Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

City of Romulus Regular Planning Commission for Monday, August 18th, 2025 will now come to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge 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. Next item is roll call. Roll call. Mr. Frederick here. Mr. Glutfelty here. Mr. Mcinelli here. Mr. Long here. Miss Rosco here. Miss Jameson

here. Mr. Crover here. And Bad here. Miss Fry Tag is excused. Get better. Please hurry. Next item is approval of agenda. We have a request to modify the agenda to move item 8A under six on our agenda. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion. Um, I'd like to make a motion to move item AA 8A 2025 master plan update kickoff to right after six on the agenda.

Support Mr. Frederick support. Roll call. Mr. Kova. Yes. Mr. Frederick. It was Mr. Gladfelt actually. Oh, I'm sorry. Mr. Gly. Yes. Apologize. No problem. Mr. Frederick. Yes. Mr. Long. Yes. Miss Rosco, yes. Miss Json, yes. Mr. Bowad, yes. Motion's approved. Next is approval of the minutes from the meeting held Monday, July 21st, 2025. So moved, Mr. Chair. Motion made by Mr. Frederick. Support. Supported by Mr. Long to approve the minutes. Uh, roll call. Mr. Frederick. Yes.

Mr. Long. Yes. Mr. Glofffely, yes. Miss Rosco, yes. Miss Jimson, abstain. Mr. Bob, yes. Motion is carried. Next item, comments from the public on non-aggenda items. Anybody here that wishes to speak on anything that is not on our agenda tonight? Seeing no one, move on. Next is public hearings. We have none. Now we'll go on to the 2025 master plan kickoff update kickoff. Are you starting or is Kevin? I'm going to start your show.

Guys, get my act together if that's in the bottom. Is the clicker down there? Yeah. I thought I'd come up here, guys, just so that is this ready to go with the red light. That's good. Yep.

Um, good evening, commissioners. John Enos, uh, your consulting planner. Nice to see you guys again. Haven't seen you in a little bit, but that's all right. I I've talked to Carolyn Jeff pretty regularly. Um, and I wanted to come to you this evening to talk about the master plan and the update to our master plan. I know I know we've had some new comm we have some new commissioners on board since we updated this plan. So I I want to give a brief overview of what this thing is. Then I want to talk about all these different tools that we have to help with this update. And then I want to take a brief amount of time to talk with you about next steps and and things that you want us uh to look at more carefully as we kind of put this plan together. And I know that Kevin is going to speak to you about the ecourse road study. um that's completed and uh he's going to bring up some of the issues from that plan which we of course will incorporate into our overall master plan update and I think that's the key word update. Uh as I was telling uh the chairman before the meeting, this is a pretty good plan if you've had the opportunity and I'm going to I'm going to charge you with uh some homework after this is it's a pretty good plan overall. I work on a lot of them. Working on here on townships, Wood Haven and Southgates right now. Um, and this plan from a design standpoint and a and a and a vision does a really nice job of jumping out on what what the city of Romulus wants to be and what you need to do as a commission and council and all these other boards to get that role. So, let's get started. Um, I like to keep these as informal as possible and I'm kicking off the conversation on a master plan. So if you have any questions just kind of let's let's talk about it. So the first thing we're going to is what is a master? Well the state has said over the course of many many years is that in order to have zoning and this is

in the planning enabling act and the zoning enabling act there's two laws main laws out there that let us do let you do what you do. The planning enabling act and the zoning enabling act. That planning act talks about the fact that if you want to have zoning, you have to do a master plan. And some communities may call them a comprehensive plan or a growth management plan. Uh the state prefers the term master plan because it's a it's a it's an all-encompassing word for a community. So, if you're if you're driving up north, say, and you're driving to a lot of those rural communities and you see, we'll say, uh, Kemp Township. Well, usually you may see, welcome to Kemp Township, a zoned community. And you've probably seen those where you're driving around. What that means is that that community has a master plan because if you don't have a master plan, you don't have you can't have zoning. And that's an important concept because they're so closely tied together. uh these two documents and u what we're gonna what I want to talk to you about tonight is not only how we're going to get started with the update but also all these I think very good studies that have been put together that'll be encompassed and incorporated into this plan um and it's a policy it's a think of it as a a broad brushstroke of your community a gen a very wide overview of what you want to be in relation to residential development, commercial development, industrial development, public improvements. So, you've got this broad brush stroke and what that does is allow you to winnow it down to the zoning ordinance. The master plan is what you can do, what we want to do in the future. The zoning ordinance is what we can we do today in order to meet the goals and objectives of that master plan

that you're going to help create. most of it is going to be done through zoning. So that's important that's an important tie is that this master plan while generalized in many ways is a is a tool that you'll use when making zoning decisions uh land use decisions, zoning text amendments. This this this document gives you a nice kickstart for a lot of different uh responsibilities that you have a plan as a planning commission has uh to maybe many times recommend up to council, but a lot of times you do just as you do as a commission. Um and so that's why it's so important that we update these plans uh pretty regularly. In fact, we're required we're required to update them every 5 years. The law says you've got to take a look at your master plan once every five years. And that doesn't mean a major overhaul of the plan. And like I said earlier, I think this plan is in pretty good shape. We are going to make some changes to it. Uh but this isn't going to be a major overhaul, I don't think, because the plan that you worked hard on 5 years ago has a lot of good points that I think we'll keep in there. Uh some we may talk out and some we've already accomplished in there. uh but it's going to recognize the changes that have occurred uh and it's going to recognize the changes that you see need to need to occur. It's going to promote uh the wide use of resources in our community. The Field of Dreams, one of my favorite movies talks about if you build it, they will come. Well, that includes if you build certain infrastructure, if you build uh if you widen roads, if you add sidewalks, talking with Emory earlier, this use improving the sidewalk or pedestrian access in the city. Uh if we widen roads or improve the quality of those roads and what I have found uh and just recently what I've seen down in New Boston is they they did a major uh public improvement to their downtown. It's just a little downtown if you know

it, but they spent a few million dollars on uh improving the road, improving the sidewalks. One thing they did was they they eliminated the uh overhead hanging wires and buried those. And time and time again, what I've seen in my career is that public improvement breeds private investment. So, if we can if the private development world sees that we're uh improving our infrastructure, they're going to feel more comfortable investing in the community. Uh it's going to preserve equality of life. That's kind of a general statement, but a lot of these studies that I've been reviewing talk about the residential quality of life and how we can improve that in the city. Uh and it's a guide and then it's a guide for development as well. It is really a tool that I would suggest that once we get this thing done and I would expect we'll be working on in the next few months have it done uh early 2025 because there's some timelines that some significant timelines where we have to send it out to our neighbors. They have to review it. But we I fully expect to have this done in early part of 2025 with the mo with a with a majority of done throughout the falls. Uh but it's going to be used to guide your development. You're going to use it.

Excuse me. 2026, correct? I'm sorry. Yeah, 2026.

Yeah, because otherwise it'd already be done. I forget. I forget what year it is. Um, and you're going to use that. I hope you're going to use that tool when you're making planning and zoning decisions. Uh, especially in regards to resonings and things like that. And when I say resonings and using that tool, a lot of you may think about the future land use map. And that that yes, while that's an important part of your master plan, this map that shows, hey, we want commercial here, residential here, industrial here, um there's a lot of things in that plan, 100 pages worth, that are also just as important, I think, and those are going to be your goals and objectives uh and your implementation strategy. So as you get when I do a resoning review for for you or another community, I always take a look at the master plan and I add, okay, the future land use plan calls for this map, but also the goals and objectives call for these type uses in that area or this is where we want to strengthen that area. And again, the last part, like I said, the darn thing's required that we do this every five years. And when we do that, we base it on the resources and assets of our community. What do we have now in terms of infrastructure that can support this? We talk with our engineers. We talked with our parks and recreation. We talked with the DDA. Uh we want to know that the assets and limitations that we have. So if we promote certain uses in certain areas, we can do that. What is the character of the community? Romulus, as I've get to know it over these last few years, it's a it's a mixture of these. It's got some rural character, it's got some suburban character, it's got some urban character. Uh we've got the airport, of course. So, there's a lot of character characters in the community to say the least, right? There's a lot of different characteristics in in the city that we want to take a look at and what

we want to become. And those are going to be different areas of the city. uh especially be north of 94, south of 94, the downtown around the airport along Ekers World that Kevin's going to talk about. There's a lot of different parts of our city that will be incorporated into this. So, I want to take a little bit of time to talk about what's already be done that's already been done. And that's really important guys because when you initially did this update to the master plan um 5 years ago there was a lot of time and effort and public input involved. And so over the course of the last few years what also has been done are these ancillary studies that are on the outside that are specifically associated with the overall city or specific areas that will tie in. One of those is the vision Romulus. If you had a chance to look at this plan, it's really it's really pretty good in regards to and I got to grab my notes on each of these. I want to be comfortable ch again if you got any comments let us know. And um especially when you get to the point of after we're done, I'm going to ask that you can that you if you think of anything to kind of funnel them through Carol because she's going to kind of be my go-to in regards to update assisting with the updating plan. So this vision Ramulus, I'll pass this around.

Actually, they have it. Yep, they have it. Yeah. And I think the summary is on the next slide. Yeah. It's got a

This talks about, you know, there's 5,000 acres available for development. Uh there's specific parts of this. It talks about a connection to the residents, the community, and being uh transparent in regard to letting us know what's going on. It talks about the the gate that we're the gateway to Michigan. uh we already know that in many ways. Uh it takes a lot of time to talk about business retention and attraction and then gets into corridors uh and neighborhoods and how we invest in community placemaking. And those terms are throughout our current master plan. But I just wanted to bring up all of these to talk to you about the fact that these uh these important documents strengthen the master. the housing market study that's going on right now. We're taking a look at uh not us, but the city has a consultant reviewing the the housing market study. What is that exactly? Well, most communities that I work in are dealing with housing issues. They're dealing with these issues that primarily look to a community and how we can retain our residence or how we can age in place in our community. how somebody can be born in Romulus, be raised in Romulus, graduate from high school, go to trade school, college, don't do either of those, but they get they have the ability to still find work and live in their community that they grew up in, get married, have kids, retire, all in different and those aren't in the same house. I was just telling Carol, I my sons had moved out. We recently and we were downsizing our home and we bought a condo, but we weren't able to find the kind of condo that we're looking at in our community because that community didn't hasn't has it doesn't have a mix of uses. And I some people use that term housing affordability or affordable housing. I don't like that term. I I like the term

housing opportunities. And so that that's what this market assessment is doing right now. Talking about where is our housing and does it work. ecourse road corridor study that Kevin's going to speak to. So, I'm not even gonna really talk about that, but if you got a chance, I'm sure you have because you got a copy of it, does an excellent job of talking about this main corridor in our city and what needs what we're suggesting can be done in regards to the mixture of land uses that currently occur that currently exist on course and and how we can improve or promote new uses along that corridor. And so I'm gonna let again Kevin talk about that. Uh the DDA plan, if you're not familiar with that, we've got a a pretty I think a pretty cool DDA plan that talks about how how are we going to improve our downtown. And all of these have specific I I some of this isn't the most interesting reading. uh especially when we're talking about the numbers and the tiff plan that we're working on and the DDA plan, the DDA plan that's completed, but it does show you all the exciting things that are are are planned for the city. The DDA plan talks about these captured dollars. And if you're not familiar with DDA or TIF tax financing or TIFFA or LDFA, our city has a lot of those out there. What that does is talk about capturing tax capturing tax dollars. So that money can be put back into public improvements in that area. For an example, if once your base, say your base amount of taxes in in an area of a tiff are a million dollar. Well, if you develop in that area over the course of three, four years, and that value is up to a million and a half, you're capturing $500,000 to put back into public improvements.

And those include sidewalks, roads, uh grants for building facade improvements, uh a variety of different things that the the TIFF and the DDA plan do. The downtown strategic plan is also very similar to that. Um, I really I really suggest if you've got copies of the plan to take some time and review them because I'm I'm doing that and I'm going to be pulling out and I'm thinking as this plan our master plan comes together I'm thinking as I look through the goals and objectives that we'll be referencing these outside plans uh to some extent even if it's just a numbering system saying hey if there's one of these goals related to sidewalk improvements it's also referenced in A B and C these three different other plans. So we know that hey this is a wide range of thoughts and ideas that over the course of many many meetings over the course of thousands of dollars of of cost over the course of thousands of in thousands of of points of input from from resident surveys from task forces from planning commission meetings from council meetings uh from town hall meetings. One of the things I liked about the one of the studies, it actually went to the high school and got some input from our our high school students in regards to what we want to do and where we want to be. So, that's kind of an overview of what we have already. One thing that I'll let to the ER road study and then I kind of want to finish up with uh where do we go next, guys? Does that sound good, Kevin?

Yeah. Good evening everyone. Um thank you John for kind of touching on most of that stuff. Um you know as John was saying with the exception I think of the vision plan which really came um you know was the charge of the mayor's office when he uh first first took office and and embarked uh during his first year on that vision plan. the rest of the studies that uh he referenced kind of came out of out of my vertical um and has have progressively grown um and and along the way I've had the pleasure of working with Carol and Jeff on a lot of these and collaborating and and that's kind of how we got to where we were today with the ecourse road corridor study. Um, as we started discussing this and talking about what was this going to encompass, it really fell into in line with what uh, Carol and and Jeff had, you know, vision-wise as far as the master plan update along the corridor road um, you know, areas as a whole. But um the DDA revitalization plan, the ecourse road corridor study, um you've heard me talk about uh putting funding mechanisms and working with Chris Gerwood from Aeratropolis and working on the funding mechanism for Ecourse Road through an LDFA. Um our TIFFA restatement plan that we're going through right now, just like you guys are starting your uh master plan update, we are uh going through a TIFFA restatement plan as well uh which is opening. Uh Mr. uh long sits on that as well and and uh he'll be giving input on that and that's going to open up additional opportunities uh for the TIFA dollars to be used in the TIFA districts uh for infrastructure and and public improvements which kind of all ties into this bigger picture of what what the city looks like in the future. And then lastly, as we've been going through this um and more importantly in the economic development world, in the state of Michigan in general and across the nation, housing has become a significant issue. And um and that spurred our our last um uh our last study that is actually just finished up with uh Baker

Tilly. Um and uh we wrote a grant through uh Misha, received a $50,000 grant and did a full comprehensive housing study throughout the entire uh city of Romulus. And um that goes to the extent of what what's our current housing stock? Um you know, how many houses are we short? Uh what's the diversity in the housing uh that we currently have? Uh and what we really found at first glance, and this was uh data that came from the Ecourse Road study, was that about 86% of the housing in Romulus is three-bedroom, two- bath housing. And um and there really isn't a good diversity of housing options in the uh city of Romulus as as John pointed out and it makes it very difficult for a somebody to be born in Romulus, raised in Romulus, move out of parents their parents' homes, find affordable housing options for them to move into whether it's an apartment or a condo or a studio or an efficiency or whatever it might look like and then from there continue to grow their life. um maybe have a a significant other that they move into and into a condo or duplex or something and then grow into a single family home as their family grows. And those options don't just don't exist um you know readily throughout the city of Romulus. So that was really the last plan that we embarked on and is just finishing up. We just received actually a draft copy of it and we're going through for um for edits and updates and we should have a fi final copy by uh probably midepptember. Um so all of that has kind of um been building on itself. We've um gone through all of those processes. Each of those individual processes um had several listening sessions, had several public engagement sessions. Uh we did every we did things um we tried to be very flexible with schedules. So we we did in-person sessions, we did virtual sessions, we reached out to especially with the housing just recently um special demographics like seniors and

veterans and and uh disabled and and had those uh the input from those different groups throughout the entire uh process and um and specifically we also looked at the diversity um of the different areas or different corners I always call them or quadrants of the city, right? because the housing needs in the souththeast corner of the city are diff different than the south or the northwest corner of the city and we wanted to make sure that you know as we were getting the feedback we were um getting feedback in um in the areas that the people lived in and and they could tell us the needs. So, we thought that that was important, especially in Romulus because we're unique with that airport in the middle of us and and how that sometimes creates a geographic um barrier for the city and with that barrier, it's very clear that those individual sectors have different needs and and wants and and desires. So, um that's something we've been very cognizant of. But as we focused on the e-course road um corridor study, we um we had Michael Baker International was uh the engineer company that was commissioned through the TIFFA board to um conduct this study. Uh they they came to the TIFFA board and reported out on the whole study. I'm going to I'm going to save that save you from that and give you the uh 10,000 ft overview and the executive summary of it basically. Um but the the four core uh goals of this study were to promote economic development and explore how to promote economic development and growth across the ecourse road corridor. Determine feasibility of diversity land uses and development capacity along that corridor. um improve safety and multimodal connectivity and infrastructure in the corridor and enhance quality of life or reduce those um um quality of life impacts that that John referenced. And I think that that's, you know, that was number four on the list, but it's I think it's sometimes a higher priority for a lot of citizens because while the airport has a

lot of benefits to us, it also creates a lot of um you know, quality of life impacts um when we start talking about sound and air and traffic and and geographic barriers. So, how do we how do we continue to embrace the airport as as you know that um strong economic engine in southeastern Michigan and um continue to grow with it and and support it um but also you know keep that quality of life um for our citizens that reside in the city as well. So, one of the key things that we really looked at across that ecourse road corridor is it's not just the Romulus corridor, right? Like the ecourse corridor runs from Southfield Road pretty much all the way out to Ipsellani. It is a industrial bypass corridor and it was designed as an industrial bypass corridor um from Wayne County. If you if you talk to some of the engineers down there, they'll tell you that um you know it was made to help logistics, transport, shipping, all of the interotal types of transportation that we see. It's a connect uh it's a connector from DTW to Willow Run. Um it is a connector from uh pretty much you know the city of Detroit with South Southfield freeway and 94 all the way across heading west uh western uh to western Wayne County. And um what is you know what does that mean big picture for us? Big picture for us it means that it's going to continue to see the traffic that it sees and probably see even more traffic because of the opening of the Gordy Bridge that's uh going to kick off later on this year. Um we're already seeing some of the impact of that in economic growth and inquiries throughout the city. Um you know for for the interotal and trucking industries and um produce industries, automotive, you name it. We've we've received phone calls and inquiries about, you know, where can we place this these goods when they come into this area and come into

the uh Detroit region. Um, so we're continuing to see that. But also, how do we look at Ecourse Road, which has almost all with the exception, I think, four four of our zoning um, you know, kind of uh, options out there. Eourse Road has almost every one of our zoning options across it. It's the only area in the city that has that. And um how do we look at what's currently there, what we would like to see there, and through proper planning and and design, create an atmosphere where you can have industrial next to commercial and uh commercial next to residential or residential next to industrial or whatever it is because it's already there currently and it's been there for a long time. So, a lot of it's grandfathered. But how do we continue to see the growth across that corridor as we build out the infrastructure and help to alleviate those impacts of life with you know growth of roads and and everything else and and do so creatively through the master plan and proper design to limit those impacts of life. So, um, we've looked at that. Um, and I would say primarily across that road, we know that 70% of it's residential. Um, and that kind of inherently is contradictory to what we just said, right? It's a class A road. It's an industrial bypass, but 70% of the zoning across it is residential. So, with that 70% of that 70% about 90% of that 70% is landlocked because of the design of the lots, right? You have single family homes at the front that are maybe 100 120 feet wide and then you have 2500 foot depth uh depth lots, right? So, does that make make sense moving forward? Is there a way that we can look at land consolidation in residential areas to build um larger

neighborhoods? Um there's, you know, just opens up a a plethora of different things that we talked about in this plan and different options. So if you really dive deep into it, you'll see that there we, you know, we talk about public transportation, we talk about public amenities, sidewalks, bike paths, um safety. Safety is a huge one, but primarily this looked at infrastructure. And when you look at infrastructure across Ecourse Road, the first thing that will scream at you is we have to widen the road and we have to take care of of, you know, drainage and and basically ditching, right? because we have significant amount of ditching across Ecourse Road that if you drive through many parts of it, the cattails are well above building heights in some areas. They're they're so bad. So, how do we start to address that? Um, and we looked at it from that infrastructure standpoint and said, is it feasible to turn Eor Road into a three-lane road through the entire breadth of of Romulus? And we can with the exception of one parcel of land that has a rightaway into the into the intersection and into Ecourse Road. We have public rightway through the entire city to be able to do three lanes. Um so that's where we kind of started and built off of off of there. There's some areas that um very easily there are some lowhanging fruit where we can tie into sewage or water or whatever to help drainage and and there's some low hanging fruit that we can go after. But how do you pay for it, right? and and how does how does it get funded? A good chunk of Ecourse Road is in our TIFFA district. So, we have some TIFFA options. Um, but more importantly, we worked with Chris Gerwood at Aerotropolis and we designed an LDFA, a land development funding authority, which is kind of an overlay to the TIFFA. So, um it's the same thing we did with Amazon when we um uh worked with Amazon to capture that funding and then extend Vining Road from where it was at Wick all the way up to Ecourse Road. Put in the slip lanes, the traffic signaling and all of that stuff. So,

it's very similar to that, but we're doing it across Ecourse Road. And we said that um it'd be nice to do it just in Romulus, but we know that Van Beern has issues with Ecourse Road and so does Taylor. So, we partnered with both of those uh um cities and and township as well, sorry, to make this a uh a regional make this a regional LDFA, which then as we start to look at uh stacking capital from different options, whether it's county, state, or federal dollars, we get higher consideration because it's a regional impact and it can make a a regional change in this area. So, um we're partnering with them. Chris Gerwood's working that through. um MEEDC and the state treasury. Now, uh if any of you any of you have been following the news, nothing's moving through Lancing right now until the school budget gets addressed and taken care of. So, um we're just kind of waiting for that to start unlocking and moving things forward and and hopefully we'll see uh and have some answers on the LDFA. Ultimately um you know next steps as we've gone through this entire process um the number one thing that came of the study is utilize the study to update our master plan which collaboratively we kind of uh intended and and worked on from the start. Um apply existing land use regulations clearly and consistently across the across Ecourse Road. We know we have a ton of them. So what does that mean? Is is there consolidating areas? Is there opening areas up with um you know plan development areas? Is it are there overlays? What what does that look like and how can we start being creative to develop some of that property and unlock it? Um proceed with a design and construction project to widen Ecourse Road from two to three lanes. Um and apply all portions that aren't already three or more lanes. So continue with that project. Um, we're working with Michael Baker on the next steps of that as far as traffic studies and and uh

we've had meetings with Wayne County already to kind of say here's a copy of the plan that we told you 6 months ago we were going to do. Um, here's the results from it and um, you know, read it, review it, and we're going to be back in a month to, you know, start talking to you about next steps and moving EOS Road higher up on your funding tables and your funding spreadsheets to uh, get the funding for it. Um, so that's actually number four, collaborate with Wayne County on the roadway improvements. And then lastly, establish partnerships with developers and organizations interested in land acquisition and development. And and that's where we start getting creative with um, you know, multiple use type frontages along Ecourse Road, whether you have commercial up front with maybe efficiency apartments above it or some sort of studio apartments above it. And then as you work back into those deep lots, you tear back into multif family and single family. And if you look at the plan in depth, there's um there's examples of all these different options that we've discussed uh throughout the entire plan. So um you know, as a whole, it was a I think a good process that we went through. We uh opened our eyes to exactly what kind of challenges we're going to see across Ecourse Road. We've identified some of those areas across Ecourse Road. Um, and John and Carol, I don't know if you want me to touch on some of those or if that's an area later that you guys have highlighted. Um, that's up to you. Whatever you want.

Feel free. Sure.

So, obviously a couple of those areas across Ecourse Road um that we've identified. Uh, one one of which is the one parcel of land that I I said that we need right away from, which is the southeast corner of Middle Belt and and Ecourse. that parcel of land. We're going to have to address that through uh through, you know, the the uh acquisition process as we uh look at redoing uh Ecourse Road. Um we've already started discussions with that land owner on helping him develop that property. He's been trying to develop it for a period of time. It was in front of you guys, I think at one point, for gas station, you know, before that. So, um we're going to continue to have discussions with him and and help him through that process and hopefully find some sort of development for him there. That's the Maverick property,

correct? Yeah. Y

um and coincidentally the larger neighborhood to the uh on the southwest corner of um E course in in Middle Belt as well. Um, so that neighborhood over the years, uh, years ago fell into the sound polygons for the airport and that's where they did the soundproofing or Wayne County came in and and had FAA money and they bought up homes and then demoed them and cleared them out and um, we just went through a really uh, a really good exercise with um, Marcus Tony over at the airport, their economic developer, and said, "Hey, let's run this up the chain of the F FAA and um, is there a possibility that now that, you know, with the advances in technologies with jet engines and the blast walls that they have at the airport and whatnot and it's since this neighborhood is outside of the sound polygons now, can we redevelop it as residential? And um it took them a minute, but they came back and they basically said no. They said that it was FAA money that was spent to put it in the condition it is. Um we want to see commercial development. We want to see some sort of other development there other than residential because if the airport ever grows in the future, it may end up back in a sound polygon and we've already done that work once and we don't want to go back and do it again. So, um, so that's one area that's primarily zoned residential. It still has quite a few homes in it that are residential. Um, but what's that look like for the future? Right. So, that's one area we've identified that um we're hoping that the uh planning commission takes a look at. um the old radio tower station, right? That's one area as well. That's a larger area. It's a plot of land that's um that's difficult. We've had multiple people look at it over the years. There's wetlands, there's drains, there's all sorts of issues in there. We've had um residential developers look at it and go, I can't fit the number of homes I need on it because of the wetland amount in order to make it, you

know, make it pencil for us. So, what's that look like for the future there? Um that's going to be a parcel that you have to look at. Um, as you progress further, uh, further west, there's large areas of residential that's right across the street from Amazon, right across the street from where the Mottown site, you know, is proposed to be. What does that look like in the future? Do we leave those residential? Um, do we uh open up them instead of single family residential, which most of them are zoned now, does it open up to multifamily or other tiers of residential so we can develop it at a higher density, which makes sense into a job uh center that we we're seeing develop into that Wick Road and Vining Road and Ecourse Road corridor. Uh, with the amount of jobs that are coming there, that that gives you that um I don't want to use affordable since John doesn't like it, but um what do you call it? Housing opportunity. housing opportunities in that area, right? Um so these are all things that we've we've had discussions about um you know through some of these studies and in the public sessions, but um you know, we we want more feedback. We want more feedback on this and we want to we want to see where that goes. And then as you move further west, I think there's there's another break of area that is you know, pretty much from Wayne Road to maybe Cogwell where there's a mix or the railroad tracks or GM, you know, kind of in there. There's a mix of more industrial, there's, you know, heavy man manufacturing, light manufacturing, um, you know, some M1 stuff in there. What is, what does that look as we continue to move, uh, westward? And then pretty much from Cogwell over, you know, that area is pretty much, you know, um, West Village Estates. And then on the south side, you have some more single, you know, family residential deep lots. And we already have some, um, it's been a minute since he's been back, but there's one developer that's looking at some lots over there that is bought up and consolidated. And now he's saying, you know, he's he's hearing what we've said in some of these sessions and he came to some of the sessions um for the

housing and for the ecourse road study. And you know, he bought a couple lots. He's, oh, I want to build one or two homes on it. And we said, "Okay, well that's great, but what if you look at options like this?" and we showed them some of the, you know, options that are in the e-course road study as far as, you know, site options and can you build three or four homes down one side versus two on the front and then have like a long driveway that attaches to all of them and and uh he's come back with a couple different ideas and a couple versions and I think he's still working on it. But I think we'll we'll start seeing some of that development um that we've laid out to start to uh to start to come to fruition along that frontage. Um, we had I had a great conversation with another individual and and Carol, I think he might have reached out to you last week. Um, he came up and he said, "Hey, I would like to approach one or two of these homeowners that have significant frontage and significant depth and I would like to offer to purchase their homes, but also offer them a home in a new subdivision that I'd like to build on those lots." So, you know, that's an opportunity where somebody along that frontage might, you know, have an older home that was built in the 40s or 50s and they have an opportunity to move into a new home and and, you know, work out a deal as far as that and develop a neighborhood and develop a neighborhood and they can stay in the area they grew up. So, there's um a lot of options out there. I think that um this you know the e-course road corridor study again was primarily infrastructure related with the roads and the and the ditches and the drainage and the and the water and sewer. But um at the end we we saw that it that it impacted so much and there was so many other layers of this that we would have been remissed if we didn't address or talk about them. So, we talked about zoning, we talked about land use, we talked about public amenities and sidewalks and bike paths and and connectivity, you know, um which is a big thing in Romulus because the amount of infrastructure we have here, whether it's the airport, whether it's the 275 and 94 expressways, it creates a lot of these small pockets of areas of the city

that don't have connectivity. And how do we how do we overcome that? And how do we get connectivity throughout the entire city as we're developing new areas? And it's important to, you know, important to incorporate those design features into it. So, I don't know if there's if I missed anything or I should touch on anything else there. You let me know. I'd be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any. I think I think the one thing that you've mentioned it turn red. Hit it. Push it. Hold it. Yeah. There you go. There you go.

Oh, very good. I think the one thing that that Kevin mentioned that I is important as we not only for the for the ecourse road study but overall on our city future land use plan that we're going to get into in the fall is we've got a lot of available acreage for development still I think I think around four or 5,000 acres with the economy that we've had and with the location that we have and the infrastructure that we of there are going to be parcels that that as a commission we should look at that for whatever reason are vacant. They're vacant for a reason. They the development community is smart. They they they they locate their sites. They have marketing u divisions. And so I think that's something important to think about is that there there may be parcels in our city that um aren't that have not been developed uh or we haven't shown interest for the current zoning or current future land use map. Uh and if it makes sense depending on location, we may be changing that. So that's that's an important concept as we kind of dive into this future land use map.

Do we have questions from the commissioners? I I'd like to you know the area around the gravel pit regional center area. I know isn't that Mottown Sports proposed? I mean how many years have we been waiting for Mottown Sports? I just feel like that's a that's a that could be multi-use housing. A lot of different development could go into that area. And I don't know, do we look do we hold on reszoning in that area for our master plan waiting for Mottown or do we look at whether our options we have as part of the master plan update?

So I think the regional center area is really pretty flexible which was why that RC zoning gets put on there, right? Like there there's a lot that can go into that, right? Like and you know that's a discussion that you probably should have. Um, again, part of the part of the big picture there is that all of that is owned by one or two people. Um, and they're and they're holding out. They, you know, they're holding out for what they want to see developed there. And what they want to see develop might not 100% align with what we want to see developed, right? Um, I think again we, you know, we support the Mottown project. We, you know, we think that it it would be great for the city. Um, if they can get it across the finish line, it's it's in the developer hands. you know, they got to they got to do what they have to do to to make that happen. So, um, we work pretty closely with Ashley Capital and we get updates on a regular basis. Um, I think they're under contract till the end of this month. Um, so we'll see what happens. Um, but, you know, they got to the developers got to come to the table on that one. You guys saw them in front of you guys conceptually, you know, at one point. Um, and and again, we've uh, we've waited. Um, I think Ashley Capital was okay waiting because there wasn't too much more interest, but what we are seeing organically starting to grow over in Vining and Eor Road is is spurring a lot of interest. It's spurring a lot of interesting. Um, if you've been down there recently, you've seen the building, you know, it's building five, but it's the fourth building for North Point that's going up, and it's going up quick. And they're touring that site on a regular basis. They're uh 90% least uh of the current three buildings, which um again I want to I've said this a couple times. I probably haven't said it to this commission, but um you know the planning portion of that building from where North Point started into where it ended up, right? Like we originally started talking cross talks and then it ended up with the design that we have.

We started with two great big squares, three great big squares, right? and it's come a long way and North Point did what they said they were going to do, committed to it and and they've held true to their promise and they've done very well with that. But it it was designed so well with everything facing inward. It's funny watching comments on Facebook right now because people will still on Facebook go, I'm driving by all these empty industrial buildings on Ecourse and Vining Road and they're clueless that they're even 90% occupied. You know, even to this day, they've been occupied for almost a year now. to North Point's benefit, they're not intruding on everybody's lives.

100%. They Yeah, 100%. They they we it was a it was a a good collaboration between city and a developer. uh we found they listened to what we said as far as lessen the impact of of the industry on on the locals and they've done that through good design and that's what I want to see carried on in the entire ecourse road corridor and and that really is the epicenter of where this development's starting and we need to grow it um you know north south east and west from that area it is really becoming I I said this in a meeting earlier today it is really becoming a transformational development which typically you don't see unless you have big dollars coming in from the state or the federal government or through MEDC and organically through good partnership and private uh public partnership. We're seeing that happen over there and I'll share I'll share with uh you guys as well. Um TIFA is making great progress and a lot of stuff that TIFA is doing as well with with the capture to be able to put back. Um but but the Tiffle board has approved um on Wednesday of last week they approved um the purchase of the public safety headquarters building uh across the street kind of kitty corner from uh Sheets. So the property for the future public safety headquarters building for police and fire. So that's I mean that's significant, right? That's the city really doubling down on what we want to see there and putting their their money where their mouth is and saying we believe in this. We're going to continue to to uh see the growth. we're going to back it up with, you know, planting that flag. And there's just a a plethora of of additional bonuses that go with that, right? It it enhances the fire uh fire department uh response model. It plants a a really big flag in the middle of a hotel district that we've seen crime issues with in the past. Um it gives immediate access to I94 for our police officers for, you know, for traffic accidents and hazards. Um there's a there's a number of uh bonuses that that come with that. and uh and I think we're

going to continue to see that transformation in that area and and having this good plan in place and your guys' good work is just going to help make that happen. How tied are we to Wayne County for ecourse road development? It's their road. That's how tight. That's why I haven't heard.

It's their road. So what I will say is the eye opener for us and what sparked the conversation about having the study done was when we were uh starting to have those conversations about E course and Wayne and as that was in process we were like okay yeah that's just one intersection but the whole road has issues and they were like what do you mean the whole road has issues it wasn't even on on the county's radar so we kind of took that Zoom call over the mayor kind of jumped in and just kind of ambushed the county on the Zoom call and was like, "Well, we want to do this, this, and this." And and we left there and um we had some follow-up conversations and that that's when we went to Tiff and we said, "Hey, we need some hard facts. It's it's got to be more than just the mayor saying, "Hey, we got a bad road in the city." Cuz there's 38 other township supervisors or village supervisors or mayor saying the same thing about roads in their city. So, we want some evidentary proof to take to them. Not only saying that it needs to be done, but also here's a plan to start moving in the direction to make it happen. And then the second layer of that was the funding source, which is the LDFA that we're still continuing to work on. So, I think they they know we're serious. They they uh they realize that we're continuing to move forward. Um but Wayne County, you know, is struggling with some things as far as process and trying to get things expeditiously through and um and we just continue to work with them as best we can and and keep moving forward.

Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments? I I just wanted to make a comment. Uh I did the subdivision on E course road down there close from the charter school. Yeah. Probably about 20 years ago. Yeah. And the sanitary is on one side barely off the road and the water's in the other side. That too would all have to be relocated which would be a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of issues that got to got to be addressed across the road. Um you know 100%. There's there's definitely uh some issues that got to be addressed, but I think that as we continue to develop, there'll be opportunities to do some of that stuff. As we replace infrastructure, as we develop out more neighborhoods, there'll be those opportunities to to build off of it, relocate, and expand. Exactly. Yeah.

Thank you. Is there any more you had to present? Yeah, just a couple more minutes of uh conversation. Yeah, thanks Kevin. I'll uh be in touch through. Thank you everyone. Good night.

So what what next guys? Um first show me show me who was involved in the last master plan update just so we've got we've got some new we've got some new commissioners. This is a new this is a new challenge or I I think opportunity and you guys understand planning and understand site plans and special land uses uh and zoning and that process of reszoning and looking at the master plan uh as a tool not the only tool but one of the tools that you use in resoning. So where do we go from from here? Well, like I said, we've got a lot of great information already created over the last four years. But a lot of those are just studies and when and while a study is important, a master plan is a legal document. A master plan is the tool or the document that a court may look at when making if there is a lawsuit. And we live in a pretty latigious society these days that may look at the master plan goals and objectives uh upon you making a decision whether that's approval or denial of a reasonzoning. They're going to look at it not it's not the only thing they're going to look at but they're going to look at those goals and objectives those that future land use map those things along with minutes along with comments from the public all those different things. So we do want to incorporate and create this plan that takes the studies and puts them in a plan because again uh again the plan is the legal document one of the documents that we use for uh making some of our decisions. So the process is pretty straightforward again it's in that planning enabling act. It talks about the first things first is no. We've we've developed the notice of

intent to plan. What that really is is just a letter that we send to our neighbors, our neighboring communities, Wayne County, our utilities saying, "Hey, Romulus is starting the update of their master plan here on Township and you're in work." And if you have any thoughts or comments, please send them to us and you'll be notified in the near future when we have a draft available. I like that idea. I like that idea that we're setting the tone that we're getting started in this document and that be prepared to be seeing a document in the future. And and why is that important? Well, we've got a lot of borders on our on our community and sometimes there may be a conflict with what Hiron Township is planning and what Romulus is planning and we're going to want to know that and hopefully those communities will let you know that and we may second we may we may change what we're looking at if we know what is happening in a neighbor a neighboring community. It's important with that those comments to know that we don't have to take those comments. Certainly, we should listen to them and take a look at them, but we're going to ultimately make that decision. So, we start this process of notice intent to plan. We're going to work on the plan through the fall uh and get comments when we have a plan draft that we're comfortable with. The next step is distributing the plan or bumping the plan up to council. We take this draft plan. We say, "Hey, council, we're pretty happy with this it draft. We know it's a draft, but we would like you to distribute this to approve distribution of the plan again to those same bodies that we sent the notes to attend. So, a draft plan will be sent to the community, utilities, Wayne County. Uh, I'll send it also to the Airropolis and some other other outside agencies.

Then there's a certain time period depending on how much change we make to it that they have to review this probably going to be between 40 and 60 days depending on what we come up with if it's a major change or minor change but it it's going to be somewhere around two months for them to be looking at this plan. After that timeline is done at that point we're going to have a public hearing. So the planning commission will have a public hearing. We'll do a notification in the paper. We're going to have this draft plan with this future land use map that shows some changes. I'm sure of it. Uh that's going to show some changes in the goals and objectives. Uh that'll be noticed. Uh that'll be on the website. Uh we hopefully will have a nice spirited conversation with residents who are here to talk about this draft plan. Also, through the course of the next few months, we'll have comments. Uh we'll have we're going to have a section on the web page. And I have to work this out, Carol. uh on the on the city web page that will allow residents to go right into the current master plan or comment on the master plan or lay ideas out on what they would like to see in the future for the city. Now, they may not understand what the master plan is, but we we write this in a way that allows them to comment on things that bug them, what they love about it, about the city, what they don't love about the city. Um, and then hopefully we get some good input from that. And then we're going to be able to use those comments along with all of this stuff. Thousands, literally thousand uh residents have commented uh on on the city in regards to the built environment and use that to incorporate it into the overall plan. Once that public hearing is done, if you're comfortable with the plan, you can approve the plan. Approve recommend approval of the plan, move it up to council where they ultimately will

approve that master plan, then you're golden for 5 years. Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't look at that. In fact, what I would suggest doing is once this plan once we have a plan that I would think is going to be done in early 20256 26 is that um at least once a year we hold a special meeting to go over the plan because we're going to have implementation ideas in this master plan and time frames on implementation. So, I don't want I don't want you to work I don't want to work so hard on this plan. We get a document that you're comfortable with and then we don't see it. All you see it is the only time you see it is maybe in a review that Carol or I would do that talk about a certain section of the master plan because it's related to a result. I think we take a a deep dive into that plan at least once a year to see what we're doing. Don't put it on a shelf to actually check off. Okay. Uh if we're talking about the ecourse road study, we check off a section that talks about, hey, we've looked at and actually we have some grant monies or some tip of monies and work widening eourse for and or we're putting sidewalks on each side. And as I was telling Emory earlier, when I talk about sidewalks, most communities are moving away from those 4 foot guys to much line larger safety paths. And so we start to look at maybe there's areas in the city that we go 10 ft and they connect with our with our sidewalks. There's rightway things and engineering issues that we have to deal with, but that's just kind of one of the things that we want to want to look at that future land use plan that we have right now. There's going to be some changes to it. Um Kevin brought up the North Point site that that is going to be changed and we're going to change that in our future land use plan. We're going to look at different reasonings that have occurred over the course of the last 5 years.

Some for some in conformance with the master plan, some not in conformance with the master plan or maybe are andor focusing on things on that future land use plan that really don't make sense. So think of them, think of the future land use map as a mix of existing land uses and future land uses. That's really it is we tie those together uh to to create this future land use map. Carol did a nice job with with a lot of different colorful pens uh on just taking the future land use map and marking it up and saying, "Hey, this was a resoning. Uh maybe we need to add this park that's not shown on here as public property. Uh and have this future land use map that jumps out at you. Um then also the goals and objectives. We're going to take a careful look at all of those. There's many of that that have been completed, but there's many that haven't even been looked at. Do we do we still want to go in that direction with those? So that's that's your charge. I would say your homework, excuse me,

um I would your homework should be to take a look at our master plan specifically taking a look at that future land use map and the goals and objectives for each of the land each of the uh categories and that's residential, public, uh commercial and industrial. And then if you feel comfortable, you can either bring those to our next meeting or send those to Carol uh so she can combine those um and we'll walk through those different ideas. We're going to have a variety of things to talk about as well. We may have an may have our future landing map here. We may go through the sectors and talk about what changes we want to have. But that's that's really where we stand. That's what typically a kickoff meeting is, is to kind of get you ready, to get you prepared uh for this this exercise in planning. Um sometimes it's hard to tie together ordinance amendments, site plan, special uses together with trying to deep dive into our master plan, but we're going to do the best we can because we want to we want to have this thing done in the next several months. So, any any comments or questions? to the chair.

John, thank you very much u for presenting this and I think um you know for the most part the master plan covers a whole lot but it's still a lot of questions to be answered especially when you get into the residents input to see where they um how their feelings about it is. But one thing I would say about Ecourse Road, um, we saying three lanes that we have, um, access that we can do now, but I've always been puzzled by up to Van Beern and up to Taylor. Why was Rumble short changed in the first place with two-lane highway all the way through? I mean, that's that's a question that the county might have to answer and give him some incentive to make us whole again. So,

yeah. Come to come to the table. If if we're looking at our neighbors, why aren't we Yeah. Yeah. Cuz that's uh that through fair going east and west when traffic is backed up on 94, that's one that's the only road. Mhm. Leading back to 94 uh west. So, I mean, that's that's something that um we should take advantage of and hopefully the county is on board with us, but thank you for your presentation and uh

you're welcome. I'm looking forward to working with it working through these issues with you and again, kudos to you on the North Point project. When I I work in a lot, like I said, a lot of communities have deal with warehousing. That's the kind of the lowhanging fruit these days. in southeast Michigan. Um, but I I really think you did a great job with the with the design, especially the truck dock locations in the landscape. So, beautiful over there. Agreed. Any other questions, guys? Um, again, you know, there's your point of contact and, uh, she certainly knows how to get a hold of me. Thank you.

Thank you. Next item we have old business TA 2025002 section 11.07 vehicle and truck repair service and parking. Yes, we talked about this a couple months ago. We got it started. Um you're all aware of the fact that the gas station moratorum that was placed by placed um by city council resolution has an end date on it and that's January and it is going on September. So we've got to get this ordinance going. What ended up happening uh we took your comments from the first goound. Looked at the whole section all of 11.07 07 and we talked to you a little bit about the used car dealerships that we're we're seeing a lot of looking at some standards there. Um it just it just keeps growing and you'll see from this latest draft that there's some things that we've made changes with working with uh OM on some traffic stuff that Jessica's going to be helping us out more with. There's a few changes shown in this draft right now but then there's also bubbles that say working with Jessica Kers. Um, so that we'll be ready for some public hearing um, draft language hopefully next month. Um, Steve Hitchcock, the attorney, has put some more of his comments in. He was here last time to talk to you. We just wanted to kind of get it out to you again to see if there's anything. We don't need to go into real long discussions tonight. We didn't know if there was maybe anything glaring in here that you all saw that maybe you'd like a little bit more information on or um you know have some thoughts on. So that's really it's just tonight it's to sort of show you and just see see if you've got any additional comments on it. We are indeed hoping for uh to have this all cleaned up and have a a solid draft for you for September for a public hearing.

I just have couple of questions real fast for clarification. One is when this is enacted, will this go retroactively like for unloading of vehicles on the middle of the street? That'll apply to any business that exists. Yeah, that standard's there throughout the ordinance that's been there for years. Yeah. But if you haven't been stuck on Hunt Street, we will the other one is canopies where it talks about locating the canopy to the rear. And I'm trying to understand what that means because think of any gas station I've been to, the canopy is right up front of the station.

Right. Right. It's um we have a lot of gas stations in this in the in the city. And one of the things that we were asked to look into are some higher design standards that would keep them under control a little bit more. And that was a standard that we found in some other ordinances. I don't know if you've seen that with the putting the canopies in the back. Yeah, it's it's It's a way to to improve the look of a of a service station. So, you have your service station building closer to the road and everything like that. I just haven't seen that anywhere.

There there's a few of them. There's a few of them up north Oakland County, you'll see them where they have the the night we've got the nice design standard requirements for the building facade materials. But like any town, uh, it move if by moving the building closer to the road and putting all of this traffic in the back and and developers are going to argue with it. They're going to be, well, they're they're not going to know it's a gas station issue. They're not going to know where to go get their gas. Well, they know where to get their gas. They know when they pull in there, they drive around, and if they've got a drive-thru, they they maneuver to the back. And then you've got a you got landscaping, you got a sidewalk, you might have a nice brick knee wall uh out front, but the building's closer to the to the road. And depending on where that's at, uh and as traffic engineers would would hopefully support me, if you move if you're moving the building closer, that's going to help in assist at least a little bit in slowing down the traffic.

Okay. It's something new, relatively new. Thank you. Are there any other comments? No. [Applause] Through the chair, I would like to make one comment in regards to um a past project that was rejected by um our board and it was having to do with the um petition from GT um some months back over on Eureka and um warming. Oh, quick trip. Quick trip. Quick Trip. Yeah. GT. Quick Trip or QT rather. Quick Trip. Yep. QT QT.

Now, you know, we rejected um that that proposal based on the fact that we didn't want diesel fuel in the area. But now we have a um proposal probably coming forward from another organization that's even coming closer within the community. But we ready to jump right on board with that. So when we say for a master plan, you know, are we going by master plan or are we playing favoritism? I mean, do we can we distinguish from a board perspective um how we going to work this out or how do we do we stick with the master plan or do we for more or less of a better word play politics with it? So,

can you tell us more about the proposal coming in for another one? Well, I'm speaking of the something that came before. Can you talk Can you talk into the microphone? Um, speaking of the proposal, um, that was a couple of months ago that has been, uh, I guess delayed for the project on, uh, gdard and binding. Oh, pilot. Pilot.

Oh, okay. That's in a I thought you were talking about a project in the same area. Um, the zoning is different in the two areas. They're on o, you know, opposite sides of the airport. And um that's that's a different use. That's a truck stop versus what Quick Trip was. Um number one, that property where Quick Trip is is C3. That's G or highway service. That's commercial as opposed to further north. That property is M2 general industrial. And the use is being considered there. But they're they're different. They're different land use categories and your your master plan reflects that. If you've got a copy of the plan actually if you look at

I know it's very small but if you look at at the first sheet in this presentation for tonight you can see down where the quick trip property is is red where this area at Goddard right adjacent to the airport you know is gray. So the the the plan does show two very I mean distinctive different land uses commercial versus industrial. Okay.

The use itself is different. Quick trip was was kind of that in between. It was it it was commercial but adding those those um diesel pumps in the back to you know service the industrial further south. That was the argument they were trying to make. Um versus this one that's a little bit different. That's right. Right on the expressway and servicing industrial up there and pass through traffic. So, okay. Yeah, I'll be doing that. You can probably comment more. Um, yeah, I mean, if I'm getting your question right, you know, in terms of the land use, they are different future land use, zoning. Yeah, yeah, there's a whole variety of things that that are different, but I think that's an important it's an important

Yeah. comment, Emory, from a standpoint of is like I said earlier about warehousing in southeast Michigan, it's it's a lowhanging fruit because it's a real it's a it's a it's a it's a needed use in a lot of different ways. But what I've seen too in many other communities and our these vehicle uses that that we are so attached to our cars that that the development community is seeing the need to put a gas station at every corner. And then if I see if I if I get another proposal for a car wash, I think I'm going to scream in Southeast Michigan. Every every community Yeah. and their brother uh wants two or three different car washes and and

all all that relates back to the importance, I think, of this this ordinance that you're updating uh to to make it more stringent, to make it more difficult. the the amount the land in in Romulus the commercial land is finite and it shouldn't be uh in this particular case all just for vehicle uses these there's a lot of opportunity for uh retail uses and service uses that could use this land and so this language once if we get it right is really going to uh hopefully make the development community think twice that hey this isn't this isn't a walk in a park there isn't a there isn't a lot of uh we've already got our fill uh in the community and there's plenty other areas that could use a gas station. Well, thank you for addressing that. Any other comments? Okay. If not, we'll move on to item nine, PC cases involving advice or input from the planning commission. Nothing. Um reports on interest designation, Miss Rosco.

Um yes, I've got a couple things tonight. Um things that are just coming up this week. First of all, there's going to be a movie in the our community. It's called um their Sonic 3 is going to be playing on Thursday night, August 21st over at the Thomas Coleman Center and that is on Beverly Road. And if you need the address, it's 35351 and it says uh bring your long chairs, your blankets, your family, your neighbors, and your friends. And it's in partnership with the St. John's Lob and the APA. So, come on out Thursday night and watch Sonic 3. Um, kids are going to be heading back to school in two weeks, so there's not a whole lot of opportunities. Um, they're going to have to do things in the evening because they have to be up to crack to go to school. So, come on and bring the kids out. And then, um, this uh, Saturday, they've got a uh, shred day here at city hall in the parking lot. and um it's for recycling your paper and your electronics. If you have any questions as to exactly what you can bring and what you can't bring because there's a huge long list, um you can call 7349554542 and ask if you have something that's kind of iffy. There's no hazardous u materials that um is being taken that day. And uh it's a day that gives you the opportunity to get rid of some of your papers that you don't technically want to just throw in um your trash bin. And that's this Saturday here at city hall from 9:00 a.m. to 12. So you only got a short hour, 3 hours, they'll be here. You get in line, uh they'll you open your trunk, they'll unload it for

you, and and away you go. So, and then um and then little bit down the road, but I'm going to mention it tonight. Uh is they're having a mental health fun day. It's going to be located at the historical park in Romulus downtown, Saturday, September 13th. It's from noon to 4:00. And they're going to have all kinds of different activities. Um they're going to have live music, fun raffles, vendors, face painting, re relaxation zones, and it's just a time to uh come get a lot of uh resources, information, and uh just uh chill out, as they say, and en enjoy your afternoon. But again, that's September 13th on a Saturday from noon to 4:00 at the historical park. And that's uh that's all I got tonight. Just a reminder, we got a month away and it's pumpkin festival uh the 19th through the 21st. Kick off with Friday night with the pray of lights and it goes through Sunday with the unity day. So, um mark your calendar, plan your three days out and come come on in and enjoy. We're hoping that everything is going to go really good and that we have really good weather for that. Amen. That's all.

That's all I have. Does anybody else have it? Mr. Jameson? Yep. Um yeah, thank you for that segue. Uh so just want to reiterate the pumpkin fest. Uh so this year they're going to have the fun zone again. Um all three days free for the kids. I think there's six different bouncies. Um, but also on Unity Day this year, we actually will have a zipline uh free for everyone. Wow.

So, this is a first blast cuz we just let that cat out the bag. Um, and also a um I think it's like a 30 by 40 um Nerf obstacle course thingy where they run through and I think they had it a couple of years ago. But um anyway, so yeah, uh that will be free of course and then also with the uh food vouchers on uh Unity Day as well. I believe that they are still taking applications for the Romulus has got talent. So, anyone who wants to participate in that worship in a park at 10:00 and um Hometown Hero announcements, uh we do have several applicants. I'm not sure how many as of this point. I don't know I don't know if they're still taking them, but if you have someone you want to nominate, shoot it in there. Um so, it's going to be a good time. So, spread the word.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that's after that we have our communications. We have project status report on for August 14, 2025. Any questions on that? No, there's um not any questions for you just in unless you have questions for us. Okay. I I have a question. Um what's going on with the building over there at uh Vining and Smith? Uh Costco was looking at that building. I see a lot of work going on that building when I drive by there. There is a lot going work going on at that building. Costco's taking one half of the building with the amount of dock doors that they're allotted. And then there's another funny as that sounds.

And then the other half of the building I just got a call on, but I don't know who it is yet, but somebody's interested in leasing the other half of that building as well. They're doing an office build out inside there that they're almost complete with on the one side. Uh just redoing the like a lot of activity there last month. Oh yeah. It's all permitted and everything's everything's flowing. But, uh, they're almost completed. Almost completed. One other question that just, uh, north of Sheets there, Packrat is in there. Mhm. Do we allow outside storage? I don't remember that. There's a lot of outside storage going on over there. You're talking about the packrat containers. Yes. Parked where the semi-trailers are supposed to be parked. Exactly.

So, they're last time I was over there. I mean, they're parked in those areas orderly like a semi-trail would be. Um, and there's not they're not blocking any lanes or anything like that. And they're utilizing it as like their semi and they have a machine that they move them around with and everything like that. And they're utilizing them as their storage like a semi-trail, like a semi-truck would be parked there in the same way. So, I mean, they're storing in in the same area the semi-truckss would be parked, but they don't have the semi-truckss actually parked there. Yeah, I see I see a lot of activity over I see some U-Hauls coming in and I see garbage blowing around and they're taking stuff from the U-Hauls, putting them in the containers. You know, if they neaten up their rack, it wouldn't be too bad, but they're

Well, I'll get back over there cuz I've been I was over there a few months ago and everything everything got pretty neatened up and orderly and we went through the whole thing and uh but I I'll get back over there and look and see see what it looks like. Okay. Thank you. tell them too opus uh the other building in the development you're talking about is also getting a tenant in there. So, you were talking about the Scanel building at the east end and then there's the two new buildings on the west end on the corner and we do have a tenant going into building A. Yes. Auto K. I don't remember their name. They're not quite as Yeah, they're not quite there yet, but they're I talked to Jeff a lot about the Doco building. Yes,

looked at their traffic study and they're getting ready to get in. Not too happy about that. No. So, with regard to some of these other projects, we're um we are going to be having a meeting in September. We were hoping for a couple of these site plans. Bucks Oil that you saw over a year ago. We understand that plan's coming in pretty soon. New Mawa uh is doing a their trucking operation off Little Belt. Uh that plan supposed to be in. All of these plans we heard a few weeks ago were going to be in and wanted to be on September, but they're not here yet. So, um, that's what's that's what's going on with with those. Um, do you guys have any any other questions about any of these other projects?

Mr. Yep. I have a question. It's and it's been brought up before here at the meeting is um the hotel on Middle Belt Road that's half under construction. Any update on that? Uh, yeah, they just got their trusses in last week. Uh, they are under construction. There's no stop work order on it right now, but they are things are going slow. There was a lot of lot of stop works that had to happen and foundation issues that had to be repaired that were done incorrectly, but they are all now corrected. Um, now it's just trying to push them to get it done. Still have not received an underground contractor yet to start doing any any of the underground work that we're pushing for, but yes, that is uh it's very slow moving.

Now, what I was concerned about, is there any time frame that they can leave all that lumber exposed? Absolutely. So during the process of construction, they had uh when they first put the first story up, there was a bunch of lumber out there that sat for a very long period of time. They actually threw all that lumber away. We required them to remove all that lumber from the site, get it gone, and get new lumber in. So they've been building with new lumber since then, which has been many months ago now. And uh there will be we are going to require them to we have to test the I'm mainly concerned with the uh OSB on the floors that have been there for a long time and that we are requiring a test to make sure that gets reertified because it's certified but I've even talked to the

wood companies that certify it and I'm like all right how do we how long are they supposed to last and nobody gives me a real answer. So it's more about moisture content and how long is if it starts to flake and this and that. So, we're going to take sections of those floorings and then have them tested and see if they're going to have to remove a lot of that plywood and replace it or keep it in. But, yes, that that's a concern of ours as well. I know. I'd imagine they're using engineering floor joistices. Yep. Which that's OSB to a certain

They are they are OSB, but most of those are I mean, I've been out there very recently and I look and there's some areas that I cause a little bit of concern when I look at the wood. There's other areas that I don't see much concern at all cuz they're not really taking the weather like those eye joists are how they're straight up and down. I mean, even when the rain hits and they get wet a little bit, they're not they're not staying wet and they're not holding all that water all the time. But yes, they need to get that building covered. Okay. Thank you. Not on the report, but where we at Grant Road, Grant Road's almost done. You can drive down it now. They haven't moved the uh all the way. Huh? All the way from one end to the other. Uh not all the way. Okay.

Grant Road is you can drive down a portion of it. I know that. I seem to know some striping starting to put put on right here. Yeah. But I don't know when the completion date is. I asked uh DPW that and I don't know a specific date as of yet. Gotcha. All right. Patiently with me, Mr. Long.

Yes. on the um unity day project. I would like to uh challenge our city planner um to do the zipline and I'll um if you do the zipline, I'll make a donation to the charity of your choice for $50. Thanks. Thanks so much. No pressure. And if you don't do the zipline, you make a contribution to my charity for $50. It might be a little easier.

I like it. That's just a thought. So, give it some thought. All right. Of course. Of course. All right. Mr. Mr. Jameson. Yeah. I just wanted to uh make a comment. Um Jeff, the concrete that's being replaced in um Fairways Mhm.

on Swan Lake, the workers in the company have been exceptional. So um they have tireslessly uh dealt with the um people in my neighborhood that don't like to follow directions and but they have been making some exceptions. They purposely come bright and early in the morning so that they're not in the way when people are going to work and they try to get done. So, they're not not in the way when people come home. They've actually gone door to door in our sub. I don't I can't tell you how many times to make sure they're coordinating with people. Um, we actually had some personal things in my own personal home and they changed their entire construction plan to fit so that it didn't interfere with what was happening in my household.

That's absolutely huge. And to stop by and check on us to say, "Hey, how's everything going? How are the guys doing? Is everything okay?" Uh, they've been exceptional, which is unusual. Normally when you have construction going on, they're tearing up your neighborhood and you got to park around the corner. It's a hassle, but this has not been if anything, unfortunately, our residents have given them a hard time, but they've taken it in stride. So, I thought I'd let you know that. You let the mayor know and whoever else that this company has been exceptional, and I appreciate that. Oh, that's great news because I know there was a lot of question about people worried about where they're going to go and where they're going to park and everything, but I will definitely pass that news along to Roberto and the mayor and everything because that's that's great to hear.

They have gone I seriously they have gone out of their way probably way more than I would expect to the point that they may have caused themselves some delays or they've made their people work some really weird hours to work around us. So, um, but it's been exceptional. So great. That's awesome. Okay. If we have one more thing under my report. Um MAP, if anybody's interested, you probably got emails. Are you guys Do you guys all get MAP emails? Yep. Yeah, that's right. So, it's October 22nd, 24th. Just call us, let us know if you're interested. So, okay. Last but not least, motion forjour.

I make the motion. Support. Motion by Miss Jimson, supported by Mr. Long forjourn. Roll call. Miss JSON. Yes. Mr. Long. Yes. Mr. Blapel. Yes. Mr. Frederick. Yes. Mr. Bobade. Yes. Mr. Croba. Yes. M. Rosco. Yeah.