3
Thursday, June 9, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS
See AMTRAK, Page 9
Resolution to disclose Amtrak
station study fails in narrow vote
City councilmembers
criticize lack of project
transparency regarding
internal report
By BRIAN KUANG
Daily Summer News Editor
The
proposed
Ann
Arbor
Amtrak station — which has been
long-delayed — came under fire
for an alleged lack of transparency
from City Council members at
Monday evening’s meeting.
The rail station was originally
proposed in 2009, and the city
accepted a $2.8 million federal
grant to explore options for a new
facility in 2012. An alternatives
analysis on potential locations of
the new station was expected for
public release in the summer of
2015 but has been delayed without
explanation by city staff members.
A
Freedom
of
Information
Act request by the Ann Arbor
News in May found significant
portions of the draft analysis
and
correspondence
between
city
officials,
the
Michigan
Department of Transportation and
Federal Railway Administration to
be heavily redacted.
Councilmembers
Sumi
Kailasapathy (D–Ward 1), Jack
Eaton (D–Ward 4) and Jane Lumm
(I–Ward 2) introduced a resolution
demanding the disclosure of the
entire report and all relevant
correspondence,
arguing
this
would be in the public interest.
However, other councilmembers
and Mayor Christopher Taylor
expressed concern that a premature
disclosure would have unintended
consequences.
The
resolution
for disclosure failed in a narrow
5-to-6 vote. All councilmembers
acknowledged
they
themselves
had not yet seen the report or
the relevant correspondence, but
those opposed to the resolution
expressed faith in the city staff
conducting the analyses.
In
addition
to
Eaton,
Kailasapathy
and
Lumm,
councilmembers Sabra Briere (D–
Ward 1) and Chuck Warpehoski
(D–Ward
5)
voted
in
favor
of
disclosure.
Voting
against
disclosure were Councilmembers
Kirk Westphal (D–Ward 2), Julie
Grand
(D–Ward
3),
Zachary
Ackerman (D–Ward 3), Graydon
Krapohl (D–Ward 4) and Chip
Smith (D–Ward 5) — in addition to
Mayor Taylor.
Eaton said the development
of the rail station project cannot
continue behind closed doors,
arguing that early public input
through a transparent process
would prevent issues further down
the project timeline, pointing
to the backlash concerning the
University of Michigan’s lack of
transparency in its recent attempt
to construct a maintenance facility
near several Ann Arbor residential
neighborhoods.
“They went about the entire
decision making process without
really engaging people,” Eaton
said, referring to the University’s
administration. “If we want to
avoid that kind of public outcry
when we release information, we
need to engage the public and let
them know what the state and
federal agencies believe are the
problems with our ideas of the
potential sites.”
Eaton and Kailasapathy also said
negative rumors were circulating
among their constituents about
the project, and a disclosure would
dispel these concerns.
Taylor said the early release of
the draft analysis could provide
misleading
and
inaccurate
information
that
would
skew
the public input process to the
project. Taylor insisted that only
a finalized report with approval
KOMEL KHAN/Daily
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor attends an Ann Arbor City Council Meeting on Monday.
Petition to prevent library
lot sale reflects diverging
visions for A2 downtown
ANN ARBOR
Residents oppose
construction of
high-rise building
on vacant plot
By ISHI MORI
Daily Staff Reporter
Monday, a group of
Ann
Arbor citizens presented 5,779
signatures to City Council in a
petition aimed at halting the sale
of the city-owned parking lot to a
private high-rise developer.
The debate surrounding the
parking lot is another episode
between
residents
who
feel
downtown
needs
to
change
for further growth and those
who are content with the status
quo of low-rise shops. Similar
issues arose in 2012 with the
controversialFoundry
Lofts
luxury apartment development.
If City Clerk Jackie Beaudry
can validate at least 4,616 of
those signatures, the Ann Arbor
Committee for the Community
Commons can put a proposal
on the November ballot to stop
any sale of the city-owned lot
to private developers and could
instead develop a park and civic
center commons.
The petition was delivered after
the council voted 6 to 5 against
putting the library parking lot
question on the ballot in fall 2015.
Alan Haber, the leader of the
petition, told the Daily he is
optimistic about his prospects.
Though his group has no concrete
plans on what to do with the land,
Haber
expressed
excitement
about the many possibilities a win
in November could bring.
“My plan is to create a situation
where everyone in Ann Arbor
can imagine what it is they would
like as a center of their city and
somehow put those ideas into a
common pot, and we mix them
up and see what comes out in
the most beautiful way possible,”
Haber said. “But the powers that
be have labeled all those ideas
irrelevant, so we’ve had to go
through a political process.”
Haber suggested as possibilities
a
municipal
auditorium,
a
museum of city history or an
environmental education center.
Ten years in the making
The 2006 Calthorpe Report, a
downtown redevelopment policy
plan
created
through
public
design workshops, recommended
the
library
parking
lot
be
converted into a “town square”
and underground parking space,
with residential development on
top.
Following
the
report’s
recommendations, the Downtown
Development Authority approved
construction of an underground
parking lot in 2007, but not a
town square. All proposed parks
were rejected and instead two
proposals for hotel-conference
centers — similar what is being
proposed right now — were
chosen.
Citizen
opposition
prevented a hotel’s construction,
and
the
50-year-old
surface
parking lot was then remodeled as
a placeholder.
Seven years later, a 2013 Park
Advisory
Commission
survey
indicated
that
76.2
percent
of
respondents
thought
Ann
Arbor would benefit from more
downtown open spaces — like
a park or town square — and
41.5 percent of pro open-space
respondents chose the library
parking lot in question as their
first-choice spot to build such a
space.
A battle of contradictions
Despite large resident support,
some have reservations about
the
petition’s
viability.
City
Councilmember
Sabra
Briere
(D–Ward 1) said that though she
will support either a civic center
or building in the lot, the green
park envisioned by many of the
petitioners would be structurally
difficult to build.
“For many people, what they
imagine is a green park with
trees,” she said. “(The surface
parking lot is) a roof, and so it’s
designed to hold pavement, which
is a lot lighter than wet soil.”
Briere
said
the
existing
infrastructure can never house
See LIBRARY, Page 8