as similar properties is not i didn't mean if that's the way it came off i didn't mean to say
they were similar i just meant similar in the sense of where they were situated but they are
definitely I agree with you 100 different zoning districts I also one of the plans you showed
looked like there was a porch and then this plan doesn't so I don't know if it's just the difference
between earlier iteration um but I think like this is a very strong porch block it's going to be
on a on the side of the street where there's two existing homes that have porches around the corner
from it is a full intact block with porches i do think that that this is a big loss um
can i have the architect address your comments miss winn sure uh mike can you unmute yourself
it's michael cole sure and just discuss the iteration they're being promoted to panelists
sir okay thank you
mr cole
michael
sorry good morning hi good morning mr cole please state your name and spell for the sonographer
name is michael cole last name is spelled c-o-l-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
told truth nothing but the truth i do could you turn your video on
yes sir henry yeah mr cole we we talked about this issue of the porch and and the lack of porch
yes sir henry yeah mr
on the drawing both before the project started and actually actually earlier again this morning
can you maybe address a little bit better than i did the the rationale certainly um there were
actually was not a porch intended there. The issue we have is that if we push this back to add the
porch, we effectively eliminate bedrooms from each of these units. So they effectively become
single bedroom, almost efficiency type apartments, which we did not feel was in contact with this
neighborhood at all um so we we needed that extra square footage effectively to be able to
make this in our opinion at least fit more in context with the uh the use of the of the block
can you go to the site plan
big as the rear yard what's your you what's your rear yard depth
uh we're 12 feet over 12 feet well yes the 12 12 is up so i think i i don't agree with that um
that uh with that analysis i think that you could have easily uh done a porch on the first floor set
the building back to the property line uh the the front face of the the nearest property on that
street had a smaller rear yard and be quite frankly exactly in um uh and uh in common with
the design of the existing buildings on the street with just a smaller backyard and that
may have prompted a maybe a refusal i don't know um but so but you could have you could have done
it so i mean we were attempting to avoid any additional refusals we thought this was the
the least of the uh refusals which sounding like that may not be the case
yeah i mean i think i think that to me it's two things it's that the first floor and the second
floor are now going to sit four feet in front of everything else on that block it's going to be the
only thing that has uh something at the property line at the second floor that's on the property
line um that um so i do think it is going to now be very different than everything else on the block
even the other flat-faced things that don't have porches at least honored the setback of the other
porches so um yeah all right other questions from her um henry are you are you going to stand on
this would you want to i think uh i think in light of the comments i think it's best that we go back
to the drawing board and uh rework the plan and maybe request another hearing or a result of
hearing maybe henry i can i can do a resumptive hearing 12 8 26 at 9 30 a.m all right i really
appreciate that and thanks for the comments from the board all right thank you let's see your number
Number 9, MI 2026-001-676-3200 Friendship Street, Zen Jin is the attorney.
I saw him here earlier.
Maybe he went back to his office. Okay. He went back to his office. Okay. Mr. Jin?
Yes. Good morning.
We were just, we did a search of the building for you here, looking for you because we saw you earlier.
I had technical difficulties, unfortunately, so I had to come back to the office.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Yes. Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, last name J-I-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. All right. And could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes. My client is LNY 2017 LLC, the property owner, and Ms. Nancy Rao is here on behalf of
the LLC. And just for a point of information, we have not received an RCO letter. Is that correct?
That's correct. I have submitted the evidence of us doing outreach asking for the letter.
We have not received it either. All right. Our vice chair has a few questions.
good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and
Yes. And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
stipulate to its accuracy
I do. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with the case.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted as an exhibit
in this matter. You should be coming up on the screen.
Yeah, I think we have everything, but like I said, we don't have an RCO letter.
That's correct. So this is an application for 3200 Friendship Street. The reason this
application came before the board is actually it was triggered through what is a violation notice
issued to my client substantially after she purchased the property this was issued pulling
up the violation notice in order this violation notice was issued in may of 2025 stating that
a building permit is required for the construction or erection of a new structure which actually
exists at the back of the property a little research into the history of the property in the
atlas file i actually located the addition plans dating back to 19 it looks like 93
which shows the exact addition that we're actually here before the board for
So my feeling is that an addition was actually added because it itself does not trigger any
dimensional variances. It must have been added. And maybe the prior owner constructed it without
leaving permits or applying for permits. And it was never caught until just 2025.
My client purchased the property back in 2019 and was given rental licenses,
certification at time of closing as a three-family dwelling with no violations
and had this operating as what we are applying for before the board for those years until the
violation came along, at which point her rental license was not renewed in November of 2025.
five. So this property was originally granted through a variance for
three-family dwelling going back, I'm sorry, I jumped a little bit there, going back to 2012.
So as you can see, a permit was issued for three-family dwelling going back to 2012.
That was a variance applied through an attorney by the prior owner, Thomas O'Brien, who sold
to my client and went through the same civic association at the time for that application.
When we went before the civic association, one of the issues that came up at the meeting was that
some of the neighbors were complaining that one of the tenants who is a carryover tenant
from the prior owner had multiple dogs and the dogs were outside a lot and she wasn't
picking up after them quickly. So we learned of this, my client learned of this at the community
meeting. The community organization took this as the basis to oppose us, at least verbally,
that's the vote they said they would do, is to oppose us on this application. We then went back
and had a talk with the tenant who then talked to her neighbors. And as you can see, the immediate
neighbor who was the most vocal about the dog issue actually signed the petition because
everything got worked out it wasn't that they had an issue with our use or the addition they just
wanted the tenant to pick up more often after her dog she's now actually keeping her pets indoors
more the reason my client never had an issue with the pets is because again the tenant was with the
prior owner and has been in that property for at least well before my client even purchased it in
2019. So that's how we went back and was able to get the petition from the neighbors. Again,
they're aware that this has been a three-family dwelling for some time. Again, we reached out to
the community for the letter, but we didn't hear anything. Maybe someone from the community
organization might be here today and then we have what i want to do is now show the
photos of the property to the board and kind of explain what uh the layout of the property is
so this is the corner property and in fact that is the extension in that photo
that's extension in question uh there's there's a laundry room in the front that's accessed through
this door in the front that is separate from the back and then the rear extension area is
it's its own residential unit the way that the property is laid out is better shown
The way that the property is laid out is better shown through the plants.
This is one of those buildings where there's actually a slope of the grass in front of the property.
So although the level that we're discussing technically is the basement level, from a side view, it's pretty easy to see that this building,
a side elevation will show that this building actually is uh above grade for the most part
right here so as you can see majority of the building is mostly above grade
this is the addition that is uh needed to be legalized this is the portion the interior layout
of this structure
for that level is as follows. I'm going to zoom in to better explain to the board how it's
divided up. As I mentioned earlier, there is a door leading to the public area for utility
that is in the front portion of the basement area. And the rest of it, including the addition
itself towards the back is essentially one unit. The way it's marked is actually how the tenant is
using it. They technically could use this as the bedroom and this as the living area, but
they actually use this as a playroom for their child. And the bedroom, they have their bed set
up in the front area at this point, using this as a dining area, and there's the kitchen.
they do have, again, this is a corner property, so they do have a trash bin area inside,
and they also all have access to the rear yard. This property, to my knowledge, never had
prior issues. There was no complaints that we're aware of. There's no violations on record for this
three-family use, which has, again, been used this way since the prior owner.
since 2012 uh at the minimum so we we would submit that the legalization of this extension
uh is is consistent with what has been historically there my client unfortunately
inherited this uh what i'm going to do is i'm going to share with the board a document that
actually i was not able to submit previously but i think we can update the board needed as needed
and that is the certification statement for this property.
I'm going to put that up on the screen.
So my client purchased this property in 2019.
As you can see, there was a certification statement obtained by the prior owner
indicating three family dwelling with no known violations.
That's the only reason my client purchased the property.
So we have no idea and she has certainly no expectation that in 2025, a inspector will walk
by and say, hey, this extension doesn't have any permits. And we are in the process of correcting
it. If zoning is approved based on the use that existed at the time she purchased, one of the
things that is being done is that once zoning is complete, building permits will be updated
to legalize and ensure that addition is properly constructed through an engineer review and
architect review. So again, I submit to the board that this is a hardship matter that is not created
by my client, and she had no anticipation that this property was not legally a three-family
dwelling. And she has been using this as such for many years since 2019 prior to this surprise
violation triggering the refusal before the board so we're asking for the board's favorable review
of this application all right why don't you bring your client on sure my client's actually here in
the room with me i'm going to have her sit in my spot just have her state her name and spell for
the stenographer over yep have a seat right here good morning could you please state your name and
spell for the stenographer? Q-I-U-Y-A-N, my last name R-A-O, Rao. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Thank you. Counselor? Yes. So,
Ms. Rao, can you, did you see and hear my representation before the zoning board?
Can you verify everything I have? Can you answer yes, please? You just shook your head. Say yes.
yes okay all right um so if you did see everything can you verify everything i've represented
before the zoning board to be true and correct yes thank you you're welcome
questions from the board just a quick uh just a quick
questions from the board just a quick uh just a quick comment this our question and comment
the um addition is the third unit correct the addition is uh the basement and the addition
connected partially connected is the third unit correct is the third unit and it is essentially
a one-bedroom unit that's independent from the rest of the the rest of the rest of the
building because it has that entryway off of the street that's correct okay um the only comment
that i have in relation to this is that when you label it if if approved and you label it to go to
building permit which you show as a playroom really needs to be the bedroom because you can't use that
other space as a bedroom because it doesn't have a door i will make sure the architect makes that
change if approved all right other questions yes is there um trash closets on the upper floors as
well um i can put the plans back up let me do that there's no trash closet i don't believe there are
um they are too small really to have trash closets in the upper floor so what's your
uh what's the plan for trash storage uh let me
I believe they do have trash cans that is available in the, Nancy, where is the trash stored for the upper floors?
okay let me let me get the upper floor plans up
before oh they do have a small space for trash in the uh third floor and they have a trash bin
they kind of keep on the side here but trash is stored they have trash cans also at the rear yard
in the back. Yeah, I think that probably led to some of the neighbor's complaints from the
previous tenants because the trash was spurred all over the place on the side. So would they
be amenable to interior trash storage? Yes, that would be fine. I would like to note that if they
do that, then the architect needs to put a ventilated trash storage. So what we would
probably do is ventilate this area and allow them to put trash here because that's actually a shared
space that's independent of any of the residential units okay yeah thank you that's much better
other questions not a question but a comment i want to thank you for actually presenting
a city certification which was obtained before the property was purchased so many times we hear
that there's no proof there's no we purchased this and we didn't know anything uh your your
client did the due diligence that um you should do before purchasing a property and by having this
it's easier to tell what the records that lni say about the use thank you first time i've ever seen
it but i had to besides questions from our attorney no questions questions or comments
from the virtual audience. No hands at this time. Planning Commission. Amy Boyd with the Planning
Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the existing RSA 5 residential
single family. The property was granted a variance for three family in 2020 10. Sorry, 2010. Permit
number 273194. The Planning Commission recommends that the board grant their requested variance
for a three-family. MI 2026-001-676, 3200 Friendship Street. I vote yes with proviso.
Certificate of occupancy to be obtained. Trash stored inside. Michael Johns, my vote is yes
with proviso. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with proviso. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with
proviso. Siowen, my vote is yes with proviso. Counsel, we have one more for you right here.
Okay, so number 10-MI-2026-001-680-506-18-North 61st Street. Just state your name if you would.
Yes, Zen Jin on behalf of the applicant.
Okay, could you identify your client or relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Better Way Bible Church, the property owner. Bishop Clifton T. Martin represents the church.
Okay, and our vice chair has a few questions.
uh good morning again um have you submitted your documents and exhibits for this case five days in
advance of the hearing yes uh we did have to update the board with a more recent submission
due to the board's request okay thank you and do you have to read another views on stipulate to
its accuracy i do all right thank you you can show your screen correct okay please proceed sir thank
you i'm going to uh load the most recent exhibit submitted to the board which included some