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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRDA MINUTES 1999-06-03 MINUTES OF THE 94th REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLYMOUTH ROAD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA The 94th Regular Meeting of the Plymouth Road Development Authority of the City of Livonia, Michigan was called to order at 3:10 p.m., Thursday, June 3, 1999 in the 4th Floor Conference Room of City Hall. Members Present: Mayor Jack E. Kirksey Mr. Raby, Vice Chairman Mr. Stan Anderson Mr. Rod Crider Mr. Scott Grace Mr. Lowell Peterson Mr. Bill Pike Mr. Duane Wolfgang Members Absent: Mr. Michael Polsinelli, Chairman Mr. Marvin Walkon Mr. Dennis Kujawa Mr. Jerry Wordhouse Ms. Toni Mette 460 Others Present: Mr. John Nagy, Director Ms. JoAnn Michaels, BRI Mr. Scott Reinholt, BRI Mr. Steve Schafer, Phoenix Land Corp. Mr. Ralph Williams, Citizen Ms. Susan Annibal, Secretary 1. Roll was called. 2. Adoption of May 20, 1999 Minutes: On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, it was #99-37 RESOLVED that the Minutes of the 93rd Regular Meeting held by the Plymouth Road Development Authority on May 20, 1999 are approved. Mr.Raby,the Vice Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 3. Comments from Chairman: In the Chairman's absence, Mr. Raby commented on the receipt of a letter from Mike Slater, PRDA Treasurer, with regard to Arbitrage and Captured Taxes, as outlined in the letter. A communication was received from Mark Loch of Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment addressing the north side curb on Plymouth west of Middlebelt, the need for the extended right turn lane for eastbound Plymouth at Middlebelt, the continuing investigation of adding the right turn lane for Plymouth Road at Tech Center Drive. Also related was OHM's opinion that the north side curb realignment work along with the right turn lanes at Middlebelt Road be added by change order to the Phase III Project for construction (Basile is the contractor). Additionally, it was recommended that a representative from the PRDA contact Ford Motor Co. for their input on this proposed change. MDOT's requirements concerning these turn lanes and the green space sacrificed to implement them were commented on. Bus stop shelters were mentioned other than those provided by MDOT. Also, the municipal parking lot was discussed, as well as the possibility of opening the entry to the area up with landscaping and/or stepping stones as a connector to the 6' wide sidewalk. 4. Phoenix Land Development — Steve Schafer: The petitioner had gone through the approval process on the old George Burns Theater site at Planning Commission level. A rendering was displayed of the site plan. Units had been reduced from 240 to 220. The petitioner was ready to start its engineering on the Fountain Park project and it was imperative that it keep moving. Occupancy was expected to be in late Spring of next year. The wetland was area involved was addressed in both the Detroit New and the Livonia Observer newspapers, as well in communications with the DEQ. The buildings construction materials would be brick, EFAS and limestone. Models could open up prior to the year 2000. They would be the same units going into Dearborn. The petitioner already had 45 purchase agreements. Also, Mr. Schafer briefly mentioned the commercial buildings that would be located at the street front. Although he could not reveal specific Cir tenants at this time, some possibilities included Radio Shack, a national card and party shop, a drug store, etc. Mr. Schafer was requested to come back to PRDA after hearing from DEQ to report the outcome and asked to mail packets to PRDA members on the 9th of July prior to the July 15th meeting. A similar project was going up in Farmington Hills near Glen Oaks, on the north side of 13 Mile and Orchard Lake Roads, east of the intersection about '/4 mile. Removal of Ameritech lines was pending a PRDA invoice breakdown. Ameritech had come back with much of the same information we had; we would not pay for the fiberoptics, because that wasn't in original discussions. There was discussion on the light poles for the mast arms for the traffic lights. A suggestions was offered for replacing the fancy poles with standard MDOT iron poles and painting them, as well as the mast arms that support them. BRI would come back with a report at the next meeting. 5. Director's Report— Mr. Nagy had appeared before City Council for the removal of one parking space next to the sidewalk at the municipal parking lots. The window signage on DiPalma's and Herc's was resolved by the Inspection Department. A suggestion was made that PRDA insert something in the PRDA Newsletter advising of the good work that were doing and how signage controls would be complementary. It could certainly be included in the Newsletter and could point out the fact exactly what was allowed and put it in black and white. In the Phase III area three buildings, Foley Plumbing, Robinson Welding and American Sign actually parked in the right-of-way and were strictly objecting to the loss of that parking It made sense that the PRDA acquire the American Sign building and use it for office store parking. The Mayor asked if it could be worked into the concept to spruce up the buildings with something inexpensive to make it part of 2 the deal? Mr. Nagy thought that possibly we could do that. Foley Plumbing was now ,. vacant; on an interim basis the sign shop could move in there until they had their new building up; Foley had parked in the back, anyway. It was decided that PRDA contact Foley to see if this was possible. Mr. Nagy reported that he would be out of town at his daughter's graduation in Portland, OR at the time of the next meeting, asking that his absence be excused. 6. Beckett& Raeder—Construction Progress Report: PRDA would be responsible for watering and maintaining the trees and shrubs along the corridor. Phase III was discussed in several aspects. Irrigation installation was bid on by Mark Dutton, Irish, and D & B. Recommendation of the bid award was to Mark Dutton, the low bid, at $670,685.00. BRI's recommendation to award the contract to Dutton, a true irrigation contractor. Next was Irish's bid at $680,685. This irrigation, which was becoming critical for the trees, was being installed; some approaches had been put in; and support arms on the light poles, some of which were leaning and in process of being corrected. Street name signs were addressed, as well. On a motion made by Mr. Anderson, seconded by Mr. Grace and unanimously adopted, it was: #99-38 RESOLVED that the Plymouth Road Development Authority does hereby accept the low bid of$670,685.00 from Marc Dutton Irrigation, Inc. for irrigation work on Phase III of the Plymouth Road Streetscape. Mr. Raby, the Vice Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. 6. Reports from Committees: Public Relations Committee—Stan Anderson: Spoke about the current Newsletter and its effectiveness. Last year, it came out February 12 and 13; the next one didn't come out until October, mentioning the Holiday Parade. The object was to keep the public apprised of upcoming events. Possibly there would be a feature on another new building. All agreed that Kole Ivezej was doing an outstanding job with the improvements on the Legacy Restaurant. Vacant Buildings Committee—Scott Grace: Passed. Construction Committee—Bill Pike: Passed. Inspection Committee — Butch Raby: He reported that it looked like a lot of light stanchions were in place. 8. Polling of Board Members: Mr. Pike addressed the Phoenix project at Plymouth and Farmington Roads, stating that PRDA should take a look at Phase III and that this was a great opportunity to make that 3 corner — which had been a sore spot for us; we needed to jump on that bandwagon and r, help that along as much as possible. When we had Legacy here, he never got back to discussing what the parameters should be. Maybe that should be an Agenda item (first meeting in July). Something needed to be said, i.e., "We can help you;" and Corridor improvements could be just as important and any other incentives. It was agreed that it would be for the July 15th meeting when the members were present. (It was requested that PRDA Director be reminded of the discussion regarding PRDA assistance. Mr. Grace spoke to the wetlands issue on the Phoenix property. Ford had a wetland and took care of their property. The small business owner needed the help. Mr. Grace would be against financing the removal of the wetlands. We may set a bad precedence. Mayor Kirksey shared the upcoming Y2K meeting to be held on June 17th at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium at City Hall. Also, he mentioned the importance of this informational meeting to show what the City of Livonia has done to "control our own destiny." The meeting would be taped and shown on Channel 8 at a later time. We had gone further and done a more critical job than was being done elsewhere; he hoped we were going to great lengths to prepare for the Y2K event. Bentley Community Recreation Center was moving forward with negotiations with the Livonia Board of Education. The Mayor would be meeting with the Council on June 9th; and, following that, there could be a request for public and private participation as early as this Fall. Mr. Wolfgang passed. Mr. Peterson passed. Mr. Grace wondered if the Bentley situation didn't come up with an agreement, would the City pursue something on the entire concept? If it doesn't would there be new action? The Chamber did have some interest,too. 9. Adjournment: On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 93`d Regular Meeting held by the Plymouth Road Development Authority on June 3, 1999 was adjourned at 4:48 PM. The next meeting of the Plymouth Road Development Authority will be held on June 17, 1999 in the 4th Floor Conference Room of City Hall. .77 jel•diA-"f Susan Annibal, Secretary L 4