No, Mr. Chairman.
Okay. Questions or comments from Mr. McSherry?
No, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience, and the questions should be only about Mr. Belfort's testimony and new information from Mr. Belfort.
Okay. There's a hand up from Peter McDermott, and he will be allowed to speak.
mr mcdermott how are you good evening good evening could you please state your name and
spell for the court stenographer my name is peter mcdermott m-c-d-e-r-m-o-t-t right do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do now mr mcdermott you
testified the last time so your testimony this time should be relative to the testimony mr
belfort the information he just put that's what we would take one from you okay james street
is a legally open street even on city plans it shows james street going through
to linden okay that's not the case but legally it is mapped out to go through to linden that street
has cars overpopulated that have license plates on them that say direct auto sales up and down
the street now you've heard testimony contrary to that but this is factual this is factual that
whole entire street from arendale down to where the buildings start on the eastbound side towards
the river is overpopulated it's a dunkin donuts fronting on state state road and it's on the
corner property there of Arendelle, the entire lawn is overpopulated with cars that say direct
auto sales. That is not a lot. If he has a lot that fits 200 cars, well, he should remap it out
to fit 300 cars because there's probably close to 70 or 80 cars along James Street.
Because there's probably close to 70 or 80 cars on Long James Street occupying that area.
Furthermore, in this exhibit package, I see where they're talking about, did you take these photos?
And there's photos of orange signs now hung up on the building.
I was just there on April 10th.
There was no signs.
I can share the photograph with you right now.
so i don't i don't know what reality uh that the two people that spoke today
are living in but the reality is for uh precision precision mechanical uh one of the protesters
sean mcdermott is none of this is true they're there every day none of the none of what said
is true okay looking at their position all right well keep your voice i want to make one more
statement looking at their petition that they keep referencing 9207 james street that is not
the owner who signed 9205 james i'm going in order one through that is not the owner 9215 james
street is owned by brian garbelny not francisco rosa okay we have multiple signatures here line
six and line seven in the hand of another we have line eight signed by someone who does not own the
property it's owned by brinkman line 12 they don't own the property okay that's brinkman hold on i'm
not done home furthermore i reached out to line 15 92 24 state road because i know them i served
on a on an rco board with mike williams so it's mike williams brett williams gladys williams is
their mother and their grandfather was leo leon williams they did not sign the sheet that is not
their signature okay and he told me he told me that if he had known this because he knows who i
am he knows my brother that he would not be in favor of this and then you have line 16 and 17
are both in the hands of another mr chair all right hold on alan alan no wait a minute wait
a minute wait a minute i want you to just concentrate on the testimony you heard today
and let's not get off too far, okay?
Mr. McDermott?
Sir, you can unmute yourself now.
They're stating, is this true, is this correct?
So I'm talking about stuff that they're stating to be true and correct.
These are in the hand of another.
And they're not property owners, furthermore, Mr. Bergman.
All right, thank you.
Mr. Nockmson, do you have any questions?
I'll state this. We never stated that the people who own those properties, the people who sign are the ones who own these properties. They're the tenants within these properties. So if Mr. Belfort's company was such a nuisance, they wouldn't have signed that petition.
um they mr belford actually does business with many of those tenants that he collaborates with
many of those tenants and if if you know again if if it helps i i talked to mr belford beforehand
we can agree to a proviso no cars for sale shall be stored on premises like that proviso is a
reasonable proviso will prevent mr belford from storing any of these cars for sale because he
He already has those cars stored on his dealership lot.
But again, this is a referral, and we believe we met our verdict.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience with comments?
Yes, Sean McDermott will be allowed to speak.
Mr. McDermott, state your name, please, for the court stenographer.
No problem.
Sean McDermott?
Spell it, please, for the court stenographer for me.
S-E-A-N-M-C-D-E-R-M-O-T-T.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Now, Mr. McDermott, you testified the last time.
What I need you to do is to concentrate on the testimony you heard today and make comment
relative to what you heard today, sir.
Thank you.
Yep, of course.
So we're a business owner down there that we use the warehouses for storage.
Um, having, you know, I'm, I'm strictly sticking with direct auto, um, but having that many
cars down there for storage impedes us and makes a bottleneck for us to get deliveries
down there, which impedes our clients.
Um, our clients are hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and, and government institutions.
We've had FedEx, UPS, tractor trailers that we cannot get down that street.
And it's because, like I said, we're going to stick to this, but it's an overload of just vehicles that is stored.
This area, the street's a mess.
So there's just trucks and cars parked everywhere.
If this was a normal street that was lined, this wouldn't happen.
All these cars would just be towed.
But having the street set up this way and having our properties deemed for storage helps us create the way our business runs.
helps us create the way our business runs. If we can't operate this way, we're going to have to
if not if we can't
operate
move. And we've been there for over 10 years. And when we're talking about a good neighbor,
I have no problem with Mr. Belfour. I didn't know he was buying the property till afterwards. And
good luck to him. I'm okay. I'm not in the real estate business, just so you know. They're just
investments so congratulations i didn't know i that anyone thought i had a problem i'm an adult
congratulations but the react so that was brought up today i just want to say that okay but um you
know when talking about a good neighbor mr belfort was arrested for stealing two cars now so
we we don't concentrate on the testimony today not his past not anything he's ever done
was about today, what he said.
I want your comments about that, okay?
Sean McDermott, you're able to unmute yourself and speak.
Okay, okay, thank you.
Yeah, so I want you to concentrate on what he said today
and your response to that.
That is my response.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you very much.
It's a bottleneck for our businesses.
All right, thank you.
Mr. Nockmson, do you have any comments or questions?
I think we just need to focus on the proposed use of this particular property. It sounds like there's issues, which I don't believe are legitimate, but if they are, it goes to the dealership, which is not the subject of the zoning appeal.
Will the proposed use cause an impact more than what you would expect?
All right. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, two hands to your Stan Kowinski will be allowed to speak.
Mr. Kowinski, Mr. Sawinski, please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
My name is Stan Sawinski, S-T-A-N-C-Y-W-I-N-S-K-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
And I noticed you testified the last time.
The testimony today is in comments to what the appellant said today.
So if you would concentrate on that and your comments should be concentrated on what he said today.
I understand, Mr. Chairman.
I just wanted to reiterate that the council district, based on what we've seen, we've had multiple visits to these locations,
multiple police reports
based on what we heard today
the council district
6th council district
still opposes this request
thank you
thank you
is there anyone else in the virtual audience
yes Ray Flanagan will be allowed to speak
Mr. Flanagan could you state your name
and spell please for the court stenographer
mr flanagan sorry i was sorry i was muted sure could you please state your name state
your name and spell for the court's thermographer sure raymond flanagan last name is f-l-a-n-a-g-a-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do mr flanagan are you a neighbor in that area uh i'm a part owner in two buildings
okay 92 13 9 so so so the purpose of today is to respond to what the appellant testified to so
i would would have hoped you've heard his testimony and this is to get your comments
on what you thought he said okay sure um so i i want to affirm what uh pete had said
there are cars at the end of the road
as Albert had stated
but as you go up the road
there's several cars that have direct auto sales
so what was originally stated by his lawyer was
they're not going to put cars there and then there's an explanation of
they're protecting their property
but it seems more like they're just storing cars
and you can tell by the
the license plates on the front of the cars and i i don't know if i can question this but
do those cars are they allowed to be on the road unregistered and untagged as i know anywhere else
in the city yeah so i i think we just want to concentrate on what he had to say so okay well
he did say uh the lawyer said they weren't going to store cars they're storing cars and there are
other locations on the road and it does cause a bottleneck up at the end of the road there are
up at the end of the road. There are other businesses there that do cause a problem.
other businesses there that do cause a problem.
And it just, it just is very difficult for us to get our deliveries. And sometimes I could sit
there for 10 minutes waiting just to get down the street. And that's it. All right. Thank you,
Mr. Flanagan, for taking the time. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
there are no more hands chair okay um so planning commission uh you you you um
you took a position the last time after this testimony today are you still there or do you
want to change your position we i'm sorry ron do you i'm sorry we're opposed to this
start state your name first we are opposed to the uh proposal but i could read it again if
Could you state your name first for me, and I'll swear you in, Ron.
I'm sorry.
Ron, R-O-N, last name Bednar, B-E-D-N-A-R.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, or nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
A comprehensive plan recommends no change to the industrial and commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
The proposed personal vehicle sales and rentals will indeed have more detrimental impacts to the neighborhood, both businesses and residential, than would be reasonably expected.
Therefore, we recommend that the board deny the special exception.
Thank you.
Mr. Nockamson, we're going to take this into executive session next Wednesday.
We will vote on this at 2 p.m. next Wednesday, and we're going to get together and go over everything, okay?
Thank you.
I can hear you.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you, sir.
All right.
We're going to go to number two.
MI 2023-004-534-5312-18 Ridge Avenue.
Joshua Rubinson is the attorney.
there's a letter of opposition
from the Wissahicka Neighbors
Civic Association
Joshua Rubenstein
has been promoted
Good afternoon, sir.
Could you please unmute?
You're so muted.
We can't hear you.
You're muted.
Hi, could you state your name, please