Testing, testing testing. Can you hear us on the Zoom side? Can you hear us in the committee? Of the whole
testing testing? Can you hear us in the Committee of the Whole Can you hear us on Zoom?
We can hear you Director town Town.
Thank you.
Can we get a quick Mic check? Chris timrie if you want to view could orchestrate that. I'll listen to
Mike check. Good evening, Director.
Good evening, sir. How are you commissioner in good, how are you? Getting better? Good, good. Thank you.
All right. Let me know when you're ready for me to call in recess the meeting.
We're just about there. So if Mr. Royster is ready to at least record this part, I think we can go ahead and do it. Now. If he's ready. We'll still wait to get a full quorum, but we do need to call the meeting and call the 515. public hearing.
We do have a quorum in attendance at the moment that does not see it. Ah,
okay. I see we have more commissioners than anticipated. Great. Good to see you all. Okay.
Did you want to continue doing a mic check for everybody that's here.
If we Yes, if we could do that quickly, and then we could go ahead and start the meeting. If if everyone else is ready, Miss Murphy, are you ready?
Yes, I'm ready. All
right. Well, if we have a quorum, let's go ahead. Again. Miss Wade, if you want to do the Mic check, and then we can go ahead and go on into almost out of the meeting.
Yes, commissioners, Commissioner Harrison Can you do a Mic check? My check Sparsa
Good evening.
My check my check
YouTube Commissioner Louis's since you're standing right there.
Mic check Mic check.
Mic check Commissioner. Lewis Mic check.
Mic check Mic check.
Did you hear all of those director tad?
Yes, thank you. No echo.
All right. I'm ready when you are. I'm just going to call in recessing.
All right, do we need to be report recording Director Todd
Thank you, sir. And let's get Facebook up and running. recording in progress.
All right, Mr. Chair, commissioners the meeting is recording and we are live on Facebook. Ready to
Okay. All right. Good evening everyone. It is 518 January 18. And we are going to call to order the planning commission meeting this evening. I also want to call for the FY 15 public hearing. And then I will also recess the meeting to the call of the chair while we wait on a proper quorum.
Mr. Mr. Chair? Yes I actually need to go ahead and do the roll call in order to
vote this turn in order to start the meeting. Right. Okay, Director talk. Can
we have a roll call?
Certainly, sir. Commissioner Daniel. Commissioner Esparza present. Commissioner Harrison present. Commissioner hood is excused Commissioner Lewis Commissioner Markowitz present Commissioner Russell Commissioner Smith,
present.
Commissioner you Dobby is excused. At this point in time, Mr. Chair, commissioners you do not have a quorum present.
All right. Thank you, Director Todd. With that. Do we go ahead and call the FY 15.
Right call call and then recess to the call of the chair. Okay.
So I want to call the FY 13 public hearing the request of Parkstone development partners on behalf of cork stamp cork town historic developments LLC to show a PD Plan Development zoning district where an AR two two family residential zoning district is currently shown on four parcels commonly known as 209920872081 and 2075 or mark street and I will call this meeting to order the public hearing and then recess the public hearing until the call of the chair and then we have to also recess the meeting to the college air Correct? Yes sir. Okay, and then we will also recess the meeting until the call of the chair until a warrant is achieved.
Thank you, sir. Thank you commissioners.
Thank you
All right directors that do have a quorum.
Sorry about that Mr. Chair, technical issues on my end. All right.
Ready when you are
all right. Good evening. It is 524 and we will resume our planning commission meeting this evening. Director talk can we have a roll call please?
Certainly, Mr. Chair, Commissioner Daniels present Commissioner Esparza present. Commissioner Harrison present. Commissioner hood is excused. Commissioner Lewis
present.
Commissioner Markowitz present Commissioner Russell Commissioner Smith,
president
and Commissioner you Dobby is excused. Mr. Chair, commissioners, you have a quorum present.
Thank you, Director Todd. Moving forward. We have the agenda and any amendments to the agenda. Yes yes,
certainly. Sorry, Mr. Chair. As noted on the agenda as originally circulated, the unfinished business item was tentative. In fact it is not ready for return before you this evening. So we're asking that the unfinished business item be removed from the agenda.
Thank you. I'm open for a motion to remove the unfinished item A from the agenda promotes support. Thank you all in support of removing the unfinished item indicate so with the sign of Aye Aye All in opposition sign of day. Thank you. The item A has been removed from the unfinished business Director Todd, do we have any more amendments to the
agenda? Mr. Chair, commissioners, there
are none. All right, with no further amendments to the agenda. I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda as amended. So moved. Thank you Vice Chair. Support. Thank you, Commissioner Harrison. All in support of approving the agenda as amended indicate so with the sign of Aye. Aye. Aye All in opposition indicate they sign me all right. The agenda as amended is approved. Next we have the meeting minutes for November 17 2022. Is that correct? 22. Should I be 23?
One more time is chair my apologies should
the meeting minutes be November 17 22 or 23?
They are 2420 22.
Okay, correct. All right. Just making sure we got the right one. This
was one in the backlog that again, green and Miss Shockley discovered.
All right. All right. Looking for a motion to approve the November 17 2022 minutes.
Support. Thank
you all in support of approving the November 17 2022 minutes indicates over the sign of Aye Aye. All in opposition side of neck. All right the Nov 1720 22 minutes have been approved. Now it is 527 and we are resuming the FY 15 public hearing. Again, this is the request of Parkstone development partners on behalf of Corktown historic development LLC to show a PD planned development zoning district where an R two two family residential zoning district is currently shown on four parcels commonly known as 209920872081 and 2075 Arch Street. And I see Miss Murphy Welcome. Good evening.
Good evening.
Will you be assisting us with this public hearing? Yes, I will. All right.
I'm Jamie Murphy of yourself and I will let the development team or do some selves and then we have a short presentation.
Okay. Director Todd did you want to interject very quickly
my apologies to miss Murphy and to the development team to the Commission just wanted to note that Commissioner you Dobby is joining us virtually. She is on and if she so desires she can start her video and she can participate virtually in the discussion but again, due to provisions of the Home Rule city I'm sorry, of the Open Meetings Act of Michigan. She cannot count toward a quorum nor will she be able to vote.
Thank you Dr. Todd and welcome Commissioner you Dobby alright, and when you're ready, Miss Murphy and the development team whenever you're ready, you can proceed.
Good evening commissioners. My name is Tanya Stapleton and with Parkstone development partners, we are land use and zoning consultants representing Corktown historic developments. Our architect Nicole written hours here. She will be walking you all through this proposal and I believe one of the representatives from the development team is also here but maybe he has not been promoted to panelist yet. His name is Drake Philippus if you see him in the waiting room, we would love for him to join us as a panelist if that's possible.
You should be joining momentarily. Thank you
Hello, Drake. Can you hear me? Hello Drake. Philip is here. I'm one of the developers on this project and glad to be joined by everyone.
Thank you. Welcome. Thank you
right I'm sorry, I'm Nicole right now. So I'm with push design, the architect on the project.
So as we already talked about tonight is a proposed map amendment in front of you. It's four parcels going from an AR to two family residential to a PD Plan development so that a multifamily residential building can be built. We'll get into the details of that later. First, I'll go over the existing conditions and the location. So it's located in Council District Six approximately where that's coming in a bit closer. It's right in western cork town just south of Michigan Avenue. Then you can see the site here in the red. It's right between Rosa Parks and 14th Street not far from the train station just a couple blocks and then finally in this area, you can see the site finally the as three historic house on the site, there's no proposed changes to those. The proposal is to build a new building in the back along the alley, it would be five townhouse units, and then three stacked apartment units at the corner. And then in the slide you can see the context of the area. So you can see that to the north. There's a pretty dense residential area. To the south. There's some residential but then there's also a park just on the other side of the southern neighbor across Vermont to the east is a big empty vacant block. It's owned by the Ford Motor Company. And then you can also see there's some more vacant land on the other side of what Bosch This is the existing zoning map of the area. You can see the subject property here has hatched as currently zoned R two is kind of in a little pocket of our two here. You can see the area's like a real matter of zoning districts you have the before general business along Michigan Avenue. That big vacant block across the street is owned and the three which is general industrial. There's a block just south of that zone B six which is general service and then the train station that's currently zoned M four and then there's also some M three just next to that. And then moving on to the master plan, future General Land Use designation map. You can see that the subject property is here in the gray and it's in this little pocket of kind of a yellow color which like needed as low to medium density residential. And then it's surrounded salmon color which is mixed residential commercial. And then the area also has a little bit of recreation over Roosevelt Park. And then there's also this light blue industrial kind of at the edges so it's kind of a mixed area as far as a master plan also. And planning a development has looked at this rezoning and determined it is generally consistent with the Master Plan. It wouldn't change the character of the neighborhood. So just to look at the existing conditions on the ground so these are obviously not super recent because there's no snow on the ground but as of last summer, these are the three houses that are currently on the site. So there's two single family houses to the left, and then a five unit building the large house on the right this is facing Vermont street and you can kind of see the neighbor in the background. Then here is a view of the rear of the site so this would be the site of the new building so it would be kind of right here in like the backyards of the house. So the asphalt you see at the bottom is dullsville Street which is in the north of the site and then the concrete to the right is the alley. Then you can see the back of the historic houses that are there and then this is the neighbor's house in the background. And here's just a slightly different shot of the same same site so use hell here Hillsdale Street in the bottom of the slide the alley to the right, and then the neighboring properties across the alley, and the building site in the middle and then you can kind of just do the historic house in the background. So there'd be a space between the Proposed Building and the existing buildings for kind of like a little courtyard area that says that they can't block across Vermont Street to the east. You can see it's just fenced off right now with some masking on the site. Here is the adjacent apartment building across delzell Street to the north. So you can see there is kind of a precedent for small apartment buildings in the area. Also the street parking to the adjacent property across the alley to the west. So the subject site is just off the screen to the left. There's like a little house here and auto use here. You can kind of see that the whole front is a curb cut so it kind of eliminates any parking right there. Then finally this is a shot looking down from Mount St. So the subject property to the right here with the wooden fence and then you can see the park kind of down here and then the vacant lot to the left. And then this is turning and looking down on Delos L Street. So again, the subject property is here to the left. Can see that house across the alley with a train station in the background. In the cross the street to the right is that small apartment building and then the other houses and then this was an interesting Sanborn map that was submitted by the architect for like a precedent. There has been a building there in the past. You can kind of see. So this was dos L Street and Vermont. Up and down. You can see the three historic houses that were existing. So those are from 19 da Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself. 1938 This is the the buildings that are existing back then. So you can see that that the three existing houses here, the fourth parcel that's currently vacant used to have a house on it. And then you can see the neighbor's houses here. There used to be a house in the backyard of that house that's since been demolished. And then this is the park still vacant land. But that block across Vermont that is currently all vacant land, had houses all down the side east side of Vermont and no big industrial building. And then you can see that other houses to the north and up and down with Bosch with that I will pass it over to the architect to explain the plans that are proposed for the site.
Sure, actually, Jamie, would you mind flipping back just one slide. I just wanted to make mention that this is actually so these sandboard maps were created. This version was created in 19. I think 38 But this is actually an overlay from 1951. So actually a 1938 you can sort of see through here what they did is they just taped other pieces of paper over so for example above where it says 2099 Vermont, you can see sort of there there were actually 12345 houses on one parcel. So this is something that's really common in this portion of Corktown that you would have one parcel with five house with five you know, I'm saying houses but I don't know how many units there were. So it's actually interesting. This is sort of a 1951 version after some things had started to be demolished. But actually in 1938. It was incredibly dense, even more dense than this. So I've always just found that super interesting. So I'm just explaining the project a little bit. So what we have these developers bought this property and proceeded to do the renovation of these three historic homes. Those renovations are complete and units are occupied. What we're proposing to do is build a multifamily building in the rear of the properties the properties would be combined right now they're they're separate and so what we would do, we're looking at five true townhouse units. So those are units where people are parking under, they have two floors of living space and then a private roof deck. Then in the front of the building, it's a math thing that sort of matches the the building that was there that had four units. So we're proposing three one bedroom apartments in that area. The entrance would be off of del Zell and we have appropriate parking for this. The we decided not to develop the lowest parcel to leave that as sort of community space. I we've had some feedback with some of the neighbors about what they would like to see there and have made a couple adjustments to this. I I think that you know, there was a little worry about the firepit. So, you know, it's sort of an ongoing discussion about what we would like to have there. I think we can probably go to the next slide. This is just an overall look at the floorplan so again, from the right, you know, there's garages with a one bedroom unit, you know, that would be accessible without going upstairs. Then the second floor plan has living spaces and our one bedroom unit, then third floor has the two bedrooms of the townhouse style units and then a third unit and then as you see everyone would have roof decks access
these are some elevations so the house that's on the corner of Vermont and Dalzell is very large house and so we are actually below with this new addition with this new house. We're actually below the peak height of that house. And then you'll see that facing the alley there that there are the garage entries and then sort of the massing on the left side facing docile street which sort of matches the massing of the building that was there previously. So here's a shot from that corner of our mountain Dalzell. You can see the three historic houses when I did this drawing, they were still under renovation. They're completely finished now they're really beautiful. In the corner there you can also see the train station and so there's quite a bit of density in this area. This is another sort of shot that we wanted to use to show sort of the immediate surroundings. You can see our proposed townhouses, the three historic houses and then directly adjacent there is a three story apartment building that's very similar in massing and then you know, and then directly across the dullsville as well. There's a multifamily building there. So this shows actually the building that unfortunately we believe I think it was June of 2015 it was demolished it had had a fire. But here this is from sort of a Google Streetview from June of 2013. Showing the four units you know a similar sort of blocky massing directly on the alley and facing dots L Street which is what the front of our building also mimics
that was the last slide of the of the plans. Did you want to also go over the community engagement at all?
Yes, I think Tonya is going to do that. Hey,
thank you Miss Murphy. We actually started community engagement three years ago on this project and initially began because that corner building there needed a special land use hearing for multifamily. So that was in an August 25 2020 When we first started speaking with the neighbors in May of 2021. We started canvassing door to door spoke with about 35 residents during that spring and left flyers throughout the neighborhood. Moving forward June 3 2021. We had our first community meeting. This project kind of got a slow start because of course it was COVID and our very first meeting I think Miss Murphy you were there. We stood out on the on the corner and talked about the project but I think that residents were still a little hesitant to come to meetings at that time and in person meetings. We had about eight people engaged there. June 9 of 2021 We had an hdc meeting. There were some key engagement around that and but more importantly, concerns were raised about the design at that time. And so we worked through those issues with the concerned residents and went through you know the city design review and ultimately got hdc approval in 2022. There was not a ton of action around community engagement. We did have a sandwich board on site for the entire year. With information about the project. The developers were just in the throes of finishing the restoration of those three historic homes, getting those leased up and there are a few setbacks related to that. And so the project was kind of on hold for for some time. In September. Wait I'm sorry, May of 20/23 the train station neighbors Sheila cockerel is the president of that group and she hosted a zoom call or invited people to a zoom call and may 22. We had that Zoom meeting. In September we canvass the neighborhood again because so much so much time had passed and the apartment building directly across has across the street has tenants that we were concerned some of those tenants may have turned over and they had not heard about our project. So we did have I think we adjourned this, this hearing the end of last year because some additional concerns were raised. letters came to the City Planning Commission that were shared with us and we wanted a chance to be able to reach out to those folks and have our development team meet with them one on one, because those individuals had not been attending any of our scheduled meetings. So we sort of changed the strategy a little bit. The developers did focus on at that time meeting with the tenants who are now living those historic homes because I thought it was they were going to be most closely impacted by construction in in right behind them. And so they really didn't express any concerns either way. We'll let Drake speak to that if he if he wants to. And then again reaching out to more immediate neighbors. The developers have agreed to remove that fire pit there was some concerns with our neighbor who we understand has some asthma allergies and did not want a fire pit and outside and so they're gonna just sort of leave that unprogrammed vacant, undeveloped land, potentially if the residents want to do a community garden or something in the future that that would be entirely tenant driven. But at this time, there's no there's no plans to develop that land and it does act as kind of a buffer to the adjacent neighbor. So I think that about covers the last three years that we nutshell, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you.
I did have one final slides since this has been kind of a long drawn out rezoning just to go over where we've been so we did have a public hearing scheduled last June and we did a little bit of a presentation. But that ended up getting delayed to allow for more community engagement. And then tonight we noticed for this public hearing the mailed notices went out but the legal news notice didn't get published. So this hearing needs to be continued to February 1, where we've done the proper notice and we can finish it up that and with that we're all set with our presentation
Thank you Miss Murphy. Thank you everybody. Great presentation and I did go and look at those listing homes that you go and look at like 2009 2010 11 and 12. They were in pretty beat up shape. So I'm very impressed with how those buildings look today. They're extremely beautiful. So I will I don't have any questions. So I'll see if any of my fellow Commissioners have any questions. A lot of mine were answered in your presentation. Yes, Commissioner Harrison
um, thank you Mr. Chair, appreciate it and also appreciate the presentation. I have a question for Miss Stapleton related to the Community Development. I'm sorry, sir, excuse me. Community engagement in the day on the coffee committee engagement that was done. You said that there that there had been a public meeting Can you can you just repeat some of what you said about the community engagement? There were some pieces that I didn't give it.
So to our public meetings, or were not well attended, and we thought moving them to zoom we'd get better participation. I think what we discovered in Corktown is a lot of zoom fatigue. At that time, the duration and there's all these development projects going on and community event benefits meetings. And you know, we're very fond of that our architect also lives in the neighborhood and so she keeps us up to speed on that. And they had literally zoom meetings like sometimes more than one a night every night of the week. And so that's towards the end of the process. We just regrouped and instructed our development team to start doing one on one meetings, one on one calls, talking to the to their tenants and talking to their immediate neighbors. And that was just much more valuable to make sure that we were able to understand everybody's concerns. There. There is one immediate neighborhood that we weren't neighbor that they were not able to get on the same page with. They may be here to testify this evening. That would be directly across the alley from from the proposed site but I think in general, everybody has had an opportunity to comment on this. And as I mentioned, just in case they for whatever reason didn't get a flyer didn't didn't know about any of the in person meetings or the zoom meetings. We did have a sandwich board sign on site. For 12 months, letting them know how if there's any questions Who to contact so and I think Nikki was that your phone number on there? I don't remember exactly what was what was on it.
I think it had all of our contact information on there, the developer, your contact information and mine and yeah, I personally live about I just one block away from this project. Then I know that members of the development team also used to live in the area at the beginning of the project. So it is sort of a Corktown based group and you know we do have a block club here and a lot of our information has also been circulated through the book club. So we just really tried in every possible way to reach everyone. But, man, I mean, the Zoom fatigue was real. There was a lot going on in the neighborhood. And so it was at times it was just a little challenging, but we really feel like we made a really great effort in many different ways to reach people.
Thank you. I appreciate that. And just a follow up follow up question. You mentioned that there in terms of in terms of opposition or challenges that had been brought up there was one resident who, who raised a concern or can you can you talk a little bit about that concern, just in case, you know, the resident doesn't, you know, happens not to join is there something that you can share with us what the concern was
a letter from him also.
Yeah, it's not there was a letter. I would say it's not a resident. It's a property owner. There's a difference there in this in this case. So I don't feel comfortable speaking for a property owner in the communities so as Mr. Murphy said, there is a letter that they've
We would really, you know, love to and get get on the same page as them but I think that they're going to probably be opposed to this project. Just in general, like we didn't have any specific feedbacks that we could respond to through our design or anything like that. Do we have we have a copy of that letter, Miss Murphy, shut about Mercury report and we can also read it into the record but it looks like the person is on the meeting. So see first maybe if he wants to talk, okay. Do you mind if I just point out because we talked about the tenants that drag Phillip is here. I'm one of the developers I'm also the landlord and property manager of those properties right now. And when I placed all the tenants there, and that's always a question, I always bring it up. I usually tell them because they're all nine year leases that they're more likely than not there will be something there at one point or another and I have that conversation with them. I don't didn't see anyone any of the current tenants present We also sent them a little Google form to fill out after engaging with them. You know, I have daily dialogues within our daily monthly dialogues with them. And we also sent them a little Google form. And most of them just said that you know, no problem we're not interested probably will move out by the time we even start construction. So it is something that tenants that moved in now are aware of and as tenants move out, we move people in, we'll be having that conversation. Make sure they are aware of the potential construction and the new building that will be going up. If that helps out at all. Thank you, Becky and I do have a letter, Mr. Chairman, thank you. Good. Okay. And I believe I have the letter here. So thank you for pointing that out. Commission as far as it did us, and I want to welcome Commissioner Russell Thank you, Chairman. Question for the petitioner. Are there any other reviews that you'll have to proceed with after this consideration by the planning commission? No public approvals that are needed. Obviously, building permit some plan review would be required. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you. How many units will this be?
So there's that Nikki, do you want to address the?
Sure. So there's five, two bedroom townhouse units. And then there are three one bedroom apartments. So eight total a total All right.
All right. Good.
I'm gonna wait until the public.
Okay. All right. Well, we have no further questions. So we as this is a public hearing. I will go and open the public comment.
Um, really quickly, Mr. Chair,
yes.
Yep, go there. Go. Right. Okay, thanks. Um, alright. Thanks, y'all for the presentation. It's exciting to see a multifamily proposal development proposal in this space. I'm very curious to know how many affordable housing units you are planning in this development.
This development is market rate. There's no affordable housing or tax breaks or tax incentives involved in this project.
Do you have any idea what the rent will look like for the townhouses and the one bedrooms?
Drake would you like to address that?
My best answer would be market rate.
It probably depends on when they're when they're built and when they come online. And what the construction costs are is is my guess.
Was there any consideration to produce any units at a more affordable rate for some folk in the area who maybe make lower income? Yeah, that's
Oh, sorry, Jake. I was just gonna say that one of the goals for for this development team, and myself because I live in the neighborhood was to sort of hit this missing middle which is that in in Cortana, in general, right now, there's a lot of small apartments being built, but there's not a lot of places for families to live. You know, as you know, property values here to buy a house not a lot go on sale. When they do they're pretty expensive. So what we really wanted to do was hit that sweet spot where someone with children would be able to buy a townhouse and stay in the area. And, you know, that was a that was a personal focus that I had. So that was why we you know, we stayed away from smaller units.
Excellent. Thanks for giving a little bit more insight. I don't know market rate is a pretty wild and fluctuating and expensive thing. So I hope that we'll get some fees in there. Long term. Thank you, Mr. Chair. No problem.
Thank you. All right, as the public hearing is open, and staff assist with any public comments that arise if you are participating via zoom. If you could indicate your desire to participate in the public comment indicate by raising your hand.
Mr. Chair, there is a there are four hands raised currently
forehead, okay. You want to promote them?
Yes, thank you first caller is Vermont Street. And they should be able to speak. Good
evening. Good
evening. I've been on vermaat since 2018. Have a great relationship with neighbors like manuals, has been there for a long time I support the project. I think they did a great job on the on the three units down the street. We're seeing a lot of the mega projects around I think these guys kind of kept the character and nature that we look for in Corktown. So I just want to say they did a great job and I overall support this project and that's all I got to say. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, we you did not specify how long each public comments.
Public comments are two minutes, two minutes. Yes.
Thank you just making sure I'm gonna pull up a timer. Yep.
Okay, our next public comment comes from Kay Larson. They should be able to speak Hello, welcome. Hi, thank
you. Kelly Larson. I own 2000 delzell the four unit apartment building across the street, and I welcomed the addition of new residential units and new development to the area, but just have some concerns about lack of sufficient parking spaces. It's I guess I'm unclear now is I was under the assumption that they were rental units all of them but if that is the case, I am hoping that the developer does provide parking spaces, sufficient parking as well as free parking. Because I think that as long as someone has to pay additional to park it's a disincentive as long as there's free street parking nearby and I've noticed that parking has been steadily increasing along Dale Zell. The city is also in the middle of a temporary two way traffic trial on del Zell and maritime as well. And if it remains to weigh the increase in cars parked on both sides of the street, I think would make it difficult for parking and just general traffic. So to avoid contributing to the increase problems, I would hope that the project would at least you know provide the required point seven five parking spaces per unit make the free of charge. If if that's possible. Thank you.
Thank you Mr. Carson.
Mr. Chair, our next caller is Arnold Karpen. Welcome Hello, can
you hear me?
Yes, we can't.
Thank you. Thank you for giving me your time. Yes, I am opposed to the project based on the way it stands right now. I am not a resident. I've been a property owner since 1966. So I think that affords me a little bit of leeway in that. And one of the problems I have with this proposal is again, there's no off street parking. There is required 11.25 spaces and the proposal has eight spaces. There's also no setbacks on these buildings. You're taking a 40 by 40 building and you're going to increase it and you're going to construct a 37 by 97 foot building with no setbacks off the alley, no setbacks off the front, and basically a huge building. I've had problems with developer damaging my property during the first round of construction. I've been in conversations with them for four years, and I don't want any more damage to my property. There's been no they have not contacted me I've sent registered letter and they haven't contacted me back so I am not opposed to additional residential but the parking is a very big problem and putting in 15 units and a point three seven acre parcel is ridiculous. I mean, that is just to dance and even in its heyday in the 1950s or 40s. It wasn't that dense. And your Sanborn map is wrong, by the way because my My shop is not on that and my shop dates back to 1939. So I don't know what Sanborn map edition you're using. But again, it's incorrect. Thank you. All
right. Thank you, Mr. Carpet. And we do have your letter here. So thank you for submitting that. And I just want to bring one note. You mentioned 15 units and then your letter mentioned 15 units, and the developers just confirm the unit count.
It it's eight units.
Okay,
so it's an eight unit, not a 15 unit as this letter indicate.
can I also reply to the parking we do have off street parking have the required off street parking. Okay. And then if I could just say one other thing that we these are setback we're not directly on the alley and our facade aligns with the with the facade of the adjacent building.
And I'm looking at the townhouse. The townhomes, plus the three are eight and then 2192019 detailed is five units. And then 2087 is one single tenant unit. And then to 081 is also a single tenant unit. So that's where he's getting his 15 units. Well, okay.
Yes, Mr. Sherr. We go into our next one. Sorry, I was trying to say the next name. No, you're fine. I
was looking at the screen. Yeah, go right. next caller is Scott Lowe. Greg, thank you. Welcome to unmute. Welcome, Scott. Thank
you. Thanks for having me. Great presentation. I own the property at the corner of 14th and dawesville, as well as adults that aren't far back. I've fully support this this project. I think it's, it's well done gets into the character of the classic Detroit neighborhoods and the team this development teams don't done a good job. And I think I urge you all to approve it. Thank you.
In our final call is Sidney McCaskey. Sorry if I said that wrong, they should be able to speak now. All right. Thank
you. Welcome.
Hi, thank you. You got that correct. Um, I just wanted to also call in support I live in the West Village, but I'm in Corktown. Often. I'm an architect. And it's really nice to see added density because I'm kind of as it sounds like the architect on this project mentioned. That's how we're going to get closer to affordability and making these neighborhoods walkable and places that people want to grow their families. So I'm just calling in support. I'm very excited to see this. I would love to see more development like this in our neighborhoods like Corktown and I think they did a great job. So I urge you to approve this.
Thank you. Thank you.
And that was our final public comment, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Miss sweet. And do we have any attendees here in person?
Not for public comment, sir. Okay,
so we've completed all of the virtual attending, we have none here in person. I will close public comment. Did, are there any points or comments that the development team want to speak to directly based on those comments?
Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I just a thank you for clarifying the proposal is eight units. I want to thank Miss Larson for calling in. Wanted to clarify she mentioned the requirement in a straight zoning is point seven five per unit we actually exceed that the plans call for for every space or every unit to have its own dedicated parking spot. So there's a one per one ratio which which does meet the code. Those are free and fact it's most of them are garage parking. So there would not be any need for the new townhouses to park on the street. So it's all I wanted to add.
Thank you and for the plant has three existing lots on the sale. And so the big house has five units. Those five units used three spaces. And where do the other two units in the large home park and where do the other two small single tenant homes Park?
I'll let the developer respond. I believe those those existing homes do utilize street parking. I don't know Nicky, do you want to address it? Most of the homes in Koreatown use street parking at present Go ahead. Yeah, we
haven't. We haven't had so. Two of our tenants don't actually have cars, which I think is a great aspect of being able to live downtown. And then on Vermont cut because across the street is completely vacant right now. There's a lot of extra parking. We've never had parking issues in those three spots are obviously open to the tenants to use, but I have not ever, you know, had an issue with that to this to this point. Okay.
And the townhomes, the five units, they're full townhomes. They have their own parking, where do you anticipate the three apartment units parking?
So there still will be the as you can see, there's those three existing parking spaces and if everyone has their own space in the new units, then I assume that would not impact because majority of the times we'll still be using Vermont, Vermont street parking I think are you are you under the assumption that they're using the back currently because no one's parking in the back right now? No,
no, I'm
just counting you know, units and you know, just where people can park.
If I can clarify. I think there's a I'll admit, I think there's an error on the drawing so each townhouse can park under so there's five parking spots under the building. Then there's one. Then there's one on the south portion of the site that's actually an accessible parking spot. And so that's one that someone in the three units could use. So, like Drake said right now, I mean, parking is always a very hot button. It's a very changing issue in Corktown. I think that on our end of Corktown over here on the west side. We've had a little growing pains with some of the construction projects that go on but in general as you can see, there's quite a bit of vacant land and so there's quite a bit of street parking that's always available. Most people don't have off street parking in this portion of our neighborhood.
Alright, I will relinquish my questions for now. Commissioner Foster, did you want to go? Oh, yeah. Thank you, Vice Chair Markowitz.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the presentation. I've been going through all the documentation as well. As going thoroughly through the HDC report from 2021. Just a quick question before I get into some of the details that I had questions about this has been through hdc review and it was given a certificate of appropriateness and when did that occur? This is for staff sorry.
I believe that was in July of 2021. That's what I remember. Okay.
Did they have any conditions for that? Certificate of appropriateness?
It was based on the these basically the plans that we've seen tonight. Okay, they basically saw the same thing. Okay.
Thank you for that clarification. I don't think I have any any other questions. I just have some some comments about how I'm thinking about this and I certainly, you know, invite my colleagues appends on this too. So I agree that we absolutely need more multifamily housing particularly in this neighborhood. Density is great. However, it should also be appropriate especially for a historic district and a historic neighborhood. That being said, most of the you know, historic homes and buildings, even the multi family buildings are, you know, one to 2.5 storeys. If you go in the HDC report, they actually have some some really specific design guidelines and trends for courtown identified and that certainly is one of them along with materiality. And so looking at the viewshe head of this and then also considering the Sanborn maps from years past, it looks like there was a multi tenant building for quite some time I'm located a DSL, but that only extended to the property line of 2099, Vermont. So it didn't extend as far as what we're seeing here in these plans. That would only be about you know about two and a half units in if you're looking at their site plan. So this does actually affect the view head view shed from Vermont over the two houses that would be 2087, Vermont, and 2081. Vermont. If you're standing on Vermont Street and looking straight you will see these buildings coming up behind those one one storey slash one and a half with the attic, you know, shotgun houses. So I do have an issue with the massing of this building at three storeys number one, I'm fine with that massing behind 2099 Vermont although it's not my favorite. So this three storeys is hard for me with that type of massing for height, but also how long it is. I don't agree that we should have that kind of density extending into the other two lots. Historically in the Sanborn's we did have that but it was only two storeys. It was also wooden too. So I guess I'm just wondering, you know, what kind of precedent does this set just you know, plopping peds in the middle of R one and R two to maximize profit. For for development. I agree with density but I think we need to be really thoughtful about what kind of character we're creating, and why we're doing it. So I just want to you know, get some, you know, feedback from my other commissioners. That's kind of how I'm looking at this year about kind of the density like maybe cut the building and half kind of thing. I'm not sure it's quite so appropriate as to addressing the parking issues in the area. Since new lab is opened and by the way, train station is not open yet and will be soon. But since new lab is open, I've I've seen a dramatic increase in people parking on the side streets, personally. And so that is an issue and it will be a continued issue in the neighborhood and I certainly invite walkability and people using other modes of transit. But but that is something that I do want to recognize and also the stormwater management issues. I do want to kind of understand how we're dealing with that. These houses were being rehabilitated. You know, had there been any issues with stormwater management? I think a lot of us have had that in the last few years. So I certainly, you know, invite comment to my comments. Thank you so much.
Thank you Vice Chair. And I do have a follow up question to staff. I recall us doing some work around like accessory dwelling unit types, like additional home types that could accompany parcels that have existing homes on it. How does that framework apply to like, a parcel like this? Because we've already decided what these types of buildings should look like.
It's definitely been part of the conversation. For the zone Detroit project. A lot of a lot of conversation has taken place about accessory dwelling units, but that's the only place I can think of it not publicly so much yet. Is
does that does those plans apply to specific areas? You know, like a specific neighborhood type or I just can't remember where we left off with that.
No, nothing special. Specific for neighborhoods unless maybe you're thinking of brush Park. The Horror Based code gets into some pretty specific
okay, that might be it. I might be thinking brush bark. Okay. That might be okay, Commissioner loss.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was wondering if you could refresh for me what you anticipate in terms of this three historic houses, and then the townhouse units and back? To the developer Yep. you
in the can you just clarify, envision how these would be incorporated or how these would play out in the future?
Yes, how it would play out in the future.
So we would we could potentially sell those or continue to run those.
I don't have that answer. Currently. I think it is still up for debate. If everything goes for sale, we'd be happy to make it an entire community. I believe right now I think there's similar to what Nikki was referencing. There's a need for the families. We have two families in the single units, excuse me, the single family homes and then in the larger the five unit property we have one family that everyone else is a younger couple to two individuals so could sell the houses along with these units we could rent everything.
I the reason I asked the question is they are historic homes. And at that point, I do believe you'd have to get permission to demo those properties from the commission from the historic commission and in line with what my colleague was saying in terms of the townhouses. They just just sitting there in back of three historic houses, the impact to the character of the neighborhood and I know there's quite a bit of vacant land over there. And then what anticipate what what does the developer anticipate this will look like in the future? I mean, this is a snapshot of what you anticipate today. Based on your conversation I I may be wrong fully assuming that the rentals are probably not very profitable. In your portfolio. And you're looking to change the zoning as such that you could construct these townhomes and it would be profitable for you and you continue your development goals for that. area. Again, this is in and my opinion, a snapshot of what is going on at Vermont and today. If I think if we knew more about or if I knew more about how you anticipate phasing this development relative to the historical homes where you're placing these townhomes adjacent I would be more comfortable with it.
I appreciate that. We did make a substantial investment to those houses. And if there could be some type of language in this rezoning. We will absolutely not be demolishing any of those houses or touching them based on our investment. I would be happy to share some of the interior photos and the standard of construction very proud of that. One of the middle house we actually had to lift up and build a 10 foot basement to keep the house standing because the house was not structurally sound. So I do just want to if maybe that was bad communication on our end nothing regarding the historic houses will be demoed or touched in the future. So I'm not sure Nikki are tiny if you can touch on that. And I don't know how the these planned urban development rezoning would work with regards to that if we want to put language in there stating that these can never be touched. I'm perfectly fine with that. And
that's fine. Actually,
that's I mean, the explanation that you've given is fine. Maybe at some point in the future as the homes may be sold as the market improves. I guess. You know, it's like you have half dozen in one hand six and the other do you get the new development or do you wait? And I appreciate Commissioner Markowitz is comments relative to this development. And I would just wait until February 1 This is coming staff where this is coming back on the first and that would only be for additional public comment. Is that correct? I
think we'll probably go through the presentation again. Yeah, take a comment again.
Okay, and do you have a recommendation or have you made a recommendation on this Murphy, do you make that recommendation at that time?
All right. We would have a recommendation on February 1.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank
you, Commissioner Lewis.
Can we add Mickey back as a panelist please she got disconnected. Believe
Commissioner Russell
Thank you chair. Um I got a couple of questions for for staff and it was probably gone over b before I got here and my apologies.
P this is coming with PD did what was the reason that we had to go to PD would would SD one would have allowed for this to happen.
It would but it would also allow commercial uses. We didn't think that that would be really appropriate in this area could rezone it to like a higher art district but they'd still have to go for variances that there's no art district that would allow it kind of the way it is proposed.
So we they chose to go to Hedy because they didn't want any unpleasant uses in as the one that SD one winner because they could have done this by right through SD one.
That was kind of more I think of a staff decision. I don't think they they considered an SD
Okay, and then and this is for staff to add in when I look at the aerial and and areas here. Do does the city know of any future projects that are are happening or planned to happen in the area?
There's nothing that we're aware of now.
I mean, you know, it's right near the train station and there's a lot of open private there no city RFPs out for some of that land is that city on land or privately held land?
Land across Vermont to the east. That big open block is owned by Ford. There is a park to the south but there's no proposed changes to that. I don't think the city owns any of that land. To the west along Del Sol either anybody else knows
and then the we we did a rezoning in this area. Maybe year. Two back in the what was that? Can you refresh my memory about that rezoning.
There's a couple there was the Klamath Kern site got rezone to SD two which was a couple blocks south and east. And then there was across the street from that right at the corner of Valley and Trumbull got rezone to SD to a little more recently, maybe a year or so ago.
There was a stretch of area in Corktown that the city brought to rezone a North
cork town rezoning. Yeah. Is that was all north of Michigan and most of it was north of 75 whereas this is south of Michigan,
and there was nothing south of Michigan in recent rezoning within two years or so.
There is a new request to rezone the train station but it hasn't come to the Commission yet.
Then okay, thank thank you Mr. Murphy. i It's probably my fault but I'm not quite understanding the plan so I guess this is for though, it because it looks like they're six units in the new structure to meet is is that are the eight altogether. And I'm sorry to make us go back over that and just bring up the site plan
again.
I didn't answer Yeah, sorry. This unless Jamie you prefer.
Oh, no, that's
fine. You're definitely you
put up the cost view because I think that shows it very
well to I think I'm answering my own question. So there's 12345 units, and then the one on the end. It's three units one per flow.
Exactly.
Okay. All right. I got Okay. Um, you know, I, I think it's great to add density to a neighborhood and I'm okay with historical being next to something modern. I think that's okay. Um, but in neighborhoods and I'm not sure if there are any balconies, I see the roof decks. But and it's just a personal preference. I think that front porches are make for good neighborhoods where people can sit out and observe their neighborhood and I know we're right behind those buildings, but two of them look like they would look out into the front and then or it's really like four storeys right. But in the drawings it looks like it is even with the height of the tallest house is that true?
It's actually three storeys and the with an occupiable roof deck, and the adjacent house actually has three occupied stories as well. You can see the roof pitch is very steep on that roof and so that's actually an occupied apartment up there.
Okay, as well. So what what's the the height of the tallest existing structure and the height of the tallest proposed structure?
I believe that you can see on the drawing there that the existing structure is 33 feet high and then I believe the pitch of the or the highest point of the existing house is, is over that. Definitely. I think it's either I'm recalling from memory either 35 or 38 feet. Then actually, directly sort of off the corner of this building. There's a very similar building and massing. That's also masonry. It's also three storeys also has quite a few units in it as well.
And is that taller than this one?
I don't think so. I would have to confirm that. I think they're very close in height. And just to talk about the front porch aspect, you know, the three historic homes have a front porch, the the, the apartments would have sort of something that faces they'll sell, but really the idea here was to create almost like a court feeling where were the entries to the townhomes face sort of a central court to sort of create a little community there with a common space for them all to use. Okay.
And that I got a couple more questions for developer but I wanted to ask the staff in our one, what's the max I that are R two R one R two. What's the max height? That's allowed?
Believe it is 35 I can pull it up real quick.
Okay, while we're Murphy is doing that I had a request of the developer with this. I know I've seen for a project that they lay out what the shadow is at noon, and that and then for the seasons too. It would be an I don't know how hard that is to do but it would be interesting to see what kind of shade and shadow the new structure would impose on the neighborhood. And then Miss Murphy
it is a 35 foot maximum height and r1
in our one. Thank you and then the for the petitioner is there going to be fencing and this project
currently there is we that fence is currently historic. So we did keep that I would actually refer to Nikki to answer that question.
Um, yeah, sure we do. We actually do not plan for any additional fencing on this project. And I know that it's it would be preferred from the developer, they could sort of open up that corner but the historic district wanted them to keep that existing fence so it's been retained
and so that that fencing is just on one existing property, it's not the three of those Right? Exactly.
Really, the corner
on me? It broke up there.
Oh, I'm sorry. It's really just the corner there. Yeah, so the one property
and then I don't know if you've covered this before I got here, but are there any sustainable features? You plan to incorporate that you wanted to share with us?
Um, I think we you know, there wasn't anything there's there's no solar or anything, but obviously, you know, some some passive solar with daylighting has been planned, but no specific systems.
No, super insulation or anything in the construction.
Um, you know, there's energy codes in Michigan that have to be followed and we would follow those and the arc values on those are very high for new construction. So that's what we're gonna follow.
Right, well, it looks you know, the questions out. It looks looks fine to me. And I was just asking these questions to see if it is how it meets with what it was zoned before. And the height and the massing and, and if you know a lot of times there's a lot of requirements when you do it with a planned development because then we have a look at the plans and the materials. And I didn't know if in another zoning classification, if it would be by right. And so that's why I was asking the questions. So thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Murphy. And looks good to me. And thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner. Nice. See, Commissioner, new Dobby.
Thank you so much. And I'm really glad that we can continue to talk about this stuff. I have also appreciated my fellow Commissioners. Thoughts about this project. And I noticed that I am also feeling a little bit concerned similar to Commissioner Markowitz, about the density in this space. I understand that there's another apartment complex across the way and yet I I feel like having it so close to the historic homes. Having it so close to the historic homes feels quite cramped in that space. And so I can understand wanting to increase density and I am encouraging the increase of housing stock and I would love to see that in Detroit. But I feel that the way that it's done, along with my concern that there are no affordable housing units attached to this property. And now hearing that there aren't as many sustainable measures I wonder if there are more thoughtful ways of going about a new development in this space
Thank you, Commissioner Dobby.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman. You know, I'm in a unique position here among my commissioners because I live two blocks away. I'm a resident of Corktown property owner. And so I know the history of of that area, and I really do appreciate the the observations by my fellow Commissioners, and this is it's one of the benefits of serving with the great membership. And I'll start with the the question about affordable housing. I'm glad those that that's asked because I would have to say that with the post bankruptcy development with a lot of the proposals that we see that are much larger, it's it's it's always an obvious question and and and turns out to be an outcome of what's what's agreed upon, in this instance, and at this scale, and understanding that it's a private market rate development. I'm glad that you know, we heard the response by the developer obviously, this will just add to the balance in the mix that we have in Corktown because we do have some great large developments that have the affordable housing component but it's it was it was a question that kind of took me by surprise and I thought wow, that's a good question. And yeah, should be asked and should be responded to and and understood and in this instance, I accept you know, the, the fact that the scale and the size and you know, the the nature of this being a private proposal that it's it's something that I won't probably look at very hard regarding, you know, parking Yes, we we continue to have challenges with on street parking. But it's, I think it's it's an it's an absolute expectation and reality for us and, and it will continue to get challenging and I've heard as recently as last week from one of my neighbor's own, on my blog regarding, you know, the thought of pursuing the permanent parking program that the city has, so I know that you know, it's it's an option that we can we can we can consider to hopefully alleviate some of our, our issues, but you know, we we've, we've been spoiled in Corktown for a long time with the availability of a lot of space and parking, on street parking. So now we'll have to deal with the reality that continues to evolve Corktown stormwater management I did appreciate that. Question. And if it's not a typical component that we often see with residential developments, can the petitioner at least tell us that the their awareness and understanding of the existing infrastructure is sufficient to take on this development and that you know, the the adjacent existing units in properties won't be compromised. So if we could at least have them speak to that, because I have to believe that at this point in their development that they've done a lot of the design, engineering and planning to confirm that the infrastructure that's available or that will be enhanced, is sufficient to accommodate this added development at that location. Again, going back to my initial point, I love sitting on this commission and I love the membership and the observations that are made based on the expertise that we have and made itself very visible again, for myself here with this agenda item and being a neighbor two blocks away, so thank you.
Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a few questions. But I wanted to see if the petitioners had any responses. They there were there was a question by Commissioner as far as so I want to pause.
Oh, yeah. I appreciate that. This is okay. Yeah, I did want to respond. Yeah, I do appreciate. Mr. Barr, as far as your comment on you know, there's a lot of big developments happening in Corktown. And those developments often have the scale to incorporate affordable housing. I know the city was also awarded a very large exciting grant for this area and for North courtown to add a lot of affordable housing. Unfortunately, just the scale that we're at here. It just wasn't really in the cards for us. As far as the sewer, so normally what we, what we do here is you know, in Corktown traditionally sewer is in the rear of a property. So we have the added benefit that we're on a corner here. So I believe that there isn't an existing sewer in the alley. But then there's also one on Duval street. So we will be evaluating both of those license engineers and working with the city to decide if we should tap into one or if we should tap into both of those. And then you know, of course, when you're doing work in an alley. Normally in projects like this, you sign an agreement with the city that you will then maintain the alley. So you know, we would be responsible in our work to make sure that we don't overload the system. I know that this area was impacted because I live a block away in the most recent floods that we had. And so we fully intend to be good neighbors and you know, take our responsibility also with the ally.
I would just like to add one thing if I could through the chair. As far as stormwater management, I do appreciate that comment. I think that there is this understanding or belief that when development comes in, we're changing pervious or impervious surface impervious surface to impervious and in the case of Detroit, that's not always the case. Most of our soils are clay soils, and the water department doesn't actually consider a vacant lot like this as providing adequate drainage. The it's the turf is is so compacted, that the stormwater runs literally right off of these types of lots in order to to absorb stormwater, you actually have to put some type of green infrastructure and so I think the question behind the question might have been that what is the the net impact on the area and potential impact on surrounding properties as far as flooding and it is, it would be a flush essentially, creating building a structure where there was already what was considered impervious surface, but I would say as far as infrastructure a bigger concern, just from a neighborhood development perspective, would actually be the water infrastructure and there's oftentimes not adequate water pressure to provide water to large developments large multifamily. I mean, across the street, that Ford property is zoned industrial. I don't know what's going in there. But we've had a lot of issues with tapping existing water lines throughout the city of Detroit. And so in this case, the smaller scale residential development is actually much more appropriate to our aging infrastructure. So I just wanted to add that as far as the provision of utilities goes.
Thank you, thank you.
I can comment on the water pressure as well. The large the the corner house we did have to tap the water main and put it in a two inch, two inch, we had to tap with the two inch for sprinkling the building. And when we did that it did give us the adequate water pressure. So just pointing out that that hasn't been done on one of the properties already. And hopefully that shows precedent that it can be done again. Thank you.
Thank you. Appreciate those responses and also share and my fellow Commissioners comments. I believe this is a really gracious and thoughtful bunch. So I appreciate all of the comments, and reflections and appreciations that have been expressed. Just a few questions and really want to go back to some of the concerns that were raised. And it looks like we did hear some of the concerns get addressed through clarifications regarding specifically regarding the parking number of units and a few other things. But I think that there's still just a few things that require additional clarification. So I'm wondering what is your what is your plan for additional residential engagement especially if there's it was at least cited that there may be some folks who who did not properly nearby property owners who just may not have been notified? So I know that we have the hearing coming up on the first but are you planning to reach out specifically to any of the property owners directly?
Sorry, I was muted. So there have been in addition to the notice that went out for today's meeting, and next the next meeting. There have been notifications of this project for the last few years. Again, I mentioned the SIU hearing and the and the HDC hearing which noticed and then our community meetings, we notified 300 feet. We do know who has addressed or raised concerns in the past and nearly all of those have been addressed. I think our biggest concern going into our last meeting was we wanted to make sure that adjacent neighbor was was comfortable with the project and Drake I don't know if you had met with her directly or if it was Patrick or but we we are comfortable that the changes that Nikki made to the site plan are she is in support or at least not in opposition to the project, the ongoing community engagement it's always a challenge during construction and I think it was mentioned already by someone that that neighborhood construction is very disruptive when there is sound and noise and truck traffic and and so it's very important during that time to have regular communication meetings. I think it's helpful that Nikolas is part of the train station neighborhood block club and that residents have an avenue to complain if construction is starting too early in the morning or trucks or blocking access to something that or even, you know, mitigating dust or whatever could come up I think throughout the entire construction project. Should this proposal be approved? Of course I think that's going to be really key to maintaining positive community relations in the neighborhood.
Well, one of the one of the concerns or questions was obviously dust. And so I think typically, they typically what I see is a channeling fan. So one thing we had committed to individuals and community members that brought that up was we committed to doing a solid barrier to hopefully stop the dark but also not have the visible you know the visible construction so that was one thing that we had presented. People enjoyed that. And I think it goes back to what I was saying before we did engage the current tenants, most of them are on one year leases, majority of them are on the back end of that. So my focus is not necessarily on that because the more likely than not they're going to be moving out but when I when we bring someone new and making sure they're aware they're on board, they want to see what's going on. And then obviously we've had a long meeting here. Just wanted to point out we did have three positive comments, which I think is always important because you know 75% of the of the for people who who stayed at something. So hopefully that's something
certainly certainly appreciate hearing from folks that are supportive of the project but also wanting to be acknowledging of folks who raised concerns and and seeing if there's an opportunity to align and get on the same page, especially when when there were a few folks that stated that not direct opposition to the project, but just opposition to specific things. So like wondering if there's a way to sort of get on the same page. It's been so and I appreciate your response. I've got two other questions here and this is for staff. I noticed in our report that we don't have a recommendation from PD, PD and D. And that's forthcoming and can you talk a little bit about PD and D I'm looking at just that the planning and develop department is reviewing this proposed rezoning it will submit a master payment plan interpretation later. So when can we expect that what would that be done?
I must have put that in the report and error because yeah, we had it from last summer and they said it was generally consistent with the Master Plan.
Do we have that? Okay, so Okay, all right. I
included it apparently didn't. Couldn't get in. Okay.
All right. Yeah, just was taking notice of that. So I appreciate that. And last thing, just in relation to the PD zoning and further changes. Miss Murphy, could you just again, just clarify for us, you know, as we sort of conclude this and move into next step to what the I'm curious about the the PD and what it means going forward.
So in addition to rezoning the property, you'd also be considering the plans like the site plan, elevations, materials massing of the building, like all of that would be part of the PD approval, as opposed to a normal rezoning where you're just looking at the zoning and they can go forward and do anything with the PD. It's specifically whatever is approved. So there's a lot higher standard of approval.
You know, Becky, thank you. Appreciate that. Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I just want to follow up again, thank you, Commissioner Harrison was a good question. How much control does the Planning Commission have on the site plan of PDs
as you consider every, every aspect of the site plan,
okay. So if the if at it, we think certain changes should be made. We can make you know, request those be made as a part of the cyclin.
This is the one the one opportunity that yes, you have site plan, review authority, usually we're telling you don't but in this case.
Okay, and I think that's good to know. Just so everyone here knows what type of power and capacity we have at least as it relates to this project. Want to echo a lot of the comments, fellow commissioners made? I think a lot of good points were raised for consideration, you know, on how this can move forward and things that the residents would like to see. One thing I think a few things that I think when this item comes back will be helpful. One can we see it can staff produce, you know, just a comparison that shows the requirements as they are to and what the requirements are now, as they are proposed in this PD. You know, I think some you know, at least myself, when I saw the building was 33. You know, I just assumed that the maximum was like 30, and the PD allowed them to go past it. Right. So just to clarify, so we're all on the same page. I think it'd be beneficial if we just saw Okay, the height that they want, it's actually below what the maximum for that district is anyway, so it just kind of helps frames, what the request of the PBS for and then about just bringing up things I want to see come back so if I don't bring up something just add that in. I think we should see some form of intended parking capacity. You know, how many street spaces you know where where they anticipate people parking, you know, I think the five for the townhouse or townhomes aren't given the three for the three apartments as a given the two single families I see those can go on front, but that still leaves five spaces and I don't know where those are going to be. So I think you know, we think of adding density in existing neighborhoods. Need to really consider the capacity of parking today. And we want you to be successful. We want the property to be fully occupied at all times. And we want that to happen to all properties right. So there is a maximum capacity on how many parking spaces are on the street today. How many parking spaces will be on the street in five years when they develop across the street. Okay, the corner. So I think we need to be proactive about you know, where we allow allowances for parking a question for the applicant. What is your plan for maintenance of the alley, you know, you have five units that their parking is accesses right there. So if something goes down, Alley gets damaged, you know they lose access to the park. Their garages so what is your plan on maintaining that alley, you know, in collaboration with the city.
So, we use the as part of access to a to a site plan that DPW requires us to file a maintenance agreement which then would require the developer for the you know entirety to maintain the alley and that so that includes any repaving if there's any illegal dumping that happens in the alley, the maintenance agreement would require the developer to to take care of that. Also, we're going to need to as part of the construction, relocate the DTE poles to the opposite side of the alley away from the homes. And I just wanted to if I if I could go back to the earlier question about a PD and about the planning and development department. We did go through design review with with planning and development. And as Miss Murphy mentioned, the city really wanted to see a PD as opposed to straight zoning. And so we filed our petition for PD in response to those requests. The public there we would have had public hearings for potentially one variance, but there was concern, as was mentioned with the SD zoning that it allows commercial uses and we wanted this to be a strictly residential project. And so that is the PDE gives the city a lot more control. And it gives you design review and also if there's any changes that the developer or the architect to make in the future, they have to come back for a modification or an amendment. And so you really do have a lot more authority and a bigger role in a development when it's zoned PD.
Thank you. And then my last comment at the alley entrance. It looks like the the face of the building on the jail. It looks like you are aligning it with the existing building on the other side of alley. I'm just curious if that means clear vision for people coming in and out that alley. So maybe we could see those details. Just you know that it's safe in terms of clear vision and then I also see I've noticed in this packet on some of your site plans, you had the community garden and then on a saw another site plan you had a parking space, your handicap parking space. So I guess when we come back just, you know a clear definitive it's going to be they're going to have the parking space in the back or it's not. It's just we just see two different versions here today. And I think that is all of my questions. And I will pass it to Vice Chair Markowitz.
Thank you Mr. Chair. Just a couple of requests. When this comes back to us on February 1. The Back Page, the last page of the design packet has, you know a variety of photos about materiality, but the descriptions of them are just the third they're not actual words is just like Ipsum stuff. If that could be filled in with descriptions about the materials as they should be, that'd be great. And then also this one is for staff if in a comparison of r one r two in what is being asked here. Can we have extra language in there about AD use? That would be great. That's it for me. Thanks.
Very good. All right. Do we have any other instructions we want to send the applicant back with that we might have missed things. got all the topics okay. So if there are no further comments again, I want to thank you all for attending today during that presentation with us and thank you Miss Murphy for supporting and assisting us this evening. Thank you so much. All right. Thank
you for your time.
All right. Moving forward, it is seven o'clock and we can start our 615 in informational presentation. This is on the city of Detroit Solar Initiative. Good evening, Mr. Fuzzy will you be assisting us with this item?
Yes, Mr. Chair. Good evening, commissioners. I have a brief PowerPoint if I may share.
Yes, whenever you're ready.
Thank you I don't know if Director Todd was online and wanted to give an introduction for this item or not. Or if you wanted to close with this item Director Todd, do you have anything you wanted to? Preface?
Sorry, so this is difficult, but I want to be clear that this is not a CPC project. We've just been monitoring this from a distance. So that's our level of understanding with this proposal out there structure to project anything
through the chair, excuse me. Thank you Mr. Corzine, nothing in particular pIanned what you have already done to set the circumstance and that this is informational as it is labeled, and that we want you to be prepared with an understanding of what it is that the city has embarked upon in terms of this Solar Initiative and the understanding that there may well be proposed changes requested changes to the zoning ordinance coming as a result. With that again, Mr. Chair, I will yield back to Mr. CORZINE. In order for him to provide you this information. Certainly. If it is your desire, we can request the administration to actually come and provide formal presentation. But again, I think you'll get a sense of the issue once Mr. Mulvaney has completed his presentation.
Thank you, Director. Whenever you're ready
Thank you. So the Solar Initiative was formally announced by the mayor's office last June. The primary target is to convert the city's municipal buildings to solar power, which we understand currently cost about $8 million per year. The overarching goal of this initiative is also to combat climate change paralleling state and federal efforts, secondary goal of providing community benefits to homeowners within the selected neighborhoods that we'll go through. And it's also been mentioned in presentations that the solar parks may help remediate blight or prevent blight, such as illegal dumping that some neighborhoods or neighborhoods have experienced in these areas. It's estimated that 250 acres of solar panels will be needed. The Mayor's Office desires that this be achieved within the city limits, but there's a backup option that would look outside of the city for one large site, such as the city of Cincinnati did about a decade ago for powering their municipal buildings. And a key part of the initiative is that the site selection process is driven by the neighborhood groups. So neighborhoods are black clubs applied to the city to host a solar array. Then they're partnered with energy consultants on hand that the city makes available to refine their proposals or applications. In the community benefits are tied to those chosen neighborhoods, which could range from 10,000 to $25,000 per home, in energy efficiency upgrades that could be phased in over time in the applications for the neighborhood finalists were due last October. So between the June announcement and the October deadline, the Mayor's Office reported that 27 neighborhood groups held discussion meetings leading to 19 semi finalists in the summer. Then 10 finalists submitting proposals from those 10 proposals. Nine were designated as finalists. There was a proposal in Riverbend and District Four that was not selected due to neighborhood division on that. So ultimately, there will be six winning neighborhood finalists that's expected to be selected by March. And those six finalists would we understand would be able to provide that 250 acres towards generating 33 megawatts of solar power array of solar array power, excuse me. And finalists are gauged on both community support and the ability for the project to connect to the electric grid. So we understand that the neighborhood selection process and refinement process is still ongoing as well as community engagement and outreach. The Mayor's Office has given applicants a January 31 deadline to submit evidence of residents support they're asking for a simple yes no of residents within the boundary area if they support or oppose the application and the initiative will eventually come back to city council in March or April. Mr. Chair, if there's no questions on process, we can go through the nine sites if you'd like.
Yes, I have a one quick question. Do these lots have to be contiguous
the there's there you'll see in some of the panels that there are some that have two areas within the community boundary. So they are relatively small sites that are split up. So
when I think of I was an arbor recently, and I forgot where I was driving, but they have like these huge patches of solar panels and like big fields. So I envision, you know, large parcel rolls of solar panels. But I see some of them that are they look disjointed, right. So is how is that being approached? And I don't know if you're getting to it. It's just something I'm saying. Yeah,
it is. Doesn't appear to be more of like a scattered site proposal. That may be something we could ask for the mayor's office as far as how the location of these ways into their ability to connect to the grid or at a certain points within the grid to back back generate that electricity. So that may be something we need to get back to you on.
Yeah, I'm curious to that. And then in some of the images, you'll get to it. In our packets, it's kind of hard to read the legend. So if you could just speak to what the colors represent. And then whenever you're ready. Sure,
thank you. So yes, the maps are a little bit fuzzy but a couple of general points for all of their nine maps. So red is that community boundary, and that's the area that would be eligible for community benefits. The red is not the solar field boundary, that is the blue so the blue would would indicate the area of each solar array and what the city has done is that they've tracked owner occupied homes and then renter occupied homes within both areas. So the yellow lights indicate owner occupied homes both within the community boundary and then within the solar boundary. And then green indicates rental occupied property, so homeowners or renters with each within each blue solar array boundary would be required to relocate to accommodate the solar array. But a great effort has been made to draw the boundaries in a way that minimizes this relocation. So you'll see on this first one, that the blue boundary jogs around these three owner occupied lands. So it's probable that that's one example of that you'll see that and other So, as far as the boundary of the solar arrays themselves, they can be irregular, which helps with with this effort, so
does the city owned the land in between? You know that the two questions is the city on the other land, and then it's the intent that the residents that own these properties, they have to deed or give these properties to the city for this to happen.
We have not done the analysis of property ownership. It's been stated at meetings that at least in some of these areas, that land bank is a majority owner for those great loss that you see. But yeah, I'm not I'm not sure if that's related to the condemnation process or what but I don't obviously vacant lots are not viewed as much as a roadblock, I believe as far as an occupied home so we could come back with more information or ask the mayor's office to bring that as far as property ownership within each area.
Okay. And then the second question is the expectation that the residents will be given these properties to the city so they can manage this?
There's a couple options that have been described. One is the city would offer double fair market value for owner occupied residents minimum $90,000. So if a home is fair market value is only $10,000. And that would be 20,000. They would get that 90 minimum. So and that's for the owner occupied for the renter occupied, there would be a relocation program that I believe the city's still developing based on state guidelines. But I believe the plan is for the city to acquire the areas and the blue boundaries as city owned property leased the DTE, but that may still be in, you know, in progress as far as what that eventually looks like.
Okay. And last question just came to me. Do we know who will be managing the operation of these facilities? Department wise or
I'm not sure we can get back to you on that. My guess would be either the city or or dt or combination of the two but we can get those because
they will be leaked, we may be leasing it to DT that would have hurt.
And again, I'm not unless Director Todd or Mr. Gulag have those details is being outside of this project. We're not 100% in on that, but we can try to get the answer.
Okay. Thank you. I don't see any other commissioners.
Thank you. Just this might not be a fair question, but what do we have some examples of what these areas what that looks like? I've seen the one. I've seen the one off of 96 and Greenfield, right, and then you know what? What, what is it going to look like?
Through the Chair? Yes. Oh shavei. Solar Park is the example of an urban Solar Park in this area. There are not a lot of examples. Usually these are rural wind farms or solar farms. or large scale rural projects. But we can provide some more case studies, there's been some studies about the O'Shea projects impacted residents and how that went through that the city, the mayor's office, use that project as kind of a baseline understanding of how it worked, what worked well what didn't work and are modifying their process to based on how that went. So
I asked that because it seems like a big space land and it's a good use for the land, but can something else exist on that land at the same time, you know, you know, can it still be a park like setting or I don't know what other use could say that we're getting, you know?
Yeah, it's, it's a great question. That's what was done at O'Shea was they they took a corner of that and maintained what was formerly a rec center as a community park. That may still be being flushed out with which each proposal I'm not sure but the idea would be that each blue area would be fenced, enclosed and secured. And those are typical those low solar arrays that you see. So I don't not aware of any plans for parks or non solar improvements within each area, but there may be that may be in the discussion.
Okay. I know this is not our thing, but Right. But if you know maybe it could be combined with DWSD or like a nature preserve or something where, you know, we're doing so sustainable things. I mean, additional sustainable things in those areas. Yeah, I know. It's not you guys. But if we could ask if that
could, yeah, well, we'll we'll go and relay that, that message and try to get an answer or if that's something that is maybe a later stage part of this when we get closer to development. So thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions. So what you're saying is every thing aside the blue boundary would be the solar farm correct. So it won't be any residents in that area. So other residents in the surrounding area in particular are going to be able to benefit from the solar energy. Does the city have a power purchase you're giving with DTE What are you gonna do with the access powers you know, get back on the grid. We gotta be compensated for GP on that. How's that gonna work?
So the the all residents within that red boundary wouldn't be eligible for the community benefits. And those were as part of the application process reformulation process, they were asked to determine how that money would be best spent per home. So for these neighborhoods, they chose the energy efficiency upgrades which is a fairly common upgrade to homes that that can be done to remediate things like high polluting trying to think of it had been maybe it's the Lantis possibly or in southwest there are some energy efficient things that are typical for as a trade off or for developments like this. But the details on how the energy flows within the grid, I believe it just all goes kind of back into the grid and works like credit. So do DTE may have a solar farm in Lapeer county that can transfer credits from there to other areas within the state. So I don't know if that answers your question. I'm not not knowledgeable on that electric electric generation or solar arrays, but we can try to get someone else that may be able to answer you'd
really like to know because I noted before there was a gentleman over in Highland Park at the old standard factory, he was going to get a waste to energy like building materials converted into energy and put it on a grid and then get money back from DTE by the power. And I was just wondering since the city's going to have all these solar farms throughout, they're going to benefit in any way besides the municipal buildings. Are the residents going to be able to get their bill Lord? More monthly duty is really getting up there. Now,
I'm not seeing that in any of the discussions that that would be a benefit. The only thing that I've seen as a benefit would be the those energy efficiency upgrades that the city would help residents phase into their homes. But I do not believe there be any lower utility bill or anything like that. That's to my knowledge.
So is it possible to ask someone at the next presentation that can really delve into that so we can get a clearer understanding on how this process is going to work. But the power purchase out of PowerPoint on a grid I mean, how you going to calculate it? Who's calculating it? What kind of money are we really talking about? They may be well, well over $9 million. You follow me? Yeah, we
can try to try to have someone answer those questions. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Daniels. All right. I'm gonna see any questions that you continue. Okay,
so now we'll run through.
I just thought about your Commissioner.
Go ahead.
I appreciate it. Thank you. I just want to reiterate, Commissioner Daniels question so everything that we are seeing on these plans within the blue will be raised will be destroyed properties to just have solar farms.
That's That's correct to the chair the blue boundary is the boundary of the solar field.
Okay, got it. So the only properties that are within that radius that we are looking at are the ones that are highlighted and those folks will get bought out. Right
this through this process. The city is only highlighting either an owner occupied home or a renter occupied home I believe. Number 100%. But the gray is likely vacant property based on the presentations that have been given, in some cases blighted so.
Okay, that's super helpful just as like a baseline. So thank you. And one more note that I have is currently in the state of Michigan there's a solar cap on how much energy that is taken by solar at least in like home, on homes can go back to the grid and so I think in the future, I'd love to hear a little bit more about if there is more energy that will be going back on the grid, who is benefiting from it, is it going to be kept or is that energy going to be used? On the grid I would love more information about that in the future.
And before I pass it, just want to follow up so that that question has come up several times. You know, I think it came up recently when we spoke to the group building that power bank near the hospital on Henry Ford over there we that question came up just when developments have energy systems, solar, whatever that is, the question is, does it go back to the city do we get credit so when that person comes back, I don't know if it can be someone from DTE that can just give a clear answer that
and I failed to mention that we we do have meetings with some University of Michigan. The scram Sustainability Institute on this prior to your next meeting, so we'll have definitely had more information from them on along those lines. As far as there's utility scale, solar energy production, there's residential scale or smaller scale. So we're trying to understand that idea of if we're pushing it back into the grid solely or if we're capturing something and pushing it back. So we'll try to have some better information. Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Louis. Thank you Commissioner heat up.
Very quickly, Mr. Chair, I would like to request a list of the municipal buildings that would be involved and their energy usage their current energy energy usage.
Thank you. I would also like to know how many homes there they intend to demolish to build
these will we will go through that. Yes. Great.
Thank you. Commissioner Daniels.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One more question. So the city is going to pay a minimum of 90,000 to the owner occupied properties. What about the rental properties? I know you're gonna do something about a renters, but what about the owners of those rental properties?
So they would have relocation program that follows the state guidelines. I have the details. I believe it's 18 months free rent relocation services. And I believe it's a market rate offer for the property, not the two times offer to actually purchase the property but the renters would have there will be benefits coming to the renters themselves as far as finding a new place to live. And it's been discussed with the goal of relocating people within the city of Detroit versus someone relocating elsewhere. So,
owner I own a rental property in this particular area. And then the guy next door to me on his house, he lives here, he's gonna get up to minimum $90,000. And I want to get market rate.
That's my, that's my understanding, but we can get clarification on that.
What about the private lot, same thing that the owner may honest, his home and a lot next door and they want him to move where they would acquire their property with a lot. We pay me how they figure out it out. Do you will you ask them one here to next meeting that could assist us with that if
it hasn't been discussed, and there's been about four public meetings to date on this and I haven't seen the direct answer on vacant lots that are not owned by the city, if that's a fair market value or a condemnation option or something like that, but we can try to answer for you at the next meeting.
What did anticipate this program taken off?
They would like to have I believe March. Is there is their goal for city council approval. I have not seen a start date for construction or anything like that. That could be that'll be something else we can ask. Ask the mayor's office.
Yeah, it was gonna take time but he's ready to fire somewhere else to go to home to owner occupants and where to go to take a while. Okay. Look forward to the next meeting with all that information. Thank you.
Thank you to Mr. Daniels. Last Last question. What's funding this program?
I know that the inflation reduction act from President Biden is part of it, where that would cover that would subsidize 30% of the project cost. So that's a real incentive to make the numbers work from the city standpoint as far as what it costs now to power city and buildings and what the project itself will cost to construct. So I don't have details other than that, we can request that again from from the next meeting.
Yeah, I think that's good to know. Just you know, we're talking about buying homes 90,000 The minimum across, you know, seven districts or whatever that number is. I'm curious to where that those dollars are coming from. Yep. And go ahead, Commissioner Mark woods.
Thank you for the presentation. I just had one question. What happens with the trees and I'd like to know about the trees because that's a great amenity for a city it helps so much with like, you know, environment, air quality, you know, water and then also like phytoremediation in some cases. So just a better idea about like environment, obviously flora and fauna, and then also these areas I'd like to know about local wildlife, wildlife and how that would be affected.
Thanks.
Thank you. Nice response. Commissioner, spars.
Thank you, Chairman. Within the confines of the blue outline, the existing improvements will they remain will they be removed or will they? Do we know what happens once the installation is in place? We don't
have details on that. But we can research about what I'm assuming that the land would be cleared and taken to green space to accommodate the solar fields but we can look for that information get verification.
So if that's a possibility, then does the blue outline become a barrier?
That's a valid question. Yes, especially for streets how that how routing will work for areas if there's paths of desire that people are using in the community currently. So we'll look for more information to bring back to you on the area around the periphery of that blue area, what would occur there
and by chance on any one of these submissions. As anyone involved generated a conceptual rendering three dimensional visual,
I have not seen one.
Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you.
Commissioner Daniels one more quick question. If they're possible to get a map of these areas, so we can actually see the details streets that are going to be involved and what the proper streets are as possible. Okay, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Daniels.
So Mr. Jack had run through the nine sites now if you'd like with the with the owner information or not up to you. So this is the first site I referred to as Gratiot Finley it's at the northern end of the Gratiot Findlay neighborhood. McNichols at the top boundary of the community benefit area Gratiot to the right, and then Barlow Street to the south. This is the solar blue area here would be 23.4 acres and there's seven owner occupied homes within the blue area and six occupied rentals. Or the second area this is referred to as Greenfield Park. To the north is Rexdale Avenue to the east as I 75 to the south is the border of Highland Park and to the west as John R. This is 42 sites with over two acres also with six owner occupied homes and six occupied rentals. The third finalist is Greg stale farms, in worth pointing out the district the current council districts just for proximity to the other solar farms as you'll see. So here you'll see that the previous one Greenfield Park is outlined with no Phil just to show that proximity so the rear alley along the south side of seven mile would be the North boundary to the east would be the rear alley along the west side. of John are to the South would be Greendale and to the West would again be the rear rear alley, east of Woodward. This is 43.6 acres one of the larger sites. Seven owner occupied homes at approximately 30 occupied rentals. The foresight is the outer haze, outward sorry outer drive haze and finalist the North boundaries the mid brought mid black line between Houston Whittier and Flanders. The East is Hayes Street. The South is the mid black line behind outer drive towards Rosemary Street to the north and the west is Leroy Avenue. This is 19.5 acres to owner occupied homes and five occupied rentals. The fifth site is near the existing O'Shea park you see in the northeast corner on the left map North boundaries I 96. East as Greenfield South is Plymouth Road, and the West is the Southfield freeway. 61.6 acres over two sites. Three owner occupied homes within the blue solar boundary and nine occupied rentals. finalist six is Mount Olivet. So the US me that North boundary seven mile east boundaries, a railroad right of way to mount Olivet cemetery to the east. The South being orient Street and the West is Van Dyck 21.4 acres seven owner occupied homes at 18 occupied rentals. And the seven finalists is state fair or Penrose. The North boundary State Fair Avenue, East is railroad right of way. The South boundary is the rear alley along the north side of seven mile and you'll see it wraps around the rear of the new perfecting church site that you recently saw. And then up Ralston street back to State Fair 55.2 acres over two sites nine owner occupied homes and 20 occupied rentals. Site 11 is charity Pickford or Holcomb community. This is the only site in district one. The North boundary is seven mile east evergreen, the South is irregular in New York called Carroll Street and the West is Laaser 23.9 Miles six I'm sorry. 23.9 acres and six owner occupied homes and 12 occupied rentals. And then lastly, is site nine airport subdivision or VanDyke Blanchett District Three North boundary, McNichols East French road or the West boundary of the airport. The South is approximately medulla Street and the West is Van Dyck. This is 43.8 acres with nine owner occupied homes and two rentals. Mr. Chair that's all of the United States.
Thank you right but at present station go ahead Commissioner.
And you're looking and the mayor's office is looking for 250 acres
total. That can be spread over six sites is the goal and
within the mayor's office than could possibly redesign some of the sites as they have been submitted.
I believe that's the case. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Lewis. I just had two questions. And you may not have this answer. As far as the design of these sites, has the mayor's office established what that process may look like in terms of you know, do we get the opportunity to look at the site design and, you know, provide feedback? Have they gotten that far yet?
As far as the boundaries those understand had been chosen by the community primarily, but as far as the site design process, I think that's probably a later stage item as far as what process this will go through for Designer view or something like that. I don't know if Director Todd has any insight, but we don't have a handle on that right now. Okay.
It would be nice if we could get design, you know, at least a chance to weigh in on the design of each site. You know, I'm just thinking of all the work perfect can churches done and then you know, a solar farm goes up around them with no landscaping and and you know, how that may work against, you know, a site like that. Same with a lot of the other sites. You know, I think we should have some form of review of what that designed.
There has there. There was discussion of a good perimeter buffer along with decorative fencing trees to screen the perimeter, but good, good point by you, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Okay. And lastly, do these parcels Do do you foresee the parcels may need to be resolved to allow these to remain, you know, as a part of the product? We're
not to that stage yet of I think there were still conceptual with within individual sites themselves in which the finalist started that may be a second step. That when we look at the mayor's office, as well as the law department, as far as what procedure would, would be necessary, from a zoning standpoint?
Okay. All right. Commissioner Harrison.
Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a question. I'm in. You might have mentioned this does does any of this require any reconsiderations of land use zoning any of the sites or No,
through the chat. It's kind of a future question again that once we get I think maybe through the finalists, stage, we there'll be clarity on zoning procedure, things like that as far as the permitting level, but,
Becky, okay, appreciate that. And these are probably questions. Just two questions, relation to maybe things that we can learn in the future about this is is this Solar Initiative? Is it a part of a any type of larger strategy that we could learn about in relation to both solar solar as well as enhancing green and sustainable infrastructure in the city and is there something that you feel we can we can kind of get a glimpse
at? Yes, through the chair, we can have more information. There's statewide sustainable targets for utilities that they meet certain percentages of their power is generated by renewable energy, which could include solar and other sources. So that was tied recently to legislation that increased those percentages that went through in the fall so we can have that information for you at the next meeting.
Thank you. Thank you. And last question, I'm just curious relates to maintenance and maintenance of these fields. Are there like workforce or like who's maintaining it? local folks being trained to do some of that work or is that is there anything that we can learn? I think it would be would just be curious. I appreciate learning about this is really unique. Yeah,
to the chair. There have been discussions of that and been betrayed at work, but I don't know those details. So again, we'll have to try to get the experts on it before you had a future meeting.
Thank you. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Thank you, Commissioner Harrison, lat last two last last last two. Again, this may be a question for later. And I think Commissioner spars have brought it up the roads you know how those get played into would always be converted into, you know, land to be used for additional toilet facilities. And then the last question might have lost me so I think ours out ended there. Oh, I remember now. Our solar panels permitted in the r1 district.
Well, we have
this the land or director time if you'd like to answer you go ahead. But we have land a land use term of solar generation station. So it wouldn't be focusing on individual panels but it would be focusing on that land use of a solar field or Parker. We use generation stations are
both permitted in r1. And maybe Director Todd Yeah. Yes, sir.
Apology. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. CORZINE. Mr. CORZINE is correct in terms of how we set it up in terms of anticipated use, certainly in an r1 such circumstance a solar panel can be allowed as part of residential structure. You know, we're talking about adding on to such existing facilities as the accessory if you would to the activity of home ownership of residential occupancy. That present it is only the PR Parks and Recreation zoning district that does allow for the salt solar generation facilities and as Mr. Pausini indicated earlier, that was done more or less as a pilot project. Where we changed both. We made changes to the provisions of the PR to allow that use on a conditional basis. In order for this effort to sort of be piloted at the O'Shea park and recreation facility. There at Greenfield in 96. So those are the only places where it's currently allowed. Well. Let me you, Mr. Gu. I think in the industrial districts, there's allowance today.
Thank you, Director Todd. Mr. Good luck. Did you have any did you want to add to that at all?
I was sure I missed the question because I was working on another email.
I think it was about the allowance of these facilities in the industrial district. I think that was where we left off.
My understand is solar's listed in the zoning ordinance only NPR is
just that. Okay, you're the Chair. Thank you, Mr. Gula.
Thank you that answers. Okay. So there may be some changes, though. Thank you. Commissioner Dobby and then Commissioner Esparza. Excellent. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. I have a question to know if there are, I don't know we're talking about like, where is solar allowed? But I'm wondering why having a huge solar farms is the solution here. As opposed to for example, helping residents put solar panels on their homes throughout the throughout the city, or any other putting them on commercial buildings, etc. Or even municipal buildings themselves. I'd love to hear a little bit more about the rationale. And if you don't know today, maybe next time would be great to hear. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Director, Todd.
Thank you. This is certainly something that we know is under discussion. The green task force under councilmember Benson, you received presentation from them last year. They did make indication as to that that being one of the things that they have been pursuing for some time, and are still pursuing the initiatives, if you will, around the placement of solar panels on municipal buildings and other properties, really to try to spearhead that level of solar generation, if you will, as a more urban centric sort of solution than what is proposed here. So again, I think we are all trying to get our heads around exactly what is proposed here, why what the benefits will be, what the motivations are, et cetera, but certainly to Commissioner UWS point what the question he just raised is actually been the pursuit has been the dialogue coming from the green taskforce and others over recent years.
Thank you. Certainly. All right. Yes, thank you Commissioner. Dobby Commissioner. Esparza.
Thank you, Chairman. I may have missed this. But are we aware of this being done elsewhere in the country in a similar context?
That's something we're continuing to research. It there are primarily brownfield conversions that that there are some case studies of brownfield conversions to solar arrays lot such as O'Shea. But there are not a lot of great urban examples of something like this. This is a city of Cincinnati just did one big solar farm out in the suburbs about 10 years ago to accomplish the same thing. So that's one approach. But that will will research that and try to bring that back to you and maybe we'll ask that up the gram Sustainability Institute if they have cases they get that we can bring before you.
And if you do come across any others photos, aerials would be worthwhile. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner as far as well, I think that's all of our questions. Again, Mr. Was any thank you for that presentation up, Director. Go ahead.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, certainly, in order to ensure the nature and the integrity of the information that we are presenting. I was wondering if Mr. CORZINE could briefly address the language in the recently passed state legislation and I apologize if he did that earlier and I missed it. But we are getting maybe conflicting information from something that we were told before we had been going, I believe, put onto the mate, given the impression that the size of the facilities that we were looking at here in the city of Detroit would not come under the exemption that is provided by state law, but there may in fact, be some exemption these facilities may in fact not be subject to local zoning. And just wondering if Mr. Postini had any opportunity to do any further research on that matter.
That is in flux Director Todd and that is one of the questions we'll be asking you of the at the upcoming meeting with with the context as far as the approach of exempt essential services under zoning. But as far as the state legislation, the House bills that we've been following. It's a 50 megawatt threshold that over that 50 megawatts or above you're exempt. From Michigan zoning Enabling Act. So local zoning control would go through, or the permitting process will go through the state as long as the locals don't unreasonably object. So we haven't found a direct linkage between that legislation and this proposal, but that's something we're going to ask the other professionals about if there is or there may be other other bills or legislation in the works that impacts this.
Thank you.
Thank you through the chair to Mr. Zini. I think we'll get together with a lot department and review this at a finer level. And again, hope to get back with you very soon with further presentation and, and a response to all of the questions that the commission has raised.
Thank you, Director. All right. Well, again, Mr. vicini, thank you for that presentation. Thank you for fielding all of our questions. And we look forward to you coming back with this with the additional staff to help with the other questions. Thank you. All right. That concludes our 615 and formal presentation. Now we just have our actually, before we go into the discussion, let's open up public public comment, and then we'll go into the discussion. So, without any further ado, public comment is open. Can staff assist me with any attendees virtually? If you are participating in the meeting via zoom? You can participate in the public comment by raising your hand virtually and then staff will bring you over until the panelist
I think you got to do it director.
Mr Chair, commissioners, there are no hands raised at this time.
Thank you. And Mr. Goulart, can you assist me Do we have any attendees for public comment here in the room
there are no attendees here in the room. Thank you. All right. With that we will close public comment. And we can now move on to our last discussion item the seven o'clock discussion for CPC committee assignment. Director Todd will you be assisting us with this item?
Yes, Mr. Chair commissioners, do apologize for my voice will do my best. What I simply wanted to do as I have had an opportunity to discuss with you and of course the last time we received a report and follow up from our special committee on committees. We had hoped to be able to in this new year with a fully impaneled commission begin to populate formally established and populate the committees. So what I simply wanted to do was review those committees and certainly to the extent that commissioners Lewis and Harrison would like to weigh in with any qualifying remarks, at least put on the table what it is that is available, so that commissioners can begin to consider the committee's upon which they'd like to serve and make such indications in order that you Mr. Chair, having appointing power via the Commission's bylaws to appoint the members as well as the Chair and Vice Chair of each committee that that process can begin. So very quickly, just wanted to go through the identify communities. The identified committees of the City Planning Commission, they are what is formally referred to today in your bylaws. The Rules Committee, which the special committee has recommended re dubbing the Bylaws Committee, again, that being consistent with the provisions in state law for Planning Commission's operating under bylaws as opposed to rules or rules of procedure as is otherwise referred to in the city charter for certain bodies and organization of the city. Additionally, there is the goals and objectives committee as it is currently referred to in your bylaws. And special committee has recommended redoubling that the Commission agenda committee Additionally, the commission has come forward with a nominating committee being formed that could deal annually in late spring of each year with formally receiving nominations for the office officers of the commission. Again that being the chair and the vice chair, Secretary. And again, this was something that was suggested in the past we've not had such a committee, as that activity has typically just taken place at the Commission table. In and around the time of your election. The other the other committee that has another committee that was suggested coming out of this effort, dovetailing with some of the other activities of the commission would be a zoning innovation committee, one that would maybe be more ad hoc, whereas the aforementioned committees would be standing committees, or special committees of the commission itself. So again, with regard to bylaws, and the agenda. The Commission, the Commission bylaws, the Commission agenda, and the nominating committee goals would be committees comprised of three commissioners appear a vice chair and a member and then also ex officio prep, participation from the chair or the Vice Chair respectively. This following the structure that city council operates on, but when it comes to this zoning innovation committee, the thought was that this might be more of an ad hoc committee, upon which one two commissioners may sit along with a group of other city persons or or citizens something that could seed the zoning ordinance. And I think more specifically, this sort of came out of the idea of what might be formed in order to feed the I 375 process. With that said, let me skip to a couple of other similarly situated committees and then go back to the CRC last and outstanding issue. Similar to this zoning innovation committee, the commission has in the past with regard to particular zoning projects that were before a rezoning request, where there were extenuating circumstances demanding further commission attention, were one or two or three commissioners have actively joined the negotiations, if you will, the the meeting process on such a project in order to further the Commission's understanding and the Commission's interest. Similarly, as I was referring to with the zoning innovation committee, the commission has had members to sit with the steering committee, I believe, if I'm correct, Mr. Gulati of the zone Detroit project or previous efforts to revise zoning ordinance or even come and attend the zoning advisory group meetings. And certainly we have discussed and there is, I think, currently being considered exactly how not just commission staff but commissioners might engage with the master plan. So there are these. So in that instance, there might be an opportunity to participate on a another sort of steering committee or again an advisory committee to the Master Plan process and there may be one or two seats or opportunities made available to commissioners to do so. So what we have are these three standing committees. Then we have some special committees that the commission could create such as that zoning innovation committee, and then there are other projects or efforts such as IP 75, the masterplan zone, Detroit, etc. Where the commission may have incidence and instances where there's interest and desire to have a commissioner assigned. So those are the areas that have been presented to you coming out of the special committee on committees work, the remaining item that we are still dealing with as we touched on before is exactly how to deal with the citizens review committee and maybe evolving that into something new and different. It is the sincere hope of staff that with this new year, we can get back on to a cadence of meetings for that special committee on committees and that we can also as the Commission's standing committees are formed. Begin to also establish a cadence of meetings for them, the last thing I would like to say with respect to the bylaws the Bylaws Committee, well really with respect to all three bylaws, agenda and even nominating you don't necessarily see these committees as having to meet year round. Again, I believe that the committee had some thoughts as to when it might be most advantageous for these committees to meet. Certainly we're going to have to deal with not only staff physical capacity to support these meetings, but the logistical capacity there within the building. Because these meetings will have to be treated as your meetings are today, as the special committee on committees, Special Committee on committees, meetings have been treated unless we get some different advice from the law department. And at present we have not they will have to be treated as open meetings. They will have to be commissioners will have to participate in person. And the meetings will have to be recorded and broadcast in a hybrid fashion as we do all of your meetings. So, these are again some of the logistical and operational concerns that we are dealing with post COVID. And again, do the nor to our capacity to do so and certainly the limits of commissioners capacity with all of the other things that you are of course doing as individuals. So that is the overview. Mr. Sphere commissioners, leave it to the Commission in terms of your questions and how you would like to proceed.
Thank you, Director tat couple things well, I think one at least relates to the zoning innovation committee, you are very spot on in terms of you know what the intention for that committee was? And I would just further add, I think, here we there are a lot of zoning items that come to us and we have as much conversation as we can, you know, within the time allowance that we have. But I think there may be items that we don't want to go into too deep discussions, but we just want a bit more freedom in terms of being able to kind of talk about these things without the the restriction of other items that may be following or the time it took for that one particular item. You know, and so I think the way you described it was perfect, so that was just kind of to supplement the intent. Of what that committee was for. Are you looking for appointments, this meeting or do you want to come back with some more details and then we make appointments at that meeting?
No, Mr. Chair was not looking for you to make appointments, but really just again, using this discussion as the opportunity to spur that next step. So that commissioners have an opportunity to discuss the committee's the expectations and begin to consider themselves what they may have the time and capacity to participate in and and maybe then even make some expressions to staff or, you know, to staff that we can convey to you in terms of the interest that exists and help you then to facilitate the committee assignments. And moving forward from there.
And following our meetings on the committee on subcommittees the first four committees you mentioned, I think we had a clear, you know, marching path forward. And we we only needed to meet as that subcommittee to further discuss the CRC is is that correct?
That is correct. Okay,
so one of the things that needs to happen needs to happen, you know, this meeting of following is we need to re meet the members of the committee on subcommittees to flush out the details for the CRC.
That is correct, Mr. Chair and the school and I recognize that we believe the next step was to try to get someone from the housing and revitalization department to attend the meeting to further this discussion, in order to get some greater sense of the administration's reaction and or willingness to advance the thought currently coming from the committee on this issue, and possibly from there, maybe even get some legislative reaction before determining the very next steps to take in terms of formal recommendation and returning the item to the full body for discussion. Okay, so again, that's one of the things we're looking to determine. First and foremost, the cadence of meetings for that even before we necessarily would jump into setting up the other committees trying to or having the desire at least to conclude the work of the special committee.
Okay, thank you. So I'm looking at Commissioner Lewis and Commissioner Harrison I believe our previous meeting cadence for the Subcommittee on committees was the Wednesday before our planning commission meetings.
Yes, that is correct. I would only state that. As director Todd has indicated we do need to get that feedback. Before we can move forward with the CRC. Yes. And so maybe scheduling the Committee on subcommittees meeting sometime late February early March with give Director Todd and Mr. Coolock enough time to possibly meet with those departments and then as necessary, the committee could come in.
Thank you commission laws. So if staff if staff could, those Wednesdays I'm sorry, I have a sneeze and awaiting order to come. The Wednesdays that I guess we're proposing for availability would be the Wednesday's before our regularly scheduled meeting said it'd be first and third Wednesdays. So if you could use those days as a guiding point for when HRD could be in attendance. I think that'd be helpful for scheduling.
Certainly, Mr. Chair, Commissioner, through you if I made a Mr Glock. You think Chris that the I believe we'd be looking at excuse me February 15. The meeting the full meeting of February 15 of the commission, that maybe we could do something on the 14th we can reach out to HR D and see if they'd be willing to send a representative. You Yeah, I think that's all right. And if that's the case, does that work generally with the committee representatives who are here today, I have been in touch with former commissioner Andrews who of course continues on as a member of this committee as a non Commissioner. And she has availability as well given that her national obligation has has has ceased.
Okay. If I could throw a timeout, I think we were meeting at three o'clock. Yes. Yep. So we try to keep that same time.
All right. Well, with that we'll we'll look to pursue that and then look to march 6, as maybe the second opportunity to meet we'll throw both of those dates out to HR D and hopefully we can get something scheduled for one or both of those days.
Okay. And Commissioner Harrison Yeah.
So February 14 is Valentine's Day Valentine's Day. Just want to say that. And I'm working real hard, you know, to stay in good graces. That's out of trouble. Great. Yes. And this is anniversaries. But I can I can make the 14th The 14th actually works then march 6 does not work. That is my my birthday. So I probably will will be I think that I plan to be out that day. So but forever Your February 14 does work. Alright.
And again, if I may through the Chair, Mr. Gulak. What did we decide on the 22nd? Or the eighth? We decided on the 22nd. Didn't we for the special meeting, additional meeting. So you actually have the meeting date? Already?
It'd be ideal. I think if the commission votes on the 15th because if the council is able to have their hearing, at the end of February, they need to get the information distributed, but it depends on the mayor releases the numbers. So it's kind of up in the air right now. But yeah, ideally, the Commission votes on the 15th that we can turn it around and give it to city council. And then the 22nd would be more to catch up on rezonings and other items.
But to the extent that I'm sorry, again through the chair, to the extent that those are the scheduled dates for meeting the first 15th and the 22nd with the 21st. The unavailable alternative as well for the special committee on committees to meet
I do not have a conflict on the 21st
if that works for me as well.
Commissioner Lewis is still check it. All right. Are you good on the 21st? Okay, do you gotta three out of three on the 21st Okay.
All right. Well, we will check with Commissioner Andrews and the others. And we'll work with all of the well with the 14th and the 21st. But hearing Commissioner Harrison the caution will we will exercise expediency on that date.
All right. Thank you and as it relates to the other four committees. I guess we'll just do a quick gauge. Does anyone have any interest in chairing the bylaws committee the the commission agenda on committees the nominating committee, and or the zoning innovation committee? Yes, Vice Chair Markowitz.
Thank you. I certainly have interest in serving on the zoning innovation committee contingent upon what time they meet you know jobs.
Thanks. All right. Thank you. Do we have any interest for the Bylaws Committee? Everybody doesn't have to jump at once today. That's fine. All right. The Commission agenda on committees. We have any interest there.
I have an interest in the commission agenda. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Harrison, and also the zoning innovation committee if there are others that also want to have interest in it, which is development.
Okay. And on the agenda, Commissioner Harrison you said goals commission agenda.
It's an agenda. Its primary, but if if there are others, and zoning classification because it's an ad hoc committee, I'm assuming that there may not be like a that meeting schedule might look different from the other committee.
They will probably also be an ad hoc meeting, you know, whenever they come up, as I'm thinking okay. nominating committee, commissioners baraza.
And then I'll put myself down for bylaws. Can I do that Director Todd as chair what's my limit on participation and interest with the committee's
again Mr. Chair following after the structure established by city council, the chair that is ex officio on all of the Standing Committee
good to know and as ex officio cannot be chair
of the things that is that doesn't follow with City Council structure No. So your ex officio nonvoting and that is how city councils standing committees are structured. Okay president of city council does not chair any of those committees. Vice Chair I'm sorry, the president pro tem of city council does have opportunity to chair and sit on committees but also can act as ex officio in the President's ID so that is the model that the Commission follow. The Commission
also follows Thank you, Commissioner Lewis. You'll say bylaws, thank you. All right. So I have commissioned Lewis for the Bylaws Committee for the commission agenda committee, would be Commissioner Harrison, nominating committee Commissioner as far as a there's a lot of interest in the innovation committee, Vice Chair Markowitz, Commissioner Harrison and Commissioner Daniels and then to be determined details related to the CRC. All
right. And Mr. Chair Commissioner you Dobby has her hand.
I see that thank you. I don't have my laptop in front of me today. So thanks for assisting me Commissioner you Dobby Yeah,
of course. Thank you. Director Todd for noticing and Thank you chair. If I can throw my name in the ring. I think that it sounds like we're running out of space in these committees, but I would be excited to do the zoning innovation one so I don't that will work in the future, but I just want my name out there. Thanks, mister.
No problem. Yes, Commissioner Lewis.
I would remind that past chairperson hood is the individual that actually suggested that committee and very much wanted to share it. Okay.
We will make a note for Commissioner hood All right. All right, Director Todd. Does that handle all the committee business as you were expecting today?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I guess the only thing that I will I will note that while we do have at least one individual expressing interest in bylaws agenda and nominating Of course, we will need three persons on each in total, plus you as ex officio So, again, to the extent that commissioners do have some interest and availability, please let staff know as we will need Commissioner participation in order to impanel those those those committees and for that work to be done. And then I think with regard to the zoning innovation committee, we may want to spend a little more time working out that structure and the way in which that committee may rise and fall, if it's going to be a standing committee or committee on call that could be reformed and riaan panel, you know, for each given instance, or again, if it will have a existing composition that is maybe in when it comes to the commissioners, and then maybe the other participants will be added on an as needed basis given the focus of the committee's work at that time. But that's something and staff can spend a little more time on and in thinking on and we can discuss at your next meeting with respect to Commissioner hood, as well as Commissioner Andrews and this is me jumping ahead a little bit but only to the extent it is related. They are both available and do plan to participate in the commission dinner tomorrow. And at that time, and also at your next meeting on February 1. We will hear more from Commissioner hood in terms of her intentions or plans for the future as it relates to the commitment.
Okay, thank you, Director. Certainly. All right. So that concludes our presentations and discussions for this evening. We handle public comment, we motion to remove the unfinished business item. So now we are at New Business Director Todd Do we have any new business?
In this chair commissioners?
There's no okay.
I imagine we have no committee reports. We just kind of handled that. That is correct. Okay. Do we have any staff reports?
There is none at this time.
Okay.
Do you want to handle the bridge and communications in the event tomorrow? Certainly.
With well with regard to the tour still looking to get the most current numbers in order to provide a list for security purposes. In terms of who will be attending. We do know that whether is pre empting some members from joining but I do believe I have a final list but again if commissioners could indicate this evening or again via email or text, your final availability for the tour tomorrow. Again we are looking to meet at the MDOT service center on Fourth Street just east Parmeet just west of the lodge at one o'clock tomorrow. Before the four an initial video presentation and then we'll be boarding a shuttle bus to go on the tour for the Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Do you have the address on hand? Oh, can you put it in our group
chat I will certainly put it in the group chat and looking for it now.
And while he's doing that, we can just do a quick hand raise again. If you intend to participate tomorrow because I think we have everybody minus one hitter day one or two. Okay, so everyone with the exception of Commissioner as far as a and Commissioner Harrison and then you'd have to check on Commissioner you Dobby Are you there? Are you attending tomorrow?
I am there but unfortunately I'm not in the city. So I'll have to bow out.
So you just have to check with Commissioner hood director. Right. Thank you much.
No problem.
Yeah, we can also do a count on dinner. Yeah, Dr. Todd can you know, where's the dinner so
we are looking Mr. Chair commissioners to convene at five o'clock tomorrow at Otava via which is on Michigan Avenue. Goodness and I just blanked on that address. Let me let me see. Let me let me stop multitasking in this way and answer the first question. All right. So with respect to your the tour the MDOT Service Center is located at 1016 West Fourth Street 1060 West Fourth Street, and again, your name should be on a list allowing you access to parking in the rear and you'll be coming in and asking for Mohammed Alka Robbie. If in fact Mohammed will not be standing there at the door and he will take the take you from there to the conference room, wherein the presentation will be held and from there we'll return to the lack of access to shuttle buses and then begin the hour or so. Ground tour.
Okay. Thank you and of the everyone that will attend the tour. Do you also anticipate attending the dinner? Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. As far as a Harrison and you Daveed do you intend to participate in the dinner? No, no, no. Okay. Are we allowed to do plus ones director dot?
Yes, we're more than happy that we just need the information in order to provide the restaurant with a final count hopefully this evening.
Do we have any plus ones between our group? No, no, no. Okay, so we don't have any plus one. So it just be the five commissioners for the tour and the dinner.
All right. And but see and again Otava via is located at 1400 Michigan Avenue. That's Michigan Avenue and Eighth Street, the north side of the street 1400 This is gonna happen.
Thank you.
All right. All right.
Last week, I attended the redistricting meeting for district two. I brought it up, you know, our meeting before this one. And it was a good meeting. Miss swear was there. She did an awesome presentation. So kudos to her. But she also mentioned that there was a six map coming out. That was supposed to be the will just briefly to recap. There were five maps that were created. And each of those maps attempted to normalize or balance out the district distribution of population across all districts. There was pushback against those one to five maps, because it changed, you know, will may have split boundaries, certain neighborhoods. So for my understanding, there was a six map that was being put together that took more consideration to boundaries. And it attempted instead of normalizing the populations. The sixth map, the goal of that map was to make the least amount of changes to the existing boundaries. And that map was going being presented to council I think it might have happened last week. Are you able to provide a brief update on where Council is as it relates to the redistricting, redistricting maps and their timeline for approval?
Currently, Mr. Chair commissioners, and not only that, I will email a copy of the PDF copy of the current presentation, which includes the five map as well as the sixth option which was completed at the end of last week and was added to that presentation and city council did have a committee of the whole meeting on the matter on this past Tuesday, at which all of the options were reviewed. City council has scheduled a public hearing for I believe 10 pin on next Tuesday, during the formal session of city council wherein the the six options will once again be presented for formal community response. The anticipation as you indicated is that the sixth option, which is in many ways a response to the reaction that both council members and excuse me, the public have had to the originally to the first five options. As again you stated Mr. Chair here we sought that route of minimal change. But minimal change does mean that the 91,400 persons per district that we have been shooting for, again, essentially taking the city's population and dividing it into seven. Again, all of the previous options, as you indicated, sought to normalize that one seven number thought to bring each of them into balance as close to that figure as possible by taking the approach to be divergent and to instead fall within the extremes of the 10% variance in population that we are allowed. That being roughly based upon that 91,400 Number. Each district could be have no less than 86,830 persons and no more than 95,970. Again, the actual state law speaks of no more than 10% variance. But again, for purposes of trying to make it easy to understand. We've used that median that average of 91,400 and the the 5% plus or minus numbers of 86,008 30 and 95,009 70 to communicate the the goal. With that said essentially what we have done with the sixth option is look to bring districts three, four, and five, three and four having lost the most population 17% Almost 17% normals, 20% and then district five which lost I believe almost 12% to bring those two districts up to the bottom end of that threshold so that they are legally compliant. And then to bring the remaining four districts to the upper end of that threshold, again to be within the 10% compliance of variance between the populations of the seven districts. And by taking that approach, not again looking to maximize the population. It allows us to have the least impact to the boundaries, focusing chiefly in on making districts again three, four and five whole but then recognizing as you take from districts that abut them in order to balance out population, you will still have some impact but this last item does maintain as much of the existing district boundaries as possible, but there are changes. So again, we will certainly forward the PDF of the presentation to you. I can tell you now that and for your benefit and of course for the public as well. These districts are being drawn and their anticipated adoption by city council in the next few weeks, is being done first and foremost to facilitate the 2025 election that is the extent to which they will become effective. It will not change the districts as they are situated today. This is only being done again for the purposes of the election. So it will afford any balance of the adopted districts to be addressed. Then afford the city clerk the opportunity to put the information in place for the purposes of the election and then allow those persons who are looking to run for office within this district the opportunity to properly locate and mount their campaigns. Given that you have to be a resident of the district in which you intend to run for a full year in advance of the election itself. The districts will not take full effect until January of 26 when those persons elected on during the January I'm sorry, during the November 2025 election would formally come into office. And it is also at that time that those new district boundaries coming into effect the city would then have to begin the process of changing whatever is now necessitated by those changes. So districts whether that's changing signage on public buildings that have now moving from one district to another, whether that is as it will be the case for commissioners if, as may be the case for commissioners, as may be the case for board of zoning appeals members and other appointments that are based upon districts. If you now live in a district, other than where you are currently situated, you may no longer in that instance, you'll no longer be eligible to hold that seat, which is district dependent. So there'll be a number of things that the council that the city itself will have to address. Again, once these districts are adopted and then again become fully into effect in January of 26.
Thank you Director Todd for that oh synopsis sure everyone appreciate it. All right. There are no further questions, Commissioner Russell.
Is there anything else that we need to do? I'm scared I've missed something for the stipend. And I wanted to make sure that I had done all what I was supposed to do.
Through the Chair, again, commissioners we ask you to particularly from this point forward with regard to the stipend look to utilize your city of Detroit email, unless your private email in order that you can receive all communications you need to probably check it at least weekly, if not multiple times during the week. Again, I will look to follow up with budget and finance to find out exactly where we are. But I believe that they are still waiting to hear from all commissioners. Maybe that has been SP since the last exchange that I had, but they're looking to hear from everyone in order to get the mechanisms in place. Thank you,
Director, Vice Chair mark with
Thank you Mr. Chair, just an update I did speak with the CFOs office and checks should be mailed out tomorrow. For those that provided all their
stuff. Good. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Director Todd, do we have any further communications?
Mr. Chair, I have not been into the office of allele to Mr. Ghul act if he may have checked mail to see if there's anything new that has come in.
I do have I think you did this one in the last meeting. I mean, the dates past this was for the city of Dearborn. Oh, yeah. I recall you mentioned in it.
Yes. And thank you for the reminder, that meeting was subsequently cancelled. So it did not happen and I have not heard anything from them. Again. There may be something new in the mailbox, but I did in in looking and checking their website and looking to see if there was any additional information beyond what we previously provided you stumbled across the notice of Camp cancellation. So that rezoning hearing did not go forward due to a lack of quorum.
Okay. All right. Well, if there are no further communications, it is 827 and I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you.
Thank you, commissioners. Thank you, staff. Thanks, everyone. Take care
