34 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Backing up a moment and thinking about whether I’ve personally been able to do a lot of relational work, unfortunately I really haven’t. In part because the structure of the commission as a body, and the way we are allowed to interface with the public during our meetings, limits that. In addition, in Ann Arbor, these are volunteer positions. We are working full-time jobs and doing this work in the evenings and on weekends. However, the city attempted to do a very robust public engagement process, starting in the summer of 2023. The commission has received feedback that some residents feel the process was flawed – that they either didn’t know about it or that they don’t feel their voices have been adequately heard. I’m not saying the process was perfect, but there were public events held all over town, and we received hundreds of emails and many hours of public comment and I and my fellow commissioners listened, read, and reviewed every one. There is a valid question about what constitutes meaningful public engagement and how to balance that with limited municipal resources. It’s complex. One more thing about architects – we have a way of being able to “break the code.” You try to think of the min/max scenario that pushes right at the edges of what an ordinance might allow or disallow, to figure out whether it’s having unintended consequences. Architects are really good at this because we have this dogged optimism about solving things, or finding loopholes. We’re trained to think creatively, to figure out how to get around things.
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