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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - 2019-10-02 - REZONING -TISEO - PET. 2019-07-01-06 CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Wednesday, October 2, 2019 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, October 2, 2019. MEMBERS PRESENT: Laura Toy, President Jim Jolly, Vice President Scott Bahr Brian Meakin Kathleen McIntyre Cathy White MEMBERS ABSENT: Brandon Kritzman OTHERS PRESENT: Mark Taormina, Director of Economic Development Todd Zilincik, City Engineer Leo Neville, Assistant City Attorney Sara Kasprowicz, Recording Secretary The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:10 p.m. with President Laura Toy presiding. This is a Public Hearing relative to the PETITION 2019-07-01-06 submitted by Tiseo Architects, Inc., to rezone a portion of the shopping center located on the west side of Middlebelt Road between Clarita Avenue and Seven Mile Road (19043-19053 Middlebelt Road) in the Northeast ¼ of Section 11, from P (Parking) to C-1 (Local Business). This will be heard at the Regular Council Meeting of October 21, 2019. The Public Hearing is now open. There were twenty-seven people in the audience. Toy: Mr. Taormina? Taormina: Thank you. This is a rezoning of Petition involving property located at the southwest corner of Middlebelt and Seven Mile Roads. This shopping center is referred to as Mid-Seven Plaza. It is roughly 5.36 acres in area. The shopping complex contains roughly 7,000 square feet of leasable floor space. As you can see from this aerial photograph, most of the parking is located between the building and Middlebelt Road. Main tenants in the complex include Pet Supplies Plus, which is located near the North end of the plaza and Planet Fitness, located near the center. The site presently consists of three zoning classifications, C-1, C-2 and P. The North ½ of the plaza is zoned C-2, whereas, the South end is zoned C-1, and then the main parking lot in front of the building is zoned P for parking. 2 The request is to rezone the southernly 65 feet of the site from P, the parking district to C-1, local business. This is anticipation of constructing a free-standing drive-up ATM kiosk for Citizens Bank. So, the proposed C-1 zoning would extend the existing C-1 zoning along the South side of the property in order to accommodate this kiosk. The parking district is not allowed for buildings or structures, that is the main reason for the rezoning. If the zoning is approved, Petitioner intends to submit a waiver use application for the drive-up banking kiosk. This area would occupy a space roughly 20 feet by 90 feet along the South side of the property and would require the removal of nine (9) parking spaces. This shows you, conceptually, what that would look like along the South side of the property. Even with the reduction of nine (9) parking spaces for the kiosk and the drive-up area, the plaza would still have sufficient parking. The drive-up services do require stacking. In this case, he’s showing for three (3) vehicles, which is slightly deficient to what we normally require for any drive-up operations, however, this may be a case where the additional spaces are not warranted. Other requirements are that the drive-up lane be at least twelve (12) feet in width, have proper turning radiuses. Looking at the plan, it would appear to comply with those requirements. The recently adopted future land-use map for the City shows this area as mixed-development centers so it is consistent with the future land-use plan. Planning Commission, in reviewing this matter, is recommending approval of rezoning. Thank you. Toy: Thank you, Mr. Taormina. Any questions for Mr. Taormina before we go to the Petitioner? Hearing and seeing none, good evening. Can you please state your name and address please? Tiseo: Ben Tiseo, Tiseo Architects, 19815 Farmington Road. Is this mic on? Ok, excuse me. I did take a chance and I copied some information to be presented at the Planning Commission meeting, so if I may, I can hand those out to the City Council. As was stated, we started this project for awhile. This a result, frankly, of the Citizens branch on Middlebelt just North of Seven Mile Road. It will be closing its doors at that location on th October 16 I believe it is. What they still have a customer need for, that’s why they’re looking for another location for this drive-up ATM. I know that the Planning Commission, it was asked why we need it, given the technology today. So many people are using their phones to make deposits and they can go to Wal-Mart, any place else and get some cash if they need cash. At that time, Drew Krissman, he’s the real estate transaction manager for Citizens. I asked him to look at the data for the two locations in Livonia. The one at Middlebelt that will be closing down and the one at Five Mile Road, which is Livonia East. The Citizen’s at Middlebelt has a walk-up ATM and that walk-up ATM does a total of about $5.5 million in deposits in twelve (12) months. It also has a history in the past twelve (12) months of $4.9 million in withdrawals. So, it’s a pretty 3 active site for a walk-up. Drive-up ATMs do considerably more. By example, the one on Five Mile does $7.2 million in the past twelve (12) months in deposits and $6.8 million in withdrawals. The biggest issue is the fact that people at the location at Middlebelt, the majority will not drive down to Five Mile Road, because it’s too far of a distance for them to do that. They’ve had enough studies to know they’ll lose a considerable amount of business by doing that. So, the branch doesn’t warrant keeping open because the interior is not generating efficient funds. I don’t know what the numbers are, I know back in the day, fifteen (15) years ago, branches require about thirty-five (35) million transactions a year. I don’t believe this one is doing that. So, they want to still capture and keep the customers they have by finding them a new location. This one is close enough, in my opinion, it fits well into the Center. We did quite an extensive study on the location of it so that as you are going South in front of the stores, you can continue to the end and simply turn left and you’ll be right there at the ATM, rather than doing some jogging here or there. As Mr. Taormina lead to, that we have indicated three (3) stacking instead of the four (4) required. Again, I’ve had Citizens look at their data and throughout their stores, they never have four (4) stacking. Occasionally, during the year, they might have three (3) in the que. Sometimes they will have two (2), the majority of the time, they will have one (1). That’s a matter of just tracking their transactions. They have a start time on the transactions and an end time, so they know if the customers are there. So, again, we are, on one issue that came up again at the Planning Commission is security. Well, what happens if somebody gets robbed? Well, again, I ask Citizens to look into that and Citizens has 3,000 ATMs in their portfolio. Three hundred (300) of them are remote ATMs. In the past year, they have not had one (1) hold up. They’ve had two (2) instances of what they call a, oh shoot, um, skimming, where they had two (2) instances where somebody was in a remote area, near the ATM, was trying to skim the PIN numbers off of the users. So, there’s not a concern of somebody coming up and holding a gun and trying to get your money out. We feel that given the $10.4 million that’s being done at the current location, that that will increase because people will feel safer being in their car rather than walking from their car to a walk-up ATM. Again, I’m here if they ask any questions and we hope for your approval. Thank you. Toy: Thank you very much. Councilwoman McIntyre. Jolly: Madam President? Professor has provided his notes and his lecture here and I think it’s a good use of space in current existence, so I’ll offer an approving. Toy: Thank you, OK. We’re going to let the Council go first and then we’ll go to the audience, is that good? Ok, Councilman Bahr. 4 Bahr: Did you say the Five Mile Citizens is closing also? Tiseo: No, no, no, just the Middlebelt one. Bahr: Ok. Tiseo: There was a discussion, will we have another, again, no other demographics. The people that go to the one on Middlebelt will not drive. Bahr: This is replacing the Middlebelt one, basically? Tiseo: Yes. Bahr: Either for you or for Mark, do we have other stand-alone kiosks like this in the City? I can’t off-hand think of any, but it’s a big city, so maybe there’s one I missed. Tiseo: Not that I recall. Bahr: Ok. Toy: Are you all set? Bahr: I think I’m all set, thanks. Toy: Councilman Meakin? Meakin: This is actually an old idea that they are regurgitating because my office used to be a, basically a bank drive-through. The bank was three (3) blocks down the street. So, it’s not a new idea, they’ve had this one tucked in their back files for a while. I’m glad Councilman Bahr mentioned that the Five Mile store was remaining, because if they weren’t remaining, then I wouldn’t give them this. Since they are keeping the presence in Livonia, I have no problem with this issue. Toy: Councilwoman, go right ahead. McIntyre: I think that this is a, I never feel like I’m in a position to tell a business what they need to do, if Citizens feels that this is appropriate and its going to have the business, then I think it’s a good idea. I usually won’t argue against a company’s business plan, they know what their needs are, they know, and as far as the stacking, same thing, thank you for addressing, Mr. Tiseo, that there’s not average of five (5) cars and we’re only providing space for three (3). I think where this is located, too, should there on occasion be an extra car, right, we’re not impeding traffic or ingress or egress to this plaza. The most important thing for me in looking at these, is 5 that they conform with the future land-use because we put a lot of time we put a lot of time and effort into our planning and our future land-use, and sometimes we’ll say well its is requested of us and it doesn’t fit with the future land-use. So, we’re really going against what we think is the best use. This conforms, which is always important to me and one of the key factors in deciding whether something makes sense. If the business feels that there is a need for it, I think a drive-up bank is a convenience that people like, I think many people would rather use a drive-up than a walk- up, especially this time of year when it starts getting dark earlier, so I think this looks like a great use of space, great plan, I fully support Mr. Jolly’s idea for offering an approving resolution. Toy: Thank you, certainly. Bahr: Madam President? Toy: Councilman Bahr? Bahr: I’m sorry to ask for the floor again, but its kind on the stream of consciousness tonight. Who own this, once we rezone this, is this just going to be space leased from the shopping center owner or I guess I’ll leave it to Mark or either one. Taormina: That’s my understanding, it’s probably a ground lease. Tiseo: It’s a ground pitch, it’s a ground lease for that portion. They’re paid X- dollars a month. Bahr: The same owner (inaudible)? Tiseo: Same owner, that’s right, we gotten his approval. Matter of fact, we were talking today about how we could get power to the Center, should we get approval. Bahr: Ok, then finally, and I have no problem with the approving resolution, I think this is a good thing overall. I’m curious, do you know what their plans are for the bank that they are closing on Middlebelt. Tiseo: If they know, they haven’t shared it with me, I asked them and nothing comes forth. My gut tells me they might try and sell it. It’s a small site and I think that’s the problem. We do a lot of Citizen’s work. We’ve done about 80 branches for them over the past few years and the site is just too small to warrant a renovation and expansion. 6 Bahr: I’m just thinking out loud for a moment and I’ll be done. That site is right in front of that Livonia Pavilion building, which has been a struggle, I know, for the owners for a long time and I have no end solution behind it. This, long term could actually be a good thing for the City. The fact that, now you have frontage for that entire thing, there are opportunities for Planners and Developers. Anyway, thank you. Tiseo: I did want to add one more thing, if I could. One of the first things that I noticed that Mr. Taormina picked up on was the driving pattern and we, through our course this week, corrected the pattern, thanks to Mr. Taormina, so that the Center now flows better at the South end with the traffic pattern. Thank you. Toy: Thank you. Anyone else from the Council before we go to the audience? Anyone from the audience wishing to speak on item number 3? Ok, you have an approving resolution then on item 3 and so that will be heard on st October 21 which will be voted on. Tiseo: Thank you. Toy: Thank you, Mr. Tiseo. Thank you, Council. We’re done with that one. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:24 p.m.