Ward 5 candidates clash over comprehensive plan, affordable housing funding and Arbor South TIF

Jen Cornell and Greg Monroe, the two candidates for Ann Arbor Ward 5, presented contrasting views on how the city should implement its recently adopted comprehensive land use plan and pay for affordable housing during a League of Women Voters online forum.

Monroe said the comprehensive plan “was not shaped in a spirit of collaboration” and warned the plan risks prioritizing market-rate or luxury development over affordability and weakens protections for natural features. “We must be really cognizant” that upzoning can increase land value and pressure affordability, he said, and advocated for public–private partnerships and community land trusts to secure permanent affordability.

Cornell described the adopted plan as “just a vision” that will be implemented through a multi‑year process with public engagement. She emphasized a mixed approach to housing: continuing the voter-approved housing millage that she credited with producing “1,200 units in the pipeline,” encouraging developer inclusion of affordable units and using city-owned housing where appropriate. She cautioned against relying solely on bond issuance, saying bonds are “debt you’ll pay later.”

On Arbor South — a development whose TIF package moderator described as the largest in city history — Monroe criticized the scale of public support cited in the forum, saying the city agreed to forego “up to $373 million in future property tax revenue over 30 years” and characterizing that level of tax increment financing as excessive except for narrowly targeted brownfield cleanup. Cornell said she opposed Arbor South but defended TIFs as a statutorily governed tool that can create jobs and capture future tax revenues that otherwise don’t exist, and she urged that projects must deliver tangible public benefits.

Both candidates said they favor increasing housing supply, but they diverge on mechanisms. Monroe called for more duplexes and triplexes across neighborhoods and greater use of land trusts to create permanently affordable homes. Cornell stressed a diversity of housing types and continued reliance on the city’s housing millage and housing commission to shepherd production.

The forum did not include any formal council action or vote; the statements were campaign positions ahead of the Aug. 4 primary.