Restaurant proposal hits roadblock

STERLING HEIGHTS — A Canadian restaurateur’s plan to open a high-end eatery at the site of a long-closed Chili’s restaurant on Hall Road failed to move forward at the May 13 Sterling Heights Planning Commission meeting.

The proposal was derailed due to procedural concerns about the way planners were asked to approve the development and the lack of a full board to consider the matter. The five commissioners on hand ultimately voted to postpone consideration until the body’s June regular meeting.

The former Chili’s is at 12800 Hall Road, adjacent to the Sterling Town Center office complex. The most recent proposal for the site was a Raising Cane’s fast-food restaurant, which did not come to fruition.

According to background material from the city’s Planning Department, the current proposal is for a “high-end steak and sushi bar and grille” which would include an adjoining hookah lounge with a separate entrance, as well as a cigar lounge. Developers propose utilizing the existing 5,400-square-foot building, adding a new facade and making parking lot and landscape improvements. The investment is estimated at $15 million.

Philip Ruggeri, a Sterling Heights-based attorney and real estate developer and owner of the property, told planning commissioners the project would fill a void by providing lunch and dinner options for the nearby office building and be a destination for patrons who enjoy a hookah experience along with their meal.

He said entrepreneur Ahmed Dagher, who operates more than a dozen successful restaurants in Canada and is also involved in a pair of new ventures in Sterling Heights, is proposing a unique concept for the city.

“We’ve got a golden opportunity to create a destination place, which is a high-level restaurant,” Ruggeri said. “And then you have a component, which is very customary, but it doesn’t interfere with the dining experience … to have the hookah.

And they can either have the hookah before dinner, or they can have it after dinner, but they’re not going to mesh together at all.”

Sterling Heights Planning Director Jake Parcell said a hookah lounge inside a restaurant is not permitted under the city’s zoning law and “a separate but adjoining hookah lounge is something we haven’t reviewed before.”

Because of the novel concept, project developers are seeking to move forward through a planned unit development, which provides zoning flexibility for the developer. That idea was questionable for some planning commissioners.

“I have some significant concerns with the procedure of allowing this use through the modification process of a PUD,” said Planning Commission Chairman Nathan Inks.

He said approving the project the way it was presented would open the door for future applicants to seek approvals outside of established uses within the city’s zoning ordinance.

“My concern is that approving this PUD is likely to incentivize ad hoc and arbitrary decisions in the future regarding similar applications,” Inks said.

“I would be fully supportive of amending the zoning ordinance to allow hookah lounges as an accessory use and at that point would be happy to consider this under the (special land use) process,” he added. “But I have significant concerns that we are going down a road that we don’t want to go down. That is going to cause a lot of problems in the future.”

Although Inks said he would not vote to approve the project, other planning commissioners present were more receptive.

“I think we’ve been waiting for this kind of concept for a long time,” said Pashko Ujkic. “I’m happy to recommend approval to the City Council, and the final say is up to them.”

Ujkic noted Dagher’s “long track record of success” and said he was “all for” new ideas like the proposed development. “I’m pro-business so I’m excited to see you and welcome you to the city.”

When it came time to vote on recommending the project for approval, Inks, Brandy Wright and Nicole McGill voted against it while Ujkic and Saif Yousif voted yes. Even though only five of the nine-member planning commission were in attendance, a majority vote among them would have been enough to move the project forward.

A second vote to postpone the matter until the commission’s June 10 meeting passed unanimously.