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Council votes to remove mandatory Design Review Board hearings from development review
Summary
After extended debate over design guidance and permitting delays, the council voted to transfer design review duties from the volunteer Design Review Board to professional planning staff and remove mandatory DRB hearings from the Unified Development Code.
Ann Arbor City Council members voted to amend the Unified Development Code to eliminate mandatory Design Review Board (DRB) hearings and make design review primarily a professional staff function.
Council members who supported the change framed it as a step to speed housing development and reduce staff time spent on a board process that, they said, often adds weeks to project timelines without mandatory standards. “The Design Review Board adds a month or more to the development process,” Council Member Dish said, urging the council to remove the mandatory step and rely on staff review and existing guidelines.
Opponents and some council members urged caution and said design remains a high community priority. Council Member Briggs and others argued the city has detailed downtown design guidelines that should be amplified rather than removed. Legal counsel Mr. Leonard explained that if the council advances the ordinance in totality it could notice the sections it intends to modify and remove specific material-related changes at adoption if desired.
Nut graf: Council debate focused on trade-offs between expedited permitting and preserving community design standards. Supporters said the DRB process incurs Open Meetings Act timing and citizen-participation notice delays; opponents said voluntary DRB advice and published design guidelines remain important to placemaking.
The meeting record shows an attempted amendment to strike a provision (related to allowing EIFS and certain material allowances) failed in an early vote; later the main ordinance amendment eliminating mandatory DRB hearings passed on the council floor. The final recorded vote on adoption was “Motion carries.”
Ending: Council members said they expect code and guideline work to continue through a broader UDC rewrite and that staff will return with more details on specific material choices and implementation.
