Ann Arbor's New DDA Plan Runs to 2055. The County Opted Out of the Old One.
The Ann Arbor DDA's amended Development and TIF Plan for 2026–2055 took effect April 30, 2026, following City Council approval, with a boundary now encompassing more than 80 city blocks. Read against Plat Street's earlier coverage, the sequence is the story: Washtenaw County used Michigan PA 57 of 2018 to opt its levy out of Ann Arbor DDA TIF capture on a 7–0 vote, the first use of that mechanism against a well-run district (Issues 2 and 3), and the DDA has now locked in a thirty-year plan with an expanded footprint. A district facing a jurisdictional opt-out has two available responses: negotiate the opting jurisdiction back in, or extend and expand the plan so the remaining capture base carries the program. Ann Arbor chose the second. Every Michigan DDA with a TIF plan approaching amendment now has both precedents in front of it.
Watch: Whether any other Washtenaw taxing jurisdiction files an opt-out against the amended plan, and whether the expanded boundary changes the county's calculus.
Source: City of Ann Arbor, DDA Development and TIF Plan 2026–2055; Plat Street Issues 2 and 3
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