and then just our floor plans simply um on 18th street you come in for the commercial space and
then there's the lower level where's the basement the commercial units actually uh come in through
dauphin street right here and then each of the units are it's on its own floor and as you can
see here ample size living room and kitchen windows in the living room there's two bathrooms
again each bedroom has windows as well and the same thing for unit two on the third floor
rco meeting notice we met on january 13th proof of email of that notice to coordinating rco and
relevant parties we we showed them that we mailed it to 258 addresses these are the addresses we
mailed it to, proof of mailing to those addresses, our deed to the property showing 2300 and
18th Street Holdings LLCs, the owner of the property, application for appeal we filed
to the ZBA along with the notice of refusal and the project information form, and then
and the project information form and then our certificate of tax clearance
our certificate of tax clearance.
i would ask that mr wise virtually raise his hand and be sworn in
thank you
Mr. Wise
Mr. Wise
Mr. Wise should be coming in
Good afternoon
Hi Mr. Weiss could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Bryant Wise
B-R-I-A-N-W-I-S-E
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes I do
Please proceed counsel
Yes Mr. Wise you heard everything I had to say today about your zoning matter
Yes I did
And is it true and correct?
Correct.
And do you adopt this as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Yeah, could you just give me the height of the building?
The height of the building is 32 feet high from the roof line.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Other questions from the board?
Are you doing trash pickup?
Yes, that would be one of the provisos that was requested last time from the ZBA,
and that would be a proviso this time as well.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Wait a minute.
What's in the basement?
It's just a commercial unit,
and then the first floor and the lower level of the commercial unit.
There's no basement.
There's no what?
Basement.
It's a basement, lower level, but yes.
I mean, there's a basement for the commercial unit.
And what's in it?
The commercial unit.
All right.
No, it's okay. Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
I just wanted to note for the board that I did note the prior – on your summary, the prior provisos from the previous case, if you do wish to incorporate those, the commercial trash pickup and trash sorting rear.
As well as the revised plans that are proposed.
Anyone in the audience?
Anyone in the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Ward with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing commercial mixed-use CMX1.
The appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property.
They would prevent it from being used in conformance to the zoning code.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the requested variance for multifamily and max-occupied area.
Thank you.
MI 2024-005-504-2300 North 18th Street.
I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plans, one page, stamped by ZBA, February 5th, 2025.
Commercial trash pickup stored in the rear.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with proviso.
up. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with provisos.
Tywin, my vote is yes with provisos. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Mr. Knocklebson, could you stay for number four? Yes, thank you. So MI 2024-006-582-1113
lee park street mr knockamson just for the record could you state your name yes alan knockamson and
there's a letter of support from the fish town neighbors association vote was 28 in support
for an opposition letter of non-opposition from council member squilla the applicant also
has a petition of support with nine signatures seven from the building um
well a very share has a few questions good afternoon counsel do you agree to
wait to read another refusal or stipulate towards accuracy i do have you emailed in
all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing yes we have thank you please proceed and share your screen
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
All right. To my left is Irvin Dowdy, the owner of the property. He actually developed this
five-unit development. It's three units on Leopard and two units on Downton,
and it's the downtown side that he's where he lives actually the upper unit where he's looking
to put like an extension of his pilot house so if you see right here this is where the pilot house
is and he's doing an indoor outdoor uh deck arrangement where he has extending the out
the indoor arrangement to make it into a four season room here and then obviously then have
more of the outdoor here as well and updating it um so as indicated we met with the fishtown
neighbors association there was overwhelming support um in the in the letter itself it stated
that the community voiced no concerns or questions regarding this matter this was pretty straightforward
so we'll review the notice of refusal we have a letter of support not only from the fishtown
neighbor neighbor association we also have a letter of non-opposition from the council member
as well we have a petition of nearby neighbors to most people people most directly impacted as well
who are both you know tenants in the building but also nearby neighbors we also had verbal
communications with the neighbor to the right who would be the most directly impacted while he didn't
sign a letter of support he indicated that he had no objection to this matter uh we have a zoning
permit um in the as exhibit four which shows the allowance for this development we're not developing
this from scratch we're just adding we're enhancing essentially our roof deck aerial view of the
property in the surrounding area so across the street uh the board granted uh uh an apartment
building that's actually 58 feet high our proposed use for the pilot house is 50 feet high because
You know, we have the pilot house and now because of the expanded massing on the on the upper level, we're now count that that massing is counted as part of the height.
So we're 50 feet high, but across the street at 1120 Frankfurt Avenue, which casts a much larger shadow, it's 58 feet high.
So we're not out of character in the neighborhood itself.
um then we'll review uh both the zoning map and photographs of the property and surround the area
our plans and drawings our rco meeting notice and proof of mail in that notice our application for
appeal our deed to the property showing that urban's company mne properties llc is the owner
to the property and then our certificate of tax clearance and then at the conclusion of my
presentation i'll ask urban to hit that button so he's green not yet and then he'll be sworn in
And then I also have the architect from Evolve, Sam Turner, who can answer any technical questions you may have.
So our notice of refusal is pretty straightforward.
This is not an increase of density.
All we're trying to do essentially is blow out the the pilot house area, make an amazing deck, you know, for urban.
He lives there. He developed this property.
It's a nice property. And, you know, he's been a responsible landlord and he just wants to have a little bit more living arrangement.
on it on the deck area the only refusal we have is the height is you know because the
pilot house now is essentially expanded in in width and in length now that pilot house is
counting as part of the or the whole area is counting as part of the height of the building
which is 50 feet 11 inches again the building across the street at 1120 frankfurt avenue is
58 feet high. We have a letter of support, overwhelming support. There were a few people
who did not support it, but 41 people either supported or abstained, and only four people
opposed from the community and the board at large. And then even here, it states in bold,
during our community discussion part of the meeting, there were no questions or concerns
voiced um and they screened the project two weeks earlier and they had no issue either
and then here's a letter of non-opposition from council member squilla our petition of nearby
neighbors our zoning permit showing that this property was built uh pre you know by way of
zoning permit and then obviously a building permit our aerial view of the property so this is what
got it off of google street view this is an older version of the uh of this 1120 frankfort avenue
you'll see from the street views how high that is in comparison to the other properties and
how high that is in comparison to the other properties and actually shadows us but where
actually shadows us.
we are we're in the heart of fishtown this is gerard avenue this is our two properties leopards
and uh dunton street uh and this is uh east gerard avenue and this is frankfurt avenue
and then maps of the area again heart of fishtown and we're just right off of 95 as well
and then photographs of the property this is the property from the front on leopard
from dunton these are the zoning notice posters and posting them leopard to the right of the
property leopard to the left of the property dunton to the right of the property and then
this is the building that's really considered 1120 um frankfurt avenue which is 58 feet in height
architectural plans and drawings pretty straightforward here this is the old pilot
house and we're just building around the pilot house right here to have an indoor area and then
obviously this is the outdoor area and we're set back here as well by way of code and then this is
more from an illustrative point of view of what you're going to see there to help you guys out
and then we actually did a shadow study as well to show what was existing versus what it you know
there from a shadow perspective and what's proposed so really not much of a difference
and the people who were directly impacted did sign that petition or were communicated with and no one
had objection to that and then we also did the chef so we did a shadow study in the summer
and then the winter as well not much of a difference in terms of what would happen if we
if irvin built uh this uh expanded roof area
proof of uh our uh community notice we met on january 7th 2025 we emailed that notice to the
group and other relevant parties we told them that we mailed that notice to 94 addresses these are
addresses we mailed them to proof of mailing those addresses our application for appeal that
we followed to the zba along with the notice of refusal the project information form the deed to
their property showing that uh mne properties llc is the owner of the property and then finally
a certificate of tax clearance um i would ask that um urban be sworn in
sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer um my name is ervin and
mike you'll know mike on your microphone is it on oh yeah okay now you're heading down
name is ervin dowdy e-r-v-i-n the last name is dowdy d-a-u-t-i do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel uh yes ervin you had
you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter yes i did and is it true and
correct it is and do you adopt as your own testimony i do thank you uh alan so this will
just be for the owner yeah it's it's above that's above his property it's above his his unit that's
right just for his all right questions for the board oh i have a question can you go back to
the rendering of the um the roof deck um my question is so just trying to get a clarity here
the the part that the pilot house and the front portion the outdoor portion that's already there
like you're already using the pilot house and the outdoor portion you just want to add the back part
the end the interior portion is that correct i think there's like a better i'm trying to find
the better drawing let me just why can't i find it now oh here it is so think of these stairs
that's this area this is where the pilot house is and then this you see these walls that are here
this is an this is basically he built around it the same height as the pilot house and that's an
interior section of the deck did I answer your question so it's already done no no this is what
we're okay right that's what I'm saying okay I mean this is what we're hoping to do okay I was
about to say wait a minute permission but okay so the question is so where the patio the outdoor part
that's what you're currently using right right well no yes that's right and i would think and
there's no increase on a high yeah i think like that and urban are you also using this area as
well you see right here that would be the indoor area or are you just limiting yourself to this so
far i just want to be what's it look like now yeah what does it look like now what if i walked up
to the pilot house what do i see looks like the outdoor area the whole thing is just a pilot house
Looks like the outdoor area, the whole thing, it's just a pilot house existing.
Exceeds
There is nothing there.
Yeah, so you used the whole...
There's no plan of existing of the roof plan?
If there is any picture?
No, there's no nothing.
It's just...
No, I'm saying there's no plan of the existing roof that shows the existing pilot house.
That's my question.
Well, I think what we have here is if we go a little bit earlier in the presentation,
I have the approved plans that were that are listed on Atlas.
That's all I have.
I should have probably brought a picture of the roof conditions.
So, yes, I know.
Is Mr. Turner on?
Sam, are you on?