Mayor Landry called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M.

ROLL CALL: Mayor Landry, Mayor Pro Tem Capello, Council Members Gatt, Margolis, Mutch, Nagy-absent/excused, Paul

ALSO PRESENT: Clay Pearson, City Manager

Pamela Antil, Assistant City Manager

Tom Schultz, City Attorney

Rob Hayes, City Engineer

Barbara McBeth, Director of Planning

Tim Schmitt, Planner

Member Paul added, under Mayor and Council Issues, item 1 the Village Oaks basketball court.

Mr. Byrwa stated he was appointed to the Construction Board of Appeals in 1995 or 1996. He said his background for the last 20 years had been in construction and he had worked in three different communities. Those communities were the Dearborn Building Department, City of Wayne and his current position was the building official of Beverly Hills. He commented he lived in Novi and his construction background in code enforcement and code spanned the last 20 years.

Member Mutch asked if, from Mr. Byrwa’s position and service on the Construction Board of Appeals, there were any issues Council should be aware of that they might not otherwise be aware of through the usual channels.

Mr. Byrwa said nothing that he was aware of. He said they generally meet three or four times a year and one of the enjoyable things about the board was that there was a tremendous depth of knowledge. He said seated on the board was another building official, two architects, and one engineer. He said the previous communities he had worked in had a good industrial base that he worked with quite a bit. However, now he was in a bedroom community, Village of Beverly Hills, and being on the Novi Construction Board of Appeals kind of kept him somewhat current with commercial construction. Mr. Byrwa felt it was nice to be able to refresh himself on some of the commercial requirements as 99% of his job was residential construction. Member Mutch stated he appreciated his willingness to continue to serve and contribute to Novi.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he assumed, as a building official, that Mr. Byrwa sat on the Construction Board of Appeals in Beverly Hills.

Mr. Byrwa said he had been in Beverly Hills for 14 years and only had one opportunity to use the Construction Board of Appeals about six years ago. He said he had one or two options in an emergency; he could either borrow a neighboring community’s Construction Board of Appeals or the Council would serve as the Construction Board of Appeals. One of the objectives that the State tries to do when they ask that you set up a Construction Board of Appeals was to get knowledgeable people in those fields to make construction decisions. He said Beverly Hills didn’t have a Construction Board of Appeals other than the Council, and it was difficult to form one when they met so seldom. He said they had only met once in 14 years.

Member Gatt asked what he would expect or hope for from the Council to make his job easier if he was appointed. Mr. Byrwa said the Building Department had been generous with him in giving him the code books. However, some of the other individuals on the board that aren’t code officials, it was nice when they could be provided with a code book because that was basically what a lot of the decisions fell back on was code interpretations and equivalencies of the code. He said to provide the people on the board with the right materials, code books, etc. was a good first step, and he hoped that would continue.

Member Margolis said his background was terrific for this position, and he had obviously served for quite some time and learned a great deal. She said her questions had been asked and thanked him for coming forward to serve.

Member Paul asked, in his years on this board, what was the most difficult situation he had to work with.

Mr. Byrwa said there was a resident of Beverly Hills who was a developer and builder who brought a case before the Novi Construction Board of Appeals. Mr. Byrwa said he had had considerable dealings with him, in his capacity in Beverly Hills, and he recused himself. He said it was difficult to step aside and do the right thing and not be involved with that case.

Mayor Landry thanked Mr. Byrwa for his service. He said these appeal boards don’t meet very often but they are very important to the people appearing before them. He said the Appeals Board was the last stop. Mayor Landry said they had to have knowledge of the code, compassion, understanding, and they have to sift out the wheat from the chaff. Sometimes it was not an easy job and Novi was lucky to have individuals of his ilk who are willing to serve.

Mr. Ciampa said he moved into Novi in 1976, retired from Ford Motor Company, and has a BS and a Master in Business Administration from Michigan State. He said his work experience was a Director of Power Train Operations, Ford of China and lived in China for four years. He said while in China his son moved into his home and he was able to keep his residency in

Novi. Mr. Ciampa noted that prior to that he was the Assistant Plant Manager of a Transmission Plant in Livonia and learned how important budgets were. He said he was also a program manager on a $750 million program, and felt good about that because he saved about 8% on that program. Mr. Ciampa said he had also lived in West Bloomfield Township and in Indiana where he was vice president of the homeowners association. He felt he could do something for this committee because he was very proud of Novi, had the time to work on the committee and believed he could contribute with his engineering and management experience.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said Mr. Ciampa brought a lot of diversity to the table and Mayor Pro Tem Capello thought Economic Development would be one of the best commissions he could apply for with his experience. He said he didn’t have any questions and that he had looked at his references and thanked Mr. Ciampa for applying.

Member Gatt asked what he would expect or hope for from the Council to make his job easier if he was appointed. Mr. Ciampa said he saw himself doing something for the City and the Council and didn’t see a need to ask for anything from the Council, at this time. He said he didn’t know how big the job would be but at this time he thought there was nothing he would ask for now or in the first year. Mr. Ciampa said except to make presentations on where they wanted to go and how they would get there.

Member Margolis thanked Mr. Ciampa for stepping forward and pledging the amount of time that he was. She said the Council had recently passed Economic Development goals, which was a large part of what the Council believed, and what she personally believed, they needed to push for in this community. Member Margolis said Council was revitalizing the EDC and trying to give them more of a role, which they haven’t had for years. She asked what kind of role he could see the EDC having in Economic Development for the City, especially what tasks could they be involved in.

Mr. Ciampa said his background was engineering. He said he had noticed on Haggerty Road near Five Mile in Livonia there was a Bosch American Headquarters, and he could see going in there to meet with those people to see what they needed as far as businesses around them, and then trying to get them to locate in Novi.

Member Paul said with his engineering background and budgetary requirements he had done in his past job, how would he bring that forward to this position.

Mr. Ciampa said he would jump on the opportunity of working with Bosch or any other engineering firm. He said regarding budgets, it took him a while at Ford to learn that sometimes his first solution wasn’t the best because they said he couldn’t afford it. So he always went back and tried to figure another way and sometimes the cheaper solution was the better way. He thought he could contribute that way.

Member Mutch said as a long time Novi resident Mr. Ciampa had seen a tremendous amount of growth in the community and an evolution from a bedroom community to something that was more of a regional power house. Member Mutch asked as Novi grew what issues he saw as the biggest challenges in attracting the companies, like Bosch or others, that we are targeting in the high tech or bio-medical fields.

Mr. Ciampa said one of the big issues was he didn’t think they had developed an "Automation Alley" like in Oakland. He said because of that people didn’t know where Novi would have

businesses nor did they realize what would be allowed for homes, etc. Mr. Ciampa thought that would be one of the issues because if a business is put someplace there would be some people that wouldn’t like it there, and that would have to be worked out. Member Mutch said he appreciated his stepping forward and was looking forward to the opportunity for him to serve on this committee.

Mayor Landry said he appreciated Mr. Ciampa stepping forward. The Economic Development Corporation was a commission Council was really revitalizing. He said it was a little different from other boards and commissions because many of the other ones are reactive. People would come if it’s an appeal board, Planning Commission etc. He said the EDC was different as we go out to the community; it’s people that have a vision that go out and try to proactively get businesses to come to Novi and express an interest in Novi. Mayor Landry said he believed it was important to have a committee of people with different backgrounds who have been in the City a while and people who are new residents. It’s really proactive and requires work that’s not done in City Hall. The majority of the EDC’s work would be out in the field so to speak. He appreciated Mr. Ciampa’s willingness to step forward and give Novi the benefit of his experience.

Mr. Czekaj said he had lived in Novi for 20 years, and was employed by TCF National Bank as Senior Vice President and legal counsel for the organization in Michigan. He said he had reapplied for a position on the Building Authority of which he had been involved in since 1994 as a Senior Housing Coordination Committee that revolved into the body that took over the Novi Ice Arena, and then they ultimately did a senior housing project at Meadowbrook Commons. He said while the position had not been very active of late, since the finalization of Meadowbrook Commons, he thought they did a very good job in terms of the scope of the project. Mr. Czekaj said they brought the project in on time and within their budget, and he believed the members he served with were talented individuals. He said they had some new member of local City government to train for the next project. Mr. Czekaj said the last time Mr. Pearson was not involved, Mr. Saven was now retiring and Ms. Smith-Roy came in on the tail end. He believed consistency was an important component of that body so they were ready, willing and able to go at a moments notice, and he would like to continue doing so. He said as to his skills, abilities and experience while not being too active as a Building Authority in his day job, he spent quite a bit of time in construction development project on behalf of the bank. He said most recently one of his tasks was to sell their multi office complex in downtown Ann Arbor and find a new home to which they decided on Livonia, and they recently completed a new 60,000 sq. ft. building to which his committee was charged with that project. Once again it was done ahead of schedule and on budget.

Member Gatt said everything he said about Mark Sturing he said about Mr. Czekaj too. Member Gatt read from Mr. Czekaj’s application the reasons for desiring to serve, "I desire to serve the community that my family calls home." Member Gatt said he had his total support, and thanked him for what he had done and for everything he would do.

Member Margolis added her congratulations and commended him for all he had done for the Building Authority and on the Library Board. She wasn’t able to be present at the last meeting but wanted to commend him on his presentation, and said she thought he might have missed his calling. She felt he needed to get into public presentation because he had quite the stage presence. She said she absolutely supported him.

Member Paul said Mr. Czekaj was active in the schools, the church, his neighborhood, and active in the City and she commended him. She said she worked with him on the TCF project and it really turned out nice.

Member Mutch asked Mr. Czekaj if because of his service on the Building Authority and the Library Board, did he foresee the potential that the library building project would take advantage or make use of the tools that the Building Authority had, and if so would that create a conflict with him serving both, and in some ways serving two masters.

Mr. Czekaj replied he didn’t think so, and thought it was more of an appearance of a conflict than it was an actual potential conflict. He said speaking as a Building Authority member, to the extent that the Library Board saw fit or sought the assistance of the Building Authority, he believed the Building Authority would offer to help with open arms. He said having said that and having spent the last year on the Library Board, and the way they had tried to point the project and build the foundation as they came before Council a few weeks ago, there was a lot of talent on the board and consultant talent that they had already reached out to or had others they had identified as possibly reaching out to. He said this could almost serve as a quasi Building Authority in terms of the talent and experience that would be necessary for that type of a project. He thought that he and Member Sturing, who sat on both committees, would have the ability to pull and capitalize on a lot of that experience. He thought it could be done at the library without the Building Authority. Member Mutch said it was obvious he had taken a very public and visible role in moving the library proposal forward, it would be a tremendous amount of work over the next year, and he wished him luck. Mr. Czekaj said they were looking forward to working with Council and the City to bring that project to fruitition.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello asked if he brought the TCF building in Novi at Beck and Grand River on time. Mr. Czekaj said they had considered Novi because they were looking for a gateway access point. He said I-275 and I-96 were very visible. He said for them it was more selfish and a cultural issue. He commented coming from downtown Ann Arbor it was a culture where walking, riding a bike and public transportation was a large focal point of the community, which transcended itself into the mainstream work force. He said their first consultant had advised them that if they moved any further than 15 miles from the headquarter location they would stand a chance of losing 35% of their workforce. So they knew they didn’t want to go west, they were a metropolitan bank and they were trying to gain access into the metropolitan Detroit area. He said north of Brighton and south was not a candidate, and the farthest east they could go took them to the corner of Gottfredson Road and M-14. They dispensed with that consultant and went elsewhere. He said they came to the conclusion that anything past 8 Mile would be a real difficult sell from an employee standpoint. He said they looked along M-5 and some of their customers have projects up there, and they weren’t an Ann Arbor based entity that had an Ann Arbor based mentality those of us on the Detroit side thought that that would have been a better location. He said but just trying to navigate that M-5, I-96, Haggerty, 12 Mile type of intersection was not the kiss of death but it certainly would pose a potential problem. He said one of their good customers happened to be in College Park so that worked out very attractively as well. He said they did look in Novi but settled in Livonia, and hoped they were close enough to Novi to participate in Novi as a corporate entity as well.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello asked if he brought the TCF building in Novi at Beck and Grand River on time. Mr. Czekaj said yes, but the wheels of government sometimes go slowly and if your paperwork was not in order that was what you should expect. He said they probably didn’t do as good a job as they could have in their presentations to the City.

Mayor Landry said he had worked with Mr. Czekaj and was very familiar with his capabilities, thanked him and said he appreciated his service to the City.

Ms. Greenberg said she had moved to Novi 17 years ago and had been serving on the Beautification Commission since its inception 12 years ago. She felt they had made progress in Novi and that there was still more that could be done, so she was offering her services for another three years.

Member Gatt asked if reappointed to this commission what could the Council do to make her job easier.

Ms. Greenberg responded a couple more commissioners would make their job easier. She said there were two or three more openings they would love to have filled. If those positions could be filled they would be able to take care of planting outside the Civic Center. She said it would be very beneficial to have more people on the commission.

Member Margolis thanked Ms. Greenberg for coming forward and said she saw Ms. Greenberg was involved in the demonstration rain garden and so many of the other things in the City. Member Margolis commented she appreciated that. She asked when their meetings were. Ms. Greenberg replied they meet at 2:15 PM specifically so that their two student commissioners would have an easier time attending the meetings.

Member Margolis asked if the commission would be open to either alternating meeting times or having different meeting times in order to attract people who could not meet during the day. She felt that might be why some people couldn’t step forward to serve.

Ms. Greenberg said they have had evening meetings in the past and the only reason they have it earlier was because last year when they had their student commissioners they were very busy and had their evenings all full. She said she was sure there would be no problem with evening meetings if it was a matter of getting more commissioners. Member Margolis said it was just a suggestion that perhaps people who were not available at that time were not applying.

Member Paul shared with Council and the audience just how much Ms. Greenberg had done for the community. She implemented the perennial exchange and the Beautification Commission did that twice a year where people would swap perennials, which was a cost savings for people and had helped put plants into the rain garden. Member Paul said Ms. Greenberg was also instrumental in the rain garden and had given Member Paul the idea. Ms. Greenberg had also shared with her that when other cities were doing road repair they put rain gardens in the swales. Member Paul said there was an article in the Nations City Weekly that she was going to share with Council that when they do that 90% of the runoff in the community where all the new roads are was decreased. She said 90% runoff was a lot. She said it was something they would discuss later tonight with green buildings, rain gardens, bio swales and this was the start of Ms. Greenberg’s work. Member Paul said her concern about getting more people was so they could do more things. She asked Ms. Greenberg if she had the ability to have a full commission what would be something she wanted to do that was new or in a different scope than what she was currently doing.

Ms. Greenberg said she knew there had been interest in doing more rain gardens. She said they had a demonstration rain garden at Toll Gate, which was beautiful and it was the first year. She said they are not usually beautiful until the third year but this was fantastic. She said she had been approached by a couple other people who said they would love to have a rain garden on their property, and this was something that they could consult on and perhaps help them put in their rain garden. Also, she would like to follow up with the problem of runoff into the streams by encouraging people to have rain barrels instead of having the water come off of their roof and going directly down into the streams. If the water went to the rain barrels and was conserved, they wouldn’t have to use as much water for lawns and flower beds because the natural water in the rain barrels could be used. She said they could encourage that type of thinking in Novi. Ms. Greenberg said there were a lot of ideas that they got every year when they went to the Beautification Commission of Southeast Michigan meetings and they pick their brains and find all kinds of projects that they are working on that could be put into our system in Novi. She said they have "Eye on Novi" where when they see someone doing a nice job beautifying the City they receive a certificate. She said there were many things she would like to think about implementing but with only five commissioners and two student commissioners it was hard for them. She said, in addition, they were hosting the Beautification Commission of Southeast Michigan meeting next December in Novi, which was a great honor for them to have the commissioners from 50 cities coming to Novi. She said at that time they would be presenting to them what Novi had done as a beautification project. Ms. Greenberg said if they had more commissioners it would help them present the City in a better light.

Member Mutch said he would be hard pressed to think of a City event he had attended where Ms. Greenberg was not hard at work, whether it’s Arbor Day, park cleanup, perennial exchange, or Fall for Novi. He said Ms. Greenberg was always there giving her time to the betterment of Novi and she would be the last person to toot her own horn. He wanted to thank her for the tremendous amount of work she had done in the community and for truly beautifying this community. He said people don’t always recognize it because they don’t know who had done the work but having seen some of the projects listed on her application she had really made a tremendous difference in the community. Member Mutch said Oakland County had a native plants grant program that was available in the spring. It was not a lot of money but it was targeted at the kind of programs Ms. Greenberg was doing and it was focused on cities and schools. He suggested she look at that because it would be a perfect project for the commission, and Council would do what they could to find more people to help her.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he drove around and saw areas he thought needed help, and Ms. Greenberg gave awards to businesses, residences and associations that beautify their entrances, etc. He asked what area in Novi she thought needed beautification.

Ms. Greenberg said it used to be Grand River. Then they had a project called the "Begonia Give Away" where they bought begonias and provided them to any business that would beautify the front of their business. She said that encouraged people to start gardens in front of their businesses. She said there were still places along Grand River that could use a little sprucing up. She thought the City looked a lot nicer now than it used to.

Mayor Landry said when a person applied for the Beautification Commission and their e-mail address was iamgardening that sort of said it all for him. He thanked her and said he and the City appreciated her efforts.

Mr. Kuzma said he currently ran two companies, Kuzma and Associates an estate planning company and BBC Equities, which was a real estate development fund. He said his background was basically engineering with ten years in the auto industry, and the last five years he had been in the financial business. He is a 4 1/2 year resident and would like to be more involved. He stated he was on the CERT team.

Member Margolis thanked him for stepping forward. She said he had applied for Economic Development or Building Authority, and asked what he thought he could contribute to the Economic Development Committee as Council was really trying to revitalize the economic development goals of the City. She asked what he thought he could contribute to that commission as they move forward with the work that it’s doing.

Mr. Kuzma said his background was pretty commensurate with what they were trying to do, which was basically build something based on economic principle. He said he taught that to students currently and to his clients on a daily basis. He noted he had a lot of connections around town and throughout southeastern Michigan with people who are interested in development. Mr. Kuzma said "shaking the tree" was something he was good at. He said if he had an idea of the direction Council wanted to go, it would give him an idea of which types of target groups he could go after. He felt that was his strength. Mr. Kuzma said he wasn’t sure what the broad vision was but would be happy to read about it. Obviously, we are in economic times that was not conducive to people wanting to open their wallets. However, hearing the State of the City address, he was very pleased with the direction and the momentum that the City had and he wanted to be a part of it. Also, from an economic standpoint, he knew how to add and subtract and thought they could keep projects in the black as opposed to the red. He said he ran multi million dollar programs when in the auto industry and was responsible for all the productivity and profitability. He felt his financial side would be an asset to Novi.

Member Paul said since he sat on a estate board would there be any conflict of interest with being present with the estate board as well as companies coming to Novi. He asked if she meant being an Estate Planner, and she said yes. He said as long as he wasn’t hitting up his clients directly for money to put into the projects for the City everything would be OK.

Member Mutch asked what he saw as the challenges Novi faced going forward broadly speaking from his experience while balancing that with the desire to have a community that attracted Mr. Kuzma to move here.

Mr. Kuzma thought with any City some of the challenges to him for bringing business in and certain types of businesses would be just plain layout of how the City was. The City was growing in a certain direction currently, there are established pockets of industrial areas and businesses, and most people don’t want to live in a City that they look out their windows and see smoke stacks from industry. Yet, bringing in larger companies that manufacture was a key to growth. He said the United States was losing manufacturing and it was killing the economy. He said keeping it in the United States would be a major challenge. Then, there are cities all across the country that were willing to give tax breaks, etc. so the industry would come to their state or city. He said Novi was competing against 50 states and some of which are warmer than today. Mr. Kuzma said there was stiff competition all the way around, and it would have to be a group effort on a state and city level to make it known that Novi was serious about bringing industry in, making them feel welcome and not tax them to death.

Member Mutch thanked Mr. Kuzma for stepping forward. He encouraged him to delve more into some of the things they had talked about tonight. He said Council had done quite a bit of work with economic development goals and the EDC would be front and center in making those happen.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said Mr. Kuzma lived in Novi where there’s a lot of growth and development, and worked in Ferndale where there was a lot of redevelopment going on and probably not a lot of new development but new growth. He asked if there were any similarities between Ferndale and Novi.

Mr. Kuzma said Ferndale was an older, more established community and he thought it was not going through a re-growth stage but was going through a rebirth stage. He said ten years ago they had issues with crime, etc. and the city got together and said with some key businesses there was some development happening on Woodward. He said they started in the Woodward Corridor and Nine Mile and it had blossomed since then. He didn’t think that Novi was in that type of phase. He said Novi was a newer City with newer homes and more open space that could be developed. He thought the strategies they used to entice businesses could be similar but thought some of what was going on there also was an off shoot of people looking for less expensive Royal Oak. He felt that was part of the reason Ferndale had grown the way it has.

Member Gatt asked what the best part of Novi was.

Mr. Kuzma said the best part about Novi was the way the City was taking a proactive stance on everything, the CERT Team, law enforcement being proactive, and the fact that everybody was trying to work together. He said the part that he liked the most was that he felt very welcome.

Mayor Landry said he moved to Novi from Ferndale 12 years ago. He thought Mr. Kuzma very accurately answered Mayor Pro Tem Capello’s question. He said it was a wonderful community and he thought Mr. Kuzma accurately described a totally different stage of city life than the City of Novi. He said they were doing some wonderful things, but their challenges were at a different end of the spectrum than Novi’s challenges. He thanked Mr. Kuzma for stepping forward and invited him back if he wasn’t appointed because they loved his enthusiasm and were always looking for people to participate.

Mr. Sturing commented he had been a resident for 19 years and was currently on the Library Board. He was also currently general counsel for the Beztek Companies and they do a lot of construction and development related issues there. He said he was asking to be reappointed to the Library Board and thought it was a very exciting time for the Library. He said according to their recent surveys 60% to 69% of the residents of Novi use the Library, and he thought that was one the highest percentages of elected services the City provided that the residents participate in. He said about 800 patrons a day use the Library and they are currently searching for a new director as their director was resigning after 27 ½ years. He said they planned on being on the ballot in November to build a new and better Library.

Member Paul said with his years of experience on the Library Board and developing the senior center, would he share with Council some of his building experience, and how they would get the word out for the future bond.

Mr. Sturing said they were two different things. He said libraries have historically been places where residents come and we, as a library, are challenged that they have to get the word out. He said they couldn’t wait for people to come to them. Mr. Sturing said they had to utilize their contacts and people they knew including friends and acquaintances. He said they hired, on a part time basis, a former librarian who was in charge of the librarians for the State of Michigan to meet with the PTA groups, churches, homeowners associations, and members of Council to educate the community in terms of what the library facilities were and what they could be. He said it was really getting the news out whether by newsletter, gatherings, etc. They were doing all the things one would do in an effective PR campaign.

Member Mutch said Mr. Sturing had been proactively working on the efforts to recruit and hire a new library director. He asked what kind of qualities they were looking for in the person who would be involved in the building project and leading the library to the next level. What kind of person were they looking for when they got to the point of hiring a new director?

Mr. Sturing thought they were looking for a person with the library administrative skills that understood how a library worked, what it took to keep it going, and everything that it took to keep it open seven days a week. He said at the same time in addition to those operational and people skills they would have community skills, be involved with the community, and actively involved in the various organizations.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he looked forward to Mr. Sturing serving again and that he knew Mr. Sturing well and had no other questions.

Member Gatt said the appointment to the Library Board was a Mayoral appointment. Member Gatt wanted to go on record that he couldn’t think of a better, more qualified, industrious, or civic minded person than Mr. Sturing for this position. He said Mr. Mr. Sturing was everything that was good about Novi, and thanked him for applying.

Member Margolis said she had no questions for Mr. Sturing. She said she had the absolute pleasure of serving on the Library Board with him for quite some time and it was really a pleasure. Member Margolis said Mr. Sturing brought tremendous skills to the Library Board, and she had told more than one person that if there was one thing she had gotten out of her service to the City it was getting to know Mark Sturing.

Mayor Landry said they had known each other since they negotiated with each other when they first took over their subdivision association and he was a fair minded man then and he was a fair minded man now. Mayor Landry thanked him for his service said he looked forward to his continued service to the City.

Mr. Verma said he was a 28 year Novi resident and retired from the University of Michigan Medical Center as Director of Design and Construction and Utilities after 24 years of service. He was also employed by the Henry Ford Health System for 4 years. Mr. Verma was also a former Captain of the Corp of Engineers, and was now working as a business developer and consultant. He said when soccer started 26 years ago, he was a coach and a certified referee and worked with the Parks and Recreation Department for 6 or 7 years. In 1981 he was appointed to the Storm Water Management and Flood Control Committee. Mr. Verma said he had been involved in many volunteer organizations and appointed by the governor of Michigan as Commissioner to the Service of the Aging and Council member for Asian Pacific American Affairs. Mr. Verma said he understood that a new library would be constructed from next year and onwards. He believed his 30 years of service as a construction manager and budgeting and scheduling would be an asset to the board. He wanted to work with the board and thank the community as well as Novi which he and his family loved and enjoyed.

Member Mutch said he was well acquainted with Mr. Verma’s record of involvement. He asked if Mr. Verma anticipated any challenges in terms of the time required recognizing with the Library Board moving forward with the building project that the position would be quite involved in terms of meetings and commitment not only at the board level but also in community outreach. He asked if he felt this would be a challenge or could he fit this into his already busy schedule.

Mr. Verma responded if he was selected for this board he was thinking of resigning in one organization which he was on the executive board. He said he wanted to take the time to work on the Library Board so he would resign from his executive board. Member Mutch said he appreciated his willingness to make that kind of commitment to the community and that it spoke highly of him and his willingness to serve.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he noticed in his application that he had a lot of experience with the Asian Indian community in communications and asked if he was related to the new Lotus Bank. Mr. Verma said he knew the people there but was not involved in that bank. Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he should introduce himself and that they were on the first floor of the JCK Building, and their permanent headquarters would be on Twelve Mile Road. Mr. Verma said he knew the manager there and the board members but he was not involved directly with them.

Member Gatt asked if he was appointed to this board, what his main goal would be to help get the bond passed in November.

Mr. Verma said he would like to talk about what the Council could do for the seniors, and secondly to sell the bond to the community. He said he would like to work with the library people and put papers about the bond in each book that was going out. This would answer questions about what the bond would be, what would be happening and if the building would be constructed. Mr. Verma said he wanted to be involved, especially on the Asian community side, that they work on this and get the vote passed on that day because the library was required for the City of Novi.

Member Margolis said his background in design and construction would be a great benefit to the Library Board. She asked, in his personal opinion, what benefit libraries brought to a community. Why was it important for a community to have a strong public library?

Mr. Verma said this was the time when the children’s minds were set, the Mom’s are there trying to help them read. He said there was so much for the children and for the teenagers when they go to the computers to work. He said students are there doing their homework and they were learning. Mr. Verma said he had given lectures at the library. Mr. Verma said the library needed conference rooms for lectures and for speakers to come and speak on a variety of subjects.

Member Paul felt Mr. Verma could also be helpful on the Construction Board of Appeals also because of his engineering and planning background. She said Mr. Verma had a lot of ability in many areas.

Mr. Verma said if the Council felt he would be better somewhere else they would have to decide that.

Member Paul said she knew Mr. Verma personally and he had so much to offer and had done a lot in her neighborhood making sure the road was being done correctly with engineering. She thanked him for being a very active member in the community.

Mayor Landry said a library was going to be built in Novi, and looking at his application he saw that Mr. Verma was a former member of the Corp. of Engineers, a construction manager, and Director of Design and Construction. However, he was seeing something that was much more important to him at this time. He saw on his resume he presented Cultural Diversity What a Manager Should Know, authored a report on Multi Cultural Environment at the University of Michigan Hospital, member of the Board of Directors at the Novi International Festival, and the University of Michigan Medical Center instituted a Ramesh Verma Diversity Award. Mayor Landry said as the library was built he was very interested in a location, a source for diversity, information and a source where everyone in this community could come and gain and share information. Mayor Landry said he was very excited Mr. Verma was applying and wished him luck.

Mr. Watza said he was a 12 year resident of Novi, former Planning Commissioner, partner with law firm Kitch Drutchos in Detroit where he does litigation work, largely with governmental agencies, policy work and regulatory work with the Public Service Commission on telecommunications and energy law. Mr. Watza said his children had grown up and he now had time to serve. He didn’t have any perceived notions about which board or commission and would let Council decide that.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said there were a whole variety of commissions on his application, and he said the Construction Board of Appeals was not on his list but was a possibility. Mr. Watza said he had no problem with that and had done some construction litigation over the years. Mayor Pro Tem Capello said hopefully Council could find somewhere he would fit and welcomed him back.

Member Gatt said he didn’t have any questions. He said Mr. Watza was a good guy and a good volunteer and thanked him.

Member Margolis asked what changes he had seen since the time he was involved previously and the City now.

Mr. Watza said the new Rock Financial Center was probably the strongest indication of Novi’s stepping up and taking off to its next level, which was only natural given its geographic location with the expressway, etc. He thought that was a very positive step and more along the lines of where the City would be going. He said when he was on the Planning Commission they were still talking about it being a farm community, but Novi’s growing up.

Member Paul asked where he thought he would serve the best with his law experience.

Mr. Watza thought the EDC would be interesting, and the Planning Commission but there were no openings. He thought the Construction Board of Appeals would be fine too. He said he didn’t have any preconceived ideas about where he should be and would leave that to Council to use him where they had a need.

Member Mutch said there was nothing like serving for a couple of years on the Planning Commission with people to really get to know them. He said it was a pleasure to serve with Mr. Watza even though they didn’t always agree on all the issues but did agree to disagree very agreeably. He said that was one of the traits Mr. Watza brought to the Planning Commission was the willingness to voice his opinion, look for the best solution, and realizing that it was just the next project and there were plenty more where that came from. Member Mutch admitted, having been through the gristmill that the Planning Commission could be, that he was still interested in taking another term, however having a couple of years away from it you forget what it was all about and it was probably all fond memories now. Member Mutch said Council would be looking at Planning Commission appointments in a couple months and asked if that was a serious interest of his.

Mr. Watza replied said yes, there were things that he wished he had done better and seen a little differently but he would like an opportunity to go back. He said he would bring the excuse of having done it. Member Mutch said they would find a place for him because he had the experience and the willingness to serve and hopefully they could find a good fit.

Mayor Landry thought the EDC was a board that was poised to take off, and thought it would be very important in the next 5 to 10 years. He thought it would involve more work outside of City Hall than inside, and thought it would be a very exciting committee if they got the right people willing to put the right effort into it. He appreciated Mr. Watza stepping forward and his willingness for that committee.

a. Recognition of citizens Jimi Varner and Ceri Dunn and Officers Balog and Woodley for response to medical emergency – Deputy Chief Lindberg

Mayor Landry said it was rare that a City had the opportunity to do what Council was about to do, and he couldn’t think of anything that would make a City more proud. Mayor Landry said he would turn this over to Deputy Chief Lindberg, and also present were Lt. Wuotinen and Lt. Lauria.

Deputy Chief Lindberg said it was a great day to be able to represent Chief Molloy, Chief Smith, Lt. Lauria and Lt. Wuotinen. He said Chief Smith was present because there was one message that he didn’t want to get lost tonight, which was when looking at the people they were going to recognize they needed to go beyond that to how the public safety system worked in this instance.

Deputy Chief Lindberg related an incident that happened on January 27^th about 7:45 a.m. He said the dispatch center received a 911 call from the Sports Club of Novi regarding there was an unresponsive, not breathing man on the tennis courts. The dispatchers got the call out within 28 seconds, that was they got a hold of the Community Ambulance, the Fire Department and two Novi Police Officers and dispatched them to the Sports Club for the incident. He said two officers from our Police Department responded and they arrived within a minute and 20 seconds. They got onto the scene and found two citizens, who happened to be employees of the Sports Club of Novi, performing CPR. The two officers were there with their AED, Automated External Defibrillator and put it on the victim and found that he had no pulse. Deputy Chief Lindberg said they did what they were supposed to do and delivered a shock from the AED and determined there was a slight pulse, and they continued rescue breathing. In less than 4 minutes the Fire Department arrived on the scene. He said everybody did what they were supposed to do and the gentleman was transported to Botsford Hospital where he went through some tests and then was transferred to Providence in Southfield, where tomorrow he would go through a catheterization. Deputy Chief Lindberg said he was able to sit up and speak and called the officers last Wednesday and thanked them. He said members of the Novi Police Department command staff was there and he was healthy and hoped that everything would go well, but wished to remain anonymous. Deputy Chief Lindberg said there were four people they would like to recognize for their life saving efforts.

Mayor Landry read a certificate of appreciation as awarded to Officer Scott Woodley and Officer Steve Balog, and Sports Club of Novi employees Jimi Varner and Ceri Dunn.

Deputy Chief Lindberg added that this was the second time Officer Balog had brought someone back to life using an AED. The first was in June of 2002 and he was proud to recognize Officer Balog again, proud that everyone was here and proud of the Sports Club of

Novi for training their people the way they do. Again, it was just an example of the way the system worked.

Member Paul removed Items E and F.

Member Mutch removed Item D.

A. Approve Minutes of:

1. January 22, 2007 – Regular meeting

B. Enter Executive Session immediately following the regular meeting of February 5, 2007 in the Council Annex for the purpose of discussing pending litigation and privileged correspondence from legal counsel.

C. Approval of the Parks and Recreation facilities donation acknowledgement and acceptance of the agreement with Telcom Credit Union.

G. Consideration of introduction of resolution to vacate a portion of Orchard Avenue/Paul Bunyan Drive, also known as Sixth Gate, Right of Way adjacent to the Main Street Novi development, east of Novi Road, and approval to set the public hearing for City Council meeting of February 12, 2007.

H. Acceptance of a Conservation Easement from SP03-27 Campus Tech Park, located on the north side of Eleven Mile Road between Meadowbrook Road and Seeley Road.

I. Acceptance of Lewis Medical Office Center site water main as a public utility; and acceptance of sidewalk easement and storm drainage facility maintenance agreement. The site is Parcel ID No. 50-22-12-200-035.

J. Approval of Claims and Accounts – Warrant No. 738

Member Paul asked why, after looking at some of the numbers on these streets, the PASER scale go from a worse number to a better number. Mr. Hayes responded that the last PASER evaluation was done in 2004, and this year they had a new consultant and had piggybacked on the services provided by Oakland County and their consultants, Stantec. He said their methodology was a little different so the numbers do appear to be skewed a little bit higher but it was all relative. He said the groups of streets all moved higher, with some exceptions, relatively speaking. He said there were some streets on the 2006 PASER where it rated say a 7 with a 10 being good and 1 being poor. In 2004 that same street might have been rated a 5. He said there was a similar disparity for the majority of the streets where they all seem to be rated a little bit higher within the whole group evaluated in 2006. Mr. Hayes said that shift was a relative shift a bit higher from 2006 as compared back to 2004 but in the relative sequence of the priorities of how bad the streets were, it essentially stayed the same.

Member Paul said she was looking at Elizabeth Lane in Addington and it was a 5 in 2004 and it went up to a 7 and she didn’t think that street was any better and said it looked pretty bad. Mr. Hayes said that was the caveat they included when they presented the report to Council that there appeared to be discrepancies but on the whole the group of streets when comparing one street to another if the street was poor compared to a group of streets in 2004, it would still be poor in 2006 when compared to those same streets. Member Paul said then if she was going to use this PASER program before Council and looked down all these streets you have the average as the lowest number first or the priority, and then they worked down to the higher numbers because they were not as high a priority. She said when looking at Galway Drive, for example, he had 140 feet and had been a 5 all the way through. She asked if he was recommending that those be done before hand or was he taking just the PASER scale or was he looking at other numbers.

Mr. Hayes replied that because of the different methodologies and scores assigned to each street segment to eliminate some of that bias they averaged the score the street received in 2004 with the score it received in 2006. He said that was where she would see the average PASER rating. He said these are the worst concrete streets in the City even though some of them rated fairly high in 2006 and they certainly didn’t get better. He said they looked at every concrete segment that received a PASER rating in 2006 and these were the 56 worst. He commented that a part of the consulting engineer’s scope of work was to take a look at each of these segments during the study phase and determine a priority order for them from this list. He said this was not necessarily the rank order of streets that they wanted to have funded. Mr. Hayes said part of their job was to study each segment, complete some corings and borings and give a recommendation as to what the real priorities should be. Member Paul said one of the concerns for residents was when he looked at the PASER and had a number and also looked at the condition of the actual street because some of the concrete streets mask what was really the underlying problem in the big gaps that are between each road. She said when there are so many areas of cracks in each joint it would not be cost effective to just fill them. He said the rule of thumb was that if it was more than 30% of bad joints in a concrete street, it was more cost effective to do a full reconstruction. She said when she looked at the County PASER, Stantec, he was basically saying that the scale was pretty much the same; he had averaged it and was comfortable with all the changes. She asked if they were planning to use the same service in the future because it was more reasonable. Mr. Hayes said they had not had that discussion yet. She asked how often the PASER would be done. Mr. Hayes said every two years. She said if they do the engineering design and construction would this company look at all of these roads or how would they do their design study. Mr. Hayes said based on the budget constraints they anticipated they came up with this list of 56 segments, which would be roughly 20,000 linear feet and would equate to as much as $4 million. He noted it could be lower if they had a good contractor as they did in 2006. He said they would do as many as possible with the amount authorized.

Member Paul said say we do all of these items; we look at the design and the construction and they were going to study that, and it gets to the construction part. She asked if that design would change because of our budgetary constraints so that they would look at repairing those roads 4 or 5 years from now because the funding for all $4 million was not there. She said If so, would that be restudied at that time and duplicating the service of design. Mr. Hayes said no, there would be no duplication. The study would be done this year and those streets that they couldn’t do budget wise this year for construction would move to the top of the list for next year. She said if this was the plan would he be able to do some type of a scale in the future saying design and study done and a check off of which ones had been done. Mr. Hayes said yes.

Member Mutch said only concrete streets would be done this year, correct. Mr. Hayes said that was what they were recommending. Member Mutch said that was based on the statement that "we’ve essentially addressed the worst asphalt streets in the City", and you want to focus on the concrete streets. He said if he was looking at the PASER scale and at the City as a whole would there be other streets that would rank in the 5 to 7 category that were not shown on here because they are not concrete. Mr. Hayes said there were probably a handful of segments. He said there were some anomalies with the study and if actually driving those streets, they were really not that bad. The most common problem that they saw was transverse cracking across the asphalt section. He said it was something that happened but didn’t affect drivability, wasn’t a constructional concern, but could be if not maintained. It was nothing that would warrant a reconstruction. Member Mutch said there were no street segments that he would feel they were neglecting that were in worse condition than the street segments they were looking at here. Mr. Hayes said there were none that come to mind. He said they went through the list very thoroughly including asphalt streets and he couldn’t envision any worse than the 56 here. Member Mutch said he wanted to ask that but he didn’t have any particular that would come to mind. He said he was familiar with some of the streets and had received complaints from residents about some of them. He knew when Welch Road says that’s an 8 he walked that street and it’s not an 8. He said its in worse condition than that. He said they needed to at least say to residents just for the point of focusing on concrete streets they didn’t leave anything out. Member Mutch said when Center St. was reconstructed it went from concrete to asphalt and asked if any of these street segments be candidates for that kind of conversion if for nothing else but the cost. He said they were not going to have $4 million for neighborhood streets next year. Mr. Hayes said that was one of the issues they would raise during the study phase was to query the neighborhood associations to see if they were even open to going with asphalt paving on their concrete streets. He said his experience had been that most associations are vehemently opposed unless the whole subdivision was done. He said they would ask that question during the study phase. Member Mutch said he wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reaction; however he thought they needed to be up front with residents that the City didn’t have $4 million for neighborhood streets, and might not have it for a couple of years. So, if they’re not at the bottom end it might be two or three years out and if they want to wait for concrete that’s fine but he thought they needed to be aware of the trade off as well.

Member Margolis said because of the change in scale she assumed that it made it difficult for them to look at trend data in terms of where the streets are compared year to year as a whole. She asked if that was correct and Mr. Hayes said it could be done but would require a lot of working with the numbers to see where the trends lie. She said the thing she liked about the standard scale from year to year was at least it would give trend data in terms of are they treading water or were they moving ahead in terms of the overall average shape of the roads in the area. She said maybe she and Mr. Hayes could talk about that in general because she didn’t think it was necessarily worth the work. She asked him to think about how they might be able to get that information, and perhaps they could chat about it offline or get some information in an off week packet.

Member Paul said in the past URS had been a concern to him regarding hidden costs. She asked if there was any problem with this contract having any hidden costs. Mr. Hayes said they weren’t necessarily hidden costs but they seemed to miss some items that were required in the RFP and just didn’t put a fee to those tasks. Since that time he had not seen similar problems in their proposal. In fact this proposal was very much top notch and they addressed every concern that he had.

Deputy Chief Lindberg asked that this item be approved and said Mr. Redstone was present if they needed to speak with him.

Member Gatt said he wanted the public to know that Redstone was very involved in building police headquarters and pistol ranges. He said Waterford Township was one example, the police headquarters in West Bloomfield, Missouri, commercial Comerica Bank in Livonia, Police and Fire Department in Troy, Police Department and City Hall in Saline, Police Department in Milford, City Hall and Police Department in Keego Harbor, etc. He commended Deputy Chief Lindberg and his staff for choosing Redstone, and said he thought it was the right time, right place and the right company.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said the last time they tried to budget additional funds for the gun range it appeared that they didn’t have the balance of the money. He commented that one way they could save cost was to build the gun range next to the existing police station if they weren’t going to have the additional money to build it on the Public Works property. He asked if they would be able to use the same architectural engineering with modifications if they don’t get the additional money and have to build it next to the existing police station.

Deputy Chief Lindberg said it could be but he couldn’t speak specifically on costs. He couldn’t tell him it would be less expensive according to the analysis that Wold Architects did for them to have it built at the existing facility.

Member Mutch said one of the questions he had was the firm rankings that they had put together. He said obviously Redstone and CDPA were head and shoulders above everyone else. He said one thing that jumped out at him was a little bit of a disparity between the people on the team who are in the Police Department and the City staff. The Police Department staff definitely had a preference towards Redstone versus the City staff who had a preference towards CDPA, and the total scores were fairly close. He said the budget numbers were also fairly close so it had gotten down to a question of who was the most qualified to pull this off. He was curious about the disparity and asked Deputy Chief Lindberg to provide some insight on that. Deputy Chief Lindberg said Member Mutch was right in the observations he made. He said CDPA not only built the Police Department in the 1970’s but also did the renovation of the building in 2000, and they live in that building. He said the people that had the higher score for Redstone were in that building and we think there are improvements and things that could have been done differently when the building was constructed and when it was remodeled. He thought that was the reason for the differences in the scores because of the everyday seeing of some of the things there. He said to be fair some of it was construction and some of it was issues that went on during the remodel. He said the building has some issues and issues that he believed were design issues. Deputy Chief Lindberg said he was very comfortable with Mr. Redstone in dealing with him to the point that he was present tonight.

Member Mutch said that was the impression he received from the report but he wanted to be clear that that was what was going on. He said obviously, the people living and working in that building everyday would have a much better handle on those kinds of intangibles and how they impact the process. Member Mutch said as far as the proposal itself Redstone had done work at Waterford Township so he was familiar with their work and the quality of their work, and they were happy with their performance so he didn’t see any problem with the proposal. However, he would not vote for the request because he wanted to be consistent on his position with the expenditure of funds for the gun range. He said the Council had previously allocated $1million dollars towards this so this doesn’t require 5 votes from Council. He said this would come from the $1 million expenditure. Member Mutch said he didn’t have any concerns about their selection he just didn’t want to give mixed messages about this project. He said from his viewpoint he had gotten quite a bit of input from residents and their concerns with how the forfeiture money was being spent. He said it looked like whatever work would be done they had picked the best firm to do that.

Member Paul said she understood why one would be picked over the other since he was living in the building and he could see that there were existing problems. She said she would feel the same because you can’t help have a bias against something that isn’t quite what they were told it would be. She said she liked the savings of $9,523 but understood his viewpoint and supported that portion of his thoughts. She said she would not support the motion because of her interest in paying down the debt and keeping the cost of the Police Department at a lower rate than the annual fees it would be for the gun range. She felt that the money spent annually and keeping the building up could be put toward police officers. She wanted the police to have the best safety, and if more training was needed she thought they should go outside because it would be the better fit. She wished them luck.

Mayor Landry said he would vote in favor of this and thought a gun range was exactly what they needed, and wholeheartedly supported every single aspect of the gun range. He would be more than happy to support this.

Mr. Pearson asked that part of the motion be that this was subject to final attorney review of the contract before it was executed. Also, regarding transferability, he didn’t want to lead people astray. This was specific to the site that had been selected and would be a lot of work. He said this was to get construction drawings to a site.

Mr. Pearson said this was something that staff had been working on but it also represented confluence with one of the strategic goals that Council just adopted. He said that was to be a community that appreciated and encouraged natural areas and natural features. He said the buzz word Green Buildings really encompassed a lot of different building and design techniques that were being used successfully around the country and around the world. It was something that staff looked at to see how it might fit in with Novi. He said Ms. McBeth and Mr. Schmitt would talk Council through this.

Ms. McBeth said they were very gratified to hear at the City Council Goal Setting session that one of Council’s goals was also to look at green buildings and encourage those in Novi because City staff had been looking at those for some time too. She said they had formed a Green Working Committee and introduced it to Planning, Building, Engineering and the Wetland Consultant. She said they got together and came up with a lot of ideas and what they saw today was a result of a lot of talking, research, looking at ideas and these were really recommendations for consideration and discussion. She said they didn’t have to be implemented at this time. They were talking about two rounds of reviews, first round policies seemed more straight forward and second round policies would take a little more time to do.

Mr. Schmitt said this came to a head when he checked on one of the planning blogs and the first article they posted for the year was "Is 2007 the Year of the Green Building. He said staff had started working on this in 2006 and what was in front of Council this evening was the first culmination of their work on this. He said they had broken it down to two rounds and there was a third piece to this that he would touch on briefly. Mr. Schmitt said it was three separate ordinance amendments to the Zoning Ordinance. Ideally they would like to update the whole ordinance not only with LEED in mind but with a variety of other things in mind, and they would hope that would be looked at during the budget process. However, the three specific items, the Façade Ordinance, Lighting Ordinance and the Landscape Ordinance really could tie into this directly. He said those were three things they would be looking at in the bigger picture as they moved forward on this. He said when the architectural consultant comes on board they would begin with the Façade Ordinance. They had already started discussion on the Landscape and Lighting Ordinances internally.

Mr. Schmitt said in terms of the specific Green Building Policies in front of Council it would really put Novi in the forefront of a movement that five years ago would have been fringe, and ten years ago he might not have been able to come up with much to talk about. He said it really was becoming a more viable way of doing business. The common misconceptions was that it cost more, and more and more people are finding out that the green construction was comparable and sometimes cheaper than traditional construction. He noted a lot of it depended on where you were at in the country and how much of the infrastructure was already in place but Michigan was blessed in that regard in that we have one of the highest numbers of buildings in the country. He said Grand Rapids was actually the highest per capita in the country. They have a lot of green building going on out there led by private companies in the Kentwood area and in the suburbs of Grand Rapids. A lot of the corporations there had taken up this cause and had done corporate campuses with LEED certification in mind.

Mr. Schmitt said in terms of the specific policies, the first and easiest the staff came up with was membership in the U.S. Green Building Council, which would give access to the resources and information. He said they had joined that group and were going to start utilization of those pieces of information that was available to them. He said the side benefit was given access to that information planners would have the ability to become LEED certified practitioners, which was something that he and Director McBeth would look into this year, and try to achieve that milestone in their careers. He thought the most important one was the actual adoption of the LEED standards. LEED, Leadership and Energy in Environmental Design, it’s put out by the

U.S. Building Counsel and it was the gold standard. He said there were four levels of certification, certified, silver, gold and platinum. The standards were well accepted in the industry, and there was a fairly detailed check list included in Council packets. He said what they thought a good starting point would be was to adopt those as Novi’s green building standards. It was something that everyone would know about; the LEED standards had been published and dissected by any number of architects, engineers and planners in the field. He noted it was identified by the fact that they understand that this movement was going forward and they wanted to get on with it.

Mr. Schmitt commented they thought a way to implement this was to make it something of an incentive based process because while we can say we want to be green it might not get done. They had come up with several ideas they wanted to present to the Council in term so trying to promote this. First and foremost, there had been a lot of talk

about the time it took to get through the process and so it seemed like an expedited plan review seemed like a good thing to tie in here. He said in terms of qualifying for that proposal that they had come up with this evening was that if seven of the LEED criteria were met and could be identified at the pre-application level they would speed their process through. They would be given priority in reviews and priority at the Planning Commission. He said that would get the process done quicker and time was always money in the development community. Novi was somewhat a level ahead in this regard because some of the ordinances were already required such as storm water and landscaping and things of that nature, they would already qualify under a few of those LEED criteria already. Mr. Schmitt said they were actually progressive without knowing it in this regard. He said the more he looked into the LEED criteria he found they pushed a lot of the site selection information already as part of our due course, which was good for the City.

Mr. Schmitt said the second incentive was a fee rebating process and was something they would like to flush out a little bit more, if they actually get certified, and would put nothing out from the City up front. However, if someone were to build a building and they had identified it through the process as possibly being a green building, and they came back after construction and actually got it certified, he thought there were some benefits in that and the City should tie in there and help make it a more financially feasible to someone. He said even further along the lines and possibly more radical was a tax abatement for this. He noted some communities had started going to that and given the relatively small amount of projects that qualify at the higher levels they thought it might be something to study further in the future. He thought at this point a fee rebate with an amount to be determined was really a good step towards an incentive in the process. He said they would like to talk with the development community about what it would take and was it a realistic number to make this a reality.

Mr. Schmitt said the second resolution policy was a public buildings policy, which was something becoming common with the communities that were trying to lead by example. The State of Michigan was specifically referenced in the resolution because we are in the State of Michigan and anything over $1 million capital was supposed to be LEED certified now. He commented that he already had the Deputy Chief Lindberg’s ear about doing a few things at the gun range and trying to do some test cases. He said the Novi Library was also coming up and possible renovations to the Fire Department. Mr. Schmitt said in the future the City Hall building would probably have to be renovated or rebuilt. So having the policy in place now was really just a foresight of saying in the future we would build more sustainable buildings, and not just tear it down and rebuild somewhere else.

Mr. Schmitt said the third policy was something that staff had thought about since he came to Novi five years ago and was something that would be a benefit to the LEED certified projects, and was maximum lot coverage. He said it was in the ordinance in a few places but most places it references footnote G, which said "maximum lot coverage was determined by setbacks, landscaping, parking requirements and other requirements of the zoning district in which you are constructing." He said it was vague and didn’t help people when they called and asked what their lot coverage was. He commented that given that the LEED checklist then had a lot coverage item in it, it seemed natural to look at it.

Mr. Schmitt said there were a lot of storm water things involved with green construction and that was something our new engineer was beginning to look at, and was something they would like to look at in the future. Regarding the residential development options in terms of making them more likely to actually achieve preservation instead of simply moving natural features around or replacing them, if we could make it worthwhile for someone to preserve something and not necessarily blow the density of the Master Plan out of the water, it seemed like something they should take a look at.

Lastly, once a substantial amount of this was done and they wanted to push it to the front of the mind of the public, he thought they should have a green building expo. He said whether that tied into the natural features expo and became a recurring theme or whether we tied on to the Fall for Novi and did this let’s get the word out there that Novi’s really trying to be progressive in this regard. He said it seemed natural to tie into the existing environmental infrastructure and the things that had been pushed over the years to now start building sustainable buildings. He said they might not be able to preserve all the land but could sure make the buildings more sustainable to preserve more land in the future.

Mr. Schmitt stated he would be happy to answer questions. He noted he had done a lot of research over the last couple months and it was an exciting topic.

Member Margolis thanked the staff for being proactive in this area and she enjoyed seeing people being excited about what they were doing, and moving forward. She noted she didn’t want it to sound like she was against this. However, she thought what happened when looking at things in separate pieces was that they didn’t look at what the impact was across the City and across the organization. She would be looking for was what the short and long range impacts would be on the kinds of things they were trying to do right now. How the process would impact the initiatives they had in terms of streamlining the process for people who wanted to build in Novi. Also, what the developer feedback would be on this. She liked the idea of incentives and thought it was something they could promote about this community but she didn’t want to impact things in a negative way as they were starting to look at economic development. She wanted feedback from the developers, the community and from staff on the impact of this in terms of economic development and the kinds of things they were going to do. She thought they needed to hear that from the business community. She also had the same kinds of questions regarding adopting the standards. She asked how the expedited plan review would affect what happened with the other plans. She said anytime someone’s plans are expedited someone else’s got slower. Member Margolis said one of the things they talked about was expediting plan review for the more attractive developments they wanted in terms of economic development, the OST developments. She asked how that would fit with that. She wanted to know what the affect of the fee rebate would be overall fiscally for the City.

Member Margolis said the public buildings policy sounded great, but when she saw the major impact of that immediately would be the future library that had already gone through their own design. She wanted the feedback from the Library Board. She said if they said great, then that’s where they were going but before moving on that she didn’t want to cut them off at the knees after all the work they had done to make sure that had been incorporated.

Member Margolis stated she thought this was great and she was glad they were moving forward. She said things had come before Council recently that they couldn’t act on because they didn’t take into account the new technologies that were available. She said before she voted on this she would like to have a great deal more information on most of those topics.

Member Gatt said he applauded Mr. Schmitt and his enthusiasm for this project. He said although he was as much an environmentalist as anyone, he was not ready to vote on this package yet as he needed more information. Member Gatt wanted to know what Novi’s major developers would say and how it would impact them. He asked for more information before moving in a different direction than they were at right now. As far as expediting plans that was something he didn’t really care for because that meant we would do it faster but we were going to pick and choose who we would do it faster for. He didn’t see the fairness in that. Member Gatt noted he was sure that someday they would move toward a green city but he was not ready to adopt all these plans yet.

Member Paul thanked Mr. Schmitt for all his work and enthusiasm. She said she had been reading about this also, and one of the things that she wanted to share was that green buildings wouldn’t even increase the building costs 1%. In one years time the heating and the cooling would be so much lower because of the green building and runoff that they would make that money up in one year. Member Paul said there were many, many whole states that were doing green buildings so she thought they were further behind than most other states in this area. Member Paul noted that one of the areas that was probably the most influential to increase awareness of this was when people put in the bio-retention basins/green buildings they are given tax breaks because they were preventing the water runoff. She said last year there were several different dredging projects in the City worth over a million dollars on several of the projects. She said that was being saved because the water was not running down and the speed of the water was not deteriorating all of the stream banks. She commented that those were some of the things that were being discussed. Member Paul said when Mr. Schmitt said time was money and they would be expedited it looked like the whole planning process was being expedited not just for one developer but for everybody because of the comments received from the Sikich Group. She said it seemed like their whole team was functioning for everybody and not just for one individual. She asked if that was what he was seeing.

Mr. Schmitt said the Pride Report had them moving at a much quicker pace than they were previously. He thought the anticipation was that for a project they wanted to push, whether a green building or an OST development, there was always a little more room and a little more horsepower to be gotten out of staff. Member Paul said she was very much in favor of this and said she applauded him for his efforts.

Member Mutch thanked Mr. Schmitt for his presentation and said he had been very interested in seeing them explore some of these policy changes as well as some of these initiatives, and they needed to to compete in the marketplace. He commented that Auburn Hills was one of the major growth centers in southeast Michigan; it’s where companies that don’t locate in Novi locate. He said they had a similar policy in place since last year and it took quite a bit of time and input from their development community to craft a similar resolution. Member Mutch said they were using that as their benchmark. Ann Arbor was another community where they are strongly encouraging the green building process not only in their private sector but in their public sector. He said regarding the discussion on the impact on the library building, the Ann Arbor District Library system had built two libraries using green building principles, and was building a third library using green building principles. He said they not only willingly did that but made a point of doing it because they did the cost benefit analysis and in every regard they would save money in the long run and the impact to the community in the long run.

Member Mutch thought some of the comments made this sound like they were coming forward with some restrictive regime that would strongly impact the development community. He said what was before Council tonight was nothing of the sort. The first item was a resolution that simply said that LEED standards were the standards to be used for the basis for future policies and procedures relating to green and environmentally friendly construction. He said there would be no obligation on the City’s part to adopt any future polices and there would be nothing that would impact the development community at all. It simply said moving forward these would be the standards they would use. He said if they were not going to use the LEED standards then what standards would they follow. He asked if they would come up with their own set of standards and reinvent the wheel. He said he didn’t understand why they would do that so he thought the question with the first resolution was either they would have a set of standards or they would not. Member Mutch said if they weren’t he didn’t see any point in spending a lot of time studying this much further because there was nothing else to put in place. He didn’t see any problem with adopting the first resolution.

Member Mutch said the second resolution regarding LEED certification for public buildings; he thought enough work had been done in the area to justify following the LEED route in terms of the cost benefit financially and environmentally. He said even in their own resolution they gave themselves an out, and said "where fiscally, physically and operationally feasible." He said if it was not one of those, they didn’t have to do it, and it was their own resolution. He said if they decided that LEED was too much work for them to accomplish as a public organization, as a public body, then it wouldn’t be followed. It was not the law it was simply a statement of where they want to go forward in the future.

Member Mutch thought, regarding expedited plan review, that there were several comments that were legitimate concerns. However, he thought the administration was looking for direction from Council about whether that was something that should be pursued or not.

Member Mutch said regarding the fee rebating policy, the City administration was looking for direction. If it’s something that they’re interested in doing they would bring back recommendations. He said this was just a broad policy concept at this point and not specifics that they were adopting.

Finally, the issue of maximum lot coverage provision, that was simply a referral to the Planning Commission so they could sit down with all the parties that they had talked about this evening and say how would this work, how would it impact development and was this doable or not doable. Member Mutch said they couldn’t have that conversation unless they start the process. He said looking at all of these, he didn’t see any reason why they couldn’t adopt the first two resolutions. They would have zero impact on the development community, don’t require any new ordinances and simply made a policy statement about where as a community they wanted to go. He said likewise #5 simply started the process to look at the lot coverage provisions in the ordinances.

Member Mutch said they talked about wanting to be a distinct and competitive community that was going to attract the high quality businesses that would make Novi even better than it was now. As Member Paul noted, Novi was behind the curve when it came to green building policy. He commented that Grand Rapids was one of the economic bright spots in the state. They were generating jobs when southeast Michigan was hemorrhaging jobs. He thought part of that was that they had something to sell not only to the companies that were located in the Grand Rapids area but nationally; they have something that’s distinct. Member Mutch said this was a chance for them to take what they’ve always said they were, an environmentally friendly community, as the woodland, wetland, and storm water ordinances reflect, and just say they had been trying to protect the environment externally, but now wanted to extend that concept to the actual construction and development of sites. Member Mutch said what was before Council was baby steps, and he didn’t see any reason they couldn’t move forward on resolutions 1 and 2 and make a referral to the Planning Commission. If Council wanted to discuss resolutions 3 and 4 some more or if they wanted to ask City staff for more detail on how those would work, he thought those were legitimate questions. However, he didn’t see any reason for them to stop this process now if they weren’t interested in moving forward with LEED standards and LEED certification. He suggested deciding and not wasting a lot of staff time if not interested in doing that but he would like to see the first two resolutions adopted. He said start the ball rolling and work out the details as they move forward.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello stated he had not heard anyone state they were not in favor of moving forward and continuing to study the green building concept. He believed that a lot of the ordinances in place now with the wetlands, woodlands and storm water, already incorporate some of the requirements of LEED. He said to look at something this important over a four day period, and then pass judgment on it tonight was just not enough time. He agreed with previous speakers that he would like to hear from the development community and see what they think of it. He told Mr. Schmitt that he really liked the idea of offering incentives. Mayor Pro Tem Capello felt that under the leadership of Mr. Pearson and Mayor Landry they had made a lot of strides with the business and development communities in the last ten months. He would hate to pass a resolution without giving it the due course of study and thought at the Council level and send a message that the tough standards of Novi in the wetlands, woodlands and storm water was now going to become tougher again by adopting this green building concept. He felt the stigma of adopting more difficult environmental laws could send that message and he wasn’t ready to do that without being able to explain the impact that this would have. He said the best way to explain the impact would be to sit down with the business and development communities, get their input, get them to say it would work, and it would be a great concept to send out there and everybody would be happy. Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he would not turn it down and would not make a motion to approve. and he would not send the staff around to chase their tails, he thought it was a good concept but needed more work and more study.

Member Paul asked for a timeline to return to Council.

Mr. Pearson said as he understood it Council was asking that staff fan out and float this with some of the office developers primarily, and talk with other communities to see what the level of usage was to find out what the impact would be if the incentives discussed were adopted. He said they could give Council a progress report in 60 days. Mayor Pro Tem Capello was agreeable.

Mayor Landry said they were entering a very intense economic development period competition wise. As the City moved toward build out there were only a few years for them to compete to get businesses, make sure the tax base was sufficient when the City was built out. He said that worked two ways. It was a period of time for us to attract businesses but if Novi was going to be a green city there was a period of time that they had to make such a move. Mayor Landry understood that it worked both ways. However, ever since he had been involved in the City he had heard a lot about how difficult Novi was to build in, what a pain it was to try to build something, and he had also heard some very positive comments. He said they had done a lot of things, the Sikich report, and were about to do a lot of things to improve the efficiency of the City and the efficiency in the manner the building projects move through the City. He thought they were making great strides in our reputation in the building community. He thought they were doing a great job.

Mayor Landry said with that background he looked at this and saw comments like "costs of LEEDS certified buildings are often on par with traditional development." He said to him that translates it was often more expensive to build a LEEDS certified building. It’s often on par but it was often more expensive. Mayor Landry said he was intently listening to comments and was hearing that "often costs were made up in the first year".

While that might be true, it meant to him that it would be more expensive to build a building but they might be able to make it up. He was also hearing that "we were behind the curve and not where we should be", and was also hearing there were other communities that had embraced the LEEDS standards. He said he needed more information before he would be comfortable making such a decision. If costs were often made up the building community should know about this. If we are behind the times, then the builders should be familiar with this from other communities and he would like to sound them out and see what they had to say. He would also like to see if the building community would say that cost could be made up in the first year or two. Mayor Landry said that would be important to him to ask the people whose money we are requesting they put down and invest in our community. Mayor Landry said if there were other communities, he would like to know who they were, and would like to get reports from them. If Auburn Hills was a leader he would like to know what their experience was. They should be able to tell Council that they had embraced this and they had not been adversely affected, and had been a wonderful thing and the builders love it. He was not prepared to say no but was not prepared to embrace these goals and objectives at this time because he was not understanding of what the precise affect they were going to have on economic development in the City. Mayor Landry said obviously Council wanted to be environmentally concerned but he didn’t want to rush and place a label on Novi that Novi was a LEED city, he wanted to know what that meant. Mayor Landry said to give the administration direction he thought they needed to sound out the development community. He wanted to hear from particular developers what they thought about this. Second, he wanted a list of other communities who had done this and some comments from them, and he would like some very specific figures on cost. He asked for facts and figures of examples. Is it more expensive and if it was how fast could it be made up, and he wanted to hear developers comment on that. Mayor Landry said once they had all of that information he would be prepared to decide one way or another on this. He would support the motion to postpone for those reasons.

Member Paul said the citizen survey that the City paid for and got input back from there were three repetitive comments, taxes, traffic and roads and trees, in that order. The third one was the one they were specifically discussing tonight, and it was the natural resources that people moved here four years ago when it was more rural and that was what they were looking for. Some of the things in the ordinances now were to preserve our natural features but sometimes in doing that water was rerouted into uplands or wooded areas, therefore, sometimes there was tree die off. She said that was pretty common. She asked how they could improve on that for the current ordinances. One of the goals for Council was to look at the natural features and try to enhance those.

Member Paul said LEED standards were just one way to guide Council, and she would like to have those to discuss at a meeting, and perhaps more of a presentation from the Planning Department as they find out more information. She said minutes from Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Auburn Hills would be three very quick cities and she would like to see those so that everyone could have that information. She had read the Ann Arbor Library’s. She knew that Grand Rapids was way ahead of Novi economically and as Member Mutch said "we need to keep up with our neighbors". She said Novi was in a very global area and there were entire states that mandated this. This was more of a new phenomenon as it was coming north but in the southern areas they mandate that and they mandate parking islands for retention in every five spots. In the south they have those for shading purposes so the asphalt’s not hot so there were more issues they had with the environment because of the heat index. They also have them for the actual purpose of the natural features and how that preserved their environment. She hoped Council could have an open mind and have a good discussion on this because it was what the people of this community actually asked for.

Member Mutch said one of the things he thought Mr. Schmitt did well with the policies was that they were all voluntary, and none of these resolutions were mandates from the City. Mr. Schmitt said that was correct. Member Mutch said what they are saying with the policies was that LEED was the standard that Council would follow, and what they were asking from the development community was they would like him to follow standards but at this point they and with nothing he had seen except the lot coverage they weren’t making any recommendations that LEED standards be imposed on our development community. Mr. Schmitt said he only saw one community in the U.S. that did that. Member Mutch said the approach Mr. Schmitt was to incentivize this process and say expedited plan review, fee reduction, and down the road tax abatements. Member Mutch’s understanding was he was trying to make this cheaper if all we are concerned about was the financial side for the development community we are going to essentially clear the path for them and find a way to make this doable for him in a way that wouldn’t cost any money and not as a mandate from the City. Mr. Schmitt agreed, and thought, and said any community that incentivized that was the approach they had taken that was the only way to do it to have it accepted. Member Mutch said he would not support postponing this because he would be hard pressed to see how they would change these resolutions. He said they could be watered down to the point they didn’t mean anything. He said they were simply statements by the cities from the City’s perspective that LEED was the standard and we were going to follow LEED standards with our public buildings. He said any pursuit of LEED certification by the development community was completely voluntary. If they decide they don’t want to pursue it there was nothing that Council would be mandating that would require them to do it. Member Mutch said our process gave them a head start on the LEED certification. For many developers, it wouldn’t be starting from scratch it would be simply giving some focus to the standards and moving forward from there. He wouldn’t want staff to spend a lot of time gathering information. He thought some information could be brought back that was referenced tonight but he didn’t see a reason to put off the policy statements. It didn’t make sense to him, and he didn’t want something to come back so watered down that it was meaningless. He would not support the motion to postpone.

Mayor Landry said if the motion to postpone passed he wanted to indicate to the administration that what he was interested in finding out what were those communities that we are directly competing with doing. Auburn Hills and Ann Arbor was wonderful but he wanted to know what Wixom, Milford, Farmington, Farmington Hills, Livonia, Plymouth, Plymouth Township, Canton, Northville, Brighton and Southfield were doing. He said when a business was thinking about moving to the western corridor, what communities did they have to choose from. He said if the answer came back that none of them or a minority of them were doing this, then that might mean we need to do it so that we are more competitive. He was interested in knowing what our direct neighbors and those we are competing with for economic development were doing a long this line

.

Member Mutch removed this item because of the concern he had about the comments in the background information regarding this TCO. He said specifically the information that the traffic light on Cherry Hill could have a stop signal up to three minutes. He said if you get a red light at that signal you could sit there up to three minutes waiting for a green light. He said there was e-mails back and forth with the various engineers that because of the nature of where that light was located they didn’t think there was anything they could do about it. Member Mutch said that was unacceptable and there should be no where in this community that you have to sit at a traffic light as the first car in line for three minutes. He said the problems in Meadowbrook Commons were being caused by the traffic light. He reminded Council that when this came forward it was initiated by a member of the homeowners association not with the support of a lot of the homeowners in that area. They didn’t want that light there and now that it was they had to sit for three minutes waiting for a green light and then we wonder why they cut through Meadowbrook Commons. The answer was pretty obvious. He said we need more discussion by the engineers about resolving that.

Member Paul said this was a very long light and many people came forward that didn’t want that light there. She said they had improved the timing on that light once, and the same problem was at Orchard Ridge Estates. She was sure it was time to coordinate to that road but it was very difficult for those people. But she wanted the people in Meadowbrook Commons to be safe.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said this light was governed by the Road Commission.

Mr. Pearson said it was our road but we contract with the Road Commission for maintenance and timing of the lights. Since it was tied directly Meadowbrook and Grand River that was under their jurisdiction.

He said the real problem with the timing of the light was that the street was so close to the Grand River and Meadowbrook intersection which affected the timing of the light at Cherry Hill and Meadowbrook. Mr. Pearson said it’s the proximity and nature of Grand River and Meadowbrook because of the turn movements. Mayor Pro Tem Capello said administration had already contacted the Road Commission to look into this and modify it. Mr. Pearson said yes, and they also made it blink over the weekends and some other things. Mayor Pro Tem Capello said to look at it again more adamantly. Mr. Pearson said he would.

Mayor Landry said this light had generated a lot of controversy. It was controversial when Council passed it and has remained so. He asked if it could be taken down. Mr. Pearson said it could be taken down but when this was put up a lot of it was anticipatory with the build out of Meadowbrook 3 across the street. He cautioned Council because it did serve a purpose of breaking up traffic there. He said that might be an option but suggested they look at less extreme ones in the meantime.

Member Paul said when looking at this she was looking at it’s a library proposal for the financial advisor profession service contract to Bendzinski & Co. in the amount of $20,800.

She asked if this came out of the library’s budget or the General Fund.

Ms. Smith-Roy replied that the fee would not be coming out of either of those funds. The fee for the financial advisor and the bond counsel would only be paid if there was approval for the bonds and they were actually issued. Member Paul said then they would be paid through the bond and approved by the voters. Ms. Smith-Roy said yes, and Member Paul asked if that was the same with Item F and Ms. Smith-Roy said yes.

To approve Bond Counsel Professional Services to Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. in the amount of $34,500 for the general obligation bond issue to complete new Novi Public Library.

Member Paul said she had received phone calls from Village Oaks residents about a basketball court that was approved by the City to be done in a neighbor’s side yard and complete backyard.

Mr. Pearson said he would have the information she requested in an off week packet. She asked if this was a done deal that they could put this basketball court in. He responded that a proposal presented to the City, and there was a permit issued because it met all the requirements. She said it had a lot of residents very upset and she would like to know more. She would look for the information in Thursday’s packet.

There being no further business to come before Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:43 P.M.

____________________________________ ________________________________

David Landry, Mayor Maryanne Cornelius, City Clerk

____________________________________ Date approved: February 12, 2007

Transcribed by Charlene Mc Lean