Number 11: March 18, 2002

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THE BIRMINGHAM BUZZ
-- "It's the 2016 Plan, stupid."
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Buzz # 11 -- March 18, 2002

Promoting intelligence and reason in city government. Our mission: To inform and involve all Birmingham citizens.

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In this edition:

1) Attend Buzz Forum on downtown development
2) Latest Booth Park plans are posted
3) First draft of 2016 Plan is posted
4) Willits project under review
5) Delayed building presentation back on agenda
6) Cities get downtown to business as work proceeds on projects
7) Mega-mansions' upside: They help reduce suburban sprawl
8) Letter to Eccentric: Thorsby commended
9) Editorial: Commission should deliberate openly on upcoming key appointments
10) City Freedom of Information form posted
11) To be removed


1) Attend Buzz Forum on downtown development

Mark your calendar now for the second Birmingham Buzz Community Forum at 7 p.m. April 18 at the Community House. Our topic: Downtown development.

The forum will feature a presentation on urban planning, a panel discussion about the evolution of downtown zoning laws, and a question-and-answer session.

If you are, like us, confused about the recent debate regarding allowable building heights, if you wonder what the "overlay" and "underlay" ordinances are all about, what the 2016 Plan says, and whether or not these changes will hamper development or encourage it, this forum is for you.


2) Latest Booth Park plans are posted

March 18, 2002

The Birmingham Buzz has posted the latest concept drawings for Booth Park. The drawings will be considered during a public hearing March 18. One of two concept drawings will be submitted along with a grant application to the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources.

The first drawing, whose estimated cost is $1.254 million, was the result of two public workshops. The second concept drawing resulted after "several [Parks & Recreation] board members felt uncomfortable with the total project cost," according to Bob Fox, assistant director of public services. The second drawings elimate two bridges to N. Old Woodward and Willits, among other items, and bring the cost into line with expenditures projected in the Recreation Master Plan.

Click here to see the $1,254,000 plan: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/Booth_initial_concept.pdf

Click here to see the $712,459 plan: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/Booth_refined_concept.pdf


3) First draft of 2016 Plan is posted

March 17, 2002

The Birmingham Buzz has posted the first draft of the 2016 Plan, along with accompanying illustrations. The large, Adobe Acrobat .pdf documents can be downloaded by clicking on the links below. Users with slower connections should consider downloading the files to their computers before viewing. (Right-click the links below, and choose the appropriate menu item to download.)

Much of the controversy and confusion surrounding the 2016 Plan arises because different versions of the plan were submitted to the city. The first draft, called the Downtown Birmingham Action Plan, was submitted in May 1996. The final draft of the plan, much different from the first draft, was submitted in November 1996 after much comment and criticism of the original.

Further confusion arises because the final draft of the plan contained a suggested so-called downtown "overlay zoning ordinance," but the suggested ordinance was never adopted. lnstead, an amended and significantly different version of the suggested ordinance was ultimately adopted.

Watch the Buzz in coming days for further postings of the adopted overlay ordinance, as well as a copy of the city's 200+ page response to the first draft of the plan.

Click here to read the first draft of the plan: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/2016_First_Plan.pdf

Click here to see the accompanying illustrations: http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/2016_First_Illustrations.pdf


4) Willits project under review

March 17, 2002

From the Birmingham Eccentric

An outside consultant may be brought in to end swirling speculation that Birmingham city staff was too gracious in granting approvals for the Willits condominium project.

"The goal of the review would be to identify changes and find out what precipitated them," said Tom Markus, Birmingham city manager.

Markus called for the hiring of an independent consulting firm, and the Birmingham Planning Board unanimously agreed with the recommendation Wednesday. The consultant would compare the set of blueprints that the planning board approved with a second set filed during the building permit process to identify discrepancies, Markus said.

Last month, Willits architect Victor Saroki was asked to explain a host of design changes, the most apparent of which was a 9-foot-8-inch screening wall atop the building.

Saroki said city staff approved the screening wall but he agreed to lower it to 4-foot-6-inches high anyway. After more than an hour of discussion about a dozen other design changes, Saroki was asked to come back April 27 to explain them to the planning board.

It wasn't clear whether all the changes were approved by city staff, but it was clear that the planning board was unaware of them until the building was under construction. At one point Saroki said a balcony that had been eliminated on the fifth floor "must have been approved or we wouldn't have done it." Other design changes included adding granite tiles below storefront glass and an additional balcony on the south side of the fifth floor.

City attorney Tim Currier attended the Feb. 27 meeting to reveal the findings of an extensive investigation into the approval process for the Willits. Currier said most of the approvals were granted by a former building official. He also said, however, that he couldn't find a paper trial for the screening wall approval. That led to further scrutiny of the Willits blueprints.

One planning board member then raised the issue of the eliminated balcony. In the weeks that followed, the height of various floors within the building was questioned as well.

Gary Kulak, chairman of the planning board, agreed that an outside review is needed.

"There appears to be differences in the plans," said Kulak. "The central question is: Is what's being built the same as what was approved?"

Kulak has asked why the administrative approvals weren't brought back for board review. He said the final site plan approval is the document of record and major changes, such as the screening wall, should have come back to the board for reconsideration. Currier said the city couldn't force the developer to make major alterations to the building even if substantive design changes were discovered because Saroki was working with blueprints approved during the building permit process.

Markus said he'll likely hire the consultant if it costs less than $5,000. If it costs more than that, the hiring will go to the Birmingham City Commission for approval.

Findings of the consultant may be discussed at the April 27 meeting. A time for the meeting hasn't been set yet.

"It would be nice to have it done by then," said Markus, "But you have to let the process work to get good factual information."


5) Delayed building presentation back on agenda

March 17, 2002

From the Birmingham Eccentric

Mark Pilukas is anxiously awaiting a Monday presentation that will outline transgressions of builders in Birmingham.

"The sky is not falling," said Pilukas. "The city commission created the sky falling. We had armed police driving around with code enforcement officers and it was terrible. I want to see what they found out."

Pilukas is a resident of Birmingham and also a builder. His construction site at Lincoln and Floyd was on a list of complaints turned in by Birmingham City Commissioner Gordon Thorsby. That list of complaints led to increased enforcement, which included 1,800 inspections by police during a two-week period in February.

"It was overkill and I admit that," said Birmingham Police Chief Richard Patterson. "But we had to determine how big of a problem we had. My conclusion is that it wasn't a big problem. Petty violations are what we found."

Birmingham building official Mary Ferrario is scheduled to give a Powerpoint presentation at Monday's 8 p.m. Birmingham City Commission meeting. When she tried to do the same last month, she was halted by Thorsby, who said the commission should have received a copy before hand. Thorsby will not be able to attend Monday's meeting but the presentation is on the agenda.

Pilukas was one of many interested residents and builders who attended the first meeting. He was turned in for cutting down city trees and damaging a city right-of-way but makes no apologies for either. Pilukas said he was permitted to chop down the trees, and damage to property is common during construction.

"If you drive a cement truck over a sidewalk it's going to crack," Pilukas said. "We are required to restore the property to the original condition and we will. It's been the law for 60 years."

The additional inspections cost taxpayers in excess of $6,000 in overtime paid to police officers and the commission is expected to decide if Patterson should start the police inspections again.

"I'm here to respond to the needs of the commission," said Patterson. "If they want to step up enforcement again, we'll do it. Even if that means extra personnel and extra costs."


6) Cities get downtown to business as work proceeds on projects

March 11, 2002

From Crain's Detroit Business

By Andrew Dietderich

The economy doesn't appear to be slowing the evolution of several downtowns in metro Detroit that are looking to draw more businesses, residents and shoppers.

Several projects in places such as Wixom, Northville, Royal Oak and Ferndale have started or soon will start to move off paper and onto Main Street.

For example:

* A $25 million, five-story, mixed-use building is planned for downtown Northville's Cady Street, sandwiched between the city's Main Street and Northville Downs horse-racing track.

* Wixom plans to issue a request for proposals this summer for a 390-acre, mixed-use downtown district that could be worth up to $125 million. The project, planned for the intersection of Pontiac Trail and Wixom Road, would be similar to Novi's Main Street development: built from scratch.

* In Royal Oak, a two-story Barnes & Noble bookstore is being built on the site of a former city parking lot on Main Street. The same developer, Chicago-based Morningside Group, also is redeveloping three blocks on Main south of Fourth Street. Plans call for 125,000 square feet of retail, 75,000 square feet of office space and 84 loft condominium residences for young professionals.

* Other Royal Oak projects are in the planning stages: the Royal Grand condo development by Chrysos Development and Management Co. on Washington Avenue east of Fourth and a six-story office building and a seven-story hotel at Main Street and I-696 by Schostak Bros. & Co.

Royal Oak neighbor Ferndale, along with Holly and Lake Orion, are taking part in the Main Street Program, a three-year project to improve each city's design, economic structure, promotion and organization.

"People are rediscovering downtowns," said Gerard Dettloff, Royal Oak's downtown manager. "They just feel more comfortable being closer to home these days."

Mark Guidobono, president and CEO of Cambridge Homes in Northville Township, said that's exactly why he spent $25 million on his most recent development in downtown Northville.

Guidobono project contains 30 condos ranging from $300,000 to $1 million, 24,000 square feet of office space and 15,000 square feet of commercial space.

If approved, engineering and planning would be finished this year, and construction would begin next year, Guidobono said.

Offices and retailers like the building because of the high number of people migrating to areas surrounding Oakland County, he said.

But even with the successes, room for improvement remains, said Christina Sheppard-Decius, director of the Ferndale Downtown Development District. That's why Ferndale is taking part in the Main Street Program, she said.

The program is run by Oakland County's Planning and Economic Development Department in collaboration with the Washington-based National Main Street Center, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Consultants from the Main Street Program interviewed officials and the public from November through January as part of an initial assessment, Sheppard-Decius said. The next step, during March through May, will be to determine the course of action, she said.

"We really want to see what else we can do with the design of our buildings," she said. "We struggle because of our varying architectural designs."

In Macomb County, Romeo faces a different struggle altogether: what kinds of businesses to allow downtown. Village officials plan to take up the issue this spring, said village Clerk Marian McLaughlin.

At issue is the village's Commercial Central Business District zoning ordinance, which prohibits anything but retail on the first floor of every building without special approval.
The zoning has started a feud between landlords, who contend that the limits on whom they can rent to keep more businesses out, and village officials, who want the zoning to help the downtown keep its small-town charm, McLaughlin said.

She said the issue died in November after the seven-member village board denied a recommendation from the Planning Commission to change the zoning ordinance to allow office space.

But one board member has requested that the board consider changing the zoning ordinance, McLaughlin said.

She expects the issue to be back on the agenda sometime this spring.

"The ordinance should be changed to allow offices," said Bill Parker, a real estate broker and owner of Sherman Parker Realty.

"Certainly most people are aware that retail is an extremely difficult market in the first place. And frankly, in downtown Romeo, there is not that much of a demand."

Parker said the ordinance affects about 30 buildings downtown, where lease rates average between $10 and $12 a square foot.

The ordinance has been in place since July 2000 but raised the ire of downtown merchants and others when the Planning Commission denied approval to an Edward Jones & Co. branch seeking to move into a former drugstore. McLaughlin said changing the ordinance had been scheduled to be addressed at a special Feb. 4 Planning Commission meeting, but the meeting was canceled.

Andrew Dietderich: (313) 446-0315.


7) Mega-mansions' upside: They help reduce suburban sprawl
'Tear-downs' in aging neighborhoods create smart growth, experts say

March 13, 2002

From USA Today

HINSDALE, Ill. -- In this tony Chicago suburb, 100 aging homes a year fall to the wrecking ball. One by one, mansions spring up in their place, squeezing onto small lots and towering over neighbors' modest Tudors and ranches.

This ''tear-down'' mania has been sweeping large metropolitan areas for years, rejuvenating old suburbs close to central cities. Preservationists and many longtime residents have decried the trend, complaining about the destruction of old homes and neighborhood character and deriding tear-downs as bash-and-builds, scrape-offs, starter castles, monster homes and McMansions.

But now, a politically incorrect view is spreading among some housing experts and urban planners: Tear-downs are good because they discourage sprawl.

The debate is intensifying in communities from the New Jersey shore to lakefronts around Minnesota's Twin Cities, tree-lined streets in Denver and California's Silicon Valley. Some experts argue that tear-downs fulfill the principles of ''smart growth'' because they:

* Don't eat up farmland and open space. Tear-downs allow people to build modern homes in areas that already have roads, schools, police and fire services.

* Lessen traffic congestion. Tear-downs keep people who want big homes closer to cities where they work, often along mass transit lines.

* Revitalize older suburbs. Wealthy homeowners often leave neighborhoods when housing becomes obsolete. Tear-downs bring wealth back in.

* Encourage walking to stores and schools. Older suburbs often have small downtowns, corner stores, neighborhood parks and schools.

''These are all reasons to love the monster home,'' says Karen Danielsen, a housing policy economist with the National Association of Home Builders, which supports residential construction in suburbs and cities alike. She touts the trend in the May issue of Planning magazine in an article she wrote with her husband, Robert Lang.

''Either way, these folks are building big homes,'' says Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, Va. ''You can have them do it where it does some good, or they can go on building them as they have been for years way out there where the corn grows.''

Lynette and Tom Lovelace expect to move into their 4,500-square-foot custom home in Hinsdale this fall after leaving a subdivision about 10 miles farther out.

''I'm fascinated with the idea that I can actually walk to buy a gallon of milk,'' she says.

Now, ''I have to get in a car to get anywhere.''

Old money vs. new

The anti-sprawl benefits of tear-downs are compelling, but they're not an easy sell.

Like other development issues -- from growth boundaries around metropolitan areas to stricter zoning and construction moratoriums -- tear-downs pit old neighbors against new, preservationists against builders. Tear-downs also intensify the clash of classes, the rich against the middle class, old money vs. new. Local governments are caught in the middle, balancing property rights, concerns of longtime residents and the need to boost their tax base.

Preservationists want to stop sprawl, but they hate tear-downs.

''I don't see any redeeming value in the tear-down phenomenon,'' says Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

''These tear-downs almost inevitably lead to the destruction of community. These (old) homes can be restored, can be renovated, can be added on to.''

But many well-heeled homebuyers eager to move closer to cities want no part of old houses.

''I can't live with things that are going to have to be redone,'' says Lynn Corsiglia of Hinsdale. ''I'm not into wiring, redoing roofs and refinishing original floors. I see the houses that are being torn down as houses that should be torn down.''

Moe and housing advocates say that tear-downs inflate the value of neighborhood real estate so much that middle-class families no longer can buy homes in the communities where they grew up. The tear-down ''Rule of Three'': The new house will be three times as big and cost three times as much as the old house.

Don Chen, president of Smart Growth America, a coalition that wants to control sprawl, recognizes some benefits of tear-downs. ''They breathe new life into old neighborhoods,'' he says. But he says tear-downs don't help communities encourage the development of affordable housing.

The growing popularity of tear-downs ''creates some problems,'' acknowledges James Hughes, head of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. But sharply higher property values and neighborhood friction are preferable to ''problems of decline and housing abandonment,'' he says. ''Some of the housing stock really is obsolete in terms of what the elite and even the middle class wants today. They may have some charm because they were built in the '20s, but they really don't meet the tests of today's market.''

Americans love big homes. The typical post-World War II tract house was barely as big as today's master-bedroom suites: his-and-hers walk-in closets, sitting rooms and giant bathrooms. According to the National Association of Home Builders, only 7% of new houses in 1984 were larger than 3,000 square feet. By 2000, the number had jumped to 18%.

The demand for big homes has pushed people farther from cities and into the countryside where there is space to build big. But that push has clogged highways and stretched commutes. In a dramatic shift in values, many people no longer want to be isolated from stores and schools. They want to live in a place with Norman Rockwell sensibilities and 21st century amenities -- a Starbucks, barber shop, grocery store and flower shop all within walking distance.

In the Chicago area, almost all the communities with flourishing tear-down business are closer-in suburbs along train lines: Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn and Elmhurst. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, homes are being torn down along the shores of Lake Owosso in Roseville, just over the city line. Another hotbed: Arlington, Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. In Florida, it's happening in ritzy Winter Park, outside Orlando.

Close-in suburbs are prime territory for tear-downs because of their location and because many of their residents are getting old. When they die or move away, the homes they leave behind are snapped up by developers.

''There are almost no vacant lots in Hinsdale,'' says builder Tim Thompson, who demolishes old houses and builds some of the town's most exclusive custom homes. Driving down Bruner Street in the less pricey southwest part of town, he points at a stretch of houses and says: ''All these will come down.''

Land in Hinsdale is in such demand that people are paying $1.4 million for an old 3,000-square-foot house. After tearing it down, they're building a 5,000-square-foot house for $3.5 million.

''I like living in an old town in a new home,'' Corsiglia says. ''The newer the better.'' After tearing down an old home, Corsiglia and her husband, John, enjoy a 5,000-square-foot house with five bedrooms, three full baths, two half-baths, a study and the obligatory big kitchen. John Corsiglia, an information technology consultant, can get to downtown Chicago in 25 minutes by car, 20 by train.

''We got way more house for our money,'' says Barbara Schwartz, a Hinsdale mother of five. ''The community is worth all the land we gave up.''

Town reaps benefits

In Hinsdale, founded in 1877, more than 1,100 houses -- one-fourth of the total -- have been built on previously developed lots since 1986. The town's finances have vastly improved as higher real-estate values have led to higher property taxes.

Hinsdale (population 17,349) is one of the smallest of 46 U.S municipalities awarded the top AAA credit rating by Standard & Poor's last fall. That distinction by the financial analyst and rating service allows Hinsdale to borrow money at lower interest rates. S&P cited an increase in Hinsdale's assessed property values of almost 6% a year in the 1990s and attributed the rise partly ''to active tear-down of older housing to make way for larger homes.''

Despite the windfall, Hinsdale officials are careful not to endorse tear-downs.

There are reasons why the issue is so delicate. For decades, zoning laws in older suburbs allowed for construction of good-size homes on small lots. There were few problems with neighbors because most people wanted big yards. Now, many people are building as big as zoning allows because they want more house than garden.

Many communities have enacted ''mansionization'' ordinances to limit the height and size of new homes. In nearby Glen Ellyn, where 60 homes were torn down last year, new houses can occupy no more than 20% of the lot.

In Hinsdale and other Chicago suburbs, tear-downs sometimes antagonize neighboring homeowners. At a recent public hearing in Oak Park, 30 residents complained about one house going up on their street. ''They said the house makes the house next door look like a dog house,'' says Jean Follett, a member of Hinsdale's Historic Preservation Commission. ''It's out of scale with what's next door, what's across the street, what's behind it.''

'Creating a new ghetto'

Hinsdale has always been expensive. But not Elmhurst to the north. One of Chicago's old railroad suburbs, the town historically has been largely working class. The homes are modest and set far back from the street -- the dream tear-down lot.

Home prices have soared about 60% since 1993. Builders are paying about $325,000 for a tear-down, then selling a new home on the same lot for more than twice that.

''The economics are unbelievably compelling'' -- except for middle-class buyers who want to move to Elmhurst, Follett says. ''We're creating a new ghetto. We're pushing affordable housing into the outer fringes of suburbia.''

But Virginia Tech's Lang says that building expensive homes next to post-war bungalows creates mixed-income neighborhoods and distributes wealth across a metropolitan area rather than concentrating it in newer suburbs, he says.

In exclusive, long-established communities such as Hinsdale, however, change is not easily accepted, especially when fueled by new wealth. Many of the town's new residents are young bond traders.

For longtime residents, seeing old friends' homes destroyed is painful. ''I can't stand it,'' says Barbara Clarke, 75, who lives in a home built in 1951. Next door, a 1920s Cape Cod was torn down and a bigger house went up, blocking Clarke's view of the sunset. Across the street, another house is set for demolition. ''I've seen beautiful homes being torn down and replaced with humongous homes that are not in keeping with the neighborhood,'' Clarke says. ''A lot of them are just plain ugly. ''

But Thompson, the builder responsible for many of the monster homes in Hinsdale, says: ''I've thought of my own houses coming down some day. I don't have a problem with that. Anything can be improved upon.''


8) Letter to Eccentric: Thorsby commended

March 14, 2002

A recent editorial in the Eccentric, as well as Letters to the Editor from builders, have been critical of Birmingham Commissioner Gordon Thorsby's call for increased enforcement of building codes.

I commend Mr. Thorsby for his stand. I live next door to a "Big foot" new home construction site. I have contacted the Community Development Department, as well as the Birmingham Police Department, on numerous occasions about obvious code violations, such as sump water being pumped into my yard and construction starting before 7 a.m. and Sunday construction.

The Community Development Department has been very unresponsive to my concerns. The lack of code enforcement or citations in these matters goes a long ways to explain why they continue to occur to this day.

Code enforcement is NOT doing its job. If it were, construction workers would not be parked in front of my house at 6:30 in the morning, construction debris would not be littering my yard and I would not have to regularly clean mud from the site from my garage and cars. The Eccentric, as well as the builders, apparently feel that these types of complaints are "insignificant and petty," as a recent letter to the editor put it.

The Birmingham Building Guide states: "Builders are encouraged to police themselves, thus reducing the need for added laws and enforcement." My experience has repeatedly demonstrated the need for those "added laws and enforcement". And, as the Community Development Department has failed to adequately enforce the city building ordinances, Mr. Thorsby's actions are welcomed.

Keep at it Mr. Thorsby.

Donald C. Barkel, Birmingham


9) Editorial: Commission should deliberate openly on upcoming key appointments

The Birmingham City Commission will soon be making appointments to five of its advisory boards: Planning, Parks & Recreation, Historic District & Design Review (HDDRC), Traffic & Safety and Cablecasting.

Many of these appointements, particularly to the Planning Board, provide an opportunity for the Commission and the community at large to discuss the direction the city is taking with regard to development and other matters.

Unfortunately, many recent appointments have been made with little or no discussion. Even when the Commission split recently 5-2 between Jean Holland and Mark Nickita for the Planning Board, the interviews were cursory, and public discussion among Commission members was non-existent.

The citizens of Birmingham deserve better, and our Commissioners are capable of delivering it to us -- if they want.

Planning Board members are making key decisions and recommendations about the city's future. The Commission has declared the Planning Board the primary venue for public hearings regarding changes to our zoning ordinances. Parks & Recreation Board members will be deeply involved in key decisions about how the city will spend up to $25 million in bond money approved by voters last November.

The citizens of Birmingham deserve qualified, experienced people on these boards. They deserve a Commission that will conduct full, fair interviews of all candidates, and openly deliberate on nominations, appointments and the direction in which these decisions take us.

If you're interested in serving on any of these boards, applications for Parks & Rec and Traffic & Safety are due at the City Clerk's office by noon March 13th. Appointments will be made March 18. Applications for the Planning Board, HDDRC, and Cablecasting Board are due by noon March 20th, and appointments will be made March 25. Call the Clerk's office at (248) 644-1800 ext. 282 for an application or answers to your questions.


10) City Freedom of Information form posted

March 8, 2002

The Buzz has posted a copy of the Birmingham Freedom of Information request form. Access it on our home page, or click the link below. Use it to request public information from the City in accordance with the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, which you can read at http://www.ag.state.mi.us/foia_and_open_meetings/foia.htm.

Our form contains fields that you can type into. Just fill it out, print it, sign it, and deliver it to the Clerk's office. Our Clerk gratiously accepts requests via fax (the number is printed on the form), and her office either fulfills them itself, or passes them on to the appropriate department for fulfillment.

Access the form at http://www.bhambuzz.org/pdfs/foi.pdf.


11) To be removed, send a request to info@bhambuzz.org.