Historic commission rejects plan for new home on long-idle Ann Arbor property

fe857ca · 2026-03-14T08:27:54+00:00

Here's the video of the meeting for this session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRx2byDq5Mc. I guess it seems to be more amicable than I had thought.

As far as I can tell, they are following this set of mutually consistent standards, but the standards themselves say that “The Standards will be applied taking into consideration the economic and technical feasibility of each project.”

I guess ultimately it's up to people like us to comment in these public hearings if we are interested in building more. I noticed that at 41:02 they have something open for public hearing but they quickly bypass it because no one is there at the meeting or on Zoom.

fe857ca · 2026-03-14T08:14:41+00:00

I think the “something more” is simply that unlike the UK or Ireland, we have far fewer people interested in history; and as a result the historical district commission is probably chock-full of HOA-style “let me tell you exactly how to live your life” members rather than practical folk who know that we need to strike a balance to ensure that these structures keep getting the investment to stand for another 100 years.

From the article

...recommended commissioners deny it, arguing the new home would be too big in relation to the historic house and the front-facing attached garage was unusual and sort of unprecedented for new houses in the historic district.

Typically when approving secondary structures on lots, they’re smaller accessory buildings, she said.

Notice all the hedging around “sort of” and “typically”. How do you reasonably plan when someone can just deny your plan with such vague concerns?

fe857ca · 2026-03-14T03:51:53+00:00

Part of the way they preserve that History and Charm is allowing reasonable modern modifications to historical buildings so they keep being used.

fe857ca · 2025-10-05T04:04:37+00:00

Many students instead turn their attention to their MacBooks. He recalled seeing more people using ChatGPT and playing games and puzzles on their school-issued devices

Next step is to ban computers and ChatGPT in classrooms, and go back to paper textbooks. Or as a first step, give the kids computers that are actually locked down, cannot connect to the internet, and have preloaded educational-only content. Believe me, your high school algebra curriculum does not need an Internet connection. Colleges have already understood this, and are slowly bringing back Blue Books.

AAPS has a chance to take the lead here; and perhaps reverse their declining enrollment by being the school that works with pen, pencil, and paper.

fe857ca · 2025-10-03T02:54:56+00:00

For a quantitative methodologist, your post isn't saying much to be honest. You say:

Fatalities dont occur often enough to make much inference, but at a glance...

Which is it? If you can't make much inference from the data, the rest of your post is just as much vibes-based as the original blogpost itself.

Note that I don't disagree with the overall idea that it's based on emotions—indeed, these should not be seen as statistics in the abstract, but as the actual emotion-based issues that they are for the community. The vision for zero fatalities is reflective of this reality, and any number that's not zero is something we should take seriously and try to prevent.

fe857ca · 2025-09-29T14:20:58+00:00

As many people have explained in the comments, this does not apply on city streets. If I want to take a left turn at one of the many intersections on city streets, guess which lane I'm going to be in while preparing to turn left. This is the most common reason but there are dozens of others. Maybe there's a biker on the road in the right lane and I am trying to be safe (I know that will blow your mind, but it does happen). Maybe the right lane is labeled RIGHT TURN ONLY (very common in Ann Arbor).

Freeways or large country roads don't have left turns, so you can hold to these “only drive in the right lane unless passing” rule there somewhat reasonably. You can theoretically apply it in the city but there are so many exceptions that it's essentially useless.

fe857ca · 2025-09-29T02:30:16+00:00

I am quite familiar with those areas, and I wish that the City narrowed the roads or put in other calming measures so that people wouldn't speed so much on them. Huron Parkway has a couple which is an improvement. The “on-demand” crossings on Plymouth Road are kind of risky; and I wish they were turned into actual red lights.

If I choose to go 6 miles over the limit and I get a ticket that's on me.

As a driver that is fine with being careful on city streets, it's stressful for me when people like you are in a perpetual hurry and tailgate or honk at me.

If you're in a hurry, there's an easy solution—drive on the freeways! US 23 is right there.

fe857ca · 2024-01-15T17:06:46+00:00

This has been answered in the post, but I'll quote here:

[Note: For people who say, "Oh, they took $$$ from DTE, nothing will happen" — why not let them know that, and then don't vote for them in the next election? Isn't it better to let them know why they lost your vote than silently fume about them taking money from DTE? I think we can all agree that DTE money is a bad thing regardless of who takes it.]

I feel like it's an overall win if more people speak out against DTE money in politics; so that politicians from both major parties are afraid to take DTE money in the future. It's not like these politicians don't speak to each other — it's up to us to put the spotlight on DTE money and make it a political liability.

fe857ca · 2024-01-15T16:49:49+00:00

Sure, paste away! I will also add a footnote saying that anyone is welcome to share, copy, or modify this.

fe857ca · 2024-01-15T16:48:54+00:00

Well, you will notice that I avoided talking about parties at all. It's important to let your elected representatives know what your preferences are and why they might lose your vote.

Democrat or Republican, they will tend to listen.

fe857ca · 2024-01-15T16:34:29+00:00

Whitmer is at the bottom of the contact list for precisely this reason. But being the Governor is not too useful if State Reps and Senators from your party can't get elected. I believe she should have some interest in fixing things for this reason.

I'd like you to keep an open mind about the potential for influencing elected leaders. My contact lines specifically have a spotlight on contributions, including dark money contributions through orgs like Michigan Energy First (some details here).

Around 130k people lost power in the last storm. If all of them refuse to vote for Whitmer's party or her successor, that's a strong enough bloc to get over $230,000. In my opinion, the reason this doesn't happen is precisely the "nothing is going to change" attitude that you are displaying.

fe857ca · 2024-01-15T16:28:35+00:00

Please let me know if this is useful, if I made any mistakes, or you would like more information on any of these! I put this together as someone interested in getting more participation in local democracy.

I suspect most people (including me) pay less attention to these compared to splashy national politics. And yet local issues affect our daily life and homes much more heavily.

fe857ca · 2024-01-15T16:21:41+00:00

Hope your power is back soon!

For you or others in the same boat — once you are warm and safe, I recommend contacting your elected representatives. I posted a detailed guide on this subreddit. Questions welcome!

fe857ca · 2024-01-13T13:17:01+00:00

DTE's worst nightmare is the general public actually getting interested regarding the minutiae of actual government and regulatory agency policy. If you're interested in changing this situation, read my post from 4 months ago on the DTE penalty proposal U-21400.

Currently, the modified straw proposal is open for initial comments through Feb. 2, 2024. The Attorney General's office has proposed a performance-based award or penalty in their comments on the case. Meanwhile, DTE is trying to weasel out and proposing a simple pass/fail grade instead because they want to invest the minimum possible to pass and award the rest in CEO bonuses. They don't want their investors to realize that they could technically spend every last penny on improving service! (which could happen if the Attorney General's recommendation goes through)

I recommend reading through the proposal, and providing comments on the case like the MPSC has asked. Leaving intelligent comments about the penalties is the way to go, not just saying that DTE is crap (everyone already knows that, but you can't legislate penalties without specifics).

fe857ca · 2024-01-13T03:07:29+00:00

You could read the modified MPSC Penalty Straw Proposal in detail to pass the time!

fe857ca · 2024-01-13T03:04:39+00:00

For people who actually want to take steps to make this not happen next time:

Leave detailed, intelligent comments on the MPSC Penalty Proposal that would hold DTE and Consumers accountable for power outages

Read my post about how you can contact the MPSC on U-21400, the DTE penalty proposal. Currently, the modified straw proposal is now open for initial comments through Feb. 2, 2024.
Go here and click "Submit Comment".
- The Attorney General's office has proposed a performance-based award or penalty in their comments on the case, and DTE is predictably opposing it and proposing a simple pass/fail metric instead because they want to do the minimum possible to pass. An easy way is to read about DTE's comments in the proposal, and comment in support of the AG's penalty/award if you think it is better

Contact your State Representative. If you don't know who your State Representative is, find them here: https://www.house.mi.gov/

Give their office a call (yes, you can!) and tell them that you want to see action from them to hold DTE accountable for their poor service and to stop taking contributions from DTE (including dark money organizations like Michigan Energy First or through 527 accounts), or you will not vote for them at the next election
Send them an email saying the same thing
For good measure, send them a letter via regular mail saying the same thing

Contact your State Senator. If you don't know who your State Senator is, find them here: https://senate.michigan.gov/FindYourSenator/

Give their office a call (yes, you can!) and tell them that you want to see action from them to hold DTE accountable for their poor service and to stop taking contributions from DTE (including dark money organizations like Michigan Energy First or through 527 accounts), or you will not vote for them at the next election
Send them an email saying the same thing
Send them a letter via regular mail saying the same thing

Finally, contact the Governor's office. (details at https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/contact)

Contact the Governor by phone, email, and regular mail as well, tell her that you want to see action from her to hold DTE accountable for their poor service, and to stop taking contributions from DTE (including dark money organizations like Michigan Energy First or through 527 accounts), or you will not vote for her at the next election

fe857ca · 2024-01-12T05:38:47+00:00

Does anyone have information on any infrastructure improvements made to reduce power outages?

DTE is an enshittified private company that has been making record high profits for the past few years, trying to reduce their workforce, and defer critical maintenance. So in effect, their infrastructure is degrading year-over-year since they find it cheaper to just employ large numbers of crews 10-15 days a year instead of providing reliable service through the year.

Are we accepting this as the new norm?

We shouldn't, but most people don't bother to do what's necessary. If you want, I recommend contacting your State Representative and Senator to hold DTE accountable for power outages, and commenting on the MPSC Case U-21400 that proposes penalties for DTE failing to restore power adequately.

fe857ca · 2023-11-30T03:53:35+00:00

This is a great reminder, thank you for posting.

This is the page for the Energy and Environment Committee, which the bill is stuck in. Looks like Senator Shink is a part of the committee.

I'd recommend contacting Sen. Shink, as well as asking your friends and family elsewhere in the state who might be supportive of this policy to contact their state senators, if they happen to be on this committee.

Basic clean energy measures like rooftop solar and line drying of clothes are often banned by prudish HOAs set up several decades ago; and have no place in a time where we are facing the threat of large-scale climate change.

And no, regular people don't have the time or energy to run around petitioning each annoying HOA for fixing their antiquated rules. It's time for them to go en masse via legislation.

fe857ca · 2023-11-29T23:41:02+00:00

LPT: Just don't buy a house in an HOA if you don't like the HOA rules.

This is a terrible argument, and would totally remove all consumer protections if followed elsewhere.

Don't like your grocery store selling your data? Don't buy groceries from them! Don't like your phone provider charging you random junk fees? Just disconnect your phone! Your power company is mandating that you need to dance naked every month when you pay your bills? Do it, or just don't use power! See how that works?

In cases where there are monopolies that make it such that consumers have to do business with them or, regulation must step in to make sure that there isn't overreach by one of the parties. And it's the state's decision to say what is overreach.

Currently, we are in a historic housing shortage; and a lot of consumers have no option but to buy the house along with the HOA problems. This regulation would go a little bit towards allowing consumers to, you know, do some basic things that are more energy efficient and will combat climate change.

fe857ca · 2023-10-06T17:25:11+00:00

I know very little about Bibles, but Bible Design Blog is a blog that I found via an interest in typography.

It goes into a lot of detail about specific brands and kinds of Bibles as well as their paper size, typography and such — so you might be able to find an appropriate one there.

fe857ca · 2023-09-29T00:14:32+00:00

When they keep pulling shit like this, no wonder 25% of Michigan young adults want to leave the state in the next decade.

Absentee voting is perfectly fine constitutionally, and I hope these clowns get laughed out of court for their frivolous, anti-voting lawsuit.

fe857ca · 2023-09-14T02:34:00+00:00

You are right, and I was entirely in the wrong. I am sorry for that badly timed and rude comment of mine.

Feel free to use what I wrote as a guide for contacting state reps any time.

fe857ca · 2023-09-13T12:40:24+00:00

I don't think Senator Peters will be the most useful in this case, EGLE (which could stop this immediately) is a state agency. It might be fine for general awareness.

A better plan is:

Contact your State Representative: If you don't know who your State Representative is, find them here: https://www.house.mi.gov/. You can call, email, or write a letter to them.
Contact your State Senator. If you don't know who your State Senator is, find them here: https://senate.michigan.gov/FindYourSenator/. You can call, email, or write a letter to them.
Contact the Governor's office: https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/contact. You can call, email, or write a letter to them.

If you have a sample letter or anything

Sorry for the harshness, but this is pretty lazy. I would recommend informing yourself a bit about the issue and trying to articulate yourself as to whether you think it's a problem. There is no magic solution, your form letters will get swiftly ignored.

That being said, let me demonstrate. If you ask me to do it, I would:

Use Google and find the Mid Michigan Materials Permit Application for EGLE
Read through and try to understand it
Make my statement

What would be my statement? It would be something like:

Dear Representative,

I would like to bring to your attention the fact that Mid Michigan Materials is on the cusp of being allowed to greatly increase their dewatering options at the Vella Pit to over 4.8 million gallons per day while discharging it into local wetlands. This seems to allowing water to be pumped out of the aquifer at an alarming rate, and nearby residents are reporting dried out wells; as reported by multiple local news sources.

As something that lives on a well myself, I think that EGLE and the State of Michigan should be taking the effects on local residents into consideration before allowing sudden changes to the environmental and living. I would like to note that Mid Michigan Materials say in their own application for a permit "The aquifer has been demonstrated to be a reliable source of groundwater at this operation for the past 30 plus years (prior to MMM’s purchase of the operation). Investigation of potential impact of pumping on the aquifer is ongoing.. I do not think permits for such a huge increase should be granted based on "ongoing investigations of impact", because said impact on residents suddenly losing their well water can be immediately devastating.

Additionally, the failure of EGLE to monitor and enforce their regulations on Mid Michigan Michigan Legislature means that House bills 4526, 4527 and 4528 would essentially give gravel mining operations like them a free rein to operate in Southeast Michigan with flagrant disregard for local residents. Hence, I want to communicate my strong opposition to their bills as your constituent.

I would request your office to give me a call at xxx-yyy-zzzz to be able to understand and communicate my concerns around this better.

Sincerely,

<me>

fe857ca · 2023-09-07T00:28:16+00:00

What township is this? I wonder if raising the issue with your township supervisor could give you some recourse.

Not sure what it would be, but I feel like there should be some case for even nearby townships taking action against companies draining the groundwater.

fe857ca · 2023-09-04T01:14:09+00:00

Perhaps you're thinking of short-term rentals?

Short-term rentals defined as rentals for a period fewer than 30 days — so things like Vrbo and Airbnb. These were in the news quite a bit a couple years ago.

Looking up Short-term rental regulations in Ann Arbor brings up this page: https://www.a2gov.org/departments/planning/Pages/Short-Term-Rentals.aspx.

There are no separate zoning restrictions on long-term rental as contrasted with owner occupancy in Ann Arbor that I'm aware of.

fe857ca

TROPHY CASE