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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - 2019-01-07 - REZONING - PET. 2018-08-01-06 CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Monday, January 7, 2019 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Monday, January 7, 2019. MEMBERS PRESENT: Laura Toy, President Jim Jolly, Vice President Scott Bahr (Arrived 7:04 p.m.) Brandon Kritzman Kathleen McIntyre Brian Meakin MEMBERS ABSENT: Cathy White OTHERS PRESENT: Mark Taormina, Director of Economic Development Paul Bernier, City Attorney Todd Zilincik, City Engineer Bonnie J. Murphy, CER-2300, Certified Electronic Recorder The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with President Laura Toy presiding. This is a Public Hearing on Petition 2018-08-01-06 submitted by Cross Winds Court, to rezone the property located on the south side of Ann Arbor Trail between Norwich Avenue and Wayne Road (33417 Ann Arbor Trail) in the Southwest ¼ of Section 33, from R-U-F (Rural Urban Farm – Minimum ½ Acre) to R-1 (One Family Residential – 60’ by 120’ Lots). The Public Hearing is now open. There were sixteen people in the audience. Toy: Mr. Taormina? Taormina: Thank you, Madam President. Again, this is a rezoning petition involving property that is located on Ann Arbor Trail between Norwich and Wayne Road. This property is roughly 3.2 acres in area. It includes 150 feet of frontage on Ann Arbor Trail and has a depth of roughly 930 feet. There is an existing family home located on the property that is adjacent to Ann Arbor Trail, it’s a nonconforming residence with respect to its setback. Immediately to the east of the subject property is a parcel of similar size that is owned by this Petitioner and was recently rezoned to the R-1 classification. You’ll notice that Dover Avenue does dead end in the 2 southeast corner of the adjacent property which will allow for future extension of that road to serve the future development of this property. To the west are single family homes located on a street called Hanlon. These homes back up to the site and are part of the Arbor Parkview Subdivision, also zoned R-1, one family residential. To the south is Public Land that is part of the Holiday Parkway, most of which located within the City of Westland. And then to the north across Ann Arbor Trail are residential homes that are under the R-U-F classification. If this rezoning request moves forward, it is the intention of the Petitioner to combine this parcel with the adjacent easterly parcel that he owns and develop the combined acreage with single family homes as a site condominium project. This is a concept plan that shows a total of seventeen lots that would front on a new road that would extend from Dover extending about 350 feet to the north and then end in a cul-de-sac. The width of the right-of-way in this case would be 50 feet in order to allow for the lost to comply with the R-1 minimum required lot depth of 120 feet. R-1 zoning requires minimum lot sizes of 7,200 square feet with minimum lot dimensions of 60 feet in width by 120 feet in depth. All seventeen lots would conform to the R-1 standard. The plan also shows four separate out lots that would front on Ann Arbor Trail. All four of these parcels would also comply with the minimum lot standards of the R-1 District. Management of storm water is shown via a detention basin that would be located at the southern limits of the proposed development. The Master Plan or the Future Land Use Plan does designate this area for medium density residential, for which the R-1 zoning is compatible. th The Planning Commission held its Public Hearing on December 11 and they unanimously approved the change in zoning. And with that, Madam President, I’d be happy answer any questions. Toy: Is there any questions of Mr. Taormina? No, not at this time? Is the Petitioner here, please? Good evening. Baki: Good evening. Sam Baki, 38901 Plymouth Road, Livonia, Michigan 48150. I’m here on behalf of Cross Winds Estates, Leo Soave, the owner of the property. As Mr. Taormina mentioned, we already came through Council to get approval, to rezone the property next door. Mr. Soave acquired the second parcel in December and that’s when we came back for a rezoning of the second parcel, so we can combine them and create a better subdivision for the whole site. 3 Toy: Is that all you’re going to say for the moment? Baki: Yes. If you have any questions, I’ll answer them. Toy: Questions from the Council? What types of homes are planning if approved? Baki: They’re going to be starting at $250,000 plus, almost matching for the property on Ann Arbor Road, same quality, same caliber homes. They usually start at 250,000, they end up around $300,000. Prices are going up, not down, because of material prices, labor, everything is going up. We’re going to be averaging 300,000, but we always say $250,000 start. Toy: Is it ranch? Baki: Mixed, mixed. We always customize mixed, ranches, capes, colonials. Toy: Great, thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Baki from Council? Okay. We’re going to go to the audience for the first item on tonight’s agenda. Any neighbors, anyone from that area or not from that area? If you’d like to approach the podium to my left or to my right, give us your name and address for the record. Thank you for being here tonight, thank you. Hi, good evening. Seruga: My name is Jim Seruga. I live at 34365 Dover. I’m basically the last house on the dead end, the south side. And from what I just heard, the retention pond would be right next to me and I was wondering if there was any more information regarding is it going to be a wet or a dry pond, or what can I expect regarding that? Toy: Mr. Taormina, did you want to answer that or do you want me to go to the Petitioner? Taormina: The engineering plans for the basin have not been finalized, so we can’t really tell you at this time what the exact features would include. Always it will be wet at least on a temporary basis, sometimes the engineers can design it such that the basin can be dry during periods of no rain but I think those are design elements that still need to be looked at and maybe the Petitioner has some news on that. Baki: I can respond to that. Toy: Go ahead. Baki: If you look at the detail, the way it shows it, the portion next to his house has got a higher elevation than the portion on the west side of it, if you 4 look at the detail. That shows you that the west side is lower than yours so the water will be more on that side than yours. It might sit there for maybe let’s say twelve, twenty-four hours for one day, when it’s a heavy rain, then it goes to the lower side. You are on the higher end, not the lower end. Seruga: Correct. Where it be landscaped? Baki: 100% landscaping. Toy: Just direct your comments through here. Seruga: I’m sorry. Toy: It’s all right, don’t worry about it, that’s fine. Did you get your answer you needed on that? Seruga: Somewhat it sounds like it’s kind of undecided at this point. Toy: Yes, yes, correct. I’m going to go to Councilman Kritzman for a minute, gentlemen. Kritzman: I was just going to offer some clarification to you, you kind of heard it in pieces and parts. The drawings will eventually be submitted to the City Engineering Department for final engineering calculations and make sure the capacity is proper enough to service the lots that it’s intended to service. They’ll take a look at grading and drainage and other issues, so unfortunately we’re not able to tell you at this point if it’s going to be a wet or dry design. That ultimately will be the responsibility of the City to work with the developer to make certain that that’s accounted for. Anytime we have these developments that are going into areas that are already developed, the natural drainage course that exists in the area today, whether it’s natural or something that’s been affected by people developing on properties over the last however many decades, it’s something that constantly comes up. So I certainly understand your concern and understand that from our perspective we wish we had the answer, its exact nature, but the system is designed to accommodate that and account for that before any shovel is stuck in the ground to begin. Seruga: And mosquitoes are in my mind, too. I hear drainage pond in my backyard pretty much and I’m just thinking mosquito city. Kritzman: Understood. I myself, it rained today, so I guarantee you I have a little mud flat in my backyard at the moment. I back up to a creek in a wooded area, similar to that Holiday Park. In my experience you’re not going to 5 have anything more or less than what you already have in that naturally wooded area. Seruga: Okay. Toy: Did you have a preference, sir, on the retention pond? Seruga: No, I do not because I haven’t researched either one. I know there’s two different styles. Toy: If you want to leave us your name and address and you have it on that paper and put a little note right there, we’ll make sure you get notified as this proceeds, okay? Seruga: On the sign-in sheet that I already signed in on? Toy: Yes, that would be great, okay? Seruga: Can I ask another question? Toy: Sure, sure. Seruga: Regarding the four plots right on Ann Arbor Trail, so 1, 2, 3, and 4, are those all new homes? And if so, is one of those going up right now? Toy: I’m not familiar totally. Kritzman: One is a renovation. Baki: One has already been renovated, the second one, number 2. Number 2 was renovated, it’s going to be more renovated and put a garage to it, like we agreed with the original approval. Number 1, it’s already been approved for brand new construction. Three and four are going to be new construction because the older house, like Mr. Taormina mentioned, is technically not within the right setbacks so it has to be torn down and rebuilt, two new homes will go up. Seruga: So it’s going to be torn down? Baki: The older one, yes, which is closer to the road, that will come down. Toy: So it will be an improvement it sounds like, right? Baki: Yes. 6 Toy: Was there someone else who wanted to address this issue? Duneske: Becky Duneske, 34414 Ann Arbor Trail, I basically live right across the street from where this is going in two houses up Stark. So my question is the four that are going in in the front, those are all going to have just driveway access to Ann Arbor Trail and the subdivision access is going to go up the back and around, is that what I’m seeing? So, the subdivision access isn’t coming out onto Ann Arbor Trail? Toy: Right, right, yes. Duneske: That was my major concern, because of the traffic. Toy: Absolutely. Thank you for coming in tonight. Was there anyone else? Yes, sir. Weiler: My name is Mike Weiler, I live at 8892 Hanlon. I have some photos here for the Board that I would like to have as a record, to be kept on record. Toy: Sure. If you’d give them to Mr. Taormina. Weiler: There’s four of them, marked 1 through 4. Toy: Go right ahead Mr. Weiler. Weiler: I need everybody to have the photo so they know what I’m talking about. Toy: Okay. Kritzman: There’s not quite enough but we can share. Toy: Okay. Weiler: Photo number 1 is the very outside corner of that bend, does anybody know what the distance is, has anybody measured what the distance is? Toy: Sir, what road are you discussing? Weiler: Ann Arbor Trail. Toy: Sir, could you restate your question? Weiler: Does anybody know what the distance is between that sidewalk and the street, has anybody measured it? I’ll tell you, I’ll cut the time. It’s less than two and a half feet. One question for photo number two. And it took me a while to wait for the traffic to clear if anybody is familiar with this 7 corner. I waited for the traffic to clear for a particular reason. So, this photo was taken from the west facing east. If you’ll notice that street, you can go so far and then what happens, you run out of street, you don’t see the street any further. Go to photo number three. That is a photo of east facing west, same corner. What do you see? Same thing? You can only go so far and see a street and you run out of street. Now the reason I’ve taken those photos is because if you and I can see what it looks like with no traffic coming, and I had to wait a while for traffic to clear, some kid down the road, now my kids are married and gone but I have grandkids now. There’s a lot of families in that neighborhood. I don’t know if it’s a year from now, five years from now, but at some point in time there’s going to be some little kid on a bike, he’s going to try darting across that street because he sees is a free street, he doesn’t see any traffic coming because he’s at that bend. And when that day comes, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. And that family is coming after the builder, is going to come after the City, and he’s going to come after all you Board members that approved this thing because it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when. If you look at photo number four, that’s today at 5:00 o’clock. If you don’t believe me, I’m sure it is recorded, the record, I’m sure it’s on police file. It was about 5:04 when I went there. That photo is one block, a little over one block from that corner. Has anybody on this Board checked how many accidents have been on that corner in the last year, the last five years, anybody? The builder? The Board? The City? Can anybody answer that question? Nobody. It’s all going to be on you, it’s all going to be on you. Jolly: Madam President? Toy: Hold on one second, sir. Go ahead. Jolly: With all due respect, sir, this is our first opportunity to hear about this and our reason for being here today is to hear from the public. With all due respect, we’re not prepared to answer questions in regard to what your comments are. Weiler: You should be prepared. You guys have approved this. Jolly: This is a First Reading, actually this is the first public hearing in regard to this matter. So if you have something to share with us, we’re more than willing to listen to that. But asking us questions right now – Weiler: This should have been looked into a long time ago, when you’ve already got the subdivision that’s already in. That corner can’t handle ten more houses, let alone any other construction going on. It cannot handle it. It can’t. There’s going to be some kid on a bike that’s going to look at this 8 corner and see traffic as clear and it’s not clear because he can’t see around that bend. And that’s all going to be on all of you. Toy: Councilman Kritzman. Kritzman: Thank you, Madam Chair. To the gentleman’s point, you know the last time we put a microscope on this particular corner was when that nursing center across the street, they had some proposed expansion, that we got into a great deal of discussion about it. If I recall correctly, it was about six years ago, it was when I first got on Council, so six, seven years ago. I don’t believe that expansion ever went through but this is certainly a topic that has come up multiple times as we look to fill in some of the gaps in the sidewalk along Ann Arbor Trail. It isn’t just this one corner, we’ve talked about Ann Arbor Trail multiple times over the last, like I said in the last seven years that I’ve been on Council. As the gentleman pointed out in one of his photos or two of them, there is a section here in front of these homes where the sidewalk is very close to Ann Arbor Trail and I would at this point like to ask the Petitioner what the intention is. It appears as though the sidewalk in that area was put so close to the road to accommodate the existing construction that was there at the time. Now we understand that those homes that were nonconforming are to be removed and the new properties are to be conforming. If I could ask the Petitioner to give some clarification of what the intention is of that sidewalk. Baki: Those sidewalks that you see existing is what was the original right of way of that road, those two parcels, two properties. The owners own the property next to it. Now, with our new developments, those sidewalks are going to be torn out including the old house which is part of what’s keeping the vision and you can’t see as good because the house is close to the road, that’s what we said even at the Planning Commission, that’s what I said before, that that house, the sidewalk, everything will come down and the sidewalks will be continuous because the owner of the property which is Mr. Leo Soave, with the developments, will give up almost 23 feet of the frontage to the City of Livonia, or Wayne County, whoever owns Ann Arbor Trail as part of the right of way, we donate it to them which is we do that all the time in any new developments. You’ll see that sidewalk straight, no homes, and then you have the required setback for the R-1 zoning from the new sidewalk. The homes will be further back where you can see better when people are turning. That’s one of the reasons we said, what we’re trying to do is actually to try to improve that corner so people can see, cars to drive, in case they see around because now you can see better once we do that. That house has to come down and that’s what we’re trying to do here. 9 Kritzman: Thank you for that clarification. I think that offers a nice improvement to some of the concerns that were expressed. I still think as we’ve discussed on this Council, long term we have a sidewalk gap issue in this area, that should be addressed in a more comprehensive way. And I think as part of that, we should be looking to have designated crossing areas that are far enough away from this. When we looked at this in the previous go round with the nursing home area, we did look into the traffic counts and the accident rate, and is a higher incidence of accidents in this particular location. It’s one of several locations in the City that has an elevated rate but it’s definitely something worth looking at. So I think as we continue to go down the road of that sidewalk gap program, designated crossing areas, particularly in trouble spots like this are something we should be paying special attention to. And I believe that Ann Arbor Road is one of the roads that we actually do own as opposed to Wayne County. So I think we need to have some follow-up discussions with Mr. Zilincik on the engineering side. Toy: Good points. Mr. Baki, has Mr. Soave or you done anything on traffic as far as considerations or counts or anything? Baki: No. Toy: Okay, just wondered. Kritzman: Madam Chair, if I could have a certain follow-up to that. I think it would be appropriate to ask the Administration to look into this to see if there is a recommendation on some sort of traffic counting advice, additional warning lights, something to that effect at that corner. Toy: Thank you. Go right ahead, Councilman Meakin. Meakin: I assume at one point we’re going to have a resolution on this, I’d also like to include to send it to the Traffic Commission to let them pursue it because if we’re going to do crossing lanes or other signage, they would be the ones that would recommend signage to this body, so we can add that to the resolution. Toy: Do you accept that? Kritzman: Yes. Toy: Anyone else? Bahr: Madam President? Toy: Yes, go ahead, Councilman Bahr. 10 Bahr: I would be willing to offer an approving on this. I think we thought through a lot of these things when we rezoned the property next to it, at least offered First Reading on the rezoning next to it, I don’t remember where that stands but I know we at least addressed it and there was always the assumption that this would be handled as one property. So I think a lot of the issues related to this have been thought through and consistent with that action I think it makes sense to offer an approving resolution on this. I want to offer that with just for the sake of those in the audience who might appreciate knowing how this works, what we’re doing tonight is just a rezoning, so we’re not approving a site plan yet. We see a site plan to give us an idea but all this is doing is rezoning the property. There will still be a future date at which we handle the site plan and is typically our practice if this will move forward it will move forward with a first reading and then that will be held until we have a site plan that we’re happy with and at that point the second reading to finalize the rezoning would happen at the same time as the site plan. So neighbors and others who might have an interest in commenting on how this development is eventually done, you still have ample opportunity to that. And then finally I want to put one more comment, I just want to thank those in the Administration that this is I believe the first public hearing that we’ve got the screens on out here facing the auditorium, it was something that was identified within the past year and it looks like we finally got those wrinkles ironed out. So if you guys are looking at the big screens, you can thank some of the folks here at City Hall for making that available, that hasn’t always been the case during public hearings. Toy: Thank you, Councilman Bahr. That next Regular Meeting which will be a th voting meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 16 in this auditorium. So those of you as Councilman Bahr pointed out, if you have other people that would want to come and speak on a short synopsis of things, they can always call the Council office and/or email us or write letters as well. We have other directions to it, thank you Mr. Weiler, for pointing some of those issues out that you did and the photos and I’m assuming we can hang onto these, we’ll include them in our packet. Is there anything before we leave this? Yes, sir, go right ahead. Your name and address. Duneske: My name is Brian Duneske, I live at 34414 Ann Arbor Trail, right across. Is it possible you could bring that back up for a second? Toy: Mr. Taormina is going to work on that. Duneske: That’s the one I want to talk about. So, the sidewalk, what you’re saying is the sidewalk angles up and goes towards Ann Arbor Trail and then goes down and angles back down. I guess the question would be are you saying that the sidewalk now is going to go straight across? 11 Toy: Yes. Duneske: It’s not going to go towards Ann Arbor Trail? Toy: Correct. Duneske: Okay, that’s good. So, now I’ve lived there for seventeen years and I appreciate what you were saying because I was a part of the people that came six years ago for the Stark nursing home part of the deal. And that’s what we were talking about was the traffic back then because as I pointed out then and I’ll point out still at this time, they still use Livonia Fire, EMS, and outside EMS all still use Stark Road as their transportation point and pick-up point for that nursing home. So that is still a very sharp turn for public transportation that’s going in there unfortunately on a semi-weekly basis. Since I’ve lived there, I’ve had two roll over accidents right from my house. The home that you’re talking about – and one of the questions I had was, wasn’t there a historical marker on that plot, wasn’t that home part of the historical mark, that white home? Toy: I don’t know. Do you know anything about that, Mark? Taormina: I don’t believe that it is. I’ll double check, we have a list on historic resources and I don’t believe this is one but I’ll check. Duneske: Because the lady who lived there or still lives there, she had told me that a long time ago. Toy: You’ve got to watch the women, I’m telling you. Duneske: Like I said the traffic, for sure you need to do that traffic study because just about every single day the traffic is backed up past my house, past Stark, to go to Wayne Road. Now we have one new house going in, I believe there’s a couple more, four more that are going to be added, but you’re going to talk about seventeen more additional and I don’t know how that traffic is going to flow out on Ann Arbor Trail through Dover Lane or however you’re going to put that out there without some – Toy: Real thought? Duneske: Real thought, for sure, because like I said there’s been rollovers, that white house right across the street within the last six months she’s had at least one if not two, take out her fence. The people to the right of me, so that would be 34214, I believe, they went through our bushes and landed in their yard as a rollover and I’m talking about within the last year. I can go back fifteen years and tell you about all the accidents, but I’m talking about the last year there’s already been three of those accidents plus 12 many more but three of them are rollovers. So the traffic study, I would highly recommend that you do that. I gave that same recommendation when they were going to put that addition for the nursing home, and like I said, the City of Livonia, the public fire department, EMS, they still all use that Stark Road which is very dangerous for them even to turn out because people come zipping down Ann Arbor Trail. Toy: Certainly. Duneske: Those would be all the things I consider, and the one thing I had, so on th the 17 you said is the vote? th Toy: The 16. Duneske: Is that to approve the zoning? Toy: Rezoning, possibly, yes. Duneske: Okay. That’s all I have but like I said I would definitely recommend that traffic, however you do it. Like I said on a Monday through Friday, now when you talk about when Hines is closed the traffic can back up all the way down half a mile past my home. So whenever Hines is closed due to Christmas or flooding, it’s backed up. So to add these seventeen homes, it’s going to make quite a bit of congestion in that area. th Toy: The 16, that’s correct. The Vice President informed me and reminded me that this is a First Reading. It has to have a First Reading, then we go into a Second Reading at the next meeting. But before you leave, Councilman Kritzman would like to share something with you. Kritzman: Just one quick point. I mean certainly we’re adding, we’re looking at adding these additional homes to that area but the problem is bigger than that. The problem is, it’s not controlled in that one little area. We can talk about people turning in off of that one street but the fact of the matter is I don’t live anywhere close to that, and I still use that area from a driving perspective. While we do have control over what is coming in and out of that neighborhood, we can’t control the entirety of traffic flow from Westland and other communities. Duneske: I understand that. Kritzman: It’s definitely something that I think we should be following up on the resolutions that we have made, to take a look at it from a bigger perspective. Thanks for coming out tonight. Duneske: Okay, great. 13 Toy: Thank you for coming in, sir. Thank you very much everyone that came out tonight in this lovely weather. Is there anyone else from the Council, if not we’re going to close this public hearing. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:31 p.m. SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK