saw the traffic peer reviewer from the town explain the comments that they had and then they said that for the next meeting we will be which will be on May 13 um they will come back to present the next changes on traffic right based on that. So, Anna, would would um would do you think the parking question would be taken care of if if I if it says um in the last the last sentence on the first page, the board sees sees little need for a sidewalk as there is already one on the school side and a deeper deeper bank of trees and greater distance between the new building and its parking and the school may help soften the visual impact of the project. Is that enough? I think that's good. I don't know if that's enough because I think we were concerned from what I remember it was like a bunch of parking right as you come into the building.
at Leslie Science and Nature Center. Uh we are going to be there tableabling along with NAP uh and lots of other organizations. Um, you can learn more about that at discovercienceandne.org/2earthday. Uh, and the A20 heat pump concierge platform uh has been announced. Uh, users can input home information to generate additional heat pump system design options in a process that takes approximately 5 minutes. Um, you can learn more about that at osi.at2gv.org/heatpump concierge. uh from public services, the stormwater comprehensive plan is underway that is going to consolidate numerous existing plans into a single unified plan to guide city staff and inform decision-making and stormwater design. Uh and the latest information on that can be found also on the engagement hub at um engaged.2ggov.org. Uh and then unfortunately missing from this document that was included uh but I was asked by Sarah Mason from solid waste to share uh is that um let's see here the we also have on that A2GV uh engaged.2GV.org uh platform.
So, I think we wanted to for the zoning board of appeals to see if if some of that could be squeezed to a less visible. So, I don't think so. So, that last sentence in red, the planning board further suggests considering a way to move the parking spaces. How did I phrase it? less visible to to the parking spaces to decrease the visibility from Union Street to significantly decrease visibility from Union Street. Should that go in the previous paragraph where we are talking about the entrance and exit? Could because it looks like we are saying that there is a concern on the impact on Union Street. So, does this just get added to that paragraph? It could. It could. I think one thing is about traffic though and the other is about visual impact. Exactly. So, the parking is more about visual impact. I kind of thought it belongs well after the mention of visibility of project.
Uh there is engagement around the food scrap drop off bin project uh aiming to make composting more accessible and convenient for multif family residents who don't have curbside service. Uh so you can learn more about that project uh and share ideas for locations for those bins at engage.at2gv.org uh or by emailing Mallerie Lawson Lawson.org. And that's all I have for you. Okay. Um next is items for next agenda. It will probably be a lot like tonight's agenda. We'll go through the resolution and maybe the bylaws will be on again. Depends on what it comes up there. Um, next scheduled meeting is May 22nd. And now we have our second public comment.
I kind of like where it is. Okay. Yeah. The planning board further suggests moving parking moving parking spaces less prominent from East Union Street a less a less visible location from less yeah making notes to it and then you I think we've come up with like five different versions of how to say it, but I think they're all pretty much the same. Kind of make it less prominent, make it less visible from that side. Was the tone okay? I have to admit I have to admit I was a bit frustrated. No, I think I think the tone was was appropriate for the situation. I thought it was spot on. So, I personally like the changes or the the draft. So if we need to vote on it, it conveys the message. Okay. Do we need to vote on it? If you're okay with over and I doing the last sentence, I'll make a motion to approve the document as drafted with the last sentence being massaged accordingly.
Uh, this is an opportunity for people to speak for up to three minutes. Please call 8887880099. Enter meeting ID 954-34739065. To raise your hand, press 9. To unmute, press star six. City staff will select callers who have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number. When speaking, please move to a quiet area and state your name and address at the beginning of your comments. There may be a delay up to 30 seconds before a connection is established. All right. Uh we have caller with number ending in 6330. Again, that's 630. You should now be able to speak. Uh you can unmute by pressing star six. Um hi, good evening. My name is John Godfrey. I live in W three. Um, and I want to add my voice thanking you and commending your work on behalf of the residents of Ann Arbor to preserve and protect the natural futures of our city which are facing unprecedented challenges from both climate change and the city's effort to accelerate development throughout.
Second that. Roll call vote. Deepki I. Katherine Jersey. And Trisha Kendall I. And as it is, I assume you're then okay with me just signing it for the board. Y. Okay. As is. Yeah. We just voted on it as it was. Okay. Are you signing it? The way it's written now, it's you signing it. And I'm fine with that. But if we're signing it for the board, it probably should be slightly different. What? Well, the National Planning Board. It's drafted from National Planning Board. That's true. So, I think we're fine if we voted for it as is. All right. So, now we're doing approval not required. Yes. I think this is just an update, right? Yeah. So, um, Lisa has provided the Firmingham planning department with a title search with all the documentation that, you know, it's it's involving these properties. I think from what she explained to me is that in some at some point they misplace or gave the wrong explanation when it's like southerntherly, easterly border things like that.
And I want to support in the strongest terms the envir environmental commission's recommendation to council that the 2004 natural features plan be included in the new comprehensive plan and that natural features protections in review process be expanded for all new development projects whether or not a site plan is required to do so serves the public good and must be welcomed by all residents who prize our natural heritage. But I want to also extend a word of caution. The goals of the draft comprehensive plan include doubling Ann Arbor's population in the next 25 years. Incredibly, the draft's plan includes no credible demographic or economic data or analysis to even support this as a feasible goal. But imagining for just a moment that this unprecedented development were to happen, it would wholly defeat our climate goals which are embedded in this very comprehensive plan. The water, sewer, and storm water systems that we rely on to protect our environment would be overwhelmed.
So, basically that caused all this commotion and chaos to like figure it out. So once that information has been provided to the engineer and the Firmingham planning department, they're trying to also make it make sense. Um we're hoping to meet next Wednesday amongst the engineer that's working with the Framingham planning department. The Frammingham planner, myself and Lisa meet so we can finally clear every aspect of it and they can go ahead and make a new mileer um so we can so it can come to the war and be finalized. But that's where he's standing as of now. Great. Okay. So we're at the end of the major part of the agenda. Crystal asks for any updates and then Elvra and I have some updates. any updates from any I mean just briefly comprehensive plan we're we're on the part about strategies the goals and we will be actually having three meetings in May um because there's been a lot of work and it's a lot of work and um so the way it worked out is two extra meetings in May and the plan would be that would finish up to go on to the next Okay, great.
And the massive capital costs that would be needed to upgrade our aging systems would divert funds from operational sustainability initiatives. Construction on the envisioned scale would generate insupportable embodied carbon costs and will rapidly accelerate loss of green space, landscape, the urban canopy, and other natural features that we prize and will undermine our sustainability goals. In other words, our goals are self-contradictory. The plan is badly out of balance. Our environment needs protection, not depletion. And the organization of our citizen committees should serve the interests of city residents and not the interests of city department structure. Ann Arbor deserves an independent environmental commission to do this work on our behalf. Thank you for your voices and thank you for your service. And thank you for your comment. Um, I am not seeing any other hands raised at the moment. We do not have any more hands raised.
All right. So, and and any other updates on committees, etc., etc. I have not done more work on the I think I was supposed to come in with more on to-do list, what I call it. Is this even on this? Am I not even? Yeah. Uh, number eight. Eight. Yes, exactly. Do we consider Keat's to-do list number eight? It it is. I I would prefer to call it planning board to-do list, but Kate who's responsible for it is fine. I just don't want to lose sight of that, please. Um I don't either. I mean, I'm hoping I don't have any update on that. I have not had a chance to to make much progress. Kate, is the next planning board meeting your last? It is. So, I'm hoping we can still I'll do my best. No, the um particular one was about having a process when to make projects look like what we approve.
Okay. So for the next agenda item, the last one was the communication. And so Sean, why don't you We received a number of letters in support of the resolution or emails in support of the resolution. Um I think Sean maybe just splash them up on the screen, go one by one so people can see them. I think they at least deserve that much. We don't need to spend a lot of time on them. Can you blow those up a bit, Sean? Chair Curtis, do we usually do this for um public comment that is submitted for each meeting? We normally don't get any public comment through email. I think this is the first time since I've been on the chair or I've been on the commission that we've gotten public comment via email. I'm just curious if there's a formal policy because I can I'm old now and I have readers.
And um I had sent you some language and I Deepa the way we left it last time, Deepa and Trish were going to work on a draft. I thought I started on it and um with my new work, I'm getting an exposure to a lot of different towns and I'm starting to read how their process works. And it's very interesting that when I took that paper that you started off with, I came across a community that had a very different way of uh going around how their projects in town happen. So it felt like we shouldn't look at a process just with what we've done. There's so many different ways of doing it. So I didn't want to rush into it and kind of present something. But I I agree. But except there's there's not oh so many ways I've looked at probably I bet 15 and I think I tried to fairly present them in in what I presented right that was not in fact I didn't argue for Shrewsbury you guys liked it.
I'm just wondering if this is the best way to do this or if that's if we have precedent to do it. That's what I was trying to establish. I don't from what Aaron Don like find out there really was no precedent. Some groups just say acknowledge that they all receive them and don't open them at all. So, we could skip it if people would prefer to do that. These are all posted on Legar, right? That's where Sean is clicking through. So yeah, correct. I honestly I even with my readers on I can barely see that. I'm I'm not saying that it's a bad idea. I've just not seen it done and I'm wondering if that was unique to this commission. That's why I was asking. Okay. Why don't we just let people look at them on Legisar? So that is the end of the agenda.
So I mean I don't know I guess if I'm off the board and it doesn't happen it's okay but no I think it should it's something that we can keep track of this I think we made progress on a lot of things that you had on that list. um we shouldn't lose track of it but again creating process when literally half the board is going to change this month um I was hesitant to just come up with something but I think it's a work in progress I would agree with that I'm not into like just rushing it into a vote I'd like to understand I mean I didn't take it as a rush of a vote I I looked at it more like I I think we got some good progress and I wanted to hear more thoughts. Right now, we're only going to have one person replaced that I'm aware of on this board, not half the board because one seat we have somebody running and the other seat we've got no one.
Right. Um so unless somebody writes in, right? So we're really only replacing one person that I'm aware of. Well, and even but even if that seat doesn't get filled at the election, it will get fe it will get filled hopefully shortly after. I guess what I'm saying is I don't think we're voting the next meeting. I personally think Keith put a lot of work in. We made progress and we should at least give it a shot talking about it. I don't think we need to vote on the next meeting, but if we can, I will try to bring in my homework, which was a little bit of work on the hotel thing for downtown just so that I can hear Kate's thoughts officially while she's still a member of board publicly um rather than privately. And hopefully we can make some progress on the other There's time.
We're all really really busy. So, we may not have time. We'll do our best. Right. So, if have whatever anyone gets done for eighth, we'll we'll keep the agenda item on and we'll discuss anything we have at that time. Okay. So, updates um uh 100 Chestnut Street. Um but let me start uh last week actually uh on um the Pond Street Chame Road project. 123 Pond Street. 123 Pond Street. On Wednesday the 16th, Elvro and I and Deepipa met with um the architect and the developer of that project. This was something they had asked for right at the time that Peter was leaving. They had asked for a meeting with Peter. Um since uh Peter obviously wasn't going to be there. Alvaro reached out to to me and I reached out to Deepa to to fill in. Right. So the um they were asked they had I think under agreement another piece of property a small piece of property right where the um right where the front piece is on Pond Street.
Um, and so they were acquiring this other small piece of property which actually and they had this idea about making the just the whole site work a little better instead of this tiny little piece on Pond Street. So, um, so they had done some drawings on that and just wanted some feedback. So, um, Deepa and I looked at it and gave them some feedback. Um, am I an to this project that we're discussing right now? No. Okay. No, it's way down. It's the one. It's the one way down there. So, um, so we had that meeting and gave them feedback. I mean, my impression Deepa can jump in that whatever the planning board decides to do with the project, the the addition this the addition of this small piece of property made the made the spirit of what they were trying to do stronger, better.
Um, so um, and that's the feedback we gave them. Yeah. And um I think they listened to us the last time when we gave comments as planning board and this acquiring possible acquiring of this additional property will help kind of prove the design like I one of the comments that I made is that visibility from the pawn street to the open space behind they actually could make that work because they were acquired if they acquired that. So I think it was a great design solution but and the other thing that I think important thing is they were willing to go back to the numbers to see if there would be a better mix of condos versus rent apartments and they were willing to go through that exercise and see what is a better mix of the units in the campus. So I think it's a team that's willing to listen and come with ideas.