Ann Arbor residents invited to ZORO project meeting Wednesday
Ann Arbor planning commissioners met tonight for a special two-hour working session with Colorado-based consultant Clarion Associates to discuss the city's Zoning Ordinance Re-Organization project, also known as ZORO.
The city is undertaking a multi-phase initiative to consolidate and update its land use and development ordinances, which currently are scattered among 11 different chapters of the city code.
City planning staff and planning commissioners met with consultants from Clarion Associates on the sixth floor of city hall to talk about the ZORO project.
Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com
City officials say those chapters - because they were created independently of each other years ago - are sometimes confusing with inadvertent repetition and inconsistencies.
"The overall goal here is to really just take our ordinances and transform them into something that is easier to use and easier for folks to understand," said Kevin McDonald, senior assistant city attorney and co-manager of the ZORO project.
Senior consultant Don Elliott and associate consultant Erica Heller flew in from Denver for the meeting. The City Council voted in October to hire Clarion Associates for $122,480 to work on the project throughout this year.
Residents are invited to attend a public meeting on the ZORO project at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Ann Arbor District Library downtown. Residents also are encouraged to visit a new Web site for the project and send e-mails with any questions or comments to zoro@a2gov.org.
A copy of the ZORO Project Plan handed out at tonight's meeting can be downloaded on the city's Web site here.
Comments
Gill
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 7:50 p.m.
Um, some of the ordinances are required by the State or Federal government to be stand alone adoptions of regulations - they cannot all be rolled into one big package. Also, are the codes confusing or the process of implementing them? Are we once again wasting money on making things look pretty rather than making them useful?
jcj
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 2:24 p.m.
Ryan That may be true but what business out there is going to say otherwise?
Ryan J. Stanton
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 11:33 a.m.
You can read Clarion's sales pitch on its Web site by going here. The consultants said last night they specialize in this type of work and have helped dozens of cities throughout the country with overhauls to zoning and development regulations.
townie
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 11:06 a.m.
This work is long overdue (whether or not it could have been done locally, I don't know). Let's not get our hopes up too high, though. From what I hear this will only deal with formatting of the code, not substance. That will probably take another two years and another consultant, after this piece is done. The worst part is that even after all this work, we will still have to suffer through the awful and subjective interpretations of staff, planning commission and council.
jcj
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 9:32 a.m.
XMO Dream on! Get real! Maybe we should start borrowing money now because after this study the building boom will begin and tax money will start pouring in and we will be able to repay it next year!. Do we need to have someone from another state explain to us how we can become more business friendly? I had do deal with the building dept for 30 years so I know 1st hand that it has not been business friendly for years. I just don't happen to think it should cost us over $100,000 to have someone else tell us how to simplify thew codes!!
xmo
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 9 a.m.
The trouble with these outside consultants are that if they organize the zoning ordinances, the city will become business friendly. When that happens, tons of money will pour into Ann Arbor to develope the town. This will raise tax revenue, bring more business here and make the city a better place to live. My God we cann't let that happen!
jcj
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 8:46 a.m.
Another example of our elected officials farming out their jobs with our money. Maybe we should deduct collectively from their pay the cost of these studies! And once the studies have been bought and paid for our city council will suddenly think they are smarter than the consultants they just paid for and rethink evreything.
BornNRaised
Wed, Dec 16, 2009 : 5:59 a.m.
Anyone aware that Fraser is from Colorada? There are no local companies that can provide this 'consulting' service? Way to support your folks Fraser. Thanks for helping our economy!