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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPLANNING MINUTES 2010-09-14MINUTES OF THE 1,0015T REGULAR MEETING HELD BY THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF LIVONIA On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, the City Planning Commission of the City of Livonia held its 1,001n Regular Meeting in the Livonia City Hall, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan. Mr. Lee Morrow, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members present: Ashley V. Krueger Deborah McDermott R. Lee Morrow Lynda L. Scheel Carol A. Smiley Gerald Taylor Ian Wilshaw Members absent: None Mr. Mark Taormina, Economic Development & Planning Director, was also present. Chairman Morrow informed the audience that if a petition on lonighfs agenda involves a rezoning request, this Commission makes a recommendation to the City Council who, in tum, will hold its own public hearing and make the final determination as to whether a pefifion 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 len 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 pefifions 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 2010-08-08-03 LIVONIA PLYMOUTH PLAZA Ms. Scheel, Secretary, announced the first item on the agenda, Pefifion 2010-08- 08-03 submitted by Nizam Abazid requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.58 of the Zoning Ordinance in connection with a proposal to remodel the exterior of the commercial/office center (Livonia Plymouth Plaza) at 28801 Plymouth Road, located on the south side of Plymouth Road between Harrison Avenue and Middlebell Road in the Northwest 1/4 of Section 36. September 14, 2010 25470 Mr. Taormina: This is property located in Section 36 of the City which is the square mile that is bounded by Plymouth Road to the north, Middlebelt Road to the west, Joy Road to the south and Inkster Road to the east. The properly under consideration is on the south side of Plymouth Road between Harrison and Middlebelt Roads. Actually, this is just east of Garden Avenue. The building on the site is somewhat L-shaped. It contains a total building area of about 40,800 square feel. The majonty of the space within this building is currently vacant. The new owners propose to remodel the exterior of the building and then occupy a portion of it, about 6,500 square feet, for their businesses which are office related and include a real estate office and an accounting office. They propose to lease out the balance of the center for both retail and office purposes. This building is set back only a few feel from Plymouth Road. Most of the parking is located to the rear of the building and along the east side. The existing exlenor is relatively plain. It consists of E.I.F.S. There is not any real interest in the design. It's a single continuous design throughout. Its mostly flat and gray and beginning to show its age. The pefifioner would like to renovate all four sides of the building. The color rendering gives the best example of what they propose to do. Probably the biggest change to the design would be increasing the height of the parapet walls along the lop of the building. Those would be extended about four feel from an average of about 16 feet to 20 feel. The highest points, which are at the corners of the building, would be 26 feet overall. As you can see from this rendering, they contain variations in the height and the width and the shape in order to add some character to the building and individualize the separate tenant units. On some parts of the building, the roofline would have an arched parapet, while other areas would remain straight across. There would be columns introduced along the front of the building. The columns would separate the tenant spaces. There would be standing seam awnings which are shown above several of the windows and the doors that make up the tenant spaces. This same design treatment is proposed along the rear of the building. What you're looking at here, the top part, is how the building would appear from Plymouth Road. The bottom drawings show what they would look like from the side and rear elevations so you can see a consistency throughout. There would be brick added to the lower portion of the building. Right now the E.I.F.S. or the dryvit extends all the way down to grade. What they propose to do is remove that E.I.F.S. material and put full four inch back along the lower portion of the building and areas of the columns and end caps would receive the treatment with September 14, 2010 25471 the cultured stone material. The architect is here this evening and he will be able to describe that a little bit better. With respect to parking, currently the entire site is stuped with angled parking. There is one-way circulation in all of the aisles including that which is on the east side of the building. They propose to change that to perpendicular, 90 degree parking. In doing so, they would actually pick up a few parking spaces. Right now I believe there are 77 parking spaces. They are showing 9 fool wide spaces, which give them a total of 89 spaces, increasing the count by 12. We estimate that if they go with the required 10 foot wide spaces, they would increase that number by six spaces, providing a total of 83 as opposed to the 89 spaces. If they slick with the 9 fool spaces as shown on this plan, they would have to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals because that 9 fool standard is deficient by one fool. I'll answer any questions or I can proceed to the correspondence if you'd like, Mr. Chair. Mr. Morrow: Please go ahead with the correspondence Mr. Taormina: There are four items of correspondence. The first item is from the Engineering Division, dated September 7, 2010, which reads as follows: "In accordance with your request, the Engineering Division has reviewed the above -referenced petition. The legal description for parcel numbers 2 and 4 both have large closure errors. Unfortunately, the legal description we have on record for parcel number 4 also fails to close property. Also, due to typographical errors in the legal description contained on the plans, we art= unable to provide a comect legal description. If a correct legal description is critical to this particular petition, the petitioner will have to retain the services of a licensed surveyor to assist in this regard. The address according to our records is 28801 Plymouth Road. We trust this provides you with the requested information." The letter is signed by Kevin G. Roney, P.E., Assistant City Engineer. The second letter is from the Livonia Fire & Rescue Division, dated September 3, 2010, which reads as follows: "This office has reviewed the site plan submitted in connection with a request to remodel the exterior of the commercial/office center on property located at the above referenced address. We have no objections to this proposal." The letter is signed by Earl Fesler, Senior Fire Inspector. The third letter is from the Division of Police, dated September 3, 2010, which reads as follows: "We have reviewed the plans in connection with Livonia Plymouth Plaza, located at 28801 Plymouth. We have no objections or recommendations to the plans as submitted." The letter is signed by John Gibbs, Sergeant, Traffic Bureau. The fourth letter is from the Inspection Department, dated September 14, 2010 25472 September 13, 2010, which reads as follows: "Pursuant to your request of August 23, 2010, the above -referenced petition has been reviewed. The following is noted. (1)AII parking spaces are required to be a minimum of 10 feet by 20 feet and double striped. (2) The existing parking lot shall be repaired and sealed as necessary. (3) Barrier free parking spaces are required to be property signed and striped per code. (4) Building is required to be registered in the vacant and abandoned program per City Ordinance 2844. All required fees are to be paid,, inspections shall be scheduled and any and all violations shall be comected. A certificate of re -occupancy shall be issued after the conditions set forth in 15.51.090 (E) are fully satisfied. (5) Protective wall at Southwest comer of property needs to be repaired. (6) The drawing needs to be comected to accurately reflect the location on Plymouth Road, not Inkster Road. This Department has no further objections to this petition." The letter is signed by Jerome Hanna, Assistant Director of Inspection. That is the extent of the correspondence. Mr. Morrow: Are there any questions from the Commissioners? Ms. Smiley: Would they be deficient in parking if they went to the 10 foot parking spaces? Mr. Taormina: They are currently deficient in parking, so it is a pre-oxisfing non -conforming situation. By striping it the way they propose, they increase that number, so they are reducing the deficiency, or lessening the nonconformity. If they went to 10 fool spaces, they can still increase the amount of parking above what currently exists. By doing so, they won't have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals. But with 9 foot spaces, they will have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals for the deficiency in width, not for the number of spaces. Ms. Smiley: So I would rather they go with the 10 fool wide spaces. Mr. Taormina: Yes, unless they have a compelling reason to go with the 9 foot wide spaces. We'd have to hear that or the Zoning Board of Appeals would have to. Ms. Smiley: Thankyou. Mr. Taylor: Through the Chair to Mark Taormina. Mark, do they have the 25 fool width between the parking aisles? Mr. Taormina: I think they're at 22 or 23 feet. Mr. Taylor: But they need to have 25 feet. September 14, 2010 25473 Mr. Taormina: No. Twenty two feet would be adequate. Mr. Taylor: Okay. Thank you. Mr. Morrow: Is the pefifioner here this evening? Nizam Abazid, 27162 Rochelle, Dearborn Heights, Michigan 48127. I'm the engineer on the project. This building does sit on Plymouth Road. We have presented the exisfing condition of this building, including the existing parking prospective. We have attempted to resolve the issue with the parking with the double strping. If I have to speak about the parking, the existing parking stalls were 9 feet. We had a brief meeting with the City a week ago and they mentioned about the parking stalls. They would like to see them at 10 feet. We have no problem with that. We have revised that. We have two copies here. It shows that the parking stalls are 10 feet apart from the center of those double lines. We even took the liberty to reduce them to make better circulafion with the 10 feel. Now we're down to 80 feet. We know we can put three more, but we have no objection to the 10 feel by 20 feel parking. There were 9 feel with the previous owners. That's something we attempted to justify. Mr. Morrow: Just a comment to slop you there. Going with the 10 feet by 20 feet, the patrons and customers will appreciate that believe me. Mr. Abazid: I parked here outside. I said this is beautiful because I can open the door. Mr. Morrow: We appreciate that decision. Mr. Abazid: We will do anything possible to obey the ordinance. This is a non -conforming building. We understand that and we thank the committee for understanding that. If we come into the front facade of the building, that's the first thing that came up. We applied for a permit. It's over 6,500 square feet, three units. So actually, there is effort but in this building, not just to gel an approval. We have asked for permission to repair the parking lot. They called me today about the striping. I said no. Its not approved. So they are waiting for me to get the approval to re - stripe the parking lot. That's where we stand at this point. Mr. Morrow: Thank you. I'll now see if the Commission has any questions. Mr. Taylor: Through the Chair, sir, can you give us a descnpfion of what these colors are, what's going to be on that material? Is that the actual color? Yellow and orange? September 14, 2010 25474 Mr. Abazid: Maybe I should give you this? Mr. Taylor: Is that the actual colors you're going to use? I can see the brick shows up better. I can see that. So that's going to be yellow, the E.I.F.S. material on lop? Mr. Abazid: I have more copies actually. Three more if I should pass them out. Mr. Taylor: This is pretty much what we have. Mr. Abazid: The brick is red. The E.I.F.S. changes color from beige to yellow to almost red. These are actually colors of the plazas down the road. Mr. Taylor: Are the awnings blue? Mr. Abazid: Yes, the standing seam awning. Mr. Taylor: And then there's an orange awning? Mr. Abazid: We tried that. We didn't want to have all of them blue. So we chose a red awning. Mr. Taylor: Through the Chair to Mark Taormina. Mark, this awning is going to stick out over the sidewalk, I assume. Mr. Abazid: Yes. Mr. Taylor: Can they do that? Mr. Taormina: Actually, I don't believe it will project over the sidewalk. There's a distance of around six or seven feet between the sidewalk and the front of the building. There is a little bit of space there. I don't think there will be any encroachment into the right-of-way. There's a strip of landscaping in front of the building that's maintained by the Plymouth Road Development Authority. Mr. Taylor: Right in the front of the building? Mr. Taormina: That's correct. Mr. Taylor: That's what I thought I had seen but I wasn't sure. I have one other question. I know in the back there are a lot of trees from the neighbors growing over. Are they allowed to trim those without asking the neighbors? September 14, 2010 25475 Mr. Taormina: I believe they would be allowed to trim any portion that overhangs onto their property. That's my understanding that they can maintain their side of the properly. It probably needs to be done in a couple of areas along the back. Mr. Taylor: I just want to say that what you're doing here, I give you a lot of credit for it. Obviously, this is a very tired center and you putting monies into it like this is really a benefit for Livonia. I guess almost anything you did there would be better than what's there. I congratulate you on what you want to do. Mr. Abazid: Thank you so much. Mr. Wilshaw: Mr. Abazid, I have a few questions about the site that just didn't seem to be covered during the presentation. Ijust want to ask you about them. I didn't see any dumpster enclosures on the site plan at all. Do you intend on having any dumpsters there or will the trash be internal to the stores? Mr. Abazid: These are offices. Offices don't require a dumpsler enclosure. Almost 60 percent of this building is office. We noticed on the far left, which is that big unit, they have internal, almost half of that is trash. They used to have a compacting site. Will an office building generale boxes and things? I'm not sure. If they recycle, they dont need any dumpsters. I'm not sure what the future is for that because maybe someone will take the same thing as is. You can see that different shaded area on the top left? That is open storage. There used to be a compactor inside. Each unit has to go for a permit. If somebody moves in a retail area and requires a dumpsler enclosure, we have to provide it. But at this point, we don't know what's coming in. Mr. Wilshaw: So at this point, you're not going to have a dumpsler enclosure. Mr. Abazid: Not at this point. Mr. Wilshaw: If you're going to have dumpsters in the future, we want to make sure we have an enclosure that matches the building with gates and so on. Mr. Abazid: Absolutely. Mr. Wlshaw: We're going to have to deal with that somewhere in this resolution I think. Are you going to change any lighting on the site or is what's there going to slay? Mr. Abazid: From the elevation if you noticed, we are providing lighting on the building. If you look in the center, there is lighting, plus all September 14, 2010 25476 the wall packs. I was 11:30 at night measuring and I had no issues with seeing what I'm measuring. So they have enough fool candles on the site Mr. Wilshaw: Okay. So the one center light in the parking light and then these scones that are on the wall are going to be all your lighting? Mr. Abazid: Yes. Mr. Wilshaw: I do have some questions about the building materials and the colors that Mr. Taylor look care of. I do really like the fad that you're going to make improvements on the south side where people are parking as well so they have an attractive entrance to go into as well. Mr. Abazid: That's the whole point. There's going to be a lot of work there because they have to relocate the electrical panels, the electrical meters. There's work involved. Mr. Wlshaw: That's very good. The only other question I have right now is signage that's going to be on the building to advertise the tenants you're going to have. Are those signs going to be on the E.I.F.S. or are they going to be on those metal awnings? Where are they going to be located on the facade? Mr. Abazid: I don't know that yet. Signage is a separate permit. Mr. Wlshaw: Right. Mr. Abazid: We don't know yet. I mean they are all real estate people so they know the system better than me, of course. They know what to do with the signage. They cannot attract people without putting a sign on the wall. They are already in the work. People are coming in to see the units. What they're trying to do also, on the third unit, as I'm looking at this site. The first from the right hand side, the first, second and the third, are already taken, but the third one is going to be a model office unit. That's what they would like to do. Because if you see them, there are seven of them the same length, the same width. So they're trying to make that a model for the rest of them, and probably attract a similar business. Mr. Wilshaw: All right. Sounds good. Like Mr. Taylor said, it's definitely an improvement over what's there. It looks like you're making a nice effort. We just need to hammer out a couple of these little details. Thank you very much. September 14, 2010 25477 Mr. Taylor: You're an architect. Believe me, those people who go in there are going to want a sign out in front. I've been in this business long enough to know that when somebody is going to have to drive down Plymouth Road and want to look for this outfit, even though they might know where it is, but they're going to want a sign. Mr. Abazid: Absolutely Mr. Taylor: We have an ordinance ... Mr. Abazid: Yes. A temporary sign ... Mr. Taylor: If they want to go over that, then they have to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals. That's what I'm trying to get to. Mr. Abazid: Absolutely. Mr. Taylor: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow: I did pick up one thing in Mr. Taor mina's presentation. Al the study session, there was some talk about a panel or thin brick. Did I understand you're going to use a full four inch brick? Mr. Abazid: I would like to use the full four inch brick at the base. We had that thought before, but we'd like to use the four inch brick. We're going to lake the E.I.F.S. from the base. See the columns slick out about four inches from the rest of the face. So we have room for that. Mr. Morrow: We'll be happy with that. The other thing I might have mentioned, when this goes forward to the City Council, if you know your colors, bring a sample to the City Council. That way they can actually see the color that's going to be on the awning or on the building. Sometimes we get these graphics and the colors don't really come out the same so we lose something in that process. Mr. Abazid: We did order the cultured stone. They said 16 days. It's just a piece. Mr. Morrow: Okay. As well as your palette of colors. Mr. Abazid: Yes. Mr. Morrow: If there are no other questions, I'll go to the audience. Is there anybody in the audience that wishes to speak for or against the September 14, 2010 25478 granting of this petition? We will need your name and address for the record. Chadi Habib, 6530 Chase Road, Dearborn, Michigan 48126. I'm an attorney. I'm one of the associates with the people involved in this project. He also forgot to mention, I just wanted to note that, I will be relocating my law office from Dearborn to one of the units over there. We have every intention of trying to improve this building as much as possible, trying to attract as many tenants as possible and also as many clients as possible. Our whole intention was to, because they are sharing buildings that are just empty, unoccupied. The building is somewhat deteriorated, a lot of them. So we were hoping, even with just minimal signage in the front, just by the color scheme, by the way its going to be improved, that would attract tenants, and would certainly accommodate the signage ordinance. Mr. Morrow: Well, let me just comment, and I think I can speak for the rest of the Commission, based on the investment, time and effort you put into this, that you're serious about having a good presentation to the City and for future tenants. We certainly appreciate your efforts and welcome you to Livonia. Mr. Habib: Thankyou. Mr. Morrow: Anything else? I see no one else coming forward. I'm going to ask for a motion. On a motion by Krueger, seconded by Smiley, and unanimously adopted, it was #09-62-2010 RESOLVED, that the City Planning Commission does hereby recommend to the City Council that Petition 2010-08-08-03 submitted by Nizam Abazid requesting approval of all plans required by Section 18.58 of the Zoning Ordinance in connection with a proposal to remodel the exterior of the commercial/office center (Livonia Plymouth Plaza) at 28801 Plymouth Road, located on the south side of Plymouth Road between Harrison Avenue and Middlebelt Road in the Northwest 1/4 of Section 36, be approved subject to the following conditions: 1. That the Site Plan marked Sheet P-1 dated August 19, 2010, as revised, prepared by Ziad EI -Baba Engineering, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 2. That the parking lot shall be repaired, resealed and restriped to the satisfaction of the Inspection Department and all parking spaces shall be doubled striped and September 14, 2010 25479 measure ten feet (10') in width by twenty feel (20') in length; 3. That the Exterior Building Elevation Plan marked Sheet A-2 dated August 19, 2010, as revised, prepared by Ziad EI - Baba Engineering, is hereby approved and shall be adhered to; 4. That the brick used in the construction shall be full face four (4") inch brick; 5. That all rooftop mechanical equipment shall be concealed from public view on all sides by screening that shall be of a compatible character, material and color to other exterior materials on the building; 6. In the event that a trash dumpster area is needed, all appropriate plans shall be submitted to the Inspection Department for their review and approval. The three walls of the trash dumpster area shall be constructed out of the same brick used in the construction of the building or in the event a poured wall is substituted, the wall's design, texture and color shall match that of the building and the enclosure gales shall be of solid panel steel construction or durable, long-lasting solid panel fiberglass and maintained and when not in use closed at all times; 7. That only conforming signage is approved with this petition, and any additional signage shall be separately submitted for review and approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals; 8. That no LED lightband or exposed neon shall be pemiifted on this site including, but not limited to, the building or around the windows; 9. That the specific plans referenced in this approving resolution shall be submitted to the Inspection Department at the time the building permits are applied for; and, 10. Pursuant to Section 19.10 of Ordinance #543, the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Livonia, this approval is valid for a period of one year only from the date of approval by City Council, and unless a building permit is obtained, this approval shall be null and void at the expiration of said period. Mr. Morrow: Is there any discussion? September 14, 2010 25480 Ms. Scheel: Do we want to add something regarding the dumpster as Commission Wilshaw had mentioned? Mr. Morrow: I think we can make reference to that, should a dumpster be required, there's a city ordinance that addresses that. Mr. Taormina: We will include the standard language regarding the enclosure, compatibility of building materials and the fencing material used, if that's acceptable to the maker of the motion. Ms. Krueger: That's fine. Mr. Morrow: And the supporter? Ms. Smiley: Yes. Mr. Morrow: We have agreementthem. Ms. Scheel: And what about the four inch brick? Does that need to be staled? Mr. Morrow: I think that will be part of the plans, will it not, Mark? Mr. Taormina: I dont know if the plans call it out, but if you'd like to, we can also include some language. Mr. Morrow: We normally do. We normally call out the size of the brick. Ms. Krueger: That's acceptable. Ms. Smiley: That's fine. Ms. Scheel: When you spoke at the beginning, Mark, there was a letter that you read that said the site plan needed to be corrected to show the correct road and everything. Is that in these conditions or is that something that needs to be mentioned to make sure we get a corrected site plan? Mr. Taormina: I don't know that it needs to be in the resolution. I had a discussion with the architect and he's going to resubmit the plans to the Council showing the right road. Ms. Scheel: Okay. So it will just be done without being in the resolution. Mr. Taormina: Yes. Ms. Scheel: Thankyou. Those were my questions. September 14, 2010 25481 Mr. Morrow: Okay. Please call the roll. Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carded and the foregoing resolution adopted. It will go on to City Council with an approving resolution. Welcome to Livonia and best of luck. ITEM #2 PETITION 2010-07-06-01 WIRELESS FACILITIES Ms. Scheel, Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Petition 2010- 07-06-01 submitted by the City Planning Commission, pursuant to Council Resolution #225-10, and Section 23.01(a) of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance, as amended, to determine whether or not to amend Subsections (b) and (d) of Section 18.42A (Wireless Communication Facilities) of Article XVIII of the Livonia Zoning Ordinance to better insure that operators and colocalors do not have radio frequency (RF) energy emissions or other detrimental field output and to require colocalors and operators to notify the Inspection Department of changes in ownership and contact information. Mr. Morrow: Regarding Item #2 on the agenda tonight, we've been informed that the Law Department is still refining the language for the new ordinance. Therefore. it will remain tabled. ITEM #3 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 9616` Public Hearings and Regular Meeting Ms. Scheel, Secretary, announced the next item on the agenda, Approval of the Minutes of the 1,000th Regular Meeting held on August 24, 2010 On a motion by Wilshaw, seconded by McDermott, and unanimously adopted, 0 was #09-63-2010 RESOLVED, that the Minutes of 1,000th Regular Meeting held by the Planning Commission on August 25, 2010, are hereby approved. A roll call vole on the foregoing resolution resulted in the following AYES: Wilshaw, McDermott, Smiley, Krueger, Taylor, Scheel, Morrow NAYS: None ABSTAIN: None ABSENT: None September 14, 2010 25482 Mr. Morrow, Chairman, declared the motion is carded and the foregoing resolution adopted. On a motion duly made, seconded and unanimously adopted, the 1,001"Regular Meeting held on September 14, 2010, was adjourned at 7:35 p.m. CIN PLANNING COMMISSION Lynda L. Scheel, Secretary ATTEST: R. Lee Morrow, Chairman