36 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 Detroiters feeling that it’s extractive. Also, the grant funding, research and publication, and tenure processes put pressures on scholars that may be at odds with what a community needs or finds beneficial. In terms of the university and planning processes in Ann Arbor, U-of-M is unique because it is a public university that supersedes the municipality of Ann Arbor in the state constitution, which means that the university does not have to follow the city’s zoning ordinances or land use plans. Over the past 20 years U-of-M’s population has grown more than 25% and they have purchased an incredible amount of property. The university doesn’t pay property tax on those parcels and can build whatever they want there, regardless of the city’s zoning. The university has been engaged in a campus planning process for the past couple of years that has minimally engaged the city. I wish there was a lot more collaboration and cooperation there. On a more positive note, the university is a wellspring of expertise and knowledge and many faculty engage with the city as commissioners, informal advisors, and public intellectuals. For example, on the Planning Commission, we have multiple U-of-M faculty: two planners, one architect (that’s me), one developer, and one political scientist. Wes Hiatt It sounds like working through a vehicle that’s outside of the university, but as a sort of extra activity, is the way in which folks have found that kind of impact. Are there existing programs at Michigan that at least try to have that kind of direct impact on the ground? 19:13
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