001electronically and will be broadcast live on CTN channel 19 and online at a2.gov.org. Watch CTN for all of our fans. For all of our fans out [Laughter] there, excellent. Okay. Um, Erin, do you want to do roll call? Yes. Um, Commissioner Buffford, present. Iani Township. Thank you. Council member Harrison said she would be absent today. Commissioner Fuller, present in Chelsea. You. Commissioner Katarski present. Ann Arbor. Commissioner Neil present in Ann Arbor you porter will be absent today. Uh chair thiefs present in grass lake and commissioner we Leonard. Oh you're on mute present in Ann Arbor. Thank you. And that is a quorum. Excellent. Okay. So, if everybody's had a chance to review the agenda for tonight, um, is there a motion to approve? So, move. Thank you, John. And is there a second? I think
002Sarah. Okay. I don't have my video on. Sorry. Um, and then hopefully everybody has had a chance to review the minutes from last week. We had a good meeting or sorry, last month we had a good meeting. Very productive. Um, if you were absent, please check those out. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Oh, sorry, the minutes. I think Sarah's there. Okay, thanks. Sorry, I should turn my zoom back on. Okay. Um, second. Thanks, Jamal. Okay, fantastic. Moving right along. Um, does somebody have the agenda? Sorry, just real quick. Oh, just and then all approved. Oh, all approved. Thank you. Um, all in favor? Okay, great. Any nays? No. Okay, we're good. Okay, so moving right along here. Sorry, I don't have the agenda up. I got to open it here.
003Let me let me read it. Okay, thank you. Sorry, just like I need a bigger screen, more things. Um, if you want to do a quick call for public comment. Okay. Is there anybody out there that would like to join us for public comment? Any callins? Any So, I don't I don't see anyone in the queue. Okay, we are great to move on. All right. Can you pull that agenda back up? Yep. I'm going to while I grab it here. Okay. So, we have a we have a guest tonight. Um, we are going to hear a report of the Annabber draft land use plan. Um, and perhaps hear how it might relate to the public art commission. And we have a guest, Michelle Bennett, who is the senior planner with the city of Ann Arbor.
004Um, we're very excited to have you, Michelle. Thank you so much for taking some time to fill us in on what's going on. and um I'm sure the commissioners are very eager to hear what you have to say. So, thank you so much. Yes, thank you all for having me this evening. Um can you all hear me? Okay, excellent. My name is Michelle Bennett. I am in the planning department at the city of Ann Arbor. Although I was thinking a little bit about my previous position, I started at the city of Ann Arbor as a community engagement specialist and we may have had some overlap with this commission because I helped out during the bsentennial on the um murals that were going on the basketball courts. And so I was a part of that process
005on on the staff side helping review those. and I I believe we got some input from you all on process and um so that was my first and only time working with the um public art commission. Um I'm happy to be back tonight in a new capacity to share a little bit about the um draft comprehensive land use plan. So I have a few slides here. Let me um share them and see how this goes. Can everyone see this front slide? Okay, awesome. So, I want to start by explaining what this is. This is not a process that the city goes through often. Uh the last time we embarked on this journey was in 2009. That was our land use plan that had many other elements um in separate documents. And part of this effort
006is to try to consolidate a lot of different plans that um staff use to review into one document. And the purpose of this document is to be long range and to be comprehensive. Um, and when we say comprehensive, we are primarily focused on land use, but that ties into so many other components of a city like transportation, housing, um, retail, parks, how all of these things connect, right? Have some tie into land use. And so we have spent the last year and a half doing a lot of research and following a similar process that a lot of planning or city planning documents follow, right? Which is let's do an inventory of what we have. Let's figure out where we want to go and then figure out how to get there. So this plan the draft
007is really a culmination of um research on you can see here a lot of these different topics housing economic development transportation land use what are the trends what are happening in our city what are happening regionally what are happening nationally and one of our data points is also community input um so we we have done quite a bit of community engagement as well and then we put those together and we try to come up with goals and strategies to help us advance the city in the direction that we want to go. To do that, we have quite a bit of help. We had a steering committee that were representatives u from the community. They applied and were selected and um they were sort of like a sounding board. They would listen to a lot of
008the work we've done. they'd provide us feedback and we would meet uh regularly with them. The planning commission by state statute is considered the author of this plan um through the Michigan planning enabling act and they will be one of the final adopters along with council. Um, so it has to go through planning commission and then be approved by council and then like most plans then it's on staff to implement what we have um laid out for ourselves. I also encourage you all to go to this uh site. This will route you actually to the city's new engagement portal and there's a project card there that has the draft plan there. It has our timeline. It has all of the recordings from our planning commission meetings where we discuss the comp plan um which I'll
009refer to it as uh sometimes for short the comp plan and um it has slides from our steering committee meeting. So it it has quite a bit more information there if you're curious after this. Um this process started with a resolution from city council. These are some of the uh directives that they gave to us um to align with our carbon neutrality plan to densify the city and that does include single family zones. Um to streamline our zoning to have fewer zones that are more uh flexible. Um it gave us a framework here to follow. I'm going to touch a little bit more on this affordability, sustainabil sustainability and equity. And then in terms of land use to look at um ways to repair past land use policies that have resulted in the exclusion of
010people based on race, income or other characteristics um which zoning uh planners main tool had does have a history of. So they're asking us to look into that. So we brought those goals, I'm sorry, we brought those values to the public. We asked them you know to help define these things for us. These are big broad concepts. So we brought sustainable, affordable, equitable to them. And what arose during that was they felt that we had not captured these things these bullet point here uh which I think would have some overlap with commission. So I wanted to pull them out. The public had asked for us to add dynamic as as a value which they have given us some helpful um pointers on what they mean by that. So a people centered approach to growth character
011of place and identity creating vibrant spaces through placemaking and economic development and preparing the city to adapt for future changes. So they want us to be vibrant. They want us to be evolving. Um they want us to be dynamic. The other thing that we like to share with people is that um a lot of this plan is written so that it gives us the next steps. And as planners, our next steps are often to update our zoning code. That's how we regulate land use through the city. Um, and I think that a in a market like this, sometimes people think that zoning is destiny and we want to make clear that if we do rewrite our zoning uh code to reflect our new goals and the directive we've been given that these are the things
012that we have control over here. Number one and two is our regulations, our zoning and the land and infrastructure. But that is just a way for us to enable development. But now there are many other factors that go into this equation. So construction costs, capital, return on investment, these are other things that are also going to dictate whether development comes. So just because we say this is what we want and this is what we will allow doesn't mean that it will necessarily come to us. We do suspect though and we have some you know understanding of where we think there is quite a bit of pressure and where things will change but there have been instances where we have changed things and waited for for a couple years before anything has happened. Um so I
013want to talk a little bit about the future land use. I'm not going to go in a ton of detail about this, but one of the challenges of planning is we try to convert all of our goals that we have onto a map, right? It's a it's a discipline that's very spatially uh focused. And so we've created what's called a future land use map. And that's sort of our aspiration for our city of how we would like it to to develop over time. And then we would try to gear our zoning towards that. So that is when the change would happen through zoning. That's the legal framework that um that enforces that. So this is a future land use map. This is changing as we speak. We are in the editing process. Um but I
014was going to go through some of these just in the way that I think that they could be places um for more placemaking and more public art. Um, so let me maybe hop to hub for example. I think um this is something that we're proposing in the city that would sort of mimic our historic downtown. Now, of course, it's not going to look just like that because um the architecture there is of a certain era and there's a DDA dedicated to it and it's near the university. But there are areas of the city that we feel could have this potential as well. Um, Brierwood would be a good example if you are all up to date on how that's redeveloping. And so we started by looking at our shopping centers, our suburban style kind of
015parking lot with um like a strip mall style development, right, with your stores along the side. that if those could be areas where we could over time um become denser destinations for our residents and have a few mini downtowns across the city. Um and so that those are areas I would think that um either with this commission or through ordinance or through grants or some way that those are going to need um placemaking in some way because we don't want density for the sake of density, right? We want density to help create place. Um and there is a chance that some place could become dense and undesirable, right? Um and so that is those are ways that we might be thinking through these things together when we get to that part where we might be
016rewriting code um to enable these kind of places like this this image here on the on the bottom. I'm happy I'm going to keep going but I'm at the end I will ask questions. I can go back through the other districts if you'd like. I'm just pulling this one out because I think that's where we would have potentially the most to connect on, but um please if you want to hear more, let me know. So, we are currently going through a public editing process. So, we had our first draft of the comprehensive plan come out in the beginning of April. We spent six planning commission meetings going through not quite line by line but page by page together. Um we have sent all of those edits to our consultants and we are hoping to have
017a second draft in the next couple of weeks here. Um and then this late this summer um the plan if we we have to follow state statute has to go through a review period and that would be about 2 months um in late summer early fall and then this is scheduled to go to planning commission and council for adoption in November October and November. So there is still time if you all after today feel so inspired to read it and provide any feedback. We are going to go through another round of edits. We just um completed our first one and are in in the middle of doing that. Um but if you want to work with Aaron uh and I and send us anything then we're happy I'm happy to do so. So I'm happy
018to turn it over to questions now. I can go back to any slides in the presentation or talk any any more about any of the other kind of districts that we are proposing or anything else about the plan maybe you've heard about. There are certainly a lot of things going around that are being said. I'm happy to help clarify or answer any of them for you if you'd like. Thank you, Michelle. Is it possible to unshare your screen so we can come back to a conversation? Sure. Okay. Does anybody have any thoughts and or comments, questions, and how this relates to the public art work that we're doing? Um, John, you had responded to the email that went out on this. anybody? Well, uh I can just reiterate for those that didn't see the email,
019uh I uh I applaud the efforts, you know, uh so, you know, there are more people coming into our town than our places to live. Um it's makes getting around town more difficult. uh we really need to get fewer fewer cars easier to get around on public transportation, things like that. And I think the comprehensive plan does that. And uh it focuses uh high-rise density in these T1 districts, these transportation corridors, which is I think smart. Um, and uh, you know, as it, you know, relates to taking public spaces and and and I think Michelle mentioned this about placemaking because that's kind of the the term that that's used for for public art. I I I served on the now defunct design review board and um they had guidelines and um and part of that
020was using public art to make a better pedestrian experience. So they wanted a more walkable city and rather than buildings just being uh sort of uh pieces of art themselves, uh they the the idea was that if if you have a a dense city, you you really uh uh you can't really depend on driving your car from one spot to the other. So you have to you have to make it easier to uh to walk and people enjoy that and uh it actually is an economic kind of producer. So there are all kinds of positive sorts of things and I think that the idea uh if you make something denser that you really need to have uh facilities availability for um um for drugstores and hardwares and something like that within a 10 to 15
021minute walk. So um that's the challenge of of how do you take these urban areas that are it's not just Ann Arbor, it's across the country. So, I think it's very smart that uh Michelle, what what you've done and what you've pulled together and the the outreach uh people are talking about it. They, you know, they we just we just we just can't afford these single family zoning uh and particularly with all the the history to it of being exclusionary. So, uh, uh, but what does that mean? If, you know, if if there's if neighborhoods are more dense and, uh, there are fewer places to park and drive, um, what other part of the character? And so, uh, so there's going to be small commercial places in in in areas that we wouldn't necessarily expect,
022but I think that, uh, that we have examples of that in the old west side. There's market right on a residential, you know, across from a school. So, so it works. People like it, you know, and I would love to have kind of a a small coffee shop, not a big chain uh within, you know, a 5 10 minute walk uh of my house. Um and uh uh and uh so um one of the elements that that I'm reading about that that makes this kind of walkability um more pleasant is to have interesting things to see as you're doing it. uh particularly uh taking public spaces and turning into them turning them into civic places and that's what public art can do and I think you know Mary with with your murals and uh you
023know in the in the sculpture garden in front of the um uh the food co-op for example I mean you know people congregate you know maybe not to study and examine that piece of sculpture that's there but it adds to it it's it's a it's a welcoming kind place and so placemaking, wayfinding, things like that. Uh and we have a bunch of historic markers, the street exhibit program which I was involved in for several years, Ray Der and uh so you know, you walk around, you learn about the history and it's it's kind of a public art, you know, you look through the glass and and you see the past and you see the president through the past and it's kind of cool and neat and uh you learn about the town uh while you're
024sort of walking around. uh all of these things. Uh and I think the art commission has tried to do that. We've spearheaded that. It was the percent for art program, you know, 1015 years ago that that was that was the intent of it and we really never were able to kind of make that happen. But what I am pleased to uh sort of uh realize is the DDA is making that happen and they're doing a spectacular job with it. They report to us. they they they sort of engage us as a as a partner, active partner, and uh and frankly, I would love to see the DDA boundaries expand, you know, give them all the T1 uh uh districts, you know, let them let them really expand the because they they can do it. They
025do it well and they do it efficiently. And uh the thing that we never were able to have was staff dedicated to it. This we're a bunch of volunteers. you know, we've got great ideas, but what can we really do? And there isn't a way to to to allocate the kind of staff, and I don't think there's an understanding of public art. It's it's it's it's kind of a fuzzy sort of feely, but it isn't. I mean, it it involves, you know, creative benches. It involves creative bus stops. It involves all kinds of wayfinding. And and the kind of work that Mary uh and and Daniel are doing are spectacular. They're world class. And the same thing with Alan Zinn and and all these other kind of artists that um you know Fest of Fools
026is is really public art. It's it's a parade, but you know, I've tried to convince friends it's public art. Well, it's not public art, John. It's a parade. Well, it's it's a way of creating place and and it's very political. It's very creative. It's very So, we have a lot of examples of it working in town. Um and now we need it. I mean, people are coming in. They're moving here whether we like it or not. And they're and they're and they're, you know, they're bidding up the price of homes so that a lot of people that teach and are public servants can't afford to retire here in Ann Arbor. And that's that's a shame. So, uh, we need to do something about it. I think the comprehensive plan does it. So, kind of in
027an expanded version of my email, you're doing a great job, Michelle. Just keep on doing it. Thank you. That's very kind. Thank you, John. So, I think John uh you know touched on on this uh the way that you know we've um been able to interact um as a commission in a a pretty strong way is interacting with the city's CIP list and making art enhancement recommendations um via that list. Um so my question I guess um as we move forward uh with this comprehensive plan which is really exciting um to to be a part of and see and I love the way that the public is involved um in this plan. Um so I know this is servicing of course you know uh right redeveloping zoning um which will be uh targeting developers but
028would we see new CIP projects come on because of this development I guess what can we what can we see I think as a as a resource um to help uh include public art in this plan. We know we want to be a resource for developers, but we know we have this tie with the CIP list. So, how do those things I guess work together and how can we um be visible and offer support through the process? Um yeah, I think this so the CIP process is going to be very important because as we um enable greater density in the city that's going to require more infrastructure. So I think um and when I say that I mainly mean utility infrastructure but if we think about social infrastructure as well like and I would consider
029that like parks amenities which art would be included in we need more of that as well right so this is kind of where we're bumping up against you know some people feeling crowded where it's like we want more people but with more people you also need more things and you have to fit them in the same space. Um, and so our I think for planners, the CIP process will be largely thinking about what infrastructure needs are going to um allow us to get to these goals. Um, and I'm thinking specifically of like pipes, like upsizing pipes to make sure they're big enough for new development. But I mean, it doesn't have to stop there, right? I mean, like I'm saying, social infrastructure as well is going to be very important. And so I think that
030that could be another way for us to um work together in the future, right? Because there will be we're trying to allow more people to live in the city and they should also have access to, you know, the wonderful things that you all help provide as well. Um and so there has there has to be more of of everything. Um and I'm less familiar with the the the art projects that go into the CIP. I have yet to be on the on this side of it. Um so that could be another potential way that we could uh work together towards that. That's great. Thank you. Yeah, we've done the um what was it? The storm drain project or the manhole covers. I mean, you know, power art which creative has uh sort of led with
031the city with the electrical boxes. So yeah, nothing is too small to take a look at and enhance. Yes, thank you. Can I just tag on to what Sarah said regarding the CIP and and for Michelle's benefit is that we've spent several years working through this. We first uh took a look at the process. How do you take all of that those CIPs and how do you identify potential for public art? And so we've thought about it from a you know an administrator's point of view. How how do you do that? How do you how do you sift through? And so we have um a grading system and and a process to to to do that. And David Esau really spent a lot of time in it as well as as we have an ongoing
032committee. So, and and we've been doing this for several years, four, five, six years, I think, maybe more. And we uh so we identify each of those CIP projects and we don't pick art, but we just say the kind of art that might be well situated here and maybe we give a rough budget and we put that in to a list and that goes to somebody. We don't know where the stuff goes that we create and but it it it it gets tacked on somewhere and but uh there there no there is really no advocate for that kind of placemaking except us and we don't know where to advocate it and we we we're here we'd love to help flesh it out but it really you know so that it it ends up when that
033sixyear year sort of CIP thing goes through the sausage making it ends up with you know a project manager and they go what what is this you know I don't know what art you know like I'm not an artist you know so you know I know drains and I know you know construction and all that so so I I I think it's a potential to really activate this commission we've already done the work we're doing the work I mean a lot of the people that you see here today are on that committee and they meet regularly to do this and we've we've tested this. So it's, you know, it it's a good process. We could probably improve it, but it falls off and it it's not really picked up. I think it's at some point
034uh that if we can be involved in a another way or somehow I don't know. I leave it to you however Michelle to figure out your planner you know that this is this is a component that you know how do you want to use us as advisors and all the work we do uh we it just it's a black hole as far as we can see right now. So uh we would be even more encouraged if we can track it or if we can see something about it. So uh you know enough said I mean Sarah said it better than I could. So thank you. So, so to be fair, the the CIP committee did meet recently with someone from the city. I'm blanking on her name. She's got a great database that takes all
035of the projects that we've recommended and adds that as a component within um the database and that is shared by all the city staff. So, when they do take on a project, it says that we've recommended it for public art enhancements. It includes the budget that we've um put on there. And so it it's not going into a black hole anymore. It's actually very well organized and we've seen lots more projects actually picking up our enhance our our recommendations and including them. I guess the the issue is potentially is that that is our only way of recommending that public art become part of the city's plan is by tagging it on to CIP projects. There is no independent way with development that is outside of the city. um for us to be participants or recommend
036public art currently other than if the DDA andor the city decides they want to do a project that includes public art often not always they will come and talk to us and those budgets are completely outside of what we recommend and have any part of um so I guess that would be the the separation I see is that we don't have any direct link with public art projects that are not connected directly with an enhancement on a CIP project. I know some cities have ordinances. I don't know if this um commission has already explored that. Um, and I don't want to, you know, I'm not trying to give Aaron necessarily any more work, but if if we were um interested in working together on this, we mainly enforce things or come up with things through
037ordinances, right? And in planning in particular. Um, so that's a possibility as well. um that with development, certain kinds of development um that certain types of art would have to be required or there was a fund for it or um there that's the only other mechanism that I know of. I have not researched it extensively, but I know some communities do it that way. Um so maybe that's something we can consider. Yeah, that's good recommendation. Something we should look at. I've heard it called like a beautifification um ordinance in other places. H be interesting to find examples of the language around that and how it's implemented. I know that across the state of Michigan, for example, Grand Rapids and Lancing are doing incredible things with public art and it seems like their projects are extremely
038broad in terms of where they are and the partnerships across the city. And what would it take to create an ordinance? That's a good question. Um, so there are two different kinds of ordinances. Zoning is one that planners use and then there are police power ordinances. And I think with public art it could go in either. Um, so I think maybe an exploration first of of maybe how other communities are doing that would work. But in terms of um like what department that would fall under and the actual like all of that I would you know I'd have to talk to like the rest of the team to learn about but it might be a good first exercise to see if that's something if that's a format that you guys are interested in and what
039other communities are doing. I think absolutely we'd like to explore that more. Yeah, we could create another committee that we could all sit on. No, I think I'm I mean it's very I'm very curious um to see I mean we have a pretty extensive public art collection that the city has um that we kind of help maintain and manage. We've created a map, a tour of public art in our downtown um that is linked on the city website. Uh and so we're definitely trying to do more visibility work uh for the public art that is existing and then also what we want to bring to the city um as a commission. Are there any other thoughts or questions for Michelle? One one short thing is that uh Mary you you you brought it up that
040we have an extensive art collection uh world class. Yes. World class and it it's it's valued at $2 million. And also the his the street exhibit program uh is a part of that inventory of public art that's valued at a million dollars. So, if you want to think about it just in terms of money, that there's a $3 million asset that is sitting in the city that really is underutilized. And you have a bunch of folks on this commission that would love to brainstorm ideas and help in whatever way they could volunteer-wise, but we need help, you know, with staff. Aaron can't do it all. Neither can you do it all. and um and and uh so I I'm really glad I've been kind of out of the loop with with the CIP and Allison.
041I'm glad to hear uh Allison that that there in fact is an engagement with the staff, but uh so it's a $3 million asset. It's not just, you know, a few artsy projects. Michelle, what do you see the next steps or the value of the public art commission with um your plan um moving forward? How can we make this juicier or um support? What do you see the next steps are? Well, that's a good question. I might have to think about that more. Um, you're welcome to provide any edits if you feel like you think public art or something along those lines, placemaking is missing from the current plan. So, we can get that in the the larger framework. Um, cuz like I said, a lot of our ordinances are going to stem from what's
042written in the plan. So, that could be a good first step. Um, and then I you if we all stay in contact, I will be the person who is also in charge of implementing this plan. So, they hired me to help write it and then I will stay on to then make it happen. Um, but it is a long and slow process, right? It's it's looking to to 2050. So, it's a long range plan. Um, so I I might say start by looking at that. Um, and then exploring maybe Aaron and I could help, but exploring ways. I mean, I'm limited to my planner brain, which is like I think of getting things done through ordinances. So, that was why I recommended that. And so maybe the next step is to look into that to
043see if that's feasible or a good mechanism or um if there are others that are available. Great. I like that recommendation. I know um Jean, you were most involved on the development, forgive me, board, whatever they were called. Um, and when you would talk to developers, was there like a certain threshold where you were like, "This percentage of your budget should go towards placemaking or public art or anything like that that potentially language wise we'd want to see in this plan as well." Well, um, most of the developers, it was the design review board and so it was a requirement and, uh, uh, the city and and it really was, uh, to be truthful, it wasn't quite as functional as it could be. There were a lot of good intentioned people but they just sat
044around and they said well you know and these were architects saying well what about the cornice and I I don't like this or I don't like you know and so I was the public art guy and I you know have you thought of public art and all the developers I mean it's just it's a classic oh yes we would like public art but when it got down to where and what and how uh it was a challenge for some of them and depending depending on where you uh uh uh introduce that idea in that design process. Some of these projects that came before the design review board, they had everything, you know, they didn't want any ideas. They've already spent, you know, three 4 million on this design and, you know, they weren't going to
045add a floor or put balconies out or whatever. So uh so it's it's it's the ability to to uh inject within that planning process for developers uh something that is attractive and what they really care about. I mean a lot of these architects I mean some of them are brilliant they're artists but they're not all I mean but they all you know are bankers. They all deal with money. So they want to know you know is this going what's it going to do for my bottom line? what you know how is this going to enhance? So making the case that placemaking actually is um is a money maker for development is important for the city and second uh then how could they get uh advice and I've offered the art commission and you know and
046they most of them say great you know when we get to that point we'll get in touch but you know they they want to know is there a registry of artists or what kind of art what's it going it cost all those kinds of things and of course the answer is all well it depends you know what what what do you want to spend and and well what do I need to spend so th those kind of of of questions uh came up uh that most of the developers were uh interested and it was what what would it do to my bottom line they wanted to know and and how how could how could this benefit fit um uh the public liking my project. And I basically said local artists, you know, and then maybe
047not think about it as a piece of art, but as a rotating art gallery, even if it's a small space or kind of a functioning art like for elderly exercising, but in a creative way or benches or things like that. Uh but you know it it you know I was one brief voice. Uh I think there would be an opportunity but the I think the best way to do it is to be able to find out how that could be presented to developers and at what time I mean is it a brochure is it an online we created the public art idea book. So we and we have a link uh that you know there's two or 30 hundred unique pieces of public art all over the world and just to stimulate uh so you
048know so I I think there's a great opportunity um and we're great idea people um that when the new planning when the new development process takes place you know maybe uh either Aaron or Michelle or whatever figure out a way that we can offer suggestions or what we can create to really inspire because that's that's that's what this design review board was supposed to do. It was supposed to be colleial and supposed to be inspirational that after meeting with this group the architects would come back and they would they would make their project look better aesthetically. Uh so uh that's easier said than done. So that's about all I can say. Allison Okay. Any other thoughts? Michelle, if you can hang out for another 10-15 minutes. Um, I don't know if you're in a rush,
049but I am going to be presenting um a couple projects that are happening in the city that are um definitely kind of fitting into the vibe that it sounds like um your plan is trying to capture. Um, are there are there any other thoughts for Michelle or any other questions? Well, I think there's a lot of value in having this conversation. And I think as this commission grows, we are trying to just have more footing um with the city at the ground floor of these projects um so that public art can be considered and citizens and visitors to our community can appreciate not only the new design of our city, but also the the elements that make a community unique, such as art. Are we in a good space to move on or I we're
050all very grateful for your time, Michelle. Um you're welcome to stay, but if you have to if you have to um leave, that's totally understandable. Um we have next on our agenda the approval of our plan, which you may find interesting. It is our kind of vision for the next year um as a commission. Um it sort of piggybacks on efforts that we have been doing for the last couple years and some new ideas. Um this is something that we're going to approve right now so that it can go to city council um as our official 2025 plan. Um and um hopefully we can see some of these things come to fruition. Um, do I have a motion to approve the to I just lost my page here. Public art 2025 plan and goal. Yes,
051the Yep. Exactly, John. The 20 So moved. So moved. Um, is there a second? I Okay, thank you, Peggy. Um, all in favor of approving our 2025 plan and goals. Okay, looks like we have all eyes. Okay. Um, so the approval is passed. This will go in front of city council. Um, I'm not sure if it's the next meeting, Erin, or when that's coming up. Yeah, the it's probably too soon. The next meeting is on the 16th, so it'll probably be the following meeting that it would go to city council. Okay, very good. Um, so the next um item of business is I'm going to do a short presentation for the murals that bridge project. Uh last year we had a successful project uh on Hiron Street and we are right now actively fundraising to
052do a similar restoration and uh public art to the main street overpass with the same kind of welcome messaging. Because this is an MD rightway, they're requiring a city council resolution of support. And with the public art commission's approval tonight, this can then go to that resolution. This can then go in front of city council. So, I wanted to share with every one of you. And I'm kind of doing this as a as an artist. Um Sarah will be um formally leading the approval process and the motion to approve. Um, but I wanted to first start off if I can with just a really short fun drone video um of the of the finished mural. I I know that all of you have seen the the the probably the the mural finished, but um there's
053some really nice takes here. Everybody have that on their screen? Yes. So these underpasses have been seen as welcoming gates to our community um both at North Hiron here and then uh sorry at Hiron here and then secondly at North Main um when you come off M14. This project was funded by numerous private donors um foundations and um destination Ann Arbor. We are moving forward with almost full funding for Main Street. Uh we just have to go through all the bureaucracy and red tape um to get it approved. So we're kind of moving fast here uh to make that happen. So the you you're welcome to um pull up that document again, Erin, if you'd like. So it took us a couple years to get this through all of the the bureaucratic approvals and now
054we're hoping to fasttrack Main Street. Um so what you'll see here is um actually if I can share my screen so that I can navigate through the document that might be a little easier. Okay. So everybody is familiar with uh downtown coming in off M14 the underpass there. Uh it has murals on it. They were painted 23 years ago. What we're really trying to do is target the fascia beam, which is the metal overpass, the actual train bridge that goes over the road. Uh we have a company that will come in and restore the rusted metal and then welcoming messaging as you're coming into town, similar to Hiron, will go on the north side of the fascia beam. Um, and then the murals themselves are going to kind of capture the the wildlife in nature.
055These are just some studies that were done. This is not um the design that has been approved. But just to give you an idea uh when we think about what is really unique about that area is that Argo, the dam, the new development that's happening down there. Um there's so much new vibrancy in that area. A um thousands of people are using the borderto- border trail now for recreational use. We've got the Cascades, the canoe livery. So the mural designs will kind of showcase what is happening in that area in this part of town. Um these images right here just show you where the new art will go. So on the wing walls there will be new murals and then again on the fascia beam there will be um welcoming messaging for both visitors and
056residents to enjoy as they're coming into town. These two overpasses have been identified as gates to our community and both highly kind of neglected, blighted areas and um Treetown Murals in partnership with private funders is taking the charge to um restore and um create artwork that can make these spaces much more beautiful and appealing to all people to enjoy. So tonight, um, I'm just sharing this project with you. This is our finished Hiron and our hopeful, um, North Main site, uh, as we kind of work through the bureaucratic needs of MDOT. Um, this is sort of the the first step in making all that happen. So, I'm all ears if people have questions or comments. Um but tonight we're really hoping the commission will um approve this project or support not approve but support this
057project so that we can then take it to city council uh and work through the steps that we need to with MDOT. Um I think we've all loved seeing the other project come to fruition and I would move to support another project of this sort on North Main. um with Mary's team at the helm. Yep. And I'll second that. It's great. Should I do an all in favor? Yes. And say I I I I. Okay. Awesome. All right. So approved, right, Sarah? So So supported. So supported. Okay. The resolution to support the installation has been approved by the Annar Public Art Commission. Mary, you might want to uh sort of wordsmith the exact language that you would like the art commission to use to uh you know I I don't know what is necessary but
058um you know to me you're you're you know you're you're you and Daniel are worldclass artists and we are lucky to have you and so u that and everything you've done has just been spectacular. So, I think that that it should reflect that wholeheartedly, unanimously. So, thank you, John. Um, yes, I can put together a couple sentences that I can share with Aaron to package in whatever we need. We can work that out, Erin, if you'd like. Yeah, that sounds great. Excellent. Okay, we are just cruising here. Michelle, I I see that you're kind of still there and hanging out. Thank you so much. I just thought it might be nice for you to see uh what initiatives are happening in the city that the city isn't funding but is totally supporting. So um that
059is one of the those are two of the big projects that uh my company is personally spearheading. Okay, going back to our agenda. We have um right now we're moving on to report from committees if that is where we're at. Um is there are there committees I know that um lead fundraising has met? Um and should we start there? Um Sarah Allison Sarah and I met with the Ann Arbor Community Foundation. um liaison um who gave us a lot more information about our endowment um that we're able to draw from. We have $22,000 um that the public art commission can use. Um we did find out some interesting information about the um the variance. Um the variance for this particular money um must be used to um must spend distribution. Okay. Um maintenance, preservation, purchasing
060and installation. So we did learn that we might have some roadblocks for our granting to be um around promotion or performance. Um, so Sarah and I are putting our heads together on that right now. And um, Allison, just to kind of fill you in there, um, maintenance, preservation, purchase, and installation is right now what the money can be spent on. And we did tell Karen um, at the community foundation that we have drawn from that fund and used it for advertising in the past. So, um her her thought was that maybe um you know it's not as policed but um Sarah what was your take on that like moving forward that that's kind of like our parameters right yes that you know kind of the past is the past but um moving forward that there
061might be actually more of a spotlight on um how those funds are utilized um particularly because we haven't drawn any funds since 2021 and we have acrewed a large balance um that you know they would like to see us um spend I think this granting program falls right within uh those parameters if we are sticking to uh visual art um projects with more um permanence I think there's a little play there, but it does seem um that we would really maybe want to pursue another variance which we were led to believe is a very difficult thing to achieve. Uh when it comes to um endowment funds, this is this our endowment fund is over 20 years old. um and it took a long time uh a decade right to grant this variance. So if we're
062really committed to um adding in performance and promotion um to to the definition of how uh we utilize those funds, that would be a a pretty large effort. Um, so we might want to start our our grants um within that definition uh before looking to change or augment that uh variance. Yeah. So I was involved with the language update which we did about five years ago. Um pretty sure we included the word promotion when we did it. Um, I think we pulled words from the bylaws of things that we were supposed to be doing with the money. Um, but I'll dig into it and see um where the language Yeah, if you wouldn't if you wouldn't mind, Alison. And I don't know why it would be so hard to change that language. Um, she seemed
063to think it would have to go through the the It would be hard to get approval of the board, I think, is what it needed, right? The board approval. Mhm. But yeah, if you've been through that process, I don't remember it being complicated at all, but um yeah, let's like I said, I think I think the language did specifically say promotion of the collection. Um Oh, maybe. Um, I wrote down maintenance, preservation, purchase, and installation, but maybe they're So, yeah, I mean, I they it should actually be on their website also, but I don't I'm not finding it right away. So, I'll dig into it a little bit and see if I can find that language. Um, it should be in our minutes from way back when also, but who knows when. I don't know
064if you all know the answer to this, but just a clarifying question. When it says purchase, is it like talking about purchasing actual pieces of art or Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because sometimes people donate art to the city. They I don't know what's an example of when the city has purchased a piece of art maybe. Well, we haven't we haven't ever So, the fund the endowment used to before we changed the language was only allowed to be used for maintenance. Okay. Regardless, it was used for projects. Um and we said, well, we don't want to just use it for maintenance, especially because now the city has built in to their structure maintaining the pieces um like each of the individual um city organizations that own it are supposed to maintain it. So, while that is something
065we want to have funding for in case we need it, we want to be able to do other things with the money. And that's when we changed the language there so that we could buy art if we wanted to. Um, and so and I, like I said, I I'm pretty sure promotion was part of that. But I think one of the the things that we thought we found exciting was the ephemeral kind of art, the performance, you know, that that we had that we'd have like a broad net people to be able to apply for these mini grants. And um so we kind of agreed that this year we would kick it off within that language structure, but then um hope to maybe change that because performing arts and um is such a big part
066of our community. So we have $22,000 right now. Uh every year we'll have around an additional 5,000. Um, this the money gets distributed in the spring. So, I think that's perfect timing for sending out an uh request for proposals. Um, so we haven't worked out any of the details. We're just sort of investigating how the money works, um, how it's earmarked and this and that. So, uh, fundraising will get together again to really hammer out some details. So hopefully at the July meeting we'll have something to present to you all um even before so that you can we can maybe approve it at the July meeting to move forward with our first mini grant or multiple multiple anything else from fundraising. Okay. Um, any other committees have anything to report? Well, on special on special
067projects we're continuing with our golden paintbrush. It should have gone out and been advertised. And Robert Keller reached out to I think it was Sophie and I and maybe Aaron too. WMU wants to do something radio about the award and just getting the word out there and so I think Sophie's gonna do it. We don't have a date yet, but just more PR. Great. That's good news, Peggy. Yeah. Thank you for your work on that. Sure. Well, we have room for new commissioners, so leadership has some work to do. There's um applications with the city right now. I know that um Sarah and I got to briefly look through some of these applicants. Uh now is a good time if folks know people that they want to invite to the commission. Um Erin, do you
068know how many I I kind of got a sense that that was an official resignation from Bong earlier in an email? Yes, correct. Yeah. So there's two two open spots. Yep. Okay. So, if folks know of anybody um you know certainly we would take commissioner recommendations very seriously. Um there are I think eight applicants um people that are applying to be on the art commission or other commissions. Some of them specifically would like to join the art commission. Others are just looking to get involved in the city. So, um, there there were a couple standout individuals for sure. Uh, we've talked about getting youth on the commission. Uh, I don't know if there is an age limit. Do our members have to be 18 and older? Is that something that we know or should look
069into? Probably. Um, Mary, we talked about uh having uh students on uh that would be appointed by the art commission. They wouldn't be voting members, but I I think to go through the the the the city council uh there there might be an age limit for the uh appointment to just generally any commissions. I would suspect uh that, you know, it's 18. I don't know. Yes. Okay. To be know there's an interest in getting more young people involved and one simple easy way to do it would be for us to appoint them ourselves without going through uh the council. We've talked about it. I don't know. I think Allison we've talked about it at some point in the in the past, but uh and I I I think we have a resolution to that effect
070that we can do it if we want to. So, one way to think about it. Well, I have your attention, Mary. I just want to tell you the mural in Echelon restaurant is spectacular. Oh, thank you. Freaking awesome. I was blown away. I showed it to my wife and she So, we go to Ashelon restaurant just to see it. It's spectacular. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the trip. Or at least I from the pictures. Well done, Mary. Thank you. Thank you. That was a lot of fun. What's it of, Mary? I'm going there next week for dinner. What's it of? Oh, fun. Well, it's it's kind of like an inception kind of thing. It's like an image of their bar. Oh, cool. But um it's sort of a it's it's a fantasy image
071of a scene in their bar. Okay. Jamal and I were there doing some selfies. Thank you. Um I just want to put something on everybody's radar. I don't know if it falls in a particular work group. maybe special projects, but uh a friend of mine who is graduating from U of M's um M's program, their dance and theater program is putting on a performance um their thesis performance in the fall. Um and they're going to do two performances, one on campus and one at Wheeler Park. So, I just um say it again. Um, yeah, I wanted to put that on everybody's radar. I don't know if there's, you know, if there it's just a matter of something we can help promote and get the word out or if there's another way we could support and
072collaborate. Um, but yeah, I just wanted to put that on everybody's radar as like a performance art um in the public art space. That's cool. Yeah. Do you know when it's going to be? Did you give the date? I'm sorry. It will be. Can you send us something, Jamal? Just an email. Yeah, I'll be happy to promote it. Okay. Yeah, I'll do that. The September 6th will be at the university and the 7th will be at Wheeler Park. Wheeler Park. I like Wheeler Park. Cool. Oh, yeah. I'll send that out. Good. Thanks. Yeah. Who's who's currently handling our social media? I mean, guess technically me, but I'm not really doing I'm not really handling it. Okay. Um, we probably don't have many followers, huh? How many do we have? Thousands. We have millions of followers,
073right? It's growing slowly but it's growing. That's why we need that youth member. Get them going on the social media. Yeah, anybody can can upload. You'd be surprised how many young people are like off social media. I have tried to hire a social media employee for like and I come in contact with a lot of young people and they're like, "Yeah, [Laughter] no." But we will. Thanks Jamal for bringing that. I I would love to hear what's learn more for sure. any other committees that or any more announcements or ideas that could be that could fall under. I'll just let Mary and Sarah know. I'm um I'm forwarding the email from July of 2020 where we had that ordinance changed just so you can see how it was handled by Caitlyn in the past. And
074Great. Thanks, Alison. It did not include the word promotion. However, Oh, no. I'm led to believe by her email that [Music] um that that's okay. And also, I would say promoting the public art collection goes to its best interests of maintenance and preservation. But agreed. I'm not a lawyer. Yeah, it's almost implied promoting. Yeah, it is. Um, I saw that. Oh, Topy's not here, but everyone should go to the art hop this weekend just cuz Yeah, for sure. Art hop happening. Um, Westside Art Hop. We just repainted the roundabout yesterday. 10 artists in nine hours. I don't know if any of you guys know, but we had a product fail and um we found out that street sweepers, street sweepers were coming through and sanding the mural, sanding it. So, I have some work to
075do with the city. Erin, I'm going to be reaching out to you to help with that one because I think projects like this should be partnership. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, we successfully were able to repaint it. So, if you're downtown, if you're down there for Art Hop, go check it out. Um, if that's all from committees, we can move on to report from staff. Erin, are there any updates on your end? Sure. Yeah. I um I also saw going back to the committee updates, Sophie had sent that um example of the position statement and I forget which committee that was under their goals but she just sent that today. So folks Yeah, good point. Jamal, what do you remember what committee that was that you and Marionetta and Sophie? Oh, I think we just
076kind of Yeah, specifically. Okay. Is that still something that people feel strongly about? Kind of crafting a statement and putting that putting that out there. Would that be something we'd use our social media for? We could. Yeah. Could we could be y Okay. Well, I Yeah, I'll take a closer look at it. Um, I haven't followed any of the links she sent yet, but I did see the email. From the email, it looks like she was thinking this language could potentially be something we put together to send to council. and correct me if I'm wrong, but um basically our our thoughts and concerns um moving forward with the support for art um and giving a a framework of what we would like to see from from the city in support of art. So, I guess
077it would be in the form of maybe a more formal memo. That's accurate. Okay. Yeah. I've only been a part of the one with the ARPA funding where we sent that memo to uh to council and that was after having a well attended meeting uh of the public and and maybe that's something to um aspire to to have a uh sort of public conversation more public conversation around um this idea moving forward. Then like the eventual kind of goal would be to get more community members, community entities, organizations in the art world to kind of sign off on it as well and be kind of a part of the state. Yeah, Creative Washna was a partner. So we there are definitely organizations we can reach out to for support. Uh and then for staff updates,
078um I had put out that call for the the uh station 4, the new uh firehouse station 4. Um so, um Vice Chair Fuller will be the art commission rep on that. Um so she she'll be able to keep you updated once those kickoff. Um the CIP resolution was approved on Monday at the council meeting. Um and so that will be uh moving forward. Um I know there were a couple pieces where we sort of recommend that the city administrator work with the U of M. Um so there is there are quarterly policy meetings that um public services has with the University of Michigan and that's happening next week. And so I gave them a heads up um to add that as an agenda topic. So, I'll report back if there's anything to report back
079from that meeting. Um, and then um when we were talking about the comp plan, something sparked in my mind that might be of interest to this commission. So, the um the flood plane coordinator with the city is sort of spearheading this effort. Um it's an educational um effort around historic Allen Creek that runs through downtown. Um and so she will be developing kind of like some markings showing where the historic Allen Creek was that's now, you know, underground in a pipe. Um but if I can share my screen quickly, I can show you the website and then um so yeah, we have a website dedicated to it. Um I think that there will be markers that bear some sort of resemblance to this um at some point. Um, but the idea was well that they
080will kind of trail the old um the historic river and so I'm pulling up the GIS map to kind of show where that is in relation to Ann Arbor. Um, so yeah, it does run like basically through straight through downtown. And so that's kind of um a cool project that will be coming and I'll have um more detailed updates as that gets kind of rolled out and developed. So great. Yeah, there's I was just recently in Baltimore and there's a similar um creek or river that's all underground now in Baltimore and they had little sort of water markers um uh on streets sort of through the the path uh that it takes. So that's that's a cool idea of doing some sort of visual representation. Yeah. Yep. We have we have a piece of public
081art that's right on that uh uh uh creek line too. The fish on Kingsley and first uh that was because it's in that 100redyear flood plane that became flood plane that became a 25-y year flood plane. So So that's that's kind of an an art piece marker. It that uh Allen Creek goes right underneath of that right by the railroad tracks. Yeah. Yep. that that will hopefully be a co- benefit of yeah, there are a lot of areas of the city that are in the flood plane, but it's just because it's in a big pipe underground and so a lot of people don't know that there is a lot of flooding because the pipe isn't big enough. That's that's what's causing a lot of the flooding. Yeah. Oops. Okay. Thank you, Erin, for your updates.
082Excellent. Um, are there any items for the next agenda that people right off the bat have any thoughts [Music] on? Okay, before we adjourn, are there any creative updates? Allison, you mentioned Art Hop coming up this weekend. Any other just fun things on anybody's horizon that you want to let us know about? the Chelsea Painters Guild. Yes, that's the June 14th and 15th, I believe. Yes. And it's 50 years. I just got the postcard. Yeah. So, that's a really neat um art fair in Chelsea. Uh group of painters, 50 years strong. When does the Annabber Summer Festival start? 13th, I think. Soon. Nice. Are you performing this year, Jamal? Is AML? No, we're we're taking a taking a Summerfest break. Something else though. Erin, when is our next meeting? Do you have that right on
083the tip of your tongue there? July. Are we meeting in July with the fourth coming up? I was going to ask about that because it is July 2nd would be our meeting date. Let's pass. Okay. Pass on July. Okay. So, August, what would be the date in August? August 6th is the first Wednesday. Are there any conflicts that people have off the bat right now? or um I would really So that actually gives fundraising a little more time to develop maybe some grant protocol. Um maybe we're kicking off a RFP that goes out in August for the fall. You know, it could be Okay, we'll talk about that. All right. So, we won't be meeting next month. Um, I think it'd be a great time for committees to get together to move some things forward
084and uh certainly come back strong in August with two new commissioners. With two new commissioners. Absolutely. Yeah. Recommendations if there's So Jamal, you're on leadership, right? Because Allison and Sarah, you and I, we we met to review applications la a couple years ago together, correct? Are you still active on that committee? Interested? I can't hear you. As former vice chair, Jamal is, but if he doesn't have to be, if he doesn't want to be. I'm down. I don't want to be on too many, though. How many am I on? Three. Couldn't be more by the three, right? Well, we kind of we combined two if you if you check out the plan communication. Yeah. Uhhuh. So, we we'll be we'll be getting a happy hour meeting together for drinks and application review. Um just show
085of hands, does anybody have an idea? Does anybody have a person they'd like to recommend join that in their mind right now or? in my mind. I don't I don't You do in your mind. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, let's let's bring a couple of new people to our commission and keep moving some of these awesome things forward. I really appreciate everybody's time tonight. This is a volunteer commission and um you're all doing amazing work and I appreciate all of you. Likewise. Likewise. Yeah. Um, if there is nothing else, would someone like to um move to adjourn? Move to adjourn. JohnQatars, thank you. It's good to see your face, sir. We've missed you over the months. Great to see your face. Yes. And um sad to see Fong go. Please respond to her email sending
086her much gratitude and love um and appreciation for the time that she did serve as chair um for our commission. So, please give her a shout out. And that was a resignation, I think. So, okay. That's how I saw it. But, um, and Aaron knows for sure, right, Aaron? Yes. Okay. Um, also Sophie did resign, so give her a shout out and some gratitude and appreciation for the years that she has been on this commission as well. Six years, I think it was. Great. Well, if there is nothing else, um I hereby mallet my mouse adjourn. Y'all are beautiful. Good night. You good night.