RESOURCES:
Ann Arbor Comprehensive Land Use Plan
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: You're listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline McGregor, and my guest today is Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. Thank you for joining me.
Christopher Taylor: Thank you.
Caroline MacGregor: The City of Ann Arbor, like many cities around Michigan and the U.S., is experiencing problems with housing--affordable housing, housing in general. We're seeing more people move to the area, and there's expectations that some people may even move to Michigan because of climate change. So, the need for housing continues to be a top priority. I know the city has a plan to increase housing density. Tell me about this plan, if you would.
Christopher Taylor: Yeah. Well, without regard to climate migration or job growth, we already have a housing crisis. We already have, in Ann Arbor, demand that substantially outstrips supply. We see that by an increase in housing prices, by housing unaffordability, unattainability. And son without regard to those future conditions, we have conditions of overdemand now. And son we are looking to expand housing availability, housing supply in the city to meet the demand to reduce the affordability crisis that we have. We are undergoing a process, since October 2023, revising our Comprehensive Land use Plan with a view towards expanding housing opportunities and housing availability in the city.
Caroline MacGregor: I know the plan entails different criteria, and you're going to solicit public opinion. That said, do you envision Ann Arbor having more high-rise buildings in the future?
Christopher Taylor: Well, a couple of different things. First off, I'd say the plan is in co-ed. We are in the process of public engagement. Even if you've heard about the plan and back in October 2023, when we started outreach and been one of the thousands of people who've participated, your input matters. If you heard about plan yesterday or by this communication, your input matters. And it is not too late. You have an opportunity to influence the plan, as of now, all the way really through the fall. We also are going to look to increase housing supply throughout the city. In some instances, that's gonna mean increased availability of height. I would expect to see more in the downtown. I'd expect to seen more in transit quarters. And I'd expect to see quite modest increases in detached home areas that we presently have in the city right now. We have a height limit of 30 feet in single-structure residential districts. I'd expect that to increase to about 35 feet or so, but time will tell. The plan is still underway, and we'll see what happens.
Caroline MacGregor: So, the focus is going to be on housing in general, not just affordable housing. Is that correct?
Christopher Taylor: Well, with respects to affordable housing, affordable housing is, of course, a defined term. Affordable housing is housing that meets HUD criteria, is income qualified, and is typically supported by tax credits and the like. The Comprehensive Land Use Plan does talk about HUD-qualified affordable housing but that's, by no means, its exclusive focus. We are looking to accomplish greater housing availability, greater housing attainability. We are not going to sharply decrease the cost of housing in the City of Ann Arbor. But if we do nothing, housing prices--rental prices--will continue to increase substantially in excess of inflation, and that's just not acceptable. Supply and demand is real. It's real, and it's at play here in Ann Arbor and has created our current condition. The only way that we can affect housing prices over the long term is by either decreasing demand, by having a lousy city, which we do not intend to do, or by increasing housing supply. That's our option. So, we are looking at affordable housing, which would be tax credit supported, property tax millage supported. We are expanding affordable housing through our housing commission, looking to build hundreds of units per year if we can accomplish it now that we're up and running. But this Comprehensive Land Use Plan is far more broad-based. It looks to obtain housing attainability by increasing housing supply in the ordinary market.
Caroline MacGregor: This is somewhat related obviously, but with Ann Arbor's rising homeless population, what is the city doing to address this issue?
Christopher Taylor: So, Ann Arbor is the county seat. And of course, it is the physical location of the county's unhoused support center with the Delonis Center. And so, we do see a lot of Washtenaw County's unhoused population come to the City of Ann Arbor. But we do need to find homes and houses for people. We operate on a housing first model. We are looking to, in the course of building affordable housing, build housing that is income qualified for folks who earn between 30%t and 60% of their area median income, folks who are working but having a hard time finding a place to live. But we also are looking and have built homes and structures for folks who earn between zero and 30% of area median income--typically, people who have some kind of need for supportive services. One of the things that we are doing at the city is we're making sure that we co-locate services with these housing areas. So, if we are putting together a structure for folks who make between zero and 30% of area median income, that is typically because of a variety of life challenges and complications and illnesses and traumas that require supportive services. And the best way to help these folks get them on their feet, get them housed, get them stable and enable them to move on with their lives, I don't mean push them out, I mean to progress with their lives, is by providing housing and supportive services in a co-located environment, and that's what we're doing.
Caroline MacGregor: If you've just tuned in, I'm speaking with Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. I want to ask you next about energy--a big subject for Ann Arbor. Your goal as a city is to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, I believe.
Christopher Taylor: Yes.
Caroline MacGregor: You're currently operating on 70% renewable energy. Is that correct?
Christopher Taylor: I think the municipal organization certainly is, and we are looking to accelerate that even further, but the goals of A2Zero reach beyond the municipal organization. It looks to accomplish community-wide carbon neutrality. And that's a tall order, but we continue to work extremely hard to accomplish it. One of the foundations of the work to accomplish community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030 is greening our grid. Our original plan was, with the help of the cooperation of the Legislature, to use community choice aggregation that proved to be unattainable because of the Legislature. So now, we're looking to pivot to other means. Back in 2022, the voters passed our Community Climate Action Millage, which funds this project to the tune of about $8 million a year from local property taxes. In 2024, the voters authorized the creation of the Sustainable Energy Utility, an opt-in supplemental energy utility, which will provide residents when it becomes operational with 100% renewable, reliable and, we believe, low-cost energy at their homes, businesses and other locations throughout the city.
Caroline MacGregor: I know the City Council narrowly rejected replacing DTE with a municipally owned public utility, and Ann Arbor for Public Power has indicated they will put the measure on the 2026 ballot. What are your thoughts on this?
Christopher Taylor: Yeah, well, I have not seen A2P2's proposed petition, so I don't have the ability to comment on that. I will say I supported the phase two study to conduct an analysis of the value of DTE's existing assets to get some insight as to the cost of proceeding with the condemnation process. It is an extremely expensive multi-year effort to have the city seize DTE's assets and then resolve the compensation for those assets. But I also understand that there are lots of folks in the city who are looking to have exclusively public-owned electricity throughout the city. We will have a publicly owned utility through the sustainable energy utility, but it is opt-in. It is supplemental. It does not replace DTE. And so, I recognize that there are folks who are working hard on this, and I'm eager to see where we go next.
Caroline MacGregor: Quickly just touching on the library issue, which I know has become quite controversial. Tell me what's going on there if you would.
Christopher Taylor: So, right now, we have on our August ballot, Proposals A and B. Proposal A would authorize the city to transfer the library lot, the parking lot on Fifth Avenue, ultimately to the Ann Arbor District Library for the purpose of creating new library services, housing, public open space, public performance space and meeting space, and local business incubation services. Proposal B would repeal an existing charter amendment, which would prohibit that transfer. The current library, which is next door to the Library Lot, it's much beloved, but it is long past its useful life. It has severe infrastructure issues and is not practical as a long-term solution for our much beloved district library. And so, they're looking to expand and to create a library center that really has a state-of-the-art, beautiful library that enables and activates a great deal of mixed income housing at the site that provides some open space downtown for people to gather and meet and really turns what is now a dead zone into a place of vibrancy, activity and learning.
Caroline MacGregor: What would happen to the old building then?
Christopher Taylor: The old building would be torn down. The old building, if you talk to a library facilities person and we'll have a conversation, the current building, although they put a good face on it for members of the public, it's not saveable. The plan would be to have a new library constructed, utilizing both sites and to have housing on top of both sites. If the proposal passes, if the library moves forward in the way that is currently contemplated, there would be hundreds of units of mixed-income housing on top of both the Library Lot parcel and the current library parcel. Below that would be a state-of-the-art library with, of course, all the regular library services with public open space on the outside of the parcel, performance space, the local business incubation, and so forth. We expect this to be accomplished without new taxes.
Caroline MacGregor: That's always good!
Christopher Taylor: It's always good!
Caroline MacGregor: I've been speaking with Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. Thank you so much for joining me today!
Christopher Taylor: Thank you!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on X (Twitter)
Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org
