This meeting was held in person at City Hall.
APPROVED: A site plan for 215-217 South Main Street. (Legistar)
- According to the staff report (link) a 3,524 square foot addition will be built on the rear of a 17,020 square foot three-story downtown mixed-use building. Two ground floor commercial spaces totaling 6879 square feet will be maintained, and eight two-bedroom residential apartment units totaling 8623 square feet will be added on the second and third floors.
APPROVED: Amendments to Sections 5.15 and 5.16 of the Unified Development Code related to General Entertainment Use Specific Standards (Legistar)
- Two named uses – enclosed theaters (600 seat maximum) and pinball parlors – would be removed from the code and allowed in all districts where “general entertainment” is permitted. Currently both theaters and pinball parlors are restricted to only Campus Business zoning districts. With amendments, they would be permitted as a primary use in commercially zoned districts, downtown districts, and transit corridor districts.
- These amendments were approved by City Council on April 21, 2025. https://a2council.com/ann-arbor-city-council-april-21-2025/.
APPROVED: Amendments to Sections 5.17, 5.27 and 5.28 of the Unified Development Code will eliminate the Design Review Board, modify the design review process to an administrative function, and revise the downtown building material regulations to permit exterior insulation finishing systems. (Legistar)
- Dissolution of the Design Review Board is consistent with recommendations offered by former Assistant City Administrator John Fournier in 2023 in a report titled “A New Approach to Economic Development” (link)
- Among his recommendations (page 48) “The utility of the Design Review Board is debatable…. It delays review of the site plan documents and extends the overall approval timeline… the review from the Design Review Board rarely uncovers missed opportunities for favorable design changes… As these meeting are held in compliance with the OMA, city planning staff must notice and advertise them, prepare agendas and packets, attend them, compile minutes from them, and document the comments of the board members…several hours [of staff time] for each meeting per staff member— and this is time that is taken away from a planner actually working on site plan review and seeing it through to completion, which is what their focus should be.”
- Fournier’s recommendations – to accelerate approval time and remove review and public hearing procedures for new developments – were, by resolution, unanimously approved by City Council in April 2024. (Legistar)
- On April 21, 2025, City Council approved these amendments, after removing changes to allow exterior insulation finishing systems. https://a2council.com/ann-arbor-city-council-april-21-2025/
Legistar and Video Links
Legistar: https://a2gov.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1252594&GUID=CA6A6068-C20D-46F8-AA69-BF3286EC0C83
YouTube: https://youtu.be/Pd09Gg_WLoQ
CTN Video: https://ctnvideo.a2gov.org/CablecastPublicSite/show/10324
Meeting Length: 1h 39m