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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOUNCIL STUDY - 2013-04-08 CITY OF LIVONIA— CITY COUNCIL MINUTES OF STUDY MEETING HELD APRIL 8, 2013 Meeting was called to order at 8:44 p.m. Present: James McCann, John Pastor, Thomas Robinson, Maureen Miller Brosnan, Brandon Kritzman, and Laura Toy. Absent: Joe Laura. Elected and appointed officials present: Todd Zilincik, City Engineer; Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development; Don Knapp, City Attorney; and Terry Marecki, City Clerk. Robinson announced there will be a Household Hazardous Waste Day sponsored by Wayne County, on Saturday, April 13, 2013, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at 12200 Beech Daly Road, Redford. This event is limited to Wayne County residents only. President Toy announced there is new data on Items #1 and #2; also, there is an X-item that will be discussed following tonight's Agenda. AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. NEW BUSINESS Kritzman left the podium at 8:48 p.m. to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest regarding the next item. 1. REQUEST TO WAIVE THE CITY'S NOISE ORDINANCE: Brian Tominna, One Under Bar & Grill, re: to allow their Second Annual Cinco De Mayo Festival on Saturday, May 4, 2013 from 12:00 p.m. until midnight at 35780 Five Mile Road. Brian Tominna, 6495 Wyndham Pointe, West Bloomfield, said they are seeking Council approval to waive the City's Noise Ordinance to allow their Second Annual Cinco DeMayo Festival on Saturday, May 4, 2013, from 6:00 p.m. until midnight at 35780 Five Mile Road. Pastor offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING REGULAR Kritzman returned to the podium at 8:49 p.m. 2. REQUEST TO WAIVE THE CITY'S NOISE ORDINANCE AND TO ERECT SIGNS AT REFERENCED LOCATIONS: Fred E. Sackllah, Festival Chair Person, The Basilica of St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church, re: in connection with their 2013 Michigan Fun Fest to be held from Thursday, May 30, 2013 through Sunday, June 2, 2013, at Bryant Park, 18000 Merriman Road, to support 2 the construction of the Mariam Outreach Center and bring the Detroit Metropolitan and Middle Eastern communities together. Fred E. Sackllah, presented the request to Council. He withdrew his request to place signage at Bryant Park. He said they will keep the signage on their own property. He mentioned that they had over 30,000 people in attendance last year. He said he continues to work with the neighbors to resolve any concerns of their. President Toy asked Sackllah about the location of the band on the site. Sackllah said they intentionally have the band facing Merriman Road so the music is not directed toward neighboring residences. He said there are one or two residences who have complained in the past, he noted that they continue to work with them to peacefully resolve their concerns. Toy asked Sackllah how long the tear down takes. Sackllah said he is usually limping off the field on Wednesday. He did mention that the rides are usually dismantled much faster by the ride company's employees because they pack up and move on to their next location. Brosnan noted that she did receive an e-mail communication from a resident who had concerns about this event. She provided Sackllah with a copy of the e-mail so that he can continue to be a good neighbor and peacefully address the concerns mentioned in the e-mail. McCann asked Brosnan who the e-mail was from, she replied Mr. Johnson. McCann said he believed Mr. Johnson was present in the audience. Steve Johnson, 18240 Sunset, stated his residence is adjacent to St. Mary's property and Bryant Park. He expressed his concerns with the noise and stated that they continue to have to call the police for the noise. He indicated that the music stops on time but the noise continues until 2:00 a.m. when they are dismantling the rides and still operating generators. He asked that Council demand they stop all noise after the permitted time. Robinson asked through the Chair to the Law Department asked if when the City issues a permit for the rides for a carnival if there are conditions on the permit. Don Knapp, City Attorney, said the conditions for this noise waiver request would be the approved starting and ending times. He said if the noise is excessive outside the approved waived hours then the noise ordinance enforcement becomes the issue. Robinson said the chief complaint of noise appears to from the teardown of the rides. He said he was under the impression that the City issued permits for carnival rides; he asked Knapp if that was not the case. Knapp said there is not a permit in this case before Council. Vice-President Pastor noted that the permits are for the electrical and such and those are all handled through the Inspection Department. Robinson asked if it would be appropriate to place a condition on those permits that the rides only be operated during certain hours and that the assembled and disassembled done during certain hours. Knapp said no, that if the Council wanted to do something like that it would be better to do that in this setting. Knapp said the Inspection Department is looking 3 at more of the health and safety issues, not so much noise levels. Mr. Johnson said isn't noise, noise, whether it is a band playing or the clanking of metal from rides being dismantled. He said if Council waives the Noise Ordinance for a certain period of time and the noise occurs before or after then the party making the noise is in violation of the Noise Ordinance, are they not — he inquired. President Toy asked Knapp for his opinion on that matter. Knapp said he agreed, however, it was pointed out that the waiver is for excessive noise not just noise. President Toy said she appreciated the fact that Mr. Johnson took the time to come here tonight and express his concerns. She said Mr. Sackllah is sitting behind Mr. Johnson listening to his concerns as well as all the Council members, most of who will be on Council next year. If the issue continues to be a problem, they will take that into consideration next year when they come before Council for permission next year. Mabel Pruitt, 31398 Mayville, expressed her concerns regarding the noise in connection with this request. She indicated that her home backs up to where all this noise is coming from. She said the location of the band gets closer and closer to the neighboring residences each year. She said they have a whole field and wondered why they had to be so close to the homes. She said the noise keeps her up last Saturday night and she has to get up very early on Sunday morning for church. She said her dog barks a lot more because of all the extra noise. She said some of other neighbors aren't happy about the noise and late hours either. President Toy thanked Ms. Pruitt for coming to the meeting tonight and expressing her concerns. Robinson offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 3. APPLICATION FOR MASSAGE APPRENTICE PERMIT: Office of the City Clerk, re: submitted by Natalie Scroi in accordance with Chapter 5.49 of the Livonia Code of Ordinances, as amended. Natalie Scroi, 1563 Edwin, Westland, was present to answer any questions from Council. Kritzman offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 4. CITY OF LIVONIA AND LIVONIA FIRE FIGHTERS ASSOCIATION MERC ACT 312 ARBITRATION AWARD: Civil Service Department, re: for the opinion and award for MERC Case No. D12 G-1712. Robert Biga, Director of Human Resources, presented the award to Council and was ready to answer any questions they may have. 4 At the direction of the Chair, this item was received and filed for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: RECEIVE & FILE CONSENT 5. REAPPOINTMENT OF GREG MEYER TO THE PLYMOUTH ROAD DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: Office of the Mayor, re: for a four-year term, which shall expire on May 16, 2017. Greg Meyer, 11801 Farmington Road, said he has been a member of the PRDA for the past eight (8) years and looks forward to serving for the next four (4) years. Pastor offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 6. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, Petition 2013-02-02-05 submitted by Wade Shows, Inc. to conduct a carnival in the parking lot of Sears, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Livonia, consisting of amusement rides, games and food concessions from May 23, 2013 through May 27, 2013, inclusive, on property located on the northwest corner of Seven Mile Road and Middlebelt Road (29500 Seven Mile Road) in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 2. Joanna Hardesty, was present on behalf of Wade Shows and the Rotary Club of Livonia to answer any questions from Council. Pastor offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 7. WAIVER PETITION: Planning Commission, Petition 2013-02-02-06 submitted by Mick Bodrie to operate a full-swing golf simulator facility (Big Golf) located on the south side of Schoolcraft Road between Middlebelt Road and Merriman Road (30643 Schoolcraft Road) in the Northwest 1/4 of Section 26. The petitioner was not present in the audience. At the direction of the Chair, this item was moved to the next Study Meeting so the Petitioner could be present. 8. SITE PLAN PETITION: Planning Commission, Petition 2013-02-08-03 submitted by Jay Feldman in connection with a proposal to demolish a portion of an existing building and construct additions to the existing auto dealership (Tennyson Chevrolet) located on the north side of Plymouth Road between Farmington 5 Road and Hubbard Avenue (32570 Plymouth Road) in the Southwest 1/4 of Section 27. Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development, described the request to Council. He said this is a request to demolish a portion of the existing building and construct additions to the auto dealership known as Tennyson Chevrolet located on the north side of Plymouth between Farmington and Hubbard. The property is uniquely shaped. It consists of six different properties that are about 6.5 acres in total area. There are four different additions proposed. The back of the existing main building, which is the second largest of the additions, it is about 5,500 square feet; that is actually an addition to the dealership's service area where they intend to increase the number of service bays from 17 to 27. The next addition is shown along the front of the main building. This addition measures about 4,185 square feet and would become the dealership's service reception area. The intent here is for persons having their vehicles serviced could pull in off of Plymouth Road. There would be overhead doors located on the south or front part of the building. Those vehicles could then drive through, take orders, and then personnel from the dealership could then drive them back to either the body shop or to the other service area to the north and to the west. The next and probably the most prominent part of the expansion project is the part of the building which is the new sales and showroom which is just less than 7,000 square feet in area and occupies the largest area on the site. One of the features is the relatively consistent setback that the overall building will now have on Plymouth Road. The part of the building that is being demolished is located very close to the road, so that projects forward to a point only about 17 feet or so from the right-of-way of Plymouth Road. With the demolition of that part of the building and these other additions, they will maintain a setback of about 70 to 75 feet which complies with the C-2 zoning standards. All of the parking areas, both for customer parking and vehicle display, will be reconfigured. They do not alter any of the driveways with this plan, but what they do is replace some of the areas that are used for vehicle display that currently extend into the Plymouth Road right-of-way with landscaping. They provide a low hedgerow along the area adjacent to the sidewalk that runs along the frontage of the property, and they introduce some of the PRDA's streetscape improvements in the form of brick piers and fencing, and there are sections of those that will be provided at a couple key areas, including the corners of the property and at the main entrance. They propose the addition of both wall signs and a new pylon sign. In terms of the wall signage, the three signs being proposed are Chevrolet, Tennyson and Certified Service. They are entitled altogether to have no more than 235 square feet of signage. What they are proposing is three signs totaling 92 square feet. So although they are only allowed a single sign at 235 square feet, the three signs that they are showing are well within that area limitation at 92 square feet. He said they don't have a lot of information on the monument sign other than the fact that they believe it's a variable electronic message board. It is proposed to be 24 feet in height. It would have an area of 10 feet by 6 feet or 60 square feet in total sign area. One of the questions that came up during the 6 study session was what the current standards are with respect to these types of signs. They are permitted when all other signs on the premises are in conformity with the Zoning Ordinance, which they don't have currently by virtue of this existing non-conforming pylon sign. The fact that they are proposing excess wall signage and they have this existing monument sign, would not entitle them to any form of electronic sign or even a second pylon sign or any type of variable electronic message sign. So that would have to be reviewed by the Zoning Board of Appeals. Moreover, with respect to the size of the sign, the area of the sign would be limited to half of the area of an otherwise permitted monument sign. So if they are allowed 30 square feet, they would be allowed 15 square feet in the form of a variable electronic message sign and the sign height would be limited to 6 feet and 30 square feet in overall area. So they could have a portion of an existing monument sign devoted to an electronic message sign. Lastly, there are constraints on how the message is displayed on these types of signs. The message has to remain static for a period not less than five seconds, and the time interval between messages cannot exceed one second, which must occur over the entire face of the sign. So the intent there was not to have a continuous motion sign. It was to allow for a message to be displayed, have it stay on the sign for five seconds, then have it transition within one second to a new message that again would have to remain static for five seconds. Joe Latozas, 301 Walnut, Rochester, was present to answer any questions from Council. Brosnan asked Latozas when they plan to begin construction. He replied in late August or early September. He said they will complete the construction in about four or six months. Brosnan said she is excited about this and thanked the petitioner for their investment in Livonia and the Plymouth Road Corridor. She said she looks forward to seeing the finished product. Robinson echoed Councilmember Brosnan's enthusiasm for this project and said he too wished to thank them for their investment in Livonia and along the Plymouth Road Corridor. Pastor offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT 9. SIGN PERMIT APPLICATION: Planning Commission, Petition 2013-02-SN-01 submitted by Townsend Sign Company requesting approval of two (2) additional wall signs and a ground-mounted sign for the four-story office building (Laurel Office Park 11) located on the west side of Laurel Park Drive between Six Mile Road and University Drive (17187 Laurel Park Drive) in the Southeast 1/4 of Section 7. Mark Taormina, Director of Planning and Economic Development, presented the request to Council. He said this is a request for additional signage at an office building located along the 1-275 Expressway. It's one of three buildings that make 7 up what was originally the Laurel Office Park complex. The address is 17187 Laurel Park Drive. Immediately to the north of this building is the second building that is a part of the office park. Immediately adjacent to it is the other building, 17177 Laurel Park Drive. There is separate ownership now on these buildings. The petitioner is requesting additional signage both in the form of a wall mounted sign as well as a ground sign. Multi-tenant office buildings within this zoning classification are allowed one wall sign with a maximum square footage of 100 square feet. This building, because of the length of its frontage, is allowed that 100 square feet but they are also allowed one additional ground sign that would be a maximum of 30 square feet in area, 6 feet in height, and 10 feet in length, and a minimum setback of 10 feet from the right-of-way. The existing signage on this building consists of some address markers. These addresses are actually installed on the penthouse or mechanical screen located on the top of the building. These are the large addresses: 17187 appearing on this building and the other two buildings have a similar type of address marker. But because of the size of those numbers, they were classified as wall signs, and they had to go to the Zoning Board of Appeals for approval. So that was the original signage permitted on this building, What they are seeking to do now is add two more signs to the west elevation, which is the side that faces the expressway. One of the two new identification signs would be on the south end where they do have a tenant, Sprint; they are going to be occupying a significant portion of the building. The proposed sign measures about 26 square feet in sign area, about 2.5 feet in total height and 11.5 feet in length. The second proposed sign is on the opposite part of the west elevation, which is the north end. In the plans they have it shown as "future tenant name" because they have not yet identified a user for that sign because there still is space available in the building. That sign would measure 74 square feet in total area. It has the same height of about 2.5 feet and has an overall length of 33 feet. So it gives them some flexibility depending on who that tenant is in terms of providing sufficient area to identify them. The two signs together here are roughly 100 square feet. The request for a ground sign has been put off at this time, so the request is just for the wall signs. Mike Balow, Senior Manager, Ashley Capital, 2575 S. Haggerty, Suite 500, Canton, was present on behalf of the building owner to answer any questions from Council. Brosnan asked through the Chair to Taormina if by approving this request, with respect to the second for the future tenant, if this would allow them to advertise space for lease on the future tenant sign. She said she doesn't want that to happen again. She recalled a very similar request not long ago and within weeks of their approval a sign advertising space for lease sign was up on the building. Taormina replied that he believes there is a temporary banner already on the building. 8 McCann said he recalled when the Ordinance was enacted that would limit signs of that nature, in size and duration of how long they could be up. He said if that was their intent, they would have to obtain a permit and abide by the terms of the Ordinance. Brosnan asked McCann to amend his resolution to include the stipulation that any temporary signs must first obtain a permit. McCann said he would be willing to amend his motion for approving resolution to include that stipulation. McCann offered the approving resolution for the Regular Agenda. DIRECTION: APPROVING — TEMPORARY REGULAR SIGNAGE MUST FIRST OBTAIN SIGN PERMIT X1. AWARD OF BID: Division of Police, re: for CCTV System Upgrade from a Risk Avoidance Program grant through M.M.R.M.A and the remainder from budgeted funds. Deputy Chief Ben McDermott, LPD, presented the request to Council. He said the current CCTV System at the Police Department is failing. The system is no longer covered under warranty and regularly requires service calls. The system is used for monitoring sensitive areas of the police station. The system is critical to their operation and any outages are unacceptable. The Livonia Police Department recently applied for a grant through the Michigan Municipal Risk Management Authority to help replace and upgrade the current system they are using and MMRMA did approve 50% matching grant funding for this purpose with the maximum being $50,000.00. They anticipating that it will cost over $100,000.00 so they will be utilizing all of the $50,000.00 matching grant funds. They did research and consider several different brands before they selected the Avigilante Security Platform. They saw that this system was in use in casinos in Las Vegas, an airport in Dallas, TX — high profile locations, and they believe it is top of the line system. This is one of the reasons why the selected this brand, as well as, ease of use, and picture quality. They requested sealed bids and the bids were advertised on the MITN and advertised in the Livonia Observer. There was a mandatory pre-bid meeting held on April 1, 2013; representatives from 10 venders were present at this meeting. On April 4, 2013, one bid was received and publicly opened, that bid is from ASC Security Systems, 12137 Merriman, Livonia, and the bid is for $124,815.68 and that includes a $5,400.00 contingency. So, after the grant funding the City's obligation is between $69,000.00 and just over $74,000.00. This will be paid for with budgeted funds that are in the Capital Projects Fund. They are seeking Council approval to award the bid to ASC Security Systems. McCann offered the approving resolution for the Consent Agenda. 9 DIRECTION: APPROVING CONSENT AUDIENCE COMMUNICATION: None. As there were no further questions or comments, President Toy adjourned the Study Session at 9:39 p.m. on Monday, April 8, 2013. DATED: April 19, 2013 TERRY A. MARECKI CITY CLERK