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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL STUDY - 2013-07-15 CITY OF LIVONIA— CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD JULY 15, 2013 Meeting was called to order at 8:08 p.m. Present: John Pastor, Thomas Robinson, Maureen Miller Brosnan, Brandon Kritzman, James McCann, Joe Laura, and Laura Toy. Absent: None. Elected and appointed officials present: Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development; Don Knapp, City Attorney; Terry Marecki, City Clerk and Jack E. Kirksey, Mayor. Vice-President Pastor wished his daughter Rachel a Happy 18th Birthday tomorrow and his son Ryan a Happy 25th Birthday on Thursday. Robinson wished his dad a Happy 70th Birthday tomorrow. Brosnan wished her dad a Happy Birthday today and her mom a Happy Birthday tomorrow. McCann announced resident, Staff Sergeant Dominic Freda who has served 5 combat tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan in the United States Marine Corps., will be throwing the first pitch at the Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 26, 2013 at 7:00 p.m., Dominic's son and wife and his dad Earl were in the audience. Kritzman wished a Happy 7th Birthday to his daughter, Isabella Gabrielle, her birthday is July 26th President Toy wished Judy Nagy a speedy recovery; she is at St. Mary's Hospital and underwent some serious surgeries, Judy is a former City Assessor. Mayor Kirksey announced the Ground Breaking ceremony of the Fallen Heroes/Nehasil Park is July 16, 2013 at 12:00 p.m., in the case of inclement weather it will be held in the City Hall 5th Floor Gallery. Mayor Kirksey wished his wife a Happy 60th Wedding Anniversary; their Anniversary is July 18th President Toy congratulated Linda McCann and her staff on a very successful Senior Citizen Summer Festival that was recently held at the Senior Center. There were 30 vendors and 425 attendees. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. 2 NEW BUSINESS 1. BLOCK PARTY: Caren Shatter, re: to be held on Saturday, September 7, 2013, from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Sussex, between Fitzgerald and Sherwood, with a rain date of Sunday, September 8, 2013. Madison Shatter, 15643 Sussex, was present with neighbors and family to answer any questions from the Council. Pastor offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 2. APPLICATION FOR MASSAGE APPRENTICE PERMIT: Office of the City Clerk, re: submitted by Anne Laurain in accordance with Chapter 5.49 of the Livonia Code of Ordinances, as amended. Anne Laurain, 15021 Heyer, was present to answer any questions from Council. Brosnan offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3. REQUEST TO APPROVE QUARTERLY BUDGET ADJUSTMENTS: Department of Finance, re: for the second quarter of the 2013 Fiscal Year Budget. Coline Coleman, Chief Accountant, presented the request to Council. She gave a summary of corrections and adjustments to the current City budget for the second quarter of the 2013 fiscal year. The adjustments are needed to reflect the receipt of a large forfeiture under the Continuing Criminal Enterprise statute if the Michigan Penal Code and also the receipt of settlement funds from DuPont for damage caused by their Imprellis product at Silver Village. Robinson offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. LIVONIA EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM 60TH ANNUAL ACTUARIAL VALUATION REPORT OF DEFINED BENEFIT (DB) PLAN AS OF NOVEMBER 30, 2012: Board of Trustees — Livonia Employees Retirement System, re. same. Robert Biga, Secretary, Livonia Employees Retirement System Board, presented the 60th Annual Actuarial Valuation Report of Defined Benefit (DB) Plan as of November 30, 2012. 3 Laura said the City is fortunate to be in such good shape and commended Mr. Biga on all his hard work and the hard work of all others involved with the management and investing of the plan. At the Direction of the Chair this Item will be received and filed. DIRECTION: RECEIVE & FILE CONSENT 5. LIVONIA RETIREE HEALTH AND DISABILITY BENEFITS PLAN AND TRUST (VEBA) 15TH ANNUAL ACTUARIAL VALUATION REPORT AS OF NOVEMBER 30, 2012: Board of Trustees — Livonia Employees Retirement System, re. same. Robert Biga, Secretary, Livonia Employees Retirement System Board, presented the Livonia Retiree Health and Disability Benefits Plan and Trust (VEBA) 15th Annual Actuarial Valuation Report as of November 30, 2012. At the Direction of the Chair this Item will be received and filed. DIRECTION: RECEIVE & FILE CONSENT 6. REQUEST TO ACCEPT A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 2009 JUSTICE ASSISTANCE GRANT (JAG) IN CONJUNCTION WITH WAYNE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Division of Police, re: to purchase law enforcement equipment, no matching funds required. Police Captain Robert Nenciarini, presented the request to Council. The Livonia Division of Police is requesting authorization to accept $19,971.00 in funding that was available under the U.S. Department of Justice, Justice Assistance Grant (JAG). This JAG funding was awarded to the Livonia Police Department in conjunction with a joint application submitted by the Wayne County Department of Homeland Security. JAG funds were eligible to purchase law enforcement equipment that may include computers, radios, officer safety equipment, guns, planning, evaluation and technology improvement. Expenditures were made in compliance with this grant, and the City of Livonia was subsequently reimbursed by the Office of the Wayne County Sheriff, in accordance with an Intergovernmental Agreement between the City of Livonia and the County of Wayne. Brosnan offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 7. REQUEST TO AUTHORIZE ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATION AND EXPENDITURE: Engineering Department, re: for the LED Retrofit of Mercury Vapor Streetlights on Farmington Road from Six Mile Road to Capitol Avenue in order to pay Detroit Edison Company in advance the Energy Optimization 4 Rebate in the amount of $23,022.00 which will be returned upon completion of the project. (CR 126-13) At the Direction of the Chair this Item was removed from the Agenda as it was moved to the Regular Meeting held immediately before this Study Meeting. Vice-President Pastor stepped down from the podium at 8:30 p.m. to avoid any perceived conflict of interest on the next three (3) Agenda Items. 8. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2013-06-02-14 submitted by TSFR Apple Venture, L.L.C. to construct and operate a full service restaurant (Applebee's ) located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between the CSX Railroad right-of-way and Schoolcraft Road (13301 Middlebelt Road) in the Northeast 1/4 of Section 26. Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development, presented the request to Council. This petition, as well as the following two items, involves development of the same parcel of land which is located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between the CSX Railroad and Industrial Road. This site is about 2.95 acres in area, so it's just under 3 acres in size. It includes 360 feet of frontage along Middlebelt Road and 375 feet of frontage along Industrial Road. This site is adjacent to and north of the Menard's home improvement store that is currently under construction and scheduled to open later this summer. A little bit of history about the property. It was on May 14 that the Planning Commission forwarded an approving recommendation to the City Council for a request to rezone the subject property from its current classification of M-1, Light Manufacturing, to the C-2 General Commercial classification which would support the restaurants and retail uses that are proposed this evening. The City Council held its public hearing on June 24 and gave First Reading on the rezoning at its Regular Meeting on July 1. They are holding the Second Reading until the site plans are reviewed. The request is to construct a full service restaurant, an Applebee's, as well as a multi-tenant commercial building that would also include a full service restaurant, a Del Taco, that would contain drive- up window facilities. Applebee's would be a one story building. It would total about 5,430 square feet in gross floor area. This plan shows the two buildings that are proposed on the parcel. Ultimately this property would be subdivided into two separate parcels with the north half of the property containing the Applebee's restaurant and the south half of the property containing the multi-tenant retail building and the Del Taco restaurant with the drive-up facilities. So on the right hand side of this drawing is Middlebelt Road and on the left hand side is a service drive that extends south from Industrial Road and feeds into the Menard's home improvement store. So the Applebee's, as I indicated, would be one story, about 5,400 square feet in area. It's on the north end of the property. The development includes a second multitenant building that would be about 35 feet south of the proposed Applebee's restaurant. The second building is a little bit larger. It's about 6,150 square feet in gross floor area and would be divided into 5 three tenant spaces. The Del Taco would occupy the south end cap unit and measures about 2,000 square feet. The plans show how the building would be demised into three spaces with the Del Taco being located at the south end. This driveway would service the drive up window facilities that would be utilized by the Del Taco restaurant. The drive-up is located on the south side of the building, but the traffic lane serving the drive-up window would commence on the north side of the building between the two buildings and then loop around to the south side of the building. This is where cars would enter the drive-up, come around and place their orders in the back of the building, and then the pickup window would be located on the south side of the building. There is a bypass lane provided for vehicles that want to avoid going through the drive-up lane. There are no additional curb cuts proposed onto Middlebelt Road. Access would be provided from three new approaches that would utilize the two existing drives that border the property. One of the driveways leads from Industrial Road and extends along the west side of the property. This driveway is located on the subject parcel. The other access point would come from what is referred to as the east drive on the Menards site. This driveway is located on the Menards property, and borders the parcel to the south. There is an entrance there. The driveways in the northwest and southwest corners of the parking lot would allow for two-way directional traffic. Both ingress and egress would be allowed from these two driveways, whereas the one connecting to the Menards driveway would be for ingress purposes only. That would be accomplished by allowing for right turns into the site for vehicles that turn in from Middlebelt Road. Heading westbound on this driveway would have the option of either continuing straight and going to Menards, turning north and entering the site from either of these two driveways, or alternatively, turning right into this access point here, which would be an ingress point only. The site plan shows a total of 160 parking spaces. The required parking for the project is equal to the sum total of all of the various uses. This would include the overall number of restaurant customer seats, the number of employees within the restaurants as well as the amount of retail floor space. A total of 171 parking spaces are required for all three uses. For the Applebee's, there are 216 customer seats. Del Taco has 44 seats. Combined, the seating would require 260 seats. Applebee's will have roughly 15 employees and Del Taco five employees. So that's 20 additional parking spaces needed for the employees. The retail area would require roughly 21 parking spaces. There are 160 parking spaces shown on the site plan while 171 are required per code, leaving a deficiency of 11 spaces that would have to be approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals. The landscaped areas on the site constitute roughly 17 percent of the overall property, which exceeds the minimum requirement of 15 percent. The plan shows mostly trees at the back of the property, as well as some shrubs along Middlebelt Road. Planning Commission and staff believes that the amount of landscape materials, especially trees, is not adequate, and for this reason they would recommend that this aspect of the plan come back to them for further review. I think it's easier to look at the rendered site plan when describing the project, but as you look at the details here, you'll notice the size of the parking spaces, the specific location of where the trash enclosures are going 6 to be located, the exterior lighting and those types of elements are provided on this particular plan. Taormina displayed the rendered plans that were provided by the applicant showing what the building would look like. The first one is Applebee's. Both these buildings would actually be similar to each other in terms of architecture and building materials. For the Applebee's, there are three primary exterior buildings materials. There is a cultured or manufactured stone, which is the beige and brown color. The tower element above the main entrance into the restaurant is surrounded in the cultured stone material as well as along the base of the building. They are also showing a cement fiberboard siding. That is the darker brown. The east elevation would face Middlebelt Road. The fiberboard is shown here, which is a material we've seen before. In fact, Tim Norton's being built at Merriman and Five Mile is going to use the same type of material on that building. The reddish color portion of the building which makes up the area around the windows is an E.I.F.S. or a dryvit material. Some of the details include metal awnings that would display Applebee's trademark graphics. Decorative light fixtures are also shown on the plan, a metal canopy over the entrance to the restaurant, as well as a prefinished metal coping. The coping is the area that runs along the top of the building. The light fixtures are a little difficult to see on this particular plan, but there are a number of sconces identified, and then the canopy over the entrance is located here. This shows you what the other sides of the Applebee's restaurant would look like. One other material that they are showing is this scored or decorative masonry unit that would be used to screen the trash enclosure area behind Applebee's. Actually, there are two trash enclosures. There is one for the retail building and Del Taco as well as the restaurant, all located behind the Applebee's restaurant. So they are going to consolidate all of the trash behind the Applebee's restaurant. The middle rendering is the building as it would appear from the north elevation. This is the side of the building that would face Industrial Road. The south elevation is the side of the building that would be adjacent to the other retail building. Next we have the multi-tenant building that includes the Del Taco restaurant. They provided detail specifically on the restaurant portion of this building, whereas the other two tenants have yet to be identified, but they would carry the same theme in terms of the architecture. They are using the cultured or manufactured stone over a significant portion of the Del Taco restaurant on the portion of the building that faces Middlebelt Road. They also use it to identify or subdivide the tenant spaces. The E.I.F.S. is shown in a lighter beige or brown coloring and then the awnings are a different color. So they are using the same types of materials, the E.I.F.S., the cultured stone with a little bit different colors for both the awnings and the E.I.F.S. This may include some of the same material along the other sides of the building. This darker brown is either a brick or the same. This is a brick material that they're proposing for the north side of the building as well as portions of the south elevation. In terms of signage, Applebee's would be allowed one sign not to exceed 71 square feet. They are showing four overall wall signs totaling 120 square feet. Del Taco also is permitted one wall sign not to exceed 30 square feet. The elevation plans show they're proposing two wall signs that would equal 108 square feet. Clearly, the signage is something that would have 7 to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals. For Applebee's, the sign on the east elevation on the tower facing Middlebelt Road, then you have another sign on the north elevation that would face Industrial Road. I think the third sign is probably on that same elevation. Primarily, two sides of the building would have signage on it. The same thing exists for the Del Taco, one on the east elevation facing Middlebelt Road and then another sign on the tower on the opposite side facing south, so that would be visible for northbound traffic on Middlebelt Road. Lastly, in terms of monument signage, because these sites are being divided, they're each going to be entitled to their own ground sign. The limitations on the ground sign are six feet in height, 30 square feet in area with a minimum setback of 10 feet from any right-of-way line. The plans do show two ground signs but they don't have any details in terms of what those signs would look like at this time. Taormina said he would answer any questions Council may have. President Toy asked Taormina if the awnings with the Apple logos on them were being counted as signs. Taormina said that it was brought up at the Planning Commission meeting and said he has not received a definite answer back from the Building Official whether it is determined to be signage. They had made the decision that if the Building Official does determine that it is signage; it would have to receive a waiver from the Zoning Board of Appeals. President Toy asked Taormina whether traffic studies have been conducted in the area. Taormina said that is something that would probably be done in the future as traffic flow increases in the area. Brosnan asked Taormina if it would be possible to have the revised landscaping plan prior to the voting meeting. He said while it is possible, he would like to take a little more time to review and ascertain that the plan is compatible with other landscaping in the area. He said it should be finalized within 60 days; however, if it were the desire of the Council that it be provided first then they would do their best to provide it prior to the voting meeting. Brosnan said her next concern was the logo signage. She said to her recollection that was something that was determined by the Council when they reviewed signage for Walgreens and their plan had a mortar and pestle that was determined to be signage. She said she would like the Building Officials determination prior to the voting meeting. Kritzman said he thinks not rushing the landscape plan and allowing Taormina time to review the area and have the petitioner tie in the landscaping to better fit the aesthetics of the area so that it meshes and doesn't stand out like it doesn't belong there will ultimately provide the site with a better product. Ryan Jones, 17800 Laurel Park Drive, gave some background information on DelTaco. He said they are excited about this development. They own and operate 2 Burger Kings here in Livonia. The Applebees will be their first restaurant built from the ground up. It will be the 2nd Applebees built utilizing their new prototype. He added that they are very involved in charities and said their 8 restaurant will provide discounts to veterans and families (kids eat free night). Also they provide fundraising service for local community events. Brosnan said she would like to see the revised landscape plan and the Building Officials determination with regard to the logos being considered signage. Taormina added with regard to the Class C Liquor License for Applebees that it meets all of the separation requirements and that it is an inter-county transfer license. Brosnan offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 9. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2013-06-02-15 submitted by TSFR Apple Venture, L.L.C. to utilize a Class C liquor license (sale of beer, wine and spirits for consumption on the premises) in connection with a full service restaurant (Applebee's) located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between the CSX Railroad right-of-way and Schoolcraft Road (13301 Middlebelt Road) in the Northeast 1/4 of Section 26. Brosnan offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR 10. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2013-06-02-16 submitted by TSFR Apple Venture, L.L.C. to construct a multi-tenant commercial building with a full service restaurant including drive-up window facilities (Del Taco) located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between the CSX Railroad right-of-way and Schoolcraft Road (13301 Middlebelt Road) in the Northeast 1/4 of Section 26. Brosnan offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR Vice-President Pastor returned to the podium at 9:00 p.m. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development asked for a moment of silence for H.R. Shane, retired Planning Director, who recently passed away. Vice-President Pastor, once again, wished his daughter Rachel and his son Ryan a Happy Birthday. 9 As there were no further questions or comments, President Toy adjourned the Study Session at 9:01 p.m. on Monday, July 15, 2013. DATED: August 7, 2013 TERRY A. MARECKI CITY CLERK