ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A lawsuit filed Monday alleges Ann Arbor voters are being misled by the language in ballot Proposals A and B. The plaintiffs are asking a Washtenaw County judge to stop that Aug. 5 election entirely.
The debate centers on a downtown parking lot next to Library Lane and the Ann Arbor District Library on Fifth Avenue.
Dan Rubenstein, an Ann Arbor resident, said, “We have a shortage of open space downtown.”
Rita Mitchell, president of the Library Green Conservancy, said the group worked with city leaders in 2018 to turn the parking lot into a park.
“Our goal is to establish the center of the city as voted on by the people in 2018,” Mitchell said.
But seven years later, it remains a parking lot.
Eli Neiburger, director of the Ann Arbor District Library, said the library is ready to take on the transformation.
“The library is in a position to actually deliver on many of the things that the proponents of that original 2018 proposal had envisioned,” Neiburger said.
Proposals A and B ask voters to approve the city selling the parking lot to the library for $1. This would allow the library to expand its footprint.
Neiburger explained, “We’re in a position now where we’ve exceeded the capacity of our downtown library.”
The plan is to rebuild the current library outward and upward, adding affordable housing units and other spaces that would generate revenue for the library while creating a public space.
Rubenstein, who opposes the proposals, said, “There’s nothing wrong with building a new library. There’s also nothing wrong with preserving unique and irreplaceable park space downtown.”
Neiburger said the two goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
“There’s 10,000 square feet on top of the parking structure that cannot hold a parking building, designed to be an original plaza, and that is in the mix,” he said.
The library does not have an official comment on the lawsuit.
Local 4 has also contacted the city for a response.
