Ann Arbor City Council Voting Chart for the Meeting of August 4, 2022

This is a relatively light agenda. There are two nominations, eleven items on the Consent Agenda, no ordinances at their first reading, one public hearing for an ordinance at its second reading, and two resolutions. One person resigned from the AAATA Board, and one from Energy Commission.

Jeff Hayner was absent.

Of particular interest:

• DC-3 was added late, to authorize the Attorney’s office to sue Tribar over the hexavalent chromium spill.
• PH-1 and B-1, a public hearing and second reading of an ordinance that will modify the setbacks in R2A (duplex zoning) to allow more duplexes to actually be built in those districts. Here is an excerpt from the discussion of the resolution:

  The R2A district is intended to “create areas of essentially single-family residential character utilizing two single-family dwelling units that are attached either side to side or vertically,” and be “similar to the higher density single-family [residential] zoning districts.” Since its creation in 1963, the minimum lot size and minimum lot area per dwelling unit requirements of the R2A district have increased from 6,000 square feet to 8,500 square feet.

  The R2A is now more in line with the lower density single-family residential districts than the higher density ones. The increases in minimum lot area standards have made 68% of lots zoned R2A nonconforming lots for area. More than 2/3 of lots currently zoned for two-family residential use cannot legally have a two-family dwelling.

  To return the R2A district closer to its intent for higher density, single-family-character neighborhoods, and make the majority of lots in this district conforming, staff proposed reducing the minimum lot size from 8,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet. This change will make the R2A district have the same physical characteristics – in terms of lot area, required setbacks, height limits – as the R1D (Single-Family Dwelling) district. Staff also propose reducing the minimum lot area per dwelling unit from 4,250 square feet to 2,500 square feet, so that a twofamily dwelling can be developed on a conforming, 5,000 square foot lot. The minimum lot width standard is also proposed to be reduced from 60 feet to 40 feet, again consistent with the standard of the R1D district.