Recommendations to City Council on August 17, 2009

  1. Ask the city attorney to issue a statement on the enforcement of sight-distance and public right-of-way requirements in Chapter 40.  The minutes of a public hearing on June 5, 1996, state: 
    • “Once the city has been informed of a corner clearance problem, liability exists.  Once the property owner is notified they also hold some liability.”
    • “This ordinance does not have leeway from deviation.”
  2. Research the relevant ordinances and practices of other progressive cities, then improve upon them.  For example, revise Chapter 40 based on the sight distance code of the three platinum award winning Bike Friendly Cities of: Davis, California; Boulder, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon.  A benchmark analysis of these cities reveals ordinances with well-defined sight-distance specifications and a link from each home page for reporting violations.
  3. Consolidate all sight-distance requirements in Chapter 40, regardless of whether the obstruction is vegetation, signage or other material.
  4. Streamline the user interface for reporting sight-distance complaint and for other safety issues impacting cyclists and pedestrians, such as vegetation over the sidewalk and roadway.  For example, expand the Citizen Request System on the City’s home page to include these categories and clearly identify them as safety hazards.
  5. Establish an ongoing education campaign that focuses on voluntary compliance.  Educate the public about the need for adequate sight distance and define the problem as a safety hazard.  The educational campaign could be introduced as a back-to-school message and continue through the fall and winter months with the following components:
    • In a Neighborhood Watch weekly report to Block Captains, once in the fall and repeated in the late-winter
    • Notice with the winter tax bill
    • Letter to landscape architects and landscapers in the area
    • PTO Council email
    • Ann Arbor Observer in the spring, similar to the page on the sidewalk snow and ice removal requirements
    • CTN Local radio, including Lucy Ann Lance Show on 1290 AM
  6. Enforce the ordinance in a proactive, consistent manner.  Tell community members what is allowed in the winter instead of what to trim when the plants are in full bloom.  Adopt the existing enforcement model for sidewalk snow removal and review the whole block.  For intersection sight distance, review all corner properties.  The current complaint-based process of citing only a single property creates tension in the neighborhood and seems vindictive.
  7. Keep all City property in compliance and design new projects for maximum sight distance.
  8. Consider allowing property owners to trim trees in the right-of-way, at least to remove low hanging branches and growth at the base of the tree.