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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-02-24 CITY OF LIVONIA – CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD FEBRUARY 24, 2020 Meeting was called to order at 8:20 p.m. by President Kathleen McIntyre. Present: Scott Bahr, Cathy White, Brandon McCullough, Rob Donovic, Jim Jolly, and Kathleen McIntyre. Absent: Laura Toy. Vice President Bahr led the meeting in the Pledge. President McIntyre sent condolences to Councilmember Laura Toy and her family on the th loss of her father, Glen Toy, on February 20. Mr. Toy was 92 years old, he served as a Livonia Police Officer, Badge No. 6, something that he was very, very proud of and there th will be a visitation for Mr. Toy on February 25 at R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Home, from 2:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., with a short memorial service at 7:00 p.m. Elected and appointed officials present: Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development; Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Paul Bernier, City Attorney; Susan M. Nash, City Clerk; Doug Moore, Assistant Director of Public Service - Operations; and Dave Varga, Director of Administrative Services. 1. REQUEST TO WAIVE THE CITY’S NOISE ORDINANCE: Frank Grisa, O’Malley’s Bar and Grill, re: to allow their St. Patrick’s Day celebration on Tuesday, March 17, 2020 until 11:00 p.m. at 15231 Farmington Road. Frank Grisa, 34175 Oakdale, proprietor of O’Malley’s Bar and Grill, presented this request to Council. He stated this is their seventh St. Patrick’s Day Celebration, they’ve now had it on every day of the week, and in the past he had requested a noise waiver until midnight, from 10:00 p.m. to midnight. Last year they amended that and decided that 11:00 p.m. would be enough and probably best. Everything that they’re doing is exactly what they’ve done in the past. They have the support of the Police Department, Fire Department, Building Department, and they would just like to ask for an extra hour on the noise waiver. President McIntyre stated and the support of many leprechauns. Vice President Bahr offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. He thanked Grisa for working with the neighbors on the timeframe. Councilmember Jolly stated in reference to President McIntyre’s comment about leprechauns, he is disappointed that Mr. Grisa does not dress up for Council as he does in his commercial about the event. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 2 2. APPOINTMENT OF DANIEL E. LAIBLE TO THE PLYMOUTH ROAD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: Office of the Mayor, re: for a four-year term, which will expire on May 16, 2024. Dan Laible, 22626 Nona, Dearborn, Michigan, came to the podium to speak about the appointment. He thanked Council for giving him consideration for sitting on this Board. Briefly, he’s spent the last nine years on the Livonia Chamber of Commerce, and he’s really enjoyed working with the three previous administrations of the City. He’s served in the capacity of Treasurer, and Chairman of the Board, and he’s currently the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of NYX, which is proudly headquartered in Livonia. They have two significant facilities on Plymouth Road with more than 2,000 employees in the City. He finds it be a very important stretch for the City and he believes it to be his obligation to give back to the community any way he can, and he feels privileged to serve and contribute his time and talents and look forward to doing so with Council’s approval on the Board. Councilmember White offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3. REQUEST TO ADOPT A RESOLUTION PROCLAIMING FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2020 AS ARBOR DAY IN THE CITY OF LIVONIA: Bill Craig, Tree City Committee Chairman and Douglas L. Moore, Superintendent of Public Service – Operations, re: to be celebrated at 2:30 p.m. at Coolidge Elementary School, 30500 Curtis Street. Doug Moore, Superintendent of Public Service – Operations, presented this request to Council. He stated this year’s annual Arbor Day Commemoration Program will be held at Coolidge Elementary School. The program will begin at 3:15 p.m., the letter indicated 2:30 but the school requested a later time of 3:15. They’re going to plant three trees in the Pickford Street right-of-way to commemorate the event, it’s on the north side of the school. Each student will take home an evergreen seedling. This year it looks like they’re going to be Blue Spruce, they’re going to be about a foot long or a foot tall, and the State Forester rdth has certified Livonia for its 23 Tree City Designation and our 18 Growth Award Designation this year. Councilmember Jolly stated as a previous Council representative on the Tree Committee, he can say this is the first opportunity he’s had to see Mr. Moore in his capacity of working and doing his job for the City and that he was really impressed right off the bat with how he handles himself in regard to this and how knowledgeable he was. This is also a program that really is amazingly well done, and it’s a great opportunity for the children to see how important trees are and how important environment is and to go home with a tree and all that kind of stuff. A 3 lot of work goes into this from DPW setting up the trees, planting the trees. Some of the people there, like the Tree representative kind of throw them dirt next to the tree but they’re generally planted and he gave kudos to Mr. Moore and he appreciates the good work that he does. He indicated that Mr. McCullough is now Council’s representative on the Tree Committee, so they will have to get the tree costume out and have him wear it. Councilmember Jolly then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. AWARD OF BID: Public Service Division, re: for the 2020-2023 Supplemental Routine Street Sweeping Program, from budgeted funds. Doug Moore, Superintendent of Public Service – Operations, presented this request to Council. He stated this contract was bid in the Livonia Observer and on the MITN website. There was no pre-bid meeting as the work description was well explained in the bid documents. The bid opening for the project was on February th 11, one bidder turned a bid in, it was G & M Enterprises. They were our previous one of two contractors used in the 2016-2019 program. The City and G & M have an excellent relationship. G & M held their pricing from the previous contract. They are very responsive, communicate effectively and their work is thorough. Funding for the project is budgeted in the 2020 Budget. This work is also tied to the City’s MS-4 Storm Water Permit and meets requirements currently in place. The Department is recommending that Council approve the four-year contract with G & M Enterprises based on their bid pricing. Councilmember McCullough indicated just to give the audience a background, when you refer to MITN, that is the Michigan Inter-Government Trade Network, and basically it is like an online bid procurement website for cities. So whenever we hear that, we know that everything has been vetted and you obviously came up with one bidder. He then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 5. REQUEST TO APPROVE PROPOSED 2020 SIDEWALK REPAIR PROGRAM: Engineering Division, re: to include three small target areas, one in Section 8, one along Farmington Road from Lyndon Avenue to Schoolcraft Road and one along Merriman Road from Schoolcraft Road to Plymouth Road, along with scattered locations throughout the City. (CR 784-82) Todd Zilincik, City Engineer, presented this request to Council. He stated it’s that time of year again when we think about improving our sidewalks for the summertime. As we go out, we look to take care of those areas that have been 4 called in from residents, and again, part of our millage, we have trees that have uprooted the sidewalk, and we want to fix those trip hazards to make it safe for our community. Merriman Road is on schedule for repair between Schoolcraft and Plymouth and they’re looking to complete the repairs after the County gets done with their portion to make that corridor nice and safe for bicyclists and pedestrians. Again, looking for the remaining locations throughout the City, there’s approximately 517. Residents will be receiving a letter sometime here in the near future once the contract gets bid out and get the information and anticipate thth construction to start sometime after the 4 of July, but we’ll have until July 12 to get those repairs completed but it will all be explained in the letter forthcoming to them. Vice President Bahr stated this request is personal to him because his street is on it and he was a little surprised to see his address on the document this morning. From a process perspective after we get through this, what happens after we presumably approve this for further investigation on each of these addresses? Zilincik replied they go out and provide an estimate letter to all of the residents that may be impacted, some are homeowner repairs, some are City repairs, some are both. There may be sidewalk ramps, but there will be a pamphlet in the envelope that says, “Why me?” and explains the program. And then it has the estimate costs, of whether it’s resident or maybe part of that portion may be paid by the City due to the tree, and then you have a certain timeframe and then there’s probably three options. One, to have a City contractor to do it, you could hire somebody to do it, or the next thing is billing won’t happen until the following year in February of 2021, so the hardest part will be writing a check for that. We also have a hardship for people that can’t afford it, that live on a corner lot, anything over $400 we’ll be able to do a hardship to lay that pavement but it’s a cost of 6% interest. So there’s different options that will be explained in the area, but we’ll always give you an estimate letter and give you time to pay for that sidewalk repair or have a contractor or you do the work but you have to pull a permit from the Engineering Department. Vice President Bahr then asked if he could rescind his no vote on the Council salary increase. But in all seriousness, as he looks at some of these streets that he’s more familiar with, it appears it may be just every address on the street; is that when you have a target area, is that what I’m looking at here, you put them all on there for now? Zilincik replied right now because it’s wintertime, they want to be safe rather than sorry. So some may only have a tree at one location, a ramp, we want to make sure we get the address listed so we go between the weather shifts, see between the snow cycles to get the final information out so we can get it bid. So there’s st certain times, you know we only have construction season from May 1 to October st 31. 5 Vice President Bahr stated that helps him because anybody gets a little concerned when they might have to be writing a check. So he’s getting to experience what 500 residents every year experience, but his primary concern here is just knowing the condition of his sidewalks, to be quite honest with you he thinks that money can better be invested elsewhere but it sounds like there’s still a process to go through to understand the condition of some of these. Zilincik indicated that once the resident or business owner gets that notification, we typically ask within 30 days to get with us, we’ll go out and evaluate it, and if there’s a discrepancy obviously there could be something that we didn’t see or something that if you walk a different way or something that may occur with the frost on the ground, we want to make sure that we obviously vet that out and we only want to make sure that we pay for whatever is necessary to be done. Vice President Bahr then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. President McIntyre then asked if Vice President Bahr has the option of having his four children do this and calling it “How I spent my summer vacation.” Councilmember Donovic asked Zilincik about one of the options for homeowners is to hire out their own contractor to get the job done and Zilincik replied yes. Donovic then asked if the resident chooses to do that, what costs does that resident occur from the City then? Zilincik replied typically if they wanted the sidewalk, there’s $35 processing fee for that permit automatically. The sidewalk is $25, if you want to replace just the sidewalk, so the sidewalk would be $25, plus $35. If they want to do the approach, the sidewalk, that’s $50 for the approach, so it’s $75, plus the $35 processing fee. So it just depends on what the homeowner wants to do. Sometimes they may do the private drive behind them, there is not cost for that, there is no permit necessary for that. So it just depends what they want to do but the minimum cost is $25 for the sidewalk, $50 for the approach, and then the processing fee for the Engineering permit is $35. Donovic then stated to correct him if he’s wrong, if a resident is redoing their concrete behind the sidewalk they do not have to pull a permit and Zilincik replied that’s correct, it’s on private property. Donovic then asked what happens if they want to extend their driveway a whole lane, do they still have to get approval from the City for that or no? Zilincik replied on the private side, as long as they don’t adversely impact the draining to their neighbor, they can do that, the draining is the biggest issue. If they want to do on the right-of-way, they have to get a permit through us to widen that, we have to check to make sure there are no utilities that are going to be buried, the stop boxes or gas shut-offs, or utility poles or fire hydrants, we want to make sure that they don’t hit that with their vehicle and it can’t exceed a certain width of the drive approach, so there’s certain ordinances that we’ve got to follow. But we ask them to come in, we take a look at each individual 6 case and work with them to get their driveways approved and work with that particular individual. Councilmember McCullough then stated you also have to make sure that the sidewalk has to be four inches and then the approach has to be six inches, correct? Zilincik replied correct. McCullough stated he knows this because he was an inspector when he was in his college years and he just wants to make sure Mr. Donovic hits the depth. Zilincik replied they do follow Wayne County standards where a lot of the driveways that are in the older part of the City weren’t four inches thick, we want to make sure that most people widen their driveways as Councilman McCullough had mentioned, they’re 6-inches thick, one flag on this would be the original drive approach, because if they do end up widening their driveways and then we want to make sure that’s where most of the trip or heave area occurs, from people driving on it. So good point, Councilman McCullough, make sure that they follow the thickness, six inches, and then everything else is four inches, so he appreciates him bringing up a good point. Councilmember Jolly stated he noticed recently, he’s sure it’s gone on for years, but he only noticed recently that in certain places where the concrete has heaved to where there’s a significant difference between different slabs on the sidewalk, there are sometimes blacktop patches that are used to kind of even it out a little bit; is there a process for the City to come out and do that or is that something that has been done by private homeowners? Zilincik replied what happens is they get a complaint from a resident who is concerned about a sidewalk, it could be a liability, a trip issue. Once we find out about it, we make sure we let DPW know it, they come out and temporarily cold patch it. It’s just a temporary cold patch because of the, again, explain from May st to October 31, they can only do construction at that time. There are some instances where we do, we call it grinding, with precision cutting, which they go out typically a tree has heaved up a sidewalk, we replaced it ten years ago and there’s a vertical separation. It’s a replacement slab, we can grind it down for a cheaper cost, about $50, instead of $175 to $200 to replace that slab. So it is a good point. People see the blacktop, it’s just a temporary fix until we get that permanent repair done during the appropriate time, doing what we’re doing here today, getting the addresses identified in case somebody sells their house or passes away and we can make sure that they’re notified. Jolly then asked if residents are out there and they think that they need to report their own sidewalk or somebody else’s because it’s a potential liability issue, they would call DPW to do that? Zilincik replied that they should call Engineering at 734-466-2571, call Engineering, we’ll coordinate with DPW at those locations, we’ll log it in, and we’ll get with DPW to have that cold patched. 7 DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 6. SITE PLAN PETITION: Planning Commission, re: Petition 2019-12-08-16 submitted by N.C. Designers & Contracting Inc. requesting approval to construct an addition and remodel the interior and exterior of the existing gas station (Shell) located on the southwest corner of Six Mile and Farmington Roads (33411 Six Mile Road), in the Northeast ¼ of Section 16. Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development, presented this request to Council. He stated that Council should recall this property, it was recently rezoned from C-1, Local Business, to C-2, General Business. This is the site at the southwest corner of Six Mile and Farmington Roads. The Petitioner is proposing to construct a small addition to the existing gas station as well as make other improvements to the site. So the existing building on the property is about 1,500 square feet, it’s one-story in size, and you can see from the aerial photograph the building itself is positioned somewhat at an angle to the intersection. There are two sets of gas pumps on the property. There are four points of ingress and egress, two from Six Mile as well as two from Farmington Road. So the addition would occur on the north side of the existing building, it would measure roughly 578 square feet, also one-story in height, dimensions of about 19 feet by 27 feet. And the main purpose is to provide the station with additional retail space. So upon completion the building would be about just over 2,000 square feet in size. Any portion of the building is required to be set back at least 60 feet from a major road right-of-way; in this case the existing building is 75- feet from Farmington Road, but only about 38-feet from the right-of-way of Six Mile Road at the closest point to the addition. So that would require a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals. Parking for this gas station is computed at a ratio of one space for every 150 square feet of usable floor area. In this case there are a total of twelve parking spaces required. The site plan shows ten, so it would be deficient by a couple of spaces. You’ll note that many of the people that patronize the convenience store are persons who are already parked at the gasoline pumps so it’s typically not an issue that we see as long as they’re close to the required parking, but again, something that would have to receive the approval of the Zoning Board of Appeals ultimately. So looking at the building itself, this is what it would appear, I think most people are familiar with the old Shell Gas Station with the style that is seen throughout some of the older Shell Gas Stations. This would be completely remodeled. There would be three primary materials, that would be vertical metal panels, that’s the grey material that’s shown on the rendering here. There would also be composite siding used, that’s the dark brown material shown on the rendering and then limestone panels which would occur on three of the four elevations. The existing block that’s along the rear of the building would be repainted and there would also be on the top of the structure, a 16-inch high crown molding and that would be continuous around the building, that would be made of EIFS. So altogether the building would be about 17-feet in height on the south side and 19-feet in height on the north side. So it would raise the height of the structure, the parapet, that’s designed really to conceal any mechanical equipment 8 that’s on the building as well as the existing peaked roof, portions of which would remain on the structure. So the Planning Commission spent quite a bit of time studying this, requesting changes including adding limestone to the building, adding a window to the building as well as looking at the landscaping plan. The Petitioner has submitted a fully detailed landscape plan that restores much of the landscaping on the site, something that was very important as part of the Planning Commission’s review of this and with that, Madam Chair, they’re recommending approval of the site plan as submitted to you this evening. Councilmember McCullough stated he is very familiar with the Shell Station right now and he wants to applaud them for taking the chance of upgrading, doing significant upgrades, because from the renderings they do look very nice, and with the limestone. But one question he does have is do we require sample boards to be submitted during the planning process? Taormina replied they do in most instances, and they did take a look at it in this case, and the Petitioner does have one so he’ll be able to show you. McCullough said he likes the good mix of the metal panels with the composite material, the limited of the EIFS, he thinks it’s a good plan and thanked the Petitioner. Vice President Bahr asked for clarification on the elevations, the west and the east are mislabeled, he noticed it and wanted to make sure it’s corrected. He then stated when they first talked about it through the rezoning, he thought they were rebuilding a building; was that talked about at one point or was this always a renovation? Ali Hammouch, owner of the Shell Gas Station on Six Mile and Farmington, came to the podium. He stated yes, they talked about this in the rezoning. It wasn’t an actual complete rebuild, it was only a renovation. Vice President Bahr asked how many parking spots he has today and does this site plan have an increase of parking over today or is it the same? Nasser Choucair, N.C. Designers & Contracting, architect for the project, came to the podium. He stated they reorganized the parking and he doesn’t believe they lost any parking spaces. They had a space, he thinks it was the handicapped space, and with the addition they moved it to the other side. They did not take off any parking, just adjusted it. Vice President Bahr said the reason he asked is he pulled it up on Google Maps and was looking for an opportunity to add more greenspace but it looks like they’re basically keeping it the same. 9 Councilmember Jolly stated one thing he learned from previous Councilmember Kritzman is the importance of dumpster enclosures. With the improvements being made to this building, is there anything being done to the dumpster enclosure to have it match the building because if he recalls correctly, its current state is probably not up to the building they’re proposing. Choucair replied there is an existing dumpster enclosure, but they can match the gate to the panels that they are planning to put on the building. But the masonry itself is block, and we can paint it the same color as we’re doing in the back of the building so that would make it a little bit like the color that we’re putting there. Jolly stated he appreciates the plan and because of the situation that he is in, how visible the dumpster location is because of the positioning on the lot, that that might be appropriate and welcomed as well just because it is quite visible from the roadway. Jolly then asked Taormina if that is something that he has to offer specifically and Taormina replied that they will incorporate that language into the approving resolution. Councilmember Donovic asked if the existing awnings where the gas pumps are located, is that being updated at all or moved at all? A lot of time you see these gas stations update their building but then it leaves the existing awning, the columns or what not, the same as they were before. Taormina replied it’s his understanding the canopies will remain as they are today but would let the architect or owner respond to that. Choucair replied that normally the imaging on the gas stations, when an owner signs with the jobber, they offer to redo the whole image, if he stays Shell, then they keep it Shell. If he moves to Mobil or Marathon, then they’ll do the changes on the imaging. But in terms of let’s say columns, we might put black around the column, it depends on the budget that we’re putting, either he’ll brick the columns or he’ll repaint the columns and the canopy from the inside. Donovic then clarified that the canopy is just the vinyl wrap and Choucair replied the canopy itself, it’s a steep canopy, and the outside imaging, it all comes from Shell and the company just gets them from Shell and they apply them on the canopy. Hammouch stated they don’t have control as far as what colors they can put on the canopy outside, so this is dictated by the supplier of the gas which is Shell. So on that when we refer to the canopy, it’s the column, the structure, and also the vinyl that you talk about. So the vinyl on outside will stay the same. We are going to either brick the columns or we’re going to paint the columns. 10 Donovic stated this is a beautiful building, he loves the combination between the wood composite and the metal and the different elevation points, but he would just hate to see so much effort go into the beautiful building and then miss the columns to really tie everything together. Choucair replied that they are going to match everything together. Councilmember Jolly asked then we do these gas station site plan approvals, at any point are the canopies re-inspected for their safety? He thinks over the last five years there’s been at least two instances that he knows of on Eight Mile Road, one is in Livonia and he thinks one is from Southfield, where the canopy became so rusted at the bottom that it actually fell down. So, are the canopies re-inspected at any point along with the building updates and the renovations? Zilincik replied that would be a question for Jerome Hanna, the Director of Inspection, if they reinspect these at the appropriate time, that he doesn’t know if they’re doing any city-wide inspection at certain intervals, but that would be something for the Inspection Department to answer that question. Taormina replied the Inspection Department does conduct annual inspections of commercial properties, it was something that they had gotten away from a few years ago, but they’re back fully staffed and are able to do that now and that he works with them quite regularly on these issues. When it involves maintenance, oftentimes we communicate directly with their staff on things that need to be addressed. More serious items which you’re referring to, like the structural elements, that’s something that they would pick up as part of that inspection process, absolutely. Hammouch said they were out at his station three months ago for an inspection. Councilmember McCullough asked the Petitioner if there were samples of the materials they will be using. After viewing the samples, he then offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. Vice President Bahr asked the owner why they have bars on the doors on the gas station and not on all of the windows. Hammouch replied that once they have the total renovation, he has to actually take the bars off the doors and more than likely he is going to replace the door to have double glass. The rest of it, all the windows have double glass on them but this one does not. There was an unpleasant incident that forced him to do that. Bahr then stated that the bars are very noticeable and not on other gas stations in the area and Hammouch replied that is because his station is only open until midnight and the others are 24 hours. 11 Councilmember Jolly stated that City Ordinance requires that free air should be provided at every gas station in Livonia, is that currently the case at this station? Taormina replied that that was an issue that came up very early in the Planning Commission review and in fact during the review process the Planning Commission would not act on this item until that issue was addressed in which he has done. Councilmember Jolly stated it was brought to his attention by a resident who is a frequent bicyclist in the area and probably utilizes the air more often than others. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 7. PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THE LIVONIA CODE OF ORDINANCES, AS AMENDED: Department of Law, re: to Section 170 of Title 5, Chapter 03 (General Licensing Procedure) to update fees charged to obtain licenses required by the City. City Attorney Bernier presented this request to Council. He stated that Attorney Leo Neville and Clerk Susan Nash got together and worked on this item. There are several licenses that are not even under the jurisdiction of the City so they went through and they cleaned up and removed those items that are unnecessary and tried to consolidate them and also tried to raise the fees to that which is a reasonable cost for the licensing. Councilmember Jolly offered an approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION None heard. As there were no further questions or comments, President McIntyre adjourned the Study Session at 9:03 p.m. on Monday, February 24, 2020. For the 1,892nd Regular Meeting of March 11, 2020 DATED: February 26, 2020 SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK