good morning mr chair we have seven attendees in the virtual audience you can start as you wish
good morning everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's
zba hearing with me is our vice chair tenetta graham president mr chairman board secretary
cheryl l gaston president mr chairman board member tya wynn she should be here any minute
and board member ryan mcadams vice president mr chairman also here is our board attorney
lynn reuter uber our executive director ian haggerty and our board administrator lakeisha
dandy who's standing right next to me here also uh this hearing is being recorded and will be
posted on the zba website by participating you consent to be recorded this is an in-person
meeting with remote participation whether in person or on zoom if you're called to speak
please state and spell your name and wait to be sworn after that each time you testify start by
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speak with a staff member
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if there is an evacuation please go to love park which directly across our street
please remain there so that we can call on you so let's let's look at our schedule for today
number one mi20250041015944 cal hill street eric taylor is come on up please
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
could you get close and turn that on
push the button
good morning my name is erica taylor e-r-i-c-a-t-a-y-l-o
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
absolutely um yes we don't believe your case is ready to go on today um this case has not
been posted am i correct that we don't have any information that the case was posted correct
I submitted all of the documentations and the pictures showing that I put up the notices I
mean I have several pictures in my bag and I submitted it to um the online prompter
um we we don't have any record of that I'm sorry about that but uh um I know this case
has been around for a while yeah um they sent um the email stating that they received all the
document in the pictures. So here we're going to continue the case and one more time and the next
time it must be heard okay and we're going to continue this to 2-2-27 at 9 30 a.m. I'm sorry
okay and then number
so number seven mi2026
0-0-3-0-3-3-20-50 Welsh Road. This case is continued until 2-2-27. Are there any other
requests for continuance? Chair, pardon the interruption. I just would like to note if
Chair, pardon the interruption. I just would like to note if the interpreter is in the audience for Welsh Road, you are dismissed. That case will be continued. Thank you.
the interpreter is in the audience for what.
No hands at this time, Chair.
Okay. We're going to start with number three.
MI 2025-006-172-413-North 41st Street.
Eric Plummer is the owner-occupant.
Good morning, sir.
get that mic nice and close here could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer sir eric plumber eric just a little closer pull to you pull to you i don't move here
you go eric plumber eric plu mm er do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth i do our vice chair has a few questions sir good morning good morning
Have you submitted your documents? Oh, you all right? That's okay. Have you submitted your documents in exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing?
I have. I submitted it for the last hearing also.
Okay, thank you. And you are here, you understand that you're here for a multifamily household, you want four units in the structure?
four okay and you understand that you're being refused because that rsa five district doesn't
allow you to have four units without coming for a variance i do understand that that that was
changed after okay all right and you requested assistance um presenting your case so you're
going to get your assistance so you can begin to tell us what you're trying to do i'm sorry
can you get closer to the mic every single time i don't mean to be rude but yeah you have to talk
thank you okay well this is a former six unit building and i i don't have the from the images
that i i submitted one is showing that this has been a six unit building since 1967 at least
in 2017 or about 2012 is when i i stopped renting it out and my children were living there
And from there is, I guess, where it got the RS-5 classification, but it's always been a multifamily unit.
I just stopped doing it commercial.
I just stopped renting.
I'm just looking for the variance.
I would like to remain living there, but I would like to rent it out legally is what I'm attempting to accomplish.
um i'm not exactly certain of i would like to remain in the rear presently i'm using a third
we would like to keep that as one apartment and i believe the rear is the one they want to make
another full apartment and the who are they who are they my children oh okay okay all right
so why don't you show us what it looks like inside
the the diagram i can the best one is the blueprint to the left sure
every floor is like that where you see the indent that's what that's where the stairs would be
uh but every floor is identical and what you're looking at now would be one apartment
that previously it was six units it previously was front and back every floor was a first floor
front first floor rear second floor front so what what's it going to be now I would like it to be a
quadplex legally right so I mean is that in the drawings uh what the drawings show the we're not
complete i'm going i'm going over this with the architect of the best way to pit in
the necessary uh upgrades as far as mechanicals the plumbing and the electrical and the sprinklers
so that i'm discussing with the architect but i had the general ideal of what existed
in what we want to accomplish. That's generally just first floor. I'm sorry, third floor would
be one apartment, either a door at the top or the bottom. There would be minimum changes
is what I'm stating.
is what i'm stating all right um
questions from the board but i think it's difficult when you say what you're thinking
about doing i mean it would be much easier if we could see what you're doing again i'm going
yeah i know but when i'm saying it like there should be some maybe basic drawings that would
show what you want to do understood but i'm just here today for the variance and yeah but i think
the point is it's hard for us to give you a variance when we don't see what it's going to be
we hear what you're saying but i mean i i think i i don't want to speak for the rest of the board but
i think the board would want to see what you're what you're trying to do understood but historically
it's always been I understand but so you're changed it and I understand what you're saying
it was historically now it's changing so I guess the question would be we'd like to at least see
it have a general idea what it's going to look like and what I'm just stating is going to
you look it's going to look like pretty much what it looked like before so all right but my and you
said it was six units right correct so when you convert it to four does that mean you have to
knock down some walls or like that's what he's like you can't visualize like and it's going to
be do they all how is everybody going to enter the apartments are they all coming through the
same door or are they all is there an exit somewhere you know what i mean like how is
how is movement going to take place everything remains the same the only thing that's happening
is the third floor is really becoming one apartment okay so like looking at this drawing
right here was this unnamed room like that was that that gray area that was a whole apartment
where you see the indent that's where you entered the other doorway is where you would have entered
the front apartment the brown yeah but what she's saying is how how are you going to make it one
apartment you got to take some walls down cut holes somewhere right no for for the for the
particular third floor this particular one yeah you're just putting a door well that's what i
said right yeah correct you're putting your button to make a door make that part at the
bottom of the steps see and the question is like when i when i see this on the screen i i thought
that this was the third floor but this must be the first floor correct the one that's on the screen
right now is that the third floor or the first floor that one would be because i see well i see
there's a doorway in the back opening up correct is that the back or front of the house right there
okay that is the back correct so that's i mean so without these drawings without any specifics
it's it's kind of hard to uh yeah so throw it so so here here's what i think you need to do
i'm going to have a resumptive hearing you're going to come back and have some basic drawings
from the architect of what your vision is okay and that's going to be on 12 8 right at the 8th of
December at 9 30 a.m. Okay. We want you back with some drawings and submit them and things
of that nature like you normally would. Okay. And I'm just to get clarification because I was under
the impression that the drawings weren't needed because I was only asking for the variance.
Yeah. We're not going to give the variance until we see what you're going to do.
Understood. Okay. All right. All right. And that's, we're not being negative. We just,
for both sides, I think it'll be the right thing to do.
Understood.
Thank you for coming in.
Mr. Chairman, and also by that time,
hopefully you'll have documentation
that you're tax compliant.
But even today, we didn't have documentation
that you were tax compliant.
I'm sorry, that was submitted.
The tax compliance certification was submitted.
No, it was not.
Or whatever you submitted was not sufficient.
so you need to look into that before you have enough time before december so so what i'm asking
is if it's the certificate that came from the city from the tax clearance is it enough
what else is it would i be providing why don't you do me a favor why don't you call the office
yeah i did well no call our office here and they'll make sure that you have everything you
need the next time and could we pull it up and and i'm not just asking if that's not it we're
we're not we're not going to do that now just call the office and before you come back you'll
have everything you need all right thank you for you no thank you thank you um council number two
do we want to hold that that's jennifer bazillo yeah because i believe um that she's not available
yet um all right so i think we should go to the next one and then yeah i got it thank you
Thank you.
five number five
take your time take your time
problem uh i i i will gladly uh
all right go to number eight right
page here
yeah number eight
yes number eight here we go number eight mi 2026 000 862 3456 rose hill street
alan knockamson is the attorney this is a resumptive hearing
here's jennifer all right
good morning mr knockamson
good morning mr chair members of the board could you please state and spell your name
for the stenographer yes alan knockamson a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do so this is a
resumptive hearing um
you will supplement the information from the last hearing that is correct mr and what we'll do is
have questions from the board and the council and then we'll take public testimony to go to
city planning all right um we don't have anything different from you no no mr chair and by the way
i try to log on to my computer and it's not connecting to the internet for some reason
so oh so okay all right so i doubt you know i try to do my hot spot too and that wasn't working i
don't think it works here so so why don't you tell us where this case yeah so just as a reminder
just a brief background this is a single family structure my client bought it in the middle of
construction he had no idea that there was no permits for this property um you know he hired
us to legalize this structure um as part of you know that process um we had the our client perform
a structural analysis of the property with an engineer so the board can feel comfortable that
that obviously this is a structure that is worth saving um again his hands are clean in that respect
that he had no idea and so um you know and he understands that if the board feels so inclined
to grant the variance he still has to go through the whole building permit process which would
require a lot of those same inspections um and you have that structural analysis and you also
have a letter from the community in support of this project you can unmute it oh i i didn't know
uh so anyway um so after the hearing you know the board you know felt you know that you know there
should be you know additional discussions between my client and their professionals regarding
maybe potentially shaving shaving down the building to in some respect my client spoke to
his structural engineer spoke to his architect and you know you know given the circumstances
AND THE EXPENSE INVOLVED AND THE FACT THAT THIS IS AN ADEQUATE PROPERTY FROM A STRUCTURAL
STANDPOINT, HE WISHES TO PRESENT THIS AS IS AND HOPES THAT THE BOARD FEELS SO INCLINED
TO GRANT THE VARIANCE IN THAT RESPECT. QUESTIONS FROM THE BOARD?
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS FROM OUR ATTORNEY? NO QUESTIONS AT THIS TIME. QUESTIONS OR
time chair planning commission yeah
farming you already testified and you stand on that testimony right okay mr chair if we could
just have uh mr knockamson's client adopt his additional testimony oh sure sure i start could
you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is julio gonzalez uh first
name is j-u-l-i-o last name gonzalez g-o-n-z-a-l-e-z do you swear or firm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes it's not gonna say you want to have your testimony
adopted yes um mr gonzalez you heard everything i had to state today about your zoning matter
correct including the fact that you purchased a property midway through construction yes and that
you had no knowledge that there weren't active permits to complete the construction correct
Correct.
in that you sought advice from your real estate.
And that you sought advice from your real estate professionals, such as your structural engineer and architect, about the stability of the property as of close to today.
And how it would be financially devastating if the board would deny this variance and require ultimately a demolition of this building structure.
And everything I said was true and correct.