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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPUBLIC HEARING - 2017-01-11 - ESTABLISH SAD CITY OF LIVONIA PUBLIC HEARING Minutes of Meeting Held on Wednesday, January 11, 2017 ______________________________________________________________________ A Public Hearing of the Council of the City of Livonia was held at the City Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, January 11, 2017. MEMBERS PRESENT: Kathleen E. McIntyre, President (arrived 7:03 p.m.) Brandon M. Kritzman, Vice President (arrived 7:01 p.m.) Scott Bahr Maureen Miller Brosnan Jim Jolly Brian Meakin Cathy K. White MEMBERS ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Mark Taormina, Director of Planning Todd Zilincik, City Engineer Don Knapp, City Attorney Bonnie J. Murphy, CER-2300, Certified Electronic Recorder The Public Hearing was called to order at 7:00 p.m. with Councilmember Maureen Miller Brosnan presiding. She stated the Public Hearing is in regard to a Special Assessment Street Light Project and it comes to us from the Department of Assessment. This is for the Arbor Trail Estates Site Condominiums located north of Ann Arbor Trail between Wayne Road and Newburgh Road, in the Southeast ¼ of Section 32 and it is to establish the assessment roll. All who live in the area have been notified in writing and the Public Hearing is now open for comments. During a typical public hearing we first turn to our department head to brief us and then we go to the Council to see if there are any comments, we turn to the staff and then to the audience to see if there are any additional questions or thoughts they may wish to bring to our attention. There are no votes taken at this meeting, there are recommendations made and they come back to Council for a vote which will be taken at our next available meeting which is February 13, 2017. The City Clerk has served a true copy of the Notice of Public Hearing to those owners of real property by way of Notice in the Livonia Observer and Eccentric Newspaper. There were four people in the audience. The Public Hearing is now open for comments. Please state clearly your name and address before making your comments. Brosnan: Mr. Zilincik, do you want to give us the update on this one? Zilincik: Sure. Thank you, Councilmember Brosnan. To update you again, to recap there are nineteen lots for the Arbor Trail Estates Development. We coordinated with DTE to install five LED lights that are 52 watts on colonial posts. The developer will pay for all of the costs in the amount of $16,463.00 and the residents or the potential lot owners would be responsible for a cost estimated at $82.32 per year. Currently there’s probably five people that are living in that development, there’s more to be coming on line and the remaining lots most likely owned by the developer/builder as they progress forward with either a temporary certificate of occupancy or a full certificate shortly. But that’s basically the bottom line as far as the anticipated costs, again, electricity is $82.32 and the lights will be borne by the developer and LED. Thank you. Brosnan: Councilmembers, questions for Mr. Zilincik? All right. Anyone in the audience here to speak on this item tonight? Good evening, sir, thank you for joining us. Could you start with just your name and address for the record? Young: Sure. My name is Steve Young, my address is 35719 Rouge Bluff Court, that’s part of the Arbor Trail Estates. Actually, one of my questions was answered during your introduction there. I’m new to Michigan and I’m new to Livonia so getting this assessment was kind of new to me and I didn’t quite understand the process so I’m thankful for the opportunity to come here tonight and just ask a couple questions. My biggest question was I thought we were being assessed for us paying for the actual light poles, not just the electricity. But my other question was obviously our street is months old, I moved in in October and I was the second out of the five people that are living in there right now, and when I got this assessment I kind of looked around the neighborhood and streets that appear to be decades old, if not longer, and there were no streetlights on any of those streets. So my question was just are those other streets getting streetlights as well and if not, why is it only our street that’s getting streetlights over everything else in the neighborhood, if not the City. Thank you. Brosnan: Mr. Zilincik. Zilincik: Well, as part of a new development obviously we’d like to have them for safety reasons, some of the older subs such as the sub I live in, there’s no streetlights so it all depends on the point in time when development came into play. Our new ordinance requires streetlights unless waived by City Council but obviously it’s for safety and it’s important to have it and the developer is paying for it so it’s a good thing, it’s just a matter of having the SADs set up so the homeowners pay for the electricity, luckily these are LED lights and hopefully they’ll reduce the cost of electricity. But there are in fact some known subdivisions throughout the City that do have LED streetlights and that is the case. Brosnan: And Mr. Young, just so that you understand, too, the establishment of a streetlight special assessment is broken into two parts, there are actually two hearings that are held on each of these. The first is to determine whether or not there is in fact a need, so even prior to you moving into the neighborhood perhaps that hearing was held, where we really talked not about the costs but is it necessary to have streetlights in that area. And after careful consideration it was deemed that it was necessary to have streetlights in the area. So now the question before the Council is simply are we fair in assessing the costs associated with that. So your question is a valid one, are they needed and now your question relative to the cost is completely valid so thank you for joining us and I hope that we helped to put your mind at ease. Young: Yes, you did. Well, actually one more question, that $82.00 is that per person or is that estimated for the year, one year, per year? Zilincik: Well, basically it’s per year estimated assessed through the Finance Department. And one thing I’d like to add, also, at any point in time people that do not have streetlights in subdivisions can approach the City to have streetlights installed at a later date, so if they want to, they are more than welcome to approach the City and we’ll be happy to hold a hearing of necessity and then the hearing of the roll and we’ll go from there. Young: Thank you for your time. Brosnan: Thank you, Mr. Young. Council, any other questions? So, we’ll look for some resolution at this point. Meakin: I would move for approval. Brosnan: Okay. We have an approving resolution from Mr. Meakin, and as I indicated at the beginning of the meeting, I believe this is scheduled for February 13th and President McIntyre has joined us, is that accurate? And Council Vice President Kritzman is here as well, let the record please note. McIntyre: Thank you for starting the meeting in my absence. It’s scheduled for Monday, January 30th. Brosnan: So, January 30th we’ll take the vote on this item. We have one resolution and that’s an approving resolution. If there’s nothing further on this item, this public hearing is closed and I will pass the gavel over to our President for the second public hearing. McIntyre: Thank you. As there were no further questions or comments, the Public Hearing was declared closed at 7:07 p.m. SUSAN M. NASH, CITY CLERK