Is he done? Are you done, Mike?
Yes. Yeah, I'm done.
Okay. My vote is yes with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Hiya Wen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you all for coming in.
We appreciate it.
Number nine, MI 2026-004-015-7811, Frankfurt Avenue.
Just state your name, if you would.
Alex Goldberg.
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client is Magnolia Wellness.
they're the tenant of the property and its representative melissa aguilera is sitting to my
left okay all right um so we don't have an rco letter right no no we did we do it's right here okay
well it's not a letter it's just the submission submission of the vote non-opposition
um our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents
and exhibits for this case 14 days in advance of this hearing i have and the way that we know your
refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do all right thank you show your screen up again okay
um i'm here presenting for magnolia women's center this is a property that was in front of the board
and approved for a variance a temporary variance november 29th 2023 so we're uh running out of
time and and my client planned accordingly to go back through the variance process with the hopes
that this time around, we do not have a temporary variance.
Property is located at 7811 Frankfurt Ave,
which is a CMX two and a half zone property.
This is a social services organization
that got a variance back in 2023
because of an ultrasound machine
that they have in their facility.
One ultrasound machine,
which they felt I wasn't representing them at the time,
they felt I wasn't representing them at the time, put them in the category of sole practitioner,
put them in the category of sole practitioner,
medical dentist.
medical dental health practitioner, just to make sure that they were, you know, properly zoned for
it. It was approved despite community opposition at that time with a not only temporary variance,
but also proviso limiting the medical use to ultrasound testing. And we're not seeking to
expand the use in any way. We're asking essentially to renew what was previously approved indefinitely,
hopefully. You can see that I took a screenshot of the submission made by the RCO. The board was
opposed, but the people in the audience were not opposed. We also, I also reached out to Stan
Sawinski, representative of the council member's office, who stated in this email, I don't think
he submitted anything, that the council member supports the community's position of non-opposition.
and i think it's important that you know we went from a position of opposition strong opposition
first time around and that's not the case and i think that you know we understand
the the need for temporary variances in a lot of situations and you have to prove that you're
going to be what you say you're going to be the first time around and and we felt like we'd done
that and we earned the trust of of the neighbors uh who who were supportive this time so i included
the the permit from from the last uh variance application and the refusal at that time
this is a zoning map it's zone cmx two and a half the office space is about 1500 square feet
um the hours of operation are very very limited monday wednesday friday from nine to three
they see a maximum of two ultrasound clients per day which would be a maximum of six per week
in reality it hasn't been that many since this was originally approved uh three years ago they
haven't they weren't fully able to begin operating on the day that it was approved um appointment
only so no walk-ins so we feel like there's not really a significant parking impact because
there are only two appointments a day there are other people um that you know there's a nurse
that works there, Melissa, young parents come, you know, there's education-related things,
and they give away a lot of stuff to young parents. I mean, these things are beyond the
medical use, but again, it's a non-profit organization, and they provide social services
to a community that for the majority of people that come to them don't have great resources,
don't have insurance, and, you know, are looking for some sort of assistance. So here's some
interior photographs. It's very clean. This is the ultrasound room. Again, one ultrasound. This is
again, not medical dental related, but it's a storage room where they, they have a program where
they have young parents participate in educational, you know, programs for how to be new parents and
they can essentially exchange that participation for free stuff, car seats, you know, they're,
They received grants from Toyota to give away car seats, strollers, diapers, you know, many, many different products.
Clothes.
Here's the architectural plans.
Very basic.
There's an ultrasound room.
There's a couple conference rooms.
There's an office and there's bathrooms.
Very, very basic floor plan, which is reflective of the photos you just saw.
We had the RCO meeting in October very recently.
It was very well attended.
I know the vote was, I think, showed nine votes maybe,
but there were probably 30 people there.
The way that RCO functions is you have to be a voting member,
which means you pay dues and you've been to three meetings in the last year, I think.
So not everyone was eligible to vote,
but the temperature of the room was very positive beyond the letter of support
or the vote of support that you saw there.
What was the vote?
Let me scroll back.
I think it was split, right?
Pretty close?
going back to it so the the only people that opposed the way I'm reading this
were the three board members there was one board member that was in non
opposition or I guess there were three people in opposition in the and six
people in non opposition so but but my point is the 15 people referenced on
that it was it was very different and we acknowledge that and we think that
speaks volumes the proof of mailing the the application for appeal to lease
agreements a yearly repeating lease and the certificate of tax clearance so with
that I'd ask my client to adopt my testimony could you please state and
spell your name for this stenographer? Melissa Aguilera, A-G-U-I-L-E-R-A.
Melissa Aguilera, A-G-U-I-L-E-R-A.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel.
Melissa, did you hear my testimony today?
Was it true and correct?
Do you adopt it as your own?
Can you explain to the board what the purpose of the ultrasound machine, which is the reason
we're here today, what it's used for as succinctly as you can?
So basically, it is to confirm a pregnancy test.
because sometimes you could get a wrong positive
so it's basically just to confirm that
and it's very limited
so what the nurse is looking
and she's here with us today
is just to confirm placement, heartbeat
and gestational age
that is the end of that
and again, it's just to confirm that pregnancy
Thank you
I'm happy to take questions
Questions from the board
Do you have a comment?
prefer? I'm sorry, Mike, do you guys have a referral for prenatal services or do y'all
perform prenatal services there? We don't do prenatal services. What we do is after we offer
the pregnancy test, the ultrasound to confirm, then we refer clients to either Esperanza Health
Center or somebody else that could continue with that. So what we do, again, is very limited when
it comes to the medical piece other questions are you currently in release sorry go on mike
no i just i've got a comment about the rco voting um only people who pay dues can vote i don't think
that's the point of rcos and i maybe that needs to be looked into for that particular rco i'm just
saying this is stating as a comment that if something happening is happening in your neighborhood
and you come to an RCO meeting that could be literally right next door to you
and you can't vote because you didn't pay some dues,
I think that needs to be looked into.
What do they do with the money?
Right, right.
I think that needs to be looked into because I don't think that's the point
of having RCOs.
The point of having RCOs is to have community engagement and input
into what affects people who are in the neighborhood.
But that's my point.
my question is just about the tenure of your operation like how long have you guys been
operating or has the organization been operating in this location and how do you own or is this
a leased property i think i missed so basically we started the whole process in um 2022 but we
started doing ultrasound at the end of at the beginning of this year 2026 um because we needed
to get the insurance for medical insurance
and have everybody in place
to be able to perform these ultrasounds.
So we started 2024 just as a resource center
and then we moved to the ultrasound starting this year
and we rent.
And how long is the remainder on the lease?
The lease, which is on the screen right now,
it's a yearly renewal.
Annually renewed, okay.
Other questions?
And how do people get to you?
How are they referred from somewhere, or how does this?
So basically, we have, they can find us if they Google,
and they look for the type of services that we provide.
That's how they find us, word of mouth.
We have a sign on the outside, so like a banner that we have outside.
Sometimes people just drive by and call to make appointments.
So that's how they find us.
Yeah, and that was actually a question that the RCO asked, too, in the preliminary discussions leading up to the meeting.
And Melissa's team provided data on, you know, to the most accurate degree they could of where the referral is coming from.
And it was a combination of friends and family, Google, social media.
There was an unknown category.
And based on my notes, they've had 69 appointments scheduled and 27 no-shows.
So, you know, I mean, there's not a lot. This is not like a heavy medical use. This is just a small piece of, yeah.
Yeah, and I mean, considering that this is pretty, like, with word of mouth and that kind of thing.
But I guess my other question is, so is this, you're a non-profit?
No, you're not.
Correct.
You're not charging for these?
Everything is free. All the services that we provide to the clients are free. So again, that includes the pregnancy test, the ultrasound, and if the mom or the woman decides to continue with her pregnancy, we offer them the classes, which is called Earn What You Learn.
so we send them virtual classes that they could watch at the comfort of their home
they gather 10 points for each class as they watch
they come to the boutique and then they could redeem their points and get everything for free
They come to the boutique, and then they could redeem their points and get everything for free,
from a stroller to a car seat to a cribette, diapers, clothing, wipes,
and all the stuff that we give, the big items.
I would say everything is new.
We don't give anything used for safety reasons.
Oh, okay.
And then how are you funded?
So basically, this is private donations.
Whoever wants to provide donations to the center, that's how we operate.
We get nothing from the state, from the city, just donations from.
Interesting.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions for our journey?
No questions at this time.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any hands.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.