Council passed the Area Height and Placement (AHP) zoning ordinance amendments on Monday January 3, 2010. We will post a link to the Chronicle coverage when that article appears. A few months before approving the AHP amendments to the zoning code, City Council approved broad changes to the zoning applicable to the downtown area and the area east of campus:From the old site: Chapter 55 Area Height and Placement Project The City is losing population and the entire county has seen a loss of jobs. The City's response is to encourage huge development projects. We've seen the loss of the lowertown Kroger, the Georgetown Kroger and the failure of the development at Washtenaw and Platt (across from Whole Foods). The condominium tower at Huron and Ashley may default and has plenty of vacant first level retail space. Yet, we continue to foist a "vision" of increased density in a shrinking community. Part of the vision of urban density is the pending Area Height and Placement revisions to the zoning code. The
City Planning staff has proposed wide-ranging changes to multi-unit
residential and commercial zoning districts. The staff provided a
summary of the changes when it presented the proposal to City Council
during a working session in September 2008. That summary can be accessed by clicking this link. The City Planning department's AHP web page can be found here: That
page has a video of the slide show that was presented at each Ward
Meeting. The page has the full zoning change proposal, a good summary of
the before and after height, setback and F.A.R. regulations for each
zoning district. Public Participation As
you may recall, the Planning staff has prepared a revision of Chapter
55 zoning that impacts most non-single family zoning districts outside
of the downtown area. The plan was formulated with the help of over 200
"stakeholders". Unfortunately, none of the "stakeholders" were regular,
residential citizens or neighborhood advocates. When the proposed
amendments were presented to the City Council at a working session on September 15, 2008,
the Council sent the proposal back to the planning staff with
instructions to make presentations to the neighborhoods. Subsequently,
the Council appointed a citizens' committee to represent various
interested groups. Citizen's Committee for the Chapter 55 Area, Height and Placement Proposal The Council appointed an advisory committee to handle the
dissemination of information about the proposed zoning changes. The Council appoint the following individuals to the AHP Advisory Committee: City Council Representative (1): Marcia Higgins Planning Commission Representative (1): Wendy Woods Technical Advisory Committee member (1): Kyle Mazurek, VP Govt. Affairs A2 Chamber of Commerce Representatives from each Ward of the City (1 representative per ward) 1st Ward Representative: Michael Hammer 2nd Ward Representative: Jan Newman 3rd Ward Representative: Eric Meaves 4th Ward Representative: Diane Giannola 5th Ward Representative: Mark Reuter Commercial Association Representatives (3) Bill Martel Bill Milliken Tommy York The proposed purpose of the advisory committee is described in a file posted on the Council's web page. Or click here to see that file as uploaded to this site. Neighborhood Meetings
NOTE: Meeting end times were changed after the original announcement was made. Meetings
ended at 8 p.m. rather than 9 p.m.
The schedule change resulted in ending meetings while citizens still
had questions about the AHP proposals. Finally, during the last
neighborhood meeting, the staff extended the meeting time to take more
questions. Those who attended the first four ward meetings were not
given that courtesy. For more information or to provide feedback, please contact Jeff Kahan, City Planner at the City’s Planning and Development Services Unit. Call 734.794.6265 ext 42614 or e-mail jkahan@a2gov.org We posted a video of the Council Working Session discussion where they directed the planning staff to conduct neighborhood meetings. If you are interested in the Council's concerns, you can view the video of the working session discussion (but not the staff presentation) at this site: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5502709510094354946&hl=enA2D2 Zoning Changes http://annarborchronicle.com/2009/11/18/downtown-planning-process-forges-ahead/ |
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