the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes I do please proceed yes um I am a
representing the coordinating RCO. I'm president of the Winfield Residents Association.
We did, in fact, have a meeting that was rather quick because there was some difficulty in
communication. We were told by Mr. Adib that he had been reaching out to the
Winfield Community Neighbors Association as opposed to Winfield Residents as the RCO.
So when we got everything sorted out, we were able to put a meeting together for him. That meeting was advertised via social media, as well as announcing it in our meetings and sending out via email.
So in all of our meetings, we make it clear to residents that the meeting is not their only
opportunity to have their voice heard. They can send in letters. They can also show up at a
hearing like this one today. But no near neighbor reached out to the Winfield Residents Association
indicating that they had any issues. I do have several names of near neighbors
who said they lived close by, one even next door, that were not opposed. So we did, in fact, have
opposition as Ms. Dukes indicated. She was opposed, a member of our executive committee
was opposed, and one other neighbor was opposed. We determined as a group that the idea of providing
an opportunity for uh he didn't come over yet he said we're gonna bring it right over
i'm sorry no proceed okay yeah we just decided that uh though we we agree parking is always a
challenge uh uh we we we'd rather have single family than multi-family those things are a given
But Mr. Rogers presented a very compelling case. He was hoping to live within the property and also was providing some opportunities for our residents to remain in the community by having a nice place to rent.
So, with those things in mind, and with his promise to build something that remained within the scale of the properties that are in the neighborhood, keeping that same size and scale, that is what made us support his project moving forward.
Since it was some amount of time, I think that the neighbors, if they did have issue, have had plenty of time to voice their concerns before now.
Ms. Morris, thank you very much for your call, and we appreciate your telling us how the original event went.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience who has something different to offer than what we've heard?
We've heard a couple different sides of this.
Chair, we have a crystal color.
Ms. Collar, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
All right. Put her on.
Ms. Culler, please state your name and spell for the court reporter.
Ms. Culler, you must...
All right. My name is Crystal Culler. First name Crystal, C-R-Y-S-T-A-L. Last name Culler, C-U-L-L-E-R.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
I am a nearby neighbor, and just as Ms. Morris stated, you were to reach out to the WRA, and I did.
And at that time, Dee Dukes was working with the WRA in the capacity that she was.
And as she also stated, Dee Dukes voted no on this project.
also as Ms. Morris stated she said you should write the zoning board which I did back in August
also on the 12th of January both times I never received a notice the one notice that I did find
on the ground in the rain I picked up and read because it was folded up completely as if it was
a letter and that was the notice that's when I wrote and mentioned to D Dukes back in August
that this was going on.
No one ever responded.
I continued, she remained, D. Dukes remained in contact with me
about what was going on.
And I currently work with the Winfield WCNA,
Winfield Community Neighborhood Association.
And I have written letters about this property,
about the fact that people are parking on sidewalks.
I live on a corner, so I know what it's like.
the damage that it does to the sidewalk is ridiculous our children cannot play in the
street they can't play on the sidewalk they can't ride their bikes for fear that they'll damage
someone's car right now their property that lot their parcel of land you know what's on it cars
it's parking but the issue is this we're looking at a zoning issue about whether or not it should
have apartments so i don't because it's going to be more people bringing more cars and more trash
trash and if we have gone continued this case on and on because mr rogers can't present what he
needs to present in a timely manner we have no faith that he's going to be okay with you know
removing snow and and taking care of the property and picking up trash thank you thank you ma'am
thank you we we hear your concern no thank you thank you okay planning commission
Ron Bednar, City Planning. First name Ron, R-O-N. Last name Bednar, B-E-D-N-A-R.
Right. Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, sir.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted.
District plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning at this location.
The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the code.
Therefore, we recommend that the request for variance not be granted.
MI 2021-000727-2212-Yorth50HD.
I vote yes.
Harold Tineri, my vote is yes.
yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Good luck. MI 2021 003747 1036 McKean Street, Michael McElhaney,
East Pass Young Civic Association
letter of opposition.
Mr. McElhenney is coming back in as a panelist now,
Chair.
excuse me good afternoon mr chairman members of the board just state your name because you've
already been sworn? Yes, Michael McElhenney, M-C-I-L-H-I-N-N-E-Y, here on behalf of Lepore
Properties, LLC, for the property at 1036 McKean Street. Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Hi, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do. It appears that we have everything that you've submitted,
all the required documents. Is that correct? Yes, you do. It was submitted. Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, members of the board. On the screen is exhibit two of my pre-marked exhibit
packet. And I guess as a preliminary matter, all the tax clearance, neighbor notices, zoning posters
Neighbor notices, zoning posters were submitted, and are attached to Exhibits 11, 12, and 13.
were submitted and are attached to the exhibits 11-12.
On the screen is Exhibit 2, which is the refusal for the subject property.
My client's application was to take 1036 McKean Street and make that one parcel into two parcels
to use Parcel B, which is an existing two-story house as a single-family dwelling,
and the existing garage to be used for equipment and material storage,
essentially to store my client's construction tools.
The refusal was generated because the garage use to use it for storage of any type
generates a refusal in the RSA 5 district.
There are also two-dimensional refusals because of the existing size and shape of the lot.
The garage occupies, as proposed subdivision, it will occupy 85% of the lot, whereas only 75% is
permitted by right. And the actual lot size that will be created on the portion that is the garage
is 541 square feet, whereas 960 square feet are required to have a by right subdivision.
on the screen is exhibit three which is just a the zoning map for the subject property as you'll
note it's on the south side of mckean street towards the intersection of south 11th and the
block itself is rsa5 the second screen shot here is an overhead shot of the subject property the
existing house the two-story structure is on the right the garage is on the left in the center of
screen. And at the rear, you'll note that there's these rear parcels, rear addresses. My client
purchased this property in 2018 and it was several different parcels that had to be consolidated to
correct the lot lines. So all these rear parcels have now been consolidated into this one parcel
and we're seeking to basically subdivide it down the middle to make two as equal lots as possible.
So Exhibit 5 is just the aerial view of the existing house with the garage to the right in the first photograph.
And I'm going to pull up, these are the, Exhibit 6 is the street photographs, the site photographs of the property.
So what we're talking about here is this two-story structure on the right, 1036 McKean, and the attached garage.
So the request is to separate the two into two separately deeded parcels and to continue using them as they've historically been used.
Single family house and to store my client's construction materials.
tools to the to the west is a three-story apartment building to the north is a restaurant
with apartments above and the remaining parcels properties on mckean street are generally just
two and three-story residential buildings similar to my client's property
and exhibit six are the current interior photos of the property the house itself requires full
renovation prior to occupancy, and we're trying to go through the subdivision process first before
my client would undertake the renovation. The garage itself, as you can see, is just used to
store some basic tools and construction equipment, which is what my client would like to do going
forward. The house is in a shell condition and requires full renovation, and that hopefully my
client can undertake quickly after this process. Exhibit 7 is the site plan for the subject
property. So I'll zoom in. The existing parcel is what's listed here as parcel A, 37 feet of
frontage with 19 feet at the rear. And as you can see, it's an angled parcel. The proposal
is to create a subdivision down the middle between the garage and the house. So proposed
Proposed parcel B is the two-story house that is 16 wide by 62 feet deep, which is the same size and shape of all the other properties on McKean Street.
And flipping back to the zoning map, as you can see just from the aerial, all the parcels on this address, on this property, strike that, on this block, they're all the same size.
They're 16 feet by 62 deep, which is what this house, after subdivided, would be.
The garage itself, angled shape, has a very large frontage of 21 feet and angles toward the back.
What my client did is allow for as much of the rear yard as possible to create a rear yard for the garage,
to have the outdoor space and open area, and to be able to separate it from the house.
There's no proposal to reconstruct the garage or build or add to the garage.
it's purely an application for use to store construction tools as the chairman did mention
um as the chairman did mention we did meet with the rco um they did not i wouldn't characterize
We did meet with the RCO.
their letter as a letter of opposition it was a split vote um seven opposed um six in favor
um it wasn't a very contentious or hot or very interesting meeting um with the community group
my clients and his family lives on the block um and they're members of the community uh long
standing um so we are requesting that the court or not the court let the board um approve the
variance to create the proposed parcel a and parcel b so the house will exist just like the
rest of the houses on the block and my client will be able to use the garage for his construction
storage of tools and um other equipment and i do have mr richard uh lapore is on the on the zoom
with us. I guess we could have him raise his hand to zoom in. Mr. Lepore, you can unmute yourself and
wait for the chair. Mr. Lepore, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter,
please. Yes, my name is Richard Lepore, R-I-C-H-A-R-D. The last name is L-E-P-O-R-E.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Proceed. And Mr. Lepore, did you hear the statements that I have put on the record
today? Yes, I did. Were they true and correct to the best of your knowledge? Yes. And would
you adopt those as your own? Yes, I would. And just for the record, what address do you currently
live at? I live at 1024 McCain Street. Thank you, members of the board. I don't have any
further questions of my client. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No. No,
no, Mr. Chairman. Questions from the virtual audience? There are no heads at this time,
chair planning commission this is run bednar city planning this property is indicated for
residential use on the city plan given the irregular physical circumstances of the site
we recommend that the request of variance be granted thank you mi 2021 003 747 1036 bekeen
Street. I vote yes. Carol Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell,
my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes. Thank you. Thank you for your time,
Mr. Boarding. MI 2021-002904-1535 North Stillman Street. Brewery Town's Sharswood
Community Civic Association
letter of support with provisos
letters sent to the board.
Chair, Corbin Wise
is coming back into the panelists now.
Mr. Wise, could you state your name, please?
Good afternoon.
Coren Weiss, C-O-R-E-N-W-I-S-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Right.
Vice Chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Weiss, do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy?
It appears that you've submitted all the documents that are required.
Is that correct?
Yes, it is.
You may proceed.
Thank you, ma'am. My name is Corrin Wise. I'm an attorney on behalf of my client, Keith Johnson. The address is 1535 North Stillman Street. Mr. Johnson, I just asked him to raise his hand. He should be with us.
Mr. Wise, could you take your volume up a little bit?
I sure can try. Does that help?
A little more. Try a little more.
Okay. I'm at 100. I don't know if that's...
Yeah, that's better.
Okay, good. I didn't even know that's how that worked. Very good. I'm sharing my screen,
Mr. Chair. Okay. So we're in, this is 1535 North Stillman Street. We're in Brewery Town
on Stillman between Jefferson and Oxford. Can you see my exhibits?
yes okay so uh this is an existing uh i'm sorry this is an application for an existing um use no
modifications no alterations uh proposed this is an existing auto garage mr johnson has owned
mr johnson has owned since 2015 but in talking with near neighbors the auto garage itself was
since 2015 but in talking with near neighbors
Cheers.
existing when he bought it in 2015 and sounds like it's been there for over 25 years one one
gentleman across the street says you know it's been here longer than i have um so the refusal
is uh for the operation of the existing personal vehicles repair and maintenance um garage repair
shop um and i'll just scroll down here the deed from 2015 for keith johnson
and let me show you the here's the tax clearance
plans it's it's a one-story structure uh angled on one corner next to a vacant lot
and on the other side on the oxford uh street side it's attached to a mixed-use building with um
Let me flip my screen here so that makes more sense.
Okay, so this garage door is the entrance to Mr. Johnson's garage.
The application is solely for this structure we see in this picture.