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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1,170 - June 1, 2021 signedMINUTES OF THE 1,170th PUBLIC HEARINGS AND REGULAR MEETING HELD BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA On Tuesday, June 1, 2021, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia held its 1,170th Public Hearing and Regular Meeting via Zoom Meeting Software, Mr. Ian Wilshaw, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. Members present: David Bongero Sam Caramagno Glen Long Betsy McCue Carol Smiley Peter Ventura Ian Wilshaw Members absent: None Mr. Mark Taormina, Planning Director, Scott Miller, Planner IV, Jacob Uhazie, Planning & Economic Development Coordinator, and Stephanie Reece, Program Supervisor, 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 2020-12-06-03 New Zoning Ordinance Mr. Caramagno, Secretary, announced the first item on the agenda, Petition 2020- 12-06-03 submitted by the City of Livonia Planning Commission to consider the adoption of an updated and re -formatted LIVONIA VISION 21 Zoning Ordinance and LIVONIA VISION 21 Zoning Map. The proposed LIVONIA VISION 21 Zoning Ordinance provides new definitions, creates several new zoning districts and deletes several existing districts, updates the list of permitted and waiver land uses for each zoning district, provides new June 1, 2021 30010 requirements and regulations for lot sizes, building setbacks, and lot coverages, off street parking, signs, alternative energy systems, and other regulations for structures and uses, including a new form - based development option for the City 's commercial districts. Mr. Taormina: Tonight's public hearing involves consideration of both the new zoning ordinance and zoning map. The task of rewriting the zoning ordinance was authorized by City Council and initiated in 2019, shortly after the official adoption of the Livonia Vision 21 Master Plan. Updating the city's zoning regulations was identified as the number one priority for implementing the Master Plan. The Master Plan also outlines a few more specific recommendations related to updating the zoning ordinance and zoning map, including consolidating and simplifying the city's zoning districts, incorporating form -based regulations for the city's special planning areas and mixed development centers, and providing incentives and standards that will encourage sustainable use of land, materials, energy, and resources. The proposed new zoning ordinance and map are officially being referred to as Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance and Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Map. The Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance has been completely reformatted and recodified. By consolidating the zoning districts and reorganizing the other parts of the ordinance, the number of articles has been reduced from 31 to 14. Additionally, hyperlinks, cross-references, tables, and graphics have been added to make the ordinance much easier and efficient to navigate. A good example is Section 3.03, permitted uses by district. This is a single table that provides a comprehensive list of the land uses and how each is treated within the 16 different zoning classifications. The 14 articles that make up the new ordinance are as follows. Article I is basically the preamble, and is devoted to the Title, Purpose, and Scope of the ordinance. Article II provides definitions for the various words and terms used throughout the ordinance. Article III establishes the zoning districts and map. The big change here is that the total number of zoning districts is being reduced from 26 to 16, resulting in a much better alignment with the 9 land use classifications identified in the Livonia Vision 21 Future Land Use map. In general, the district changes include consolidating the six (6) current single-family districts into three (3) new single- family districts and renaming them: Neighborhood-1, Neighborhood-2 and RUF. Consolidating the six (6) multi -family districts into three (3) new multi -family districts that will be called Neighborhood Multifamily-1, Neighborhood Multifamily-2, and Neighborhood Multifamily-3. Consolidating the six (6) commercial districts into four (4) existing districts: C-1, C-21 C-3, and C-4. The OS (Office Services), PO (Professional Office), AG (Agricultural), June 1, 2021 30011 and RE (Research Engineering) districts would all be eliminated. And the PL (Public Land), ML (Manufacturing Limited), M-1 (Light Manufacturing), M-2 (General Manufacturing), P (Parking), and NP (Nature Preserves) districts would be retained. Article IV includes the Schedule of Regulations, another all-inclusive and easy -to -read table that provides the height, area, bulk, and placement standard for every zoning district. Article V, Supplemental Zoning District Standards, establishes and provides regulations with respect to four unique sections of the zoning ordinance which are not specific to any zoning district. These include Section 5.01, Special Area Development Control, Section 5.02, Special Waiver -Use Standards for Planned Residential Developments and Planned General Developments, Section 5.03, Single-family Clustering, and 5.04, Form -based Development Option in Commercial Districts. The last one, Form -based Regulations, is probably the most significant change: The form -based section is designed to encourage development that is consistent with the recommended design principles of the Livonia Vision 21 Master Plan. It focuses on three special planning areas: City Center, the former Livonia Mall area (Seven Mile and Middlebelt), and the east Plymouth Road corridor. The form -based rules can also be applied to any commercial zoning district. Section 5.04 includes design objectives for the location and spacing of buildings, as well as their height, area, bulk, and appearance. Mixed -use and high - density housing is encouraged. In addition, the review procedure would differ depending on the scale of the project and whether it conforms to the form -based development standards. If it does, a typical site -plan review procedure will be followed and conversely if the project does not conform to the recommended form -based standards, then the special waiver -use standards of Section 5.02 would be used, which requires a public hearing. Article VI, Standard Applicable to Specific Uses, provides standards and regulations for 60 different land uses, ranging from Adult Entertainment to Wireless Communication Facilities. The special rules that apply to many of these uses are listed in Section 3.03, Permitted Uses by District, and are included in Article VI and cross-referenced with hyperlinks to assist the user. Article VI eliminates significant redundancy because the rules are housed in one location but may apply to uses in multiple districts. Article VII is the General Provisions. Article Vill are the Environmental Performance Standards designed to place all the regulations pertaining to environmentally -related uses and issues under a single division, including waste and rubbish facilities, noise and odors, soil removal and dumping, as well as the City's flood hazard areas. Article IX is specific to Parking, Loading and Access Management. Article X is Landscaping and Screening. June 1, 2021 30012 And Article XI is devoted to Signs. The last three (3) articles mentioned consolidate and put all of the city's rules for these items in separate, easy -to -find chapters, since in one way or another, they affect nearly all developments and redevelopment projects. Next is Article XII, Nonconformities. This was created due to the unique nature of the subject matter and the fact that several subsections are needed to fully address all of the complexities that surround this issue. Next is Article XIII, Administrative Procedures and Article XIV, Violations. These are provisions common to all zoning ordinances and typically reside separately as articles or divisions for ease of reference. Also, for your consideration this evening is the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Map, which divides the city into 16 districts, including six (6) residential classifications, four (4) commercial districts, three (3) industrial classifications, one (1) for parking, one (1) for public lands, and one (1) for the city's nature preserves. I am now going to turn the presentation over to Paul Lippens, the consultant from McKenna, that was hired to help with both the Phase I, Master Plan, and Phase 11, new Zoning Ordinance and Zoning Map. Paul Lippens, 235 East Main Street, Suite 105, Northville, MI. Good evening, Commissioners and members of the public that have come this evening for the public hearing. I am going to quickly share my screen here. I have a short presentation. It is going to cover a few things that most planning commissioners are aware of, but for the benefit of the public I am going to cover a little bit about our process and what our next steps are. The Michigan Zoning and Enabling Act is the act that governs the adoption of zoning ordinances. It requires the Planning Commission to hold a public hearing that we are holding this evening and to do a notice 15 days in advance of the meeting and they did. When more than 11 properties are affected, the city is not required to send out notifications to individual property owners. As Mark said, we are adopting a new zoning map and ordinance that is really for the entire city. This provision of the Michigan Zoning and Enabling Act essentially protects the city from having to endure that cost of sending out individual notices to every property in the city. We have had an extensive public engagement throughout the Master Plan process, and we have been working on this for more than a year and half at this point. We have had plenty of meetings and really, we have gotten some great feedback. We have certainly been able to engage with the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the City Council... we are very confident in the draft that we are presenting this evening. Where we are now is the Planning Commission is charged with making a recommendation on the zoning ordinance to the City Council. The City Council is the adopting body. When City Council June 1, 2021 30013 chooses to act, and should they entertain a motion to adopt, the city then is required to publish a notice, similar to the public hearing, and publish a notice that an amendment has taken place. The ordinance would then take effect seven days after that publication. Mark covered a lot of what our accomplishments are, but I think it really starts here with the Master Plan. The Livonia Vision 21 Master Plan identifies seven priority projects for the city to achieve in regard to its planning and zoning. The zoning ordinance was number one. This is the highest priority planning activity that the city has had going on since the adoption of the zoning ordinance in 2018. 1 am very happy to say that through a thorough process, we are at a point this evening where the Planning Commission can consider making a recommendation following public comment on the ordinance to City Council. It is exciting. This has been a really big effort for the city. I definitely want to thank everyone on the Planning Commission for your feedback and participation throughout this process. One of the other main things that I want to point out is that we, at the beginning of the zoning ordinance process, conducted a thorough diagnostic analysis. That analysis formed the basis of work that we engaged with a technical group committee that included member of the Planning Commission, members of the Zoning Board of Appeals, the City Attorney's staff, Code Enforcement, Inspection, and the Planning Department. One of the things that I like to remind people of is that what the major course of action for relief from the zoning ordinance is variances. The Zoning Board of Appeals is in charge of hearing those variances. The sum of that work that we did was to go back and evaluate all of the ordinances... recent variances that the city has granted and make sure that the variances that were granted are appropriately handled through the variance procedure and not the type of thing that would be better handled by amending the ordinance. This kind of attests to something that we have consistently gone through. Determining what items we feel are appropriate for the Zoning Board of Appeals to handle through a variance that would be a unique hardship or meet the test for providing a variance versus what things are better acts for Planning Commission and/or City Council discretion. For those items we created a process for consideration and amended the ordinance to handle. A part of that was assessing every part of the ordinance... what the purpose and function of that was and how the city utilized these procedures to ensure a fair and equitable planning zoning process. The way I summarize this is ... what works was preserved and what didn't was updated. We know that the city is dedicated to providing high quality services to residents and business owners. We wanted to understand those procedures and ensure that this ordinance process wasn't disrupting June 11 2021 30014 procedures that work. Essentially, where we are now ... the Planning Department was ready to hit the ground running with the new ordinance. This time that we have taken, in particular... since we first started talking about this again in December... this last six months we have been doing a lot of going through each individual section, having multiple people, having multiple departments go through and review it and also having individual conversations with planning commissioners, Zoning Board of Appeals, and council members that have those questions so you would be prepared when this ordinance came into effect to do your job and understand how the new ordinance will affect the cases that you hear. Thank you for participating in that process as well. More on our accomplishments, Mark described in detail some of the district consolidation and how that affects the map, but what we really have done there is clean up the regulatory procedures in the city. When I say we have assessed the purpose, with each district we went through and asked ourselves what is the purpose? Is this a district that could be combined? Consolidated? Are the dimensional requirements for each of these lots making sense that we can actually distinguish them from another district? What resulted was a substantive and meaningful consolidation of regulations that I believe result in a more usable framework. Also, we have switched to using more tables, hyperlinks. We did a thorough analysis on non - conformities, which we have discussed at planning commission in the past, and we know we have substantially reduced non - conformities with these new regulations, meaning that more people can develop the types of uses that they want to develop by right without having to seek a variance or seek to be a legal non -conforming use as part of the process. Mark also talked about the form -based development option, but I would just highlight that this form -based development option is a direct implementation process from the master plan to help implement specific sub -area plans that were developed through the master plan process. Again, we are utilizing well established city procedures. Again, a little bit more about the district consolidation. 150% reduction in districts, and 250% reduction in non -conforming lots. More opportunities for housing. In creating that form -based development option, we have created an opportunity to also include a appropriate housing in the commercial districts as well. That is a major move to implement the State of Michigan's Redevelopment Ready Priority Community Program and to help create missing middle housing opportunities in the City of Livonia. When we started this process back when we started the master plan, we knew that it was important and it has only gotten increasingly more important as we have gone through... essentially, increased housing demand June 1, 2021 30015 in southeast Michigan. There is demand for more housing if we can create it and we can create those opportunities. Some maps...these maps show the red ... the existing non -conforming, the green is what will be non -conforming with the new regulations in place. See, the new regulations, the green... less non - conformities. Mark already showed the zoning map. I really like how this map helps to implement the master plan. If you look at the future land use plan for the city you can visually see a direct correlation between the city's land use planning directive and the zoning ordinance. Something that I am really excited on and this is a really interesting map and I think those of you that know me...I am really interested in the City of Livonia's neighborhoods, the industrial district, the commercial district, the community really functions from a planning perspective in a way that I would say is logical and also speaks to a history of excellent planning. That is something that we have tried to keep going throughout this entire process to honor the city's planning history with this process. The form -based development option... it is a carrot not a stick. What we have created is more ways and more tools for people to develop in ways they couldn't otherwise develop. What we are hoping... by creating this new option that includes with it a lot of value. These are valuable types of properties and valuable types of developments that this incentive will create the types of new active vital walkable developments that the city wants to see. We are hoping that even people outside these area -planned districts see this as a usable option that brings economic vitality to their properties. I am interested in seeing how this gets picked up. It is a really exciting approach to form -based coding. It is, I would say, something that the city can expand on, should it be successful, but also, I think it is the appropriate tool for this time. We spent a lot of time thinking about the right way to do this and the mechanism we chose to advance the form -based development option, I think, are rightly timed and rightly sized for the City of Livonia in this current planning cycle. The form -based development procedure... Mark showed this when he was flipping through the ordinance, but what this shows is really a simple flow chart, right? If you are in an area that is planned for special areas, what we call the special area plans, you can be fast -tracked essentially to approval. It is a simple site plan approval process. If you have a PUD process, you may also end up in the special waiver just for PUD. Not every site that wants to use the form - based development option will need a PUD. Recognizing that there is some other procedures that could be involved in approval, certainly what we have created is the option to do a site plan process with the form -based development option when there is a special area plan in place. I think that is unique and I think that is what makes this an incentive because we have simplified June 1, 2021 30016 the procedure on how to use these form -based options with the right plan in place. Now, if there is not a special area plan, I think that is okay too. You can still use the form -based development option in any of the C districts using the special waiver -use standards. I think that makes these options also accessible to the entire city for anyone that has a business and is interested in doing this type of development. We want this option to be available. This is an example of the special area plan for City Center. You can see this is a large area and the type of special area planning, when you start talking about creating city blocks and talking in particular... this is also incorporating a future plan for the City Center and the Civic campus for the City of Livonia. A lot of exciting things and I think the form -based development option is something that makes this now something that could happen should the city attract one developer or multiple developers should any of the private landowners in this area wanted to develop in accordance with this special area plan for City Center. This option is out there now and can be pursued. This is an example of the building types that really are created as options through the form -based development options. Building row houses, building live work units, mixed use buildings, integrating commercial office retail with housing. Building apartments and building these types of uses in close proximity to each other as a traditional neighborhood. These are the types of things created by the form -based development option. I wanted to mention briefly some of the other things that we have done. We have updated the sign ordinance to be consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of Reed vs. Town of Gilbert. Essentially what we are doing here is we are removing content to comply with the Supreme Courts ruling. Content based regulations are no longer acceptable in ordinances. What does this mean for residents? I think that we are moving toward a total of square footage rather than defining certain sign types. There is more flexibility in the content, but it is time, place, and manner regulations that we are still focused on. We have tried to keep the time, place, and manner requirements consistent between the last version of the ordinance and the version you are considering. Other updates.... specifically, some work that we have done with staff in the past several months. Mark, I know you have included this in the report, so I am going to just quickly cover some of the newer updates. The city is very excited about the Vision 21 name, so we are including it as the Vision 21 ordinances, which I believe was the intent from the beginning. We wanted to make sure that it was codified as part of the process. We have looked at state regulations specifically with respect to liquor license. We want to make sure that those are defined appropriately. We have done some work with the Zoning Board of Appeals to understand June 1, 2021 30017 some of the things that the Zoning Board of Appeals has dealt with in the past to make sure that those issues are dealt with in other ways. We have created this exotic vehicle regulation section. Now this is something that will be considered as a permitted use in M-1 and M-2 districts. It will no longer have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals for consideration. We looked at vehicle tow yards. We looked back at state regulations for the Medical Marijuana Act and how the city is permitted to create separation between the caregivers. We added that to the ordinance to be consistent with what we are allowed to do via Medical Marijuana Act in respect to zoning and limiting the impact of caregivers of the city. We have done some more review of the ordinance to make sure that other sections are consistent with the form -based development requirements. There are sections that have limits. The building heights we wanted to make sure the form -based development option was specifically excluded from those limitations. We looked at fencing and again, some of the newer uses, such as EV charging stations. We wanted to make sure those were permitted and called out. Our findings, I believe, were that they would be permitted but we wanted to specifically list them to encourage these types of uses. Sometimes using the right language helps to encourage, especially innovative uses like EV charging stations. So, again, in summary for next steps, the Planning Commission can hear from any members of the public tonight during this public hearing. Following the public hearing, you can certainly discuss with staff and myself about anything you hear here that you would like us to address by questions. You are able this evening to make a recommendation to Council, and you are able to table and come back if there is something you hear from the public tonight that you would like to give us something to investigate, and we can come back at an upcoming meeting with an answer for you on anything we hear tonight as well. This is a substantive meeting and we do want to hear from residents tonight. We do want to make sure that the comments that we hear do have some thought and are addressed. Upon making a recommendation, and as I mentioned at the start of my presentation, to Council we would forward this ordinance to Council for their consideration with your recommendation. At that time Council may have additional questions. They certainly have the ability to act with the Planning Commissions recommendation and they could also send back an ordinance with questions for the Planning Commission. They could also act to address questions as well. We want to make sure the Planning Commission is comfortable with the ordinance, that we have heard from the public and that we have addressed any questions that have been raised. When all of that is done, which I think we are well prepared for this evening, City Council June 1, 2021 30018 can take a vote with Planning Commission's recommendation to adopt the ordinance. If they do, we publish the notice and seven days after that, we have a new ordinance in effect. Thank you again forgiving me time to present. I did want to cover two things for the benefit of any public that hasn't attended a prior meeting on this, so they understand the process and all the work that has gone into creating the ordinance that is under consideration this evening. Thank you and I will turn the floor back over to the Chairman. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Lippens, for your presentation. It was really informative, and it is something that we discussed a few times here in the past, but it is at this public hearing that we the opportunity for some people who have not heard the presentation before to be able to understand what is going on and why we are making these changes. I also want to thank Mr. Taormina for his background that he presented as well. They were both very excellent presentations. With that, we have heard the presentations about this ordinance. We have had numerous meetings previously to review this ordinance and discuss it. We have had a special meeting that was facilitated by our Mayor so that the Planning Commission could work with the City Council to have the opportunity for them to hear what is coming down the pipe that they are going to have to vote on and see at some point once we approve our recommendation. There have been a number of meetings leading up to this. We do definitely want to have another opportunity here for both the public and for any of our commissioners to ask questions and make comments and so on. This is going to be a very open meeting. A very free form discussion and there will be a bit of give and take which we don't normally want debates between people, but I don't expect any debate but if there are any questions, we want to make sure that we can get your questions answered right away. We will make sure that our experts and people here are able to answer those questions can do so. Before I go to the commission to see if there are any questions, Mark, were there any comments that you received via email? You or your staff? From any of the public? Mr. Taormina: We did not receive any written comments. Or. Wilshaw: Okay, so there is nothing to read into the record in regard to that. I want to make sure we had that noted. Now I will go to the commission and see if anyone on the commission wishing to speak about this ordinance change and this plan. Anyone from the commission? June 1, 2021 30019 Ms. Smiley: Only to say how much I appreciate them consolidating this and simplifying this and I am sure the Zoning Board of Appeals appreciates all the things that ended up being acceptable from the start without all the hassle. I am sure the builders and all the other contractors appreciate it too. What a lot of work. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: That is a great comment. You are right. This is not something that just affects us in the Planning Commission and the City Council, but it is also going to affect the Zoning Board of Appeals, Inspection Department, Building Department, and a number of departments throughout the city. Hopefully it will make everyone's job a bit easier. That is a great comment to make. Any other questions or comments from any of the commissioners? If not, we will give you an opportunity here after we hear from the public as well. Is there anyone in the public wishing to speak to this zoning ordinance change? If you are, we are going to ask that you please click the raise hand button and that way we can recognize you and give you an opportunity to speak and we will get your comments on our record. I am looking to see if anybody in the audience would like to raise their hand. Here we go. We have one person. Let me recognize them. This is Matt Verbaan. Good evening, sir. We ask that you unmute yourself when you are ready, and you can introduce yourself with your name and address for our record. Matt Verbaan, 28911 West Seven Mile Road, Livonia, MI. I am not a Livonia resident, but I am a realtor who is representing a property in Livonia. I am not sure who I talked to last week, but that's fine. I am watching this to learn. I appreciate you taking the time. I was told that there was a discussion about eliminating the Office Specialty zoning and going to C-1. I was curious as to how that would affect the breadth of what kind of businesses can go into that new zoning from the old zoning. Mr. Wilshaw: Great question. Mr. Taormina or Mr. Lippens, did you want to speak to that. Mr. Taormina: I will speak to that and answer Mr. Verbaan's question. It was me that you spoke to last week, Matt. Matt represents a property and owner on Seven Mile Road. If you drive past this building, your first impression would be that it is a retail shopping plaza, but it is actually zoned OS (Office Services). With the changes proposed and the elimination of the OS zoning district, the zoning of that property would change to C-1 (Local Business). The main difference is that instead of limiting the uses under the OS district primarily to general and medical office uses, C-1 zoning will allow June 1, 2021 30020 both office uses as well as local retail uses. With the change, general retail would be treated as a permitted use. However, C-1 zoning is not intended to allow highway service uses, such as automotive repair or full -service restaurants. Carry -out and limited service restaurants would be allowed, and in some cases, subject to the waiver -use process. But general retail would be treated as a use by right. To that extent it will expand the opportunities for the plaza. Does that answer your question? Mr. Verbaan: Yes. Significantly. I have been tasked with trying to rent this ten - unit place. There are three openings and there is like 14 uses legal right now. I already have seven of them in and it really limits it to who we can rent to. We were trying to find out if we could get some exclusions but now that you are talking about this and if this passes, we wouldn't have to ask for so many exclusions or exceptions. Sorry. Mr. Wilshaw: Exactly, and I think it has been one of the goals of the ordinance rewrite is to try to broaden, in many cases, each of these areas to some extent so that we have more conforming uses and less special waivers and non -conforming properties throughout the city. This certainly would help and work for the property that you are representing. We appreciate your comments. Is there anything else, Mr. Verbaan, that you wanted to mention. Mr. Verbaan: Thank you for saying my name right. It is like 50/50 with most people at best. So, if what I was listening to with the prior gentleman giving the presentation, and this passes you what? You put a seven-day notice unless someone wants to say no, stop the presses, and then it becomes rule or law after that. Is that how it works? Mr. Wilshaw: Right. So, assuming that we make a resolution tonight, which we will see what the outcome is, we have the option to either table this or discuss this further, or we could make an approving resolution to send this to City Council with a recommendation that it be approved. It would then go to City Council and City Council could... would have an opportunity to go through a study and regular meeting to review this. Sometimes they may send it to committee. They kind of go through their whole process and then once it is eventually finalized by City Council, then is when the seven-day period will occur and it really for publication and it is an opportunity also for the Mayor to veto the Council's action if she chooses to. That is kind of the same process that most of our petitions go through. Mr. Verbaan: Thank you. June 1, 2021 30021 Mr. Wilshaw: Your welcome, sir. Thank you for coming tonight. We are going to let you go back into our audience and continue to watch this meeting as it plays out. Thank you for coming. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to speak for or against this item? Or speak to it and ask questions? If so, you are welcome to click raise hand. I don't see anyone else raising their hand. Again, I am going to go back to our commissioners and see if there is anybody on the commission wishing to ask any questions or speak to this item. Mr. Ventura: Mr. Taormina, under the new zoning ordinance, is a form of residential permissible in the C-1 district? It might be another option for Mr. Verbaan, Mr. Taormina: It is a relatively small property, so the practicality of developing any type of residential use would be very limited. However, your question is a good one as it potentially affects other C-1 or C-2 properties. The answer is yes. With the form -based regulations that Paul went over in some detail, mixed -use developments consisting of such things as live/work units would be allowed under special requirements. For example, say there is a commercially -zoned property that is not located within a special planning area and the owner wanted to take advantage of the form -based regulations and develop a mixed -use project, they could do that. It just would not be through an expedited site plan review process that was mentioned by Paul. It would have to undergo a special waiver -use review process. A mix of uses would be allowed in the commercial zoning districts under the new ordinance. Something we have seen in the past ... just a little bit different treatment here with much better guidelines in terms of how those uses could be developed. Does that help? Mr. Ventura: That is a good explanation, Mr. Taormina. Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you, Mr. Ventura. Any other questions or comments from any of our commissioners? Mr. Taormina: If I may, just to make sure everyone understands, should the Planning Commission adopt an approving resolution this evening, the City Council office would then schedule a public hearing. After holding the public hearing, the matter would then be placed on a regular meeting agenda for direction. If the direction is approving, then the Law Department would be instructed to prepare the necessary documents for a First Reading. There are two more steps following that. The next would be a Second Reading and Roll Call at a subsequent June 1, 2021 30022 Regular Meeting. Then finally, publication of the new ordinance. Even under a best -case scenario, we are still looking at probably a couple months of review left in this process. I know this interests Mr. Verbaan, but this is a very deliberate process that is intended to get as much public input as possible. Mr. Wilshaw: That is a great comment, Mr. Taormina. It is very important that we have that process because it is, as you said, very deliberate and has many steps as it goes forward. There will be many more opportunities for Mr. Verbaan, or anybody else watching this meeting or learning about it through media publications and so on who want to add their comments and to attend those council meetings or any of the other processes to get their input incorporated or questions answered. That is very good. Do we have any other questions or comments from anybody on the commission? Mr. Caramagno: I think this question is for Mark or Paul. The form -based development program, where else has that been tried. Is there anyone local that someone else has tried that that you can point to? Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Lippens, did you want to comment on that? Mr. Lippens: Sure. I would actually say including form -based development is the norm. It is a best -practice for any modern ordinance. Some of the ordinances that we looked at and my firm has developed in the past several years were the Tecumseh ordinance that has the form -based section that is based on the Smart Code. The Smart Code is a model code that is put out by the Congress for New Urbanism. It's a good model. It is widely respected. The Tecumseh version or the code is more smart code. We went in another direction which is a buildings type code. It is similar to the form -based development option in the Van Buren code. We also looked at the code that I was a manager for developing a downtown form -based code for the City of Sioux St, Marie. I worked on a form -based development option for the City of Battle Creek. Recently, we have been working through the adoption process with the City of Holland on the west side of the state. We have been doing zoning overhaul with them over the last several years. Those are kind of current projects, and they are projects that I am actually working on. Those are the easiest one for me to tell you about. I am sure there are several that I am not working on also that include the form -base development option. I would say that one of the things we are doing in the State of Michigan is the whole industry and all of our communities are working on redevelopment ready communities. This is one of the major June 1, 2021 30023 planning initiatives that the State of Michigan been undergoing now for several years. Including a form -based development option is particularly looking at innovative ways to incorporate housing into codes and it is a recommended best -practice from redevelopment ready communities as well. Just to give you a bit of comfort commissioner for where we are going here, this is really a standard practice and the way we have done it for Livonia is tailored for this community and an understanding of your procedures. Mr. Caramagno: Thank you. Mr. Wilshaw: Any other questions or comments from any of our commissioners? One more time I am going to go to our audience and make sure there is no one else in our audience wishing to speak on this item. If so, you can click the raise hand. I just want to make sure you have an opportunity to speak here. I don't see anyone else clicking raise hand. With that, I believe we can close the public hearing at this point and a motion would be in order. Mr. Wilshaw: On a motion by Ventura, seconded by McCue, and unanimously adopted, it was #06-27-2021 RESOLVED, That having conducted a Public Hearing with regard to Petition 2020-12-06-03, submitted by the City Planning Commission pursuant to Council Resolution #09-19, in connection with Phase 2 of the Livonia Vision 21 contract involving the preparation of a comprehensive update to the City of Livonia Zoning Ordinance, the Planning Commission does hereby recommend approval of the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance, Version 6.0, dated June 1, 2021, prepared by McKenna, and the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Map, dated June 1, 2021, as prepared by the City of Livonia Planning Commission, for the following reasons: 1. That this comprehensive rewrite of the City's zoning regulations is the culmination of over two (2) years of hard work by the Zoning Ordinance Technical Committee, including several Special Study Meetings of the Planning Commission and a Joint Work Session with City Council and members of the Zoning Board of Appeals. 2. That the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance and Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Map are in full compliance with the requirements of the Michigan Zoning Enabling Act, P.A. 110 of 2006, as amended. June 11 2021 30024 3. That the overall organization, recodification, and functionality of the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance represents a substantial improvement over the existing ordinance and streamlines all of the City's zoning regulations in a more efficient, effective and user-friendly format. 4. Adoption of the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance achieves the #1 priority project as identified in the Three -Year Priority Project List in Book 4, Strategic Development, of the Livonia Vision 21 Master Plan, which recommends updating the Zoning Ordinance to jump start Livonia Vision 21 implementation. 5. Adoption of the Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Ordinance and Livonia Vision 21 Zoning Map is consistent with the recommended Revisions to the Zoning Ordinance and Zoning Map as outlined in Book 4, Strategic Development, of the Livonia Vision 21 Master Plan, including: a. Consolidating and simplifying the City's one -family residential zoning districts to reduce the number of non- conforming lots; b. Consolidating and simplifying the City's multiple -family residential zoning districts, and providing new incentives and standards to encourage infill housing and neighborhood investment; c. Consolidating and simplifying the City's commercial zoning districts by eliminating the office districts and incorporating the eligible uses and standards into the corresponding corridor and regional districts; d. Incorporating form -based regulations for the City's Special Planning Areas, Mixed Development Centers, and commercial districts; and e. Providing incentives and standards that will encourage sustainable use of land, materials, energy, and resources. Mr. Wilshaw: Is there any discussion? If there is no discussion, I just wanted to make a quick comment that this has been a long process, obviously, as Mr. Taormina and Mr. Lippens have mentioned, and the commission is very aware of. It has taken years of work between the Master Plan and this ordinance revision to get to this point. It is not the most exciting stuff in the world to read. We all know that, but it is very important because this is a part of our ordinances that have not been changed... they have been modified throughout the years, but this is a complete beginning from scratch. This is taking everything that we have as Mr. Lippens pointed out, keeping the best of what we have, updating June 1, 2021 30025 what we need to update so that it is easier and user friendly to the community and to developers and to residents. This has been a lot of work by Mr. Taormina, his staff, Mr. Lippens from McKenna, and his associates that have helped him and many many people throughout the city. We are not going to necessarily get to talk about this a whole heck of a lot more as it goes on to Council. I just wanted to thank everybody that has worked on this and put blood, sweat and tears into getting us to this point. Thank you to everybody for that work. I think this is probably the most exciting and significant thing that we are going to be doing this year. Not only as a commission, but also as a city as it proceeds. Even though it isn't super exciting looking it is super exciting and important change that we are making today as we make this recommendation. Thank you to everyone for that. Mr. Wilshaw, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with an approving resolution. ITEM #6 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1,169th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting Mr. Caramagno, Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Approval of the Minutes of the 1,169th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on May 18, 2021. On a motion by Caramagno, seconded by Long ,and unanimously adopted, it was #06-28-2021 RESOLVED, That the Minutes of 1,169ih Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held by the Planning Commission on May 18, 2021, are hereby approved. A roll call vote on the foregoing resolution resulted in the following: AYES: Long, McCue, Bongern , Smiley, Ventura, Caramagno, Wilshaw NAYS: None ABSENT: None ABSTAIN: None Mr. Wilshaw, Chairman, declared the motion is carried and the foregoing resolution adopted. On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 1,170ih Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on June 1, 2021, was adjourned at 8:02 p.m. CITY PLANNING COMMISSION 1 S l ATTEST: Ian Wilshaw. Chairman