it's really hard to have single family use when you're butting up against a training track which
is the aerial right here photographs of the property again my client just wants to clean
this property up it's a beautiful property architecturally and my client wants to
revive this property that's not been in use for some time.
So this is the orange notice poster right here, showing proof of posting.
Then these are the existing garages.
I don't think there's any dispute that we have a lot of garages in the back.
We have more than enough ample parking.
And then the inside of the existing garages.
Another angle from the rear of the property looking forward for the existing garages.
Then North 19th Street to the right of the property, to the left of the property, our plans and drawings, very simple.
This is the, you know, you walk through a common entryway on the first floor.
You have a two-bedroom, like you walk in.
You have the dining room, kitchen, and the living room.
You have two bedrooms, and you have two baths.
Instead of going, you know, into that first floor unit, you go up a flight of steps.
It's the same floor plan, two bedrooms, two baths.
And then the third floor is not a full floor.
It's a one bedroom, one bath.
RCO meeting notice.
We met with the community on September 17th.
We mailed that notice out to the community on September 3rd.
We also emailed that notice the following day to show proof of mailing of that notice to 48 addresses.
These are the addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses.
Our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of YYJ LLC, the entity that Mr. Tina owns.
Notice of refusal with it, project information form.
sorry for the lag it's just slow uh the deed to the property showing the corporate entity owns it
and then finally showing proof of the tax payment plan it says right here we're in a tax payment
plan right here and then just proof of like the last you know of the tax payment plan as well
With that being said, I would ask that Jason virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
Jason?
So I have a hand up by the name of Ysantina. Not sure if they are affiliated with this case.
I think that's how you pronounce his name is Jason, but I could be wrong.
I think that's how you pronounce his name, is Jason, but I could be wrong.
Thank you.
Okay, I have allowed them to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
How are you? My name is Jason Tenna.
My name is spelled Y-E-I-S-S-O-N.
My last name is T-E-N-A.
Where or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Jason, you heard everything I had to say today about your zoning matter.
I did.
And is it true and correct?
Of course, yes.
And do you adopt as your own testimony?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
Can you, I just want to be clear.
So you're not going to do anything with the garages and therefore the garages are for the tenants.
or how does that work?
Yeah, I think, again, Jason, correct me if I'm wrong.
You're not doing anything with the garages from a structural standpoint, and they are
going to be for the residential tenants, and if there's any
additional uses of the garages, obviously you're going to have to come back for a Zoddy
variance. Is that correct? Correct.
Okay. Also, thank you for putting furniture on
On the plans, the units do look like they're decently laid out of the questions from the board.
Can you tell me where the trash is going to be stored? Where's the trash in the room for all three units that have access to the room?
Yeah, we have an almost 8,000 square foot lot. So, and everyone has access to decide side yard.
Thank you questions for the board.
questions from our attorney hillary emerson
uh not at this excuse me not at this time mr chair i just note that we uh did thank you for
the app and we have received uh copied the letter questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a phone number ending in three five five two they have been allowed to speak
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
This is Adrienne Fernandez of Swampoodle Neighborhood Parsons Association, RCA.
Adrienne, could you just, for the record, spell your name for the stenographer?
Oh, yes. I'm Adrienne, and my last name is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
yes please proceed um i just wanted to um add three provisos to support from the group of our
co's go ahead okay um the first one is a limit of three units um so we don't have um future requests
by current or future owners to um have more apartments in this building um the next one
is no basement living and the third requested proviso is no rooftop deck okay so okay thank you
alan yeah um and again we we talk about this a lot uh no or sometimes we are only requesting
three units so if we are requesting any additional ones we would have to come back through this whole
process again uh same thing with the deck like if we were proposing to put a roof deck on here
um well i guess it's not part of this application i'm wondering if we can there may be an opportunity
to get that through i don't see like uh jason do you have any issue with the no roof deck
installed as part of this project
i don't know if he uh i think he sounded like he's little
oh here it is i'm sorry i'm back um no there's there's no uh plans for any future uh um decks
all right so i don't think at this present yeah so you wouldn't have any issue for proviso
no uh uh no no uh roof deck uh access structure would you that's fine okay and then the final
one was living in the basement i don't think our plans even show that do you have is there
an opportunity to have to be down there that wasn't in our plans now so thank you
other questions or comments from the virtual audience yes chair i have a hand up by the name
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of Charles Richardson. They have been allowed to speak.
of charles richardson
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I just want to interject briefly in terms of the roof deck proviso. This is a change of use application only. There's no construction as part of it.
So typically we don't do construction related provisos with change of use applications. So I want to make that note for the record.
Thank you. Mr. Richardson, just state your name for the record.
yes sir mr chair charles richardson office of councilwoman cindy bass room 508 city hall
the councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance thank you very much anyone else in
the virtual audience no chair i don't see any more hands at this time planning commission thank you
chairman and good afternoon david vecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from RSA 3, Residential Single Family, to RTA 1, Residential 2 Family.
This proposal for three dwelling units matches the character of the other homes on the west side of this block face.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant a proposed use variance for three dwelling units and any subsequent variances from the parking requirements in RSA 3.
You know, Mr. Nockens will hold the vote and we'll vote on this two weeks from today, hopefully at 2 p.m.
Thank you.
OK, thank you. And by the way, stay on my side. I'm not saying goodbye to your state.
So MI 2024-004-767-70-80 East Worcester Street.
Letter of support from Wakefield 49ers Community Development and Improvement Association.
Letter of opposition from Solo Germantown.
Councilperson Bass has taken a position of support.
Thank you. Again, Alan Nockmson.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes, my client, my clients are two individuals, Zafer Aikman and Mahmoud Yader, who are the owners of the property.
Our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to leave the reading of the refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
I do. Oh, actually, no, I don't. I'm sorry.
So there is the refusal says that we're asking for 19 units.
We're actually asking for 21.
I don't know if there was an administrative, I don't know if there was an error in our part or administrative error, but we're actually, we're not asking for 19 units, we're asking for 21.
So I'm objecting to it. And so I did provide revised plans just in case as well, that if, you know, the board feels so inclined to grant this variance request, they would grant it by way of proviso with revised plans.
the only difference is it says i put 21 units on the site plan so i do object to the uh limitation
of 19 units so council what did you present at the rco meeting 19 or 21 we did 21. understood
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed before you proceed with
this case five days of the day uh yes we have thank you council please proceed thank you
All right. So this is one of these projects where the process has really worked.
Over a year ago, we proposed to this community 28 units with no off-street parking.
The community had a number of requests, and we hit every single one of them.
They said, first of all, we have nothing against multi-family use.
This property has a long history, even though it's an RSA-5 property, of non-residential single-family use.
I believe it was some type of meeting hall back in the day.
There's some history behind it.
Couldn't find anything on the L&I website, but there is definitely a history of that being a meeting hall.
So nothing against multifamily.
They said, it's just a little too much multifamily.
And what are you going to do about the parking?
So they said, come back, give us less units, give us parking, give us some three-bedroom units, put a responsible trash plan such as a garbage room, give us an elevator because even though you're not required to, it's only four stories.
We want an elevator here for our older community members. Obviously, we would want commercial trash pickup, which we have no issue with.
Obviously, we would want commercial trash pickup, which we have no issue with.
Make it ADA compliant.
And, you know, those were some of the items.
And then we had the community input.
There were some more requests, such as adding brick to the side.
And also, you see here, which we haven't updated, but we have a retaining wall here.
There's a retaining wall right now at the property.
They want us to repurpose the stone of the retaining wall to honor the history of this property by reusing that stone and putting it in here, which we have no objection to.
So a lot of these, you know, what we're doing is because of the request of the community.
So during our presentation, we're going to review the notice of refusal.
And then we have a letter of support from the Wakefield 49ers Community Development and Improvement Association.
Now, there is a letter of opposition, although they hedge and say, well, we oppose. But if you grant it, we have all these provisos. Also, I think there was a again, I wasn't there with the vote. My understanding with the vote, every ultimately everyone was in support.
you know solo just you know wanted they had like several board members there that they wanted
each of them to have a vote which i was limited to only one vote and then ultimately they didn't
vote at all but they had a letter but ultimately we met all the requests and needs of the community
and because of that the district council member bass um is in support of this project so after
the letter of support and i don't have a letter of support from council member bass i don't know
if Mr. Richardson is going to verbally say that, but I don't have a letter from their office.
We have the revised proviso plans form. We presented 21 units at the community meeting.
They approved it as 21 units. So I just, again, we changed the unit count from 19 to 21 on the
site plan. And again, there's nearby multifamily structures. Not of character here, 37-55 East
Worcester is a 47-unit senior living facility, and again, not that this matters, but given
the size of a lot, if this was an R-in-1 property, we would be well within the unit count of 21
units.
Then maps of the area, photographs of the property in the surrounding area, our plans
and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, which was a well-attended meeting and well-laid
out our what we how what we did and how we changed it based on community input um because the
community organizer literally you know stated okay these were our requests tell us how you changed
it and we went point by point on each one of how we changed it based on the original meeting our
application for appeal our deed to the property showing that my client owns this rather large lot
on the 70-80 East Worcester,
and then our Certificate of Tax Clearance.
At the conclusion of my presentation,
I would ask that Zephyr virtually raise his hand
and be sworn in.
Alan, Mahmoud is here, not Zephyr.
Okay, Mahmoud.
Okay, so he's here,
who will, again, be sworn in,
and we'll have a few questions for him.
I also have Christopher Johnson of 24-7 Design,
the architect on the project hopefully he's still here it's been around a long list but like you
know hopefully if you have any questions he can answer them so a nose refusal it sounds worse than
it is but you know we're trying to do 21 units there's 11 parking spaces 10 class 1a bike story
spaces there's an elevator there's a nice size roof deck for the for the community as a whole
for this community, the apartment building. And we have several refusals. First, we're set back.
And, you know, that's a refusal. Well, if you look at the property now, based on its current use,
the stone walls there, it would have the property set back anyway. That's the history of that
property. So we're in line with what, you know, what you've seen before with regards to this
property. Then the next refusal has to do with the fact that we're not preserving heritage trees.
If we have a layout of where all the heritage trees are, they're littered throughout the entire
property. There is no way to preserve it and have an actually develop a lot. We did ask for an
exemption from the city and we're proposing to have 18 trees there as replacement for the heritage
trees we're also doing a significant amount of landscaping in the front so we're set back we are
you know because the you know because the community and because of the history of the
property also to give ad accessible ramps like to for people to be able to you know
get to the property responsibly but there's a significant amount of landscaping that
get to the property responsibly but there's a significant amount of landscaping that's going
to replace that in those heritage trees as well then the next refusal was self-inflicted in terms
of the off-street parking but that's what the neighborhood wanted they said we want parking
off you know on your property for this apartment building which we gave them then the next thing
had to do with the amount of units where the refusal says 19 but we asked for 21 we proposed
that to the, we presented that to the community as well. Not out of character for this lot. It's