The Ann Arbor City Council created the Downtown Residential Task Force in October 2003 to provide recommendations on encouraging and supporting residential development in downtown Ann Arbor.  The task force's mandate was motivated by two forces: alleviating development pressure on natural areas around Ann Arbor (in tandem with the Ann Arbor Greenbelt) and supporting a thriving downtown business district with additional customers. The task force delivered their report to Council in July 2004, as the first part of the city's Downtown Development Strategies Project.

Residential targets & updates

The Task Force set benchmarks of creating an additional 1,000 housing units in the downtown area by 2015, and a further 1,500 housing units by 2030. (The Task Force's report also emphasized that these targets were intended to "inform a discussion," not to be "the only measure of success.") The DDA in July 2011 reported that housing stock in the downtown had increased by 456 housing units, with an additional 274 under construction, and that the downtown population had increased by 30% since 2000.  (These numbers appear to not include the University of Michigan's North Quad, completed in 2010 and housing 450 students.)

 

    A 2016 "Downtown Market Scan" by 4Ward Planning, Inc., noted that 1,168 new apartments and condos had been constructed in the downtown area over the period 2010-2016, with the area's population growing by an estimated 2,470 people in that time--a growth rate just over 8% annually.  That document estimated that, in addition to 470 units already approved but not yet constructed, "there will be demand for between 1,140 and 1,530 new housing units in Downtown Ann Arbor by 2021"

    Task force members

    Sources:

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