The Ann Arbor City Council met in Larcom City Hall Monday evening to discuss the Downtown Development Authority’s Tax Increment Financing Plan, housing for low-income residents and the removal of Neighborhood Crime Watch signs.
The meeting began with public comment. Resident Kathy Griswold criticized Ann Arbor’s pedestrian safety after returning from a trip to San Francisco, saying the city’s success in promoting public safety proves this is within the local government’s ability.
“Can you imagine a city seven times the size of Ann Arbor where the mayor truly cared about pedestrian safety?” Griswold said. “Sometimes I think maybe we need two mayors and two councils — one that can do whatever you guys are doing with all of your projects and your AAAAA ratings and your awards that you’re winning, and a second one that does basic services quietly delivering safe sidewalks, safe streets on a regular basis.”
The council first discussed CA-21, a resolution to approve the DDA’s TIF Plan. TIF allows a portion of tax revenue generated within a designated district to be set aside to fund capital improvements, such as upgrades to streets, sidewalks, public utilities, and parks. The proposal required approval by the council to continue operations, and it also sought to expand the DDA’s boundaries.
Ann Arbor resident Thomas Wieder criticized CA-21 and said he believes DDA tax revenue can be spent elsewhere. Wieder argued Act 197 of 1975, which authorized the creation of downtown development authorities throughout Michigan, states the purpose of a DDA is to prevent property value deterioration — a problem Ann Arbor does not have.
“Can anybody around that table suggest with a straight face that there’s a problem of property value deterioration in Ann Arbor’s DDA district?” Wieder said. “There’s absolutely no evidence of a decline which justifies the continued existence of a TIF to subsidize the downtown, which has by far the highest property values in the city. I question whether the tens of millions of dollars spent by the DDA over its 43 years are significantly responsible for the health of the downtown.”
Councilmember Lisa Disch, D-Ward 1, agreed property values are rising, but said the DDA TIF money could not be reallocated to other areas of the city’s budget if the council stopped supporting it. For that reason, she said she supported the new TIF plan, which would expand the DDA’s jurisdiction north of Kingsley Street to include Kerrytown.
“It’s true that we’re doing pretty well as a city, but this proposal to extend the DDA boundaries northward would help out with an area of the city that could use considerable help in infrastructure,” Disch said. “They have supported affordable housing development with a lot of money. … That is money that is not in the city’s general fund and would not be in the city’s general fund in that magnitude if we simply stopped having the DDA capture the TIF that it captures.”
Councilmember Dharma Akmon, D-Ward 4, also expressed support of DDA projects. The DDA previously carried out projects emphasizing pedestrian safety, including the Fifth & Detroit Street and First & Ashley Street projects. Akmon said some initiatives, like portable public restrooms from Throne Labs, have improved the downtown area.
“A healthy downtown belongs to all of us,” Akmon said. “I think investing in our downtown is very worthy. Some of the projects that have been accomplished downtown that haven’t been mentioned: public art projects, public restrooms with the Throne, the improvements that we talked about earlier in this meeting related to the transit center on Fourth Avenue, the bikeways that are downtown that have people fully separated from traffic.”
The council then considered CA-15, which would grant $4 million to the Ann Arbor Housing Development Corporation, a nonprofit providing affordable housing for low-income families in the city. The money would support a development located at 350 S. Fifth Ave intended for smaller families which do not own cars.
Jennifer Hall, executive director of the Ann Arbor Housing Commission, said the extra funding from CA-15 is needed for the new development despite the city’s 2020 Affordable Housing Millage.
“One thing that people don’t understand usually is that we have to compete for funding for these developments, even though the city in 2020 did adopt an Affordable Housing Millage,” Hall said. “That is not sufficient funding to develop a significant number of affordable housing units.”
The next resolution discussed was DC-2, a call for continued federal support for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care Program, which helps homeless populations acquire housing. In November, the Trump administration announced cuts to CoC’s permanent housing budget in place of temporary housing. However, on Dec. 8, it retracted this change in response to multiple lawsuits, but the department is planning to release a new policy soon. Councilmember Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, D-Ward 3, said the local budget cannot replace the benefits Continuum of Care provides for people experiencing homelessness.
“In Washtenaw County, over 400 formerly homeless individuals, including children, seniors and people with disabilities are currently housed because of these federal dollars,” Ghazi Edwin said. “If renewals are delayed or shortened, these households very realistically may return to homelessness, and local government simply cannot make up this funding stream.”
Councilmember Cynthia Harrison, D-Ward 1, said homelessness has downstream effects and underscored the importance of these funds.
“Without this Continuum of Care funding, we’re not just talking about 300 people losing housing,” Harrison said. “We’re talking about breaking the connections they’ve built to jobs, doctors, schools and stability. This is exactly what HUD funding is designed to do — to get people housed and supported so they can rebuild their lives. … The work our Continuum of Care has done in our community has been transformative, and we cannot let this critical support system collapse.”
The final discussion was about DC-4, directing the removal of Neighborhood Crime Watch signs. The resolution states, despite the signs’ well-intentioned origins, they have not reduced crime rates. Councilmember Jen Eyer, D-Ward 4, said she believes the more than 600 signs still standing represent a defunct program that does not represent the city’s core beliefs.
“The Neighborhood Watch signs that still stand across Ann Arbor really come from a different era,” Eyer said. “The program they reference is no longer active, the hotline no longer functions and the signs are not connected to any current public safety strategy of the city. Yet, they remain posted throughout our neighborhoods, continuing to send a message that no longer reflects our values or our practices.”
Harrison said the city backtracked on its progressive ideals in the 1970s, causing an influx of these signs, which may intimidate Black residents.
“We previously said ‘open doors,’ and then we put up signs that said ‘scrutinize who walks through them,’” Harrison said. “Signs don’t just sit there, they speak. For many people, especially Black and brown residents and visitors, those signs have never felt neutral. They signal that unfamiliarity itself is suspicious, that their presence must be justified, that belonging is conditional.”
The council unanimously approved CA-21, CA-15, DC-2 and DC-4.
Daily News Editor Dominic Apap can be reached at dapap@umich.edu.
