ROLL CALL: Mayor Landry, Mayor Pro Tem Gatt, Council Members Fischer, Margolis – absent/excused, Mutch, Staudt, Wrobel

ALSO PRESENT: Clay Pearson, City Manager

Tom Schultz, City Attorney

Charles Boulard, Community Development Director

Barb McBeth, Planning Director

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt added the Michigan Association of Planning Award for Best Practice – Non-Motorized Transportation Plan under Presentations

1. Community Development Block Grant funding for Program Year 2012

   Mayor Landry opened the Public Hearing at 7:01 p.m.

   Ernestine McCray, 30400 Telegraph Road, Suite 101, represented HAVEN. HAVEN was an agency that dealt with sexual assault and domestic violence. She said they served 208 clients in the Novi area since last year. They appreciated Novi’s support.

   The Public Hearing closed at 7:03 p.m.

2. Whether to grant a Commercial Rehabilitation Exemption Certificate and Agreement for Property Tax Abatement for proposed hotel and meeting facility for Suburban Collection Showplace located at 46100 Grand River Avenue under the Commercial Rehabilitation District (PA210) Legislation.

Mayor Landry opened the Public Hearing at 7:03 p.m.

Karen Moore, Hotel Investment Services – Staybridge Suites, said they didn’t agree with the tax abatement for the Suburban Collection Showplace. They understood the hotel was going to be downsized to 100 rooms which she felt was too small to bring in additional business. She had communication stating that the Suburban Collection Showplace asked for commissions on hotel room nights utilized in the area, she didn’t think that should be allowed if the tax abatement was granted.

The Public Hearing closed at 7:05 p.m.

1. Keep Michigan Beautiful – Fuerst Park – Robert Ramsey

   Robert Ramsey said they recognized beautification and restoration efforts throughout the State of Michigan under the thought that all those efforts added to the greater pleasure and good living in the State. He said they were very pleased to award the City of Novi one of their highest awards, their Michigan Plaque for Fuerst Park.

   Mayor Landry accepted the award.

2. Michigan Association of Planning Award for Best Practice – Non-Motorized Transportation Plan – Barb McBeth

Barb McBeth said the City of Novi was honored with the award for Planning excellence for Best Practice for the City of Novi Non-Motorized Master Plan. The award was presented last week at the Michigan Association of Planning Conference in Grand Rapids. Novi was the only community honored for its efforts to expand and improve on pathways and trails throughout the community. She said Council Member Mutch and herself were present to accept the award last week.

Mayor Landry recognized Member Mutch and Member Staudt for their efforts while serving on the Non-Motorized Transportation Committee.

Mr. Pearson said he and Mayor Landry represented the City of Novi at an event in conjunction with Oakland County announcing a grant sponsored by ITC Corporation for $200,000 worth of tree plantings within the Rouge Watershed. The City of Novi would receive 380 trees with plantings starting on South Lake Drive. He said the County used some of Novi’s RFP documents and tree planting specifications. He thanked David Beschke for putting Novi ahead of others in this area.

AUDIENCE COMMENT –

Tom Baird, 24549 Edgewood Drive, represented the Briarwood Condominium Association. He thanked the Mayor and Council for listening to their petition for an SAD in regard to the replacement of their roads. The condominiums were detached condominiums within the Briarwood, Roma Ridge and Simmons Orchard Development. He said the development, including 17 of the 68 condominiums in their specific development, was on City owned and maintained streets. He said 75% of the condominium development was an exception. After 23 years their roads were in need of replacement. He said the developer used mostly clay as a fill to make the area suitable for building. Minimal sub base and poor drainage had caused severe damage to the roads during the freeze and thaw cycles in southeast Michigan. He said another factor that may have contributed to the poor drainage was the water detention areas within the development which were redesigned to become water retention areas. He said the City of Novi had accepted a number of streets that were similar to their own; examples were Vista Hills in 2009 and Abbey Hills in 2006. He asked Council to postpone their decision and reconsider other options available. If the City did not want to consider an SAD, he asked them to consider allowing the condominium association to reconstruct the roads at the association’s expense with the City accepting the roads after completion. He said they were an unusual case compared to other private roads. They believed it required further study.

Diana Canup, 47201 Morgan, reminded Council that the residents of Pioneer Meadows subdivision were very much against the density of the rezoning in the Suburban Low-Rise District. She said they understood there would be zoning changes made north of 11 Mile Road and accepted that, but they didn’t feel anything on the south side of 11 Mile should be considered because it was a residential area.

Ben Landry, spoke on behalf of his brothers Max Landry and Jackson Landry. He thanked City Council and the employees of Novi for making the past ten years a wonderful experience for his family. They thought the experience had been very valuable because of the character of the elected officials on Council and their interactions with each other and the public. He said in the 1980’s many of the Supreme Court Justices began to speak out publically against each other with criticisms and insulted each other. He said one Justice; the late Thomas J. Cavanaugh remarked to one of his clerks that they did not throw stones at their colleagues. He said local politics could be hotly contested, very contentious and emotional. He said over the past ten years Council had exemplified Justice Cavanaugh’s sentiment. He thanked Council and their dad.

William Bowman, Sr., 36350 Grand River Avenue, Suite C, explained that the proposed Suburban Low-Rise Zoning District had resulted from a long study period by the Planning staff over the past two years. After that study and evaluation the Master Plan and Zoning Committee made a recommendation to the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission then began the process of Master Planning the properties as Suburban Low-Rise. He said because the application was made by the City of Novi, not an individual, they didn’t follow normal processes of attempting to get together with the residential community in close proximity. He requested that the second reading be approved for the rezoning of the identified properties.

Member Mutch removed items B and F.

A. Approve Minutes of:

1. October 17, 2011 – Regular meeting

C. Approval of a Completion Agreement for SP02-30 Tuscany Reserve Residential Unit Development (RUD) Phase I, in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 26.5.

D. Approval of a Completion Agreement for SP02-30 Tuscany Reserve Residential Unit Development (RUD) Phase II, in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 26.5.

E. Approval to award an engineering services contract for design engineering services to update the design standards, specifications and standard details for water main and sanitary sewer and storm sewer to Orchard, Hiltz & McCliment, Inc. (OHM), in the amount of $35,500.

G. Approval of 2011-2012 Winter Maintenance Agreement between the City of Novi and the Road Commission for Oakland County for snow and ice control on designated County-owned roads in Novi, and adoption of authorizing resolution for providing winter maintenance on County roads.

H. Approval of Claims and Accounts – Warrant No. 854

1. Approval of Resolution Approving Application of HEYOTS, LLC, for Commercial Rehabilitation Exemption Certificate for 46100 Grand River Avenue, proposed hotel and meeting facility for Suburban Collection Showplace.

Mr. Pearson said Council had been provided voluminous materials. He believed the application was complete in terms of meeting the policy questions. He said this was the second step of a two-step process; the district was formed last week.

Mr. Bowman said they were prepared to answer any additional questions.

Member Fischer said he didn’t support the creation of the district last week and would not support the application. He clarified it wasn’t that he didn’t think a hotel connected to the Suburban Collection Showplace was a good thing. He said if it was a site-plan approval or rezoning request he would likely support it. He believed that they had to look at the abatement differently. From everything he researched and read he didn’t believe it brought any exceptional services or amenities compared to other offerings in Novi. Because of that he didn’t feel it met the intentions of the policy approved by Council. He didn’t believe that being attached to the convention center made the hotel unique. He said he didn’t believe that because the Legislature carved out this Legislation it created a unique situation. He fully supported the hotel and hoped it did everything the petitioner said it would do. But he thought it would be detrimental to the current businesses located in Novi and he couldn’t support a subsidy to do so.

Member Wrobel said it was speculated that a hotel of this proposed size wouldn’t bring the shows into the City because the meeting planners would say it was too small. He asked why the sizing was chosen.

Mr. Bowman said the meeting planners communicated that they would use the facility if it had an attached hotel, it wouldn’t meet all the room needs and that was the point they were trying to make. He said it would provide the ability to headquarter. He said they would try to combine, cooperate and partner with area hotels to attract large scale events. He said certain room blocks and room rates would be committed; it was usually orchestrated through the CVB (Convention Visitors Bureau) to attract business.

Member Wrobel asked if their contract with Hyatt was through the tax abatement period.

Mr. Bowman said per Hyatt’s required standards it would be structured at a much longer range. He said the next step was to finalize their negotiations with the Hyatt, once that was in place the financing arrangements would be the final step. He said their structure required twenty years; he was hoping to have an agreement of ten years with a ten year extension.

Member Wrobel said his issue wasn’t about a hotel; it was about the viability of the Showplace. If they needed a hotel to make it viable and continue to prosper he didn’t see a reason not to give them the abatement. He said the City wasn’t currently collecting revenue from the area. After the six year tax abatement period expired the City would be collecting revenue. He said he was willing to forego the short term gain for long term gain. He said if he was going to an event at the Suburban Collection Showplace he would look to stay there, but if he were dealing with the hospital he would want to stay at the hotel next to the hospital or if he were shopping he would look toward the Twelve Oaks hotel areas. He didn’t believe from a practical standpoint that this additional hotel would drain the current room nights from existing hotels. He said if they were successful they would produce additional room nights.

Member Mutch said he wouldn’t be supporting the application for the tax abatement request. He compared this request to the tax abatement granted to Tognum earlier in the year. The City granted an eight year 50% abatement with the promise of 221 full time jobs from Tognum with the potential to increase to 276 full time jobs ranging in salary from $40,000 to $100,000 per employee. He said by comparison the hotel included 24 full time positions with a salary range from $40,000 to $90,000 and the total tax abatement for the City would be $627,500. Of the two, the Tognum proposal had a much greater benefit from an employment perspective which was guaranteed within the abatement contract. He said he didn’t doubt that if the hotel was built and Mr. Bowman attracted the shows he’d stated that he would be successful which would benefit the City of Novi. He said he couldn’t imagine the area hotels coming to Council not supporting the hotel if the Showplace had the effect on the community that was explained. Hotels in the community didn’t fear competition. He said their role was to provide a fair and level playing field. He didn’t feel comfortable getting into the financing of a particular business. He said once a business came to the City, it impacted Novi and he felt every business had to contribute a fair share of their taxes. He wished Mr. Bowman good luck and success but didn’t think it was their role to grant an abatement in this situation.

Mr. Pearson said in addition to the certificate there was an agreement that was binding. It represented the terms.

Mayor Landry said the City of Novi didn’t have the reputation of giving a tax abatement often; by their nature they involved making choices. He said he jokingly compared tax abatements to a three iron, to have a complete set of clubs in your bag you needed one but you didn’t use it often. He said that was how he felt about tax abatements; you didn’t use them very often. He thought it was in the best interest of Novi to grant the tax abatement. He said the Suburban Collection Showplace, other than Twelve Oaks Mall, no single business brought in 1.5 million people to the City of Novi. He said the economic impact was in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He said an expo center with a hotel would draw more conventions than an expo center without a hotel. He respected others opinions.

Mr. Pearson said this had been worked on for a long time. It was a transitional area between commercial and residential developments. He said it went through a number of Public Hearings and Planning Commission made a positive recommendation. He said Council had three general areas that they had questions on. One related to the infrastructure, to make sure what was proposed could be handled by staff which he believed could. Second was the density of the residential developments. He said they looked at other examples such as Carlton Forest and Central Park Estates, they believed there was an option to look at 6.5 units per net acre. The third category was boundaries of the area. He said this had positive recommendations from staff and was important for this transitional area.

Member Mutch said he was overall satisfied with the Suburban Low-Rise Overlay District as it was presented. The changes that Mr. Pearson outlined in terms of reducing the density and restricting it to net acreage so wetlands weren’t included brought it closer to what he was looking for. He said the one area of concern that he expressed was dealing with the Bosco property south of 11 Mile Road.

Member Mutch said he wanted to address excluding the Bosco property. He said it wouldn’t be rezoned at this time but did not preclude the Bosco family from initiating rezoning to this district or another district in the future. At that time City Council could consider the property. He realized they couldn’t predict what would happen with the school district property surrounding the Bosco property. He thought it needed to be addressed by itself because it was separated by the rest of the Suburban Low-Rise District.

Member Wrobel supported the motion and agreed with Member Mutch. He said everything north of 11 Mile Road served as a good transitional area. He said the property south of 11 Mile Road didn’t fit with the rest of the overlay. He said 11 Mile Road and Beck Road were natural barriers and this would push the barrier south.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt addressed the 300 feet rule. He would like to see the City forego the letter of the law going forward. He said there was a subdivision of people that weren’t notified. He hoped going forward that the people in Pioneer Meadows would be properly notified.

Mayor Landry said he would support the motion. He said he didn’t see the Bosco property being developed as residential property in the future. He saw a low intensity office type use.

6. Approval of a Commercial Rehabilitation Tax Abatement Policy under Public Act 210 of 2005, as recently amended, following recommendation by the Ordinance Review Committee for the property located at 43700 Expo Center Drive (former Novi Expo Center).

Mr. Pearson said the next two items were additional economic development tools that the Ordinance Review Committee had reviewed with staff. He said Public Act 210 opened the door for a lot of possibilities. They looked to narrow it down to specific areas that were good candidates. The next two items adopted policies that set up criteria to look for in future applications for these specific areas if the property owners chose to apply.

Mayor Landry said having been on the Ordinance Review Committee, they were asked to look at the entire City. They decided they didn’t want to open up the entire City to tax abatements for commercial reasons. There were two areas of the City that they felt this could be used as a tool to spur some development. This is to adopt the policy to allow someone to come forward and apply for a tax abatement in these two districts.

Member Fischer said the two areas were areas that should be considered. He said the one thing he noticed from other municipalities was they had programs in place to allow for some type of redevelopment or façade improvements to encourage businesses to redevelop their properties. He always thought of the area near Ten Mile and Meadowbrook Road and he wished the City of Novi had some of those tools in place.

Member Mutch said a key component that came up in their discussion was that the Ten Mile and Meadowbrook area had a variety of uses. He said they felt there should be a planning study of that area that looked at the existing land uses and potential land uses of that area before any requests for improvements were made. He said they were looking for how the area could be redeveloped, what infrastructure improvement might have to be made by the City to help unify the area into a more cohesive section of town that would be of greater benefit to the surrounding residential areas and businesses. He said nothing would happen until an area study was done to provide direction for the intersection.

Member Wrobel said he lived near that intersection. Looking at it from a practical stand point, Novi was only as strong as its weakest area. This was one of its weakest areas because it was one of the oldest areas.

Mr. Pearson said this was an application for additional signage. Staff was able to support and recommend approval for the reduction of some of the signage and certain directional signage. The request also included further increasing one of the main signs which they could not recommend.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt said in the motion sheet it stated that the applicant was erroneously sent to the Zoning Board of Appeals. He asked what happened.

Mr. Pearson said the typical process would have been for them to go to the ZBA for such a consideration. Staff didn’t catch that it was part of this PRO and the applicant was sent to ZBA instead of Council. They followed the normal process.

Mr. Schultz asked if the applicant was presented the opportunity to comment.

Jeff Heyn said Kevin Banham, USA 2 GO gas station owner, was also present because of the gas station signage. He said he was a partner at the project developers. He said this had been an ongoing process and he was there regarding the monument sign. He said his partners indicated that during the original PRO approval process in March 2010, there would be a contemplated revisiting of the total project signage as the project evolved. Earlier this year they collaborated with the USA 2 Go owners to design a consolidated sign at the entrance of the gas station, which was also the City Gate Drive entrance. He said it was contemplated that it was a ring road that serviced the 24 acre and six parcel development that would reverse from Beck Road through to Grand River. He said the intent was to avoid needing two monument signs at the Beck Road entrance. He said the City of Novi officials suggested they appear before the ZBA for their approval. They appeared before the ZBA on June 14^th and they were granted approval of a reduced version of their proposed sign. It was reduced to 60 square feet and lowered from 12 feet to 10 feet high. He said they then applied for building, engineering and sign permits and received the permits on July 28^th. He said they also received engineering and sign foundation permits for the sign in August. He said the consensus he received from the ZBA was that it was better to have one larger combined sign than two disconnected signs at the Beck Road entrance. He said this sign would serve the users of the total larger development. He said this was a unique freeway access multi-zone corner site for three high traffic major thoroughfares. He said it was very important to have clear directional signage for drivers’ safety at this development. Also, identifying the interior businesses within the project was important. The signage would also help drivers find their way from the Beck Road interchange. He said the overall intent of the plan was to reduce the number of curb cuts and accesses that would be necessary with standard parcel next to parcel frontages. He said signage would be very important to businesses in this area.

Mayor Pro Tem Gatt asked if the ZBA approved a larger sign than they were approving tonight.

Mr. Pearson said they did but it wasn’t in their purview to do that. They did not see the entire PRO package.

Member Mutch said the sign package that was approved including the changes they talked about tonight would include one wall sign on the west side of the gas station, a second wall sign on the west side of the building for Tim Hortons, a wall sign on the north side, two canopy signs at 16 square feet all on this single building identifying the Tim Hortons and gas station.

Mr. Pearson said he believed so. He said they had to look at the topography of the area.

Charles Boulard said in the motion sheet there was a table that showed what the ordinance allowed, what was approved in the original PRO and the current proposal. The only signs proposed that were not in the original PRO were the directional signs.

Member Mutch said looking at the overall package he thought there was sufficient signage on the buildings for the Tim Hortons and the USA 2 GO. He said as far as the monument sign, what was approved in the PRO was already greater than the ordinance allowed; this would take it even further beyond that. He said he understood the concern for signage for future tenants on interior parcels but he thought what was originally proposed was reasonable. If additional square footage for other tenants was necessary they would have to give up a little on the gas station signage.

Eric Eggan, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, said he was there on behalf of Adams Outdoor advertising.

Shannon Bellers said their request was regarding one of the four existing billboards adjacent to I-96 that Adams Outdoor Advertising owned and operated. She said it had been materially damaged by the Michigan Department of Transportation construction project of an overpass on I-96 rendering one of the faces almost completely obstructed. They were requesting the ability to increase the height of the existing sign to mitigate the obstruction and restore visibility to their advertising face.

Mayor Landry asked how the sign had been physically damaged.

Ms. Bellers said it was materially damaged by not being able to see the advertising face.

Mayor Landry asked if there was anything structurally damaged on the sign.

Ms. Bellers said not on the sign structure itself.

Member Mutch said looking at the current ordinance for billboard signs and putting that in the context of this request, the current billboard sign was nonconforming, it didn’t meet the current ordinance standards. He said the first principle of Zoning Law was that you didn’t increase a nonconforming use. For Council to grant the request to increase the height of the billboard would in effect increase the nonconforming use beyond its current status.

1. Thank you – Mayor Landry