emailed the exhibit packet with all the required documents? I have. Thank you. You may proceed.
Okay. And I am going to share my screen. I'm sorry. Oh, can I not? No, it's okay. I was just
going to ask madam vice chair um could we make sure we find out if they have a letter from the
rco and met with them okay so you want me to read everything okay no if so mr phillips yes no just
ask to that we usually require that just ask that they have met with the rco because we're no longer
doing okay resumption hearings okay so have you met with the rco and do you also have a letter
Okay, so have you met with the RCO and do you also have a letter?
Yes, we did meet with Pass Young Square Civic Association.
There is a letter in the exhibits.
Okay, Ms. Sunkit, that eliminates proof of ownership, tax compliance,
refusal referral, photos.
I just asked for the RCO and the letter, right?
That's in addition to?
oh so next next time i'll ask the entire thing okay okay thanks okay first day back
welcome back so uh i'm here on behalf of 621 partners llc uh they're the owner of 621 to 25
reed street uh this is a large uh commercial uh building that was previously a furniture warehouse
located on the 600 block of Reed. It is zoned CMX2, and you'll see that it's really in a sea of
RSA5. This property is mid-block. There is CMX2 here along Reed Street, but primarily this is
a residential block. The property right next door is actually a six-family condominium. There is some
multifamily in the surrounding vicinity. We are seeking to convert the first floor of the existing
building from a vacant commercial use to four residential units. Now, last year, my client
obtained a permit by right for a vacant commercial on the first floor with 12 units on floors two
through four. This was an existing three-story building. The permit involved the removal of the
roof and an addition of a fourth story. At the time, it was my client's intention to rent out
the first floor to a commercial use and proceed by right. They also obtained the permit by
utilizing the affordable housing bonus. And in connection with that bonus is actually paid
$120,000 into the city's affordable housing trust, which I believe is also evidence that they always
intended to proceed by right. It was never the intention to seek a variance to convert that
first floor use. You'll notice at the property, there were leasing signs. Right here, commercial
space for rent. And this is how the property looked in around February of this, February,
March of this year. Then COVID happened. The pandemic hit and any interest that my client
had in this ground floor commercial use quickly dried up. My client went to the neighborhood
and the surrounding area and spoke to neighbors about what they would like and if they had any
opposition to converting the first floor to residential use. Overwhelmingly, the near
neighbors supported the conversion to four residential units on the first floor,
particularly the neighboring condominium owners next door. Again, there are six
condos at 617 Reed Street were all in favor of this conversion as opposed to a commercial use
at this location. And here at Exhibit A is a neighborhood petition of support
that was signed by approximately a dozen of the near owners, including at 615 Reed, 612, 641
Reed and 623 Sears Street. We met with Pass Yonge Square after obtaining all of these
petitions and support and presented our plans to them and I will quickly go through those plans
which show the conversion again of just the first floor to four units. There would be two units
fronting Reed Street and two units that are fronting Earp Street, which is the rear street.
We have proposed bicycle parking spaces for four bicycles, trash that exits directly onto
Earp Street where the trash collection would be, and here is the corridor that leads.
and here is the corridor that leads both there's an entrance off of Earp and there will be an
entrance off of Reed. Just to again show you a little context, this is the rear Earp Street
elevation and this would also be changed in that now we would have windows on that first floor
of Earp Street. Here's a little bit of a different perspective of Earp. It's a narrow
street. This is the neighboring condo at 615. Just a few other photos showing Earp. Here is
Reed Street. Again, despite the CMX2 classification, these are all primarily residential
uses. It's another perspective in view of Reed Street. The commercial there is, you know,
once you get to the corner, there is one, you know, commercial use there. But again,
mid-block, we're looking at pretty much all residential. So we went to and presented before
passion square and unfortunately at that meeting many of the near neighbors who had signed the
letters of support actually weren't in attendance it was held via zoom and i had emails from some
of those neighbors noting that they had thought that you know they they're signing the petition
was sufficient to show their support but nonetheless without those neighbors in support
Pascheon Square felt that this could be used for commercial or for some sort of industrial use
and voted in opposition. After that initial meeting with Pascheon Square, we went back
to the neighbors again. This here is an email from William Fury, who is the president of the
neighboring condo association at 617 reed street noting their unanimous support for the zoning
application despite past young squares opposition and noting that they did actually were not aware
of the meeting because the notice of mailing had gone to unit 100 which is a rental unit
and unit 100 trashed, trashed the notice. So they again say that they support the request
for former units and are solidly at this is a typo, I believe, but it says against a commercial
enterprise, particularly one we have no say in. Also received an email from an individual,
Shane Jackman, who lives on Earp Street, who says they weren't able to join the Zoom call
and could they show support because they want to show support we went after that meeting we went
back out to the community again and with a different petition of support and this one again
now focused on passion squares vote where they did not support the four additional residential units
which again would either lead to a commercial or an industrial use on that first floor
And, again, we believe that that would actually increase density, foot traffic, and it doesn't complement the residential nature of the block.
We received a number of signatures, even more so than the first time.
And, again, we have 617 Reed, 606 Earp, 607 Earp, 1338 South 6th, 610 Earp, 608 Earp, 612 Earp.
You know, all of these Earp Street properties, which, you know, are at the rear.
um and in addition to 602 read 626 read if you add up all of the signatures because i admit there
is a little overlap but um take setting aside the overlap you have 32 signatures in support
of the proposal just to convert the first floor use from ground floor uh commercial to residential
use. Again, here's the floor plan, and I will go back to, you know, this is what the property
looks like, and we believe that in addition to any of the concerns that might have been raised
about density, again, the 12 units are already going to be there, paid into the Affordable
Housing Trust. This is just for the ground floor use, and we'll actually be adding two parking
spaces back onto the street with this roll up gate on Reed Street and the one on Earp will
be eliminated. So there is a benefit in that regard. So I would state that due to
the difficulty we've had now finding a commercial tenant and not wanting the
the difficulty we've had now finding a commercial tenant and not wanting this to remain a vacant
first floor use that a hardship does exist and that converting this property to residential
fits with the characteristic and residential nature of the surrounding community. I would
like to ask my client Yoav Shiffman, who's a member of 621 Partners, if he is here just to
testify briefly.
if your client isn't there we'll stipulate you as being an officer in court that your client
would adopt your testimony uh yes as a officer of the court and i apologize i believe my client
was in the waiting room no problem no problem you can hear me please raise your hand but otherwise
uh and i there might be members of the community uh to speak we'll get we'll get to them any
questions from the board no no no anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your
All right, Mr. Chair.
okay we have at least four people who have their hands raised the first one is a miss
phyllis fox i will go ahead and allow her to speak right now good afternoon miss fox please
identify yourself with a record spell your your name and address please and i'll swear you in
um my name is phyllis fox i'm a member of the passion square civic association
do you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do thank you please proceed um one of the things uh that the passion square civic
association felt that wasn't mentioned uh is that uh we asked if there was a possibility
of parking rather than the four apartments which would be uh well less expensive for them to
incorporate into their building, but would not give them as much money as four rentals would.
But we feel that there is enough room. If they have over 30 feet in the width of the building,
and if you look on 11th Street, that's approximately the turning radius that all the cars have.
they have 10 feet going in each 10 feet for each lane plus the 10 feet for the car so that's 30
feet so there would be and then we felt that they could fit probably approximately 10 cars in that
area and rather than the four apartments and considering the parking problems in the area
and considering the density in the area, it would be better, we felt, to have the parking
than having the apartments.
Mr. Phillips, the two units that are front Earp Street, how do they get into the building?
Is there ingress and egress from Reed or from Earp?
There's actually both ingress and egress off of Reed and Earp.
And what's the size of those units, the average size of the units?
I believe they are a bit over, I think they're close to 900 square feet or so.
I know about maybe a shade under.
I think maybe those are actually 700 to 800 square feet each.
Okay, thank you.
Anyone else want to testify on this case?
Please raise your hand.
If I could add one thing.
um they do have building next door uh the condos they do have parking in that building
yes i'm familiar with that building yep yeah thank you
All right, Mr. Chair, the next person on my list is Ann Dinehart.
I will allow her to speak right now.
Good afternoon, ma'am.
Please identify yourself for the record, spell your last name, give us your address, please.
it appears that she's having audio problems okay anyone else
I'm going to go to the next person.
We have a Yoav Schiffman.
I will allow him to talk now.
Good afternoon, Mr. Schiffman.
Please identify yourself with a record,
spell your first and last name,
and provide us with your address.
I'm Yoav Schiffman.
I'm actually the owner of 621 Ridge Street.
I tried raising my hand earlier,
but I guess we had some technical.
You're swearing for him to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
mr phillips uh yo uh you heard everything i stated earlier uh correct correct okay and
do you agree with everything i stated as uh truthful and accurate i do okay uh and can you
just briefly uh without you know uh repeating what i said just explain to the board uh the
process that you went through in speaking to the near neighbors and trying to find a viable
commercial tenant for this uh property sure so before uh the pandemic we've had the uh the
commercial space advertised in uh different commercial space platforms um we have received
a handful of inquiries none of which were complimentary for hours of operation
amount of traffic or something that would supplement a residential use, we still continue
to advertising. And as Mr. Phillips specified, after the pandemic, everything basically stopped
and we started looking into other options and by discussing it with different neighbors everyone
supported us and tried to come up with a solution that would complement everyone's residential
nature of that block to address some of the concerns of the association of the neighborhood
association we did look into uh alternatives uh and converting a portion of the commercial
space into parking but um unfortunately due to the design of how we have egress and egress
and uh the configuration of the building we could not get uh parking configuration that would work
with uh with what we need in there so unfortunately i have to disagree with the statement that we can
have 10 parking spots in there so so let me ask a question on that yeah how many spaces do you think
you could fit in there i don't think i think your building and let me finish up here i apologize i
think your building the configuration of your building is not unlike the building directly
next door which are condos and have provide off-street parking on the ground floor
if i can briefly just address the building next door um that was approved i believe about 10 years
ago um for their parking configuration um here when you when you look at what we would have to
do under the the code um to create a sufficient drive aisle also if we're going to have a you
know one way in and out we'd have to create a different curb cut on erp street and have then
a means of egress on earth which doesn't exist right now otherwise uh it would be a much you
know wider uh cut here to allow uh the circulation patterns ingress and egress on the ground floor
does the building next door have ingress and egress off of herb street
uh no it no everything comes in off a reed correct everything comes off of of reed uh for
them, but again, they were approved prior to this iteration of the zone.
they have a single the single lane that goes in and out i know that's why i'm asking
They have a single lane that goes in and out.
your so your configuration of your building is pretty much mirrors the configuration of
the building next door correct but we would not i mean ours is uh i guess in in right it can be
similar configuration but we would not have uh enough width of our building because of how
our ingress or egress is configured to have enough space for a length of a car plus at least one or
two driving lanes in and out of the building to meet the current building code um and if we are
going to have a single lane to go into erp erp is a very narrow street we would not be able to make
just using for putting herbicide just doing mirror do the same thing that they did it i don't love
at 627 or is it 617 617 next story right the grayish building with the maroon garage door it
looks like to the right well i'm trying to figure out why they it it works there but it wouldn't
work in your building because in today's building standards we cannot i mean we probably would have
to go to the board of building standards and try and make uh an application to get to get those
waived well i mean i'm i'm just passing that on because as you know that's a very congested
neighborhood parking is at a premium people will pay two three hundred dollars a month just to park
their car in the garage we looked into that option we did not find it as a feasible option
with the configuration of the building and and again our our objective is to try and
and complement the orientation of the neighborhood and not to we would love to eliminate the
roll-up gate and the in and out of cars from the building but have something that would be a little
bit more uh pleasant to the eye and and have a continuous uh sidewalk appearance i don't think
anybody will object to the gate or a different garage door being placed in they've been living
with that for 70 years around there so uh i i don't buy that argument but i would also note
that just the next neighboring building it's a bit different in that it's six condominium units