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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - PH 2016-08-15 - REZONING - DAVE PHIPPS PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Monday, August 15, 2016 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Monday, August 15, 2016. MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathleen E. McIntyre, President Scott Bahr Maureen Miller Brosnan Jim Jolly Brian Meakin Cathy K. White MEMBERS ABSENT: Brandon Kritzman, Vice President OTHERS PRESENT: Mark Taormina, Director of Planning Don Knapp, City Attorney Bonnie J. Murphy, CER-2300, Certified Electronic Recorder The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with President Kathleen McIntyre presiding. This is a Public Hearing relative to a request for a change of zoning within the City of Livonia on the following matter: Petition 2016-04-01-03 submitted by Dave Phipps, to rezone the properties located on the west side of Farmington Road between Lyndon and Five Mile Roads (14851 and 14931 Farmington Road) in the Northeast ¼ of Section 21, from OS (Office Services) and R-2 (One Family Residential) to R-9-1 (Housing for the Elderly, 4-Stories Maximum Height of Buildings). There were sixteen people in the audience. McIntyre: The Public Hearing is now open. Mr. Taormina, would you like to begin? Taormina: Yes. This is a rezoning petition involving two parcels that are located on the west side of Farmington Road across from the Civic Center. Portions of both of these parcels are currently zoned R-9, Housing for The Elderly. In the case of the northerly parcel, which is 14931 Farmington Road, the R-9 district encompasses a narrow 40-foot section that runs along the north property line while the remainder of the parcel is zoned R-2, One Family Residential. Then there’s the southerly parcel, 14851 Farmington Road. Most of the site is currently zoned R-9-1, but OS (Office Services) zoning encompasses the easterly part of the site that is developed with a private drive called Luther Lane. This request this evening would rezone the entirety of both parcels to the R-9-1 classification to enable the 2 development of a senior housing complex. Together, these two parcels make a “U-shaped” configuration as you can see from the map that is highlighted in red. The parcel to the north, 14931 Farmington Road, has a net land area of 3.40 acres, while the southerly parcel totals 4.61 acres and together the combined area of the land involved with this rezoning request is 10.31 acres in size. Adjacent to the site to the north are cemeteries as well as land owned by Livonia Pubic Schools, to the south is an office building as well as residential homes, including Silver Village. West of the site is a nursing facility as well as cemetery property and then east across Farmington Road is the Civic Center which includes the Police Department Headquarters. Under the R-9-1 zoning the allowable density is expressed in dwelling units per acre and the total number of units is a function of the height of the building as well as the number of bedrooms per unit and the total acreage of the land. Now the R-9-1 zoning allows buildings up to four stories in height. Based on the R-9-1 density criteria, each one-bedroom unit in a four-story building requires a minimum land area of 2,000 square feet. This would translate to approximately 21.8 one-bedroom dwelling units per acre. Overall the site could support a total of 224 one-bedroom units. This plan, and I think this is easier to understand, actually the rezoning petition, again we have the overall site highlighted in red and the two lighter shaded areas indicate where the rezoning petition, or what exactly the rezoning petition involves this evening. As we refer to the northerly parcel, it shows where the rezone from R-2, One Family Residential, to the R-9-1 category. And then the southerly portion, which is the OS to the R-9-1. And again, that R-9-1, that southerly land, if you will, is what contains Luther Lane. Luther Lane is the driveway that extends off Farmington Road and provides access to the nursing home to the west of this site and all that brown shaded area between those two is actually land owned by the same entity which this petitioner would acquire and assemble along with his property which is the northerly parcel, all of which comprise the 10.3 acres that I mentioned. So, this is the preliminary site plan that was submitted with the application that shows a total of seven buildings having access along a network of private drives that connect and form a loop with Luther Lane. Each building will contain 32 one-bedroom units for the maximum allowable eventually of 224 dwelling units. The Future Land Use plan in this case does designate the area as office and Medium Density Residential. The Medium Density category corresponds to a density of between and four and fourteen dwelling units per acre and the requested density which is 3 roughly 21.7 dwellings per acre would fall within the range of a High Density Residential land use category. The Planning Commission th reviewed this item at a public hearing on July 12 and is recommending approval of the rezoning. Thank you. McIntyre: Thank you, Mr. Taormina. Is the Petitioner here this evening? Before that, I failed to mention, the City Clerk has mailed a notice to those persons in the area affected by the proposed changes, and all other requirements of Ordinance No. 543, the Zoning Ordinance, have been fulfilled and also that the Petitioner understands that he needs to be present at the next regular meeting where this will be on the Agenda, Wednesday, September 7, 2016. Good evening. McCann: Good evening, thank you very much. My name is Bob McCann, 21445 Holmbury Road, Northville. I’m here along with my partner, David Phipps. There’s a couple modifications that we are making to this site plan, as you see it’s obviously a work in progress. One of which is the building to the east, which that one building, number one, our intention now is to turn it into two buildings. Instead of being four-stories, each is a three-story building and our intention is to flip it so it faces north and south, and the esthetic value facing Farmington Road will be greatly enhanced by doing that, it will lower the density a little bit but that’s okay. The other thing that shows on there is where there are carports, we are not putting in carports, we are putting in garages. Our intent here is to build the kind of community that Livonia doesn’t have, it’s that higher end, adult senior community. We did have, I know that there was some question originally from some residents of Silver Village as to how high the buildings were going to be. I had a friend of mine with a drone come over, shoot some video from Silver Village and from the south end of the lot line so that we could show, in effect, what is going in. Whether it will play or not, is another matter. Taormina: It won’t play the video for whatever reason, I apologize. McCann: Oh, he does have it. From an 80-foot angle, that’s from Silver Village, and from the 80-foot angle you can see the trees, at 80 feet in the air, that is at least 25 to 30 feet above the proposed ceiling of the buildings. These buildings will be about 59 feet in total height. And we’ll take another look from the southern portion of the property, and this is just a 360 angle, but here on the left if you can see this, looking over at Ford Field, this is a 360 view or perspective. Unidentified audience member: None of these are four floors, right? McIntyre: Excuse me, sir. You’ll have an opportunity. 4 McCann: And this is the angle from Luther Lane which would be the southern end of the property line. You’ll see trees on the left, they are not part of our property. These trees are there and will have to stay there as part of zoning. He could have made the drone go faster but he didn’t. McIntyre: Mr. Meakin. Meakin: Through the Chair to Mark, we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. McCann: I just wanted to make sure you had all the information that you needed. Meakin: Can we discuss how you got to the R-9-1, how fitting in with four stories happened. McCann: Well, we were looking for some senior housing availability and we spoke with Mr. Inglis who talked to us at great length about the need in the community and based on the property that we had and some property that was available, actually it’s sold now, we looked at wherever we could find with not obviously the most density we could make but what made the most sense for the project. This project includes what we’ve asked for throughout the community, we’re trying to build a first class property here. Meakin: And you’re limiting it to four stories and what is the height of one of those buildings? McCann: Fifty-nine feet is the proposed maximum height, that is preliminary. Unidentified: Yes, depending on the pitch and other things but yes, the body of the building won’t be any higher than that. Meakin: And I haven’t been over in those woods in a while, but is it a lower elevation or is it up a little higher? McCann: Well, I could ask Mr. Phipps. Phipps: The wooded area is pretty level back there. It goes up at Farmington Road again and it levels out. Meakin: Mr. Phipps, can you go to the microphone. Phipps: Just so you know I was born and raised on this property, it’s been in my family since 1927. So, yeah, I ran around in the woods when I was young. McIntyre: Mr. Phipps, I’m so sorry. Now that you’re at the podium you need to f formally state your name and address. 5 Phipps: David Phipps, 3699 Vorheis Road, Ann Arbor. McIntyre: Thank you. Phipps: Yeah, but my grandfather bought it in ’27, I moved there in ’37 and I stayed there until I was 27 years old, so it’s been in the family and if I can answer any questions other than that. McIntyre: Anyone else? All right. At this time if anyone in the audience would like to come forward now is the opportunity to do so. Meakin: Madam President? McIntyre: Yes. Meakin: If there’s nothing further I would offer the approving resolution for the zoning change. Brosnan: Madam Chair? McIntyre: Yes. Brosnan: Through the Chair to Mr. Taormina, is this the type of project where we hold the Second Reading until we get an approved site plan? Taormina: I would anticipate that the Council would hold the Second Reading of the change of zoning in abeyance until the site plan finds its way back for your review. There’s nothing unique about this petition that would suggest we do that, there’s nothing that would alter our normal practice. Brosnan: Great, thank you. Just by way of comment, I think this is an exciting project for Livonia and I think it’s the right time and the right area and that’s exactly what we’re talking about tonight. And we’ve had this land that is zoned for office for quite some time now and we haven’t seen it used for that potential in that way and we do at the very same time define Livonia as an aging community where we have more seniors now than ever and you’ve indicated that you’ve already spoken to Mr. Inglis relative to the need for senior housing. I think it’s a long way of saying the City of Livonia needs senior housing and we as a Council know that because we’ve already looked at expansion of Newburgh Village and we secured land so that we are eventually going to be given an opportunity to do that. So just the sheer numbers of the demographics ought to indicate a rezoning of this kind is ultimately beneficial for the community. To the degree that you’re talking about creating a high end development, at what many people believe in the center of the Livonia community, I think is 6 amazingly exciting. Our chance to make sure the site plan comes together before the rezoning is our greatest opportunity to help ensure that that happens. So, I want to thank you for your unique use of the land and bringing the concept to us. Meakin: If I could follow-up on something my colleague said, I agree with the need for this project. What is meant by holding off the Second Reading until the site plan catches up, it’s up to you guys now to get your site plan and after it goes through Planning and Council, we will bring the site plan and the zoning change for one approval vote. McCann: That’s the direction we want and move on from there. th McIntyre: We will have the First Reading at the Wednesday, September 7 Regular Meeting of Council. Thank you very much. McCann: Thank you. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:15 p.m. SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK