Please vote YES on the resolution directing the City’s Planning Commission to Create a T-1 Development District. This ongoing project by the City’s planning staff and commission (T1 Transit Support District) was last introduced in October 2019 but has been tabled without discussion, and deserves to move forward without delay. The T1 zone is based on extensive input and language contained in several community-vetted master plans dating back as far as 2009, all asking for more housing density along major corridors outside of downtown. This zone has the potential to allow a significant number of apartments near job centers, campus, and bus lines—all car-light or car-free—along arterial roads that are now mostly parking lots, strip malls, 1-2 story office parks, or lawns. This zone does not make anything go away or force property owners to change what’s there; it just allows a great deal more flexibility to build housing. Creating this zone does not actually rezone anything currently, it just becomes a zone that can be requested by a property owner. If a landowner requests such re-zoning, staff, planning commission, and ultimately city council would have to approve it. Staff believes that areas appropriate for T1 zoning consideration include Washtenaw Ave, S State St & Eisenhower, and other corridors like Packard, Plymouth, Stadium and Jackson (perhaps in scaled-down versions). As proposed, anywhere that’s within 300 feet of residential property would be capped at 80 feet and taper down to 30 feet as you get closer to existing residences (read: no shadows). For areas outside of 300 feet (think the Arborland parking lot or the west side of State & Eisenhower), no density or height caps are proposed. The first floor of new buildings would have to be built up to the street and be transparent to allow for mixed use. Buildings constructed under this zoning would:

• Provide badly-needed housing supply and therefore mitigate rent escalation
• Offer a large number of people a chance to live closer to work, school, or the amenities they enjoy
• Allow some of the lowest carbon footprint living in the region
• Provide new tax revenue for infrastructure, without adding to infrastructure burden
• Ameliorate overall traffic congestion.

The community has been waiting over 10 years for action on this—it might be two years before we act on recommendations coming out of the master planning process. As we speak, people are being priced out of the under-supplied housing market in Ann Arbor, forcing them to commute further for their jobs and straining budgets, roads, parking, and emissions levels. Council needs to act now.

 

Thank you for your consideration,

 

Executive Committee

Sierra Club Huron Valley Group