Stories indexed with the term ‘noise ordinance’

On the University of Michigan campus last Sunday, Aug. 25, a group of students organized as the Mixed Use Party convened their regular monthly meeting.

The meeting was held in Angell Hall, and first on the agenda was discussion of a possible revision to the city’s noise ordinance. The ordinance revision – which was subsequently adopted into the party platform at the Aug. 25 meeting – would address the question of who is assigned responsibility for a violation.

Under the current city code, if the person responsible for the noise can’t be determined, a police officer has the discretion to deem the renter of the property (or also the property owner, or the occupant) to be responsible. Mixed Use Party members are concerned that the current code could create a scenario where the occupant of a property could be subjected to higher tiers of the allowable fines, based on noise ordinance violations of previous occupants.

Under the Mixed Use Party proposed ordinance revision, if the person who planned the noise-related activity can’t be determined, then it’s the occupants of the space where the activity is taking place who are responsible. And if that can’t be determined, then the responsibility would default to the property owner.

The basic kind of issue – appropriate assignment of responsibility for an infraction – was addressed three years ago by the Ann Arbor city council, but for a different ordinance. The city’s code on allowable storage of solid waste was amended by the council in 2010 – to restrict somewhat the ability of landlords to require tenants to pay fines associated with improperly stored trash.

Candidates affiliated with the Mixed Use Party will be contesting Ann Arbor city council races as independents in three of the city’s five wards. Sam DeVarti will be running in the Ward 3 race against incumbent Democrat Stephen Kunselman. DeVarti was the only one of the three Mixed Use Party candidates at the Aug. 25 meeting, which was sparsely attended.

DeVarti is a student at Eastern Michigan University, while the other two candidates are UM students. Jacyln Vresics is contesting the Ward 1 race along with incumbent three-term Democrat Sabra Briere and independent Jeff Hayner. In Ward 2, Mixed Use Party affiliate Conrad Brown will be on the November ballot with incumbent independent Jane Lumm and Kirk Westphal, who won an uncontested Democratic primary.

In Ward 4, Democratic primary winner Jack Eaton is unopposed in November. Ward 5 incumbent Democrat Mike Anglin faces no competition on the ballot, but resident Thomas Partridge is a declared Ward 5 write-in candidate.

Other aspects of the Mixed Use Party platform are somewhat broader than the proposed changes to the noise ordinance. For example, the platform includes a reconceptualization of the city’s zoning scheme, reducing the number of non-public land zones to three broad categories: heavy industrial, mixed use and restricted mixed use.

A highlight of the Mixed Use Party tentative infrastructure plan – which has not yet been formally adopted as an element of the party’s platform – might include selling Ann Arbor’s public parking system and using the proceeds to fund road repair, among other infrastructure. The infrastructure plan was discussed at the Aug. 25 meeting, but possible action was left for a future meeting.

More detail on noise and trash below the fold. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor city council meeting (Dec. 3, 2012): One significant action taken by the council was to wrap up some unfinished business from its previous meeting – by passing a resolution that temporarily suspends paying for any new art out of public funds that have accumulated for that purpose.

The resolution had been postponed from the council’s Nov. 19, 2012 meeting, when councilmembers also decided to table two competing proposals to change the city’s Percent for Art ordinance. One of the proposals would have repealed the ordinance, while the other would have narrowed the scope of qualifying projects. Currently the city’s Percent for Art program requires that all capital improvement project budgets include a 1% set-aside for public art.

While the moratorium on new spending is in effect – until April 1, 2013 – a council committee will study the issue. Charged with making a recommendation to the council by Feb. 15, 2013, the committee consists of Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), Margie Teall (Ward 4) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). The group’s first meeting is set for Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 4 p.m. in the south first floor conference room at city hall.

The council also finished off two works in progress started at its previous meeting, when councilmembers gave initial approval to amendments to two local laws – the noise ordinance and the towing ordinance. At the council’s Dec. 3 meeting, councilmembers gave final approval to both sets of amendments. The noise ordinance was strengthened to include prohibitions of construction on legal holidays and to make supervisors responsible for infractions, in addition to those who are operating equipment. The towing ordinance clarifies the definition of inoperative vehicles so that the city can take action to prevent the storage of such vehicles on city streets.

The council also took action on an administrative decision to move the assets and liabilities of the city’s golf courses enterprise fund to the city general fund – to comply with a state treasurer’s requirement that the city have a deficit elimination plan for the golf fund. The city’s 2008 deficit elimination plan had a clearly positive effect, but did not erase the golf fund’s deficit completely. The majority of councilmembers saw a benefit to moving the accounting for golf operations into the general fund, so that the golf courses wouldn’t be singled out for different scrutiny than other recreational activities.

The council approved three separate petitions to the Washtenaw County office of the water resources commissioner, to apply for loans connected with a bit over $1 million in stormwater projects. One of those projects was a tree planting effort that would see as many as 1,000 trees planted in the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014. It generated some council conversation about tree species and how the city is planning for climate change in its selection of suitable trees.

Councilmembers also engaged in a fair amount of discussion of the color palette proposed for changes in the facade of the already-approved Packard Square project – which is to replace the derelict Georgetown Mall. Margie Teall’s view reflected that of many other councilmembers: “I just don’t like it.” They voted to postpone action on the facade changes until Jan. 7, 2013.

The council approved the purchase of additional waste carts, and designated Craig Hupy, the city’s public services area administrator, as the city’s street administrator for purposes of signing contracts with the Michigan Dept. of Transportation. The designation of Hupy in that role – instead of Homayoon Pirooz, the former head of project management with the city – highlighted the fact that Pirooz has retired to take a job with the city of Evanston, Ill.

It was the second meeting of the new edition of the council, following the Nov. 6 elections. So the council was presented with assignments to various internal committees – as well as the council’s appointments to other bodies. The departure of Tony Derezinski, Sandi Smith and Carsten Hohnke from the council meant that some changes to committee assignments had to be made. Some of changes were straight-up replacements, while others reflected some shuffling. [Google Spreadsheet with 2012 and 2013 committee appointments]

The council heard its usual range of commentary from the public – highlighted by two students from Skyline High School who spoke in support of public transportation.

Public transportation will also be the focus of a special council meeting called for Monday, Dec. 10 to discuss a possible position on state legislation regarding a regional transit authority. A proposed resolution that councilmembers will consider asks Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to veto legislation that would establish the four-county RTA, which would include Washtenaw County. [Full Story]

Changes to the city of Ann Arbor’s noise ordinance received final approval at the city council’s Dec. 3, 2012 meeting. The amendments to the ordinance, sponsored by Ward 3 councilmember Christopher Taylor, were related to the now-completed construction of The Landmark at 601 S. Forest, an apartment building located in Ward 3. Construction noise was one of several aspects of the construction activity that came under sharp criticism at the council’s Oct. 1, 2012 meeting from nearby resident Eleanor Linn, who also addressed the council at its Nov. 19, 2012 meeting, when the changes were given initial approval.

The revision adds language to the text of the ordinance to make clear that the ordinance can be enforced against those … [Full Story]

Ann Arbor city council meeting (Nov. 19, 2012): The first meeting of the council’s new edition featured delaying action on two main agenda items – revisions to the Ann Arbor living wage ordinance, and two competing proposals about the city’s public art ordinance.

Legislative activity on the public art ordinance resulted from the Nov. 6 rejection by voters of an alternate means of funding public art – a 0.1 mill tax that would have generated roughly $450,000 annually. At the Nov. 19 meeting, Jane Lumm (Ward 2) proposed ending the existing public art program, which requires that 1% of the budget for all capital projects in the city be allocated for public art – with a limit of $250,000 per project. A competing proposal, from Sabra Briere (Ward 1), would narrow the type of capital project from which Percent for Art funds could be allocated. Briere’s proposal would have the practical effect of reducing – by about 90% – the amount of public art funds generated by the existing program. In the last two years the program has generated over $300,000 a year, and more in previous years.

The council wound up tabling both proposals, a parliamentary move that means there’s no particular time in the future when the council must consider them. The proposals will expire, if the council does not take them up off the table in six months. However, the council’s strategy will likely be to appoint a committee to study the matter and to suspend temporarily the existing program. A resolution to that effect was added to the council’s agenda during the meeting, after the tabling of the other proposals – but that third resolution was then postponed until the council’s Dec. 3 meeting.

Also postponed was a set of revisions to the city’s living wage ordinance. The main change would be to exempt those nonprofits from the ordinance that receive funding through the city’s human services allocation, which has totaled roughly $1.2 million each year for the last several years. The ordinance currently has a waiver provision, requiring a city-council-approved plan for compliance with the living wage ordinance within three years. Only one such waiver has been sought since the living wage ordinance was enacted in 2001. That came at the council’s meeting earlier this month, on Nov. 8, 2012.

Based on council deliberations at the Nov. 19 meeting, the living wage revisions in their current form seem likely to be approved only with great difficulty. Some councilmembers seemed more interested in pursuing exemptions for categories of workers – temporary or seasonal – instead of exempting categories of organizations. The living wage ordinance revisions were postponed until Feb. 19.

Getting initial approval were changes to two other city ordinances – on noise and the storage of cars on streets.

The changes to the noise ordinance were prompted by the impact that recent construction of the Landmark building at 601 S. Forest had on neighbors. If given final approval by the council, the changes would make clear that holidays are to be treated like Sundays and that supervisors can be cited under the ordinance, not just a worker who’s operating a piece of equipment.

The revision to the towing ordinance would make it easier to prevent people from storing inoperable vehicles on city streets. Like all changes to city ordinances, it will need a second vote by the council, after a public hearing.

In other business, the council authorized a $15,000 budget for analyzing alternatives for installing a sidewalk along a section of Scio Church Road. Residents in the area have petitioned the city for a sidewalk.

And Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) used his communications time toward the end of the meeting as an occasion to deliver harsh criticism of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority and mayor John Hieftje.

In the first meeting for newly elected councilmembers, the council also chose Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) to serve as mayor pro tem, as she has for the last three years. The order of succession to the mayor, based on seniority lines, was also set. [Full Story]

Changes to the city of Ann Arbor’s noise ordinance received initial approval at the city council’s Nov. 19, 2012 meeting. The amendments to the ordinance, sponsored by Ward 3 councilmember Christopher Taylor, were related to the now-completed construction of The Landmark at 601 S. Forest, an apartment building located in Ward 3. Construction noise was one of several aspects of the construction activity that came under sharp criticism at the council’s Oct. 1, 2012 meeting from nearby resident Eleanor Linn.

The revision adds language to the text of the ordinance to make clear that the ordinance can be enforced against those in a supervisory capacity – people who are causing the work to be done that is generating … [Full Story]

Based on the preliminary online agenda, the Ann Arbor city council will give initial consideration to a revision to the city’s noise ordinance at its Nov. 19, 2012 meeting.

The amendment to the ordinance, sponsored by Ward 3 councilmember Christopher Taylor, is related to the now-completed construction of The Landmark at 601 S. Forest, an apartment building located in Ward 3. Construction noise was one of several aspects of the construction activity, which came under sharp criticism at the council’s Oct. 1, 2012 meeting from nearby resident Eleanor Linn.

The proposed revision would add language to the text of the ordinance to make clear that the ordinance can be enforced against those in a supervisory capacity – people who are causing … [Full Story]