Ann Arbor’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Zoning, and Historic Districts

In March 2026, Ann Arbor’s City Council adopted a new Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). The new plan is intended to guide development through 2050. The CLUP forms the basis for subsequent citywide rezoning.

Historic preservation is an important part of land use planning. Ann Arbor’s previous plan, drafted in 2009, contained an entire section on historic preservation and modeled appropriate acknowledgement and support for historic districts and preservation. The new draft plan does not.

The AAPA is advocating for historic preservation best practices in the plan, drawing from national preservation authorities and benchmarking of peer cities. We hope you will use the resources below to learn more about the CLUP, historic preservation best practices, and the AAPA's input to the Planning Commission, which both authors the plan and, after City Council adopts it, develops corresponding zoning. You are invited to use these resources to inform your own advocacy activities such as submitting comments to and/or speaking at Planning Commission and/or City Council meetings.

Resources

The Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP)

The CLUP: The City of Ann Arbor’s website on the CLUP. For times and agendas of meetings where new zoning is being adopted, and tools for submitting comments and speaking, see:

City Planning Commission: As of March 2026, the commission is developing new zoning based on the CLUP. Engage to influence the zoning maps they submit to City Council for approval.

City Council: Must approve new zoning maps proposed by the Planning Commission.

AAPA Memo on Issues with the CLUP (two pages)

AAPA Memo on Aligning Zoning with Historic Districts (one page)

AAPA Requested Edits to the CLUP, Nov. 11, 2025 (includes back-up to memos above - ten pages)