We met with the community on May 23.
And from there, I'll just jump into my presentation. So we have 15 exhibits here. I know, you know, it's a little late in the day, so I'm just going to hop into the presentation here.
So, the first exhibit is the refusal. It was issued in November of last year. You can see that we have a refusal, A, for the proposed hair salon use, which is identified as retail hair products,
So the first exhibit is the refusal. It was issued in November of last year.
B, for the business and professional office use, which would be used in conjunction with the hair salon and leased to the same tenant,
And the final refusal relates to multiple principal uses proposed at this property, which would be the business and professional office, the hair salon, and the single-family use.
We met with the Parkwood Civic Association, which opposed this variance.
As you can see at the bottom, they're not necessarily opposed to a commercial use at this property, as you saw in the photo and as you'll see later.
You know, it looks at face value like a commercial space or an office space, and that's what we're hoping to do here.
They're just hyper-specific about exactly what type of office or commercial use they would like to be there.
Here's a petition.
So despite the community opposition, you can see actually a lot of nearby neighbors signed our petition in support of this proposed use.
here's a permit uh showing way back in uh till at least 1974 uh this is for one family dwelling
and a doctor's office that was proposed at that time
here's a zillow listing showing how the property was advertised to mr canaan at the time he
purchased the property almost a year ago um describing it as a mixed-use property with
living on one side and, you know, a business that you can rent out on the other side.
So they purchased this property under the impression that they could operate a business
here. We're now in this process, you know, seeking relief to allow them to rent out to
the specific tenant that they would like to. Here's a zoning map. This is an RSA for property,
you know in in name and per the code but again this corner property doesn't look at all like
a traditional rsa4 single-family used property it's also directly across the street from the
shopping center at that ca1 zoning classification and the cmx1 property across the street is a bank
so we are part of rsa4 but we we more so fall in line characteristically with the uses that
are across the street from us. Another map, you can see what I just described there, the bank and
the shopping center. We're at the corner of Medford Road and Academy Road. There are bus stops along
Academy Road and Medford, as well as on-street parking on Academy Road and Medford. And we're
actually pursuing the, you know, pending the zoning, the possibility of renting parking spaces
from the bank directly across the street. Here's some photographs. This is the front of the
property on Medford Road. The office space actually occupies a portion of this lower level
that you'll be able to see more clearly on the architectural drawings. It goes through to the
back of the property. And then the proposed hair salon would occupy this space here.
Here's zoning notice posters, corner of property. So there are two.
Here is right at the intersection. This is sort of head on at that commercial space,
that proposed commercial space this is back in 2007 so you saw the archives from 1974 this is
as far back as we can go on google street view showing what this looked like in 2007
would be highly cost prohibitive to convert this all back to comply with the zoning code
this is the rear of the property you can see there is an entry slash exit to the
office portion you saw the front on medford road this is the rear of the property
Here's to the right on Medford, and to the left on Medford,
you can see the shopping center across the street.
And then this is Academy Road to the right
of the property and to the left.
Okay, so here's the photos.
This is the interior of the proposed hair salon
and the bathroom at that proposed hair salon.
And then this is the proposed office space
at the rear of the property.
Here's the interior photographs of the residents,
single family home.
Here are the drawings of the commercial space. So you can see here, this is sort of an overview of the entire structure.
The hair salon is shaded here with the diagonal lines and is shown in more detail here, containing a bathroom, a few chairs, a few sinks, and sort of a receptionist counter.
And then here's the office space, which is identified and shaded at the rear of the property,
which you can see a small bathroom, small office space.
which you can see a small bathroom, small office space.
And then we've put together some pretty just basic floor plans
of the residential portion, three bedroom,
you know, two levels with entry on Medford Road.
Here's the meeting notice giving notification
to the community of our May 23rd meeting.
We were required to notify 44 properties of that meeting.
this is the list of those addresses mailing certificate here's our application for appeal
the deed of the property showing muher canaan is the owner of the property
and lastly is the tax clearance um at this point i'd like to call mr canaan to adopt my testimony
they've been allowed to speak Mr. Chair
could you state your name please
and spell for the court stenographer
yeah Mihir Kanan
Mihir M-U-H-I-A-R
Kanan K-A-N-A-N
right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
proceed counsel
Mr. Kanan did you hear my testimony
and was it true and correct
yes and you adopt my testimony as if it were your own yes thank you questions from the board
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
mr chair i have councilman o'neill on the line
hi councilman could you please state your name and mr chairman brian o'neill councilman for the
10th district, which includes the current property. I would like, and I appreciate the courtesy of
going first as a witness for the Protestants, but there are two members of the board of the RCO
and they've had two meetings, standing room only meetings, I can say.
Hold on a minute. Let me swear you in. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Thank you.
Continue, sir.
okay so if you could take um uh those those two speakers first i would prefer to go after them
sure fine jason bring them bring one of them all one at a time please yes sir i have mr jim
miller with his hand raised i've allowed him to speak hi sir could you state your name and spell
please for the court stenographer um my name is james miller j-a-m-e-s place names miller
m-i-l-l-e-r you swear or do you swear or affirm to tell the hold on sir do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do are you a neighbor i'm a neighbor i'm
not on the board okay that's fine they counsel me that so i'm a neighbor in the area of parkwood i
have attended the civic association meetings for a while now so this this property here
was a doctor's office at one time the new owners did construction inside without any permits
and then attempted to put up signage saying academy candy and soda a few days before their
opening they handed out flyers and post-it flyers i'm not sure if i can uh show my screen
or how to do that on here of the flyer well you could just you could just explain it to us we
i think we understand so the flyer showed uh numerous uh tobacco products uh hookah machines
and the gambling machines uh they're inside um i guess some corner stores throughout the city
uh something totally different than and a candy and soda so um i think there's a lot of level
of distrust in the community from the owner uh due to that fact and the fact that uh
the houses in parkwood uh they're residential so this sets a precedent
if this is allowed a house is allowed to be zoned commercial then who knows what's going
to open up um mr miller thank you for calling in we appreciate your input
mr chairman may i respond mr miller um alex would you want to wait a minute till we get the other
person comes up too and then you can respond all one time with that is that okay yep all right
thank you who's who's the next person the next person is just named donna i have allowed them
The next person is just named Donna. I have allowed them to speak, sir.
to speak, sir.
Okay. Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court stenographer?
Ma'am, please unmute.
Hello?
Hello?
we still see her jason um yes but in the q a she's asking how to unmute
oh okay is there anyone else with your hand up jason
um yes richard lesinski i have allowed them to speak that's fine thank you
hello mr chairman hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
sure my name is richard lisinski first name common spelling last name is l-e-s-i-n-s-k-i
and i am the president go ahead i'm sorry all right do you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do for she
okay i'm here on behalf of the parkwood civic association as its president and in that may 23rd
meeting we had uh an attendance in excess of 70 members and we held a vote after the presentation
and that vote was a unanimous no so i'd like the record to reflect that the the the majority
of the participating members of the civic association are vehemently opposed to to the
opening of this and just for a point of information the council for the showed showed the results of
the hearing okay fair enough thank you all right and thank you for going go ahead and we just have
concerns um like like uh mr miller had stated uh in his testimony there was basically a a gambling
hookah corner store that was going to be opened without permits and so i understand that the
intention is or at least the presentation of the intention has been changed which which is fine
however i'd also like uh i'd like to point out that in that presentation the renderings and the
pictures of the work that has been done to this hair salon was done to the best of my knowledge
after a cease order was issued by l and i so this work has all been constructed without permits
okay well i understand that um all right so obviously you're against this project me and
the majority of the i said thank you thank you for taking the time to call in um jason is that
donna there i mean she's unmuted now okay thank you donna could you say hi could you state your
name please and spell for the court stenographer sure my name is donna enstrom d-o-n-n-a last
name enstrom e-n-s like sam t-r-o and like mary all right do you swear all right do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do okay you're you're a resident
You're a neighbor, right?
I'm a resident.
I am a lifelong resident of Parkwood.
I'm an original family owner, and I am the secretary for the president for the Park and Civic Association.
All right, proceed.
I'd like to quickly go through and just summarize basically what this proceeding has been about.
In August of 2022, our president, upon being notified by some residents, visited the property because it was said to have been being constructed.
and we were interested since something was being commercially built in an area that has only ever
been allowed for commercial use for doctor's offices. Upon entering the building, he was told
by Mr. Muhar or Mr. Kanan that it is for hair product sales. Yet within one to two weeks after
that, a large lighted electric sign was placed up for academy beverages and candy. And then there
was grand opening ads advertised for September 5th for a grand opening that included THC products
which were marketed to children as Captain Cush. They were illegal. There was also video game
machines, hookah lounge, and smoke shop and bake shop products that were issued.
Applied many reports to 311. During that weekend, the L&I arrived at the property, shut it down,
and they were told not to continue with any construction until all zoning permits and
license were obtained in uh the uh at that time
were obtained in uh the uh at that time i happened to actually be present and i did question
the owner at that time if he had a resident uh in the property which he stated he did there is
no license for rental in that property nor has it been since 2012. um the week preceding the
grand opening after the um l and i was there and cited them for the violations again they were
told that they are not permitted to continue any construction until the zoning licensing and
permits were completed yet throughout that time until present day um they the property had been
under construction in the middle of the night like 3 a.m by onion non-union uh unlicensed as far as
we're aware um contractors further evidence to prove that that was going on is the fact that
They presented at our meeting on the 23rd of May, the actual photos of all the wonderful beautifications they made to the property.
However, all of that was done, again, illegally, unlicensed, unpermitted, unzoned, and against the violations they already received.
Our neighborhood was built in 1962 as a residential private area.
It was originally intended to be gated.
The only commercial use that's ever been intended or allowed is the end properties which were allowed for medical use for doctor's offices.
Because back in 1962, people didn't go outside their neighborhood for doctors.
They allowed that, and that's the only commercial use that has ever been permitted in an actual property.
As different as that doctor's office looked, it was never intended for retail or other commercial use.
We beg you to please not destroy our neighborhood by allowing this.
retail space in here.
And we believe that this began with deception
and has continued in deception,
and we hope that you will not support that owner's deception
by allowing this to go through.
We're vehemently opposed to this,
and we hope you'll agree with us.
Thank you very much for your time.
Thank you for your input.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
No, sir, only Mr. O'Neill.
Why don't we let Mr. O'Neill testify,
and now she'll have the last word.
Mr. O'Neill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I would like to point out, I had met with Donna, the previous witness, last night at another event in Parkwood, and she pointed out to me that the petition that has been handed in, they're all in the same handwriting.
and it I looked at it on the screen and it's pretty verifiable you'd have to you don't have
to be a handwriting expert to know to to know they're all the same but I just point that out
because yeah the um uh this we had police officers up there last last Labor Day I had to get police
officers the L&I Commissioner because of this grand opening with all these products I've also
been told, again, by Donna, who's done a lot of research, she's the secretary and heavy lifter
of the Civic Association for many years. She's kind of the person that does everything for the
board. And she has told me that at that time, the phone number that was given out at the grand