Action Item: Ask City Council to Approve Code Change

If you are an Ann Arbor resident, you can help expedite an off-leash area by writing or calling City Council this week and asking them to change the city code. PAC has passed a resolution calling for a change of code that would allow the city to designate off-leash areas. That change has to take effect before anything else can happen. The resolution was forwarded to Council last month, but it still hasn't made its way to a meeting agenda.

Changing city code requires two votes in council and a public hearing. However a Council member may request approval on first reading. Either way, it will be several weeks after the City Council takes up the issue before changes can be made. Ask them to take up this issue immediately so that we can have some relief this summer.

ACTION:
*Contact City Council and the mayor using this link or the information on this page.
*Ask that they put PAC's proposed change on the meeting agenda ASAP.
*Ask for the change to be approved at first reading.
*Feel free to express your frustration with the broken promises and continued delay of the Swift Run plan or any other thoughts you may have on the issue.
*Be polite but firm.

This is a change that has been needed since the start of this whole process. For Swift Run to open last September (as we were promised last June), the change should have taken effect in late summer 2006. The resolution just left PAC last month. This is just one example of the foot dragging that has held up the project. With all the time they have had and the immediate need for a dog run there is no excuse for this delay. Asking for the change to happen immediately is not asking to rush, only to make up for some of the delay.

In my conversations with people at City Hall, I have been told very unofficially that a temporary solution may be possible in the time between passing the code change and the opening of Swift Run. This is the most realistic hope we have of getting a safe and legal place to recreate with our dogs off leash in the next several months.

Let's try to make this happen.