Planning Commission Meetings

On February 15, 2005, the Planning Commission met again to hear more public commentary and vote on the area plan and on whether to recommend to City Council to annex the site property. Below is a description of what happened. Read how the district's plan doesn't even meet the standards of the city's master plan.
3/21/05: The Ann Arbor City Council voted to disregard its own Planning Commission's concerns about the environment and traffic. If there had been political will to try to influence the School District's lack of forethought about these issues, the City Council could have followed the lead of the Planning Commission. Instead, political pressures took the stage leading to a comment that it was "absurd" to say the District would intentionally create unsafe traffic conditions. It is obvious no one builds unsafe roads intentionally. It is the rush to build the site that hinders good planning. This comment shows the contempt that citizens received in return for their valid and rationale points of concern.
2/23/05: The Ann Arbor Township Board voted to table release of the site. Trustees express reservations with the traffic, the environment and the legal issues involved. Read about it here.

On January 25, 2005, Ann Arbor City's Planning Commission met to gather information and hear public commentary about the District's plan to put a new high school in Ann Arbor's Greenbelt area. They learned a lot from the residents who had serious and valid concerns with the District's plan for a new high school. In many ways, the plan runs counter to the plans the City has for Ann Arbor and its surroundings. Read the information of some of the presenters at the meeting.

Though several commissioners spoke about the 1994 Boundary Policy Agreement between the City of Ann Arbor and Ann Arbor Township and lamented that it tied their hands and made annexation inevitable, several commissioners came to their own conclusions that a recommendation not to annex would at least send a public message about their deep concerns with the District's plan.

It was decided that the vote be split into two votes: one on annexation and one on zoning and the area plan.

The Ann Arbor City Planning Commission voted the following:

On whether to recommend to approve or deny annexation: since the commission coiuld not reach the 2/3 majority needed, the recommendation to Council would be: Deny
On whether to recomment to approve or deny the zoning and area plan: Deny
On a resolution to support legislation at the State level to remove school board exemptions from local zoning ordinances. Yes (unanimous)

This means that the School District has not simply failed to make a case for its flawed plan to concerned citizens. The District has failed to make its case to the Planning Commission of the City of Ann Arbor. To see why the Commission voted this way, to get an idea of what the Commission learned from concerned residents, see what residents of Ann Arbor and experts said at the Planning Commission meeting on January 25, 2005.