MARCH 1989 FREE BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID ANN ARBOR, Ml PERMIT NO. 736 ANN ARBOR'S ALTERNATIVE NEWSMONTHLY NEW ZONING ORDINANCE Affordable Housing Under Siege by Michael Appel "Our zoning rules were developed with the traditional family in Department. "We're kind of dancing around that." mind. Should there be a maximum, number of individuals (or Under the proposals, functional families would still not be able adults?) who can live together in a single dwelling unit? At what to exceed four persons per household outside of downtown and stu- number of individuals does the entity became a group rather than dent neighborhoods without a special exception permit. Houses in a family?"—North Bums Park Association Planning Committee areas like the Old West Side (except that part north of Jefferson and (from the Oct. 11, 1988 Planning Commission public hearing east of Fourth St.), Burns Park, most of the Miller-Fountain neigh- minutes). borhood and the residential blocks near Pontiac Trail and Broad- way would fall into this category. The Ann Arbor Planning Departmenthas proposed amendments The Guatemalan Army continues to rule the coun- To be approved for a special exception permit, the affected to the Zoning Ordinance which will continue, if not exacerbate, the try's indigenous population with an iron fist. household must meet six standards. One standard is that there must city's shortage of affordable housing. Residential neighborhood be a "permanent domestic relationship among the occupants." (Un- associations and the Planning Commission are advocating language fortunately no one knows what a permanent domestic relationship which would tightly restrict the presence of non-biological family GUATEMALAN is.) Another standard is that households must have a lot size with households—cooperatives, fraternities, sororities, rooming dwell- at least 1,800 square feet per occupant (i.e. at least 12,600 square ings, and functional family households (households of unrelated feet per lot in most student and downtown neighborhoods and 9,000 WORKERS STRIKE people)—in the city. The proposed amendments could threaten square feet per lot in most other areas). these living arrangements which provide important sources of by Jon Reed Robert Magill, an Ann Arbor attorney who argued the Dinolfo affordable housing in Ann Arbor. GUATEMALA CITY—Since Jan. 23, 50,000 agricultural case for the family and currently represents three local groups with A wide variety of Ann Arbor residents are likely to find them- workers in southern Guatemala have gone on strike, paralyz- similar concerns, rejects the special exception strategy for comply- selves affected by the proposed amendments, which contain lan- ing, and in some cases, temporarily seizing more than 20 major ing with the court ruling. "Delta vDinolfo," he argues, "gave func- guage biased against functional family households. Those affected agro-export plantations in the Esquintla, Retalhuleu, Suchite- tional families the right to live in family neighborhoods; the propos- may include many households, student and non-student, composed pequez and Quetzaltenango provinces. of unrelated single people, unmarried couples, and gay men and al would convert that right into a privilege obtained by the permit process. This was not the court's intent." The strike was called by the semi-clandestine Campesino lesbians who cannot legally many in Michigan. It may also include Unity Committee (CUC) and the national federation of Trade senior citizens who are able to keep their homes through renting out NON-FAMILY GROUPS Union and Popular Action (UASP). According to a Jan. 24 rooms, or who v ant to live in "shared housing." The list of those Other forms of group housing encounter even more opposition ' CUC press conference in Guatemala City, the primary de- affected may also include a local Christian group, The Word of God, than functional family households. Cooperatives, fraternities, so- mands of the strike are a doubling of the minimum wage to who have single adults living together or with a traditional family rorities, and rooming and boarding houses stand to lose ground in approximately S3.50 U.S. a day and an improvement in the on occasion. the proposed amendments. working conditions on the fincas (plantations). Hit harder will be students and low-income residents who live The strike in the Pacific Coast region is centered principally in organized dwellings such as cooperatives and rooming houses. Organized group dwellings would have to meet stringent stan- dards to apply for a special exception permit. The current proposal in the sugar cane plantations and in the sugar refineries where WHAT IS A FAMILY? "makes the creation of new affordable housing for students... a near the work force earns an average of S.87 to $1.75 per day, ac- City attorney Bruce Laidlaw urged the Planning Department to impossibility," according to the Inter-Cooperative Council (ICC), cording to UASP. Coffee and cotton plantations have also been revise the Zoning Ordinance in light of a Michigan Supreme Court which owns 17 student cooperative houses with 540 members. The struck. UNAGRO, the national association of agro-export decision. Delta Charter Township vDinolfo. Laidlaw fears the rul- most troublesome of the standards for organized group dwellings businessmen, flatly rejected the strike's central demand, ing invalidates the-ordinance's current definition of a family. In the requires a lot size of at least 8,500 square feet in the student and namely a doubling of minimum wage. Dinolfo case, the court ruled against a Delta Charter Township zon- downtown neighborhoods where the ICC expects to locate any fu- Finca owners and President Vincio Cerezo denounced the ing ordinance which limited a household to the biological/legal fam- ture co-ops. Only three of the current eleven ICC co-ops in those strike as illegal, and as being led and promoted by "extreme • ily plus only one unrelated person. neighborhoods could meet that standard, so while existing co-ops left-wingers." On Jan 24, Cerezo acceded to finca owners de- Under the present Ann Arbor Zoning Ordinance, a biological/ are not affected by these proposed changes, finding future sites may mands and sent in thousands of troops and National Police to legal family (the household unit which may reside in a single house prove a real problem. quell the rebellion and occupy the fincas. On Jan 24, according or apartment) is one or more persons "related by blood, marriage Rooming houses, which are currently allowed automatically in to reports in El Grafico and Prensa Libre, striking workers oc- or adoption... with not more than three additional persons, or in a the downtown and student neighborhoods, will have to obtain spe- cupying sugar refineries in Escuintla were violently dislodged multi-family dwelling, not more than five additional persons." cial exception permits everywhere in the city under the latest draft by armed police. Hundred of strikers fought back, building bar- Thus, the size of a biological/legal family is not limited by the proposal, but would be allowed for the first time in two-family areas. ricades, throwing stones, and attacking trucks that tried to cross the picket lines. Riot police, wearing gas masks, fired hundreds Zoning Ordinance, but only by the ,.v . m The North Burns Park Associa- Housing Code space requirements 3 tion's concern for an equitable dis- of tear gas cannisters and clubbed workers to the ground in for their home. On the other hand, a tribution of uses throughout the city clashes that took place in over a dozen locations. As National functional family, consisting of drops considerably at this expan- Police occupied the sugar refineries and majorplantations, rov- unrelated persons in a single resi- sion into their neighborhood of a ing bands of militants began setting fire to sugar cane fields dence, may live in groups of only up less desirable use: "A rooming and delivery trucks and damaging farm machinery, causing al- to four people in most single family house is considered the most dete- most a million dollars in losses, according to news reports on and duplex neighborhoods regard- riorating and least desirable use of Jan.' 26. less of house size. In most down- residential property, and decreases In a press conference called on Jan. 26, General Hector town and student neighborhoods the the value of surrounding properties. Gramajo, Minister of Defense, denied that the CUC had any limit is six. Rooming houses do not belong in chance of success, and stated that the CUC had direct connec- Ann Arbor could comply with the R2B (two-family zoning dis- tions with the EGP (Guerrilla Army of the Poor) organization the Dinolfo ruling by dropping ordi- trict)." based in the northern highlands of Quiche. Gramajo blamed nance language which distinguishes Residents of neighborhoods al- the turmoil on "13 armed leftists-extremists," whom he claim- between biological/legal and func- ready zoned to accept these uses, ed had forced the thousands of campesinos to go on strike. tional families. Instead, both types such as the Old Fourth Ward Asso- Trade union, student, campesino and human rights groups of family would be regulated based ciation located just north of down- have denounced Gramajo's statements as preposterous, and on density. town, take a slightly different view have pointed out that recent government slander directed The proposed changes, how- of the proposed changes. As the against the progressive movement is setting adangerous prece- ever, are designed to comply with more residential areas rebuff any dent that could lead the country back to the bloody carnage of the Dinolfo ruling while still pre- advances of denser or less desirable the early 1980s. serving different density standards uses, the downtown and student " In 1980, the CUC organized a nationwide two week work for biological/legal families and PHOTO: CASEY CAVANAUGH (R4C) ZQn[ng districts neCessarily stoppage that succeeded in raising plantation workers' wages functional families.