Ann Arbor Planning Commission 12/19/23

001welcome to the December 19th 2020 oh um it's all good uh welcome to the December 19th 2023 regular meeting of the an arbor Planning Commission for detailed information meeting procedures please review the full printed meeting agenda provided M Kelly will you please call the role yes noting that Commissioners Aban and S will be absent this evening along with council member dish commissioner Lee here commissioner we here commissioner Mills here commissioner hamers Schmidt here commissioner Weatherby here commissioner Clark you have a quorum thank you uh moving on to item number three approval of the agenda may I have a motion please to approve uh moved by commissioner Mills and seconded by commissioner White all those in favor please say I I I motion carries uh may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the

002December 5th 2023 moved by commissioner hamers Schmid and seconded by commissioner Mills all those in favor of is there any discussion of the minutes just sure just a um a typo on on the uh second section of the document where it says to look at the or please review to the video recording it just cuts off at please review and there should have been a a continuation of that and if you give me a minute cuz you're moving really fast I could oh yeah find it in the document yeah yeah no of course um tell you exactly where it is while he's pulling that up any other discussion of a minutes we'll um all right it's page six okay under Section 9B under commission discussion it says commission the commission took into consideration the proposed

003requests and discuss the matter further and then in Brackets it says for a complete record of the discussion comma please and then it breaks off so if it just continues there but we can approve it with that correction absolutely we can make that correction if M perfect uh all those in favor I I uh motion carries uh we're moving on to section number five next ups are reports of the Planning Commission and written communication um Council dish being present Mr Leonard hi do you have a new report I do Hello uh we had an active city council meeting uh last night uh there were several items relative to the Planning Commission I wanted to show progress on one is first reading was approved for uh a modification of two personal solar energy systems to provide

004more flexibility for those to be located in front yard setback requirements and that they would no longer be subject to the Mr Leonard we can't hear you sorry I think it was when Mr Leo was joining if you could yes we can please continue thank you yeah no problem uh so uh after in addition to solar energy system modifications uh amendments to the office District to create the used Banquet Hall as well as some clarification between veterinary services and aborting services uh approved on first reading uh the proposed Plymouth Road tc1 rezoning was approved however there was a modification um eight Parcels that the Planning Commission had added to that have been removed by the city council that was based on the conclusion that they had to be noticed uh at the Planning Commission rather

005than being added at the table um my apologies that was uh during that discussion I indicated that I thought that that would be adequate so if the Planning Commission is interested in pursuing those that would require additional action uh those were the uh PUD properties on Green Road uh that were added to that the rest of the parcels were approved on first reading and then two approvals were completed uh second reading and uh uh final approval of the site plan and rezoning for the village of Ann Arbor uh site plan amendments adding 120 addition units those reach conclusion um at the city council meeting um I think you all received a communication um I do want to acknowledge that uh commissioner so is not uh in attendance and has resigned from the commission just from

006a staff perspective I really appreciate her um contributions over the time uh on the commission um definitely going to be missed um hope she's feeling better soon and I also want to acknowledge uh one of our uh staff members will be appearing at at his last Planning Commission uh this evening uh city planner Chris changen is going to be retiring uh from the city early next year uh so this is going to be uh I anticipate his last uh appearance formally before the Planning Commission um Chris has been with the department for over 26 years um an absolute uh uh between him and recently uh retired Jeff Khan losing a lot of um institutional memory and experience in the city um but um I I just for Chris he's always been somebody who's willing to

007step in um uh volunteer take on projects and I um I definitely will miss having him around so um if you get an opportunity uh um make sure you um get all of your uh questions out to him tonight because you won't get many more opportunities thank you thank you and again another thank you to commissioner salv for her service as well as Mr Chang uh do other commissioner officers or Liaisons have anything to report written Communications are included in today's packet we're going to move on to agenda number six which is public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about an issue that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission then we'll uh call on

008remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star 9 if lift sting by phone or use the raised hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please call 877- 853 5247 and enter meeting ID 1226 City staff will select callers whove raised their hands using the last three digits of their phone number or by name of available and you'll hear an automated announcement saying that the host is allowing you to speak so when speaking please move to a quiet area mute any background sound sound so that we can hear you clearly and for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time Mr Garber good to see you thanks CH

009I wasn't going to speak but as I strolled in I heard the news that commissioner Sal has resigned from the Planning Commission and uh I'm kind of shocked and dismayed to hear this um you know she's been a consistent Progressive voice on commission and uh I will personally um you know miss her presence here and um you know I can only wish her well um and I will also miss U Mr Chang's very professional uh work on staff on you know different petitions uh I give him I I respect him a lot as well so two big losses tonight just wanted to comment on that um thank you thank you Mr Garber would anyone else present like to speak this is on items that is not listed on the agenda seeing no one else do

010we have remote speakers I do not currently see any hands raised Mr chair give it a few more seconds okay uh we will close this public comment we will have a chance to do public comment on those agenda items each so um we'll go on to agenda number seven public hearing scheduled for next business meeting staff the next regular meeting and the only meeting in January for this body will be on January 16th there is a returning item it was already noticed and it was postponed that's the street vacation for 2845 um I believe I South State planner de Leo I'm looking at you it's yeah okay I have I just wrote South Street that's not right um and there are no additional public hearings scheduled for your next business meeting so it should be

011a light agenda we had one possible public hearing but uh they weren't quite ready perfect thank you we're going to move on to section 8A which is unfinished business this is amendment to the chapter 55 of the unified development code Transportation impact analysis requirements and review criteria the unified development code amendments this is amending chapter 55 sections 5.29.18 n.6 related to the traffic or Transportation impact analysis requirements review criteria um this is amendments to that section 5.2 9.8 required plan information paragraph e trans uh Transportation impact analysis and section 5.2 29.6 site plans paragraph e criteria for review of a traffic impact analysis the staff recommendation is approval so we'll move on to staff presentation uh yes and we have on hand uh planner de Leo uh who will be guiding us through the staff

012report and also we are joined by Cynthia readinger uh civil engineer in our transportation group uh who has graciously joined us to help provide additional perspective ask any um technical burning questions that you all have about this amendment and I will hand it over in whenever you are ready planner de Leo thank you for bearing with me I feel a little bit like a hot mess over here um your mic is a little low all right um full screen and screen sharing to here share that see did it follow all right looking better all right uh thank you very much these are proposed um this is a proposed amendment to the unified development code AS mentioned it is um two amendments to section 529 in subsections point8 and six these are related to our transportation

013impact analysis requirements and review criteria uh we first staff we first talked to the um ordinance revisions committee about this in the summer um and we uh prepared a diagnosis and an outline of what the issues were um in very high level summary our unified development code refers to um transportation impact analyses we refer to um traffic um and these are fairly outdated um terminology um and we are and we proposed a series of amendments to to modernize and also reflect what our staff is currently asking for specifically we ask for multimodal transportation impact analyses and we when we talk about um we don't talk about just traffic but we talk about transportation we talk about pedestrians non-motor Transportation as well as vehicular Transportation um we are putting forth tonight um two amendments uh three

014were were conceptually discussed but we are um putting forth two tonight these are relatively small and easier fixes um that don't take um a lot of analysis and will provide um an incredible amount of bank for our buck we will be being clear about what our expectations are for site plan submitt requirements and we will be um clear about what are expectations for review criteria the um the component that it would be missing would be the standards for site plan approval adding those adding any standards related to Traffic impact multimodal traffic impact analyses to our site plan standards we'll try to tackle that at a later date it would require a more robust conversation discussion it will require some policy decisions let me get back to my staff report again the hot mess situation um

015this is not the staff report that I I'm going to stop sharing for a second while you pull that up just a reminder that was a cover sheet to just remind the commission that this item had a a small uh typo unfortunately we felt like it was significant enough that we've Ren noticed because it was a change in number for the section uh the UDC that would be adjusted so the staff report that was included in your packet on 125 is the one that we'll be reviewing tonight how am I doing Alexis great thank you yeah perfect that's what I thought all right and just a second here we go should go to all right I'm going to take these proposed amend so now I'll talk about the actual proposed amendments and I'll take them

016out of order um because out of order they are arranged in order of the unified development code but they are not I think in the most logical order for discussions first we are proposing an amendment to section uh 529.com so as I mentioned we are already asking um applicants to provide a multimodal transportation impact analysis following updated methodology and our proposed amendment is simply to state that to strike the language right now that talks about better our proposed amendment is to strike the current language and say that site plans that propos to generate more than three trips per unit per peak hour or 50 trips per peak hour shall provide a multimodal transportation impact analysis consistent with the 2023 Institute of Transportation Engineers multimodal Transportation impact analyses um we are also proposing uh language that

017specifically address area plans asking that information provided um on for specific criteria so the magnitude of the rezoning will be um can be be understood and we are proposing to strike then the the following language that provides um unclear requirements we don't need to repeat what the transportation impact analysis should include when it's already in the it manual this makes it confusing about which takes precedence um over then the second amendment that we are proposing um is to section 529 6E the criteria for view of a traffic impact analysis we propose to add the word multimodal and then switch the references from traffic or parking to multimodal Transportation um in the packet is our staff report plus our proposed amendments and the diagnosis and um commentary that was provided to the ordinance revisions committee back

018in the summer also joining us by Zoom is um transportation engineer Cynthia readinger um I think that will conclude my staff presentation but I am more than than happy to answer any followup or clarification questions questions and I'm sure Cynthia is as well thank you Miss Leo we're going to move on to public hearing this is an opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about this item we'll first call on individuals here to address the commission then remote participants um to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star I and is listening by phone or use the race hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please call 87 7853 5247 and enter meeting ID 977 6634 And1 1226 City staff will select callers that have raised your hand

019using the last three digits of the phone number or by name if available you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area um and mute any background sound so we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of the comments and is there anyone present that would like to speak at this time regarding the amendment to Transportation multimodal analysis seeing no one do we have anybody any remote participants we do Adam Goodman you have permission to address the commission for three minutes hi Adam Goodman 4005 Avenue I sent a message to the ordinance revisions commission committee uh back in the summer when this was first coming up um with a few concerns

020I'll I'll try to get through them here as well the first and and sort of most foundationally I'm not a transportation engineer but I've read commentary from some folks including luminaries like Donald CH which basically suggest that the methodologies from The Institute for transportation Engineers or it that we're we're using here both in the old version of this ordinance as well as the new the proposed changes but but they're basically junk science um and you know that these are these sort of prescribed trip generation rates are based on limited data or statistical significance and the entire premise that land uses are the only thing that generate create uh trips is is a little bit problematic about given all we know about how you know the the design of the built environment itself IND is what

021sort of induces or creates demand as well um the new methodology is maybe still better than the old one in terms of achieving our City's goals because at least it does consider the needs of of bikes and pedestrians and nonmotorized users um on on that front I'm a little bit concerned that we're still talking about you know even multimodal level of service still seems like it would include veh vehicular level of service to me and I would like for us to stop considering vehicular level of service at all because we have a goal in the city to reduce vehicle miles traveled by 50% you know if if developments are going to continue leading us to to widen roads then that's counter to our counter to our goals um I I would also note that you

022know one other thing I've I've heard about these uh Transportation impact analyses is that they're quite burdensome for developers so um I actually spent a fair bit of time uh over the last day or two reading the economic development report that the city just released was attached to the city council agenda last night um I would recommend everybody all of you read that as well it's actually a fantastic document and it it addressed this this particular this very question that we're discussing tonight um kind of on two points one was it did recommend approving these changes because they're more in line with their City's goals but also it said that we should decouple uh Transportation impact analyses and several other sort of technical detailed uh planning processes from site uh so that developers don't have

023to do all of this before even getting to have an approved site plan and um doesn't look like we're considering that tonight I hope we will in the future thank you for your comments your time is up our next caller is sh you have permission to address the Planning Commission for 3 minutes hello how's everyone doing today um I am reading the agenda as public comments persons may speak for 3 minutes about an item that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda please state your name and address for the record my name is Samuel Hayes and I live in in Michigan but I do I'm sorry to interrupt you I just wanted to let you know that the time to speak on a item that's not listed on the agenda has actually

024transpired and right now we are on the public hearing for amendments to Transportation impact analysis requirements you can make a comment it then I'll be silent thank you so much okay there is another opportunity to speak at the end of the agenda I appreciate it thank you you're welcome there are no other hands raised Mr chair thank you with that I'm going to read the proposed motion which is the an arbor City Planning Commission recommends that the mayor and city council approve the amendments to the chapter 55 unified development code in sections 5. 29.8 and 5. 29.6 related to the tra Transportation impact analysis requirements and review criteria section 5. 29.8 required plan information and section 5.29 .6 site plans paragraph e criteria for review of a traffic impact analysis to update references simplify language

025and ensure multimodal emphasis moved by commissioner white seconded by commissioner weatherbe uh we are in discussion would anyone like to kick us off commissioner hamers Schmid thank you um this is minor but before that I would like to say I think you know in absence of a better standard just to address the public comment I think it's it's great that we're um updating this to look at the newer version of the it standard and that it's multimodal and I really like that we're scrubbing out all of these words in the UDC it's a good step towards our un zoning um my minor thing so section one e it says criteria for review of a multimodal traffic impact analysis are do we want to change that traffic to Transportation should that be transportation to make it

026consistent with calling it a transportation impact analysis everywhere uh I think that's a fine idea um Cynthia nod if you agree okay make that change um when you were talking and I was reading this I was like what's the difference between a multimodal traffic impact analysis and a transportation impact analysis and then I realized they were referring to probably the same thing so in that same vein I'm wondering if section 2E should be called multimodal Transportation impact analysis I'll make a note of that um when this moves forward to city council make that change and I will I'll also do a sort of a search in the whole UDC to check for first at least check for consistent phrase and go from there to see what I based on what I find awesome thank you

027thank you commissioner Weatherby yeah so uh first of all I just want to say that I think this is a a really good step forward it might be a small step but it is um it's been needed and so it's it's good to have it here uh I did also have one question which is probably outside of this but I just wanted to put it here during this time is um also looking at multimodal impacts during construction because one of the things that I think we're seeing a lot is that is also still based on traffic and that sidewalks get closed and they get closed for month um Main Street there's a near me there's a sidewalk that's just been closed for a months and um it's a very heavily pedestrian pedestrianized space and it

028just feels like the um the roadway has had more consideration for construction impacts so again that's not necessarily part of this but um I just wanted to throw that out there while we were talking about this is that kind of using the multimodal transit across the board from for all consideration of projects thank you any other Commissioners I can add in my two cents I think it does make sense to me to update at least the 210 standards the 2023 and as commissioner Hammer Schmid said that uh in of something that is better um this is still the right move forward I did have a chance to um uh Mr Leo uh what has been some feedback from some of the civil engineers that regularly um conduct this type of study has any um feedback

029been given um um I've not received much feedback from the proposed amendment itself um I think that we did go through um and I'll ask Cynthia to weigh in as well I feel we went through a little bit of growing pain several years ago be while we started asking for a multimodal impact study um caught some people a little bit off guard because people who tend to be used to just referring back to our standards and I think there was a lot of questions of what do you mean by this what are the parameters and and then you know insert Transportation jargon here um but I think that LE less now because as the community is getting used to this we have been consistently asking for this um for for a while now um so

030that I I think the learning curve was just in the the expectations not so much how to perform it but what our expectations were uh Cynthia do you agree disagree um or have anything to add yes thank you I would say that that's a a very accurate reference presentation of what we've heard from the Consulting Community we have been um asking for some of these items for quite some time now because it was consistent with our policies and we knew that questions would come up from decision makers and at this point in time this this new document really does give more structure to the consultants for how to perform of these analyses that they are less familiar with because other jurisdictions have not been asking for that information so I think you know on you

031know on the overall standpoint of things that this document has been very helpful and made it easier for all of our consultants and for new Consultants to understand the items that we're asking for got it thank you and I think that if we're asking Consultants to consider this standard then it's important for us to codify it and make that expectation clear so uh to me I'm looking at sidewalk gaps Eda access to bus stops and safety performance in our intersections as a result of development is in line with our vision zero plan so um with that being said to me again this this helps to clarify simplify expectations even if it does impose larger I think uh Mr good it indicated that it um imposes some level of expectations of developers that said it's already

032occurring we're just looking to make sure that it's in writing so that we can point to it together U commissioner Mills thank you and your question in combination with commissioner hamers Schmid's question um has me asking a question back to staff and and I'm not sure I um Miss ringer maybe this is I don't know if there's anything else that H that we ask for for in terms of the traffic or within your purview side that is not codified right now that similarly we have people say like I don't know what the rules are or that I don't see that in your UDC can you think of things like that there's is there anything else I should say that we need that in the traffic world we need to make um bring up to BR

033bring the UDC up to speed with our practice that's a really good question um and I think I would need to think about that a little bit this is a really good step towards creating a Level Playing Field for everyone who is producing Transportation impact analyses I you know we're transportation and planning staff are always an ongoing com Sation about these things and I think that's definitely something that we can continue to consider great and then since that was specific to traffic I guess this is more for you miss Leo like are there other things right that we ask for we and I'm thinking about this in the context of unzon and like wanting to get a full handle on the things that we're asking of developers to make it clear to them within the

034UDC but also so that we can figure out like are there opportunities to prioritize to elevate some um again this is this is within that context of unzon so are there and maybe this is you know I don't need to put you on the spot but like if there are other things that should be on our radar of something that that we've been asking of Developers for a number of years that haven't made it to the UDC those I would think would be something that we ought to I I would think we ought to encourage putting that down on paper I think that what you're getting at is precisely our next level next phase because the piece that we are missing is um more concrete guidance or regulations or standards um about what we do

035with the information that is within a transportation um study um this these things are going a long way to um standardizing codifying it set the Level Playing Field about what what you should study but the next step as we mentioned would be then what do we do this with this information and that's a more of a pol that that involves a policy discussion um because um and then we can then we can approach how to prioritize projects that are maybe improving um I'm sorry the words are escaping me but like improving the um our bike Network or or improving working toward our vision zero goals maybe reducing fatalities making intersection safer there's a lot of um there's a lot of components and so we these are helping get the inform get the information that we

036need the next phase would be sitting down and having a um a discussion with a an an engagement about what to do and how to prioritize and how to rank that information that we get yeah um I and I would add in or this is my two cents worth on that that if we're not using the information that we get if there's not a like so what do we do with this then that's an opportunity for us to cut things to the point of like every study cost money right so I let me rephrase my question to be a little bit um um more less on the policy side and more on the are we asking of other other kinds of studies for other kinds of things that we haven't codified because I think that

037this would again allow us to see what are all of the things that we're asking for when petitioners come before us like all of the different kinds of studies um and if there are similar gaps there that we might need that we might want to think about yeah I'm I'm understanding um and I think that yeah we can work on that we can work on that um right now we have a um Cynthia might be able to help if it's a high or low threshold but we have certain thresholds it's the 50 trips in the peak hour um changing that may um um changing that would then reduce this reduce the burden or increase the burden on what kinds of projects maybe we are and and then maybe our trigger points are not quite the

038right wow I'm really not doing a great job this evening but what I'm trying to say is um we didn't tackle that part but yes it could be a conversation as well to what kinds of projects the scale of projects do is 50 trips in the peak hour the right number we didn't tackle that with this um if we make that number higher we'll get less projects that require a traffic impant study but maybe that does help overall the the the development review process and maybe overall it's uh maybe it shouldn't be trips in the peak hour if maybe it or we could give exemptions for projects that have a super low percentage of parking parking provided or no parking so on and so forth and outside of the traffic area or transportation area I

039should say we're we don't run into things in other Realms where the developer says I didn't know I needed to do that study or I didn't know I needed to submit that because it's not in it's not in the UDC that's that's actually what it okay part of what I was trying to get at too got um I don't I don't think that we run into that um too much okay would you since you can just nod do you agree don't agree she's nodding I'm Sor she's agreeing yeah I think that if um think that anything else I mean and even from from our perspective our threshold is pretty consistent with standard industry practice um we do get some push back from um sometimes folks when they take trip generation and they distribute out by

040our modal distribution that we have in town they want to not produce Transportation impact analyses because they're focused on the number of vehicular trips that a project is um developing but I I don't necessarily think that's a a total lack of understanding um I think that's just making sure that our preferences are understood thanks um this this is for my edification um like for example the Michigan building coder Michigan energy code will get updated every three years um how frequently does this uh it standards uh because we're we're jumping from 2010 to 2023 and so just for um I guess what I'm thinking is once it's published it's published right we don't have any inadvertent references they go and revise it and issue a 2020 revision that um suddenly subjects to standards that we didn't

041expect ourselves to tether to so what's the frequency of updates and again this is just for my edification I I don't know the answer to that and maybe Miss Runner or Miss Leo you know on average it's been about every 10 years that the update is has happened and usually an update occurs when there's a a a shift in industry practices so this this update to this recommended practice really reflects the fact that more communities are asking developers and Consultants to provide this information as part of their transportation impact analyses so the it recommended practice has been updated to really reflect what communities are asking for gotcha thank you every decade um all right any other Commissioners seeing none I think and this is procedurally speaking this is uh a recommendation for City council's adoption

042of the UDC change is that correct yes and I meant to mention the stirring roll call but um because there are six of you this evening um any action so you did vote to update your bylaws to require five votes however that has yet to be um approved by Council and so for tonight and until that happens you still need six affirmative six votes to advance any item affirmatively uh to council and to approve any item and that will also be the case for this item understood thank you um we'll move on to roll call [Applause] vote on the motion as presented chair Lee Yes commissioner W yes commissioner hamers Schmid yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Mills yes and commissioner Weatherby yes that item carries thank you we are now moving on to agenda number

0439A regular business this is 333 East Williams Street site plan site plan for City Planning Commission approval a 16-story 2002 dwelling unit residential building with four surface parking spaces ass access from East Williams Street the zoning destination is D1 downtown core and the Liberty division character overlay district and secondary Street Frontage designation the total square footage of floor area is 23,123 Ft the staff recommendation is approval and I believe we have some petitioners here for their presentation welcome uh we do this evening we will have Andrew seavoy joining us um by Zoom I see that he's just been able to join as a panelist um and we also have others who may uh who may assist in the presentation uh and we also have on half uh on staff planner Chang um for staff comments

044you have 10 minutes to present to the commission Mr all right share my screen here all right can everybody see this yes we can okay um well um good evening everybody my name is Andy seavoy I'm presenting on behalf of cor spaces team 43 North Milwaukee Chicago Illinois uh we are the applicant for this item tonight I apologize for not being able to be there in person I'm abroad right now but I do have a few members of my team in the room I have Joe gotd and Alysa Galina from core spaces um sitting in front of you I have ashini denoi who is our architect and Luke Bonner who has been assisting with the um approvals process I also have Scott betel who's our civil engineer on the line uh virtually uh to answer

045questions that may come up um a little bit about core spaces uh so we are a national developer and owner and manager of kind of student oriented buildings we've been in business for about 14 years and in that time we have developed or acquired about 30,000 beds uh across the country and so the map you're looking at here shows everywhere we where we have developed we are typically an owner operator and a long-term holder so every dot that's in red we still own and operate um we did sell a portfolio that's shown in Blue uh but the ongoing strategy going forward is to be more of a long-term holder and manager of our assets we have a lot of experience in the midwest uh just to uh show you kind of the scale and quality

046of the projects we develop uh one of these projects is the Hub on campus on Hon which is kind of shown and the middle row at the right side of the screen uh and we've worked on other sites in the past in an arbor and also have a few more in the hopper so you will be seeing me uh hopefully several more times this year uh for other projects um the site I'm here to talk to you about today is 333 East William that is the an arbor Credit Union it is bounded on the south by William um the north by Library Lane uh the an Arbor Public Library is to the west and then to the east we have uh the rear lot lines of residential structures that face Division Street um in the

047William Street View um top right you can see there's a relatively new bike lane that goes along William in front of the is currently broken up by two curb Cuts uh that lead into the credit union parking lot and then the Library Lane view uh which is the rear of the site the north side of the site uh you can see some meter parking and kind of some um just kind of the character of that sidewalk that we would be AB buding to on the north side of the project and so the proposed development is this um it's a 16 story building it's 202 units almost 650 people would live here um there are only four four on-site parking spaces for um for staff and uh we have been coting with the DDA to Res

048to who would like parking uh to the DDA and they could they could store their cars in the adjacent Library Lane underground parking deck um we have programmed all of the ground floor uses to be active uses except for the west side which is our service kind of alley um and we're also proposing kind of a well-lit mid block Crossing um from William to Library Lane as part of this project um if all goes as planned we would start construction kind of at the end of Q2 this year and then deliver about two years later in June of 26 and I'm just going to say this now so I don't um run out of time uh we are seeking approval subject to the new UDC language that was recently approved um where F premiums were

049removed um as we were going through the process of Staff review um particularly the affordable premium um became kind of an issue as the financial markets you know interest rates increased and the financial markets adjusted to that and this new removal um basically solidifies the viability of this deal and another thing I need to say is you know there are six of you so I I do need a clean sweep tonight so if at the end of this presentation any of you are feeling uncomfortable or have concerns that have not been addressed I would implore you to consider uh postponement rather than a Flatout denial because if I get one nay vote that is a denial and a postponement is a much more salvageable scenario for us I'll start with the offsite improvements there are

050three of note the first is a new crosswalk uh across fifth a just south of Library Lane that would be paid for as part of the project the second is um removing some of the metered parking along Library Lane to provide for a new uh fire lane and that was requested by the Anar fire department the third off-site Improvement is uh all new amenity Zone um pavers uh and Street Furniture as spec by the DDA and uh we'll also be closing up one of the two curb Cuts uh that currently go into the site so only one will remain uh the other one will go away so that provides a better continuous um bike lane there and pedestrian experience the these are the ground floor plans or the right is kind of a mezzanine level

051and you can see we have uh programmed the South part of the site which is on the bottom of the page to be our main lobby that flanks Williams Street um and then the East and North which flank Library Lane and the rear lot line of the adjacent residential structure rures uh those yellow units are town home units that would actually exit right onto um grade um and so in that left image we have a trash staging area we've coordinated with um solid ways to ensure that this works for them that they can actually get a trash truck in um tip what they need to tip and then do a hammerhead turn and exit the site facing forward so they don't have to back up into William at all uh and then also we're proposing

052this midblock pedestrian connection that serves as an entryway to some of the Town Homes but also would be a public connection between Library Lane and William this is what that would look like just the general character of it and so the view here is from Library Lane looking down towards William we're proposing um new fencing along the property line that would have integrated lighting so this space would be well lit at night and safe and then FR flanked with all active uses so the diagram at the bottom shows you know between Library Lane and William you have our leasing office that looks out onto this and then you have four Town Homes looking out onto this um through block connection this uh shows the uh typical floor all the way to the left so our

053typical units they started from micros we have Studios two bedrooms three bedrooms and four bedrooms uh on the typical floor the middle image shows the top floor um top floors and so we have some kind of duplex style town home units up there as well as an amenity room with an exterior amenity deck and uh that is shown in detail in the image to the right where we have the the pool shown there and kind of how we fleshed out that design um as far as materiality goes the idea was to stick with these kind of solid uh Civic materiality components towards the base of the building and then uh as we move up uh this turns into this more dynamic grided system so you have these kind of undulating glass and solid panels that

054create some movement above and kind of a start contrast to the bottom two floors of the building which are the these brick this brick element with these kind of regular openings and so we have you know brick uh certain stone accents some faux wood and then these grided elements are a metal panel system with Windows there is some e just wanted to let you know you have a minute and a half remaining okay thank you uh so uh there is some Eis proposed but only in the middle of the building where you can't see from the public way uh these are the elevations kind of showing you how that works in elevation so you have the base the grid element and then the top which is actually set back so you can't really see it

055from the street this is a north and west elevation this is also going to uh pursue lead gold uh and so we have several strategies here we can answer questions on that because I'm running out of time um this is how that entry would look this is kind of a far out view of the building and then the benefits um increase housing stock sustainable construction increased tax Bas we're creating jobs uh a lot of uh investment in public infrastructure and so uh a lot of reasons to vote for this and so you know I would ask that we get approved subject to the new rules um without the F premiums uh and I would just want to kind of reinforce that as I turn it over to you guys for questions uh M Kelly actually

056one of the cool things I think I can do is to give the petitioner a little more time to go back to that slide regarding benefits so if you could take two three more minutes to actually go back talk about the project benefits talk to us about environmental sustainability so um absolutely yeah that's I think that's the only Power I have sure so uh we would propose to pursue a lead go building this is actually an all electric building um and so we are working on a preliminary scorecard that shows that that is uh very achievable for this building um a few of the kind of sustainable uh elements of this building is that we are very walkable location we have limited amount of parking we're making use of the deck that already exists there

057um we are reducing the heat island effect by using pavers and um and uh other kind of elements that um Landscaping elements that help to reduce uh the heat island effect on the roof um all energy star rated fixtures to try to reduce Indoor Water use uh and we're designing the project to perform better than uh than the ashray standards um we'll spec all low emitting materials and so we're going through that process now and we feel like we can commit to that lead gold um standard and then as far as the uh overall project benefits um we we are you know proposing uh a project that is sustainable as I just said uh it would increase the real estate tax base quite a bit um create roughly 250 construction jobs and 10 permanent jobs

058for our staff members that would be uh hired to to run this building um we would remove the curb cut that is currently breaking up that bike lane so we're basically extending the the usable section of the bike lane uh we're providing a new crosswalk at Fifth Avenue and then we are providing that midblock pedestrian connection that would actually have a public use easement down it so that uh the public could could use that thank you Mr seavoy um we'll move on to staff presentation Mr Chang okay I think Mr seavoy did an excellent job of covering a lot of the topics I will probably just add on to you do have a draft development agreement um it was included with this packet uh as he was saying there is a public access easement to

059connect Library Lane to East William there's also a Parks contribution for downtown Parks I want to say it's around $125,000 but it is in the draft development agreement for the exact amount uh We've also uh got confirmation on lead gold that was part of the development agreement and there's also a DDA contribution for removal of those five parking meters we're still working out the numbers on that but once we figure out that amount that'll also be added to the draft development agreement that will head to city council for approval um the was one Landmark Tree on the west side of the site that I'm sorry the east side of the site that is being proposed to be saved but they've added four mitigation trees on the site I think three down at the southeast and

060one to the Northeast part of the the site and may be scrolling through right now to take a look at it um let's see this also was reviewed by the design review board back in April and overall uh they looked at this proposal favorably um the materials the height uh I I I think the bulk was all looked at favorably so that's they haven't made too many changes from when it was seen by the drb there are four parking spaces proposed as was mentioned one will be at least EV installed and the other three will be capable um and I think that kind of covers everything but I am open to any questions you may have thank you with that we are going to public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak up

061to 3 minutes about this item we'll first call on individuals present to address the commission then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star 9 if listening by phone or use the raised hand feature if viewing through the web link for phone access please call 877 85352 47 and enter meeting ID 9776 6341 1226 City staff will select callers that have raised our hands using the last three gits of the phone number or by name if available you'll hear an automated announcement uh letting you know that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area mute any background noise so that we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of the comments is

062there anyone present that would like to speak to the commission at this time please good evening uh my name is Ronald nson you can raise the podium oh yeah I think you can raise the pod if you'd like should you don't have to lean yeah yeah you got it all right we'll wait it's yeah cool that's fine I'm used to it the M glyphs too I mean you could pick it up by okay all right let's try this again um good evening uh my name is Ronald Nelson I work at inter Cooperative Council 337 East Williams Street the general manager is on a plane back so I get to speak uh for the organization uh just some considerations we were on the April 10th meeting we did observe it so their plans I understand plans

063have already been going forward uh but we did ask the general manager did have some considerations uh one is the pool is on the 15th floor we cannot tell from the plans if it is indoor or outdoor if it is outdoor is what is the material for the fence that will keep objects from going from the 15th floor over uh I have worked at a pool at in the past while some people might say that doesn't happen even with the fence it happens with the area that surrounds the pool uh the general manager did have a question about even though it is late in the process um the pool actually being on the west side my question is specifically if the pool is outdoors what is the type of barrier that surrounds the pool uh

064the second question is the walkway from Williams Street to the lot I did see in this presentation that there is a fence uh my question would be does the fence go all the way from Williams Street back to Library Lane uh what is the height of the fence and what is the material of the fence because there will be in we know from personal experience that a lot of people do walk the parking lot from William Street back to Library Lane this will probably increase we would like a little bit of privacy I can't speak for the other houses behind us and with the tow houses uh if I understood it correctly tow houses being on the first floor that will be added traffic uh so just that um just looking for answers about that

065those are the two or three considerations uh thank you thank you are there other speakers that would like to address the commission at this time thank you Mr chair Ken Garber 28 have your home court again um I was glad to hear from Mr seavoy that this will be an all electric building um however uh I couldn't find anything in the draft development agree agement about this which worries me um I hope this can be clarified tonight um you'll recall that with the Brierwood project that um you looked at a couple months ago this became an issue the Simon group um did want to include their all electric project which was 354 Apartments uh Sporting Goods store and a grocery uh in the development agreement but could not secure Assurance from DTE that the capacity

066would be there now this was clarified at city council earlier this month when council member dish did say that that electrification of the briwood project would actually be added to the development agreement um so my question is um why isn't it in the draft um is there some question about this and um I strongly suggest that if there is if there isn't a firm commitment in the development agreement for all electric project that you do postpone uh until such time is um you know this can be verified um because this you're the final word on it you're on this project um the current language requiring documentation of lead gold certification as part of the building permit application does not way cover this um and finally in an October 17th memo OSI asked the petitioner for

067documentation on two things one battery storage and two any of the following passive house certification living building living building challenge certification or lead zero in each lead category carbon energy water and waste um two months later uh on October 13th OSI was still waiting for response before signaling uh an approval recommendation so yeah that's my other question what gives on that um so um I'll leave it at that and thank you for considering my concerns thank you Mr Garber are there other folks that would like to speak uh that are present in the commission at this time give it few more seconds seeing no one I'm going to close and are there folks that would like to speak remotely for the there is one hand raised Mr chair actually uh two now our first caller

068is Samuel Hayes you have permission to address the commission for three minutes uh thank you very much for your time tonight commission um I'm here for the main public thing but I will comment on this specific development I was browsing around online a bit as the gentleman Mr Sao was making his excellent presentation and I see that the Hub an arbor starts at $18.99 per person for a two-bedroom so um I know the planning commissione the planning committee here commission my apologies um isn't in charge of all the city's issues but I think as elected Andor appointed um officials you all should work towards the better goal of maybe getting people housed appropriately and I'm not sure if almost $2,000 ahead um for rent is probably where you want to start driving rent prices towards

069and perhaps you want to discuss with the developer if their next installation is going to be just as expensive as this one um I know I live in iilani but I used to live in an arbor and I do work in Ann Arbor and I'm actually a union person at Wasa County and I have a lot of people who cannot afford to live in an arbor because a lot of the rental opportunities in Ann Arbor and its outskirts are trying to find some type of competition with developers that you approve such as Mr uh seavoy and his compatriots that he represents and I would really encourage the planning committee to now and in the future to possibly um just take that into consideration um in-game capitalism is a thing we're going through a lot of

070hyperinflation more and more people are getting pushed out of the City to where only the people that can quotee unquote afford it can be here and then at the same time you also have a homeless issue because things get more expensive and Ipsy they can't live out there so they come back here and circle back around to becoming your issue again not your specific issue but I think we need to grab the dragon by all parts of its body here its foot its tail its mouth its ear everything and try to deal with these things in in a a responsible and appropriate manner um I also heard the two gentlemen who went before me and the people they represent and I think those are some very very very valid concerns um I've been keeping up

071with some of the developer pitches going on around here in the city and I think um I think some of our officials might be getting sold a type of Golden Goose that just um lays regular eggs and in the meanwhile as I said before um a lot of us are just paying the cost of such so thank you so much for making your available to the public in this manner I know it cannot be easy to do the work that you do do and be scrutinized for it as well and keep up the good work everyone thank you so much goodbye thank you Mr Hayes our next caller is Brandon dimcheff you have permission to address the Planning Commission uh hello um I uh my name is Brandon dmcha I live fourth W um I

072uh while I wish that there was a COR spaces building on the parking lot that is next door to this um I am glad to see uh something being built in this area um after sort of a long uh stagnation um I I know this isn't really a Q&A session but like it's my understanding that this is a birate project um under under the current zoning and so uh the fact that it's all electric is not even as far as I understand we can't even require that it's just something that the developers decided to do um and this is basically a a ministerial approval sort of um operation here so um I guess I will say that I appreciate that it is going to be all electric uh even if it's not um you know

073written to a development agreement that we can enforce since um as far as I know we have no leverage over that um I I appreciate and I will take them at their word um uh and also um I would just like to say um thanks for your um comments about uh how the changes in the premiums have affected financing for these projects I think some of us suspected that the um the previous premium regime had killed a few projects because it was too too complicated and onerous to to make projects pencil out and so it's good to know that fixing them has uh yielded a viable project that otherwise um uh was unable to get financing so um thanks for that uh that's it thank you thank you Mr timu M Kelly any other speakers

074yes there is one other speaker Alex low you have permission to address the Planning Commission hi Planning Commission uh happy holidays um just uh just wanted to uh to uh say that uh that I think the um uh the developer missed out uh on one particular public benefit that uh uh that at least by uh by my view the uh these buildings uh uh already or this change uh will provide and that is an aesthetic Improvement to uh uh to uh to that block I think the uh uh the uh uh current uh plan looks way better uh than what's on there currently um I do kind of wish that the uh that this building uh were taller it is uh that going to be built less than 600 F feet uh uh from to

075Plaza and uh it's you Tower Plaza is I believe 26 floors uh so uh this is going to be uh uh sort of metaphorically living uh living in Shadow uh like I'd like to see some more height but uh you know it's uh given our uh recent history in Anor of Barely getting anything I think this is a great start thank you so much thank you Mr low any other speakers there is one other late hand raise which is Adam Goodman you have permission to address the commission hi Adam Goodman again um so just kind of thinking about the comment that Mr low just made um I read the staff report for this and it looks like the building does come pretty close to maxing out the allowable height for this particular D1 overlay however

076um the co the UDC also has a provision that can grant a 30% height bonus if there is a sustainability component to the project and that's defined as when and where a solar collector surface covers at least 60% of the building's footprint area and the electrical panels of the building have capacity to solely power the site by electricity um obviously if the building is going to be all electric the second half of that uh Clause is already satisfied um so I guess the only question would be whether it's possible to install solar at at that scale um you know an arbor is facing a a housing crisis as as we sort of heard tonight and we need more housing at all you know all income levels including market rate um I'd love to see us

077get every last unit out of this site that we possibly could um so I wonder if the developer considered that um other than that it looks like a great project uh I'll just say as a frequent user of the William Street bway one fewer C cut is you know not to be understated as a benefit so um yeah that that's it thank you thank you Mr Goodman do we have any other callers there are no other hands raised okay with that I will just one more second with that I'll close public comment thank you um I'm going to read the proposed motion the Ann Arbor City Planning Commission approves the 333 East William Street site plan and recommends approval of the development agreement in compliance with ordinance 23-32 which adjusted downtown premiums and takes effect

078December 24th 2023 moved by commissioner Weatherby seconded by commissioner Mills we are in discussion commissioner W oh kick us off uh so first of all uh to staff Mr Jen uh this is by right that's correct with the ordinance amendments okay great so just want to um make sure that this isn't going to city council this is staying here the site plan is the development devel agreement move on to city council for review and approval okay great uh so then uh to the development team uh a couple things so one thank you uh so much for bringing this development to us uh transforming this what one Story Bank into a 16 story residential unit and bringing uh almost 600 uh folks into this area so appreciate that thanks also for not including um a lot

079of parking because usually that's the first thing that I ask is why so much parking so I'll ask it anyway why four spaces and not zero spaces for parking we'll start with a soft one so honestly this this project was Des designed back when F was a concept now that f is being removed um it's not so much of a concept anymore but at the time uh we ran out of f to be frank with you and and therefore the we we programmed four parking spaces right there at the bottom uh we thought it would be good operationally to have uh just parking spaces for staff um and so that was really the reason why okay thank you uh thanks for exceeding the uh required bike parking but I do want to make recommendation for

080you to consider uh traditionally you use these inverted u-shaped uh bike loops and I would recommend that you use a post and ring bike design um Boston has a bike design guide where you can look at it it meets all of the criteria for the city's uh code it's durable it allows for ucks on the wheels but one of the things that it does that the inverted you does not do is it allows for the Locking of multiple bike types so as opposed to just traditional ones so you can get your cargo bikes in there you can get your recumbent bikes in there and so and it doesn't take up as much space so you might actually be able to achieve a little bit more bike parking um I think the other thing were just

081some of the questions that came uh from public comment so I wanted to give you an opportunity and I'll just start it off and then if other Commissioners wanted to pick up some of the other questions one does the fence go all the way from Williams to Library Lane it will okay and then uh the other one and this was just a consideration um will is there access to your building at that fence line between uh Williams and Library Lane there will be access directly to town homes from from that uh pedestrian but not to the other res not not to the lobby or the first floor area uh there will be a a kind of a secondary fire egress point from the leasing office out onto that uh that is not anticipated to be

082used um uh unless uh there's an emergency okay um and then on the lighting I saw that you wanted to make sure that that was well lit and I just want to encourage that as well that there wouldn't be sort of um blind spots along that fence line uh between the the building just just for pedestrian safety and uh people traveling cuz they're going to use the space as uh one of your neighbors uh indicated so uh anything you can do to make sure that that's lit all the way through and then um I was going to ask about the uh all electric in the developer agreement but because this is by right that we wouldn't be able to require that is that correct Mr Chen may not be required but they have committed to

083it and we can add a standard paragraph to the development agreement before it goes on to city council so I we can look up some standard language all are minable to it it'll it'll certainly uh go a long way um for us and then uh the pool so is it indoor is it outdoor and how do you handle objects that might be thrown from the 15th floor so it is an outdoor pool it would be open from April to October um roughly from Dust to Dawn every day uh there would be a 6 tall glass railing surrounding it and the renderings it's set back enough that you can't see it uh in in the elevations you can you should be able to see that 6ft tall glass railing that actually encloses the entire kind of

084rooftop Terrace area um we also have uh cameras up there um and kind of uh disciplinary language in our Le to discourage that kind of behavior uh given that there's no Sports Court up there or anything um something being thrown off the roof would be an intentional act and not an accident and so we do have language in our lease allowing us to basically find residents and with parental notification and then after uh several incidents they they eventually get uh evicted so we do have uh um Clauses in the lease that allow us to deal with behavior like that that is just dangerous and um um inconsiderate to Neighbors thank you thank you any other Commissioners commissioner Weatherby all right so I have just some kind of combination of comments and questions um first I

085I really like the uh townhouse coming out to the first floor that uh building has been built in my neighborhood with that and it's a really nice way of making a a tall building still connect to the neighborhood and and having the sort of older style connection to the neighborhood in um and not just kind of a people who live up in the sky versus the people who live on the street and it's it's a nice I I really like it it works well in our neighborhood I think it's going to work well here um I also like the mid block Crossing I think that's a really good good thing and it really helps uh for a lot of people who are going through that area I did have some questions so I think a

086lot of they're kind of all part of so what is facing William Street um and I know you'll notice as uh that some people call it Williams and some people call it William and that's that's a longstanding an arbor tradition of not actually knowing what that street is named um but uh what is facing William because that is still the the front correct that's correct okay and so that would all be um leasing office and amenity space so all active use our main entrance is relatively in the center of the building to the right would be the main leasing office suite to the left is what we call our Annex it's about 2600 Square ft of study area um and we have different kind of study um Furniture um Arrangements uh ranging from kind of

087a cafe type feel to a more kind of enclosed uh like conference room style of of study room okay um thank you that's great uh I walk by a lot of those style buildings and um it's it's nice it makes for a good feel on the sidewalk but that brings up a question for me and I don't know if this is something that that's more of a city related issue um drop off in delivery uh how how are you looking because drop off and delivery will always happen at the door where people go in and out um and that looks to be on the Williams side and I think that's the appropriate place for it but how are you looking at drop off and delivery because with the bike Lane right there what keeps that

088bike lane open other than hopes and prayers well as part of um removing the meter spaces along Library Lane uh for fire access we're actually um proposing to make that 10-minute parking so drop offs and deliveries can actually occur from the north and there's a back door for that so um we're proposing to kind of you know train our staff and and um residents to to use that um exit Point as uh a place for drop off and delivery that would keep traffic out of the bike lane because we didn't want to kind of inundate that bike lane with Ubers and Amazon trucks okay and will that back door have sort of a a nice space or is it just going to be like what I've noticed is if there is a back door like

089that if it is just sort of the a stairwell that goes into kind of a darkened area um people are not going to use it they're going to use the front door and deliveries are going to use the front door so is is there going to be like a a space that's something other than just a full metal door sort of area you know go ahead it would be a glass door with overhead lighting um certainly a secondary entrance for sure there's no glossing over that fact but not a solid door um we want it to be obvious we're treating that as a second front of the building because that is a street and so we would have no solid doors along that Frontage okay okay and and I think maybe um this might be

090something for the city to also look at of sort of baller actual Ballard somewhere along that bike line so that cars can't park there I don't know how between the fire department and uh you know being able to access the the space and how that all works but I just think that's going to be a really tricky space there um I would say there is currently some kind of barrier proposed there Scott betel who is our civil can kind of uh May chime in on the particular type of barrier I believe it's the plastic type that would discourage cars from um pulling into that bike lanane but in the event of a fire a fire truck would need to pull in there and so for that reason I believe it was some kind of um

091uh plastic barrier yeah okay I'll I have just promoted Mr betel he was he's a virtual attendee so if you would like that response sure Mr bold I kind of threw that to him without warning him so right I get transferred good evening this is Scott betel I'm from Midwestern Consulting I'm sorry as I get transferred as a panelist I lost a few seconds of the conversation I think you were asking about the the barricades between in the bike Lanes or is it something else between the traffic and the bike Lanes to discourage cars from pulling into the bike lane to use that as a temporary drop off Yes actually th those barricades were taken directly from uh recommendations from the DDA Representatives um I I can't quote the Mak and model but it's currently

092the ones that they're using on State Street uh the newer portion of State Street that was just converted they're they're the white model that you see at the Northern end of State Street just before Park just before Packard excuse me okay they're on page 12 of the site plan okay thank you thank you uh commissioner Mills I'll follow up on that because these are exactly the questions that I have I'm really excited I'm a regular cycler on cyclist that's the right word sorry um on well what my family calls the bicycle Highway which is lovely um and having one fewer curb cut there will be great one of the questions that I had um was about drop off and um I was looking at the site plan to see kind of what was happening if

093the if the places where your four parking spots are will end up being the place where the Ubers pull in but it seems unlike I don't know I um I'm curious to this about where is the mail room here I'm not seeing that marked because I actually think it's more the delivery stuff that may be problematic and I just yeah so where's the mail room so um there was a diagram that I presented that showed the trash route for the the Hammerhead turnaround where the trash truck would actually back up into the building yeah that's actually a loading dock so the mail and the buildings deliveries uh could be dropped off there right inside that door would be the mail room on one side and the Bike Room on the other side so um people

094with bikes or with the loading packages uh would be relatively easy from a programmatic standpoint um we're talking about Uber Eats and Uber that's that's really what we're um contemplating for that north side of the building but the actual buildings deliveries and drop offs would be through the loading dock which is off of that alley to the uh West Side so that's where Amazon and FedEx and well I mean it's not FedEx but UPS post office can I share a screen yes I was just just uh just came here to say that okay I think I'm following along with the site plan but yeah looking had to close it for the public comment but we can go back to that okay so I think you can see this so uh this is the um ground

095floor plan um and so you can see um that Hammerhead turnaround marked in the purple Arrow there that's actually a loading dock whenever trash is not being taken out um that could be used as a loading dock um for the building's deliveries you see the Bike Room right up against um the edge of that loading dock and then U male is actually the gray Square that's directly underneath that l town home the southernmost town home um that package room so you could actually actually receive uh mail from the drop off area and load that package room um directly from the loading dock area is the only it looks to me I mean like the door is only exterior for the mail room is that true um that should not be and if it is then

096this is an earlier version because there okay uh I believe that there is a mail room there ashini can you uh confirm I just want to be as accurate as possible as to where that mail room is and the sh is into the [Music] audience yeah hi uh this is ashini I there's a mail room right like when you like Andy was pointing out when the drop off happens uh you can see that yellow sort of corridor through that you could access and then the mail room would be just below that the mail and package room okay she just that make sense no where is it in relationship to the elevators that are right there in the middle uh it's just uh to the right side of the elevators okay so it's shown in here

097so it was where he was pointing oh oh that's marked as mechanical or is it the one that's ECC well it's not the the layout is not shown yet it's actually an um interior layout yeah I got it so it will be it right here it's just shown as an exterior access door but there it will be from the inside cor that's correct y okay and similarly actually this is helpful that we're talking about this I was curious how bikes are getting to the bike storage because I appreciate where it is I appreciate that it's ground floor I was surprised that there's not an external door to make it easier rather than going through the corridor right there is also you can see that axis that Andy was talking about as the secondary or the

098secondary main door from the from from the Library Lane yeah so there is that external access there yeah so you could just come down and get to the bike from that side yeah I mean the reality is I think that more people are going to be taken to the bicycle highway just the way that it works so they're going to be coming more likely from Williams so as things finalize just thinking about whether there's a way to give them access from where you you got the cars parked yeah we that's something we can do definitely actually and and that led to my other question which is how House's bike parking working at the Hub do you know that was the one that you showed right that's yours right so we sold that in 2019 so

099okay so you don't know how that's working cuz that's one of the things like I we want I want to make sure that if we're providing it's amazing to have the infrastructure but it needs to be used we want it to be used you want it to used too right so um I'm just curious about that experience um so if packages if if some of the vehicles that tend to stay around for a while are parked and they and they come in that curb cut um I think that's not a bad solution I mean I would rather have that than double parked out on the street or certainly in the bike lane and the idea that you can turn around there I think is really helpful one of the things things that caught my eye

100I I'm in favor of building up to the lot line but there is a lot of foot traffic and a lot of bicycle traffic and this is only 5 foot setbacks so I'm really glad that first of all people aren't going to be backing out but having that five foot there 5T there I think is going to be real helpful um just to be able to see pedestrians and and and the other reason that if it there's any possibility of having external access to that bike room is that if there are bikes going in there it's going to slow any traffic that decides to use that down um hopefully so um I I appreciate also lower you know not having as much parking vehicular parking I think that's great I'm curious if um while you've

101got the slides up you showed some um there's a question about what is the fence along the Eastern property line and is the picture indicative of kind of the what you're imagining uh that is correct aseni can you clarify is it wood or metal I thought it was a metal slat system but I'm not 100% sure yeah it's a it's a metal system it's a Forwood just wood finish but it's going to be a metal system right and so the intent there it's a 6' tall fence we did want to create um privacy for the adjacent neighbors um and so by having this slatting we can still we didn't want a solid fence but we could still get um a lot of opacity that way and we didn't want to pollute our the adjacent properties

102with our light as well so that's another reason why we chose that okay um thank you for clarifying that uh I got my questions on another thing um I also if if you we talked about this at the last if you're amenable with inclusion of of all electric in the development agreement that I think would go a long way um so as I was making my notes was that asked of the petitioner specifically are you I mean I asked it but it's a byright development so they could choose not to do it right and I guess that's just a question for you is that something that you're interested in I'm amable to it I would prefer to have some kind of language that says that if DTE just can't serve us then you could then

103then that could somehow be reconsidered uh but we've had about six meetings with them they think they can serve us and the building is 90% designed right now as all electric so it would be a massive undertaking to go back and redesign it with a gas connection at this point got it thank you also I just want to note um because you're not taking the additional well there's number of things but I really appreciate that the development agreement does include lead gold and I was actually a little bit confused by um by osi's staff report about minimal lead because lead gold is the second highest I know it's not in the it's not the it's not the zero it's not the specifically about carbon but um I I don't profess to be a lead expert

104but I really appreciate that that's not required um um that I think we're all my questions I I think that this will be a great addition I um actually before I hand it over I'm really curious about what's possible um now under the change to to um our downtown district or to to the premiums um that you're thinking about in the other developments that that you were talking about I mean you mentioned for us right now that you know not worrying about F might have meant maybe fewer parking spots um is there anything else that from a development perspective um there's that you would like planning Commissioners to know about these changes I would just say that it was it was a very smart move I think to to amend the UBC and remove the

105the premiums um I think that that basically took this project from being a very slim chance of getting financed to to a to a much more solid chance and and uh it's very financially viable because of that and that came at the exact right time so I would say Kudos uh for that the other projects we are looking at would be plan developments so that would be its own negotiation and and its own whole thing um and so affordability would come into that there's a lot of different things that come into that uh conversation um this one just being by right I I I think you're you're certainly heading in the right direction um and uh if you want I think the solution to a housing crisis is more housing and you're certainly going to

106get that um with what you've done thanks thank you any other Commissioners commissioner Hammond Schmid thank you um I remember when I first heard and I don't remember where I first when I first heard about the credit union I think that's there going up for redevelopment and I was really really excited to hear that I think this is a really great place for this type of project so I'm very supportive anything that I'm saying or asking is really just curiosity and clarification so I just wanted to ease your mind at least a little bit with that and it's really helpful to hear the feedback on the the premiums removal and how that is helping this project to be able to move forward um I really like the variety of unit types that you're including in

107this building this location is very walkable to campus it's also walkable to downtown businesses and it's a really good downtown location and I think you mentioned somewhere I read in your presentation somewhere it's not it's not exclusively marketed to students which is great but a lot of what you said about the leases makes me think that I mean there will probably be a lot of students but like I'm trying to pretend like I'm not as old as I am and I'm like in my young 20s and I'm not a student but I might want to live downtown and it makes me curious about the approach to soundproofing between units and what you're thinking about there is it designed to any specific there is an aseni would be better would know better but there is a

108sound transmission coefficient that we designed to um where uh there is sound insulation between units and actually between bedrooms so that um sound transmission is not an issue um we operate a lot of student housing properties um we expect that this will be very uh um uh attractive to a student resident and so we would expect a lot of students here that sometimes comes with really spending the money on the the TR uh the sound uh dampening between unit walls so I don't know ashini if you could elaborate a little bit um I'm not an expert on that but there is a sound transmission coefficient I know the numbers and I know what that is so you tell me we yeah so if you already know I think it's a well well we are going

109to be doing a STC 55 between the corridors and the units and between the units we'll be doing an STC of 50 okay uh which usually takes care of that sort of sounds 60 is better but okay that's good it's not 30 um you mentioned to something about you know access to recycling and trash and I was wondering about composting and if you're going to make that available if that's I think I'm channeling commissioner council member dish when I asked this question but is there anything you're doing for composting we had not included that and we getting that question in uh kind of the early stages of the other projects that we're working on um we have not included that short answer in this project if that's something that catches on and that we see

110a giant need for I think we could we could figure out a way to do it it would have to be something where the residents would carry their compost down to the trash room and that we would have a container for it there so there wouldn't be a special shoot for it but it's something that we would certainly adapt to if it's it's value been needed by the residents awesome sounds great um when I was looking at your site plans what is a trophy room so that is a cool Lounge hangout room that is adjacent to a rooftop Terrace we call a trophy room we have uh our own special names for all of our amenity spaces so the annex is the thing I mentioned earlier that's the study room the trophy room is kind

111of Lounge hangout area that's adjacent to a pool dech okay I was like what trophies are going on in this room this is a big space for trophies um okay cool I guess the only last thing I'll say um you know you've mentioned I think I think I've gotten from you a commitment to sustainability and you had all those things outlined and and then in osi's comments they mentioned Red List free and materials and I would just encourage you to look for declare labels like look at look for Red List free materials um feel free to reach out to me because I've been doing this for my current job and there's a lot of really great products at low cost um that could be used I think that would be really good for a project

112like this um for example foro marmoleum is a really good product that could be good for multif family um that I think that's all that I wanted to say oh I really love the dark color so I think this is going to be really great a really great addition to our community it's my favorite color is so thank thank you so much thank you um any other Commissioners okay I think most of the questions I had have been addressed just kind of going through talked about the pool talked about um one question on the development agreement with respect to lead gold it said that it's going to be designed to lead gold standards but not necessarily actually achieving or maintaining the certification so do you guys have an intent to continue to because I think

113it's like a cycle you have to keep getting the certification can you just talk to me about the intent there the design is great obviously that that makes for a Baseline and most resi doesn't get like redesigned right like commercial space but uh is there a kind of a commitment to continuing to get certification yeah I'm going to let uh Andy speak to that I I think we certainly would be willing to do that so the intent was actually to comply with the UDC before it was uh amended uh and there were certain F bonuses related to different levels of lead I believe that required certification and we were ready to do that so that is something we would we would certainly be willing to do gotcha yep now I was just making the clarification

114that the development agreement as it states just simply says it's going to be designed to those standards so just a slight distinction um aside from that I think that echoing commissioner hamers Schmid I think it does actually make a really nice contrast materiality so um I think the your collaboration with the design review board as well as you know the glazing the fallwood I think it does create a better sense of place certainly better than um a one- story so um just to try to keep this more brief and for the benefit of the petitioner at the beginning they did ask if there is any kind of hesitation because it requires this is a kind of a rare circumstance in which there's only six members so I'm going to just kind of give you at

115least a preview that I am in favor of this particular project I would like to just get a sense from other f folks where they stand just for the benefit of the petitioner we're not voting right now but I'm just getting a uh temperature yeah um do we have anybody that has reservations with respect to this project that it does not mean meet the byright standards of the UDC okay with that do we have any other further comments seeing none I think we can move forward to a roll call vote mix Kelly on the motion is presented chair Lee Yes commissioner we yes commissioner hamers Schmid yes commissioner Clark yes commissioner Mills yes commissioner Weatherby yes that motion carries congratulations good luck thank you thank you all thank you appreciate it all right we are

116moving on to agenda number 10 other business I do not see any so we are moving on to item number 11 which is public comment this is the second opportunity for persons to speak up to three minutes about any issue that is not listed as a public hearing on this agenda we'll first call on individuals that are here to present any uh to the commission and then remote participants to speak during this public hearing remotely please press star 9 if listening by phone or use a raised hand feature of viewing through the web link for phone access please call 877- 853 5247 and enter meeting ID 977 6634 1226 City staff will select callers that have raised their hands using the last three digits of the phone number or by name if available you'll hear

117an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area mute back background noises so we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone present that would like to speak to the commission at this time Mr Garber uh just one moment Mr Garber so I can pull up our timer thank you thank you Charlie this is so different than last night when there were over 60 speakers at city council um so I like this better um I think you know by Speaker 30 the everyone the council's eyes were just glazed over and it's like well you know understandably um so it's nice to have your attention um I'm just going

118to say something historical that should make you feel better about your uh your vote the vote you just took I'm a lot older than any of you and I remember when this Credit Union building was actually built and it was controversial because they took down several homes to build it um and uh it just didn't sit well with a lot of us and um now it's going to come down and we're going to get a lot of Housing and I think that's uh a nice circular conclusion to this tale so um thank you for all your concerned about uh about housing and for everything uh that you do you know your incisive questions your thorough review um very much appreciate the work that you do as volunteers so that's all I wanted I just wanted

119to give you a little bit of historical background thank you thank you Mr Garber any other speakers that are present seeing none are there any remote speakers at this time there's one hand and raise Samuel Hayes you permission to address the Planning Commission um hello Planning Commission um I will just first like to say thank you again for the time that you all spend on your um Community um I do definitely agree that a way through the housing crisis is in fact more housing so thank you again for taking this time in your community under all this scrutiny doing it in public and all those good things so since this is public comment I would like to um show to speak about the ongoing development that will be going on at Galleria Mall um the

120owners of pinball pets could make it down tonight but um the last time we were at the design planner committee the developers presented that they were speaking to the owners about how to incorporate them into their design and I was there with the owners and they said that the developers had not spoken to them yet so I would hope as of now that they've reached out to them I just got off the phone with him um he did not indicate that the develop ERS have reached out to them at all so um please don't make this city you know like New York but without the culture because that's what removing all those pinball machines and a safe space and a dry place for all of those college students and even older people would do so

121you know just something to think about I will be showing up to those meetings and speaking on behalf of pinball piz at that time as well um but I really think that we need need to kind of sort of take a minute and talk about approving these new developments in the city of Ann Arbor I'll be speaking to the people at Ian and Pittsfield as well at these exorbitant prices I think someone on the council was right to question that the units were being pitched as for everyone when in fact they were probably only for students whose parents or scholarship could afford these units because um I know I can't be as old as Mr Garber but when did we start charging per person and per bed rather than just for the whole thing and

122we're talking 2,000 per person or per bed maybe um as part of some of your guys' conversation I couldn't even begin to imagine the complexities of what you all deal with maybe some of your conversations with these developers we can talk about crisis I know we don't have rink caps I'm hitting that on the legislative side as well don't worry and this isn't a place for that but maybe we can discuss with them something about you know keeping the prices down um the money that these students or whomever saves on rent they're going to spend in your city they're going to spend it in washingon County heck they're just going to spend it in America period and what's good for the goose is good for the gander and really kind of helps keep all of

123our streets clean and keeps everybody inside homes thank you again so much for being here for the public um there's probably other people who could do the job but you're the ones doing it right now now and I think you deserve a whole lot of credit for that and you guys should give yourself a lot of credit for that thank you so much and have a great day thank you Mr Hayes Miss Kelly there are no other hands raised thank you I'll give it two more seconds it's like five okay with that I will close public comments uh we're moving on to agenda number 12 uh commission proposed business are there any other commission proposed business happy holidays I will say that oh commissioner hamers this isn't really commission proposed business but I just wanted

124to thank Mr changen for all of his years of service I'm glad that you came to see us before you retired and I hope that you enjoy your retirement you look like you're not over like 40 years old so I don't even understand like how are you retiring so young and tell us all your secrets but thank you so much and if you have any exciting like I remember when fun stories from your years on planning staff like we just heard the fun Bank story from Mr Garber we'd probably love to be regil with them well a quick one just happened today I had probably my last pre-submission meeting it's called North Side Corners which is at Pac Trail and duvar but as Scott betel and Brad Moore pointed out we worked on that project

125back in 1999 together so it's come in Full Circle you know even you know 24 25 years later so I I will piggy back on that and thank you thank you for your many years of service and the city really owes you a a great gratitude so I I'll miss the people yeah I I really will that's what you miss the most from what I understand the secret is swimming at the Y that's what I've heard it's supposed to be really good for you well the YMCA pool opened today and I did go for a swim today so there you go swimm does that hurt thank thank you thank you for bringing that up commissioner hammid any other commission proposed business seeing nothing else I'm going to move to adjournment move by commissioner uh White

126seconded by commissioner Mills we are adjourned