I would ask my clients, or at least one of my clients, to identify themselves so they could adopt my statements.
to identify themselves so they could
Thank you.
And then also the listing agent to identify himself, be sworn in, to adopt my statements regarding the interest in the property being only for non-residential use in terms of purchasing the property.
Let's do your client first.
Mr. Coyne is going to be allowed to speak.
Mr. Coyne, could you state your name and spell, please, for the court report?
yes can you hear me yes patrick coin p-a-t-r-i-c-k c-o-y-n-e right do you swear or affirm
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel thank you mr chairman
patrick did you hear the statements that i made to the board today i did are they true and correct
to the best of your knowledge yes and would you adopt them as your own i will and real quickly
in particular the regarding the very limited low and non-intense low dense use of this property
um everything what i have up on the screen right now and everything that i've said
that is actually how you intend to operate if the board grants the variance is correct
yes that's exactly how it will be i mean you'll you'll never really even know we're there
okay thank you and then jonathan massaro miss mr massaro you're allowed to speak
could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter jonathan massaro j-o-m-a-t-h-a-n
i'm like mary a like apple double s like sam a-r-o all right do you swear or affirm the
tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel john did you hear the statements
that i made to the uh board today regarding the the listing history for the property i did and
are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge yes sir they are and would you adopt
them as your own i do okay thank you so just real quickly some members of the board i think we've
established the hardship to utilize this property for residential use um and we've shown that this
is the de minimis variance required given the low and proposed low intensity use of the property
thank you questions
no mr chair no chair no chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair planning commission this is ron bednar city planning first name ron last
name bednar b-e-d-n-a-r do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth. I do. Proceed, sir. This application is not, while this property is currently indicated
for residential on the city plan, given the physical circumstances of the site,
recommend the request for various programs. Thank you. MI 2022-005-718-2231 North 4th Street,
I vote yes. Proviso. Proviso. Appropriate piping that will handle, as it says, virtually all the smell in the property.
But if we utilize the equipment indicated in the exhibits, Exhibit 13.
That's fine. That's fine. Equipment is Exhibit 13 that works on the smell, virtually all the smell in the building.
Thomas Howell, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you so much for your time. May be excused.
Sure, you most certainly can.
Thank you. Have a great day.
Good. We're going to go back to number seven. Mr. Okowski, please.
Mr. Okowski has already been promoted.
Hi, Mr. Okowski, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Keith Okowski, O-L-K-O-W-S-K-I.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
So, Mr. Okowski, this is for the erection of an attached structure for use as single-family household living. Size and location as shown in the application plan. The proposed structure lacks the required rear yard depth in the RCO zoning district, seven feet required, zero feet proposed.
Our vice chair just has a few questions for you.
Now, there's a letter of non-opposition from Penn Sports Civic Association and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
But there is a letter of opposition with exhibits from the neighbor at 202 Federal Street.
with exhibits from the neighbor at 202 Federal Street.
So, Vice Chair, a few questions, please.
Sure. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Mr. Okoski.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents that are needed to proceed with this hearing five days in advance of this hearing?
I did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
My screen is shared. I will go quickly to get to the drawing to give you a quick explanation, but tax clearance form, deed, settlement sheet, proof of ownership of the property, refusal, again, seven feet real yard depth, zero proposed or provided, but we'll get into that in a second with the drawing.
here is the drawing so many of you are familiar with the case it's the third fourth time we're
here something like that I made a lot of changes for the neighbors in opposition
the question here is the rear yard I didn't move in the first floor and the third floor
the current drawing shows this bump out on the second floor the reason is is for stairs
to be to code. I need a certain amount of square footage for landing at the top of those stairs.
I'm willing to, once you hear from the opposing side, move this back second floor bump out in
approximately 12 inches to, again, as a favor for the neighbors. Attached are the letters that you
mentioned postings pictures of the lot both aerial rs85 please mr okasky let's see a picture of the
lot this is the lot here so it's the front front of the lot so that all comes down yeah this this
fence would come down okay obviously
okay i'll open it up for discussion here from there from the opposition but it's pretty cut and
dry what what's what's what's show me uh the pictures of what's around it i mean what other
properties tell me show me where the properties are uh on the map if you can it was in my yeah
it was in my old packet. Let me see if I can pull it up here quickly. So to the right of the
property is the rear yard of a neighbor. To the left of the property is another lot. So there's
nothing really attached on either side. To the rear of the building, this brick that you see
is a neighboring garage that I think everyone admits is encroaching on my property about 12
inches, which is why I'm willing to step back my second floor to not interfere with that
encroachment on my property okay um the rest of the photos please you just like my postings
um here let me see could you turn that yeah i'm trying to do that now
here you go here's here's a better picture of the property as indicated um by these two lines so
again to the south side of the property is a lot to the north side of the property is a rear yard
of this um neighboring dwelling the rear of the property is a garage and that the garage is where
the back of your property backs up to correct and that's where the zero yard is excuse me
that's where they're saying you needed more for the yard correct okay all right and i
accommodated that request in the drawings all right questions from the board
no chair okay questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes sir i have a i see a hand up i see two hands up the first one is michael
michael mckehenney can't allow him to speak hi could you state your name please and spell
for the court reporter good afternoon michael mclehenney m-c-i-l-h-i-n-n-e-y
counsel for the neighboring property owner to the north gregory i'm sorry i would have
I would have called you up in the beginning, Michael.
Oh, that's fine.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
All right.
Why don't we bring your – you want to bring your client on?
Yeah, that would be great. Mr. Mester, could you raise your hand?
Yeah, that would be great.
Mr. Mester, could you raise your hand?
Mr. Mester, you're allowed to speak.
Okay. Could you state your name, sir, and spell for the court reporter?
My name is Greg Mester, M-E-S-T-E-R, and I own the properties at 1214 and 1204 slash 10.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I swear. Okay. Your presentation, please.
Or counsel, you want to advise him on what he's going to say here?
Can you hear me now? Yeah, we hear you now.
There we go.
There we go.
Is your client going to make a presentation?
You're muted.
You're muted, Michael.
Keeps muted.
Go ahead, proceed.
I'll make a brief statement.
As Mr. Olkowski stated, we did have discussions with him about providing a three-foot setback at the first and third floor levels.
the issue that we have today is just at the second floor level my clients requesting
some revised plans showing a at least a one foot buffer off the back property line to create light
and air and really because the garage that is the neighboring property that structure is about 11
and a half feet to 12 feet high and where the second floor bay is projecting out
might impact, might actually touch it. So the design, he might need to pull that back so it
doesn't run into the existing structure at the rear garage. I'm sure the neighbor at the
Federal Street property can voice that more clearly, but my client will not support the
project, but he's not in opposition at this point, provided the second floor is pulled back at least
the foot to create some more space. I thought Mr. Okowski did say that in his presentation,
that he was moving that back. He did. We just didn't have a revised plan, so I wanted to confirm
that that was our position, and we have nothing further for Mr. Messer. Thank you. Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, Chair. John Rogers has his hand up.
Hi, Mr. Rogers. State your name and spell, please, for the court reporter.
Hello. My name is John Rogers. That's J-O-H-N-R-O-D-G-E-R-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am, yes. I am the owner of that garage.
Okay. Proceed, sir.
So did you get my letter last week where I kind of outlined a bunch of things? Do I have to repeat all of that, or does the board already aware of it?
Just for the sake of it, you don't have to repeat all of it. Why don't you just try to summarize it?
For the most part, I mean, this lot is extremely small to build a property. I've had no conversations with the applicant for this variance.
He's never talked to me about, hey, I want to build a house here.
How would it impact your garage or the light to your backyard or anything?
I was hoping on this call for the drawings in this presentation, I would see more of what the structure would actually be like.
It would be a very, very small house.
I see he's scrolling up now.
So I'm not sure there's floor plan drawings inside of there, too.
I just want to make sure that the board knows just how small this lot is.
So if he does change his drawings to accommodate that backyard, how much square space will be left inside of the house once he builds it with walls, framing, drywall, all that good stuff.
Okay, cool.
And is this the drawings for the new property you recommended or is this the older one?
it looks like this is the old drawing from your previous submission um that's correct this is the
other drawings but you you wanted to take a look so i just pulled it up okay got you yeah so i mean
it's it just seems like it's a very uh it's a very small house i'm glad to hear that he is not
planning to to overlap the garage um so that's nice to hear um but i i'll still stand in opposition
um it's just a very small structure um in between two lots um it's just gonna stand out like a sore
thumb. And right there in that picture, you just scrolled past with your notices. I noticed that
you posted the notices from the email that Mr. Mester's attorney actually emailed back on the
thread about. You still posted the same notices and you didn't post the refusal along with it.
So I wish, I wish I was able to chat with a couple of neighbors who I saw reading those notices.
I was able to chat with a couple of neighbors who I saw reading those notices.
I seen the neighborhood.
I've seen the neighborhood.
I saw them reading it.
I was pulling out of my garage, taking my son to daycare,
didn't really stop to chat with them.
But they're reading it.
And there was nothing there about your notice of refusal.
So I don't think the community is really aware that out of nowhere,
there's going to be a three-story structure built on this very small lot.
And I think a lot of my other points are summarized in my email to the board.
But yeah, I mean, long story short, I wish I saw more in the presentation.
I wish Mr. Wachowski made an attempt to come and chat with me about this project before
postponing twice live on the ZBA calls where we sat all day waiting to do it.
And now we're on the final one.
This was supposed to be scheduled for, you know, 3.30.
It's only five, a little after five, which is fine.
I'm glad we got to talk about it. But it's a lot of time and efforts that, you know, was put on our part.
And it doesn't seem like the applicant put in the same effort, even with putting up the right postings on this property for this meeting.
So that's all I have to say. Mr. Rogers, did you, did you, you were, were you aware the Penn Sports Civic Association worked on this?
I was, yes. I attended the second RCO meeting about it.
And there were a lot of neighbors on the call who voiced opposition just because of the size of the lot and the size of the structure and would it fit into the dynamic of the neighborhood.
And a lot of the board members were asking good questions.
We had a good conversation.
And I believe that the RCO president, Patrick, he even asked him the call, hey, should we just submit the same letter as last time?
which I was a bit surprised about because, you know, I'm not sure about the previous RCO meeting.
I believe that happened before my family and I purchased the property at 203 Manton,
the garage and the house at 202 Federal. So I wasn't available for the first RCO meeting,
but I was a bit surprised they would submit the same letter that now there is more neighbors
involved and more opposition. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rogers, for calling in. We hear your
conversation. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience? Yes, sir. Patrick Carberry has his hand
up. Mr. Carberry, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, it's Patrick Carberry, P-A-T-R-I-C-K-C-A-R-B-E-R-R-Y. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed, sir. I'm the neighbor
next to Greg Mester, not directly affected, but due to the size of this lot, I'm against
the construction.
Thank you very much, and we appreciate you calling in.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair, Brent Heflin, just with his hands up.