Chair, I see his name, but he's not raising his hand. Yeah, he's not so computer savvy. If he
could uh if you could guide him mr bell if you could just click that hand that the hand icon
on the on your computer there they'll they'll see you once you do that
yeah yeah could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Joseph E. Bell, last name is spelled E-I-B-E-L-L.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes. Mr. Bell, you've been hearing my testimony on behalf of your zoning application today. Have
you heard everything and do you agree to adopt my testimony as your own?
And is it did it actually portray the the evidence that you have shared with me that we've we've presented to the RCO?
Okay. Well, Mr. Chair, if there's anything further, we'd love to hear any questions that might come.
Correct. Questions from the board.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
um just briefly just briefly excuse me good evening Mr Toppin um you had mentioned that
there um some plan some changes were made to the plans um for gutters to address concerns um
raised by the adjacent neighbor one of the adjacent neighbors did you want those
plans are you taking to have those plans stamped by the zoning board as revised plans
well they were we would we'd be fine if that were the case we've certainly agreed to it we won't we
won't uh reverse our agreement to that we are going to install these gutters so if if the plans
are accepted by the board we we have no problems with those plans being stamped okay um yeah i
OK. Yeah, I think I think we could do that. I mean, it's not really a zoning issue, but sometimes there are things that, you know, applicants and other parties want memorialized and we could could do that on the plans.
think I think we could do that. I mean, it's not really a zoning issue.
We would just need it's one page. Is that correct?
That is correct. That is correct.
OK. So we would just need a.
It is this page, this page here, this page here.
Wait, hold on. Scroll, scroll down a little bit further. Okay. So, all right. So these are not, okay. So these are not the architectural plans. So go back, go back up. So it would have to be a revision to, sorry, scroll back up one page.
okay sure so the same architecture yeah the z1 yeah it would have to there would have to be a
revision to the z1 plans that were submitted to um to ellen i and that's what we could stamp
because the other ones are not technically architectural plans um what ellen i would
require at this stage okay so um yeah so if you want to update those and submit a proviso form we
can you know include that in the decision again assuming the board decides to to grant so we're
going to hold the vote today on hillary um i mean it's the plans can be submitted later or we can
hold and and see i mean he's already he's showing the plans he's going to take those changes and put
them on the site plan that would be the again assuming the board grants questions or comments
from the virtual audience planning commission so ron bednar city planning first name ron r-o-n
last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r we're affirmed to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do please proceed run uh the property is indicated for residential on the city plan
given the physical circumstances of the site recommend the request of variance be granted
So, Hillary, I can say revised plan one page.
Yes, and they will just and the applicant will just need to submit the gutters that are shown on the other page on the site plan that was reviewed by L&I, along with the proviso form, indicating that that is the change that was made.
MI 2024 001 173 7611 Rear Street.
I vote yes. Proviso, revised plan, one page, stand by ZBA. We'll do it today, Haley.
Yes, that's fine, Mr. Chair.
12-4-24.
Michael Johnson, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Carol Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tywin, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, Sherman.
Thank you.
I'm going to go back to number one, MI 2022, 005-736-16-Margaret, Darlene Treat.
Darlene?
There she is.
Miss Treat, please unmute yourself.
she's still under the panelist chair
she's okay to be under the panelist right
yeah she should be able to
unmute and start her video
so Darlene you froze up on us right
yes I did I apologize
the service is just horrible
so where do you think we are now
let me see if I can reshare
are you able to see my screen yeah we see it yep okay so where I left off is I was trying to
show you the floor plan and I'm going to reduce it a little smaller so the entire plan is on your
screen. So originally I indicated to you that this was the actual site plan. The building is pretty
huge. It's about 6,200 square feet and this is the site plan over here and I'm going to enlarge
that just a little bit more.
Over here is the actual interior.
Over here is the actual interior of the building, and I apologize, I can't seem to make it any bigger today.
But this is a little storage area here. This is where we have the lifts for the cars, and this is the open area where we do work at.
You'll see from other pictures, this is the actual side of the building where we have a driveway.
There's a little entrance here where an individual can walk through here, and right here is a roll-down gate where we would drive the cars up the gate, excuse me, up the driveway and into the facility.
Again, the facility is huge, and we can store approximately 12 to 14 cars inside of the building.
I'm going to switch over to the pictures now.
I'm going to enlarge them a bit.
What is going on here today?
Here we go.
So this is a picture of how the entire building looks and how it sits on the block of Margaret
Street.
Our structure is really the only facility currently on this side, the right side of Market Street.
In the back of the building here is a playground for a property located on the block in back of us.
It's fenced in and it has some opaque screen and on the very corner of the block here is just an empty lot.
that's a picture of our posting and this is a picture of the interior of the property
you can see it's a large property it holds a lot of different cars we are asking to be legal to do
auto repair we're not doing painting we don't do any body and fender work um so there be no fumes
or no obnoxious elements going into the area.
There is also no residential on either side of Margaret Street
where our facility is located.
And I'm just going to scan through a couple more pictures
to show you how large this facility is
and the way the cars are situated inside.
It's a pretty big property.
This is the actual outside of the building.
And this is the driveway where you would drive your car up to go inside the shop here.
There is a facility over here, but I'd like you to know that we do have the posts and the barriers out here to protect this area over here where nothing could really go through the barriers to get into this area.
Additionally, we don't work outside.
We just drive the cars up the driveway and park them inside of the facility to have the repairs done.
This is a picture of the opposite side of the block of Margaret Street.
Again, this is a very sparsely developed block here.
There's an old firehouse. It's not quite on the corner.
There's actually an empty lot on the corner here that has a sign for sale on it.
This is an old abandoned firehouse that hasn't been in use for many, many years. We have another
lot here. And then we have a store directly across the street from our facility. I would
like to note that this is a high traffic, a high drug area. Mr. Estrada has problems with people
hanging out with them parking on the sidewalk. He has taken the liberty of putting cement type
blocks all along the sidewalk to prevent the cars from driving up and parking on the sidewalk.
I would also like to mention that this is a street where a lot of dumping goes on. And since
Mr. Estrada has been operating in this facility, he takes the notion of keeping this entire block
of Market Street cleans. He has someone cleans this block at least twice a week. It is the subject
of a lot of dumping trash. And frankly, it's also the area where there's a high drug trafficking
area. And there's the leftover from drug use that permeates the area all the time. This is a picture
of the property looking towards Frankfurt Avenue. The Frankfurt L runs right here. And we have one
other business here. I believe it's a safe place. This is the corner of our building where I told
you another property on the next block owns it. They have this lot fenced in and sometimes
they use it for their facility. It's not our lot though. And on the end again on this block the same
facility. It's not our lot, though. And on the end, again, on this block, the same side of the
block where our property is located, it's just another fenced in lot. There's nothing developed
there. This is a look down Dara Street, which is the corner of Margaret. And there's an auto body
auto sales place on the next block from 1610 Margaret Street.
It's just another picture of the auto facility for sale on both sides of the block. This is just
a lot where cars park sometimes. This is an actual business where they sell cars.
And this is across the street on Margaret Street.
it's a similar picture just give you a semblance of the area here and on the next block on the
left-hand side of Margaret street we do have residential houses again though there are no
residential houses um adjacent or across the street from our facility only in the next block
what happened when you went to when you went to the rco meeting um commissioner i didn't have the
liberty of getting a um i'm just going to flip through some of the other pictures of getting
the letter from the rco meeting but we actually did meet with the uh frankfurt um cdc and they
did have some concerns and i'm going to address them uh right now um this is a long shot looking
from Frankfurt down the block of Margaret Street. As you can see, there's some kind of safe company
here. This is our driveway here. This is our building. There's only one building on the
corner. It's a pawn shop. There's no residential above. There's an empty lot and one business,
and the rest of the block here is the vacant firehouse and a lot. Again, just some more
pictures. When we went to the CDC meeting, one of the concerns was Mr. Estrada owns an RV and he had
this RV parked in the back of his lot here on his property, I might add. The Civic Association
didn't like that. They thought it was a danger to the business behind because sometimes the
children play in a fenced-in yard back behind here. In order to facilitate the
community association, I did have Mr. Estrada remove the RV from the lot so the perceived
danger could be removed commissioners we did notice the community with the
flyer here is the proof of mailing and we did have the opportunity I'd like you
to see to circulate a petition where we have 35 names and I would submit to you
14 of the signatures on the block, excuse me, the signatures on a petition are from the residences
on Margaret Street in the next block. Frankly, I did have an opportunity to speak with some of
the residences and they consider Mr. Estrada to be a good neighbor and that he keeps the entire
street cleaned. Commissioners, the other concern of the Civic Association was that Mr. Estrada
opened this business without the correct zoning permit. I explained to the community that this
was the first step in regard to trying to get this business into compliance, getting the zoning use
permit. And after we were able to get the zoning use permit, that we could get the other permits
and licenses as required. Additionally, Commissioner, I did offer to the community
association to enter into a proviso whereby we would agree to get a certificate of occupancy
for this business within a year of getting the zoning. The reason that I suggest a certificate
of occupancy is because we all know in order to get to a certificate of occupancy,
You have to have the proper building permits and licenses for whatever is going on in your facility.
And Commissioner, that's all I have at this time.
And I'm more than happy to answer any questions that anyone may have.
Bring on your client.
Mr. Estrada, can you raise your hand, please?
Luis Estrada, please raise your virtual hand.
Mr. Estrada? Yes, I'm here. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for this doctor?
My name is Luis. First name is Luis, L-U-I-S, last name E-S-T-R-A-D-A.
My name is Luis. First name is Luis, L-U-I-S.
We are affirmed to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Estrada, are you the owner of 1610 to 1616 Margaret Street?
And do you operate an auto repair and maintenance service there?
and have you heard my testimony as presented to the board today yes and Mr. Estrada if you were
to testify today would you adopt my testimony as true and correct yes yes I do commissioners
that's all I have questions from the board question did I hear whether you it says auto
repair maintenance, no body and fender work, spray painting. Is that? That's correct, Ms. Gaston. No
spray painting, no spray booth, no body and fender work, which would mean there'll be no
fumes emanating from this facility. Gotcha. Okay. And then it says that you can
park 12 to 14 cars inside? Yes, we can.
And how many bays do you have for doing this, the work that you do? Does that include like
changing tires and things like this? Is that part of it? Yes. Mr. Estrada, would you address how many
lifts you have in that shop for you to do the auto repair work on the cars? Yeah, that's the
right word lifts i'm sorry yeah the lifts okay this is four lifts um that's no um
base because it's a whole it's like a warehouse so everything i keep all the work inside
okay so that's it's only one gate for the whole uh building to bring the cars in and be in service
there right and then you um park the cars like inside yeah i don't know cars outside and i try
not to block when the toll trucks come in for a fire department anything like that i'll try to
keep it keep the road clear okay thank you any other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary hammers
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
The properties indicated for industrial commercial
and excuse on the adopted
discomprehensive plan, no change
has been recommended