Yes, it is, Your Honor.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have someone with the phone number ending in 5555.
Can you please unmute yourself and wait for the chair?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Allison, A-double-L-I-S-O-N, Weiss, W-E-I-S-S, Solo Germantown Civic Association.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Yes. I just had a couple of questions. Thank you. Because we had discussed the potential of solar panels, and I didn't hear any mention of that, nor did I hear any mention of potential commercial space.
um alison um the solar is there anything more specific i don't think there's a plan for
commercial space in the building there's common area um certainly a lot of it but i
um i don't think there's a plan for commercial spaces can i can i answer anything more specific
about the solar yes will that be incorporated solar panels to provide solar energy i i would
have to bring on the architect to answer that i'm not i'm not positive which i can do if the board
would uh entertain that
Ms. Weiss, do you have any other
Do you have anything further?
We should consider solar as a city
and as a way of reducing our carbon footprint
and we had talked about
as we had talked about
on the property across the street
the planting of trees
improvements to the sidewalk
and a dog park
i think you had agreed at the meeting to a dog park and i wasn't able to i didn't get any of
the revised plan so i don't know if that was included in your revised plan because you didn't
mention it i i apologize let me show the revised site quickly it does we did increase see if i can
do this very quickly okay so the the this is the revised site plan um it does increase the green
area. And it may look small relative to the site, but remember this is a 47,000 square foot
property. So that is one of the reasons we went down. This here was additional parking right here.
Instead, this is going to be a landscape area with benches in the front. There's going to be
a walkway around the power plant building where the bikes are kept. And this is going to be a dog
run it says 1100 square feet i don't know if you can see dog park it's a little small i'm i'm i'm
unfortunately on the prime so i can't see anything but if you could send a copy of the revised plans
that would be yes absolutely and i apologize that you didn't get that and we also had talked about
uh across the street the need for uh maintenance and um cleaning of the area yes
i i think um that you know i don't want to take up the board's time but judah as you've seen is
happy to speak with you i know that he did replace the sidewalk up on the other side of the street
there where you're talking about um yes yes no they did a wonderful job so i'm hoping that those
same uh considerations will be given to uh 4717. yes absolutely and i think you did a good job
mentioning that in your letter which i showed the board yeah yes good thank you
is there anyone else in the virtual audience chair we have charles richardson mr richardson
please unmute yourself and wait for the chair good afternoon mr richardson state your name
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, from the Office of Councilwoman
Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall. Proceed. Oh, I'm sorry. Do you swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Councilwoman has no opposition to granting the
I do. Councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance.
variance. Thank you.
Thank you very much for calling in. Anyone else?
Chair, we have a Raymond Rolla. Mr. Rolla, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
My name is Raymond Rolla, R-O-L-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Yes, I just had raised my hand in reference when Brandon had mentioned that the architect would know about the solar panels.
So all I can say is that if the owner will find it cost-effective and economically advantageous to put in the solar panels, I'm sure they will consider it.
And the roof certainly does have a configuration that would lend itself to it.
I think it's just an economic consideration.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for calling in.
Thanks, Ray. Raise the project architect.
Is there anyone else?
I see no other hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair. Peter Bernard for the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change to industrial residential mixed use, or IRMX.
RMX and has not yet been re-zoned. The proposal for adaptive reuse of the legacy industrial
building for residential is consistent with the recommended zoning, but we feel the project
could be further enhanced by the incorporation of industrial commercial use. Additionally,
accordingly, the Planning Commission recommends the Board grant the variance.
Thank you very much. MI 2022-002-920-4717 Stenton Avenue, I vote yes with proviso.
Revised plan, one page, stamped by CBA on August 31st, 2022. Maximum 78 units.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thomas Solomon, my vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell.
Yes, for proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, yes, for proviso.
Thank you.
Number 10, MI 2022-000455-4147 West Drive Avenue.
Richard DeMarco is the attorney.
Letter of support from Centennial Parkside CDC.
Mr. DeMarco is coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
sorry my uh connection was a little slow there good afternoon mr chairman hi you've already
been sworn um could you identify your client in relationship to the property yeah the client that
will testify is justin trout too and he's the representative of the owner llc of property
All right. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. DeMarco. Do you agree to waive the read of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos and or plans of the property, five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes. Yes to all questions.
Okay, great. You may proceed and begin sharing your screen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this is a request for a variance.
This is, while it might seem to be an unusually high-density use, when I go through some of these documents, you'll understand why that's not the case.
uh this property has a long-standing uh history of six units uh in our packet uh is the
archive for this property and you can see here if i could just show you on the refusal itself
there is reference to the over-the-counter permit at the time this property had a long history of
multi-family zoning and it was a six-family dwelling legally as far back as you can see here
1957. The property then of course was empty for a long period of time and resulted in significant
deterioration. Let me show you some photos because I can show you exactly what we're dealing with
here uh and why we were able to get the support of of the neighborhood um this is a derelict property
um this is a derelict property it had all sorts of entry points within it um it's in it was in
it had also
extremely poor condition when it was purchased my clients have been struggling to secure it since
then uh there have been some uh instances where people have still gotten in but you can see uh
the property is in extremely poor condition. What I'm going to show you here is the evidence
that there was long-standing multi-family use for six units. You can see the hot water heaters here
and I'm going to show you the here are the junction boxes for the utilities. You can see here
you've got seven meters which would indicate one for the common area and then the six units.
um so here's the rear let me show you the front so so what we'll do uh with this is and by the
way mr chairman if i could just show you i looked at all of the other properties on this block
and each of them is multi-family uh some as high as six units you see this is a
a property on the same block six units three units five units excuse me six units um
The block has a long history of multifamily.
You can see here on the zoning map, we're actually very close to current RM1.
But all of these properties here have long histories of multifamily use, as you can see from these permits.
All right.
So back to the floor plan. As far as trash storage, we do actually have a permit for the neighboring property.
This company is going to develop both. That was over the counter, but we're here for 4147.
We have walked through, and this is the way, by the way, the property is currently configured.
Even though it's a derelict property, there are multiple kitchens or the remnants thereof.
There is a walkthrough all the way back to the rear yard, so there'll be trash storage for every tenant.
And here's our poster.
There's going to be an immense amount of work cleaning up the property.
We did meet with the RCO.
There were some concerns at the first meeting, but by the second meeting, I believe it's fair to say we resolved those concerns.
The community voted unanimously to approve it.
My clients did go to some of the residents on the block, and I'll have my client verify this, Mr. Chairman,
but they were very happy to hear someone do something with the property.
The problem has been the property, excuse me, has been a nuisance property in the past prior to my clients purchasing it.
And they were very relieved to hear that it was going to get fixed up.
See what else I have for you here.
We really do need the six units.
While it might seem dense, the sixth unit really makes the property allow the developer to justify the investment.
will turn a small profit uh we can't do less than six units i'll have my client
verify that um and let me just go ahead and ask justin to raise his hand virtually
um and we can let me show you some renderings we have some renderings as well
uh there is a pilot house at the top but it will very not be very visible you see this is the
property right here a nice property and by the way we're going to preserve and upgrade the facade
which has some very nice architectural elements um and there were some issues with the neighbors
about visibility of the powerhouse you can see you have to be really far across the street to
see the top of it uh so go ahead let me go ahead and ask justin to adopt uh my testimony and confirm
um some of some other items justin are you with us yes justin could you state your name and spell
for the court reporter sure justin trattou t-r-a-t-t-o-u right do you swear a firm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir proceed counsel mr uh track two did you
hear my factual statements uh and testimony to the board in this case yes uh can you are they
true and accurate, and will you adopt them as your testimony? Yes. And this is an existing
structure, Justin, and you're going to be doing a full rehab of the existing structure, correct?
Correct. We're going to be leaving the facade and the actual structure itself there.
Correct. We're going to be leaving the facade and the actual structure.
We're going to be working a full interior gut renovation and obviously doing the necessary exterior as well while maintaining the character of the facade.
And did you hear my testimony about why do you need to have the original use of the six units for this?
So just the raw costs of construction, they're so high that unless you have the six units, it's just going to be not feasible to complete the project.
There's just not enough room there.
The six units makes the deal feasible.
And the interior layout of this property is for six units as well, right?
Correct.
It's the existing use being just carried forward.
Right. And there are six individual kitchens or the remnants thereof within the property already, right?
Okay. And can you verify that you spoke to some of the neighbors next door and did they express relief?
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was a good experience.
So I walked down there, spent about three or four hours walking around the neighborhood,
just knocking on all the neighbors' doors, catching people going to their cars.
you know had them just you know just asking them you know person to person what do they think about
the project do they want it done and at 100 of the people i probably caught about 15 or 20 people
100 of them were in favor of doing the project there's we've had multiple we had to reboard it
up three or four times as we've owned the place people keep breaking in there doing drugs etc
and there's you know a fair amount of families on the block and you know in order to have it
fixed up and new and bring it back to life i think it's you know it's going to only help the
neighbors and help everybody whether it's six units the density i think the the benefits outweigh
the the problems there so everyone seemed to to really be in favor of the project
and um you have trash storage for all tenants in the rear right and accessible right yes through
the building and we also have the the side yard so it's accessible uh both ways and no basement
bedrooms correct correct no uh no bedrooms in the basement mr chairman that's all i have
um thank you thank you questions from the board no mr chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa3 single-family residential
attached at this location while the property has a long history of being used as multi-family the
condition of the property necessitating a gut renovation removes any pre-existing
hardships from the property accordingly the planning commission recommends the board deny the variance
Thank you. MI 2022-000-455-4147 West Rod Avenue, I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holtman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you for your time. Have a good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you. We're going to go to number 13, MI 2022.