Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Could you please state your name and spell for the sonographer?
Adam Laver.
L-A-V as in Victor, E-R, Blank Rome, 1 Logan Square.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
For the record, identify your claim, please.
Blank Rome represents 1701 Market, LLC, an Altera Property Group entity, which is the
owner of the subject property.
Please proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
We're grateful for this opportunity to appear this morning before the board and appreciate
the courtesy. As the board will recall from the prior hearing in this matter, I won't go over
all of the background except to speak to the request for non-protunk relief specifically.
A notice of refusal was issued by the Department of Licenses and Inspections in this matter
on June 16th, 2025. Following discussions with the department in an attempt to reach a meeting
of the minds, which did not happen, I filed a timely appeal to this board on July 15th, 2025.
There is no dispute regarding the timeliness of that filing. In the filing, my cover letter
to the board stated in pertinent part in the event that the zoning board of adjustment does
In the event that the Zoning Board of Adjustment does not grant the requested relief,
not grant the requested relief
appellant would wish to proceed with filing a request for variance relief at that time.
Mr. Chairman and members of the board, this specific language is language that had been suggested by prior counsel of this board many years ago.
And in the limited instances in which we have filed appeals of this nature, we have used it.
But more importantly, upon learning of the board's verbal decision in the code interpretation matter, which last brought me before the board, even before receiving an official notice of decision, I reached out to a board executive director who is here today to pursue a request for variance relief path.
I mentioned that to show the board the efforts that we took for timely addressing.
So I would respectfully submit that there were non-negligent circumstances here.
Furthermore, granting the relief requested would not prejudice any parties.
We have already commenced the community engagement process.
We're not aware of any opposition.
we want to engage with all interested parties and have a fully open and transparent process.
As a side note, it is worth noting that pursuant to code bulletins, a new application could always
be filed to allow us to ultimately come before this board, which would be an unfortunate
duplication of resources. And in some, Mr. Chairman and members of the board, we respectfully
believe that this speaks to the requested granting of relief, not prejudicing any parties
and being appropriate. I'm pleased to answer any questions or respond to any board concerns.
Okay. Hillary, is this strictly a vote now? Or questions?
If the board has questions, they can ask, but otherwise you can move directly to a vote.
from the board. Any questions from the board?
Thank you. In this matter,
721, mark a treat. I vote yes.
And Mr. Chair, just to clarify
in granting this, the
request for Nugpertank is granted and the
application that has been
submitted is now accepted as
timely filed. Okay, thank you.
I vote yes. Michael Johns, my vote
is yes. Cheryl Gaston,
my vote is yes. Tanita Graham, my vote
is yes. Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
All right, Wayne, my vote is yes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the board,
have a pleasant day. Okay, we're going to go to number
nine. MI 2025
002 663
to 30 West Hainstreet.
Isaac and
Jordan Holland Townsend are the
owners.
Isaac, will you please raise your hand?
They're being promoted to panelists here.
Right.
Thank you.
Mr. Townsend, can you accept the invite for to promote the panelists?
Mr. Townsend?
good morning mr chair this is jason um please give us a moment we're doing our
run uh mr tons of the panelists right now okay thank you
Okay, thank you.
Jason, you want to move on?
Maybe they can be ready in a little bit.
Sure, Mr. Chair, no problem.
All right, so here's what I'm going to do.
We'll come back to this, and we're going to move on right now
to number 12, MI2025-002-710-3207, North 6th Street.
Jose Matos is the appellant.
Hi, Chair.
Mr. Matos is being promoted to...
Okay, thank you.
Good morning everyone. Hi, Mr. Matos. Good morning everyone. Could you please turn on
your video can you see us we do not all right mr. Matos I see you mr. Matos
you'll be doing the testifying, am I correct?
My English
we cannot use an interpreter
that we do not provide.
I need an interpreter too.
So, Ian,
we'll have to continue this
for interpreter.
Alright, so
here's what we're going to do. We're going to continue the case
we will, the next hearing, we will provide
an interpreter for you, okay?
I'm going to try English. What's that?
I'm going to try English, yeah.
Sir, what language do you need an interpreter for?
Spanish. Spanish? Okay.
We will provide a Spanish interpreter for you at the next hearing.
Okay, so MI 2025
25-002-710-3207 North 6th Street.
This case is continued to 429-26 at 9.30 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
And number 14.
mi2025004 758 3645 north 19th street albert sylvester is the applicant
good morning mr chair albert sylvester has been promoted they should be coming back in shortly
sure right that's good good morning everyone good morning mr sylvester could you please state your
name and spell for this stenographer first name is albert last name sylvester s-y-l-v-e-s-t-e-r
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
All right.
So this is a reconsideration hearing.
We will incorporate evidence and testimony from the prior hearing into the record.
The scope of reconsideration hearing is revised, clear or floor plans.
So you will make your presentation, and then there will be questions from the board, public testimony, and planning commission.
We'll have a chance to update.
So could you please start your presentation?
All right.
Good morning.
Thanks again for having the reconsideration for me.
I will be sharing my screen to show the architectural plans that I revised from the previous meeting.
from the previous meeting. And so, Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I just want to note for the record that
And so, Mr. Chair, this is Hillary.
we did receive a continuance request for this case from the 13th Ward. However, this is a
reconsideration hearing, so there is no additional community meeting requirement. I understand a
meeting was scheduled. I don't see Mr. Carnes here to discuss that request, but I just want
to note that on the record that we did receive that request so that a meeting could be held,
but there is no meeting requirement. Okay. We're going to continue
that. Please proceed. Share your screen. Okay.
Can you see my screen?
Yes. Okay. You're just going to have to, you know, give us
each individual picture, if you could.
Okay, this screen here is the property plans
for the outside of the property.
But going down to the first floor unit is here.
I'll zoom in a little bit more
so that everyone can see hopefully a little better.
where i made the uh revised is the bedrooms into uh living rooms so the for the first floor unit
here is the first room bedroom is here and the living room is here and the what i put together
was the square footage. I understand from the last meeting that living rooms need to be 120 square
feet. First floor living room is 146 square feet. Bedroom is 119 square feet. And also the first
floor, there is the back area where the yard is at. So it wouldn't really make too much. It doesn't
makes sense to have a bedroom leading out into the back uh leading out into the backyard if
someone's in the unit they would have to go through the bedroom to get to the backyard so
changing the back room from a bedroom to a living room makes makes better sense
and also the the second floor is here so the steps to enter the unit is here this is the
kitchen and the dining area and the front room is the living room so instead of and again the
reason for having this living room at 197 square feet it makes better sense to not move from this
previously from a bedroom through the kitchen to get to the the bathroom the
back room on the second floor it is a bedroom here so as far as layout wise it
would be a little easier to get from the bedroom to the bathroom here that's the
second floor and the third floor is here where you enter the unit here and the
first front room on the top floor is the bedroom here you'd see it's 187 square feet and the back
room is the living room here this is 200 square feet again it makes it does make better sense to
have living room closer to the kitchen or as opposed to coming from the back room previously
through the kitchen area and to the bathroom.
So those were my revised plans for the property
to use it as such, one-bedroom units.
Questions from the board?
I'll just remark, thank you very much
for making those changes and those considerations
that we put up at the last hearing.
Okay, okay, good, good.
Other questions from the board or comments?
I'll just concur, particularly with my little pet peeve about the bedroom and the bathroom.
Thank you.
All right.
I think it's more of a comment than a question, but with that new living room on the first
floor, I do think that the closet is still going to make it read as a bedroom.
and so just like I understand that you have the plan labeled a certain way but I would uh just
you know be sure that that you list it as a one bedroom because
Be sure that you list it as a one-bedroom, because people are going to think that that's a bedroom because of that closet.
Understandable.
All right.
Back and remove.
All right.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual or the current audience here?
No hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning.
David Fecto, F-E-C-T-E-A-U, with the City Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you, sir.
Chairman and board members, we will stand on our prior recommendation.
Thank you.
So MI 2025, 004-758-3645 North 19th Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.