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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - 2018-01-22 - REZONING FELDMAN AUTOMOTIVE CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Monday, January 22, 2018 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Monday, January 22, 2018. MEMBERS PRESENT: Laura Toy, President Jim Jolly, Vice President Scott Bahr Brandon Kritzman Kathleen McIntyre Brian Meakin Cathy K. White MEMBERS ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Scott Miller, Planner Eric Goldstein, Assistant City Attorney Bonnie J. Murphy, CER-2300, Certified Electronic Recorder The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:48 p.m. with President Laura Toy presiding. This is a Public Hearing relative to a request for a change of zoning within the City of Livonia on the following matter: Petition 2017-10-01-07, submitted by Feldman Automotive, Inc., to rezone the rear portion of the property located on the north side of Plymouth Road, between Farmington and Stark Roads (33850 Plymouth Road) in the Southeast ¼ of Section 28, from M-1 (Light Manufacturing) to C-2 (General Business). 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 seventeen people in the audience. Please state your clearly your name and address before making your comments. Toy: Mr. Miller? Miller: The subject property measures 340 feet in frontage along Plymouth Road with an average depth of approximately 1,300 feet. The parcel equals approximately 10 acres. Currently the property is divided into two different zoning classifications, the south 300 feet of the property including the portion that fronts on Plymouth Road is zoned C-2, the remaining back portion consisting of approximately the remaining 1,000 feet of the parcel 2 is zoned M-1. It is the rear M-1 portion of the site that the Petitioner is requesting to rezone to C-2. The subject site is presently vacant. It was the former location of an automotive dealership most recently Olsen Oldsmobile. Feldman is seeking the change of zoning in anticipation of redeveloping the site as a Feldman Pre-Owned Vehicle Super Center. The plan shows over 650 vehicles on the portion of the property to be rezoned and the more remote part of the site would potentially be developed into a large stormwater holding pond or detention basin. And the Planning Commission recommended approval of this petition. Toy: Thank you, Mr. Miller. Any questions for Mr. Miller from the Council? Hearing and seeing none, is the Petitioner here this evening? Could you state your name and address for the record, sir. Brice: My name is Trey Brice and I’m Counsel for Feldman Automotive with the Jaffe Raitt law firm, the address is 27777 Franklin Road, Southfield, Michigan. Mr. Miller has already stated the basics, I’ll hit a couple of things and then actually Jay Feldman, the President of Feldman Automotive, is here and he can go over more of the purpose and the color of what we’re here for. As Mr. Miller explained the basic premise, we’re trying to rezone the back portion of the parcel to match what the front portion is and the reason is because M-1 doesn’t allow for auto showrooms and their related parking. So we need to rezone it so then we can have the front portion does allow it and most of the back part would be supportive of this. It is one parcel that actually is split in half with two different zonings. Actually it also dovetails in one of the consistent uses of what it has been previously, it’s been the Olsen Oldsmobile, it’s down the street from Feldman Chevy as well as some other automotive both east and west down the road. The Future Land Use actually talks about changing the M-1 into a mixed transitional use and actually the use of an automotive operation that we’re proposing is more consistent or a better buffer or actually provides a buffer to the small area of residential that’s next door than right now than with the light industrial would with M-1. When we submitted the application, we actually submitted it as a conditional rezoning and offered to have restrictions apply to the property and to the operation which would actually give the City a little more control over the property than under its current zoning or if it was just straight rezoned. We put in a letter which is probably in your information but quickly touching on the point, it talks about restricting the hours to match both our intent to be a good neighbor and the City’s requirements to have a screening wall along the western boundary where the residential houses are as required by City Code, have an approved landscaping plan, lighting plan, it would have some restrictive lighting and it would include some ways to turn down lighting at certain times to minimize any extra lighting and of course we would meet all the requirements of keeping the lights on 3 the property, caging was another offer that we included in those conditions and realize that going forward that would be something that we would discuss with the City Attorney. Those are the basic points that again our idea is to revitalize a piece of property that has been vacant and some of it has been a parking lot for DTE for years and essentially put it back on the tax role, improve both the streetscape in the greater neighborhood to something that would increase the tax base for the City and enhance the whole neighborhood and everybody’s property values up and down. I’m happy to address questions on some specifics but I’d like to have Mr. Feldman come up and give you a bigger color picture of the purpose that we’re doing this. Toy: Mr. Feldman? Feldman: Hi. Jay Feldman, I’m the CEO of Feldman Automotive. First of all thank you for taking the time to listen to the rezoning request. I do want to clarify a couple of things. That parcel, the majority of the parcel is new car storage, not pre-owned, there’s a pre-owned operation in front, very similar to an operation that we have in Waterford. To give you a little background, we purchased the Tennyson Chevrolet Dealership in 2012, as most of you will recall that was a wind down dealership in GM’s bankruptcy. GM felt it was a dealership in an area that was not conducive for selling General Motors vehicles in the future. Kit Tennyson, who just retired in the last few weeks, convinced General Motors to give it one last try and he contacted me to improve the property, add some more horsepower for lack of a better way of putting it, and now a dealership that GM was going to close in 2010, is now one of the largest Chevrolet dealerships in the country. So in GM’s world, they look at a sales effectiveness rating and if you’re below 100 you’re doing a bad job, that store was 52 when I got there, it’s 120 today. And so we went from selling 100 new and used cars and now the store sells 400 and I never doubted it and it was next to the largest Ford store in the country. And for those of you that know, Livonia really is a Ford town, there’s two Ford plants and so I knew it would be a successful store and I hear all the time they can’t believe how successful it’s been. So the great thing is that Livonia obviously is a great place to do business and we’re really busting at the seams, it’s our busiest store with our smallest piece of property so we’ve been renting a lot that’s not very conducive and it’s month to month and it’s not really good for the future down the street by Merriman. You know we’re used to doing things the right way, you see our facility, when we bought that we spent nearly six million dollars renovating it and adding on and you know we ended up expanding the footprint of the building so much that it took up a lot of lot space and so we don’t have a lot of parking 4 there. If you drive through the lot now, it’s terrible, there’s no customer parking, we’re parking a lot of cars off site, it’s disorganized because there’s no space, you know we’re using all the parking spaces and then some. So this – we originally had a different parcel that is not developed, wasn’t zoned and we had some initial planning meetings with the Planning Commission and they suggested that we go to this site because it’s an eyesore and it’s been vacant for sixteen years and it already was a dealership and it is an eyesore, I mean it looks terrible and what we want to do is build a really nice little building in front and pave the site, LED lighting. You know the good thing with the new LED lighting, it’s all controllable. You know in the old days you turn a light on and it stayed on all night. Now they’re all computerized, you can have it turn off fourteen times a day if you want it to or dim, these all dim now. Like our current Chevy store we put in all LED lighting and after hours the lights all dim down so they’re all computerized, we can do anything we want with them and it’s really energy efficient. We’re going to add about twenty-five employees in this location, so you know obviously increasing the employment in Livonia, definitely beautifying that particular spot. And when you look at it from an overhead, like when you’re flying over it from an airplane, you see this big lot, you know like it looks like it’s a big sea of cars, people driving by won’t see that and it’s going to be camouflaged by a small building and you’re really not going to look back and see this tremendous sea of cars. You’re going to see some cars in the front of the building, you’re not going to see what’s behind it. So, we’re excited about it, we love Livonia, it’s been great doing business here, we knew we’d be successful, we had no idea we’d be this successful, and frankly, we’re just out of room and we want to keep growing. I think when we got here we had seventy employees, now we have one hundred and ten and so that’s kind of my story. I appreciate your assistance here and we’re a good citizen. Toy: Thank you, Mr. Feldman, and thank you for your investment in Livonia. Feldman: Thank you. I just want to put out one more statement. If you look, we have eight locations in southeast Michigan, we have never had a vacant building or where we’ve left a building vacant and they’re all up-to-date, nice, painted, we have a painter on staff that goes through and does the exteriors and interiors and you know we looked at it, we’re the biggest Chevrolet dealership in Michigan and it’s important that we are well-liked in the community we’re in. Toy: Thank you. Feldman: Thank you, very much. 5 Toy: Council, any questions? Seeing and hearing none, we’ll go to the audience then. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak on this item? You can approach the podium to the left or right. And give us your name and address. W. McEvoy: Hello. Toy: Hello. W. McEvoy: William McEvoy, my wife Julie, 33900 Wadsworth, Livonia 48150. J. McEvoy: We live directly to the west of this parcel. W. McEvoy: We’ve lived there for forty-seven years. J. McEvoy: There are actually four residences there that go to the north and we’re the second one. So, you know, we’re the first – W. McEvoy: We’re the 33900. J. McEvoy: That’s it. W. McEvoy: So we’re neighbors. J. McEvoy: So, we’ll be neighbors with Feldman Chevrolet and we – our position is we’re happy to see that rezoned from Light Manufacturing and I know that Feldman will build the wall and the whole thing. The only thing we ask is we have a lot of trees that’s at the back of our lot and I know it encroaches on this property and will everything be kept as far as trees? It would be nice, it’s just all forested and you know there’s wildlife and whatever else but we just really wanted to say that I actually prefer cars parked back there than manufacturing. So the fact that it could be rezoned that way, is fine with us. W. McEvoy: We were at the City Planning Commission Meeting and we voiced our concerns which were flooding, water, lighting and they were addressed to our satisfaction, we’ve been assured. And what happened when Action Olds paved their lot the back of our lot was flooded every spring so we’ve decided cars parked there will almost be as quiet as trees. Toy: And I think as Mr. Feldman and his attorney said, there are some hour restrictions that they put on them, too, so that is as good. It’s good of you to come down. Thank you for your service as well and thank you for being here. J. McEvoy: Thank you. 6 Bahr: Madam Chair. Toy: Councilman Bahr. Bahr: I would offer the approving resolution because I think it will be an improvement to Plymouth Road and it’s a business that already has a good track record in the community and I think it will be an attractive piece of property so I will offer the approving resolution. Toy: Thank you. Any others? Yes, go right ahead. Meakin: I’ll offer a denying resolution. I’m not excited about having 600 cars parked on a lot. We have few 10-acre lots in our City left and they’re going to build a 5,000 square foot building or so and the rest is going to be cars, I don’t think it’s a good mix for the City to have a 5,000 square foot building on a 10-acre lot. It’s nice to help them out but they can do it somewhere else as well so I’ll offer a denying resolution. Toy: Thank you, Councilman. Yes, Councilman Kritzman. Kritzman: Thank you, Madam Chair. I have some similar concerns to Councilman Meakin’s, while initially I look at and say we’re consolidating these cars that are being stored at multiple locations, it can be an attractive concept, I also was pretty clear from the start that for me the important part was what does the development look like in total and based on the information I’ve seen in front of me I haven’t had all my questions answered and I think there are a lot of things that I have concerns about from a building and development standpoint, so I’ll offer a third option and that is to send it to the Committee of the Whole. Toy: Thank you. Any others? If I may, could I ask the Petitioner, are you on any kind of a time restriction as well? Feldman: Great question. So, I did want to – let me answer that first. We’re on sort of a restriction because we do have a lot more inventory than our existing site can hold and there’s just no way around it and you know you can’t tell General Motors we’re not going to take the cars because we see what happened in 2010, they don’t like that answer and quite frankly, we’re selling them so we’re actually short of inventory if you can believe that based on our sales base. So we are on a timeline for sure. We do want to solve the issue. And I do want to point out we were actually directed to this parcel, you know, we had some planning meetings, some informal planning meetings, and so we changed direction completely, you know we spent money on environmental, legal fees to acquire the parcel, you know all kinds of different architectural, civil engineering, so it’s added up. But one of your questions was you haven’t seen what the proposed building, 7 this is actually our Waterford location and can I pass these around because these are actual photos of that location and it’s really a great looking building and it’s kind of the prototype of what we’re looking at doing. And the other thing I do want to point out in the back of the parcel, most of that area which is adjacent to the residential is going to be detention pond or retention pond so it’s going to create a greenspace. A very similar situation we have in Waterford, we have an open pond area that’s greenbelt. And the other thing is it is light industrial now and so somebody could put a use in there that they produce something that smells you know, something that’s loud, constant humming and all the different things that go with industrial. And a lot of times light industrial is multiple tenants that you can’t control, you know people build a light industrial building and they lease it out to twenty different people and so you don’t know what you’re getting back there. I hate to say it but in the world we’re in everything from you know from growing things to you know building things to who knows what. Our use is a quiet use, there’s no heavy mechanical going on. At the very most you’d have people pulling plastic or wrapping out of the interior of the car during the day. We’re not doing any repair work there, it’s just real quiet, there’s no overhead gating system. I would doubt that if anybody is even standing on the back lawn they’d hear anything so a pretty clean, quiet use, I mean there’s nothing going on. We’re not building anything, there’s no body shop, there’s, you know, just parking cars. And even in light industrial they’re going to be parking cars back there. You’re going to need parking for employees and you could have a lot of employees with light industrial. Toy: Councilman Meakin and Councilman Jolly have some comments. Meakin: Mr. Feldman, have you submitted a site plan? Feldman: We have, informal. Meakin: We usually try to tie these things together, we see the site plan, we see the zoning, we hold that up until we see the site plan anyway, so I’d recommend getting the site plan. Brice: That’s the informal one. We are working with Mr. Miller and with Mark who kind of said let’s start this because actually it goes a little bit to your question, it’s under contract so we have not purchased the property and the purchase is subject to this rezoning. Our due diligence period ends th February 8, we have kind of worked on getting an extension knowing that this process is not quick, in other words we’re not trying to rush us or the City. So we do have some timelines, business and legal, and so we’re offering this as an informal submission knowing that partly because we’re offering this as a conditional, we want to make sure that all of those things were worked through and realized at some point like you said and seeing 8 that we were protected and we had the what looked like the approval before we expended all the funds and things for the site plan and that’s kind of why we’re looking at it as a dual process. Meakin: So I’d recommend submitting the site plan. Brice: Yes. Toy: Okay. Councilman Jolly. Jolly: What are we talking about as far as price for the site? Brice: Almost 3 million. Jolly: That’s the purchase price? Brice: Yes, actually it might even be more by the time it’s developed depending on the quality of the soil and the foundation and I guess if we’re lucky enough if the design and the foundation actually worked for the old project. Feldman: I do want to point out, too, it is going to be a functioning business, we’re going to have twenty-five employees there, customers, it’s going to be a retail, it’s going to generate tax dollars, we’re going to have twenty-five employees, it’s going to add value to the area. Jolly: Thank you. Toy: Anybody else? No further comments and we’re done with the Public Hearing. Thank you for being here tonight. We do have three resolutions, approving, denying, Committee of the Whole. Thank you everyone. We are adjourned. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 8:08 p.m. SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK