My name is Stewart Nelson and I live at 2975 Hickory Lane in Ward 2. 

      I am here this evening to offer my thanks to Councilmember Rapundalo for his work behind the scenes to modify the developer’s plans for 601 Forest. This new plan has been labeled a good compromise between what was wanted by the developer, the city, and neighborhood groups and seems to put aside the developer’s threat of litigation against the city. 

      While I applaud the gesture on the part of the developer, I suspect that his change of plans had more to do with lack of funding options due to a faulty business plan or uncertainty in the credit markets than a sudden increase in his civic pride.  You must be cognizant of that fact when you debate the issue of the builder’s request for Brownfield tax credits later this month.  I am opposed to granting tax credits to a project that probably would not be funded without them. 

      Brownfield tax credits are incentives for developers to redevelop contaminated, abandoned, blighted properties, rather than building out in the cornfields.  That certainly is not the situation on the corner of South University and Forest Ave.   While it may appear that Brownfield tax credits can generate money out of thin air producing the ultimate Win-Win situation that simply is not always the case.  Brownfield credits are only Win-Win when the alternative is the property will not otherwise attract investors or developers.  If other investors could be attracted to the property without Brownfield tax credits, the situation is truly a Win-Win situation with the City and School System the winners.   

      From speaking with other developers and lenders, I feel that in a more favorable lending environment, and a firm commitment by the City to work diligently with qualified developers the entire parcel or individual parcels could be developed with a project or projects that better fit the character and scale of the neighborhood. This plan would provide a much needed economic lift to the South University Corridor and to the City while not diverting revenue from our schools to undercapitalized developers.   

      I encourage you to vote no to the developer’s request for Brownfield credits and I encourage the public to attend the public hearing scheduled for 6:00 pm on October 13th at Larcom.    

·        A U.S. and maybe a global recession is unavoidable.

·        Businesses are already cutting back capital projects and payrolls.What you may not have noticed is that 80-90% of the municipal bond sales were suspended due to uncertainty in the market. In my forty years as an investor, this is only the second time that I can remember such an event taking place.  Closer to home, in the first nine months of the year 1103 homes were foreclosed on in Washtenaw County compared to 741 in 2007.   Simply put a bad economy is now turning into a terrible economy and the end is not in sight yet.  This  uncertainty in the credit markets convey some negative implications for Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County and the State of Michigan:

1.     The cost of municipal borrowing will certainly increase and with large capital projects already budgeted for 2009-2010 we can expect some nasty surprises in finance costs.   

2.     We also can predict large stock and bond losses in our pension and VEBA plans.   These losses should be made up within the next budget cycle or we run the risk of dropping below recommended funding ratios.  How many CDO’s are in our retirement portfolios?  The City Bank law suit implies at least some.    

3.     Lastly, there is an increased chance of lower revenue sharing with the state as the state’s ability to borrow disappears and lower tax revenues force further budgetary concessions. At the risk of sounding like Chicken Little, as a student of the financial markets I have some suggestions for your consideration:

1.     Like every prudent business is currently doing we should ”hunker down” and examine every expense for necessity.   

2.     Increase the targets on the unallocated reserve for the General Fund to 12-15% from 8-12%.  

3.     Adopt a budget stabilization reserve of 1%. 

4.     Monitor budgets more closely with at least a semi-annual review and possibly monthly review.  You can ignore your personal brokerage account statements as they arrive to put off learning the bad news, but please don’t put your “heads in the sand” and hope and pray that we as a city are going to be immune to the economic “hurricane” that is certainly heading our way.  There is still time to prepare.   Clearly these are extraordinary times.  Please don’t just assume it will be business as usual for the next two years. 

The revised amendments are now available for review (see below). 

Changes to the May 2008 draft amendments include:

• The zoning for the north side of East Huron between Division and State has been changed from D2 (Interface) to D1 (Core). 
• Properties on North Division/East Ann and North Fifth Avenue that are currently zoned office and located in the Old Fourth Ward Historic District are proposed to remain as O zoning.  For the remainder of the block containing City Hall, the properties are proposed to be zoned D1.
• Street frontage designations for several blocks have been changed to better reflect the current front setback pattern along the block. 
• Revised side and rear setback requirements for properties abutting residential zoning districts have been added. 
• The requirement for active uses at street level has been revised to apply to a smaller group of retail streets and include customer lobbies for banks.
• The massing standards for several character overlay districts have been revised in allow larger tower diagonals.
• The requirement for design review has been separated from this draft.

The Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing and action on the amendments for Thursday, September 4 at 7:00 pm in Council Chamber (2nd floor, City Hall).  At that meeting, the Commission will consider making a recommendation on the amendments to City Council. We need to make our voices heard at this meeting. 

I am concerned about several permitted uses of land in the Core Downtown areas designated a D1 and the Interface Areas designated as D2.  (You might have other concerns like Adult Entertainment.  Hmmm?) These uses are all listed on page 7 of the revised amendments.  My major concern is a Conference Center.  I strongly believe that a large Conference Center in the City Core will negatively affect  our City permanently for the residents.  We need to discuss this use more.  A significant number of questions should be answered before we move forward such as, how large will the Center be, who will pay for the construction and operation, what other structures like hotels and parking structurse will be required among others? I don’t know any Conference Centers in the U.S. that are profitable.  Most require some form of public subsidy. All require separate parking garages.  

My recommendation is that we pull this use out of the amendments before it goes to City Council and then schedule a series of public hearings to decide whether our community wants a Conference Center at all.  

Once Planning Commission has made a recommendation on the code changes, they will be forwarded to City Council for public hearing and action. Please plan to attend this important meeting.  If you cannot attend you can e-mail comments on the proposed changes to A2D2Feedback@a2gov.org or send them to me. 

There was a public commentary period on a proposed project that will dominate the landscape for the next 50 years at the corner of South University and Forest Ave if allowed to proceed as planned.  As I spent more time canvassing the residents of Ward 2 during the past several months than anyone in the City, I felt obligated to report on behalf of the residents of our ward what I felt their sentiment is concerning this controversial project.  Some of the residents I spoke with were at the meeting and so I am glad that I took the time to attend.

Most Ward 2 residents feel that 25 stories is out of character and scale with the central campus business district.  I did not meet one person that felt that no development should go in on the site.  Residents that remember South University from “The Glory Days” recalled a vibrant shopping district with campus classics such as Mary Dibble’s, Redwood and Ross, Wikel’s Pharmacy and the Village Bell.   Those days are a sad contrast to the current condition of the area filled with seedy bars, fast food restaurants and vacant buildings.  To the merchants and owners of the area, the new project represents a false hope to return us to the “Happy Days” scripts.  This dichotomy will eventually lead to clash between residents and business that erroneously perceive us to be anti-development.  It is not that simple.

All stakeholders have a right to an opinion of what our great city will look like.  One stakeholder’s opinion is not less important than any other in  this  process.   The role of City government is to help us all achieve a consensus of how we want to grow and codify that consensus so that the process is fair and consistent to all stakeholders.  That goal has not been achieved.   Our City Planners like to think that it has been, but it is clear to me that most people with opinions do not feel they have been heard from…..and I can assure you they will be heard.

The emotions that you experience losing an election run the gamut from sorrow to anger to jealousy to relief.  I will let go of the negative emotions very quickly as they are “cancerous” and sap your energy.  I promise to learn from this experience and quickly move on to whatever the next step will be.  I need some time to sort that out. I plan to stay involved in the public process going forward so that I do not have to re-educate my self again.

I have started a small flame of “public awareness” that I want to keep alive in some way.  That process will not be entirely my decision to make.  My family, friends and trusted advisers will have to help me sort that out.  If there is any one thing that defeated me it is voter apathy, VA, and I promise to keep the fight to overcome VA alive in some way.  Over 800 hundred people voted for me. I was beaten by a margin of 400 out of 2000 votes cast in a ward with 17,000 registered voters.  We can do better than that.   The way I see it I have chance to get 15,800 votes in the next election.

I will get back to you after the polls close.

The real benefit from “Walking the Ward” is that I have met so many of you personally and discovered parts of the ward I never knew existed.  Local candidates have an advantage over candidates in state and national elections.  Local candidates can discover what the “real” issues are in the ward and get to know their constituents in a way that other candidates can only “pretend” to do.  I have “felt” the problems good and bad.

Having covered more ground than any candidate in Ward 2,  I can assure you the  tangible problems in the ward go way beyond building heights, compost container discussions and other more mundane issues.  They have touched me in a profound way that I never could have imagined or dreamed.  The personal revelations came from reading “Shut-Off” notices posted on doors and from abandoned houses and homes with windows missing.  They slammed into me  from knocking on doors hanging from a hinge and weathered wood that it is too late to paint.  Ward 2 is probably one of the most affluent wards in the City but some of our residents are feeling the pain of lost jobs and even…..home foreclosures.  We can do better but first we must open our eyes.

Our postal carriers  are delivering an 8.5 by 11 inch sheet for my opponents listing his credentials (many from 30 years ago) and I am hand-delivering my energy, passion, commitment and a love for my home town.  I will deliver for you to council an independent analytical mind that asks the right questions.

Like my opponent, I do have a  Masters Degree.  Mine is in business with accounting and financing concentration from a “Blue Collar” school earned at night while I was working two jobs in the 90’s.  His is from an Ivy League School earned in the 70’s.

My energy and passion will deliver to council the type of person you need that is willing to roll up his sleeves, get his hands dirty and tackle the tough issues with your input.  My opponent appears more ready to use his pedigree to make decisions for you with the Mayor and the other handpicked members of council.

It is Your Voice and Your Ann Arbor.

Some of you will have already seen the AA News endorsement of my opponent in the Editorial Section of the AA News today.  Aside from a poor choice of words, I think that the Editorial staff did a pretty good job of assessing what I stand for but came to the wrong conclusion on who can best represent our Ward.  

Let’s look at what they said about my campaign sentence by sentence. 

I am campaigning hard!  When you are not strongly supported by the Mayor and other Party Politicos to run for a vacant council seat , that is the only way to get elected.

I have done my homework! That is obvious to anyone that has spoken with me or listened to my neighborhood salons.  What else would you expect from your councilman? In fact that is how I have conducted my entire educational and professional career.  That is what got me into the Business School Honor Society and kept me and my passengers alive for 30 years. 

I have a charming blog.  Thanks, please visit it at www.svnelson.com .  Their choice of the word “charming” seems to imply that clear, consistent communication is a quaint idea!!  I believe it is essential to good government, and I will not back down from this belief.  You will always know where I stand.

Sharply critical of City Administrator Roger Fraser and Mayor Hieftje.   I agree I have had some rather well publicized disputes with both the Mayor and the City Administrator.   Do you want our council representatives to just be a “rubber stamp”?  What is the definition of “Group Think”?  Dissention and disagreement are part of the democratic process.  Where would we be as nation if we never challenged the status quo?  Think Boston Tea Party.

Doesn’t agree with council majority.  So true!  Ask departing councilman Ron Suarez about disagreeing with the council majority.   Ask the council minority, Mike Anglin, Steve Kunselman and Sabra Briere about being excluded from important discussions on the Labor & Finance Committee on the Tios land acquisition.   Ask Mary Campbell of Everyday Cook in Kerrytown what happens when you are on the wrong side of the council majority and you need a liquor license to keep your doors open.   My personal feeling is that there should not be a council majority or minority if you only have one party running the City.

I would come into the job with a “chip” on my shoulder.   I think they hit the wrong body part here!  I would come into council with a concern in my heart.   My energy and passion may come across as a chip but when my main motivation is to do what is best for the City I love; I guess it is OK if the council majority calls it a “chip”.  That is a mantle I am more than willing to shoulder. 

My Strong  “Un” endorsement by ther AA News will only make me work harder to get elected because it confirms that I am on the correct path!