for the record state your name yes raymond dorizio d-o-r-i-z-i-o could you identify your
client the relationship to the property yes i represent richard spinogati he is the
administrator, executor of the estate of his mother, Giuseppina Spina Gatti, and she was the
owner of the property, and that's 319-21 North Daggett Street. Vice Chair has a few questions,
sir. Good morning, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate
to its accuracy? Good morning. Yes, I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and
exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes thank
you counsel please proceed and share this ring thank you okay so this is uh 319 321 north daggett
street um we're seeking to basically legalize an existing use this property was owned by my
client's parents. It was purchased back in 1968. It's a garage. And we're basically seeking to
legalize the garage parking with storage. Over the years, it's just been used for various
companies, landscaping companies and such, parking their vehicles in there, any equipment that they
have going in there. Now, my client's mother passed away August of 2023. Him and his siblings,
I don't believe they're going to hold on to the property. I believe it's going to be sold.
They're seeking to legalize it so that the property is legitimized.
My client's father passed away years prior. Here's the deed, basically going back to 1960.
And the property's basically always been used in the same form or fashion since then.
Here's some plans.
I think the photos will show a little bit better where there's three basically garage doors.
Here's a photo of the property, three garage doors, one floor.
There's no residences next door.
Those are kind of in the back.
Across the street from Daggett Street is Cobb Creek's Park, which you see on the right here, a high fence, a vacant lot on the side.
This is the inside of the property. I'm sorry it's on the side, I guess, the way I scanned it.
But there's currently no tenants in there, just basically concrete floors. It's kept in pretty much good condition.
Just basically concrete floors. It's kept in pretty much good condition.
Those are the garage doors. This is posting of the notice of the hearing on those doors.
This is an overhead view. You see Cop Street Park and North Daggett Street.
There's a little bit of a photo there of the setup of the overhead.
This is the tax clearance that my client obtained, and we have the mailings.
Essentially, we did meet with the community.
If I recall, it was unanimous support of the project.
Again, my clients, they've had a presence in the neighborhood for several decades.
The property has been what it's been, and we're seeking to legalize that as is.
do you have the the uh your uh representative of the parents to adopt your testimony here
yes i have i guess i'm sorry i almost forgot that i appreciate mr spinogatti are you on the
call do you hear me can you raise your hand
what's your client's last name mr derizio it's spelled s-p-i-n-o-g-a-t-t-i
he's been unmuted and allowed to speak good morning sir could you please state your name
and spell for the course stenography yes it's richard spinogatti r-i-c-h-a-r-d
spinogatti s-p-i-n-o-g-a-t-t-i where affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you sir you heard my test my uh presentation and
testimony to the board this morning yes okay and was it truthful and accurate to the best of your
knowledge information and belief yes and do you wish to adopt it as your own
yes okay thank you i have no further questions questions from the board
um i guess i'm having a little trouble with seeing how this is used is it says
for the accessory garage parking and warehouse but when you showed interior pictures part of it
look so narrow i'm not quite sure so which door is it where we have the parking and which part
is the warehouse or yeah so essentially it's just storage of the goods that whichever you know the
company if it was a contractor or like i said was a landscaping company was the last um company that
occupied it but essentially these doors allow for either you know a truck or a car or a vehicle
to drive in and there are spaces in the back it goes on for um all the way back where things can
be stored and trucks can be or cars can be parked a vehicle okay so they can i'm sorry
parked inside is that okay yes and there's a doorway there you are walking in um without a
vehicle so i'm sorry these are a little sorry but this this is kind of a photo that shows the depth
of the building and what can fit in there okay it's a little dark so sorry yes no i apologize
can you spin that council council can you spin that around uh i will try i'm sorry i'm i should
have done this on my laptop i'm on my ipad so i'm really not sure how to do that uh and i don't want
to start hitting buttons and jumping off when we turn our head a certain way we can see i'm sorry
i apologize yes okay so now is this property just the garages i'm looking at google and it looks
like this what's what's big what's behind so it's just the garages are just these properties
correct it's just the structure here these structures and then it fronts on to looks like
it's a wall across the street that's all i see is a wall yeah like a little breezeway or alleyway
behind it basically oh then it backs up a baseball field yes on the other side of the street so that
would be the alley before that there's some grass and like a pathway gotcha right yeah so there's
nothing else really on the block. And just one thing I'd like to clarify, if I could,
in the picture that's currently on the screen, the property we're discussing is only the property
the property we're discussing is only uh the property on the left hand side so it's the
on the left-hand side.
single door black door and it's the double garage door the other property that's subtle
that's a separate that's a separate property gotcha all right okay so that that's what was
a little confusing here because i'm seeing three doors but you were only showing the
interior and the one and okay so i understand now thank you the comments from our attorney
mr jerzio the you mentioned that you thought the vote was unanimous at the rco meaning do you have
a letter or an email or something it was never indicates it was never supplied to me but we did
meet with them there were maybe five or six individuals on the call there was a vote there
was no opposition in fact it was support so i assume that it was sent in to the to the board
i haven't i don't believe that i ever received a copy of it or i would have included it in the
okay so you were present for the vote yes okay all right thank you i should start comments from
virtual audience i see no hands chair planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing
residential multi-family rm1 this building has existed in its current variation since at least
1996. the appellant has shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of
the property that would prevent it from being
used in conformance to the zoning code.
Therefore, the City Planning Commission recommends
that the Board grant the requested variance
for garage slash warehouse.
MI 2024
003 543
319 to 21
North Daggett Street, I vote yes.
Proviso, approved uses
or non-accessory parking and
warehouse.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is
yes with provisos.
If no, my vote is yes, reprovisor.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Have a good day.
Mr. Chair, sorry, before we move on, I believe we have a Spanish interpreter in the audience.
I saw Mr. Aubain here.
Mr. Aubain, the case we need you on is actually on the 2 p.m. list.
I don't know if you're able to come back for the 2 p.m. list.
I apologize for the confusion.
um i'll let my my manager know i have another hearing at that time but i'll let her know so
that they could find the replacement we just need someone for a couple of minutes because
the case is going to be continued and we're announcing a new date on the record so we just
would like to make sure that that is understood by the applicant so okay i'll make sure to relay
that information and um and i'll let my manager know okay thank you and i'm sorry for keeping you
waiting. No problem. You have a great day. Number five, MI 2024-003-717-6901 Woodland Avenue.
Tamika McCoy is the attorney. No RCO letter as of yet. Do we have one, Hillary? Did we get one,
Hillary? Yes, we did. We just got one this morning from the Southwest Consortium of RCOs,
and it wasn't support.
I did not see any provisos.
Tamika McCoy, please raise your virtual hand.
She's coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the court
sure tamika mccoy last name is spelled m-c-capital-k-o-y you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify your client the relationship
to the property? Sure. It's Southwest Leadership Academy. The representative who will be appearing
today is Lee Purnell. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you. Good morning, counsel. Do
you agree to wait the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy? Yes, I do. And there
had been some supplemental materials that had been submitted for the board, namely the RCO letter
that had been emailed that indicates support and zero opposition for all of the participants
uh support and zero opposition for all of the participants at the rco meeting thank you have
at the RCO meeting.
you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case
sounds like you added those yep no problem please proceed and share your spin thank you
Okay, here we go. Sorry about that.
So we have here the property located at 6901 Woodland Avenue on the second and third floor is a educational facility that has been used in this detached structure for several years.
There had been a prior variance that had been awarded. I would be going to go a little out of order so that way we can kind of get to the meat of it.
So there was a prior variance that had been granted to the educational facility, which is essentially a charter school that services kindergarten, first and second grade students to 8,000 square foot building in which the proposed use is to actually continue to operate as such.
What we're seeking is to make permanent the prior variants that had been given.
I'm showing interior pictures of the school.
It's currently in a detached structure that's zone RM1.
As you can see here, there's ample parking. And so with that, there's no expectation that it would cause congestion to the public in any way or any interruption in the transportation system.
There is no impairment or impediment on the light air for any adjacent property.
This is across the street from the Southwest Leadership Academy.
It's a gated premises, and there you see a fix, the notifications.
We were able to attach the actual plans for the second and third floor.
This is the second floor.
It shows a number of classrooms, restroom facilities, storage areas, a staircase, an elevator, additional classrooms, and a second set of stairwell.
This would be the plans for the third floor.
Again, that second set of stairwell.
restroom areas and a number of classroom. Again, it's 8,000 square foot of space
that's being utilized and had been utilized for the past five years or so as a educational
institution. The lease for the premise has been renewed. We did affix a copy of the lease. We're
going to just zone out. I just needed to have you guys be able to see the plans. But the lease
essentially began in 2017 and has been extended to the current occupants who wants to seek and
continue providing these valuable services for the community. There were 97 notices mailed
to impacted neighbors.
These were all of the neighbors
who had been notified of the RCO meeting.
The meeting was actually conducted
on October 7th of 2024
and it was done by Zoom video conferencing.
As I indicated,
we did get a letter indicating
that the zoning board, the RCO actually approves of the use and is in support of the project.
This is a summary of the meeting that had been sent in by the RCO committee to the zoning board
directly. And that's part of the supplemental information. There is a wage tax
There is a wage tax matter that's being resolved and restructured.
matter that's being
reserved.
We'd like to have the opportunity to continue to work that out.
That's going to be something that's resolved in the near future.
And I would like to bring in Ms. Lee Purnell to adopt these statements.
Lee Purnell has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
good morning everyone could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
my name is lee pernell l-e-i-g-h-p-u-r-n-e-l-l you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed counsel thank you miss pernell um did
you hear the information that had been presented to the board today regarding the Southwest
Leadership Academy? Yes, I did. And if you were asked those same questions, would you provide
the same or similar information to the board? Yes, I would. And is it your desire to make
permanent the prior variants that had been obtained approximately four or five years ago?
Yes, it is.
And it is your testimony and representation that the Southwest Leadership Academy intends to continue to provide these valuable services for the community it serves, correct?
That is correct.
I have no further statements.
This is only for the second and third floor?
Yes, that's correct.
By curiosity, what's on the first floor?
There's a daycare that's also affixed within that same building.
there's a different tenant different um okay right very good thank you questions from the board
yeah okay and your comments from our attorney hillary emberson um just briefly mr chair um
at first thank you for for clarifying that um this is the second and third floor so i just double
checked the the tax balance because it was the real estate taxes that were actually the issue
for the zoning board and there was previously a balance there. I just checked the balance now
and it is now zero. So we can proceed with a vote on this matter. I understand you have the wage
tax issue to work out, but the zoning board looks solely at real estate taxes and those have been
addressed. That's from the virtual audience. Chair, we have Craig Melodosian. They have
been unmuted and allowed to speak. You've already been sworn. Just please state your name for the
record. Craig Melodosian. Please proceed, sir. Just wanted to indicate to the board that our
consortium strongly supports this application where it had been previously proviso for five
years. We're asking that that not be done again, that the variance be in place. We were before you
on 9-18 of this year for the ground floor which is an early education center so
we think that having this building and it was granted a variance rather than