Bloomfield Township Design Review Board Meeting on March 4, 2026

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Transcript

Click any timestamp to jump the video to that moment. Auto-transcribed; expect occasional errors on proper nouns.

1. 0:00

   We'll take attendance. Welcome to the Charter Township of Bloomfield Design Review Board for Wednesday, March 4th at 2 o'clock. We'll take attendance. And we have Neal, Michael, and myself here. We're good? So moved. Okay. Any public comment? If you're here for public comment, I don't think we have any public comment today. We'll close public comment. Approval of the minutes from the February 4th meeting. So moved. Support? Support. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Item number four, our site plan for 3120 South Boulevard, Orphan Associates. Go ahead, Corey. All right. So this shows you where it sits within our zoning map. There's a recent residential multifamily development in that orange around it, but our property is the 01 kind of purplish color for office. On the other side, I believe that is Auburn Hills. This shows you where it sits within an aerial. You can see it's surrounded by residential on all sides. And now digging into the plans, as you have already mentioned, they are very straightforward. The applicant is not proposing to change the use of the site. The applicant is not even proposing to expand the footprint of the building. What they are proposing to do is take the drive-through lanes for the financial institution and basically enclose them to create an expansion to the site. So they will be, the existing building will be expanded by an additional 873 square feet to create a total of 6,118 square feet. The property size is 1.8 acres. Let's see. They are proposing six new parking spaces. So that's another alteration to the site. So previously, the drive-through cars would come around here, go under the... drive-through and then out. Now that this is enclosed they're proposing six new spaces here which brings their parking total to over 40 spaces which almost doubles what they are need what they need to have by ordinance standards. So they are well parked and for that reason because it's a minor expansion because they are over parked we didn't route this out to a traffic reviewer because we figured it was very straightforward. So like I mentioned no changes to the use of the site there is some proposed landscaping. You can see here so they're proposing new rows of deciduous trees, boulevard lindens, as well as hydrangeas and flower beds. So they will be beautifying the facade as well. Photometrics there's no new proposed lights for the site and I'll share the renderings and here's what it's gonna look like. So they're even keeping the columns that exist currently as part of the drive-through and just incorporating it as part of their wall and the brick is proposed to match the columns. The only

2. 1:15

   So they will be, the existing building will be expanded by an additional 873 square feet to create a total of 6,118 square feet. The property size is 1.8 acres. Let's see. They are proposing six new parking spaces. So that's another alteration to the site. So previously, the drive-through cars would come around here, go under the... drive-through and then out. Now that this is enclosed they're proposing six new spaces here which brings their parking total to over 40 spaces which almost doubles what they are need what they need to have by ordinance standards. So they are well parked and for that reason because it's a minor expansion because they are over parked we didn't route this out to a traffic reviewer because we figured it was very straightforward. So like I mentioned no changes to the use of the site there is some proposed landscaping. You can see here so they're proposing new rows of deciduous trees, boulevard lindens, as well as hydrangeas and flower beds. So they will be beautifying the facade as well. Photometrics there's no new proposed lights for the site and I'll share the renderings and here's what it's gonna look like. So they're even keeping the columns that exist currently as part of the drive-through and just incorporating it as part of their wall and the brick is proposed to match the columns. The only thing I want to know is here you can see two AC units. They are going to be enclosing these and they will be enclosing them with a brick screening to match the facade of the structure. So I think that's it. It's been reviewed by our fire department, engineering, and police. No one had any comments. It was reviewed by landscaping. It is compliant with dollar codes. Is this going to have to go to planning or zoning? This will have to go to planning commission and attention board but at this point there are no variances associated. And they're scheduled. And they're scheduled. So you said that the use of the site is not changing, but it was a bank. Is this a bank? Yeah. It's a financial institution. So it's categorized the same under our ordinance. Yeah. Financial institution. It's a credit union bank. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a financial advisory institution, company, private company. No drugs or nothing. Right. So is it a credit union or a financial advisor? Well, and according to our ordinance, the classification that we would consider it would be the use classification that we're looking at this as is like a professional office. Professional office. So in terms of the required, our ordinance doesn't necessarily differentiate between the uses of a bank, per se, versus a financial.

3. 2:30

   part of their wall and the brick is proposed to match the columns. The only thing I want to know is here you can see two AC units. They are going to be enclosing these and they will be enclosing them with a brick screening to match the facade of the structure. So I think that's it. It's been reviewed by our fire department, engineering, and police. No one had any comments. It was reviewed by landscaping. It is compliant with dollar codes. Is this going to have to go to planning or zoning? This will have to go to planning commission and attention board but at this point there are no variances associated. And they're scheduled. And they're scheduled. So you said that the use of the site is not changing, but it was a bank. Is this a bank? Yeah. It's a financial institution. So it's categorized the same under our ordinance. Yeah. Financial institution. It's a credit union bank. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a financial advisory institution, company, private company. No drugs or nothing. Right. So is it a credit union or a financial advisor? Well, and according to our ordinance, the classification that we would consider it would be the use classification that we're looking at this as is like a professional office. Professional office. So in terms of the required, our ordinance doesn't necessarily differentiate between the uses of a bank, per se, versus a financial. It doesn't differentiate. We don't have different standards specifically for rents. No, I understand. Yeah. So nobody's going to be coming in here to make deposits and take withdrawals and they're not going to have a safe. I mean, is it going to be like that or is it going to be like a financial advisor where it's like offices and they're helping people manage money? That's what it is. Okay. They're going to be helping people manage money. Correct. So they don't need the safe. It's presumably there. And the drive-thru. And they don't need the drive-thru. Or 40 car spaces. Right. And they're not changing the flow of the site. No. Right. Because I noticed that that was one of the things that the fire marshal had. had said no new access drives no new curb cuts that they're not changing the width of anything no okay let him make your presentation no you can continue I mean it's kind of boilerplate but I can go up there if you like we just finished we did have some questions on the specific how the facility watch to be used so maybe you could elaborate on how the expanded area will be used yeah you come up to the microphone just to introduce yourself

4. 3:45

   So in terms of the required, our ordinance doesn't necessarily differentiate between the uses of a bank, per se, versus a financial. It doesn't differentiate. We don't have different standards specifically for rents. No, I understand. Yeah. So nobody's going to be coming in here to make deposits and take withdrawals and they're not going to have a safe. I mean, is it going to be like that or is it going to be like a financial advisor where it's like offices and they're helping people manage money? That's what it is. Okay. They're going to be helping people manage money. Correct. So they don't need the safe. It's presumably there. And the drive-thru. And they don't need the drive-thru. Or 40 car spaces. Right. And they're not changing the flow of the site. No. Right. Because I noticed that that was one of the things that the fire marshal had. had said no new access drives no new curb cuts that they're not changing the width of anything no okay let him make your presentation no you can continue I mean it's kind of boilerplate but I can go up there if you like we just finished we did have some questions on the specific how the facility watch to be used so maybe you could elaborate on how the expanded area will be used yeah you come up to the microphone just to introduce yourself thank you Cory of course hi my name is Danny Plantis I'm from Kemp Building and Development Company we represent Orphan Associates on their phase two expansion this is a project that we started last year with the renovation of the interior of that former bank building the intention was to encapsulate or cover the drive-through areas and to make that more of a larger meeting space they often their financial advisors what they do wealth advisors so while I think there's about eight or ten employees in the building on a given day they do have seminars they have meetings in the evenings where they might have 20 or 30 people in there at one time so that was a need for that site had ample parking and that's basically it thank you thank you okay I'll cover your questions. Yup. Okay. I'd like to make a motion we approve as presented. Actually, we're not approving anything anymore. We're going to accept it and pass it on to the planning committee. Good enough. Then accept it and move it again, moving it to the planning commission.

5. 5:00

   microphone just to introduce yourself thank you Cory of course hi my name is Danny Plantis I'm from Kemp Building and Development Company we represent Orphan Associates on their phase two expansion this is a project that we started last year with the renovation of the interior of that former bank building the intention was to encapsulate or cover the drive-through areas and to make that more of a larger meeting space they often their financial advisors what they do wealth advisors so while I think there's about eight or ten employees in the building on a given day they do have seminars they have meetings in the evenings where they might have 20 or 30 people in there at one time so that was a need for that site had ample parking and that's basically it thank you thank you okay I'll cover your questions. Yup. Okay. I'd like to make a motion we approve as presented. Actually, we're not approving anything anymore. We're going to accept it and pass it on to the planning committee. Good enough. Then accept it and move it again, moving it to the planning commission. I'll support that. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Pass three to nothing. Good luck. Thank you very much. And again, my deep apologies. No worries. No problem. We're good. Okay. General Business, next meeting is Wednesday, March 18th at 2 p.m. We'll see you then. All in favor of adjourn? Aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you. Yep.