Livonia City Planning Commission — Meeting Report - 7/14/2026

1,247th Public Hearing and Regular Meeting · Tuesday, July 14, 2026 · 7:00 p.m. · City Hall Auditorium, 33000 Civic Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan · Presiding: Chairman Ian Wilshaw · Prepared from the official agenda packet and a machine transcript of the meeting video.

Members present: Ian Wilshaw (Chairman), Wafa Dinaro, Patrick Droze, Glen Long, Peter Ventura. Members absent: David Bongero, Sam Caramagno (Secretary). Staff present: Jacob Uhazie, Assistant Planning Director; Kristoffer Canty, Planner IV; Stephanie Reece, Program Supervisor. Because two of the Commission's seven members were absent, every vote below was decided by these five members only.

How this works: the Planning Commission does not have final say on rezonings and waiver-use petitions — it makes a recommendation, and the City Council holds its own public hearing before making the final decision. A denied waiver-use or site-plan petitioner has 10 days to appeal in writing to City Council. The Commission does have final authority over preliminary plats, vacating petitions, and administrative/miscellaneous items like signage.

1. Full Agenda Item Table

2. Significant Events & Notable Discussion

Item 1: a rezoning tabled over a wrongly worded sign

Optalis Healthcare's request to rezone strips of five residential lots to parking for the Fountain Bleu nursing home hit a procedural snag before any substantive discussion could occur. Commissioner Droze noticed that the public-notice sign posted on the property told neighbors the rezoning would convert the land from residential to commercial use — not the actual request, residential to parking. Staff confirmed the discrepancy meant legally required public notice had not been satisfied. With no residents or petitioner representative present to be inconvenienced, the Commission tabled the item indefinitely rather than hold a hearing it might have to repeat, and asked staff to have the petitioner correct the sign and re-notice the hearing.

Item 2: a bitterly contested "head spa" waiver

The night's most adversarial item involved Sasa Head Spa's request to open a scalp-and-hair-focused massage business at 33600 Seven Mile Road — the same storefront that previously housed Tai Chi Massage. Michael Malecki, owner of Kneaded Relief Massage & Spa (as well as two home-care companies) and a registered nurse and firefighter/EMT, submitted a lengthy formal objection alleging the address and phone number had a history of advertising associated with illicit massage activity and appeared on websites known for facilitating the commercial sex trade, and argued the new petition looked like a rebranding of that same operation. Petitioner Zi Hong Liu testified the business would be entirely new, that he had never operated at the address before, and that he holds a massage therapy license — though, in response to a question from resident Denise Mica, he confirmed he does not hold a cosmetology license, despite the business's hair-focused services. Under questioning from commissioners, Liu also confirmed the business would offer full-body massage in addition to scalp treatments, using massage beds rather than salon chairs, which undercut the "just a hair salon" framing. The Commission voted 5-0 to deny, citing insufficient demonstration of need, compatibility, and consistency with the zoning ordinance's goals.

Item 3: an adult foster care home approved over the chairman's own objection

J.B. Donaldson Company's request to license an adult foster care home for up to 12 residents (the petition's official capacity range is 7–12) in a historic 1836 building at Eight Mile and Meadowview drew written opposition from at least two nearby homeowners (Kimberly McInnis and Bruce Folsom) concerned about precedent for non-residential uses in a 300-plus-home subdivision. Representative Joe Hammond and the facility's prospective resident/operations manager, a nurse practitioner referred to in testimony as Simona, argued the use would generate less traffic than the property's former medical-office tenant and described a small, socially engaged care model for residents 55 and older. Commissioners pressed on room sizes (minimum 80 sq. ft. per single-occupancy bedroom, matching code), sprinkler requirements, supervised outdoor patio time, and staffing/training standards. The motion to approve, made by Commissioner Droze with an added condition that any state-mandated floor-plan changes be reviewed by Planning and Inspection staff, passed 4-1 — with Chairman Wilshaw casting the sole dissenting vote without elaborating his reasoning on the record.

Item 4: Culver's comes to north Livonia, with some site tweaks

PEA Group, representing a local Culver's franchise operator, presented plans for a drive-thru restaurant and a to-be-designed second retail building on Seven Mile Road near Middle Belt, on the site of a vacant former banquet hall. After a franchise owner-operator (introduced as Brent Bridgewater, alongside PEA Group's Jim Boller) discussed exterior materials and guest experience, commissioners negotiated three changes on the floor: adding pedestrian access from the Seven Mile right-of-way (building on the chairman's observation that a long-envisioned redevelopment of the nearby Middle Belt/Seven Mile corner could someday bring more foot traffic), capping certain metal/fiber-cement paneling at under 10% of the building's exterior materials, and allowing the petitioner to "land-bank" — landscape now but retain the right to pave later — up to half of the diagonal parking spaces in front of the restaurant, which staff and commissioners agreed was likely more parking than the site would need. The retail building, for which no design has yet been submitted, must return to the Commission separately before it can be built.

Items 5 & 6: a rebrand that jumped the gun, and a "why is that one white?" moment

Bazo Construction's rebrand of a Shell station to Amoco branding at Seven Mile and Middle Belt turned out to already be partially installed — representative Sarah Mason explained a since-fired project manager had wrongly believed permits were in hand, and that visible signage had already been taken back down once the error was caught. The Commission approved the sign package with an amendment barring illuminated LED light banding on the building, windows, and canopy (closing a gap in the original condition language) and requiring the site's existing pylon sign be replaced with a shorter, code-compliant monument sign. A recurring public commenter from 1948 Bainbridge Avenue — whose name has been transcribed differently across recent meetings (heard here as "Jerry Kosinski") — added historical color: the current pylon sign replaced an older brick-based sign that had sat damaged for years after being struck by a car. Item 6, five replacement wall signs for the Target store on Haggerty Road, drew no public comment and only a lighthearted exchange about why one of the five signs is white instead of Target's signature red — representative Vito Cuccinelli of Kimley-Horn & Associates said it reflects a corporate brand-refresh standard.

3. Public Speakers by Item

Unlike City Council meetings, Planning Commission meetings do not include a general audience-communication period for topics outside the agenda; public comment here is taken only on the specific item under discussion.

4. Detailed Vote Record

Item 3 is the only non-unanimous vote of the night, and the only 2026 Planning Commission item this meeting on which the Chairman voted against his own colleagues' motion. The meeting adjourned at 9:35 p.m.