On Wednesday, September 13th, City Council held a public hearing on multiple topics. Public hearings are not recorded and the VRS team attended in person to learn more about this topic. Each of the following items will be further discussed at the October 2nd City Council meeting.

Find the agenda packet for this meeting here: https://livoniami.portal.civicclerk.com/event/405/files

Commercial Rehabilitation Exemption Certificate (CREC) for the property located at 19625 Victor Parkway – future site of a BMW and Ducati dealership (the largest in the country) was put forward for approval. This is a freeze on the property’s taxable value for up to 10 years. Currently there are 4 projects with this designation in Livonia (one of which will soon expire).

On August 29th the Planning Commission denied a development request to construct and operate a drive-thru coffee shop (Scooter’s Coffee) and convert the existing building on the property into an ice cream shop (Lickity Split) at the southeast corner of Farmington Rd. Scooter’s Coffee will be drive-thru only and Lickety Split will have 12 indoor seats and no drive-thru. Council moved this project forward for the October 2nd meeting with a likely approval.

The most notable agenda item was the request by Basilica of St. Mary to rezone part of its property from P-L (Public Lands) to N2 (Neighborhood) with the intent to develop it into a Montessori School/Community Center. This land was previously owned by Livonia Public Schools and that is why it has the P-L designation.

Vote.Run.Serve-Livonia does not summarize public comments but since the meetings are not recorded we will make high level notes of commentary on this item:

• This area is a special flood hazard area and there are concerns about the environmental impact.
• This zoning request is only for a portion of the greenspace owned by St. Mary’s and a majority of the construction will be on space that is currently a parking lot
• St. Mary’s already has a church, Montessori school, banquet hall and community center on the property, this will not change the property use
• The publicly shared long-term plans for the entire greenspace would interfere with the aforementioned flood area and there is concern that the rezone of one portion of the land would set precedent for the other portion
• This is the only P-L designated property in the city that is privately owned
• This is a zoning request, not a building request and the rezone would only go into effect if the development proposal is approved

A motion was made to have this item added to the October 2nd meeting with the options to approve, deny or send to the Committee of the Whole.

The next City Council meeting is this Monday, September 18th at 7pm. It is open to the public and streamed on the City’s YouTube channel – https://www.youtube.com/@LivoniaTV