COUNCIL CHAMBERS - NOVI CIVIC CENTER - 45175 TEN MILE ROAD

Mayor McLallen called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE - Led by WEBELOS Pack #54

ROLL CALL: Mayor McLallen, Mayor Pro Tem Crawford, Council Members Cassis,

Clark, Mitzel (absent excused), Mutch, Schmid

ALSO PRESENT: City Manager Edward Kriewall, Assistant City Manager Craig Klaver,

Tony Nowicki, Department of Public Services, Tonni Bartholomew, City Clerk

SWEARING IN OF POLICE OFFICERS - Officers Sarah Higgins and David Martino were sworn in by Tonni Bartholomew, City Clerk.

BEAUTIFICATION PRESENTATION - Ernie Aruffo, Chairman of the Beautification Committee, announced the results of the election for a City of Novi Bird, Tree, Flower and Shrub. The City bird will be the Northern Cardinal and the City Tree will be the Red Maple, the City Perennial Flower will be the Day Lilly, the City Annual Flower will be the Begonia and the City Shrub will be the Meyer Lilac.

BEAUTIFICATION PRESENTATION - Ernie Aruffo shared with Council the idea of a "Beautiful Half-Mile" located on Ten Mile Road between Taft Road and Christina Lane. Mr. Aruffo stated this would become a model of what could be done within the City with the participation of the citizens at large.

Mayor McLallen thanked Jonathan Braeman, Chamber of Commerce Representative, for being present.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Mayor McLallen suggested an Item #17 be added to schedule a Special Meeting for interview sessions prior to the March 4 Council Meeting at 6:30pm to 7:30 pm and March 11 at 7:30 pm to accommodate all the applicants for the Ice Arena Board.

Craig Klaver requested Item 15, to schedule an Executive Session, include Union negotiations.

Councilwoman Cassis requested Item 15 also include property contract negotiations.

CM-96-02-059: Motion by Crawford, Seconded by Clark, CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY: To approve the Agenda as amended.

Gary Allison, 22001 Garfield, expressed concern about the falling water level of the lake and canal near his home and the possible effect on his well. He said the only unusual thing that has happened in the area is the construction of a sewer in the 9 Mile/Beck Road area involving dewatering. He was told by Mr. Nowicki that the developer was hiring a consultant to look into the matter and there would be a homeowners meeting. He asked that the city not leave it up to the developer to investigate the situation. The Mayor responded that the city was concerned and there were continuing talks with city departments about this issue and direction would possibly be addressed later in the agenda.

Bill Galloway, a Garfield Road resident, also expressed concern over the water table in the area. He objected to any more sewer projects in the area calling it an ecological and economical disaster.

Sarah Gray, 133 Maudlin, said she was interested in the effect of the dewatering on the entire city. She also asked that they proceed with the Iva Street vacation and get rid of the barricade.

James Korte, Shawood Lake area, thanked council for being expedient with Iva Street; he said there was no opposition from the immediate residents to the vacating.

LaReta Roder, read a letter to council expressing her opinion that the lack of communication and unresponsiveness by city administration was the most difficult problem facing the city.

Mark Adler, Jamestown Drive, said he was a member of the Community Access Cable Committee and the cable franchise was up in 1997 with many issues that were in need of discussion. He said the CAC was at their disposal to help with information about new programming and technology to benefit the community and get cities interconnected for sending data back and forth. He said that grants were available for these purposes. Mayor McLallen asked that he provide them with written information.

Diane Chippewa, 48800 9 Mile, representing SWAN homeowners organization, asked that future sewer projects be put on hold until they find out what happened with the Beckenham project and how the problems could be rectified and future problems prevented. She said they felt the citys obligation was to the residents’ concerns and problems first. She noted problems with the quality of water, water level changes and any other environmental changes affecting the area of which they were not yet aware. She said the condition of 9 Mile Road was the worse residents have ever seen and it needed to be monitored more closely and asked that council take whatever steps necessary to correct the problems in their area and assure the quality of life.

George Zervos, Garfield Road, asked that council consider stopping all construction and issuing building permits for the area until all the problems were solved.

Mark Shaberre said he was building a new house at the south end of the pond in Deer Run Subdivision and that pond has turned into a swamp. He felt that more needed to be done than just stopping it; the situation needed to be rectified to bring the water level back up.

Tim Mitz, Garfield Road, said he had a 90 ft. well and cleaned his water filters nightly from contaminants of iron and rust. He said four neighbors were doing the same so this was not just a 20 ft. lake surface problem and they were worrying about the dump site off 8 Mile and Napier. He questioned whether they shouldn’t be testing their drinking water and said it was not just a problem of things they could see but might be a health consideration.

Chuck Young, 50910 9 Mile, said the bottom line was quality of water and he felt those responsible for causing the water problems should be the ones responsible for testing their wells and the pond for contaminants.

CONSENT AGENDA

Mayor McLallen requested that Item 2 have the additional wording of "with the approval of the Homeowner’s Association".

CM-96-02-060: Motion by Crawford, Seconded by Clark, CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY: To approve Items 1 through 15 of the Consent Agenda as amended.

1. Approval of Minutes of the Special Meeting of January 11, 1996.

2. Approval of request between City of Novi and Henry S. And Rosemary J. Eason to

install a fence across a sanitary sewer easement along North property line with the

approval of the Homeowner’s Association..

3. Adoption of Resolution to Oakland County for Memorial Day Parade Permit - As

attached

4. Approval of Lawsuit Settlement - Klausmeyer

5. Approval of COAM Retroactive Wage Adjustments

6. Approval of Arcade License Renewal - Mr. B’s Farm

7. Approval of Arcade License Renewal - Novi Hilton Hotel

8. Approval of Massage License Renewal - Visions Salon, Inc.

9. Adopt Resolutions, as attached, Re:

Type of Document Executed by Compensation

Beck Road/Pontiac Trail Sanitary Sewer - Nn-2591

Sanitary Sewer Easement Novi-Beck Associates Gift

Sanitary Sewer Easement H & S Global Properties Gift

Sanitary Sewer Easement Thomas & Regina Farida Gift

10. Approval of Amendatory Agreement No. 1 to MDOT Contract ND93-0628 (Novi

Road) pending final review of all documents by the City Attorney.

11. Approval of Final Pay Estimate No. 12 and Final Balancing Change Order No. 4 -

11 Mile Road Improvements Project - Clark to Taft.

12. Award bid for Dust Control to Bay Dust Control in the amount of $.284 per gallon.

13. Award bid for Aggregate Materials to Suburban Transport, Inc.

14. Award bid for Lochmoor Tree Planting to Michigan Turf in the amount of $60,667.00.

15. Approval of Resolution, as attached, CIP Time Frame and Capital Project Request Form.

CM-96-02-061: Motion by Crawford, seconded by Cassis, CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY: To accept the selected tree - Red Maple, bird -

Novi to Plymouth Township - Request for rehearing and reconsideration

Michael Lewis, Attorney for AVL North America, Richard Regan, President and Marty Workens, Chief Financial Officer of AVL were present to address this issue and answer any questions council had. He requested councils reconsideration and a vote approving the transfer. Mr. Lewis stated that AVL is a subsidiary of an Austrian company and the primary customer base is the automotive companies. AVL came from Indiana in 1989 and now had three buildings on Vincenti Ct. and the employment had grown substantially and they employed hundreds of people, residents of Novi and surrounding communities. Mr. Lewis stated they have been a tenant and had not been an owner. However, their operations had grown to the point that required a unified facility, preferably under their own ownership, with room for future expansion. Unfortunately, the operation will be moving to Plymouth Township but the good news is, for Novi, its residents and for all who are employed, they are staying within Michigan and will be nearby so there should be no job loss for anyone. One of the key elements to this new facility is the availability of tax exempt financing through the Michigan Strategic Fund. Mr. Lewis said they were in line to be approved for this fund in late March with bonds issued in April. He said it was a matter of course for the fund to send out a letter to the municipality if there was a transfer of jobs advising them this was going to take place and requesting input. Council did schedule this item as an agenda item and unfortunately AVL was not present to answer council’s questions and a Resolution of Denial was adopted and sent on to the Fund. He said it was significant and important to have the approval of Novi and was present for that reason. Gordon Alexander, Loan Administrator for the fund, specifically requested that council’s concerns be addressed and AVL had been placed on the agenda for Strategic Funds Meeting on Wednesday of this week. Mr. Lewis would report to Mr. Alexander whether or not council had seen fit to reverse their prior position.

Richard Regan informed council of their history, background, and the search to find a site. He said the selection was based on the proximity of customers, interstate access and the availability of an industrial park for critical testing on products.

DISCUSSION

Councilman Crawford was concerned that the Planning Department or Community Development were not contacted. However, apparently they were contacted indirectly. He asked for an explanation of how contact was made and did the Planning Department know it was this facility that was planning to leave town? Councilman Crawford was also concerned this request came to council after everything was done and it would seem that if this type of action was going to be taken it might have come to council before a new facility was well on its way.

Mr. Lewis said the initial site search was conducted by brokers for confidentiality. The planning department was contacted on several occasions regarding zoning and the proximity of residents. Mr. Lewis said the planning department was not aware that it was AVL that was interested in the sites. They were dealing with a broker on a "strawman" no name basis. Mr. Lewis said they did have the cooperation and input from the planning department.

Mr. Lewis said the Michigan Stragetic Fund was sponsoring the tax exempt financing and they had their own method of going through this process. The letter council had received was a form letter sent by Mr. Alexander of the Michigan Stragetic Fund advising that if a municipality wished to voice an objection or concern they could do so within 30 days. Mr. Lewis said it was not procedure to warn council that they were going to apply. The application process was through the Michigan strategic Fund itself and a bond council was engaged to screen the applicants to see that they met the criteria for the tax favored financing. In this case the project did qualify and they were invited by the fund to proceed and they offered to sponsor the bond issue as required. Mr. Lewis said they basically jumped through the hoops as any applicant would in the normal course of things. The letter council received was generated by the fund and not by AVL. There was no intention to slight the city, there was no awareness there was a need or requirement to bring it to council or they would have.

Councilman Clark asked about the present buildings and their total size.

Mr. Reagan said they currently had three buildings. One was 9,100 sq. ft., the main building is 22,000 sq. ft., and the addition is 25,000 sq. ft. The total square feet was 59,000-60,000 sq. ft. The new facility is approximately 70,000 sq. ft.

Councilman Clark asked if the broker couldn’t find an industrial site in this city suitable for a 70,000 sq. ft. facility? He asked if the funds under the Michigan Strategic Fund would have been equally accessible to them had they had a facility in Plymouth and then contemplated a move to Novi?

Mr. Reagan said they had looked at many sites within Novi within the surrounding 8-10 mile radius of where they were because our client base and employees are close by. The sites they were shown were not conducive to the type of work they wanted to do as well as the proximity to the interstate.

Mr. Lewis said funds were available to qualified projects within the State of Michigan which met specific criteria set out in the Internal Revenue Code. Mr. Lewis stated there had been a business, recently, from Plymouth Township that had transferred to Novi.

Mayor McLallen said it was Programmed Products.

Councilwoman Mutch said the Michigan Strategic Fund had its own schedule and asked at what point this would become public record?

Mr. Lewis said the members of the Michigan Strategic Fund were appointed by the governor, they met monthly and the meetings were rotated among the various cities. The meetings were open to the public and the agendas were available. He said this was on their agenda in June or July of 1995.

Councilwoman Mutch said if these meetings were monitored a community would know what the Michigan Strategic Fund was considering. She asked if at that point they had already committed to building in Plymouth and how proactive were the communities, especially Plymouth in encouraging them to come to their city?

Mr. Reagan said at that point there was land under option because a key element of the application was the identification of a site. Mr. Reagan said they used Staubach Group out of Dallas, Texas to secure land for them. It was their decision not to have Staubach reveal to any of the townships or brokers who his client was.

Councilwoman Mutch asked what the primary problem was in finding a site in Novi?

Mr. Reagan said it was acceptable land with size conducive to expansion. We have purchased 7 acres within an industrial park with the expansion capabilities of doubling the size of our existing planned building as well as the research and development activities that require special design criteria and the close proximity to their customer base.

Councilwoman Cassis said the type of operation they would be doing would require a heavy industrial site. She said they were looking for an industrial park already established and did not find that in Novi but did in Plymouth. She said that should give some thought to council about our own future.

Mr. Reagan said it would actually be a mix of light/heavy industrial.

Councilman Schmid said he wanted to point out that Novi had numerous acres of industrial land, not close to residential, which would have been available and very usable for this kind of project. They chose to go to another site but I would not want to put out to the public that we don’t have facilities that would take this manufacturing facility use here in Novi. He felt that EDC should get more involved in getting the word out that Novi was looking for these types of developments.

DISCUSSION

Councilman Schmid said he still had some questions as to the merits of going back to the one property line or going all the way over to the next street. He asked if someone could explain it.

Mr. Kriewall said there was considerable discussion a few years ago as to the vacation of the street. In fact the administration recommended vacation a few years ago. One of the issues then was whether it should be vacated half way between Austin Drive and Novi Road or all the way down. Mr. Kriewall indicated to Mr. Nowicki that the Resolution should be prepared both ways and give council the option of hearing from the public as to what the preference was in terms of vacation. He felt this would be determined by the public hearing whether the homeowners wanted the entire street vacated or a partial vacation.

Ameritech Cellular - Special Land Use and Preliminary Site Plan Approval

Mayor McLallen said this had a positive recommendation from the planning consultant, it is a special land use, there are no traffic, environmental or public service burdens proposed by this use.

Brian Monahan, Attorney with Ameritech Cellular, introduced Kyle Dillie, Radio Frequency Engineer with Ameritech and Hugh Peters from Professional Engineering Associates who did the survey and the site plan that had been presented.

Mr. Monahan presented his case for Ameritech Cellular. He said there were 8,500 Novi residents who are customers of Ameritech and they had heard from a number of these residents about the gap in their coverage. The tower they are proposing will eliminate gaps in coverage for hand held phones. If they have a car mounted phone the coverage area would be considerably larger. Mr. Monahan said this would be a self supporting monopole tower. This tower would be located on a 20 x 40 ft. parcel which they would lease for a period of 25 years and it’s accompanied by a 12 x 26 ft. unmanned equipment shelter. The only utilities that actually go in there would be the phone line and electricity. He said they met the fall zone requirement that the zoning ordinance set forth however, the tower is designed to crimp up on itself in the event of any kind of structural failure. Ameritech goes to considerable lengths trying to find locations for towers that are unobtrusive and fit as well as possible within a particular community’s Master Plan. This tower is in a light industrial area, it’s recessed from any neighboring residential areas and they have elected to paint the tower a Michigan Gray which would practically render it invisible.

Mayor McLallen said there was a recommendation by members of the planning commission to send the issue of cell tower and multiplicity of cell tower to their Ordinance Review Board.

Councilman Crawford asked if it was their tower on Novi Road by the Post Office. Mr. Monahan said it was. Councilman Crawford said that was within 2 miles of the proposed tower. He asked if that meant they would need towers every 1.6 or two miles and if not why not?

Mr. Monahan said there was a number of key criteria that went into where you need to place a tower. First is topography and will the actual reach of the existing towers go to a certain area. That’s just a straight out coverage problem. The other problem is a capacity problem. There are only so many available channels on any given tower and the more customers you have in the area utilizing those channels or the more customers traveling through the area using those channels the poorer reception and inability some customers have to actually get on the system. The farther away from heavier populated areas you get and the fewer customers you have out there the fewer towers are needed.

Councilman Crawford asked if there was a way to enhance or amplify the present towers that would allow more channels?

Kyle Dillie said there was a grand total in the Ameritech side of approximately 411 channels available to service their customers. These channels must be reused in a short distance apart. Each tower is capable of handling a maximum of 54 channels but when approaching those maximums your interference with the systems becomes much greater and more difficult to design the system to allow the customers to use it without getting a lot of noise and static. They have to be actually physically separated from one another.

Councilman Schmid asked Mr. Monahan if it was true that Farmington Hills, Rochester, Troy and other communities have a moratorium on any additional towers? Mr. Monahan said Farmington Hills presently had a moratorium on towers or within 1,000 ft. of a residential area but it was not a complete moratorium.

Councilman Schmid asked why the various companies couldn’t use each others towers? Mr. Monahan said they had on a number of occasions. Mr. Monahan said they had been invited to a meeting with Novi City officials on March 7th to discuss the entire issue of site location, proliferation of towers, co-location. He said they were very much committed to that concept. There are two main reasons why co-locations is often not possible. The first is differing grid systems. They don’t have conveniently overlapping grid systems. The other true for a long time, was an Anti Trust concern; with more carriers coming into the market that’s obviously a much greater reduced concern. Those were the two critical factors initially.

Councilman Schmid said duel use of towers could be something in the future? Mr. Monahan said it was in a number of communities.

Councilman Schmid said he understood the property was leased for 25 years and he was under the impression it was 5 years. Mr. Monahan said there were five renewable 5 year terms. Councilman Schmid asked if it could be anticipated that some other technology before 25 years was up? Mr. Monahan said yes.

Councilman Schmid said he knew there were two or three other companies who had approached the city, along with Ameritech’s request for additional towers. Mr. Monahan said they had already applied to construct some 9 foot antennas on top the existing Twelve Oaks Mall water tower. That is an indication of the effort Ameritech makes to make these as unobtrusive as possible. Councilman Schmid suggested a short moratorium to look at the issues at hand.

DISCUSSION

Councilman Clark asked if they were using the term channel and frequency interchangeably?

Mr. Dillie said in the frequency band there are a total of 411 voice channels available to them; 411 simultaneous conversations without reusing a channel.

Councilman Clark said to put multiple frequencies on the same tower causes problems in terms of overlaps on conversations? Mr. Dillie said the frequency and channel in this case would be interchangeable. The channel at the Post Office currently has ad hoc, adding channels that are beyond the band that he should be. It is supposed to maximize the 54 channels they are currently using about 65 channels on the tower at the Post Office. He said the channels that are currently planned for the new cell site are currently in use on the Thompson/Brown tower between Orchard Lake and Farmington Road by Twelve Mile Road. Those channels are the channels that would be used here.

Councilwoman Cassis asked how many towers were in operation in Novi. Mr. Monahan said there was one and he anticipated there would be a need to be at least one more site location.

Councilwoman Cassis asked what this would mean for the customer? She wanted to understand because we’re having a proliferation and an over saturation of these. What is the inconvenience factor here?

Mr. Monahan said he thought it was very serious. Obviously, one can travel to where ever they have to be to get a better signal and make the phone call. That’s an inconvenience to our customers. In addition, a lot of phone calls are interrupted. In a normal circumstance this would not be to bad but from July 17, 1995 to July 21, 1995 there were 105 911 phone calls made in the Novi area. This was what Mr. Monahan felt made this gap relatively alarming.

Councilwoman Cassis questioned the planning department in regards to a reference in the minutes to a Mr. Griminic’s letter and that he had some concerns. She asked Mr. Wahl if he knew anything about this?

Mr. Wahl said he could not expand on what it said in the minutes; it was unclear as to what his concerns were.

Councilwoman Mutch stated the inconvenience factor was more than driving down the road a mile to pick it up because these phones are used everywhere such as soccer fields, in meetings, etc. She asked if a community was concerned about the number of competing companies and decided to take a planning perspective on this would there be some way that cellular companies, without revealing their marketing strategies, could provide some input that would be mutually beneficial?

Mr. Monahan said yes. He said the critical concern was the proprietary element that would accompany some types of that information. Competitors would love to know where towers would be put in the future. Another element that would complicate a company’s ability to do that to a given community would be that we just don’t know where we’d need a tower. We don’t know where they are going to build a subdivision, etc. That element is always changing. He said telling communities where we’d love to have a couple of towers would not be a problem. He said they intended to broach the subject at the upcoming meeting on the 7th.

VOTE ON CM-96-02-065 CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

Councilwoman Cassis asked if and when they intended to take this matter up with Ordinance Review?

Mr. Wahl said if it went to the Implementation Committee they could send along council’s recommendation that the matter be dealt with as soon as possible. He didn’t think it was a particularly complicated matter. He said he would forward council’s request as a priority if that was their wish. Mr. Wahl said they met before every planning commission meeting so potentially at their next meeting on March 6th they could take this matter up.

CM-96-02-066: Motion by Cassis, seconded by Schmid, CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY;

DISCUSSION

Councilwoman Mutch said she thought that the Implementation Committee was already taking this up.

Mr. Wahl said it had been assigned to the Implementation Committee but they have about five other assignments. He said they would have to prioritize it.

Mayor McLallen said Councilwoman Cassis requested that it be moved up on the list.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if there was anything else council had sent them that council needed to know had a higher priority?

Mr. Wahl said the one he remembered was gun sales from homes and that was put on the table a year ago and they still had not gotten to it.

Councilwoman Mutch said council had them put the PD-1 ahead of everything else they were doing so they could get back to council. She asked if Mr. Wahl was saying they didn’t?

Mr. Wahl said the Master Plan Zoning Committee dealt with that. The Implementation Committee had been spending most of the year on the 24 Hour Operation that’s why gun sales from homes and a couple other items haven’t moved as quickly. He thought they still had a ways to go on that. However, he thought this item could be something that they could deal with in a rather quick fashion compared to the others and hopefully could make some time immediately to take care of this issue.

Councilwoman Cassis said the city planner was indicating that they could handle this at their meeting and that was the reason she suggested March 6.

Mr. Wahl said they set their own agenda but he would make that request.

Councilman Crawford said it appeared that they were already going to address that and to force the issue on their agenda when they might have other things scheduled he wondered if that would be appropriate. They identified it as a concern and they would get the message from Council that it was a concern.

Councilman Schmid had heard that there was 2, 3 or 4 coming forward rather rapidly. He said we have to get this moving if we’re going to stop it before it’s too late. He felt it was an appropriate motion and one that council should encourage.

Councilwoman Mutch said she would support it very reluctantly because she agreed with Mr. Crawford.

Councilman Crawford said he would support it however, he didn’t like giving them such "hard" direction because they were heading in that direction anyway.

Partners vs City of Novi

Councilman Crawford asked when they would start construction on the sidewalk and when they would be ready to move in?

Mr. Walters, said they were ready to start construction and were in for the permit to finish up the inside of the veterinary clinic and would be ready to move in and occupy by April 15th.

Councilman Crawford asked if it would be one of the existing store fronts? Mr. Walters said yes.

Mr. Walters said as soon as the frost goes we’ll take it out. He said he was talking to Linda and Chris about taking the trees out and replanting them along the north line. Probably the weight restrictions go off about April 15th and we’d start immediately after that. The vet clinic could be open about 6 weeks before the sidewalk would be completed.

Councilman Crawford said I could concur with that if a bond was posted that would be double the amount. Should we have something saying the sidewalk would be constructed by June 1 or something?

Mr. Walters said no, not until at least July 1st because the trees have to be taken out.

Mr. Fried recommended that when they post their letter of credit or their bond that condition be in the bond and it will be as weather permits as determined by the city engineer. As soon as the weather permits they have to start construction if they don’t the city will exercise the letter of credit or the bond and hire a contractor to construct it with their money.

(Resolution attached to original minutes)

Mr. Fried had one correction to the resolution. It said "WHEREAS the bylaws of Community Clubs of Novi". The bylaws have not been approved by the City Council and were only proposed bylaws. He wanted to call council’s attention to the fact that this bylaw was proposed by the developer and not by City Council or any of the city employees. If the council desired to change the wording of the proposed bylaws he suggested they do it in this resolution.

Mayor McLallen said Mr. Fried was recommending that since the bylaws do not exist rather than approve a resolution that contained something that didn’t exist to put in something to the effect of "Bylaws as approved by the City Council"?

Mr. Fried said no. He added the word "proposed" between "the" and "bylaws". The proposed bylaws did contain this statement but the council might not want this statement. It said that "the members of the Board of Trustees shall be appointed by the Mayor after approval by the Novi City Council". The council had not made that determination. Council might want to approve the Board of Trustees without selection by the Mayor.

Mr. Fried wanted councils approval on what they wanted in the bylaws and then change the proposed bylaws to what the council wanted.

Mayor McLallen said the bylaws need to be put on the March 4th agenda.

Mr. Fried said all the bylaws could be put on that agenda but this particular bylaw should be adopted by the March 4th agenda.

Councilman Crawford suggested it could be adopted at this meeting with the insertion of "proposed bylaws" if council agreed with the rest of the resolution.

of Novi, after approval of the."

Mr. Fried said all of the proposed bylaws would be available by the next meeting for councils review.

CM-96-02-069: Motion by Crawford, seconded by Clark, CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY: To direct the Administrative Staff and

DISCUSSION

Councilman Schmid asked if this was precedent setting?

Mr. Kriewall didn’t think it had happened before. Time payments were provided by ordinance for the Novi Road Water Main. This is a hardship situation.

Councilman Schmid asked if there was a provision that this could be put on the taxes for a 20 year period?

Mr. Kriewall said no. We might have done that in the sewer district for Grand River and Novi Road where the payments were over a period of time. We do have some of those.

Councilman Schmid said he would support the motion but his concern was that council might get inundated with similar requests.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if the motion was to establish a payment plan? It was a choice of doing that or placing a lein but it wasn’t to do both? Mayor McLallen said no it was one or the other. She said the payment plan was not a specific plan but one to be developed?

Mr. Kriewall said a five year plan would probably be proposed.

Councilman Crawford asked if there was an established payment plan? Mr. Kriewall said not to his knowledge.

Mr. Fried suggested it be left to administration because it depended upon Mrs. Smith’s financial ability.

Councilwoman Mutch said that will be without a lein?

Mr. Fried say no, the payment plan would contain a lein.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

Diane Chippewa asked if council would address the Nine Mile dewatering as Item 7a under MATTERS FOR COUNCIL ACTION - PART II since the citizens were waiting to address this issue.

Mayor McLallen advised council that this was not on the agenda. The Mayor felt that this item needed to be discussed and direction given.

Councilman Schmid felt it was a reasonable request.

Dewatering of Nine Mile

Tony Nowicki, Department of Public Services, updated everyone on the dewatering activities. Mr. Nowicki said the developer had indicated a willingness to pursue this matter and that they were securing the services of NTH to look at the area and the ground water and try to get an indication of what happened out there. He said they had contacted other representatives, and were trying to work with the DNR and were trying to pull together other resources to find out what happened. He asked council for direction on the level of involvement council wanted to take on this issue.

Mayor McLallen said there were concerns for the quality and the level of the wells and whether this was having any effect on certain appliances within the houses. Also, a question of whether the water had endangered the septic fields.

Mr. Kriewall said the biggest concern was possible well contamination in that area. He said individual sampling of wells would be done especially with any homeowner that had a particular complaint; and homeowners should contact Mr. Nowicki or the Superintendent of the Water Department. Judgement would have to be made on how many wells would be sampled because the cost was about $,1000 per chemical sample.

In addition, the Oakland County Health Department, could do a potable water test. Mr. Kriewall said with the existence of the land fill in the vicinity of the lake in that area that had been drained there could possibly be some leaching from that land fill site. There are also monitoring wells that had been left in place surrounding the land fill and that data should be available and an attempt would be made to gather that information.

In regard to the developer’s proposal to hire Meyer, Tiseo and Hindu, Mr. Kriewall said he felt they were the best known geological consulting firm in the State of Michigan with regard to matters such as this. He said in consultation with city engineers they indicated our role in this should be to work with Singh and the engineers they’ve hired and monitor their analysis and testing to make sure it’s productive and would show the residents results possibly in 30 days.

Mr. Kriewall said the DPW was ready to do everything possible to deal with the situation. All that could be done, until the frost is out of the ground, was grade it as much as necessary. We have also ordered some slag stone to be placed in some areas to fill up the most horrendous pot holes which should bind with the existing gravel.

Mr. Kriewall said he hoped to come back to council with a status report the first meeting in April.

Councilman Schmid said JCK would be monitoring the NTH investigation of this situation and he was sure JCK would advise council if they felt an independent investigation of this was necessary. He was confident that a reasonable opinion as to the cause of this would be forthcoming.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if there was any advice that could come from any city department or County Health Department that could provide precautionary advice to residents in the area until the testing was completed.

Mr. Kriewall said Oakland County would provide that service.

Councilman Clark said when NTH did the survey get some opinion from them on what could be done in terms of future projects before there is a massive dewatering. What safeguards should be in place and what should be done before any dewatering was allowed so this situation wasn’t created again.

Councilwoman Cassis said at the last meeting there was a request to investigate and design a Nine Mile Road sewer and she had requested a study be done by Mr. Nowicki regarding what caused the water problems at Nine Mile and Garfield. Subsequently, council had received a chronology of events dating from November, 1994 to February 8, 1996. She said this was not a study and she was glad to move forward with the City Manager to a fact finding attempt and study. She found it interesting in the letter provided by Mr. Nowicki that there were no letters to the consulting engineers and asked if the engineers were consulted regarding what they knew about the soil in that area and the dewatering.

Mr. Nowicki said he was in contact with them and with respect to the monitoring, they have on their reports what type of pumps and the week starting and week the dewatering had stopped. He also discussed the issue with Dave Potter and he said he could not speculate on exact cause without doing soil borings, monitoring, and groundwater well monitoring.

The Mayor noted that the city attorney was asked to draw up an agreement with another developer in this area concerning whether a sewer study could be done and while all this was being studied it would be pertinent to have that knitted into this as to the impact of that extension of the utility.

Adoption of Ordinance 96-18 - Amendment - to add definitions of "Brewpub" Microbrewery" to Section 201 and to add subsections 1601.12 and 1601.13, add subsections 1601.14 and 1601.15, add subpart 2505.14c(20) and to amend subsection 2507.2 - to establish standards for brewpubs and microbreweries within the TC and TC-1 Zoning District - I-Reading

Jim Wahl said the Town Center Steering Committee, council and the planning commission in 1990 gave them an assignment to try and develop a project that was unique, unusual and something special and something more than just another shopping area. In 1992 the Town Center Steering Committee held several brain storming sessions to develop a list of key project or anchor project, such as Vic’s Market, which would help to make what was becoming know as Main Street. One item on the list was a microbrewery or brewpubs. They felt this was a target and worked with the private sector and the developer, Evergreen III, to pursue this and bring forward a potential user. Since this concept originally came forward in December there was a new party involved in the development concept and were present for questions. They did come before the Steering Committee. The basic concept, the building, the brewing process, the technology and the marketing approach was very similar to what had been in the paper. There is someone ready to go forward with this.

Mr. Wahl said these microbreweries or brewpubs are very much orientated to a restaurant where the brewing equipment and the atmosphere of the establishment was oriented in kind of a historical fashion or to highlight the brewing that is going on within the establishment. That is part of the unique nature and the attraction of the facility.

Mr. Wahl said the research, the recommendation of the Steering Committee and the planning commission was to make these ordinance amendments which would allow this to happen in the Town Center District as opposed to an Industrial District or a B-3 District. Mr. Rogers did contact quite an extensive list of communities where these facilities were best suited and were working in downtown or commercial orientated areas. He hoped council would move forward with the amendments so a project of this nature could be an anchor for Main Street and an important ingredient to making that a very special project.

Mayor McLallen said a public hearing was held by the planning commission on February 7 and there wasn’t much public input.

Councilman Clark had attended the Town Center Steering Committee meetings on the project and would support it. It was something unique. He indicated this was not the type of establishment where people would come to drink for hours on end. There would be a restaurant connected with it serving food, it was a unique establishment and was not a "neighborhood" bar type facility.

Mayor McLallen read Councilman Mitzel’s letter into the record. (As attached to original minutes) Councilman Mitzel was strongly opposed to a microbrewery or brewpub in the Town Center area.

Councilwoman Mutch was impressed that Councilman Mitzel had concerns intent enough to generate a memo to council to be read. She made several calls to be sure that her understanding of what microbrewerys and brewpubs were was correct. She said they were quite different than what Member Mitzel’s memo to council indicated.. Councilwoman Mutch said if she had not sat in on the meetings of the Steering Committee she would have thought, from the memo, Member Mitzel was talking about a bar. Her own concern was was it more retail and in keeping with the Town Center concept. It never occurred to her that it would be a bar. She felt after the conversations she had that her own initial impressions had been reconfirmed. This would be no different than any other existing restaurant in the Town Center now except that you now see beyond the kitchen door so to speak. There are restaurants in the Town Center that have the dining area and a separate actual bar area. The only difference she saw was this facility exposed a part of its process, the brewery, which made it an attraction as opposed to just a restaurant. The concerns she had with regard to the industrial side of it were, for her, satisfactorily answered in the presentations.

DISCUSSION

Councilwoman Cassis felt this was an appropriate move when there had been no changes in a business and what they are handling as far as chemicals. However, if they are now renewing their business and there had been changes this did not address it. Therefore, she felt that a Second Reading was necessary, and to direct the city attorney’s attention to that and add a section that an affidavit be signed stating there were no changes.

Mr. Fried agreed.

Adoption of Ordinance 96-45.21 - Amendment - Subpart 4.04A1(b) of Ordinance 77-45 to amend the standards for the extension of proposed subdivision streets to subdivision boundaries - I Reading.

Councilman Schmid asked if this pertained to woodland and wetland areas or any other reason that one might come up with where stub streets would not necessarily be needed.

Brandon Rogers, Planning Consultant, didn’t have the ordinance for the exception.

Mayor McLallen said the exceptions were impractical topography or natural features or the second exception was undesirable traffic patterns.

Mr. Rogers said those were pretty general types of exceptions. He said Item #1 was quite clear that you wouldn’t want to intrude into these sensitive lands a roadway that might be relocated further south to avoid sensitive lands. The other one the "extension will result in creation of undesirable traffic patterns not customarily found in residential areas" would require some sophisticated analysis of the amount of traffic. It is discretionary and he didn’t know if it could be proven that a hardship or adverse effect would be caused. Mr. Rogers said he personally believed in neighborhoods tying themselves together and not isolating little enclaves. He thought that avoided all traffic going out to the main street, up the road and back into another subdivision. Mr. Rogers had no objection but didn’t know if Item 2 could be easily proven and that was his only concern.

Councilman Schmid agreed with Mr. Rogers. However, there had been cases where the topography, trees and wetlands caused concern about putting stub streets through and even the make up of the subdivision that didn’t make sense to open up to another sub.

Mr. Rogers said by having a connection through to another subdivision the problem of an extra culdesac could be solved and he likened it to Aspen Woods and Lochmoor Village. It eliminated a dead end street situation.

Councilman Schmid said he thought it had some merit but questioned if Item 2 was enforceable or if it was possible to come up with a criteria that could oppose or support a stub.

Mr. Fried said oftentimes these were written pretty open so that the council had control over it. He would rather do that than limit it so that if they met that criteria they must or must not. This left some judgement in there and he felt council should exercise that judgement.

Councilman Schmid asked if Mr. Rogers thought, with this ordinance, stub streets were being discouraged. Mr. Fried said it would discourage stub streets. Councilman Schmid said he would not want to totally discourage them. Mr. Fried said that was why the discretion was left up to the council. Councilman Schmid said he questioned the validity of a 500 home sub traveling through a 30 home sub that was next to it.

Mr. Rogers said there were developments where the developer was coming in with very fine homes and the city required a stub street into a subdivision of homes that were worth half as much. The developer was not keen to do that.

Councilman Schmid felt there was some merit to that. He said that he would support this but he wanted to see that there could still be some stubs in certain developments.

Mr. Rogers said if he felt they were suitable he would make the case very strong for them.

the extension of proposed subdivision streets to subdivision

Adoption of Ordinance 96-81.14 - Amendment to Section 33-155 Requirements for Traffic Control Devices on Private Property - I - Reading

Councilwoman Cassis asked if traffic flow and control of traffic was a public function?

Mr. Fried said normally council didn’t do it on private property. If the property owner requests it he thought the property owner should pay for the signage and study that would make it a public purpose. He said Member Cassis was correct it was a public function. However, in those instances where the private property owner found it important and had enough property that he wanted traffic control devices on it he should pay for it. Mr. Fried said when this was first adopted one of council’s fears was that every shopping center would want traffic control devices in the shopping center but it didn’t happen. Administration didn’t permit it.

Councilwoman Cassis said she was wondering why this amendment was being brought forth at this time and asked if there were any examples.

Mr. Fried said council wanted the property owner to pay for the signs and to maintain those signs. He said it had not been clear in the past.

Mayor McLallen said what was driving this was Maples of Novi. They came in and asked for a number of traffic control devices throughout the Maples and their streets are private. Council did approve traffic control, basically speed signs, etc. through there.

Mr. Kriewall said the city wanted to recover the costs and it was essentially what was being done. He said Mr. Nowicki indicated that this was in conformance with the Uniform Traffic Control Act and we are complying to what’s already a State Law.

Councilwoman Mutch said it was not just the actual signs, etc. but the study that determined what was needed, the cost of all of that was then recovered.

Mr. Fried said that was correct.

To approve the adoption of Ordinance 96-81.14 - Amendment to Section 33-155 Requirements for Traffic Control Devices on Private

Enhanced Access Project - Request for Support

Mr. Fried stated this was a request from the County Commissioner to have council support proposed legislation which would require those people who were seeking information from governmental agencies to pay for it. Under the Freedom of Information Act they do not have to pay for it and this legislation would require them to pay for it. He thought it was a good Act.

Councilman Clark said he could support it but he had two concerns. One, that users of the service would gain entry through a gate system. He said there wasn’t a computer that a hacker couldn’t break. Second, there would be certain information that would be of a private nature they would not be able to access. This information would be extracted out, deleted or whatever. Once it got on the computer disc any hacker, trying long enough, could get into the system and retrieve that private information and they could also alter it. Member Clark had real concerns about what would be put on the computer discs in terms of private information.

Councilwoman Mutch thought there were systems by which access would basically be the ability to read what was there and have a print out of it. The system would not be accessed in a way that would allow modification of the information. It would be a read only system. She felt that if it was a read only system she didn’t fear private information being accessed.

Councilwoman Cassis said this was going toward an electronic government. She felt this was happening rapidly and the concerns of confidentiality and privacy rights were not keeping pace with it. She felt advice from Dean Miller was in order as to how he felt about this.

Member Cassis said this was being brought forward by Ameritech and wondered if there were other companies able to service communities and how would council go about that process with them or was it exclusive for Ameritech? She also questioned the cost, how it was set up and who paid for the initial cost? Member Cassis didn’t feel she had enough background to make a good decision. In concept she supported it and if that was all it was was support of the concept for a lot more fine tuning then she thought that would be appropriate.

Mayor McLallen said the concept was positive but concerns were very legitimate and if council did choose to pass any thing in support of the resolution it should be added to the letter. The letter would indicate that council did not find a complete comfort level with privacy and before all of councils support would be given they would have to show council a better ability to deal with concerned citizens privacy with unauthorized access to the records. Mayor McLallen said council had a choice to not respond. This was just information but she felt it would be beneficial to the Board of Commissioners to hear what the concerns were.

Councilwoman Mutch asked if this was something that the county wanted to do with county records? Mayor McLallen said yes, this was not covered locally but there were records that impact all of us.

Councilwoman Mutch said she remembered when Mr. Nowicki came before council and informed them about the system for access for information and that agencies that keep records in a certain form were required to make them available to the public in that form. Is that right?

Mrs. Bartholomew said if the information was not specifically listed as that it could be protected. What she presented a number of months ago was basically a policy that our costs could be covered because we had not adopted one in the past.

Councilwoman Mutch understood that they were attempting to do the same thing. What got her attention was saying that if records were kept in a certain format then it had to be made available in that format.

Mr. Fried said in disc form.

Councilwoman Mutch said there were ten pages of exemptions of records that are not available to the public. She asked how they could be accessed and how anyone could get to them to change them if they’re not kept as a part of that system? She also had a concern about privacy and access but thought it was not in this particular proposal.

Councilman Clark said even though it’s "not going to be on the for sale system" once it’s in the county records it would still have to be accessed through the county system to go through the gate to get to that system. Once in that system, if one knew how, they could go from here to there and get a lot of information that is privileged.

Councilwoman Mutch said Dean Miller could inform the council on this a little better and possibly someone from the county to assure council that private information could not be accessed.

Mr. Fried thought the whole discussion was not pertinent because the matter was going to the full board of the County Commissioners February 15th. He didn’t know how they reacted to this and they possibly had the same concerns council had.

Mr. Fried said the county wanted council’s support so the Freedom of Information Act could be amended to allow the county and other municipalities to recover the cost not only of copying the material but paying for the hardware to keep the system going on those instances where they’re utilizing this in a massive way.

Mayor McLallen suggested asking Kay Schmid’s committee to respond to council as to what actually happened.

Schedule an Executive Session to immediately follow Regular Meeting - Property Acquisition, Union Negotiations and Property Contract Acquisition.

Meeting to discuss Property Acquisition, Union Negotiations and

Approval of Resolution, Re: Budget Amendment 96-14 - $15,000 - Municipal Garage - Capital Outlay

Mr. Kriewall said more information was needed and asked that this be removed for clarification and brought back next week.

Councilwoman Mutch asked for documentation on how much it would cost to remove and dispose of the 250 cubic yards of contaminated soil and the 14,000 gallons of ground water because it seemed excessive.

Outlay be removed for clarification to be brought back next week.

Councilman Schmid absent at vote

Schedule Special City Council Meeting for 6:30 - 7:30 PM on March 4, 1996 for Community Clubs of Novi Board of Trustee Committee Interviews.

Councilman Crawford asked if a deadline would be set for interviews and an appointment date set?

Councilwoman Mutch said with the numerous applicants being interviewed it would be difficult to place a face in an interview with the paperwork. If this was extended over a two or three month period it would be even more of a challenge.

to be placed on the April 8, 1996 City Council Agenda.

Councilman Schmid absent at vote.

MANAGER’S REPORTS

Mr. Kriewall commented on earlier discussion regarding AVL North America leaving the City of Novi. He said developers are continually checking on Novi or getting ready to leave Novi and they really hold it confidential. Generally, these developers/brokers would not divulge who their clients are. It’s difficult to deal with these situations because we ask ourselves what could be done to get around this but companies tend to harbor in secrecy where they want to go and what properties they are looking at. He said it was very difficult to know and to dial into a local business that’s in need of doing something because it’s so secret and competition is so great.

Councilman Clark asked Mr. Kriewall to check on the following items: Letter from David and Donna Kot, 25051 Sullivan Lane regarding salting of his street and letter from Richard Barrings, 24365 Simmons regarding stop sign in his subdivision..

Mr. Kriewall said he would follow through and bring back a report at the next meeting.

ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 PM.

Mayor Clerk

Date approved: