001Stephen dark store for anything oh there he is to order um and uh do roll call areas we're on Zoom we need to indicate the municipality of where we're at so Heather could you help us with the role I sure can and I'm going to start the recording so it's already being recorded and aired on CTN but I like to do a backup recording on zooms recording in progress there it begins all right so real call let me get my list we've got Steven uh present at the Ann Arbor Airport nice um Jennifer president and I'm in Ann Arbor Michigan alum I am here in Ann Arbor it's not here uh Jeffrey uh present and in Ann Arbor Rita present in Ann Arbor all right Alice oh you're muted keep going up to the little
002red thing um present in Ann Arbor all right Frank uh present in in our in Ann Arbor here in Ann Arbor uh councilmember Riggs here in Ann Arbor councilmember dish here in Ann Arbor all right all right thank you heather um could we have an approval of tonight's agenda uh it was posted online on registrar the number of links um any additions uh to the agenda or can we move it um I think I think I'd like to request an addition at the um but the working groups um I don't know if it needs to be added if we're just going to do it in the working groups talented um Adam can you remind me what uh um yeah if maybe uh as part of the um and I don't know if that we need
003to formally add it but um you know one thing you had mentioned was making sure we talk about um um marketing of the space Oh yeah we're on short term activation right okay we'll add that somewhere uh and I think and comfortable communities might be a good place actually why don't we talk about it during the near-term activation if we want to okay just put as a sub item yeah so could we have a I think we probably do need to actually amend the agenda to do that so um can we have a second on Alice's second okay second by Jeff uh all in favor of uh adding the amendment uh sort of sub item under the near term activation around marketing any opposed all right uh then are there any other amendments to the
004agenda all right hearing none could we have a motion to move the agenda as amended motion all right all in favor say aye aye right any opposed all right all right so we have an amended agenda um let's uh go into approval the minutes from last uh the last meeting that was uh linked uh via registrar as well any questions at all about the minutes from the last meeting uh and if none uh we can do a motion to approve motion to approve second all right seconded by Jen thank you uh all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed okay all right thank you very much uh so let's go into public comment next uh Heather do we have any members of the public sure do um all right the person with the number
005326 ending in three two six please go ahead [Music] hello uh Jeff can all hear me so I am very excited to uh speak tonight because 2022 has been another successful year for the Community Gardens on the commons uh we are just finishing up our winterization Pro protocol we have a series of uh three Workshop uh working sessions scheduled that will end in a couple weeks but I I'm here this evening because we would like to recognize the contributions of the many volunteers who made the success possible this year a special credit goes to uh garden plot coordinators Rita Mitchell Elizabeth Smith uh an ordeal you're gonna Haber who oversaw the design plant selection and plant installation in their areas the irrigation team including Rita Mitchell Richard Corson Sherry Thompson and Jeff Crockett who quite
006remarkably ensured that the four garden plots were well irrigated throughout the entire growing season on a daily basis especially when the new plants were installed duet Ryoma from Project grow for his consultation on winterization and Native species as well as his delivery of mulch in the spring other volunteers for their help in planting and maintaining these garden plots including Marsha Pence Eileen Tyler Brooks Curtis Francois damres and Chad manfreda Robert black and Amy Rowe for Designing graphics for banners posters and signage that the green team has used and will continue to use in promoting the Community Gardens and Amy Rowe for creating a website that includes the green team information and a donation opportunity and a surprise local artists near Larry Neeson and Caitlin Olmsted Phillips from the Olmsted Foundation who each pledged to donate
007five thousand dollars for a mural to be installed on vertical services near the gardens next spring I'll be happy to share more information about this later because we are going currently to the DDA for their approval then Robert Greece for Designing Garden area C2 and providing signage input and a wide big number of plant donors including Elizabeth Smith Rita Mitchell odile Huguenot Haber the tuang coup Foundation Abbott Nursery English Gardens side oats Farm great Pratt Mark Lee and the Wild Ones local gardening group including Susan Beecher Lois damerow Margaret menildie Janet Osborne Jenny weingate Brooks Curtis Sherry Thompson Danbury Kathy Susan Dorothy Hastings Sarah Haynes Carol Gagliardi Nancy Whitelaw Bob Houser Rachel Shaw and Valerie mullaney we want to include Jeff Watson of the DEA who supported and facilitated the critical installation of a water
008spigot and cm's Erica Briggs and Lisa dish who advocated with the DDA on our behalf and finally Ali ramlawy the owner of Jerusalem Gardens who is instrumental in providing access to his water spigot to irrigate our garden at a critical time this effort represented many hundreds of hours and you might be asking yourself so what was a community benefit to all this work and I would say two primary Community benefits Recreation but most importantly education there were numerous times when we were out there attending the gardens when we had people come up asking us about the different plants and we talked about the importance of native species and this I believe has encouraged other people to replace turf grass with Native species we saw this on a number of in a number of situations um
009as far as the education we are in the process now of uh designing some signs which we will share for you later to educate the public not just on this one particular Garden but also Liberty Plaza and the broader center of the city area as well um and so what we're asking is really not much for all this work what we're asking is that you consider removing several sections of parking and replacing them with picnic tables so that people can come and enjoy the beauty of these Gardens and learn from these Gardens in uh respectfully I don't believe that the installation of a few tables requires much programming for example we live very close to Detroit Street and there are a number of tables that are set up uh on Detroit Street that have involved
010zero programming people just show up bring some lunches and food sit down and enjoy their meals they don't need someone coming in and telling them how to enjoy this space they can figure out for themselves and I would submit that if you put picnic tables in several areas of the the commons near the gardens you will get people coming enjoying and learning from this experience so uh thank you for your time and I would offer to take any of you on a tour around the garden um and uh so that you can learn more thank you very much thanks for all of your uh all the volunteers that you called out as well or do we have any other members of the public yes we have Robert black thank you go ahead Robert thank you
011heather can you hear me okay all right nice to see you all again um Happy fall um I love uh to see the sweaters and everything it's a nice sign actually of this time of the year um I want to double down on the Green Team and Jeff Crockett in the work that that whole team has done as an example of of a kind of a commonly managed uh process that is fundamental to a center of the city or Urban Commons idea that we're seeing in other parts of the world and in this country it's just amazing to me to watch the camaraderie the respect the the organizational skills of this group of people to blend together in common purpose and I just want to do a huge shout out to Jeff Crockett for his
012you know his shuttle diplomacy and for his ability to engage people and invite them to participate without any particular proselytization but just more of the idea of just inviting people so um and then to let you know just a little more Amy row lives in North Carolina and I live most of the year although I'd spend a lot of time in Ann Arbor too but I lived most of the year in Vermont you have out-of-staters here that are helping move this along because of their commitment to this city and this process so please be aware that you have a wide range of support in many different ways including Caitlin Olmsted Phillips who brought you some very interesting information at their last meeting I just want to also remind about this inner relationship of funding sources
013Frank and other people in town I've actually met with a couple of them myself they are willing to provide funding to support this from the private sector were you to have designed a hotel for this site it would not have been paid for by the city it would have been done as a public-private partnership and so I'd encourage you to really look into that and and get the involvement of these these really Shapers of the town there are several like that you already know that should actively participate in your RFP process as you move forward to make sure they are adequately represented I firmly believe that your public and private ratio of funding the private sector will raise at a factor of 10 or more over the public sector and that's a heck of a
014a resource to have available lastly I'd say that to really connect this into a larger vision okay the bicentennial plan Ann Arbor 200 2024 is coming up the Ann Arbor 200 200th anniversary there's the historic Association Russ Collins Missy Stoltz a number of people including the Ann Arbor 200 program with the library and I'd encourage you to really reach out to Eli and the new representatives and build that bridge because that's a key player new libraries in the country are becoming community centers and lastly I'll say to keep my time simple work on alignment I have said this at every meeting I've spoken before you for the last nearly two years now alignment both within the Council of the commons and around it the initiating committee is not an adversary it is a foundational support
015underneath you use them rely on them and then continue to reach out for other alignment and in my sincere suggestion to you is that you before releasing an RFP create a vision statement for this thing create a mission statement also each part has a different intention to that which you can study if you look on page seven of the task force report you will find a mission a vision statement that was written at the time in February of 2020 but I'd seriously encourage you to create a vision statement so you all can be aligned and the people around you and with you can be aligned and when you do that the community will rally even more than it is already as we've seen with the Green Team and that will drive the responses to your
016RFP in ways that you can't yet even imagine so good luck tonight in talking about uh all the wonderful things of Liberty Plaza's Ann Arbor Public Power event on September 25th was one of those examples I've known Jessica black since she was a little baby my son Ari black no relation is the same age as her she's a great asset for you from Liberty Plaza so engage her Beyond Milton dehoney and the parks people she she is a person that could really bring a youthful thing to this as well so I could go on but I won't I'll just wish you good luck in your deliberations tonight and keep moving forward you're doing great thank you thank you Robert thank you for being here again you bet uh Heather do we have any other members
017of the public we do not okay all right thank you uh so with that then we will go into uh member news and update updates and I have one piece I'd like to uh just mention as we get into the work group updates and recommendations but before I do that I'll ask if there's any other items that folks would like to bring up during this section else I was having commuted still um still muted I think you are yeah mute I'm trying gotcha you're good um I was I think there were three or four of us from this uh Commission uh who showed up for a while at Liberty Plaza and um in spite of a little rainy period it was great um I could have used a place to sit down but there were
018some chairs in front of a music platform or not really a platform they just got themselves in a little corner of of Liberty Plaza and it was uh I just it was wonderful to watch I really didn't go with any purpose in mind I would say that uh I was thinking yeah it was good to park Underground um and um so I did and um then when it started to rain I wondered maybe we'd have to go underground but um and so that was a good adjacency but nobody went underground we all stayed out and got a little bit splashed at times and it was really nice one thing I since I have not been downtown very much for the past two years um I haven't parked underground either but this was the third time
019and um to come up out of the elevator and see just cars I couldn't really see what the path was to walk from the elevator in the corner that was nearest Liberty Plaza do the rest of the you know how to get to Liberty Plaza from that elevator I think it's it's important for us to explore the area and see how how we navigate and how we can't navigate as we go along and create the relationships between the spaces on this site so that was my experience last Sunday excellent and this is at one of the uh City programmed events at Liberty Plaza it was the Ann Arbor power um event that had some support from arpa funds that the parks department had and it was part of the effort to um reactivate rejuvenate the
020use of Liberty Plaza very cool excellent all right any other member members um all right Alan yeah I I really want to highlight what Jeff said about the the incredible process of the Green Team getting together and making a garden and making a vision of education and a beautiful spot growing in the center of town and his initiative in that whole team sort of becoming co-initiators co-creators of what should develop as a very beautiful you know process it will spread out to the other Gardens of the area there and similarly the bicentennial at the International Day of Peace meeting there was a lot of discussion of the bicentennial and how the commons is identified with fostering a culture of peace and non-violence and it really fits that as a vision for our Ann Arbor's Next
021Century so there was a lot of sense of how this is a public meeting place it really begins to be a Agora for the community to have a conversation and Jeff really put it together is how that creates community and so uh underscore what he said and uh let's have a good meeting excellent thank you Alan any other members so I just wanted to add I I had oh Rita go ahead I'm really sorry you're good don't worry about it um I just want to say that as a participant in the a2p2 event at the Liberty Plaza I want to thank the parks staff who did a great job in helping us to organize and to guide us through and to get us to a point where we had the event that was really very
022nice so um I want to thanks thank Park staff thanks absolutely and I know that the park staff I don't think that position ever got filled so I know they're working uh extra time to make that happen and so I think that Kudos is uh most warranted uh any other members so I just wanted to add you know as we go into the next section um haven't had a chance to take a look at some of the um the responses to the request at the last meeting um you know I think that uh there's I couldn't help but sort of feel like there is sort of two work streams here um there is a work stream that really focuses on this uh plan that starts with the RFP and then morphs from there and you
023know we're going to have lots of questions to answer uh around you know the as part of that process including the you know the physical Vision the layout of this of the site the connection as was mentioned uh earlier between Liberty Plaza and the top of the structure the uh um governance model and fundraising to support the construction and the long-term maintenance of the of the space you know lots of questions around what what this is going to really see and feel and how it's going to be utilized and I felt that there were uh there's a definitive work stream focused on on that that you know incorporates incorporates several of the work groups um and then I felt there was a second work stream around that maybe needs a little more work too around
024how we encourage short-term shorter term use of the space or or a non-organic use of the space maybe it's a better way to describe it could be in the shorter or the longer term for that matter and how we try and uh marry the use of the space with other uh community and City planned events and so all and what could be required and so lots of good questions and ideas but I felt like in my opinion as we go into the next section I just wanted to put that out there as a key takeaway that I uh that I took from taking a look at some of these and um and so I think that uh this was a good exercise and I'm hoping that we can have a good conversation about the results
025of them tonight and so um I don't know I think maybe we just go into the next section then and I think the first step is comparable communities if I recall correctly um is that right Heather it is that's correct so we have a report uh from comparable communities and I guess um why don't we uh have a little conversation or start start that conversation I don't know read our Frank um uh if you'd like to start um uh this or Alice there you know Sarah Rita Alice myself and Frank are the members that are associated with this work working group so uh I guess I can get things started uh uh you know this this group has been reporting um over the over the time that it's been working on studying other communities um
026primarily Detroit Plymouth and Royal Oak and uh We've submitted and I don't know if it's part of the attachments today uh kind of a spreadsheet of what we've learned under a number of categories um but I think this information will be helpful both in terms of you know the longer term study but also the shorter term activation and uh we've learned a lot that it's encouraging that communities right in our backyard have successfully um manage the process of both longer term and shorter term activation of sites and they each are very different uh in terms of Origins and their approach uh I don't know if we will necessarily get into that but we could with with questions and conversation um we have one more community that we'd like to take a look at between now
027and the end of the year and that is our neighbor Chelsea that uh has taken an old industrial site on the Main Street just south of the the business area and seem to have quite a community uh uh quite a bit of community energy and uh focused on that and converting it into uh a park in common so we'll we'll look at that uh over the next few months foreign as just a reminder too I think um you know one of the things that I'd like us to to sort of think about tonight um and we can transition this is you know how are each of the working groups goals uh designed to accomplish um you know what are the working groups goals to accomplish by the end of the calendar year how can we
028uh build a roadmap to accomplish these things and I I think thinking about them in these maybe a little larger work streams might be helpful to that and then uh how do they uh uh impact the formal planning process for the space so just I put those out there as a reminder of the questions that we had drafted at the last meeting others that uh that uh based on Frank's comments I've got a few questions but I can hold them so um Frank I think uh in terms of the working group this working group by the end of the year um you know maybe what maybe uh some suggestions could be around um ensuring that uh you know we complete um uh a fundraising process for the RFP actually you know what before I before
029I get into this why don't we report out on the remaining working groups and then have a discussion um and uh and and that might be a little bit more effective use of of doing this uh Alan you've got your hand up go ahead yeah I had one comment on the uh that's very good report that the element I know in the larger document that you put out there's more information but the element of the question to you looking at CDA financing DDA rule Administration program amount of people community response I think we need in addition the role of a community initiative in creating program how does the role of making this a living place you know get transferred into the community so people it's sort of what we're dealing with in the local active
030and short-term activation how to get people interested in the starting program and if we will see how that happens and the community is able to participate in the administration of all this that might help us in designing our own endeavor foreign I was just gonna request it suspect a lot of this is already written down but for the comparable communities if that could just be um if the Lessons Learned could be recorded in some way so that I know that the individual members of the committee have learned a lot but just so that we have for austerity and for moving forward the RFP process we have a good recording of best information in the lessons learned definitely I think we can categorize that um pretty well it I believe the report is attached to our
031agenda is that reporting that that uh Erica was looking for it has some of it in it that's for sure um I think that I think I uh I think it'd probably be a good idea to and what I was thinking when I when I read these uh reports is that maybe there's a different way of uh categorizing things so that they are in um you know we have a pretty good idea or could create a pretty good idea based on the RFI response of what we're likely to receive um you know uh touch points on from a planning firm and and we could maybe create a supplementary um um report that touches on things that we may not receive um and so um I'm thinking maybe that that could be a that could include
032some things that could inform uh the the planning process like uh things mentioned in comparable communities but it could also be things that don't necessarily inform the planning process as well that could be important to the long term uh use of the of the space or development of the space um so just proof of thought uh readout um well with respect to the reporting I guess it would be really good to get some feedback on what we have submitted because we did um I believe submit to the group uh sort of a cross tab of of categories of actions that are listed in in the summary that was submitted tonight but it Compares each of the the three um cities Center Parks um across multiple things that the categories of of um actions like financing
033like the DDA involvement Etc so I think we've done quite a bit but we haven't had discussion of it or much feedback so feedback would be great um and I do want to add that I felt that each of this the cities that we spoke with um it was really enthusiastic about what they have and that they see it as a good community resource and that's what I would like to see us build into our mission statement if it's not already available in what we've written so far it's a good suggestion are there some other um pieces of feedback around comparable communities all right why don't we move on to the next one and then we can I think it would be helpful in my opinion to talk about the next steps and make recommendations
034uh after we go through the the report outs um so the next one is the block Partners group and this one had Erica Jen Ellen Sarah and um uh Jeff on it and so I wanted to open up uh and I believe there's a report attached as well yeah I can speak to it if you'd like um because Sarah's sister is absent today um our report is probably not as satisfying as some of the others but after discussing as a group um we've decided to disband our working group um we did as you as we've reported out on previously conduct a survey of black Partners um we didn't get a huge response at all from it um and I think our in some of these partners are currently meeting with the city administrator um you
035know on a regular basis to talk about um opportunities concerns Etc with with that space um so those conversations are being had had directly with the city administrator um and we know with an upcoming RFP that you know that would be important feedback for whoever you know ends up doing the RFP to be able to have those conversations as well so what we didn't want to have was sort of feedback fatigue where all of these people are asking black Partners sort of the same same questions and trying to solicit all of the same feedback what we would like to recommend in order for us to to feel as though this group can be confident in disbanding um the block Partners group is to ask if um Mr dehoney could join us for our next meeting
036and give us you know whatever feedback he's been hearing from the black Partners as part of the process that he's engaged in and I think the second piece of that would be to ask for somebody from Parks to come and talk about recent Liberty Plaza programming and I know we heard some of that from you know our you know comrades tonight but just in general you know what is currently on the agenda to activate that space what has been successful what works what doesn't um so we're asking for a bit of time I think on the next agenda if that's possible um to just sort of have that conversation and hear from the people who are really doing the work in and already sort of you know creating a duplicate process for us so we
037wanted we want to avoid that I'm muted as well I'm sorry uh I think we can definitely do that Heather you got your hand up though you may have some more information especially about Mr dehoney I do well actually it's about Parts Parks has confirmed that they can come to the next meeting so that will happen I haven't I don't have confirmation yet for Mr dehoney but I will ask again and see if he can join us that is great news I think that's an excellent request too to get some more clarification there any questions at all for uh Jen or other members of the working group uh Ellen you got your hand up yes well I was uh when this meeting happened I was in travel or somehow couldn't participate but I would have
038heard some continuation of the working group its function was coming out of the uh task force was to bring the various uh groups entities institutions people in the block together is some kind of working group understanding a mutual relationship rather than having the individual uh yeah relationships with the city administrator or the city government the people need to be together and I think I would have suggested recognizing how little forward we got with our survey that we would have reconstituted as some kind of the Eco Village working group with a vision of how to encourage the various groups on the Block to see positive relations among one another they have quite independent and above in a sense the park itself and the Civic Center itself as these elements develop so I would have put the
039Eco Village into the model but I wasn't at the meeting so I could not uh you know uh redirect and it is uh I hope we get more feedback from the questionnaire and it would be good if we send up a follow-up and I'd be delighted if Mr dehoney would come to the meeting because it has been in the whole concept of this process that the city administrator would take the initiative to get the black people all together to meet one another and have a group of which the initiating committee itself was to be seen as a member of that group so I hope that that he can be encouraged to come or we can find a time to have this discussion thank you and uh good report on what happened at the meeting could
040have been otherwise maybe you know I think the Eco Village is a good idea kind of a model of how to see the organic development of the center of the city and so maybe we should think with some of the people who specialize in that idea point of order movements point of order could we move on that's fine that sounds good thank you Alan um okay why don't we move on to the uh fundraising RFP uh report Frank did you want to uh highlight this a little bit you are muted I think our major Focus continues to be raising funds for the uh a study that will come out of the RFP um I I think our initial goal is to raise a minimum ninety thousand dollars and uh um we are about twenty thousand
041dollars short of that goal I think ultimately we need to raise probably another thirty thousand dollars for the for the to complete of the study but um I'm still hoping that uh with the ninety thousand dollars in commitments we can get started because I'm convinced based on my experience in fundraising once you put the shovel in the ground uh so to speak others will see the uh the reality of what's happening and we'll we'll get involved to help complete the funding um so uh we are talking to uh individuals and Community organizations between now and the end of the calendar year and asking for support and uh without specific specifics I think those conversations are going well and the ones we are anticipating uh we'll have similar positive results as we move forward securing this
042funding is is absolutely critical to Advanced the center of the city both uh longer term but also shorter term uh I think if people see the longer term vision and plan coming together that will only help stimulate near-term activation as well so may want to add some Technicolor to that yeah I mean I would I would just uh second what some of Frank said I've been part of some of these fundraising conversations as well and uh I do think that there is um you know clearly there's interest uh we wouldn't be gaining uh Financial commitment support without it um but I do think that the momentum uh will be important you know that we start to make progress uh and uh you know obviously conscious that we're not um we're not um you know putting
043the city in a spot where any uh respondents to an RFP would be uh you know we've seen their time anything like that but I do think that whatever we can do to build momentum particularly with private donors uh would be helpful so um I think that would be uh that would be the only other piece I'd add uh Alice I would just oh let me just follow up uh just briefly it's clear at this juncture that the community support component is going to be um significant uh at least initially uh two or three times that of the of the city's support uh not to make light of it in any way we wouldn't have the conversations we're having without that City support that Erica was able to secure uh that's that's been absolutely you
044know a Cornerstone importance and it I've been saying for almost a half a decade now that this has to be a strong public-private partnership in order to succeed um I don't know about Robert's ten to one uh uh formula and I I've got a lot of gray hair I think I just sprouted a few more gray hairs with that with that formula but we'll we'll see what uh uh transpires in the coming weeks and months that's good Alice you get your hand up yeah it's just maybe a small thing but I think part of the um a challenge in fundraising and in engaging the block group Partners um is marketing and branding it's like what are we doing here and um without the RFP and without the process ongoing we still can do a little
045bit of marketing by using the familiar names to connect events to the location the one thing missing when we had a2p2 at the Liberty Plaza was hi the where that was being held was at the center of the city and another uh event coming up has a billboard already advertising another Liberty plaza event and the only thing I wanted to say was Liberty Plaza at the center of the city who wanted to have the center of the city connected by us just by visual you know by naming association with one of the elements that's in it and when if we could engage a lot Partners to say well like temp house when they have an event it's at the center of the city we're having such and such an event that can pass at the
046center of the city and that would be a small way to to start The Branding if the library wants to participate they're going to have an outdoor event at the center of the city that kind of thing it can help identify this place with ongoing events we have to start perhaps looking way ahead have other larger events like we were talking about the green Fair have part of the event at the center of the city and that should help us promote the recognition of the centrality of our place and where it is and associating it with these nice institutions and businesses so I just wanted to maybe tuck in the idea of marketing into some of the things that we're doing with their working groups that's fair Allen uh you got your hand up yes
047well as a colleague of Alice I agree with that completely that's why proposal a said to be developed as an urban Central Park and Civic Center Commons known as the center of the city that we are developing something to be known as the center of the city and yes as Alice says we should reinforce underscore that it is also though what I encourage is the commons which has a component of user self-management and when people think of like Boston who is the Boston Commons it's a common name for a more complicated space it is a center of the city and it is a Commons too and I think we are branding in the uh triangular way there anyhow and Alice is quite right we should encourage the people that we encourage to program to uh
048recognize there in the center of the city whether it's Liberty Plaza or whether it's the library law our Point thank you uh Ellen uh one other piece I'd like to add here it's not captured in the report but I think it is important particularly to the RFP had a good discussion um and uh We've determined that um you know there's a uh that uh between Heather and uh Park staff Park staff is going to take a lead in uh writing the RFP uh when it when it's ready and we're still talking about you know when that point in time would be but it is important that we don't uh send a message to to you know potential design firms that uh that uh you know their their time uh is there but but our money
049is not yet so that's we have to be conscious of that but uh Heather has uh offered and I don't want to put words in your mouth to other but I think this is an accurate characterization to sort of support that process um and maintain a connection uh to uh our Council um but Park staff has greater capacity and we'll uh will take care of uh writing you know the especially the standardized format of the RFP um and I think one of the things I'd like to suggest after uh for the next steps around some of this is this RFP working group starting to think about somebody suggested a mission a mission or a vision statement earlier that's a really good idea there's also a scope area that can be thought about as well um
050and description I believe is the third one but there's a most of the RFP is is a technical function uh Heather am I accurate in the characterization yes that's correct and I will be meeting with Park staff later on this month to talk about that a little bit further um and I do want to assure everyone that it's not you know this doesn't mean that Council of the commons wouldn't be involved in any way you know that it would be an inclusive process that would involve all parties that this touches excellent thank you very much and thank you for um you know doing that and you know working in uh into that process too so um and so uh so I mean that that sort of touches on the uh the funding and the RFP
051you know the one group we don't have uh on here a report out but I think it's important that we talk about it tonight is the uh the shorter term activation and uh you know I think that there are some things that we can think about um uh for the fall around goals uh around uh starting the process run shorter term activation Alice specifically called out the marketing aspects um you know one of the things that uh is clear there are a lot of events we started out the conversation just joking about the the green Fair uh coming up tomorrow and mayor's green fair and uh you know previously there was an event for the mayor's green Fair on the center of the city and uh and you know certainly the Liberty Plaza activation uh
052also technically part of the center city is going very well um I think that there are some there are some other things that we could think about um the rest of this calendar year around shorter term activation and uh maybe make uh some uh create some additional ideas certainly engage with some of those other groups Community groups or or city Partners who are doing events around the city around how this space could be used and what could be uh created to uh or added into the space to make it viable in the shorter term so I just throw those ideas out there as uh as uh ideas for what that shorter term could could look like as well and you see Erica's got her hand up too so go ahead yeah I would say um
053with regards to short-term activation that we've been quite successful as a city in terms of activating um a really notable part of the center of the city with Liberty Plaza it has gained the attention of our city administrator and quite a bit of his own time on this um and you know the engagement of block partners and the engagement Park staff and so I know that sometimes in these conversations there's a desire to make sure that the entire space but I think that you know in terms of what has been accomplished this year it's been a pretty notable shift and improvement from past years so um you know this is this is something that the city administrator um volunteer to take a lead on and you know I think we can I'm looking forward to
054hearing more about that report from from Parks and and all that but I think we've we've seen some good success here definitely would agree with that totally Alice you got your hand up [Music] just just briefly um the idea of marketing I think we should be consistent in identifying the place that we're promoting and I think it's probably best to use a geographical reference rather than an abstract one that's why I can consider center of the city so important is because it does highlight the the location which we hope to be more and more Central to the activities that are promoted and put on uh by through the closure of streets and uh when there is there should be a really great place in the middle of the city which is what we're working toward
055um and if we can get some of these lighter uses uh located at the center of the city whether it's through the Liberty Plaza or the green fair or whatever um we should start identifying it consistently as the center of the city um also I wanted to mention that arpa funds were used in helping support some of the things that are happening at um Liberty Plaza specifically that one last weekend with a2p2 it wasn't direct support for the group that occupied the the plaza but there were some some small amount of funds that were used as part of the allocation that was received from the arpa funds for the reactivation of Liberty Plaza you need to kind of keep that in mind we don't have those funds available for the center of the city unfortunately
056but if we connect those events I think it's a pretty good Association to rely on that's good um Frank and then Erica um I just want to Echo Alice's uh observation I think Alan is probably agreeing with this too that to begin to as part of the marketing and and building identity to begin to um refer to events at Liberty Plaza uh as part of the center of the city how that actually has stated I'm not sure but to link the two together um and I wonder uh if this council could have a role in perhaps considering a resolution uh the city council that I don't uh to to encourage this uh that uh events begin to co-brand and Market um this is this kind of conversation has been going on uh in the initiating
057committee uh meetings over the summer and so on and I I just think it's it seems to be a logical piece of short and longer term activation to be into identifying people's minds the location of these activities and uh the the the encompassing nature of the various elements you mentioned Kemp house Liberty Plaza the library lot so I just throw that out as something we might want to bring forward say at the next meeting or I don't know but just to formally resolve and encourage that that kind of uh identification of the center of the city I want to put a pin in that thought Frank um before we uh before we move it forward individually okay all right we'll come back to that Erica a few quick thoughts um Alice you had mentioned that
058um that arpa funds were being used on the center of the city um in conjunction in conjunction with Liberty Plaza per the charter Amendment center of the city includes the entire lock correct and so they are being used at the center of the city in terms of these terms and so I think we should acknowledge that is being used as a portion of that again we we often get focused on one portion of this block I would I am not a marketing expert um by any means but I would caution this group a little bit that um the center of the city term is has become fairly politically charged in our community um and sometimes when building consensus and trying to build a different path forward you know a little rebranding might might go a
059long way and maybe there's not a need to to focus in on names as much right now as a as moving forward really important parts of this work like um at creating a plan um for the future with RFP that's a fair point yeah I think it requires some further discussion perhaps in a working group or something um because uh uh there wasn't any intention on my part to substitute the center of the city for Liberty Plaza or Camp House whatsoever um and I did not know that the point of view of those arpa funds actually benefiting the city of Center was it anybody's opinion at all I just thought it was in response to the problems that have to be solved at Liberty Plaza and not really recognizing or not really trying to associate
060those funds with the center of the city itself the the library lot part of the center of the city but it it is a continuing confusion I think out there that uh what we are talking about is a whole entire block and I don't I think a lot of the people on that block don't really consider themselves part of the center of the city but we've got a building to a block and a half away that's called City Center building so you know there's a lot of I agree with you there could be a lot of clarification needed but uh we don't we also can't just name a very important Park uh with a some special name honoring somebody or something and do we call it Centennial Park we haven't made that decision you know
061so I think it's best to be generic um but that's my opinion I think you're both saying very similar things here actually uh Ellen got your hand up a mistake all right might be yeah it might be an error so um so I'd like to um you know it seems to me and it seemed to me when I took a look at um you know what was submitted and what we you know previously submitted to actually in some ways with regard Alan did you have your hand up yeah I did that I got myself uh disconnected so I'm sorry that's okay the uh the Prairie Center of the city is in the city Charter that is our greatest strength and that's why it is there to identify these properties city-owned properties as a whole connected
062together called The Commons and having two sections to park and a Civic Center however that is known as the senator of the city and it's uh hard to see why we would want to change that what we make of the park in the Civic Center is incents up to the scope of our RFP that it is a Commons is also the operative word of that City Charter so how we see this in the framework of the commons is a challenge for all of us because the commons is not a common form yeah but it is a form of mutual weight and cooperation it would be good for the city and the people say give it a try I do too and that's sort of what we are graphing with a little bit what's this all
063putting these ideas all together so uh senator of the city I think is a good brand the remembrance this is a Commons that is made up of a number of separate pieces trying to work itself together for the basketball Fair Point now yeah it'll probably become to be called something else by the time we're all done so we're all dead let's hope not um so uh so I'd like to you know I'm taking a look through these things I'd like to suggest because you know there are some good goals that are put forth in the in the um reports and then I think we we have some additional ones to do around um the near-term activation in particular in light of the presentation that uh Caitlin Olmsted uh did uh last time and created some
064additional ideas and conversation um you know and certainly those were ideas that were put forth presented by her on behalf of the initiating committee and so you know we would need to create our own ideas uh as as part of the Council of the commons uh you know our role is not to necessarily further uh uh a third uh you know an external groups initiatives but to learn about what ideas are out there and to put forth their own plan so um I'd like to suggest that um you know we we sort of and I think we have to be conscious of this because I don't want to run into Quorum issues but um try and create a couple of these working streams one that is more dedicated to um getting this long-term plan done
065which will include prepping for the RFP the fundraising components uh the This research extending the research on comparable communities to uh Focus uh a little a little broader uh also look at some of this um management and and start to uh create supplementary pieces and learn more about what we could expect as part of a plan and planning process and so we can identify um what would need to be supplemented so I feel like there's sort of that one working stream um and then I feel like there's a second working stream where we can seek to answer some of the questions have been brought up tonight around marketing connecting activating the space you know the city has made the space available the spaces between Liberty Plaza and the and the top of the library structure
066available to the public how how we can uh further streamline that and assist in that process um what you know understanding what it would take to um for other third-party groups to be interested in utilizing the space especially ones who are activating other areas of the city already um you know I.E the mayor uh green Fair uh activation um and uh and sort of build a plan comprehensive plan and so I feel like you know we've had these working groups and I think these are good but I'd like to see how we can figure out by the end of the year to take the goals that were put forth and feed them a little bit more into these comprehensive plans it seems to me they're really two work streams that are that require two comprehensive
067plans there's sort of an activation work stream and uh and how we push that and then there's this sort of planning or pre-planning work stream um I'd like to gather folks thoughts around trying to move towards that and and have some uh plans based on the goals uh submitted for tonight be part of our deliverables by the end of the calendar year uh Adam Lori's my real hand oh yeah sorry I didn't see your hand go ahead I I couldn't I lose track of where the yellow hand is but um but do you intend for one group to be addressing things like the vision a vision statement or a mission State I guess it's more of a vision statement um Plus um being I don't know what what how what our present our participation in
068the RFP um development um really is um but it seems like it's almost as if we need to see what is written is part of the format that we're given format to see where we where the places for creative thinking um fit in but I think it might be helpful for us to the and the problem with that is we are facing a requirement that a sufficient number amount of funding is secured so that after we have the RFP and it's done and it's gone through the process that we aren't stuck at the time we want to begin making the physical transformation and the establishing the management and Future um this custody or stewardship of the space I think I think Alice I think that's should be part of answering those questions and some other
069ones should be part of that longer term uh plan uh you know series of recommendations uh that would that would help inform the RFP and include sort of ideas around the scope um and um I think one of the things that as I was thinking about this um that we should really look look at as part of that is you know there are other examples just like there are other examples of properties within the city that are managed differently than um then the neighborhood parks like Kim Faust and the and the um and the um the farmer's market Etc there are other examples of privately funded projects as well and uh and so like the skate park is a good example of that and you know what can we learn from their RFP process what
070did they look at and so I feel like that work stream includes not only just that but it includes some of those that some of those pieces as well um and I think that you know as I as I looked at the the reports just felt to me that we were sort of siled uh in some regard and I think that if we're gonna have comprehensive informing of really the next two steps which are long-term planning and then the activation that leads up to the long term you know that happens especially during the phase while we're doing the long-term planning we should probably be a little more comprehensive so I'm just trying to suggest maybe um reorganization of our work a little bit so that with that goal in mind um Frank and then Erica
071and you were muted frames yeah um I I think I I like the direction of your your thinking um and I'm jotting down notes and my 78 year old brain probably isn't doing that create a job but uh I don't know whether you could you and Heather are sort of capture what you're talking about right now in a you know a bulleted outline of these two addition initiatives the the longer term plan and the shorter term plan so we could so we have a document to sort of react to I I'm just thinking of you know maybe one page you know both of these could be handled on one page or one page each or something just um so that we have something uh to take away from today's tonight's discussion to react to and
072and amplify and add to in some way yeah I'm certainly happy to type something out then we can uh header out certainly can tap your expertise on some of this um and then we can send something out you know we do have to be conscious the Oma so let's um you know if I think maybe the response to that would be you know where you want to participate and I think the working groups you know the membership the working groups in particular sort of informs that but we can definitely put something together and ask for um you know responsive where you want to participate and then we can you know start up the discussion there so that we're not in violation of the LMA okay uh Erica yeah I mean I think Frank has the
073right idea in terms of you know consolidating some of the thoughts around this uh I tend to think we really don't need to reinvent the wheel too much we've already done this process it's already in the RFI we've already gotten responses to the RFI in terms of what we want I think it's sets that's not particularly challenging I mean of course the final RFP you know maybe a um wanting to blend in the best of what we've learned through the RFI process um the real challenge seems to me to be making sure that we have the funds to be able to release an RFP so in terms of where volunteer time might be best spent I would think it's probably best spent on the funding piece because I think the other piece will come together
074pretty darn quickly because we already we've already done that work I think that's the first statement too I think one of the things that would be interesting to learn too is um you know what we can expect in terms of the plan you know is the plan going to Encompass some of the other questions that we'll need to answer around you know the management of the space and other things too so I think that um those are outstanding questions I don't know I'm not you know familiar with the planning process like this but um I think you know we will want to answer those questions at some point somebody will um so um I can put together a document around sort of this idea of creating some comprehensive plans send it to everybody uh Alice
075you've got your hand up yeah um a sense of secularity here a little bit but I do appreciate the idea that funding is one of the best places to put our efforts because it appears though way whether we like it or not we're being asked to provide a much more significant portion of of the funding for this particular unique and challenging um and challenged perhaps the site and intentional use of it center of the city so it's going to be require a lot of creativity there and that might be I think we have failed to really highlight in our discussion tonight to um take account of how important that funding and fundraising is we have some great ideas about Marketing in order to get it in front of people perhaps there are easier to come
076up with but to actually come up with the money is going to be harder so uh we because we have this conundrum we can't tell people what we're going to get before we get the money to get it because it's not we don't have an RFP in place I mean so that's the challenge um yeah egg egg and chicken kind of a thing yeah I take that also too though if we can uh we can uh you know go through this exercise a little bit we can probably uh have a pretty good uh idea and maybe you're speaking the same language at that point around what it is that we are going to get which makes selling that uh those kinds you know to those potential contributors a little little easier so I'm hoping that
077we can we can sort of create a couple of common languages you know both around a vision for the for the the plan including the areas of the RFP that are not standardized and then separately a vision for the activation um and I think you know I have found in my political avenues that uh data is not what sells people's motivates people it's uh its vision and it's excitement aspiration imagination yeah yeah that's exactly right much to my sugar in as an engineer that was a very disappointing moment in in my political career um engineering is problem solving so that's that's you know requires imagination too logic was not quite uh quite as high up on the motivating scale so I hoped uh Ellen yes I I think this is a good separation or some
078kind of Separation that there is the scope of what we are looking for as a long-term plan consulted by Consultants through the RFP and I certainly want to be part of that and I want us to prove the widest possible scope and approving as much of the community input that's happened over all the years as we can to put on the lapse of the people who are going to make the best of various options and then there is the sense that this needs to kind of hop along with the seasons and with the calendar and that's quite independent of what the long term is because it's sort of what they're in a way we try and do and what the peace day was and what it would be fine if we were doing something for
079indigenous peoples there United Nations Day or Armistice Day or any of this calendar and or just have it open for flea markets and stuff so people could begin to make use of the space now so activation is how to fill out a calendar with that with the opportunities for people to do need stuff is a good idea but it's is indeed sort of separate even though my feet are in both the uh aspirations yeah so I think it's a if there are people that want to do both I don't know well I think uh I think we can we can figure that out um and so I'll I'll take that action item then okay take it as a yeah I could actually somehow give us that what would be that long term inclusive diverse well
080I think I think the other thing too uh is that you know our role is to provide recommendations to city council and uh and so you know uh one of the pieces of that of course is the long-term the plan and the plan that's to be professionally developed we hire a firm after a city hires a firm after the RP is complete um you know but uh but I think the plan we've all discussed certainly what we learn in comparable communities is there's going to be a lot of other things too and and and that will create inputs into the RFP process but also will affect other things too and uh and so I think this Falls very much within the scope and it feels like to me there really are only these two work
081streams and then we've sort of maybe more granularly subdivided our work previously it just feels like we we need to be a little more um comprehensive so Alice um you're muted owls I think we need to be more focused and also I want to you know instead of trying to do the the big cloud of things we need to focus on things so that people can see something before you know 2035 um so and and that in in saying we should be more focused I think fundraising is a good place to focus right now but also that whatever we come up with will not be complete this gets completed over time with the acceptance and use of the base and so what we are doing is setting things in motion not setting things in stone
082and that's where we have to continue to be imaginative and to be open is to to other things if one thing doesn't work we try another thing um but it's it's not we are not setting things in stone by writing the RFP we are getting things in motion by writing the RFP and we may not not recognize what we end up with because it will be better than we think that's a very good way to think about it um all right uh so uh I think I can take the action item of getting you a summary of sort of what um what could be expected there all other maybe you and I can uh talk uh offline about some ideas there and then uh and then I think the response from members here is and
083I'm going to ask that you try and participate in just one so that because I think there would be a you know there's potential importance to have you know some others that participate too and um so why don't we why don't we see if we can try and make that happen and um and uh keep our our numbers down all right uh could you is it okay to be more specific and say start with three people um and and then we might be inviting people who are not commission members uh if they have expertise that can help us right I think the smaller number of people is better I think that's a great way to think about it yes yeah I agree with a smaller number of people too yeah so we'll we'll type up
084uh uh a document a one-pager that highlights that and it will Channel and build upon the goals that have set that's you know set forth by each of the working groups and and also maybe fill in some of the gaps around the uh activation um and uh you know have some standard minimum standard deliverables I think that that will be helpful um and then uh I'd like to have have the groups you know create uh their own timeline but you know within this calendar year we can do some updates um and uh and it'll not just be a plan but also the the um creation of um you know the moving along of that uh plan so are there any other questions on this area of the agenda tonight okay um next agenda items I
085know we talked about one uh already uh having Mr dehoney in and some good suggestions uh there and Parks I think that's going to be really good especially following up from our pack uh discussion uh earlier this summer I think we've talked about this third one too around starting up these work streams are there other items that folks would like to have targeted on our agenda for the next meeting I like your cat Jen he's so obnoxious thank you I uh we have a cat too and they do all the wonderful things yep other uh other agenda items we can always add to them later so but we've got those those items for now um and so if they're if there are things that pop up um over the next course the next few weeks
086let's make sure we put those on the agenda and we can just The Proposal that Caitlin Olmsted uh put together from The Olmsted Foundation she gave quite a presentation and in the short run of suggestions but several possibilities in terms of fundraising such as the Michigan Employment Development commission or whatever Economic Development Commission and uh we should see toward activation what's how that plays into next steps Ellen I think that that that resource uh as well as the other ones just like the task force report too you know can inform these these uh uh working group plans if that's okay um I agree with you that she definitely put forth uh quite the presentation last time and that can be very helpful uh Erica in terms of feedback I might just suggest that we could
087um direct any feedback that we have um individually towards I don't know who the best point person is for that but I'm not sure that that's you know it would be hard to come up with necessarily A commission wide feedback on that presentation I think I I think that's a very good point I um um why don't we uh we can how about you and I talk offline and then we can establish you that good that good feedback mechanism looks like other other items are on next agenda items okay in that case we will move on to public comment I believe is next um are there do we have any members of the public we do wow we're speeding right along tonight uh Robert black John change this sorry thank you heather can you hear
088me okay um just Kudos you guys nice job I remember your meeting last July where I was completely inspired by the collaboration and cooperation that was going on you hit the Bell again tonight thank you I really love listening to you and uh there was very little contention about disagreements more like agreements and alignments and I just want to Echo a couple things real quickly Alice hit the nail on the head with branding and marketing um and the other part I had mentioned early on too is about vision and emission I think as you get those aligned you will find that the rest of the alignment both within this group and the other groups like The initiating committee by the way the initiative committee technically is an outside group as Adam said yet I really
089would hope that you begin to reflect on that and see that as an ally just as you begin to see other parts of the group if you go to the green fair tomorrow you will find a20 the Centennial commission Ann Arbor water forestry give 365. nap is in there all of those groups are potential allies to the commons the center of the city um and also if you went to the 50th anniversary of project grow you saw a poster that was made by the initiating committee that had a logo on it that that shows the five Wards of the city with a little red circle in the middle and it says center of the city it's it belongs to you and me so I I applaud your idea to find a theme for this you
090know something that works maybe for now I thought Erica said was very good let's avoid the contention within the community so you can draw more people in maybe it's called The Heart of the City or Ann Arbor Commons or Central Park or something else like that but be creative about it and keep open an open mind uh and as Alice said um this is uh just getting things in motion the RFP if you read through the the other RFI response that was there it talks about a basic fundamental process Adam referred to as pre-planning I called it in the very first meeting I commented to it's called programming architecturally it has a soft part to it and hard parts to it you may want to consider that the RFP is almost a two-phase thing where
091in the initial pre-planning work where you kind of test the waters you integrate that with the short-term activations so that you get real-time feedback the people I know that do research and innovation in rapid prototyping use that kind of real-time feedback to to gain Advantage at lower cost and more rapid results and with that in mind I wholeheartedly support Adam's non-organic process where you put this down on paper have a calendar not just from now to the year end with your working group goals but that you make a calendar out into the future a little bit and just let that be a template when my dear friend Peter pollock a great planner for the city talked about does he refer to the idea of framework plans because as Alice said very well we may end
092up with something very different and if you keep an open mind and refer to the collaborative process and Innovative process you and all the rest of us will be amazed so good luck tomorrow the green Fair find those Liaisons there that you can bring into the space here and I really hope that Mr dehoney the parks department and the other key people remind her about Jessica black she is a great resource within parks and activator herself so um and then there's much more to be said about the funding but I think as you go like this you will draw funds to you that will will activate this very well so congratulations again tonight you did a great job and good luck in this this aligned planning for the future steps especially the next meeting so
093thank you Adam for your leadership and thank you all for how you're working respectfully together much appreciated thanks Robert any other members of the public no I'm not see anybody else with a handout okay in that case I could we have a motion to adjourn move to adjourn all right and motion and seconded uh all in favor say aye aye aye all right have a wonderful evening everybody thanks everyone