Center of the City/Council of the Commons 12/1/22

001uh um uh Heather can you uh we'll call the meeting order Heather could you do the role sure Stephen bordsdorf we could state that where you where you're calling in from and that you hear looks like Steve is uh muted um I'm sorry I'm just trying to catch back up here I am present I'm in Ann Arbor okay great uh Alan Heber yes I'm here just back from Berkeley California I've been in Ann Arbor with a sore throat okay Ellen could you mute your phone too we're getting some background noise it looks like two he's on the just needs to be promoted to a panelist on zoom and then he can probably hang up his phone all right thank you all right I'm promoting you to panelist Alan congratulations you should be able to hopefully

002you should be able to connect in um in the meantime Sarah Hammerschmidt here from Ann Arbor all right uh Jeffrey Henning he was here all right maybe he'll connect back in um Rita Mitchell you're an Ann Arbor right Alice Rel here in Ann Arbor Frank Wilhelm here in Ann Arbor Adam Zemke here in Ann Arbor councilmember Briggs here in Ann Arbor and council member dish okay all right thank you very much um if we could have approval of the agenda agenda um motion to recruit the agenda Heather sent it out this afternoon it's all moved so moved seconded by council member Briggs um all in favor say aye aye any opposed okay thank you motion carries approval the minutes from last meeting um those are linked in the agenda include promotion please it looked good

003to me I'd move their approval excellent thank you Steve uh seconded by Rita um all in favor say aye hi hi any opposed all right motion carries uh we'll go into public comment then uh Heather are there any members of the public pushing to comment uh yes we've got Robert black go ahead can you hear me yeah I don't know if that can be changed yeah maybe somebody's unmuted or not muted um thank you can you hear me okay it's a weird thing I'll turn my volume down yeah it's still still echoing for some reason twice as an attendee so I'm not sure if that's why it's yeah there's somebody else who's got something going on um thank you for letting me speak tonight um I'm in Ann Arbor doing my annual teaching at the

004Steiner high school and working on some projects on the south side of town and it's very good to see you guys I went over to the uh the center of the city today and there's a lot of cars parked on that area and it's very different when there are many cars in there um but I'd like to speak tonight in particular about agenda item number eight condensing working groups um first of all let me say um as I've been talking in every meeting about alignment excuse me alignment I have seen great progress with you guys in terms of finding alignment within your group um the spirit of camaraderie and organized collaboration is very heartening for me to see and progress is is in even more so than you've been doing um I suggest As you

005move forward toward the RFP that you really try to continue this alignment with out Beyond just the group itself as you did with the use of outside experiences in your comparable communities group my suggestion is to work on integrating that knowledge base into the RFP in some way there's a great intelligence there available for you also I mentioned many times the report of the task force it has yet in my opinion to be harvested in any meaningful way to be organized into the basis for the RFP also to use nearby resources which you're doing a good job already with the parts department Department the prose report is very good the presentation by Jessica black and others for a Liberty Plaza was very helpful to the extent you can capture those experiences Harvest them and organize

006them into your basis for the RFP I think all will be better because of that the same thing I mentioned the task force report really Harvest that and I don't see that there's been a lot of work to capture that there's a great wealth of knowledge in there um and then also in terms of alignment in reaching out to other resources the initiating committee has carried on from the task force and has a great wealth of of people interest and information that can be helpful and should be useful as part of preparation for the RFP and that also includes the library green conservancy and the Outreach to fundraising which I I was a little extravagant in my factor of 10 over public financing but I don't think it'll be a hundred but I think it

007could easily be ten as a 10x multiplier so to include those people in your background research and have a much more highly collaborative and integrated approach to developing the RFP and that would include um Milton the you know Mr dehoney the manager who's now I understand working on the Ann Arbor 200 work you found this that the library itself is all had an over 200 project so let's get those aligned so that that goal of the major uh 200th anniversary of NR is a big deal the sesquicentennial from 1974 has a wealth of information in it which you saw in one of the RFI responses that talks about that and also the the basis of Ann Arbor parks with the Olmsted Brothers we have a great resource in Caitlin Olmsted Phillips that will bring that

008connection if you could emphasize those you will build a public Outreach I believe it will be helpful in this endeavor so tonight as you approach agenda item eight I encourage you to really organize the future space design under Mr zemke's chairs empty leadership and also harvest the learning from the Green Team and what other activities will happen in the current space activation under uh Rita Mitchell so good luck tonight and I look forward to hearing uh your good collaboration thank you thank you Robert thanks for calling in any other members of the public Heather you are muted Heather hello caller ending in 464 I think you are able to speak now yeah can you hear me we can oh good okay so my name is Linda barrower and I am calling to speak to your

009agenda item review of the pros plan the parks recreation and open space plan and I have two requests um because you're going to review it and I guess you can make recommendations back to the parks department if you think any changes are needed and I would encourage two things one I should also back up and say that I was I spent six years as a Parks commissioner and I was chair of the Parks Commission for three years and I was involved in writing two of the of the prose plan so I'm very familiar with the pros plan and in the past at the beginning you know one talks about like it describes the community and the different sections of the city and and kind of the demographics we always had a table that I think

010there's like there's the central area planning which includes the um which includes the um downtown business district and the surrounding areas that's one area and then you know there's Northeast and Southeast and Northwest et cetera et cetera and the prose plan discusses the needs in each of those areas but before before that more in-depth discussion it always had a table that show you could eyeball it had each area of the city the population and the and the square uh miles for that area and then the ratio of the population to the number of parks or and the pot and the square air the square the acreage the square acreage to the number of parks so you could see by eyeballing it where the deficiencies are in the different areas of the city because obviously Equity

011is a concern when it comes to access to Parkland so in the current prose plan I didn't see that there and I think that's very very important because when you eyeball it you can clearly see that the central planning area which includes the DDA district and and the surround you know State Street area the surrounding area is very deficient in Parkland and I think that's really relevant to what you guys are trying to do in terms of developing activation as a as a public space in the center of the city and I think that kind of background information that's so easy to see because it's in a very clear table it's really important to put back in there so I would ask that you recommend that when you send your feedback back to the parks

012department about the pros plan and my second request I haven't had a chance to go through it with a fine through the comb and I know but I know the center of the city is mentioned in the pros plan but I don't think it's it gives enough strong support to encourage the parks department to work with you guys the Council of the commons to put um to cooperate to get something really going there sooner rather than later and to encourage the DDA to kick in some funds for that and to encourage the park to help staff any ideas that you know you might want to develop so I think that's another recommendation you can make and it does show the survey the survey results do show significant public support for that for example out of

013the top 13 most improvements wanted um you know beautifying the center of the city the library lot was number seven out of 13 and that's just the top 13. there's even more you know things that people want and then also I think it's survey question number two um downtown parks are the six where rated as the sixth most used type of Park that comes after neighborhood parks uh Farmers Market natural areas the B2B Trail and Ergo Cascades and after that came downtown parks so people are using it but we don't have enough of them so not having enough of them gets back to you know my request to put the table in there showing how what opacity of parks there are on the Central Business area and so I just I just would encourage you

014to request those two changes when you give your feedback back to the parks department about the pros plan thank you very much thank you Mrs Brower Heather are there any other callers Heather you're muted sorry yes we do the person with the phone number ending in 534 you should be able to talk now hello this is Tom stahlberg calling from Lower Town in Ann Arbor I'd like to support what the other two callers said uh by the way I'm on the bicentennial committee uh we are working uh under no no our city administrator along with the Ann Arbor District Library uh and uh pretty powerful group of people there and when I say powerful I mean in terms of capability uh so I'm really looking forward to being able to plan over the next year

015for the bicentennial in 2024 there'll be events scheduled throughout the year of 2024 and I'm looking forward to having some of those events in our center of the city uh something I'd like to re reinforce in terms of the need for park space downtown and have that reflected in the prose plan is the current density that's being developed downtown uh right now 616 East Washington's under construction that will be the tallest building built uh in over 50 years and uh on the old y lot right across the street from uh Library and that block uh we have an approval for an up to 275 foot tall building which would be uh much taller than 616 East Washington is about 205 feet and there's more coming and we know the standard was just completed there's plans

016to build uh the city to build on the polio lot uh I know the other private development downtown too and uh Council I guess is taking a look uh at least having a resolution to encourage the uh some other potential development on the Federal Building uh right on the same block as the old y lot next to the transit center all the people that might be moving downtown that are likely to be moving downtown are certainly entitled to a park space there as well as the rest of the citizens I just came back from Stratford Ontario uh my other home and we got one there it's a city of 32 000 people and it took a while and some couple of iterations of uh drawing up plans and having the citizens involved and looking at

017different plants and there's some brilliant ideas that were far out there and expensive and there were some more more modest ideas and one of the more modest ones was selected um and it's worked out well there's a carousel right now uh in the back of town hall right there in their Market Square and there'll be other holiday festivities celebrated there so they can do it we can do it I've seen it happen and I'm really encouraged by the work that your committee has been doing so I hope that can be uh dovetailed and tailored into the prose plan and make it as strong as possible that we will have park space communal space whatever it looks like we don't know about in the heart of our city that we can all celebrate together during our

018Bicentennial in 2024 or at least the beginning of what it might be thank you thank you Mr Stoller thanks for calling in anyone else Heather that is it for now okay excellent thank you so much uh can I just say I'm sorry I got thrown off the Heather did you get me down Jeffy um oh yeah you were thrown off for a minute but you're back okay great I'll mark you is here thank you all right okay well we have uh uh robust agenda this evening uh and the first uh item on the agenda is uh to hear uh from our uh new I guess sort of new uh by comparison he's been around a little while in his current role uh Library director uh and I asked him uh we've had a chance to

019converse a few times and asked him if he would come and speak to us a little bit about the events that the library has done in particularly the outside events uh uh and they are uh they've been really um knocking it out of the park with things and so I just wanted to if I turn over to you Eli thank you so much for being here certainly thank you for the invitation Adam how long would you like me to speak I want to make sure I don't set your agenda behind it's uh you know 10 minutes or less I suppose that's great okay so just to kind of uh set the stage because often uh people don't necessarily understand the scope of the Ann Arbor District Library uh we are a organization operates seven locations

020we serve a service population of 172 000 people that includes the city of Ann Arbor and parts of seven townships so the jurisdiction of the Ann Arbor District Library is larger than the city of Ann Arbor we serve a larger population than the city of Ann Arbor does as well we operate on an annual revenue of about 20 million dollars a year we employ 230 employees across all of our locations and in 2019 our last sort of pre-pandemic year we produced 2500 events for the public uh just in the 2019-20 of the 2018-2019 fiscal year uh at those 2500 events we had about 170 000 attendees across all of those events and in that same year we had 1.7 million visits to all of our facilities including 600 000 visits just to the downtown library

021which is about the number of people who visit the big house annually if you can out the number of people that actually show up as opposed to what the scoreboard says so if you uh it's easy to say to somebody is a major anchor for the community and we have a lot of things going on here um so what we've actually done uh Outdoors on the uh near the downtown library uh back in 2017 when there was the uh near Eclipse uh in the middle of the summer we had a large event that uh took over the entire parking lot and uh it was we had easily a thousand fifteen hundred people there uh it was total madhouse it was a very underwhelming event because it was not much of an eclipse uh considering how

022far away we were there was absolute mad house attempting to get the eclipse glasses The Limited Supply that we had distributed out to everyone but once everyone saw that it wasn't really all that exciting to look at we had a wonderful time everybody had a great time out on the event but it was also um you know we were kind of spilling over the edges uh it was a uh uh a little bit too not quite enough space for the audience that it attended um we also just in summer of 2021 just when we were starting to do programming again and still very focused on doing programming exclusively Outdoors to minimize coveted risk we did a Richard Simmons sweating with the oldies event projected on the side of our building and we used the street

023itself Library Lane for we had an audience of about 60 or 70 young people who love Richard Simmons came and did a routine along with him that was not here live of course it was just watching a video but many of them were dressed up and it was a very successful event we had a good time there and those are really the only two events that we've done that use any space that isn't our property at the bottom of the ramp on the North side facing the center of the city we do have what we call the pad a fairly decently sized concrete space we set up a tent on that space uh fairly frequently for uh library story times particularly during the pandemic when we were trying to avoid doing those indoors that's a

024tent space that's roughly 10 by 40. I'm sorry 20 by 40 and allows us to easily accommodate an audience of about 60 or 70 which is about two-thirds of what turnout typically for a story time at the library um and then also when we had uh this past summer uh one of our annual events is the Ann Arbor comic Arts Festival uh when we had that we had some vendors who still wanted to have outside locations due to ongoing Calgary risks so we did set up the tents we had a craft program as well as some of our vendors uh on the pad there at the bottom of the ramp at the downtown library and that's what we've done so far um I will say we don't have a lot of plans to utilize the

025space at present um you know as the organization that has put on the largest events on that space we don't find it a very suitable space for our needs for Library programming our programming Pro our programming uh professionals and the people who are involved in that um it's a very noisy space uh particularly in the summer part of that is our own equipment which is located right there our uh some of our HVAC equipment which is right there on Library Lane the other part is just the volume of traffic uh on Fifth Avenue uh particularly uh it's wonderful we love being so close to a Transit Center but it makes it hard to do outdoor events because of the amount of noise that it comes with the buses going by that will certainly improve as

026the buses change to Electric but at present it's there's a lot of times when it's very hard to have a successful event because of the amount of noise just associated with Fifth Avenue uh it also the traffic risk makes us very nervous when we talk about doing events for toddlers or preschoolers on our pad we typically have a gauntlet of Library staff standing alongside the curb to Fifth Avenue we can catch any runners before they run out into traffic so generally overall when the library does programs we prefer to do them indoors it's easier for us to control the environment it's easier for us to make sure that uh the audience is having a good experience all of our infrastructure is in there it's a lot less a lot more cost effective for us to

027produce events inside and really at this point I think the the major opportunity would be if there was uh another wave or another pandemic or something like that where we had a higher desire to move events Outdoors that otherwise would have been indoors but overall at this point we mostly uh you know with occasional things happening on the pad when something needs to be outdoors at present we don't have any particular plans for programming on Library Lane we have an excellent relationship with uh the Ann Arbor Summer Festival we do lots of programming over there it's a much you know it's not far away from us it's a much better more conducive location for the types of events we like to put on we have concerts over there we do uh uh trivia we've done

028Bob Ross paint along with Bob Ross over there we've done Enterprise printing under their tent and we find a much larger audience there than anything that we've done right outside our own door just because of the location and the comfort and the proximity to other amenities uh so that's kind of the in a nutshell the library's current programming what our plans are there's been some mention of the uh of the bicentennial as uh as some of you may know the library is running its own project called aa200 where during the bicentennial year we will release 200 New pieces of content uh all about the history of Ann Arbor over the 200 years focusing mostly on stories that people haven't heard before have been under heard underrepresented communities underrepresented stories uh everybody's sick of the apocryphal

029tale about how the town was named which isn't even really true as far as any historians can tell so we're trying to make sure that we are covering different stories and doing them in creative ways uh just to give you an example there's a wonderful story uh that also may be apocryphal about just before the second world war when uh Niels Bohr and another uh physicist were here at a nuclear physics uh uh conference in Ann Arbor and and the story was that oh I think it was actually a shoot what's his name the um I've forgotten his name the uh the physicist who the uh the the Michigan nuclear plant is named for um so the there was a conversation reportedly at the pretzel Bell between Niels Bohr and uh the other physicist trying

030to convince him not to help the Nazis develop a nuclear weapon and what we're thinking about doing is one of the 200 pieces of content that we'll produce for the bicentennial is to have a play written by some experts and historians about that conversation and then produce that play and record it so it's not all just about articles or photographs or things like that though there's certainly a lot of that we're looking to get artists and playwrights and uh creative people involved and have something engaging for lots of different communities the tell parts of the story of the town that haven't been heard before so that's what we plan to do for uh the bicentennial produce a lot of content that then we'll live in perpetuity we're very inspired by some of the things that

031were done for the sesquicentennial we have a lot of the documentation the newspaper they produced uh all sorts of the things from that time and we're looking forward to sort of building upon that uh for the bicentennial producing a lot of content that wouldn't have existed otherwise so that's in a nutshell what the library's up to if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them so Eli were you is Jeff Henny were you referring to Heisenberg yes thank you thank you very much yes I think it was a conversation between Heisenberg and Niels Bohr any other questions at all for director neighbor just a comment thank you that was amazing foreign yeah it was it was great I guess my question is we heard about the reasons why um for the for the

032library the that space doesn't quite make sense for your needs sure do you have thoughts one way or the other about what type of activities or parking or whatever is there do you have sort of views about what we would like to see I will say we absolutely hear about the parking when the lot is close to parking we absolutely hear about it from our patrons absolutely uh there's still you know from some people reluctance to use the underground lot there's still a majority of people who visit the downtown library come here in a personal vehicle there's just no getting around that reality uh it's we wish it were otherwise but that's definitely the case so whenever there's any impact to the parking surrounding the library we hear about it from the patrons you know

033we always want to encourage people to use the buses as people know during our summer game uh we negotiated a project with the uh with the uh and Ann Arbor Area Transit Authority so that people could board the buses for free on weekends all summer using their library card that later was expanded to include the Ypsilanti District Library so we're very pro-transit but the reality is that most of our patrons come here in personal Transportation so in the launch it's closed we hear about it you know it's just it's part of part of that equation but overall we have so much infrastructure for producing comfortable events 20 meters away uh it's not very frequent that we would have an event that would be better Outdoors than it would be inside you know some of the

034things that we do do outside like for example there's a tie-dying event that we do at one of our branches that's something that uh works well out there but then people want to have free parking right so the branches tend to work better for that sort of thing another example sometimes we do start parties after night it's much too bright downtown for that sort of thing to work we tend to do that on off-site locations so the few things that we or uh we have our big event every summer at the at vets Park you know and that's something that requires way more space than there's anything downtown or that even wet even West Park would accommodate so there's lots of uh programming and public engagement either we already have the infrastructure inside the building

035or the space available right next door isn't sufficient you know when we did the uh ours our event at vets Park typically draws 1800 to 2 000 people oh I was there so you know it's a big event it takes up a lot of space and uh so it's just about the infrastructure the proximity and having really also parking and places that people are familiar with you know we hate to have to think about parking but it's still something that we definitely hear about from patrons does that answer your question thanks yeah absolutely thanks thank you Steve Alice um I was just thinking about what what parking was there before the underground parking structure was available um wasn't that much I don't think it was a little bit more than what's there now on the

036surface you know the the lot that was there there's some you know it but that was the most common place that people would park you know there's still some confusion about whether people can actually park on the old y lot currently some people don't feel comfortable with that because they're not sure it's fine it's not too big of a deal I just remarked that it is certainly something that we hear about from our patrons when parking is impacted right do you think that uh free parking for the library in the underground would hope at all I need to help a little bit um but it's also not something that the library is interested in subsidizing okay um you know that's not uh that's not how Library tax dollars should be spent uh you know we

037prefer to spend that on infrastructure and access to public services Ellen Ellen you are muted I have a sore throat so I'm a little muted even when I'm not muted but uh I just do want to note that we've had events of Earth Day and peace day and other events there that have been quite engaging with the public and concerts and uh the space is accommodatable to uh public events and it's a casual use they place for tables and people to meet and sort of be a downtown park and Gathering area is quite feasible it does the surface was not intended as a parking lot it was always seen as temporary until a permanent use was identified and that's what indeed the voters did identify that having a place of gathering and occasional programs is

038a benefit for the city and their Wi-Fi and uh and such for Gathering would be a great I said and that could better be allied with the library but mainly it seemed like the library sees that as a Gathering Place is bringing more problems than the benefits and I think that is a problem a situation that can be dealt with in a more beneficial way than saying you know turn that back into housing or turn that back into a parking lot it's clearly not going to remain as a parking lot if the government somehow is you know undermined yeah the voices for a conference center or a a luxury complex or some sort or even affordable housing definitely see that as not a place where parking is the highest priority and the city's policy season

039parking is not the highest priority so that is something the library as well as all the institutions of the city need to deal with in terms of developing a non-motorized culture in the city it does not happen instantaneously but it does require the cooperation of the various centers of power and programming so I wish that there would be more sense of that cooperation and also some sense of how we actually see having a public space in the center of town as dovetailed with an improved policy toward the house of houseless people and transcends and and we see the center of the city as a natural Gathering Place so I just want to put from my experience and to be clear you know the library doesn't we are not asking for there to be parking on

040that lot I'm just mentioning that when there isn't we hear about it from our patrons yeah that's all I'm saying and the other thing I would just want to add is that if Library events had turnout on the scale of what you've had on the lot it would be very realistic for us to do events over there but when we have a library event the turnout is on a very different scale and what has happened so far on the lot and it makes it unrealistic for that to happen on that type of space all right thank you both of you uh councilmember Briggs and we're going to wrap it up here that's good thanks um talked long enough that I did think of a question um so one of the things that the commission has

041recommended um is to explore a and a kind of in a temporary nature a food court um on that on that space um and activating in that manner and also with kind of um events for you know small musical events and things like that and I'm just curious obviously this is something that staff is researching understanding what the sort of operational model and cost and all that sort of stuff are associated with it but just from your perspective is that I mean you've spoken to the sort of does a Patron's desire for uh you know parking which of course if that makes sense um but I'm just curious if you have any thoughts about that particular usage you may not have considered it it's interesting because we would love it especially our staff would love

042it for there to be you know a standard food presence on top of the uh on top of the structure um however like when we have had food trucks come to our own events they don't make a lot of money and it's it's like there's just not a lot of foot traffic um even when we're having a large event just to put that in perspective we have an event that uh we do every year called Visions which is a uh assistive technology fair for people with visual impairments and we get you know 500 600 attendees to this event but we have to pay raise RedHawks to come and sell hot dogs to it because they will not do enough business to make it worth their while all by themselves you know they're having the past

043been some hot dog carts that have uh uh set up shop outside the downtown library and usually the only last a couple weeks there's just not enough traffic currently with the current set of things that are happening on this block for those to become viable businesses that said we'd love to see it happen but I think that it's a a challenge for a business to be successful without subsidy uh on this block just because of the amount of foot traffic that makes sense yeah very good any uh other questions at all or we can did the direct to the library for a while this evening okay that's a quick one maybe it's not quick and sorry sorry if you said this I was having huge internet problems before but am I misremembering that there is

044going to be a new library built soon that'd be awesome there is no current project yeah okay there's no current project for a new downtown library we've done some feasibility studies uh there was a bond issue in 2012 which was not successful uh but they're not currently plans for a new downtown library that said this building was first built in 1958 added on to in 1971 and again in 1989 and we are just about out of what we can do with this building okay okay well when there is plans for a new one depending on where we are with this I have some thoughts but we will just leave it at that I don't know where I can thought that maybe it was a feasibility study thank you so much my dreams that's for sure

045hopefully they come true thank you all right very good thank you so much Eli have a wonderful evening thank you yes thank you all right we're gonna move on to our next speaker uh and that is uh Jeff Crockett who's going to present around some of the volunteer uh gardening activities that are going on and have been going on quite some time now and he did include a slide deck uh in the agenda I don't think he's going to spend time on every slide it's but uh he he definitely included a lot of things uh there as well and so Jeff uh same amount of time or so 10 or 12 minutes uh if you wouldn't mind we really appreciate you uh being here thank you very much can you all see this um slide

046presentation okay can you hear me okay you can hear me okay great uh first of all I'm just static uh because we had I think I I reported to this group last year about our first year and at the during the first year we had two garden plots uh started to plant a whole bunch of beautiful uh perennials but we also documented over 400 volunteer hours um and it is easily surpassed by what's happening this year and I would Hazard the guess that there were at least 80 separate work events over the past two years so I can say with great certainty that the act the commons has been activated quite regularly over 80 times over the past two years and we've we've spent a lot of time on the commons and it has been

047a blast while we were there people have come up asked about the plants and flowers it's been a ball but what I would say is that before I get into this and I'm not going to go over every slide is that what we're doing is not just about planting plants really what we're doing is building community and we're building Community by supporting a20 by offering educational opportunities that will grow and the other motivation for us is just giving back to Ann Arbor and we are very excited about the prospect of expanding the gardens but I will go through this presentation I'm not going to go too much into the timeline uh these are things that you can read but basically we've expanded from two to four garden plots this year uh working through uh the

048DDA uh we have uh at least 15 volunteers uh who have uh actually probably over a total of 20 over the past couple years some people have dropped out but we've added new people this year uh very active you can see in the right side of this slide that the green team has taken over four plots while the DDA has the remainder of plots uh around around the site um so here is the leadership team Elizabeth Smith odile Hugo Haber Rita Mitchell uh myself and joema from Project grow I'm not going to list all the volunteers but it's interesting because I put together a meet the Green Team presentation that I'll send you at another time but it's amazing the variety and depth of the backgrounds of the people are involved in here and I

049think it's important for you to understand the people and the motivation why are people spending has spent over 800 hours in the past two years toward developing in a garden I think it's important for you to know that and I hope that will become clear once we get through this uh presentation partially this is about building Community Partnerships and we have done so with project row and we attended the 50-year anniversary of project row and you can see joette and our leadership team there uh and wild ones is in addition this year with the thanks of Rita Mitchell uh and Robert Griese and his team Wild Ones have been involved in planting plants it's been uh it's been great and they have educated all of us on the importance of native plants to attract pollinators

050we're developing signage because part of what has to happen we're planning we planted probably about 65 to 70 different native plants all right so the long-term vision is for people to understand what these plants are so that they can come and then say hey I really like that plant this is what it is I'd like to plant that at home and frankly this is what has happened to me personally and I have adopted the ethic and mentality of uh Wild Ones and I've already enlisted help for Rita to taking our front um extension and turning it over to native plants uh that's going to take some time but we're committed to doing this so I mean it's not just about doing something on the commons it's about taking the information and applying it at home

051and when you get a whole bunch of people doing that that's going to significantly support A200 in terms of attracting pollinators around the city we also got help from wab John and Julie Ritter owners of your factory donated this wonderful sign um we started off uh last year we harvested some of the sunflower seeds and I went ahead and put them in watered the seed pods and grew and we ended up harvesting over Sunny 20 sunflowers from last year's seeds uh uh for as evidence of our belief and the importance of sustainability uh we had a spring planning meeting uh and basically we ended up uh cleaning up the the lot but also planning for what plants we are going to have it takes a lot of time to do this and uh other people

052are very enthusiastic irrigation it was a significant Challenge and um and Erica I added this to uh the slide here it wasn't in the initial slide because I realized I admitted your I forgot your help you and and Lisa did a great job of working with the PCA to help develop a very simple irrigation system you can see in the middle right here uh basically it's a spigot it is in one of our plots that we have used to attach hoses to not only um uh irrigate the the plots next to it but we figured out a way to extend the hoses to to go ahead and irrigate C2 and what's important about that with native plants native plants are pretty resistant pretty tolerant and Hardy after the first year the first year requires watering

053almost every day and we did it uh but it was a group effort we'll talk about that in a little bit but we appreciate uh the DDA for providing that spigot that was critical uh we also developed some um uh art you know banners it was this one was designed by Robert black and Amy Rowe that we used at our booth this is a banner that we printed out and used at the front of our front of our table to promote uh the Green Team and the community Commons uh we participated in Earth Day as Alan discussed before but notice uh the people who were there I mean I uh we had Yusuf Robbie uh council member Kathy Griswold uh Lisa dish spoke at that time we greatly appreciated that and there in the middle

054is our booth um and then uh we had a big day in May planning a whole bunch of uh Native species uh thanks in particular to Rita Mitchell and Elizabeth Smith for doing a big-up job of planting um and it took a while a number of different work sessions to do it but as you'll see it turned out very very well uh we added more plants in in June um and uh there uh is our savior Alan who is turning away uh Native I'm sort of joking here invasive species but in truth last year we took this over there was poison ivy in a number of different locations and we cleaned that up the poisoning Ivy is gone uh so I think we were able we've significantly improved uh the area and then we participated

055in the mayor's green fair in June we went ahead and Joint Romo went over and got some uh wood chips and we had a work session to spread the workships all over notice in the back how the the wildflowers are going like crazy there um at that particular time and then in late June um uh flowers are beginning to grow you can see the new growth and the interesting thing folks is we did not lose one plant that we planted it's quite remarkable it was because of the irrigation it was because of the volunteers and the staff coming out on a regular basis um and then uh in July you can see that uh the wildflowers are really sort of taking off the cosmos uh and we'll I'll go into the details of the individual

056plants in a little bit but you can see that it's everything is growing like crazy and it's gorgeous and we had people while we were there coming over all the time asking questions about what these uh flower varieties are so there's a real demand for learning about native plants that was evident from the from the times that we were there uh and then Robert black and Amy Rowe developed a handout that we passed out when we were at various events uh like the progress project grow event we are greatly appreciative of both of them and Robert and Amy do not live in Ann Arbor uh Robert lives in Vermont and Amy in North Carolina so why are they involved think about it they're involved because they're passionate about the commas the notion of the commons

057and about sustainability and about Community Development very impressive uh and then as you can see in August the plans continue to grow and are looking very healthy uh I want to acknowledge that the Downtown Development Authority has about 12 or 13 different plots um but we offered to help clean up the these plots that had been overgrown with weeds but we went to Jeff Watson and said we can help and he found the money and about a week later they were all cleaned up and they look great but they're not all native plants and we are hoping to encourage the DDA to look at what they've done and to coordinate with the green team to focus on planning native plants that will attract pollinators uh and so we're hoping to work with them to sort

058of change um change the direction of what they've done they planted these plants maybe about eight or nine years ago but the landscaper who initially planted them is no longer there so they're not really familiar with what these plants are and in line with our goal to be educational we need to identify these plants too so visitors coming from all over we'll see a circle of native plants and being able to know what they are um and this is uh for your information is sort of a list of the individual plants and our our main area N3 and just look at the result I mean when we went there in August it's just spectacular and I just love going over there and um uh I would at some point next year invite you to come

059over and take a look during the the Prime season I mean it's fantastic uh and that other plants and and look at the The Wildflower mixes that are down on the bottom a number of these plants are reseeded from the previous year but did that involve in adding new plants at all they were receded uh and which is what we want oh and you'll notice that uh there are bees in this uh sunflower so uh we saw evidence of bees and and rabbits and birds all the time while we're there so uh the native plants did attract the pollinators it worked and here is the uh area in area one these are mostly Replacements of turth grass and different kinds of of grasses that Elizabeth Smith uh put together how am I doing for time

060you got about can I do five minutes or you can you can yeah you can go ahead and do five more minutes okay I will promise I'll be out of here in five minutes okay here are some of the other uh plants that you can look at later the entire list of native plants in area C2 the photos of the result uh more beautiful photos and then in October this was our winterization and basically what we did is we cut uh we took down a number of the plants that were annuals and we cut off the sunflower stocks and put them over in compost which will deteriorate over the winter and we can spread that for mulch uh the following year with another set of uh volunteers it was so much fun and we have

061over 30 some donors not none of the plants involved money from the from the city these were all individual donors and two of the donors here were dead set against the commons until they came to the conclusion that because of the affordable housing building across the street it made sense now to have the comments and they completely flipped and they donated some plans and I was absolutely thrilled about that but notice the organizations and the local nurseries who donated uh it was it was wonderful uh planning for 2023 we've also already talked about this we would like to have signage on some of the different plots not just for like an overview but also to identify plant that is going to involve a conversation with the DDA and I'm hoping that we will have the

062support of the Council of the commons or providing signage to indicate what all this is um we would we think that this site would make a perfect would be perfect for a mural murals are going up all over town this is a public space we have secured ten thousand bucks in donations uh to have Mary tiefels put a mural on that wall over to the left but we need approval from the DDA and they've expressed some reluctance about that because they're not sure what the direction of the the commons is going to be I would encourage you to support putting art on some of these walls as part of the plan to activate the commons I would appreciate that consideration um we also want to expand the number of volunteer Gardens if you go to

063Kellogg Park in Plymouth you will notice there are 20 or 30 different organizations that have adopted different garden plots why can't we do that here it will really help with activation and buy-in and by the way when uh businesses uh do this it's promoting their business as different kinds of organizations I just think it's something we really seriously have to consider and not just consider but actively go out and uh Court participation from various groups uh we also want to reach out to other gardening organizations like the Michigan Master Gardener Association and get them involved and finally we would love to promote eco-friendly events on the commons there are cities that have uh an Eco an Eco Fair where in the springtime you have uh different landscapers you have nurseries come and have displays and

064people can come around and uh basically get information on who can do this work and and and see all these different choices in one spot we think that this would be a one uh one great idea for activating the commons but we want to support others as well okay and I would close with this uh it's my favorite quote I do this with almost all my presentations never Margaret me never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world indeed it's the only thing that ever has and that's what drives us every day thank you much thank you very much for your attention are there any questions thank you Jeff any questions at all Jeff if you could uh take your PowerPoint down we could probably see everybody's Facebook oh okay

065oh just a minute I have to [Music] excellent thank you so much Jeff any uh any questions at all for Jeff thank you very much for your attention I was just going to say thank you for all the work it looks great I've walked through there a lot and uh the as you I like the pictures you had of all the flowers I really didn't look spectacular uh through the through the summer so thank you thank you Steve uh Rita go ahead I just want to say that one of the um thoughts related to native plants in particular is that the first year your plants sleep the second year they creep the third year they leap and so what may seem somewhat spare in some of the planting areas will look different in the next

066year or two for certain because they establish themselves and they require less maintenance so that's one of the really cool things about native plants that's all thanks and and I do appreciate the the strength um of support from from Jeff and the other members of the Green Team it's been great thank you everybody take care yeah thank you so much thanks for coordinating and speaking about all the wonderful volunteers and the activism in the community thank you thank you thanks okay all right we're gonna keep things moving here um if we could go into the next agenda item is the working groups and these are just updates tonight and we kicked these off at the last meeting by consolidating the uh working groups uh into a couple of broader ones and uh so I I

067think uh I could go uh first and then we can turn it over to Rita and we didn't have a specific uh uh item yet so I think I'm just going to provide some updates on things on the future space design um we have been continuing to meet around the fundraising aspects in particular and um have had some really good engagement most recently with the Community Foundation and some prospective donors we continue to build momentum around some of the fundraising and I think uh I think we're off to a uh a good start here um for closing out the year in a really strong position um there hasn't been any motion movement yet around the RFP but we have previously had conversations with Park staff with whom we're going to work around uh the draft

068team that RFP I think we got a good commitment from them around that engagement uh earlier um I think probably last month sometime and uh and so I feel confident that when we get ready to kick that off providing we continue to build momentum around the funding that we'll be able to kick that off for the at the early portions of next year and so I feel confident in that um you know we have uh when we get a little bit closer to that we'll have more engagement there but um that's where we're at on the future space design and I will have um more formal update around a charge and other things um at the next meeting so uh Rita why don't we turn over to you and then we can do any joint

069questions if there are some sure um so in the uh act short term activation work group we're really just getting started and I appreciate the support from uh Heather uh and Adam for um looking at some initial discussions of Greater detail with Jessica black and other people in parks on on the process that they used in their their observations of activities at Liberty Plaza which I think will be very helpful for us in terms of of looking at what we can do what we could possibly share um and what uh kinds of materials we might be able to um share at that at the sites um I want to also thank Steve borgstor for walking through and and thinking about things as well and I think we'll we'll be working together more on on um

070pulling in other people um some of you uh um council members as well as other members of the community that have particular expertise or interests and I think that we're going to find some really um interesting kinds of things that we can do and have some some good ideas from the community that we among ourselves right here have not thought of yet and I'm looking forward to that so um updates to come but we're starting work um this month for sure thanks thank you Rita any questions at all for uh Rita or I I think we'll have more uh to discuss at the next meeting on these topics for sure Alice go ahead yeah I just want to mentioned today I was reading something um in in some uh I think it was um the

071Ann Arbor Observer online and there's talk about events and stuff like that and the date that struck in my head was um like late January or things that were starting to be planned and announced as events and that's why I think we really hope to be moving ahead quickly so that we are not delayed any way just by we need to start really getting those contacts and engagement with the other people planning events so that we can make sure they have these potential use of this site or any part of their program and lately the the date of late February or April 1st has been mentioned in in other aspects and so it just kind of wanted me to put a little pressure on us to get things moving duly noted um and and in

072that regard actually I think there was a article recently I don't know if it was in The Observer M live around some of the success the city has seen uh at Liberty Plaza around the activation and some additional activation that we're going to be seeing uh uh over this month and so uh it's exciting to see the block activated and the popularity uh clearly uh based on uh some of that uh funding that was invested by the city uh Alan and then Rita you do what you want to know yes excuse my voice yeah I feel that this process has gone on much too narrowly in particular the initiating community that was set up specifically to carry out and explore the recommendations of the center of the city task force in terms of programming and

073physical development has not been consulted in any way whatsoever and while there's discussion about the need for some Conservancy of management as nearest I know the library green Conservancy another from the bottom-up group has not been consulted at all and this is devolved in two ways largely staff driven a sense of process and just one element of that the task force you win with Liberty Plaza has to my knowledge Not Included the people who've had some concern in Liberty Plaza and I think perhaps I mentioned that the tables that were very beneficial their conversations as for instance the conversation I was having with the director of the Downtown Development Association there was to be renewed that table was disappeared that was also the table that had a long history of chess games and other you

074know recreational activities it was like taking out the uh a one of the central you know in physical elements that allow people to make that into a social space and I wish that this process would move much more into the public and the public ideas there's yet to be any real consultation with the public and even we'll talk later about the pros uh report but of the consultation that reported in the surveys of 28 2900 people yeah maybe two percent of the population mostly white mostly Rich this is not a representative process of how to make this area actually a center of the city that is inviting and the part of the invitation is to invite people to put their ideas and their time and talent into it the commons being commonly pooled Resources self-managed

075by the People by the users and yeah and some of those resources are what some of it is the land that the city owns it has been designated for this uh Commons purpose that also it's the talents the enthusiasm the experience of people who want to do stuff together and the idea of working groups of people who want to work on Child Care on playgrounds on energy issues on performance and music and art and so on that whole aspect of inviting the people who want to do things there and create a very diverse space of both Liberty Plaza Library Lane itself and the library lot that whole element of public participation has been overlooked I think because the urgency to somehow get it by him from the city Administration and the park advisory commission and

076and so on but the rule of the volume that is needed Is the participation of people who actually want to come and do stuff there and so I hope that the next stage of this development will involve much more Outreach and invitation a much wider participation and I think that actually there should be a message sent out to the entirety of the Ann Arbor people yeah to the extent you think about this what are the ideas and the commitments and the energy the talents and perhaps the money or the stuff the tables and chairs and plants and so on that could be gathered together as commonly pulled resources we think of all this too much in terms of what do we need and where do we buy it rather than what do we need and

077how can we create it so that's uh you know I'm on that that end of the spectrum you're through the comments of the people and I'm I'm actually uh re redisturbed that I have not seen in the development of this process people reflecting on what they've learned in their study of what is the commons and how it functions in different places and uh we see what a few other cities have done to the instrumentation of the air their ddas and so on but the commons is not by the DDA it's by the people who use it so I just want to re-emphasize that until the next months that we are involving this plan to see what much more to the actual what is the commons and how do people become invited into a process that

078for the most part we see the public activity being exclusive and done as a service to the people either by the government or by the corporation and wants to make some money out of it this is a service that people create for the city for themselves and for everybody else out of some kind of love and caring and all that kind of wishy-washy stuff thank you thanks Alan Rita got the last word here okay I just want to call everyone's attention to um tomorrow night at Liberty Plaza that there is a a holiday pop-up event of um various vendors that will be available in part of the Midnight Man yeah midnight madness um uh holiday weekend so um lets a call go out there and and see what it's like that's my risk for everyone

079thank you Rita thank you so much for much more eloquently describing what I was trying to allude to um so there is an article I think it's an M live uh regarding that event if I recall correctly so neat thing coming up um all right so that is the working group updates uh we're gonna move into the pros plan and um there is uh there's an updated link to the uh Pros plan I think we've got the latest and greatest draft uh attached to the agenda um I'd like to before we get into it because I I think that um you know part of the desire in having a discussion around this tonight Heather is going to help guide us through that discussion is to provide some feedback uh to the parks department uh during

080the public comment period now we had uh originally uh uh believed that public comment period extended into January a bit and it does not um it ends a little bit earlier and we flagged that so um what uh what I'd like to do this evening is take some time and discuss people's initial thoughts and then I'd like to um uh call a special uh meeting of this body prior to the close of that deadline to formulate and approve um a group recommendation um and uh and thoughts to send to parks um I I would prefer not to do all that in one sitting tonight because I'd like to give us some time to think about it uh in between but um but I did want to just flag that it's clear from a number of

081other pieces of feedback that folks have provided that um it would be uh it is there's a strong desire to provide some of that feedback and uh so I would just like to note that and ask um you know for a level of support to just call that meeting and bring us back together and sign off on something at that point so uh with that uh Heather would you uh would you uh what do you have in mind for this part sure well I think it might just be fair to um just take some initial Impressions that people have because I can't imagine that people have had a whole lot of time to read through the document it is a lengthy planning document um so you probably didn't have an hour or two to spend

082you know reading it um bit by bit but hopefully you've had a chance to glance um at it and so I thought we'd just kind of open it up with just kind of initial Impressions and then I can also answer questions about what the Pro's plan is um I do want to make it clear though that I'm not speaking on behalf of Park staff I don't work for Parks but if you just have some basic questions about what the function of the parks plan then I can provide that information and then possibly Stephen wants to chime in as well being a member of Pat um please feel free to jump in if you'd like to and I say that Rita has her hand up please go ahead thanks Heather I I do want to call

083out um particularly two things that I noticed uh and as did one of our callers tonight um the the comparison or the the specificity of um population within each of the Park's planning areas and the acreage of parks available is a kind of a standardized way of looking at um Parkland is my understanding and it is really important I think given the density that's being planned for Ann Arbor that we include that information it'll make it a really stronger document if it's Builds on the way it's been approached in the past and I feel like um that is a really essential thing so there's a instead of uh the table that was described um there it would be multiple columns for each of the planting areas and the appropriate data elements would be filled into

084that report and I'm assuming that the information is relatively available since it's has a model the other thing is I I think the the overall look at um how the community responded to the survey is really important also as called out earlier we really need to say we're involved in this project and so let's get it moving and and our project in downtown Parks were rated highly so I think that gives our our project some strength and I'd like to see us build on that thanks thank you Rita anyone else have thoughts on Pros Alice uh there we go um I keep trying to do it in the frame and it's way down in the other Corner um I yes I agree with um with uh what Rita said and and um sort of expanding

085a little bit on the previous columns um Linda Bar hours comments on the prose plans of the past we need to have some continuity and because that's where we can start building and one of the thoughts I had without having much look at think bro's plan of of the moment but having looked at several in the past um I think that by looking at the options for integrating so the Liberty Plaza as a park a designated Park camp house is a special property in the center of the city that we're working on to find a an appropriate category I guess to um that would be compatible with those properties and really increase the the well it would integrate these properties in the cohesiveness would help everything that happens in the block so instead of just

086looking at the center of the city we look and look at the center of the city as we were charged for the whole block and how that that fits into what exists with the park and the special properties maybe this some someone suggested that we have a park um by the ordinance but we don't it's that's a whole different process of designating a park or Park land that's a zoning issue so I just wanted to make clear that we have to be we have to look at every aspect of What kinds of changes we'd like or what kinds of emphasis would like and I really appreciate what Linda and Rita have said so far but that was one of the thoughts that I thought that if we do this kind of both data driven and

087desire driven and we everything will be lifted by the what we intend to do with the center of the city thank you Alice uh Frank yeah I think the only point I want to make and uh is that it's my impression that being properly uh you know profiled in this report which comes out every five years uh it's really important that the center of the city be appropriately um mentioned and and recognized uh for a very important practical reason uh granting organizations uh want to see uh activities uh you know reflected in this in this type of report and so our uh our opportunities will be greatly enhanced if we are reflected and profiled appropriately in in this report going forward and this is beyond the funding for the study it's uh it's it's making

088the study a reality uh its recommendations going forward so this is this is critical stuff definitely and and by the way you know of course because we're able to record this this evening we'll uh we'll capture these comments too and bring them back uh for uh the the discussion on the recommendation Steve you're up thanks I just wanted to it's gonna be odd if I said nothing during this part of the discussion I I have not had a chance to digest this draft such that I feel comfortable making any discussion about the current draft but I did want to make a few comments about the Pro's plan I perused it enough to know that it looks like the ones that came before yeah these are documents that follow a certain a certain pattern a certain

089structure and what I'm going to look for what is most interesting to me is sort of towards the end uh of the draft there's all of the the data about the community feedback um but there's a wealth of fantastic information in the prose plan and every Pro's plan um that explains the budget process that gives a good out you know the entire inventory of all the parks exactly what's there the acreage so and that can be very instructive I mean I've got my old trusty one from back in 2015 handy um when we're talking about the space or the spaces that we're working with to have context as to like other spaces that are similar size in this in the town and so forth so I commend it to you as a wealth of information

090um and think that at least you know more to come as we as we digest it but from my view a lot of the a lot of the fun stuff is at the back as you get to the uh to the community feedback thank you for that Steve uh and and uh certainly appreciate the Insight too uh you know I will be I'm in the same boat I've got to digest this a little bit more um and so I think uh you know coming into this meeting tonight and talking with a few of you offline it was clear that um that uh strong desire to uh provide some feedback and uh but also want to spend a little more time on it so that's why we uh made that suggestion earlier about coming back uh

091prior to the close of the public comment period yeah I just want to chime in a little bit um I think it's speaking of the the data that's gathered specifically from community in this one there's um you know one of the the big themes around um what's been gathered as a real desire from the community to see greater investment in our um in our existing Parks a sort of a recognition of sort of the the level of investment that's needed um in our in our infrastructure and and that and so that's one of the big themes that the parks department has seen within this um um which speaks a lot to me oh dear which speaks a lot to the public-private Partnerships that we've been talking about for um the future of of this so

092I think there's a complementary nature to that um I I do think it might be useful to um be sharing some of the the research from the comparable communities piece um forward that would be helpful um and it was there was one other point that I had thought that I might make in this um but I just slipped my mind off remember for the next conversation all good I think those those are important points too and uh and of course you can provide any other points too to Heather and others and just have to make sure we abide by the the laws of the open meetings act in terms of conversation offline so um but but uh certainly would encourage others to do that too uh Alice okay I agree and in that respect we

093need to um uh repeat the critical dates I know we'll have to set a date for that additional meeting but to know exactly what the deadlines for what what part of it they are so that we're not putting uh extra pressure on somebody to pay attention to facts and recommendations when it's really kind to be you don't want to miss the boat absolutely Heather will you I believe it's December 23rd it is December 23rd so we'll have to find a meeting time before then um and I'm sure people will be taking vacation time and other things like that so we might have just a few options to choose from but it'll need to be before the 23rd and I do want to mention that you can send me your individual thoughts if you wanted to

094and I can pass it along to park staff you can also reach directly out to the um to the email address that's given on the website if you just want to make a direct um you know set of suggestions um the meeting for us to have a collective conversation would really be about making a statement as a whole as the Council of the commons you know and and presenting that to park staff as as something that's coming from your body as a as a whole rather than individual bummers another when you mentioned the website what website were you talking about um it is the parks website and let me uh see if I can pull that up for you while I'm sitting here and give you the address Heather while you're doing that we'll uh

095Alan go ahead and then uh Sarah thank you again I imagine before a concerned that the Pro's plans did not give any reference to the community group seeking to develop ideas that would be contributory to the overall City policy but more than that our conversation has focused entirely on the first element of The Proposal a resolution to develop a Central Park and the other element is a Civic Center and there have been less circulated you know of 20 some activities that people consider desirable in the Park Place and a comparable list also of 20 some elements of social services and Civic Center functions Meeting Hall Cafe gallery and a place for the ambassadors of the park to have office that I don't have to go through that list specific sensor function is not simply a

096redundancy like there were too many words in the resolution you know it is a element of what makes the center of the city there are many Central functions that should be aligned with the development in the Central Park and similarly allied with the neighborhood institutions particularly the and downtown District Library so when we were looking for the request for proposals there are multiple ideas that have not been it seems to me forward into that process as to what the Civic Center look like I consider that it looks like some kind of building or collection of buildings that might be part of the be built uh Martin place the Noble House the uh increased functions in the library and some new building over Library Lane those are all elements that we should have evaluated in terms

097of their benefits and their cost and how they can be financed which is a significant matter but to ignore it because it is a significant matter and not just a park is not appropriate and I wish that all the people on our Collective Council here would look to the wider definition of what would constitute the center of the city not just a part but a park a Civic Center organizes a Commons where the users of the services and activities have a significant role in determining their management that's what a Commons is and there's much literature to help stimulate the beautiful imagination is what we could do in the center of the city because that element has been you know sidestepped or neglected for various reasons they were just trying to get something done and keep

098some momentum or whatever it is but it is a park in a Civic Center and it has a variety of indoor and outdoor functions thank you thanks Ellen uh Sarah and then we will turn it back to Heather just so that folks can make sure they get the website she just emailed it out actually um I just wanted to quickly mention that uh Park staff came and presented the Pro's plan to the Planning Commission a month or so ago and one of the primary discussions that we had was about integrating um the 10-minute walk campaign that the trust for public land leads so I think they're going to look at creating maps of like 10 minute walk sheds around the existing Parks but we might want to reinforce that um in our comments because I

099think that would really help illustrate um you know particularly if they could note some of the like new housing areas downtown I think that could help us sort of see where we're lacking park space in the city overall um I also have not really dug into this even though I probably should have for that meeting but um as you're going through it they're they're numbering like because I was trying to use their table of contents and like don't look at that because their numbering was all off they need to fix that and it was driving me crazy trying to like find certain sections so just do a search and find I guess if you're looking for something specific don't use the table thank you for that um and I think the 10-minute walk idea is

100a really really neat one uh certainly I'll speak to some of the uh relationship between housing density and parks that Rito's mentioning earlier so um okay uh Heather uh turn it back to you close us out on this topic sure I just sent the uh website uh to your email because that'll be a little bit easier for you than me reading it out loud here but um that should be a link in your email so you can go to that website and get a link to the plan it's also linked to our agenda um so you can find it in both places but there's an email on that website and that's one of our parts planners so you can write to her if you have any feedback that you want directly again if we want

101to provide a statement as a body as Council of the commons then you can send that to me after we talk about it you can send that to me and then I will send that along to park staff um so with that um yeah again the there there's a couple cleanup things you'll see in the document that was just mentioned um some of the numbering and typos and things like that so you're welcome to provide comment on that but really the more important thing is the substance so and really just thinking about what um what Frank was saying uh you know how you think um the center of the city should be appropriately characterized and um addressed in the plan so that's what we want to get at with our statement back to them so

102I I think certainly obviously folks are more than welcome to provide personal statements we do want to get uh you know back together and and do a collective statement so the feedback to Heather in particular um uh please do that so that we could try and work on it beforehand but then we will come back and have a discussion um and uh prior to the uh the close of that period so um why what does it depend on when we have that meeting uh when we should get the um our own contributions into Heather I would say why don't we try and uh give ourselves a deadline of about a week or so to uh to take a look through the plan and provide some feedback to Heather um and um that will give us

103you know we if we shoot for a week to 10 days for that that'll give us plenty of time uh to uh work on scheduling that meeting um ahead of the holidays I imagine we'll get pretty close to the deadline but um but um you know we'll still uh still be able to uh to meet it I should also mention that this group is not required to make a statement it's just that if you want to so you know I do want to emphasize this if you don't have any anything that you you know feel like should be said then that's fine too yes and you did mention that our individual contributions to the comments are are just fine right but I think it will be good for us to have some sense of of

104Our Own uh our own discoveries and uh and help that will help us move forward more quickly totally yeah I considered the individual statements as well deadline is actually yeah the December deadline is the close of the open comment period December 23rd um and then it goes through a series of approval processes so we integrate our Parks plan into our comprehensive plan so it actually does go through our plane commission which Sarah mentioned so and that there's a public hearing that's required for that and then it goes up to city council so and it has to be in Michigan Department of recreation um or I'm sorry the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in February so that's the ultimate deadline it has to be to them to be approved by them to be eligible for the

105funding sources that they provide and is it still true that uh it has to be sent to the local governments around the county correct and and that's been that's this comment period right now so at the beginning whenever you do a comprehensive plan there's the neighboring jurisdictions as well as utilities and railroad you know other entities you have to um provide a notice that you are starting a planning effort and then once you get a draft of the plan you provide that back out to all of those entities to review and so it's that's where it's at right now it's out there with them and then out to the general public to provide comment yeah two hands up here council member Briggs and then Frank yeah it's just um since there's discussion of a another

106meeting I know that sometimes those those meetings can get a little unwieldy um at times and if really the point is to have a very brief um I guess I guess there could be lengthy comments from the commission but um you know very sort of specific guidance around this commission's desires I it seems like it might be more helpful to have a smaller you know having new and Alice for example you know taking a look at this and providing a you know something that that the commission could react to or something like that um rather than having sort of everybody send their individual comments into Heather and having her have to sort through that and figure out what is really you know just because somebody sent in comments that doesn't mean that's necessarily how we

107should spend our subsequent meeting because it seems like our individual comments um should probably go directly to the Parks Commission um into that website and then through that forum and if there's some very specific reason for us to meet because there's some major Gap in this then I would guess I would hope that as leadership you know you're able to identify that and bring us back together only if that's really necessary right yeah and I I agree the the wordsmithing as a group is not a good way to spend the time totally agree with uh both of those sentiments I think the the thought would be that um you know it's probably a good idea to um create a straw person document if you will and and then make sure that there's some eyes on

108it in the public sphere um and uh but but certainly hear you around the uh group word spreading it's uh understand your statement there uh Frank and then I think we will try and wrap it up unless there's anybody else uh basically I just want to Echo what uh Erica just said I think it's important that uh some work be done uh between now and yeah like another gathering so that we have something uh you know substitute to react to rather than to try to create it during that meeting yeah I just think it's uh critical that that this Council uh have a a statement on this document and uh in in some detail how we feel we could it could be improved by our suggestions now I'd like for us to be able to

109view it as a contribution rather than a statement or demand um because we need to be listening as well as selling I agree with that too excellent point good way to good way to close us out and take us into that next uh next part so please do provide the feedback you could send it to to Alice myself Heather we do want to be conscious that we're not conversing uh over it but we will take it and come up with something for you to react to and get back to you as well okay all right with that uh that takes us to the next agenda items uh appropriately labeled I think we've kind of got that for the next meeting unless there's anything else that folks like to add okay and with that we will

110go into public comment and see if there's anybody else from the public who would like to add anything Heather yeah Robert black go ahead Robert's name is is transcribed as Rob Robert luck [Laughter] Robert are you uh able to we cannot hear you if you're salute unmute the unmute he appears to be unmuted but maybe having some technical difficulties oh wait three is oh yeah okay Robert any uh any luck there Heather is there anyone else uh maybe we can come back to Robert and that'll dislodge it nobody else with our handout at the moment Robert we uh let me try muting you and then unmuting you here does that do anything huh well by our apologies Robert um cannot hear you at all maybe he should bet his comments to the other as well

111yeah that works if you would like to send a comments in please feel free right so I thought I heard somebody um star six isn't that it star nine if you're on the phone okay and that's just to virtually raise your hand how do you unmute though isn't there a second comment Robert he is a muted yeah he's unmuted okay Robert if you want to go ahead and send your comments in please feel free obviously we would uh be more than happy to to take a look at them apologies that we can't seem to get you to get your voice recognition to work here okay well in that case we'll we'll close out public comment and um go to an adjournment can we have a motion to adjourn the meeting this evening three of them

112I've got a few um all in favor say aye any opposed okay all right well thank you everyone uh we'll get back with you around the date and the document Alice and I have our homework so we appreciate it thank you so much