Council approves consent calendar, zoning changes and a series of contracts and code updates
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Summary
At the Dec. 16 meeting the council passed the consent calendar, adopted ordinance 2025-04 creating a temporary bicentennial commission, approved fire-code updates, authorized a $101,172 sanitary-sewer lining contract, a $15,042.67 change order for the MLK Equality Trail and several rezonings and interlocal agreements.
Jackson City Council used its Dec. 16 agenda to finalize several routine but substantive items: the consent calendar passed unanimously, the council adopted ordinance 2025-04 creating a temporary bicentennial commission, approved updates to the fire code, authorized several contracts and approved multiple rezoning requests.
Key actions included:
- Ordinance 2025-04: Council approved second reading and final adoption of an ordinance establishing a temporary bicentennial commission to plan Jackson's 200th anniversary in 2029.
- Fire code updates: Staff and Chief Gonzales explained amendments to move the city's fire code from 2015 to the 2021 standard to align with the Michigan building code, designate the Jackson Fire Department as primary authority for enforcement and update fee language; the item moved and council voted to approve.
- JNET interlocal agreement: Approved unanimously to continue regional collaboration on public-safety information sharing.
- Axon contract renewal: Council approved a five-year contract renewal with Axon Enterprises for body-worn cameras, interview-room cameras, evidence storage platform and taser upgrades; Chief Simpson explained the system's integrated evidence management benefits.
- Rezones: The council approved multiple map amendments, including rezoning 905 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive from C-2 to R-3 and 405–407 Griswold Street from C-1 to R-1, with planning staff describing compatibility with the master plan.
- Infrastructure contracts: Council approved a sanitary-sewer-lining contract for the water treatment plant with Inland Water Pollution Control at $101,172 and approved Change Order 1 for the MLK Equality Trail reconstruction increasing the Hoffman Brothers contract by $15,042.67 to reconcile field quantities.
Consent calendar items, including board and commission appointments, passed unanimously though some public commenters asked council to postpone or reconsider specific appointments (notably several speakers criticized the appointment of Derek Dobies to the board of review and urged delay because of his prior removal from a school-board officer role). The consent calendar nonetheless passed without modification.
What happens next: Staff will proceed with implementation, signature and contract execution where authorized and publish relevant documents and maps in the meeting packet for public review.
