City of Ann Arbor Zoning Ordinance Update
Brothers,
With the start of the 2018-2019 academic year the ATCHA board felt that it was important to provide an update regarding the ongoing zoning ordinance issue that you may be aware of. Please read the below information for a brief history of the topic, its importance, our actions to address it, and what is being done moving forward.
This issue was first brought to our attention in April by Allan Lutes, President of Alpha Management Group, an organization that provides professional services for alumni and chapters in the Greek community. The proposed changes to the city's zoning code would require fraternities and sororities to maintain an affiliation with the University of Michigan or another college or university for their houses to be specially permitted by the city on a case-by-case basis. At the time of the proposed changes, the city zoning ordinance did not require Greek houses to have this affiliation as part of compliance. According to city officials the new ordinance would apply only to new Greek organizations going forward while existing Greek houses would be grandfathered in.
The proposed changes were introduced by city officials working in conjunction with offices from the University of Michigan without consulting the IFC, the active Greek community, Greek alumni groups, or Greek property ownership groups. As such the underlying language of the ordinance was unclear for various scenarios, some of which have legal precedents at other Universities that could negatively impact the future of Greek life at Michigan. The points most concerning being:
If a Greek chapter were to lose affiliation with the University of Michigan the associated property would fall out of compliance with city zoning, subjecting students living in it to possible immediate eviction.
No clear wording regarding the process and timeline for reaffiliation if a grandfathered chapter were to lose its affiliation with the University.
Unclear wording regarding renovations or expansions of existing properties which could subject grandfathered chapters to lose their preexisting affiliation.
Proposed changes would give the University of Michigan complete authority to define the rules and standards for affiliation.
Members from the National Interfraternity Council (NIC) were alerted to the situation and with legal assistance began advising the IFC and alumni organizations on the proper actions to take. In the current setup chapters are officially recognized by the IFC not the University of Michigan, the changes to this requirement appear to be a direct attack on the Greek community, as technically the University does not recognize student organizations, the student body does. The Greek community organized and attend city council meetings in June and July to educate the city council members on the above points and voice concerns with the proposed ordinance changes. Additional meetings were held between representatives of the City of Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan, and leadership from the concerned organizations in Greek community which were thought to be productive in creating a better understanding between sides. Despite these efforts the Ann Arbor City Council voted to unanimously approve the changes at their meeting on Monday July 16th.
After the passing of the ordinance changes the NIC and its legal team began working with the Greek life community on the best course of action to protect the wellbeing of active Greek students and the assets of associated organizations. Since fraternity and sorority chapters were not officially affiliated with the University prior to the passing of the ordinance changes, by disaffiliating the legal right of the house corporation to house a chapter unaffiliated with the University would be preserved into the future through application of the lawful nonconforming use doctrine. With the ordinance changes set to take effect on Thursday July 26th, 26 of the 28 current chapters of the Greek community at the University of Michigan, including the Alpha-Tau chapter of Chi Phi, submitted official letters of disaffiliation with the University.
The University responded in the following days by sending letters to the organizations of the Greek community expressing concern over the received disaffiliations. These still offered minimal recognition of the issues with the proposed changes, contained false claims of receiving input from Greek groups throughout the process, and recognized the Greek community’s exemplary self-governance which directly contradicts the underlying goal of the University to establish more control over fraternities and sororities. The University offered an extended window of time to allow any chapter to withdraw their notice of disaffiliation, none of the disaffiliated chapters accepted this offer.
The discussions with the University are still on going. The disaffiliated chapters continue to work together and maintain an organized opposition to the University’s actions. We will continue to provide updates as the situation progresses.
Fraternally,
Matthew Herring, ATCHA President
Mark Saylor, ATCHA Vice President
Jimmy Dale, Alpha
More Insight From The Chapter Alpha
As an Executive Council, we deliberately looked into this issue. As Matt or Jeff will tell you, this was something we as undergraduates debated for a long period of time. In the summer when the first wave of disaffiliation came, we felt that it was in our best interest at the time to be one of the 17 chapters who decided to disaffiliate from the University of Michigan.
When we got back to school, there was much commotion about what was going to become of both those fraternities and Michigan Greek Life as a whole. Before classes even started, I attended meetings for the UMich IFC and the NIC's "AAIFC" to hear both sides of the issue. After all of these meetings, there were some clear cut ideas that were developed:
First through the Michigan IFC, we are guaranteed access to resources (such as Sober Monitor Training, Sexual Assault Prevention, Mental Health resources) that would not be given to us as an organization otherwise. Additionally, the recruitment process of the University is organized and, other than the action for deferred recruitment in 2019, it is a very good process. The university also provides safety through our Social Environment Management Policy among other things.
The AAIFC, though we liked their desire to push for our rights as students and fraternities, simply doesn't have enough in place. There is no process outlined for recruitment, risk management, funding for an IFC advisor, and no unity with other beneficial organizations. Again, we really like the idea that the NIC is pushing for our rights, but believe that we can fight along with the NIC while still being comfortable with the standing of our chapter.
Because of this, we have decided to reaffiliate with the University of Michigan and join about 17-18 other chapters who have done so. As I said before, we see this as our best way to ensure successful recruitment, safe and low risk social events, and access to important resources that the University provides us. We do, however, plan to continue to work with AAIFC leadership to push for an end to deferred recruitment and increased student rights, even if we have decided that our chapter is safest if in the Michigan IFC.
Thank you all for your time, and as always we thank you for your continued support of Alpha-Tau and hope to see all of you at 1530 for homecoming. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any other questions.
Jimmy Dale, Alpha
Further Background & Resources & References
Similar zoning changes have been introduced in other college towns and, at least on one campus, have been used aggressively to try to kill off the Greek system. The courts have set a precedent in these zoning cases that grandfathering only goes back to property’s status on the day before the new zoning law took effect. Therefor it doesn’t matter that we have been in the same place doing the same thing for 100 years.
Under the new zoning law if the University through the IFC or the IFC on its own decided to "un-recognize" us for any reason we would immediately lose our legal non-conforming status and the actives could be immediately evicted from the property by the city. Apparently, this happened at another campus.
If we lost our legal non-conforming status, that would limit our options on who we could rent or sell the property to. This new zoning law then definitely has a negative effect on the value of our property.
REFERENCE INFO USED
City of Ann Arbor legislation details: http://a2gov.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3458202&GUID=304F8620-B422-4A80-A26E-1AA7BE3DDB58&Options=&Search=
M-Live Article “Fraternities say lawsuits ahead if Ann Arbor regulates Greek housing” posted May 10th.
M-Live Article “Ann Arbor approves zoning changes for fraternity and sorority houses” posted July 17th.
JUNE 12th ATCHA MEETING
Zoning update and info
BOBS NOTES FROM CITY COUNCIL MEETING JUNE 19th
The fraternity-sorority rezoning issue came up twice during the meeting, first as public hearing, and second as the 'second reading' of the proposed ordinance (see the attached meeting agenda). The entire meeting was broadcast live over AA Public Access channels, and will also be available soon on the CTN website (https://a2ctn.viebit.com)
During public hearings on the issue (look for "PH-2" on the chyron @ bottom of screen, about 40 minutes into the meeting), there were two speakers who were both against, building on the points that have already been entered into the record at the previous hearing on May 17. Both were representatives of Greek house associations (one frat, one sorority). Note that anyone who spoke at previous public hearing on May 17 are not permitted to speak again. Before the public hearing began, a comment was made by Mayor Taylor that city staff had asked the council to table the issue for further study, i.e. to incorporate the aforementioned feedback the house owners had made to planning committee; otherwise there might have been more inclined to speak, I don't know.
The Second Reading (council action) started about 8:10 and ran for about 15 minutes (look for "B-1" on the chyron). Council reps Ackerman and Lumm were the ones who moved to table before bloviating on the topic for a while.
[To set the stage, Washtenaw Ave is the dividing line between Wards 2 and 3; the chapter house sits in Ward 3 and is represented by Ackerman and one other rep who did not speak up during the hearing; Jane Lumm and Kirk Westphal represent Ward 2 on the north side of Washtenaw [full disclosure - my parents' house was in Ward 2; Lumm has been on council for some time now and my opinion of her is not high]. Fraternity and sorority houses are evenly divided between Wards 2 and 3 (though I think Lumm tossed in a red herring in that count, will cover later).]
It was noted that so far the feedback on the proposed ordinance change has been one-sided. Councilman Lumm mentioned that (in her case at least) there have been complaints from single-family owners and neighborhood homeowners associations about fraternities & sororities such as noise, traffic, parking (our neighbors are either churches/synagogues or other Greek housing; I knew of one house across Washtenaw that was being run as a B&B). There was no one from those areas/ associations who spoke up during public hearing time last night (I can't speak for May 17) and Lumm wants to make sure their voices are heard as well, and is organizing neighborhood meetings to do so.
Councilman Lumm mentioned the # of fraternities/sororities that are currently under the special exemption in Wards 2 and 3; then she threw in a third # which I think were the Greek organizations that operate out of the Student Organization space at the Michigan Union (technically part of Ward 1). The red herring is that they use student space @ the Union because they don't own fraternity houses.
It was noted several times that the new ordinance would apply only to new Greek organizations going forward; that the existing Greek houses would be 'grandfathered in' on this new ordinance. However, it's still mushy as to what is going to happen if the chapter loses its recognition with the UofM (or has charter pulled by National which amounts to the same thing). As I understand it, the current plan contains a grace period for the owners to find another chapter to occupy the chapter house, but there was confusion as to how this would function. [I thought I also heard mention that this might change if the house is renovated? But it was said in passing and no one brought it up again]
[During discussions one person made the point of separating out chapter houses that were in place before the current ordinance was adapted (as opposed to those who have been granted the exceptions); I am unclear whether this means that the "old established" houses were exempted from the "special exception" part of the existing ordinance, and thus would also be exempt from the new ordinance. I'd be surprised if they let that stand].
According to ATCHA President notes, the issue is tabled until July 16th (was originally stated as 'the second week in July' and subsequently clarified by someone with a calendar). There was discussion whether the input from the planning committee could be incorporated in time for that meeting, and Councilman Lumm said they want to move ahead with this but still want input from the HOA's and neighbors.
The matter was tabled about 8:25 and about half a dozen people (including me) left at that time. Allan Lutes was in attendance, along with three other gentlemen who I don't recognize but I infer were reps for their respective boards (one of them was one off the speakers during public comment). Allan will likely comment on the meeting in his own time but he does think that the U and the City are trying to work out a deal and then let us know later. He states (correctly) that the U is trying to foist off working with the Greek System on the city instead of dealing with it directly. (I think Allan also shares my low opinion of President Schissel).
Along those lines I heard an interesting statistic quoted by one of the speakers (during public comments?) that the average [Tier One? it was qualified somehow] University has one staff member in it's Greek Life office for every 250 students; at UofM that ratio is 1 staff member for 1,000 students.
ORDINANCE PASSED JULY 16th
City council voted to unanimously pass the ordinance
NOTES REGARDING CALL ON JULY 25th
Take-aways from the call are as follows:
Similar zoning changes have been introduced in other college towns and, at least on one campus, have been used aggressively to try to kill off the fraternity system. The courts have set a precedent in these zoning cases that grandfathering only goes back to property’s status on the day before the new zoning law took effect. Therefor it doesn’t matter that we have been in the same place doing the same thing for 100 years.
We are recognized by the IFC NOT the UofM. One person at the meeting pointed out that technically the university doesn’t recognize student organizations, the students do, or in our case the IFC.
Under the new zoning law if the University through the IFC or the IFC on its own decided to "un-recognize" us for any reason we would immediately lose our legal non-conforming status and the actives could be immediately evicted from the property by the city. Apparently, this happened at another campus.
If we lost our legal non-conforming status, that would limit our options on who we could rent or sell the property to. This new zoning law then definitely has a negative effect on the value of our property.
Given all of the above the lawyer’s recommendation is that. in order to preserve the value of our property and our options should our chapter get into trouble in the future, to formally disaffiliate our chapter from the university, as then we would be grandfathered with that status. Thus the requirement that our chapter be recognized by university would be neutralized.
The lawyer admitted that this is only a tactic, but one that they believe would hold up in court. Also, there is some risk that the city or university could react in some unforeseen way that might cause this to backfire. This hasn’t been tried before.
If we are to do this it has to happen no later than July 29th when the ordinance takes effect (maybe sooner, due to normal business hours). And the action would probably have to be taken by the chapter, not the alumni.
