Despite water and sewer challenges, Ann Arbor needs to grow, city admin says

Table of Contents

ANN ARBOR, MI — While Ann Arbor’s ambitious growth plan has city staff worried as it relates to water and sewer system constraints, City Administrator Milton Dohoney says he’s confident the city can rise to meet the challenge.

“As the vision for the future Ann Arbor continues to take shape, it was important that staff provide assurance that we are performing the essential work necessary to support that vision,” Dohoney said of the Tuesday, June 3, infrastructure challenges presentation to the Planning Commission.

The community should be confident the city has the ability to identify, build and pay for the infrastructure necessary to accommodate new Ann Arborites, Dohoney said.

‘Not a ritzy suburb.’ Ann Arbor’s growth plan talks delve into new territory

In his view, the various planning pieces that need to interlock are aligning as they should, he said.

“We have a 200-year-old city,” he said. “We’re excited that it is growing, and we need and expect it to grow more. We embrace the idea that more people should have the opportunity to call Ann Arbor home.”

Sweeping zoning reforms the city is contemplating could unlock the potential for tens of thousands of additional housing units.

The city’s high-end growth scenario envisions about 1,800 new housing units per year, growing the population by about 99,000 residents or 79% by 2050.

The city’s low-end scenario envisions about 1,200 new housing units per year, growing the population by about 66,000 residents or 52% in the same timeframe.

That’s compared to an existing development rate of about 650 new housing units per year, according to the city. The most recent census estimates put the city’s population at just under 123,000 in July 2024.

Under the envisioned growth scenarios, the city estimates it would need to think about additional water treatment capacity in the 2034-2038 timeframe and a wastewater treatment expansion in the 2042-2050 timeframe. That could end up costing hundreds of millions of dollars and the city may have to consider measures like connecting to Detroit’s water system.

“The utility planning studies currently underway by staff are the right next steps to ensure that our systems can handle what actually gets built,” Dohoney said.

A coalition of residents calling on the city to “pause the plan” argues welcoming 30,000-plus more housing units in the city would require billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending with no funding plan yet.

“The resulting tax and utility increases would disproportionately harm fixed-income seniors, low-wage workers and economically vulnerable residents — the very people the plan claims to help,” the group claims on its website.

City officials acknowledge a funding strategy is needed and say analysis will continue.

There are major system constraints in terms of source water, water treatment and the sewer collection system, and additional constraints in terms of water distribution and wastewater treatment, officials said, saying there is capacity for growth, but it will drive the need for major infrastructure investments.

To maintain and improve the systems the city has today, City Council approved another round of utility rate increases in May expected to increase the average household’s annual bills by $21.24 for water, $16.36 for sewer and $8.12 for stormwater.

The city’s five-year capital improvement plan shows $68 million in near-term projects to improve the sewer system, while the city has identified more than $300 million in potential projects to improve the water system and more than $80 million in stormwater system projects.

City Council is expected to vote on the city’s growth plan in November.

Council Member Dharma Akmon, D-4th Ward, said in a social media post the fact that it would take real infrastructure investment to accommodate accelerated growth is not a crisis.

“It’s a chance to plan ahead, modernize aging systems, and make sure the benefits of growth are shared across our community,” she said, saying it can create more housing choices, support local businesses and reduce sprawl.

City leaders are hoping more housing supply can curb rising housing costs, but some residents are skeptical and predict Ann Arbor will just become a bigger, still-expensive city.

While most new housing is expensive, one way officials hope the new growth plan helps is by eliminating single-family zoning and allowing multi-unit apartment and condo buildings in neighborhoods, so on a lot where a 3,000-square-foot home might otherwise be built, instead there could be multiple smaller housing units costing less per unit.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free “ 3@3 Ann Arbor ” daily newsletter.

©2025 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.