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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNING MINUTES 2014-05-13MINUTES OF THE 1,054rH PUBLIC HEARINGS AND REGULAR MEETING HELD BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia held its 1,054" Public Hearings and Regular Meeting in the Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan. Mr. Lee Morrow, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Kathleen McIntyre R. Lee Morrow Carol A. Smiley Gerald Taylor Members absent: Scott P. Bahr, Ian Wilson Mr. Mark Taormina, Planning Director, and Ms. Margie Watson, Program Supervisor, were also present. Chairman Morrow informed the audience that if a petition on tonight's agenda involves a rezoning request, this Commission makes a recommendation to the City Council who, in tum, will hold its own public hearing and make the final determination as to whether a petition is approved or denied. The Planning Commission holds the only public hearing on a request for preliminary plat and/or vacating petition. The Commission's recommendation is forwarded to the City Council for the final determination as to whether a plat is accepted or rejected. If a petition requesting a waiver of use or site plan approval is denied tonight, the petitioner has ten days in which to appeal the decision, in wnting, to the City Council. Resolutions adopted by the City Planning Commission become effective seven (7) days after the date of adoption. The Planning Commission and the professional staff have reviewed each of these petitions upon their fling. The staff has furnished the Commission with both approving and denying resolutions, which the Commission may, or may not, use depending on the outcome of the proceedings tonight. ITEM #1 PETMON 2014-03-02-06 JIMMY JOHN'S Ms. Smiley, Acting Secretary, announced the first item on the agenda, Petition 2014-03-02-06 submitted by JCD South 96, L.L.C. requesting waiver use approval pursuant to Section 11.03(c) of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended, to operate a full service restaurant (Jimmy John's) at 13453 Middlebelt Road within the Livonia Commons Shopping Center, located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between the CSX Railroad right- of-way and Schoolcmff Road in the Northeast 1/4 of Section 26. May 13, 2814 26381 Mr. Taormina: This is a request to operate a full service restaurant which falls under the provisions of Section 11.03(c) of the Zoning Ordinance. This is a request for a Jimmy John's restaurant within the Livonia Commons shopping center located on the west side of Middlebelt Road just south of Schoolcraft Road. This is the zoning map. It shows the location of the site at the southwest corner of Middlebelt and SchoolcraR. The property is zoned C-2, General Business. There is industrial zoned properly to the west and C-2 commercial zoning both to the south and the east. It was in December of Iasi year that site plan approval was granted for the redevelopment of this commercial shopping center. The redevelopment includes renovations to the exterior of the shopping center building plus the construction of an addition at the north end of the complex as well as the construction of a new free-standing multi -tenant retail building adjacent to Middlebelt Road. Full service restaurants are defined within the ordinance as having a seating capacity of over 30. This restaurant will have seating for 60 so it does fall under that category as a full service restaurant. It would occupy the north comer unit of the new free standing multi -tenant retail building which is about 8,640 square feel. This is the main building. This is where Dick's Sporting Goods will be occupying the largest space within the center. Immediately adjacent to that on the south side of Dick's will be a Jo -Ann Fabrics. This is the addition they're building at the north end of the complex. The Jimmy John's unit will consume about 2,000 square feet, about a fourth of the space within the building. They are not proposing any exterior modifications to the building other than a sign. They will be entitled to a 36 square fool wall sign which is based on the amount of frontage they have within the shopping center. If they want a corner sign, if they want one on the north side of the building, that is something that will require approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals. With that, Mr. Chairman, I can read out the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Please. Mr. Taormina: There are four items of correspondence. The first dem is from the Engineering Division, dated April 3, 2014, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above referenced planning petition. We have no objections to the proposed project at this time. The address of 13453 Middlebelt Road is correct for the proposed business, and should be used in conjunction with this petition. The legal description provided with the petition are acceptable to this office. However, it should be noted that the legal May 13, 2814 26382 description encompasses the entire 'Livonia Commons Re - Development' project, and not just the proposed Jimmy John's restaurant The proposed building is to be serviced by water main, sanitary sewer and storm sewer placed during the overall "Livonia Commons Re -Development" project construction. Any issues regarding these utilities will be addressed during the permitting process for the overall project prior to receiving Engineering approval." The letter is signed by David W. Lear, P.E., Civil Engineer 11. The second letter is from the Livonia Fire & Rescue Division, dated April 14, 2014, which reads as follows: "1 have reviewed the plans for approving this waiver use approval to operate a full service restaurant on the property located at the above -referenced address. 1 have no objections to this proposal." The letter is signed by Daniel Lee, Fire Marshal. The third letter is from the Division of Police, dated April 4, 2014, which reads as follows: "I have reviewed the plans in connection with the petition. I have no objections to the proposal" The letter is signed by Joseph Boilos, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The fourth letter is from the Inspection Department, dated April 29, 2014, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request, the above -referenced petition has been reviewed. The following is noted. A variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals would be required to maintain the second wall sign where only one wall sign is permitted. This Department has no further objections to this petition." The letter is signed by Jerome Hanna, Assistant Director of Inspection. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Are there any questions of the Planning Director? Seeing none, will the petitioner come forward? We will need your name and address for the record please. Cheryl Doelker, JCD South 96, L.L.C., 19369 Faidane Court, Livonia, Michigan 48152. Good evening, Commissioners. As Mr. Taormina so eloquently put it, we are looking for waiver use to construct what will be our fifth Jimmy John's in the City of Livonia. We're trying to extend our reach in terms of servicing additional delivery area as the corporation likes to shrink our delivery area. We build new restaurants to maintain what we have and expand a little bit further. That's our goal and we're seeking your approval, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Morrow: Very fine. Are there anyquestons? Mr. Taylor: I know the Jimmy John's sign. Is that the same sign you're going to use and you'd like to put that on the corner also. Are you figuring on going to the Zoning Board? May 13, 2814 26383 Ms. Doelker: The one that is shown here would be on the front and I think on the side of the building what we've proposed is just a disk sign, a simple circular disk, but we can go to the Zoning Board if we have to. Mr. Taylor: And this is all a four inch brick building. Right? Ms. Doelker: I'm sorry, sir. Mr. Taylor: Do you know whether this is a four inch brick building? I know you're just a tenant there. Ms. Doelker: I believe it is. Mr. Morrow: I don't recall when they approved the basic plan what it was, but I would assume it is. Mark, do you know? Mr. Taormina: Yes, it is. Mr. Taylor: And they meet all the requirements of the ordinance as far as landscaping and parking? Mr. Taormina: For the parking, I believe there was a variance that was associated with d. Remember that we land banked some of the parking in favor of additional landscaping on the site. Mr. Taylor: Thankyou Mr. Morrow: Anyone else? Its fairly straightforward. You've done this before, I guess four other times. This will be five. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak for or against the granting of this petition? Seeing no one coming forward, I'm going to close the public hearing and ask for motion. On a motion by Taylor, seconded by McIntyre, and unanimously adopted, it was #05-21-2014 RESOLVED, that pursuant to a Public Hearing having been held by the City Planning Commission on May 13, 2014, on Petition 2014-03-02-06 submitted by JCD South 96, L.L.C. requesting waiver use approval pursuant to Section 11.03(c) of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended, to operate a full service restaurant (Jimmy John's) at 13453 Middlebelt Road within the Livonia Commons Shopping Center, located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between the CSX Railroad right-of-way and Schoolcratt Road in the Northeast 1/4 of Section 26, which property is zoned C-2, the Planning Commission does hereby recommend to the City Council that Petition 2014-03-02-06 be approved subject to the following conditions: May 13, 2814 26384 1. That the maximum customer sealing count for this restaurant shall not exceed sixty (60) seats; 2. That this restaurant shall provide disposal of grease waste in accordance with Section 13.20.380 of the City Code of Ordinances; 3. That only conforming signage is approved with this petition, and any additional signage shall be separately submitted for review and approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals; and 4. That no LED lightband or exposed neon shall be permitted on the site including, but not limited to, the building or around the windows. Subject to the preceding conditions, this petition is approved for the following reasons: 1. That the proposed use complies with all of the special and general waiver use standards and requirements as set forth in Sections 11.03 and 19.06 of the Zoning Ordinance #543; 2. That the subject site has the capacity to accommodate the proposed use; and 3. That the proposed use is compatible to and in harmony with the surrounding uses in the area. FURTHER RESOLVED, that notice of the above hearing was given in accordance with the provisions of Section 19.05 of Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended. Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with an approving resolution. ITEM #2 PETITION 2014-04-08-05 MARYCREST MANOR Ms. Smiley, Acting Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Petition 2014-04-08-05 submitted by Trinity Continuing Care Services, Inc. requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.58 of the Zoning Ordinance in connection with the demolition of an existing nursing home facility (Marycresl Manor), and the construction of a new two-story nursing and assisted living facility at 15495 Middlebell Road, located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between Five Mile Road and Wentworth Avenue in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 14. May 13, 2814 26385 Mr. Taormina: This is a request to demolish an existing nursing home and construct a new two-story nursing and assisted living facility in its place. This is the zoning map. It shows you the location of all of the land that is controlled by Trinity Continuing Care Services. This is two contiguous parcels that are located on the west side of Middlebell Road a few hundred feel north of Five Mile Road. The zoning of the property is R-9, Housing for the Elderly. Some of the adjacent uses and zoning include a mix of commercial two story office, the Cambridge Office building, McDonald's, a Coop Credit Union, Thrifty Florist, and CVS Pharmacy. Those are all the businesses that make up the C-2 zoned area to the south of this parcel. To the west is the RUF, Rural Urban Farm, area. The homes are located on acreage parcels, mostly along Hidden Lane, that back up to the west side of the Trinity Properly. Across the street is a variety of commercial uses and immediately to the north is the Manoogian Manor, which is also property utilized for housing for the elderly. The site consists of two contiguous parcels that total about 9.1 acres. The redevelopment that we're looking at this evening and is associated with this petition involves the south parcel, which is about 6.5 acres. It has overall dimensions of approximately 457 feel along Middlebell Road and a depth of 600 feel. It has an existing home located on this parcel that is about 27,500 square feet. The current building has 55 beds. The smaller parcel, which is located to the north, has about 205 feet of frontage along Middlebelt Road and about 600 feet in depth. Its total area is about 2.6 acres, and is the site of the recently constructed Marycrest Heights senior village. This is a three story, 60 -unit independent living apartment building that was the subject of rezoning and site plan petitions back in 2007 and 2008. The request before you is to construct a new skilled nursing and assisted living facility. Il would occupy a substantial portion of the land where the existing facility is located plus some additional available land that is located to the west and to the north of the existing building which is currently undeveloped. The appearance of this building would complement the architect and colors of Marycrest Heights. It includes very similar materials - cement board siding, stone veneer, brick, asphalt shingled roof and other trim and accent bands that are similar. I'll let the architects show you how the two relate to one another. The proposed new building is about 61,200 square feet and two stories in height. There is a substantial difference in the size between this building versus the current building. Its overall vertical height is estimated to be about 34 feet. By comparison, the three story building to the north, Marycrest Heights, is about 51.7 feet in height. This is not as tall a building as what is May 13, 2814 26386 adjacent to it. Again, it only contains two levels versus the three levels that is part of Marycrest Heights. In terms of the required setbacks, the ordinance requires 50 foot front and rear yard setbacks and a minimum of 25 feet at the sides. The proposed layout does show conforming building setbacks. The front yard would be roughly 220 feel. That is the distance from the front of the building to the right-of-way of Middlebelt Road. The south side yard has a setback of approximately 125 feel, so that is substantially more than what the ordinance requires. The rear yard adjacent to the single family district is shown at its closest points to be about 50 feel. By comparison, the existing building currently is about 180 feel from that rear or west properly line. So this does push the construction closer to the residential. I'll go over the floor plans quickly. This is the first floor plan. There is a total of 122 units and that would include 98 skilled nursing beds as well as 24 assisted living beds. The first floor would contain 50 of the skilled nursing units, roughly half of those beds, as well as various other common area and support rooms including the main kitchen and dining facilities, the physical therapy center, several offices as well as a salon, pool, chapel, silting areas and mechanical rooms. The layout is quite complex and mostly the beds are located on the left hand side of that drawing and all of the common areas and support facilities are located on the right hand side. There are a number of silting and common areas that are part of the hallways and corridors that connect the various rooms together. Again, the architects can describe that in greater detail if you so desire. The second floor consists primarily of living units with the remaining 48 skilled nursing beds and the 24 assisted living units. There are some other dining and silting areas and support rooms that are also on the second level, but it is mostly the bedrooms with the assisted living facility on the right hand side and the remainder of the skilled nursing on the left hand side of this drawing. Altogether, when you include the independent living apartments, Marycresl in total will have 182 units. We need to look at the density calculations as to what is allowed in the R-9 district. Those density limits are a function of the building height as well as the number of bedrooms per unit. For two story structures, the minimum required land area for every one bedroom unit is 2,500 square feet. When we look at the entire land area required for the nursing center and the assisted living facility, together with the independent apartment units, the overall development requires 10.34 acres or about 450,000 square feet of land. As I indicated earlier, the total combined area of both parcels is less than that. It's about 9.1 acres or 397,000 square feet. They are about 53,000 square feet deficient in land to accommodate the density that is May 13, 2814 2638] proposed with this development. Thus the total number of units exceeds the allowable density of the property under the R-9 district regulations. There are three options to overcome this. One would be to reduce the number of units, but the two more likely options would be to either obtain a variance for the increased density or rezone a minimum amount of land necessary to support the higher density elderly housing and that would go to the OS, Office District. If we look at rezoning a portion of this properly to the OS District, which does allow for a higher density, then it will make the development conforming and it will also be within the height limitations. The OS district limits the height to two stories, which this building is. It requires only 500 square feel of land area per bed. So that is one of the options and we will discuss that a little later. We've already done the calculations in terms of what would be needed to be rezoned in order to fully comply with the ordinance. In terms of parking, the offstreet parking and access will be reconfigured and expanded. The majority of the parking will be in the front yard and along the south side of the building. The existing driveway would be shifted a little bit to the south and widened to become a boulevard entrance and exit. Currently, it's a little bit further to the north but that would be relocated to the south. A second access point from Middlebell Road would be provided to the south, and that access point does line up with RoycroR Street directly across Middlebell Road. Total parking required is 181 spaces based on the number of employees and doctors anticipated at the facility, as well as factoring in the number of beds and visitors. They are providing 204 spaces overall, so they would comply with the ordinance with respect to parking. In terms of landscaping, they would heavily landscape the site throughout. That would include the parking lot islands and the frontage along Middlebell Road. You can also see a substantial amount of foundation plantings going in the outdoor patios and courtyards that make up those spaces between the various wings of the residential parts of the building. There is a walking path that serves primarily as a fire access route at the rear of the building. It would actually connect to an existing 12 fool wide path that is behind the independent living apartments and that would continue along the back of the new building and that would also serve as a walking path for the residents. The building construction plus the path and grading necessary for that is going to have to cut into the existing natural vegetation that exists along the west side of the properly. In exchange for the removal of that landscaping, they are showing heavy plantings along the west or rear lot line to help shield the residential homes. Some of those homes sit pretty far back from this property line, probably about 200 feel or so. There are May 13, 2014 26388 one or two homes, however, that are relatively close to the rear property line. So that is the area we would have to focus on in terms of replacement plantings to make sure that a buffer is still maintained. Lastly, as far as storm water management, this is the site plan showing where the storm water would be contained. This would all be managed underground. This represents where they would construct the underground piping necessary to detain the site's storm water. With that, Mr. Chairman, I'll answer any questions you have or just go to the correspondence. I'm not going to go over the elevations or renderings. I'll leave that to the architects. Mr. Morrow: Let's have the correspondence and then we'll see if we have any questions for you. Mr. Taormina: There are four items of correspondence. The first item is from the Engineering Division, dated April 17, 2014, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above -referenced planning petition. We have no objections to the petition at this time. The address of the proposed project is 15475 Middlebelt Road and should be used in conjunction with this petition. The legal descriptions provided with the petition art; acceptable to this office. Per the submitted plan, the proposed project will provide a new public water main loop around the proposed building, with new domestic and fire service leads. The building will be serviced by a new sanitary sewer lead connecting to an existing sanitary manhole located on the neighboring parcel (also owned by the petitioner). Storm drainage will be collected on site and detained underground before being released into a City of Livonia drain at a controlled rate. Since the proposed service lead connections are replacing existing service leads, additional impacts to City utilities are expected to be minimal. The owner will need to provide full engineering drawings to this department prior to obtaining permits, at which time we will be able to determine any impacts. The owner will also need to obtain Wayne County permits for the proposed drive approach work, and the water main tap within the Middlebelt Road right-of-way." The letter is signed by David Lear, P.E., Civil Engineer. The second letter is from the Livonia Fire & Rescue Division, dated April 28, 2014, which reads as follows: "This office has reviewed the site plan submitted in connection with a request to demolish the existing nursing home facility and censtmct a new two-story nursing and assisted living facility on property located at the above referenced address. We have no objections to this proposal with the following stipulations: Fire lanes shall be not less than 20 feet of unobstructed width, able to withstand live May 13, 2014 26389 loads of fire apparatus, and have a minimum of 13 feet 6 inches of vertical clearance in accordance to 18.2.3.4.1.1 and 18.2.3.4.1.2 of NFPA 1, 2009." The letter is signed by Daniel Lee, Fire Marshal. The third letter is from the Division of Police, dated April 16, 2014, which reads as follows: "1 have reviewed the plans in connection with the petition. 1 have no objections to the proposal" The letter is signed by Joseph Boilos, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The fourth letter is from the Inspection Department, dated April 29, 2014, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request, the above -referenced petition has been reviewed. The following is noted. (1) The parking spaces are required to be 10' by 20' and double striped. (2) Barrier free parking spaces are to be property sized, signed and striped. (3) The cument codes that we are under are the 2012 Michigan Electrical Code, 2012 Mechanical Code and the 2012 Michigan Plumbing Code not the 2009 Codes as presented on the plans. (4) A variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals would be required to maintain the deficient square footage as required in the R-9 district regulations. This Department has no further objections to this petition." The letter is signed by Jerome Hanna, Assistant Director of Inspection. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Are there any questions for the Planning Director? Seeing none, would the petitioner come forward please? We will need your name and address for the record please. As you heard, Mr. Taormina has passed off the presentation of the elevations to you. We'll start with that if you concur. Jim Bowe, GlenAire HealthCare, L.L.C., 3598 Darcy Drive, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan 48301. I'd like to give you a little background on the sponsor here very quickly, the campus and the vision, then I'd like to ask Arkos Design, who is the architect on this team, to come up and speak a little bit more specifically about the design and the site plan. Mr. Morrow: Alright. That's the way we'll do it. Mr. Bowe: I appreciate it. Trinity, as many of you may know, is a very large Catholic health system based here in Livonia - 83 hospitals stretching from California all the way through Connecticut and Upstate New York. The headquarters is right off of 275 and Eight Mile over in the old Quicken Loans location. The corporate headquarters is right here, a significant presence. In addition, St. Mary Hospital here in Livonia is part of the Trinity organization, and Sl. Mary Hospital has played a major role in the commitment of Trinity in making this investment in the May 13, 2014 26390 Marycrest campus. Marycrest was initially sponsored by an order of nuns in Upstate New York and that's when the original nursing home was constructed in 1962. As was mentioned, the independent living apartments, Marycrest Heights, was constructed approximately four years ago. The nuns came to the conclusion that the resources necessary to continue the campus, they did not have the necessary resources in order to upgrade it and to really bring it forward into today's health system standards. As a result, they sought a Catholic sponsor to come in and pick up their mission. Trinity, in looking at the alignment with Sl. Mary Hospital, agreed to do so with the understanding that the 55 bed nursing home would have to be replaced. This nursing home, constructed in 1962, is significantly outdated. When we think about nursing homes, unfortunately we think about the fluorescent lighting, the linoleum floors, the double occupancy rooms, etc. This was built at a time when it was more custodial care, personal care, people who had cognitive issues, perhaps issues using the washroom, etc., very, by today's standards, backward. What we're looking to do is to put in a continuum of care in place at the Marycrest campus. The 60 independent living apartments are stale of the art, but in addition to that, we want to put in a skilled nursing presence that really has two different levels of care. The 50 beds on the main level will be for short term rehab care. Folks going into the hospital for surgical procedures, knee hip replacements, etc. In today's environment, the health system works in a fashion where they try to gel you out of those expensive hospital beds as quickly as possible rehabbing in a skilled nursing center. That will be the focus of the main floor of this building. Immediately adjacent on the main floor of this building will be a state of the art rehab gym with over 2,000 square feel with all the latest rehab equipment in there. We have a hydrotherapy pool that will also be installed immediately adjacent to that. This is all on the south portion. So we have a very, very significant rehab commitment to this building. The second floor will have the long term stay beds. That will be the 48 beds on the second skilled nursing level, and that population is typically people in their Tale 80's who are approaching end of life. They would lend to stay there for several years at a time whereas the first floor folks, the rehab folks, would tend to be there for 30 to 40 days at a time. We have two different populations we're going to serve in the skilled nursing. The second floor also has 24 assistant living units, which gives us that transitional period from the independent living apartments, folks who need personal care assistance, medication management, meal service, laundry service, transportation, etc., would receive those services in the assisted living. So this is May 13, 2014 26391 what we talk about with the continuum of care where the apartments, people with their own kitchens, etc., come in. There's underground parking. They're still pretty active in the community. As their needs change, they age, they can move directly over to the assisted living, and then for folks who are in the hospital and need to recover in rehab, we'll have the first floor unit, and then the second floor unit for those who are approaching the end stage of life. One of the things we're really stressing in this is resident centered care. You will see in the nursing home section, we have neighborhoods that are comprised of 12 units in each neighborhood. These are single occupancy rooms. When we think of nursing homes, we often think of double occupancy rooms, shared bathrooms. Each resident room will have its own private bath and shower, and this is a significant improvement, obviously, on quality of life. We want to move from institutional care to more of a residential setting. We want to emphasis an environment that people feel is very similar to the homes that they have just lett. We'll have small gathering areas in their neighborhoods where people can come together and socialize, and we will have some other areas where larger groups can gel together for group activities. On each floor we will have dining services. There will be 24 residents per dining area. So again, a smaller community setting. This is not a large institutional dining area. This will gel people who are very familiar with each other, develop relationships, have a higher quality of life. This is consistent with our Catholic sponsorship. If we can go back to the main presentation. Did we give you a thumb drive? This first slide, you can see the artist's renderings and that's coming from Middlebelt into the property. That would be the chapel at the forefront there on the right hand side. You can see there's a connector between the independent living and the new building. This is going to allow the independent living folks - right now they cook all their own meals. They do not have dining services in that apartment building. We're going to put a 90 seal dining area, connected through an enclosed walkway, totally climate controlled, so that these folks have the opportunity to lake meal service over there. The chapel is located immediately adjacent to that, and the chapel will have sealing for approximately 90 individuals. Again, we want to maintain our Catholic sponsorship there. The rendering below shows another angle from Middlebelt looking more towards the south portion of it. If you would go to the next slide please. This is Marycrest as it stands today. You can see it really looks dated. In the upper right hand corner is a picture of a resident room. That's a double occupancy room. You can see immediately adjacent to that is the rehab space, which is very small, very limited. The May 13, 2014 26392 building definitely needs to be replaced in order to be consistent with the expectations in today's market. If you would go to the next one please. That's the Heights as it stands today. Our expectation is that the new construction will, again, as was mentioned earlier, will be consistent with the appearance and building materials used in the Heights. The Heights has a very bright color as you can see. We would like to move back from that extreme yellow, but nonetheless, we have to be consistent with that. Next slide. This is a project that the architect worked with Trinity on about a year and a half, two years ago down in South Bend, Indiana, where Trinity also has a significant presence. You can see the results of this project with the hydrotherapy pool in the middle, the chapel to the left. You can see the hair salon al the top, the resident room in the lower right hand corner, and some of the common areas. This is representative of the quality and the end product that we are going to present over at Marycresl. Next slide please. This is a computer generated rendering of what a resident room would look like at Marycresl at the lop. The lower section is computer generated of what the chapel would look like. These are two different views of the physical therapy gym where the rehab would take place. A lot of natural light. A lot of windows. Very attractive selling. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Jeff Anglemyer from Arkos Design and he will talk to you more from an architect standpoint. Mr. Morrow: Thank you for the fine presentation. I really enjoyed that. Did you have an opportunity to meet with any of your neighbors to the west? Mr. Bowe: Yes. We did send out a mailing to all of our immediate neighbors approximately two weeks ago and invited them over for a presentation, similar to what we're giving you today. We did not have anybody respond to that. There was no attendance, but we did do a direct mailing with an invitation and we are keeping boards of this presentation available at Marycrest so if any of the neighbors do want to slop by and ask questions and see what we're doing, we certainly would like to walk them through that. Mr. Morrow: We appreciate your reaching out to them. With that, we can go to the architect. Mr. Bowe: Thankyou. Jeff Anglemyer, Arkos Design, 117 South Main Street, Mishawaka, Indiana 46544. Good evening. I also have Darla Aldred when we get May 13, 2014 26393 into the site landscape. She is a landscape architect with Arkos Design. If we could go the floor plans. As Mr. Bowe mentioned, there is a level of care that will be provided all the way from independent to skilled. On the first level here is where we will have the short term skilled side. It is paramount to Trinity's mission that they are providing a quality of life, whether it's the independent, the skilled or the assisted. It's very important to them. Get better, go home is their philosophy. They are trying to provide some amenities which was not traditional in the nursing homes in the '60's and '70's. The facility that we're removing, as Mr. Bowe mentioned, has a lot of double occupancy rooms. The therapy space is much less than what we're providing here. The intention that Trinity likes to do in many of their models is to have a very resident home -like environment and is very resident -centered in their care. They are breaking these down into neighborhoods that would have a living room and a hearth space with fireplace and dining. To break the population of 50 down into these pockets, that's what each of these wings are doing. So each of those wings, depending on which floor you are on, would have 15 or 14. So you have the ability to have some intimacy in your space. You can stay in your private room or you can go out amongst the community and dine with others. You can go to the chapel. So there's a lot of opportunity there for how much privacy and how much community you want to share. The blue area, as it was mentioned, this is all the first floor, the short term rehab skilled and immediately above this would be the long term care. There is small pockets of living room, hearth, dining areas within this light blue area. This is all on that western portion of the property. It will be very intimate. There is going to be some outdoor gathering places that I'll lel Dada discuss in a minute, but everything to the east of this is the support spaces and common spaces so guests and visitors would come to the property from Middlebell in this area. The separation of the home and the guest, there's a barrier there just like we would all have in our home. You have a community area and then you have your home. Within the orange area, we have the physical therapy space right here. That is all off this common corridor. So you can come in the front, you can participate in chapel. There will be a bistro and restaurant for independent, but it's also available for families to take their loved ones from skilled down to the restaurant if they don't want to eat in the skilled nursing area. The areas down in here will be all support spaces, mechanical, electrical, staff, administration. Can we go to the second floor? The second floor, as I mentioned, this is very similar to the first. There is a few pieces like physical therapy that kind of fall away as we get to the second floor. The green May 13, 2014 26394 is all assisted living. These have a combination. There are six two-bedroom units and there are 18 one -bedroom units. They would all have walk-in closet, bedroom, living space. Even the one bedroom units are slightly larger than the skilled rooms so there is more closet space, more floor area. The assisted living as well as the skilled has its own dining, hearth, central kitchen, and these kitchens now in the neighborhood environment are meant to engage the resident. There's going to be a side of the kitchen that they can come and help plate the food and set the table just like you've done your whole life. So it's meant to provide that continuum of life that you've had. You can help with the food delivery. You can help with the other pieces of the care model. The yellow area is just the common core from the first floor. So we have an elevator. You come up off the elevator and you'll have a front door into each neighborhood. If we could go back to the elevations, I'd like to discuss a little bit of the exterior material. I think it was the first slide. One thing I'd like to point out is, as it was mentioned, we're going to be very complementary with the exterior materials. We're going to in fad replicate things like shingles, the stone, the brick, the existing Heights building has some metal roof features, the turrets on the end, then we also have the canopy that have the metal green roof feature. We're going to do that very similar here. We have two entrance points. If you remember from the plan for guests, there's one here and one here. Those are both opportunities for parking. If you come in, depending where you park, we want it to be as close to guests as possible, but features would have a very similar accent roof to match the Heights. The shingles would match. The stone and the brick would match. We'll have a similar cement board siding as was mentioned previously but we're going to a more complementary color instead of the yellow color that's on the Heights. If you could please forward through past the plans. I'll let Darla Aldred review these next couple slides Mr. Morrow: Okay. Thank you Dada Aldred, Landscape Architect, Arkos Design, 491 South Foresta Road, LaPorte, Indiana 46350. This plan highlights, in white, the structures both residential on the left and the proposed new building. More than anything, we just wanted to acknowledge the placement of the building within the context of the community. So what this is highlighting is a distance between basically the back door of that one residence to the one side as over 200 feet. The building right here would be the closest one at around 100 feet separation. Go ahead and move forward to the next plan please. Thank you. The property line is here. You May 13, 2014 26395 can see the buildings that we just referenced over on this side with that 50 foot setback between the property line. A great job was already done of the general organization of the sight. We won't go into that in much more detail unless you have some specific questions, but a couple things to just quickly highlight. This area here is what we're really looking at is for staff and service. So that has been the northern portion, we're looking more at how guests arrive, how residents arrive, and deliveries, things of that nature, would all be brought around to the southern area so we have a minimum conflict there and also buffered from the existing residents here as well by being lucked into this area, is where the trucks and things would arrive and deliver their goods. The pathways provide a lot of opportunity for the residents to get out and have some different choices. We talked about the fire lane acting as a walking path. We also are proposing some additional loops for walking so people can go out and either actively look at strengthening for different lengths of distance of therapy or a little shorter distances. This border along here, more than anything, if you could please forward to the next slide. Thank you. We wanted to really take a look at this and acknowledge that we recognize that this border will be a little different than it has been in the past. It's been left to kind of natural under story. There's a lot of mature trees back there. This will retain most of those existing trees. A lot of them are actually on the adjacent property, but there's a lot of under story scrub on this property. Some of that will be removed. So you can see from a zoning standpoint, what we're proposing would actually exceed both of those situations and what we're really looking to do is bring back some of that under story so we can continue to provide the same typical buffer that the residents have enjoyed to this point. So that's what this slide is just representing is as the plant material that we're proposing along this buffer zone matures that we're recognizing it's not just planting canopy trees, which don't screen that most highly visible area, but we're looking at a mix of under story trees, large scrubs like viburnum, things like that nature, to help create that buffer in a very attractive way. Next slide please. This just highlights a little bit of that and shows some of the plant material we're looking at to help accomplish that. I wanted to really quickly just show you some of these areas for the outdoor spaces. As Jeff had acknowledged, we have outside of these neighborhood areas, we have some patio spaces for the residents to enjoy. These will be very garden oriented, very relaxing, a lot of plant material that people would see in their own backyards, that type of a scale. We would want shade there. That's very important for this group to have a lot of choices for shade. So this would be May 13, 2014 26396 the northern one here, and it just represents kind of showing that garden -type of landscape that we would see in that, both the neighborhoods on the north and south side. And then this one here is representing what the outdoor therapy ... Mr. Bowe had discussed the indoor therapy and space that's located right at this spot. What we just wanted to walk through real quickly was that we are looking at outdoor therapy as well, recognizing that people need to function both indoors and outdoors. So this type of space will help them to navigate stairs and ramps and different changes of paving material from lawn to pavement to up curbs, down curbs, that sort of thing, and also from a sensory and relaxation standpoint have a very garden type feel and possibly the use of therapeutic landscape to actively have people gardening as part of the therapy. So there's a lot of exciting things happening in that space both from active and residential life standpoint. Mr. Morrow: That outdoor therapy is kind of new to me. It sounds like it's well thought out. Normally you think of indoors, but to gel outside and actually see how you do outside with whatever you need to overcome. Thanks for a very fine presentation. Ms. Aldred: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow: I'm going to go to the Commission now and see if we have any questions. Mr. Taylor: Through the chair to Mark Taormina, did we determine if the walkway is going to be alright going from the building to the north? Mr. Taormina: I'm still trying to get a commitment from the Inspection Department on whether or not any part of that will require special approval or variances. I don't anticipate that it will, and really I think what Mr. Taylor is wondering is, because there's a walkway that will connect the two buildings and the walkway will actually cross the properties lines that separate this facility from the independent living apartments, is the minimum setback requirements being adhered to? Because of the common ownership and relationship between the properties, I don't anticipate there will be a problem with that, but in the event there is, either the Building Code Board of Appeals or the Zoning Board can take a look at that. I don't believe there should be any major issues that can't be overcome with proper construction standards and that sort of thing. From a zoning standpoint, I don't think it's an issue. I think it's probably going to be addressed as part of the construction review permitting. May 13, 2014 26397 Mr. Taylor: Through the Chair to the petitioner, are you comfortable with going through the rezoning process then to the OS? Mr. Bowe: Yes, we are. Mr. Taylor: Because we have that coming up on our agenda I know shorty. I'm assuming this is Medicare, Medicaid and all of the funding? Mr. Bowe: Medicare is primarily the reimbursement source for the rehab short term slay; that is the primary reimbursement source. The long term stay would be both Medicaid and private pay. The assisted living would be private pay that is not reimbursed under Medicare or Medicaid, and the apartments have always been private pay. Mr. Taylor: And if you were to gel your approvals, when do you think you would be open? Mr. Bowe: We would be looking at approximately February of 2017. Mr. Taylor: Thankyou. Ms. Smiley: Is Marycresl occupied right now? Mr. Bowe: Yes, it is. Ms. Smiley: Whatwill happen tothose residents? Mr. Bowe: We are doing this in two phases. If we gel approval, we would start construction approximately in August or September. We would complete the first round of construction in October of 2015. We would then take the folks from the exisfing nursing home, which will remain operational through that first phase, we would move everybody from the existing nursing home into the first phase of the new nursing home. We would then demolish the old nursing home, construct phase two of the project, and then we would have additional capacity to move new residents into that. Ms. Smiley: Did you have anything to do with the building or the expansion at Marywood? Mr. Bowe: No, we did not. That is a separate order of nuns who operate that building. Ms. Smiley: Would the Felicians have anything to do with Marycrestthen? May 13, 2814 26398 Mr. Bowe: No. Ms. Smiley: Theyjust do the hospital. Mr. Bowe: Separate sponsors. I neglected to mention earlier that when Trinity made the commitment to this property and look over sponsorship of Marycresl, the hospital was a primary driver of that decision Under the new healthcare rubric with healthcare reform and what we refer to as Obamacare, the push for a full continuum of care to lake care of an entire episode of care outside of the hospital in addition to the hospital, is paramount and St. Mary Hospital was a major proponent within the Trinity organization of making this move so it would have the capacity to be able to move its folks out of its hospital beds into a rehab environment. So you can imagine the capital requirements to lake on a project of this size, and one of the reasons Trinity was willing to do so was because of the hospital's commitment to this. Ms. Smiley: Okay. Thank you. Ms. McIntyre: The residents who are currently at the Marycresl facility, they will be accommodated, right, so no one will be displaced or priced out? Mr. Anglemyer: No. We are 100 percent committed to continue the care for those folks. So you can imagine moving out of the existing building into the new building. It will be quite an upgrade, and if I was them or their family, I would be thrilled. They will all, absolutely, be accommodated. We are totally committed to those folks. Ms. McIntyre: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow: Any other questions of the petitioners. Is there anything you want to mention before I go to the audience? Mr. Anglemyer: If you have a few minutes, we do have a fly around that I'd like to share to just give a better sense of how the building is being very sensitive to the residential side. It's only about a minute and a half. Mr. Morrow: That would be fine. We might as well have the whole view. Mr. Anglemyer: We'd appreciate that. This is just an animated fly around. This would be as you're approaching from Middlebelt and a couple May 13, 2014 26399 things I'd like to point out. That's the green roof we were mentioning that would kind of complement the existing building, some of the features that we're trying to be very sensitive of. As you can see, there would be a roof that has a slope to it but a flat area within it and that's intentional to screen the rooftop equipment. So there will be very little equipment or supporting utilities at grade. It will be hidden into the roof area. One of the things that was not mentioned when we were reviewing the plan a moment ago is part of the reason there's a little bit of a skew to that plan and to pull those wings out on a slight angle was to try to not have such a prominent elevation on the residential side. So we turn that so as you're looking back from the west residences, you'll see more of the corner and the buildings pulling away from you as opposed to a two story facade. So I wanted to point a few of those things out. This is kind of spinning around now and it ends up at the second guest entrance at that circle drive, which is currently the same drive that drops off at the Heights, the canopy at the independent living. Mr. Morrow: A very fine presentation. Ms. McIntyre: You indicated that there was a dumpster enclosure but I didn't see an enclosure. Mr. Anglemyer: There will be an enclosure for it. Dada had mentioned where some of the service entrance. It will be down in that area. Ms. McIntyre: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Morrow: Anything else? Mr. Bowe: No. We appreciate your time and the opportunity to present today. Mr. Morrow: I'm going to go to the audience now. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak for or against the granting of this petition? Seeing no one coming forward, a motion would be in order. On a motion by McIntyre, seconded by Taylor, and unanimously adopted, it was #05-22-2014 RESOLVED, that the City Planning Commission does hereby recommend to the City Council that Petition 2014-04-08-05 submitted by Trinity Continuing Care Services, Inc. requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.58 of the Zoning Ordinance in connection with the demolition of an existing May 13, 2014 26400 nursing home facility (Marycrest Manor), and the construction of a new two-story nursing and assisted living facility at 15495 Middlebelt Road, located on the west side of Middlebell Road between Five Mile Road and Wentworth Avenue in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 14, be approved subject to the following conditions: 1. That the Plan marked Sheet C3 prepared by Nowak & Fraus Engineers dated April 11, 2014, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 2. That the Landscape Plan marked Sheet Ll -10 prepared by Arkos Design dated April 11, 2014, as revised, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 3. All disturbed lawn areas shall be replaced with sod in lieu of using hydro -seed; 4. That underground sprinklers are to be provided for all landscaped and sodded areas, and all planted materials shall be installed to the satisfaction of the Inspection Department and thereafter permanently maintained in a healthy condition; 5. That the Exterior Elevations Plan marked Sheets A2-01 prepared by Arkos Design dated April 11, 2014, as revised, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 6. That all light fixtures shall not exceed twenty feel (20') in height and shall be aimed and shielded so as to minimize stray light trespassing across property lines and glaring into adjacent roadways; 7. That this approval is subject to the petitioner seeking a rezoning of a minimum area of the properly necessary to support the density of beds being proposed to OS, Office Services, and if for any reason the rezoning is not approved, approval of the site plan is subject to the Petitioner being granted a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals for the total number of proposed units exceeding the allowable density of the properly, and subject to any conditions related thereto; 8. That only conforming signage is approved with this petition, and any additional signage shall be separately submitted for review and approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals; May 13, 2014 26401 9. That the specific plans referenced in this approving resolution shall be submitted to the Inspection Department at the time the building permits are applied for; and 10. Pursuant to Section 19.10 of Ordinance #543, the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Livonia, this approval is valid for a period of ONE YEAR ONLY from the dale of approval by City Council, and unless a building peril is obtained, this approval shall be null and void at the expiration of said period. Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with an approving resolution. We wish you luck with the project and also with the rezoning. Thanks for the investment in Livonia. Itl lk'iFF=9 =k 11t I[a] � Vol EIH, 6-111 k5 I:1:A"=1 � I=1:iHl Ms. Smiley, Acting Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Petition 2014-04-08-06 submitted by Consumers Energy requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.47 of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended, in connection with a proposal to demolish existing buildings and structures and construct a new customer service center at 11801 Farmington Road, located on the west side of Farmington Road between Plymouth Road and the CSX railroad right-of-way in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 28. Mr. Taormina: This is a request to demolish an existing building and structures and then construct a new customer service center for Consumers Energy. This is a zoning map that shows where the property is located in relationship to the surrounding land uses and zoning categories. The property is highlighted in yellow. It is an interesting shaped parcel. Most of its frontage is along Farmington Road. The site is almost 17 acres in total area. It is split -zoned. The majority of the property is zoned C-2, General Business, and then the balance of the site is zoned M-1, General Manufacturing. The property does have an entrance to Plymouth Road. That's the narrow stretch extending out on the south side of the property. It is actually a driveway that connects the site to Plymouth Road. The C-2 portion is about 600 feet in depth and extends across the full width of the property, which is about 790 feet along Farmington Road. The east half of the site is where the existing service center building is located, as well as the recently constructed Compressed May 13, 2014 26402 Natural Gas fueling facility, which is in the southeast corner of the property. The back half of the property which is zoned industrial, is used primarily for material, equipment and vehicles storage. Adjacent properties and land uses to the north and west are industrial uses. To the east across Farmington Road is the Fountain Park Condominiums, and then to the south are commercial uses. The proposal is to construct a new one-story service center that would total about 63,000 square feet in gross floor area. The existing building is centrally located on the property, a little bit closer to Farmington Road. This is the rendered site plan showing what the site would look like upon full completion of the construction. As you can see, the new building would be situated at the north end of the property. It's oriented in an east to west direction. It's a very rectangular configured building. The positioning of the building, in fact, is in an area of the site that is currently undeveloped and that will allow for the operations to continue in a majority of the existing building while the new facility is being constructed. Only a small section of the existing building will actually have to come down during the construction of the new service center. Upon completion of the new service center, the remaining portions of the existing building will be completely removed and replaced with parking and storm water management and other storage. The setbacks for this building are about 220 feet from Farmington Road and about 90 feet from the north property line. The new building would contain two major components. The first being office space and that would total about 33,600 feet, and then the second would be a shop area which is a little less than that, about 30,000 square feet in total area. The front portion of the building, the area closest to Farmington Road, would house the offices as well as conference and training rooms and a wellness center and locker rooms, whereas the back half or the westerly part of the building will include storage, maintenance, as well as a repair garage, mechanical equipment, tool cribs, etc. The building is almost evenly split between the offices on the front half and the shop area to the west. This is a service center. This is where Consumers Energy stores equipment and vehicles, and is where employees are dispatched to service the various customers 24 hours a day. The rear portion of the site, or the industrial zoned area, will continue to be enclosed by a six foot high chain link fence. This shows where some of the new vehicle ports would be placed to replace the current vehicle ports. The gray area is the paved portion of the site, pretty much the way it exists today. The lighter grey areas are the areas where the vehicles would be stored. These are open canopy structures. Twenty-four trucks in total can be stored underneath these overhead canopies. May 13, 2014 26403 Theyre in a slightly different configuration and location than what currently exists, and are being rearranged to accommodate the new plans. The plan shows 30 foot high light poles, which is inconsistent with the lighting policy. We are recommending that the poles be lowered to 20 feet for that portion of the site which is adjacent to Farmington Road. The 30 feel would be adequate for the industrial zoned portion of the properly. Two storm water retention ponds would be constructed. One is shown in the east central part of the site near Farmington Road between the new building and the existing C.N.G. station. One of the requirements as part of the redevelopment is that they provide storm water control in the form of these basins. This would be one of two basins. They have to build two because of the topography of the site. Its split between the drainage going in one direction versus the other, so they have to build two of these basins, one near Farmington Road and the other in the northwest comer of the properly, which is an area that is zoned industrial. In terms of parking, we estimate they would need 166 spaces. The plan is showing 201 spaces so they comply fully with the ordinance, but more importantly for Consumers' needs is the ability to expand parking in the future. For those reasons, they are showing some areas along the front of the site where some of the parking spaces will be land banked. This is an area where they can expand parking in the future if necessary, but until the time it is needed, they are going to keep that area as part of the greenspace on the site. In terms of landscaping, they are showing a variety of plants and shrubs being planted throughout the property. This shows some of the landscaping going in along the frontage of the site. They are showing a variety of trees and shrubs. Street trees and lawn would be installed along Farmington Road. They would provide irrigated sod lawn areas between the public sidewalk and the driveways on Farmington Road as opposed to the non -irrigated areas. I'll lel Consumers explain the reason for that. They are essentially seeking LEED certification for this building, and one of the things they're looking at is drought resistant landscaping. They are not proposing to sod and irrigate much of the lawn areas surrounding the building and some of the areas that might someday be converted to parking, but to be consistent with the frontage along Farmington Road and connecting to the PRDA, they would extend that irrigation along the area closest to Farmington Road and plant street trees in that particular area. Looking at the elevation plans, they are proposing primarily a masonry constructed building on the exterior, similar materials that were used as part of the C.N.G. facility, the containment structure that was built as part of that project. They would also May 13, 2014 26404 include prefnished metal panels as part of the roofing and screening elements that are on the building. The overall height is 30 feet, which is within the allowance in the C-2 district, and all the mechanical equipment would be screened with 5 fool high metal screen walls. This shows the building in several different views, but if you look at the top elevation, it really shows what the building would be from the point closest to Farmington Road. With that Mr. Chairman, I'll answer any questions or go right into the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Let's do the correspondence first? Mr. Taormina: There are four items of correspondence. The first item is from the Engineering Division, dated April 23, 2014, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above -referenced planning petition. We have no objections to the petition at this time. The address of proposed project is 11801 Farmington Road and should be used in conjunction with this petition. The legal description provided with the petition contains an error, and does not close. The As -Surveyed' legal description provided with the plan set appears to be correct and should be used for the proposed project. The submitted plans do not indicate locations or sizes for proposed utility service connections to the new building, but since the proposed connections will be replacing existing service leads, additional impacts to City utilities are expected to be minimal. The owner will need to provide full engineering drawings to this department prior to obtaining permits, at which time we will be able to determine any impacts. The submitted plans indicate that the existing approaches onto Farmington Road and Plymouth Road will remain in place. Should any work be done within these mad right-of-ways, the owner will need to obtain Wayne County permits." The letter is signed by David Lear, P.E., Civil Engineer. The second letter is from the Livonia Fire & Rescue Division, dated September 30, 2014, which reads as follows: "This office has reviewed the site plan submitted in connection with a request to demolish and reconstruct a commercial building on property located at the above - referenced address. We have no objections to this proposal." The letter is signed by Daniel Lee, Fire Marshal. The third letter is from the Division of Police, dated April 21, 2014, which reads as follows: "I have reviewed the plans in connection with the petition. I have no objections to the proposal." The letter is signed by Joseph Boilos, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The fourth letter is from the Inspection Department, dated April 29, 2014, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request, the above - referenced petition has been reviewed. The following is noted. Christopher Laser, Consumers Energy, 11801 Farmington, Livonia, Michigan 48150. I'd like to thank Mr. Taormina for doing an excellent job in describing the new site plan, our facilities there. I think he described it better than I might have. As Mr. Taormina mentioned, we are looking at expanding our facility there, actually updating it. The existing facility was built in 1960 1 believe. Over the years it has served us well, but we've changed the departments and the people and the building. It really has outlived its service there. This new building will be much more efficient. As Mr. Taormina mentioned, we are looking to obtain LEED certification on this building as we do on May 13, 2014 26405 This Department has no objections to this petition." The letter is signed by Jerome Hanna, Assistant Director of Inspection. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Are there any questions from the Commissioners? Mr. Taylor: Through the Chair to Mark, is the detention pond visible from Farmington Road? Mr. Taormina: Yes. The one pond will most certainly be visible from Farmington Road. Its probably set back 60 to 80 feel from the sidewalk, so from there, probably another 15 feel or so from the actual traveled portion of Farmington Road, but it would be visible since there is nothing between the pond and the road other than this driveway that connects the parking lot to the C.N.G. station and a few trees. Mr. Taylor: So it is in the front of the building then? Mr. Taormina: Yes, it does extend forward of the building. It is not directly in front of the building, but it is closer to the road than the building would be. It is divided into a couple different holding basins. One of the things that was brought up at the study session was whether some additional landscaping could be placed along the backside of this basin to help screen the vehicle port that is closest to the retention basin. The prepared resolution does stipulate that additional trees would have to be planted along the west side of the pond. I think that's something that Mr. Wilshaw had brought up at the study session. Mr. Taylor: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow: Are there any other questions? Is the petitioner here this evening? We will need your name and address for the record please. Christopher Laser, Consumers Energy, 11801 Farmington, Livonia, Michigan 48150. I'd like to thank Mr. Taormina for doing an excellent job in describing the new site plan, our facilities there. I think he described it better than I might have. As Mr. Taormina mentioned, we are looking at expanding our facility there, actually updating it. The existing facility was built in 1960 1 believe. Over the years it has served us well, but we've changed the departments and the people and the building. It really has outlived its service there. This new building will be much more efficient. As Mr. Taormina mentioned, we are looking to obtain LEED certification on this building as we do on May 13, 2014 26406 all our new service centers, and this is going to be the newest LEED cerlifcaton, which is Version Four just coming out right now. With that said, I know we mentioned about some of the grass and the sprinkler systems; however, if possible, we would provide more sprinkler systems in the front of the building to the grass areas out front. We do want to improve the site and the look of the facility there. The only other thing I wanted to mention is, like I had said, we've been in the Livonia building here since 1959, 1960 time frame. Obviously we would like to continue to slay in Livonia. It's been a good location for us and serves the metro area. This is a gas site so we do service quite a bit of the metro area from this. Our next nearest location is Royal Oak and we have one in Howell. So this does serve quite a large portion of our service area. With that said, I dont know if you have any questons for me. Mr. Morrow: I see you brought a material board. You might explain that to us. Mr. Laser: That is the C -Brick that we are planning on using; it's on the C.N.G. station right now currently, and we are proposing the same color, or similar to this, for the whole service center, with the exception of the metal panels on top of the garage area and the bay area, but this is the same as what's on the C.N.G. station. Mr. Morrow: Okay. Thank you. Are there any questions of the petitioner? Mr. Taylor: Through the Chair to the petitioner, I know you're going to put the detention pond in the front. The detention ponds that we have are not great looking things, but you can help them though if you put a couple fountains in them. It agitates the water, keeps it from getting fungus and things in it. I would urge you to do that. In fad, our approving resolution says that if it's possible to add it. I would like to have your commitment that you would add it. I dont think its that expensive and it will help you out, it will help the look of the building and I just think it gives a detention pond a much better look and feel. Mr. Laser: I agree with you. I think it would be a nice feature for the facility, for the building. I'm not sure, as far as the engineering portion of it goes, how deep that is, how much water is going to be in there. If we can accommodate it, I would like to do that as well. I just don't want it to be a maintenance issue if we only got two feel of water in there, that type of issue. May 13, 2014 2640] Mr. Taylor: Well, I guess the question then to Mr. Taormina is, is it going to be a dry detention pond or not? Mr. Taormina: I would defer that question to the engineer. I think part of it will probably contain some permanent standing water most of the time, whereas the other is designed to have the water pass through it and filler. The answer to your quesfion is probably yes and no, but why dont we let him answer that. Steve Sorensen, Professional Engineering Associates, 2430 Rochester Court, Troy, Michigan. The first portion of the pond would be a forebay that will fluctuate more than the second portion, which is on the east side. That portion will have a three to four fool wet bottom in it. I would think that if we're going to do a fountain, we would want to try to make that deeper so that we're not sucking up materials and things into the pumps. So we will have to look at that in relation to ground water level and make sure that is feasible with the site, but we will definitely consider that and know that's something you're looking for when we do the final design. Mr. Taylor: Thank you. We would appreciate that Mr. Morrow: Yes, we would appreciate that. Any other questions? Seeing none, I'm going to go to the audience. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak for or against the granting of this petition? Seeing no one coming forward, a motion would be in order. On a motion by Smiley, seconded by McIntyre, and unanimously adopted, it was #05-23-2014 RESOLVED, that the City Planning Commission does hereby recommend to the City Council that Petition 2014-0408-06 submitted by Consumers Energy requesfing approval of all plans required by Section 18.47 of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended, in connection with a proposal to demolish existing buildings and structures and construct a new customer service center at 11801 Farmington Road, located on the west side of Farmington Road between Plymouth Road and the CSX railroad right-of-way in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 28, be approved subject to the following condifions: 1. That the Overall Site Plan marked Drawing Number P-2.0 dated April 17, 2014, prepared by Professional Engineering Associates, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; May 13, 2014 26408 2. That the Landscape Plans marked Drawing Number L-1.1, L-1.2, L-1.3 and L-1.4 all dated April 17, 2014, prepared by Professional Engineering Associates, are hereby approved and shall be adhered to; subject to additional trees being provided along the west side of the front detention basin in order to help screen the vehicle ports; 3. The Petitioner shall look into the possibility of adding a fountain to the front detention pond; 4. That all disturbed lawn areas within the right-of-way and extending west to the curb of the closest drive aisle that runs parallel to Farmington Road shall be sodded in lieu of hydroseeding, and shall be irrigated with an underground sprinkler system, including all landscaping around the building; 5. That the Exterior Building Elevation Plan marked Sheet A2 dated April 15, 2014, prepared by Consumers Energy, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 6. That all rooftop mechanical equipment shall be concealed from public view on all sides by screening that shall be of a compatible character, material and color to other exterior materials on the building; 7. That the height of the light poles on the commercially - zoned area of the site adjacent to Farmington Road shall be limited to a height of twenty feet (20') and shall be aimed and shielded so as to minimize stray light trespassing across property lines and glaring into adjacent roadway. Light poles in the industrial area shall not exceed thirty feel (30') in height; 8. That this site shall meet either the City of Livonia or the Wayne County Storm Water Management Ordinance, whichever applies, and shall secure any required permits, including storm water management permits, wetlands permits and soil erosion and sedimentation control permits, from Wayne County, the City of Livonia, and/or the Stale of Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE); 9. That only conforming signage is approved with this petition, and any additional signage shall be separately submitted for review and approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals; May 13, 2014 26409 10. That the specific plans referenced in this approving resolution shall be submitted to the Inspection Department at the time the building permits are applied for; and 11. Pursuant to Section 19.10 of Ordinance #543, the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Livonia, this approval is valid for a period of ONE YEAR ONLY from the dale of approval by City Council, and unless a building peril is obtained, this approval shall be null and void at the expiration of said period. Mr. Morrow: Is there any discussion? Ms. Smiley: On Condition 5, Mark, do we want to mention something about the LEEDS because it says the underground sprinklers are to be provided for all landscaped and sodded areas and all planted materials shall be installed to the satisfaction of the Inspection Department and thereafter peranentiy maintain in a healthy condition. Should we put something in there about LEEDS? Mr. Taormina: We probably need to better define the areas that will be irrigated versus the areas that will not be irrigated as opposed to just referencing a LEED, but that is something we will have to discuss with the applicant. I think he's indicated this evening he is going to extend that irrigation to some of the additional areas along Farmington Road. We'll fashion language that I think addresses that issue. Ms. Smiley: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with an approving resolution. ITEM #4 PETITION 2014-04-08-07 COMMUNITY CHOICE Ms. Smiley, Acting Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Petition 2014-04-08-07 submitted by Stucky Vitale Architects requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.47 of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended, in connection with a proposal to relocate and construct a new covered drive-lhru facility of the credit union (Community Choice) at 15420 Farmington Road, located on the east side of Farmington Road between Five Mile Road and RoycroR Avenue in the Southwest 114 of Section 15. May 13, 2014 26410 Mr. Taormina: This is a request to relocate and construct a new drive-lhru facility at the Community Choice Credit Union located on the east side of Farmington Road just south of RoycroR Avenue. This property is zoned OS, Office Services. It has office to the south, commercial to the west, and residential on the opposite side of RoycroR. Westmore Avenue as it extends south onto the properly has been vacated and serves as part of the existing drive-thru facility. It will continue to serve that purpose as far as the main access to the drive-up window operations. Currently, those operations are located at the east end of the building, and access is provided by means of this dedicated driveway which traverses that vacated portion of Westmore that extends south from RoycroR for about 265 feet. Westmore north of RoycroR is the public portion of the roadway, but then as you crossover RoycroR that street is vacated. It's part of the properly owned by Community Choice and that driveway serves the purpose of providing access to the existing drive-up window operations which are located on the east side of the building. Persons using the drive-up come down Westmore, loop around and start to continue north. When they complete their transactions, they have the option of either continuing north to RoycroR where they could either turn right or Teff, or they could circle back to Farmington Road by crossing over the parking lot. The proposal is to basically better separate the drive-up operations from the parking lot at the credit union and they would accomplish this by removing the existing drive-up window operations on the east side of the building and relocating those a little bit further north on a new driveway that would be built between the parking lot and Westmore Avenue. Cars using the drive-up would continue to access it from Westmore. They would have a little bit sharper U-turn to make to turn due north and then there is a widened staging area for vehicles to wail to be able to use one of the four ATM machines that would be located beneath a constructed canopy, then the vehicles would exit the site. They would still have the option of going into the parking lot but further north on the lot as opposed to in front of the building, or they could continue out and exit to the left to RoycroR. The construction of the canopy looks a little different than the current facility. They would provide for stone and composite panel columns as well as a standing seam metal roof. These are the same materials that would be utilized in the construction of a new vestibule and entryway which is on the north side of the building. So the project not only involves the relocation of the drive-up operations but also some work being done to the front of the building in the form of this new entry and vestibule. This is a blowup of what that would appear like. You can see the stone on the bottom, the composite panels and then May 13, 2014 26411 the standing seam metal canopy or roof element. That would match what they are doing for the drive-up operation. Upon completion of the new drive-up operation, they would remove the old drive-up canopy which is situated here, and as you can see from this plan, they would replace it with about seven new parking spaces. They do comply fully with the parking requirements and the setback requirements. Thank you. Mr. Morrow: Is there any correspondence? Mr. Taormina: There are three items of correspondence. The first item is from the Engineering Division, dated April 25, 2014, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above-referenced planning petition. We have no objections to the proposal petition at this time. The address of 15420 Farmington Road is connect for the main parcel, and should be used in conjunction with this petition. The legal description provided with the petition include only one parcel out of the five that are to be included within the project boundaries. The petitioner has included a legal description within the plan set that is acceptable to this office and should be used for this petition. We would like to suggest that the owner consider combining the existing parcels and providing one revised description for the entire property contained within the project boundary, as well as combining the remaining parcels on the east side of the vacated Westmon= Road right-of-way. When the Westmore Road right-of-way was vacated, three landlocked parcels were created, two on the west side of Westmore, one on the east side. By the combining the existing properties owned by the Credit Union, the landlocked Westmore Road parcels will be eliminated. The property is currently serviced by public water main and sanitary sewer. The submitted plans do not indicate any changes to the existing leads, so we do not foresee any impacts to the existing systems. If any changes to the existing service leads are planned, engineering drawings will need to be submitted to this department for review, and possible permitting. For any new development or commercial building addition within the City, storm water detention is required for any new impervious areas, including removal and replacement of parking lots and/or driveways. The submitted plans do not provide details or calculations for storm water detention, so we cannot comment on that aspect at this time. We will review the proposed storm water treatments during the permitting phase, once we have received a full Engineering plan submittal." The letter is signed by David Lear, P.E., Civil Engineer. The second letter is from the Division of Police, dated April 25, 2014, which reads as follows: "I have reviewed the plans in connection with May 13, 2014 26412 the petition. I have no objections to the proposal" The letter is signed by Joseph Boilos, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The fourth letter is from the Inspection Department, dated April 29, 2014, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request, the above- referencedpetition has been reviewed. This Department has no objections to this petition." The letter is signed by Jerome Hanna, Assistant Director of Inspection. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Are there any questions? Is the petitioner here this evening? We will need your name and address for the record please. Mike Blanek, Stucky Vitale Architects, 27172 Woodward, Royal Oak, Michigan 48067. As Mark stated, the proposal is to eliminate the existing drive-thru canopy that is there now, which uses the pneumatic lube system, construct a new four lane, which will be ATM, so it will be automated teller machines. There will be no tubes or anything back and forth to the branch from that new location and then also the new entranceway to the branch. Also, as part of the development, we're totally remodeling the interior of the branch as well, so the whole interior is going to be updated when you walk in to that new entranceway and the hallway space is being redeveloped as part of the overall plan for the branch. We basically maintain all the existing drive entrances. We've just worked inside the site with this new drive lhru. One of the challenges with this site is people would come in off of Farmington Road and try to access the drive-thm lane from two directions and it was sometimes a challenge to who's next in the queue. In order to make the members more comfortable with the way the branch functions, this new canopy is being proposed along with all the renovations that are being proposed for the branch. I know there was one concern about the length. We also have a bypass lane that we are providing. The current dumpsler location is at the end of that vacated drive, so we created about 16 feel of width at the point there for a garbage truck to pass through there. So it's a generous amount of width to provide that access through there. Also, I have a sample board with me. Mr. Morrow: Yes, ifyou would explain thatto us. Mr. Blanek: The base is going to be a natural stone product. Above that, ft's a wood grain looking panel. Its a composite panel. Its just a warmer look to the branch. Then there's a stone cap you saw in the rendering that would transition from the stone to wood panel, and then the metal roof and metal trim that would be complementaryto both the entrance and the drive-thm canopy. May 13, 2014 26413 Mr. Morrow: Thanks for bringing that in. Are there any questions from the Commissioners? Mr. Taylor: I'm just looking at the traffic pattern. If I were to come in off of Farmington Road to go to the bank and walk to the bank, get back in my car, are you going to have signs that say you can't get into the dive-lhru? Mr. Blanek: You'd have to go out and come back around if you needed to do that because this is automated teller machines as opposed to what you're traditionally used to, which is where you would send your transaction in and then have a conversation with a service person inside the branch. There wont be that opportunity with the way this is set up. So the idea is, if you gel in the drive-thru lane to go there and you realize your transaction for whatever reason you can't make the transaction at the automated teller machine, then we have the lane that cuts right back into the branch to allow you to go park. And we're trying to keep the traffic a little separated from the pedestrian, people parking, walking to the branch versus the drive-lhru traffic. Mr. Taylor: You're trying to encourage traffic going down Roycroff and then turning in and going south, right? Mr. Blanek: Yes. That's right. As far as come in as they do now, and then exit back onto Farmington Road. Mr. Taylor: Either way, Farmington Road or Roycroff. Mr. Blanek: Right. Mr. Taylor: And what you're mentioning is about the garbage truck, you've got enough turning radius there to where you can pull in, turn around, and back up and back into it. Mr. Blanek: Correct. Pull straight in, take the trash, and backup. That's a 24 fool wide lane. We're pretty generous with those dimensions. Mr. Taylor: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow: Any other questions? Seeing none, very nice presentation. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak for or againstthe granting ofthis petition? Mr. Taormina: Just a question regarding the exit from the drive-lhru facility. You said that was a 24 fool wide approach, correct? May 13, 2014 26414 Mr. Blanek: We have like two lanes of traffic. The arrows are showing you could go right or left. Mr. Taormina: That was a little confusing. And I'm assuming too that you will adequately sign the area out front to indicate it is exit only. Mr. Blanek: Right. Do not enter, exit only. Mr. Taormina: That's what is needed there because that might create some confusion. Mr. Taylor: That's what I was worried about. Mr. Blanek: There would be like a do not enter signage there. If they had to come in the branch, they could actually go through the drive- lhru, through the bypass and then turn in the branch internally on the site. Mr. Taormina: Somebody coming in from the neighborhood would have to do this kind of a route to gel into the parking lot if they wanted to go in the branch as opposed to using the drive -up, so they'd have to take a fairly circuitous route in order to accomplish that, whereas currently they can just pull right in today off of Roycroft. Mr. Blanek: They could do that now, currently, yes. But we didn't want to mix the in and out there because it's kind of an out only. Mr. Taormina: I understand and I suspect people will still do that just given the width of that approach. They'll sneak in there. Mr. Morrow: All we can do is put up signs, right? Anything else? Was that it, Mr. Taormina? Mr. Taormina: That's it. Mr. Morrow: Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak for or against the granting of this petition? Seeing no movement, with that, I'll ask for a motion. On a motion by McIntyre, seconded by Taylor, and unanimously adopted, it was #05-24-2014 RESOLVED, that the City Planning Commission does hereby recommend to the City Council that Petition 2014-04-08-07 submitted by Stucky Vitale Architects requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.47 of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended, in connection with a proposal to May 13, 2014 26415 relocate and construct a new covered drive-lhru facility of the credit union (Community Choice) at 15420 Farmington Road, located on the east side of Farmington Road between Five Mile Road and RoycroR Avenue in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 15, be approved subject to the following conditions: 1. That the Architectural Site Plan marked Sheet Number SP1.1 dated April 14, 2014, as revised, prepared by Stucky Vitale Architects, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 2. That the Landscape Plan marked Sheet Number LP1.1 dated April 17, 2014, prepared by Deak Planning & Design, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 3. That all disturbed lawn areas shall be sodded in lieu of hydroseeding; 4. That underground sprinklers are to be provided for all landscaped and sodded areas and all planted materials shall be installed to the satisfaction of the Inspection Department and thereafter permanently maintained in a healthy condition; 5. That the Exterior Elevations Plan marked Sheet Number A3.1 dated April 17, 2014, prepared by Stucky Vitale Architects, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 6. That all light fixtures shall not exceed twenty feel (20') in height and shall be aimed and shielded so as to minimize stray light trespassing across property lines and glaring into adjacent roadway; 7. That only conforming signage is approved with this petition, and any additional signage shall be separately submitted for review and approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals; 8. That the specific plans referenced in this approving resolution shall be submitted to the Inspection Department at the time the building permits are applied for; and 9. Pursuant to Section 19.10 of Ordinance #543, the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Livonia, this approval is valid for a period of ONE YEAR ONLY from the dale of approval by City Council, and unless a building peril is obtained, this approval shall be null and void at the expiration of said period. May 13, 2014 26416 Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carded and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with an approving resolution. ITEM #5 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1,053`d Public Hearings and Regular Meeting Ms. Smiley, Acting Secretary, announced the next dem on the agenda, Approval of the Minutes of the 1,053 Id Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on April 1, 2014. On a motion by Taylor, seconded by McIntyre, and unanimously adopted, it was #05-25-2014 RESOLVED, that the Minutes of 1,053' Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held by the Planning Commission on April 1, 2014, are hereby approved. A roll call vole on the foregoing resolution resulted in the following AYES: Taylor, McIntyre, Smiley, Morrow NAYS: None ABSENT: Bahr, Wilshaw ABSTAIN: None Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 1,053' Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on May 13, 2014, was adjourned at 8:47 p.m. ATTEST: R. Lee Morrow, Chairman CITY PLANNING COMMISSION Carol A. Smiley, Acting Secretary