Former City Attorney: “Proposals A & B Deed Property to AADL For $1 And Allow AADL to Sell Off Property”

by Bruce Laidlaw

Understanding the August special election ballot questions requires reading the charter section
that would be repealed. It says: SECTION 1.4. The City-owned public land bounded by Fifth Avenue, and William, Division and Liberty Streets shall be retained in public ownership, in perpetuity, and developed as an urban central park and civic center commons known as the “Center of the City.”

My contribution to that language was the description of the property. Instead of mailing addresses, I suggested a description of all the City property in the block. That included the public parking property and Liberty Plaza park. The proposal limited use to a park and “civic center commons.” “Civic center commons” was not defined. When I suggested that it be worded broadly enough to include an expanded public library, the drafter said he thought his language was broad enough to permit an expanded library. The person who drafted the language is not an attorney.

I voted for the charter amendment, because it would not allow a proposed 17 story tower that
would be completely out of scale with the area. The City’s comprehensive plan says: E. Out-of-Scale Construction In various locations around Ann Arbor, houses are overshadowed by larger commercial, residential or institutional buildings that are out of scale with existing surrounding development. In addition to being aesthetically displeasing, out-of-scale construction alters the quality of living conditions in adjacent structures by blocking air and light and by covering open green space with excessive building mass.

A central park seemed like a nice idea. But I was aware that library officials were less than enthusiastic about more nearby park property that might have led to the drug dealing and panhandling that had been problems at Liberty Plaza. A civic center might have been an appropriate use, but there were no plans for a new civic center Library expansion could have easily been permitted with a simple charter amendment without the need to rezone. But the City amended the zoning of the pubic parking property to D-1. That would permit the same out of scale construction as the proposed Core Spaces 17 story tower.

After rezoning the property, the City proposed a charter amendment that supposedly would authorize selling the parking facility air rights to the Ann Arbor District Library for a dollar. That supposedly would authorize the library to sell part of those air rights to raise enough money to build a big beautiful new library without approving new taxes.

I received an absentee ballot that allowed me to vote for this proposition: Shall Section 14.3 of the City Charter be amended to authorize the City to sell its interests in 319 South Fifth Avenue or 326 South Division Street, commonly known as the Library Lane Parking Structure, only to the Ann Arbor District Library for the purpose of building a mixed-use development that includes additional library services, housing, retail, and programmable open public space? This proposal does not authorize new taxes. Adoption of this amendment is conditioned on adoption of City Proposal B at this election.

There must have been impressive legal drafting for a charter amendment that would authorize a new library, housing, housing, retail and public open space. I needed to go through City Council meeting records to find the actual proposed charter amendment. It says: (g) The City is authorized to sell any of its interest in 319 South Fifth Avenue or 326 South Division Street only to the Ann Arbor District Library by resolution concurred in by at least eight members of the Council.

That charter amendment language was not anywhere shown in the literature urging me to vote for a big beautiful library. The proposed amendment uses mailing addresses instead of legal descriptions. It does not contain a word about what the District Library could do with the property. It is broad enough to permit the library to sell all of the property deeded to it and then use the money for any other library purpose.

If the City and the District Library wish to permit library use of the parking structure air rights, a simple charter amendment followed by an agreement for specifying permitted uses would be the straightforward way of doing business. Rezoning to permit high rise development and then giving away City property could not be an any more backward way of doing government business.

Bruce Laidlaw was the Ann Arbor City Attorney for 13 years. Prior to that, he was Ann Arbor’s Chief Assistant City Attorney for six years. He’s a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, and did his undergraduate studies in Psychology at the University of Michigan.