Land use and access are covered in Ann Arbor's sustainability forum series

Last week over 90 people attended a forum on land use and access, the second in a series of four sustainability forums held by the city of Ann Arbor from January through April. The forum covered transportation, biking and pedestrian issues, Ann Arbor's greenbelt, its downtown, and how the city connects to the rest of the region.

The next forum, on climate and energy, will be held on March 8, and the last, on community, is scheduled for April 12.

The forums fit into the construction of the city's sustainability framework, which will consolidate all 200-plus of the city's environmental goals currently cited in over 20 plans and resolutions into a web-based archive accessible to the public and centered on the realms of resource management, land use and access, climate and energy, and community, according to Jamie Kidwell, sustainability associate for the city of Ann Arbor.

One aim of the sustainability framework is "to increase accessibility to our goals and create an awareness not only at the staff level but in the community as well, as to what are our goals and how are we measuring progress and how are we doing on those goals," Kidwell explains. The city is considering using an annual forum discussion series to report to the public on its sustainability outcomes, she adds.

City officials hope to have the framework complete by Earth Day, Kidwell, says, and then begin the next phase, a sustainability action plan to monitor progress toward goals enumerated in the framework. A draft of the goals is available here.

Source: Jamie Kidwell, sustainability associate for the city of Ann Arbor
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar