[0:00] good evening everyone my name is Aaron tuckfield I'm the chairperson of Macomb

[0:04] Township zoning board of appeals today is January 5th the time is 6 35 my

[0:09] apologies for the delay we had some technical difficulties before we got

[0:12] started I've called the meeting to order and I'm going to move us on to item two

[0:17] on our agenda this evening which is the Pledge of Allegiance please stand with

[0:19] me for the pledge

[0:22] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the

[0:27] Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and

[0:32] justice for all foreign

[0:36] [Music]

[0:40] next item on our agenda is the roll call um I think we'll talk later this evening

[0:45] about potential for election of officers but our current Secretary

[0:49] um Miss Lawson who will probably talk about

[0:51] later a little bit um has resigned she's no longer a member of the board so I

[0:55] think I'm going to call the roll call for this evening and then if we get to

[0:59] officers we can decide that either at the end of this meeting or the beginning

[1:02] of next meeting so that was being said I'm going to call

[1:05] the roll um Mr Piper here Mr decoster here

[1:10] um Mr de Bruin here Mr tuckfield is present all members are present I should

[1:15] just note that we only have four uh regular members and they are all in

[1:19] attendance this evening um and since the only other two members

[1:23] would be alternates I don't think we have to do a motion to withhold them

[1:27] from Roll calls all right so we're going to move on to

[1:31] item four which is addressing any conflicts of interest

[1:34] at this time I'm going to call the role if ever any member has a conflict of

[1:38] interest please indicate so by saying yes and if you do not please indicate by

[1:41] saying no and I will call the roll Mr decoster no Mr Chuck field says no Mr de

[1:46] Bruin no Mr Piper no all right all members are showing no conflicts of

[1:51] interest that's going to move us on to the approval of the agenda is there any

[1:55] discussion remote motions on the approval of tonight's agenda

[2:01] this chairman I'll make a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting

[2:03] motion by Mr Costa is there a support I will support that supported by Mr Piper

[2:07] all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye all those opposed by

[2:11] saying nay that item passes and tonight's agenda is approved

[2:16] next item is the approval of the previous meeting minutes that will be

[2:20] those for the regularly scheduled meeting of December the 1st 2022 is

[2:24] there any discussion or motions on these minutes

[2:31] Mr chairman hearing no uh Corrections for any other members I

[2:36] would vote to accept minutes as presented all right motion by Mr Piper

[2:39] is there support supported by Mr Coster all those in favor please signify by

[2:43] saying aye aye all those opposed by saying nay that motion carries and the

[2:48] previous meeting minutes have been adopted abstain from that wasn't there

[2:53] very good thank you Mr de Bruin um yeah um next item is the item seven which is

[3:00] old business item 7A which I believe we had on our agenda once before we moved

[3:04] it around because of a different order which is why it's an old business and

[3:09] that'll be a variance request from the zoning ordinance for one seven zero one

[3:13] six two five oh one seven zero one six twenty five mile road right reading

[3:18] right through the numbers there um that would be from section

[3:22] 10.1505 g for permanent Parcels zero eight zero eight one zero one zero four

[3:28] five and zero eight zero eight one zero one zero four six Mr Box could you run

[3:33] us through this please uh yeah thank you Mr chair and and board

[3:38] um you should have the PowerPoint in front of you print it out I apologize if

[3:42] our projector is not working this evening so I will run through the slides

[3:47] um and hopefully you can follow along with your printouts in front of you so

[3:51] as you mentioned this did come before you previously I believe in November uh

[3:55] I was not at that meeting but I believe the the advice at the time was from Mr

[4:01] skurto to table until after the rezoning which has now taken place so this

[4:06] property is rezoned recently to C1 a local commercial so they are now

[4:13] seeking the variance to allow an eight-foot Green Belt along the west and

[4:16] south property lines where 20-foot would normally be required

[4:21] so again the ordinance does require 20-foot setback area separating any

[4:26] structure or parking of private passenger vehicles on any access Drive

[4:31] service Drive loading area or maneuvering lane from any parcel

[4:36] zoned AG r1s R1 r1e R2L R2 r2h R3 CF or MTC or any other residential use and

[4:47] they are surrounded by R1 properties at this time so therefore the 20-foot

[4:52] setback would be what is required per ordinance

[4:57] um so if you look at the following slide I believe that in your printout should

[5:03] be numbered Slide Five there's a site plan in there that

[5:08] they'll be moving forward with potentially uh following this variance

[5:12] request but shown on that is what a 20-foot Green Belt would look like and

[5:16] what how that would impact what they're trying to accomplish on these two

[5:20] Parcels that they recently rezoned what what a 20-foot Green Belt would look

[5:24] like there keeping in mind that there will also be a six foot tall masonry

[5:29] wall that is also required uh so moving on to the next slide you see what

[5:36] they're proposing in fact being an eight foot Green Belt uh with with plenty of

[5:40] vegetation and Landscaping to try to additionally buffer the area along the

[5:46] two residential property lines that are to the South and to the West

[5:53] our staff did take a look there was an issue with the legal description I think

[5:57] we've cleared that up now engineering had no engineering related concerns

[6:02] Melissa did take a look at this for the planning department and did ask that the

[6:06] applicant demonstrate how compliance with the strict letter of the ordinance

[6:10] is unnecessarily burdensome and she did point out that again that

[6:14] there are some additional plannings that they're offering for the reduced

[6:18] Greenbelt area to help with the screening purposes

[6:21] so that being said I think we're going to ask the petitioner to walk walk

[6:27] through how they view this as as a hardship as

[6:30] you know you have to identify a hardship in order to Grant a variance and so

[6:35] we're going to ask them to which they are here tonight to to walk through that

[6:39] all right thank you Mr Box any questions uh to Mr box from the board

[6:44] uh hearing none if the applicants are here if you come forward to the center

[6:47] table uh state your name and address for the record and give any comments you

[6:51] might have yes yeah

[6:58] hi I'm I'm Joe rugerello I'm the owner

[7:05] okay very good uh to our av gentlemen are they close stuff can you hear the

[7:10] med the microphone good I'm not hearing them I'm not sure if

[7:15] that microphone's working can you hear me now

[7:19] I'm Joe rudrell I'm the owner Catherine satimo big designs very good

[7:24] sorry I wasn't sure if we were having another issue there just want to make

[7:26] sure okay uh uh any comments that you make gentlemen

[7:30] and lady have the seating for us [Music]

[7:34] so where I can

[7:40] view of them uh certainly explain the thoughts and then Mr Box uh mentioned uh

[7:44] if you have any comments with regards to practical difficulty that is in play

[7:48] here that you see as being here that'd be helpful um the first practical reason

[7:51] we would like the eight foot green belt is the property next to it has an eight

[7:56] foot green belt and we would like to keep the Aesthetics the same

[8:01] um we also would like to

[8:04] keep away from undesirable parallel parking spots which would be required if

[8:09] we have a 20-foot green belt we would also need to reduce the size of

[8:14] our building which wouldn't be conducive for very

[8:19] much of anything on this on this site at all

[8:24] um but mostly we would like to keep the

[8:26] same Aesthetics that are currently there so

[8:32] um I can answer questions if you okay any

[8:36] any questions for the petitioner my question would be uh you said about

[8:41] the eight foot on the adjacent property I don't remember how that came about was

[8:45] that something that variants was granted for them or that's currently

[8:49] um a different Zone it's different which require which allows it for an eight

[8:53] foot green belt

[8:56] Mr Box you have any yeah I was just going to add that that that's the reason

[9:00] for the eight foot on the adjacent property is it's zoned o one which only

[9:03] requires an eight foot Green Belt um the site plan that you see in your

[9:08] packet um kind of shows what the existing

[9:11] layout is along with what they're proposing

[9:15] um and so yes it would be a different zoning category that has the eight foot

[9:20] but they are proposing to share at this time to share a driveway with that

[9:26] development next door so it kind of function as one development

[9:32] and Mr Piper I don't remember if you're on the board at the time but I know that

[9:35] the adjacent property did get a variance but I believe I believe it was for the

[9:39] wall not the uh not the green belt yeah yeah because I didn't remember yeah I

[9:44] couldn't remember if you'd been on at that particular time or not we I think

[9:47] we looked at that one multiple meetings if I remember that was a long uh that

[9:50] was a long decision all right any other questions uh for the

[9:54] petitioner

[9:58] um I have a question for Mr boxer Mr Brown

[10:00] the zoning at the dentist office next door being an ozone was there a reason

[10:05] why this property here was not zoned the same way or so and they followed they

[10:11] rezone this to C1 that's what they're seeking here and they did get that

[10:14] approved uh according to the master plan this this whole area is master plan for

[10:19] uh Flex use which would allow C1 or01 so it the rezoning that they asked for did

[10:25] match the master plan okay

[10:28] but had it been zoned oh it would have also matched the master plan being

[10:31] correct correct

[10:38] any questions maybe for Mr Box because there's a wall because of the

[10:45] butts a residential obviously that's for sound and noise and things what is the

[10:50] point of the further setback with regards to commercial as opposed to

[10:53] office I think the intent there is that typically with office settings

[10:58] um oh look at that we got the the projector up there

[11:03] um foreign

[11:05] go back to this so typically with office settings I think

[11:10] that the idea is that um people arrive in the morning

[11:15] and leave in the evening whereas in commercial settings there's constant

[11:19] people in and out for for commercial type uses therefore it creates a larger

[11:24] noise potential noise disturbance for The Neighbors

[11:34] thank you

[11:37] so you know the questions I would open it up to the public but we have no

[11:41] public this evening so I am going to skip over that and bring it back to the

[11:45] board for any further questions or motions

[11:51] I guess one more from Mr Box is I know there's probably nothing set

[11:57] in stone is in your opinion is there something that

[12:00] the extra vegetation equals the further setback

[12:06] I know they're going to put in more which would be essentially buffer the

[12:10] sound and the noise and the light but yeah so I think extra vegetation can

[12:16] buffer you know additional sound and light

[12:20] um keeping in mind that there's already a

[12:23] six foot wall there unless the vegetation itself goes above that wall

[12:28] I'm not sure how much more buffering it provides but I would assume that it does

[12:33] provide some yes okay

[12:40] I actually did have a question for the applicant uh you mentioned that it would

[12:43] be hard to develop this building with the green belt what would that do to

[12:48] your development is it is it developable is it a small building that's not

[12:52] practical because of the dollar amount what would it look like if you if you

[12:54] had to develop with it it shrinks it way down and makes it

[12:59] unusual do you have do you have an understanding of approximately what size

[13:02] the building would be if you were to build it too we've

[13:05] we picked this it would be

[13:08] okay so maybe maybe two units maybe yeah

[13:15] all right thank you you know their comments or motions

[13:21] was there any consideration to ask I don't even know if this is possible with

[13:25] the right-of-way test for a sep a front setback variants to make up the rear

[13:32] um we didn't consider this idea only because we already had the eight foot

[13:36] Green Belt next to it and the idea was to keep it aesthetically pleasing once

[13:42] you come into this drive and the other reason for it is the parking spaces are

[13:47] all in in order with the perk with the the site that's already existing and it

[13:53] was really just an aesthetic choosing to choose the back and not the

[13:57] front and to keep the buildings you know kind

[14:00] of the same location

[14:16] any any other comments emotions anyone oh motions as well I think we're sort of

[14:21] in that phase I just I'm not sure if we have any questions personally I'd like

[14:24] to Grant this variance except I'm trying to

[14:28] hang my hat on an actual practical difficulty uh right now I'm not seeing

[14:32] it I mean um I can't use Aesthetics as a practical difficulty

[14:38] especially if it's possibly developed at a smaller size footprint we do have a a

[14:43] traffic flow issue if we have a 20-foot setback

[14:49] we're not able to get trucks in and trucks out for fire reasons or for

[14:55] ambulance reasons it renders that whole back portion

[14:59] basically unusable

[15:03] with the current design if you offset the building to the could you offset the

[15:07] building to the west and have more accessibility considering you now would

[15:11] now have a shared um

[15:13] shared Drive area with the building to the east I believe

[15:17] building is far

[15:21] but to the West so to the to the left side of the parcel

[15:25] yes yes we might have maybe 18 feet we could move it to the West

[15:33] doesn't it doesn't help it doesn't help Services coming in or coming out it

[15:38] doesn't solve it doesn't solve that Mr I was going to ask Mr eloya and you might

[15:42] have a comment that sounds like if you have a comma go ahead I guess my

[15:47] um I guess my only issue is is I don't know

[15:50] that we've seen a site plan which has measured all these issues I don't know

[15:53] that engineer engineering has evaluated that aspect as to whether the loading

[15:58] and the parking and how that fits with the 20-foot Green Belt I I don't know I

[16:03] don't know maybe Josh knows if they see I mean you do have a draft uh site plan

[16:07] in your packet okay that they're going to look to to move forward with uh if

[16:12] this variance is granted um

[16:15] and that kind of shows the location of what where they're looking

[16:19] to put the building and looking to put parking they do have a loading zone

[16:23] shown directly on the rear side of the building

[16:28] but they don't they don't have a site plan with a 20-foot Green Belt which

[16:31] shows that they can't have a loading zone right correct right

[16:35] but the there's their site plan shows that it would cover up a substantial

[16:40] portion of the parking which means the parking would have to be pushed in

[16:45] correct that was one of the slides that I showed so this this is kind of what

[16:49] the site plan currently that they're working with uh and this is kind of what

[16:55] it would look like with a 20-foot green belt so you can see it would require

[16:59] them to move that parking elsewhere still have to maintain the drive aisle

[17:04] so she's correct it would shrink the building

[17:08] which would a smaller building would be allowed

[17:12] there as well yeah Mr Mr boy and just a question on that

[17:16] and if you had something further no don't let me interrupt you typically

[17:20] we're told that um

[17:24] uh practical difficulties are not generally Financial they're not it's

[17:29] going to make less is there a point where the property would not be

[17:35] is there a definable point where they can't use the property as zoned where it

[17:39] would be considered a practical difficulty or the or the viability of a

[17:42] building is not generally considered anything we can consider here

[17:45] right so it's the petitioner's job to provide material and substantial

[17:50] evidence as to their practical difficulty that's what the law says they

[17:54] have to put the evidence on the record so

[17:57] um it can't be the law says it can't be self-created

[18:01] normally we see um

[18:05] practical difficulties which have to do with the dimensions of the lot or an

[18:09] easement that precludes certain things that are not

[18:13] as a result of either the petitioner's actions or the petitioner's desires so

[18:19] that's typically what we see um you're asking me whether Financial is

[18:23] a so one of the items I brought up was that in order to meet the ordinance they

[18:28] would have to build a smaller building which would not be which would not make

[18:32] the parcel practicable if I if I am yeah I don't know what that means I mean

[18:36] they'd have to explain that it's their duty to explain why a two unit

[18:40] commercial building I mean versus a three unit Why That's

[18:45] not viable I don't know what that means so they'd have to explain that

[18:50] could you explain that further do you have any any other items on that well

[18:54] and and for Mr awoya it is something they mentioned in their application as

[18:58] well which is partially why I understand but it's it's their burden so it's up to

[19:01] them to really explain it understood

[19:06] well guys I'm trying to do the best I can do out there

[19:09] um you know originally we would have had the space to put this building up but I

[19:13] had to give away some of the my original lot because of the right away the

[19:16] roundabout for you guys um I'm just trying to put something

[19:20] that's going to look good aesthetic and um you know something that's going to be

[19:25] sustainable you know at this point if we if it gets

[19:31] shrunk down there's no well it's buildable

[19:34] and it's just that simple um

[19:38] I mean you know I if we go to if we go back to

[19:43] office and we it's gonna be the same layout same parking space all I'm asking

[19:47] for is just a very interest for the all one

[19:52] that's all I'm asking for all right any other questions or

[19:57] comments or motions from the board given the set of circumstances it presented

[20:01] for us here I would make a motion to deny based on the lack of practical

[20:05] difficulty all right motion by Mr de Bruin is there

[20:08] support

[20:10] I'll support all right supported by Mr Koster is there any discussion

[20:15] uh hearing no discussion I will call the roll Mr de Bruin yes Mr decoster yes Mr

[20:21] Piper yes Mr Chuck Phillips yes Bush was denied uh or if motion was

[20:26] approved the variance was denied thank you very much for coming in

[20:31] all right that moves us on to the next item

[20:36] uh which is item eight new business I don't believe any new business this

[20:39] evening Mr Box there's no new business on the agenda but as we mentioned or you

[20:44] mentioned earlier um

[20:45] typically at the first meeting of the Year you guys would vote on on uh rolls

[20:50] for chairman Vice chair and secretary being that we don't have five full-time

[20:57] members I I guess I would leave that up to you guys to decide if you want to

[21:01] make those votes this evening or wait until that position is filled and decide

[21:05] then and continue on with the the rules you have now noting that Miss Lawson who

[21:11] has resigned from the board was one of those rules

[21:17] and I believe that our alternates could not vote in that particular I believe

[21:20] our bylaws I believe that's correct and I guess Mr Box one of the questions

[21:25] I think we asked you this earlier but I'll just clarify at this time there's

[21:29] no I don't believe there's anybody in a board agenda that's public knowledge

[21:33] that is going to be appointed we're not aware of anybody not that I'm aware of

[21:36] no so potentially we might have someone in another month but we don't know that

[21:40] that's the case correct all right

[21:44] um typically we talk one to another before the board I know we didn't in

[21:48] this case um I guess I would leave it up to the

[21:51] board I know I've been the chair I've tried to pass it off before and no one's

[21:54] taken it I'm happy to do it again if we want to do an election on this evening

[21:58] I'm happy if we want to wait for another member

[22:01] um I'm fine either way I would leave it up

[22:03] to up to the pleasure of the board I would suggest to continue on as we're

[22:07] going for now with the present members until we have a full bird that we can

[22:12] vote to figure out who the secretary will be I think I agree with that and

[22:16] and just to make sure we're okay doing that I know our bylaws say to do that to

[22:20] to do the first uh meeting of the year but I'm assuming we don't have to follow

[22:24] that I I think given the resignation Miss Slauson that that's caused to be

[22:29] able to deviate from the bylaws for this very reason okay if it was just for no

[22:35] reason then it'll be a little more Troublesome

[22:37] but yes but I think you have good cause to do that at this time okay

[22:42] um Mr Koster do you want to hold off on all appointments right now or just the

[22:47] secretary because I think we're in consenting going going forward for now

[22:50] just just continue with our president we're voting on at least one tonight

[22:55] but we can hold off in Secretary okay that's fine I wonder if it makes sense

[22:59] to just um make a motion and support it and vote

[23:03] on it to say that we're we're maintaining interim as it stands

[23:07] um until such time as we have five members and we can vote on it as a board

[23:11] if that's the way that I will make that motion that we maintain our interim

[23:15] board as it stands until we have a full five-member board to actually vote on

[23:20] David board support motion by Mr Piper support by Mr de Bruin And to clarify

[23:24] that was to maintain um our current officers with the

[23:27] exception of Mrs Lawson is gone as an interim board any discussions to cost

[23:31] her good okay uh although uh I'm gonna call a roll on this one uh Mr Piper yes

[23:36] Mr Coster yes Mr de Bruin yes Mr tuckfields yes uh that motion passes uh

[23:43] and we will hold that until we have a fifth member and I'm assuming

[23:46] Mr Box we can just add that to the agenda whenever we whenever we get on

[23:51] this number okay very good

[23:54] um uh we kind of took that a little bit out of order but um it's probably fine

[23:58] item nine is public comments we have no uh public uh this evening so I'm going

[24:04] to move on to zba member comments any comments from the board this evening

[24:07] everybody Happy New Year I have nothing just my normal do you

[24:12] know if we have a February meeting just so I can plan I don't know off the top

[24:15] of my head just curious thank you seems rehearsed

[24:19] I'm not sure if we knew at our last meeting that Miss Lawson was stepping

[24:25] down I don't think we did no um I would just like to mention her

[24:29] briefly um since we really didn't have a chance to send her off

[24:33] um Dawn was on the board for as long as I've been paying attention and I'm I

[24:38] actually I was talking to Charlie Oliver on the Planning Commission I think the

[24:42] longest serving board members in order contiguous Charlie might be longer as

[24:46] Nancy never as Charlie and Dawn was actually longer than

[24:50] Charlie and shorter than Nancy when it worked out so she's been serving on the

[24:55] zoning board appeals for a long time certainly been here as long as I've been

[24:58] paying attention I always appreciated her

[25:03] she was usually pretty quiet in the meetings

[25:06] but when I would call her before or after she put a lot of thought into what

[25:11] she did and I appreciate it she did it for a long time

[25:15] we had some uncomfortable uh years over the last

[25:21] decade with some of the other things that happened in the township and there

[25:25] was a couple of us who we didn't always have fun meetings with some of the other

[25:29] people who were on the board but she stuck with it and she was professional

[25:33] and I really appreciate her being there I know she had she had talked to me a

[25:38] little while ago she was considering leaving and I told her you know make

[25:41] sure make sure you think about it you don't don't want to keep you from going

[25:44] but we'd hate to lose you as well and uh I guess I would just kind of say that

[25:49] I'm glad she is able to to stop if that's what she wanted to do we'll miss

[25:53] her and uh I'll miss seeing her once once a month and talking to her so

[25:57] um not sure if congrats is the correct term

[26:00] for her but I think I think it was a job well done and she put a lot of effort in

[26:04] and I'm I'm really happy she was here so well said

[26:08] so I had for that unless there was any other comments uh we will move on to

[26:12] planning director comments Mr Box anything for us this evening nothing

[26:15] this evening all right uh Mr William I know you're on the agenda but still like

[26:18] to ask you anything this evening nothing at this time okay uh we'll move on then

[26:22] to item 12 which is German and emotions I will make that motion motion by Mr

[26:26] Piper is their support or supported by Mr de Bruin all those in favor to

[26:30] adjourn say aye aye aye all those posts please say nay that motion carries and

[26:36] at 702 We Stand adjourned

[ARCHIVED] Zoning Board of Appeals January 5, 2023

Agenda

Transcript