Ann Arbor Center of the City - Council of the Commons Meeting 9/1/2022

001oh [Music] um so we'll do uh we'll call the meeting order do a roll call um heather could you guide us through the role don't forget to say where you're at um yes and i'm going to record this on zoom it is already being recorded and aired by ctn but i always do this as a backup so here we go recording in progress all right and so roll call let me just pull up my list here we've got stephen not here jennifer allen yes from uh damn right france great sarah here from ann arbor right jeff here from ann arbor camilla you're from philadelphia rita you're annette harper alice here in ann arbor frank um here in uh eastport michigan adam i hear ann arbor council member breaks aaron ann arbor and council member dish

002is absent all right okay excellent uh with that we'll go ahead and move on to uh approval of the agenda and uh heather had sent out a link to the agenda that was posted on legistar any um any additions or changes frank uh i i would suggest i i uh that we have uh kind of a permanent until we're further along uh item on the you know the rfp there may not be any update but i think would be good to just remind ourselves where we're at and what we need to further accomplish and on our road to getting an rfp out would you like it is it sufficient to have it under the working group updates or are you asking that it be called out separately um i i guess i guess i don't

003strongly feel that i think if it comes up right you know each meeting under a working group that would be fine okay yeah heather's got it in under the one of the working groups right it's called out specifically so that's all right all right alan yes i i i would like a report on your uh meeting or efforts toward a meeting with uh the dda that was on for a while ago and you were trying to set it up so yeah i can do that yeah yeah i've i've met with uh the dda director twice now for coffee so i'm happy to report out on that i'll do that during member news if that's okay okay any other requests or changes and if none can we get a motion to approve the agenda um all

004right moved by alan seconded by frank um all in favor say aye all right you opposed all right thank you uh next is approval of minutes from last time those are linked in the agenda take a second if we're feeling good can we get a motion to approve those too i think we can move and then yes if we need to so i'll move the approval of 10 minutes second all right moved by alice seconded by jeff uh all in favor say aye aye all right all right are you opposed all right uh i think the next item is public comment do we have any members of the public health we do uh robert black we should be able to go ahead and speak can you hear me okay heather yeah all right thank you

005it's lovely to see you all again welcome back those that haven't been here for a little while it's uh i just love this group i have been reviewing the history of things for this group and the work that's been done long before you came into this even back in 1989 when the original library lot task force was going on talking about the future and how that evolved through the 90s and i led a charette in 2006 with some graduate students with danny kahn and others from the school of natural resources environment about this project and then there's some really rich history that showed up in 2010 that you've heard from alan and especially alice here i just want to do a shout out to alice if if you have time please go back and review

006the material that heather presented links to when you sent out the rfi it's really helpful ms ralph's lovely answers to questions that had been received by city staff back in 2010 are really helpful even today a number of features about the project that would be useful in creating an rfp even one i mentioned i know it's controversial but an elevated element there's something in there about that that could be very helpful in ms ralph's explanation there is extremely important even from experts like christopher alexander a pattern language and if you go back to even one other item that's part of the history that will help you with creating an rfp there's a very simple easily readable piece with pictures called 10 principles for successful squares from deep history around the world the piazzas in all

007the italian cities and beyond the comparable communities you have done these are the roots of that looking back like item number eight reaching out like an octopus has to do with moving through the little links past the seva and other things that were mentioned in other studies and then the last one on that one is number 10 called diverse funding sources it says a well-managed square is generally beyond the scope of the average city parks or public works department which is why partnerships have been established to operate most of the best squares in the united states you will hear some examples tonight later about a process of how you might begin to engage the private sector my contention for you is that you will raise a factor of 10 or more beyond the the public

008sector from the private sector and so that process will lead to an understanding of how the government's governance of this site should come about and more like that and then just as a last reminder for your own work tonight in the agenda uh resolution r-20-397 that formed the council of the commons actually lists your task which is the council of the commons is an advisory body to counsel right but it says it will build upon the work of the center of the city task force and provide recommendations for the public spaces on the center of the city block so don't wait for some professional to come along and tell you what they think you should do harvest this great work from the history of this put it into your own filter and then lay this

009out as a basis for a really useful rfp that will give you the very best results so good luck tonight and i look forward to hearing your uh your discussions thank you very much thank you robert any other members of the public um nobody with their hand raised okay excellent well welcome uh thank you and so we'll get right into our agenda here uh the first item on the agenda is a presentation on the initiating committee business plan and we have caitlin olmstead phillips who is going to be making uh the presentation there's two uh attachments you'll note on the agenda the first is on the business plan presentation and the second is on the business plan financials so i will turn it over to ms olmstead phillips and i asked her to introduce herself

010and tell us a little bit about what uh she is planning on and i think there are some slides or something for her to present so caitlyn uh floor is yours you are muted as well by the way you go we'll unmute thank you hi everyone thank you so much for having me and uh it's a pleasure to meet you um so uh an introduction is to my involvement in the project i was approached in the early spring as people in the parks environment within our family knew that i was seeking a project in ann arbor and that i would be able to dedicate some time and focus some energies on a project here in ann arbor for the next several years and someone suggested this project to me with my background and experience they

011suggested that this might be a nice fit and i might be able to add something so i have had the privilege of growing up in the environment with the olmsted family of engineers and architects who have been park developers and builders we're celebrating 200 years this year um so as we move forward and we're managing projects across the country there are many of us that have planning skills uh that we don't use and we pick them up along the way and have learned from what we call some of the best in the business and uh so i grew up in the environment of planning and developing public spaces however i'm not formally trained uh so i started a real estate business when the olmsted family donated our body of work as well as our private

012holdings to the national park service in 1979 at that point we decided that we were no longer going to produce planners and architects and that what we would do is protect that legacy going forward and so we've done that and continue to do that if anyone wants to follow the work that we've been doing over the past uh i'm gonna call it five years uh that project is called olmstead 200. and i will invite you to go look at that work and and see what we've been doing this year it's been the busiest year i think in many decades for us and so our outward goal this year was to raise 200 million dollars to fund olmsted parks as we move forward and we're happy to report uh that we are well well on our

013way to reaching that goal for this year so uh as i look at this project and i see where we are in the project phase i'm very pleased to present a plan for activation or gentle activation of the space so whenever i come into a project i need to know uh what the plan is in a way so i need to be able to know how i can bring resources how i can match for grants for items that we may be looking for and how the initiating committee as a whole can serve the council of the commons by providing this data that you all may not be able to have time to do uh or to to put together on your own and so what i've done is basically to bring myself up to speed

014as well as the initiating committee is i've done uh basically what we call an assumptive financial planning worksheet that financial planning worksheet is purely assumptions that are like kind and the worksheets are just to give me a baseline idea of what it's going to really cost actually to navigate and to open up gently the space and how are we going to raise those funds what's our development plan because everything costs money and we do know that it costs money and so how are we going to go out there and create a funding plan and then one of the first questions i also really had was creating a branding strategy for the entire project that we all agree upon and that we can develop and grow together um to gather a following for the project that

015is universally appreciated and accepted um i i think is also a place to start so as i come into a project and i look at what kind of where the early development phases start it's not very exciting um so i must say as we look through it's a lot of organizational pieces that have to be put together for a project like this so what i'd like to do is take you through the plan if i can very quickly and then i'd love for to have you all review it on your own your feedback and input is very important because all of this is assumptive so now what we really want is the council of the commons to come back and say this is feasible this is something we'd like to explore beginning um this is

016a plan that we could not agree with and it would need to be changed to fit our vision in this way and we can make those changes and we can work together to figure out how we further this along um and so uh without further ado if it's okay um i would like to share my screen is that okay if i just do a share screen all right so as we go through uh hold on one moment here um sorry hold on one minute here i'm very much not used to presenting uh on zoom so hold on one second um i need to okay um [Music] so okay and then hold on one minute i see my movie makers open so i see the confusion here all right um oops okay let's see share screen

017um share okay i won't minimize this i'll just go in here open this up perfect yes thank you guys i'm so sorry thank you for your patience here as we go through okay [Music] sorry that's another project right now all right hold on i'll open it and then i'm not sure does it matter if this is full screen um i'm not sure how to make this full screen down here it shouldn't matter okay yeah okay um so as we go through it just just yeah thanks erica i just wanted to let you know right now we're just seeing um the zoom kind of home screen so you may we may be seeing a different screen than you are right now okay great thank you hold on let's see new share and here we are and

018share all right and let's see if do we have a presentation there yep we see it yeah so then once you're in this if you did wanna i'm i was thinking about full screen in a different way if you wanted to make the document full screen you can if not you know if other people can see it all right then and it's fine the way it is okay great so basically this just kind of goes uh through a little bit about what we hope uh the initiating committee uh acts as a citizen advisory board created to support and develop planning and strategies to assist with the facilitation of the center of the city project uh the initiating committee i in my opinion would work to support the efforts of the council of the commons so

019this report what we're presenting today is basically um a 10-year plan for activation so this is a 10-year business plan and financial worksheets uh assumptions that go over uh gentle activation through development actually um and and how it would be programmed and what that may look like then there are financial assumptions workbooks all of the figures that have gone into the presentation are included in extensive excel spreadsheets that break all of the financials down uh to a budget that could be a template to start um some financial assumptions for the project i don't know if that's already been done but i have to do them so i understand what things are costing and what fundraising goals could be and things like that so i thought i'd include them for you all um then i'd like

020to just look at the review and the collaboration of the project just to kind of get us all on the same page so what i would love to do is just uh the initiating committee and the council of the commons we all need to be able to work together with parks and with other organizations and the city to be able to kind of get onto one vision the same vision uh and so i'm looking to see from the council of the commons what that vision means for you all and how we can assist in providing what you need to make the vision uh go further down uh the development track so then also we're going to talk just a little bit today about proximity principle assumptions i was able to pull the proximity principle assumptions

021from all of the actual uh parcels that surround our space here in ann arbor and so i'm going to provide those figures as well um as we go through um looking at uh tax value increases um that could and be dramatically enhanced um by this project so firstly i'd like to just go into the steps and our idea of what the steps of activation would look like um excuse me one second i'm sorry yeah i think you might want to do a view and full screen because what we see is your thumbnails on the side okay that i think that i just wanted to give you that feedback yes no thank you where does anyone know how i at the top look in view okay oh i see yeah okay yeah i have a okay

022um huh i have uh my computer this computer that i'm on is very old school and i cannot yeah there's a there's a there's a bar that is a there we go hold on one moment sorry thank you you need to reload it doesn't work okay well now let's see um where does it go full speed to help there's a thing called view and i think that will you see help on the top row of of options yeah to the left of it is help is view yes and i think that will let you do a full screen just normal is that what it is i don't know yeah i don't either um okay just go with it okay um no no that's okay um yeah i'm sorry i don't know how to make this

023i'm not i'm usually presenting this face to face with hand printed copies and um okay so here we go so what we think we kind of so you guys cannot see this at all but we can oh you can okay um so what we're looking at is a 10-year business plan uh and really figuring that out and getting the council of the commons input on that business plan to say okay what are fundraising goals how much how many funds are needed what is the development cost of of the space uh in total would that you know be divided up over you know a number of phases or a number of years um then we look at an operations plan so how would activating the space what would be the plan for that and generating and

024creating an operations plan that is going to outline specifically staffing and stewardship annual programming simple you know a simple vibe simplified permitting an insurance process for the space social media strategy to build the following for the space uh beautification plans and and occupancy and booking strategies to make that process easier um right now i i know that there's a lovely representative from the city of ann arbor managing the booking and reservations for the liberty plaza space it was really exciting to see that there were activities happening there this year and so we'd like to figure out how we could collaborate possibly with that individual and bring some service to that role as well and just enhance that role in a way and then we are including financial reports which are important as we come to

025a project to really understand what the financial picture is um and and in those financial reports is included uh activation inventory assumptions so just assumed cost pretty researched but assume cost for what the actual uh you know elements would cost to activate the space gently how those elements could be added without causing conflict to the environment in any way and respecting the the built environment uh and expecting you know respecting what we have there um so we are sensitive uh in the planning to the fact that we cannot puncture the structure in any way uh for the parking structure and so there are some things that we've researched there to make sure that this plan um is cognizant uh of those building conditions of those space conditions um and then what we'd like to do

026is just uh kind of have a section as we go forward and be able to consistently um enhance the benefit of promoting inclusivity and collaboration with immediate adjacent partners the city of ann arbor liberty plaza the dda i think we can go a long way to support each other together if we've got one vision as we move ahead we can go a long way in supporting one another and making the space a truly unique and beautiful space and then we look at an activation timeline so really putting an activation timeline together to be able to say okay what are the activities that are needed to make this project work and how can we as an initiating committee assist um and what can we provide uh that could be useful in these early phases so we

027do understand that there is a way to uh raise money for the rfp and we do understand that there's a weight while that process is is in play and all of these organizational things can be done simultaneously with those activities with all of us together in unison just creating excitement and energy about the project the other thing that we're going to have to do is we're going to have to do some very serious investigating and reporting on operational organization so if we're to activate the space we need to look at other special projects for operational organizational practices that are being used and that we could also use um we are going to have to sit down and figure out if we are fundraising and we are getting commitments for people to donate where how is

028that money being generated uh and and you know where is it being funneled through um so that would need to be brought up as well as we all move forward to find out you know to find a mechanism that could handle the operations of a fundraising uh of a fundraising opportunity um and then also one thing that we find is that as projects such as this go out to the public for grant application and for funding opportunities uh some of these are very public entities so in some cases the project may be asking for a very large grant from the national urban parks association uh from the national association of urban parks in that case we find that in our experience having very structured and cohesive communication style is very beneficial to the project as

029the project moves forward and these are things that we find once set into place very early in the process um that these communications and that these this you know what we're going to call evidence of capability um if these communications are uh you know it has to be included as part of a package um that is going to be for funding we do really love to be able to provide very structured communications where um where we're all communicating in a communication style that's formal and then that can be saved and it can be uh used again [Music] so then also the project we would love to help put together the branding strategy for the project um and put together some samples of branding packages that the council could vote on or that we could all

030vote on um to figure out a cohesive branding strategy that we're all in agreement with and we do have the talent and potential within our team uh we have amy rowe who's just incredible and she's been working to set up organizational tools such as a trello deck and we've got some other folks involved we've got uh matthew altrude uh sitting in on our meetings we're so grateful he's got a wonderful um insight into local branding strategy which is really fun from his experience with the bank of ann arbor and so as we move forward we do think that a branding strategy is very important when we talk with comparing projects and we talk with their social media strategists uh such as bryant park being a very good sample we've got three or four other samples

031one in st louis missouri these projects typically boast the largest following of any organization in the city when it's complete so the impact of the social media following that a project like this could possess is very great especially in a city as uh social as media connected as ann arbor is um and so there's a tremendous tremendous branding potential in this project to gain followers from every walk um and and both uh visitors and locals alike so coming up with a unified and universal branding strategy is going to be one of the very first things that we would suggest to do in these early stages uh and something that we could all come on board with agree with and support uh going forward so then as we get into phase two uh the other thing

032that is going to have to sort of be created in the beginning is some sort of volunteer program so when an urban park comes into a city and that city is not very uh well-versed um or might not be prepared to take on the salaries of park and staff management in the beginning and so what happens is we find tremendous success in creating volunteer programs that help us with these early phases of organization so we have a lot of talented professionals that are well-versed in these items of organization and articles of organization that could also assist us in creating a very consistent volunteer program that could be nurtured and enhanced as we move forward um and so i think that there would be a great benefit to um enhancing a volunteer program for the project

033and something that the council could rely on uh and be a part of creating as well um and and something that could remain and allow for very consistent programming within the space um and so that would mean getting volunteer commitments and training and things like that so we have added uh putting a volunteer program in and then funding development uh so at the very very early stages of any project we know that projects of this nature and this size are going to be ranging depending on their elements included anywhere from 10 million to the upwards of the most expensive i've seen per square foot is 31 million um i don't know that we have to go that high that's very high cost to build but with these projects what we want to know is that

034we've got a plan to fund the project and so what we're doing is creating a funding development program that's consistent that's approved uh that's acceptable and that has our donors getting both grant funding and funds to the right people in the right place um and so as we look at creating a funding development plan it'll be very very important part of that funding development plan is to create what we call a grant application calendar and so every year what we do is we go through during the winter months and we search grant opportunities and large funding opportunities through organizations and we see what applications will fit our project and then we create a grant application calendar so we know when those applications have to go in and when all the information has to be compiled

035and it that that grant we fit the criteria i i think that selecting grants is one of the most time-consuming and difficult processes and if we can assist the council of the commons in vetting and uh meeting their requirements to prepare to submit grants i think that would be something that could truly help us all along as well i mean if we have that experience and we have the folks with the depth of knowledge to be able to help with that um in these early stages it's really a nice thing to be able to know that you've got some funding uh just some action for funding happening um and then of course we're all gonna sit down and talk in these early stages about programming and we're going to have to figure out and agree

036upon a programming plan that we're all very consistently proud of so if we do programming in the space if uh you know we want to kind of look into what does a programming plan look like what are the types of activities we would all want to see in the space do we have an open reservations program where institutions can come and reserve the space of course we want to encourage that and so we'll just have that conversation around programming in the future uh and then an operations plan really sitting down and presenting an operations plan that states this is how we are going to operate the space and these are the roles that we're going to have and these are what those duties are going to entail um and and things like that as we

037move forward uh for organization and then in phase three we come to really the fun part you know i think it starts getting i think it starts getting really really fun in phase three so once our branding strategy is sort of on the way we know what that is we've got a list of activities uh to do um we're getting closer in phase three to having an operations model be acceptable um we've gone out and we've had a lovely campaign to encourage partnership participation um we've you know by this time by phase three we've pretty much got our partnerships you know kind of solidified we've got a lot of support at this point um we've started a general fundraising campaign by the time we get to phase three and we start then saying okay let's

038start you know using the money that we've raised to start buying the inventory that we need to be able to start to connect with the public and and be able to start to do some things in the space um so as as we look forward there we will be happy for that day so there's and uh in the financial worksheets there's a full breakdown of just an assumption of what that inventory might be and what it might look like uh so please review that at your leisure and then um as we go through just to see what a timeline looks like what the phases look like um as we go through here whoops sorry we're wanting to just kind of see what that looks like so um as i'm looking at this can you scroll

039that down a little bit yeah i'm scrolling it down here we go so there you go i figured it out sorry okay so here we go so as we look and we say okay you know we're going to put you know for us for the initiating committee uh this is is basically for the our committee too so we're presenting an activation plan we're gathering feedback you all are working on releasing the rfp which is great that's in there um then make uh input adjustments to the activation plans then we can kind of over the winter time look at determining a unified branding strategy going forward we can also create an organizational platform that we all love and use uh right now we're using the trilo deck uh it's wonderful uh for organizing project organizational tool

040um and so of course we'd love you know folks to have access to that from the council if they'd love that too uh then we can develop some operational plans and all these things can happen over the winter and then we can start actually creating social media accounts and begin creating content uh for approval uh doesn't need to be released um but you know we would want everyone's approval on that content going forward uh of course um and then we can develop you know develop and facilitate block partner support uh in the spring so uh as we look at that we're looking at having some events on the space that would promote and uh just promote relationship building and give some people some information about what where we are in the process how they can

041support us how they can volunteer things like that um and then again in that spring and summer kind of developing uh some active fundraising development plans and goals so the organization of a funding plan for a project of this magnitude um takes time uh and so uh to be able to do these kinds of things in 2023 would be wonderful um to have them behind us as we move forward into that 2024 year um and so as we move into 2024 um we are aware that that is kind of a special year um that is that our bicentennial i do believe that's ann arbor's 200. um and so we would like your help and the help of the council kind of filling in some things that we could do in 2024 that would be in

042keeping with the bicentennial celebration uh in promoting the space and suggesting others to promote the space and then here we get uh then nextly um what we're gonna do is is move into some financial documents um that we feel passionately about um i i think that as we think about the idea of hosting a public campaign we really need to build value in the project as we file for grant applications and as we ask for large stewardship donations to the project one of the things that those uh grant applications of recipients are going to ask is um how is the city going to benefit from this project and what can you expect in return uh as a city and as a city development organization what can you expect uh in in return um for this

043and and so here we investigate that with each project that we start and and what we want to know is how is it going to affect the neighboring properties and especially in an urban situation when we look at proximity we look at quality of life we look at the importance of a green space in our ann arbor and and how do you calculate the value for that my initial value is we live and work and breathe and play here and we there's an emotional connection for me that has a little bit more to do with this than numbers however the numbers are here and we need to all look at them so we can develop so as we look at these numbers we're looking at revenue calculations that have been based on comparable project research

044so the qualifications for this project that we used are projects that are under one and a half acres that are located in urban downtown areas that service approximately between 100 and 500 guests and visitors at its maximum occupancy and also had similar building conditions so these are properties that were already surrounded by large infill and large infrastructure challenges and concerns uh due to the fact that these spaces had uh the infrastructure had already been developed so in each of these cases uh these green spaces were laid on top of heavy duty infrastructure whether that be transportation or whether that be parking structures so uh we will be in future my next project will be to draft a report for all of you that includes much more finite detail about those comparables um and what their

045experience has been over the last 20 years of of activation and sometimes it we we look at the first 20 years really is what we'd like to see uh initially so then when we look at um the financial forms we need to know that activation revenue from the project itself is calculated at a national average of 26 per year so when we look at growth we look at a standard business model of 26 per year when we look at and then this calculate these calculations also factor in a very conservative booking rate um so what we're giving you today is not the space fully activated in all of its capability you're going to see a graduated level of occupancy as we build into programming the space regularly uh so it is uh an elevated uh

046budget um that reflects the growth then also the comparable projects project occupancy booking rates have been above 90 percent 10 years post activation so once we look beyond 10 years uh it is it is above 90 with an average of about 97 to 98 with a nice large wait list for the bigger events um so uh the booking does continue to increase and people book over and over so the booking also becomes an easier role as people enjoy the space and book for next time um so then also once the space is established financially what we see is a very modest 18 percent increase in operational expenses per decade for properties that are landlocked and cannot expand so when we're in a site that really can't go any further from a land use perspective once

047the space is established and once the space is staffed there are very very modern modest modest increases in operational expenses uh same situation for the national park service projects as well uh once those uh once operations are put into play um the only really thing that you have is uh cost of living salary increases for operations um as you go forward um so the cost to continue operations uh is much lower uh than the startup so as we come down and look we say okay how does that what how does that look for our ann arbor what is what is how does the proximity principle affect us so the proximity principle in this particular case with an urban park that is so walkable we take the properties that are in a zone within 3 000

048feet of every perimeter of that park space and we pull up all of those tax records and we pull out all of the tax exempt properties and then we note the properties with historical designation as those uh will depreciate uh you know have been depreciated through their designation and will not be developed in the future uh so their future development potential is noted when they're in the historic district uh or have a designation so we pull all of those out we determine basically what the zone is and how far away from the park will people stop benefiting um so here we have a rather large zone because everything is so walkable um and and so what we're looking at in this slide is the actual assumptions so if we look here we have 1043 neighboring

049parcels with a taxable value in 2022 of 240 000 uh and that actually starts us today okay so we're taking this in 10-year increments to see what this looks like every 10 years the cost to develop the park should be we don't know this figure this is a gross assumption at this point but it could be about 15 million for the first decade uh then we're looking at additional future units proposed i have that figure coming uh from the director of building services is getting me the additional new units being proposed and built right now that are permitted within the zone uh there are several units coming and then also the assumed cost of development let's just call it 15 there and then the operating expense for the park over the 10-year period of time

050is going to be 3 million basically then we have the gross revenue from the park is going to be 3 million in the first decade uh so it's interesting um that aside from the cost of development the revenue generated should be able to operate the park without a huge deficit uh so here um we show the park in the first 10 years generating a very small tiny bit of money that probably is not a reality um what once these assumptions are made finite uh but then we do see the prof the park in the next decade supporting itself um and and then we see the pro the park in the third decade uh actually generating revenue uh on an annual basis for the city so this is kind of um just the research that i've

051done for this particular project in looking in ann arbor and what the motivation is um to continue the project moving forward uh it's also nice to make these uh to work a little a bit more frankly to go deeper here and it's very nice to have this as part of a grant application so any uh officiating uh grant supervisor can look at this and really see what the benefit is to the city and want to invest in it for us as well so then we have a quick slide here that just talks about what the first 10 years of funding would look like from an operational perspective uh this does not include the development of the space because we just that right now those figures are too gross but what i wanted to highlight is

052that um in the first decade we certainly could raise funds to operate the space and i think we could build a volunteer network that would also allow us to manage the space with some guidance one of the major benefits here i think is that we have so many lovely people that have been involved in maintaining the space we've got a lot of activities going on in the space right now that are very positive and as we look um one of the possible solutions as i have researched the project and i also spoken to several people about the concerns of creating a more positive uh and equal environment in liberty plaza is uh one of these um one of these roles would be to hire a superintendent to manage the block uh a block superintendent of

053sorts um and and that is one of the solutions that i've deeply thought about um is i've looked at the challenge of liberty plaza i do park in the library lane parking structure every day i do go through the park day and night um i i am an often uh often you'll see me trekking through um so uh the space is uh special to me the people in it um have become uh like neighborly right so uh i have never had a negative experience in the park and i know that has not been other's experience however i do believe that just the constant and consistent presence of leadership in the space would go a dear long way uh to having and encouraging everyone to behave themselves while using the space um so uh we always

054kind of lean toward a superintendent uh a kind-hearted caring superintendent that could keep the peace in the space um and that may be old-fashioned and it may be something that we couldn't consider right away but i would love to consider it as we begin fundraising and and we begin planning uh the activation of the space um to consider some roles that would help the efforts along here and all of those positions and all of those suggestions are located within the financial worksheets that i've included and i want to just thank you very very much for your time and consideration and allowing me to be a part of the project and sharing my findings as i organize myself to see what's possible there um and and to introduce myself to helping on the project so i

055i just want to say thank you so much to everyone involved with the initiating committee that provided me with a lot of information uh that allowed me to put this together um and thank you um this has given me a very very well-rounded all views points um on the project thus far and and possibly what we could be doing to help one another going forward so thank you again for the time thank you uh ms phillips um why don't we go back to if you could uh maybe stop sharing your screen yeah go back to uh yes perfect see if there are questions at all [Music] no questions for me but thanks for the presentation that's great yeah i have one quick question and i'm sorry if you mentioned this and i just did not

056hear it who uh you talked a lot about grant um you know reaching out or trying to get grants from other organizations and how that might work what are you like who are you targeting oh there's a list yeah not at all i don't mind at all i put all of our target um fundraisers in the worksheets that i sent over to heather so as you open those worksheets there should be one there that says funding plan and so yeah so as you look at that worksheet these are funders that have participated in funding and assisting with the funding of large projects like this um that are urban that are the same size that are the same type uh and that bring what we call the lungs to the center of the city uh so

057um you have a lot of support from these local groups some of them local some of them not local uh so some of these are national and federal supporters that the olmsteads bring there is also a large number of local businesses and partners that should be approached um this is just simply what we could bring these folks have been approached we do have permission to reach out to these uh the list of folks that i've presented here um we have had that olmstead conversation of saying this is something we're working on we're passionate about and we need your help and so can you help us identify grants and give us volunteer folk and so that's just kind of our reach out but yeah those are the folks that we would begin to approach along with

058a large list of locals i think that in the rfi the response to the rfi that robert black submitted he submitted a beautiful list of block partners there and that probably could be combined with that uh and a universal effort be created to go forward uh with the funding it was some funding requests yeah okay thanks i'll take a look at that there so the reason i was asking um i used to work on a parks initiative with the urban land institute and their partnership in the 10-minute walk campaign and i just a lot of grants recently have been really really focused on park four areas which i mean you could i guess argue with like an influx of people but like ann arbor is not really a park poor city and so i did

059some investigating about a year ago too and just like what are there organizations out there that would fund something like this and i didn't find anything at the time so i was just curious i mean like i think you have a little bit deeper experience with this than i do but i was just curious what you thought might might fund some of these things so i'll take a look at that worksheet yeah take a look at that worksheet and uh it's interesting because what happens is when we talk to these organizations they will connect us with others and and so it's sort of a chain link reaction of positivity so they'll say oh we do want you to reach out to the gates foundation they have they helped us fund a project not last year

060or we do want you to reach out to this nrc conservation group that's giving grants for providing education in regards to solar and the benefits of solar so it's interesting as we go through these phone calls in this process more and val just more unfolds it's great great thanks so much caitlin sure i think uh camilla has her hand up yeah is it okay if i have a comment and not a question sure sure okay um yeah well thank you thank you for being here caitlyn and volunteering your time and expertise um i'm going to make a bold statement and it's it's not directed at at one person definitely not a you caitlyn but i i just think it it's just a general statement for all that that are listening i think that most people

061in the room can agree that we operate in a democracy that serves to aid the planning process and the planning process that the city of ann arbor follows is one that values all perspectives equally and i i think that for a long time we've been favoring the initiating committee and its various entities and um i i believe the initiating committee members speak the most at our meetings and take time away from hearing from other people and organizations and it it often feels like the initiating committee is is bypassing certain democratic processes like the rfi and the rfp process and using coded language um sometimes their presentations give simple suggestions on activation to the council and other times um announce actions that they will take with or without the consent or collaboration with the council of

062the commons and it's it's extremely political so um caitlin you said that you are here to get feedback from us and to scope out the project i just finished my my graduate degree in urban planning and one of the main things that i learned was how to plan with and not for the community and i don't think that the initiating committee represents the entire community in fact it represents a minority of ann arbor residents and i realize that i'm making a provocative statement um but i don't get a lot of air time in this space and i and i want my voice to be heard um it's been it's an hour into our meeting and and i'm frankly tired of hearing the same feel every single meeting thank you for listening any other questions at

063all for caitlin heather yeah i just had a question about the financials and if i'm understanding it right it sounds like what's being proposed is a is a tif model of revenue um is that the case am i understanding that correctly i'm um i'm going to be very honest with you um when i'm working with national parks projects i'm unsure what that might be so i may be looking to i i'm unsure that it is a specific model or what that would look like i'm very apologetic i do not have a do i do not possess i like camille a degree in urban planning i wish i did um so i may seek some advice as to if i am presenting what would be a tip model and um and how you all would contribute

064and what your suggestions would be for a financial model or a funding model that would work yeah by took metal i mean tax increment financing so oh getting a baseline and then moving forward from that and the reason i'm asking is because this isn't a tif district already so that additional revenue is already being captured okay um yeah that's something that i would need to know a little bit more information about um at this point i do not have uh the revenue coming in for the project is at this point all self-generated and volunteer and grant driven i do not at all have the expertise i'll be honest enough to calculate or to put together a tax incremented program um that would be something that we would be seeking help from in in regards to

065you in looking at how these projects are funded from an amateur perspective they would we would be looking or investigating something like um possibly uh a a sales tax or possibly an a small sort of um city tax for those that wanted to participate but it would be an optional community buy-in as well it would be the option it was my understanding that at this point it would not be considered to be uh the best idea from the initiating committee to present um a funding model for the bigger vision frankly um that would be something that we would really rely on parks and the council of the commons and the city to guide us on as well uh ellis yes i'm sorry to see that it appears that camilla is not with us on this

066screen anymore uh anyway uh but i do appreciate her bold statement i think it's worth um listening to again i think we have uh we i i think we need to be sure we know who we are um uh i even though i am aware of the development of caitlin's extensive dive into data and um planning issues um it's a it's an incredible presentation and i mean that in a good way but um the emphasis on the initiating committee seems to conflict with the um cooperative efforts that we are trying to establish even with the bloc partners and um it is a little it is a lot confusing when uh the pronouns we are used and i don't i don't even think i feel like i'm part of we i don't really know who we

067are if it's the initiating committee that's being represented it's not clear that that was the intention um and if it is not the initiating committee i don't see how our uh efforts as a as the center of the city commission have uh are reflected in um in the the idea that someone else is going to be doing this and that we will promote what someone else has done i it's just a little confusing and i can see where camilla's point of view comes into play really i needed to say that all right cells any other questions at all for kayla rita hi thanks caitlin um i just want to acknowledge that the um significant amount of work that you did and that um i feel that you were offering that uh this as an opportunity

068for us to have a model for something to do to follow and that i didn't feel that you were offering it as a rigid approach either i think that it is a way to start some discussion um to get us to ask some questions on particular things so that we can test um out ways to move forward um and i so that that's my particular statement and i would like to um have us discuss it enough to see where it can integrate with with the direction that we need to do to go forward with and i would love to hear camilla's um comments on on um inclusion that that we appear to have missed and that is absolutely not addressing anything that you've said caitlin um which i very much appreciate thanks thanks frank i

069just uh i want to i guess echo rita's comments and and express my appreciation i've gotten to know caitlin over the last uh several months and uh her store of knowledge personal store and as well as her connections through the the olmstead heritage and the national park service the she represents an enormous resource um and i think uh however it is provided uh i i welcome it and i would encourage her continued pursuit of of the this process of study etc and um i you know i i don't ought to process more uh earlier statements but um you know the initiating committee uh has been active and i don't think uh in any uh you know negative way i mean we're we're all trying to um pursue this uh this idea of a park and

070commons in downtown ann arbor and uh you know we welcome other groups to get involved either with the initiating committee or on their own and coordinate um and i i have sensed that that there has been a lot of progress the the green team you know etc etc so uh i just don't want to underscore uh my appreciation to caitlin i mean i i can't even imagine having the background to put together this presentation which alludes to a lot more as we as we move along and develop this and i just want uh to express my appreciation and i thank you again caitlin oh thanks it was fun to well it was very fun doing it frank thank you and it's been such a gift and a pleasure to work with all of you um

071alan has been such a knowledge in uh the history and the cultural uh you know the cultural vision of what we you know kind of all i think all are on the same page with with that and um for me sometimes uh the numbers you know aren't fun but it does give me a starting place um it's like my diving board so it just gives me a place to launch from um and a way to introduce myself to the project and thank you excellent any other uh airline your hands up on yes well thank you katelyn uh you uh you dove into the detail and uh in terms of the initial what you call light activation and that is before there's any significant transformation of the space as to how we connect liberty plaza in

072the library uh lane surface how we connect with the library where a civic center building and internal uh functions fit that's all sort of in the rfp process that is coming up this is just looking you know from straight out analysis of parks all over the place if this is a viable economic proposition for the city it will have a ramifying benefits here as time goes on and that's what i think is particularly useful just from where we are we can start and have a confidence that this little park area less than an acre and a half can actually be a viable contribution to the city economy as well as to the benefit of the people and so this is a first stage and it references the rfp and the further stages they're actually going

073to involve a lot more money and how we transform the space more physically but thank you very much for bringing all that knowledge together i hope people will just read all the detail that you put together and the financial sheets and i think it would be useful after people do actually have a chance to read over that in our next meeting there will be or we have a special meeting our next meeting be to evaluate what you've actually put together with this immediate activation and the inventory that is needed we give a consideration to so this can actually have some momentum to it you definitely gave it a kick forward thank you thanks alan i don't see any other hands up so caitlin just wanted to say thank you on behalf of uh the council

074and appreciate the presentation very detailed and uh we certainly will take a look at the materials uh that that were attached to the agenda uh i have not had a chance to read the report so i'm sure others are in the same boat and we'll take a look thank you thank you very much for having me everybody and good night all right have a nice day all right excellent and uh so our next agenda item is uh a uh member news and updates i'm happy to kick things off by just uh discussing as uh alan asked i did get a chance to meet with uh the new dda director jeff watson a couple of times gotten together for coffee and both were i think very nice constructive i filled him in a little bit about

075what uh the work that have been going on here and in the working groups uh as well as um some of the questions that came up during the pac presentation um you know it was not an express goal of mine to advance something during these conversations they were just get to know each other um and talk a little bit about uh where i thought the group was going and uh you know some rough timing milestones around an rfp and uh and sort of what we had gotten back is feedback from an rfi process um so i would say that's about it i don't mean to sound vague it was not intended to be uh get to a certain point uh style of conversation it was it was more just intended to talk through where things

076were at and um so uh that's uh that's my update um as it comes as it pertains to what you were asking about alan i have not met with anybody else from the dda it's just been the director are there other member members who would like to give news or updates further outside of the working groups we'll get into the working groups next always have an update odile and i are still in france we'll be back it seems on the 12th of september the particular update is to invite you all to the international day of peace which is wednesday the 21st of september this is a annual endeavor by the united nations to bring people to the consciousness of world peace and local peace and so we are activating the space for that day and

077uh i hope people will actually come and participate the the theme of the united nations is end racism build peace there will be a program dealing with uh the situation of racism of the african-american community i've mentioned before that this is also a decade for people of african descent the question of reparations is dealt with all over the country at this time and hopefully there'll be some emotion toward a resolution toward policy in the city of ann arbor on that uh question uh also there will be the discussion of land return as well as land acknowledgement in the relation to the indigenous people the polywatamay people in the three fires confederacy yeah whose exit from here corresponded to the beginning of ann arbor now there'll also be some discussion of public art in the commons

078murals that are being discussed the design of the place the kind of art people want to see there and that's again something that the members of the council of the commons would have a great interest in i would expect and the bicentennial is also be something that will be discussed this is uh uh one of the functions of the council of the uh the center of the city commons is fostering a culture of peace and non-violence this came out of the center of the city task force and uh emphasized also in the city council uh affirmation of those recommendations so how that is reflected in our bicentennial we'll begin a discussion on the common the many other things i will send you all the uh evolving uh draft of the program and i'd be very

079happy if people wanted to participate bring your own ideas into the effort if you feel you're not being represented and see that this is a place the center of the city is a place for all of us so i hope all of us will get together and have a good time international day of peace wednesday the 21st of september thanks thanks alan and please feel free to share that that those materials and they can be added yeah okay other member news or updates okay well let's go into the working group updates then and um you know these are standing items on the agenda so um we can what for some of these may have uh very little movement at times and and at other times there might be more so i think the first one

080up is the comparable communities uh frank or rita i'm a member of that but frank rita do you have any updates um just briefly uh uh we're intrigued by but have not really uh started uh communications with the group out in chelsea they're working on a urban park just south of the main downtown area on uh on main street and uh it looks very interesting and uh in its you know kind of embryonic stages but it seems to have a lot of energy from what i can read on online and in the newspaper so we're going to be connecting with them soon and i have a question about our working group specifically and that is um do we have do we want to set some benchmarks in terms of like how far do we go

081how many how many comparables are we going to set for ourselves and um you know at some point it's sort of like can we just assess and pick out the best and and move forward so my question is um although i'm very interested in the option of looking at chelsea and how they're proceeding i would like us to use what we have um and move forward so it's in a little expression of impatience so is there any guidance on on our group well maybe what we maybe maybe one of the goals of uh tonight is that um over the next four weeks before our next meeting all of the groups can get together and set forth maybe a plan for the next four months till the end of the calendar year and and including that

082could be some goals for uh for the limits does that sound like a fair uh fair challenge i guess for each of the groups i like that idea uh alice and then alan i too am part of the comparable communities working group um oh i also know that we are out there in the community challenged not directly but challenged by the public in making progress so you know i think we have made this challenge to the group working groups before i think you meant not all of the groups but each of the groups is that correct um that we don't want to all meet together because that would not be correct correct yeah that's what i meant individually individual groups um um but i i think we should i mean it's good that we're going

083to try to but we're going to put that on the agenda but we should be giving clear direction as in by this next meeting we want this submitted before the meeting so that it can be validated or challenged or whatever but to show that we are going to make some progress i think all of us are are have been meeting for quite some time but all we we are dominated by and the few events um that are that take place on the the site which aren't really progress they're just a different location for the same things that are happening and yet doesn't move our project forward not to cast aspersions on any type of group or any event it's just that it's it's we're not moving forward and i think the public sees that because

084they don't see anything so once we have these results from next month what are we going to do we need to know what the plan is from each working group or what is what is suggested by the results of their work we really need to get pretty nitty-gritty and fast because the this will be one more month that we don't have the funds for um the rfp one more month that we don't know how we're gonna get them one more month that that may result in more confusing uh issues about procedure in fact i don't i'm told that now parks is going to write the rfp did we know that are we going to do that i mean yeah alice i i will say uh one we we we did talk about that a little

085bit the last meeting um none of that has been decided um and i think it's been goal of this group that uh that would be a joint rfp process we did make the request to pack we've not gotten you know we've not really pursued a follow-up since our july end of july meeting with pac either um i will take that action item to pursue uh follow back um and along with erica and stephen um around that item but uh but but i also i do want to put a plug in you know we did meet about a week ago uh or two weeks ago i guess with this group but we had made fundraising progress so i know this group met at the uh at the 17th of uh august which is only a couple

086weeks ago which group i'm i'm confused with this group the screaming council's account yeah well okay yeah i'm there but but there was no i did not hear any plan i just heard that there would be future talks and then in writing i got the message that parks was going to manage the rfp right and so i'm pretty confused okay oh we'll uh well can you straighten it out now i mean if you seem to have an idea of what's happening i don't have a clear idea because it's not conflicting messages i i know what i said and that's the extent of of what i know all right alex i don't understand my feel my i mean you say one thing another person says another thing then i get a message externally from something else

087and that's talk about a communications plan we don't have one okay alan right on alice you raised a problem uh back to though the comparable communities what i would like is more digging on how the people who use the facilities in these places have any voice in what is actually being done the commons has the sense of the fundamental principle of the users or the managers self-management and the models we have seen look at the overview that there is something quality like a dda or like a non-profit that grows that looks at a lot of the different parts together you know as a the organization plan but underneath that how are the people who are using it actually involved in the development of program and the management and in the uh setting of priorities and

088so on so that's what i would like a little more exploration of because that's what we need to be uh amplifying and the work that we are doing in ann arbor so that's it as you look back over your engagements with the places you have looked and looking to chelsea and looking to royal oak which is newly on the agenda of uh comparable places uh the uh role of the consumer as they also the producer is what i'd like more attention to and i do think that that uh columbus indiana where the commons engine company has played a very strong corporate role in encouraging the development of a uh commons like facility would be worth our exploration as we think about you know major investors who would say this is part of what i want

089my uh image in the town and its future to look like which seem to be quality in some of the other places you have looked at to be a an anchor in the initiative so i hope that you can take a look at what what actually went on in columbus indiana was a common engine company thank you okay thanks alan um so i i think uh before we go into the other uh comparable or other working groups i think i really would like to ask if uh there's a level of comfort around pushing this challenge for them you know and i think maybe uh three to four days uh prior to the next uh uh council of the commons meeting uh is sufficient to have materials uh back in but i'd like us to i'd

090like to get a level of comfort uh as to if that's a viable um viable point time to submit something around really what the working group's goals are for the next several months what the road map is to those goals and then how they further the next phase of the process you know through a formal planning process i think is is another good question there could be other questions too that folks like to have but i would start with those three um does that sound like something that folks other folks feel is a good idea could you repeat those three what what the goal of the uh by the end of this calendar year of each working group is what the roadmap is to that goal meaning what where what steps do they think that

091each that each working group will take and then finally how does the goal further the the future plan for a formal transformation of space or formally used i'll shoot your hand up um i know i um but i dropped my mouse and many disasters here um i want to i want to um mention that i know there is a great deal of support in the community for this it is a it was we're here because of the public and um i'm just afraid we're going to lose our support and this is this is worrying especially lately when i hear the enthusiasm from um someone for this whole thing someone who really worked hard that i didn't know worked hard on the ballot initiative i i didn't work that hard on it not frankly um but

092um that kind of enthusiasm is not what i see developing and not what i see us developing by um showing progress and that's why i say this and i'm very concerned that we're losing track of the um the enthusiasm that we had at the time and uh that we can't afford to lose and when we are confused about who's doing what and why it makes it all the more imperative that working groups which are more flexible and more responsive perhaps and can bring in members of the public who are enthusiastic and might be they'll help us i mean that's i think that's how kaitlyn got here um but that was almost overwhelming and and didn't um i i'm not i i hope that it was it was a source of uh regenerating some enthusiasm i

093just don't know because i don't have a sense that we know where we're going so if we can meet the challenge that you posed that would be good i agree with frank we need to be clear about what this challenge is and what it means to work so i guess in response to that do you think that through the three questions accurately capture a destination that will help build that momentum or that clarity it's i i think it's a it's perfectly fine and you know three three questions are good that's it because those should cover um a great deal of it's a broad spectrum and it's not just the comparable communities that need to do it but i see that there are other working groups that may have trouble uh moving their progress along and

094having something to show for it by that time but at least they could show how they want to get there okay frank yeah i just uh kind of in response to alice uh i do actually see uh increased involvement and enthusiasm and caitlyn is is a case in point we're just thrilled to have her energy excitement background and knowledge and there are other people who are coming into this um matt altrude has been mentioned before who actually voted against prop a but now is enthusiastically for the park and commons and understands its potential value um so you know i uh i'm always looking looking for positive signs and over the over the past few months and and and talking to potential donors we've gotten a few new commitments and i think others are other a

095potential financial support are out there and that will you know over the next short while hopefully we'll get this rfp fully fully funded and move this thing along but uh yeah i have to say i i'm spending more time on this than i ever thought i would at uh at my uh advanced stage but shy of allen's age but you know i i have increasing uh confidence that this this project will move forward thanks frank so i'd like to ask uh that we that we proceed with those three questions um and uh we'll put them in an email here send them out to the group so that you know not not for response but uh for note and we'll ask that each of the working groups maybe three days before the [Music] next council the

096commons meeting submit everything heather can collect it and then we can discuss each of them at at the meeting and that can be a major part of our agenda uh for the next uh for the next discussion so i'll put together the three questions and an email and that date and then i'll ask uh heather to forward it around and um go from there house can those questions be in the minutes well i think we're in pretty basic minutes but i'm happy to put them in an email and have them sent around so that there's a record of them we can put them into the packet else i'm losing my train of thought because of everything that's going on around me but um i i don't want to sound pessimistic i i just this is

097as if anybody has looked at what i've done earlier you'll you can see i mean i put a lot into this 12 years ago and um i i don't want to stymie anything but i'm not even sure who the working groups are and what they're doing uh we we still haven't put that information of who is you know if somebody from the public goes oh i'm interested in what what they're doing how can i find out more who do they go to um and and maybe they have something to help with help us with i mean i i just think it seems so isolated and adam i think it's wonderful that you're going to have these conversations i think that there are people in the public who could go to people and say hey i'm

098you know what i i had this idea about about it because they're they're allowed to go other people are allowed to go and talk if if we had a whole cadre of people talking it up besides us wouldn't that be wonderful it would give them a sense of ownership as well but we don't have a way for those people to get involved because it's very hard to get involved with something um that isn't seen you know it's not out there it's not happening yet and so um i i hope i'm not just being confusing but it is confusing to me because i hear that parks is going to manage the rfp and it costs this much to get the the rp written but it have if parks is doing it where are they getting their

099money and has this are we getting being treated in a separate way from other parts of the city that get sent out rfps and get funding from uh other opportunities and so forth alice i do want to say you know i know there's a lot of side conversation around this all uh there's not been any decisions on this and uh you know i i was part of the i gave the pac presentation and i have been part of other conversations prior to um and i feel very confident that we'll be able to work something out that that you know the goal should be to continue to raise money towards the funding the rfp work on seeing if we can phase the rfp and i really think that the the pack presentation was warmly received i

100i know there are a lot of sidebar conversations i don't think it would be news to me if there's any decision being made it would also be news to me that any decision could be made absent people who are doing the majority of the fundraising i don't see how that works very well so i really you know i don't i wouldn't worry about the sidebar conversations unless they're coming from you know um somebody smiled who has authority over that i and i have not i've not heard that from somebody's mouth who has authority that's i think i'm slightly missing misinterpreted but that's okay i i i just i i guess i'm taking the role tonight of speaking for people who haven't been able to speak um who have asked you know where is it going

101what's happening when are we gonna you know when are we gonna know something so um i apologize if i sound like i'm being pessimistic um but we have been working at this a long time and we don't have much to show for it at this point um and i i hope it's not internal slow walking or something like that but um i don't see many answers to it um we don't vote on anything we don't send anything to council we don't have a hint as to when we will have an rfp and that means we can't tell people when they'll see something when they'll see a change when they'll see progress and i i really i really search for how we can do that and keep on going constructively and with energy because um we

102are getting some crosstalk um lastly you know i i can think of two meetings before this where we thought one thing was true and then it wasn't and then next time another something else was true and then it wasn't and um and that comes from staff from other people that are familiar with the situation it comes through all the time so um i just had to say say it out loud and uh i hope that we can take these three questions and and make some progress somehow okay erica yeah thanks um i mean i think i think some of the frustration that that folks are voicing is probably fair um in terms of kind of feeling application about things you know wondering how what progress is being made i do think it's useful for the

103commission to think about when we know what our current bylaws say in terms of being an advisory group to counsel um that's that's useful i think it's also important to think about what the role of commissions are in the city and um to acknowledge that this commission is was set up very differently than other commissions um and i think that there was a good desire in doing so but in in doing so it was a bit of an experiment right and so kind of thinking about whether or not the formation of this committee is producing the results that we desire is perhaps useful in these that in this in this at this point in the process as well um it's a compilation of a number of different non-profit of a few different non-profit organizations um

104of representatives from city commissions um of community members and um you know alice you mentioned wondering how people can get involved in this initiative we have two nonprofit organizations that exist in town um both of which are represented on this commission but typically within a um my experience within the community is that when people are very passionate about a subject they often get involved in those non-profit organizations and that the city fills a different function in terms sometimes in terms of a commission like this is really about advising kind of next steps about how we how we move something forward now obviously you've been trying to work on developing an rfp city has provided a certain amount of funding and said that the rest needs to be privately matched and um part of it's been

105privately matched and now we're kind of in this holding period where it's a little unconventional for a city commission to even be talking about fundraising um but we are and that's that's not necessarily um a bad thing but it's it's unconventional in terms of it the process and so um acknowledging that is maybe something that the fundraising committee needs to to work on as we as we get back together in the next um next meeting but i think it might be useful for us as a commission to also think about um you know this about the formation of this group this is and and how other initiatives have moved forward productively in the in the community in the past um you know i know the skate park is something that's a smaller example that often

106gets cited um and that has largely existed with the private fundraising existing outside of of the city and then a group a non-profit organization approaching so you see it moved forward now obviously that model doesn't work it doesn't translate entirely well to this type of space um which is why we started bringing up ideas like conservancies and looking at best practices in terms of comparable communities and looking at how those formations happen um but you know i think that i guess hopefully my point has been made now um in terms of um you know we're in a bit of an experimental phase um and sometimes it's worth worthwhile to stop and and make sure that the processes and kind of organizational structure that we're using is is getting towards our goals as well erica i

107appreciate your comments um i do wish that we would stop talking about the skateboard the skate park and skateboard park as an example uh it's it's it serves a very specific community they have very targeted uh programs and we are looking at something entirely different our community is the community and it's very diverse that's one thing i think camilla even touched on this idea too it's we're very it's a very diverse community we do not have a specific targeted group and except it may seem that way um furthermore i still don't have an answer to whether even though this is a unique and unusual not unconventional structure that we're dealing with um i get the sense that we're being held to a sort of a typical um standard i guess um but i don't understand

108i do not know if this if a private group paying for an rfp is the common way of dealing we're expected to do it the ordinary way through the templates and all this stuff but is everybody else having to pay for their own own community project for an rfp for a community project maybe not but even if they are it's a very unique project as you said it's there's some unconventionality to it and i just don't see the answers the questions and matching the quest answers or vice versa so we don't ever know in even the facts of the the structures we're dealing with even the facts of the revenues that have been associated with this and so on and so forth we just don't have those facts and why we don't i don't know

109well you know i think to be honest with you unless there are specific updates around the other working groups i think it would actually be in our benefit to just really dive in and push the questions i just sent them to heather and why don't why don't we just plan on doing that for this next uh this next meeting something to report well uh it seemed like it was probably the update on these other questions but i do think that the uh the process of the rfp and what we're looking for is it requires focused attention and and maybe also whether the form of organization that we have is actually uh functional to the task that we have i would point out that in the resolution of the city council that followed some previous resolutions

110that established the initiating committee as an on-the-ground group to you know work toward carrying out the recommendations of the center of the city task force and to help in the development of the council of the commons that was the main substance of that resolution at the end of which was put on a formal structure of the council of the commons which was actually in tension with the sense that the council of the commons has developed out of the activists and activities actually of the place that is of the commoning activities out of that comes the organizational structure that has liaison with all the city agencies and with advisors and so on that is basically out of the working groups that are working with energy or with child care or with food or within music or

111with the actual endeavors and we have been made ourselves as though we are some kind of authoritative or advisory body uh but actually where the energy is supposed to come from is the people actually doing stuff but we've been completely blocked in people actually doing stuff aside from a few scheduled activities like the peace day coming up or the earth week last spring yeah because the dda which should have removed the cars immediately and the revenue that came from the car parking should be in in the fun for the development of the commons of the uh various activities there as the city council said uh that has been blocked eda's want to talk about it and it says they won't even talk about it until after the uh rfp is done and they're agreed upon

112they need a whole new policy uh and similarly the city administrator his first task was to get together the block group so all the potential partners and this would begin to see each other and talk together and in the two and a half years since that was his number one objective on this uh carrying out the recommendation of the task force it has not been done at all and left to our uh little uh working group that sarah a little bit here because i feel like what we're we continue to rehash the past sins of previous pretty previous individuals who've been in this roles and i'm i just for one i'm this is not a productive use of our time at nine o'clock at night and it's gotta be about three o'clock in the morning

113where you're at like okay so i understand that you're frustrated i am frustrated as well okay okay but but us continuing to rehash the past for people who are not even employed by the city anymore is not going to be a productive use i think this is part of the reason why i continue to emphasize the most important things we can do and be it meaning we we people who care about making this progress go for this this part go forward is to finish raising the funds and get started on a formal planning process by people who actually know how to build a park and i that i agree that this is a little awkward at this point in time to do that but i feel like this is a vehicle that allows us to

114keep that ability alive and i know from talking with frank that we are making progress on uh doing that and i wish it was faster but we are making progress and that's important and i think that we will get there and i think we will get there sooner than we think um but we gotta we've got to let this go you know i i work with a very diverse coalition of folks who pay my bills every day and i've seen this sins of the past come up a lot and it kills and uh it at some point we've just got to stop so i'm going to stop there because i'm doing the same thing are there other items outside on the working groups that we would like to cover this evening are you saying that

115the uh the request for proposals element is how we move forward on that is going to be on our agenda for next time around yes because it's part of a working room okay all right why uh why don't in that case i sent the questions to heather we will uh then uh ask to ask heather if you could send them out to everybody and we'll go forward um erica you got your hand up and then we'll go into public comment yeah i sense that you're transitioning to public comment i just wanted to take a moment to thank camilla for um i know she's she's transitioning away from the commission i appreciated her work on on the on the commission here um i think it i appreciate you taking the time to to speak up today

116camilla and kind of speak a little bit about how you felt you know um the ability for your voice to be heard here or not heard um and i think that's something maybe to reflect upon um camilla's he's been a graduate student here and it's the exact type of energy and experience and background that we kind of hope to draw to this and i'm not sure that her reflection on her experience is necessarily what we would um hope she would have you know maybe we might hope that she would have had a different feeling at the end of this um and that's something for us to reflect upon moving forward in terms of how we engage and allow for for different voices to be heard around this table and being very conscientious of when we're

117speaking fair point pretty much so thank you camilla for the time he put into it okay that case let's move into public comment heather do we have any members of the public yes we have several with the hands raised um the person with a phone number that ends in 326 you can go ahead and speak oh this is a jeff crockett and i am here i hope you can all hear me i just want to tell you that i am super pumped up about the commons uh for a number of reasons but one of them is the exciting developments on the garden and if uh i would encourage camilla to join me over the garden and just so that i can share with her all the volunteer time and hours that have gone in to

118create beautiful gardens include a lot of native plants uh to get uh pollinators there and i would be happy to take you on a tour but i am also pumped up because we the the council of the commons have received huge two huge gifts during the past year and one comes from robert black and the other comes from caitlin olmsted phillips these folks have a wealth of experience of activating public places and i would encourage you to include these people in the working group i mean it seems to me like a no-brainer you include caitlyn in the fundraising and development aspect let me give you an example uh i have recently we've wanted to get a mural on the commons and we have mary t fols uh gave us a bid of 10 grand to

119put a mural on the north wall enter the wall just to the north of the garden so we have received i attended administrator dahonie's session about how to improve the downtown and at that session i heard larry neeson speak a local artist about beautifying the downtown i approached the math to the meeting and said you and i want to do the same thing we want to beautify the downtown and i think it would be wonderful for you to help us beautify the commons with a mural by mary teefels well guess what two days later he came up with five thousand dollars to do this and guess what less than three days later caitlin found a donor a matching donor for five thousand dollars we now have ten thousand dollars that we collect within a week

120and the reason that happened is because we articulated a clear vision of what we want and that this group articulates a clear vision with the help of the people on this committee and robert back black and caitlin phillips you will develop the vision you will need and take advantage of caitlyn's experience in the dough in getting donations not just locally but statewide and nationally no one else has done that locally here yet and she brings that perspective absolutely get her involved in the fundraising aspect of this project and you're not going to be talking about getting 20 grand to fund an rfp you're going to be talking about getting millions of dollars to fund the whole project so i would encourage you to do that i have never been more optimistic than i am right

121now and i would encourage erica to connect with uh caitlin because as i recall erica you said you would be willing to get rid of the parking on the commons if we came up with a plan for activating the commons caitlyn is developing that plan please work with caitlin forward to do the programming that's needed so we can remove the parking and do short-term activation that will include providing sheltered seating wi-fi and an event space thank you very much thanks jeff all right next person is robert black thank you heather can you hear me okay all right um it's hard to follow jeff crockett with anything because of his enthusiasm and i must say that he has done more in my opinion to really activate the commons engage the public and bring people to a

122common vision around the gardens and i absolutely love i was sitting in the backyard of jeff's house with him and his wife just last year their beautiful garden and his enthusiasm and ability to bring people together is really important and i i trust you would consider including him in this process as well um and i want to do a shout out to camilla i think she hit the nail right on the head congratulations to moving through your education and also let's give voice to all people here let's get this outreach going it's what the initiating committee is actually trying to do it's what you're trying to do you have very wonderful allies at m live ann arbor news the idea of a mural or some other thing that can begin to represent this you have

123music you have art you have food and plants you have education joette ryoma and project grow is happening wild ones with bob gracie very dignified well respected person talk about education in the community you are doing it and i just want to do the thing that i have done in every single meeting there is no other person who has been your loyal supporter than me i have been to every one of your meetings and listen to all of your stuff except for two and i've heard everything you have said and do not despair you are on the right track this is too important to lose faith here um alice is right just get it read her read her and allen's responses in 2010 again and be inspired by this thing put together your documents what

124adam is telling you and suggesting you do is to write this down work towards a report at the end of this year to counsel and advise them on your vision for this thing because you are the one that's tasked with creating this you see it from your hub point engage the initiate initiating committee as your root of support for this and then reach out to the dda as an ally to you and as alan said get these block partners talking with you in whatever way you can however you can as often as you can keep it transparent in public you will be amazed what shows up like this thing with the grants right now is really powerful and i think what i do a lot with graphics and stuff is uh amy rowe and i

125made a lovely poster that was shown for this group about the center of the city that was shown at the uh leslie science center which by the way my partner wayne apple yeah and i were the designers of that project which is serving thousands of people in the community to teach about sustainable design but do the outreach do some other things i know that people have talked about using the spark center take a walk get matt altrudea involved more and just do this so that you can start to show people that you are actually making progress last thing i'll say um activate the space gently is one of the words that caitlin said take the time to learn as we go this is not a one and done slam dunk dunk designer park process get

126this rfp out so you could set the stage for it the groundwork the biodynamics of it the biophilic space and then issue a second part of the ifp to create a phase one build but let the rest of the build unfold with contributions from the rest of the community first martin corporation u of m credit union aadl and the other companies around there that will support this in ways that you can't even imagine yet so don't be too stuck on a conventional idea to create a slam dunk park design done it will evolve as you grow this vision but start with the vision and get a brand as soon as you can so that people can understand this is your center of the city this is our center of the city and we all belong

127to it and we all have a voice come to peace day and learn about how to make restorations to others too so good luck don't despair and remember margaret reed's comment uh margaret mead never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world in fact it's the only thing that ever has so please keep the faith and just do your work you're doing great thank you thanks robert all right the person with the phone number ending in three four zero uh greetings um i'm luis vasquez president of the first award um i also just wanted to thank uh camilla for her bold statement and i think this council really needs to reflect upon what exactly she said um and also just observed how she voted with her feet and uh dropped

128off of the conversation uh that's very telling um now i'm one of the 47 of voters who voted against uh proposal a of 2018. so yes i am a critic of um of this council uh yet um i have the best uh intentions of ann arbor at heart uh and i would encourage you uh or urge you actually to make sure that liberty plaza is not forgotten uh not neglected in this whole process in fact i think liberty plaza should be the focus of your efforts now there has been nothing stopping the proponents of the library lock park from activating liberty plaza there has been shopping council from advocating activation better activation and improvement of liberty plaza which is part of these comments by getting wi-fi at liberty plaza by getting a public lavatory placed

129at liberty plaza um and uh other amenities uh like a splash pad for kids at liberty plaza you don't have to pierce the uh surface warranty as has been pointed out many times to your council that uh you know doing such of the uh parking lot underneath uh the library lot uh liberty plaza and and somebody should uh from your group should educate um caitlin [Music] about the politics that have gone on around and behind um what you're trying to do um she seemed woefully unaware and started at uh ground zero again um i think camilla hit it right on the head she's heard this all before i've observed many of these meetings you guys are just spinning your wheels and something needs to be done or else my opinion is that we should put

130this back on the ballot in a future election um uh either through a millage to support uh the efforts um or you know to to put it back on the ballot just to see what ann arborites think right now because um that vote in 2018 just split ann arbor down the middle and i think you're seeing the effects of that right now so thank you for hearing me out and i hope you all have a good evening thank you thanks louise anyone else i think that's it nobody else with their hands raised all right thank you uh with that i think we've got some action items for next week and or next month rather sorry um and i would say check your emails for those things and otherwise we have a motion for german [Music]

131oh move so move all right as motion and seconded all in favor say aye [Music] all right thank you very much have a nice evening you