Assignment #7

http://annarborchronicle.com/2010/04/20/building-a-sustainable-ann-arbor/

This article in the Ann Arbor, Michigan Chronicle titled “Building a Sustainable Ann Arbor”, discussed the city’s focus on sustainability. The article concentrated on a recent working session attended by representatives of the energy commission, planning commission, and the environmental commissions of Ann Arbor to discuss sustainability plans which emphasize planning, energy, and the environment for the city.

The chair of each commission discussed their role within their commission as well as their vision of sustainability. Bonnie Bona chair of the planning commission stated they are responsible for the master plan and ordinance revisions related to planning but admitted her commission hasn’t given much thought to other elements of sustainability like economic vitality and social equity. Wayne Appleyard chair of the energy commission stated his commission is attempting to meet the city’s green energy challenge to use 30% renewable energy in municipal operations by the year 2010. The energy commission is also exploring the feasibility of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) which is a program for homeowners to finance energy improvements. Steve Bean chair of the environmental commission discussed their three phased approach to their work which includes 1) looking at what the city does now that isn’t sustainable, 2) developing an environmental action plan to show how to work toward their goals, and 3) broadening the goals to include elements of the economy and social justice. Bean’s group is also working with the Transition Ann Arbor group that is focusing on transitioning the community in light of an end to cheap oil climate change and economic instability.

During the session Steve Bean emphasized the PACE program (www.pacenow.org) would be one way for homeowners to fund energy improvements and how he and Mayor John Hieftje recently visited the state capitol of Lansing, Michigan to meet with legislators asking them to approve such legislation needed to make PACE possible. Matt Naud, the city’s environmental coordinator gave specific details of the PACE program and mentioned several other states have enacted legislation to support it. Although the PACE program would be voluntary, homeowners would receive an energy audit to determine what steps were necessary to participate in the program. Once homeowners were accepted into the PACE program they would receive loans through an agreement with the city and be able to repay the loan through an assessment on their property tax bills. Naud stated that the program is structured the right way and homeowners who are upside down on their mortgages would not qualify and the city set aside $400,000 from a federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant it received to use as a loan loss reserve fund.

The article also discussed Mayor Hieftje’s concern that sustainability can’t just stay within Ann Arbor’s city borders. Hieftje stated that not only does sustainability need to be addressed within the city limits but it requires attention on a regional and state level similar to what has been done with the greenbelt program and the Border-to-Border trail and transportation programs in Michigan. David Stead, a representative of the environmental commission echoed Hieftje’s vision on sustainability stating it is not just an issue within the Ann Arbor city limits and stated Ann Arbor should be looking at sustainability as an economic development tool. Stead believes Ann Arbor is at the epicenter as the state shifts from an industrial economy to whatever comes next and said Ann Arbor can be the model and the driver whatever next is.

Terry Alexander from the University of Michigan also attended the session and provided the university perspective on sustainability. Alexander’s plan is three fold and includes 1) establishing long term goals for the university such as establishing terms to make recommendations in seven areas: buildings, energy, land and water, transportation, purchased goods, food, and culture (changing people’s attitudes), 2) coordinating the existing 200 sustainability projects that are already underway on the campus and finding resources to complete these projects, and 3) communicating the importance of sustainability to the community, state, and nation. Alexander is also focusing on developing a living-leaning environment for the 40,000 students with the notion that making them aware of the importance of sustainability will prepare them to change the world when they leave the campus.

In the article Mayor Hieftje’s stated that sustainability can’t just stay within the city’s borders and I agree. In order to implement the aspects of this sustainability plan would require state legislation to pass specific legislation to support the plan and I believe the state of Michigan has larger concerns like their failing economy. Implementing a sustainable development plan like this also requires the cooperation and coordination of several entities which would be a large task to concur. In my opinion Ann Arbor should concentrate on parts of the sustainability plan that can be addressed on a local level to see if they can produce results. If they are successful on the local level they would have a better opportunity to convince decision makers at the regional and state level their plan is worth the attention they believe it deserves.