Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'm Dana Denha and you're watching FYI. Fencers take center stage as Theatre Nova hosts the action-packed, female-empowering production of Athena. Watch as the small cast brings high energy through choreographed fight scenes and complicated relationships, The Yellow Barn, Fridays through Sundays, now through August 9th.

Athena is basically a love story between two young women who are so well matched in terms of their passion and intensity for which they pursue fencing.

I like to say the stories that I like to work on and direct are violently tender and fairly feminine. And when people ask me what that means, I say, have you read Athena by Gracie Gardner?

It is so rare to find shows where we can allow young teenagers, especially girls, to be messy and to be flawed and kind of discover that on their own.

It allows these girls to be fierce and feral and imperfect and funny and smart, and it takes them seriously.

A lot about this show is about her journey and her training to get there, to compete for the Junior Olympics by the end of the show. And along the way, she meets and makes a new friend, Mary Wallace.

She's a 17 year old girl. She's a marine biology enthusiast. She learned to fence, I think, during COVID and is now pursuing her passion in that.

I am a stage combatant, I'm a stunt performer, I'm a martial artist, I'm also an actor. And so what I really love about shows is any show that allows me to fight, honestly.

Genuinely, they came in, they're so skilled and they're so knowledgeable and it just made this process possible.

Get your tickets now. I cannot say hi enough about how amazing of a show this is and I hope you all really like it.

For more on Athena or other productions throughout the year, visit theaternova.org. Stay tuned, and we'll be back with more in exactly 30 seconds. It's been years in the making and now the time has finally come to experience Ann Arbor's first ever splash pad. Bicentennial Park's newest amenity boasts universal access for all and even welcomes some very special guests on July 11th, 2026, the official opening day of the sustainable water feature.

This has been an amazing day. We're here at the great and grand opening of Bicentennial Park. We've got so many different members of our community. We've got our Olympians, our Paralympians, all sorts of folks coming here enjoying what is an incredible Ann Arbor Park.

is awesome you know Ann Arbor is has such a reputation of being such a big part of the Olympic and Paralympic movement and you know as soon as I pulled up and I saw that this whole area was busting with people it's really awesome how much the community is excited.

We started off as kids with you know passions for different sports and the curiosity to see what we could do and we kept going and pursuing those passions and so to be here together and to connect through sport and culture, it's really special. And I see a connection and a parallel between this and the Olympics and the Paralympics. The Olympics and Paralympics are on a global scale. What we're doing today is on a local scale. It's kind of pulling everything together.

To have a place like this where it's flat, it's level, I can easily roll my chair around. There are no barriers anywhere. And that's rare in our society. And so I can come here and feel truly able to do anything anybody else can.

You know, I am a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor for kids. So accessibility is really a big part of what I do in my professional life. And to see so many features here, I was just looking at the communication board. It's amazing. It really just speaks that this park welcomes everyone and we can get everyone out playing, moving their bodies, which is really the core of what I do in medicine.

Another aspect of Bicentennial Park is its sustainability. It's powered by solar. It is extremely water efficient. Normally splash pads of this kind would use 15 million gallons a year. We use 15,000 gallons a year. It's a splash pad that's sustainable, universally accessible, and a giant bucket of fun.

Ann Arbor is home to more than 160 parks with scenic views, places to play, and some top-notch facilities. See all that Scarlett Mitchell Nature Area has during this Park Peak.

Tucked away on Ann Arbor's southeast side, the Scarlet Mitchell Nature Area is a 50-acre natural oasis that connects Mitchell, Scarlet Woods, and nearby parkland to create one of the city's most diverse natural spaces. The area features peaceful unpaved trails winding through forests, wetlands, and open natural habitats, offering visitors a chance to escape the city without ever leaving it. One of the park's highlights is its rich wildlife. The wetlands attract a variety of birds, supported by numerous bird boxes throughout the area. Keep an eye out on frogs, turtles, and other reptiles that thrive in these habitats. The trail loops through seasonally wet areas, creating a dynamic landscape that changes throughout the year. Spring visitors should come prepared for muddy conditions, but the scenery is well worth it. Behind the scenes, the city's natural area preservation staff and volunteers work to restore and protect the ecosystem through prescribed burns and the removal of invasive species, helping native plants and wildlife flourish. This natural area's story is also one of community stewardship. Portions of the land were acquired in 1975 and 2001. Local residents successfully advocated for preserving nearby woodlands rather than allowing development. Their efforts helped ensure that this natural area would remain protected for future generations. Whether you're birdwatching, exploring the trails, or simply enjoying a quiet walk in nature, Scarlett Mitchell Nature Area offers a reminder of how valuable urban green spaces can be. For more information on this and other city parks, please visit a2gov.org slash parkfinder.

Driving is a responsibility that many of us bear. With the operation of a motor vehicle comes risk factors. Many of us have experienced a vehicular crash that was no fault of our own, but has an adverse effect on our pocketbooks. While there is a way to recoup those lost finances through mini-tort claims, sometimes these claims can be difficult to process, but Michigan Auto Law is here to help, free of charge. Joining me is Brandon Hewitt, attorney and COO of Michigan Auto Law. Welcome back to the show, Brandon.

Thank you so much for having us, as always.

You know, when I was looking up this, I didn't really know what a mini tort claim is. Can you explain what it actually is?

Yeah. So a lot of people think of it as a dessert cake. But what it is, it's part of this magical no-fault system in Michigan that we have. So one more thing to not really understand until you need it. But the mini tort is basically the deductible for the repairs to your car that you get charged by your own insurance. So... You know, most of the time for a lot of policies, your own insurance, no fault insurance, is going to cover the damages to your vehicle. But sometimes you have a deductible with that, you know, might be $500, might be $1,000. I think the most insurance company is going to charge you is $3,000 for a deductible. Or sometimes you don't have collision coverage at all. And so basically the mini tort is your ability to recover that deductible or that out-of-pocket expense for the damages to your vehicle from the at-fault party's insurance company.

Yeah, it's a little confusing because you hear that no, we're a no fault state. And then you're like at fault, but there's always going to be someone that most of the time, I guess sometimes accidents can be caused by more than one person, but there's usually going to be that person that caused the crash.

Yeah, so you always have somebody at fault for an accident, right? No fault just means that there's certain benefits that you go to your insurance company for, and then there's certain claims you go to the at fault insurance company for. For no fault, you always go to your own insurance company for things like your medical bills, lost wages, help around the house. Those are called personal injury protection benefits. And then also to your own insurance company for the damage to your vehicle. Now, how much coverage you carry and what kind of coverage you carry is up to you. Some people carry something called PLPD, which means they really don't have anywhere to repair their vehicle. But even in that situation, you can still recover this mini tort that's up to $3,000 from the outfall party's insurance.

So what are the criteria? Like, does it have to be a certain kind of accident? I assume it has to be more than one vehicle involved.

So yeah, so somebody has to be at fault, right? So not you. So number one, you can't be at fault for the incident. So if you run into your garage or you hit a telephone pole, if it's just you and you're at fault, you did something, you're not going to be able to recover this from anywhere. You're going to get stuck with that deductible. So somebody else has to be at fault. Number one, your car has to incur some damage, right? So... You know, if it's just kind of a scratch, it can be buffed out and you're not really having to pay for any repairs. There's no real problem there. So there's usually two parts. Somebody else has to be at fault and then there has to be damages. And then lastly, you either have to have only PLPD coverage on your own policy or you have to have a deductible that your insurance company charges you. So some people have great, great coverage where, you know, if you're not at fault, your insurance company waives your deductible and they say, hey, yeah, you have a $500 deductible to repair your car, but you weren't at fault. So we're going to waive that for you. If you're not out of pocket anything, you can't recover this, right? So it's only if you're out of pocket. up to that deductible or you don't have collision coverage, can you recover from this? Technically, there's a three-year statute limitations on that. We try to encourage people to really try to make that claim within one year so that there's kind of less argument from the insurance company. That's not a strict requirement. So three basic things, I guess. You're not at fault, you have damages, and you actually have out-of-pocket expenses for the repairs to your vehicle.

Do you need a lawyer to get your mini-torque claim?

You don't, you can do it yourself, but it's a little bit easier going through the process that we've just set up. Some lawyers will handle it for you, but they're gonna charge you and having to pay a lawyer to get $3,000 back

It's going to be a moot point in the end. You're going to be broken even or something.

Maybe you have a friend who's a lawyer who might do it for you, but not necessarily. You don't need a lawyer for it, but it is talking to an insurance company. You are interacting with an insurance company. And so what we're offering through this program is basically we'll do it for you for free. We're not going to charge you an attorney fee. We've set up a great system and process to let people easily submit their claim through our website and through our process. We'll do all the corresponding with the insurance company. We'll make sure everything is straight away. And then all you have to worry about is getting a check down the road.

How can Michigan Auto Law offer this for free?

You know what? Thankfully, we do well through doing good. It's kind of our philosophy. And really, it's just about giving back to the community, right? And giving back to people. I know people are very distrusting of lawyers generally. But really, we want to make sure that people understand it's not just about money. It's not just about the big, giant pain and suffering claims. We handle those too. But this is just an opportunity for us to say, hey, Let us take care of this for you. Take some of that fear out of the process of an insurance claim, out of talking to an attorney. And just, you know, it's our way of just kind of giving back to people.

I will say talking to you guys, obviously, I'm not dealing with a lawsuit when I talk to you guys a lot of times, but I feel like Michigan auto law, there's trust there. I think you guys care. I feel like I can feel it when I speak to you in these interviews. And I think that it's a good feeling to have a lawyer or a group of lawyers that you feel like would actually have your back.

Yeah, and thank you so much for saying that. We really appreciate that. But that's the feeling we want to give to people. So our motto is people over everything, right? It's not about us. You're not going to see our faces on billboards, buses, that kind of stuff. It's about you. It's about the people that need the help. There's a lot of people that would never think to call an attorney or they're afraid to. And so this is just, you know, like you said, it's the ability to have somebody there as a resource. Hopefully, the majority of these people that, you know, make this claim, this mini tort claim through this process are not hurt. But if you are, we're a resource for that. Or if you need anything down the road, you know somebody now. Now you have a contact, a resource to say, oh, gosh, I remember that law firm that helped me out with that. Now I actually really do need some help with an injury claim. you know i'll talk to them and see if they can help me or you know point me in the right direction so just to let people know like hey it's safe to talk to an attorney it doesn't cost you anything we really are not charging you anything for this um just to have you know call my attorney somebody who you know going forward

Yeah, I will say, I always have a little story of my own with these situations. I was much younger then. I had a lot less money. And I was in an accident where it was like this weird situation where on Washtenaw and Ann Arbor, there is almost like a road where you can go through all these parking lots. So people would just plow through this road, right?

Yeah.

There's stop signs at every intersection, but people would just go... So this guy, he, like, T-boned me. And I actually... So it was a terrible situation. I was young. I was really upset because accidents are very upsetting. You don't realize how you're going to react in an accident either. And this guy's yelling at me. This is like an M.O. Every time I get in an accident, someone's yelling at me when it's their fault. It's very strange. So anyways... He made me very upset. So down the road, I guess I mini-tork claimed him because I got him to pay my $500 deductible.

Yeah, there you go. There you go. You did the 3K for free on your own, right?

Yeah, I did. And I don't even remember how I did it because I was so determined because this guy made me so upset. It was a very volatile situation where you should kind of be nice to someone in an accident. You never know how someone... If someone's injured, how they're feeling, how scared they are. And so like the way that people can come at you really negatively can have a real negative impact on how you feel about that person. So at that point, I was like, I'm getting I'm not paying the money. He's paying my money. And I will tell you, he got scared.

Yeah, for sure. And you know what? Honestly, one of the biggest things people ask about and the first things people ask about, they could be injured and seriously, seriously injured. One of the first things they ask us about is like, what about my car? Like, you know, I love that thing and, you know, I can't get it fixed or not. How am I going to get to doctor's appointments or to work? So it's something that people ask about right away. And so we can just kind of give one one win, right? right away to people and be like, hey, let's take care of it. Let's get this done for you. It is easy to do, right? You need your declarations page. You need a copy of the police report. If people don't have that, we'll get it for them. And then a copy of the repairs or photos showing how bad the damage is. That's it. Get it submitted. It does take a little while for the insurance company to process it and get it back to us or to you if you did it directly. But you know if you can a lot of times when people can just get that one small small thing back um and it is a in the big picture of things especially if you're hurt your car is a small thing but it's personal right and and it feels like a big thing especially when it's not your fault right you didn't do anything so you know just getting that kind of taken care of is is makes people feel really good

I will say, too, in 2026, we know car prices are much higher than they were a few years back. So like that car and not being able to fix it is a much bigger deal to a lot more people that like, you know, maybe they just can't afford another car. Like this is the only car I can afford. So like I do think what you're doing is a huge service to a lot of people because car prices are through the roof right now.

Yeah, thank you. And yeah, absolutely. People holding onto cars for longer, right? There's a big study that came out that the average life of a car now is 10, 12 years, right? And also cars are expensive to fix now, right? Just the smallest thing with all the technology in these cars, like you would think like a small little dent here or there is not a big deal, but that's like a $5,000 bill, right? So it is a big deal to people and, you know, whatever we can do to help.

So what do they have to do? Let's say someone's gotten an accident. They're not at fault. They are interested in the mini tort claim. What do they have to do with you?

It's the easiest thing in the world. So you just go to 3kforfree.com. There's a form there. It literally takes two minutes to fill out. just make sure that you have a copy of your declarations page and the declarations page where people don't know is just the part of your insurance policy or auto insurance policy that lists all your coverages right so it shows you what you pay and what you get so it's usually one or two pages they call it the declarations page but it's usually pages but it will list what your deductible is basically so we need to be able to see that so we know how much to ask the insurance company for It's $3,000 for free. It's up to $3,000, but you are limited to whatever your deductible is. So if you have a $500 deductible, you can only get $500. You can't get $3,000. So you need that. A copy of the police report, if you have it, fantastic. If you don't, we're just going to need your information in order to try to pull it and your permission to pull it from online. And then, like I said, a copy of the repair estimate. Most shops will do that for free for you, so you don't have to pay for a repair estimate. If your car's totaled out or if it's very obvious what your damages are, just some photos. If you've got an accordion front end or your trunk is up in your back seat, pretty obvious you've got more than $3,000 in damages. You can just submit that to us. You click submit. We're going to give you a confirmation right away. And then we're going to get started, you know, putting the letter together, putting everything together, submit it to the insurance company, and then we'll update you along the way. And then six to eight weeks down the road, we're going to say, hey, we've got a check for you. Thank you so much. And, you know, hopefully everything is okay.

I just sort of take that off the person's plate while they're dealing with not having a car, maybe getting a rental, you know, Things that, you know, I know my insurance, I don't have car rental. My car was in the shop. I luckily had a shop that gave me a car. But like, you know, that car rental can be a lot of money too. So like getting that extra money back from your deductible is huge.

Yeah, absolutely. And also you're interacting with a friendly party, right? So you're interacting with us, the law firm. You're not having to talk to a potentially adversarial party in the insurance company, right? Especially if you might be hurt in the accident. You don't want to share information or have them try to extract information or ask you questions that you're not sure how to answer when all you're trying to do is get the repairs to your vehicle done. Because what they want to do, the insurance company wants to do, is get that info from you and then hold it against you down the road. So let us do that interaction. We'll kind of be your screener for info so that you don't have to worry about saying the right or wrong thing to an insurance company you might have to interact with down the road.

Has Michigan Auto Law done any free mini-tort claims now that you're touting this availability to people?

Yeah, so we're super thankful that you are helping spread the word about it. We're already getting plenty of submissions, tons of people that we're helping out. We've sent out a handful of checks already. We just launched this at the beginning of the month, so it's a brand new program. But Things are already moving. Things are already processing. Checks and money are already being sent. So, you know, we can handle it all. Just bring it in, bring your claim, and we'll be happy to help out.

Why don't you tell people why they should utilize Michigan auto law for mini-tort claims, but anything really that's auto accident related, right?

Yeah, this is what we do. So we don't want to handle your divorce. We don't want to handle your bankruptcy. We don't even want to handle your medical malpractice claim. So other, you know, that kind of personal injury stuff. We take a lot of pride in doing this one thing and doing it better than anybody else. Just knowing as much as we can in this area of law. You know, if you say, you know, you try to handle five different types of things. It's a jack of all trades, master of none, right? And so we just want to be exploring this one area as deep as possible. And when it comes to these vehicle damages, serious injuries, a lot of these crashes involve a lot of complicated issues, a lot of complicated legal issues, medical issues. And so, you know, we just want to concentrate in this area and help people out and just be that one stop resource for anybody who is in an accident, whether you're hurt or not, just call us. You know, you don't have to hire us to get some information, but if you are hurt, if you are seriously injured, then we can help you out with that.

I think that's great information to have, too, because I think that for most people, and I would hope that that's the case, that you really most people retain a lawyer for auto accident related things and hopefully not other related things. So I would think like a lot of people have experienced auto accidents. I can't imagine you'd be on the road for 20 plus years and never. experience some sort of auto accident. So it's nice to know that there's someone there that has a specialty that's there to help. And like I said earlier, I feel like you guys are really trustworthy. And I know if I needed the help, I would not hesitate to call Michigan Auto Law.

Well, thank you so much. We really appreciate that. And we really want to build that trust in the community. And Let people know like we are part of the community, right? So we live in these areas that we practice in and where we help people. So and we've been in accidents ourselves or we have family members. Everybody knows somebody who has needed some help or has been in an accident. And it's one of the scariest calls you can get, you know, when it comes to a family member or, you know, somebody that you care about. And so we just want to be there, be a guiding light, a resource for people and just know like it's not OK, but it's going to be OK.

Well, thank you so much, Brandon.

As always, thank you.

For more on this and other programs, visit a2gov.org slash CTN. Visit youtube.com slash CTN Ann Arbor to see all that we have to offer. And remember to like, subscribe, and ring that notification. Thanks for watching and tune in next time to FYI.