City Administrator Roger Fraser admits Ann Arbor's zoning and land use ordinances have been the cause of many headaches for city officials.

"We've had a couple of instances in the last year where we got into some interesting contests with folks who were trying to develop projects and contended that the language said one thing and we contended it said another thing," Fraser said. "And we spent literally hours and hours and hours with Kevin McDonald (an attorney for the city) and our planning staff, trying to determine what, in fact, the various conflicting provisions of our code meant."

Hoping to put an end to those kinds of debates, the Ann Arbor City Council voted 10-0 tonight to hire consultant Clarion Associates to help complete a $122,480 reorganization and clarification of the city's zoning and land use ordinances.

"This does not change any policy provisions related to the zoning. This is strictly trying to make some better sense out of the language that defines our zoning code," Fraser said. "It's been almost 40 years where we have been making amendments to the zoning code without ever really going back and looking at how it all ties together and that's what this process is about."

City Attorney Stephen Postema said Clarion Associates was selected as the firm most qualified to provide the services necessary to guide the project.

Postema said it won't be a simple process, but Clarion Associates has done this kind of work in several cities. Clarion Associates is a nationally recognized planning firm with experience in drafting and revising comprehensive zoning and development regulations for municipalities. The lead planner assigned to the project is an attorney who has prepared zoning revisions for both Kalamazoo and Detroit. 

Postema said the project will be done over the next year.

"It's an effort that has been ongoing for some time to really organize a massive overhaul of the zoning code and the land use regulations. Right now these are scattered in a number of different areas," he said. "This is an attempt really to unify and codify all of the ordinances in a manner that seeks to make it more efficient."

City officials say the end result will be zoning and land use regulations that are more comprehensive, clear, usable, enforceable and adaptable.

According to the city, the consultant will work with a technical work group to engage the community on many levels, including discussions with city staff, stakeholders and the community at large. The project will be managed as a joint effort by the City Attorney's Office and the Planning and Development Services Unit.

Clarion Associates will reorganize 11 chapters of the City Code and produce an integrated, internally consistent and user-friendly version.

City officials say a lack of clarity in code language makes it difficult to interpret, and there are some ordinance gaps and provisions that are out-of-date or may have minor inconsistencies with state law. Also, the use of terms is inconsistent, according to city officials.
 
City officials also say the current zoning and development ordinances are difficult to use because the overall organization is cumbersome. Related standards are often contained in different code sections and can be difficult to navigate, they say.

The resolution approved by the City Council includes a professional services agreement with Clarion Associates. An additional $25,000 in the project budget is for outside counsel fees and a project contingency fund.

Asked by City Council Member Christopher Taylor why the work couldn't be done in-house, Postema said at tonight's meeting it will take a considerable amount of time, and Clarion Associates has the expertise to compare Ann Arbor to the best practices in cities across the country.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.