point of view,” he said, those plans are the basis for “what we’re supposed to do.” The project, he said, breaks the pact between the government and the area residents. He allowed that the changes between earlier versions of the project and the current version represented tremendous progress, but it was still too massive and did not work.

Nick Collins introduced himself as a resident of one of the houses on Fifth Avenue that is part of the project site: 433 S. Fifth Ave., the Herbert Slauson house. Collins noted that he’d attended Slauson Middle School. He commended the developer, Alex de Parry, for his efforts to include restoration of the seven houses in the current plan. However, he urged the council to reject the proposal, saying that the PUD option should be reserved for extraordinary situations. If the council was considering an historic district designation, why would it grant the PUD rezoning? Collins told the council that they needed to have the rezoning debate out in the open instead of letting it be fought out between neighborhoods and developers.

Tom Petiet wondered how many times he needed to appear to speak against this proposal. The citizenry, he said, kept getting beat on until they were tired. The number of units proposed in the project, he said, had not changed from the first proposals and he contended that they would be student rentals. The neighborhood, like the Old West Side historic district, he said, was worth preserving.

Kathy Boris urged the council to vote against the proposal. A PUD should be the exception, not the rule, she said. She asked the council to uphold the social compact.

Christine Crockett said that several weeks ago she’d been a guest at the Downtown Citizens Advisory Council to hear a presentation on Zaragon Place 2 – it would be a high rise and she was delighted to see it. It was the right project in the right place, she said. [The proposed 14-story apartment building would be located at the southeast corner of Thompson and William, next to Cottage Inn.] The Heritage Row project, said Crockett, would destroy seven of the most historic homes in Ann Arbor. If the city needed more density – and she believed there was a demand – then density should be put into the newly defined D1 areas.

Kim Kachadoorian cited the goals of the city’s Central Area Plan in arguing against the Heritage Row project. One of the goals, she said, was to protect houses from conversion to business use. It was a largely intact neighborhood, she said.

Deanna Relyea said she appreciated the gradual changing of the project from the original proposal, but concluded that it was “not there, yet.” She contended that the massiveness of the buildings behind the houses to be renovated canceled out the benefit of the renovation. She also asked that the project be postponed until a decision on the recommended historic district is voted on.

Bill Kreighbaum said there was a compelling public interest in higher density. The location was within walking distance to the University of Michigan campus as well as downtown, he said, and would allow a 2-3 car household to get by with 1-2 cars. It would help provide a critical mass for improved public transportation, he said.

Jim Mogensen described the city as being in a battle that was larger than the project. On one extreme was a view – the Libertarian view – that took as a premise that there shouldn’t be zoning at all and that it would all work itself out. He noted that there would be a final meeting of the R4C/R2A review committee, and the decision on a recommended historic district in the area would be made, but as the debate over what happens in the neighborhoods downtown continued, projects happened in the meantime. A PUD was a way to negotiate the view on each side of the spectrum, he said. He was concerned about the debate taking place through a PUD.

Susan Whitaker spoke in opposition to the Heritage Row project.

Susan Whitaker, alluding to Joan Lowenstein’s description of a family purchasing a house in the neighborhood in order to live in it as a “fiction,” introduced herself as a “fiction” who lived with her school-aged children on Fifth Avenue. She then cited various sections of the Downtown Plan adopted last year by the city council, including “[p. 24] improve downtown’s appeal as a residential location by protecting the stability of its adjacent residential neighborhoods edges.” She concluded by saying, “Zoning matters. Please don’t throw it out.” She added that the residents of the neighborhood are opposed to the project – council could see that from the petition that had been signed.

Outcome: With no discussion, the council voted to postpone the votes on the Heritage Row site plan and rezoning until June 21, 2010. The council received advice from legal counsel during a closed session, added to the agenda in a slot before the public hearings, which was presumably about the Heritage Row project.

Water/Sewer Rate Increase

To illustrate the increase for water and sewer rates, here’s the proposed changes for the Residential 1 rate. A unit is 100 cubic feet, or 748 gallons:

UNITS    $Old  $New

1-7      1.14  1.23
8-28     2.43  2.53
29-45    3.99  4.23
over 45  5.75  6.10

-

From the city code:

(5) “Residential 1 rate” shall mean the rate applied to the domestic meter usage for residential customers where 4 or fewer dwelling units are served off of the same meter.
(6) “Residential 2 rate” shall mean the rate applied to the domestic meter usage for residential customers with both a domestic and a water only meter where 4 or fewer dwelling units are served off of the same meter.

Water/Sewer Public Commentary

Thomas Partridge spoke against the water and sewer rate increases.

Jim Mogensen referenced the cover memo accompanying the resolution that increased water and sewer rates. He noted that we are “not out of the woods yet” but that the city now had better plans. He observed that one effect of less consumption was a greater need to raise rates. He noted that one approach was to wait until everything fell apart and then try to fix it, citing the approach that had been taken with the city’s parking structures. He reminded council that the University of Michigan recently had to “help us out” with work done in connection with the Central Campus Transit Center on North University by giving the city a “gift” [$450,000] to do work related to utilities and street repair that the city would ordinarily have paid for.

Water/Sewer Council Deliberations

Before the council approved the rate increases, mayor John Hieftje asked Sue McCormick, the city’s public services area administrator, to comment. She described how they planned by looking six years out, but focused on the first three years. The idea was to “levelize” rate increases – to smooth them out so that increases were smaller in any given year. The strategy also allowed the city to develop a reserve to help fund major infrastructure projects. As examples, she gave the solids handling facility at the wastewater treatment plant, which was nearly complete – a $42 million investment. Half of the liquid processing plant would also be reconstructed, she said, with $28 million to be spent next year on the $70 million project.

In future years, she said, they were projecting increases in rates of 3-3.5%.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) indicated that he’d done research on utility rate increases in other cities and that in communities like Sterling Heights, Lansing and Grand Rapids they were looking at increases of 6% to 10% this year. He concluded that it demonstrated the rate increases in Ann Arbor were having the desired effect.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) asked for information on citizens’ conservation efforts through rain barrels and other measures. McCormick indicated that she’d assemble some data.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the increases in water and sewer rates.

Ann Arbor SPARK Allocation

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) asked that a $75,000 allocation for Ann Arbor SPARK, which is an organization that does economic development work, be pulled out of the consent agenda.

She stated that she didn’t think that $75,000 reflected enough energy directed to economic development. She asked Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) to provide some comment – he recently served on SPARK’s executive committee.

Hohnke indicated that he no longer served on the executive committee.

[The recent round of new executive committee appointments for Ann Arbor SPARK, announced in late May, included: Elliot Forsyth, senior vice president at ProQuest; Jan Garfinkle, managing director for Arboretum Ventures; Leigh R. Greden, former Ann Arbor city councilmember and attorney for Miller Canfield, but now executive director of government and community relations for Eastern Michigan University; Verna McDaniel, Washtenaw County administrator; Michael Staebler, an attorney with Pepper Hamilton LLP; and Maria Thompson, former president of A123’s Ann Arbor operations.]

New members to the Ann Arbor SPARK board of directors are EMU president Susan Martin and Ann Arbor mayor John Hieftje.

Hohnke suggested that people who had more experience with the local development finance authority (LDFA) might be better able to comment. It was an allusion to Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who serves as the city council representative to the LDFA and currently chairs that body. The LDFA is a tax increment finance district created as a Michigan SmartZone. It contracts with SPARK to operate a business accelerator. [Previous Chronicle coverage: "Budget Round 5: Economic Development"]

Rapundalo began his remarks by stating that the $75,000 the council was authorizing was not a membership fee. It was likely an allusion to the cover memo accompanying the resolution which indicates: “Funding for this contract is included in the city-wide membership account in the approved FY 2010/11 budget.” The funding source is likely a legacy of the previous entity with which SPARK merged – the Washtenaw Development Council – a membership-based organization to which the city belonged.

Rapundalo noted that historically the amount of funding that had been allocated to SPARK was $50,000. The ostensible purpose of the funding, he said, was to help in the promotion of the city in SPARK’s recruitment efforts and with some aspects of the business accelerator. He indicated that other support came from Washtenaw County and from the University of Michigan.

Smith expressed an interest in continuing the dialog about economic development and increasing the amount of support.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) had a number of questions about SPARK. Was the funding an extra incentive to give extra attention to Ann Arbor? Had other communities in the Ann Arbor area given extra? He asked for a reminder of what the projected deficit was for next fiscal year. Could the city afford the extra $25,000?

Hieftje responded to Kunselman’s question about the deficit by saying that the city had just recently balanced its budget.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) indicated that the additional $25,000 was based on the idea that SPARK would leverage the entire southeast Michigan region and that several other communities contributed to SPARK’s funding as well. Some of the money went to “overhead,” not specific activities, she said. The money Ann Arbor gave, she continued, did not give Ann Arbor any more leverage than any other group. The idea, she said, is that what’s good for the county is good for the city. She concluded that Ann Arbor had gotten a return on its $75,000 investment.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the $75,000 allocation to Ann Arbor SPARK.

Recycling Code Revision

Before the council were amendments to the city code that are being enacted in anticipation of the city’s conversion to single-stream recycling in July – two separate small totes will be replaced with a single 64-gallon cart. Some examples of changes [italics indicates new language, while a strike-through indicates that the language will be deleted from the code]:

The weight of the recyclables inside the recycling curbcarts must not exceed 224 pounds for a 64 gallon curbcart or pro-rated amount for a different sized container.

Recyclable containers and bundles must not exceed 50 pounds.

[...]

Upon lease signing, property managers must provide new residents with recycling educational materials and show them where recycling containers are located at rental properties. Property managers must also provide annual reminders to all tenants about recycling. Recycling educational materials are available free of charge by contacting the city’s recycling contractor, Recycle Ann Arbor, at 734-662-6288 or info@recycleannarbor.org.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) noted that under the section on points of collection, the city could refuse collection if snow was not cleared to provide access. She got clarification that residents were not expected to shovel the city streets in order to provide access – the reference was to access points on private streets or in multi-family complexes.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) wanted to know who had reviewed the code changes. Tom McMurtrie, the city’s solid waste coordinator, told Kunselman there was no longer a solid waste commission, but that it had been reviewed by the Washtenaw Area Apartment Association as well as the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce and the city attorney’s office.

Kunselman asked if the actual weight limits could be included as part of the ordinance instead of requiring someone to perform the calculations for the pro-rated limits – “that’s a lot of math,” he said.

He also wondered if the trucks were actually capable of lifting some of the larger containers if they were loaded to the maximum pro-rated amount. McMurtrie indicated that the truck arms could lift the containers.

Kunselman questioned whether it was appropriate to revoke a certificate of occupancy – as allowed in the code – if the requirements of the code were not met. He also questioned whether the educational requirement on landlords should be included in a piece of legislation. McMurtrie indicated that the rationale for including the educational requirement was to encourage as much compliance as possible. Kunselman agreed with McMurtrie on the goal of compliance and the role of education, but still wondered whether it should be legislated – “How do you enforce that?” he asked.

Mayor John Hieftje offered that there were other requirements on landlords that they provide educational information, which Kevin McDonald of the city attorney’s office confirmed. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) gave another example: the federal requirement that information on lead-based paint be provided.

Outcome: The amendments to the city code on recycling carts were approved on first reading. The city council will need to approve them on second reading in order for them to take effect.

Permissible Uses of Public Land

Before the council was a change to the list of designated uses for land zoned as public land (PL). The planning commission had considered and unanimously recommended the change at its May 4, 2010 meeting. It’s been the subject of conversation in the community over the last couple of months in connection with the proposed Fuller Road Station – the project that prompted the desire to change the possible uses in the PL designation. The proposed change would replace “municipal airport” with “transportation facilities.”

5:10.13. PL public land district.
(1) Intent. This district is designed to classify publicly-owned uses and land and permit the normal principal and incidental uses required to carry out governmental functions and services.
(2) Permitted principal uses.
(a) Outdoor public recreational uses, such as: playgrounds, playfields, golf courses, boating areas, fishing sites, camping sites, parkways and parks. No structure shall be erected or maintained upon dedicated park land which is not customarily incidental to the principal use of the land.
(b) Natural open space, such as: conservation lands, wildlife sanctuaries, forest preserves.
(c) Developed open space, such as: arboreta, botanical and zoological gardens.
(d) Educational services, such as: public primary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education.
(e) Cultural services, such as: museums and art galleries.
(f) Public-service institutions, such as: hospitals, sanatoria, homes for the elderly, children’s homes and correctional institutions.
(g) Essential services, buildings containing essential services and electrical substations.
(h) Municipal airports Transportation facilities.
(i) Civic center.
(j) Government offices and courts.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) wanted to know why the change was a replacement of one term with another – why not add a term instead? Wendy Rampson, head of planning for the city, indicated that adding a list of possible facilities would possibly be seen as exhaustive. Higgins got confirmation that the impetus for the change was one project – Fuller Road Station.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) said it was an interesting question as to whether parking structures were transportation facilities. Rampson commented that before the A2D2 initiative, which rezoned downtown Ann Arbor, parking lots and structures were zoned P for parking district. They’ve moved away from that approach, she said, and the result of the A2D2 process was to zone those areas either D1 or PL in order to reflect the expectation that their use could be multi-faceted.

Briere asked about the park-and-ride lots, which were simple parking not associated with any use. Rampson explained that the new park-and-ride lots were located in the public right of way and were zoned PL.

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) wanted to know if “transportation facility” had an established definition. Rampson indicated that it was not listed out separately and defined in the code, but rather it was taken to be what is commonly understood by a reasonable person. Taylor got confirmation from Rampson that within the industry it’s an established and understood term.

Higgins indicated that while she’d support the change at its first reading, she’d prefer to see the word “airport” included in the language. Margie Teall (Ward 4) concurred with Higgins on leaving in the word “airport.” Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) said that Rampson had accurately depicted the rationale from the planning commission’s discussion – Derezinski is the council’s representative on the planning commission. He urged the council to go along with the change.

Kunselman suggested that the language be made parallel with the “such as” language in other possible uses for PL. He wondered if that change would be significant enough to require a second first reading. Kevin McDonald from the city attorney’s office indicated he didn’t think it would require an additional reading – it would amount to an explication of what a particular term meant.

Outcome: On first reading, the council unanimously approved the wording change for possible PL uses. Approval at a second reading will be required for final approval.

Golf Courses

Also related to public land was some public commentary made near the end of the meeting.

The city is currently working on a request for proposals to privatize certain operations at Huron Hills golf course. The city council gave its tacit approval for the city to develop an RFP at a meeting it held earlier in the year on Feb. 8 devoted to the topic of the city’s budget.

Left to right: Jane Lumm, Ted Annis, and Leslie Morris.

On Monday during public commentary general time at the conclusion of the meeting, three people spoke about the issue.

Leslie Morris, who served on the Ann Arbor city council in the late 1970s and early 1980s, addressed the council about the possibility of privatizing part of Huron Hills. She began by noting that Ann Arbor likes parks and that was demonstrated by the passage of every parks-related millage since 1966.

Morris concluded by stating that residents did not want the city to sell parks, lease parks, or to use parks for opportunities for someone else’s private business development. She cautioned that any attempt to privatize operations at Huron Hills would be met with opposition from the community, and hinted that some community support for a possible future income tax ballot proposal would be contingent on the city not pursuing privatization at Huron Hills. [.pdf of Morris' complete statement]

Myra Larson was next up to address the council on the topic of the golf courses. Larson is professor emerita at the University of Michigan School of Art and Design. She referred the council to an Other Voices piece she’d written for The Ann Arbor News about Huron Hills – “Huron Hills site is valuable even if no one is golfing there,” which is available through the Ann Arbor District Library’s online archives of News articles. [Registration is required, but it is free.] At Monday’s meeting, Larson hit some of the same themes as in that piece, which included the line: “To alter the environment of the Huron Hills site in any manner will have a very direct and negative impact on the river and the green infrastructure of our city.” On Monday, she noted that in 2003 the voters of Ann Arbor had voted to tax themselves for the greenbelt millage – why not have green space in the city as well? She noted that the 90-year-old course had been designed by Thomas Bendelow, who was the “Johnny Appleseed of golf.”

Jane Lumm was the third speaker to address the council about the golf courses. Lumm served on the city council in the mid- to late 1990s, and gave mayor John Hieftje the most serious challenge he’s faced in a November election – in 2004, gaining the endorsement of the now defunct Ann Arbor News.

Lumm offered some reasons why the privatization of Huron Hills didn’t make sense. The plan to increase revenues at both of the city’s golf courses – Leslie Park and Huron Hills – was working, she said, so she encouraged the city to “work the plan.” The total revenues for FY 2009 and 2010, she said, had exceeded their targets by over $100,000. Over the last three years, she added, Huron Hills had show 39% growth in revenues and Leslie had shown 37% growth. The total revenue from both courses for the FY 2011 budget, she noted, was $1.176 million.

Lumm objected to the portrayal in the community of golf courses costing the city a fortune, with Huron Hills as the main problem. On an operating basis, she said, Leslie showed a $98,000 surplus while Huron Hills showed a $10,000 loss. Only when the municipal service charges were factored in to compute the fully allocated costs, she continued, did the picture change to one where Leslie showed $220,000 and Huron Hills $250,000 worth of losses.

She asked the council not to place a “90-year-old jewel” at risk.

AATA Board Appointment

At their May 17 meeting, the council had confirmed the nomination of Anya Dale to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board to replace Paul Ajegba. Nominated, but not confirmed at that meeting, was Roger Kerson as a replacement for Ted Annis. The confirmation of Dale came with dissent from Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and the suggestion from Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) that both nominees introduce themselves to the council.

AATA: Public Comment on Appointments

Tim Hull introduced himself as a resident of Ward 2. He stated that there needs to be adequate citizen representation on the board of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, but that there seems to be no available contact information for board members. He asked how board members could represent the public interest if the public cannot contact them.

Hull characterized the process for making appointments as flawed and disorganized. Aside from occasional brief comments made at the council meetings, there was no information presented about the process or the appointees, he said. He stated that he agreed with Kunselman’s suggestion made at the previous meeting that nominees for board appointments introduce themselves to the council and take questions. He said that mayor John Hieftje’s response to Kunselman – that they should do things the way they’d always done it – was a poor reason to do things that way. Hull said he expected better from elected officials. He said that elected officials should represent us, not sit back and do what’s always been done.

AATA: Mayoral Comment and Confirmation

The council approved the nomination of Roger Kerson to the board of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, to replace Ted Annis. That nomination had been placed before the council at its last meeting.

Annis was in the audience as part of a group that addressed the council on the topic of the possible privatization of some operations at the Huron Hills golf course. Annis himself did not speak during public commentary. Hieftje took the opportunity to thank Annis for the work he’d done on the AATA board, bringing his financial and management expertise to bear on the AATA.

Hieftje then responded to Tim Hull’s comments made at the start of the meeting by stating that all appointments are taken seriously. He said the reason that there is a period of time between nomination and confirmation was so that people could have a chance to read the resumes of nominees and give them a call.

Hieftje said that the city asked a lot of its board and commission members, and that they tried to shield them from being individually approached by the public. This was different from what was expected of city councilmembers, he said, who campaigned for the job.

Hieftje said it would be a burden if nominees had to appear before the council to answer questions, which could wind up being a “grilling.” These were not appointments to the Supreme Court, he said. The public should have to “go through the front office” for access to board and commission members, he said.

It was a good system that had been used for a very long time, Hieftje concluded, and until a better one came along, it would be the one that was used.

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) noted that people who wanted to serve on boards and commissions needed to apply in order to be considered.

Hieftje continued by saying that often people stopped by to talk to him during his office hours on Fridays when they picked up the application.

Later, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) thanked the mayor for nominating him to the planning commission back in 2004.

Outcome: The council unanimously confirmed the appointment of Roger Kerson to the AATA board.

Library Lot

Alan Haber said he wanted to continue to put before the council the issue of the Library Lot. The committee overseeing the request for proposals (RFP) process had received a variety of proposals, he said, but had not found any of them satisfactory. The committee was “just sitting on this,” he said, when they should report back to the council what they’d found. Many people were interested, he said, in a self-development process through some kind of community consortium – not in a commercial context, but in a human context. He noted that the construction currently underway on the underground parking garage is amazing and that there needed to be a viewing area so that people could see it.

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) responded to Haber’s comments on the Library Lot by describing the process as being in a “holding pattern.” The committee had been prepared to engage a consultant to assist in the review of the two finalist proposals, and the potential consultant had been reviewed by city administrator Roger Fraser and executive director of the DDA Susan Pollay, but they’d stopped short of signing a contract with the consultant. An unanticipated change in personnel within the consultant’s organization had led them to re-evaluate the pool. Rapundalo said it was unfortunate that Fraser himself was not there at the meeting to provide more details.

Other Agenda Items

The council handled a variety of other items as a part of its agenda. They included the following:

Other: Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Legislation

The council considered a resolution urging the state senate to pass enabling legislation already approved by the state house that would allow residents to leverage their property tax bill in order to undertake energy improvements in their homes. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) noted that the good thing about the initiative was that the improvements would stay with the property. Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) praised the efforts of the city’s environmental coordinator, Matt Naud, to make sure that the city was ready to take advantage of the legislation when it passed. [Previous Chronicle coverage: "Special District Might Fund Energy Program"]

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the resolution urging passage of PACE legislation.

Other: Near North Brownfield

Before the council was a resolution that amended the development agreement for the Near North project on North Main Street. The amendment, said Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), had come as a suggestion from the brownfield review committee. The city had an interest in seeing that the soil was actually cleaned up, and the amended agreement simply reflects that the developer will provide documentation that the clean up has taken place. Near North is an affordable housing complex being developed by the nonprofit Avalon Housing.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the resolution.

Other: Tiger 2 Application

Before the council was a resolution supporting the city’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) 2 grant application for the East Stadium bridges replacement project. Margie Teall (Ward 4) urged everyone to support the resolution, saying it was similar to the county’s resolution and would be provided as part of the application packet.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the resolution.

Other: Compost Carts

On the agenda was a $386,470 item that authorized purchase of 8,000 compost carts from Toter Inc. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) wanted to know how many carts the city kept on hand as inventory. Tom McMurtrie, the city’s solid waste coordinator, told her that the city typically purchases carts a truckload at a time, which corresponded to their on-hand inventory – about 500 carts, he said.

According to a memo accompanying the resolution, the city is switching vendors for the carts, due to some reported problems with wheels breaking and slippage in the automated arm for the carts from the previous vendor. Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) wanted to know what happens if there’s wheel breakage on a cart supplied by the previous vendor. McMurtrie explained that there’s a 10-year warranty provided by that vendor, Cascade Corporation.

The city is making the carts available at a cost of $25, which is less than the city’s cost for the carts, in order to encourage their use. The city is moving to a completely containerized approach to fall leaf collection.

Compost carts can be ordered online at www.a2gov.org/compost. They can also be purchased at the city’s customer service center, 220 E. Huron, or by calling 734-994-7336.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the resolution.

Other: Airport-Related Items

Three agenda items related to the airport. The main items were a $101,200 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation for an airfield marking and signage project, as well as a mapping project. The $101,200 consists of $96,140 in federal funds, $2,530 in state funds and $2,530 in airport matching funds.

The other two items were part of the MDOT project – $54,190 for the airfield marking and signage, with a local share of $1,355. And the final item was $25,000 for the mapping project.

In response to a question from Sabra Briere (Ward 1), the airport manager, Matthew Kulhanek, confirmed that the agenda items would not result in anything resembling a runway expansion.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) asked about the “Exhibit A” referenced in a cover memo. Kulhanek said it included a boundary survey of the property – the airport was made up of several parcels, he said. Asked what future purpose the survey had, Kulhanek indicated that it would be used to satisfy MDOT and FAA requirements.

Outcome: All three airport-related items were unanimously approved.

Communications and Public Commentary

Beyond public commentary already mentioned, several other people, including some public officials, spoke on topics not necessarily on the agenda.

Comment: Couch Ban

Kim LeMasters addressed the council on the topic of a possible ban on porch couches. She introduced herself as the mother of Renden LeMasters, who had died in a house fire on South State street the day before Easter this year. The final report on the fire, she said, was not complete, but there were strong indications that it had started in a trash container, spread to a couch, and then caught the house on fire. She noted that previous attempts to pass an ordinance banning porch couches had met with opposition from the student community.

Kim LeMasters’ son Renden died in a house fire in which a couch is thought to have played a role in the rapid spread of the flames.

LeMasters said that if Renden were here, he’d advocate for such a ban. She said that she’d simply wanted to introduce herself to the council and asked for verification that some kind of ordinance had been drafted. She also inquired about a possible timeline for its consideration, then concluded by saying that she would be a strong and active voice for such an ordinance.

[In the wake of the fire, Bob Snyder also called for a review of the possibility of a couch ban ordinance – at the council's April 5, 2010 meeting and at the council's April 18 Sunday caucus.]

Comment/Communications: Heavy Rains

Mae Keller introduced herself as speaking on behalf of residents of Village Oaks Court and Chaucer Court, located off Ann Arbor-Saline Road. She related how stormwater flowing over land in the neighborhood had resulted in 70,000 gallons of water coming through an egress window in the basement of the home of Larry and Linda Fingerle, a torrent that had posed an immediate danger to life. She also described other damage to homes in the neighborhood. The Fingerles’ house had sustained $100,000 to $150,000 in damage, she said, which was not covered by insurance because it had not been a “flood.” The excessive overland flow of water, she said, was the result of a poorly designed stormwater sewer system. Improvements had been undertaken to the system, she said, but the area had not been tied into it. She concluded by saying that the neighborhood was willing to work with anyone who was willing to work with them.

Filling in for city administrator Roger Fraser for the evening was Sue McCormick, the city’s public services area administrator. In her report, the recent heavy rains were a main topic. Depending on the specific area of the city, she said, up to 2.7 inches of rain had fallen. Just after midnight between Saturday and Sunday, she said, an inch of rain had fallen in a half hour. As of 4 p.m. on Monday, the city had received 42 calls with various issues – McCormick said each one would be investigated. There’d also been several reports of downed trees and limbs, as well as erosion along gravel roads.

Communication: Residential Parking Permits

In her communications time, Sandi Smith (Ward 1) told her colleagues that she and her Ward 1 colleague, Sabra Briere, would be bringing a proposal at the following meeting for a residential parking permit program for the Old Fourth Ward. [The program is meant, in part, to ensure that residents' street parking will not be taken up by residents of the University of Michigan North Quad dormitory, which is due to open this fall.]

Comment: Traffic Safety

Kathy Griswold noted that there was an item on the council’s consent agenda that addressed traffic calming. She said she supported traffic calming, because the goal of traffic calming measures is the safety of citizens. However, she said that the most cost effective measure that can be taken to improve safety – according to the book “Roadway Safety and Tort Liability”– was improving sightlines at intersections. She pointed out that traffic calming measures had been installed at the intersection at 7th & Washington, but that the sight distance at two of the four corners of the intersection is in violation of the city’s ordinances.

She told the council that in 2000 she was hired by the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) as a consultant to improve the safety of students while traveling to and from public school by doing a school walk zone analysis. She said that in response to a question from Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) about the King Elementary School crosswalk – she’s advocated for moving that crosswalk from its mid-block location to a nearby intersection – she’d looked at the situation at Thurston Elementary. She reported that there was graffiti covering some of the signs there and that this needed to be addressed. She stated that the joint city/school transportation safety committee, on which she serves, would be meeting to update a safety plan, and she asked the council to support it when it came before them. She thanked the councilmembers who’d attended the previous night’s caucus meeting for their discussion on the issue.

Comment: Advocacy for Most Vulnerable

Tom Partridge introduced himself as a Washtenaw County Democratic candidate for the District 18 state senate seat. He said he was an advocate for all people of Washtenaw County – seniors, the disabled, and the economically challenged. They need representation that will protect them, who are the most vulnerable, he said. He called for affordable housing, public transportation, education and health care.

Comment: Palestine and Israel

Blaine Coleman began his remarks by asking the Community Television Network camera operator to focus on the sign he’d placed in front of the podium, which read “Ann Arbor hereby boycotts all products from Israel.” He stated that he was bringing the resolution printed on the sign before the council for consideration that night. The Ann Arbor boycott of Israeli products, he said, had been proposed back in 1984, so the council had had 26 years to think about it. A week ago, Coleman said, the Israel military had killed nine people on boarding a humanitarian aid boat headed for Gaza and had shot an American citizen in the head. That was the kind of state they were supporting, Coleman said, when mayor John Hieftje and councilmember Mike Anglin attend the “Celebrate Israel” event.

Coleman repeated the resolution on the sign and queried councilmembers individually on how they would vote, beginning on the right: “Sandi Smith, how do you vote?” He noted the lack of response of each councilmember – Smith, Briere, and Derezinski – before moving on to the next, reaching Rapundalo before his time was up.

[Editor's note: By custom, councilmembers do not respond to direct questions during public commentary. Doing so would likely violate the council rule against allotting speaking time to someone other than the person signed up to speak. However, councilmembers often do use their own communications time on the agenda to respond to public commentary.]

Mozhgan Savabiesfahani noted that she’d personally been appearing before the council since 2002, and that subsequently the state of Israel had committed various crimes, including the most recent case involving the killing of people aboard a humanitarian aid boat. The council had ignored her, she said, and concluded: “I hold you responsible. You are guilty.” She used the remainder of her three-minute speaking time to hold her sign aloft, which read “Boycott Israel.”

Comment: U.S. Census

Tarik Green addressed the council as a member of the U.S. Census. He indicated that as of May 27 on a national level, 75% of the survey was complete. As the work wrapped up, he asked that people cooperate with census workers when they knocked on the door – it would only take 10 minutes, he said. He asked that the community “look out for” the census workers’ safety and noted that all workers would be equipped with a badge with a logo, a flag, and a signature.

Communication: Good News

In the category of good news, Sue McCormick highlighted the city’s LED streetlight program, which is one of three U.S. nominees for the EnergyGlobe Awards.

The Veterans Memorial Park ice arena had also received two awards, she reported.

McCormick gave an update on the construction for the municipal building – they’re currently working on bathroom tile and plumbing, among other projects. Concrete barriers have been repositioned to accommodate the contractors who’ll be coming down Fifth Avenue in connection with the Fifth and Division streetscape improvements being done by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority.

McCormick reported that the warm weather over the weekend had resulted in 4,000 visitors to the city’s public pools and 1,110 canoe rentals.

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

Next council meeting: June 21, 2010 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

Dominick Lanza is sworn in as the city of Ann Arbor’s new fire chief. (Photos by the writer.)

Part 1 of this report will not include single-stream recycling. Part 2 of the meeting report will focus on that issue, and will be somewhat delayed, in order to increase the possibility that an information request from the city for relevant data can be included in that article. [In this, we thus take a dual-stream approach.]

Aside from the single-stream recycling issue, the council addressed a range of other disparate topics.

The council undertook a wholesale replacement of the housing commission board, a move that will see the return to city service of recently-departed community services area administrator, Jayne Miller. She’s one of the new appointees to the housing commission board.

The council also approved a resolution urging Google to select Ann Arbor as a site for a fiber optic network. Accompanying that resolution was a public hearing during which seven people – two from Ypsilanti – spoke in support of the city’s bid, which also enjoys the support of the University of Michigan.

The city’s new fire chief, Dominick Lanza, was sworn in, though his start date comes a few days in the future – March 22, 2010.

Payment of $55,000 was authorized for a recently completed environmental study connected with a proposed runway extension at the Ann Arbor municipal airport – a study that came in for sharp critique during public commentary. The council recently deleted the runway extension from its capital improvements plan.

The council approved an estimated total expenditure of $54,700 from its alternative transportation capital improvements fund as part of an agreement with the Michigan Dept. of Transportation that will make various improvements to about 9.8 miles worth of non-motorized facilities – bike lanes and signs. The agreement is necessary in order to qualify for $250,000 worth of federal stimulus money for the project, which has been awarded to the city.

In other – more motorized – business, the council postponed consideration of a possible ban on cell phone use while driving in the city. The ban would also apply to bicycling.

Still, cell phone use while driving will be impossible on several different city streets in the near future. The city council approved a raft of street closings for some of the city’s annual events.

Ban on Cell Phone Use While Driving

The possible postponement of consideration on the cell phone ban was fairly well-publicized, and only two people spoke at the hearing – both of them against the measure.

Mayor John Hieftje announced at the start of the public hearing that consideration of the ordinance would likely be postponed and told everyone that the public hearing would be continued to the meeting when the council considered the ordinance for a vote. Because it would be the same public hearing, the mayor said, people who spoke that night would not be allowed to speak at the subsequent meeting.

Cell Phone Ban: Public Hearing

One city resident told the council that he did not understand why the local city council was debating the issue, given that there were laws pending in the state legislature that were meant to address the same issue. Why there should be a 6-square-mile difference [an allusion to the city of Ann Arbor's rough geographic area] did not make any sense to him, he said. He pointed out that there are already state laws in place against distracted driving that were simply not enforced. He told the council that based on his review of some of the studies that had been provided to the council, he found the results to be inconclusive.

The resident contended that even Paul Green of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute – who had indicated in one of the reports that some restrictions on cell phone use were applicable – was not in favor of a blanket ban. [Green had appeared at the last meeting of the council to offer some expert analysis of the issue.] The speaker pointed to research gaps and characterized the various meta-analyses as “all over the map.” He allowed that there was a moderate impact on driving from cell phone use, but contended that the results were really all over the place.

From the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, Nancy Jo Merdzinski spoke against the measure on behalf of the board. First, she said that the issue was more appropriately addressed at the state level to ensure uniformity. Second, she said that a local ordinance prohibiting cell phone use while driving would be perceived as unfriendly and unwelcoming. Finally, the board felt it would have a negative impact on economic development, she said.

Cell Phone Ban: Council Deliberations

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) led off discussion by saying that the conversation stimulated by the proposed ordinance had now focused on the data – there was a great deal of data, he said. He stated that it was his view that a little more time to review the data would be useful, and moved to postpone the resolution.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) inquired whether there would be substantive changes in the ordinance when it eventually came back before the council. Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) indicated to Higgins that the modifications were being undertaken by the city attorney’s office, and they had to do with two-way radios. The ordinance language already accommodated amateur radio operators, he explained, and there was an interest in making sure that city workers and Ann Arbor Transportation Authority workers would also be accommodated.

Stephen Rapundalo uses a hands-free phone (in his right ear), but plugs in his laptop for power at the start of the council meeting.

Rapundalo stated that he did not want to have to take the resolution back to an additional first reading. [The resolution has already been returned to a first reading one time, so what Rapundalo is hoping to avoid is the need to hear the resolution as a first reading for the third time.] Rapundalo said that the revisions were not going to change the substance of the ordinance.

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) responded to a point that had been made during the public commentary about legislation that was currently pending at the state level. Derezinski acknowledged that there was a state-level legislation pending, but contending that none of that legislation is preemptive – it does not preclude a local municipality from authorizing its own ordinance. He also pointed out that other communities in Michigan have already enacted such ordinances.

[Senate Bill 468 contains a clause that allows local municipalities to pass and enforce ordinances on cell phones and driving, but only if those ordinances are substantially the same as SB 468: "(4) This section supersedes all local ordinances regulating the use of a communication device while operating a motor vehicle in motion on a highway or street, except that a unit of local government may adopt an ordinance or enforce an existing ordinance substantially corresponding to this section." ]

Outcome: The postponement of the ban on cell phone use while driving was unanimously approved, with dissent from Higgins.

Google Fiber

Several people spoke at the public hearing on the council’s resolution urging Google to select Ann Arbor as a test site for a fiber-optic network. The deadline for community applications is March 26. Two of the speakers at the hearing, who all expressed support for selection of Ann Arbor is a test location, were from Ypsilanti, a city directly east of Ann Arbor.

Google Fiber: Public Hearing

Steve Pierce introduced himself as a resident of Ypsilanti and co-founder of Wireless Ypsi. He told the council that he was excited that Ann Arbor was making a proposal and characterized it as good for the region. Pierce said that we need to change the way we look at telecommunications policy. He congratulated councilmembers and the staff members who had worked on the proposal.

Washtenaw Community College’s chief information officer, Amin Ladha, applauded the city’s effort, especially in the current condition that Michigan is in. He said Google’s fiber network would encourage business investment and development. He told them that Washtenaw Community College would support the effort, because it was in the interest of the community.

Wes Vivian introduced himself as a decades-long telecommunications consultant, and told the council that for the last 15-20 years it’s been clear that either the telephone companies will migrate to fiber-optic networks or face domination by cable television companies. That process has begun, he said – AT&T has installed fiber in many communities.

Wes Vivian told the council they needed to start thinking about how to implement a fiber-optic network, even if Google did not select Ann Arbor as a test site.

If Google “coughs up the money” that’s great, Vivian said, but we need to find a way to implement this anyway – even if Google decides not select Ann Arbor as a test site. Fiber, he said, was part of the necessary infrastructure of a city – like a street. It wasn’t necessary to provide a system, he said, but just a hole in the ground or a hole in the air.

Dominic Serra of the Southfield firm Internet 123 told the council that they may have heard about his company’s connection with 20/20 Communications in a newspaper story over the weekend. He told them that Internet 123 owned around 750 miles of fiber network in Michigan, and that they were supporting Ann Arbor’s proposal to Google. He told them that if there’s anything they can do, Internet 123 was at the city’s disposal – they are 100% behind the effort.

Brian Robb told the council that he was speaking for himself, not as an Ypsilanti city council member – he supported the Google fiber effort. He told them he would be bringing a resolution before the Ypsilanti city council reflecting that.

Amy Mah told the council that she was really excited about this plan, as were friends of hers who did not live in Ann Arbor.

Chris Leeder, a Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan School of Information, told the council that there was a great deal of excitement among UM students and in his department in particular.

Google Fiber: Council Deliberations

Before the council was a resolution that urged Google to choose Ann Arbor as a location for a test of a fiber-optic system that would include fiber to the home (FTTH) – offered to residents at a competitive rate.

Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) gave background on the request for information that Google had issued, describing the data capacity of the fiber-optic system as one gigabit per second, or roughly 100 times as fast as the typical currently-available Internet service. The proposal that the city was putting together, Taylor said, was a joint effort between the city of Ann Arbor and University of Michigan. The partnership was intended to make Ann Arbor’s response as strong and as powerful as it can be.

One of the main criteria that Google will be using to choose a location, explained Taylor, was the ease and efficiency of implementation in their chosen test site. It was in that context, he said, that the council was offering their resolution. He pointed out that to the original sponsors of the resolution, four other councilmembers had asked to be added: Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), Mike Anglin (Ward 5), and Margie Teall (Ward 4). [The original sponsors were Taylor, Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), mayor John Hieftje and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2).]

The part of the resolution that speaks to ease and efficiency of implementation is the following clause, which Taylor read aloud: “RESOLVED, That if so selected, the Ann Arbor City Council shall direct City Staff to take all lawful measures to expedite and accommodate the safe and efficient installation of the Google FTTH network;”

Taylor concluded his remarks by noting that the city’s response will stand on its own, but that Google is interested in the community response to the proposal, as well. He directed people to visit a2fiber.com where they can find information about nominating the city of Ann Arbor, becoming Facebook fans – there are more than 11,000 fans at this point– following the proposal on Twitter, and creating videos for YouTube.

Hohnke thanked Taylor for his work, as well as the city and university staff for preparing the application. He cited the effort as a good example of the city and the university working together. He said that Ann Arbor was well-positioned to make its proposal. He encouraged people to visit the a2fiber.com website at the currently “slow, crawling pace of 10 megabits per second.” Hieftje wrapped up remarks at the council table by noting that in his travels through the city, he’d noticed a great amount of excitement about the Google fiber initiative.

Outcome: The council unanimously passed the resolution urging Google to choose Ann Arbor as a test location for its fiber-optic network.

Housing Commission Board Replacement

Before the council was a wholesale replacement of the city’s housing commission board. Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), the council’s liaison to the housing commission board, reminded his colleagues of a January work session on the housing commission. He reminded them that the “marching orders” for the consultant who had been hired several months ago were to consider all options. [Chronicle coverage: "Housing Commission Reorganizes"]

That included everything from spinning off the housing commission entirely to developing an even closer relationship between the city and the housing commission. Over the last few months, Derezinski said, it had become clear that changes needed to be made at the level of leadership and governance. He allowed that an interim director had made a substantial difference at the level of managment, but that on the board there was a need for leadership and vision.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) asked how the council could be sure that the new board would not also have difficulty with their decisions, the same way that the current board did. He also asked how much support the city was thinking of providing to the Ann Arbor housing commission.

City administrator Roger Fraser responded to Kunselman by reminding the council of the report that had been made to them in January 2010 – that had been a forecast of required financial support. The housing commission needed to think about ways to generate more money than they were getting from HUD, said Fraser, referring to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.

The problem was that they were not imagining a future with anything except HUD dollars. The goal of the reconfiguration of the housing commission, he said, was to be able to position the commission to seek grants, in addition to HUD funding. That would require leadership on the board. The city would be asked for around $135,000 to carry the housing commission for one year while that transition took place.

Fraser then listed out the members of the newly constituted board that the council was being asked to appoint:

• Mark McDonald – a property manager for large multifamily residences who understood issues of maintenance and customer care;
• Jayne Miller – who spent the last two years of her service to the city of Ann Arbor as community services area administrator, investigating issues associated with the housing commission, and who had expressed an interest in finding a way to continue her connectedness to the board even after leaving employment with the city. [Miller now heads up the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority.]
• Marta Manildi – who has been on the board since last September and has not yet had an opportunity to have an impact.
• Deborah Gibson –  a resident commissioner currently on the board, who’ll be reappointed to a one-month term. They’ll be canvassing for a replacement.

Asked by Anglin whether the interim executive director, Marge Novak, would remain as a permanent executive director, Fraser indicated that this was one of the decisions that the housing commission board needs to make but has been unable to make.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the replacement of the housing commission board.

Fire Chief Appointment

The theme of fire department services was first introduced at the meeting by Mike Anglin (Ward 5), who reported a recent positive personal experience. He’d called 911 in connection with a medical emergency on behalf of a woman with shortness of breath. He reported that the fire department arrived within three minutes, followed by the rescue squad. “That’s what we pay for,” he said. Anglin cited that kind of fast 911 service is one of the benefits of living in a city, as opposed to out in the townships.

City clerk Jackie Beaudry gets some signatures from Dominick Lanza. She had just administered the oath of office to Lansza, the city’s new fire chief.

The fire chief was not present for the actual appointment – it was later explained that his belongings had arrived with the moving van from Tennessee right around the time the council meeting started. He was able to join the council for his swearing in later in the meeting.

In introducing Dominick Lanza, the newly-appointed fire chief, Fraser said he was delighted – “you don’t know how delighted” – that he was able to announce Lanza’s selection and appointment as fire chief. Lanza served for 33 years in the Fort Lauderdale area as a firefighter and as an assistant commander in an organization that was actually a part of the sheriff’s department. Since 2007, he has been retired in Tennessee, but retirement did not fit him very well. “If you’ll shake his hand, I’d really appreciate it,” Fraser said.

Outcome: Lanza was appointed by a unanimous council vote and sworn in as new fire chief for the city of Ann Arbor.

From the March 4, 2010 offer letter sent to Dominick Lanza, the terms of his employment are as follows:

1. Position – Fire Chief – Exempt Professional Position #403390, Level 2
2. Salary – $ 108,000/year, paid bi-weekly
3. Vehicle Allowance – $400/month
4. Cell Phone Stipend $83/month plus the Data standard plan at: $53/month
5. Date of Employment – March 22, 2010 (Tentative)
6. Medical Insurance & Other City Sponsored Benefit Plans: Your coverage under such plans will become effective on your date of hire. A benefits summary is included with this letter. A full explanation of benefits will be explained once you start your employment with the City.

Environmental Assessment on Runway Extension

Before the council was the authorization for payment of a $55,000 cost for an environmental assessment associated with a possible extension of the runway at the Ann Arbor municipal airport. The council recently deleted the runway extension from its capital improvements plan.

EA on Runway Extension: Public Commentary

During public commentary reserved time, Andrew McGill described an environmental assessment study – which  had been conducted in connection with a possible extension and shift of a runway at the Ann Arbor municipal airport –  as “deeply flawed.” He cautioned councilmembers that “you may want to actually hold your noses” in receiving the report, though he acknowledged that the study had been completed and that they needed to pay for it. He described the report as unprofessional, saying that it did not draw on any academic or environmental expertise and that it was not possible to extract correct conclusions made by the report from the data included in it. The consultant on the study, JJR, refused to contact the author of the major FAA study on bird strikes, contending it was “irrelevant,” McGill said.

In the study, McGill continued, there are 38 species of birds identified, but it does not mention any Canadian geese. He pointed out that there are goose-crossing signs in the immediate vicinity of the airport. He suggested that the reason for the omission was that the FAA becomes alarmed at any mention of Canadian geese in such a report. He reminded the council that it was a Canada goose that brought down Sully’s plane. [The reference is to Chesley Sullenberger – "Sully" – the pilot of the US Airways plane that crash-landed on the Hudson River over a year ago.] McGill asked the council to contemplate what they would do with the report now that they are paying for it. He suggested that they should simply throw it out.

EA on Runway Extension: Council Deliberations

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) began council deliberations by asking the Ann Arbor municipal airport manager, Matt Kulhanek, if it was true, as McGill had contended, that there was no mention of geese, and if so, why not.

Kulhanek clarified that the list of 30 birds in the report were species of birds in the vicinity that were endangered. Christoper Taylor (Ward 3) confirmed with Kulhanek that the absence of geese in the report was because the report did not seek to characterize which birds were in the vicinity of the airport, but rather which birds that are endangered are in the vicinity of the airport.

Outcome: The authorization for the funds to pay for the study was passed unanimously.

Sewage Bonds

Before the council was an ordinance authorizing issuance and sale of sewage disposal system revenue bonds to the Michigan Municipal Bond Authority in the amount of $1.32 million. By way of background, there’s a difference between the city’s stormwater system – into which the street drains flow – and its sanitary sewer system, into which toilets flush.

Any rainwater that is directed into the sanitary sewer system through footing drains represents an unnecessary load on the sanitary system, because that water does not require treatment, but gets treated just the same. In the past, increased flow to the sanitary sewer during storms has resulted in the backup of sewage in homeowners’ basements. The city has a program in place to systematically disconnect footing drains from the sanitary sewage system. [Background on the footing drain disconnect program: "Drain Disconnect Time For Homeowners"]

On Monday night, Mike Anglin (Ward 5) had three questions concerning the issuance of the bonds. First, he wondered whether it was reasonable to tap some of the $56 million in cash reserves in the sewer fund rather than to issue the bonds. Tom Crawford, the city’s chief financial officer, pointed out that the bonds came with a special, low rate through a state revolving fund. It’s part of a program the city has for the drain disconnect program.

Sue McCormick, public services area administrator, pointed out that the city was undertaking an unprecedented capital project with the replacement of its wastewater treatment plant. The replacement of the solids-handling facility construction had a price tag of around $42 million, she said, and reconstructing half the liquids-handling facility amounted to another $70 million, she added.

While the cash balance in the sewer fund looked large, she said that was simply the result of reserving incrementally over the years for this major capital project. That balance had been achieved through incremental 3-4% rate increases. Prompted by Hieftje, McCormick confirmed that the original wastewater treatment plant had been built in the 1930s and that around $40 million had been saved towards the replacement project.

Anglin also had a question about whether bond fees would be assessed by the city. McCormick clarified that bond fees are not a project-allowable expense when the city bonds through state.

She also confirmed for Anglin that for this project, none of the funds would go to the city’s Percent for Art program.

City administrator Roger Fraser offered the further clarification that the bonds in question that night supported footing drain disconnection – not construction of the wastewater treatment plant – and that the nature of the work precludes any installation of art.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) asked how many footing drain disconnects had been performed so far. McCormick said she did not know off the top of her head but that she could get that information for Higgins.

In general terms, Higgins said the city had started work in the southwest part of the city and had completed much of that work, as well as some work in the northeast areas. And McCormick indicated that the city would continue on a priority basis with homes in the original five study areas where there had been basement backups of sewage. She said the city was not done yet.

Another point McCormick made was that the city was under a consent order from the state to remove a certain amount of stormwater flow from the sanitary sewer system. She also said it was a standing policy of the city council that if additional connections to the system were allowed for new construction, then that new construction was required to mitigate their peak load connection by 125% of the added load to the system. Finally, she said, the point of the footing drain disconnection program was to recover capacity and affordability to make sure that only the water that needed to be treated was actually treated.

Fraser added that the sewage system has a limit, but demand continues to grow. Considering the desire – at least in some minds in the community, he allowed – for the city to grow its population, it was important to maximize the capacity of the system. Part of maximizing the capacity includes removing water from the system that does not, in fact, need to be treated.

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the authorization of the issuance of the sewage disposal system bonds.

Liquor License

The council approved issuance of a downtown development district liquor license for Tomukun Noodle Bar. Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2), who chairs the council’s liquor committee, noted that the city council had already approved the issuance of the license, but that a new reviewer at the MLCC did not care for some of the wording and that’s why it had been returned to the council. The wording issue had been addressed, said Rapundalo.

Outcome: The liquor license for Tomukun Noodle Bar was unanimously approved.

Golf Task Force

The council reappointed members of the city’s golf task force – Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) indicated that March 1 had become the annual renewal date for the task force. This year there were some minor changes to the makeup of the task force, made in response to some neighborhood groups who had wanted a role on it, he reported. To that end, a spot for a resident neighbor had been added. One spot for someone with golf expertise had been reduced – that still left two people on the task force with familiarity with golf operations and with golf course design.

Asked by Mike Anglin (Ward 5) to clarify what the task force did, Rapundalo clarified that the task force looked at both of the city’s golf courses – Leslie Golf Course and Huron Hills Golf Course – and that their purview included both marketing as well as fee structures for the two courses. The overall goal of the task force was to try to reduce the amount of general fund support that the two courses required. The next meeting of the task force, Rapundalo indicated, would focus on the budget and in particular the possibility of a public-private partnership for the Huron Hills course.

Members of the golf task force will be Stephen Rapundalo (city councilmember), Julie Grand (park advisory commission member), Doug Davis (current commercial operations expert), Bill Newcomb (Ann Arbor citizen with demonstrated golf operations expertise), Ed Walsh (Ann Arbor citizen with demonstrated golf operations expertise), Steven Rodriguez (Ann Arbor citizen with group golf play experience), Barbara Jo Smith (at-large Ann Arbor golf courses patron), and John Stetz (Ann Arbor citizen and member of a neighborhood association adjoining a golf course).

Outcome: The council unanimously approved the renewed and new appointments to the golf task force.

As a part of his communications to the council, city administrator Roger Fraser, announced that the new parks and recreation activities guide has now been published. The Huron Hills Golf Course front seven holes opened last week and Leslie Golf Course is set to open on March 25.

Non-motorized System Expansion Project

The council had before it a proposal to authorize $54,700 from its alternative transportation capital improvements fund as part of an agreement with the Michigan Dept. of Transportation that will make various improvements to around 9.8 miles worth of non-motorized facilities – bike lanes and signs. The agreement is necessary in order to qualify for $250,000 worth of federal stimulus money for the project, which has been awarded to the city.

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) wanted to know where the process stood. Were construction drawings already done? Pat Cawley, with the city’s project management department, indicated that the bids had been opened last week. The project had begun life in 2007 as one that was not federally funded. When the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act stimulus funds became available, he said, the city was able to push it forward as a shovel-ready project.

Smith wanted to know if there were any opportunities for changes to the plans or for public engagement.

Cawley said there was some room for changes – given the three-year history of the project, some of the information on which the construction plans had been based could be out of date, and accommodation would need to be made. On public engagement, he said there had been a meeting back in 2007, and that now the city would focus on providing information to the community. He said that a suggestion from the Greenway Conservancy had been incorporated to include signage about the greenway along Ashley and First streets.

Outcome: The non-motorized improvements were unanimously approved.

Street Closures

The council authorized a number of street closures.

• March 20, 2010: A2A3 Box Cart Race/Soap Box Derby [S. University from Oxford to Walnut, and Linden from S. University to Geddes] [Chronicle coverage of last year's event: "Box Cars Zoom Down South University"]
• April 3, 2010: Monroe Street Fair [Monroe Street between Oakland and Tappan]
• April 8, 2010: Take Back The Night (Rally and March) S. University Ave. from Church Street to S. State Street; S. State Street from S. University Ave. to E. Madison Street; E. Madison Street from S. State Street to Thompson Street; Thompson Street from E. Madison Street to E. William Street; E. William Street from Thompson Street to S. Fourth Ave.; S. Fourth Ave. from E. William Street to E. Liberty Street; E. Liberty Street from S. Fourth Ave. to S. State Street; and S. State Street from E. Liberty Street to the UM Diag ]
• April 11, 2010: FestiFools [S. Main Street from William Street to Washington Street; and Liberty Street from Ashley Street to South Fourth Avenue] [Chronicle coverage of last year's event: "Favorite Fools"]
• May 2, 2010: Burns Park Run [Baldwin Avenue from Wells Street to Cambridge Road; Cambridge Road from Baldwin Avenue to Martin Place; Martin Place from Cambridge Road to Wells Street; Wells Street from Martin Place to Lincoln Avenue; Lincoln Avenue from Wells Street to Cambridge Road; Cambridge Road from Lincoln Avenue to S. Forest Avenue; S. Forest Avenue from Cambridge Road to Granger Avenue; Granger Avenue from S. Forest Avenue to Baldwin Avenue; Baldwin Avenue from Granger Avenue to Brooklyn Avenue; Brooklyn Avenue from Baldwin Avenue to Lincoln Avenue; Lincoln Avenue from Brooklyn Avenue to Shadford Road; Shadford Road from Lincoln Avenue to Woodside Road; Woodside Road from Shadford Road to Scottwood Avenue; Scottwood Avenue from Woodside Road to Norway Road; Norway Road from Scottwood Avenue to Ferdon Road; Ferdon Road from Norway Road to Wells Street; and Wells Street from Ferdon Road to Baldwin Avenue]
• June 4-5, 2010: Annual African-American Downtown Festival [East Ann Street from North Main Street to the Hands On Museum driveway near North Fifth Avenue (local traffic access maintained) and North Fourth Avenue from Catherine Street to East Huron Street]

Other Public Commentary

Several people spoke during public commentary at the meeting, either at the beginning of the meeting when time must be reserved in advance, or at the end of the meeting, when no reservation is necessary.

Musical Interlude

During public commentary reserved time, Libby Hunter offered a song, as she has on several previous occasions. She suggested that it was a very old melody that some people might recognize. ["Blessed Assurance" composed by Phoebe P. Knapp, 1839-1908.] The lyrics were a critical comment on the process that the city uses to make spending decisions.

Main Street BIZ

Ed Shaffran appeared during public commentary reserved time as chair of the Main Street BIZ initiative to thank the council for their support. He reported that the vote among property owners in the proposed district had resulted in greater than 95% support. He told the council that it was their support that allowed the group to go forward with a proposal. He specifically thanked mayor John Hieftje, city clerk Jackie Beaudry, Kevin McDonald from the city attorney’s office, and city assessor David Petrak. Shaffran closed his remarks by summarizing the goal of the new business district: “We’re willing to tax ourselves to make downtown look better.”

Homelessness

Lily Au told the council that their resolutions that invested $245,000 to help low-income people find housing was a good step. [The resolutions were passed without comment from the council.] She alerted them to the fact that Camp Take Notice, which is a homeless tent city located near the intersection of Ann Arbor-Saline Road and I-94, had to rebuild the camp after a recent snowfall.

Au told the council that the Michigan Dept. of Transportation (MDOT) had given the campers a warning that they needed to depart the premises within 30 days or they would be evicted. That was three weeks ago, she said. She said people often ask why those people don’t simply go to the Delonis Center. She told the council that there is not enough accommodation there. She also noted that the rotating warming shelter that is operated by the faith community would end at the end of March. She described a pattern that would repeat itself: the police would evict the campers, they would hide, and build again.

Palestine

Marcia Federbush criticized the council’s decision, made in December 2009, to appoint Neal Elyakin as a member of the city’s human rights commission. She cited Elyakin’s membership in the Friends of the Israeli Defense forces as incompatible to his membership on the city’s human rights commission. For the road commission, she allowed it would not be an issue, but for the human rights commission, which dealt specifically with these kind of issues, it was relevant. It was the Israeli Defense Forces, Federbush said, that had brought the massacre of 1,400 in Gaza a little over a year ago, using pilotless drones, and white phosphorus. About Elyakin, she contended that “When the world sees yellow, he insists it’s blue.”

Henry Herskovitz began his remarks by saying that he felt most people knew who he was and what he did: exercise his First Amendment rights by holding signs on public sidewalks. He told the council that he actually did not enjoy doing that. On the contrary, he rather disliked it. He did not like being out in the open exposed, even to the point that he did not like waiting for buses. The bus drivers can see him, but he cannot see them. He said that he had previously sworn that he would never do what he’d seen other peace activists do.

But that had changed 10 years ago when he had accompanied a friend on a trip to Iraq to help deliver medical textbooks. In the course of that trip he visited a hospital in Basra in southern Iraq. The hospitals, he reported, were in terrible condition – due to sanctions imposed at the time by the United States.

In the hospital, Herskovitz said, there was a “terrorist” – and he knew that the man was a “terrorist” because he matched the various portrayals that he had seen in mainstream media. Herskovitz said that he started to take pictures of the boy in a hospital bed next to the “terrorist” and that the “terrorist” was crying. Herskovitz said he realized then that the man was the dying boy’s father and that he was crying over the fact his dying son was being used as a photo opportunity. Herskovitz said he came back to Ann Arbor 10 years ago and picked up a sign.

Mid-Block Crosswalk

Kathy Griswold spoke, as she has on many previous occasions, about the issue of moving a crosswalk near King Elementary School from its mid-block location to a four-way stop intersection. She kidded the council, following up on the council discussion of endangered species of birds near the airport, by alluding to a duck and her ducklings hosted at the school – they might try to use the crosswalk mid-block and they should be protected. Switching to a more serious tone, Griswold told the council that she’d been using CTN video equipment to record activity at the crosswalk – after taking the CTN training to use the equipment.

Griswold said that at this point she was waiting for a response from the city to her request that a meeting be held. She described how she’d received a call from a neighbor, which she’d relay to the mayor, who’d handed off the issue to the ward’s two councilmembers, Tony Derezinski and Stephen Rapundalo. She described the situation as a “communications traffic circle.”

City Finances

Brad Mikus called the council’s attention to the pension fund report attached to their information packet. He called the $80 million loss on investments in the report “a big number.” He also called the council’s attention to the fact that according to the report, 10% of the funds are to be invested in alternative assets: hedge funds, timber, and high yield fixed income instruments. Focusing on the phrase “high yield fixed income instruments,” Mikus characterized them as “junk bonds.”

Mikus also called the council’s attention to a number of receivables that are over two years old, including one from SBC for around $100,000. That was money sitting there that could be collected, he suggested.

Council Communications and Updates

In her communications from council, Sandi Smith (Ward 1) suggested that the council look at the scheduling of their July 19 meeting and consider shifting it to July 20. The Townie Street party is scheduled for July 19, and she thought that many council members would like to attend.

Smith also alerted the community that the U.S. Census forms would be delivered in the next few days and she encouraged everyone to fill out the form. It was a secure process, she assured everyone.

Mayor John Hieftje reported that over the weekend he attended the funeral service of a former mayor of Ann Arbor – Sam Eldersfeld Eldersveld, who was mayor from 1957-1959. Hieftje described Eldersfeld as having built the University of Michigan political science department. At the St. Andrews service, Hieftje said, there were three former mayors and a lot of nice memorabilia from city history on display.

Stephen Rapundalo, during his communications, announced that on Friday at 9 a.m. Terumo‘s Ann Arbor campus would be having a dedication ceremony to celebrate the firm’s growth. He encouraged council members to attend, saying that Gov. Jennifer Granholm and representatives from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. would be on hand.

City administrator Roger Fraser announced that at their April 19, 2010 city meeting, the council would be presented with the proposed budget for fiscal year 2011. However, at the first meeting in April they would receive a hard copy of the budget. At the April 12, 2010  work session, said Fraser, the content of the budget book would be walked through and representatives of Ann Arbor SPARK and the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA) would be on hand to answer any questions.

The board of review, Fraser said, has begun its work on tax assessment appeals. They have expanded the process to include two boards, he reminded the council, which can process appeals simultaneously. The additional capacity is needed to process the increased number of appeals.

Street sweeping, Fraser also announced, has resumed for the season. “It’s that time of year.”

As an update on the municipal center construction going on along Fifth Avenue just outside of city hall, Fraser reported that demolition in the basement of city hall resulted in some dust and smells in the building that affected first-floor workers, and that they had been temporarily relocated. The new elevator tower on the west side of the existing city hall building would begin soon, he reported. That would result in a squaring off of the upside-down-cake appearance of the building on that side. Fraser said that if Phase 2 of the renovation plan were to ever be implemented, at that time the men’s and women’s bathrooms would be renovated.

Fraser announced that the city has reduced its number of temporary workers to the point that it is no longer cost-effective to have Manpower administer that operation. This will be brought back in-house.

In response to a question from Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Fraser explained that some, but not all of the temporary workers would be brought on as city employees.

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

Absent: Margie Teall, Sabra Briere.

Mayor John Hieftje announced that councilmember Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Margie Teall (Ward 4) were absent due to the flu. Later Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) had to leave the meeting somewhat early to tend to a sick family.

Next council meeting: April 5, 2010 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]

At the Sunday Ann Arbor city council caucus, from left: Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Sabra Briere (Ward 1). Also attending the caucus from the city council were Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and John Hieftje (mayor). (Photo by the writer.)

Due to receive its first reading on Monday night at the council’s regular meeting is The Moravian – a  five-story residential and work/live space planned unit development (PUD) along the 500 block of Fifth Avenue and the 200 block of East Madison. The project was given a recommendation for approval from the city’s planning commission on a 7-1 vote in January 2010. [Chronicle coverage: "Moravian Moves Forward Despite Protests"]

At Sunday’s caucus, some residents said they were keen to see a substantive discussion at The Moravian’s first reading, but councilmembers cautioned that the first reading was typically not the time when they argued a particular position. Residents indicated that they’d gathered enough signatures from surrounding land owners to meet a city code threshold that would force an 8-vote super-majority – out of 11 votes – at a second reading of the PUD proposal.

Also receiving a first reading on Monday will be a proposed ban on cell phone use while driving. The ban had already received approval on first reading at the council’s last meeting, but due to subsequent significant revisions to the ordinance language, it will be heard again Monday as a first reading. The council’s agenda indicates that the public hearing, generally held along with an ordinance’s second reading, has been canceled. That will be rescheduled to coincide with the second reading.

A budget directive – reducing all non-union staff salaries by 3% – had been postponed from the last council meeting and will be considered by the council on Monday in a slightly revised form. As a council resolution – as opposed to an ordinance – it will require just one reading. A key revision in the intervening postponement: It’s now a minimum 3% cut that’s specified, which leaves the door open for even greater cuts.

Background: First, Second Readings and Petitions

Why do ordinances require two readings before city council in order to be enacted? It’s a requirement of the city charter:

SECTION 7.3.
…
(b) Each proposed ordinance shall receive two readings, which may be by title only, unless ordered by the Council to be read in full or in part. After the first reading of a proposed ordinance, the Council shall determine whether it shall be advanced to a second reading. The second reading shall not be given earlier than the next regular Council meeting.

The Moravian, as a planned unit development (PUD), requests a change in the city’s zoning – zoning districts are a part of the set of city ordinances and are recorded in Chapter 55 of the city code.

The zoning of parcels surrounding The Moravian also came up in discussion at Monday’s caucus, because those parcels factor into a calculation for protest petitions that can be filed against a PUD. Chapter 55 Article XI, Section 5:107 (5) specifies that [emphasis added]:

(5) A protest against any proposed amendment to this chapter may be presented in writing to the City Clerk at or before the public hearing thereon. Such protest shall be duly signed by the owners of at least 20% of the area of land included in the proposed change, or the owners of at least 20% of the area of land included within an area extending outward 100 feet from any point on the boundary of the land included in the proposed change, excluding any other publicly owned land. Following the filing of a valid protest petition, adoption of an amendment to this chapter shall require at least 8 affirmative votes of the Council at the second reading on the ordinance.

Beverly Strassmann, who is president of the Germantown Neighborhood Association, contended at Sunday’s caucus that the city clerk’s office had thus far declined to accept the petition that had been prepared against The Moravian – apparently on the grounds that the first reading on The Moravian had not yet taken place. Strassmann was concerned that the petition would not be accepted in time to have an impact. Councilmembers at caucus assured her that they’d check into the petition submission issue.

Aerial view of The Moravian, looking northeast. A computer-generated image of the proposed project is located in the center of this picture – the U-shaped building. The South Main Market complex is in the foreground; Perry School, now used as offices by the University of Michigan, is to the upper right. (Image links to higher resolution file.)

Strassmann’s other concern about the petition was that the University of Michigan-owned building across Fourth Avenue, east of the proposed The Moravian, was inappropriately zoned as M1, which is “limited industrial district,” not PL, or “public land.”

If it were zoned as public land, she said, it would not factor into the land area calculation for the protest petition, making it easier to meet the 20% threshold – on the assumption that UM would not sign. [Editor's note: The Chronicle's reading of the code requirement on the protest petition is that the university property would properly be excluded, because it is "publicly owned." The code requirement on petitions does not say "zoned as public land."]

On the issue of whether the university-owned building was currently improperly zoned as M1, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) weighed in saying that actual land use was different from zoning – the zoning might well be different from the land’s actual use.

Kunselman queried Strassmann as to whether she had enough signatures even without the UM property, and she indicated that she did. However, she was not able to give an estimate of what percentage had been achieved.

Past Protest Petitions: City Place

About a year ago, the same kind of protest petition had an impact on the City Place PUD north of Packard on Fifth Avenue, but in the same general neighborhood as the The Moravian. [Chronicle coverage: "Residents Organize to Defeat City Place"]

The petition not only raised the number of votes necessary for approval to eight – the fact of the petition caused councilmembers who’d been inclined to vote for the project to change their thinking. At a Sunday caucus on July 19, 2009, some months after the City Place vote in January, Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) allowed that he’d come to the City Place vote inclined to support the project, but the fact of the petition had given the neighborhood opposition to the project greater clarity.

The vote against City Place was thus 10-0 – the council had had six likely votes in favor of the project, but not the eight needed to make it stick. [Sandi Smith (Ward 1) did not attend that meeting.]

The Moravian: Due Process and Deliberations at First Reading

At Sunday’s caucus, Beverly Strassmann, president of the Germantown Neighborhood Association, asked the council not to approve The Moravian for a second reading but rather to send the developer back for a public participation meeting. Why? In January 2009, an ordinance took effect that the council had approved, which requires developers to hold a meeting with neighbors of proposed developments and submit a report on that meeting with their site plan submission.

It was that report that Strassmann had a problem with. She contended that the representations in the report were “fraudulent” and thus could not possibly satisfy the ordinance requirement. She said she took issue with the characterization of herself as “verbally abusive” and reported that other residents at the meeting also felt that their comments had been misrepresented by the developer. One of the meetings described in the report, Strassmann said, took place on Dec. 23, 2008. [Chronicle coverage of the Dec. 23 meeting: "The Madison Redux"]

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) commented that this was the nature of the public participation ordinance – it was up to the developer to hold the meeting and to write the report. Kunselman said he wasn’t so concerned about the he-said-she-said aspect. Rather, his main question was whether the objections of Strassmann and others to the content of the report had been established as a part of the public record. Strassmann indicated that at least one resident, Walt Spiller, had registered his objections at the planning commission’s public hearing, but she was uncertain whether that had been included in the commission’s minutes.

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) used his laptop computer to retrieve the minutes and read aloud:

Walt Spiller, 548 South Fifth Avenue, adjacent homeowner to the north, asked that appropriate buffering be provided between his property and this project. He believed the petitioner’s representation of his comments were a misinterpretation, adding that he told the petitioner he would not bring this up in a public forum if the petitioner would redact the entire statement under his name. It was not done, he said. His main opposition to this proposal was that it was out of scale and character with the existing neighborhood.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1), who had helped push forward the passage of the still relatively new public participation ordinance, noted that it was due for an annual review and that the issue of a report’s content should be included in its review. [The ordinance took effect in January 2009.] The question of when additional meetings are triggered is also something she said should be reviewed – city staff were interpreting the ordinance’s reference to “amended planned unit development zoning district” in a way that didn’t include all changes, she said. [Related Chronicle coverage: "Heritage Row Redux: Process Clarified"]

Jack Eaton, responding to Strassmann’s use of the word “fraud,” suggested that the council focus attention away from that word and instead focus on the idea that the public participation ordinance should be taken seriously. He suggested that one way to achieve that at Monday’s first reading would be to ask the developer to amend the report on the public participation meeting to reflect residents’ comments accurately.

At Sunday’s caucus, many of the same concerns  were expressed about The Moravian that neighbors had conveyed at the planning commission’s meeting: the building was out of scale with the neighborhood; the building would create shadows on surrounding buildings; 5th floor terraces should not count as open space. Strassmann summarized the way she felt the planning commission had treated the developer: “Planning commission has coddled the developer as if he was breastfeeding.” [In early 2006, the city council passed a revision to Chapter 112 of the city code that makes explicit a mother's right to breastfeed in places of public accommodation.]

Briere, responding to concerns raised by Strassmann that there was no actual brownfield on The Moravian site, told Strassmann that brownfields did not necessarily require that there be pollution – “urban blight” was sufficient. And someone could decide that there was “urban blight,” Briere said, even though you might not agree that it was blighted. Briere drew upon her experience with a proposed development near her neighborhood – the Lowertown development near Broadway – in providing the explanation to Strassmann.

The Moravian is an almost 75,000-square-foot, four-story building over one level of parking containing 62 dwelling units, with a combined total of 150 bedrooms, and 90 off-street parking spaces. Twelve of the 62 proposed dwelling units are to be affordable to lower-income households.

Ethel Potts, a resident of Ward 5, expressed her hope that the council would use their deliberations at the first reading of The Moravian to give the public “some clue” as to how they were thinking about the project. Sabra Briere (Ward 1) indicated that she tried to keep a really open mind at first reading and avoided getting to an actual decision until “the last possible moment.” She also told Potts that she felt the council had done a better job recently of discussing things at first reading.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) indicated that The Moravian looked to him to be very similar to The Courtyards, a development near UM’s north campus at 1780 Broadway.

Mayor John Hieftje compared the process to the evaluation a jury makes and that it was important not to make a decision until all the evidence was in.

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), a former state senator, said that was a similar pattern in the state legislature. The first reading, said Derezinski, basically alerts the public that the issue is now before the public body.

Cell Phones: Back to First Reading

At their last regular meeting on Feb. 16, 2010, the city council approved at its first reading a ban on cell phone use while driving. Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) noted that the discussion at their deliberations and feedback from residents – he’d received at least 40 emails – had reflected the usefulness of the first reading. Since then, the ordinance has undergone significant and numerous revisions, so that on Monday, it comes before council again as a first reading. [.txt file of original cell phone ordinance; .txt file of revised cell phone ordinance].

Mayor John Hieftje said that some of the revisions, allowing exceptions involving public emergency drills, had been prompted by resident input. From the revised ordinance:

(e) the person uses the electronic device while performing his or her duties as a volunteer in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) created by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission and as provided for in Title 47, Part 97, Subpart E, Section 97.407 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

Budget

Caucus conversation touched on a number of budget-related issues.

How Is This Paid For?

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) noted that the Monday agenda provided a number of “opportunities to spend money.” So she floated the idea to her council colleagues that the fund from which the money would be drawn be included on the agenda, so that the public would have a clearer understanding of where the money came from. Mayor John Hieftje said he thought that was not a bad idea.

The 3% Budget Directive

Postponed from the council’s last regular meeting, on Feb. 16, 2010, and now coming before the council on Monday, is a resolution directing the city administrator to cut non-union salaries by 3%. The resolution has been revised in the interim. [.txt file of original budget directive; .txt file of revised budget directive].

At Sunday’s caucus, Briere characterized a key difference between the two versions as the requirement that the cut be a minimum of 3%, which highlights the possibility that the cut could  be greater than 3%. In a “budget white paper,” circulated to residents, Briere has suggested specifically that for top management positions, the amount of the cut could be greater – as much as 10%. [.pdf file of Briere's budget white paper]

The Municipal Service Charge

Leslie Morris attended caucus and reflected on her service on the Ann Arbor city council from the mid-’70s through the early ’80′s and subsequently on the city’s park advisory commission. She told councilmembers that she was there to talk about golf,  though she had never been a golfer. She recalled how a park open space plan from 1966, in its first sentence, had identified a new golf course as the city’s greatest park need. She noted that there was no supporting material or data in the plan for that statement. She attributed it to the fact that the Leslie family was interested in selling the land to the city that is now the Leslie Golf Course – on “very favorable terms” to the city, she said.

Mayor John Hieftje clarified that for the land where the Leslie Science and Nature Center is located, it was a donation, and that for the golf course it was $1,000 per year.

Morris noted that during her period of public service, they had always felt that golf should pay its own way. But sometime in the ’90s, she said, golf was separated from the general fund, with the result that there were charges made “to ourselves” for golf that were not applied to other recreational activities. She characterized the situation that the city had gotten itself into as not quite fair.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) noted that the municipal service charges made to different service units was what Morris meant by “charging ourselves.” He said that unclarity on this charge was one reason the council had asked city staff to explain it more clearly at an upcoming meeting on the budget, on March 8.

Hieftje said that when he was first elected to city council in 1999, he had heard that the reason the golf courses were separated out from the general fund was to “protect” them. Kunselman agreed that this rationale was based on the idea that if the golf courses were making money, then they would be “milked.” Kunselman suggested that the city’s municipal service charge was, in fact, a way of “milking” the golf courses.

Mary Jo Callan, left, head of the city/county community development office, and Jayne Miller, the city of Ann Arbor's community service area administrator.

As to possible measures that could affect the FY 2011 budget, which begins July 1, 2010, Miller focused on several areas: (i) reorganizing the housing commission; (ii) reducing the scope for planning projects and outsourcing planning review and/or collaborating with other municipalities for construction inspection, (iii) cutting human services funding, (iv) reducing maintenance for specific parks and changing the parks maintenance/improvements millage resolution, which specifies how the millage money is allocated.

Some possibilities that were mentioned – but described as unlikely to have an impact on the FY 2011 budget – included allowing a private vendor to operate Huron Hills Golf Course as a combination driving range (where the front nine holes are currently located), plus a 9-hole golf course.

Specific parks were also identified in Miller’s report that would be recommended for sale – if parkland sale were to be used as a strategy. However, that too, said Miller, would be unlikely to have a short-term impact for two reasons: the sale of parkland requires a voter referendum, and the market for land is currently uncertain, given the overall economic climate.

The presentation also served as a bit of a tutorial on which parts of the city’s operations Miller administers, in a job she’ll be leaving on Feb. 11. Sumedh Bahl, unit manager of the water treatment plant, was also on hand Monday night – he’ll be filling in for Miller on an interim basis.

Housing Commission

Jayne Miller reviewed for the council the key point from a Jan. 11 work session regarding the housing commission: a $228,163 gap for the commission that would result from additional staffing and outsourcing of maintenance. [.pdf file of cover memo and materials for housing commission]

Of that amount, the city had already specified $90,000 in its FY 2011 plan, which would still leave a shortfall of $138,163 above and beyond what’s been planned for. As Miller reiterated on Monday, the beefed up staffing was expected over the next two years to recoup an investment in the form of additional grants they’d have staff time to apply for. Further, the housing commission had a variety of strategies it would be using to bridge the gap – but the bottom line was that council could be getting a request for additional funds beyond the $90,000 it had already planned for. [See Chronicle coverage: "Housing Commission Reorganizes"]

Planning and Development

Miller ticked through the basic services provided by planning and development: administration of rental housing inspection, administration of the construction code, and administration of the planning program. [.pdf file of cover memo and materials for planning and development]

Of these, the last item has the highest profile, as it involves site plan review for various projects, as well as the various planning initiatives that entail public engagement: A2D2 (downtown zoning), ZORO (comprehensive zoning code review), AHP (revisions to area height and placement requirements), as well as the current review of the R4C/R2A (residential housing) districts.

Of the various planning initiatives underway, Miller said, some were deemed too far along to consider modifications in schedule or scope. But in order to keep staffing at an already reduced level, she said, reductions in scope of other projects were a possibility. Projects that could be reduced in scope, she said, included the  second phase of master plan consolidation, which could be narrowed in focus to consider just those elements that were outdated.

And the review of the R4C/R2A zoning areas could, said Miller, be reduced in scope by eliminating the R2A (two-family dwelling) from consideration and truncating the review period at six months, instead of taking the entire year originally scheduled. Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), who is the council’s representative to the planning commission, did not embrace the idea of truncating the work of the R4C/R2A task force, saying there were groups that had already expressed some concern about their lack of inclusion in the process.

Other sources inside the task force have indicated that in the 3-4 months of work done to date, they’re really only at the point of gathering stakeholder input – including landlords who had perceived they were being excluded. It seems unlikely that the task force’s work could be wrapped up much short of the originally scheduled year.

In addition to the possibility of reducing the scope of projects, Miller outlined the possibility of outsourcing activities – plan review services, for example. One consideration is that all clerical and inspection staff is unionized, and union contract language would guide any outsourcing.

In the past, the city has had agreements with Washtenaw County and Pittsfield Township for mutual aid in construction inspection services. Those arrangements have been re-implemented, with ongoing discussions of additional opportunities for maximizing service, while minimizing costs.

Based on emails The Chronicle has seen circulated among building tradespeople in late November 2009, there is dissatisfaction in Ann Arbor with the performance of Pittsfield Township construction inspectors – failure rates of 50% are cited, which is high.

A somewhat more dramatic possibility outlined by Miller on Monday night was the possibility of transferring the authority for the enforcement of construction code to the state of Michigan. That would require the city to  substantiate a claim that administering and enforcing the rules would cause certain hardships and undue burdens on it.

Human Services

When the city council last allocated human services dollars – nearly $1.3 million worth in April of 2009 – it did so using a new scoring rubric. There was then already a sense that the following year, this year, things could be grim. From Chronicle coverage:

[Mayor John] Hieftje expressed concern that it was only going to get tougher next year and that to hold the human services funding level this year (as compared to last) was difficult.

For FY 2011, the coming budget year, the number $260,000 crops up multiple times throughout the cover memo on human services issues from Miller to the council. To appreciate the significance of that number, it’s important to understand that the city of Ann Arbor adopts a budget one year at a time, but plans two years at a time.

So when the council adopted the FY 2010 budget, there was a plan for FY 2011 accompanying it as well, even though that FY 2011 plan was not formally adopted.

In that FY 2011 plan, there was a reduction of $260,000 for human services support. So the various alternatives – discussed by Miller on Monday night and outlined in her cover memo – are portrayed in terms of this $260,000 reduction. Among the alternatives would be to restore the $260,000 to bring funding levels up to FY 2010 levels. That would be accomplished by allocating staff costs to federal funds and by not making a $100,000 contribution to the Ann Arbor Housing Trust Fund.

In response to a question from Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Miller reported the current fund balance of the Ann Arbor Housing Trust Fund is $393,000.

Also among the alternatives sketched out by Miller was the possibility of reducing human services funding by more than the $260,000 in the FY 2011 plan.

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) – who was one of the chief architects of the scoring metric for human services allocations – wanted to know if the various nonprofits that had previously received money were aware of the potential for cuts. Miller said they were aware of what had been proposed.

Mayor John Hieftje appeared somewhat dissatisfied with Miller’s comparative portrayal of Ann Arbor materials in the context of five other cities: Lansing, Mich.; Austin, Texas.; Boulder, Colo.;  Fredericksburg, Va.; and Madison, Wisc. Those five cities fund nonprofits at an average rate of 1.45% of their general fund, compared to 1.7% for Ann Arbor. [.pdf file of cover memo and materials for humans services]

[That 1.7% is more than the other five cities – but the average of 1.45% did not include three other cities in Michigan, none of which allocate any of their general fund money to nonprofits: Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo. Inclusion of those three zeros in the average would put the contrast at 0.9% average for eight other cities versus Ann Arbor's 1.7%.]

Hieftje concluded that Ann Arbor, compared to other cities in Michigan, was still quite strong with respect to its human services funding.

Parks

Discussion of parks took up more of the council’s time than other parts of the community services area covered on Monday night. [.pdf file of cover memo and materials for parks]

Parks: Open Space Millage

One of the questions that the city council had asked city staff to explore was the possible re-purposing of the open space (a.k.a greenbelt) millage to support the city’s park system. The city issued $20 million in bonds based on the millage, which was passed in 2003 and last through 2033. The debt service on those bonds is roughly $1.2 million to $1.4 million per year through 2033. Revenue from the millage is projected to be a little over $2 million, leaving an estimated $700,000 to $900,000 in available funds per year.

The current fund balance for the open space millage is $18,266,602, of which $6,318,071 has either been recently spent or approved to be spent by the council, leaving a practical balance of $11,948,531.

Neither in the cover memo or during council discussions on Monday night did there seem to be any great enthusiasm for exploring the possibility of re-purposing the open space millage in support of the city park system.

Parks: Do You Golf?

However, the idea of issuing an RFP (request for proposals) to convert part of the Huron Hills Golf Course to a driving range with just a 9-hole course was fairly warmly embraced. Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) described the notion as “intriguing” and said that to pursue it, the timing would be “the sooner, the better” in order to get the proposal before the golf advisory task force as well as the park advisory commission.

The RFP would need to be issued by the end of March, thought Rapundalo, in order to be able to factor it into the FY 2011 budget discussion. But Miller cautioned that the end of March would be “pushing it.” City administrator Roger Fraser pointed out that the RFP would ask people to come in with a financial plan and a market analysis. There’d need to be a period of due diligence – he was not sanguine about the expectation that it could be done before the end of the fiscal year.

If it made sense for a private vendor to put in a driving range and operate it, asked Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), why wouldn’t the city undertake that itself? Miller allowed that it was a good question. She explained that the advantage would be that the capital outlay to install the range would be carried by the vendor instead of the city. Miller concurred with Taylor’s conclusion that it would likely be a situation where the risk – but also the reward – would be shared with the private vendor.

It was established through several conversational turns that it’s the front nine holes – near the river – that were candidates for replacement with a driving range. The back nine holes are preferred for play at the course, which was described as more of a community asset used for beginning players. That contrasts with Leslie Park Golf Course, which is more of a “championship” course, said Rapundalo.

Of the two golf courses, it’s Leslie that stands the best chance of eventually breaking even, said Miller. The forecasted losses for both courses in FY 2010 is $517,288. Maintaining (mowing) Huron Hills as open parkland, not as a golf course, would be $320,000.

Parks: Mowing

The materials provided to the council by Miller provide a park-by-park breakdown of possible areas to reduce mowing in order to save money. However, Miller cautioned that it was somewhat difficult to estimate exactly how much money could be saved, because reducing mowing at a site reduced the time spent at a particular park, but the time it took to haul the equipment to the location stayed the same.

Parks: Facility Evaluation

Included in the materials prepared by Miller was a table of data on facilities and their revenue versus expenses, plus number of visitors. It drew praise from Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who described it as providing a lot of very useful data.

The table gives data for facilities starting in 2003 through the present for each year, as well as aggregated data for all years. [.pdf file of cover memo and materials for parks]

Parks: Reallocation of Parks Maintenance and Capital Improvements Millage

One possibility covered by Miller was to revisit the resolution of intent associated with the parks maintenance  and capital improvements millage. The millage was passed in November 2006  and combined two previously separate millages.

Its distribution of funding to maintenance versus capital improvements is governed by a council resolution passed in October 2006. The resolution specifies a range of 60-80% for maintenance, with the remainder going to capital improvements. The resolution also calls for any reduction in the overall general fund to be reflected no more severely in parks programs supported by the general fund than in other general fund activities. For example, if the general fund were to suffer a 7.5% reduction, then parks programs supported by the general fund would suffer no greater a reduction that 7.5%.

Sabra Briere (Ward 1) raised the question of whether it would be necessary to go back to the voters in order to revise that resolution – voters had felt that it accompanied the ballot language, she pointed out.

Briere could have been alluding to the controversy after the millage was passed – with its accompanying “hold harmless” clause for parks programs within the general fund – when Leslie Science and Nature Center was spun off as an independent nonprofit. The city initially calculated the baseline for general fund park activity without the Leslie Science and Nature Center, reasoning that the item itself was no longer in the general fund and that it was not a matter of reducing it. However in response to public criticism, funding was put back into parks programs to bring their funding to the level they would have been with Leslie Science and Nature Center as a part of the calculation.

Parks: Use of Volunteers

One of the options presented by Miller was increased use of volunteers – but that, she cautioned, would require some additional staffing in order to coordinate them. One idea for providing that staffing, she said, was to use a still-vacant park planner position [likely Jeff Dehring's position] as a volunteer coordinator.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) asked about the use of volunteers for creating of outdoor ice rinks – there’s a Facebook group that has formed, calling for the city to bring back the Burns Park outdoor ice rinks. In oversimplified form, the technique could be described as turning on a hose and  letting the water freeze.

Craig Hupy, head of systems planning for the city, was on hand Monday night to report that looking back over the temperature patterns for the last three years, there would have been no good opportunities for creating such ice rinks in those years.

Parkland Sale

At the city council’s request, the staff identified parks where further exploration might be warranted:

• Arboretum – possible University of Michigan interest
• Bader – low use, not visible
• Berkshire Creek – potentially buildable
• Depot – only a visual resource, has issues with loitering/trash
• Devonshire – would need to retain path access to Gallup, but may be able to reduce size
• Dicken Park – low use
• Dicken Woods – potential developer interest
• Douglas Park – potentially buildable
• Eisenhower Park – currently numerous encroachment issues
• Ellsworth Park – duplicates SE Area Park uses, especially since University Townhouses installed fence blocking off park from residents
• Foxfire East – low use
• Fuller Park – small triangle west of park is not usable part of park
• Garden Homes Park – there has been some interest in smaller sections of the park for private use
• George Washington Park – property more an extension of right-of-way
• Glazier Way – sell back access easement to homeowners
• Manchester – potentially buildable
• Mill Creek – low use
• Molin Nature Area – back yards of residents
• Pittsview – potentially buildable
• Rose White Park – low use
• South University – underused, but in an area without many parks
• Stone School – low use

But the memo accompanying the list is fairly pessimistic and there were no councilmembers clamoring on Monday night for the sale of parks. From the staff cover memo:

Many parks have deed restrictions so further research would have to be done at a park-specific level should Council wish to further explore this option. It is also worth considering that current land value is much lower than it recently has been. It may be difficult to attract buyers and if a sale was achieved, the land could be undervalued given the current market. Finally, prior to the sale of any parkland, an affirmative vote of Ann Arbor voters would be required.

Charter: Budget Procedure

As city administrator Roger Fraser pointed out, part of the timing for what comes next is specified in the city’s charter:

SECTION 8.2. On or before the first day of February of each year, each City officer and department head shall submit to the City Administrator estimates of revenues and expenditures of their office or department for the next fiscal year. The City Administrator shall … present that proposed budget to the Council at its second regular meeting in April.

SECTION 8.6. Not later than its second meeting in May, the Council shall, by resolution concurred in by at least seven members, adopt the budget for the next fiscal year. …

SECTION 8.8. Should the Council fail to adopt a budget for the next fiscal year at or before the second meeting of the Council in May, the budget proposal as recommended to the Council by the City Administrator, shall be deemed to have been finally adopted by the Council and, without further action by the Council, shall constitute an appropriation of the money needed for municipal purposes during the next fiscal year.

On the city’s website, “budget central” is on the Our Town page, where presentation materials and next meeting dates can be found.

Next up will be a meeting on Feb. 8 to revisit the community services area in earnest before Jayne Miller’s departure from that position three days later. Following that will be a Feb. 22 meeting, when public services will likely be on the agenda.