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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1,208 - January 16, 2024 signedMINUTES OF THE 1,208th PUBLIC HEARINGS AND REGULAR MEETING HELD BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA On Tuesday, January 16, 2024, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia held its 1,208th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting in the Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan. Mr. Ian Wilshaw, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: David Bongero Sam Caramagno Glen Long Wafa Dinaro Peter Ventura Ian Wilshaw Members absent: None Mr. Mark Taormina, Planning Director, Stephanie Reece, Program Supervisor, and Erika Goff, Clerk -Typist, were also present. Chairman Wilshaw 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 turn, 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 writing, 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 filing. 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 PETITION 2023-11-01-06 Sheetz Mr. Caramagno, Secretary, announced the first item on the agenda, Petition 2023-11-01-06 submitted by Skilken Gold under Sections 13.13 and 13.15 of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended, requesting to rezone the west 296.70 feet of the property at 15100 Newburgh Road, located at the southeast corner of Newburgh and Five Mile Roads in the Northwest % of Section 20, from RUF, Rural Urban Farm to C-2, General Business. January 16, 2024 31215 Mr. Taormina: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a request to rezone the southeast corner of Five Mile and Newburgh Roads. The rezoning would be from RUF (Rural Urban Farm) to C-2 (General Business). The parcel is owned by the Felician Sisters of North America, which own about one-half square mile of land, or 320 acres, consisting of the west half of Section 20. The Felician-owned properties are bordered by Five Mile Road to the north, Newburgh Road to the west, Schoolcraft Road to the south, and Levan Road to the east. This zoning change would facilitate the development of a Sheetz gas station, convenience store, and restaurant. The portion of the property that would be rezoned is approximately two and a half acres and measures 370 feet along Newburgh Road by 297 feet along Five Mile. Portions of the site include a regulated flood hazard zone established by FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This includes Zone A, a 100-year floodplain, and Zone AE, the floodway. The southwest corner of this intersection is occupied by a Shell gas station, and adjacent to that is the New Five Plaza, both of which are zoned C-1 (Local Business). At the northeast corner of the intersection is a CVS pharmacy, as well as Century Retail Plaza, zoned C-1, as well. A Marathon gas station and other retail, including the Bottles and Stuff party store, occupy the northwest corner. The zoning there is C-2 (General Business). The Future Land Use Plan designates the property as Parks and Community, which encourages the preservation of open spaces, public park facilities, and civic institutions. The Parks and Community classification includes publicly and privately owned facilities providing recreational, educational, governmental, and other services to the community. In 1962, the southeast corner of Five Mile and Newburgh Roads was rezoned from RUF to C-2 for the development of a Texaco gas station. A gas station existed at this location from 1962 to approximately 1984. In 1991, the Planning Commission rezoned the property back to RUF after the gas station had been demolished. The preliminary plans for the Sheetz show a one-story 6,139 square foot building located near the middle of the area that would be rezoned. Access would be provided from two driveways: one off Newburgh Road and the other off Five Mile Road. Along the Five Mile Road frontage, the plans show six fuel islands with pumps on each side and with the capacity to accommodate a total of 12 vehicles. Parking for up to 39 cars is shown on the building's north, south, and west sides with a drive-thru pickup window on the east side, including a separate service lane for stacking and ordering at the property's south end. The exterior of the building would be constructed of brick and cast stone and it shows a peek tower feature located in the northwest corner of the Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Taormina: January 16, 2024 31216 building above the main entrance. The interior includes a convenience store, a full -service restaurant with 30 seats, and an outdoor dining patio on the north side of the building with 12 seats. There is also an office area, storage and mechanical rooms, refrigeration units, and restrooms. Gas stations and drive-thru restaurants are treated as a waiver in the C-2 District. Thus, if this zoning change moves forward, the next step in the process would be the review of the site plan and the waiver petition by the Planning Commission, followed by the City Council. The petitioner has submitted a traffic impact study that recommends a full access driveway on Newburgh Road, lengthening the existing auxiliary right turn lane and providing a deceleration taper. On Five Mile Road, the study suggests restricting the driveway to right -in and right -out turning movements. Additionally, the study recommends adjusting the timing of the traffic signal at the Five Mile and Newburgh Roads intersection. The project will necessitate the relocation of a 20- inch storm sewer and impacts portions of the 100-year floodplain that will require the approval of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, or EGLE. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will be happy to read out the correspondence. I will note too that we have received several emails from residents and others regarding this petition. Each of you has copies of all the correspondence received. From the City Departments, we have three letters that I will now read. Yes, please. The first item is from the Engineering Division, dated November 13, 2023, which reads as follows: `In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above referenced petition. We have no objections to the proposed rezoning at this time but would like to note the following items: 1. The subject parcel is assigned the address of #15100 Newburgh Road. Additional addresses will be assigned once the property split has been approved. 2. The legal description included with the submitted drawings appears to be correct and should be used in conjunction with this project should the rezoning be approved. 3. The proposed lot split will need to be submitted to the Assessor's Department and will be required to be approved prior to any construction permitting. 4. The existing parcel is currently serviced by public sanitary sewer, water main and storm sewer. The submitted drawings do not include any information regarding proposed services to the buildings, but the design Engineers for the project have been in contact with this office and are aware of this Departments' requirements. We will review the proposed services once Mr. Wilshaw: January 16, 2024 31217 design drawings are submitted for permitting. 5. As noted, design calculations are not shown on the submitted drawings, but the project will be required to meet the Wayne County Stormwater Ordinance, including storm water detention requirements. 6. The existing storm sewer easement across the property will need to be vacated, and new easements will be required. Easement dedications will be completed after installation of the new utilities but will be required prior to obtaining a certificate of occupancy for the project." The letter is signed by David W. Lear, P.E., Assistant City Engineer. The next letter is from the Finance Department, dated November 20, 2023, which reads as follows: "1 have reviewed the addresses connected with the above noted petition. As there are no outstanding amounts receivable, general or water and sewer, I have no objections to the proposal." The letter is signed by Connie Kumpula, Chief Accountant. The next letter is from the Treasurer's Department, dated November 15, 2023, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Treasurer's Office has reviewed the address connected with the above noted petition. At this time, there are no outstanding amounts receivable for taxes. Therefore, I have no objections to the proposal." The letter is signed by Lynda Scheel, Treasurer, at the time the letter was written. That is the extent of the correspondence. Thank you, Mr. Taormina, and as Mr. Taormina noted, we have received a number of email communications either sent directly to us or through city offices, the mayor's office and others that have made it to us, and we do have all those and they will be made part of our permanent record. We appreciate those comments and we've been able to read those. Is there any questions from any of the commissioners for our planning staff? I don't see any questions for our planning staff. Our petitioner is in the audience. Feel free to come forward to one of our podiums. You can use the podium so they can get you on camera. Can you start with your name and address for our record? Andrew Richlen, 4270 Morris Road, Columbus, Ohio, 43230. I work for a Skilken Gold and we are the developer on this project. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay, thank you. I appreciate that. And I do want to make a note as I usually do with these types of items is, the petition that's before us today is a zoning request to rezone the property to C-2 (General Business) and that's going to be the main focus of the decision making that we're going to make tonight. For those who are unfamiliar with the process, this is kind of a two- Mr. Richlen: January 16, 2024 31218 step process, we're gonna go through a zoning request first, which is what we're dealing with tonight. And then this will proceed on to City Council with an approving or denying recommendation, and then usually the second part of the process is that a site plan would then come back before the city and that would go into the details of the actual building and the colors and the layout and all those fine details. So, you may not hear as many details or conversation around that type of part of this proposal at this point, and that's why we're going to try to focus on the zoning more so but admittedly, you have to understand what the property is going to be used for once you do rezone it. So, we do appreciate you giving us those conceptual plans. Go ahead with yourpresentation, sir. Absolutely. Thank you. What is the Sheetz? We'II get into that today. If I can get the clicker to work. Oh, there we go. All right. So, Sheetz is a restaurant, a convenience store, and a fuel service provider. This particular project is at the intersection of Newburgh Road and Five Mile within the City of Livonia. A few of the items that we're going to cover as a part of this presentation, general brand introduction, we'll look at some photos and building elevations. We'll talk about existing site conditions proposed, the proposed site development, and finally we'll go through some of the standards of review for amendments, as it pertains to the rezone. Along with me today are a few members of the Sheetz real estate development team, our land use attorney, our traffic engineer, as well as our civil engineer. So, throughout our time tonight, some of these individuals may be coming up here to speak as well. First of all, per the agenda, we'll get into the brand introduction. David Bruckelmeyer with Sheetz. My address is 39300 West 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, Michigan. So, a few things. We are new to the area and so we'd like to take just a few minutes and give you an idea of who Sheetz is and what we are as a family. So, Sheetz was started in 1952 in central Pennsylvania by an 18 year old named Bob Sheetz and we still hold true to a lot of the things that Bob did back in the 1950s. We are still a deli. We have made to order sandwiches. We have some carry out items like bread and milk and things like that. Carry out items that our customers need on the go all hours of the day so, we'd like to provide a service like that to our customers all throughout our platform with a very consistent, you know, consistent message and a consistent store brand. So, a few things that set us apart and we'll go through this as we have a really awesome career opportunity within Sheetz. We promote people from within. We have competitive wages, very good benefits. For instance, you January 16, 2024 31219 know, people at the stores have the same benefits I would have as a corporate employee. So, we really do provide a very good offering for people that work at our locations and are really doing the hard workday in and day out. Gotta get the right button here. We like to focus on our customers. Everything we do is focused on making sure that our customer experience is one of the best and most premium offers on the market. We continue to do things like reinvest. We update our menus. We update the interiors of our stores on a regular basis and maintain them really well. In addition, we do a lot of advanced technology. For instance, we have mobile ordering on our app, you can come in and pick it up in the store, get a curbside, come through our drive throughs if one's available at the at the location. We also have things like self -checkout, and other things like that...other technology that our customers can enjoy. And next, I just kind of like to give you a brief overview of what are you really talking about with the Sheetz, you know, everyone from, you know, Chick fil A to, you know, McDonald's, all kinds of other organizations that serve food have all kinds of different looks and different feels. Well, something we do at Sheetz is we try to provide kind of consistent, really good feeling building with a premium look. And you can kind of see the inside of our building, tile floors, really nice architectural features, a really good seating area where people can come in and enjoy their food. And this is pretty...this is prototypical. This isn't something that's one off, this isn't a special project. This is what the inside of our stores looks like in general. So, what you see tonight is really what we're talking about. And then from an exterior aesthetic standpoint, we have premium materials. I think your staff here has reviewed our architectural plans. we have full section brick and stone, a lot of articulation on the building to give it a good look, plenty of glazing, things like window awnings, and a really nice cupola to just make our building look premium, and fit in with the surrounding areas, as well as a really nice looking auto canopy with some architectural features that you can see. And then just a quick, you know, our drive thru, let's talk about that. It's really different than most of the industry, it's all touchscreen. So when a customer pulls up, they don't even have to talk to an individual in the store. They pull up, they use the menu when they get there and submit their order. And they don't even have to talk to anybody. So we're not talking about having a squawk box out there and things like that. Or they can, like I said, go on the mobile app and order ahead. We wanted to present you just a quick look at our elevations that we're proposing. And as you can see this match with you know, really, the colors may look a little different because these are PDF's, but ultimately those pictures that you just saw are Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Richlen: January 16, 2024 31220 really similar to these elevations that are proposed at this location. So, the top is the front of our building. And that side is where the side seating is. And then that is the drive thru on the top, that would be the drive thru side. And then this on the bottom that would be where the where the drive-thru queuing would be. And then just a quick look at our fuel canopy elevations like we showed earlier. There are architectural trusses that just give it an updated, really nice modern look. All the lighting is recessed so we don't have any floodlights. We don't have any lights that are showing. So, we meet a lot of a lot of lighting codes. It's a really good-looking feature to our sites. And then just a quick look at our dumpster. We still provide the same full section brick, really nice quality doors, they look really good in comparison to the industry standard. So just give you a good idea of what that looks like. And from there, I'm going to let our project manager take over. Thank you. So the project location. This red box you see is roughly the perimeter of the City of Livonia. The red star is where our project is proposed on the existing zoning map. As you can see, the southeast corner of this intersection is where our parcel is being proposed. It's currently Rural Urban Farm. We are proposing to rezone that to C-2, which falls in line with the existing zoning at this particular intersection. Existing Site conditions. So, the red box is a rough outline of the 2.5 acres that we're proposing to develop here. Directly north of us is the CVS along with some retail adjacent to it. Directly west of us is the Shell station along with some retail throughout that shopping center. Northwest of us is the mobile station, I believe it is, along with some additional retail. Directly south of us is a parking lot for the Madonna University Athletics facility. Directly east is first the bill branch drain and then some additional vacant land. Proposed site plan So I'll just go through some of the various site elements, as you can see in blue on the east side of this plan. That's the bell branch drain. That drain is significant in size. We've reviewed the floodplain. We've talked to EGLE about the floodplain and we're proposing a very minor impact to the floodplain and no issues are anticipated in terms of the permitting that we will need to get from EGLE. It's not a major impact. So that eastern piece of the site, mostly east of the Bell Branch drain, but also partially west of it, that makes up roughly 1/3 of our site, that particular area will remain preserved. The trees, the bell branch drain, none of that will be impacted and again, that makes up 1/3 of our site. The 2.5 acres as a whole, roughly 45% of that, almost half of that will remain or excuse me Mr. Wilshaw: John Gaber, January 16, 2024 31221 will be impervious by the time we finish this development. So that impervious land makes up the proposed landscaping elements as well as the existing preserve landscaping that exists there today so a significant portion of this property will be impervious. The south side of this site is where our drive-thru order point is. Dave alluded to it earlier, but this is a low volume drive thru. This is not what you might experience at Chick fil A that drives a lot of drive thru traffic. This drive thru does not see that kind of volume. This is a convenient opportunity for the customer. If you're driving with three toddlers in the car and you don't want to drag them out into the store, well then you can pull up to the drive thru and order a gallon of milk, a pack of soda, whatever it is that you might need...food from the restaurant. It's a convenient item. On the north face of the store is where the outdoor patio seating is. The primary entrance to the building is on the northwest corner of the building and the secondary entrance to the building is on the south face of the building. There are currently no sidewalks along Newburgh or Five Mile here. We're proposing new sidewalks on the entire length of our property line. There's a pedestrian access point that we're proposing to connect to the sidewalk on Newburgh. Access. So, we're proposing two access points. One on Five Mile and one on Newburgh. The access point on Newburgh is proposed as a full access point. The access point on Five Mile is proposed to have some restrictions on it so that the access point on Five Mile will be right in, right out only. It's a safety concern to limit left turning movements, so, we're not proposing left turning movements at that access point. Six thousand square foot store. We somewhat represent the landscaping here. We haven't dove into a landscaping plan, but all landscaping requirements will be met as a part of this project. I think generally that summarizes the site components that we're proposing as a part of this development. Now I will pass it along to you John. Thank you. Hi, good evening. land use attorney for the development, 380 North Old Woodward Suite 300, Birmingham, Michigan. What I'd like to do is to take you through the ordinance standards, because obviously, you have certain criteria that you need to look at, in making this decision as to whether to recommend the rezoning or not to City Council. There are about 12 standards. I'll try to go through them as quickly as I can and try not to repeat information that was already given tonight. However, you know, there has been some factual information presented that, you know, we need to review in the context of the ordinance standards. So, I will go through that hopefully as painlessly as possible. Okay, so the January 16, 2024 31222 first standard is a consistency with the policies and objectives of the master plan and recent development trends in the area. The city has...it's hard to look at this so let me look at my cheat sheet. The city has designated the entire property of the Felician Sisters of North America as parks and community on the future land use map as Mark stated. Such designation may not though accurately indicate the existing or the future uses of this property. We believe that it really doesn't take into consideration recent development trends for the property itself. So, if you look at the property this this is it, essentially in a nutshell. The property is currently used, you know, for purposes such as a hospital, university facilities, hospice care, a convent with priest and nun housing, a skilled nursing center and other miscellaneous uses. A significant portion of the property is vacant access space available for alternate uses, including the subject site. The Felician sisters submitted a letter to you dated January 12. It really highlights their vision for this property and for their collective property. It says their campus...let's see, we know the existing uses...and it says a campus also contains some acreage including the 2.5 acres on the corner of Newburgh and Five Mile Road that is not used to directly support the current and the expected future ministry activities. So, they've carefully considered the best future use of this land prior to entering into any agreement to sell the land, and they believe it's the proposed Sheetz development. They also state that they believe that proposed Sheetz will benefit the overall Felician campus by providing students, residents, staff and visitors of the campus convenient access to goods and services not currently located on campus. So, I think these are considerations that we have to consider, as well, from the property owner. Now, relative to consistency to let's look at the zoning map for a second. Most of the property is reflected as RUF, but you see the color parcels, the purple parcel is zoned NM3, for housing. The parcel on the corner, the dark burgundy parcel is zoned C-4 for the hospital, and the parcel next to it is zoned C-1 for the nursing center. It appears that this large property should also be designated as different uses on the future land use map, including commercial, residential, possibly mixed use, as well as parks and community uses. The future land use map does not seem to be updated to accurately designate the different existing uses, or those intended uses as you know, we've seen the Felician sisters articulate. So, the development trends within this property we believe should be considered and should include commercial uses, which is what we're proposing for the subject site. So, we believe that those are the standards that we have to look at relative to the site for consistency with the Master Plan and development trends. Now January 16, 2024 31223 if you look at the subject site more globally, it's also located on the corner of a major thoroughfare with three other corners designated as corridor commercial on the future land use map. Such major intersections are often designated in many areas of the city as corridor commercial, which also should be considered. The 2021 master plan indicates that gas stations and food services can be appropriate uses for the corridor commercial which is what this corner has been designated at least the other three corners. And then just as an aside, the deed that...we will take title of the property and will have a prohibition against noxious type of uses on the property, which is further protection for the property and for the community. The next criteria to consider from your zoning ordinances to consistency with the basic intent and purposes of the zoning ordinance. The proposed rezoning is to C-2, which accommodates our uses. The proposed use can satisfy the specific rezoning conditions for the drive-thru restaurant and also for the gasoline service stations. The applicant also believes that it can comply with the demand additional requirements of the C-2 ordinance, and as you know, the site was previously commercial when the Texaco gas station was there many years ago. The next standard is the capability of the street system to safely and efficiently accommodate the expected traffic from the site. So, if you look at this site for a drive thru restaurant, access must be on a public street with a right of way of 120 feet with two separate driveways. For a gas station on a corner lot, there has to be two separate driveways, one on each road facing it. We know the Five Mile Road is a county road, essentially with a 120- foot right away. And Newburgh Road is a city road with 120 feet right away. So, this requirement is satisfied. These are major or perme arterial mile roads with five lanes each, which can accommodate the expected traffic generated by the uses. Most of the traffic particularly for the gas station is really pass by traffic. What that means is the vehicles are already on the road. They're not making destination trips people like leaving their homes or their businesses to go to this location as a destination. So, a lot of the traffic is traffic that's already on the road. And the applicant has generated the traffic impact study that you've seen. Wayne County has indicated it's favorable, and the city has seen it as well. Now the next standard is a capacity of utilities and services sufficient to accommodate the uses permitted in the district. I think the engineering letter that Mr. Taormina read, sufficiently states that the site complies with that requirement. The next criteria deals with changing conditions since the zoning ordinance was adopted or an error in the zoning ordinance. We don't think that really applies to this situation. The next criteria January 16, 2024 31224 says the amendment will not result in exclusionary zoning. We believe this is the case because the proposed rezoning does not operate to exclude any types of land uses within the city. And the existing zoning, RUF, is available in many other areas of the city. So, we don't believe there's any exclusionary zoning. The next standard is the compatibility of the site's physical, geological, hydrological, and other environmental features, which with the use is permitted in C-2. this is really an interesting photo, I think it's from 1985, it says of the Texaco gas station that was on the corner. interesting historical photo. And we do know through phase two, that there is some environmental contamination on the site that emanated from that prior use. Sheetz will be cleaning that up to the to the requisite environmental standards of the state. That'll be done as part of this development. Regarding environmental features with the permitted uses, that's been mentioned already, that the really the environmental feature is the drain and the wooded area on the east side of the property, which we're going to preserve it's about 100 feet in width, and 0.8 acre. So, there's not going to be any development within that particular area. There's an existing floodplain on the site. We've consulted with EGLE about the floodplain, and we don't anticipate any issues with being able to develop the site plan after our conversations with EGLE. The next standard is compatibility of the potential uses in terms of sustainability, environmental impacts density, nature of use, traffic impacts, aesthetics, infrastructure, and potential influence on property values. So, this looks at a lot of compatibility issues with the general area. The potential business commercial uses allow the C-2 district we believe are compatible with the surrounding zoning and uses of the site located because it's at a commercial intersection. We know what's on the other corners. We've been through that tonight, they're all commercial uses. So, the nature of the C-2 use is, particularly the Sheetz store, really compatible with the nature of the surrounding uses at the intersection. Now, taking the standard further compatibility of potential uses, we've been over the aesthetics This is a very high -quality premium building that we believe satisfies this element of the standard and the traffic impacts we believe can be accommodated, as the TIS shows in this area, with significant pass by traffic and the five lane roads that border each side of the site. So, we believe that the rezoning, in summary, is therefore consistent with the other uses at the intersection. Now when you look at the site itself, the property of the Felician sisters...now with respect to the adjacent property to the south of the site, as Drew mentioned, it's really a parking lot for the athletic facilities that are being used. So, we believe that the zoning ordinance will allow us to January 16, 2024 31225 to be compatible with this site, because it requires either a six- foot masonry wall or fence or a 20 foot landscape buffer that we will comply with. With regard to the side of the property, we're going to preserve the 100-foot strip, providing the requisite buffer on that side of the property. So, the use density, aesthetics, and traffic impacts of the subject site will not adversely affect the adjacent properties, either at the intersection or you know, on the southeast corner of the site. So, we believe that we satisfy these criteria of the zoning ordinance. The next criteria and we're getting close to the end, the boundaries of the requested rezoning district will be reasonable in light of its relationship to surrounding districts. We've got a two -and -a -half -acre parcel here to be developed, and we think that the configuration, and the size of this parcel is fairly consistent with other commercial zoning in the area. The boundaries and relationship, as I just mentioned, it is consistent, and we believe that we can meet the dimensional requirements of the C-2 district. The next standard is at the requested zoning district is considered to be more appropriate from the city's perspective than another zoning district. Well, the only other zoning districts that apply would be C-2 and C-3. A rezoning to C-2 would allow general business uses on the site, including the Sheetz development and we believe that's more desirable than C-3 highway services, which is the other compatible zoning district. C three has higher intensity uses and C two, and we don't believe it would be appropriate at the site. And as you've seen, the other corners of Five Mile and Newburgh are zoned commercial, all of them, and they're very close, well fairly close, to the expressways. So, for these reasons, we believe that the C-2 is the most appropriate zoning district as opposed to the C- 3 and those are the two districts that would accommodate the proposed use. K would be the standard that the rezoning is more appropriate than amending the list of permitted or special land uses in the current zoning district, the RUF zoning district. We believe, in summary, that essentially these commercial uses that we're proposing would not really fit within the RUF and so therefore, we believe that rezoning is a more appropriate way to go. And then finally, the last standard, the request to rezone will not create an isolated or incompatible zone in the neighborhood. The request for rezoning does not do this because it is located at a commercial intersection, which has C-1 and C-2 uses at the other three corners. The applicant also understands that the vacant property to the east will be marketed for development in the future. So therefore, we believe that it's not going to be an isolated site or incompatible zone with the neighborhood. So these essentially are going through your zoning ordinance criteria. These are the reasons that we believe that we satisfy January 16, 2024 31226 these requirements, and hopefully you'll agree and recommend approval of this rezoning request. One other thing I wanted to mention that didn't really come up, your zoning ordinance does not permit alcohol sales to a gas station uses and I just wanted to make it clear for the record that, you know, we are going to comply with your, you know, with your ordinances, definitely so we will comply with that one, as well as the rest. So, we're here to answer any questions. Drew, did you have anything else? So we're here to answer your questions and appreciate your time this evening. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Gaber. Alright, let's see if we have any questions for our Petitioner from any of our commissioners. Is there any questions? Mr. Bongero: I have a question for Mark, and then for the petitioner. Mark, do we...I'm trying to think is there any intersections that have three gas stations in the city? Maybe on the expressway? Mr. Taormina: If you include intersections along Schoolcraft Road, I believe there are two locations. Other than that, the only intersection that I recall that had three gas stations in the recent past was Six Mile and Farmington Roads. However, the former gas station on the northeast corner of that intersection was converted to a retail plaza in 2016 or 2017. Mr. Bongero: Oh, okay. So a great presentation, and I know Sheetz has a lot of moving parts to it. The beer and wine, you've agreed to put that to the side. You have 700, I think, locations you said. Are there any of these locations that have no gas station? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: No, we do not operate any locations that don't have fuel convenience and restaurant. Mr. Bongero: Okay, so they all go together? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: They all are very consistent in what we offer. Mr. Bongero: Okay. And did you guys consider other intersections? And did you look around? Is this the only one that you could find? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: I know our real estate people have spent a significant amount of time looking at other properties and I can ask them a little bit if Scott...do you want to share a little bit about... Scott Armstrong, Real Estate Department at Sheetz, 39300 West 12 Mile Farmington, MI. We scoured this entire, I mean, there's multiple Mr. Bongero: January 16, 2024 31227 other locations that were looking at as well. We're looking to do over 60 stores in Southeast Michigan. So, we're looking at...I've pretty much looked at every intersection that... I think frorrl my...l mean, everything I've heard about Sheetz, I've heard nothing but positive stuff. Everybody says it's great. Just the issue with the three gas stations is going to be,,,to me it seems like it's very touchy. It seems like it's great, but it needs to be maybe at a different corner. (Audience applauding) Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Bongero: Mr. Wilshaw: Ms. Dinaro: Folks, I do appreciate the enthusiasm. There's going to be a lot of comments made throughout this meeting and that you may or may not like to hear. So, we need to be able to focus on the discussion and we need to be able to move along quickly. Are you all said Mr. Bongero? Thank you. Is there any other questions for Petitioner from any of the commissioners? Ms. Dinaro. One of you guys said that the Bell Branch drain would have minor impact. Can you tell me a little bit more about that? What does minor impact mean? Mr. Wilshaw: Whoever is appropriate to answer that. Good evening. Taylor Smith, Civil Engineer for Mannik Smith Group, 2365 South Haggerty Road in Canton, Michigan. Thanks. So, we are working with EGLE on this one for preliminary discussions, and basically, there's impacts less than 300 cubic yards within the floodplain. And that has a minor impact for their permits. Ms. Dinaro: Mr. Smith: Ms. Dinaro: Does that mean the trees will remain there? You guys aren't going to touch the trees and the waterway will remain intact? Correct. We were not going to do anything within the floodway, which is the critical area. The floodplain is just minor. So industries will remain intact. I have another question. You guys also touched on the jobs and that their jobs have benefits. Can you tell us how many jobs specifically this site...how many people this site will employ? January 16, 2024 31228 Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Thank you, we will employ roughly 35 full and part-time employees. We try to get as many full time as we can, which obviously means more benefits and things like that. We obviously offer a lot of upward mobility. So, people have the ability to move up through some management ranks. So roughly 35. Ms. Dinaro: Great. Mr. Wilshaw: All right. Any other questions? Ms. Dinaro: I do have one. One last question. Mr. Wilshaw: You have the floor? Ms. Dinaro: How many fuel stations are there going to be on the site? Pumps. Mr. Bruckelmeyer: There will be six two sided pumps. So, a total of 12 parking spaces for fueling. Ms. Dinaro: That was it for me. Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Long: All right. Well, if you think of anything else, we can go back to you. Is there anyone else on this panel wishing to ask questions of our petitioner? Mr. Long. I can cross off most of my questions, because my colleagues already got to them. But who is your target market? I mean, this is...the location here, you know, there's no freeway ramp off 275. Yeah, the one off 96 a mile down. You know, 24/7, who are you...who's gonna stop by and I know, I believe some somebody in the presentation talked about how the gas is basically just a drive by an impulse purchase, but with the food is going to be more of a destination, right? So, who are you we marketing to? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Absolutely. So I know our real estate people have done a lot of research on this from a traffic standpoint, and we feel at the intersection has the type of numbers that we're looking at from a pass by perspective. But let's go through one, for instance, an offering that would be really attractive to, you know, Trinity health employees, you know, 24/7 365 businesses for them is really attractive, because their food offerings overnight, are really limited. And that's something we're able to offer them, you know, all the time, so they can know they can go get a good fresh meal somewhere, get a salad, get a sandwich, to be able Mr. Long: January 16, 2024 31229 to go back to work. I mean, in addition to that, overnight, first responders tend to, you know, have a pretty heavy presence at our sites, because we're 24/7 365 with our full offering and they also need those services as well. So, everyone from people on their way to work all the way to first responders and people working in Trinity health. Thank you, is the...so your food is not fast food, right? Because that really hasn't come up a whole lot here. It's what's called fresh food. Mr. Bruceklmeyer: So it is fresh. It's made to order. You can order everything from a burger and fries all the way to a salad, and a nice burrito, things like that. So, it's everything in between. Our menu offering is pretty substantial. I think there's like 1.1 million combinations that you can have. So, you know, there is some fast-food elements, but we also have other great healthy options. Some of them are even to go like we have, you know, hard boiled eggs and nice sandwiches ready, taken and go. So, they don't have to wait if they're in a really big hurry. As well as like we have some vegetables that are precut, people can go and grab a nice box of vegetables to go for their lunch and things like that. Mr. Long: Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Ventura: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Long. Any other questions for petitioner? I would just like to clarify your answer there. So, you do have fast food. You can drive through and get a hamburger and a malt or a coke or whatever. Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Yeah, we do. But we offer more. Mr. Ventura: So, it's fair to say you're a fast-food restaurant with a sit down portion of it. Mr. Bruckelmeyer: That's correct. Yeah, we have 30 spaces inside. We encourage customers to come in, and we also have free Wi Fi. So, sometimes people come in, they're on the road, stop and grab a cup of coffee, grab a sandwich for breakfast, do some email or something like that, eat their meal and be on their way. And we also offer some outdoor seating. I think we have 17 spaces outside to sit at. Mr. Ventura: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. January 16, 2024 31230 Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Ventura. Any other questions? Mr. Caramagno: I've heard it asked a couple of ways. Why this location? Being not on a freeway, being local to the neighborhood and then the hospital and the surrounding areas. But is there one thing or a couple things in particular that this location sticks out for you? As a choice for you? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: I might have my real estate people answer that question. Scott, would you like to come up and answer that? Mr. Armstrong: So, we look at mainly traffic, existing traffic and typically we like to be up against...like our first phase coming into a new market is interstate, but this markets a little bit different where there's a lot of internal traffic. So, we target the traffic and some of the neighborhoods because they come to us either passing home to go home or going to work. So, it's just a convenient spot for them to go. Mr. Caramagno: Okay. So, you've seen in your studies that you draw from the neighborhood, as well as traffic to and from work? Mr. Armstrong: Correct. Mr. Caramagno: What fuel options do you have now? You've got I think you said a dozen fueling... Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Are you talking about grades? Mr. Caramagno: What do you have for options? And is there an electric charging option at this site? Is there going to be potentially free air for tires? And I know we're talking about the rezoning but what do you offer there? Mr. Armstrong: So air is free at all locations and we sell every grade of fuel that you can get. So, we have 87, 89, 91, 85, which is the corn based one, 88, which is 15% ethanol, non ethanol. So zero ethanol and then diesel. Mr. Caramagno: So, when we talk about these, we're not talking about this being a truckstop, semis pull it in there... Mr. Armstrong: Just passenger pickup trucks or a car that runs on diesel. Mr. Caramagno: Okay. Thank you. January 16, 2024 31231 Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you. Mr. Caramagno. Any other questions for the petitioners? The one question I have is when it comes to...maybe this is for your real estate person, Mr. Armstrong. Do the Sheetz typically develop on greenfield sites that are undeveloped or do they ever repurpose existing parcels existing gas stations or other types of places like that? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Yeah, I can tell you that we develop all different types of parcels. Everything from green space all the way to pre- existing developments. We do struggle to redevelop existing fuel sites, because a lot of them are deed restricted, so we're unable to, you know, have our use there because it's restricted on the deed. But from a Sheetz perspective, we have developed an incredible number and variety of sites. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay, the reason I ask is because obviously, there are some, there are some proprietors out there in different industries that prefer only greenfield sites, and ones that have been completely undeveloped. So, I was just curious if sheets is one of those types of companies or not. It sounds like you will go anywhere you can. Mr. Bruckelmeyer: That is correct. Well, we don't get nervous about redeveloping sites and doing demo and things like that, and obviously, we do a substantial amount of environmental remediation, and a lot of ifs in good faith. So, you know, at our at our own cost and our own expense, we will come back and clean up environmental contamination before we even finish our development on the site. Mr. Wilshaw: And your attorney mentioned that which I think is good that they pointed that out. On the environmental topic, you do have an open waterway, right next to this property, are there any special things from an environmental perspective that Sheetz needs to do in the event that there is a spill, because it's not just going to go into the sewer system, it's also going to go right into an open waterway, are there certain mitigations that you put in place as you design this property? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Absolutely. So, let's go through a couple of things. So, Sheetz purchases, and installs the most expensive fuel system that can be purchased on the market. So, we spare no expense to put in dual tanks, and do all kinds of monitoring that's active. For instance, we buy stainless steel fittings where some other operators might purchase galvanized, because we know the stainless steel ones aren't gonna leak. And so we have an internal team that all they do is maintain, operate, and monitor January 16, 2024 31232 all of these UST systems. So, they're an in-house, you know, group that does this. And I can tell you that I've talked to our head of the environmental department, their budget is unlimited, to fix any kind of issue. If we have to go and dig up a tank on an operating store to fix it, we will absolutely do that and we have the financial backing to do that. So that's something that sets us apart, we have the willingness and the ability to come back and maintain our systems. From a stormwater perspective, we do a lot of things. And I don't know if it's in your code, but we do everything from installing virus nets sumps in our catch basins, to catch potential contaminants. We put some OWS's under our canopies. In addition to that all of our store employees are trained to deploy an onsite spill kit that we have at all times. So, if there is a spill, we have people on site that can manage that actively and provide a first response in order to stop it from getting any worse and you know, maybe getting into the into the drain that's right next to us. So, we have those resources all on site. And in addition, our environmental people are on call 24/7. We have someone in the company that is you know, very knowledgeable, or knowledgeable and can handle spills, and they're on call 24/7 for our employees, should there be an issue. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay, thank you for that answer. And I just want to ask one other question about the dining experience. Just so I understand how it works, obviously, you're going through the drive thru, you're going to order and then pick up your order at the window. If a person is going inside, you said there's indoor seating? Is there a waiter that comes to the person, or do you go to a counter and order and then take your food to your seat? Mr. Bruckelmeyer: So actually, when you come in our store, there are three touchscreens. You can walk up and you just go and click through the order much like you would something on your on your phone when you're doing like a mobile order or something like that. So, the full menu offering is, is there on the touch screens, you add things to your order, click Submit, and then it goes into the queue and then you pay for it separately. And then your order number gets called up at the counter, you would go up and go grab your food, sit down and eat. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay. Thank you for that. Is there any other questions from any of our other commissioners for our petitioner before we go to our audience? I don't see any other questions. We're gonna go to the audience and see if there's anyone wishing to speak for or against this petition, we're going to ask that you come to one of our two podiums. If there is a lot of interest in speaking tonight, we do ask you to try to keep your comments to three Denise January 16, 2024 31233 minute time periods so that we can have everybody get an opportunity to speak tonight in a reasonable time. Ms. Dinaro is going to be our timekeeper and she'll let you know when you hit the three minute mark. Collins Robison, and I sent you all an email yesterday. I've lived in Livonia since 1958 most of my life, a little bit away, but in three different houses. And first for many years, my family Coventry garden, so I'm familiar with Five and Farmington and now I'm in Castle Gardens. And speaking of Castle gardens, I'm wondering, as I hear from the Sheetz people, how many of you live within one mile of a Sheetz restaurant? Gas Station? Anybody? Mr. Wilshaw: Ms. Robison: Ma'am. Okay, so, so yeah, I know. That's rhetorical. So anyway, but so you saw my email. My concerns about this, I won't go over that in detail, but we have five gas stations within two miles. I don't think we need any more. We have it sounds like liquor won't be sold or alcohol. That's good. But we have plenty of convenience stores there. And the traffic congestion. When I see that I was in shock. When I saw that map, I thought oh my gosh, we live in Castle gardens. Those of us here. I can't imagine you know, of course, we love the nature of wish the deer could keep that land, that's fine. But I'm thinking that Joni Mitchell song, you know, paved paradise to put in a parking lot and a gas station and a restaurant and a drive thru. I can't imagine this impact on our neighborhood and the other two neighborhoods behind CVS and behind the other gas station, but we have plenty of this stuff. And to me, my mother is from Pennsylvania, and I know the Sheetz there and so this reminds me of something you see off the Ohio Turnpike. You pop off there you go to those stations, and you go in and you go out. It does not remind me of something that's in a neighborhood. in Livonia. It doesn't seem like it's anything we need. But it seems like it's gonna be really busy. You guys want profit? You want as many customers as you could get, I'm sure when they looked at that site, and you asked him why here, it's because it's near the freeway. There's a lot of people going to be coming off 96 on that area. They're not coming from neighborhoods, we're not all gonna be popping over to Sheetz to eat and get gas. We have plenty of that right now. So, I think this is for profit for them and it's not going to be Livonia citizens. And I don't think there really is any addition to our quality of life. I don't know how the ordinance works and if you can turn this down. I understand the Felician sisters need to sell that land. But I'm just and you mentioned Chick Fil A's. The Mr. Wilshaw: January 16, 2024 31234 Chick fil A in our neighborhood is over by Kohl's. It is not near a neighborhood. It is not near where they're coming right out of their neighborhood to compete with all these people going in and out to a Sheetz. You know, the Chick fil A is packed all the time, by the way, and if they're trying to compare themselves to that we're in trouble. So, but it isn't right near a neighborhood like Castle Gardens of the other two neighborhoods. So, I'm rambling here a little bit but I really implore you to reconsider this. Look at office space, look at medical building, something like that. We don't need this. Well, thank you Miss Collins Robinson. And we did receive your email. It's quite detailed. It has a lot of bullet points, high level points and we do appreciate your comments that you sent to us in email as well. So thank you. Sir. Randy Gostomske, 36996 Five Mile, Livonia, MI. Good evening, Zoning Commission. I'm glad you all made it out this cold evening. Everybody else here regardless of your opinion. Thank you for coming out. I'm a homeowner with my wife of 30 years right at Five Mile and Newburgh If I were a semi -truck driver, and I wanted to stop at Sheetz, where would I park? I'd park across the street in the big parking lot there next to my house. I go grab my meal, maybe let it run. Let it stay warm like they usually do. That's a problem. If I had a big vehicle, I'd probably park across the street. The real estate companies apparently did a survey. I'm thinking, well why not Six and Newburgh. If you put one right now in the same corner, the southeast corner, you've got a big parking lot. It's not used in that corner. You don't have a residential community in sight of that corner. You've got a divided road on Six Mile there with a freeway entrance and exit. Didn't have to go too far to maybe consider a different, better location than tearing up another green area. And then the argument, well, we're gonna build eventually on the east side over there. So why not allow us over here? west of the river? Whose best interest is this? The people that want to make money? Or all you citizens here. What's really best? All due respect to the Felician sisters, if they were selling the property to the current people I wish we could have maybe been questioned eabout our feelings about it. I hold them to a higher standard because they should be. I respect them greatly. Fast food. Oh, they're much better than fast food. Well, Wendy's also offers salad. I still call them fast food. Yeah. I'm here fighting for a neighborhood everybody. We don't need that. This St. Mary's square mile property? It was medical. Ms. Dinaro: Sir, time. January 16, 2024 31235 Mr. Gostomske: Okay. You know, we almost fought and lost the whole 15,000 seat stadium they wanted to put right down the street. Come on. Who is that going to help but the people that are going to make money off it. Thank you very much. Thank you for hearing me. Thank you for showing up on this cold evening. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, sir. Good evening, ma'am. Debbie Gostomske, 36996 Five Mile, Livonia, MI. So we're kitty corner to where this would go. We share the wall with the CVS and the parking lot. And let me tell you, first of all, there are a lot of semi -trucks that come in, pull right up to the wall, stay overnight, go get their food from Sheesh, or Subway or whatever's around there, and they loiter, you know, we ended up having to put up with that. The police have been great when it gets loud, and we've had to call because it's after 11. But the parking lot lights are already bright enough, you put more illumination over there, it's gonna be brighter, let alone it's 24 hours a day. I don't know you have already too many commercial readily available places that are an eyesore right now in the community that can't be you know, re sold or rezoned whatever needs to be that they can look into without having to go in and dig up some virgin ground and put in this big obtrusive thing. That doesn't even look like it would fit with the rest of the gas stations and, and facilities around there. And it's going to impact those businesses too. So are they going to close and then those are going to be empty strip malls waiting as well. And then you know, you have to keep in mind there are still residents right on Five Mile, right on Newburgh. This isn't those other intersections that you're talking about where there aren't any houses right around? You know, we might be one of the few, but you can't disregard us for that. You know, we love Livonia, that's why we stay here. We like that it's not forgive me but I can't and Ally you know, there's greenery and it feels like you're at a slower pace when you come home even though it's not because you have that aesthetic around you. And this just does not make any common sense at all. So please put yourself in our shoes. Would you like a building right near your house and a good question like do any of them live that near? Do any of you live that near? You know, we think about it, please. Thank you. Brenda Shaw, 15583 Sussex Street, Livonia, MI. I apologize for my dress, I'm balancing work and health and came right from the gym, but I would like to say that, again, I don't come to city meetings. I don't know anything about planning, but I am a resident who lives here. I'm a resident who lives in Country Home Estates Mr. Wilshaw: James Crowley, January 16, 2024 31236 right across Five Mile on the north side of Five Mile and I pay taxes here. And I'm going to try not repeat anything that's been said, but I also failed to understand how we need another gas station, another place to eat, why we have to fill our green space with a building. I drive home every day, north up Newburgh and turn east on Five Mile and there is already a lot of traffic. I know that works well for your situation, but as someone who's just trying to get home from work, at the end of the day, I don't feel like dealing with any more traffic than what is already there. And I don't feel like I enjoy...as someone else mentioned, when I come home from the end of the day, that little piece of green space, it's there as I get off the freeway driving 30 minutes home. I enjoy that green space up that piece of just I'm coming home and I don't have to look at a commercial building or a gas station or convenience store on every single corner. And I would like to say that it's not aesthetics to me, as a neighbor and as a health care worker. When you say that, Trinity, and they can come and get all that food...as a health care worker, there may be a few people that can leave that health care setting, the hospital, during their shifts, but there's not very many people that can do that. So, to sell that, that that's such a convenience for health care workers. As a health care worker, no, it fits a very small group of people, and we enjoy the city. We enjoy living in Livonia. We don't want it more built up. We don't want it in our neighborhood. And I guess it would be nice to hear what voice do we have as a citizens to say, we don't want this turned into development and we certainly don't want another gas station or convenience store option at that corner. This is your opportunity. So we appreciate you coming and speaking. Thank you. Good evening, sir. 16106 Blue Skies Drive, Livonia, MI. I am over at Newburgh and Six Mile near Laurel Park. I also own four other properties in Castle gardens and my mother is in right off Five Mile on Blue Skies, very close to the proximity to this. I grew up there. I've been a resident for many, many years. I've owned my home for almost 30 years, but I will say this is much like a truck stop...I traveled to Pennsylvania, you know, almost monthly at one time, and this is like they said, something that you would see off a highway. As far as the trucks, I called today as a matter of fact and on my phone or those trucks that they were referring to parked against their wall. Okay, if any would like to see I'll pass my phone. There. trucks pass and I pulled it in because I was taking a picture in front of the Planet Fitness because there were trucks parked there as it were snapping the picture. I January 16, 2024 31237 watched a truck pull in. So, I went over and I watched them park and pull his curtains so that they could rest and I leave my mother's house. I go there nightly for dinner with her. I leave sometimes 10:30 - 11 o'clock, sometimes later. There are trucks parked overnight. I called and called several years ago and just got tired of calling. There was a sign then they posted that they weren't allowed. That sign is now gone. So, I feel like this is only going to bring more traffic. Furthermore, as far as the restaurant goes, it's fast food come on, people. It's not, you know, you're touching a screen it's fast food. As far as that goes...as far as the campus of Madonna. I'm on Madonna alumni and it was before the times that we owned laptops, so I was there hours and hours on end every day. I would have never gone that far to get food. It's almost a mile from the actual campus to that location. It's on the far end. All the activity is far over from there. I spent a few years there of my life so I know that campus very well, and I would have never gone and walked over for lunch. Also, I would like to bring up where our government is phasing out gas, gasoline automotive vehicles. We already have four stations within like a half a mile...more than a half mile. Do we have a plan for remediation? What are we going to do going forward? Now I know that vehicles aren't going to just stop the day that we you know, the law comes into effect in 3030. But we are phasing them out. We're not going to have 100 cars parked there plugged in because we're going to plug them in at our home. Do we really need to do this? So, you know, think about this. Now, they also say that they are not going to have alcohol. Well, that's today we know how business works is once they break ground and get their things, get what they've got. They're going to come back and want to change that ordinance and serve alcohol. We have plenty of those. We don't need it. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Crowley. Anyone else in our audience wishing to speak...we have a lady coming forward. Katie NcNulty, 30976 Orangelawn, Livonia, MI. was one of the clappers earlier on. I do apologize. This is my first meeting. I'm very excited. I'm born and bred from here. I think a lot of great points were made from my fellow citizens that are concerned because we don't want this. We don't want this at all. We don't need this. There's been so many great points about... with regards to the health care workers are really you know, there's a desire, there's a requirement for this. They're fine, they're eating, they're fine. Trust me, they're busy, they're fine. And with regards to what Jimmy just said about the alcohol. I mean, did you guys see the plans, the massive coolers in there? And what, to me with a true January 16, 2024 31238 master plan for the city? If that if that's the case is talking about the small businesses, they want to retain small businesses and grow small businesses. What's that going to do to bottles and stuff? What's that going to do to other small, you know, liquor stores that do that, you know, and they do shut down. This whole 24/7 thing...I just, again, I know they said they weren't going to do it. But I don't believe that's truly the case. And even if we say we won't talk about the alcohol right now something 24/7 Lavanya goes to sleep at night. We do. We go to sleep. We don't need this. And I really appreciate your time. A minute and 15 seconds. Thank Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Ms. McNulty. Hi, good evening, ma'am. Heather Anderson, 15470. Hidden Lane, Livonia, MI. I actually didn't even come here for this agenda. But I love that plot of land there every day on my way home seeing the deer there. It's my favorite. I agree with everybody here. My question, in addition to what everybody else said, is, we have so many restaurants and businesses that work 24 hours or open late at night that can't get employees. They're never going to be able to keep a fast-food restaurant open 24 hours. I mean, we have a hard time keeping gas stations open 24 hours. I mean, I think it's going to end up being empty. I mean, it's not even going to work out how they think. It's just going to be empty, and they are going to tear up that ground for nothing at the end of the day, because nothing's gonna stay 24 hours in Livonia, nowadays, there's no employees to work. Everything closes early because of the lack of employees at fast food. So that was just in addition to everybody else's point. Mr. Wilshaw: Ms. Gotomske: Mr. Wilshaw: Ms. Gotomske: We appreciate it. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? One other gentleman coming forward. I just wanted to say again, Livonia's motto is families first. So please keep that in mind. We do. We already have a problem with the rats in that area, because the businesses right now aren't even being held accountable to keep their traps in working order. So, more food, more trash. Not a good idea. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you. Good evening, sir. January 16, 2024 31239 Chris Khurana,. I'm the owner operator of Bottles and Stuff on Five Mile and Newburgh. One of the gentlemen mentioned there is no more traffic going to be created. How this work can be? We already know they don't talk about how many accidents. They didn't mention nothing about any accident happened on Five Mile and Newburgh. I've been there for almost 12 years and seems like every month at least one or two accident because the high traffic. We also have a gas station on each corners and we have grocery store one mile away on Five Mile and one on Six Mile, so why we need another grocery store. I hope they can talk about the accident. And they can talk about the traffic, how much going to be created. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, sir, for coming. Anyone else wishing to speak for or against this item? Don't see anyone else coming forward, we're gonna go back to our petitioner. If they would like to come forward, and, again, we don't want to engage in a back and forth debate, but if there's any items that you've heard that you would like to address or discuss, please do so. Mr. Bruckelmeyer: Sure. You know, I'd like to start by addressing EV. Everybody's planning for the future right now. There's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to fueling the future. Here's a couple things I can tell you. Our restaurant and convenience store are self-sufficient. So, if we didn't sell fuel, we would still be profitable. How does that set us up for the future? The answer is we're developing our own in-house, EV charging technology. It hasn't come to fruition yet because a lot of the technology is still proprietary. So, Tesla, and some of the other charging ports don't have that technology released, so we can't use it. So what are we doing right now about that? Well, with our push into this market, we are partnering very heavily with Tesla. We cannot guarantee that they want to come to our sites, but they know about all of our sites, and Tesla's very interested in being a partner with us in this market. So, we're excited to bring some of those things to fruition in the Southeast Michigan area. In addition to that, we take some pre planning steps to have ADA pathways out to future EV parking spaces where people can charge. So, we're not just throwing a site up here without planning it. We're putting conduits in, we're planning for pedestrian traffic, we're doing a lot of things like that. So that makes us unique from other fuel station operators. So, I just would like to bring that to your attention. A couple of other things I'd like to address. Let's talk about trucks. Another thing that sets Sheetz apart is that all of our delivery trucks for our food, and our fuel, are Sheetz owned trucks, and we're operated by Sheetz employees. So, what does that mean? We do not have January 16, 2024 31240 them park on site overnight, or idle for hours on end. They're dumping fuel, they're unloading food. And then they leave. We do have day vendors, you know, chips and drinks and things like that. But those are all daytime hours. And with those types of deliveries, it's in and out pretty quick. So, I just like to reiterate, we don't have trucks idling on site for long, long periods of time, we certainly do not invite, you know, over the road truckers to come and park on our site. There's no reason for them to park. We don't have any kind of high flow of diesel that would attract them. So, we really don't want large trucks coming on our site to sit. And in fact, if they did, we'd be asking them to leave because they would really honestly plug up the site and make it harder to navigate around. You know, as far as adding light, we will comply with all your lighting standards, all of our lights are down lights, we don't have any kind of floods, which are probably written out of your lighting code. And we would meet that half foot candle at the lot line. Pretty typical requirements. And we do photometric plans, by a professional lighting designer to make sure that our lighting plans are complying with your codes. Another thing I'd like to address is this is not truly virgin ground. This has been predeveloped by another fuel station. That's one of the reasons that, you know, we knew it had previously been developed by fuel. So it kind of made sense. There's an existing site had been previously fuel and it made sense to take a look at it. Along those lines, not just with other fuel stations, but other you know, quote unquote, food service in the area, you know, adding a business like ours tends to you know, increase a lot of competition and that usually does good things. It creates reinvestment into existing buildings it creates refreshes. So, while our building is maintained well and things like that it puts pressure on other businesses to go and improve. From an alcohol sales perspective, I would just like to say that we're gonna follow all local zoning ordinances and requirements. So, we will not sell alcohol here because we are simply not allowed with our use. So, I don't think that would change. The city would have to change that type of ordinance. So that's really all I have there. From an employee and staffing perspective, we staff 715+ stores. We're very good at it. We offer really competitive wages and benefits and that's something that sets us apart and we're able to attract top employees. So, we're very confident we're going to be able to staff the site, and just in addition to that, our minimum number of employees I believe, is it two or three, two or three employees overnight. A minimum of three employees will be on site at all times. So, it's not like we're just going to have one employee there. They're going to have, you know, a manager and a couple of other shift workers there and there will be a presence. So, with that, I'd like January 16, 2024 31241 to invite our traffic engineer, Jean, up here to discuss a little bit about the traffic situation on Five Mile. Okay, thank you. Jean Hartline, Mannekin Smith Group, 2365 Haggerty Road, Canton Township. MI. I'm probably the most unpopular person in this room tonight. I've done a lot of traffic studies throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, California, and a few other states. This traffic study was done to MDOT standards, which is also adopted by Wayne County, and followed all their methodology. The MDOT traffic impact guidelines standards are very stringent and there's really very little wiggle room on them. So, the study identified that there was negative, negligible impact on the roadway system and I'll explain that in a minute. Part of that is because pass -by traffic is really the primary traffic that goes to gas stations, I can tell you, I personally gas up either on my way to work or my way home from work, I don't leave at lunchtime to gas up, or if I'm going somewhere else, a longer trip, I guess up along that trip that's a past by trip. There's never a time I leave my house, go to the gas station and then return to my house, that would be a new trip on the roadway network, and I think you'll find that you probably have the same travel patterns as when you gas up. You're on that road anyways, you just happen to pull into the gas station to fill your tank. We identified that 127 cars would enter the site in the pm peak hour, these coming from basically four legs of the road. Two on Newberg and two on Five Mile that carry 1,600 to 2,000 cars in the peak hour. That is approximately a 1% to 3% increase in traffic for all cars, including the passers-by, as well as the new traffic. So, if you consider just the new traffic, we're only adding about a one to one and a half percent increase in traffic on those roadways. So that would represent about...what would that be about? 12 cars at the peak hour, okay, and then then ifs divided on to the various roadway network. We have considered fast food. We have separate trip generation for the fast food, drive thru service there, as well as the walk-in convenience store for those people that might go in there just for a sandwich and not need gas. So, that is accounted for in that. In all, we had negligible impact on the roadway system. We maintain the levels of service for the most part. We did find that the intersection of number road and Five Mile Road could use some signal retiming to reallocate the timing. I could tell you as a former municipal traffic signal engineer, you get so busy in your daily jobs, you don't have time to visit and revisit timing on intersections, especially when you have a lot of them. Sometimes those signals don't get retimed for 20 or 30 years. So, a little tiny tweak would have some benefit to that, but that's all we found as far as impacts to the roadway network. Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Richlen: January 16, 2024 31242 All right. Thank you, Miss Hartline. I appreciate your report, and we did receive your traffic study which is in our packet. So, thank you for that. And it has a lot of detail in it. Good evening. Yes. I just wanted to make one more brief comments about Sheetz Corporation. There was a comment made about rats being a problem in the area. So. I kind of want to highlight one fundamental component of who Sheetz is. Sheetz is family owned, family operated. The Sheetz family isn't in the Canary Islands somewhere while this group does all the work. This Sheetz family is very involved. Sheetz doesn't franchise any of its stores. Every single store is a corporate store, and if you know anything about the franchising business, you know that oftentimes, so there's franchise locations and then there's corporate locations, and almost every single time the corporate location is run much better than the franchise location. Every Sheetz store is a corporate store. Cleanliness, employee attitude and all of the things alike are held paramount and so, you know, with concerns of cleanliness and things of that nature, Sheetz, I think would be somebody who performs high on that mark. So, I just wanted to make that clear about the organization. Mr. Wilshaw: I appreciate that. All right. If there's no further comments from our petitioner, is there any other questions from any of our commissioners for the petitioner before we close the public hearing? (An audience member was trying to speak) Mr. Wilshaw: Well, generally, we are going to close if you have one more comment you'd like to make, please go ahead. We don't want to get in...l don't want to get into a back and forth debate between petitioners and residents. Ms. Shaw: The last comment I wanted to make is that there's been multiple comments about the proposed development being servicing people who are passing by, I want to stress again that I want a neighborhood that isn't catering to people passing by, I want a neighborhood that's catering to the lifestyle that we want. And one of my neighbors also asked me to just mention, can you move it down to 96 and Newberg where there's already a ton of traffic down there? Like does it have to be up in the neighborhood? Thank you. January 16, 2024 31243 Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, ma'am. All right. With that, if there's no other questions from any of our commissioners, I will go ahead. And, Sir, we need to close the public hearing. We've already gone through that. Unknown audience member, Is there, just please, just let me make one comment. I just Googled on my phone, Sheetz and spills and 1'II let you do the same and you can see, you know what you see, I think the business sounds like a great business. Accidents do happen. Keep that in mind in your location. There's a lot of other spaces available. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: All right. With that I will close the public hearing at this time. And a motion would be an order. Again, this is a rezoning request, we're not approving the entire parcel here or the site plan. We're just looking at zoning. On a motion by Ventura, seconded by Bongero, and adopted, it was: #01-01-2024 RESOLVED, that pursuant to a Public Hearing having been held by the City Planning Commission on January 16, 2024, on Petition 2023-11-01-06 submitted by Skilken Gold under Sections 13.13 and 13.15 of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended, requesting to rezone the west 296.70 feet of the property at 15100 Newburgh Road, located at the southeast corner of Newburgh and Five Mile Roads in the Northwest % of Section 20, from RUF, Rural Urban Farm to C-2, General Business, the Planning Commission does hereby recommend to the City Council that Petition 2023-11-01-06 be denied for the following reasons: 1. The proposed zoning contradicts the Future Land Use Map, which designates the site as Parks and Community. 2. The Parks and Community designation is consistent with the uses currently on the Felician-owned land and appropriate for the future development of this part of the property. 3. The proposed development would require filling portions of a Zone A flood hazard area as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.). The area is currently well served with similar uses, including gas stations at the southwest and northwest corners of Five Mile and Newburgh Roads. Mr. Wilshaw: January 16, 2024 31244 FURTHER RESOLVED, that notice of the above hearing was given in accordance with the provisions of Section 13.13 and 13.15 of Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended. Is there any discussion? A roll call vote on the foregoing resolution resulted in the following: AYES: NAYS: ABSENT: ABSTAIN: Bongero, Long, Ventura, Wilshaw Dinaro, Caramagno None None Mr. Wilshaw, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with a denying resolution. ITEM #2 PETITION 2023-12-02-15 New Oakland Family Mr. Caramagno, Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Petition 2023-12-02-15 submitted by Ark-Tec Architects, L.L.C. on behalf of New Oakland Family Centers requesting special waiver use approval for a Planned Development under Section 5.02 of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended, to convert two (2) former office buildings for use as a domiciliary behavioral health facility with short-term, temporary housing (less than 72 hours per stay), on the property at 29582-29596 Five Mile Road, located on the north side of Five Mile Road between Middlebelt Road and Hidden Lane in the Southeast'/ of Section 14. Mr. Taormina: Thank you, this petition seeks special waiver -use approval, for a planned development. It involves renovating and converting two former office buildings into temporary living quarters for persons under the age of 18 experiencing behavioral health disorders. The property is on the north side of Five Mile about 600 feet west of Middle Belt Road. The petitioner in his case is New Oakland Family Centers, which operates a facility at 29550 Five Mile, which is immediately adjacent to the property under consideration. New Oakland Family Centers has multiple locations throughout Southeast Michigan, providing mental health services including crisis prevention, counseling and psychiatric evaluations. The overall site is described as three parcels. Parcel number one, the largest parcel, is about 1.84 acres and contains New Oakland's main Livonia office, which is about 20,000 square feet in size. Parcel one was initially Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Taormina: January 16, 2024 31245 developed in 1969 as a Michigan Bell Telephone distribution and training center, which was later converted into a credit union. Parcel number two lies immediately north of parcel one and is about 200 feet by 200 feet in area and is currently undeveloped. Parcel three, which is the site under consideration this evening, measures 100 feet along Five Mile Road by a depth of 279 feet, with a total land area of 28,000 square feet, which is the equivalent of about 0.6 of an acre. Parcel three was initially developed in the late 1950s as a multi -tenant office complex, which was known as Finkle Plaza. Access to parcel three is available directly from Five Mile Road and two cross access points with parcel one to the east. Parcel one, again, is zoned C-1, whereas parcels one and two are both zoned C-2 and bordering parcel one the north, west and south are single family homes zoned RUF (Rural Urban Farm). I'll show you the site plan. The site plan shows the two office buildings being converted into domiciliary behavioral health facilities. The planned modifications are mainly to the interiors of the buildings. Each building would have a kitchen, bedrooms with showers and bathrooms, a recreational area and common living area and the buildings are positioned, as you can see, along the west half of the parcel with parking on the east side of the property adjacent to parcel one. The building to the south appears on the plans as Building A. This would be the boy's dormitory and contain five bedrooms and then the parcel to the north, which is Building B is proposed to be the girls dormitory. This building is slightly larger and would have seven bedrooms. Parcels one and three contain 96 and 43 parking spaces, respectively. For parcel one, this equates to about one space for every 200 square feet of office space, which is considered adequate for general offices. And then parcel three, the parking on that site. 43 spaces is equivalent to providing two spaces per bed with an additional 19 spaces for the staff. The only other improvements to the site, besides some minor landscaping, is the addition of a dumpster at the north end of the property, which would be surrounded by a masonry screen while with that, Mr. Chairman, we do have a number of items of correspondence. I will read out the departmental correspondence. There are also several items from residents that I believe you should have in your packets. Yes, please. The first item is from the Engineering Division, dated December 5, 2023, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above referenced petition. We have no objections to the proposed waiver use at this time, but would like to note the following January 16, 2024 31246 items: 1. The subject parcel is assigned the address range of #29582 through #29596 Five Mile Road, with the address of #29594 Five Mile Road being assigned to the overall parcel. 2. The first legal description for "Parcel 3" in the submitted drawings appears to be correct (the second version is not correct) and should be used in connection with the waiver use should the petition be approved. 3. The existing parcel is currently serviced by public sanitary sewer and water main, as well as private storm sewer. The submitted drawings do not show any changes to the existing services to the building, so we do not believe there will be any negative impacts to the system with the proposed usages. 4. Should any revisions to the on -site services be required, the owner will need to submit engineering drawings to this Department to determine if permits will be required."The letter is signed by David W. Lear, P.E., Assistant City Engineer. The next letter is from the Livonia Fire & Rescue Division, dated December 7, 2023, which reads as follows: "This office has reviewed the site plan submitted in connection with a request for modification to a commercial building on the property located at the above referenced address. We have no objections to this proposal with the following stipulations: With this project proposal being a short term, temporary housing of less than 72 hours, plan set submission with review and approval may involve inspectors from The State of Michigan. A further detailed plan review will take place when this division receives an official plan set" The letter is signed by Brian Kukla Thomas, Fire Marshal. The next letter is from the Division of Police, dated January 5, 2024, which reads as follows: `1 have reviewed the plans in connection with the petition. I am concerned if this petition is passed it will have a negative effect on the residents in the area. While mental health facilities do provide outlets for people to obtain mental health assistance, they come at a cost to the quality of life of those who live in their vicinity. These facilities have frequent disturbances, assaults, runaways and calls for medical assistance. People suffering from a mental health crisis are often unpredictable and can pose a danger to the public. There will be an increase in emergency vehicle ingress and egress in the area at all hours of the day. Patients will flee from the facility as they do at all mental health facilities. One such incident resulted in the tragic death of a nurse who was struck by a vehicle attempting to return a runaway patient this past year in our city. Unlike most other facilities in the city, with the exception of numerous group homes, this proposed facility backs up to residential homes where patients will now be fleeing towards. This is not a desirable location for such a facility. Citizens in the immediate area will now be subject to an increase in this activity and high January 16, 2024 31247 likelihood of police presence around their homes. These consequences must be considered when determining if this petition should be granted. Generally, mental health employees take a hands -off approach once a patient leaves their building, requiring police intervention. This needs to be addressed with New Oakland if this petition was to be granted to determine if their policies would allow them to handle such situations on their own until they arise to a point where police intervention is required. If this petition is granted, I stress the need for 24/7 security and medical staffing, present at all times in both buildings, with proper security measures in place to curtail patient runaways and disturbances which undoubtedly will be a common occurrence. Furthermore, due to the ages of the patients this facility will be serving, staffing should be available at all times to assist in any transports to a hospital so that Livonia resources are not exhausted waiting for the patient's guardian to appear at the hospital. The city of Livonia has several mental health centers that are a constant draw on the resources of this city. Assisting mental health facilities already places a large burden on the available public safety resources this city has and this will undeniably increase if this petition is approved." The letter is signed by Paul Walters, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The next letter is from the Inspection Department, dated January 9, 2024, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request, the above -referenced Petition has been reviewed. 1. The petitioner's proposal is a change in use. This would require that the proposed space must conform to all current barrier -free codes, building codes, and all mechanical codes and standards. This will be addressed further at the time of the plan review if this project moves forward. This Department has no further objections to this Petition." The letter is signed by Jerome Hanna, Director of Inspection. The next letter is from the Finance Department, dated December 27, 2023, which reads as follows: "1 have reviewed the addresses connected with the above noted petition. As there are no outstanding amounts receivable, general or water and sewer, I have no objections to the proposal." The letter is signed by Connie Kumpula, Chief Accountant. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Taormina, and again, as Mr. Taormina noted, we did receive some communication from residents via email and other online resources and we do have those in our packet, and we appreciate those comments. They will become part of our record. So, is there any questions for our planning staff? I see no questions for our planning staff, our petitioner is in the January 16, 2024 31248 audience, feel free to come forward to our podium. We ask that you start with your name and address please. Greg Sendi, 26545 American Drive, Southfield, Michigan. Good evening. Is it possible that I could have the remote control? Mr. Taormina: That wasn't ours. Mr. Sendi: Oh, that was theirs. Okay. So, I'm going to impose on Mark to move slides quickly. I came with many more slides than I think we have time for. So, I'm going to skip through some in the interest of time, but everything that I have is in the books that had been distributed and if anyone has any immediate questions or would like to address something that I've skipped over, we can certainly go back to that. I want to provide just a little bit of background if you could move to the next slide, Mark, about our organization. It all starts with my father, who is the gentleman on the left and also the gentleman on the right. This is my family. I am not in this photo, which means I probably took this photo. But he is our founder and our dad and passed away in 2015 but was really an innovative and visionary child and adolescent psychiatrist who, in so many ways that I don't have time to discuss tonight. He really devoted his life to the mental health and wellness of children across our state and founded New Oakland at a time when he easily could have retired in 1990. But did not and instead started our company and shortly after that brought us to Livonia where we have been since the year 200. At our Schoolcraft site and now at the Five Mile location, which is being discussed in this meeting. Next slide please. I won't spend much time on this except to say that we have more than that... actually, that number should be 500, 500 staff across the state. Next slide please. We are providing enormous amounts of care. If you add up just the number of families and individuals that we touch every year, not just in Southeast Michigan, but across the state and a number of points of care. 600,000. A point of care is an appointment or a treatment day or psychiatric review, what have you. Next slide please. This is a little bit...l'II dwell on this just for a moment. A little bit of our history in Livonia and we started on Schoolcraft in 2000. It was our second location here in Livonia after our initial founding. It is the anchor of Livonia in so many ways of our presence across Wayne County. We now have two locations, Schoolcraft and Five Mile. Five Mile was added in 2019, making Livonia the only municipality with two New Oakland locations. We have committed to this community for almost a quarter of a century. We're very proud of that. Next slide, please. These are all our dots on the map. I won't spend any time on this except to January 16, 2024 31249 say we're all-over Southeast Michigan. Next slide. From east to west, these are our locations, including highlighted in yellow are new Kalamazoo locations. So, we are serving not just southeast Michigan, but the state as a whole. Next slide, please. These are all photos of our locations. You can see what they look like. They are all you know, a credit to the towns that they're in. They're well maintained. They are really an important presence, highlighting in all of these communities, whether it is you know, Wayne County or any other place that we do business, the importance of our commitment, especially to child and adolescent mental health. We are really devoted to that mission. We, as an organization, serve 40,000 individuals a year, and half of them are kids and teens. And as I'm sure everybody knows and in many of us have experience with the mental health crisis facing kids and teens in all of our communities, rich and poor, every demographic group, every part of the country, every part of the state is a real issue. The proposal that we are advocating for here tonight is really about stepping up as a community and as an organization to fill an important gap in mental health care for kids. We stand for the idea of the right care at the right time. Right care, sort of self-explanatory, and it means everything from ordinary counselling that any one of us might need on any given day, to up to but not including psychiatric hospitalization. What this proposal is designed to do is provide a really underdeveloped, not just here in Livonia or in Wayne County, but underdeveloped an important offering that the entire mental health system needs to do more of, which is to provide not long-term beds for weeks or months, but just up to 72 hours for kids so that we can assess what the right next step for those kids is. That's something that we do in Oakland County, and the proposed location in Livonia would be our first step to doing this in Wayne County. I'm not going to spend any time on this. We do all that we do, all sorts of things related to mental health for kids. Next slide, please. And this graphic, which you can look at, at your leisure, just really represents that continuum of care from very low intervention, things like seeing a counselor to much more high intervention things, but not including overnight beds in a hospital setting. Next, please. I won't spend any time on this. I will say simply... Next slide, please...that the activities that are envisioned for this location are sort of a companion to something that's called our partial hospital day program or a face-to-face program. This is a very intensive sort of counseling program that involves many kinds of things: psychiatric care, one on one therapy, group therapy, family therapy. We've been doing this in Livonia and in Wayne County, as I said, for 20, almost 25 years. It's the core of what we do. It has brought individuals with sometimes very acute January 16, 2024 31250 mental illness to Livonia, but our solutions have never been in question as part of an overall continuum of mental health services and especially the work that we do with kids has really been quite extraordinary and will stand on our 25-year history, 24 year history in Livonia, you know, for just the quality. Not just the care that we provide, but also the safety and security and attention to the issues of the community both at our Schoolcraft location and later at our Five Mile location. I'll skip this slide. You can ask questions about it if you'd like. This next section is just our vision for the crisis center. I want to make a couple of points. One is that we are embarking on this request, at the encouragement of one of our major major partners, which is Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. They have encouraged us and have really put a lot of trust in us to find a location in the Detroit area, in Wayne County, that they can send kids to who are Blue Cross Blue Shield members and are in need of this kind of care. So, we would have done it eventually, but their encouragement and their insistence is an important part and I think, a vote of confidence in the idea overall. The second thing is that a large percentage of the individuals that will be treating are kids with eating disorders. I don't know if anyone is familiar with eating disorders, I certainly won't go into it. I'm not a clinician, but these are not aggressive assaultive individuals, they are often, but not always, young women and girls who have issues related to eating disorders and that will be a big part of the proposed population. The other part of the population will be individuals with mood and anxiety disorders, again, not an aggressive assaultive population at all. We pay very, very careful attention to that, but I mean, these are going to be kids. And again, if you have kids, you know the prevalence of depression and anxiety among youth in our communities and those are the kinds of kids who will be getting this kind of care. Next slide please. So, you know, what it will be is...1 won't read what it won't be, because you can see that, but it is going to be a multi -use facility. It's going to be voluntary. No one is going to be committed to or sort of forced to participate. It is very short term less than 72 hours. At our facility and Oakland County the average duration of stay is 27 hours, so we don't usually max out the 72. It will be closed to visitors, and so there won't be a lot of traffic in and out. It will be staffed 24/7 around the clock with mental health professionals including psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, security staff, and mental health care professionals and nurses. So, there will be round-the-clock staffing. And then finally, it will really be an opportunity to serve Livonia. Among all the communities in...our region in we think and hope and believe will be a really innovative way. Next slide, please. I'm not going to spend time on these. You can read January 16, 2024 31251 them. There are three case studies of the kinds of kids who will be involved. One is a case study of a young woman with eating disorders. Next one, please. One is a young man with depression. And the next one, please. One is a boy with anxiety and, and depression, as well. We don't have time to go into all of them. Please do read and let us know if you have any thoughts or questions about those case studies. I think a lot of this is already in your packet. So, I'm going to actually just encourage you to skim over them. These are some of the plans for the facility itself. I think we saw it at the beginning before I even got up here. Landscaping. I will ask you to just dwell on the photos. This is our FCC, what's known as the FCC program facility in Oakland County. This is what it'll look like inside. So, there'll be a lobby and reception area. Next slide, please. A kitchen and an interview area. Again, very contemporary and sort of, you know, well designed and maintained. Next slide, please. There will be bedrooms for kids without physical disabilities, and with physical disabilities. They're slightly different, but they look the same. Bathrooms, again, very much like a sort of hotel bathroom or really nice dormitory bathroom. Same. There'll be facilities with individuals' disabilities as well. Next slide, please. And, you know, all I can say in response to, you know, some of the issues that were raised is that...next slide, please...safety becomes our highest priority. So, there'll be zero tolerance for drug and alcohol abuse. We have never had either in our Oakland County facility or in other treatment areas, any kind of elopement or, you know, escape issues. Mostly because, I mean, obviously, teens are liable to do all sorts of things, but kids are in general, especially with the kinds of diagnoses that these kids have, you know, and the kind of staffing that we will provide, you know, very sort of receptive to the, you know, kind of restrictions and security that we will maintain. So, we view it as part of our commitment to Livonia, to Wayne County, to Southeast Michigan. It is part of our dad's vision. I am joined here by our architect and by my brother who is our president, and CEO. And the last thing, just in response to some of the discussion group questions from last week, is this pie chart. I'm sorry, there's not a slide for it. But each of you has one of these. And it gives you on the side that says proposed Livonia crisis care unit, expected utilization by geography, the anticipation of where these kids are going to come from based on where our current census of kids comes from. So, you can see Detroit as the largest community in our region has about 21%. Livonia itself has 8%. 8% of the kids we serve in Livonia come from Livonia. A large percentage, this big blue pie slice, is elsewhere in Wayne County. That's neither Detroit nor Livonia. Then you can see Oakland County, Washington and some other Mr. Wilshaw: January 16, 2024 31252 slices. And then this is a little tougher to read. But this is on the other side, where they come from in Oakland County. The facility in Oakland County is at 1200 Telegraph Road. Government complex in Pontiac. So, Pontiac is the largest slice at 12%, but you can see the point of this pie chart is just that they come from all over. They come from Birmingham and Bloomfield and Farmington and Troy, and you know, there is no sense of like a kind of geographic catchment area. Really the entire Oakland County has hired us to do this because they want to serve the entire county and we believe that Wayne County and outside of Wayne County for eating disorder cases will be well served by this facility as well. So, I went very fast through all that stuff. But I hope that...I guess what I want to say is that, you know, this is really about investing in our community in ways that will make a difference in the lives of kids. You know, our dad passed away before he could see a lot of the flowering of his vision to do that kind of work, but we're, my brothers and I, and another brother who's not here are making that happen and we just would really welcome the opportunity to bring this this kind of facility and this kind of capability to Livonia. So, I think that's where I'll leave it. Thank you for your presentation. Mr. Sendi. It was excellent. We do have your full presentation here to look through as well. I know that we've been doing that as you gave it. So, thank you. Let's see if there's any questions for you from any of our commissioners. Is there any questions for our petitioner? Mr. Bongero: Good evening. First, understand, I think you guys, it's great. What you're doing is really, really, really great. I know it's needed for sure. 100% support it. I think for me, the biggest concern I have is security. As the officer said, they have a lot of experience around the city, and the things that they've experienced. He recommends 24/7 security on site, you had mentioned there's security on site, what type of security is that? Mr. G. Sendi: It would be around the clock and I'll let my brother, Kevin, our president, sort of get into the details of our security staffing. Kevin Sendi, CEO New Oakland Family Centers, Livonia, MI. So first off, I do want to highlight the type of kids that we would be typically serving would not rise to the level of an inpatient psychiatric facility. It would be less acute. It would not be aggressive assaultive. Not the typical SUD cases, the substance use disorder cases, but to your point with regards to security, we anticipate approximately 20 staff per building. Now that would be based on full-time equivalents. And with a 24/7 model, every Mr. Bongero: Mr. K. Sendi: Mr. Bongero: Mr. K Sendi: January 16, 2024 31253 eight -hour shift, would...you would need three per day, right? Three, three staff shifts per day, so seven days a week, 21 shifts. So, we would anticipate at certain times of the day two to three staff on shift at all times. With that would be like my brother Greg said, behavioral health technicians, nurses, psychiatrists, security. Typically in the mental health world, security is viewed as a behavioral health technician. This would be male, female, someone that is skilled in behavioral health crisis. It wouldn't necessarily be a security guard, although that could be considered. But I want to highlight the fact that this will not be a drop off psychiatric facility and urgent care admissions will be screened during the day to make sure that the child is appropriate for an overnight stay of one to three days. So that does do a lot to establish whether there is appropriateness for a child to participate in this level of care. But to your point, security would come with an abundance of staff. Okay, that sounds good. But, if I'm a 16 year old boy, I'm in your facility, if I want to leave, I can leave? Yes. So, there's really nothing you're gonna say. You might call my parents, you might call the police, but in the meantime, I can be down the road or in the neighborhood. Right? That's, I mean, is that in fact true? Is that how that would work? So, I'll tell you our model, and I'll give you an example given our existing facility and how this would apply to our existing day program facilities across the state. First off, our existing facility is voluntary. Parents will admit, sign off on, this is not a involuntary type of hospitalization. So, it is voluntary. Second, with that, there will be no technical seclusion and restraint. We will not be using four -point restraints, we will not be using injection medicines, we will not be using PRN to medicate an individual. If they require that level of care, they would never come, we would never approve that admission. The facility as it stands in our Pontiac Waterford location would replicate this. There would be key cards swiping in and out. That would preclude people from coming and going at will, hopefully, dealing with elopement to some extent. There would be fire egress, the way it's established you, once you hit the fire, the door depress, there'll be a delay, the doors would open at that point. So, a elopement would be safeguarded in that way. However, just like in any of our facilities, if kids want to leave, they're going to try to leave, you know, not through windows or whatnot, but they're going to find ways to leave, they'll press the Mr. Bongero: Mr. K. Sendi: Mr. Bongero: Mr. K. Sendi: Mr. Bongero: Mr. K. Sendi: Mr. Bongero: Mr. Wilshaw: Ms. Dinaro: Mr. K. Sendi: Ms. Dinaro: Mr. K Sendi: January 16, 2024 31254 fire or whatever. At that point, we have to involve authorities, we're, you know, we'll do our best to, you know, prevent the elopement with our behavioral texts, but we would have to involve the authorities. What I will say, we've been open for a year in the Waterford Pontiac location, we've had zero elopements. We have not had to call the police to prevent an overnight stay from being an elopement. So that is a testament to the kids that we admit and their clinical needs and our skills as clinicians. Just one last question, how many of your facilities backup to residential? Well, so all of our...frankly, most or all of our office -based facilities, all the pictures you saw on there are near residentials. But the 72 hours..do you have other ones? Just the Pontiac one is our first overnight. I will tell you that we...our first one was originally going to be in Clawson, Troy and we got approved we went in front of Clawson and got approval for it, and it boarded a residential. What happened was Waterford became available and we called an audible and moved up to where the county wanted us to be. So, we were approved under Clawson government to be right next to a residential, but we audibled and moved over. So, that facility is not backing up to residential? The Waterford. The Waterford is not. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Bongero. Any other questions for petitioner? Just a follow-up question to Mr. Bongeros question. You said two to three staff. Is that per building? Yes. Because there is girls facility, a boys facility. Yes, they can't be left alone. So, there'll be behavioral tech at both facilities. There'll be a, nurse. I mean, there will be some duplicity. That nurse could cover both buildings. But I think the techs and some of the core staff, a therapist would not be January 16, 2024 31255 shifted. Full time nurse for one building is a little bit excessive. Full time equivalents, probably half. So having them share responsibility for the most part, yes. Dedicated staff. The ratios would be small. I think I did want to highlight that are our census at our Waterford facility...it's an eight bed facility and I don't think it's exceeded six and typically the census is around three to four. Mr. G Sendi: Yeah, it's...the average census is 4.1 in a bed facility, and we would expect similar ratio. Mr. K Sendi: And that's for management and staffing and ratios. But when you try to convert an admission, you want to have a bed available while someone's being discharged, so it makes it easier. Mr. Wilshaw: All right. Any other questions for petitioner? Mr. Ventura: Just a clarification on a question that Mr. Bongero asked. So your patients are voluntarily admitted, and can discharge themselves on their own volition at any time? Mr. K Sendi: So, they're voluntary, yes, by their parents. They're admitted by their parents, the parent would have to sign off on their discharge. Mr. Ventura: So, does the parent have to be present when they are discharged? Mr. K Sendi: Yeah, typically. I mean, they have to, they would have to sign off. I mean, obviously, you could do some things electronically if they're stable and they're being discharged, but there'd have to be a sign off by a parent or guardian. Mr. Ventura: Okay, And if you have a patient that leaves the facility without being discharged, what happens then? Mr. K Sendi: Parents are going to be called and parents will be called in police will be called. Mr. Ventura: Okay, but your staff can't pursue them or constrain them in any way. Mr. K Sendi: No, that's not true. I mean, we don't use seclusion and restraint as a way to de escalate a situation with a child that's sort of out of control. But if someone elopes, we're going to do our best to detain them and make sure they don't. You know, we can't Mr. Ventura: Mr. K. Sendi: January 16, 2024 31256 physically restrain someone who's walking away. But we can follow and verbally persuade while parents and police are engaged. That is a clear answer, thank you. Yeah, this would really be the case in any of our centers. Even if if a child were to come for initial evaluation, if they were not happy, and they were walking out the building, and the parent didn't know what to do, we would probably follow them as we call the police because they were risk of harm or to self and they weren't in a 24 hour, they weren't in our partial program, they could be a new kid off the street to us, that would still be the approach we would use. Mr. Ventura: Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Ventura. Any other questions for our petitioner? Mr. Caramagno: A couple of things. First of all, thank you, thank you much for this. This was what I was asking you about last week. Your Waterford facility? Is there any secondary containment? Or is it just the same building situation as there's no fence around the other location. There're no gates to go through to get out through and get out. Mr. K. Sendi: There is the key card that I mentioned. So that would be something we would employ here, we would use a scan to change, to egress, or, but there is the fire depress bar, just like most facilities have and once that's pressed, there's a delay, and obviously that five or 10 second delay or whatever it is, sounds the alarm. Mr. Caramagno: I understand. I just I didn't know if you had another perimeter. Mr. K Sendi: No. Mr. Caramagno: The ability to slow down someone that might be leaving the facility. So now once they're out there, if they jumped that fence back behind what you're proposing here, they're in the neighborhood. Okay, thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Caramagno. Any other questions? I have a couple that I will ask. Just so I understand how your facility differs from some of the other facilities I can think of in the area, and maybe you can help explain that for us, I'm thinking particularly of Hawthorne Center on Haggerty Road in January 16, 2024 31257 Northville, and even St. Marys Hospital, which admits children for psychiatric care as well. How does your facility differ from those two facilities? If you were to compare them? Mr. K Sendi: Sure. So, let's start with Hawthorne. You know, our dad was director of Fairline Center, which was the sister group to Hawthorne. So, we're very familiar with the Hawthorne level of care. That is kids that are acutely mentally ill, and borderline long term, Ward's of the state. So, they are really the sickest of the sick. And those are long term facilities where they'll have ongoing treatment for years, typically, aggressive assaultive, and oftentimes very difficult to manage. That's a secure lockdown facility. There's nothing voluntary about that. So, it's really sort of night and day from this concept. The case studies that you saw there, those would be short term cases where you're just trying to stabilize a kid that's like, like Greg said, there's an eating disorder issue or a mood anxiety issue, something short term, that you're trying to transition them to sort of lower level of care group therapy or outpatient or seeing a psychiatrist or whatever it is, but you don't know what that is yet because things are happening really quick. The second piece, the St. Mary's, again, that's an inpatient facility. St. Mary's is an inpatient adult facility. The emergency room there, we receive many kids and adults from the emergency room at St. Mary's, they do not rise to the level of inpatient. So, if an if an adult needed inpatient St. Mary's might admit the adult to their own unit, or they might transfer them to Haven Wick, Harbor Oaks, another inpatient psych. If they don't need inpatient, meaning they're depressed but there is no suicidal plan or intent, they could refer them to us as an outpatient facility, we would take over care. We would do a psychiatric evaluation. We'd stabilize and see a therapist once a week, once a month, whatever that might be. Same with kids, inpatient needed, they'd go to Haven Wick or Harbor Oaks. Less, they could come to us. So many of the cases that go to St. Mary's or any emergency room hospital, whether in Livonia or outside of Livonia make their way to us because they don't rise to the level of in inpatient, but they certainly don't rise the level of Hawthorne. Hawthorne is the level above impatient. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay, thank you for that explanation that's helpful to understand the system and how it works and the different levels that are available. The other question is, you're building currently on Five Mile Road that's immediately next door to this. I know you do some counseling and other functions there. How will you utilize that building? And was there ever any consideration to using that building for residential overnight? Mr. K Sendi: January 16, 2024 31258 So, we acquired that building in 2019, because we really grew out of our Schoolcraft location, and we want to do some different clinical things. It's fully utilized, all 20,000 square feet, 10,001st floor 10,002nd floor. That's one way we separate the kids from the adults that need services. Kids are upstairs, adults are downstairs. So, there is a segmentation there, but we have group rooms on both floors. There'll be a kid's group room, which would be like 10 and under, a preteen, which would be like 10 to 12 or 13, and then a teen group room, because we do stress the importance of keeping kids in their age -appropriate categories and then on the first floor would be adults. That would be group therapies, but also, like I said, our partial program, and then traditional outpatient services. So that is fully occupied. We never really considered that for a residential concept or domiciliary concept. We did think that the side buildings would one day potentially be something that we could consider for domiciliary because it's sort of there. Just a real good complement there and the domiciliary...anyone that comes to one of those two buildings for those 24 to 72 hours, could actually benefit from services in the building by walking 10 feet. Right? So that was that was a consideration. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay, good. Thank you. And that actually gives me one more question, which is, you mentioned that you treat both adults and youth in your normal practice and what we've been talking about for these particular buildings is youth housing for potentially...maybe one building for females, one for males and you said at our study meeting that perhaps there's an opportunity if you had an abundance of females that maybe you would separate by age groups or something like that using the buildings as that separation. Is there any potential or any possibility that adults could ever be domiciled at these buildings? Mr. K Sendi: Mr. Wilshaw: No, our intent is all kids. The need for kids in the Blue Cross directive for this is all kids, especially with the eating disorder piece, and adults take a whole different type of approach. We don't want to get...let's just say it's not in our wheelhouse right now. Okay, great. Thank you. And I did at least want to mention that, as Mr. Bongero said, we definitely understand that there is a great need for this within the greater community. There's definitely a lot of issues with mental health these days. So we do appreciate the services you do provide. Is there any other questions from any of our other commissioners? I don't see January 16, 2024 31259 anyone else has any questions. Let's go to our audience and see if there's anyone in our audience wishing to speak for or against this petition. Feel free to come to our podium. Good evening, Miss McIntyre. Kathleen McIntyre, 14455 Fairway, Livonia, MI. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I have some questions through you for the petitioner. So, it was mentioned that the Waterford Pontiac facility has never required an emergency police call for elopement. Is that correct? Mr. Wilshaw: That is what they indicated. If you'd like to just give us all your questions, we'll get him up after it's okay to answer so we don't go back and forth. Ms. McIntyre: Great. The other questions are: What have first responders been called for? You know, if not for a elopement, have there been other calls have there been, you know, fire calls, false fire alarms, other you know, other police calls? The other comment that I have is the discussion about voluntary hospitalization. These are minors. So, you know, I don't know if there's a distinction between, you know...parents have a right to seek treatment for their children, right, without the children having to agree. So, is it legally voluntary? Meaning parents have the right or are all the minor patients there willingly? So those are my questions. Mr. Wilshaw: Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll go to the next president who wishes to speak and again, we'll we'll get those questions answered for you afterwards. Heather Anderson, 15470 Hidden Lane, Livonia, MI. This is literally my backyard. My neighbor is here also. It's her backyard too. I wish I had come to the hearing for them to put the community center into the location for the counseling. Our neighborhood was great. We had occasional bums coming through, and since it's went in, we don't cut through McDonald's in their parking lot anymore, because it smells like weed so bad. I don't want my kid around...my youngest around it. We can't walk out front because there's broken bottles on the sidewalk. I literally had to carry my dog one day, there are so many, so much broken glass. It's a dump. I mean, it's not that corner that it used to be anymore. And that's my backyard. I have an 11-year-old in the house. And I know my neighbor's gonna say she's got two little ones. We have animals, there is no wall. Literally they can walk into our yard. I have a little tiny picket fence. There's no way you can tell me that kids with depression and anxiety are non- January 16, 2024 31260 combative. I have three children that don't have anxiety and depression. And they're all combative. I mean, they're good kids, but they're combative. I mean, it's in the nature of a kid and with the new health laws in play that kids can't, they can make their own decisions over their parents. I don't know what kind of play that has in a situation like this. I have no rights over what my kid did from the time he was 15 until 18. I had no play. You can't talk to the doctors. They won't talk to you. I don't know how that correlates with something like this. I mean, if the parents making the decision to put their kid in there, the kids not going to be happy. They're going to be combative, because that's the nature of adolescence. This is scary to me. This is one of the scarier things having this in my backyard. I think that's it. Mr. Wilshaw: Well, thank you. And your question does dovetail into Ms. Mclntyre's question about how the voluntary aspect of this work does, so we'll try to get that clarified a little bit for you. (From the audience) Is the new law protecting the kids rights with health care that... Mr. Wilshaw: We understand? Thank you. Good evening, sir. Hunter Anderson, 15470 Hidden Lane, Livonia, MI. I am a member of the Livonia Youth Commission and recently we have done quite a bit of work promoting mental health and we have been organizing with Livonia Save Our Youth Coalition, a Livonia youth summit in which we intend to focus on mental health problems. We recognize that mental health is a problem through children, through teenagers, and it's a problem that can last a lifetime if left untreated. We understand that and we do applaud the New Oakland Family Centers work on combating that but putting 24 — 72 hours residential areas right in somebody's backyard is not the way to go about it. As somebody who has fought and has been fighting mental health issues throughout my life, I understand that it requires a lot of understanding and understanding doesn't come from being shoved by your parents into a place with people you don't know, people you may not trust. And you may not want to stay there, you might want to leave. If you want to leave, there's an alley that leads right to two backyards that has quite a few young children who don't know who is corning out from those buildings. It could be in the dead of night and there could be people running through. There can be a lot more police activity in the area. And as my mother said, there's a lot of animals which act...they can act in many different ways, including violence against strangers that they Mr. Wilshaw: January 16, 2024 31261 don't know running through their yards. So, I believe in both protecting the neighborhood of Hidden Lane and nearby communities and protecting children that could potentially go into this program. This cannot be something that goes through. Thank you. Well, thank you, Mr. Anderson, for your comments and also for your service to our community. Appreciate that. Is there anyone else wishing to speak for against this? Katie McNulty, 30976. Orangelawn, Livonia, MI. I wrote in just today. I don't know if you were able to see it. I doubt it, but I believe because of the special waiver, this needs to pass a set of standards and the first one is the proposed use or uses shall not should be in such a location sizing character as to be in harmony with the appropriate and orderly development of the zoning district in which it's situated and shall not be detrimental to the orderly development, adjacent zoning districts will obviously this does not pass the mustard full stop. I also asked before...I was just trying to learn about the zoning here. I believe 6.23, is that correct? Is that what we go for these types of facilities? Mr. Wilshaw: I believe that's correct. Ms. McNulty: So, right off the bat, should be on a 25-acre, parcel of land. So, this is clearly not even that. There are so many things on this with regards to fencing, size of the property, surveillance, location, location next to housing. I mean, this is like these folks that it's in their backyard. So, it is literally like when I wrote this, this afternoon, I was like, well, how much are you waiving for to take away? Everything or ask you to waive everything on this list of what you're supposed to be doing? And obviously, they're written for a reason. Thank you very much. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Miss McNulty. Anyone else wishing to speak for or against? James Crowley,16106, blue skies. And anyway, I don't want to rehash what Katie brought up and some of the others. But again, I think, you know, it's great that they're doing great work, you know, I appreciate, and we do need this type of, you know, service, but, again, it's not appropriate for the zoning, or this site. I was married to a health care worker, and for many years, and we had these discussions, and she worked in a very similar type setting and, you know, sometimes you just don't know when someone's going to get aggressive. So, I heard, you know, a lot of different stories over the years of, you know, things that happened, you Mr. Wilshaw: Cassandra Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. K Sendi: January 16, 2024 31262 know, that aggression. And I guess there's still some question, you know, we're talking about eating disorders and serving that population. But there's also a mix. And I guess, I'm not really sure. There's some confusion about exactly what portion of the population is going to be other than and at what level of illness or disorder that they have. So, we don't know...there's a lot of unknowns and yet we're standing here ready to make a decision to move forward. And yet, I think there's some uncertainty also looking at the pie chart and I do understand that other communities need to be served, but a very small portion was Livonia and so we're putting that right into our community. And I think we need to think about the site and I don't think this is appropriate for the site, and there's too many unknowns. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Crowley. Anyone else wishing to speak? Oh, good evening, ma'am. Nangle, 15400 Hidden Lane, Livonia, MI. This does backup immediately to my home, this site, and while I do appreciate the work that New Oakland centers is doing, and the great need for behavioral health in our state and community and probably country, I do fear for my children backing up playing in the backyard, possibly people watching them. They're nine and five. And there's just so many unknowns that I'm fearful of. We've had a lot of problems with the empty building behind us. My husband has had to call non -emergency police line to report people breaking windows out of the building. There's been vandalism at the end of the building. There is no fence or barrier behind the building. There is no wall, there is a wall backing up to a portion of the building. That's a long Five Mile but not right behind our home. So, and there's really not even, I think, five feet between our property line and the building. So, I just would ask that you please don't consider this. Alright, thank you for your comments. Is anyone else wishing to speak on this item? If not, our Petitioner can come forward. And we do have some questions that we'd like to get answered in regard to the emergency calls or calls to service that have been placed to your current facility in Oakland County. And what those involve. What types of... So to be clear, our existing facility in Waterford, the 24 to 72 hour residential, there has had no elopements. I will say that all of our centers, including the services that are provided next to the 24-to-72-hour facility in Waterford, there are incidents there. Our Livonia center and Schoolcraft or Livonia. Five Mile, there January 16, 2024 31263 are times we've had to call the police because someone was present for treatment, and they were inappropriate for service with us, and we have to call the police. But once they had been screened, and we have deemed them appropriate for an overnight stay at our Waterford facility, we have not had any elopements. So, I want to be clear about that. But across our sites on occasion, just like at any service, whether you present to the emergency room or any outpatient center, there are times when people present, and they don't fit our service level and we have to find services for them that could potentially involve the police or an ambulance. But with regards to our 24/7, that's never happened. To the point about voluntary/involuntary? It's a great question. It's a very...it's a tough topic with kids and voluntary versus involuntary, but for our project here, and our Waterford project, everyone is voluntary, which means if you don't want to participate, we're going to have to have a meeting of the minds just because a parent wants you to participate... if a child is oppositional, defiant, not interested, not...ultimately makes them not appropriate. And then it would not make sense for us to admit this child to this level of care. So, we're going to use our best screening process to make sure kid is on board, parent is on board, voluntary, everyone signs off. Otherwise, you go down a path where it's involuntary, and it doesn't make sense and we're not the right place for that child, or that family. Just because the parents want the service for their child. If the child is not on board, it doesn't make sense for us to spin our wheels and have the police there in 24 hours because the child is trying to elope. So, I want to be clear about that. Now, could potentially something happen from turn from voluntary to involuntary in the child's mind where they think well, I'm voluntary, I don't want to stay here now. I want to go. Yeah, but we have not experienced that at our Waterford site. I think that's a testament to our screening process. So, that was the compliance issue. I think I touched upon that. If I missed something there, let me know. I think there were questions about how we will maintain the space, I think we've spoke about this. We will get into compliance with any escalation of the wall to make that in compliance, we're going to definitely completely renovate the space with new roof and making it look a lot nicer resources will be put into that. If there are issues with our existing space, with weed or with glass bottles or any of that, I'll definitely look into that, that I did not know that, you know, coming into this, but that's of super importance. I think we all know the weed is an issue across the whole state. But we can definitely put resources into addressing that. We don't want this to hinder the community. Our goal is to really improve resources in the community. Again, with combative kids, I get it. I've got a January 16, 2024 31264 kid that's combative, too sometimes. But we really don't want to admit kids for this service, if they are not appropriate. So, I think the hypotheticals we showed are the type of cases where we're dealing with. Eating disorders is one that BlueCross has really chaired us to, to address. Those are typically not aggressive assaultive individuals; they do need intervention. Mood anxiety can lead to some disruption, but for the most part we're dealing with cases in this space that don't rise to that level of aggressive assault. To the point of the Livonia youth summit, I applaud the individual for that. We'd like to work hand in hand with the youth summit to address this. I do recognize that bordering upon other houses is an issue. What I will say, though, I think we spoke about this, is sometimes the state licensed adult foster care homes and children's therapeutic group homes in residential facilities. I'm not sure if Livonia has adult foster care or children's therapeutic group homes, across the community, but those are homes in the community. We're trying to segment that off from the residents with a wall and attach adjacent to our behavior health facility. So we are trying to keep that away from the residents as much as possible, although we couldn't put it inside that the building to your point. Again, I would stress that we deal a lot more with disruptive kids in our traditional outpatient centers when presenting for treatment on a daily basis, then we've ever experienced in our Waterford facility for the last year. I mean, we see, like to Greg's point, we, you know, 40,000 to 600,000 touch points, dozens of intakes a day at each site. And the disruption that a new patient causes is far more than an established patient, which is what these kids would be. Again, fencing, we'll address that. And I know that there was a point on the zoning, I know we don't fall exclusively under an exact zoning issue. I think Rich was going to speak to that, but I think there's a sliver on a couple of zonings and that's why we're here to see if we can qualify for one of those two, because it's a little bit unclear as to how we would fall. So, I don't know if Rich had anything to say or if you guys wanted to speak to that. We could address it. Rich Kovanda Ark Tec Architects, 17376 W 12 Mile Road, Southfield, MI. I was wondering if I could maybe impose on Mark maybe to help us address the issue with our use and how we fall not specifically into an approved use. Mr. Wilshaw: Mark, I believe this is a special waiver -use. Is that correct? Mr. Taormina: That is correct. January 16, 2024 31265 Mr. Wilshaw: So, there's a carve out within the zoning that allows with a special waiver for this type of facility? Mr. Taormina: That is correct. Section 6.23 does not apply in this case. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay. Mr. Taormina: This falls under provision of a plan development, which is a special section in the ordinance that considers uses that might not otherwise all fall neatly within any particular zoning district and provides the standards for which the Planning Commission and the City Council ultimately determine if that planned development, as it's referred to, is appropriate for a given site or location. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay, so ifs a little bit different than we discussed with the resident earlier. Mr. Taormina: Correct. Mr. Wilshaw: Good. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. Is there any other questions from any of our commissioners for our petitioner? Mr. Caramagno. Mr. Caramagno: Just another question about the 72-hour care. I know you said they don't stay 72 hours, typically, and you don't fill the facility. What's the thought process behind 72 hours? Mr. K Sendi: The 72 hours was a state...sort of understanding back in the day. It's sort of morphed as to it not being super important, but I think the real clinical philosophy with that is, the longer a child is spending time with you, or an adult, overnight, they become detached from their family. We spoke about Hawthorne, we spoke about inpatient, the longer the length of stay in treatment, the less clinical benefit is to the child. You want to keep the child attached to their family as much as possible. Can they have a day program and intensive out program, outpatient program? Yes, but we don't want a child to be with us three, four or five weeks. That's not clinically helpful to the child as long as you can find that next level of care to find them...to sort of exercise those muscles that they're going to develop skills and resources with. Mr. Caramagno: Is it possible that the child can stay with you for two days, go home for a day, come back for three days, go home for a couple of days, is that possible? January 16, 2024 31266 Mr. K. Sendi: That's not what we're looking at. We're looking at stabilizing whatever is going on, one to three days, and then finding the appropriateness. Technically, they could come back, but if they... if we establish them in a secondary level of care, we think that if that fails, then we have to look at other resources. We don't want this to be a revolving door. Mr. Caramagno: Does the insurance or the insurance continue to pick up intermittent stays? Mr. K. Sendi: Everything we do is based on medical necessity. So, unfortunately, we're at the mercy of the insurance company. Whatever they tell us to do, we're going to do. We will advocate when we feel more or less as needed, but from our relationship with Blue Cross, this is 24 to 72 hours and that is what their understanding is to cover from their benefit package. Mr. Caramagno: Thanks. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Caramagno Any other questions before we close the public hearing. No other questions. I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing at this time and a motion would be in order. Thank you, gentlemen, for your presentation. On a motion by Dinaro, seconded by Ventura, and unanimously adopted, it was #01-02-2024 RESOLVED, that pursuant to a Public Hearing having been held by the City Planning Commission on January 16, 2024, on Petition 2023-12-02-15 submitted by Ark-Tec Architects, L.L.C. on behalf of New Oakland Family Centers requesting special waiver use approval for a Planned Development under Section 5.02 of the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended, to convert two (2) former office buildings for use as a domiciliary behavioral health facility with short-term, temporary housing (less than 72 hours per stay), on the property at 29582-29596 Five Mile Road, located on the north side of Five Mile Road between Middlebelt Road and Hidden Lane in the Southeast '/4 of Section 14, the Planning Commission does hereby deny Petition 2023-12-02-15 for the following reasons: The petitioner has failed to comply with all special and general standards and requirements as outlined in Sections 5.02 and 13.13 of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended. January 16, 2024 31267 The petitioner failed to demonstrate that the Planned Development option is needed to utilize the subject property. 3. This site was developed and intended for office purposes, not short-term residential. Use of the buildings for general or medical offices or other uses permitted in the C-1 District is appropriate, given its location, layout, size, intensity of use, hours of operation, and proximity to single- family residential. 4. The Livonia Police Department opposes the proposed use at this location as contained in its January 5, 2024, report. Concerns include the facility's location adjacent to residential homes and the potential for incidents involving disturbances, assaults, and runaways resulting in police intervention and calls for medical assistance, 5. The Planning Commission believes that options are available throughout the city for appropriately locating a domiciliary behavioral health facility that would not present the same potential threats to the residents' peace, welfare, and safety as this location poses. 6. The proposed use is incompatible and not 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 13.13 of Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended. Mr. Wilshaw: Is there any discussion? Mr. Wilshaw, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. Mr. Wilshaw: You will have 10 days in which to appeal this decision to City Council. ITEM #3 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1,207th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting Mr. Caramagno, Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Approval of the Minutes of the 1,207th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on December 19, 2023. January 16, 2024 31268 On a motion by Bongero, seconded by Long, and unanimously adopted, it was #01-03-2024 RESOLVED, that the Minutes of 1,207th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held by the Planning Commission on December 19, 2023, are hereby approved. A roll call vote on the foregoing resolution resulted in the following: AYES: Bongero, Long, Ventura, Wilshaw NAYS: None ABSENT: None ABSTAIN: Dinaro, Caramagno Mr. Wilshaw, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 1,208th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on January 16, 2024, was adjourned at 9:41 p.m. ATTEST: Ian Wilshaw, Chairman CITY P A NING COMMISSION aramagno, Secretary