After several years of development and debate, Ann Arbor’s Green Rental Housing ordinance officially went into effect Jan. 6, introducing new energy efficiency and sustainability requirements for rental properties across the city. The ordinance emphasizes progress toward Ann Arbor’s A2ZERO goal of carbon neutrality by 2030. While city officials frame the policy as a step toward environmentally friendly housing and long-term cost savings, landlords and student renters continue to weigh how the ordinance will play out in practice.
Rental units make up approximately 55% of Ann Arbor’s housing stock. The ordinance — passed in June 2025 by the Ann Arbor City Council — establishes a baseline for energy efficiency and sustainability in rental housing which is enforced through Ann Arbor’s existing rental inspection cycle, requiring landlords to demonstrate compliance during inspections.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Joe Lange, senior energy analyst for Ann Arbor’s Office of Sustainability and Innovations, said the city began working on the ordinance in 2021, but it wasn’t passed until after years of collaboration and public input.
“We just spent a lot of time working with different stakeholder groups,” Lange said. “We worked really hard to incorporate all the ideas and feedback people had throughout the process, and we continued to have strong engagement with different community groups and organizations who were impacted by this ordinance.”
Landlords can comply with the Green Rental Housing ordinance through two pathways. The first is a point-based checklist, allowing property owners to earn a total of 308 compliance points through energy efficiency upgrades, sustainability practices, tenant education initiatives and other measures. The second allows landlords to submit a Home Energy Rating System report showing that a property meets required efficiency benchmarks.
For property managers, advance notice and involvement in the process allowed them to plan for compliance ahead of implementation. In an interview with The Daily, Katie Vohwinkle, vice president of property management at Oxford Companies, said Oxford began preparing before the ordinance officially took effect earlier this month.
“We knew this was coming from an investment standpoint, for the properties we already knew we needed to start transitioning to LED lighting or Energy Star appliances,” Vohwinkle said. “There were initial concerns that this was going to be very costly and it was going to raise rents, but as more information came out, we had a better understanding of the process and the checklist, and it became less scary.”
Cost remains a central concern surrounding the ordinance because of Ann Arbor’s already rising rent costs. With 75% of students at the University living off campus, even small cost changes can carry significant weight. Business sophomore Kavya Aggarwal, vice president of projects for Net Impact, told The Daily that, although she agrees with the goals of the policy, it could strain student budgets if rents rise.
“As someone who cares so much about sustainability, if (rent) was slightly higher in exchange for helping the environment, I wouldn’t mind as much,” Aggarwal said. “But obviously, as a student, I am very, very price-sensitive, and I think the general student population is as well. We would have to see real change in Ann Arbor’s carbon footprint to be willing to pay that higher cost. A lot of students here probably wouldn’t be for it because they can’t afford it.”
Aggarwal said students have very limited leverage in the housing market to begin with because they need to find a place to live.
“One of the most difficult things to do is to find housing in Ann Arbor,” Aggarwal said. “Students like me don’t have a ton of bargaining power; we need to be able to walk to class, and we rely on the infrastructure.”
Several elements of the Green Rental Housing ordinance were inspired by Boulder, Colorado’s SmartRegs rental program, which took effect a decade ago. Lange said the fears of higher rent prices remains one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding the policy, citing Boulder’s experience as an example.
“(Boulder) is a town that has a major university in it, and a lot of rentals as a result of that,” Lange said. “They have a program that’s actually more stringent than what ours is. We have some flexible pathways – including noted low-cost options that are not present in Boulder’s program — and they did not see any rent increases outside of the normal year-over-year inflation increases that you see every year regardless.”
Lange said Ann Arbor paired the new ordinance with financial help and resources, like home energy rebates, to ease the burden of larger upgrades for properties.
“We have our Ann Arbor home energy rebates, which has pretty substantial rebates for a lot of these things,” Lange said. “You can get several thousands of dollars for doing insulation work, you can get up to $5,500 for a heat pump. There’s real significant money that is out there, and more is on the way.”
As the ordinance enters full implementation, renters and landlords are optimistic. Aggarwal said this type of policy makes sense for Ann Arbor, a city which values sustainability and bettering the environment.
“(The new policy) is in line with what I expect from how sustainable the city wants to be,” Aggarwal said. “I think it’s a good step, and I definitely think we should be thinking about energy efficiency and moving into more green initiatives.”
Daily Staff Reporter Zahra Kagal can be reached at zkagal@umich.edu.
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