they have been promoted to panelists. Thank you. You're welcome.
Good morning.
I did promote.
Looks like we lost them.
They're still in the audience.
The owner for 1134 Waverly Street, please raise your hand again.
Oh, there we go.
Hello?
Good morning.
Could you please say your name?
Good morning.
My name is Margaret Vujicicachichenko, and I can spell my last name.
It's H-I-T-C-Z-E-N-K-O.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes i do okay our our vice chair has just a few questions for you okay sure
good morning ma'am have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
yes thank you please proceed and share your screen
So it's my turn now?
Am I supposed to?
It's your turn.
Should I present my case?
Yes, please.
Hold on.
You need to put your documents on the screen.
Which is what I sent to you?
All the documents that you have, you have to bring up and show on the screen.
I will try to do that.
I wasn't prepared for that, but okay.
Okay, they are not in one file, so I'm not sure how to do that, quite frankly.
You require from us quite a lot.
I guess I should do sharing the screen.
Share screen, your document should be open, then you push share screen.
Yeah, I have my documents open.
I'm not sure how to do that, quite frankly.
uh i think just because of technical reasons i don't know how to do it so so here's here's
you're going to have to be able to share your screen and show your documents what we're going
to have listen to me okay let me let me uh if you give me a few seconds uh
I'm trying about Zoom.
I don't know.
Join the meeting, upgrade, Zoom.
I don't see the...
Okay, so here's what we're going to have to do.
We're going to have to continue your case.
And I think what you're going to need to do is to have someone,
and you can call our office, and they'll tell you the best they can
on the way you present your documents and the way you do it, okay?
Well, if you give me a moment, let me call.
Who are you?
Who are you calling, ma'am?
I'm calling my son who can help me, you know, but I just, it's not.
Chair, we do have Matthew Reese with their hand up.
i'm not sure if it's um pertaining to this case um just go up and i will um
oh okay ma'am martin can you help me i always want my documents to be i don't know how to
share the screen i don't know what's happening in my country i don't know my way i can do anything
matthew we serve you would it be okay to maybe allow yeah what do we do we're going to come
back to you okay all right thank you yeah i'm not sure i would be able because i okay so what
we're going to do is we're going to come back to you later towards the end of the morning and by
then maybe you could find a way to get that up okay uh miss mr chair i think she has a time
constraint i don't think um she's going to be able to come back um all right so then we're
gonna have to continue the case yeah i don't know where she just uh looks like they're coming back
in um okay i'm not sure who for me we can give them just one last chance to get it in and then
if not we'll continue i i totally agree she's coming back in as a panelist
hi can you hear me this is matthew reese hi we can are you a neighbor mr reese i am and there's
a number of us on the phone today and we've taken time out of our work schedule so we were wondering
if we could provide testimony now and rather than later um you can only provide testimony if we are
able to hear the case today and we're trying to get the applicant to be able to present if she
cannot present we'll have to continue all right understood thank you all right
could you unmute yourself please yes we are unmuted and i believe we pressed the share screen
it that's correct okay and what documents well there are several documents that go to
no can you see your screen or we see your screen but there's no documents okay there's one document
okay could be you know all right so that's the meeting you had scheduled right yeah i guess
Yeah, there are, you know, the documents that I submitted were not in one document, but it told me that it has to be in one document.
I can start opening them.
I mean.
Do you have photos of your location?
Yeah, I have photos of my location.
Let me just.
Why don't you show us the photos?
Okay, okay.
That should be doable.
Let me just go with this.
Oh, no, I had my photos.
okay i'm sorry for that and i'm sorry for the time yeah do you want me to open i want to see
the photos please okay here's one photo uh here's another photo uh miss the photos aren't coming up
no okay well i no you would need to just stop sharing and then reshare uh the photos each time
you click on them stop sharing and now share right okay so you have a photo here
yeah do you want would you like to see more photos so i i don't see any photos ma'am
and yeah okay well i don't know i also cannot do that too long okay so so i i know listen to me
listen to me before you go away i'm listening to you we're going to have to continue your case
okay okay all right all right so mi 2022 006 says 757 1134 waverly street
Number two are, cases continued, Mark must be heard.
Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you.
Number three, MI 2022-001-391-521-Haverford Avenue.
Fern Anastasio is the attorney.
We do not have an RCO letter at this point, but there was a meeting held 8-2-23 by the 44th Ward RCO.
Vern Anastasio has been promoted.
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yeah, sure. It's Vern Anastasio, A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, representing Mr. Kester Osuji, who's the owner of the property in question.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Thank you.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
Yes, sir.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed for this case?
Yes, sir.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you.
The chair members of the board, 5221 Haverford Avenue is a former commercial mixed use property that has had a vacant first floor for quite some time.
Our application is for a sit-down restaurant at the first floor with an existing two dwelling units above.
The property is refused because it is currently in an RSA 5 block, although there is no history of the property ever being.
block although it's there is no history of the property ever being a single family home
I submit to you in my exhibit binder which is 71 pages of exhibits a very long history
of commercial mixed use on the property itself
and here is the layout you've got the front of the building of the commercial space would be for
tables and chairs and then we have the back of the house as well and then of
course with their two existing units on the second floor
let's take a look at the photos of the property as you can see there's a lot of
vacancy on the on the block this property almost stands by itself on this
side of the block but it is in an area that's uh at least high auto traffic and my client who would
be occupying one of the units uh does believe that he'll be able to uh attract the uh the customers
for this restaurant
where it would be open seven days a week
serving a lunch and dinner.
Here's the rear of the property.
Property is in pretty tough shape,
so he would in fact like to rehab it as well.
We did meet with the local community organization.
It was sparsely attended, but we did, in fact, mail to 86 individual households.
Here's a proof of posting on the property.
And here's the history that I spoke of, where it has been a long history of commercial mixed use.
with commercial on the first floor.
It was a tap room.
It was a cafe.
It was a restaurant at one point,
and it always had the two family dwelling above.
And this use goes back to 1935.
It was actually a nightclub at one point.
So I move all of this into evidence,
All 71 pages. And because of the history, documented history of commercial mixed use and because of my client's interest in rehabilitating a parcel that otherwise very distressed block, which is adjacent to CMX2 uses, I respectfully ask that the board grant this variance.
And with that, if Mr. Kester Osuji could raise his virtual hand, I'd like to get him on the record.
i see no one with that hand raised i just have a hand raised by the name of willie jordan
oh there's kester osui i will allow to speak thank you you're welcome
good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
kester osuji can you please unmute yourself okay yeah my name is kester osuji
please spell it for the court stenographer sir it's k-e-s-t-e-r and it's spelled and the last
name is spelled o-s-u-j-i you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you mr chair mr osuji did you hear my presentation
to the board this morning yes is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge
yes it is do you adopt it as your own testimony yes do you agree to a complete rehabilitation
of the exterior of the property as well as well as lighting cameras for security
and commercial trash pickup yes i do thank you questions from the board no mr chairman
no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um mr anastasio can you just verify mr osuji is um part of the new link properties llc which is
the listed owner that we have for the city he is a member yes okay thank you yep questions
or comments from the virtual audience yes willie jordan has a hand up and i will allow to speak
Yes, Willie Jordan has a hand up, and I will allow to speak.
Good morning.
Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, good morning, Chairman. Willie Jordan, J-O-R-D-A-N.
You swear or affirm the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am the coordinator for the 44th Ward RCO.
Thank you. Please proceed, sir.
Yes, we had a meeting with the developer and the attorney, had extensive discussion. We had concerns on how the inside, also the exterior, was presented to us. We were supposed to have a follow-up meeting and we never heard back from them.
We gave them our concerns, and they were supposed to follow up back with us, and we haven't heard anything from them.
So we're asking you to continue so they can come back in front of the community.
Mr. Chair, that wasn't my recollection.
However, if you would care to have a resumption hearing, if my client would still like us to come back with more detail, we're certainly open to that pending a letter from the RCO.
So, but I'm not quite sure what the concerns are,
but of course we want to take them seriously.
Why don't I, is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There are no, oh yes, Chair,
a hand went up by the name of Michael Johns
and I will allow him to speak.
Good morning, sir.
Could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, good morning, Michael Johns, M-I-C-H-A-E-L-J-O-H-N-S.
near neighbor. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth? Yes, I do. Please proceed, sir. Yes. I was at that meeting and we did request
additional information. There were some concerns because there was a third story building and the
third floor had collapsed at one time. And so they had to take it off. So now it's a second,
it's just two stories. So we had a lot of concerns just around the building itself. And they were