there who hasn't lived for the past 30 years that i do what i understand what is by right
but just because it's by right does not mean it's correct or it's for the greater good of the
neighborhood and as we said our neighborhood we think about each other not about one own
property game someone who's coming into our own neighborhood as an outsider okay thank you next
person, please. Do we have any more? How many more? Two? Hillary, we now have four more.
Hello, may I speak? Hi, Evisa, could you please state your name and spell for the
court stenographer. Yes, my name is
Ibiza Gallman. It's spelled
E-V-I-S-A, last name
G-A-L-L-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
Against. Thank you very
much. Jennifer, do you have any comments?
Not at this time, no.
Next hand, please.
Chair, I see no more
hands. Oh, yes, I do. I'm sorry. Ernestine
Brown-Harris will be
promoted. Okay. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Ernestine? Ernestine, can you please unmute yourself?
There she is, Sheriff. Hi, please. Could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
do we see her
all right she should have been coming in all right all right we're gonna move on to the
planning commission um i would like an opportunity for my client to respond
i'm trying to come in i'm trying to come in hello ernestine hi could you please state your
name and spell for the stenographer yes uh good afternoon everybody my spell my name is
E-R-N-E-S-T-I-N-E
That's Ernestine Brown Harris
It's B-R-O-W-N-H-A-R-R-I-S
Alright, do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, or nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I'm right around the corner.
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I am against it, sir.
Thank you very much, Jennifer. You have any questions? No. All right. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Jennifer, do you have any questions?
All right.
Thank you very much.
Jennifer, I started the call planning. You had comments. Yes, I would like my my client would
like an opportunity to respond to some of the allegations made against her. Yes, I would. May I?
Yes, Angela, why don't you? I'll tell you, Jennifer, this is this cannot take more than
three minutes. I can do it in three minutes. Thank you. You're welcome. So the allegation
that I have never reached out to Ken Medley or Debbie next door or any of the other neighbors
up until the day that I needed them is false. Ken Medley, I have his phone number in my phone.
I went there and introduced myself to him the day that I bought that property from the sheriff's
sale I did not even enter the property and I went there and gave him my number and I and he told me
he was at that time the block captain and I have his number in my phone and I could call him and
he has my number so to say that I never reached out to them is not true my next door neighbor
Debbie I knocked on her door and I gave her my number and I told her and I introduced myself
and I told her that if she ever needed anything to please call me which she did and texted me
many times over the last number of years. She told me that, you know, when, when she needed,
you know, whatever it was, she wanted the roof fixed. We fixed the roof. She wanted the yard
cleaned. We fixed the yard. We cut down the trees. We shoveled that walk. There was not one time
in the last eight, you know, from 2018, when I bought that property that that walk was not
shoveled. Angela, in summary, you've been reaching out to your neighbors consistently and maintaining
the condition of the property consistently since you purchased it, correct? And cleaning up,
absolutely. One time in July of 2024, Debbie next door texted me and said that she needed the front
lawn cleaned. I couldn't do it. We had COVID. We had long COVID for three weeks and it was 110
and 10 degrees out and that was the only time that we didn't respond almost immediately so
that's thank you thank you angela you're welcome and i'm just as as a summary of the argument i i
know that there was a lot of people here today that testified in opposition i don't think a
single one articulated um how these variances would impact them or what they would have uh
on the community. The opposition was to multifamily housing, which is not at issue here today
and is already permitted on this property. So with that, I guess I would probably rest my case.
Thank you very much. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chairman, and good afternoon. David Fecto
with the City Planning Commission. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the RSA5 residential single-family zoning at this location. This property received
a zoning permit in 2019 for two-family use. At that time, this blockface was zoned RM1 residential
multifamily. Nothing about the property has changed since then. This lot is neither irregularly shaped
nor does it vary in dimensions compared with the other house lots on this blockface. The appellant
has not shown that they will suffer an economic detriment if required to build the two-family
dwelling approved by prior permits the city planning commission recommends the board deny
the dimensional variances for expanding a non-conforming use by more than 10 percent
and for minimum front setback above the second floor thank you m m i 2024
4-0-0-5-7-5-0-4-2-47
Westminster Avenue. I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is no.
Tannetta Graham, my vote is no.
My vote is no.
My vote is no.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, everyone, for coming in.
Chairman, at this time,
at this time,
I'd like to ask the board for
uh uh pause on the 9 30 list we will resume the 9 30 list at two o'clock um and uh that'll give us
time to give the board a break and give staff a break thank you good afternoon um this is a
continuation from the 930 list. We're going to start with number 18, MI 2024-006-135-6147
Market Street. Stephanie DeVore, please.
Stephanie DeVore has been promoted.
Stephanie DeVore has been promoted.
Stephanie?
He should be coming in now, Chair.
Chairman, I was added as a panelist.
I don't think I should be a panelist yet.
Just want to...
Yeah, you're right.
We're still on the 930 list.
Can we share?
Can we share?
I did promote Stephanie DeVore
but I don't
see her at this moment.
Stephanie?
You sure?
Chair?
I did promote her.
Oh, good.
Thank you.
Was that her case?
Stephanie. Okay. So what, what we'll do is let's hello. How are you doing? Can you hear me now?
Yeah, I hear you now. I'm sorry. We were going so long. Um, just for the record,
state your name. You've already been sworn. How are you doing? Um, my name is Stephanie DeVore.
Okay. So could you share your, could you share your screen with us? Okay.
can you see it now yeah it's coming up now yep okay perfect i got it i had to get the ipad
um hold on one second go to my documents okay so um i'm looking to get a change of use um
zoning for 6147 market street right now is zoned as a dance studio so i want to get it zoned as
an event space um this is my refusal letter so it said that i need it um
I need a special expectations approval and this is my project information form so you can see
everything here I'm zoned in a district four I also have hold on I'm trying to exit out this part
so I did have my um my RCL meeting which is here I know that you guys asked for the proof of all of
that uh so at the zoning at the um rco meeting well first i did have a 121 um signatures so let
me show you that first i did um have a lot of support from the community um i did actually
enjoy knocking on each door and getting to know each other even though it was cold but
i did enjoy that because i get to know the people and they get to know me too
um let me see am I missing anything else okay I know you guys want to talk about your meeting
with the RCO okay so so with the RCO meeting um they supported me with stipulations so now I can
I can uh hold on because I actually have everything written down so I have to be in
attendance of each um event i have to provide security i also um won't be open to the public
it would be private events only uh let me see sorry i'm nervous a little bit um it was also
timeline yes so the timeline is from um on during the week it'll be open till 10 p.m and on the
weekends up until 11 p.m so yeah so um i did make an agreement with the
So, yeah, so I did make an agreement with the RCO neighbors, because they also are neighbors.
They live close by.
I even made agreements with a few of the neighbors on the block will agree to keep the neighborhood clean and things like that.
So I'm trying to see.
Can you show us the phone for the place, please?
So this is the floor plan.
Can you guys see it?
Okay, so I'll show you photos of the place also.
Okay, so they did ask me to get, this is the sign and stuff on the door.
This is my business information.
They did ask me to get a fire system, which I got that installed.
So this is that picture of that.
It's all the way through.
so it's three exits is the front door is the back door and I also have an exit through the basement
also um this is how it looks when it's decorated and stuff I also make dresses so I made the dress
in this photo um this is how it looks when it's um decorated this is how it looks when it's empty
as you can see I'll show both of these again so it's um a little under a thousand square footage
so and my occupancy is only about 55 um yes
um and that's that's about it that's what i have so far okay questions from the board
yes do you live on the property no my mom do she lives upstairs and then um so do you have
relationships with both the tenants on the second and the third floor yes i do
and in terms of your event like how you're planning and operating your event space what's
your plan uh for one trash and then also uh noise so um we did discuss noise um I only have one
speaker there so it really doesn't get that loud but if they do because like I said my mom she
lives on top and she's six years 60 years excuse me she's 60 years old so she will let me know if
the base i know it's the base usually could be the problem but we did discuss that and i don't
have any problem with turning it on a little um also trash i never really had problem with trash
before but um trash goes out every tuesday night so i always make sure i put the trash out and i
have large trash cans in the backyard also okay and then so you're saying that you have one speaker
so do you not allow any of your renters to bring their own sound systems on site or are they
required to use yours um well it's really up to them so if they would like to use mine usually
they do um I'll let them use my speaker and if they would like to bring in their own that's fine
also and then when you do your rental agreements are they responsible for any trash that's created
during their events or is that something that your business is handling so I actually handle it so
So before and after each event, I clean and I have a cleaning crew that comes in and cleans also.
Other questions for the board?
What kind of activities are you going to have there?
It's an event space.
What kind of events are we talking about here?
So it could be religious meetings.
It could be book signings.
It could be baby showers.
It could be weddings.
I did host a wedding reception here before.
so um all different things like that okay and is there a kitchen of some sort in this space
no so I don't have a kitchen okay so all all the food will be prepared at um their homes and then
they could just bring it I do have tables that they can put the food on okay and you have some
kind of way for people to clean the place so do you have some kind of sink do you have some kind
of what do you have for purposes or outside of the bathroom which I'm assuming you have
yes so so I do have um I do have a bathroom I do have um mops and everything like that there
um buckets and everything that we need to like clean up properly um I do leave trash bags but
usually I'm there. So if anyone needs anything, I'll be there. I'm always, you know, at everybody's
service. So I know that does help too. But is there a separate something outside at the bathroom