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HomeMy WebLinkAboutS07242023 MinutesCITY OF LIVONIA – CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD JULY 24, 2023 Meeting was called to order at 8:51 p.m. by Council President Jim Jolly. Present: Scott Bahr, Rob Donovic, Scott Morgan, Brandon McCullough,Kathleen McIntyre, Vice President Toy, and President Jim Jolly. Absent: None. Elected and appointed officials present: Susan Nash, City Clerk; Paul Bernier, City Attorney; Mark Taormina, Planning and Economic Development Director; and Todd Zilincik, City Engineer. Councilmember Bahr led the Pledge of Allegiance. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: Christopher Martin, Michigan, asked if the chiller at the library had to wait for Council Minutes to be approved because he noted the chiller was in place the next day. He also gave his suggestion as to how he feels it should have been handled. President Jolly explained the non-veto process. President Jolly indicated Item #7 was removed from the agenda at the request of the Petitioner. NEW BUSINESS REQUEST TO WAIVE THE CITY'S NOISE ORDINANCE: Robert Urban, Traffic Operations Engineer, MDOT - Taylor TSC, re: in conjunction with the M-14 Reconstruction Project from Newburgh Road to Sheldon Road during the Summer of 2024. Jeff Horne, MDOT Project Manager; andRobert Urban, Traffic Operations Engineer Taylor TSC, presented the request to Council. President Jolly asked for a more defined scope of the noise people might expect to hear at night. Mr. Horne said their contractor may need to saw concrete joints, have materials delivered, and paving of the road or bridges may occur at night. Councilmember Bahr asked if the I-275 Project is going through next year and why this project couldn’t be put off until next year since there is so much construction going on presently. Mr. Horne said that project is ahead of schedule. All I-275 lanes will be completed when the M-14 project starts but there will still be some work on southbound I-275 next year. He indicated the Governor signed the Rebuilding Michigan Program with 3.5 billion dollars in infrastructure money provided by the State that must be used before the program ends. Councilmember McIntyre asked if MDOT can give the decibel level that residents might expect. She understands that they work at night to get the project done faster which is why the ask for the noise waiver. She indicated there werecomplaints with the I-96 Project in 2014. Mr. Horne explained that they may saw cut concrete for 45 seconds and then turn the machine off to turn it around giving a low for 3 minutes. Averaging the sound over 4 minutes is much different than taking the peak at 45 seconds. It also depends on measuring from the property lines. Some work must be done at night due to different factors such as weather and sunlight. Also, the I-96 job was very different because MDOT was working 16-18 hours per day for 165 days straight. The M-14 project will be mostly day work with only 2% occurring during the night. Todd Zilincik also gave an explanation as to how this project is different that the M-14 job done in 2014. Vice President Toy said we don’t have a lot of residents that abut the expressway in the area that will be worked on. Councilmember Donovic offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT REQUEST TO WAIVE THE CITY’S NOISE ORDINANCE: Nick Cornell, General Manager, Supernatural Spirits and Brewing LLC, re: to host the Wildwood Sour Fest event on Saturday, August 26, 2023, from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with live music and DJs on property located at 36685 Plymouth Road. Nick Cornell, 36685 Plymouth Road, presented the request to Council. President Jolly asked why it is called the Wildwood Sour Fest. Mr. Cornell said that Wildwood is their flagship beer. Vice President Toy commended them on creating a successful business at that location. Councilmember McCullough urged everyone to try the brewery if they have never been there. Vice President Toy offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT BLOCK PARTY: Wafa Dinaro, re: to be held Saturday, August 12, 2023, from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., on Huff Street between Ladywood and Kingsbury Streets, with a rain date of Saturday, August 19, 2023. Wafa Dinaro, 15680 Huff Street, presented the request to Council. Councilmember Morgan offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT BLOCK PARTY: Maggie McGrane, re: to be held Saturday, August 26, 2023, from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., on Rayburn Street, between Williams and Levan, with no rain date requested. The petitioner was not in attendance to present the request to Council. Councilmember Donovic offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALREGULAR BLOCK PARTY: Karen Werden, re: to be held Saturday, August 26, 2023, from 3:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., on Flamingo Blvd. between St. Martins and Bretton Streets, with a rain date of Sunday, August 27, 2023. Karen Werden,19651 Flamingo Blvd, presented the request to Council. Councilmember McIntyre offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT BLOCK PARTY: Brenda Shaw, re: to be held Saturday, September 9, 2023, from 12:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., on Sussex Street between Sherwood and Fitzgerald Streets, with a rain date of Saturday, September 16, 2023. Brenda Shaw, 15583 Sussex Street, presented the request to Council. Vice President Toy offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2023-05-02-05 submitted by Costco Wholesale, requesting to expand the existing fueling facility at 13700 Middlebelt Road, located on the southeast corner of Middlebelt Road and Schoolcraft Road in the Northwest ¼ of Section 25. REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF THE PETITIONER. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2023-06-02-06 submitted by Gerald Todd Clark on behalf of ServiceMaster, requesting to develop a Planned General Development, involving the conversion of an existing eight-story office building into climate-controlled self-storage and first-floor retail including residential and commercial restoration services, construction of drive-up self-storage units, and five (5) single-family residential lots, on the property at 29200 Vassar Avenue, located on the north side of Vassar Avenue between Parkville Avenue and Middlebelt Road in the Southwest ¼ of Section 1. Mark Taormina, Planning and Economic Development Director, presented the request to Council. Dennis Cowan, Law Firm of Plunkett Cooney;Gerald Todd Clark, Petitioner; Gary Gerrits, Project Manager; and Hunter Galbraith, DesignHaus, were present to answer questions. Councilmember Donovic asked Mr. Taormina if this project meets all the Zoning Ordinance requirements. Mr. Taormina said he isn’t aware of any deviations or anything contrary to the Zoning Regulations. Councilmember Donovic asked if things change, and they had to reduce their footprint if the rest of the floors would then be open to the public for more available storage and not just ServiceMaster itself. Mr. Cowan indicated ServiceMaster must store commercial and resident furniture and things of that nature when it's damaged in a fire, by water, etc. At any given time, ServiceMaster customers would be taking 10 to 30% of the Self-Storage that's available in the building. If they were to ever move, it probably wouldn't change. Councilmember Donovic asked if they have any projects like this in other communities and for the status of those projects. Mr. Cowan stated this company specializes in renovatingtired old eyesores and converting them. Most recently they did that with a property in Warren that's going to open shortly, which was an old banquet center facility. They take old properties where there's a problem and convert them into something positive for the community.They are headquartered in Brighton, Michigan and are family-owned business. He believes this store in Livonia would be number nine. They are all completed except one. He said they had an extensive independent study done and they concluded that this was a B+ site development. Vice President Toy asked what type of buildings they have done and what the dollar amount will be. She also asked if they have contacted any of the neighbors. Mr. Cowan said they are all self-storage and the investment in this property will be eight to ten million dollars. They had a meeting with the residents at Clarenceville Methodist Churchon May 11 and they were pleased with the plan and gave their support. Vice President Toy asked how long the project will take and where they can see some of their work. She asked if they could call our office to give the locations. Gary Gerrits, My Space Self-Storage, indicated it will take about eight months.He said they have locations in Eastpointe and Warren. He agreed to call the Council office with locations. Councilmember Bahr indicated he likes residential piece of this, and asked Mark Taormina how concerned we should be that this plan differs from the Vision 21 plan for that area. Mark Taormina said we must understand that within the context of what this property is today and how its situated in relationship to that overall mix Development Center. Councilmember McCullough asked Mr. Taormina if there are any analytics on the number of storage facilities currently in the city. Mr. Taormina saidthere was a market study done for this projectand market studies that have been done for other similar projects within the city. We rely heavily on that information. Councilmember McCullough asked what impact this would have if the Sears property had a huge development in the future. He indicated the plan is phenomenal for what is currently there but doesn’t feel it is the right spot or use for that facility, so it is hard for him to be in support of this. Councilmember Donovic said he would like to know how many storage facilities we have in Livonia. He is concerned about having another storage facility in Livonia, especially an eight-story storage building.He appreciates the petitioners plans and desire to rehabilitate the property, but he shares the same sentiments as Councilmember McCullough. Mr. Cowan said he feels the renovation of this property would be beneficial for the potential development of the Sears property. Councilmember Morgan said he has concerns about the amount of storage that we have in that area. Councilmember McIntyre said there were questions about the structural integrity of the building and whether it will support this amount of storage. Mr. Gerrits said engineersevaluated the structureand it is a precastconcrete floor and wall system structure. It will be almost three times as sturdy as required for self-storage. He also said it won’t appear to be a self-storage building from any of the surrounding streets. Councilmember McIntyre asked why the Inspection and/or Law Departments let owners neglect their buildings and allow them to fall into terrible condition which ultimately allows someone to buy at a bargain price. Paul Bernier, City Attorney, said this is an Inspection issue and it would be astronomical for the City to condemn and demolish a building like this. Councilmember Donovic asked if the retail spaces on the plan would allow any business in those spots. Mr. Taormina said the retail spaces could not be converted to storage space should they become available at alater date. Jerome Rigarello, 29150 Seven Mile Road, Livonia Budget Storage, said their facility is approximately 300 feet from the proposed facility. There are 22 competitive facilities in the City of Livonia, 10 of those are in a three-mile market radius of the proposed facility for a total of 835,000 square feet. There's over a million square feet in a four-mile radius. He indicated there is an over-surplus of storage facilities in this area. His facilityhas been open for 18 monthsand is 28% occupied. The other competing facility, Cloverleaf, is approximately 35% occupied and both are state of the art state facilities. Councilmember Bahr asked Mr. Rigarello to forward the information to Council regarding the number of facilities in a three-mile radius. Councilmember McCullough offered a denying motion on the Regular Agenda. Councilmember Bahr offered an approving motion for the Regular agenda. DIRECTIONDENYINGREGULAR APPROVALREGULAR VACATING PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2023-05-03-01 submitted by Dave Hourd, to determine whether or not to vacate a surface drainage easement at 17260 and 17270 Carol Drive, located on the east side of Carol Drive between Six Mile Road and Harrison Avenue in the Southeast ¼ of Section 12. Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development, presentedthe request to Council. Councilmember Morgan offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT REQUEST APPROVAL FOR SENIOR ALLIANCE 2024 ANNUAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN (AlP): Department of Parks and Recreation, re: as required by the Aging and Adult Services Agency (AASA) to be submitted to the State Commission on Services to the Aging. Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, presented the request to Council. Councilmember McIntyre indicated she has been on the Senior Alliance Board for 14 years and there is a lot that goes into their annual implementation plan and gave a brief explanation. Councilmember Bahr offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT AWARD OF BID: Department of Parks and Recreation, re: to replace the waterslide bolts on the indoor waterslide at the Kirksey Recreation Center, from budgeted funds. Ted Davis, Superintendent of Parks and Recreation, presented the request to Council. Councilmember Bahr offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT AWARD OF BID: Department of Public Works, re: for the purchase of a tow-behind emergency generator, including an additional 5-year extended warranty, from budgeted funds. Jacob Rushlow, Assistant Director of Public Works, presented the request to Council. Councilmember McCullough offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT REQUEST TO ACCEPT STORM WATER FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT: Engineering Division, re: from Livonia Estates Limited, in conjunction with the construction of a storm drain system that provides adequate drainage for the Allied Commerce Center Building #5, located at 31800 Enterprise Drive, in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 27. Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, presented the request to Council. Vice President Toy offered an approving motion for the Consent agenda. DIRECTIONAPPROVALCONSENT AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None NOTICE(S) In accordance with Title II of the American with Disabilities Act as it pertains to access to Public Meetings, the City of Livonia Clerk’s Office, upon adequate notice, will make reasonable accommodations for persons with special needs. Please call 734-466-2236 or email clerk@livonia.govfor assistance. Council agendas are available on the City’s website, www.livonia.gov(Your Government, City Council, Agendas & Minutes). For the Regular Meeting of August 9, 2023SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK