This week in mid-Michigan, Jackson City Council members will consider changes to an ordinance on personal property in public spaces. Also, data centers are back on the City Council agenda in Mason, and CATA could make changes to its services.
These are some of the biggest stories WKAR lead politics reporter Andrew Roth is following as part of his weekly column, What Roth's Watching. You can read his roundup every Sunday in our newsletter, The Signal.
From Andrew:
1. Jackson personal property ordinance
Jackson City Council members are expected to consider amendments to an ordinance prohibiting excessive or unattended personal property in public spaces during a meeting Tuesday. Possible amendments include increasing the minimum notice before removing property downtown, establishing additional guidelines for when to issue fines and creating a mechanism to extend the deadline to retrieve property and exempt certain essential items from being impounded.
2. Mason City Council continues data center debate
Mason City Council members will meet Monday as they continue to consider a proposed hyperscale data center in nearby Vevay Township. City Council members could make changes to a citizen-initiated noise ordinance they approved earlier this year, keeping it off the ballot, with plans to later amend it at the city attorney’s recommendation.
3. CATA looking at potential service changes
The Capital Area Transportation Authority says potential service changes developed under a range of budget scenarios will be introduced in late summer as part of the third phase of its operational analysis. The public transportation system faces a budget deficit. CATA Board members will meet Wednesday night, but no action will be taken to implement service changes until at least October. Some separate service changes are being implemented later this month.
Interview Transcript:
Melorie Begay: This week in mid-Michigan, Jackson City Council members will consider amending an ordinance on personal property in public spaces. In Mason, discussions about data centers are back on the City Council agenda and the Capital Area Transportation Authority could see updates to its services.
These are some of the biggest stories WKAR's lead politics reporter Andrew Roth is following as part of his weekly column, What Roth's Watching. You can find it in our newsletter, The Signal. Andrew joins me now. Thanks for being here, Andrew.
Roth: Happy to join you, Melorie.
Begay: Let’s start with the Jackson City Council. They'll be considering an ordinance on personal property in public spaces. What's the background on this proposal?
Roth: There has been an encampment of unhoused individuals in front of a library in downtown Jackson. Now, that encampment has since been dispersed to other locations, but the original idea of this ordinance was to give the city a way to address this issue of tents being set up in a public space. They say that it's an accessibility concern because the sidewalks are blocked by the tents, and so this ordinance would allow them to address excessive personal property that's kept in public spaces, which they say would make things a lot more accessible for areas like the library, where that might have been a concern.
Begay: What are some of the proposed changes, and how would that affect the ordinance?
Roth: Under the original version of the ordinance, there would be limits on how much personal property you can have in public spaces. So, basically, there's a tote that everything would have to fit into that's the amount of property that you're allowed to have. But city council members want to see some changes to this.
For example, the city would give notice before they remove any property, but originally there would have been less notice in the downtown area than in some other parts of the city. City Council members want to change that. They want it to be uniform, or the same amount of notice across the city.
They also want some additional guidelines for when police issue fines, and they want a mechanism for that. Part of this ordinance is that you can go in, you can retrieve your property with no fee, and they want a mechanism for if somebody needs a little bit more time to go pick up their property, they want to be able to accommodate for that.
Begay: All right, and in Mason, data centers are back on the city council agenda. What's the latest going on here?
Roth: Yes, so earlier this year, City Council members passed a citizen-initiated ordinance establishing stricter noise limits in the city, and this was really sort of a result of a lot of anti-data center activism. The city had previously passed zoning requirements that they repealed, but City Council members passed this only to keep it off the ballot from going to voters, and with the intent of later going back and making changes to it, at the city attorney's recommendation.
There were some concerns that, as it was written by the citizens, this wouldn't be super enforceable, it would open the city up to lawsuits, and so the City Council members intended to go back and make amendments to that later on.
So, they're waiting to hear back from some outside experts on a review of what those changes might be, but there's also a lot of moving parts here.
At their last meeting, they passed some outlines for if this data center project does go through, how some of that revenue would be used, prioritizing things like considering future millage rate reductions, making additional contributions towards pension obligations. So, this is definitely an ongoing process at multiple different levels, and of course, there's a lot of public interest in it as well. Mason City Council meetings have continued to be a hotbed of data center activism.
Begay: Now, CATA, the Capital Area Transportation Authority, is looking into making some changes to its services. Andrew, what are some of those changes, and why do they say they need to make them?
Roth: The Capital Area Transportation Authority has been facing a budget deficit for about a year now. Originally, they said that with their budget deficit, they could continue their existing service levels for about a year, so we're hitting that point. They're currently undergoing an operational analysis, and part of that is developing potential service changes under a range of different budget scenarios. And they're planning to present those different plans in late summer, so, we are getting to be late summer.
Separately from that, they are making some service changes next week, actually, that will reduce the frequency of some routes. Like the 01 route, it'll go from being every nine to 15 minutes to just being every 15 minutes, so it'll run a little bit less frequently. Some routes will have fewer stops.
Then at the same time there’s this bigger conversation about what changes they need to make long term to sort of address this budget deficit. Ultimately, no action on that bigger plan is going to be taken until at least October. So, the public will have plenty of time to weigh in, and they'll take all of that into consideration before making any final decisions.
Begay: Andrew Roth is a reporter with WKAR. Thanks for being here, Andrew.
Roth: Always happy to join.
