And that's why it's so disappointing how inverted this planning process has been that you have seen the most people coming before you, far more people than showed up in the sessions that were held last year to talk about their concerns and their ideas and their ambitions. And what's striking is the actual the level of consensus and agreement that exists that we as a city need to have places that are far more affordable than they are. We need to make way for new people who want to aspire, who aspire to live here, to join our community. And it needs to be really inclusive. And we need to have more voices at the very inception of the planning. And that's where concerned with we've had an inverted process. We had a process that got launched with direction set for it, with goals that were set for it with no community input or awareness.
And Miss Coyle, you said you've got some photos. How many when are the when were the photos taken? uh the night of August 4th, 2024. And all the photos are the same date. Yes, these two photos are the same date, but I did submit a I did submit to the engineer and to two people on the board. I did submit a video that we took during that storm and we did walk out into Bill Rafen's property or Mumfords, I don't know whose it is. And we walked along the stream and we went all the way out to Route 35. So, we'll mark your photos as P2 and P3. That's the next two sequential numbers. You didn't give them to me. I'll mark them and keep them for the record. Thank you. That's the same picture. Excuse me, Council P. It's already We understand, but miss somebody else has submitted the photos and so we'll mark them and keep our record.
That is why I think you're hearing people suggest that we should pause the plan. Not stop it, not turn it on its head, kick it to the side, but to pause the plan and do something that's really responsible and respectful for the pe people who have built their lives here and who want to build their lives here. And so I I know you're on a mission and you know you're really driven and gripped by a set of ideas and I understand how persuasive they can be and how emotionally possessive of you they can become. But I think you're hearing people suggest we can take a moment to pause. It took Grand Rapids four years to do their plan. It's taking us a year and a half. I think we can talk pause for just a little bit, catch our breaths and do a whole lot better in bringing the community together to bringing the landlords, the the the tenants, the homeowners, the aspiring homeowners, and have a really powerful combin combin conversation that's informed by actual data.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Tini. Do you think this is all three pictures of the same thing? Those are the same picture. Okay. Everybody on the board has a copy. All right. Thank you, Mr. Tina. Thank you, ma'am. Come on up. I am Tony Skeleo, 844 William Drive. Can you spell your last name, please? Pardon me. You spell that. Just spell your last name. S C E L F as in Frank O. Thank you. All right. Uh, I'm not necessarily a big environmentalist, but anyone who lives in our neighborhood knows we have fox, we have coyotes, we have deer walking up and down the streets, and with the development of this property, those animals are going to be displaced. That's all I have to say. Thank you, Miss Skele. Anyone else have any comments? All right. So, the comment period is then is now closed. We'll now take comments from members of the board.
and so we can come together and recognize what our common goals are, what our common purpose is as a city and plan for our future. So for that, I think it would be wise just to take a step back a little bit and pause it for a moment and reconvene a larger conversation. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. I probably don't even need to speak now. Um, so I am Stacy Har. Hi there. Um, nice to see you all again. Uh, thank you for all your work. I, by the way, live on 2004 Crestland in the Peckard Stadium neighborhood. Um, actually right up from the new Packard Row development. So, it's pretty clear, right? There's a lot of concern. A lot of people are anxious and frustrated. Almost everybody here is open to more density, is open to more housing, is open to multi-housing. But it's the method on how we do this.
Um we'll start first with Councilman Cologne. With respect to everything you've heard tonight, this will be our last chance to hear from the members of the planning board with respect to this application. And then after that, we will ask for a motion to approve. That's um uh a best practice for planning boards. If we don't have a motion to approve, then we won't have a motion. Okay. Councilman Clone. Yep. Uh I think there's been a lot of uh work on this. Um there's also been a lot of great comments by the community. Um I mean we're all a lot of us who are here uh were there um prior to being here. So I I think there's a lot of empathy in in in terms of what we feel, how we feel, and what we're trying to do within the parameters of the law uh with the precedent that's set uh by the state and the rules that are set by the state.
It's the method that maintains the character of our neighborhoods, that keeps our neighborhoods safe, that has less cars on the street. We really do need to work together um to make this happen. We all want, I think, a variety of housing options for individuals, for families, for couples to rent and to own. Unfortunately, with the current plan, there's so much power that's left of the de the developers that we have no idea if any of this will really happen. And Ann Arbor is too special of a city to just gamble it away like that. Irrevocable changes can be made to our neighborhoods, to our historic districts, and we just want to be very, very careful that we know what we're doing and that we go forward. There's also a lot of conflict and disagreement about the data again. Do we really want to do we really want to take the chance with messing with our city without just all being solidly on the same page or we'll never get on the same page but pretty close to the same page closer than we are now perhaps.
But I thank you for your time because it is I know many hours you're here um and frustrated and I can empathize. So thank you Mrs. Brisbane. Um I agree with everything that's been said and I'm glad that has been emphasized by both Jeff and Kendra that we are having this forced down our throats by the state of New Jersey. This isn't something that Belle wants to do. I don't think any one of us in this room wants to see uh any more development than what should be happening in town and we are seeing it. We have fought applications that have come in. People have taken us to court and we have lost. The judges have decided what's going to go on and tiny little Belle. Um we are working as best as we can. We've hired these professionals who know much more than we do about the law and what is legal and what can be done.
Um I think it's really important to make sure that we review the data to look at things together. Um hundreds now thousands have have urged you to pause the plan. um the same levels that we reached last fall. Um again, I can't echo John Moore and I really shouldn't have bothered to speak after him, but nobody really wants to cancel the plan. We know we have to go forward. We we know we do. I'm I'm open to density. I think a lot of people are open to density, but we just want to do it carefully. Um so, please let's make sure our common objectives are met and let's just take some time to pause the plan. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Do we have anyone else present that would like to speak at this time? [Applause] Okay. Do we have any remote callers?
I think they've done a great job. We're doing the best we can with what we have. I personally do not agree with what's being done, but our hands are kind of tied right here. So, uh, I would be for approval of this, uh, housing element and fair share plan. All right. Thank you, Miss Prison. Mrs. Fernola. So, I love this town dearly. I grew up here and I raised my kids here. They go to this school. So, I empathize with the bikes. They ride their bikes. They play in Ravage Woods now. Um, so it's, you know, upsetting to see a development come in and bulldoze, you know, my kids playground and make it unsafe for them. So with that being said, I'm also, you know, realistic and knowing that if we don't implement a plan, then we just are vulnerable to other lawsuits where we completely lose control of everything that we work so hard to keep.
We do. Charlie Brad, excuse me, Brad, you can unmute and address the planning commission for up to three minutes. Uh, Chairman Lee, thank you. Planning Commission. Thank you. Excuse me. It's a little challenging to hear you. Could you speak a little louder? I moved my microphone. Does that help? Oh, yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um, so I'll repeat, uh, planning commission, thank you. Um, planning staff, thank you. This is a challenging process. It's contentious, but I'll say this is what good planning is about. It's bringing people out and getting the issues out in the open. And I forget who the quote was, but it's like making sausage or law. You don't want want to watch either being made. Uh it's not pretty. U so I have a particular concern that I would ask the planning commission to instruct the staff and consultants on and that is to better structure this by neighborhood.
So, um, but thank you for all coming out and speaking and I do struggle back and forth because I lot I know a lot of you. So, but we just have to do what's right for the town as a whole and not think about just ourselves. Thank you, Mr. Turk. Yeah, I would um it's not a scientific word, but this sucks and none of us like it. And you can tell by our faces and our expressions and our demeanor that we're not happy about this. My wife is born and raised in Balsh, grew up on Valley Road. Her brother lives on Riverview. Um, five the woods at the top of my street at Tamarak that was taken out. It's five big beautiful homes there to Mumford built, but not our neighborhood didn't want that. Very much concerned about the water. Okay. We hope it's been mitigated.
Ann Arbor is not a onesizefits-all kind of place. My good friend Claire Kolivar spoke earlier today in public comment. She lives in the old west side. I live in Orchard Hills, which is the kind of classic 1967 colonial and ranch neighborhood. We're very different. I have many colleagues and friends who live in the Burns Park area and their neighborhoods are very different from the Bryant neighborhoods. We have people who live in Ann Arbor Hills and that's different from Maple Miller. We we can't get ourselves that one set of residential zoning rules are going to fit all of these. So, let's collect data. And yes, I know. Thank you all uh planning commission and staff. You've started to recollect data, but it's still not being done on a neighborhoodspecific basis. And council members, you're at least calling meetings of your wards, but wards have many neighborhoods with different issues.
We'll see. Um, but this is this this is very frustrating and um we're all we all live here. Um, we volunteer for this planning committee um because we care, because we want to make sure things are done correctly, that no one builds a Walmart downtown. Okay, to be extreme. And that's why that's why I'm on this board. Um, because I care and I have the same vested interest in this town uh that you do. Um, but I am very unsatisfied with the decisions we have to make. Although I'm very proud of the work that the attorneys and our professional have done to guide us through this. So when we talk about money being spent, did we dip into a thing? Let me tell you, your taxpayers are being spent. And I don't know where we would be without the professional uh uh support that we've gotten from these people that we've hired.
When you look at such documents as the feedback from the um open houses, you see a very bunch of very mushy generic input. Uh that's not enough to base a plan on. Um so uh please neighborhood specific and let me briefly digress to those who say uh that when we say pause the plan we're attempting to cut off the voices of the people who are participated. I've been on involved in this for 18 months. So I can't claim ignorance. Uh but this is not about calming the voices of those who spoke out but rather and here's why I'm not in politics myself. Uh I'm a professional engineer 35 years Thank you. Uh thank you so much for your comments. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Caller with the phone number ending with 345.
Uh they truly are professionals. It's seasoned in this obscure uh uh situation or whatever you you want to call it. Um so the uh I will say uh I have walked the property. Um, I'll do it again. I haven't gone to Hickory, but I made a note and I'm going to look into that. Uh, I made a note about Route 35 and we'll explore that. And um I can assure you that all of us will do everything possible when it comes before us to approve what they're proposing to build that we do everything that we can to uh address everybody's concerns and first and foremost the water because that's real. And so they're going to have to present us with solutions and not promises. So, uh, I I just wanted to share with you, uh, thank you very much for your time and your concern.
You can unmute and address the planning commission for three minutes. Hi, this is Kitty Khan. I live on Krauss Street in the thick ward. I'm afraid people are mistaken in thinking that this plan would result in more affordable homes. The reality is that it wouldn't. It would be the opposite. I'm hearing people say they are in favor of the plan because they want to be able to live in Ann Arbor after they graduate or they want their kids to be able to live here or they just want more affordable housing in Ann Arbor. I ask that everyone do their own research and just look around at the rents and home prices and you will see the truth. This plan will result in the demolition of affordable homes and they will be replaced by market rate developments because developers will target the least expensive areas in town.
Uh, and I just again wanted to share with you that we're sitting here very frustrated ourselves and uh, and again, we're doing all we can to fight, you know, the whiskey project. We're fighting that right now. We're in litigation with that because we're not happy about that. Okay. We've retained lawyers to do that. Um so, um I just wanted to share that my thoughts with you on that. Thank you, Mr. Turk. Mr. Callahan. I too am a resident here in Bel only for nine years, not my entire life like some of you. But in moving here to Bel, I have to tell you, many years ago, my wife and I drove through Bel 1970, and we looked at a lot that was for sale on the Masquamine River Country Club for $34,000, Bacon Lock. We realized that we would have nothing left to build the house on because that was our budget.
As other speakers have said, many new developments have been going up, but rents and home prices have not been going down. Instead, they have been going up. and the new developments are anything but affordable. I am pro-affordable housing, but this plan will not result in more affordable housing. Please pause the plan and think about the facts. Thank you very much. Thank you. caller with the phone number ending with 644.
I've admired Reel for these many years and now my wife and I live down off Green Street. And I drive down 35 many times to get off in Griel, right past this property. And I recognize how steep it is there. The speed of cars doing 60 miles an hour. The thought of having a turnoff, I I can't see that. But I express my fellow board members concern for this proposed development, the plan. We have to do it. We're not happy about it, but we're going to make it work so that it's legally done and we get the best outcome from it because we love living here. My office is in Seagar, but I have a six-minute commute every day. I'm really spoiled and I want to keep living here and be proud of Riel and the professionals that we've hired to fight these fights for us.