Title
An Ordinance to Amend Sections 5.28.2, 5.28.3, 5.29.4, 5.29.6, 5.29.7 and 5.29.11 of Chapter 55 (Unified Development Code) of Title V of the Code of the City of Ann Arbor (Public Notices and Hearings) CPC Recommendation: Approval (7 Yes, 0 No)
Memorandum
In April of 2024, City Council enacted R-24-109 Resolution to Direct the City Administrator to Implement New Processes and Programs for Housing Development at all Income Levels to Support Housing Affordability. One of the specific directions of R-24-109 was the “elimination of the Public Hearing requirement for site plans at the Planning Commission, however Planning Commission meetings should be restructured to allow public comment for each site plan that appears on the agenda.”
Draft changes were discussed by the Planning Commission at its September 10, 2024 working session. Proposed amendments were reviewed and recommended for approval by the Planning Commission following a public hearing on March 18, 2025. The proposed amendments are in the attached ordinance and do all of the following:
Public Notices
• Improve consistency of language and requirements for published, mailed, and posted notices of public hearings and published notices of amendments.
• Clarify timing of posted notices and change emphasis from specific applications to public hearings.
• Remove requirement for public display of plans.
Public Hearings
• Simplify general requirements of public hearings by removing specific examples while retaining the requirement for public hearings to be held as provided by the procedures of the chapter.
• Simplifying and clarifying notice requirements when public hearings are continued, delayed or substantially revised, and extending these to all bodies holding public hearings.
• Wetland use permit applications, site plans, area plans, PUD site plans
• Remove public hearing requirements for these applications alone (public hearings are still required if reviewed in conjunction with another type of application that requires a public hearing).
Overall, the amendments change public notices and hearing requirements from customized procedures and unique list of application types to requirements matching the State Planning Enabling Act for legislative, discretionary and administrative actions. The attached ordinance also changes the term “citizen” to “community” in keeping with other directives in R-24-109 proposed in separate ordinances, updates procedures to reflect longstanding practices as well as simplifies language to be clearer and more concise in the included sections of the ordinance.
Because the changes can be hard to follow in the traditional tracked-changes format used with code amendments, an annotated version with no markups has been attached.
The directive to maintain public comment for site plans at Planning Commission meetings will be achieved by an amendment to the City Planning Commission Bylaws.
Attachments: Ordinance (Public Notices and Hearings)
Annotated Version Ordinance (Public Notices and Hearings)
March 18, 2025 Planning Staff Report
March 18, 2025 City Planning Commission Minutes
Staff
Prepared by: Alexis DiLeo, Principal Planner
Reviewed by: Brett Lenart, Planning Manager
Derek Delacourt, Community Services Area Administrator
Approved by: Milton Dohoney Jr., City Administrator
Body
(See Attached Ordinance)