Welcome back to The Agenda, a monthly column in which we highlight issues of importance in our community and ways you can get involved. 

Spanish translation services at city meetings: The system that the city of Adrian has been using to translate meetings into Spanish was a subject of discussion at the Aug. 5 city commission study session. You can read our account of the meeting here.

The city has posted a survey, in both English and Spanish, to its website. The survey is intended to gather input about what types of translation services people would like to see.

To fill out the survey, go to adriancity.com.

Accessory Dwelling Units in Adrian: The city of Adrian is in the midst of the lengthy process of rewriting its zoning ordinances, and one of the ideas being looked at is making it easier for people to build Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, on their property.

An Accessory Dwelling Unit is a second, smaller dwelling unit either developed out of an existing single-family house (such as a basement, attic, or addition) or as part of an accessory structure (such as a converted garage or carriage house).

City administrator Greg Elliott said the idea is that allowing ADUs is a way for the city to encourage the development of more housing stock and, ultimately, make housing more affordable in the city.

Vacant buildings ordinance: The idea of putting more teeth into the city’s vacant buildings ordinance is being talked about. 

One topic that has generated a lot of discussion at city commission meetings is how to make sure that the ordinance does something to combat major blight problems, but does not end up hurting residents who find themselves in situations like needing to sell the home of a deceased parent. To read more about the discussions, click here.

Planning Adrian’s bicentennial: The next Adrian Bicentennial Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 5:30 p.m. in the Adrian City Chambers Building, 159 E. Maumee St.

An update on participation rules at Adrian City Commission meetings: We have an omission in our coverage to correct. Earlier this year, this newspaper was among the critics of a policy that required people to state their full home addresses in order to speak during the public comment period of Adrian City Commission meetings. We felt that the policy had the potential to discourage participation by people whose jobs make it unwise for them to broadcast their home addresses — such as police officers, jail and prison employees, or social workers — and by members of marginalized communities.

The city commission has changed its policy, and now people who wish to address the commission during public comment need only state the municipality where they live (such as the city of Adrian, Madison Township, and so on).

We neglected to report on this decision when it was made, so now we are correcting that error.

The Adrian City Commission meets at 6 p.m. on the first and third Monday of each month, except holidays. To view meeting agendas, go to adriancity.com.

Recordings of past city commission meetings can be viewed online at youtube.com/@cityofadrian6683.