HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNING MINUTES 1991-01-22 11478
MINUTES OF THE 616th REGULAR MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARINGS
HELD BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF
LIVONIA
On Tuesday, January 22, 1991, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia
held its 616th Regular Meeting and Public Hearings in the Livonia City Hall, 33000
Civic Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan.
Mr. Jack Engebretson, Vice chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. , with
approximately 50 interested persons in the audience.
Members present: Jack Engebretson Herman Kluver Brenda Lee Fandrei
Raymond W. Tent James C. McCann* Conrad Gniewek
Donald Vyhnalek William LaPine R. Lee Morrow
Messrs. John J. Nagy, Planning Director; H. G. Shane, Assistant Planning Director,
and Ralph Bakewell, Planner IV, were also present.
Mr. Engebretson: This is the 616th Regular Meeting and Public Hearings of the
Livonia City Planning Commission. I wish to advise all interested
persons in the audience tonight that the public hearing on
tonight's agenda is an advisory public hearing ordered by Mayor Bob
Bennett. The purpose of the public hearing is to permit public
review and input regarding the landscape plan for the proposed
retention basin off Inkster Road. Discussion tonight will be
limited to the landscaping issues. Since the retention basis is a
County project, our approval of the landscaping plan is not
required. However, the County has agreed to present their plans
and to consider making alterations resulting from this hearing
tonight. While the Planning Commission has no authority to order
`' changes to the County plan, we will make an official recommendation
via a formal resolution at the conclusion of tonight's advisory
public hearing. The format of our meeting tonight will consist of
the County and Wade Trim personnel making their presentation
followed by comments and questions from the Commission and the
public. If you wish to offer comments or questions regarding this
issue, please come to the podium and begin by giving us your name
and address for the record. Please cooperate by limiting your
comments to the landscaping issue.
Mrs. Fandrei, Secretary, announced the first item on the agenda is the proposed
Landscape Plan for the Wayne County Sewer Retention Basin to be located
on the west side of Inkster Road between Oakley Avenue and Lyndon Avenue
in the Northwest 1/4 of Section 24.
* Mr. McCann entered the meeting at this time.
Mr. Engebretson: Mr. Nagy, if you would please share whatever opening remarks you
would like to make and introduce our guest presenters here tonight.
Mr. Nagy: As the Chairman pointed out, a representative from the County as
well as the professional engineer from Wade-Trim, who are
responsible for the preparation of the plan, are with us tonight
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and they will present the plan to you. The representative from the
County is Jim Murray, Director of Wayne County Department of Public
Services, and the gentleman with us from Wade-Trim is Mark Coleman,
Special Engineer and the author of the landscape plan. We have
essentially three plans we would like to show you. They will be
presented on the screen. We have an overall area map of the
,,` general area for locational purposes to show you the landscaped
area in relation to the overall neighboring area. Then we have a
little larger plan that focuses in on the area to show the parkway
in relation to the walkway and the subdivision lots in the area.
Then the last slide will be one of the landscape plan itself.
Finally, on another board we will have a rendering of the small
little utility building that will be on the property. With that, I
will turn this over to Jim Murray for some remarks relative to the
plan itself.
Jim Murray: Thank you Mr. Nagy and members of the Planning Commission. My name
is Jim Murray. I am Director of Public Works for Wayne County.
Our division is charged with the building of the super sewer
project of which this is one of the elements. I think you are all
aware that the super sewer project is a culmination of some 15
years of work by Wayne County and all the communities in Rouge
Valley trying to end pollution to the Rouge River from sanitary
sewer bypass. As you know, as well as everybody else, that the
location of the retention basis is necessary as a part of this
project to relieve the interceptors being built in the Hines Drive
area and is a very controversial project and has been a concern
amongst the residents. We have met several times with the City
Council and with members in the area, up until several months ago,
on the basin and on the need for the basin and trying to address
their concerns for moving that basin if it were at all possible.
Wayne County does not believe that it is cost effective or fits
within the federal program to have it moved without substantial
additional cost and loss of federal grant money and we have
proceeded with the basin in its location that was under discussion
for several years prior to the project being approved by the
communities some two years ago.
We have here today a couple of overheads that will show you the
landscape plan and the actual rendition of the building that is
going to be built at the site. The site is about a three-acre
parcel. Most of the site will not be used for structures except
for those that will be underground and the top of that site, most
of the three acres, will be able to be used for landscape in such a
way that we hope to integrate it into the neighborhood. The
building will be about the size of a single family residential
structure. We are at the point where the footprint of the basin,
the actual location of the basin, has been sized for the site. How
we handle the surface area and the facia of the building is
certainly open for discussion and something Wayne County would like
to work with you and the residents in the area on, making sure it
fits within the expectations and demeanor of the neighborhood and
becomes an asset. Wayne County usually choses, at least McNamara
has directed us, to work with the residents as much as possible on
those kinds of items that are in their backyard. Because of the
controversial nature of this project among many of the residents,
�.. we have not had a close working relationship with many of the
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individual citizens that would border or be in the neighborhood of
this project. Therefore, we have moved ahead with landscaping
designs that previously have been done by myself in other jobs that
I have been involved with in Washtenaw County. We hope that these
are schematics that we think will be an attribute to the
neighborhood and certainly can be changed. This is not a fixed
project as far as the land view area on the top that you will see
here today and we will be able to change that if there are those
kinds of recommendations and those kinds of concerns from residents
that other things should be considered. I think you will find, as
you see these pictures, that we have come a long way in the public
requirements, or at least the public sensitivity, to try and
address these kinds of projects in people's backyards. These are
what we used to call lulu's, locally unwanted land uses, and
unfortunately these land uses haven't, in the past, been treated
with the kind of sympathy to the community with the kinds of things
we can do to make them into an attribute and we hope that you will
see here that we have dedicated that kind of money to make these
not only a functional piece of the sanitary sewer system but it is
going to reduce the pollution in southeast Michigan and also can be
physically and visually attractive and aesthetic and can fit into a
neighborhood for those kinds of uses. We would be happy to
entertain any questions from you.
Mark Coleman is going to show you the pictures that we have
available and some of the things that we have anticipated would be
included in the landscaping. It is currently out for bid. I don't
want anybody to think because it is out for bid that it doesn't
mean it can't be changed at this point. It can be. Because of the
federal requirements and the mandates that Wayne County faces in
each of the local communities on abating pollution, it was
absolutely crucial that we move ahead. We are under an order from
`, the Water Resources Commission to complete the project by 1994 and
we are on line to do that and we have been on line and we are still
within the time frame. At this time, unless you have any specific
questions for me, I would like to have Mark Coleman show you some
of the renderings that we have here and familiarize yourselves with
what can be anticipated if we don't change the bids and take those
comments and we can work through change work orders to change items
that the public or you all think might need to be looked at as we
finish the landscaping and the final construction would have to be
done.
Mark Coleman: I am the Project Manager for the Design Facility for Wade Trim &
Associates. (The first board Mr. Coleman displayed gave the
general location of the retention basin. The second board was a
blow up of the three-acre site. The last board Mr. Coleman showed
was the landscape plan of the basin facility). The primary focus
of the above ground part of the facility is the control building
courtyard area. The control building is a 60 foot by 40 foot long
structure, with the 60 feet dimension being parallel to Inkster
Road and the 40 feet being perpendicular to Inkster Road. It is
masonry block with brick facing. From the ground level to the
underside of the eaves is approximately eleven and one-half feet.
It has a wooden shingle roof deck. It is similar to a single story
house. From the ground to the peak of the structure it is around
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23 to 24 feet. Immediately behind the control building is what we
call a courtyard area. It is actually contiguous to the control
building. This is additionally another 50 feet perpendicular to
Inkster Road. The courtyard is an open air courtyard. The wall
surrounding it is the same structure as the control building. It
is a masonry wall with brick facing on it. It is also 11 feet 4
`,, inches high. Within the courtyard area we have our standby power
generator and transformers. We also have our access under the
retention facility from the courtyard. Below ground is the actual
retention facility itself. The basins are approximately 110 feet,
again parallel to Inkster Road. There are two of them. The
control building is over top of the below ground basin. The top of
the basin is about two to three feet below finished grade. The
control building overlaps the basin by approximately 16 feet. Also
below ground in front of the facility we have our pump station and
our diversion chamber. What happens is as the access flow comes
down the interceptor, it reaches a certain point and it is diverted
in the diversion chamber over to our pump station, which is a
submersible station. Inside that submersible station we have our
pumps, which pump it into the facility and again that is in front
of the control building and that is at grade. The other feature
you see at grade is our access drive approach off of Inkster Road,
our parking area and access drive to get back into the courtyard
area. The parking area serves two purposes. One it provides for
vehicle storage during maintenance and operation of the facility.
It also provides access to the submersible pumps which are located
in the well. The type of pumps we have require very little
• maintenance but when you do maintain them you have to remove them
from the well physically so you drive up alongside it and get a
hoist and pull them out. The remainder of the site is the northern
side where we have a six foot high berm as well as along the far
�y
western side of the site we have a six foot high berm. On top of
the berm we have various types of trees. The remainder of the site
is either grass with various plantings of flowers, etc. I am
personally not a landscape architect so I am not intimately
familiar with the types of plantings that we have. Essentially
that is what you have and that is what the landscaping plan looks
like. I had an architect do a rendering for me. (He displayed the
rendering).
Mr. Tent: Are you planning on having an underground sprinkling system?
Mr. Coleman: Yes. The entire site area is irrigated with an underground lawn
sprinkling system.
Mr. Tent: Are the trees mature trees or small plantings?
Mr. Coleman: They are not going to be big mature trees. I presume we are
talking 2 1/2 inch standard type trees. That would be about 10 to
12 feet. That is about the biggest tree you can pick up at
nurseries.
Mr. Tent: When you indicated the masonry building, will that be brick all the
way around?
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Mr. Coleman: Yes. The entire face is brick all the way around. The courtyard
is the same kind of brick.
Mr. Tent: What color brick will that be?
Mr. Coleman: We haven't selected that yet.
Mr. Tent: Will there be any night lighting there?
Mr. Coleman: For security we have night lighting on all four corners of the
structure. They are presently tied into a photocell. We have it
set up that they are not all on the same circuit so we can reduce
it if we need to.
Mr. Tent: As far as maintenance of the ground, who will do that?
Mr. Coleman: The owner and operator at this time is the County of Wayne.
Mr. Tent: They will make sure that the trees are trimmed and the grass is
cut?
Mr. Murray: There are several ways that can be worked out. There is money in
the operation of the system to pay for the ongoing maintenance and
for the upkeep of the site. We can work that out either through a
contractul arrangement with the City of Livonia or with other
experiences that I have had, we have worked with the neighborhood
associations and paid them to keep up the lawn areas and the garden
areas if that is what they so desire. If there is no desire by
Livonia or a citizen's group to do that, then Wayne County will
keep and maintain the gardens and the site. We have a parks
department that does that on a contract basis or we can contract it
Say out. We have left that open. It is a necessary item and it is one
that has to be done. We have tried to fit this into the character
of the site. The parking area will have a gate in front of it to
keep cars from pulling in so only Wayne County or authorized
maintenance vehicles can pull into the parking area. We are
obviously not going to fence the area or restrict the public from
coming onto the site and enjoying the site. That goes for those
people that live in the neighborhoods or anybody else that might be
coming from further away.
Mr. Morrow: I would like to ask Mr. Coleman, in his presentation he did not
indicate the surface of the parking lot.
Mr. Coleman: The parking lot is a 7 inch plain concrete surface.
Mr. LaPine: In the center, is that a door facing Inkster Road?
Mr. Murray: Yes sir.
Mr. LaPine: I thought in your presentation you said the entrance was back in
the courtyard to this building.
Mr. Coleman: You can get into the building from the courtyard but the primary
entranceway is in the front.
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Mr. LaPine: Can you tell me the total number of landscaping bushes you are
going to have on site?
Mr. Nagy: Maybe I could give it to you. The grand total of all plant
material is 316 items. They are broken down as follows: Of the
316 items, 34 will be deciduous trees and the minimal size upon
`or planting will be 2 1/2 inch caliper size and that is that the
diameter of the truck twelve inches above grade. There are 31
evergreen trees and they are approximately six to seven foot in
height upon planting. There are 7 flowering trees, 120 evergreen
shrubs and 157 deciduous shrubs shown. That, of course, doesn't
count all the existing trees on the south border that are going to
be retained.
Mr. Gniewek: The grass area, is that going to be a sodded type situation or is
it going to be a blown-in type grass?
Mr. Coleman: It is presently a hydro seed blown in. You have to go through a
couple of growing seasons to get a real thick grass.
Mr. Gniewek: We are looking at for maturity of the green lawn area of
approximately two years?
Mr. Coleman: I would say that is probably a reasonable assumption.
Mr. Gniewek: Basically, you are saying use, as far as the park area, would
probably be approximately two years, if someone wanted to use it
for picnics?
Mr. Coleman: I am not sure I would say you would have to wait until the grass is
*4111. finished, I am just saying that before you get a completely
thorough grass coverage, you would probably have to wait two years.
I don't think you would have to wait two years to use it.
Jim Kogut, 14660 Cavell: Before I make my comment I would like to make a comment
on Mr. Murray's opening remark. He was correct except he failed to
mention that there has been a law suit filed in Federal Court to
stop the construction of the basin. As a member of the Association
of Significantly Impacted Neighbors, I was asked to read this
prepared statement:
TO: The Planning Commission
City of Livonia
RE: Landscape Plan for Retention Basin Area
This advisory public hearing on how to beautify a 2.2 million
gallon basin that will retain human feces in a residential area
makes a mockery of city government. The government of the City of
Livonia, from its elected officials to its administrative staff,
has failed to guarantee the health and safety of the residents of
the Inkster-Oakley area. To attempt now to gloss over the real
problems of the issue raises a serious question of the integrity of
our elected officials.
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To propose landscaping for a basin for human feces is tantamount to
proposing a bow for the neck of a pig. The proposed bow, whether
pink or blue, does not change the pig. A pig by any other name
(even camouflaged) is still a pig. Likewise, landscaping for the
human feces basin does not change the basin.
This area is residential and should remain residential and is not
4rr zoned to harbor a pig. A short distance away is the city's
industrial area, which is where the basin belongs. The members of
ASIN cannot help but comment that to their knowledge, the mayor
does not live in the "area", no members of the city council live in
the "area", no administrative official lives in the "area", yet all
of these officials are quick to plan and approve this basin for
others to live in.
For well over 10 years the city has failed to hold a public hearing
on the basin, but ironically now that ASIN has filed a lawsuit a
"public notice" to the residents is sent out to discuss the
Retention Basin; and only on a matter that is of secondary
importance.
It is a farce for the city officials to seek to beautify an area
which may become polluted. That is, this basin for human feces may
be the cause for pollution to our air, ground and water. To ask us
to allow our children to walk on, play on, and breathe the exhaust
of the chemically treated feces, risks the possibility that they
will be subjected to another "Love Canal".
This public hearing is a farce. ASIN, will not be a party to it!
Thank you.
`rrr
There was no one else present wishing to be heard regarding this item and Mr.
Engebretson, Chairman, declared the public hearing closed.
On a motion duly made by Mr. LaPine, seconded by Mr. McCann and unanimously
approved, it was
#1-13-91 RESOLVED that, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia does
hereby approve the landscape plan as presented by the County of Wayne,
which plan is to provide for an open, natural, passive recreation area
for the subject site located on the west side of Inkster Road between
Oakley Avenue and Lyndon Avenue in the Northwest 1/4 of Section 24 with
the following additional recommendations:
1) That sod shall be installed in lieu of the proposed hydro seed.
2) That whatever contractual arrangements the County enters into to
maintain the park site, that the City of Livonia will be allowed to
evaluate the park maintenance provided and advise the County as to
additional care or such other maintenance agreement that may be
warranted.
Mr. Engebretson, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing
resolution adopted.
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Scott Miller of the Planning Department then made a presentation of the Child Day
Care Providers Study he prepared for the information of the Planning Commission.
Mr. Engebretson commended Scott Miller for a very thorough and much needed job and
suggested the department make this report available to the general public.
On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 616th Regular Meeting
and Public Hearings held on January 22, 1991 was adjourned at 8:09 p.m.
CITY PLANNING COMMISSION
Brenda Lee Fandrei, Secretary
ATTEST: 71i Cf i�'✓�
Jac Engebrdtson, Chairman
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