ZBA Hearing - August 26, 2026

okay i see i can find my uh presentation so why don't we do this why don't we do this i'll come

back to you in about a half hour and then by then you can have all your things ready okay okay all

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Number three, MI 2025, 006451, 1108 West.

0-0-6-4-5-1-1-0-8-Wesley High Avenue.

Joseph Ficaro is the attorney.

Joseph Ficaro has been promoted to my analyst.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

good morning good morning mr vaccaro could you please state your name and spell it for

the sonographer good morning may it please the board joseph vaccaro v-a-c-c-a-r-o attorney

for janet ray is the applicant all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the

whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do our vice chair has a few questions for

you to share. Thank you. Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days

in advance of this hearing? Yes, I have. Okay. And do you waive the reading of your refusals and

stipulate to their accuracy? Yes, I do. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed

with your case. Okay. Thank you very much. And while my screen is coming up, I'd also like the

record to reflect that Janet Reyes, my client, is sitting to my right in the same room as I am.

And we also have two individuals that are in on the Zoom, Mr. Williams and Mr., I mean, Mrs. Williams, who's an immediate neighbor at 1110 West Lehigh, and Mr. Wayne, who's an immediate, who's a neighbor behind at 1109 Oakdale.

Thank you, Mr. Vicarawani, proceed.

Thank you. So if I could start with my exhibits, as indicated in the application, this is an application to permit four units on the second and third floor, two units per floor, as well as an office on the first floor of this three-story building located at 1108 West Lehigh Avenue.

The reason that we're applying for this type of use for the building is that Janet is suffering from a severe disability.

And that's why I added as the first two pages of the exhibit packet, Dr. Madeline's note confirming that Janet is suffering from FHMC and AVM.

So she's had a craniotomy. It's basically a deformation of the blood vessels in her cranium, in her head, that leads to her brain, which leads to seizures, and she also has a macro adenoma.

it's basically a tumor on her pituitary gland um so she's incapable of work um and she

and since she's incapable of work she's hoping that this building with four residential units

and the one commercial unit uh would be a source of income for her uh she wants to be productive

uh a productive member of of her family of her community and she does not want to rely on public

on public welfare benefits. So that's why she's looking to proceed with this application,

with this building configured as such. By way of additional background, Janet acquired the

building on 9-28-15 from her sister, E.B. Reyes, tax clearance certificate. And I'm going to focus

on the deed that E.B., her sister, her sister E.B., Janet's sister E.B., acquired the building

one year prior in September of 2014 from a sheriff's sale. So that's the bottom paragraph

of the deed. I believe that's page three or page four. I can't make out of the page number.

So E.B. acquired the building from sheriff's sale. She transferred it to her sister Janet,

who's currently applying for this variance I could move move down to page

20 where the plans start now Janet discovered that there was a problem with

the zoning when she tried to install a fire alarm in this in the building when

the fire alarm company informed her that this building is not properly zoned as

configured with the four units and the office on the first floor obviously there would be no use

in the basement no storage it's just the heating units which I'll show you in the exhibit packet

the plans show the red area which is the first floor all red that's the office we have

two units indicated in purple and yellow.

two units, indicated in purple and yellow. And then we have on the third floor, we have pink

and green. And they're all color coordinated here. If I could zoom in, which shows the commercial

space on the first floor would be 717 square feet. Second floor unit, the yellow one, is 331.4.

the second unit rear that's the purple would be 366.4 the third unit in the

front the pink one 366 and a third square feet and the third floor in the

rear is 339 and a half square feet in the back I could zoom out up sorry zoom

out a bit again nobody would be living or using it's to be used as storage only

it's an uninhabitable space and nobody's you even using it as storage this is

this photo shows as soon as you get into the building from the outside to the

left that's the door showing the office staircase going up to the second floor

units scrolling down again that's the door to the first floor unit which is

the office. I could zoom out a bit. And we have some views of the office. There was a little

kitchenette area. And when I say kitchenette, there's just a counter, some cabinets with a

sink. There is no stove in that unit. It's just a break room for the office workers.

There's a restroom on the first floor. Some additional office space in the back.

The first apartment, apartment one, and they're all coordinated with the plans. Stove, kitchen, area, refrigerator. This open door here is the restroom, and I'll show you that in a few moments.

here you go and here's the restroom

i'm sorry yep here's the restroom second floor apartment i mean apartment number two

again on the second floor with the kitchen area

bedroom now this apartment is being occupied by enrique moran which is uh who is janet's uncle

Janet's uncle is the only individual that's occupying this building, and he's basically maintaining the building and keeping an eye on the building and securing the building because, as shown in the last page of my exhibit packet, my client, the building was the victim of a burglary sometime last year, and she doesn't want this building to be a magnet to any criminal activity or any intruders or unauthorized persons.

So she's having her uncle live there to keep an eye on the place.

So, again, here's apartment two.

Then you have apartment three.

And apartment four.

with the exception of uncle Enrique this building has been vacant since the 11 years that it's been

purchased initially by her sister Evie here's a view of the basement with the three heating units

And again, it's unoccupied, uninhabitable.

We have an email of non-opposition from Council Member Jeffrey Young and 18 members of the community at a meeting which occurred on May 20th at the HOPE Partnership for Education.

they voted in favor of this application and this was the 37th Ward RCO. I could

zoom down to the notice that was sent out to the near neighbors with the proof

of mailing and I could skip that and I could show you some additional photos of

parking and the rear of the building. Here's the posting at the main entrance.

Here's a view of the main entrance right next to the church. Another view of the

posting. Here's a side view of the alley. The church has its alley and this house

in question has its alley and they're separated by a gate the electrical

the electrical meters, and here's a view from the back.

meters and here's a view from the back

There typically is some concerns about parking, but there's ample parking on this block of West Lehigh Avenue.

There are many empty lots, as I'll show you, ample parking.

Here's another view.

You can see many ample parking spaces, as well as many empty lots across the street, as well as next to 1110, the neighboring property.

This is the view from the house in question across the street, looking on the north side of Lehigh Avenue.

This building is on the south side of Lehigh Avenue.

Here's a view of the church right next to it with our building.

And it's zoned as RM1. Here's the zoning map of the building. And there are many neighboring

properties that have had multiple units approved. For example, 1101 West Lehigh,

which is across the street seven family was approved I'm sorry I could catch my

page again and I could just identify the other the other neighboring properties

that had such uses approved. We had 1101 as I as I indicated, seven units. We also

have 1103 had multiple units approved also 1107 had three units approved 1109

is vacant 1107 is also vacant trying to make out the address to this property

here five units I think we understand that there's several units in the area

that are multiple family all right and here's the complaint incident report

about the burglary as at this point I'd also like to just show a quick video of

of the block and you're showing us for what reason joke was i mean you showed us the block

up and down one and and it's just an additional view of the block uh as well as the building if

if the board feels that it's unnecessary i think i think you've shown the the block pretty well and

also the building so why don't you bring on your client have the testimony adopted joe yeah come

sit next to me and and watching and while janet sits uh prepares to sit next to me uh she does

have good good communication and good relations with pastor darjan at the roma church which is

right right next door which is right next door he just wasn't able to participate in today's meeting

all right could could you please state your and spell your name for me speak very loudly into the

microphone okay hello um good morning um yes my name is janet reyes say that again a little louder

if you can yes good morning my name is janet reyes um could you spell that yeah sure right

yes it's r-e-y-e-s all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing

but the truth yes council thank you can the board hear me well i can joe yeah okay no problem uh

janet have you heard my presentation speak loudly yes okay and do you agree with it

do i say that again why don't you want to get a little closer to the mic for us please

you could hunch down don't worry he doesn't need to see you okay well he needs to see you um

do you agree with my testimony yes is there any corrections that need to be

made to my testimony okay would you adopt it as your own testimony if you

were testifying yourself okay any questions from the board or

counsel questions from the board actually Lynn Riedel Huber I I don't know

we could hear that yes that last yes I just want to make sure that's on the

record okay all right thank you questions from the board yes because we

don't have floor plans while we have images and could you walk me through the layout of

this building i'm trying to understand how we went from a six-bedroom single-family home

in 2001 to a four-unit apartment building in 2026 without

to a four unit apartment building in 2026 without ever pulling any permits

well uh all that janet had done while i find while i find the appropriate page

excuse me well when after this building was acquired it was vacant and all that janet had

done was just was just uh rehab it it was already subdivided as we see uh let me find the exhibits

again I'll go to page so I guess to be clear we're certifying that when it was

acquired at the share sale in 2014 that it had already been subdivided into four

units is that correct yes yes Janet says yes okay okay here we go so we have can

am I sharing this no I'm not no you know okay okay miss when can you see the

plans yes okay so we have the first floor plans over here indicated in pink

and my cursor's over that so when you come in when you come into the building from the street here

are the steps walking up and i showed you the photographs with the open door to the left and

the stairs going up yeah okay okay so here's the commercial space a restroom that staff area with

that kitchenette without the stove and an inner office which is where my cursor is and here's

that back door that I showed you when I showed you the back shot okay this

actually answers my question I don't need and it's on page 21 of the exhibit

packet okay and then just to be clear the commercial space is the only tenant

that has access to that basement let's confirm that was Janet is the commercial

tenant the only one with access to the basement or can anybody access the

basement just you okay so where do you access the basement from the outside or

the inside from outside okay so so you access the basement from the outside

we're in the front or in the back of the building in the back so there's a

stairwell from the from the rear yard is it that's currently the only access

into the basement okay okay she said yes is is it this is it this little is it this little

staircase over here on the upper right hand corner of the basement where my cursor is she said yes

and then given this was done without permit understand it was this condition when you

bought and you just rehabbed it are you open to uh requirement for a co yes absolutely absolutely

Can you tell me where the trash is going to be placed, where the units are going to

store the trash?

The trash is going to be held in the back, correct?

In the back.

Okay.

Where in the back?

Because the picture that you showed us, it was open.

It wasn't enclosed.

Okay.

Let me go to that photograph.

and of course everybody will have access to get into the back right absolutely absolutely

they have to throw their trash out of course I mean we're getting there

It's that area where the trash units are going to be, you know, the trash containers are going to be put in.

Other questions?

Yes. It says here that a minimum of 425 square feet of lot area is required per dwelling unit.

so can you walk me through how many square feet we have for each one of these units again please

sure gladly go to

it's on page 21 of the packet the commercial space on the first floor would be 717 square feet

but that's not a dwelling unit correct correct i would just go in line by line here uh you have the

the second floor unit the the yellow one so that would be the second floor in the front okay

Okay, 331.4, second floor unit in the...

331.4 second floor unit in the rear that's the purple right here that would

be 366.4 the and then on the third floor you have the front unit which is the

red one over here mm-hmm that would be 366.3 and third floor rear 339 and a

half which is this one okay and and i'm referring to page 21 of the packet yeah well my concern and

again usually this is the concern of one of my other board members but um that there's really

very little in terms of any kind of living area in these because these are uh much smaller than

this is not a de minimis difference in terms of the um uh square footage per dwelling unit

this is pretty significant and um so that these are very tight and very small and the living area

is practically non-existent so you know that's my concern i think that it's too many units for

the space that is allotted.

Well, this is what we have here, but the units are very tall.

Janet, do you know how tall the units are?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You can't live on the ceiling, so.

14 feet up.

Yes.

It's 14 feet up.

Yeah, well, that's nice.

wait do you mean the ceiling height the ceiling are you sure because i'm looking at the facade of

the building and it doesn't look like i've got a 14 foot floor plate on every okay but that

oh she's just referring to the first floor yeah but that's because it includes the

the basement out of the yes right okay i'm just saying that this is these are these are like

micro units, if you will, and I'm very concerned about that. And I think that, you know, in terms

of the density, it's too many units for the space. Other questions? Questions from our attorney?

No questions at this time, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?

yes chair there are two hands up the first hand is um a person with the last name starting in a

and they will be promoted sure thank you very much you're welcome

good morning good morning i um i do apologize my question is not related to this case

okay so then please let us concentrate on this case we'll get back to you okay

Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in the audience?