City Council - Regular Meeting

for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. City clerk Norris, would you call the role? Mayor Mlen, here. Mayor Pro Edgar here. Council member Radner here. Council member Whitehead here. Council member Crawford

here. Okay, we have a quorum. Thank you. Uh item four, approval of agenda. Please mark that we are adding public comment before item 9A. Um it is um a controversial topic and we want to hear your voice. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended? Some moved. Second. All those in favor? I

I. Any opposed? Motion carried. Consent agenda. The following routine items are presented for approval without discussion as a single item. Should any member wish to discuss or disapprove any item, it must be dropped from the blanket motion and considered separately. Item 5 A, regular council meeting minutes for February 16th, 2026. B, special council meeting minutes for the same date. C. Approval of pay application number five to Warren Contractors and Development of Shelby Township, Michigan for the 11mi Road Alleys and Parking Lot Reconfiguration Project M694 in the amount of 68,3567. That is going to be a beautiful area. D. Payment of invoices from OM adviserss for nine mile linear park closeout and CE services for 9M road construction for the total amount of $15,8825. E beautifification advisory commission meetings minutes for September 16th. F retirement board meeting minutes for October 27th. G. Request authorization to advertise for bids for the CDBG program year 2025 senior yard services M798 H. Traffic Safety Board meeting minutes for February 15th. I request authorization to bid the 10670 West 9M Road Redevelopment Project. J. Parks and Recreation meeting minutes for January 21st. K. Recycling Commission meeting minutes for February 19th. L

proclamation to pro proclaim Friday, April 24th as Arbor Day in the city of Oak Park. M new and renewal licenses for March 4th. N payment of invoice from Desiree Kelly Art for the mural included in the 11mi road alleys and parking lot reconfiguration project for a total of $19,000. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, please say I.

I.

Any oppose? Same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, item six is recognition of visiting elected officials. Don't see any out there. Seven, special recognition presentations. We have Eric Phillips from Oakland County Main Street and Ian Dunkerson from MSU FCU, the Grant Award. We are delighted to have you all here. Good evening, mayor, mayor prom council, city manager Tongate. My name is Michelle Bishop and I am the CIA manager for the city of Oak Park and I am happy to announce that one of our local businesses has won another um Main Street Hack award. Um this is the third in two years. Um, so our businesses are really stepping up and uh applying for this grant and um we are here tonight to present it to Excelsure Floral Studio which is a newer um business of ours. They opened on NMI and Gregory Brown and Angie Kelly are here tonight um and they received award for um they joined a platform online selling platform for floral companies. So instead of going to the big FTD, they're they partnered with this company. They used the grant from Main Street Oakland County and from um MSU Federal Credit Union. So I will let these guys do their job and say a couple of things and then we'll just take a couple pictures.

Great news.

So good evening. Thanks for having me. My name is Eric Phillips. I'm with Main Street Oakland County. Um as Michelle mentioned, this is a a grant program that runs twice a year. It's for small businesses. Um really focused on tech. So those small businesses, you know, if you've ever owned a small business, cash flow is usually pretty tight. Um so we're trying to do whatever we can at Main Street Oak County to help those small businesses, whether it be for grant programs. We also run uh design assistance. So if you're looking to help need help with your facade, um we we're actually doing a traveling road show with office hours. So, if you have a small business in Oak Park and it's a hospitality business, um we're actually going to have some uh some uh professionals that have expertise in that area and actually sit down one-on-one consulting with those small businesses. Um so, we're just trying to do whatever we can on behalf of Oakland County and Main Street to help small businesses in the downtowns and commercial corridors like you have here in in Oak Park. And um we're just here to help however we can. But we could not do any of this without the support from uh from MSU Credit MS Michigan State Federal Credit Union. Um and Ian Duncin, so I'll let him talk about the credit union and more about the program.

Thank you.

Thanks, Eric. Um excited to be back again. Um so I think I've been here all three times that we've done these presentations. Um, so at MSU Federal Credit Union, um, we believe in building communities where our members want to live and work. Um, that includes our small business corridors where people are able to walk downtown, visit the different businesses right here in their community, and invest their dollars right back into the community where they live. Um, and so it's really important to have thriving members and thriving businesses. Um, you'll notice that for the first time since I've been here, I'm wearing a different brand by MSU Federal Credit Union called Pillar. Pillar.org. P I lur.org org is our new business brand that's specifically designed to provide wraparound services for small businesses, including everything from savings and checking options, lines of credit, real estate loans, vehicle loans, startup loans, um the full gamut of lending options, as well as treasury services, payroll services, and anything else that small businesses can need. We have partners for point of sale systems, e-commerce options, etc. And so this is a program that is really important to me. Um, working with Main Street Oakland County has just been phenomenal to be able to reach businesses all over Oakland County that are helping our downtown uh, corridors to thrive. So, congratulations to Oak Park and to our recipient today. I encourage anyone who's here today to consider joining MSUFCU. It's by having members and our business members that we're able to have the dollars to reinvest back in our community and credit unions are not for-p profofit. So by by being a member, you're keeping your dollars local. You're investing in your community and helping to fuel programs like this. So thank you very much.

We are delighted to have you and thank you for bringing us good news and money again. Yeah. And now I'd like to introduce our recipient to talk a little bit about their business. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Good evening.

Nice to see you again, Mayor McFarland, and all the council members this evening. Uh just happy to be a part of um you know a businessfriendly community. Uh you welcomed us greatly. We appreciate it. This is my sister Angie Kelly. I'm Gregory Brown. We own Excelsia Florida Studio on 9 miles. Some of the officers and some of the other uh you know leaders here in Oak Park that we've met initially to come in and shop with us. So we're very happy about it. And what what we wanted to do, we started very very small. We're a small business of course, but it's hard to really market when you just can do it from down the street. This platform this month is helping us to market in a way that you can just be at home in your office, order flowers from wherever, wire, wherever, and it's working. So, just last night, we're at home and somebody's ordering from California and we're able to we we we delivered it today on Eastwood. So, we're just happy that we're moving and very happy to be a part of OPAR. So, thank you very much.

We're delighted. Delighted. Uh photo. [applause]

Yes, we'd love to take a photo with you. here. Let's take a second layer. Can you get us

everybody? Perfect. Thank you. [applause] And then

I think we

I think you got another 90. program. Okay. Item seven, special recognition presentations, merit and civilian citation for public safety. Our public safety director, Steve Cooper. Uh good evening to our honorable mayor, Mayor Pro Tim, esteemed city council, steam city manager Eric Tongate. Want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity in this platform to recognize some uh truly outstanding work that's being uh done by our public safety department. And also uh we have a very special presentation to make to one of our uh residents. It's going to be a civilian citation for some extraordinary heroism that was uh done by Jonah Lawrence. Uh this evening I had the pres uh the the privilege of presenting the merit and civilian citations for life-saving efforts which resulted in the life of one of our residents who was a 5-year-old being saved. This was the result of a house fire that occurred on January 3rd, 2026. It was approximately 10:28 p.m. And as you can see, we have the council chambers here line uh standing room only with our officers who are receiving award. We also have several of their family members, loved ones, friends that have joined us as well. We could not be happier and could not be proud prouder to have the uh the support of the department in this uh council and city manager. Uh I don't sit here and have to tell you that the uh the public safety profession is a very challenging profession.

Uh also it's one of the most rewarding professions that that I can think of and that's that's barring none. So many career paths that uh the officers that you see our dispatch team um could have taken. But uh there's no greater uh filling or achievement in anyone's career that I can think of than saving a saving a life. So we're here to uh acknowledge that. I'm going to uh call off names and as I call off the officers, our dispatchers uh name and I'm going to have them come stand front center and face the uh audience. Could we have Sergeant uh Kyle McFarland come front and center, please? Sergeant McFarland is a highly decorated 10-year veteran of the department. He has served as a field training officer. He's currently an evidence technician, a firearms instructor, a member of our drone unit. He's promoted to the rank of detective where he worked and solved some of the most dangerous cases. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant where he's currently assigned to the day shift. We're extremely fortunate to have Sergeant McFarland as a member of our department. Officer Felicia Root Officer Ru is a seven-year veteran of the department, currently assigned to the midnight shift. She's a very valued member of this department and is on her way to becoming a highly decorated officer. Officer Ru is one of our drone uh one of the members of our drone unit and she's also an NDE specialist which stands for non-destructive entry entry and that's commonly referred to in layman's terms as a lockpicker. She is uh she is one of the select few members of the department with this specialty

and we're extremely fortunate to have officer as a member of this department. Officer uh Kyle Lawless, our K9 officer. Officer Lawless is a 7year veteran of the department currently serving uh on our K9 division. His K9 partner is named Vader. Officer Lawless is a highly decorated officer who has served as a field training officer, an evidence technician, a firearms instructor. We're extremely fortunate to have K9 Officer Lawless and his partner uh Vader as a member of our team. Dispatcher Katherine Schneayberger. Dispatcher Snayberger is approaching her one-year anniversary, and I have to say that she's doing an outstanding job here at the department in such a short period of time. Dispatcher Snayber is assigned to the uh midnight shift and uh I just want to say something about our communication center. Uh a lot of times that they're they're often overlooked, but our communication center is the lifeline of the department. It's the first point of contact for all emergencies occurring within the city. And the great majority of the time, our dispatchers sit humbly in the shadows, not seeking or looking for accolades or attention, but going about their duties in very workmanlike manner. And we're extremely fortunate to have dispatcher Schneburgger as a member of our public safety team. Lieutenant J Schwallik. Lieutenant Schwallik is a nine-year veteran of the department, currently commanding the midnight shift.

Lieutenant Schwallik is a highly decorated officer who has received numerous awards and citations throughout his distinguished career. He's in charge of our drone unit and was instrumental in implementing this program. He's an evidence technician in charge of overseeing the program. He's a firearms instructor. He's a CQB instructor. He's a member of the Oakland County Mobile Field Force Team. And prior to being promoted to the rank of lieutenant, he served as a detective in the investigation bureau where he also worked on several uh serious uh cases and uh brought those to uh a very judicious closure. Soon thereafter, he received a promotion uh to the rank of sergeant. He served as a field training officer and uh we are extremely fortunate to have Lieutenant Schwallik as a member of our team. Officer Amanda Bishop. Officer Bishop is a six-year veteran of the department who has received multiple awards during her career. Officer Bishop is currently assigned to the midnight shift. She also serves as a member of the field training officer program. She's a member of our drone unit and in 2022 she received the MAD award which stands for mothers against drunk driving. Uh she was uh awarded that honor for arresting the most drunk drivers of all the officers in the entire department and that commitment uh to excellent is greatly appreciated. We're extremely fortunate to have officer uh Bishop as a member of this department. Officer Steven Johnson.

Officer Johnson is a two-year veteran of the department who's on his way to becoming a highly decorated officer. Prior to his tenure with the Oak Park Public Safety Department, we uh I'm going to say we recruited, but actually we stole him from the uh Cleveland, Ohio Police Department where he served. I believe it was four years with the uh Cleveland uh police department. We won't hold that against you. Go blue. Officer Johnson is currently assigned to the midnight shift and also serves as a field training officer for new recruits. Just a little trivia about Officer Johnson. Uh found out today. I always knew he's you can see how muscular he is. He's uh he's a pretty good football player and also we do a charity basketball game each year with a lot of the youth and he's actually uh pretty good basketball player as well. us. We got a decent athlete up here. We're very fortunate to have Officer Johnson as a member of this department. Officer Joseph Stevens. Officer Stevens recently finished his field training officer program on February the 19th and is approaching his one-year anniversary. Uh, Officer Stevens completed the training program with flying colors and is doing extremely well. Prior to joining this department, he was a firefighter with the Detroit Fire Department. Officer Stevens is currently assigned to the midnight shift. Uh, his attitude and demeanor are outstanding, and we're fortunate to have Officer Stevens as a member of this department. And last, but definitely not least, I'd like to call up our civilian hero, Jonah Lawrence. Jonah, is he here? Is he shy? Uhhuh. Come on up, buddy. You want want dad or mom or dad to come up with you? That's fine. Jonah and his two other uh siblings on

the night in question were trapped inside a home when it caught fire. For someone so young to think so quickly on their feet is simply amazing. Jonah's actions prior to the arrival of our department on scene significantly tributed to the life uh saving of his five-year-old sister. Uh we're proud to have Jonah standing amongst the rest of our team to receive uh his award this evening. [applause] [applause]

[applause]

and uh appreciate that. Thank you. Without further ado, I'm going to actually read uh verbatim from the merit citation and it reads as follows. It says, "On Saturday, January 3rd, 2026, at approximately 10:28 p.m., a call was received by the dispatch center reporting a houseire in the 23,000 block of forest. Initial information indicated that residents were trapped inside the residence. Officers were immediately dispatched as additional critical information continued to be obtained by our dispatcher. Upon arrival, officers observed heavy smoke billowing from both the front and rear of the home with visible flames coming from the kitchen area. Officers quickly determined that the two children had successfully self- evacuated. However, it was confirmed that a 5-year-old female was still trapped inside the residence. A search and rescue team along with the fire suppression team was rapidly formed and entered the home. The fire suppression team was able to quickly extinguish the fire while the search and rescue team continued efforts to locate the trapped child. The 5-year-old child was found unresponsive um in her bed and was immediately removed from the home and transported to an awaiting ambulance where emergency medical care was initiated. Universal ambulance transported the child to Bulmont Hospital for further treatment. The other two children from the residence were also transported to Bulmont Hospital as a precaution. Medical staff later confirmed that all three children were expected to make a full recovery. In addition to rescuing the children, officers were able to save several family pets from the residence, including one dog and three cats. Further investigation revealed that one of the children, Jonah Lawrence, 9 years old, was first to awaken after smelling smoke. Jonah, initially attempted to evacuate through the front door, but was unable to open it. He then ran through the kitchen, which was already on fire, and exited through a side door. Joan

immediately went to the neighbor's home to alert them, resulting in a prompt 911 call, and a rapid emergency response. Due to the critical information uh gathered by the dispatcher, the swift response, and the decisive actions taken by the responding officers, the life of a 5-year-old whose uh named Sophia Lawrence was saved. In recognition of your outstanding actions, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to duty, you are hereby commended for the exceptional manner in which you performed uh during this life-threatening incident. And for Jonah, uh due to the keen awareness, and quick actions of Jonah Lawrence by exiting his burning home and fleeing to a neighbor's residence, the Oak Park 911 dispatch was immediately contacted. Emergency personnel were dispatched without delay and Jonah's uh actions directly contributed to the successful rescue of his 5-year-old sister from the uh burning residence. In recognition of this outstanding actions, you are hereby presented with a civilian citation and the officers and dispatchers that you see standing here are being presented with a a merit citation. Like I said, the the profession is a very tough and challenging profession. And I don't have to sit here and go into a long uh drawn out story about the challenges that we were facing not only now but for the past I guess you could say several decades. And the men and women that you see standing here they come here and they bravely and selflessly uh commit to this city uh with all their heart on a day in and dayout basis um and they get the job done in fine fashion. Um I know we've had a significant amount of retirements that have actually happened within the past few years at this department. But uh one of the things that the deputy director and myself and I know the city manager echoes this as well is that uh when we're looking at the field position, we only go for the absolute very best. We will not uh settle for second less. Second last, the

men that you the men and women that you see standing in front of you and as well as lining the rear of this council chamber absolutely represent that in every uh shape, form and fashion. I could not be prouder uh to lead this department and uh be a part of uh this team and uh Jonah, you're part of this team as well. So to um my fellow colleagues and to Jonah, I just want to like I said, thank you for all that you do. Um oftent times, you know, you're we stand up here and there there's a lot of criticism thrown our way. Uh and like I said, it's tough at times coming up and getting up and doing the job on a day in and dayout basis. Uh but the manner and the attitude which the men and women go about it, like I said, it could not make me prouder. So again, uh, thank you. Thank you for what you do. God bless you. Congratulations to all of you. [applause] [applause] [applause]

You want to show There's so many people. Should we stand back here? I don't know.

I'm just doing what I'm told. Hey, John. Congratulations. Officers, we got any officers. You want to get a quick out here? Sir,

nerves. Those two were coming up that side. I was thinking about it.

I do have everybody Okay, smile. Here we go. Everybody here. Good. All right. [applause] Get back to work. [laughter]

Yeah, you can't even get up.

Energy drinks.

Oh my god. Madame Mayor, if I may. Madame Mayor, if I may. Yes, please. I'm not sure if you found a grand marshall yet for Fourth of July, but I think we got a great candidate there. Oh, good thought.

He's going to ward it forever. [laughter] He's gonna when they're teenagers, he's going to be, you know, like

Yeah. Okay. Um, item 8A, request for special event license submitted by the Oak Park Arts and Cultural Diversity Commission for a World Dance Day event to be held on April 19th, 2026 at the Oak Park Community Center from 4 to 6:00 p.m. Is there a motion to approve this request?

So moved. Second. Thank you. Um uh comments the uh the committees do not pay a fee. Uh the fee is only for uh for-profit companies. Uh is this what everybody's here to talk about tonight? Must be. Um all those in favor, please say I.

Any opposed? Motion carried unanimously. Item 8B, special event license application for the beautifification advisory commission sponsored annual flower sale to be held on May 24th, 2026. A motion to approve this application. So moved. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carried. Okay. Brings us to item nine. [clears throat] We need a motion to add a public comment section to occur before the second reading and vote of agenda item 9A and to allow for the reading of letters received by the city administration to be read into the record by the city clerk. Is there a motion? I'll make the motion, madame mayor. Thank you. Second. Okay. Um, let's see. Uh, do we need a roll call? Yes. Okay. Roll call vote, please. Say no. Okay. Thank you.

Um, all those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Um, we gle public comment. The, uh, public comment section is now open. uh would like to start by asking Dave Shipman, the applicant, to come up and um give a brief presentation.

Madame Mayor, just a vote that passed.

We just approved it. So we we open public. Okay. So pressure off. Uh but we would like them. Okay. Off you go. Oh, the vote was to allow public. Yes. Could I make a recommendation? Yeah. Um maybe it'd be best if we heard from members of the public and then we read these uh statements that we received and then these guys give their presentation and maybe that way at least maybe they can respond to some of the public comments. That'd be great. Thank you. Thank you. So, let me see Eric's part or that's after the public comment.

Okay. Um any members of the public um who would like to comment, please come up to the mic. Um you have three minutes. We'd love to hear from you. Good evening, Mayor, Council, um Mr. Tongate. Um I want to say that I'm really disappointed to see a car wash coming into Say it again. Oh, please give us your name and address because we don't have a card.

Lesie Richie, 24220 Kipling.

Um, I want to say that I'm really disappointed to know you're considering a car wash. Um, when I watched the meeting two weeks ago and they were talking about not putting wanting to put a kosher grocery store in there because they didn't want to compete with the Grove and that's exactly what they're doing is competing with all the car washes in here and it's just there too many car washes. I believe we're worth a lot more especially with Elevo Park. We're doing so many good things that I'd really like to not see a car wash and put in something. I mean, even if we waited another couple months with Elevate Park and everything opening, I'd really like to see something different open there, a restaurant, a produce store, something, just not another car wash. And I don't know if I've convinced any of you about that, but I wish you'd really think about it.

I thank you for coming and giving us your opinion. We do we listen to the residents and your opinion matters. Thank you for participating in democracy part.

Thank you for participating in democracy. Good evening, Ken Sherman, 23840 Jerome Street, No Park. Um, this is my fourth time speaking either before the city council and the public hearing commission about this topic and I'm not going to tell you anything that you haven't heard. I'm just reiterating. Um, the city of Oak Park does not need a number six, seven, or eighth car wash in the city for the size of our population. Um, and I find it somewhat hypocritical that uh on March 22nd, you're having a community open house to discuss a forthcoming master plan. And at the same time, we're potentially doing a vote to reszone something that was, you know, done on a previous master plan. So that is very confusing to me. So when you want to have a community get together to discuss a new master plan, to me it doesn't make any sense when you we can't hold you to adhere to the previous master plan. So, I'm urging you to uh vote against or put a moratorum on any additional car washes in the city of Oak Park. Thank you for listening.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh good evening, city council, mayor, Mr. Tongate. How are you? Uh, I own the gas station across the street from the right aid and it's the AMO, formerly Sinoco. Personally, I don't have any objection about Can we get your name and address?

Oh, I'm sorry. Dan Jaburi, 25,000 Greenfield Road, Oak Park. Okay. Uh, personally, I don't have any objection having a car wash across the street. That right edge has been closed for over couple of years, and something needs to be put up in there. And having a car wash, I don't think it's going to have an effect on a lot of uh negativity as far as people are concerned about it. As a matter of fact, the car wash behind me, uh I get a lot of complaints about customers coming into my location thinking that I own it and why is it always not working right and it's broken and it's not functioning in the manner that it should be functioning. So, I have no objection against it. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.

[clears throat]

Hi, my name is David Ysef and I own the shuttle across street at 24839 Greenfield Road. How are you, mayor? Hi, city council. Sir Gate, how are you? Um, I'm here to go with my uh friend Danny and uh I have no objection of having a car wash across the street. I think something needs to go in there and and uh keep Greenfield looking better than what it is today. Um so having a car wash there, a state-of-the-art car wash, a nice car wash should be good for uh Greenfield should be good for all the businesses around uh tenant Greenfield and uh I'm all for it. Thank you.

Thank you for coming. Uh, give us your name and address.

Eric Love. Address is 10760 Corny Street. Um, so good evening, Mayor Oak Park City Council members and residents. So, my name is Pastor Eric Love. I am a faith leader and a community activist and an 8-year residence of Oak Park. I want to begin by saying I believe bringing another car wash to our city at that specific location is not a wise decision. Um I understand the financial benefits. I understand the potential increase in revenue, but I believe the ultimate responsibility of this council is to protect the safety and quality of life of our residents. And to say if we look at the intersection of 10 mile and Greenfield, that's a major foot traffic. We see a lot of the Jewish community on Fridays and Saturdays um being active with their families. Um I'm just to say think of the residents um and and put yourself in their shoes. Um they have kids, young babies that rides their bikes in that area. Now if someone come and hit one of their kids, now put yourself in their shoes. If your kid were to get hit, you would be upset. We want to bring in a business and then in the near future, we could mourn uh one of the youth deaths in our city. Um now, we have other car washes in this city, but we don't have as much foot traffic in that area. So, that just goes to say that um let's do something else. Let's bring up another plan. Um, let's not put that project right there. Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

I'm Alicia Ellis and I live on Victoria Street. Uh, I am going to be 18 in a few months and I look forward to voting in the next cycle. Um, and when I first heard about the uh issue, I didn't see why it was a big deal, but um then uh I heard heard more about it and I think a car wash there um is a little ridiculous considering literally across the street there's another car wash. Um and it's just so they're I didn't realize how close they were. They're like right there and like I don't think it's needed. And I agree with what the gentleman before me said about how the area uh is I personally do not enjoy walking there. I feel there's uh it could be uh made safer and uh I'm not sure if the car wash will contribute it to being uh safer or less safer, but I agree that something should be done there.

Thank you for coming and being politically active at a young age. I'm Hope Ellis or Tikva Ellis and I live at the same house as him on Victoria Street. And I just wanted to talk about I was touched when Pastor Love was talking about the Jewish community walking on Shabbat. And actually when I lived in Southfield, I used to always walk there on Shabbat. So that was a concern. But when I drive there during the week, I see there's two things. One is after the last meeting, I was against the car wash, but I went with an open mind to try and, you know, when we drove through that intersection to see what I thought and I did not change my mind. It just seems there's too much car infrastructure there. And when I'm driving by there, I see um pedestrians all week long. I see a particularly way more wheelchairs than I would expect going down. And I see many many people walking and it seems like a car wash doesn't serve the needs of people who are not in cars and we already have another car wash and car washes nearby and gas stations. So I think that we should ser have something that serves the needs of people who are not necessarily in cars. Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Yes. Come here.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. And for the panel, I'm going to flip the switch here. Um, this is not about the car wash. Are we This one is only about the car wash. In a little bit, there'll be a chance to come up and talk about other issues. So, please come back up.

I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you. Sure. [laughter] Here we go. Good evening. 24810 Greenfield Road. I own the Front Page Deli in the strip mall. I think something needs to go on that corner and I think a car wash would be very suitable. I think it's going to beautify that corner. Something needs to go on that corner. It's been vacant for way too long. I think the gentlemen are going to spend enormous amount of money and they're going to improve that corner. I don't see how um it's going to affect any pedestrians if that car wash is built there. That's why we have sidewalks, crosswalks, and of course, if they use the light properly, I don't think there should be a problem. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you for coming, sir. What was your name, sir? Oh, what is your name, please? Hassan Hs. Hassan. Thank you. Um, any uh further comments, pro or con on the car wash? Let's see. we close the public hearing and then have the presentation or have the

So then madam mayor if I could uh so then we have received um communications from the staff and I received communications from members of the public that we would like to take an opportunity to read into the record and I am going to turn it over to our dear city clerk to do so. We are first letter is from Ali Khan uh who's um um said letter to the members of city council. I'm writing on behalf of the cell phone repair store located in the Greenfield shopping center in support of the proposed car wash uh developed at 24850 Greenfield Road. Our business depends heavily on visibility and share traffic from neighboring tenants. A new active business in that location would help restore uh steady movement throughout the plaza. Right. Aid uh used to be the anchor to this center and it uh has been dark and it has had a negative effect on almost all tenants in the center. Um uh next was for the an order from the wing snob wing snob. Um um says, "Dear members of city council, Wing Snob proudly supports the proposed Elcar Wash at 24850 Greenfield Road in Oak Park. Our restaurant relies heavily on shared traffic within the plaza. When the former tenant operated at the location, the center experienced strong overall visitation.

Since its closure, weekend and evening traffic has noticeably declined. Thank you.

Uh modern car wash facility would attract consistent daily customers and help restore uh uh I'm sorry, reposition the plaza as a busy, well-maintained uh destination. Increased activity would directly support surrounding food and retailed business, including ours. We believe this project would positively impact both the business community and residents and respectfully ask for your approval. Um the letter uh from Anthony. Uh dear city council members, I'm writing this letter as a neighboring tenant to the proposed car wash Tina Nails Spa. We are very supportive of this and ask your approval to today's meeting. Since right aid left, our business u has been extremely down. We need to anchor uh an anchor tenant in this um space to help all of our businesses in the center bounce back. Thank you for your consideration. Um owner of Treadwell Distributors, Joshua Kappy, uh wrote, "Dear council members, my name is Joshua Cappy and I I represent Tradewell Distributors. We have proudly operated in Oak Park for over 30 years. I'm writing to express our support for the proposed car wash at 24850 Greenfield Road. As a long-standing business in this city, we care deeply about our commercial corridors look and feel, h how they look and feel. It has been a shame to see that former Wraid uh buildings sit vacant for so long. It is highly visible corner at Greenfield and an empty building in this location creates a sense of blight. when prominent uh properties remain unused, it affects the overall appearance and pride of the area. Approved uh approving a new business for that site would bring life back to the property and improve the look of the corridor. Reinvesting in an empty building sends a positive message

about the future of Oak Park. We respectfully ask that you approve the project and help move the corner forward in a positive direction. Um, we have a letter from Scott Clay, Motor City Soul Food. Um, dear council members, on behalf of Motor City Soul Food, we would like to express our support for the proposed Elcar Wash at 24850 Greenfield Road. Our restaurant thrives when the shopping center is active and busy. When the pre previous tenant operated in that space, there was steady lunchtime and evening spillover into our dining room. Since that business closed, we have seen a noticeable decline in impulse visits and firsttime customers. A car wash would provide consistent traffic throughout the day, including weekends, and would likely bring families and individuals who may dine while waiting for their vehicles. Increased activity would strengthen the overall economic health of the plaza and surrounding area. We respectfully ask for the support of the project. Um, a letter from Isa Judah. Um, Lamara Restaurant is writing to show our strong support for the proposed car wash at 24850 Greenfield Road. The shopping center has struggled with reduced customer flow since the previous anchor tenant left. As a restaurant, we u rely heavily on consistent visibility and cross traffic from neighboring businesses. An active and well-maintained operation in the space would help reestablish the plaza as a destination rather than a pass through location. car was uh car wash customers often seek nearby dining options before or after their service uh which creates natural opportunities for increased business across the plaza. We believe this project would enhance both economic activity and property maintenance in the area. Um we respectfully request your approval. Um, I have an email uh from uh Chris

Aziz um owner of Shell Gas Station. I'm writing to express my support for the proposed placement of a car wash facility at 10M Road Greenfield Road. Uh as the owner of the Shell gas station located in the surrounding area, believe the addition of a car wash at this location will bring significant benefits to the local community and businesses. A well-managed car wash will enhance customer convenience, improve vehicle maintenance services available in the neighborhood, and contribute positively to the overall commercial activity in the area. This development would also help attract more visitors to the corridor, uh supporting nearby businesses, and strengthening the local economy. Uh given the steady traffic flow at the 10mi Greenfield intersection, the location is well suited for a service such as a car wash. For this reason, I fully support the proposal and believe it would be a valuable addition to the community. Um, I have a letter from um that was actually given to council or um uh from from Rabbi Ari Ellis um and I'll read it. Uh bear with me. Thank you. Uh thank you for sharing this information with us. We live near Coolage and 10mi and used to get our uh prescriptions at the right aid. And when we first moved here uh when we first moved here as a resident, I would love to see the property developed into something better than another car wash. You raised some excellent points about car wash versus surprise and their willingness to work with the city and residents. Those are both good points, but I do have two questions. However, whatever surprise might come must fit within the current zoning regulations. What is the worst possible surprise scenario and what is the most likely to

happen should the car wash not be approved? And how do these possibilities compare versus allowing the car wash? There's already a car wash across the street and another recently opened up uh new next to Aldi on Greenfield. And is there any potential fear that the current car wash might close leading to another nearby vacant property? The shi the city should not be in the business of telling businesses and property owners what they can and can't do with their property. But if someone wants to change the zoning and build something that is uh that it is not currently zoned for, that is different. If they are asking for a zoning change, the city doesn't necessarily have to approve it and should take it into account the desires and wishes of the resident and best interest of the city. I'm a rabbi and a teacher, so I'm not an expert on these matters. And as you mentioned, of course, the current owner doesn't want to continue losing money by paying an expense of a vacation. Oh, that's right. By paying the expense of a vacant building any longer. But I do wonder what should the car wash not be approved, perhaps that desire might lead them to lower their asking price, making it possible for more desirable business to move in. Thank you and respectfully yours, Ari. Thank you for um those varied opinions. Um we will um move to a presentation from the Do we do it during the comments?

You can. It's up to you. Yep. Okay. Item 9A, second reading and adoption of proposed zoning map amendments for the city of Oak Park to change the zoning of the property at 24850 Greenfield, parcel ID 5225301040 from PCD plan corridor development to B2 general business. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Um discussion and questions. Uh city manager Tongi.

Madame Mayor, members of council, it I believe it would be at this time um possibly that you could ask the applicant to come up and give a brief presentation if you'd like. You don't have to, but you have that right. please come up and um might answer some of the questions that were brought. Good evening, members of city council. I'm Gabe Shookman. Uh pleasure to be here again with you this evening and thank you for all the residents and business uh owners that have shown up today as well. I'm I'm grateful to hear everybody's comments and to be able to talk about our plans uh for this corner as well. Um it's been uh and we've learned a lot over the past two meetings and now this being our third and this session of public comment as well. We've really gone to a as to the extent that we can to try to address all the comments and learn and try to hopefully come up with a great plan. In addition, we've always tried to bring different opinions and different voices to every meeting. So, a new addition to this team today is Julie Croll. Uh Julie Croll is a traffic consultant. Um traffic's been a big item that's been brought up by many, many people. Julie's one of the foremost experts. Hopefully, I'm not embarrassing you, but Julie's one of the foremost experts in traffic here in the Metro Detroit area. So, I'd like to invite her up first to talk about traffic and maybe start there today. Additionally, Aron is here today as well. Uh if you have any questions about retail, he's the foremost expert as well and we've heard from him in the past, but Arkin is here as well today. So with that said, I'm going to turn it over to Julie. Thank you very much. And by the way, congrat speech was incredible. I got uh I have two boys in I saw NCSY in the back of your shirt as well. So I have two boys in NCSY. So Yasher Koh and that was an amazing job.

Why aren't they here speaking? What's that? I brought him to a site plan approval meeting in Farmington Hills one time and I haven't been able to get him back in 10 years. We're we we're expanding the uh early childhood center at uh farm at Hill day school and they did a presentation and I haven't been able to get them back since. So hopefully you can motivate them to come back with me one time. So but I think one has a physics exam tomorrow and another one has a a tomic exam of some sort. So that's the reason.

Good evening. Um my name is Julie Croll. I'm with Fleece and Vandenbrank. Um, I'm at 27725 Stanbury Boulevard, Sweet 195, Farmington Hills, Michigan. Um, so I'm just going to give kind of a brief discussion about traffic, um, and the reasonzoning and just kind of give a brief overview and I'll be available to answer any questions that you might have regarding the traffic for the site. So, um, we did provide a memo. Um, hopefully you guys had an opportunity to review that. Um we did a um a review of the location um and a trip generation evaluation. Trip generation is how we determine how much traffic is going to be generated via use. Um we use what is called the IT trip generation manual. Um the most recent edition is the 12th edition came out in August of 2025. So this actually has really good recent data on car washes. Previous editions didn't have great data. We have some really good data now. And this actually um we actually submitted some of our data to it that we had collected at car washes to be included in this most recent manual. Um and it's it's very uh consistent with what we see with car washes. Um the majority of traffic that you see at a car wash is usually in the afternoons. People after work or at lunchtime people go um in the middle of the day. Um and it's also what we call a pass by trip. So, if I'm on Greenfield and I'm on my way to get some lunch and I want to stop in at the wing stop, pick up some wings, and then get my car washed, and then head back to work, that is what we would call a pass by trip. Um, so I might have been on my way to get wings, but I'm also going to get the car washed. So, therefore, I'm not adding more traffic to the road. I was already going to Wingstop, and now I'm just going to go and also get my car washed before I head back home or head back to work. Um, so we see a lot of traffic. It's not new trips coming to the network. We don't see a lot of people that leave their house, go get a car wash, and then go back home. Like

me, I usually do it on a Saturday, go to Meyer, get a car wash, go back home, go get a coffee. I mean, like that's kind of like a trip chain. So, when we're doing car washes, we're not seeing like we're not adding a lot of traffic to the network. We're pulling it from the adjacent network. Um, which helps when it comes to traffic because we're not adding more cars so to the network. We're we're taking the cars from the network. And then when I looked at the cars on Greenfield, there's over 40,000 vehicles a day on Greenfield. And then you have 15,000 vehicles on 10 mile. So the amount of traffic that would be added for this car wash is very negligible when it comes to actual new trips that would be by the car wash. Um it was a really really low percentage. Um just because of really where it's located. Um another thing that we looked at was the zoning. So, we looked at the existing PCD zoning for this property. We said, "Okay, well, if this car wash doesn't go in, right, they could develop it as something else. It was a car, a pharmacy, and we looked at the trips, what, you know, when the pharmacy was open and it was busy and was brand new as Wraid, how that would have worked." Um, and then we looked at, well, what if that doesn't go in? What could go in there? You could put in a Dollar General, that's a variety store, could put that in that that space. You could put in a medical office building. Um, you could put in a supermarket, um, high turnover sitdown restaurant would all be things that would be permitted in the PCD zoning. And, um, of those uses, a lot of them, um, generate more traffic than what we're expecting with this car wash. When we did that comparison, um, the pharmacy actually generated more traffic than the car wash. And it has to do with how kind of car washes work, which is more throughout the day than it is with the pharmacy. Um it's it's a little bit more um it can be more sporadic. Um pharmacy is not open in the morning really for for for all intents

and purposes. Um but you see a lot more traffic at the end of the day, a lot more on weekends at a pharmacy. But in all in all they were pretty comparable when it came to trip generation between the previous use and the proposed use. Um the other thing that we looked at was access management. Huge issue everywhere. Metro Detroit. Um, one of the things that they are doing with this property is they're closing one of the driveways on 10mi. So, there's currently two driveways on 10mi. One of them is actually really close to the intersection with Greenfield. They're closing that driveway as part of this project. So, one of the comments was about potential um pedestrian vehicle conflicts. Um, by closing that driveway, we are therefore reducing

Yeah, I want to add one point. Okay. I think something that's very important to talk about, Pastor Love, you mentioned it also. So the community right behind it is it's an Orthodox Jewish community that's walking to synagogue on Chabas and you know in the high holidays and holy days. One of the important things is is we want to make it as easy as possible for residents to navigate this 10 milei road by closing down one of the access points on 10 mile. We've taken a serious serious safety safety risk out. Now there's only one area to focus on. And one of the things we can work with staff and with Julie is how do we make sure that this point right here on 10 mile road is very very safe for safe for residents who are walking during the during the during Sabbath during Shabbad and high holidays to make it as safe as possible to make sure that they're thinking about traffic and maybe making a left in and a right out. And no matter the what happens, no matter who occupies this building long term, it's going to be a retail type use and they're going to be open on Shabbat. And luckily, you have a community member that's going to want to make sure that we make this as safe as possible. So, with city council's permission, we will work with staff, we will work with Julie to make sure we make this as safe of a point as possible and also work on this area as well along Greenfield Road. That's very, very critical. And Pastor Love, to her point, we got to make sure we're taking care of the residents over there. And we will.

Thanks, Dave.

Thank you. Um, so we're eliminating that that potential location for uh vehicle pedestrian conflicts. And then as Gabe said, um, we can look at other mitigation measures that we can implement at those existing driveways to help increase the pedestrian awareness for the vehicles that will be using them. Um, and the other thing that we have is um shared access with the adjacent properties. And one of the benefits of shared access is that um we don't have to if I'm going to Wingstop, I don't have to get back out on Greenfield to go back into the car wash. I can use that internal network to make those uh trip chains. So I'm not creating more trips out onto Greenfield, which then um increases the crash potential associated with if I blocked those accesses off and did not provide connectivity. So that was another thing that we that we looked at. Um, one of the things that we also looked at I when mentioned is the the stacking that that always comes up as a concern that there's not going to be enough vehicle stacking to accommodate the proposed use. Um, so we look at it um two ways. There's going to be two cues basically. So when I pull up to a car wash, I have to pay for the car wash. So there's going to be a queue as I pull up to the pay station. If I have a a membership, it reads your license plate and it just it opens pretty quickly. Um, if you don't have a membership, there's a pay area and you select the wash, whatever you want, and you pay and it's still pretty quick. So, you end up with two cues. You have the membership queue and then you have the pay queue. And um, so in this case, um, I think you have three lanes.

Yeah. And I think the good thing about it is within 12 months um we have 600,000 [snorts] members nationally. 90% of our c 90% of our daily customers at our at our mature locations are members. So we have three pay stations that we have at this location. So within 12 months it's the license plate reader technology. You pull up the gate comes up you you go through. So that's a that's a really really big positive thing. So I'm glad you brought that up Julie just to kind of differentiate our business versus others because a lot of the car washes you see they really don't focus on membership sales. We're also cashless business as well. That's another point to bring up. But we really focus on the membership sales and also gets cars through faster as well, which I think is very very critical.

Yeah. So, I have a membership myself. It just it just you pull up and the gate opens and you just pull in. So, then the other area that we look at for queuing, so we have this queue behind and we make sure as long as those are being processed in a timely manner, um we're not seeing cues that would extend um anywhere close to the limits of this property. The other area where the queue is is where you enter the tunnel. So once you enter then the tunnel can physically only process x number of vehicles in an hour. It can't go faster than that. So um this uh the tunnel has a service rate of uh 200 vehicles in an hour. We don't have a demand of more than 200 vehicles in an hour. Although Gabe would love it, but we don't. Uh, so when you when your service rate is higher than your actual demand, then you don't end up with a queue because you're able to process more vehicles than your demand. So that tunnel is just going to keep running and every car that comes through, they're going to pull forward and get on the belt and go through. So we're not seeing any any queuing uh at least not where it's going to cause any significant issues for internal circulation or on to 10 mile um or within the site. So, those were those were kind of the main points that we looked at in in our traffic review. And like I said, I'm here to answer any questions that you might have.

Any questions from council? Yes. Um, you you mentioned that it was a nominal traffic increase from what I saw in the in the packets and in the preparation for today's meeting in the last two weeks. Um, it was like 1%. Wasn't that correct? Yeah. Like the projected increase in traffic was uh like 1.3% when I did the math. Generally speaking, um, fluctuations in traffic of less than 5% on a major roadway, you're not going to be able to tell from dayto-day fluctuations in traffic from an incident that might happen. You're you as a general driver are not going to notice 1.3%. Thank you.

Any further questions for the traffic? Piggybacking off of that, if this would be write aid again or if this would be a a high tuneover restaurant or a grocery store or any [snorts] of the other ideas that have been suggested, what would the traffic increase? If it were, let's say, a restaurant.

So, um, so like a high turnover sitdown restaurant, they have less pass by traffic because like usually like I I go out to eat a lot, but when I go out to eat, it's an a trip. If I go home, get my family, I go to the restaurant, and then I go back home. So, it's not usually I'm passing by that restaurant on my way home from work, stopping in, getting food, and then going home, I might, but more likely than not, I'm I'm it's a my uh original trip is I'm going to the rest from my house to the restaurant, back home. Um, so you see less pass by traffic. And in those cases, um the traffic additional traffic impact associated with a high turnover sit down restaurant is going to be higher on the adjacent street because we have less pass by traffic.

So if the concern, as many people have expressed, is safety and that's something that a lot of people, Pastor Love expressed it. A lot of people have reached out to me about that as well. It seems that the car wash is about one of the safest things that we could put on that corner if we're concerned about increasing traffic. It is an excellent use for um for as a complimentary use. We see them a lot um next to other retail uses because it it's doesn't really add a lot more traffic to the adjacent roadway. It's it's I'm already going to to use these um businesses and a lot of them provided comments earlier this evening. It's like, listen, we we're hoping that this traffic is also going to come to ours and so we're not adding more traffic, we're sharing the traffic.

Okay. Thank you. [clears throat] Any further questions about traffic patterns? Thank you.

Um, the only [clears throat] other items I'd like to, you know, point out, uh, last last meeting we spoke about landscaping. spoke about just, you know, trying to continue to beautify both 10M Road and Greenfield. So, we really focused on that. Uh we updated the uh color, you know, the um colored renderings over here, uh you know, you know, this evening. We still think there's a big opportunity in this area right here. We'll work with uh we'll work with staff to come up with something great in that area to really beautify it, benches, whatever it may be for for walkers um on Shabbat or whoever wants to use it, any community member that wants to use it, not only on Shabbat. So, we think there's a great opportunity there and uh I'm happy to answer any additional questions as well that you may have this evening. Madam Mayor,

yes, Mayor Prom Julie Edgar. So, I noticed that um there's a lot of loose trash around car washes because maybe the baskets aren't emptied quickly enough. How are you going to maintain this? because it will create probably more trash than we need. Um, will you have people every day emptying the baskets and making sure the property is clean?

That's a terrific question. Um, you know, we pride ourselves at El Carwash, even though we're a touchless business. Uh, we have four to six employees on site at any time. We have a manager on site. We have sales staff on site who are selling the memberships and we have people that are serving the site, servicing the site. you know, during our hours of operation, there'll be four to six people on site at any given moment at the car wash. And I just had one more question about branding. So, will this car wash look like the other car washes? So, signage wise, we have a standard signage package, but when it comes to final elevations, we work with city staff to finalize that.

There was a picture in the packet that we got, and I think it was alongside the traffic study. Is that what is this it right here? No, it was a a photograph um that had the stations and the gates where you go in. And I was wondering if that's what it's going to look like. I think Eric Myers could confirm, but I believe this is the package. I don't know. Trying to get this camera thing. I can't figure this out. Talking about I'm talking about this one.

It was in the It was in the package you submitted last time. This is a this is our lo this is a location that we have in um in Florida. And this is a different pro this is a different look than what I don't think this is what we have. We have it's different than this here. This is what we're proposing. It's a hard it's a hard canopy above the pay station areas. I don't know if you guys can see it or not, but I can bring it closer.

It's a hard metal canopy that goes over the area. And then there's an attended booth over here as well. If you can see that, that's where the That's where the sales. So, it's different than what's in your package. That's that was a prototypical we had before. A lot of vacuums for for Passover, right? Exactly. That's right. Where's the inside dryer area? The So, this is this is the tunnel right here. All right. Thank you. And this is the internal back. [clears throat]

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I have uh uh we're in the comment section of We have a a motion and a second. So, we've had a presentation. If there are any comments from city council, we can entertain them now. Yes, I have a comment. Council member, I wasn't sure if you were telling me to shut up or speak. [laughter] When you tell me to shut up, you do it so nicely that I can't tell.

Um, there's been some conversation about uh competition, and I understand that. I like competition. I think it's great. Uh there's another car wash uh about a half a mile away or mile away. There's another car wash across the street. Um and and around the block. Oh my god.

There there's a lot of car washes. We know that. But what's interesting is I heard a lot of people suggest that what would really be nice at this rate is another restaurant. So that made me scratch my head a little bit and think to myself, how many restaurants do we have right there right now in that same strip mall? We've got Wings Snob, Front Page Deli, Motor City Soul Food, Lamara, and Starbucks, if we can call that a restaurant. Directly across the street, we have Dunkin Donuts and Prime 10. Directly a little further over, we've got Walk-in, Carry Out, Pasta Maven, Suki Thai, Cravings, Barbecq Central, and Peta Cafe. And somehow they're all doing just fine, I think. And again, I haven't done the market research on car washes. I think if you're offering a good product, people are going to buy it. That's my guess at least. I don't know. We heard from two gas station owners directly across the street from each other. I don't know which one of you got there first, but somebody was probably there first, unless you both opened at the same exact time. And I doubt at the time there was any fighting about it. Hey, wait, wait. We're a gas station first. You can't open across the street from us. You're going to put us out of business. And again, they both seem to be doing just fine. More importantly, I don't think it's city council's job to control competition. I think that it's our job to make sure that the city is going to be a safe and beautiful and healthy environment within um obviously within the the rules and ordinances that we have. Um but I don't think that this really crosses any lines. One other thing and I think this is very important. And I'm hoping perhaps Eric Tungate can talk about this a little bit. Is my understanding that there was conversation about changing the zoning in this particular uh strip mall for what five six years already and that there was already conversation about changing it to allow things like car washes five or six years ago. If you could possibly just talk about that just a little bit, I'd appreciate it. But one other point just before I turn it over. Um and that is this is just the bottom line. First of all, I think you guys are doing a great job. I really do. I appreciate that you're working with the city. I

appreciate that you're working with the Jewish community. I'm a little bit biased when I say that because I have spent a lot of my time in that exact area. I pray at those synagogues. I attended that school. I walk there all the time with my family. Um, but something that as residents we have to take into consideration here is that there are right now two options in front of us. Approve the car wash or don't approve the car wash. If we approve the car wash, we know what we're getting. If we don't approve the car wash, we're going to get a surprise. And we have no idea what that surprise is going to be. There's a whole bunch of businesses that can move in there right now if the landlord just says, "You know what? I'm sick of losing money." And there's a whole bunch of businesses that he can put in there right now that I think perhaps people may find less desirable even than a dangerous car wash. And that's the cold hard reality of what we're dealing with here. So just and we've heard a lot from a lot of residents about this for against unsure, expressing concerns, all kinds of things. But something that I and I know this is not for you. This is really more for the residents. There is no third option right now. We don't get to say car wash, no car wash, or Trader Joe or Apple store or medical facility because those are not options. Unless somebody's willing to come with a checkbook and say, "Here, I want to build a medical facility there." It's not an option. So, okay, with that, I want to turn it over to Eric. I really would like to hear more about the zoning that was going to be proposed. Anyway,

council member, I think what you're referring to is we in our master plan revision process that we are back now engaged in. It is my understanding, and I'm going to defer to Kim on this too, but it's my understanding that the recommendation that they have already is that in all of our PCD districts that that that those would be ideally zoned if they were B2, not PCD, which would allow a car wash, which would a B2 zoning designation would allow a car wash. Yeah. Is that pretty accurate?

Yes. So, that's accurate. We're going through our master plan um update right now. It's due every 5 years. It was recommended when we were redoing all of our zoning ordinances by our consulting firm back then that when we do this next master plan update to get rid of that PCD district just because it nobody understood why it was created in the first place. Um and it really didn't make any sense. Um so that was the recommendation. There was no urgent need at the time. So we were just going to wait until this update to go through that process. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Council member Sean Whitehead.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. As a lot of you know, I'm I'm a lawyer, so I got a little bit of a trained profession where I memorize most my speeches. But tonight, because of such a hot issue, I wanted to be prepared and have it written out, so please uh bear with me. I did want to address everything that I've heard for the past three to four weeks in regards to this issue. Um, my goal tonight was to hear all the concerns as we've listened for the past 3 to four weeks, but it's also being a lawyer, we have to operate in the in the facts and in looking at the facts that that means to look at the economic realities of redevelopment and to track the record of the developer and the individuals before us tonight. I I say all this that's to follow um after voting no last time. Look, there's some people that I really really value their opinions in this crowd. Leslie, I love you. You know that. Eric, same thing. You've we me and you locked in. Ken Sherman, valuable, valuable stakeholder to this city and and and nine out of.9 times I'm agreeing with you guys and last week I did. But I do want to give some insight in regards to what I've learned, the due diligence that's been done, and why I think that we should move forward. But we could still hear all the residents and what they did have to say. In doing that, uh my my first point is to explain uh that this property has been vacant, as many know, for years. Vacant commercial buildings rarely attract new tenants easily. Particularly former drugstore locations that were built for that very specific layout and footprint. That's what that building was made for. Um, redevelopment of a vacant building removes blight. It improves the appearance of our corridor and it restores the property to productive use on social media. And I've been scanning that the whole period of this discussion and I highlighted the top 10 uh things I

saw on social media and I actually spoke with the property owner about it and there was a lot of ideas uh that bounced around as my colleagues have also mentioned um and property owner will even tell we we bounced literally bounced around the idea of a pickle a pickle ball court literally bounced that idea office spaces fabric stores I heard we have to think about it even Jo-Ann Fabrics who's a staple is closing and has closed. This is not the same economy that we were in in the 1990s. Point number two, redevelopment means that investment in our city, the proposal in front of us represents private investment into our city. $10 million, that is nothing to sneeze at, being put right there at that corner where there's been nothing for years. Let me reiterate, when a developer chooses to invest millions of dollars into the red redevelopment, it signals confidence in the community and in the local economy. Number three, and this has been hit on by my fellow lawyer on the on our our uh board here, but retail clustering is common and often successful. There has been concerns expressed about having another car wash, another car wash in close proximity to an existing one. However, clustering similar businesses, as we see with all the restaurants that he named off, is actually common in commercial development. We see this all the time with gas stations, grocery stores, auto dealerships. These businesses clusters in areas with high traffic because the market demands it and can support it. Point number four, more options for the residents. Not every car wash serves the same market. Some providers or some provide a quick and affordable car wash while others offer premium services as Mr. Gold spoke about two weeks ago. Detailing and membership

services more like a subscription base. Having options benefits the residents and allows consumers to choose the services that best fit this need. I do want to tell you guys some things about the developer. The proposed owner is a long established business in real estate development. They've actually been founded since 1978 and the founder is here tonight and he has different properties all across this country. He's been here at both meetings because this is how important it is to him that he's here that he hears the concerns. A lot of landlords, a lot of owners of properties, they don't show up. They send other people. the actual person is here for us to be there for him to have both ears tuned in. And as you can see, it's already ripping benefits because we've closed one access way where there could be traffic concerns that now are mitigated. This firm, they own and manage large portfolio retail offices, residential developments throughout the state and across the country. But because of that, he is still here. He has not abandoned our city. He could have done so long ago. He has not done that. He still believes in O park and elevate O park and what that means. Their business model means that they develop, construct, and manage their own properties, which often time results in long-term ownership rather than what I've heard a lot is, well, isn't this just a quick flip type of situation. No, he sat there with a business that was not viable for years at this point. There are companies that have redeveloped historic Detroit built. This company has redeveloped historic Detroit buildings into bringing them back to life with under underutilized structures. They also manage and redevelop retail centers and commercial corridors across the state, working with both national and local tenants. Projects like these demonstrate a pattern of revitalizing properties rather than sl simply flipping them or

pawning them off. The long-term investment approach of uh AF Jonah has been mentioned is that they own and manage their developments for long term which means their success depends on continued success in the communities that their projects and locations reside. The model encourages develop developers to maintain the property, attract tenants and approve approve surrounding areas and also hear from the community. There were traffic concern. There are traffic concerns, safety concerns. A lot of that has been touched on tonight. Most of it. Um, and I would say engineering and landscaping and the lighting and all of these other things that have been mentioned tonight will be u mitigating factors in all those concerns like Pastor Love brought up. Um, as council members, our responsibility is to weigh concerns of our residents while also evaluating what is in the best for the long-term health of our city. This proposal would take a long-term vacant commercial property and convert it into an active business, increasing the taxable value of the property and bringing additional private investment into the community. At the same time, the developer has a long history of development and redevelopments across Michigan and this country. For those reasons, I believe that this proposal we can pass and two things can be true at once. We can hear the 50% of people in opposition and we can hear the 50% of people [clears throat] like the letters that were read by neighboring businesses. They say, "Bring it on. We we would we would um accept it and welcome it." This is similar. I want to remind everyone prior to me being on council six years ago, this is similar to what the cohort before me did with the liquor licenses. There was a lot of times where during that whole process, there was opposition, advocacy as we call it in my legal profession. Um, look at how that's looking now. We have a water tower

district. So, we're calling on you to trust your council here and and realize that we are trying to do what's best for the city. In doing all of this due diligence, the research, speaking with the owners, there's three last points I really would want to highlight. Let's think about this from the business owner perspective. And I know in today's society, we we we only think about uh you know, other things, but let's just think about it from actually the business person's perspective. This is someone who was looking for help from our city. When we were when we needed prescriptions, Ride 8 was there. When we needed toothpaste, when we needed groceries, when we needed medical devices to run tests, get first aid kits for our children, this business was there. And now the economyy's changed. And they are the ones that have fell on tough times. And they're asking for us to do something to help them. with all the help that they have given to our city. I say why not? Last thing I want to let you know, my second to second to last point here is that these are good people. I think that's important in business. I I know it's important in business and in politics setting up here. Being a good person matters. I've gone back and that's why I brought up the 1978 founding of their company and the founder being here. I've gone back. I've talked to business relationships that they've had over the past 30, 40 years with our approach. Everything says that they are community oriented, familyfriendly, all the values that we have here in Elevate Park. And so I say that to mean that he could have done a million and one other things with us at with this property and not given us an opportunity to have any say in it. He didn't do that. He waited. He waited while that b that building sat vacant. And then he now has something that could be promising.

Now, as I said earlier, two things can't be true at once. I am asking for us to hear the Ken Shermans in the crowd. I am asking us to hear the Leslie um Leslie Richies in the crowd. And I think the way we do that is if this one gets passed tonight, great. That'll be a six car wash by my count in our city. That's awesome. I think with a 5mi radius though and with all of the uproar we have our opposition advocacy on the other side. I think it is appropriate and the adult thing to do and I've instructed the city manager and his administration to look into this with our legal team over the next 6 months or 180 days. But I think we should take a pause after this one passes and we look at the things that we can do like we did with the self- storage units that we look at injunctions and moratoriums and maybe even figuring out how we cap the amount. Do we need more than six and I think it's important that we have all the residents. My one of my colleagues mentioned they don't like this being pushed through. I don't like things being pushed through either without due diligence and homework. So that's why I think over the next six months before we get back to another point where there's a seventh or eighth or a ninth car wash, we do need to have a study done. And I would ask for us to look at the self- storage unit model. Look at what our legal team did back then to um hear all everyone who has said that they are uh for it or against it. I think this is the meeting in the middle. I think this is the voice of reason that I bring to the room and I hope that um everyone can appreciate that we are just up here trying to give our best effort every night. Thank you.

Amen. What he said mayor u madam mayor [clears throat] uh is there further comment madam mayor. Can I just respond to Yes, please. Um just city manager city manager comment. Yeah I just uh thank you council member Whitehead. So, um, council members, um, in response to that, city staff and I will begin the process of determining what a moratorum on car washes as a permitted use would look like, and we'll return to council with our findings at a future meeting. Thank you for suggesting a comp a compromise. Any further comments from council?

Yes. Um I too have taken a few notes and I just wanted to read them. I'll be a lot briefer than my colleague here but I wanted to last time so I had to

right um first of all I just want to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to everyone that reached out to myself and my colleagues regarding the resoning issue. It's always refreshing and rewarding to see citizens of our city become involved in the civic process. I have read and listened to many of the concerns and comments regarding the use of this space and I've done my due diligence as well because as your elected official, I've spoken with the property owner. I've spoken with the developer. I've reviewed the traffic and safety reports and I've also reviewed responses and input from our residents who live directly behind the proposed space. And there have been some great suggestions emailed uh and uh text to me regarding what we can do with this space. But the real reality of the situation is that they're just not viable options. Potential businesses cannot afford the massive cost of retrofitting this property to fit their needs. It's too big for a restaurant. It's not big enough for a big big box chain. And this has been an uphill battle that our economic development team as well as the property owner has been diligently trying to find viable business to fill that space for a while. So where does that leave us? The property owner is constantly losing money for a vacant building for almost two years. None of the wonderful potential business suggestions that have been sent to me, none of them have approached the property owner or the city of Oak Park for consideration. But the property owner has received interest from other businesses and I don't feel that those businesses reflect the character of our city. The plain and

simple fact is that the property owner is a business person and needs to fill that space. But let's just take it a step further and say that the property owner decides to leave that space vacant for now and it sits vacant for another two to three years. Is this really the look that we want for Oak Park? Have you ever driven through a city where every other building is vacant? What does that say about that city to me? It doesn't say welcoming, prosperous, or progressive. Yes, another car wash may have a little more of an industrial look than I may like, but here in Oak Park, it's no way reflective of Oak Park because in our city, we've created so many newly designed green spaces, our pocket parks on 9mm, brand new event hub with community meeting spaces, an outdoor concert venue, and the revitalization of our 11mi water district. So again, the look of a car wash on Greenfield and 10M to me is not reflective of Oak Park. And quite honestly, it does not keep me up at night. Now, someone said at an earlier meeting, they didn't want Oak Park to become known as the city of a thousand1 car washes. Well, I don't want Oak Park to become known as the city of a thousand1 vacant buildings because that's the thought that keeps me up at night. So, with that being said, I do I do uh support the resoning. I hope um that you respect my decision as your elected official as I respect your opinion. And if the if the resoning pass, I look forward to working with the property

owner to help make sure that this space is as pleasant, green, and as safe as possible. And I hope everyone who solicited the ideas and suggestions continue to solicit ideas and suggestions to the developer and the city to make sure this space is reflective of our warm and welcoming city. Thank you. Fabulous. Thank you. Um, any further questions since we're speechifying? Yeah,

I I completely understand Mr. Jonah's need to um fill this vacant spot to to sell it or whatever you're going to do with it. Um, and I know that you made a good faith effort to look for other tenants and thank you for that. I'm glad that you worked with the city. Um, I'm voting against resoning because I don't think that a car wash is the best use of that property. In fact, I think it's um it's not just that there are four car washes nearby. It's it's the look that it will give our city. I don't think a car wash is a good look. I just don't. I think that um Greenfield Road, you know, we we invested quite a bit of money in signage with the city of Southfield, a welcome sign, welcome to Oak Park, but that's on Greenfield and people traveling north, well, what are they going to see when they come in? One car wash after another. [snorts] I do feel sorry for the owner of Softcloth because he will, as Mr. Jonah put it, he'll either have to put a lot of money into his facility to compete or he'll be run out of business. Um, one point is that I'm sure since this is this is not a secret anymore, um, he's going to have a hard time selling his business for what it's worth. So, I um I feel for the other competitors. Um, I don't I mean I if there had been a gas station, I'm sure that Mr. Jabori wouldn't have been happy about that, but that's competition. Everybody drives, everybody needs gas. Same thing. So, I guess I take the long view and I feel like, you know, if we if we are moving toward um a city of people of community, this is just the wrong decision. And I know we're going to be

updating the master plan and I really hope that um we really work on zoning so that we don't have this happening because it will happen again and again if we don't tighten up our zoning regulations. Um I I feel like we need to, you know, this is not a free-for-all. We we shouldn't just sell off property because we want the revenue. um the people and not commercial interests should guide our decisions and should guide what the city looks like. Um I'm glad that u there are safety considerations. You've closed off one of the ingresses. That's great. Um but it's still a car wash and um I I just feel like it's uh it's not what we should be doing. And I know that there are many there's a lot of opposition to this. If social media is a town hall, which I think it is at this point, the people against this far outnumber the people who are for this. Um, it's a large-scale development. and I don't think it it belongs there, but I respect I respect my fellow city council members and um I will respect their decision. I think I'm in the minority. I know I'm in the minority here, but um I really hope that in the future we we do take a longer view of this city. Um because right aid, the same thing is going to happen with this. These are businesses that they're going to evolve and eventually we're going to have a husk of a building. Um, you know, when when uh drugstores decided they had to be freestanding, you know, all of a sudden we had all these vacancies and it it hurts the people and I respect

property owners and and their right to make money, but I don't think it should happen on the backs of communities like ours. So anyway, that's all I have to say.

Thank you. Um, we have up here effective public service servants. And as effective public servants, we need to possess how in our performance. How stands for honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness. Honesty means objectively obsessing the facts as they become known. whether they support your position or not. Open-mindedness means advocating only for the general welfare and listening dispassionately to both sides of the argument. W willingness means being open to changing your opinion after judicious review of the facts. Uh when this started, I came to the planning commission like a lot of you um planning to vote no on the zoning request for the same reason that you brought up. We have enough car washes. I was hoping for a better use. I wanted information on issues that were raised. Would it increase traffic? Is it contrary to the master plan? Isn't a better use possible? The traffic study showed the car wash brings less traffic than the right aid. Two groups of expert consultants hired by the city to craft an effective master plan five years ago and now both advised the city to reszone the corner of 10 mile and Greenfield to B2. As council member Radner brought up, many ideas have been suggested and they would be great. Um, unfortunately, the suggested alternative retail or service establishments like Trader Joe's have shown no interest in coming to this

location. Brick and mortar stores that we enjoyed in the past are going the way of horse and boogies. There are 165 vacant write aids in the area. All the Jo-Ann fabrics are gone to bankruptcy. Owners of the desired businesses put forth by helpful residents like a fabric store in a park and a play area have to be willing to come to Mr. Jonah and say, "I'd like to be on this corner." The truth is, no other retailer service operations are interested. Instead, we look at the possibility of another dollar store or similar low-end retail use. The owners have shown themselves willing to bend over backwards to be part of our community and to adjust their plans to to your needs and wants more than any other businesses that I remember coming to park. After evaluating this information, I felt changing my vote was in the best interest of all of us who live in the city of Oak Park. So, I will vote yes. If we're ready to vote, I will call for a roll call.

Council member Crawford, yes. Mayor Prom Edgar, no. Mayor Mlen, yes. Council member Rner, yes. Council member Whitehead, yes. Motion carries 4 to one. Thank you for your work, your interest, your participation. Thank you all whether you agreed with me or not. Thank you, city man. You'll be back in like 180 days with an assessment in a study, right? Council member, it is my hope that we can be back as quickly as possible. Thank you, yes, please come on up,

Madame Mayor, for the council. Two things I don't think I've ever been spoken about in the way you spoke about us ever at a council meeting or a planning commission. And at the beginning of the night, there was a young man that had whose name was Jonah. And when I saw him up there and everybody stood up, I said, "Man, I got no nothing to worry about tonight." So, [laughter] thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Good common name there. Yeah. All right.

So, um we are on 10 bids. uh request to a award the bid for the municipal complex multiple buildings demolition project M796 to Mirswell Construction LLC of Pontiac Michigan for the total cost of $398,000. Is there a motion to approve this award? So moved. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Madame Mayor. Yes, please. Um I I would like to uh call attention to deputy director of municipal services Dan Fairless who is here at the podium with me. And Dan, one question that I would like to throw out if you could just give us a brief overview. Sure.

I'm absolutely thrilled that this bid has come in much much lower than what we budgeted. What was the budget amount references? Yeah, we were thinking around um um $1.5 million. Wow. So, can I interrupt you? So, I think council members, if if this bid is accepted tonight, um that's a savings of about a million dollars that we can now use um to go back into our community center on behalf of our residents. Never imagined this bid would come in at this number. It's fantastic. And that's without Crystal. Can you imagine? Let's see. We have We have a motion to second. Yes, [clears throat] please. Pardon me.

You good? You good? I'm I'm good. Yeah. questions for about this bid? No, just keep bringing them lower than expected. Yeah, love it. Thank you. Well, that doesn't hardly happen. We're not going to be getting a change order on this one, are we? [laughter] No change orders. We We don't allow change orders. I tell Dave to Foster. So, uh, Mayor Prom Edgar, yes. Mayor Mlen, yes. Council member Radner, yes. Council member Whitehead, yes. Council member Crawford. Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. City Manager Eric Tung.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, members of council. 11 A1. I have my uh one of my all-time favorite staff members here, our director of public safety. We've been together for 14 years. You guys, please, sir.

All right. Thank you, sir. You tell it to all the directors. [laughter] Just kidding. Good evening, Mayor. Uh Mayor Prom, City Council, and City Manager Tong. Uh I'm coming before you today with council agenda item uh titled our emergency 911 call handling equipment. Uh in 2024, Oakland County was notified that Motorola Solutions would be ending support for its call works 911 emergency handling equipment uh as the system had reached its end of life. As a result, the county began evaluating new vendors to replace the aging infrastructure. And in 2025, Carbine uh was selected following a comprehensive review process. The decision was based on uh stakeholder feedback, system versatility, the ability to meet individual agency needs and overall functionality. Unlike the legacy call works uh platform which operated on a closed system with no integration capabilities, Carbine uh provides a cloud-based solution that supports integration with multiple uh information systems. The modernization allows for enhanced data sharing, improved interoperability, and expanded capabilities to uh support next generation 911 services. The new system is scheduled to come online during the current fiscal year 2025 26, slightly earlier than had originally been anticipated. The total cost for one year is $77,32.30. An immediate payment of $34,664.40 will be required to cover uh hardware expenses, one-time deployment costs, and initial subscription fees. The remaining balance of $42,367.90 will be requested as part of the fiscal year 2627 uh budget process. Uh, so I'm coming before council asking that uh you approve the purchase of the

911 emergency call handling equipment in the amount of $34,6640 to be expended from the general fund fund balance to cover the initial cost of the hardware deployment and subscription service. Uh, and this contract has been reviewed by legal. Is there what took you so long? Is there a second? Second. Every once in a while we get something where I feel like Chief Cooper's looking at us and saying, "I dare you to say no to this." [laughter] Any discussion or questions? Sounds great. Sounds great. Um, roll call, please. Mayor Mlullen, yes. Council member Radner, yes. Council member Whitehead, yes. Council member Crawford, yes.

Mayor Prom Edgar, yes. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. And council members, I might have spoke too soon because one of my other favorite employees is here tonight and she's not here that much. So, we are very excited to have her her tonight. Our director, you picked the right meeting to come to the directors. [laughter] Our director of human resources and operation Carla Allen is here for 11B1. Carla,

good evening madame mayor, mayor pro team, esteemed council, city manager, city attorney, and city clerk. The last time I was before you, it was to ask for an approval for uh an amendment to our intervocal agreement which would allow us to switch from premise health to Marathon for our wellness center. You so graciously did that and now I am before you to ask for an approvement for a third amendment to that interlocal agreement which as you know before the previous agreement would allow us to expand and to add to our collaboration and I'm here excited to let you know that Oakland County has decided that they would like to partner with us as well. Wonderful. So yes, it's wonderful and with the adoption of this particular amendment, it will allow our employees much greater access to other services as well as other centers which will in turn increase utilization and lower the costs of health care for the city. So it's a win-win

and I'm happy to answer any questions. Madam Mayor, I have to take this opportunity to just express my absolute excitement for this, but I do want to just express how thankful I am to the hard work that Carla and her team have put into this. This has been months and months in the making and meetings and meetings and meetings, many of which I've been there with you, but this is an opportunity. I think um this new provider provides as as Carla mentioned a ton more uh accessibility um and access but with Oakland County an additional partner in this I believe they're saying I don't want to say to the actual number but I think it's they're saying around 10 new centers throughout the county that our employees would have access to

and as you know access for our employees where they live uh you know where they're commuting to and from so and so forth has been huge in the utilization of the center. So, the savings and be better care as a result of this for our staff and for the city's budget are going to be tremendous. Yes, absolutely. Kudos. Amazing. Started out very small. Other people realized what a good deal it was and are joining on.

And she's also I'm sorry, one more thing. She's also meeting with other partners. And we always I I don't want to go too deep in the weeds with this. We always talk about Oak Park's wellness center model combined with the direct contracting model. Carla and her team have been having several meetings now with this potential direct contract situation for other specialized or primary care services which would also save the city money because we would cut out the insurance company. Yeah, we would just do a direct contract with the healthcare provider. Yes, we have two meetings tomorrow actually. So very excited about that.

Future of healthcare in America. the future of healthcare in America and we're doing it. We're spearheading it right here under Carla's leadership in state park is leading the way. So we we need a motion to u approve the third amendment to the interlocal agreement for onsite health and wellness centers. So moved. Second. Thank you. Um discussion or questions. Uh just a comment just in during a time when when so many health care uh plans are becoming more restrictive for you to be able to um have it more inclusive and more options. Kudos to you and your staff. Thank you. Good job. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Just one point,

please. Uh Council Member Sean Whitehead. I think we're going to be back to being unanimous again on the votes, [laughter] so I'm willing to wager that. Can I say one more thing then? Yes, please. I I do want to point out that um Council Member Crawford's comments are spot on. The the healthc care inflation rate um is between 10 and 20%, depending on who you are. And for us, when they initially provided our our renewal information through Blue Cross, our premium renewals, it was I think 12%. We negotiated them down to 8%.

But I just want everybody to walk away from here thinking, you know, the rate of inflation is just under 3% right now. um it's more than double the rate of inflation is not sustainable. This is happening all over the place. Um and the only way that I could know to address it is through what we're doing through the wellness center and direct contracting model that Carla is uh spearheading for us. Parks on top of it again. We [clears throat] need a roll call vote. Uh Council Member Radner, yes. Council member Whitehead, yes. Council member Crawford, yes. Mayor Prom Edgar, yes. And Mayor Mlen, yes. Passed unanimously. We are ticked. Thank you.

Thank you, Madame Mayor, members of council. That completes the city manager report for this evening. Thank you. Um, to read the card to the audience.

Okay. This is the section of the meeting where the public may get up and comment. Um, your remarks are a matter of public record. You are alone, you alone are responsible for your comments and the city of Oak Park does not by permitting such remarks, support, endorse, or accept those remarks as being true or accurate. Any person while being heard at a city council meeting may be called to order by the chair or any council member for failure to be gerine to the business of the city, vulgarity or personal attacks on persons or institutions. And there's a threeminut time limit.

And um Mr. City Clerk, do we have cards for people?

We do. Sandra Terry first. again. Good afternoon. Um, [clears throat] city clerk, city attorney, city manager, the mayor, and the council members. [clears throat] My name is Sandra Kerry. I live at 24310 Ridgedale, just right behind the building here. I just want to beg the city council not to let Oak Park become a ghetto city. Why am I saying that? Because people are storing their garbage can on front lines. They got them on the front porch. They got them in the driveway near the front line. And something need to be done about it. Now, if you go Church Street toward um Oak Park Boulevard between Church and Greenfield, you will see exactly what I'm talking about. Every other house got their garbage can on the front lawn. And I'm sure you've seen it. So please, you need to do something about it because the ghetto start with one home, one block, one community, and then the city. So I'm begging you to do something about it. Thank you.

Thank you. We will do. And um if you see one, you can call code enforcement and we'll talk about that after the meeting. Okay. Thank you. Uh next, Ivon Callaway. Callaway, sorry.

Good evening, uh officers of city ball park. Um my name is Yvon Kelly. I live at 23550 Harding and I kind of still want to put the cart before the horse um cuz I still feel like there might be a problem with the the um car wash across the street. It has anyone checked because if it goes under that means you can't make it res you have to reszone that too al right because if you want to make it a restaurant or a store you have to clear all that the holes out and everything. So that would make it harder for them to for us to rent I mean sell it because it would cost a lot of money to fix it up. Right. So I'm just wondering have anyone thought about that? $10 million. Wonderful. That spot great. It's going to be filled but we're going to have the same problem. Hopefully not soon, but the same pro problem across the street. And how much will that cost us? Because I cannot see somebody saying, "Oh, I want to that spot, but it's a car wash." So, I would have to redo the whole section to even make it into a store or a restaurant. That's all I want to say.

Thank you for caring. Thank you. Candace Galloway.

Good evening everyone. I'm going to be brief and uh stick to my notes because democracy has been hard at work today and I know folks are tired. Uh so my name is Candace Callaway and I'm running for state representative for district 5 and I'm really excited to be here and to meet all of you. Um, I hope and believe that we can build a Michigan where we're not just surviving. And I have and believe that uh we can hope for much more. And so why I'm running is very simple. I have friends, neighbors, and families who are working twice as hard and still struggling to make ends meet. Um, many folks, including me, are working multiple jobs and are still struggling to uh make sure that child care, groceries, medical coverage, affordable housing are things that are within reach. I think that our support nets need to cover every individual and every family. Our budgets need to be prioritizing preK through 12, our community college options, and our trades. And that needs to be fully funded and fully supported, no questions asked. That is the foundation of our future. Finally, we need to be investing in responsible and sustainable communities and the infrastructure that connects them. We know that conditions need to uh lead to equitable uh safe spaces for families to live happy and healthy lives. Michigan is a beautiful place to live, to learn, to thrive. I'm sure you all agree and I know firsthand I was born and raised here. I'm hopeful that we can have better in Detroit, in Royal Oak Township, and here in Oak Park. So, I hope that you'll join me as we go and get that together. It's been it's late and I want to talk to all of you, but I know it's 9:00 and it's time to go. So, please join me. We'll be at Hansen's Hall on Saturday, uh, March 7th at 2 o'clock. Come get pizza, come get drinks, connect with folks, connect with the local business, uh, and talk to me because I want to hear from you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you,

Eric Love. Good to see y'all again. Well, this is kind of a bittersweet moment. Um, I'mma talk on the bitterness. When I look in this room currently, I see residence. Just to say, I'mma tell y'all how my heart is right now. Y'all let the residents down. That was business that just took place. the gas station owners, they going to capitalize off of the car wash. So, yes, they must be present. The car wash owner, he said, where he reside at in his um in Oakland County and and and so I went back there, I Googled is El Carwash located in his city where he reside. could he put money back into his city and it's not that many car washes even where he resides which is Bloomsville. So it's just goes to say the people are the ones who electing y'all in office and y'all overlook what they say and listen to what the business people say. So, what we just saw tonight was business owners versus residents. Who matters the most? And they made a decision, our council members. But the sweet thing of it all

is that council me councilman Whitehead stated going forward we should definitely take six months to do study and assessment and I think that was the most wisdom we heard this evening. Thank you. Okay, we are on call to the council. We've been talking at you a lot. So, I'm just going to give a shout out to my um my friend, long-term friend from McDow Elementary in Detroit, Michigan, uh Roger Seagull. Thanks for coming. Mayor Pro Tim. Hi, Roger. Thanks for coming. [laughter] Um, I want to thank everybody who came out tonight and I want to thank residents who um have been actively um have been active on social media. Um, there's a lot of thoughtful people in our community. Um, and there's a lot of different uh viewpoints which is wonderful. But um, I thank you for being here and Mr. Love that was a I I appreciate your your speech. That was good. Thank you. Good night,

Council Member Radner. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Wow, what a long night. Um, first of all, it's nice to see so many people engaged and please stay engaged. It may not be a car wash, but there's always things that we're dealing with up here. And the more the residents are involved and engaged, the more we know what the people want. So, please continue to stay engaged. I'll stick around afterwards and speak to anybody who wants to wants to speak with me. Thank you. Council member Whitehead, city manager, I just wanted to double check. Does the Health and Wellness Center a cure LCMS long council meeting syndrome? [laughter] Boss, I I sure hope so. Okay, just making sure. We will we will definitely ask. Right, Carla?

Councilman Rner is normally the funny one, but he he was a little tense this past week, so I said I got to bring the jokes.

So, um, we do listen to our residents all seriousness. Um, and that's why I talked with city manager earlier earlier before this issue got before us to make sure that we were going to do something that at least heard the others that were in opposition. Um, and I've been doing this 6 years up here. I'm be honest, we've been hearing a lot of people say that's not fair that you guys don't let us comment to the end. And this is the first time after I've done I'll multiply it out. There's two meetings a month. I've done probably 50 60 council meetings if probably more. But with that being said, um well no way more than that. So it would be 20 I'm can't it's getting late. I can't do math now. Done over 100 some council meetings. 120 some council meetings over these past six years. Okay. This is the first time we ever listened to the residents and changed our agenda. We changed our agenda tonight so that way we can hear you before the vote. That did take a a lot of work in the background to make sure that that occurred. So, we do hear our residents. I want you to know that it may not feel like it. When there's a hundred comments and there's 100 social media posts nowadays, it may not feel like you're being hurt, but we do hear you. That's part of the reason why we made it so important to change 9A on the agenda to make sure that the comments came tonight before the vote. Thank you. Have a good night.

Thank you, Council Member Crawford. Just wanted to say again, thank everyone who came out. Express your opinion. Whether you were for uh whether you were against um the proposed car wash, we do appreciate everyone. We value your comments and we listen to each of your concerns. Um just want to let everyone know that uh um there's a lot going on uh in the world right now. There's a lot of uh unhappiness happening right now. So uh as a city just remember be kind to one another and uh value your neighbor, value your family and everyone stay safe. Have a good evening.

There being no further business to come before this council, this meeting is adjourned.