Title
Resolution to Approve Downtown Plan Amendments (CPC Recommendation: Approval - 7 Yeas and 0 Nays)
Memorandum
Approval of this resolution will adopt the Downtown Plan, as amended, as a subplan of the City Master Plan and incorporate the Future Land Use Map and Zoning Plan for the downtown into the City Master Plan. City Council considered an earlier version of this plan on April 20, 2009, when it voted to return the plan to Planning Commission for consideration of additional amendments. The attached plan incorporates two text amendments and several map amendments in response to City Council’s action.
Background
In October 2007, City Council passed Resolutions R-07-494 and R-07-495, which approved the downtown zoning and urban design recommendations developed by two citizen advisory committees as part of the A2D2 initiative. The resolutions requested that City Planning Commission develop amendments to the Downtown Plan to support the implementation of these recommendations.
The original Downtown Plan was adopted by the Planning Commission and City Council as an element of the master plan in 1988. The plan was updated in 1992 as part of the Central Area Plan process. The amended plan has been edited from the original to provide a framework of objectives and action strategies that retains much of the same wording as the original. Changes to the narrative were made to incorporate recommendations from the Downtown Development Strategies Implementation Plan (Calthorpe Report), the A2D2 advisory committee reports, and the Non-Motorized Transportation Plan, as well as input from the public and Washtenaw County agencies.
Proposed Plan
Highlights of the Downtown Plan amendments include:
§ The existing condition section has been updated and new sections on transportation and infrastructure systems have been added.
§ Guiding values for infrastructure capacity and sustainability have been added.
§ Recommendations for sustainable public infrastructure syst...
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