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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - 2017-03-06 - REZONING CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Monday, March 6, 2017 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Monday, March 6, 2017. MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathleen E. McIntyre, President Brandon M. Kritzman, Vice President Scott Bahr Maureen Miller Brosnan Jim Jolly Brian Meakin Cathy K. White MEMBERS ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Mark Taormina, Director of Planning Eric S. Goldstein, Assistant City Attorney Bonnie J. Murphy, CER-2300, Certified Electronic Recorder The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with President Kathleen McIntyre presiding. The Public Hearing is relative to a request for a change in zoning in the City of Livonia, Petition 2017-01-01-01, submitted by D.S. Homes, L.L.C., to rezone the property located on the north side of Roycroft Avenue between Garden Avenue and Middlebelt Road (29220 Roycroft Avenue) in the Southwest ¼ of Section 13, from C-2 (General Business) to R-1 (One Family Residential – 60’ x 120’ Lot). The City Clerk has mailed a notice to those persons in the area affected by the proposed changes, and all other requirements of Ordinance No. 543, the Zoning Ordinance, have been fulfilled. The public hearing is now open for comments. There were seven people in the audience. Please state clearly your name and address before making your comments. McIntyre: Before we do that, I do want to reference some new data that we received on March 1st, 2017 and it advises that the Treasurer’s office has identified that taxes are past due with respect to this petition and the 2016 winter property taxes are past due, the past due amount is $1,913.09 for the amount past due, with an additional $95.65 interest with penalties, for a st total of $2,008.74 if paid by the 31 of March. And with that the Public 2 Hearing is now open for comments. Please state your name and address for the record. Duggan: Good evening. Brian Duggan, 14315 Denne, Livonia. I’m here to answer any questions for you. I am going to be downzoning this property, there’s always been a house on this property. I purchased it from a bank sale, then I found out it was zoned Commercial. I consider it downzoning as I’m intending on taking it out of Commercial and back into Residential where it belongs. And then regarding the taxes, I’ll talk to the Treasurer. Obviously since I closed on it I did not get a tax bill. We purchased this property October, November, whenever we closed on it, so nothing was ever sent to me. White: Madam Chair. McIntyre: Councilmember White. White: I have more of a comment rather than a question. I’m all on board on downzoning this piece of property, I understand the neighbors are in favor of it. When we can downzone a piece of property in a Residential District back to Residential, I will be in favor. McIntyre: Treasurer Scheel. st Scheel: I just want you to know the taxes were sent out on December the 1 and I st can’t accept payment for them. Beginning March 1 they have to be paid to Wayne County, I just wanted to make sure the petitioner knows that. McIntyre: Okay. Duggan: Okay. McIntyre: Thank you for that clarification. Mr. Duggan, you understand that? Duggan: Well, I’ll have them paid before you do your first reading. McIntyre: Okay. Anything from Council? Brosnan: Madam Chair? McIntyre: Ms. Brosnan. Brosnan: I understand that we’re talking about zoning this evening and I’m going to agree that anytime you can take Commercial property and change it to Residential, that’s a great idea. But Mr. Duggan, while we have the 3 pleasure of your company, can you tell us a little bit about what it is you intend to build on the property? Duggan: Just a single family home. At this time I’m leaning towards a Colonial that Mike Soave does a lot of, 1,700 square foot Colonials. But I’ve been successful with the ranches I’ve done in the past and I might stick with a ranch. Brosnan: Thank you. Kritzman: Madam Chair? McIntyre: Yes, Vice President Kritzman. Kritzman: Through the Chair to Mr. Taormina, I’m looking at the Future Land Use map that was provided in our packet and obviously that area is zoned General Commercial, not just this property but the adjacent, and it appears that that swatch of General Commercial continues down Middlebelt Road. Farther down Middlebelt Road there are a number of commercial lots, is there a particular reason that they’re reaching so far into the existing residential with Commercial? Taormina: You know, the record on this is a bit hazy. I did go back to take a look. The property was rezoned to Commercial sometime in the 1950s aNd that was prior to when that block building behind it or adjacent to it was built, and the minutes at that time indicate that the properties directly behind this were also Commercial at the time. So, at some point subsequent to the rezoning of this, the land to the north was rezoned to Residential, this remained zoned Commercial, it was also a nonconforming situation with the house on it, but once the house came down, then in order to rebuild it will have to come back to Residential. So, again, there’s no need as I see it to have this property continue with Commercial zoning. Kritzman: Thank you. Madam Chair I think this makes a whole lot of sense for it to revert back to Residential. I can see all that area being Commercial if the intent was to build a more prominent commercial corridor along Middlebelt Road, and given the decade the development happened and the decade we’re in now, we’re probably decades away from that even being a reasonable consideration and I’m prepared at this point to offer the approving resolution unless there’s additional comments or questions. McIntyre: So we have an approving resolution offered by Vice-President Kritzman so th that would give us a first reading on Monday, March 27. Would anyone in the audience like to comment on this item during our Public Hearing? 4 Duggan: Madam Chair, if I may ask, since I purchased this property and I did not know I had to go through the steps of rezoning it, if there is any way possible for you to consider the first and second reading at that March meeting, it will help me put the shovel in the ground a little bit faster. That’s something you can consider down the line but I would have liked to have a house up there by now. McIntyre: All right. We’ll take that under advisement and discuss that. Duggan: And at that point I’ll bring in the tax bill. McIntyre: All right. Duggan: Thank you. McIntyre: All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Duggan. And we will close the Public Hearing. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:10 p.m. SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK