News

This is a photo collection from April 22, 2021.

The four at-large citizen appointees are former state Rep. Adam Zemke, who has a background in mechanical engineering; Camilla Lizundia, a University of Michigan urban planning graduate student; Jennifer Cornell, senior vice president of economic development group Ann Arbor SPARK; and architect Alice Ralph, one of the original proponents of a community commons on the Liberty Lot going back to 2009.

It may still be a parking lot for now, but some residents have big hopes for a future downtown park and civic commons on Ann Arbor’s Library Lot. To ceremonially mark the start of the future Center of the City park and commons, about a dozen residents came together Thursday afternoon, Dec. 10, to plant and decorate a five-foot holiday tree in a red planter box at the Fifth Avenue site.

Ann Arbor officials are forming a “Council of the Commons” to help plan a downtown park and civic commons and they’re seeking people to serve on it.

New conceptual sketches show 17 ideas for how a downtown central park and civic center commons could take shape on Ann Arbor’s “Center of the City” block. Norm Tyler, an architect and member of the city’s Center of the City Task Force, unveiled his drawings at a meeting Wednesday, Dec. 18, offering a visual representation of concepts floated by community members, plus some of his own.

Charter Amendment for the City-Owned Public Land Bounded by Fifth Avenue, and William, Division, and Liberty Streets to be Designated, in Perpetuity, as an Urban Park and Civic Center Commons to be Known as the “Center of the City,” by Amending the Ann Arbor City Charter Adding a New Section 1.4 to Chapter 1 of the Charter.