ANN ARBOR — Members of the Ann Arbor planning commission are forging ahead on a new vision for development and housing in the city, intent on taking steps towards offering more housing options. However, the current plan has some residents crying foul, arguing the proposal will create more development, but not more affordable housing.

The city first began crafting the new plan in the Summer of 2023. Under state law, Michigan communities must have a master plan on file to serve as a guide for development and ensure any developments meet certain criteria.

While the plan is still in draft form – with another draft on the way – some Ann Arborites are calling on the commission and the city council to “pause the plan” arguing the draft is misguided, raising concerns with several of the projections included in the document and calling for more public outreach in shaping the project plan.

Residents argue public should be more involved in planning process

Tom Stulberg, a member of the steering team for the Ann Arbor Neighborhood Network, told the Michigan Advance that the group would like city officials to pause their efforts on the plan to engage with residents at a neighborhood level, so each neighborhood could be evaluated for what might work in each area. From that engagement the city could assemble a community vision on what the citizens of Ann Arbor want the future of the city to look like.

John Godfrey, another member of the group’s steering team said the Neighborhood Network was launched out of concerns that the comprehensive plan process was moving forward without residents knowing about it, pointing to a goal of reconnecting residents with civic life.

According to the group’s website, it has gathered more than 3,600 signatures on a petition calling on the city council to suspend the planning process and take steps to unite the community by ensuring all residents are fully informed about the comprehensive plan.

“I think we’re moving toward a new level of just civic engagement. If we can sustain this after the comprehensive plan, and find ways to bring the residents together into more regular conversations with one another, not directed by the city, but directed by the residents themselves. That would be a good and healthy thing to do,” Godfrey said.

He pointed to Boulder, Colorado and Madison, Wisconsin as examples of how Ann Arbor should be approaching their comprehensive plan, noting that those plans were driven by input from neighborhoods.

Lisa Disch, councilmember for Ann Arbor’s Ward 1 and the council’s representative on the city planning commission, said there have been a number of opportunities for the public to engage and offer input on the plan, noting that the consultants working with the city on the plan held several meetings at the city’s downtown and branch libraries as well as events at summer festivals and fairs.

However, she said the Ann Arbor Neighborhood Network’s opposition to aspects of the planning process has drawn a lot of attention to the plan, bringing on an unforeseen round of public engagement through May.

According to the project’s website, the council began stakeholder interviews and data collection in Fall 2023, and distributed an online survey in Winter 2024, holding public engagement sessions in April and May of this year following the release of the draft plan.

As of April of this year, the planning commission and the city council have held eight open houses, had more than 30 participants in seven small group discussions and targeted outreach efforts, held more than 20 interviews with individuals, while the city has received more than 3,100 survey responses.

However, members of the Ann Arbor Neighborhood Network have emphasized the survey’s non-scientific nature, pointing to a disclaimer noting that the survey was not intended to statistically represent the entire community.

In a May 5 memo sent to the city council, the network argued the city council’s outreach efforts were insufficient, with the city failing to mail residents a notice about the effort and how to engage.

In retrospect, Disch said she might have thought about sending out a postcard earlier in the process.

“It seems like a pretty simple thing, and it might have caught more people’s attention, but it might not have. They might have just thrown them out, and we get a bunch of those bounced back,” she said.

Following the release of the next draft of the plan, Disch said there will be a 63-day comment period on the revised draft, which she expects will begin in late summer and early fall and will likely be accompanied by a community-wide mailing with information on how to participate.

Questions on goals and debates on housing needs

Alongside concerns around engagement, the Neighborhood Network also raised concerns about several pieces of data within the plan, arguing that the current draft fails to meet both best practices for city planning and the state’s requirements that a master plan include guidelines and strategies for providing “a range of housing types, costs, affordability, attainability, ages, and other characteristics, including single- and multiple-family dwellings, to serve the housing demands of a diverse population.”

In a May 5 memo to the city council and the planning commission, the network slammed the initial draft of the proposal, arguing the plan puts forth goals, without citing proper evidence or offering any methodology, while failing to consider the impacts new housing development would have on infrastructure, demographics, the tax burden on local communities and its effects on the city’s long-term financial stability.

The group has also split with the city council on the best way to address Ann Arbor’s steep housing costs.

Looking toward 2050, one of the draft comprehensive plan’s goals is to increase the supply and diversify the types of housing available for households of different sizes, abilities and income levels.

Disch compared the severity of Ann Arbor’s housing affordability issues to those in San Francisco, identifying zoning constraints as part of that problem.

In hopes of addressing these issues, the council is looking to bring more homes into single-family zoned areas, with Disch explaining that it should be possible to build at least two homes per parcel in the city’s lowest density residential areas under this plan.

While the city’s current housing stock mostly consists of single family homes and multifamily apartments and condos, the new comprehensive plan would look to add more medium-density housing – like duplexes, triplexes, quadraplexes, townhomes and court housing – into existing neighborhoods.

However, Stulberg, a former subdivision developer, noted that simply building these missing middle housing types does not equal missing middle prices.

Godfrey argued the planning commission and city council had taken too straightforward an approach to the issue, contending the city’s issue stems from affordability rather than supply.

While the plan calls for sustainability and to reduce the number of commuters to reduce carbon emissions, an increased supply of expensive housing within the city could result in population growth without reducing the number of commuters, Stulberg said, as developers build more affordable housing in the greater Ann Arbor area.

Godfrey also noted that developers within the city are responding to the influx of college students – with enrollment at the University of Michigan reaching a record high in 2024 – by building up expensive high rises close to campus.

Developers are also targeting retirees and alums who are looking to relive their college days, meaning that the market is not responsive to the individuals who cannot afford to live in the city, he said.

Instead of relying on the market to provide affordable housing, Godfrey pointed to other community based solutions like cooperative housing and the Ann Arbor Community Land Trust, which aims to offer affordable housing options to critical workers who are otherwise unable to afford a home in the city.

Throughout most of the country, affordability is tied to income, as people who earn less than the average income are unable to afford housing in their area, Godfrey said. However, Ann Arbor has become a major job center. With hubs like the university and its hospital, and high amenities within the city, the issue lies with supply, Disch argued.

She also emphasized that it will take time to catch up with the excess demand and stabilize rental costs.

Greg Matthews, one of the lead organizers of Neighbors for More Neighbors Ann Arbor, a coalition of residents in support of the draft plan, said the lack of building for years has led the city to its crisis of affordability. While increasing supply is necessary, it’s not a silver bullet, Matthews said.

While loosening zoning regulations that prevent the buildup of different types of housing options in order will help meet demand for housing, new developments also support funding for the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, which provides housing to low-income residents.

However, tax rates for current Ann Arbor homeowners are capped, meaning that new developments, whose property values are not capped, will bring in additional revenue for subsidized housing.

“I think all of Ann Arbor can approach these issues with open minds and open hearts and understand that the status quo isn’t working and that change is badly needed,” Matthews said.