Ann Arbor planning commission approves FY2026–31 capital improvements plan after weeks of debate over Sunset sidewalk and trail underpasses

The Ann Arbor City Planning Commission voted to approve the fiscal years 2026 through 2031 capital improvements plan on Jan. 7 after an extended discussion over project prioritization, sidewalk projects and unimproved trail connections.

The plan, presented by Kayla Coleman, capital projects asset manager, lays out a six-year schedule for municipal buildings, transportation, utilities and other infrastructure. Coleman told the commission the CIP includes about 510 projects and more than $1 billion in identified needs across the six-year window, with 128 projects new to this cycle and roughly 61 projects placed on hold or removed from the six-year programming. The plan will be used as the basis for the city————————————budget process for FY2026 and FY2027.

Commissioners spent the bulk of their time on one long-running local controversy: the Sunset Road sidewalk gap between Newport and Brooks and related proposals to reconfigure Sunset. Commissioner Michael Adams urged the commission to decouple the sidewalk project from a larger, unfunded reconfiguration effort that staff said had been created after community feedback in 2021; that administrative change, Adams said, pushed a shovel-ready sidewalk project out of the…