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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNING MINUTES 2009-11-24MINUTES OF THE 988m PUBLIC HEARINGS AND REGULAR MEETING HELD BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA On Tuesday, November 24, 2009, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia held its 9881 Public Hearings and Regular Meeting in the Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan. Mr. Ian Wilshaw, Acting Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Deborah McDermott Lynda Scheel Carol A. Smiley Gerald Taylor Ian Wilshaw Membersabsent: Ashley Vartoogian, R. Lee Morrow Messrs. Mark Taormina, Planning Director; At Nowak, Planner IV; and Ms. Margie Watson, Program Supervisor; were also present. Acting Chairman Wilshaw informed the audience that if a petition on tonighfs 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 fling. 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 2009-10-02-15 6 MILE PROPERTIES Ms. Smiley, Secretary, announced the first item on the agenda, Petition 2009-10- 02-15 submitted by 6 Mile Properties, L.L.C. requesting waiver use approval to utilize an SDM license (sale of packaged beer and wine) and an SDD license (sale of packaged spirits over 21% alcohol) in connection with a retail facility at 17108 Farmington Road, located on the northeast corner of Farmington Road and Six Mile Road in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 10. November 24, 2009 25139 Mr. Taormina provided background on the item and presented a map showing the properly under petition plus the existing zoning of the surrounding area. Mr. Wilshaw: Is there any correspondence? Mr. Nowak: There are four items of correspondence. The first dem is from the Engineering Division, dated November 13, 2009, which reads as follows: "The Engineering Division has completed its review of the information submitted related to the waiver use request. The verified address of the site is 17108 Farmington Road. The legal description found on the City website appears comect for this site. However, the drawing submitted by the petitioner (prepared by A&M Consultants) contains no legal description. The property boundaries as drawn do not agree with the legal description horn our City records. The Engineering Department will be glad to look over any revised drawings for this site if submitted." The letter is signed by Kevin G. Roney, P.E., Assistant City Engineer. The second letter is from the Livonia Fire & Rescue Division, dated November 18, 2009, which reads as follows: "This office has reviewed the site plan submitted in connection with a request to construct a commercial building on property located at the above - referenced address. We have no objections to this proposal." The letter is signed by Donald F. Donnelley, Fire Marshal. The third letter is from the Division of Police, dated November 12, 2009, which reads as follows: "We have reviewed the plans in connection with 6 Mile Properties, located at 17108 Farmington. We have no objections or recommendations to the plans as submitted." The letter is signed by David W. Studt, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The fourth letter is from the Inspection Department, dated November 13, 2009, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request of November 1, 2009, the above - referenced petition has been reviewed. The following is noted. (1) The ground sign must be relocated to the required 10 foot setback or must receive a grant horn the Zoning Board of Appeals for the deficient (5 foot each way) setback. As a service station, the 5 foot setback meets requirements, but as a party store the sign is deficient. (2) The dilapidated parking barricades surrounding this property should be removed. Bumper blocks may need to be installed. (3) We would recommend the Farmington Road entrance nearest Six Mile be abandoned and planted. (4) The parking space sizes are not defined and must be 10 feet by 20 feet. The barrier free space must be 11 feet wide minimum with an adjacent aisle, minimum width 5 feet. (5) The entire curbing on site at the southwest comer should be replaced. (6) All dilapidated abandoned light pole bases should be removed. (7) All illegal satellite dishes on November 24, 2009 25140 the roof must be removed and any rooftop equipment must be screened. (8) The plans do not detail access to the storage area. (9) This site as depicted will require separate accessible restroom facilities for men and women that will be readily available without traveling through a storage or private area. (10) The plans lack detail and may not be used for construction. The Commission and Council may wish to clarify the dumpster enclosure construction and gates. (11) There is no mention of an irrigation system for all landscaping, in addition, references are made to 'seeding' areas. The Commission and/or Council may wish to clarify these issues. (12) If Walgreens has obtained their SDM license, a waiver will be needed for this site as it is closer than 500 feet. This Department has no further objections to this petition." The letter is signed by Alex Bishop, Director of Inspection. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Wilshaw: Are there any questions for the staff? Ms. Smiley: Where are we with the Walgreens license? Mr. Taormina: The City Council denied the request for three of the four licenses, including the one across the street, and held a public hearing on the appeal for the Joy and Newburgh store last night. One resolution was offered and that was to uphold the Planning Commission's denial of the requested license. Ms. Smiley: So do you think the City Council is going to deny it? Mr. Taormina: As it stands now, it's heading in that direction. Yes. Ms. Smiley: Okay. And would this be like a little mini Wine Castle right there at Seven and Farmington? It's basically a liquor store. Mr. Taormina: Yes. It will carry both SDM as well as SDD licensed products, beer, wine and liquor. I'm sure there will be some other convenience items offered at the store, but maybe the petitioner can tell you what that would be. Ms. Smiley: Okay. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Chair. Mr. Wilshaw: Are there any other questions? Would the petitioner please come to the podium? We ask that you give us your name and address for the record, and then you can add any additional comments or maybe answer Ms. Smiley's question about the type of business that you're going to run. November 24, 2009 25141 Michael Beydoun, A&M Consultants, 789 North Wagner, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48103. Dennis Jaboro, 6 Mile Properties, L.L.C., 24936 Hadlock Drive, Novi, Michigan 48374. 1 am the owner of the properly. Mr. Wilshaw: Thank you. Go ahead and start with whatever you'd like to say. Mr. Beydoun: Mr. Taormina said all of it, and I'll just comment on a few other things. As far as the landscaping, all of that would be irrigated. We will work on the parking spaces. I'm sure we can come up with 12 required spaces once we go to 10 feel by 20 feel. Also, all the light poles would go up with the standards of the City of Livonia. They will be shielded. And as far as the heights, I just have to check on that one, maybe 20 feel in height if its okay. Whatever is okay with the Building Department. I've done a lot of jobs in the City, and we can always compromise with all that. I listened to all the conditions or all the comments from Mr. Bishop from the Building Department. We're willing to comply with whatever it takes. As far as the signs, we will move it backward. We have no problem with that one actually. The reason for this one here, we're ending up with a lot of gas stations closing everywhere. The gas station business is going backwards. This is going to be a specialty store basically. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay. Are there any questions from the Commission? Mr. Taylor: Sir, I didn't gel your name. It wasn't quite loud enough so I could hear you. Mr. Beydoun: Michael Beydoun. Mr. Taylor: Are you the owner, Michael? Mr. Beydoun: I'm the architect and this is the owner right here. Mr. Taylor: I see. And what is the reason we're shutting down some of these gas stations and trying to put something else in there? Is the gas station business not going well enough to where you can make a dollar on it? Mr. Beydoun: Actually, I built the gas station on Schoolcratt and Inkster. They're doing good. I did the one at Five Mile and Newburgh. I also built the one at Five Mile and Inkster. I've done a lot of gas stations in my lifetime. The gas station business is not moving along. One of the main reasons is pdce for the gas for the owner. It's going up loo high. Before all they needed was November 24, 2009 25142 $10,000 to come up with a load of gas. Right now, the way the price is going up and down, I dont think they can even afford to come up with $50,000 or $60,000 for a load of gas. Before they used to have credit on the gasoline order just to put it underground, and right now no one is giving any credit. Even one of the biggest companies, the biggest distributor for BP, is Armada Oil. They went out of business and they own 120 gas stations. I've done all their sites. I've worked with them nationwide. So the gas station business is getting lough right now. Mr. Taylor: Unfortunately, where you're located and the size of the property, I just have a very difficult time imagining a liquor store in that particular area. We've had one of the commissioners say, hey, maybe a donut shop or something like that because if you're not making money off the property, I can understand that. It's zoned G2, but I just don't see this as being a viable spot for a liquor store. It's not large enough. You pull a big truck in there to unload and you've got no room to park. I know that they're talking about laking the barriers down outside, which obviously you would use for parking if any of your customers came in, but I just don't see this site as being compatible for a liquor store. Its not big enough for one thing. The square footage is not big enough. You're not going to have a very big inventory. Usually beer sales, you have to carry a lot of beer, different kinds of beer, in order to accommodate people because the palate that they have for different flavors of beer. You have to carry a large liquor control supply, and I just don't see this happening in that area. It's going to be very congested. Maybe you know the business, but the way I see it, I just have a hard time supporting a liquor store. If you were talking to me about a donut shop or something like that, I could understand that. Mr. Beydoun: With all respect, sir, we're not in the donut business, but I've done this one here everywhere. I've done it in so many different cities. Basically, even if you have a big store, if it's not organized, it's just not well packed, its going to be obsolete. Even if you have a small store where you can actually organize it and compact everything ... I just finished up a party store if you'd like to see a picture of it. It's almost going to be the same size or just a little bit bigger than this one here. This one is organized on the inside and you can ft all the product. If you'd like to see that? Mr. Wilshaw: You can hand it to Ms. Watson and she'll pass it along. Thank you. November 24, 2009 25143 Mr. Taylor: What about the restroom facilities? Could you lake care of that, men and women restroom facilities? Mr. Beydoun: I mean it's something we have to pick up with the Building Department based on the number of people coming in. If that's the condition, we'll provide two bathrooms if that's the actual condition to gel this approval. I just did another party store in the City of Livonia on Six Mile and Middlebell. We went through the Plumbing Department and they asked us just to provide some kind of documentation from the engineer or the architect as far as the number of people that will walk into the store. There is a certain number of people that have to walk in so we can provide even one bathroom or two bathrooms. I mean if it's okay with the Planning Department here, we can pick up that issue with the Building Department. If they say we have to, then we'll provide two, and if they say no, maybe we can stay with one. And if we have to have two, we'll have two. Mr. Taylor: I just can't imagine in looking at other liquor stores that I've seen that you could have the potato chips and all those types of things that normally liquor stores carry, pretzels and those types of things, and have any room in 1,800 square feet. Mr. Beydoun: Right now, the way that they're organizing party stores, we could. Mr. Taylor: Thank you very much. Mr. Beydoun: Thank you, sir, and maybe Dennis wants to elaborate on something. Mr. Jaboro: If I may elaborate a little bit more on what it is, our focus is more of a specialty type store where our focus is higher end specially wine, beer, liquor. Our knowledge and our experience in the business in doing specialty stores allowing people to come in, helping them to pair certain wines or liquors with certain types of events they may be having or dinner parties to help them pair whatever they're serving that day to pair with their wine or with their liquor or whatever they may serve. It's more of a specialty store versus a liquor/party store style of establishment of what we're used to. Obviously, there are some items we would carry that would be specific to liquor store standards, but the majority, our focus is a specially store. That's why with the size of space that we're worlang with, we believe we could make it work. Ms. Scheel: You just mentioned with your experience in this area, do you own any other liquor stores or wine stores in the area? November 24, 2009 25144 Mr. Jaboro: Not in the area, I do not. I've worked in the business for most of my life, being with my family having this type of business. I also have a partner that will work with me who has the experience as far as the wine. In pairing the wine, he's done classes; he's held seminars, he does wine tastings; and he has the experience as far as pairing the specialty wines, how to purchase the wines, and the knowledge. Based out of Ann Arbor is where he's at now. Ms. Scheel: Thankyou. Mr. W Ishaw: Does anyone else have any questions? I do have one question for you, sir. The gas tanks that are currently on the property that are under the ground, will those have to be removed as part of this redevelopment? Mr. Beydoun: Of course. They have to be removed and also the tanks, pumps, islands, canopies, all that has to be removed. Environmentally, we will work with the gas company that is before us. There is some kind of special way that will alleviate all of the contamination in the ground also. Mr. Wilshaw: Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. I think we're all set here. No other questions? Okay. Well, thank you, sir, for being here. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak on this item? You're welcome to come up at this time. We have one person coming forward. Sir, just like the petitioner, we ask that you please provide your name and address for the record, and you're welcome to make your comments. H. Putman Rafferty, 16970 Farmington Road, Livonia, Michigan 48154. Yes. Good evening. I feel that there is a possibility that this establishment could be loo close to the high school, which is just west on Six Mile Road. I also feel that we have a very good liquor store at Seven and Farmington, and we also have beer and wine at Five and Farmington. So I just don't think it's necessary to have another establishment such as this so close together. Thankyou. Mr. Wlshaw: Thank you very much, sir. Is there anybody else in the audience that would like to make a comment? No one is coming forward. Al this point, a motion would be in order. On a motion by Smiley, seconded by Scheel, and unanimously adopted, it was November 24, 2009 25145 #11-67-2009 RESOLVED, that pursuant to a Public Hearing having been held by the City Planning Commission on November 24, 2009, on Pefi0on 2009-10-02-15 submitted by 6 Mile Properties, L.L.C. requesting waiver use approval to utilize an SDM license (sale of packaged beer and wine) and an SOD license (sale of packaged spirits over 21% alcohol) in connection with a retail facility at 17108 Farmington Road, located on the northeast corner of Farmington Road and Six Mile Road in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 10, which properly is zoned G2, the Planning Commission does recommend to the City Council that Petition 2009-10-02-15 be denied for the following reasons: 1. That the petitioner has failed to affirmatively show that the proposal is in compliance with all of the special and general waiver use standards and requirements as set forth in Sections 11.03 and 19.06 of the Zoning Ordinance #543; 2. That this area of the City is currently well served with existing SDM and SOD licensed establishments; 3. That there is no demonstrated need for additional SDM and SDD licensed establishments in this area of the City; 4. That the petitioner has not sufficiently demonstrated that the proposal would be compatible to and in harmony with surrounding uses in the area; 5. That the petitioner has failed to adequately demonstrate that the facility has the capacity to accommodate the proposed use; 6. That the petitioner has failed to demonstrate that proper and adequate parking and loading space would be provided for the proposed use; and 7. That the proposed use is contrary to the goals and objectives of the Zoning Ordinance which, among other things, are intended to insure suitability and appropriateness of uses. FURTHER RESOLVED, that notice of the above hearing was given in accordance with the provisions of Section 19.05 of Zoning Ordinance #543, as amended. November 24, 2009 25146 Mr. Wilshaw, Acting Chairman, declared the motion is carded and the foregoing resolution adopted. The petitioner has 10 days in which to appeal this in writing to the City Council. ITEM #2 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 987m Public Hearings and Regular Meeting Ms. Smiley, Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Approval of the Minutes of the 9871h Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on October 20, 2009. On a motion by Scheel, seconded by Taylor, and adopted, it was #11-68-2009 RESOLVED, that the Minutes of 9871 Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held by the Planning Commission on October 20, 2009, are hereby approved. A roll call vole on the foregoing resolution resulted in the following: AYES: Scheel, Taylor, McDermott, Smiley NAYS: None ABSENT: Vadoogian, Monow ABSTAIN: Wilshaw Mr. Wilshaw, Acting Chairman, declared the motion is carded and the foregoing resolution adopted. Mr. Taylor: Just for the information of the committee here, Mr. Monow, our Chairman, is home and is recovering. We wish him well. Mr. Wilshaw: Verymuchso. Thank you very much. On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 988th Public Hearings and Regular Meeting held on November 24, 2009, was adjourned at 7:28 p.m. CITY PLANNING COMMISSION Carol A. Smiley, Secretary ATTEST: Ian Wilshaw, Acting Chairman