001i'll call us to order good evening and welcome to the february 1st 2022 meeting of the ann arbor planning commission this meeting is being held in person as well as electronically and public comment then can be made either in person or via telephone or zoom to speak during the public comment opportunities via phone please call 66 877-853-5247 12 26 this information is available on the published agenda in the public notices section of the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on ctn channel 16 at t channel 99 and online at a2gov.org slash watch ctn and you'd select a good government channel please note that it's possible that telephone or electronic public comment may encounter technical difficulties that prevent participation so for the greatest assurance that your comments will be heard please submit them
002in writing ahead of the meeting or attend in person is that what i need to read at the beginning mr leonard okay super can you help us then with the roll call item number two commissioner mills present commissioner gibb randall here commissioner sovay commissioner abrams commissioner hammerschmidt commissioner dish president commissioner lee commissioner clark commissioner weich here we have a quorum very good we're on to item um number three which is approval of the agenda may i have a commissioner move the agenda moved by commissioner sobay seconded by commissioner gibrandal any discussion of the agenda all in favor uh please raise your hand or say yes that are that's all the hands so we'll move on um to item number four which is the minutes of the previous meeting this is the minutes from the january
00320th 22 meeting can i have a commissioner move those minutes moved by commissioner weich seconded by commissioner clark any discussion of the minutes all in favor of the emotion please raise a hand or say yes that's all the hand so the motion carries next up is item five reports from the city administration city council planning manager planning commission officers and committees and any written communications or petitions i want to note that we did receive several um both uh um when the packet came out earlier in the week as well as uh some just today um commissioner dish uh city council has not met since we said all right so your report is quick mr leonard um just a reminder uh in sharing with the public the working session originally scheduled for next week has been
004cancelled going forward working sessions we do anticipate will be held in this room um however there was a conflict next week so they will be resuming in march that's the basis for that cancellation any commissioner off commission officers or committee liaisons have anything to report i'll report that orc did meet last week and i am we had a robust discussion but i can't remember in what topic help me commissioner parking minimums thank you i think we covered most of parking minimums and the broad swath of areas to cover including if we're looking at ev parking and parking maximums and we're looking at bringing uh the redaction of parking minimums to this table for vote correct as the first step and tackling the other um through further discussion thank you very much yes commissioner give randall
005so does that mean we're not going to have a working session on it prior to i think that our discussion was that the that rather than have because in particular because the working session is canceled this month that if we decide as a group that we want to postpone voting on it but that we could have some of that and a lot of the elements within it are things that we've discussed before or that are based on you know our tome of planning documents okay so um okay because i just saw that there was some correspondence about that this last week about parking lot replacement and you know things like that and how that might or might not trigger things so exactly so we had that discussion within orc and i'm glad it was actually
006i'm glad that the correspondence to kind of orc issues make before the whole commission um so i think i expect that we would take that up okay then and clarification i think that our intention is that it may include the ev the the draft that we'll see includes kind of changes to evs because right now we're in this hole since site plan review thresholds have been changed there's not very many things that trigger eve the ev ordinance so we want to fill that hole as well got it i see okay yeah that's absolutely right i can do a quick just a quick overview of the the the big components that we're looking at are the elimination of minimum parking requirements at this point as mentioned we're not considering any additional maximums with one possible exception
007is the tc1 district because of the construct of that district it actually relies on the current minimums for some considerations we are looking at ev parking to more successfully align those standards with the construction of new parking lots or the re significant reconstruction of parking lots and we are also considering simplifying that to two categories of ev spaces rather than the current three okay okay thanks for the update yeah anything else all right we are on to item number six then which is public comment i have this up all right this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about an issue that's not listed as a public hearing on this agenda we will first call on individuals present to address the commission and then call on remote participants to speak
008during this public hearing or to speak during the public comment period remotely please press star 9 if you're listening by the phone or use the raised hand feature if you are viewing through the web link for phone access again the number is 877 and our meeting id is 977-6634-1226 mr leonard will select callers that have raised their hand calling on you by the last three digits of your telephone number or if you've joined us through the web link by the name that you've entered in you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of
009your comments and again to be clear this is an opportunity for persons to speak for and about an item that's not listed as a public hearing so we will have a separate public hearing on the tc1 rezoning petition so for any other matters now is an appropriate time there's if anyone in the audience would like to speak all right mr leonard is there anyone online there is mr westfall you have up to three minutes to address the planning commission hi good evening commissioners uh 3505 charter place kirk westfall um i'm thrilled that the minimum parking standard elimination is going forward i i still remain and i spoke at the ordinance revisions committee about this i i remain troubled by the proposal to abandon additional maximums in the city uh outside of tc1 and i'm troubled
010because we're already seeing proposals for car only suburban development in areas that are slated for tc1 uh the freestanding bank on stadium was one example had that been proposed without a drive through i think we all recognized that we would have had to approve that um uh so i wonder if that would have felt appropriate um do you think that this kind of project would have helped with what the community has stated are our goals with regard to housing or transit or walkability or the environment um i think that freestanding banks and fast food restaurants are going to keep coming as proposals in places that are slated for tc1 and elsewhere in a situation where rezonings are anticipated it's normal practice for a city to put a moratorium on development in those areas so i
011asked you know you either consider doing that or better yet consider a simple singular parking cap on all new developments city-wide of something like three spaces per thousand square feet um [Music] a parking parking space along with all the associated driveways and aisles is about you know 333 square feet so uh that's basically saying three of those spaces is about a thousand square feet so that's effectively saying the interior space has to be equal to or exceed the area devoted to cars so i don't think that's a very high bar [Music] and putting a simple cap on new development wouldn't be a problem at all for residential development it would just stop additional drive only development that contradicts the community's goals we we tax ourselves adequately for transit i think they're actually going to ask
012for a millage increase in the not too distant future there's were a sustainability mill just being floated 30 more seconds and my opinion is that these make no sense if we're going to keep allowing development that require car usage so the buck the buck stops with you guys and it starts with you guys so i i hope you would consider some kind of parking universal parking maximum thanks very much thank you any other callers caller with the phone number ending with five three four caller with the phone number ending with 534 you have three minutes to address the planning commission um hello my name is kitty khan i live in the fifth ward and i wasn't going to call in but after hearing mr westfall speak about wanting to limit parking it reminded me that
013i had read something about google and some other companies who have offices downtown moving or desiring to move because they didn't have enough parking for their employees so that is something to think about as you think about wanting to get rid of parking or limiting parking to only i think mr westfall said he'd like to see only three spaces per development or something like that so please think about realistic needs of people who want to have businesses or live in ann arbor as you float these pie in the sky unrealistic wishes okay that's all i wanted to say thank you goodbye thank you caller with ending with five three four caller ending with five three four you have three minutes to address the planning commission good evening this is tom stallberg calling from lowertown later
014on we'll talk about the pc-1 rezoning i want to talk about something that's related to rezonings um when you have a rezoning there's a whole spectrum of possibilities that you can get that would meet the requirements of that zoning category there's no certainty of what part of the spectrum that we'll get so i know in the documentation for tc1 there's some hopes expressed of certain things like you know mixed-use village concept and i'd like to remind people especially commissioners who are recent to the body that the lower town comprehensive plan calls for mixed-use urban village called for pud zoning we got neither there uh we got and and if you look at what the principles of tc1 are and you look at what the planning commission in general would like uh that would be exactly
015what you would have wanted this body sitting now would have wanted for the lower town site a mixed use urban village as the comprehensive plan calls for so how do we end up not getting that and in that case we got over 99 residential only uh accessory commercial use for there so i want you to think about that as you do rezonings and design things that there are hopes and prayers of getting certain things on the spectrum but there's no guarantee of what you're going to get we could find out for tc one for example that all we get are high-priced residential developments it's up to the marketplace the way we've designed it others of us would have designed it differently others of us wished you had had a comprehensive plan revision and that would
016have involved entertaining certain aspects of meeting community goals directly through the process that didn't happen that's water under the bridge unfortunately so as you move on from one thing to the next i want you to look at the failure of lower town the failure to provide affordable housing that value to meet a mixed use urban village concept and think about these other things that we hope the marketplace will deliver but it doesn't have to deliver thank you thank you that's all the speakers all right and seeing no one else in the chambers i'll move on to the next item which is number seven the public hearings that are scheduled for the next business meeting mr leonard do you have them i do we have one new public hearing scheduled for february 15th at 7 00
017pm right here in council chambers that is a for 38 74 research park drive site plan for planning commission approval a proposal to demolish the existing building and construct a 130 300 square foot research office building on this re research and orl office research limited industrial zones site five lots are proposed to be combined totaling 16.9 acres you may recall that previously this appeared before the planning commission for a recommendation status with the recent changes to the ordinance it comes back to you as approval for that site plan thank you i was wondering i thought we had just talked about this one thanks for that um all right um item we're in um regular business now so we're on item eight a which is the city initiated tc1 rezoning petition for 69 parcels in the
018state and eisenhower area for city council approval we'll have a staff report and presentation the public hearing and commission discussion of this item commissioner lee yes due to my conflict i am recusing myself of this particular matter thank you thank you we'll come and get you when we're done discussing is mr leo joining us remotely this evening yes i am yes all right a little bit of a tech check you all can hear me and maybe see me we can great i can hear you and see you as well um all right i have started a quick screen share which is a rezoning map and i am here with a staff presentation um and then i will offer a recommendation and answer any questions about a state and eisenhower area re-zoning this is a city-initiated
019rezoning of actually 68 parcels um initiated on behalf of city council and planning commission um the action was requested by the city council as part of its approval of the ordinance which established the tc1 district in july of this past summer alexis sorry for interrupting we're working on some tech here because it's extremely small on our screens can you give us just a minute so we can see the slides better yes um it is the same i've only used the same materials that are also in the staff report anticipating something like this might happen brett just solved it for us i think um it's yes it's significantly better thank you mr leonard all right thank yous uh please carry on just for disclosure or what i am screen sharing is simply attachment a of the
020staff report it is the state and eisenhower area rezoning map um so a little bit of background on this rezoning um in november of 2020 city council directed the planning commission to create a new zoning district in the unified development code that would support high density development along transit corridors and they also requested the work include a recommendation for preliminary geographic areas to be considered for the new district best forward and the planning commission held public hearings on that on the tc1 district i think now i have a typo in my staff report i apologize it says the public hearings were held um april 6 of 2020 and april 13th of 2020. those should be 2021. um but the recommendations for the text amendment included a uh recommendation to rezone the south state street area
021between oak brook drive and i-94 and east and west eisenhower between south main and the railroad the state and eisenhower area was selected by the planning commission to be the first one or it was recommended to be the first one carrying forth that um request we held we put together some materials and held an introductory informational webinar on november 9th 2021 for all the owners residents and tenants inside the proposed rezoning area as well as extending a thousand feet from the area and it was open also to anyone who cared to participate and join that webinar the tc1 district itself as i mentioned it is a newly created district and it was created as a meaningful achievable realistic way to simultaneously address the a variety of different but related goals expressed across all eight documents
022that comprise the master plan i'm sorry the comprehensive plan such as sustainability access and choice in housing housing affordability reducing vehicle miles traveled reliv a relieving vehicle congestion supporting existing transit service and supporting and expanding non-motorized transportation the staff report of this proposed rezoning as well as some of the background materials goes into more specific goals and objectives that the tc1 district should accomplish now specific to the matter at hand um we have put together a proposed ordinance to amend the zoning map we zone 68 parcels centered around the state and eisenhower intersection extending north to oak brook drive east to the railroad track south to i-94 and west to south main street parcels in the proposed district either have an address of south state or east or west eisenhower or they have a boardwalk
023drive victor's way address there's also one or two that have a briarwood circle and marketplace address those are streets that connect between firewood mall and state or ice power parcels in the district range from in size from about 9 000 square feet which is 0.2 acres to 13 and a half acres the average parcel is about three and a half acres of the 68 two of them are open space they are undeveloped two additional ones are developed but not with buildings they are either a parking lot or um one is a storm water management pond part of a office complex there is a table in the staff report and i have it available but i won't screen share it it's very small for screen sharing purposes but a table lists the parcel id number the
024address the area and the current zone zoning designation and a brief description really brief of each parcel proposed for rezoning the district um is defined in an area that can makes um logical blocks or large but logical blocks um the district meets the general and specific intent of the tc one district they parcels are a long approximate to an existing transit corridor with regular fixed service provided by triple a ta and they're established commercial and office sites the tc1 zoning designation will replace either oh office c3 fringe commercial p parking r5 hotel m1 light industrial or pud zoning designations most districts in this parcel have the ability to be have placed a midsize apartment building or a townhouse in the front yard or on the surface parking lot which is encouraged by the purpose of
025this district this is what we are hoping to achieve the reasoning has the potential to add hundreds of homes in an area already served by transit system our transit system and it will help transform the area into a mixed-use neighborhood offering the three foundations of a complete neighborhood places to live work and play play or shop applying the tc1 district as proposed is a concrete action toward fulfilling the city's land use sustainability affordability and transportation goals and needs the staff we are recommending approval as proposed um i believe that i covered all of the material so i will turn it over for the public hearing and then the planning commission discussion and as i mentioned i'm happy to answer any questions about this city initiated rezoning thank you very much all right so i will
026um now um open up the public hearing it's an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about the city-initiated tc1 rezoning petition for the 69 properties in the state and eisenhower area we will first call on individuals who are present here in council chambers and then remote participants again to speak during the public hearing remotely please press star 9 if you are joining by phone if you have joined through the web link you can use the raised hand feature on the center bottom of your zoom screen and if you're watching us now and want to call in our dial-in number is 877-853-5247 and the meeting id is 977-6634-1226 mr leonard will call our select callers that have raised their hand um calling on you by the last three digits of your telephone
027number or by the name that you've used to access the web link um you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we can hear you clearly for either method of participation please do state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone here in council chambers that would like to speak at this time all right mr leonard do we have any hands raised online we do we'll start with adam josekiewicz you have three minutes to address the planning commission hello my name is adam juskewicz 1430 las vegas drive in the fourth ward i'm calling to express my support for the tc1 rezoning in the state and eisenhower area we
028are in a climate crisis and in order to meet our a20 goals we need to reduce vehicle miles traveled this increased density and mixed use brings us that much closer to a 15-minute city people will be able to live closer to their jobs there will be less need for people to commute into ann arbor it also means more neighbors more things to do close to home and more transit riders hopefully making faster and more frequent service feasible all of this will benefit the city as well as will any additional tax reform we are also in a housing crisis there are not enough homes in ann arbor for all the people who want to live here and prices reflect that rents are going up as many found out recently while in renewing their leases this change
029will allow more homes to be built in the city i look forward to seeing the development this zoning change will enable and i hope planning commission will approve this tonight additionally i hope planning commission can take on similar rezonings for other major corridors in the city's city as soon as possible such as the west stadium corridor adjacent to my own neighborhood washtenaw plymouth packard and platte and so forth without tc1 in these areas we will continue to see suburban-style car-centric development which is not what i want to see in my neighborhood or my city please vote yes thank you thank you kirk westfall you have three minutes to address the planning commission thanks kirk westfall 3505 charter place still i'm very excited to see this coming forward for hopefully for a vote tonight it's coming
030at the end of a long road and hopefully it's the beginning of a road down uh many more rezonings um i think it's a great step forward certainly things will be tweaked but overall this is a a really positive step we shouldn't be banning high density development out of the city and the more we can do to make all of our urban area um focused on dense development focused on the opportunity for mixed use i think the better [Music] i hope that through this process there will still be a limit on the the amount of car storage that is allowed in these areas um not all of the tc1 areas are going to develop at equal paces and i think that's fine [Music] i think it's really important that we insist on high density and
031walkable uses and not give into car centric kinds of office spaces and other types of developments that are more appropriate for suburban areas um because once it gets developed that way it's locked in for 40 or 50 years so i look forward to this discussion um i hope you vote yes i'd also if somebody could clarify the difference between 68 and 69 parcels i think uh both of those figures have been mentioned and i was just curious about the discrepancy thanks so much thank you i'm not seeing any other indication of speakers yet oh caller with the phone number ending with three four zero you can unmute your phone and address the planning commission for up to three minutes yes greetings uh planning commission my name is luis vasquez i'm located at 909 barton drive
032in the first ward of ann arbor michigan and speaking in favor um uh in support of uh tc1 zoning uh rezoning um [Music] i share the sentiments of mr jeskerich and kirk westfall and that i would like to see this happen in other areas of the city we are in the midst of a very severe housing shortage in ann arbor and this kind of zoning this kind of rezoning helps us to meet the goals stated goals of our city in terms of climate change um reduction in the use of cars so thank you very much uh please vote in the affirmative for tc1 zoning thank you thank you and again if anyone else has joined us remotely you can press star nine to raise your hand or use the raised hand feature if you've joined
033through the web link adam goodman adam goodman you can address the planning commission for up to three minutes hi there i'm adam goodman 400 virginia avenue um i wanted to again i feel like this is probably the fourth or fifth time i've said this to you to this group but i want to again say that i'm i'm strongly in favor of this and you know really excited to see this process moving along um i if anything i think this is way past it's way past time for us to actually be doing this the the city's comprehensive planning documents and many rounds of community input have shown strong support for this idea and you know especially on the along the south state street corridor there's a specific uh comprehensive planning document for that that came out
034nine years ago that you know i don't know if it said transit zoning by name but it certainly said mixed use and improved transit and all the things that we are trying to do with tc1 so i i think you know this is i to me this feels like it's obviously the right course action um i'm i'm also on team we need to do this in many other places uh there's so just today i saw that the site that uh was discussed by a previous commenter this this um proposed bank drive through bank on on west stadium now has a sign that says uh it's an it's an opportunity for a car dealership which i think is what it was before um and and like i i think we have again a lot of comprehensive
035planning documents and community input that says that is not the type of use that we want in that corridor but if if that's what the zoning says can be built there that's the only thing that really matters at the end of the day so we we really need to get moving on on changing things across the city but south state street is a good start good start and i hope you all support this tonight thank you thank you vicky rios you have three minutes to address the planning commission thank god you ain't funny can you repeat that miss rios we will come back caller with the phone number ending with five three four caller with the phone number ending with five three four you can press star six to mute your phone and address the
036planning commission for three minutes hello again this is tom stallberg calling from the heart of lowertown in ann arbor those of you have been around for some time would know that i've been a long time proponent have spoken at planning commission a long time ago in favor of transit oriented development concepts those of you who have been here more recently would know that i'm disappointed with the process that this went through and that i think we would have had a better outcome if we had followed the proper process which we did not follow however here we are today and you are likely to pass this so i'd like to ask you to address some specific questions that i have that might clarify things for other people as well uh the parcels that are zoned pud
037now that will be rezoned to tc1 if you could talk a little bit about what happens to their pud development agreements etc also in terms of the recently passed uh new thresholds for site plan review uh would you clarify that if i uh i'm understanding correctly anything that would come in even once tc1 would pass through city council at that point in time these parcels are all zoned tc1 any site plan at that point in time that came in meeting the tc1 standards if it was six units or less my understanding is it would not go to planning commission but it would go to the planning manager and i'd like you to discuss the notice that would be given because it's no longer going to planning commission if i'm correct in that similarly any parcel
038of those 68 if they meet the tc1 zoning criteria their site plan would no longer go to city council based on the recently passed change in site plan thresholds so again if you could review what the notice requirements would be so that the public will know that by the commission is the one who has the power at that point in time to approve the site plan and then it will not go to a public city council and will not get a vote at city council again if i'm correct in my understandings so it would help to clear that up for us the public thank you thank you eric zuchar you have three minutes to address the planning commission eric zakar my apologies from mispronouncing your last name you can unmute yourself and address the planning
039commission for up to three minutes thanks can you hear me okay we can okay thanks i was muted still it's eric zecker but thanks for the effort brett i'm at 2435 prairie and i just wanted to call and say how supportive i was of this going forward i appreciate the idea of rezoning this area it's kind of like a dead zone in the city especially near the mall there if you do live in the area you know that you kind of have to drive everywhere to get to anything but you're often just driving past places that are just ripe for redevelopment i also wanted to kind of echo what a previous caller said in that we can put forward an idea of what we want in this area but we can't force anybody to build
040what we want them to build we can only give them our vision of what we want in the area so we can't force anybody to make like a beautiful mixed-use village with like narrow streets and things like that but we can allow it and we definitely haven't gotten it with the zoning that we put in the area right now uh the area's just kind of full of eyesores and and huge parking lots that are currently empty except for giant snow clearing equipment so i think it's a great idea i also echo a previous caller that we should expand these to other areas i live up on the northeast side of town and we have some actually really great shops here but we could probably use more neighbors up here so that we could support these
041shops like songbird and rapport and i just think it's a great idea i think we need more space for people to live we need more places for people to shop we need less places for people to not park their cars because of all of these empty parking lots so i appreciate the planning commission looking at this and thank you for your time thank you no other speakers are indicated all right last call you can press star 9 to raise your hand if you've dialed in or use the raised hand feature if you've joined us through zoom just like everywhere else last call always gets somebody brian chambers you have up to three minutes to address the planning commission yes can you hear me we can this is brian chambers i reside at 2815 ember way
042in the fourth ward i'm calling in support of this initiative and the ordinance the zoning change for this area kind of reflecting the concerns of some of the previous callers we can't really control what comes back from the developers that may have an interest in doing something here but i at least want to give a shout out to the intent or the objective for this to be a transit oriented development initiative to fuel more use of the bus lines and to restrict the use of cars the theme that we've been hearing as well that's a big ask um and and i i'm hopeful that uh it'll come to fruition um but just to be clear when we're speaking of these densities that can actually affect transit so people shift out of cars in and use
043the buses we're really talking about a development for this area of 3 400 to 5600 housing units i know others have just said the word density they want more density they want enough to actually support bus transit and have people shift out of cars research that's been done in terms of best practices uh globally has found that until you hit these densities and even a village style development which i'll classify ann arbor we're not a metropolitan area the size of detroit or chicago or some other larger area we still have to hit these minimum thresholds of housing in order to actually shift people from cars to buses in a meaningful fashion so this is a shout out to really try to compel i don't know developers to come back if they're listening on the line
044with significant density-based proposals that are in that range now we have multiple parcels any one may be developed one at a time maybe somebody's going to come in and buy up a bunch but we need to start talking about what we mean by density at what level for true transit oriented development that support for its plus transit 30 more seconds light rail speaking of transit and that's for this type of development in [Music] that range i've sent you some information separately in previous times i'll i'll resend it just so that it's fresh box but then we affect the equation thank you any other callers mr leonard daniel adams daniel adams you have up to three minutes to address the planning commission hi good evening my name is daniel adams i live on the north side
045of town you know i just wanted to say how much i support this and view this zoning change in this area and in future districts as a really positive step towards a set of zoning set of zoning laws that reflects our priorities as a community and is set up i think more importantly to you know reflect the values that we have and facilitate the type of developments that we want and i'll contrast that with the vision of this process that's shared by some not me under which we all have some type of say or ad hoc access and veto rights to shape and block and halt and prevent progress and development within our community being more permissive about our zoning but doing it in a way that again is reflective of our values and taking
046some of these veto points out of our process an earlier caller mentioned you know these notice requirements that they'd like the the committee to address and that's just not something that i i care that much about i want the laws that we erect to um enable and catalyze developments that we're all going to be proud of and that are going to help us attack a housing crisis that is decades in the making and what we're doing what you're considering tonight i think is is really tremendous and for me it's like many of the callers earlier i would echo the sentiment that i'd really like to see every you know the city move faster we need more of this more speed um to because again it's going to take the market time to develop around the
047changes that we make we can't force that but we can do this and we should do it quickly thank you thank you no other speakers indicated all right maybe really the last call if there's anyone else star nine raise your hand all right i will close the public hearing and before i read the motion though do we know because the staff report the motion and the agenda have different that's where the different numbers are do we know which one i should be reading yeah uh mr leo can you clarify the count um so the count is 68. um the um motion is correct and most importantly the attached ordinance to the staff report that will be forwarded to city council is super thank you very much so i will read the proposed motion which is
048the ann arbor city planning commission hereby recommends that the mayor and city council approve the amendments to the zoning map a part of chapter 55 unified development code to designate the zoning classification of 68 parcels in the south state street and east west eisenhower parkway area as tc1 as proposed moved by commissioner white seconded by commissioner dish discussion go ahead commissioner dish thank you chairman um i supported tc one as a candidate and i am delighted to be able to vote for it now tc1 is popular in ann arbor it's popular with residents it's popular council members it's popular with many people at the table it comes to us at the close of extensive learning process that receives significant human input as required by law tc one donates reflects our values as a city will
049help us create a less carbon intensive city a more walkable city a more affordable city the only question we need to ask since we know that it is consistent with our values is is tc1 zoning appropriate for this area of the fleet and yes it is will it create well yes it will there is no scandal in this that is how something works it will create wealth for developers it will create tax revenue for the city it will create housing opportunities for people who work in ann arbor and canada what to argue with other commissioners go ahead commissioner gabriendl i am also very supportive of this and feel like we've had a really robust public engagement process one thing i've i brought up before that i just want to keep bringing up it's not part
050of the zoning but i just went through and looked through every single road in this and we have so many sidewalk gaps in here so many bike gaps in here and i feel like if we are going to be asking people to be less reliant on cars then we really need to pony up as a city and move those things forward in our cip plan because we cannot just say guess what you get to not have a car and we're not going to invest in making any other way for you to get around that isn't comfortable and safe so i know there's some tricky areas i know that mdot controls some of these zones too which makes it messy but there are other areas that are just totally within the city that we just don't
051have you know we just these developments came in at a time where we weren't requiring people to put sidewalks in and we missed that boat but now we've got to do it i really feel strongly about that so i think we i'm wholly supportive of this rezoning i just think we need to follow it with a really robust response to make it something that actually feels good to walk and bike down other comments commissioner sovay thank you i'll just raise a couple of comment points uh public comment points for discussion to kind of close out which i think is a very robust uh conversation we've been having over the past year maybe to pick you up back off of the sidewalk discussion and to confirm any site plan that would be submitted would be required
052to construct sidewalks for their site only but as part of it correct yeah that's a that's a requirement so any site plan whether it's reviewed by planning manager planning commission or city council that's a standard of the city that would have to be met great thank you so we will have it but just to kind of clarify for anybody listening to it would be filling in slow gaps as development happened and so i really appreciate the comment and the reinforcement that the further we can do as a city to build this forward instead of waiting on development i agree and thank you for highlighting that um to then the overall process because to clarify and confirm because we will be rezoning this do we get louder or are you just working okay because we are
053re-zoning this any of these sites that are proposing development that meets tc1 because of the approved site plan review thresholds would only would conclude with an approval at planning commission in the future correct that's correct okay and then final question is for puds what would be they would be still maintained under a pud zoning or they would be tc one non-compliant they would become tc1 they may be non-compliant with their supplemental regulations alexis has uh looked into some of those a lot of those were actually puds to address the audacity of things like mixed use which weren't previously permissible in a lot of these zoning districts so i don't anticipate that there will be a lot of extensive non-conformities in those occurrences great thank you um those i really just wanted to kind of raise
054those as a closing point of discussion i support this wholly and i look forward to moving forward with the other districts as well thank you other comments or questions i will add that i am excited to see this before us now and while i know it was a large undertaking um and when staff kind of proposed a timeline before uh in terms of how long it would take i think many of us thought maybe it was ambitious or like both wanted to move faster but like recognize that it was pulling together a lot and i want to commend staff mr leo for making this happen um both you know seeing through the public opportunity or public comment opportunities for this answering questions and that this is the first day of february and that we have
055the full list and are moving to rezone i think um i really appreciate all of your efforts on that um because this is um because we are now under a new regime with the site plan review thresholds just as point of clarification too in terms of notice um [Music] the developments that are that meet a threshold to come before us again can you remind us for residential development like what that new threshold is sure so um residential development up to uh four units no longer would have any site plan required that could be that is permissible as as a building permit just as a single family or duplex has been very historically developments that are five to six units of residential those require a full site plan review they are reviewed by all the various
056staffs just like any site plan things like sidewalks storm water landscaping the like but the authority for those plans lies with the planning manager me in that case no notification happens for those plans once you progress to seven or more residential units or any any other use that's not wholly residential that requires planning commission approval that same site plan is reviewed by all all all departments and the like in that case um whenever a site plan cons is considered by the planning commission it is in conjunction with a public hearing we will notify all property owners within 300 feet of that it is published for a public hearing a public hearing is held prior to any action by the planning commission very good thank you very much to refresh our memory um and how that
057would work um [Music] yeah i think i i'm excited to be voting for this uh before we have a roll call vote last call among planning commissioners all right mr leonard i think we're ready okay so this is uh the motion that's presented to rezone the 68 parcels to tc1 uh zoning district uh commissioner mills yes commissioner gibb randall yes commissioner sovay yes commissioner dish yes commissioner clark yes commissioner weich yes uh the motion carries with a recommendation of approval the next step would be presentation to city council very good thank you um next up will be public comment mr leonard while i read the long public comment intro could you go find commissioner lee please thank you um this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes about any issue
058any issue tonight um we will first as before call on any individuals who are present here in council chambers to address the commission and then remote participants to speak during the public hearing if you are joining us remotely you can press star 9 on your phone or if or use the raised hand feature if you're viewing this through the web link if you're watching us right now and need to dial in the call-in number is 877-853-5247 and then our meeting id is 977-6634-1226 mr leonard once he returns to the table will select callers that have raised their hand calling on you by the last three digits of your telephone number or by the name that you've used to join the the zoom link you'll hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to
059speak and when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we can hear you clearly and again for either method of participation please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments is there anyone in the chambers that wishes to oh go ahead uh mr leo i was only going to say i can um handle the zoom aspect in brett's absence super i was just gonna try to like kill time tap dancing i don't have a piano like commissioner lee has when we used to zoom um [Music] no one in the council chambers wishes to address us so is there anyone online mr leo we have one hand raised caller with phone number ending five three four please unmute yourself you may you have three
060minutes to address the commission hello this is tom stahlberg again from lowertown i promise to keep it brief i do want to thank the commissioners and staff for addressing the questions uh that myself and others raised during the public hearing so i do appreciate that i also want to point out to um council member and commissioner uh dish that the general public did not hear a word of what you said so if you had anything earth shadowing you may choose to repeat it that's up to you the rest of you have a good night bye thank you we'll have to look into commissioner dish's voice because she was coming across loud and clear here um anyone else mr leonard or ms deleo who was helping us in your absence yeah uh we do have uh
061two more callers the first one i will call uh caller phone number ending in three four five please unmute yourself you have three minutes um funny question hi can you hear me we can go ahead okay this is kittypen calling again um i am not surprised that tc one passed as it did i expected that to happen but i am very disappointed because there are no incentives in that zoning for affordable housing nor sustainability and every caller that called in talking about how happy they are about this zoning and how they want it to be extended to other areas of our city should be aware that there is no incentive for the developer for affordable housing nor sustainability i'm going to say that again there is no incentive for the developer to provide affordable housing
062nor any sustainable of whatever there are no i mean you can probably tell how mad i am about this because i feel like all this talk about affordable housing and sustainability is just talk it's so hypocritical and i hope that the public are paying attention to what's going on here okay that's all goodbye thank you and our final oh i apologize there are no more hands raised a caller 340 i think um call 340 if you'd like to address the planning commission i think you might have had your hand raised i yes uh yes i did um thank you for the opportunity once again uh luis vasquez uh from the first ward uh 909 barton drive um just wanted to uh reiterate uh what mr westfall had to say before about parking minimums and parking
063maximums um i i too uh like that you are considering um not having parking minimums anymore um and you know i i talked about this in light of the recent approvals for 121 east catherine street um i i would have preferred that that uh proposed development not have well have a a very minimum of parking uh i mean there is a parking structure located about two blocks away from the farmers market and that kerrytown commercial district area which is underutilized that that parking structure is uh so you know moving forward um i appreciate uh that planning commission looks at these things but once again please uh you know we we don't need more car storage in our city um so thank you very much for your time and good evening thank you kirk westfall you
064have up to three minutes to address the planning commission thanks um kirk westfall 3505 charter place um just wanted to voice my appreciation for the affirmative vote um it's a great step forward and again if if development doesn't happen immediately in this area i'm sure it will grow organically in other areas as tc1 is expanded i know there's a lot of misconceptions about new housing which tends to be more expensive than existing housing but the point is housing doesn't create people people with means who want to move to the community will either have their choice of where to live and if new housing isn't being created for some of the 80 000 people who drive in you know in regular times um they will outbid other residents of lesser means who are already living here
065or who want to renew their leases we're hearing about incredible jumps in leasing rates now that we're coming out of the pandemic or somewhat and increasing supply is a universal good it again it prevents displacement and it affords more people the opportunity to live closer to where they work and in our school district and our school district wants more people in it our city operates more efficiently the more people live here we don't have to expand services because all the infrastructure is already here so this is all a net positive and [Music] i look forward to hearing other solutions to the housing crisis if folks have those solutions at hand but the research says expanding supply is critical and doing things like inclusive inclusionary zoning where you try to extract affordable units out of developers
066uh it can work in places like new york and san francisco at times but it still raises the rents in the rest of the building because the developer has to make the project pencil out so um seeing more housing coming to the city would be wonderful hopefully it remains car light and and we can reinforce the transit that we have and the great communities that we're building upon thank you so much thank you adam joskowicz you have up to three minutes to address the planning commission hi adam josekiewicz 1430 las vegas drive again i just want to thank you for supporting this and i i do agree with the previous callers that the about increasing supply being critical to reducing our housing shortage um i i just wanted to mention another point that um redevelopment
067and you know new development means additional tax base and we have a millage to support affordable housing in ann arbor so new development does directly increase the amount of money that we have available to build affordable housing on publicly owned parcels and and so forth within the city such as some of the ann arbor housing commission projects that have recently come up on the former y lot and the development that was mentioned by mr vasquez up on catherine so um i just wanted to mention that thank you thank you any other callers mr leonard organ if anybody is joining us this is the last call for the public comment opportunity star nine if you've joined by phone raised hand feature if you're on zoom unindicated all right then we will move on to item 10
068which is commission proposed business i am going to propose that we have a discussion we started this a little bit at orc about what's next what area is next for tc1 um i know that this is this is the last stop for these particular parcels for us staff still has um to prepare these to go before to go before city council but kind of recommendations on getting moving on the next batch in the next area i think is something that i'd like to discuss um among our group thank you there's head nodding any other commission proposed business then i will entertain a motion to adjourn moved by commissioner white seconded by commissioner dish all in favor please raise your hand that is all of the hands thank you enjoy the snow