REGULAR MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NOVI
 MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2006 AT 7:00 P.M.
COUNCIL CHAMBERS – NOVI CIVIC CENTER – 45175 W. TEN MILE ROAD

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

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

ALSO PRESENT: Clay Pearson, City Manager

David Gillam, City Attorney

Rob Hayes, City Engineer

Benny McCusker, Director of Public Works

Mayor Landry said the City of Novi was blessed in many ways, and one way, in particular, was the quality of the residents that volunteer to serve on Novi’s boards and commissions, and that had never been better exemplified than by Lynn Kocan. He said he served on the Planning Commission with Ms. Kocan, and there was nobody who was more specific, thorough, or who calculated every setback and every formula for height. Mayor Landry said Ms. Kocan had been a wonderful member of the Planning Commission, and Novi was proud and blessed to have her. Mayor Landry said they are very happy to recognize her because she decided she had a life and couldn’t give it all to the City of Novi, but we are very grateful that she gave what she did. Mayor Landry read the proclamation and presented Ms. Kocan with a plaque.

Ms. Kocan said she was extremely grateful for this honor, and that it had been truly an honor to serve with all of her colleagues, and that she might be back some time.

Senator Cassis was present and said she first met Ms. Kocan 20 years ago when Novi was a lot different. It was smaller and there wasn’t a lot of development west of Taft Road, but those who were there became involved, and wanted very much to be part of the community that would turn out to be such a success. Senator Cassis said Ms. Kocan was one of those leaders always mindful of what proper planning meant, and had dedicated her time, energy and efforts for the long haul. Ms. Kocan stayed with it not only in her neighborhood but in the larger community of Novi. Senator Cassis said much of what was seen in Novi today had Ms. Kocan’s fingerprints on it, and it was to that that this community had been so fortunate because even the people on Council started as volunteers. She said Novi had been blessed by wonderful volunteers, but Ms. Kocan was special in that she rose to the highest ranks on the Planning Commission. She said they celebrate not only what Ms. Kocan had done for this community, which would last a long, long time, but also her family who had given up many nights so she could do what she did best, which was service to a higher cause, the service of her community. Senator Cassis said it was in that recognition that they presented a special State tribute signed by herself, State Representative Craig DeRoche, and the honorable Jennifer M. Granholm, Governor of the State of Michigan. She said Novi had been so fortunate to have Ms. Kocan all these years, and she would be back.

Mr. Pearson asked Council’s indulgence to provide direction and interest in the process they would like to pursue for a strategic goal setting session. He said the whole process was very powerful, and could certainly leave fingerprints in this Community for a very long time to come. He said they outlined two distinct processes for Council’s consideration. He said they provided a table of the two different approaches these two facilitators offered, and asked Council to suggest who they felt comfortable with or if they preferred a blend of either of the processes. Mr. Pearson said by committing to this sort of strategic goal setting process, he was confident Council would have a long term plan they could all work from. He said if Council was able to agree on a facilitator and process now, they would be able to do some ground work for the session in October, which would be a lead in for the internal budget deliberations in December and January. Mr. Pearson said thanks to staff members Rob Petty, Randy Auler, Chief Molloy and Kathy Smith-Roy who had been with him in vetting out these proposals and weighing them for Council’s consideration and feedback.

Member Margolis agreed with this process and was a great proponent of this since being on Council. She said during budget she talked about being frustrated because before setting a budget she thought priorities had to be set. Member Margolis thought going through this kind of planning process was important, and they needed a professional facilitator to work with them. She thought it would really add to the strength of the session, and get Council to set some goals. She said she liked certain pieces of each of the proposals, and wanted to talk about the pieces she thought were excellent in each. Member Margolis said her direction to staff was to see which provider would be flexible enough to allow Council to have the pieces that made sense to them. She said the Transition Consulting Group’s technology was one that she had used herself for facilitation, was very familiar with, and that it was called Meeting Works. Member Margolis commented it was a great way of doing things in a short amount of time, which used to take forever when doing them verbally or with flip charts. She said it was a phenomenal technology and a definite positive. She was concerned about the need for a major analysis that the Walsh Consulting Group suggested because she didn’t think they needed that level of research. She thought some environmental scan was important but said if they were going to do that kind of research she would want to put it into a marketing survey of the community to find out what the community wanted, but not to move toward some statistical benchmarks. Member Margolis thought they needed focus groups but thought the 12 focus groups Transitions was suggesting were too many, and didn’t think they would get that level of response to focus groups. She thought they needed to involve the boards and commissions but might be able to do it in a condensed way, and use technology to get some feedback. She said she would suggest a survey again, which she was very much in favor of during the past budget. Member Margolis said the biggest thing she would want to see out of either of these was a commitment that the outcome would be specific objectives and performance measures. She was concerned that, for Walsh, they talked about a second full day session being optional to do specific initiatives. Member Margolis noted she had been involved in too many planning processes that come up with visions and missions that were never realized. She said she would want to see, from whatever provider, that the outcome would be some very specific performance measures. Member Margolis said Transition talked about City staff being involved, and Walsh didn’t do it as much. She felt that who ever they chose, staff absolutely had to be involved in the process, because that was who they would expect to carry through the goals and budget. She said each of them had success stories from a municipality, one from the City of Troy and one from Seattle and she would like to see their final reports on those cities, and asked that they provide Council with that information. Member Margolis said she would support moving forward with some professional facilitation because it would benefit the City for a very long time.

Member Mutch commented there were elements from both proposals he would like to see incorporated. He felt the stronger of the two was the Transitions proposal because it was more focused on what he would want to see come out of a strategic planning process. He said the only concern he had with the Transitions proposal was the approach of starting with Council and laying out a vision, refining that vision through the focus groups, and coming back to Council. He believed they should have a more open process, and would like to see Council not restrict the scope of the vision from the beginning, which he thought would happen with that kind of process. He suggested they start with the focus groups and feedback to see what came forward. He commented that at the end of the process, Council would have the opportunity to put its imprint onto the final vision, but he wouldn’t want them to inadvertently rule out potential opportunities because they didn’t think of it at the beginning. Member Mutch said another area he wanted to see flushed out and given more thought, with the Transitions proposal, was the area of feedback and focus groups. He noted one of his concerns was they wanted to talk to some of the key stakeholders in the City who are obviously always an important part of the process. However, he was concerned that if they always talked to the same people they would always hear the same things, and wouldn’t hear the full range of voices in the community. Member Mutch suggested a couple of focus groups to pull people in from the community that were outside the normal people who come before Council or who are involved in activities of the City. He said in the late 1990’s, the City went through a visioning process he thought did a good job pulling in a cross section of residents, and it worked well bringing all the people and ideas into the process, but it was never followed through on. He agreed with Member Margolis that whatever process they followed, the outcome needed to have some really defined objectives and performance measures so Council would have a plan they could move forward on.

Member Nagy thought the goal setting process was started with Mayor Clark’s Council. She said she found it to be interesting as a viewer, and interesting as a participant of Council. She commented that she really liked the proposals and thought this would serve Council and the City better. She liked Transitions ideas a little more. Member Nagy said surveys had been done and feedback received, and she agreed with Member Mutch that a lot of times they didn’t use what they received in terms of their goal setting. She said she would like the people in Administration to participate, and wondered if there was a way to send out limited numbers of surveys to every subdivision in the City because she thought the return would be great. Member Nagy wanted to limit the scope of these in terms of what they would do for Council as well as the financial aspect of it. She thought this would provide Council with more insight than the previous goal setting sessions did. She said the goals of Mayor Clark and Council and this Council were never completed. Member Nagy thought it would be a great idea to take a survey of the residents. She suggested that an announcement be made on the web site to obtain information on what the residents thought.

Member Paul agreed that Transitions seemed to be the better proposal. She liked the idea of having different groups, and suggested they pick three boards and commissions, and then have other focus groups. Member Paul commented she would like to have public feedback. She suggested that a survey go out to subdivision homeowners through the contacts of Cindy Uglow of Neighborhood Services. Member Paul said when Council was in Portage they had goal setting sessions which met every three or four months to go over their goals and how they got them. She suggested that if 30 goals were set that Council pick the top ten priorities from the 30 and then each Council member would be allowed to place one other goal, that didn’t make it to the top ten list, as their number one goal. She said 17 goals would come forward to the City, and every three or four months Council would have a measured criteria of how they were meeting those 17 goals. She said she was looking for very specific criteria on how they could obtain those goals, and not just say here’s our wish list, and what they voted on for numbers, but how they would regularly meet. Member Paul stated she wanted that as part of the proposal.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello thought it was misleading to indicate to the citizens that Council set goals in the past and had not met them. He said he could remember several times that a memo would be in his packet that a short term goal had been accomplished by this means, or here’s what was done, and how they were moving forward to a long term goal. He said annually, during the goal sessions, Council received that same report. He said Council had accomplished many of the goals, and anyone could look at the goals on the wall in the atrium and see how they had moved along with them. Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he knew they had dropped a lot of the short term goals that were accomplished, and a couple of the long term goals in the short five years he had been on Council.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello commented that this visioning seemed to be coming out of Council’s opportunity to set goals, because in the past the method in which they chose, which were short term and long term goals, had been a little ad hoc. He said they were looking for a more defined way, and was glad Mr. Pearson had brought this forward so Council could define their goals a little better. He said when he was on the Planning Commission there was a greenway going through Addington and Roma Ridge, it was a great plan, the committee was together, and they started to implement it. Then a handful of residents came forward and said they didn’t want it in their backyard, and the plan was abandoned. He said here we are now five years later with Member Mutch trying to implement the plan of the greenway system in the City. He said he didn’t want to see a handful of citizens and special groups come forward with a visioning, Council attempts to move forward with it, and in a few years there are several new people up there and the plan is dropped. He said he hoped their goals would be somewhat consistent with the goals they had been picking in the past. He wanted something that was attainable in a shorter period of time with the Council members and Administration that’s here, so something could be accomplished instead of creating a dream.

Member Gatt concurred with the other members of Council. He thought Transitions was the better of the two. He liked Member Paul’s idea of getting Cindy Uglow’s office involved. He said they talked about the same people doing the same things all the time, and that’s because it’s the same people doing the same things all the time. He said it was very difficult to make someone do something in this community where everyone worked so hard to maintain their homes, etc. He would like to see Ms. Uglow’s and Ms. Walsh’s offices involved, and perhaps put something on the web site, and surveys that could be done electronically. He said he was in full support of everyone’s comments.

Mayor Landry thought they were both very good proposals, but thought Transitions was the better one. However, he thought both of the proposals were way beyond what he had in mind when he suggested an early Council goal session. He said this was a totally different animal. Mayor Landry said the way this came up was this Council historically had goal setting sessions every couple of years. They were usually in non-election years, and Council would meet and set 18 month short term goals, and long term goals which were longer than 18 month. He said the sessions never happen with any regularity, and just happened when they happened. He said this year was a good example because when budget time came, the City Administration put together a budget, and the Council had not weighed in. He said Council had not weighed in for some time on their particular goals, so the Administration was hearing for the first time what Council members individual preferences were as the budget was being discussed. At that time, he suggested that before the next budget session they should have a Council goal setting session, and suggested August or September to sit down as a Council and discuss their goals, and give feedback to the Administration before they went into their Herculean effort of putting together a budget. He stated that this was way beyond the scope of City Council, this involved the public, focus groups, and surveys over the internet, all of which was wonderful, but it was almost $40,000, and he didn’t know whether or not they were prepared to do this every year. He said one suggestion at budget time was to do a survey, and that didn’t pass because there weren’t enough votes to pay for the survey. Mayor Landry said Member Paul mentioned Portage and he thought that was an excellent idea. He said their Council and City Manager went on a retreat every year, set goals, and then met every three months to discuss the Council goals. They also did a separate resident survey every year to find out what their residents wanted, and then they took that into consideration, and did the goal setting. He said this was very involved and he didn’t think they would want to do this every year. Mayor Landry said he was interested in setting up a process whereby every year the City Council would meet before the Administration, and talk about goals. If the majority of Council wanted to appropriate the money for this, he would support it. He thought it was a great idea, but would still like to keep his eye on the prize of setting up some sort of methodology where Council could meet and crystallize some of their goals, and give them to the Administration. He said if a facilitator would help that, he would be all for it. He thought a pared down version of this might work, or Council might want to do both. He said this was way beyond what he suggested.

Member Paul concurred with Mayor Landry. She said she had looked at the proposals and had not looked at the price. She said when she talked with Mr. Pearson he said he would help

do some of the facilitation, and it would be at a lot lower cost. She said she didn’t want to spend $40,000 on anyone at this point. She thought they would have a facilitator or someone that would facilitate outside of the seven members of Council. She said there were a lot of perceived notions before going into a meeting, and this was supposed to go past that with someone new bringing them together. She thought that would be very positive, and pointed out there were two new members on Council, and there had been no goal setting sessions, which she thought were imperative annually. Member Paul said they were told there would be a goal setting session every other year on election, but that didn’t help them on the short term goals they wanted to do for that budget. She said instead of working towards something that Council might change, which would be unfair to the Administration and Council, because they were trying to spin the wheel at the table, which sometimes created hard feelings. She suggested this could be pared down, and asked Mr. Pearson what it would cost, and to get that on paper. She stated she didn’t feel comfortable spending that kind of money.

Member Nagy thought the majority of Council would agree that they don’t want to spend $40,000, but thought paring this down and having an analysis would be a foundation. She thought Council needed to set its goals apart from a lot of things. One of the things she liked about the proposal was that Council was there to represent the residents, taxpayers, and business people of this City, and without a better survey, they wouldn’t know what the residents wanted and it was their job to know. She liked the idea of having the goal setting sessions on the election years, and felt they had forgotten those goals even though they were contained in a booklet. Member Nagy said she would like to do this and thought the idea of a meeting was good. She thought this could be pared down, and it would give them a better basis for their goal setting that would carry forward.

Member Mutch said he agreed with both sides on this. He agreed with Mayor Landry that doing this kind of strategic goal setting every year, in addition to being very costly, would not be productive. He said in the context of what Mayor Landry was looking for with the Council setting some goals going into the budget process, he thought this was too much and that it didn’t meet Mayor Landry’s vision of the process. Member Mutch agreed and said Mayor Landry rightfully identified that with something that didn’t happen going into this year’s budget process, which might have made things move more smoothly. He said on the other hand, from his viewpoint, something like this strategic goal setting needed to happen. He said one of the reasons he didn’t support the survey in the budget process was because it was a stand alone component, and it didn’t make sense to him to spend the money for a survey and not have that fit into a larger process. He noted that one of his concerns was that he didn’t feel that as a City, they really had a strong vision of where they were moving towards in the future as a community or a City government. He thought if they asked people, they would probably get ten different answers, and he didn’t know if they could come to a single vision but thought they should have a better idea where they, as City government, were going in the future. He thought a strategic goal setting process would help them define that vision, and would assist them in the budget process when they met annually and reviewed those goals every three or four months. He saw them as related and working together versus doing one or the other. He said considering the cost and where they are in terms of an election coming up in the next year, maybe it would be better for something to happen after the next election when there are new Council members and there wouldn’t be a change. He said whether this happened now or in the future, he wanted to see it happen. Member Mutch agreed with Mayor Landry, in terms of the budget process, that they needed to have a separate process that as a Council would give input to the Administration. He thought that process would work better, long term, if there was a strategic vision behind it.

Mayor Landry suggested that Council ask the Administration to come back with two different proposals. 1) for a facilitated Council goal session, and 2) for some sort of survey or contact with residents before meeting as a Council to obtain what some of their thoughts are. He said that could be in the form of a web survey, telephone survey or whatever.

Member Margolis said her biggest concern was that she didn’t want to have a Council goal setting session in isolation. She said Council could not sit in a room and decide what their projects were. She didn’t have a problem dividing it up that way, but as a Council member she wanted to have input, and thought a survey would be great before going into the goal setting process. She thought there might be other ways of getting that input, and that would be her only caution. Member Margolis said if they wait another year they would be two months before elections saying they didn’t want to do it then because the Council would change, and then they would be back again at exactly this point. She had no problem paring this back and thought they needed to stop delaying, but she absolutely needed to have input before going into a goal setting session.

Member Gatt said he was confused because during the first round everyone thought this was great, and then the Mayor mentioned $40,000 and now everyone didn’t think it was so great. He agreed with Member Margolis. Member Gatt said he didn’t like the first goal setting session he participated in because it was just six or seven people deciding what they wanted. He commented it was not reflective of what the community wanted, and agreed they had to know what the community wanted. Member Gatt said he would leave it to the Administration to figure out how to do that. He thought Ms. Uglow and Ms. Walsh should play a large part in contacting the community.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said this in and of itself might be something to discuss at goal setting session. He disagreed with Member Gatt and said it was Council’s job to know what the community wanted, and he didn’t remember a meeting that a Council member or more than half of them had not received a phone call from a resident. He said he knew what the seniors wanted, what parks and Parks and Recreation wanted, and what the police department wanted. He said that was Council’s job and he didn’t go into goal setting blind, and it wasn’t his personal goals he wanted to get accomplished. It was stuff that he talked to the residents about at soccer games, phone calls, etc. He thought Council had a good idea with the short term goals of what the residents wanted such as ball fields, transportation for seniors, etc. He said the Administration would do that anyway; so he didn’t see the benefit of going into a goal session with a survey that asked the residents questions of that sort. Mayor Pro Tem Capello noted Council should know what they want to do, that was what they were elected to do, and if the residents didn’t like what they were setting for goals, they could elect someone else.

Mr. Pearson said by its very nature, involvement in the process would not be an annual thing but thought Council had shown why a process was needed, and that they would make an upfront investment now. He said there would always be another election, etc. He said after being around here and seeing lots of different Councils, budgets, etc., he felt they needed some sort of foundation. He said it would be updated and tweaked each year and thought either one of these proposals would do that. He said one of the proposals was very involved and he was happy to hear that Council didn’t think they had to do all that at this point.

However, he thought they could come back and talk to the Transitions people using what Council had commented on and scaling it back. He said option two under theirs had built in City staff facilitating a lot of those sessions, and he felt they could come off of that a little bit. Mr. Pearson felt they needed an upfront investment, Council time and money, and needed to do something to keep this going.

Mayor Landry asked Mr. Pearson to come back to the next City Council meeting with a scaled down version as an action item for Council to vote on. Mr. Pearson said he would do that.

Member Paul suggested contacting Walsh College to see if they would be willing to do some type of a survey for the City along with Ms. Uglow’s and Ms. Walsh’s departments. She said possibly there would be some student interest in doing that.

Member Nagy felt this would be a foundation, and said she would like to have this done before starting the goal setting. She thought everyone felt they were talking to and representing the residents, but they were really not talking to 50,000 people. She said they were talking to a limited number of people, and there are some issues that are more hot button than others, and phone calls and e-mails were received. However, it was a small number of people when compared to the number of residents in Novi. She said even if it was a pared down version and wasn’t an annual thing, it would give Council a foundation. Member Nagy commented she would like to see a survey conducted before goal setting because she wanted the results to see what the interests of the residents were. Member Nagy said everything that Council did within the City was all financial, and ten people thinking sidewalks were needed might not be reflective of what 100 people thought that Council wasn’t aware of.

Mr. Pearson said the CSX railroad crossing on Novi Road was very rough, and Novi Road was on the Road Commission of Oakland County jurisdiction. He said they contacted the road commission several times about the condition of that crossing, and they in turn had been talking to CSX. Mr. Pearson said the machine broke down that fixed such crossings, and they couldn’t give him a definite date of when they could repair it. He said they would continue to ask that this crossing be repaired. Mr. Pearson noted the City was not allowed to do anything because it was the railroads R.O.W.

Mr. Pearson said there was a project that would begin this week on Eleven Mile Road west of Meadowbrook to repair a culvert. Therefore, Eleven Mile west of Meadowbrook would be closed for the duration, which would be about six weeks. He said letters had been sent out to adjoining businesses, and people should try to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.

Mr. Pearson said the Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department now had on line registration for their programs, so the new City web site address, cityofnovi.org, was available and there would be links there to register for any of the classes.

Mr. Pearson said one of the projects they were monitoring that was a carry over was the Dunbarton basins, which were storm water detention basins. The project had been going on for too long, at least a year and a half, and the major construction had been done but the restoration after the fact had been a problem. The latest was that the consulting engineers were going to meet with the Rouge Program Office, who was a 50% grant participant in this project. He said they’ve got a meeting with the next level up on Thursday to advocate again for a more aggressive grading program that would take care of the problem. He said they had concerns about the ultimate capacity of the basins if the grading was done, but it needed to be done to get the water out. He said Council had been copied on the correspondence. Mr. Pearson commented that it was something they were taking seriously because it was not to usual standards, and not the way they like to see things.

Karen Cameron, 44908 Huntingcross, said she was a member of the Dunbarton Pines Board, and said Mr. Pearson had just been discussing the problem with their detention basin. She said they would like to make sure that they go with the City’s more aggressive proposal to make sure the problem was taken care of. Ms. Cameron said the City had asked the office to consider the more aggressive plan, and Mr. Pearson would meet with them this week. She said the Dunbarton Pines Homeowners Association supported the more aggressive proposal, and the homeowners affected by the project had been very supportive, and willing to tolerate delays as long as they believed a long term solution was at hand. She said it would be difficult for them to tolerate another summer of algae and mosquitoes in their backyard. Ms. Cameron said they wanted to thank the City and Member Paul for their support and for checking out the problem at Dunbarton Pines, the Rouge Program Office, and for supporting the more aggressive plan. She thought it appeared to be the plan offering the strongest potential so this problem would not be delayed another couple years. Ms. Cameron said they didn’t want to be meeting again next year to think about Plan C, D, and E.

Mayor Landry asked Mr. Pearson to notify the members of Dunbarton and assure them that this entire City Council was chagrined, to say the least, that there was algae in those basins again. He said it was discussed at length last year, and a significant amount of money was appropriated on a promise that it was going to be fixed, and it was not. He noted they were looking for whoever promised it would be fixed to fix the problem. He said they thought it had been resolved, and asked Mr. Pearson to pass on to the members of the Dunbarton Association that City Council was all over this.

Kevin Grobe, 42185 Parkridge, with the Meadowbrook Glens Homeowners Association, said they wanted to thank Council, City Manager, and Steve Printz, for all their help getting the County to clean the drains outside of their entrances. He said the association members were appreciative. Mr. Grobe commented that the combination of County Commission Hugh Crawford and City Council working together really got some action. They not only cleaned the drains but also trimmed several trees that were overgrown and blocking sidewalks. Mr. Grobe asked if Council could talk to whoever put the traffic light on Meadowbrook Road at Cherry Hill. He said the light separates the two subdivisions, and the timing on the light was awful. He said the citizens coming out of Meadowbrook Glens tend to wait, and wait, it was about a five minute timing even when there was no traffic coming, and there were citizens opting to go on the red light. He said they are also cutting through the Senior Center to get to the other entrance of the Senior Center to get out onto Meadowbrook Road. Mr. Grobe noted they were causing a danger to the senior citizens as well as backing up traffic quite a bit, and it was really

annoying. He said there had been a lot of complaints made to him as a board member of the homeowners association regarding the timing of that light. He asked if anyone could do something, and some suggestions had been after the rush hours in the morning possibly turn it to a flashing red, or in the evening after the rush hour turn it to a flashing red until the morning when the rush hour begins again. He asked that it also be flashing on Sundays, and asked Council to help them with the light.

Mayor Landry asked Mr. Pearson to get back to Council on this.

A. Approve Minutes of:

1. July 24, 2006 Regular meeting

C. Approval to apply for and accept, if applicable, an Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP) grant designed to deter and enforce laws pertaining to underage consumption of alcohol. The grant totals $50,000 to be awarded to four area departments that will work as two separate teams. The Novi Police Department will partner with the Farmington Hills Police Department to share an allocated $25,000.

D. Approval to apply for and accept, if awarded, a grant from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, administered by the U.S. Army Technology Transfer Program, to provide surveillance equipment and related training.

E. Consideration of amendment of the agreements with Novi Township for use of the Taxable Value to compute fees (instead of State Equalized Value).

F. Approval of License Agreement for the placement of brick pavers within the right-of-way at 40708 Village Oaks.

G. Approval of an amendment to the agreement with Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick in the amount of $5,167.50 for additional engineering services associated with the Village Oaks Lake hydraulic dredging project.

H. Acceptance of Sanitary Sewer Pump Station Easement from SMJ Marketing, Inc. in conjunction with the Country Place Pump Station Rehabilitation project.

I. Approval to purchase asphalt from Cadillac Asphalt in the amount of $90,360 for 2006 asphalt maintenance.

J. Approval to award bid for Toro 580 D Wide Area Mower to Spartan Distributors inc., the lowest qualified bidder, in the amount of $54,974.00.

K. Approval to extend electrical services contract (1^st renewal) with MTI Lighting, Inc. at the same terms, conditions, and pricing as original bid of June 14, 2005.

L. Approval of Resolution for Charitable Gaming License requested by Novi Athletic Boosters.

M. Resolution approving the revised Purchasing Policy to provide expanded purchasing resources (including e-procurement), and update insurance requirements.

N. Approval of a Completion Agreement for SP#04-07 Staples & Retail East between the City of Novi and Westmarket Square LLC c/o Principal Real Estate Investors, LLC and Jonna Construction LLC in accordance with the requirements of Chapter 26.5.

O. Adoption of a Resolution approving a Declaration of Taking for public easements on the Ward and Smith Properties (Parcel ID No. 22-17-400-028 and 22-17-400-006, respectively) for the purpose of siting a pedestrian safety path on the north side of Eleven Mile Road as part of Phase II of the Eleven Mile Road Pathway Project.

P. Approval of Claims and Accounts – Warrant No. 726

Mr. Pearson said this was an exciting project, and a proposal for a regional headquarters to be located in Novi. It’s a consolidation of Ryder Systems operations currently located in Farmington Hills, which they had outgrown. He said they also had an operation in Ann Arbor in the Domino Farms complex, and they were going to consolidate and create a regional headquarters for Ryder Systems. He said representatives from Ryder were present and would be happy to talk in depth about this project, but suffice it to say that this would be a high tech logistics operation that Novi would be proud to host. He said there were literally billions of parts that this operation supervised overseas, and it was quite impressive. He said this specific project was envisioned to be 120,000 to 150,000 square foot office building located on the north side of Thirteen Mile Road west of Haggerty. He said one of the interesting aspects was that this would open up the new frontier of the OST property for the City of Novi. He thought in addition to the fundamentals of this being an office headquarters operation, what it represented for Novi was it set the stage for a mixed wave of investment, which was very exciting. Mr. Pearson said they not only consolidated the 500 jobs to keep them in Novi,

Oakland County, and the State of Michigan, it also had a high growth potential for another 200 to 300 jobs. He said this was significant job retention and expansion, and obviously in an environment that was not prone to retaining and expanding jobs. He commented that Ryder had added 1000 jobs in the State of Michigan, and were a significant player in Michigan already. Mr. Pearson said this project put a firm foundation and anchor in the State of Michigan for the future. He said this was before Council because in order for Ryder to make this level of investment and stay competitive they would be applying to the State of Michigan for one of their economic development incentive programs. He commented in order to access that program, they had to have a local commitment. He said a local commitment could be any number of things, and the program had been across the State of Michigan for a number of years. He said the possibilities range from training incentives, infrastructure, and property tax abatement; there was a menu of choices. Mr. Pearson said the State legislation was silent on what that local commitment could be, and over the course of meetings and discussions they had flushed out a variety of choices. Mr. Pearson said they are recommending that the City participate in infrastructure of road and utilities improvement, Cabot Drive extension north of Thirteen Mile Road. He said this was not something that the City would have to or typically participated in, but for a project like this it would give something solid, physical and tangible. He thought Council would be well served to consider this because it would serve Novi long term. Mr. Pearson said the number that was recommended was something that was quantifiable; it’s a blend of the acreage and the frontage of the Cabot Drive extension. He said that proportional share would come up to approximately $483,000, which was a significant local commitment, but there would be a short term and long term payoff for Council to consider.

Mr. Pearson said the process from here, if granted by Council, would be that the Ryder officials would prepare their application to the State of Michigan for consideration. He said there had been a lot of legwork to get to this point, and he and the Ryder executives would be happy to answer any questions Council might have.

Mayor Landry said he had attended a couple of meetings on behalf of the City with Mr. Epolito, Chairman of the EDC, Mr. Jones, Senior Vice President for Ryder and some of his colleagues, and would like to share what had been discussed so far with Council. Mayor Landry thought this was a very exciting project and incredibly high tech, and the project being considered was the brains of the operation. He said the Ryder truck rental was only one part of the corporation. The other part of the corporation was to design and implement the moving of parts. They design transportation systems, especially with the auto manufacturers, and get parts from Asia, Mexico, down south, and arrange to move all of these parts to the manufacturing plants. He said they had people at computers 24-7 and 365 days a year, so if there was a snow storm in Minnesota on Christmas Day the plant would still be able to put your Ford Taurus together on New Year’s Day. He said the kind of jobs Ryder was talking about were degreed engineered jobs. These are very high tech jobs, they have out grown their facility, and they want to stay in Novi. He said like everybody else they had economic concerns, and what they really wanted was the State of Michigan’s Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) program. He said he and Mr. Pearson, Speaker of the House Craig DeRoche and Senator Cassis met with Mr. Epolito. Mayor Landry said in the MEGA statute it only called for a quantifiable local commitment. The MEGA statute did not say tax abatement, and Mr. Epolito admitted that. Mayor Landry said he didn’t know why but apparently the Michigan EDC encouraged local municipalities to do tax abatements, and that might be right for some municipalities but not for others. He said looking at this particular project if they applied for tax abatement and qualified for the maximum, it would be roughly $350,000 of abatement for them, and a $350,000 loss to Novi. Mayor Landry explained that what was being proposed, rather than tax abatement was that the City put in $481,000, which was more than the tax abatement, plus it would be dollars today rather than foregone dollars for ten years, but the point was the City would be building a road and adding to the infrastructure. He said if Ryder left in 10 years the road would still be here, so it made sense for the City to put the dollars into infrastructure rather than tax abatement. Mayor Landry said they welcomed Ryder to apply for a tax abatement, and have never said don’t apply, but there are criteria, and one of them was they had to own the building, and if they didn’t, they would get less points. He said Ryder was going to be lease holders so they might not score as high under the tax abatement criteria, and Novi would not change their tax abatement criteria because the State of Michigan wanted it changed. Mayor Landry thought this was a no brainer. He said they were a wonderful company who wanted to stay and invest their dollars in Novi, with one of Novi’s premiere developers and a premiere OST site. He said the developers are working with the business and with the City, and we are all sitting down together saying we’ll help build a road and they’ll pass it through with a lesser rent rate, it was a quantifiable amount, and it should quantify with the State of Michigan. Mayor Landry said what they were looking for was Council approval so Ryder could go back when they have their upcoming meeting with the Michigan EDC and say Novi had committed $481,000. He said that was what they were looking for and what was on the table.

Member Paul said Council as a whole wanted to be friendlier and welcoming to businesses, and OST was the number one priority. She said Ryder would offset what the residential needs were, and bring in a high tax base to the City, and if the infrastructure was built, there would be more businesses that would come to Novi. She said it made great sense to her. She said Council could look at $481,000 right now or $350,000 over seven to ten years whatever their proposal might be. It made much more sense to have the infrastructure long term since Ryder was leasing, and for Ryder financially. She felt they were meeting one of the Council’s goals as being a friendlier community to businesses in welcoming them there. Member Paul said their developer had been very helpful in building the OST area, and helpful in bringing in tax dollars to the City. She thought this would be a win win for the developer, the business, and for Novi. She hoped this went through. Member Paul asked if the MEGA didn’t go through at the State level, what would happen to this proposal.

Mr. Pearson said it was safe to say that this project was dependent on the State MEGA being secured, and follow the chain down that there was local participation. He said without the

States incentive Ryder officials would have to look at other options, and they have options in other states. He said they have existing operations in every state in the country. They have a headquarters in Florida and a big operation in Texas; it’s a competitive world.

Member Paul said if this commitment was made by the City, and the MEGA didn’t happen, and they decide to build elsewhere would the City still be committed to build the road. Mr. Pearson said it would be dependent upon this project, and as we go forward he suggested they look at claw back provisions and other things for the interim period. Mr. Pearson said they would not be committing the dollars but for the project going forward. Member Paul said she wanted to make sure that legally Novi was protected, because she wanted the development to come through, and the road built but if they didn’t come forward she didn’t want to commit to this amount.

Mr. Jones, Ryder Systems Inc., said Ryder was a great company and well known for renting and leasing trucks but was equally well known in the business world for their logistics and supply chain activities. He said in the State of Michigan, they were fortunate to have two of the best schools in the country in Michigan State and Central Michigan for logistics engineering. He noted that many of the people they hire were people that went to school from Novi to Michigan State or Central Michigan, and returned home looking for a job. Mr. Jones said they were trying to work very creatively to keep those sorts of jobs here in Michigan, and consolidate into a facility they believed was the best for them, which was in Novi. He said they had over 300 people in Farmington Hills and over 200 in Ann Arbor. Mr. Jones said they were also a big player in the automotive sector, in addition to many of the logistics industries. He commented that they did need the MEDC grant, and the letter of commitment from the City to proceed. He said this was very important because every executive in Michigan usually had to answer two questions, why would they want to invest in a State where the automotive industry was in such turmoil, and why should they send them tens of millions of dollars, also if other options had been considered such as cheaper States and countries. He said globalization was here, especially in the auto industry, and they were faced with that as well. Mr. Jones said they had a global center they wanted to locate in the City of Novi so they were asking Council to help them get to the MEDC level so they could get the grant. He commented they had worked very hard with Mayor Landry and Mr. Pearson, and this was the last step. He said if Council could give them the commitment today, they would go forward and do their best to work with the MEDC, and thought they could do it. Mr. Jones said he was asking Council personally and professionally as a representative of Ryder to approve the letter of commitment and let them go forward.

Member Nagy asked if the motion would be for a resolution authorizing the letter of support or was it for authorizing local commitment or both. Mr. Jones said what they would be authorizing was the letter of commitment itself in support of Ryder’s application to MEGA. Mayor Landry said the letter would be to indicate to the State of Michigan that the City of Novi was prepared to spend $481,000 as the local commitment. He said in order to do that they would need five votes because it was an allocation of dollars. Member Nagy commented she appreciated how hard they were working to come to Novi and stay in Michigan, and she appreciated that they were proposing jobs here to keep college students in Michigan. She thought the MEDC would be totally remiss if they didn’t give them what they needed. Member Nagy commented that the whole corridor was a showplace for Novi, and they would fit in beautifully. She appreciated what they were doing, and saw no problem with the $481,000. She said the minute this came up she had been in support of it, and thought it was a win win situation for everyone involved.

Member Gatt thanked Mayor Landry, Mr. Pearson and Mr. Jones for working together on this, and stated he wholeheartedly supported this.

Member Margolis stated she would absolutely support the motion, and was pleased to hopefully welcome Ryder to Novi. She believed if they were going to, as a State, come through these economic times they would need to use the technology that the auto’s had given, one of which was supply chain logistics support in other industries to show that we have that kind of expertise. She appreciated that they were proposing jobs here to keep college students in Michigan. Member Margolis thanked Mayor Landry and Mr. Pearson who had worked tirelessly on this, and also appreciated Northern Equities, a wonderful partner for Novi, in terms of bringing industry into this community. She noted anything she could personally do to help them come into Novi she would be more than willing to support and assist them.

Member Mutch said regarding the actual expenditure of dollars according to information Council had received, that wouldn’t take place until the next budget year. Mr. Pearson stated that was the plan, but they would have to play it by ear in terms of when it was dictated to the City that they had to commit something earlier than that. Mr. Pearson said they would certainly like to build that into next year’s fiscal year budget. Member Mutch noted he didn’t want people thinking this would be taking dollars away from another project to fund this. Mr. Pearson said that would not be the case, and everything would be done that Council planned to do. Member Mutch agreed with fellow Council members and would support the letter of support for this relocation. He also agreed with Member Margolis that if Michigan was going to emerge from the current tough economic times in a position where they could once again lead the country, these are the kind of jobs they would need to attract not only to Novi but to the State as a whole. He commented he didn’t support tax abatements because he didn’t think they were a good investment for the community and were not a good economic development approach. He said one of the approaches he thought did work was exactly what was being presented. Member Mutch said investment in infrastructure whether in roads, water, sewer, technical support or other kinds of infrastructure, whether Ryder comes to Novi or not, some future company would be locating in the M-5 corridor and continue to make investments like this, which would continue to attract high quality businesses to Novi. He said Novi had all the ingredients needed such as location, high quality schools, and educated work force, but the infrastructure was not always in place. He thought this was a winning long term strategy, and there would be proposals like this where they work with private development, invest in infrastructure, and work with high quality companies that are bringing exciting opportunities to our community. Member Mutch said he would support this, and was looking forward to Ryder becoming a corporate citizen in Novi.

Mayor Landry said he wanted to make one thing clear, on the record, that although the resolution wording was "the City of Novi contemplates a public contribution in the amount of $481,000" this motion made it crystal clear that this City was committing $481,000. Mayor Landry didn’t want the MEDC to have any doubts that the City was committing $481,000 to this project. He asked Member Nagy, the maker of the motion, if that was correct and she replied it was.

Mayor Landry said this came out of the Rules Committee, and as a member of the Rules Committee he wanted to make a couple comments to Council. He said they discovered when they looked at the Council Organization Rules that it had in it some ways and standards from members of the City, officers, employees and consultants other than Council, and it was called Council Rules. He said basically they just separated it out. He said they cleaned it up and took a couple of things like audience participation, which was in the amendment and moved it into the body. He said the only other thing they did was to buff up Mayor and Council a little. He said the request that it be in Wednesday at 3:00 P.M. was the same. He said the only thing

they did to try to keep the agenda down was indicate that under the rules they could put as many Mayor and Council items as they wanted as long as they were in by 3:00 P.M. on Wednesday. He said if Council members wanted to add anything at the table, they were limiting everyone to one item, according to the rules if they passed.

Member Mutch noted he had a question regarding page 4 of the Council Organizational Rules and Order of Business. He said one of the things that they had talked about at the table, and received feedback from people who had appeared before Council, was the order in which their items appear. He said such as the first reading of an ordinance, which was pretty much non-controversial, appearing on the agenda before items that were more involved. He asked if the Committee discussed the order of agenda items.

Mayor Landry replied they did not. Member Mutch said he didn’t have an idea of how he would reorder these to make the order more amenable, and asked if that was something the Committee could look at. Mayor Landry said they could. However, looking at K, Matters for Council Action, he thought the concern was more of how the agenda was set up rather than what the rules said because according to these rules, Zoning Ordinance Map Amendments were supposed to be first. He said perhaps it was just not getting done, but should be. He agreed with Member Mutch but didn’t know if he would change these. He thought maybe what he and the City Manager had to pay more attention to was how these agendas get set up, and he would take the blame for that. Mayor Landry said if he would like to make some suggestions regarding changing the order he was sure Council would consider it. Member Mutch said the one he noted was the example of the first reading of other ordinances, and thought it could be moved into Matters for Council Action Part II. Member Mutch made a friendly amendment to move First Reading item K-2 down to M-2 and move M-2 to M-3.

Member Mutch commented on Mayor and Council Issues, and the concern he had was that some of the items that came forward did so because something happened over the weekend; such as a resident expressed a concern before the meeting on fairly short notice. He said the language was a little more limiting, and he would rather have language that would be more generous. He understood the intent and thought it was good because they wouldn’t want Council members adding items to the agenda consistently without any communication. Member Mutch commented that he had personally been trying to work through a lot more of his informational questions through the City Manager’s office so they didn’t have to be addressed. He thought maybe understanding the intent, Council could make the language a little more generous and not be so limiting. He said things come up and he thought residents concerns needed to be addressed, and sometimes that was the only appropriate place for that to happen.

Member Gatt said he was one of the three people on the Committee. He said they had talked at great length about this, and specifically didn’t want to be more generous than what they wrote down. He said if an issue arose over the weekend, and this still gave everyone one opportunity to add something to the agenda to address whatever happened, there are seven Council members, and they didn’t want people piling things onto the agenda. He said they spent a long time discussing that specific matter, and didn’t want to see it changed.

Member Nagy recalled on a previous Council, the problem was that a Council member was calling too much to the Administration. She said, per the Charter, the Administration worked for Council so she would put it at two additional items because sometimes there are two things that come up from that Wednesday before the meeting. She said sometimes it was something they wouldn’t call Administration about. She could understand the logic that there were seven Council members. However, per Charter the Administration worked for Council and the Council worked for the residents. She thought they should put a limit of two items just in case. She didn’t like restricting her fellow Council members. Member Nagy questioned page 11, the

blue area on E-4, where it said "it shall be presumed that a non-monetary gift", and asked if that was part of the Council Rules. She also said on page 12, at the bottom K 2.4 where it talked about "members of the Novi City Council, Planning Commission, Zoning Board, etc. shall disclose upon a form provided by the Clerk the following information", she asked why the

Planning Commission, and Zoning Board of Appeals were removed as people who had to inform the City Clerk as to the interest in property that they have.

Mayor Landry said because these are only City Council Rules.

Member Gatt addressed Member Nagy’s concerns about one versus two. He said if every member put two items on the agenda there would be 14 additional items, and that would sabotage the intent that they worked on. He thought one item added and addressed would be sufficient keeping in mind that they could add all they want if they submit it the Wednesday before the meeting.

City Clerk Cornelius asked if the maker and the seconder of the motion agreed to the friendly amendment offered by Member Mutch, and Council agreed.

Member Gatt said he had a neighbor who fed a lot of birds, which attracted squirrels underneath the birdfeeder. He asked if that would be a violation of this ordinance. Mr. Pearson said section C talked about feeding birds with commercially available bird feed, and if a squirrel or two was enterprising enough that was part of life.

Member Mutch thanked the Administration for responding to some of the questions he had about the scope of the ordinance and how it would be applied, and the legal requirements from the City’s perspective considering this was the City of Detroit’s ordinance requirements being imposed on the City through the water and sewer system, and with Detroit exercising some legal authority over the City’s system. He said the only concern he had going forward was these ordinance changes go into place, and asked how many businesses in the City would be affected as industrial pretreatment facilities. Mr. Hayes said he didn’t have a count but Mr. McCusker might since he managed that program. Member Mutch said based on the feedback that Mr. Hayes provided it sounded like the predominant impact of these ordinance changes would be on those users. Mr. Hayes said yes. Mr. McCusker said he didn’t have a current update now but would get it for Member Mutch. He said literally most of the people on the system now are already adhering to those standards, because as they go in they are monitored through their MDEQ permits, and then through Oakland County. He said this would catch us up to be able to adhere to the standards that also regulated Detroit. Member Mutch asked if he had a ballpark number. Mr. McCusker said industrial pretreatment would be anyone who was in the metal industry, the dentist office because of mercury requirements they had to adhere to, anyone in the optical business because they use certain cutting utensils to do the optical. He said it would be anyone in that venue, such as funeral homes, especially, and dry cleaners. He said he would get a list of them, and Member Mutch said he didn’t need a list, and asked how this information would be distributed to the businesses. Mr. McCusker said Oakland County had already administered these requirements, and Novi was catching up with Oakland County now. He said Oakland County did a monitoring system where they have to monitor the discharges from these different venues throughout the year, and they would make sure that Oakland County reassured everyone that everybody was on the same page now. Member Mutch said that was his main concern that changes would be made and businesses would come back and want to know what the changes were that were being imposed on them. Mr. McCusker said it affected all of the systems, and not just Detroit, and Oakland County monitors those things through all three of Novi’s systems.

Member Nagy asked if Northville had been contacted to see if they would share in the cost from Eight Mile north.

Mr. Hayes said they had contacted Northville, and they would keep them in the loop during this process, invite them to the kick off meeting, keep them appraised, give them copies of the draft report, and make sure the final recommendations are included. Member Nagy asked what happened if the City went through all the studies, etc. and decided to do this and Northville wouldn’t participate. She asked if the City would only do the part that was Novi’s from Beck Road to Eight Mile, and would Novi be obligated to build those lanes that make it smaller. Mr. Hayes said it was his understanding that since Novi had jurisdiction over the entire roadway width between Eight and Nine Mile Roads any improvement would be done over that entire width whether or not Northville participated.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he would be opposed to improving any part of Northville since they had been offered the opportunity and had rejected the offer. He said this had been going on for a couple years, and at the last two years of budget sessions Council had talked about how many lanes there would be, and whether there would be curb and gutter and enclosed storm sewers. He asked what direction Northville was being given so that they knew what criteria to utilize. For example, to acquire the R.O.W. they needed to know how many lanes it would be.

Mr. Pearson said the study would look at different segments of it, and look at Northville independently. He said it would not say the same thing had to be done from Grand River down to Eight Mile. He noted that this proposal gave the most options around the table. A lot of things had been discussed and even when they thought they had decided on a direction there were more questions. He said they haven’t, through this study, said you are to do a preliminary review of only a three lane cross section. He said they would give better numbers and options for each segment that Council had to make decisions whenever the time comes as part of budget. Mr. Pearson said this would give the preliminary engineering about what could be done physically because of R.O.W., ground conditions, there was a significant amount of borings and technical work with this, and they were not trying to predetermine exactly what that would be. He said the City was not in a position to say this was the only thing Council had authorized.

Member Gatt said he would not support paving a portion of Northville. He said it was not a City in Chapter 11 and they would chose not to participate, and he didn’t know why Novi would be so generous to pave their part of the road.

Member Paul said she knew Novi didn’t receive the Act 51 money from the State for the Eight Mile to Eight and a quarter north. She asked if it was, in fact, that we do not have that money. Mr. Hayes said he believed they do. She asked why we don’t have the jurisdiction to go all the way to Eight Mile. Mr. Hayes said they had the jurisdiction to maintain that road from Eight Mile to Nine Mile Road, and that they had made the offer to Northville to participate, and they had been amenable to participating and wanted to be involved in the planning process. He said whether or not they participate remains to be seen. Member Paul asked what Novi would receive financially for that portion of road. She said her understanding was that Novi would not receive Act 51 money from Eight Mile towards Nine Mile. Mr. Hayes said Mr. McCusker clarified that the last time this was discussed. He thought he had misspoken originally and he corrected him. Mr. McCusker said they would receive Act 51 monies up to about the end of Bellagio, and in turn Novi would do the snowplowing etc., because they never get there and everyone thinks it belongs to Novi. He said when they are going down Beck Road, it’s too icy when hitting dry pavement so they just take it out to Eight Mile, make the turn and come back. He said it was only a few hundred feet and they would rather not have the grief and just do the snowplowing. Member Paul said the western border of Beck Road at Eight Mile was Novi, and the eastern border was Northville but Novi would not receive the Act 51 money from Eight Mile to Bellagio. Mr. Hayes said correct. She said then Novi wouldn’t have the State money to do the actual snow removal or repairs. Mr. McCusker said repairs had been done because the culvert collapsed and affected everyone right a way, and a patch was done on the culvert because the road was flooding. Member Paul asked what Northville’s interest was in giving Novi the Act 51 money to actually do the road and receive it. She asked if there was any interest there. Mr. McCusker said a couple years ago they made that proposal and didn’t get anything response, but they could send them another note. She asked if there was any real incentive for them to participate if their getting the money and Novi was doing the work. Mr. McCusker said this would be a major repair, and Northville would have to see what the costs were and bring it back to their board.

Member Mutch had concerns about limiting the scope of the roadway and was glad that Novi would look at all the options. He drove down Beck Road and the backup going south on Beck Road from Ten Mile was probably a half mile or so. He said he understood a lot of people who live on Beck Road had concerns about the impact of future traffic road improvements, but they would also be the ones to benefit most. He said they were the ones sitting in traffic every night. He thought they should be looking at future traffic volumes, and what the future development would be in that area. He said to the west on Eight Mile Road several large subdivisions were going in, and those people didn’t have an alternative north/south route. Member Mutch said he didn’t think they wanted to rule anything out, and always wanted to be sensitive to future and existing development. He said before ruling out any alternatives Council had to be realistic about what the future traffic would be along Beck Road, and whether there were solutions that could minimize the impact of potential widening. Member Mutch said after what he saw on a Friday during rush hour three lanes was not cutting it in terms of handling the traffic volumes. He said the reality was that most of those people were probably local residents who are sitting in traffic for a significant amount of time.

Member Paul said at 8:00 A.M. a lot of the residents who live in Bellagio and Beckenham have to go south bound to get to the elementary school on Eight Mile, and it was very backed up, as well as the traffic going to M-14. She asked if they could look at a traffic count for that intersection even though it was not under Novi’s jurisdiction when a traffic study was done. Mr. Hayes said yes, they already have current traffic data for all signals and intersections with the exception of the Eight Mile and Beck Road intersection, which they are working on. She thought that was a necessary component to this proposal so maybe Northville would have some interest to look at the school counts that go there, etc. She said even though they are Novi residents they are Northville schools and they definitely use that corridor.

Mr. Hayes said the consultants would look at all the turning movements as well to see what type of impact those would have on potentially widening the road.

Member Margolis said in the traffic study that would be done was there a way for them to factor in the impact of the M-14 construction. She thought there might be an increase in traffic because of the problems at M-14. Mr. Hayes said yes, in fact the approach they were taking was multi disciplined and would include the Planning Department as well as the Police Department, and they would look at the big picture and factor in those macro type concerns.

Mayor Landry said he would support the motion because it was only for a scoping study. He said he wanted all the facts and then decide at a later time what and if they would pave, and where and when.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello asked if that would take into account new traffic signals too. Mr. Hayes said it was wide open, and they would make a full menu of recommendations for improvements.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he talked with Chris and Michelle King and asked Mr. Pearson to coordinate with them. He said they were the couple who had the sidewalk, landscaping and sprinkler issues. Mr. Pearson said he would.

Member Mutch commented he was concerned about the section where they were doing condemnation for the sidewalk easements on the two parcels west of Beck Road. He asked if those would be delayed to the point that that section wouldn’t be completed as part of this construction. Mr. Hayes said that was probably a 50-50 chance, and if it was delayed they would have to carry it over into the next construction season next year. He said they were pushing to get those buttoned up so they could make them a part of a change order that they would issue the contract and add to the price of their contract. Member Mutch said he would vote for this, but wished he had raised some questions earlier. He said he knew this was approved by the previous Council, and he wanted to see the gaps east of Beck Road completed. However, when he looked at the amount of money being spent on this project, in terms of what was spent on bike paths in the City, this was from last year’s budget but this would have been half of the budget for this year. He said the path would only be five feet off the road, which meant there wouldn’t be street trees between the path and the road, we don’t have R.O.W. in some locations so condemnation would have to be done, and the path might end up not being complete for a significant amount of time. Member Mutch felt that this was an area that would be developed in the next three to five years as future subdivisions or some other residential development. He appreciated the goal of completing the connection out to the school but for a five foot sidewalk and $140,000 he thought Council needed to think ahead when talking about these projects. He commented that there were a lot of problems with this project that he thought would have been avoided if they had waited a couple years, and let development take care of most of these issues. He said a significant amount of money had been spent on engineering in making this work so he would reluctantly support it.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello responded to Member Mutch saying they considered that when they looked at where the sidewalk was going and what projects would be developed, and he thought 80% of the sidewalk that would go in now would not be developed in the next five years. He said they withheld constructing on the south side because they thought Singh was coming in there and would take up a major portion of it. He thought the north side was the area that would not get developed soon, and it was a good choice to put the sidewalk on that side of the street.

Member Paul said she brought the Capital Project Master Schedule to discuss with Mr. Pearson after the meeting. She said her question was if she looked at ID #5 under Roads, estimated for 2006 sidewalks, she said the plan looked like the construction would go from October 20, 2006 to December 1. She asked if that was correct. Mr. Pearson said in those they usually build in time for restoration if they have to come back in the spring. If it was this project it would be asphalt construction and then giving themselves a little leeway to come back and do any needed touch up.

Mr. Hayes noted it also included time for closing out the contract and making the final pay. Member Paul asked if the asphalt being used for that area had to be done before a certain time frame. She thought October 20^th seemed late in the season. Mr. Hayes said it would be a five foot concrete sidewalk on the north side. He said except for on the east side of Beck Road on the south side of Eleven Mile that would be asphalt. Member Paul asked what chemical was used if there was concern for frost. Mr. Hayes said an accelerator could be used, a calcium chloride type additive to keep the concrete warm enough during placement, or they could also use warm water in the mix. She asked if there was a chance this would be done prior to October 20^th. Mr. Hayes said the schedule was a work in progress and there was some tweaking that needed to be done. He said the last update that was done was prior to knowing this item would be on the agenda. Member Paul said along Eleven Mile on the east and west sides of Beck there are two properties on the south side of the road that were not completed last year, and were included in this project. She asked about the portion that was at the bus depot of the school. She said her understanding was they met with the school district, and asked if that would be in conjunction with this. Mr. Hayes said that was a separate project and a separate contract. He noted they had several discussions and meetings with the public schools, and have a preconstruction meeting for their water main/sidewalk project this week or next, and would be kicking that off real soon. Member Paul asked if he could include information from his meetings in an off week packet because she had received phone calls regarding those portions being completed. She said one woman had a fifth grader that could not get to school on a bike, and she would like to respond back to her.

Member Paul said her understanding was that there may or may not be construction in this area by a developer on the west side of Beck Road, and her concern was the safety of the children going to Deerfield Elementary and the middle school. She wanted to see those soccer fields and the school district have access because she had seen kids walking in the middle of Eleven Mile Road, and when those busses and parents picking up their children come down to the schools their pretty fast.

Mr. Pearson said this was the second phase of work in the 2005 program that was being finished up, and that’s why the scheduling was the way it was and it was still correct.

Mr. Pearson said this was a positive recommendation from the Planning Commission and staff. He noted it had been some time in the making because it started out as a smaller parcel; the applicant responded to early staff concerns and expanded it. Mr. Pearson said technically the Master Plan for Land Use called for this to be Industrial, and led to additional discussions because the City was predisposed to support a rezoning OST, and that was where they landed in the end. He said this property was large enough, and going towards the OST they saw enough positives and overlap with the Industrial to support consideration for rezoning to OST.

Member Mutch stated he would support the Zoning Map Amendment but did want to express some concerns. He said one of the concerns he had was approving zoning map amendments that were contrary to the Master Plan. He didn’t think it was a good idea legally. Member Mutch said there was case law in Michigan that communities that rezone contrary to their Master Plan undercut their legal position in the future when other people made similar requests and were denied. He said the intent of the Planning Commission was to review the Master Plan in this area to make it consistent with the Zoning Map Amendment and consistent with Council’s goal to bring in the kind of businesses this development proposed. He thought this Zoning Map Amendment made sense in that regard. He said he was also concerned with the impact of the OST zoning on some of the adjacent properties. He said there was still I-2 property in the area some of which was controlled by the applicant, and some that was not. Member Mutch thought that should be addressed. He commented, regarding the Master Plan Amendment, he had a couple of thoughts regarding the Planning Commission’s recommendation that Council look at master planning the entire area for office to allow the OST development. He said his concern was that the office designation not only offered the OST but also OS-1, OS-2 and OSC, which could allow commercial development, which he would not support. He was also concerned about over zoning for office. He said they had talked about bringing in more OST, but they had to be mindful that there was a significant inventory of property already zoned OST. He said additionally, there are areas planned for OST but not zoned that yet especially south of Twelve Mile Road. He noted he was leery of moving in a direction where they are doing completely office. He said he had suggested to the Planning Department and would like to seek Council’s support and direction to the Planning Commission to look at a new Master Plan designation that would allow both the OST uses and some of the Light Industrial uses but would exclude some of the tier three Light Industrial uses, which were the 24 hour heavy duty operations as well as commercial uses that would be allowed under OSC. He said the blended Master Plan designation would accommodate both kinds of zoning, OST and I-1, and would get us out of a situation where a developer would have to come in and either request a Master Plan Amendment or put the City in a position of rezoning contrary to the Master Plan. He thought making the Master Plan a little more flexible to accommodate both kinds of zoning in this area, and potentially in other locations in the City where they might want I-1 or OST development within an area would be his suggestion.

Mayor Pro Tem Capello said he wasn’t too concerned with the rezoning with the Master Plan being Light Industrial underneath, and the reason was that it overlapped in certain areas between the Light Industrial and OST. He said they had been focusing on the OST recently because that was a major area of growth so they had been looking at the product, the users and developers needs, and updating the OST Ordinance to be consistent with what the market needed. He said they had kind of ignored the Light Industrial. He commented he was sure that they were going for the OST instead of Light Industrial because it was more of an aggressive modern ordinance. However, the use would be the same whether rezoned to

Light Industrial or OST; they were still going to put in a medical building. He said looking at the actual purpose for the rezoning he didn’t see that it was that inconsistent with the Master Plan.

Mayor Landry said he would vote in favor of the motion to approve the Zoning Map Amendment. He thought Member Mutch had a good idea and he would like to hear the Planning Commission’s response to that. Mayor Landry suggested the Planning Commission discuss it and send something back to Council or it could be discussed at a joint meeting. He thought it was worth pursuing.

Carol Crawford, Beck Road, thanked Member Margolis and said that M-14 had made a big difference on Beck Road. She addressed Member Gatt saying that the part of the road that Northville owned was only behind a subdivision, and there was no road from Northville that cuts out onto Beck. She said that might be why they were not eager to participate feeling that it was their road but they weren’t using it like Novi was. Ms. Crawford commented to Members Paul and Mutch that it was very crowded there right now, but there were a number of reasons for that. She said part of it was M-14, and part of it was the fact that the freeway opened new exits and entrances. She reminded Council that this fall, or soon, they would do the same thing to Wixom Road, and some of the traffic would move onto Wixom to get on the freeway. She thought they might be very wrong when they say the people in the subdivisions along Beck Road want a five lane highway. She said everyone she talked with were not in favor of a five land highway. However, when she talked to them about a three lane highway that was OK, because they weren’t necessarily backed up, and if they could turn in they were fine. She said it was the people going through, the non-Novi residents who were clogging up their street. Ms. Crawford said she was sure that some of those pricey subdivisions would not be happy with a five lane highway next to their $1.9 million home in Bellagio or Barclay Estates. She asked Council to please think about all these things when they looked at this, and to remember they paid a lot taxes on Beck Road and in the subdivisions, and would not be happy with a lot of their yards, etc. gone.

There being no further business to come before Council, the meeting was adjourned at 9:07 P.M.

_________________________________ ________________________________

David Landry, Mayor Maryanne Cornelius, City Clerk

_________________________________ Date approved: August 28, 2006

Transcribed by Charlene Mc Lean