‘Do we make room or do we keep shutting people out?’ Ann Arbor council member asks

Audience members at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting at city hall on May 19, 2025, as council prepared to vote on the city's 2025-26 fiscal year budget.

ANN ARBOR, MI — There’s continuing debate over Ann Arbor’s push to densify the city via a comprehensive land-use plan update that‘s been in the works for over two years.

Some residents say they’re only just now learning about it and they’re wondering why city officials want to do away with single-family zoning and allow potentially tens of thousands more housing units to be built across the city.

A three-story apartment building on Third Street in Ann Arbor on April 30, 2025. City officials are settling on a three-story height limit for new apartment and condo buildings in low-rise residential areas under a new comprehensive land-use plan.

City Council Member Jen Eyer, who has championed the initiative, took time out during council’s latest meeting Monday night, May 19, to explain the reasons behind it.

The newer four-story Hoover and Greene Apartments development at left, which replaced an entire Ann Arbor neighborhood block near Michigan Stadium, across the street from a row of older houses and apartments on May 5, 2025. The scene is emblematic of the divide over density in Ann Arbor.

“When City Council launched the land-use plan update in 2023, we did it with a clear goal to open up more housing options across the city, including in neighborhoods long designated for single-family zoning only,” she said.

The status quo isn’t working, Eyer said.

“Not for young people looking for a place they can afford, not for older residents looking to stay in the community and downsize and not for workers and families who are competing for too few homes,” she said.

Eyer said she’s had countless conversations with residents about the issue over the years.

“Many are frustrated when they see expensive, big-foot homes get built for one family when instead we could have a duplex or triplex that makes space for more,” she said.

“We’re not talking about high-rises in neighborhoods,” she said. “We’re talking about reasonable options that respect the fabric of our neighborhoods.”

Hundreds of people have attended recent city meetings and spoken out for and against the proposed plan, including residents concerned about Ann Arbor losing its charm and neighborhood character and some calling it a sellout to developers. Others agree with city officials more housing can help bring down housing costs.

Ann Arbor officials at the City Council meeting at city hall on May 19, 2025.

For people just tuning in and wondering why the planning process started with the assumption the city would remove exclusionary zoning, the answer is simple, Eyer said, saying that has been council’s policy directive since approving a resolution in 2023 laying out what the plan should do.

It called for more homes and more density in single-family areas, fewer and more flexible zoning categories, land uses aligned with the city’s climate goals and a commitment to repair harm caused by exclusionary policies, Eyer said.

“That‘s the work that‘s underway now,” she said, arguing removing exclusionary zoning is the right thing to do.

“It‘s how we begin to undo decades of housing policy that shut people out, especially Black and brown families, and kept neighborhoods exclusive by design,” she said. “It‘s also how we build a future where more people can live here, not just those with the most resources.”

It isn’t just an Ann Arbor conversation, Eyer said.

“All across the country, Democrats are calling for an end to exclusionary zoning,” she said. “The Biden-Harris administration encouraged it. Elizabeth Warren has introduced legislation to support cities that make this change. AOC even asks candidates seeking her support and endorsement to commit to zoning reform, even when it‘s politically difficult.”

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has proposed to save the suburbs by protecting single-family zoning and Project 2025 called on the administration to do the same, Eyer said.

“That‘s the dividing line,” she said. “Do we make room or do we keep shutting people out?”

Ann Arbor officials are choosing to make more room, she said.

Coler Road resident Sam Homan, a professional data analyst, appeared before council Monday night to raise concerns the Planning Commission in its recent discussions has gone in the direction of favoring housing development in all districts across the city, getting rid of any business-only districts in the plan.

The plan as initially proposed by city-hired consultants included a business flex district that functionally would have been the city’s industrial zoning and that makes sense, Homan said.

“One of the primary uses of zoning is to keep industrial and residential uses separate,” he said, noting as previously envisioned that would have included areas like South Industrial Highway and the Ann Arbor Research Park.

But the commission decided to eliminate that in the plan and fold those land uses into mixed-use transition districts that would run along corridors through residential areas such as Packard Street, Miller Avenue and Huron Street.

“The Planning Commission has been treating the comprehensive land-use plan as a housing-only plan and they are committed to getting housing everywhere, no matter the cost,” Homan said, arguing there are industrial areas that could become residential and he doesn’t think it‘s appropriate.

He asked council to direct the Planning Commission to include a non-residential district for industrial businesses in the plan.

“Cities are more than just housing,” he said. “They are also places where business gets done and where people work.”

A final plan is expected to go to council for approval in November. While removing exclusionary zoning is a clear goal, the details and how it might play out in different neighborhoods will come in the next phase when the city updates its zoning code in 2026, Eyer said, encouraging residents to get involved.

Krause Street resident Kitty Kahn, a critic of the city’s density plan, also spoke at Monday’s meeting, taking issue with taxpayer-funded mailers council members have sent out recently, including one in which Council Member Lisa Disch, D-1st Ward, said residents can find out more about the plan through an online search for it.

“Instead of these puff pieces, the city should have sent postcards to every resident early in the comprehensive land-use plan update process,” Kahn said.

Disch said she found it challenging to figure out how to put a link to a city webpage on a print mailer, so she decided to offer instructions on how to Google the plan.

She also said she had a great chat about the plan with about 30 or so residents who attended her most recent coffee hour.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free “3@3 Ann Arbor” daily newsletter.

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.