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Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor. And today, we're taking a look back at what the City of Ann Arbor is most proud of in 2025. And we'll also take a glimpse into the city's future projects and aspirations as we enter 2026. With me today to discuss it all is Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. Thank you for joining me today!
Christopher Taylor: My delight! Thanks for having me!
Caroline MacGregor: Mayor Taylor, let's start perhaps with the city's Comprehensive Land Use Plan to forge a new affordable and sustainable vision for the city. How do you feel things have been going so far?
Christopher Taylor: So, the Comprehensive Land Use Plan has been a subject of conversation in the city since October 2023. It's gone through multiple iterations at the Planning Commission with several opportunities for input from City Council. And now, it's in its final public comment period. And I'm excited about it moving forward! It, of course, doesn't implement zoning. That more precise and detailed conversation is to come, but it does provide some directionality for where we want to go as a city. Like you said, a city where housing is more affordable. Our communitiy is more equitable and sustainable. Our land use policies over the course of years have been at odds with these values and odds with aspirations. And it's important that we do better.
Caroline MacGregor: It seems certainly that housing, nationally, has become such a huge problem. You've got several affordable housing projects. I believe Arbor South needs a few more votes for parking structures.
Christopher Taylor: The Arbor South project does have 200 units of new permanent affordable housing. The tax increment financing plan includes a great deal of public infrastructure, both respect to transportation and solid waste, and of course, parking. But more broadly, we, with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, are looking to address affordability at all income levels. You know, supply and demand is real. We have a supply problem in the city because we have, over the course of years, artificially constrained housing growth, housing building. And so, we have incredibly high demand in this city. And so, prices have gone up. You know, it's not magic. We're not going to wave a magic wand and have everybody be able to live where they want for how much they want, but we do need to do something. And our lever is through supply, and that's what we're looking to do. We also know our established neighborhoods are incredible, and we are not going to do anything to mess that up. We are going to have height limits and setback limits and step back limits, unit limits, bed limits and so forth, where and as appropriate. Those are the hard and complicated questions that we get to when we implement zoning. But fundamentally, we know we have a housing crisis. It's a crisis throughout the country, and there's only one way to bend the curve of housing price increase, and that is through increased supply.
Caroline MacGregor: And quickly to touch on the downtown district library, city voters made their wishes known, despite what was the pretty highly disputed piece of property. You have a great vision for this library, don't you, and members of the City Council?
Christopher Taylor: Yeah. I'm just so excited about this opportunity. With the passage of Proposals A and B, we're going be able to transfer the air rights to the parking structure that's right next to the library to the public library. And they'll be able to build a new, state-of-the-art, absolutely awesome public library on their current location and over the parking structures that's currently there. It will be financed, of course, through their existing resources and, crucially, the air rights further above. The library envisions using that for new housing, some market, some not market. It is going to revitalize that part of the downtown, which, I think, we can all recognize is in sore need of activity. It will realize the vision of the parking structure, which was built at the cost of millions of dollars, so that we could place a 20-story building on top of the park and structure. It will be a jewel for our downtown, a jewel for Ann Arbor. And I'm super excited that the voters concurred with that vision, and that it's all going to move forward.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. Touching on carbon neutrality by 2030, where do we stand?
Christopher Taylor: We continue to go great guns. One thing that I'm incredibly excited about back in '24, the voters authorized us to create the Sustainable Energy Utility, which will enable the city to provide residents who sign up with affordable, 100% renewable, reliable energy. We've hired staff, and we're in the process of signing up customers and envisioning where it can get launched. I am extremely hopeful that, in 2026, we will be able to turn the switch on a pilot to get the Sustainable Energy Utility up and off the ground. Ultimately, of course, for folks who sign up can purchase panels, put them on your roof, and have your energy created on your roofs, purchase batteries for people who want them and put them in homes and people have the additional reliability generated by having batteries. Down in the Bryant neighborhood, this is going to be an incredible reality. It's a low-income neighborhood. We're going to look to turn it into America's first carbon neutral, low-income neighborhood--district geothermal, energy improvements in homes, electrification of appliances, solar where it's wanted. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to reduce costs for folks to increase comfort and safety and do so in a way that accomplishes carbon neutrality goals.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, who is reflecting on his past year in office as he runs for re-election in 2026. Are you concerned at all about the city having an image problem in light of anti-Semitic attacks and pro-Palestinian protests at the University of Michigan, which resulted in some arrests and also, more recently, the firing of Sherrone Moore, the former football coach of U of M.
Christopher Taylor: I mean, I think that we are experiencing, here in Ann Arbor, some of the stressors present throughout the country. You know, I'm incredibly proud of our community and that we're a welcoming community that values pluralism, values civil discourse. We know that we are, well, that we're stronger together. And that everyone belongs in Ann arbor. Everybody is a part of Ann arbor and that we know that we, as a municipal organization, are here to serve absolutely everyone. We also know that the University of Michigan is a global leader in higher education and research, and we couldn't be more proud and excited and grateful that the University's here and doing its great work. You know, I recognize that we're in incredibly difficult time in our country, and while we do our best, we're not immune.
Caroline MacGregor: Okay. The Human Rights Campaign launched the Municipal Equality Index in 2012. Ann Arbor has received full marks on the assessment since 2016, including again recently. This is quite a positive thing for the city.
Christopher Taylor: Yeah, I'm incredibly excited! When I showed up as mayor in 2014, I realized that we weren't getting full marks, and that just was simply unacceptable. We've long been a leader for LGBTQ-plus issues here in Ann Arbor. And it was time that our municipal organization lived up to that aspiration to those values. And I'm just so excited that, for the 10th year in a row, that the HRC has realized that that's what we're doing. We make sure that we have gender-affirming policies, both in the police department and the mayor's office. We take stands against harmful so-called conversion therapy. We have out-and-proud, LGBTQ-plus community members, leaders, elected officials in our community. Ann Arbor's history, in respect to this matter, goes back decades with the first out candidate for public office being elected in the United States of America. Kathy Kozachenko in 1974 being elected for City Council is an out lesbian. This was honored at City Hall with the first LGBTQ-plus state plaque in the state of Michigan. It talks about the importance of her service, the importance about her predecessors on council who came out whilst they were elected officials, the important of the human rights party back in the 70s for this great effort. It's something that Ann Arborites can be extremely proud of, and, as mayor, I certainly am.
Caroline MacGregor: Quickly on the racial front, I know that Cynthia Harrison has been instrumental in trying to bring light to a few things. There was a recent film, "A Ripple in Ann Arbor," and there's been some traffic stops that have been questionable. How is the city progressing on addressing the racial divide?
Christopher Taylor: Sure. Well, I mean, I'm just so grateful for our Council Member Harrison's service in this area, and honestly, every other aspect of the job. She's doing amazing work, and we are grateful for it. The City of Ann Arbor understands that we have in our country a legacy of white supremacy and that it persists to this day, and we are here to counter it. Everyone has a place in Ann Arbor. And with respect to the driving equality ordinance, you've seen a substantial reduction down to, I believe, essentially zero of stops related to vehicle characteristics that are not safety related. We know that our police do great work. Our police are here to serve, but we also know that police interactions with folks are unwelcome. And we want to make sure that we focus on keeping people safe and that folks understand and they know and believe and feel that we're there for them. That's really important to me. I know it's important to Council Member Harrison. I know what's important to Chief Anderson and Administer Dohoney. We're here to make sure that Ann Arbor lives up to its values, its aspirations of being a pluralist society that's here for everyone.
Caroline MacGregor: You announced in November that you are running for re-election. And if you win and complete your term, you'll be the longest serving mayor in Ann Arbor history. Clearly, you feel you're doing a good job. The public feels you're a doing a good job by all measure. Tell me a little bit about your run for re-election.
Christopher Taylor: Yeah. Well, I mean, it'll be a campaign, and it'll run through the winter and the spring, the summer, certainly focused on the Democratic primary in August. It's important to me that we continue the work that we're doing. Ann Arbor, as a municipal organization, we're focused on providing fundamental city services to folks, but we're also focused on improving quality of life. We're going to work on accelerating road spending with an emphasis on creating safe neighborhood and corridor streets. We're working hard to create an unarmed response program because we know that not every call into 911 is looking for a full police response. We're looking to build a thousand-plus units of new, permanent affordable housing to expand housing options that fit within existing neighborhood streetscapes, so that folks who are here, seniors can downsize, young people can move back, divorcing couples can stay. We also know that affordability is crucial, so we want to save residents and businesses money through the Sustainable Energy Utility. We have, and we're going to continue, to look on how we can support tenants by eliminating junk fees and the like. Our water treatment plant, I mentioned on the upfront, we're still using technology from the 1930s. We need to make sure that it is refreshed and improved, so that the water treatment plant and clean, fresh water can be here for everyone for decades to come.
Caroline MacGregor: All right! Well, thank you so much! Today, my guest has been City of Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor. And we've been just doing a look back over 2025 and look forward into 2026. Thank you for joining me today!
Christopher Taylor: A delight! Thank you!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
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