001we'll call - meeting or to order the meeting of the Vanover Planning Commission this is the November 7th meeting we'll start with well I did the call to order and so the roll call thank your commissioner aprons Commissioner Ackerman commissioner brakes commissioner give Randall Commissioner a hammerschmidt here commissioner Mills here commissioners woods yeah we have a quorum great there are no introductions so the minutes of the previous meeting from the October 1st Planning Commission meeting seconded by Commissioner give Randall any Corrections or discussion all in favor of approving the minutes please say aye aye next is approval of the agenda miss Julie oh I have a suggestion or recommendation that the agenda be amended before it is approved the item number 9b which is a prepetition conference for a proposed PUD project at 2195 East
002Ellsworth that that be removed from the regular business portion and then moved to after the adjournment and it be discussed in a working session well anyone move the agenda as amended seconded sorry it was moved by Commissioner Briggs seconded by Commissioner I know your Sarah and I don't know hammerschmidt yes all right all right I don't share this very often audience sorry all in favor of the agenda as amended we say hi I that is everybody next is item 6 reports from city administration City Council Planning Manager Planning Commission officers and committees written communications and petitions so first we'll start with Commissioner Ackerman our city representative thank you madam chair just a few items of update from Monday night City Council meeting first two properties were acquired by the city one a Greenbelt property outside
003of the city limits the second new Natural Area purchased as parkland within the city limits the the downtown of affordable housing premium ordinance amendments passed unanimously at second reading without any material amendments so congratulations on a job well done to miss Dooley oh the staff member who worked on that and to all the commissioners who apparently perfected it so it has been ten years since the last time our downtown premiums were updated in a material fashion and I look forward to monitoring the effect that these updates bring and hopefully bring many more units of affordable housing as well as funding to the affordable housing fund and finally last update City Council also passed a resolution calling the city to lead the efforts of creating a carbon neutral community by these have land-use obviously plays a
004huge role in how we emit carbon as a city and so this commission will be placed centrally and a lot of policy decisions that will need to be made some of them very difficult some of them will hanging fruit but probably most of them very difficult so thank you very good planning manager mr. Leo do you have something I I do not have anything at this evening all right are there any Planning Commission officers or committees that want to report out I would just say that on environmental Commission obviously the emergency Climate Action thing came through us first and I think there's gonna need to be some some good working together in terms of some of the policies and and budgeting and things like not that we make budgeting decisions about thinking about projects and
005all those kinds of things that will really be absolutely necessary in order to be able to move towards that goal in any kind of realistic way so I would imagine that there may need to be some more meshing in terms of environmental Commission and Planning Commission as we try to figure out how to hit that goal because that's coming up fast sorry give an update from housing and Human Services Advisory Board boss irrelevant to City Council since April staff from the Housing Commission the Planning Office in the finance office at City Hall have been working on a feasibility study of multiple publicly owned properties for their viability - for the construction of affordable housing that report is now ready and will be presented to City Council on November 17th I believe is the Monday might
006be the 18th but the report is available on legislative it a read it's it's very encouraging there are nine city-owned properties are developable and stand a good chance of getting federal and state funding to provide affordable housing so really encouraging the report is very detailed and it's a first step towards a very tangible plan to see that happen very good all right now I'll say there are no other committee reports 6d is written communications and petitions and there were a number of things in our packet and I think printed off before you perhaps and the next item on our agenda is audience participation audience members may speak for three minutes about an item that is not listed on the public hearing on this agenda so if you would like to make a public comment you
007can please approach the podium and state your name and address for the record all right I don't see anyone so I will close the audience participation and move on to item number eight which is the public hearing scheduled for the next business meeting mr. Yeo do you want me to read these okay great so there will be a public hearing that's oh yeah for the next one I can explain that we had a we had a technical error in the public hearing notice for these four we park reasonings so we will be holding another public hearing at the next meeting so this is accurate and feels like deja vu got it great so for the next meeting which will be back to our not our regularly scheduled Tuesday it's the third Tuesday of the month
008so Tuesday November 19th at 7 p.m. we will have rezoning of three city parks and one addition to Hanson Park from the current zoning district designations two public land district for city council approval those are button bush nature area chicory nature area and unnamed 1.3 acre park on East Eisenhower and 1.5 acre addition to Hanson Park there's also three six 36:11 236 21 Plymouth Road rezoning site plan with planned project modifications and special exception use for a drive-through facility and 2385 East Ellsworth special exception use for a medical marijuana provisioning Center and marijuana retailer if you have any questions about these you can let's see it says you can contact planning services unit okay now regular business so we have one item of regular business which is this is where the DejaVu comes in the
009rezoning of the three new city parks and one addition to Hanson Park so mrs. DeLeo will give a presentation then we'll have the public hearing and we'll discuss the motion thank you this is a rezoning of four park properties that were recently acquired I will we we have written a single staff report and we are holding one single public hearing tonight as well as another the next meeting but plant I'm sorry City Council will be taking these separately when it gets to them the first rezoning and also let me say that purchasing or accepting land donations does not automatically change a zoning designation zoning map is part of the chapter 55 the UDC and only an ordinance to amend the UDC and the zoning map can change the zoning designation of any land so even
010though these are now under the city ownership APL public land zoning designation does not automatically move forward we need to go through this rezoning process the button bush nature area is the first that we are rezoning it's located at 2601 devarnè Road that's between north spur way and north Fox Ridge it's a total of 16 acres about six acres was donated by the Toll Brothers and another ten acres was purchased by the city this came with the North Oaks project the development of the Nixon farm into the North Oaks neighborhood it is currently zoned r4a with conditions as is the adjacent North Oaks and we are proposing to rezone it to pl the second area is the chicory nature area located at 2817 Dillon Drive it's about two acres of natural area donated by Pulte
011Homes part of their north sky development it is currently zoned r1 D as is the adjacent north sky site and we are proposing to rezone it to pl third piece of property is 385 East Eisenhower Parkway this is I'm sorry this is just more than one acre donated as part of the mallets view office Center development and PUD it was donated in 2007 and it is currently zoned PUD we are proposing to rezone it to two PL and finally there has been an addition to the Hanson Nature area at 1200 South maple road this 1.5 acre piece that I've circled in red came from Avalon nonprofit housing corporation as part of their hickory way site plan so with this addition Hanson nature area is now 9 acres the piece is currently zoned r 4b as
012is the adjacent hickory way site and we are proposing to rezone it to pl I would be happy to answer any additional questions and again this will come before you again next week I'm sorry next meeting we will be recommending approval but tonight we are recommending that it be postponed so that a proper public hearing can be advertised and held very good now we will open up the public hearing if anyone would like to address the Planning Commission on this item of business please step forward and again state your name and address for the record seeing no takers I will close the public hearing but again remind people that there will be an opportunity to speak at the next meeting all right I will read the motion the motion reads the Ann Arbor City Planning
013Commission hereby recommends that the mayor and city council approved the button bush nature area rezoning from our for a with conditions multiple family dwelling to pl public land the chicory nature area rezoning from r1d single-family dwelling to PL the 385 east Eisenhower Parkway Park rezoning from PUD Planned Unit development to PL and the Hanson nature nature area addition rezoning from r4 be multiple family dwelling to pl do I have a commissioner who will move this moved by Commissioner wood seconded by Commissioner get Randall any discussion Commissioner breaks few questions about these personals a if I understand the button bush one that's kind of a more sensitive I can follow up with parks and nap I do believe it has some at least medium perhaps high quality that nature natural areas on it I guess what
014I was yeah so I was wondering just about a little bit of the the process for accepting this obviously just helping us understand maybe even for the next public hearing in terms of as when uh when we when land is offered sort of how that is assessed I've been thinking about how much of our Park land is adjacent to highways which not you know in terms of I don't know what percentage that would be but in a few of this it's kind of evident that some of its it's next to highways and it obviously provides a nice buffer for the folks who are living in those communities but I'm just curious how parks kind of thinks about that land in terms of park space as well I will if I'll have a follow-up I do
015recall during the site plan process for the North Oaks projects that Knapp the Natural Area preservation advocated and expressed interest in that particular piece I they that's why I had mentioned that it has at least medium perhaps has some high quality woodlands they there are some open areas on the Ochs South peace that they actually said that was that they did not want to take on and they would not accept a donation so specific to this one I'll ask about what qualities make it yeah I was particularly wondering about the chicory nature very happy nice and I Commissioner did Randall following on Commissioner Briggs comments I'd be curious with the the chicory nature area I know that there were some plans afoot to be able to have some sort of way to move north south
016along there and connect it down to the boardwalk near the river and so I would be curious to see how that would fit into a larger picture of connectivity both for habitat and people moving through that area is that something that the city is still actively trying to strategically make happen or I know that that that was a while ago that I heard about that as an effort and I'm just curious to see frankly if any of these projects fit into any kind of larger schema of how parks are connected both for human use and habitat yes we'll have follow-up for you Commissioner woods and then I would also have a question as to those who are making these donations which appears to be generosity on their part is there any sort of financial benefit
017which comes to the person who's making the donation and in particular I'm just curious about Avalon being a non-profit housing corporation it almost seems like why would they give up a resource which could be very important to them at some point in the future and turn it over to the city so just things I'd like to know I can address the piece from Hanson nature area and Avalon the the piece that they donated is covered in wetland area so it is unbuildable for them so this this moves it off of their responsibility onto the city's responsibility it is unbuildable and they get credit for the area for a floor area and density purposes so they are not penalized by donating the land but it is unbuildable and so it makes their ownership piece smaller for
018manageability and they might have less tax burden because of it their smaller land size that I'm not certain given their nonprofit status but they did not donate buildable land anything else Randall seconded by Commissioner Briggs any discussion on the motion to postpone all in favor of postponement please say aye aye is everyone all right so we will see this next time we've moved item 9b so now we are on to item 10 which is audience participation again lots of opportunities to participate folks anybody who is interested to talk about any issue that they want and come forward you've got the podium for three minutes just please state your name and address all right well close item 10 there is now we're on item 11 Commission proposed business and there's something already in our packets that
019has been proposed for us in your packets you have a memo from planning manager Bret letter about the City Council's legislative policy agenda and the Planning Commission's recommendation of to it City Council has a committee that drafts a policy agenda it's provided the committee provides it to Council for adoption prior to finalizing that the City Council seeks advice and recommendations from its advisory boards and commissions and the Planning Commission is one of them we have attached the last two policy agendas that have been adopted if the Planning Commission has any policy feedback that they'd like to forward to the City Council I can provide a template for moving and suggesting something to be included I'll just hit the highlights the topics that have been covered in the past two years the policy agenda included recommendations
020in the interest of creating and sustaining an affordable and welcoming community policies in the interest of creating and sustaining local and regional mobility and transportation safety policies in the interest of promoting a sustainable and healthy environment policies in the interest of providing open transparent effective and financially sound local government policies in the interest of preserving the right of self-determination in our community in the interest of safe and welcoming and inclusive community in the interests of providing a financially stable local government promoting responsible economic development in the interest of protecting the environment as responsible stewards of a natural resource and in the interest of building and maintaining a sustainable infrastructure one final one in the interests of supporting workplace safety job security and the right of employees to organize so those were the kinds of topics
021that City Council has prepared policy agenda for and if the Planning Commission has would like to forward any comments to them I'll be happy to arrange that do you want one now do you have one that's come before us before and actually now this is part of my day job it's coming up is something to propose an advance monitor and monitor initiatives that allow municipalities to exceed the state's energy code I don't know if you recall before those of you who were on Commission a couple of years ago when we talked about trying to what options we had to require increased energy efficiency right now you cannot require that in new buildings you can you can require it as if you as an incentive which is what one of the things that we had in
022our in our premiums is that if you had more efficient buildings you might get a premium but the state's energy code doesn't let you exceed it and so I think that that's particularly as commissioner Gabriel talked about that's really important if we're going to achieve our carbon goals carbon neutrality goals in that case I would I suggest that perhaps someone would like to move to recommend allowing municipalities to exceed the energy code as a inclusion or focus area of the FY 2021 legislative policy agenda and someone else can support that Commissioner Ackerman will move that thank you does anyone Commissioner hammerschmidt well and I've learn it I will learn it any discussion all right all in favor of this motion please say aye anybody opposed okay I would imagine I don't know what the timing
023of this is but particularly I think as the carbon neutrality Commission comes into play I think that there's potentially other roadblocks that well I know there are the roadblocks that do not necessarily have to do exactly with the work that we have before us that I think it's just helpful to pass along that there's more on carbon or even carbon neutrality and particularly with we worth respect to some utility policies that I think might want to be added on there okay any oh yes so are you looking for all those suggestions tonight or are those can be moved forward soon or I believe that the that council policy agenda committee will be moving forward their recommendations to Council for adoption in early 2020 so perhaps January or February so I think we may still have
024a more of a more window of time to forward additional suggestions to them but I don't think we have a very great window any other Commission proposes business I just have a question there was something within our packet on a comment from the Transportation Committee about the CIP and I was just wondering if you had any information on this is the CIP is the capital improvements plan I'm was wondering if you have any information on when will be discussing the CIP I personally do not have that information but I can follow up and with an email as soon as possible if I can get that answered this week and if not by the next meeting great it's something that we discuss every year so I don't think we've missed it because we it's been a
025while since we discussed it is too in winter so I think so so but I just wanted to because it was you know in there in case anybody from the Transportation Commission is listening we saw it we will make sure that when we talk about the CIP we include meeting there was a question about how to how to move forward on some issues and I knew that there was a process and so I told them probably the easiest thing is to let the Planning Commission know that you're interested in that and the advisors to the Transportation Committee did not know yet either when it was going to be coming before us so that's how that happened very good perhaps I might suggest that this is something that if if it hasn't already been forwarded to
026miss Gosselin and so that it can be incorporated when we see the first draft it was just asking for a couple things to be included maybe they're already on there but understanding kind of why they may or may not be is really helpful any other oh there is other I wasn't sure it seemed a little bit different the comments that we got this time around there was over about a month and a half of you know like the Transportation Commission that that was from a September 18th and I suspect it took a little while to maybe pull together that statement I can't remember I think it was dated well no no that's dated August 8th so and then it was adopted September 18 so it's just kind of curious and then there was some correspondence
027which I think we got already from from Kirk Westfall on October 1st but it just seemed like it had taken a while for some of this correspondence to get to us which would seemed a little bit unusual so just a comment for the future thank you yeah now that you're mentioning it the dates for all of these are anything else I will entertain a motion to adjourn moved by Commissioner giv Randall seconded by Commissioner Abrams we are the the public meeting is adjourned the TV cameras will at some point shut off we do have still a working session that you are welcome to stick around for but it is it's a separate thing so during that we'll also have an opportunity at a working session there's an opportunity for public comments will we don't have
028a technical agenda for this so what I would suggest is what we often do in the working session if it's amenable to the Commission is take any public comment about the working session at the beginning and then perhaps again at the end okay so we'll take that public comment first if anyone wants to you've got another offer you