Okay, Chair, we have 39 attendees and we can start as you wish.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this morning the ZBA hearing.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Thomas Howellman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, James Snell.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our Attorney, and our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised, the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contacting tonyasunkett at phillip.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating in my phone, if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunken.
Let's look at the case that we have continued today.
Number five, MI 2021-004-548-4306-08 Parkside Avenue, that case is continued.
you. Number six, MI 2022-005-210-4206 Parkside Avenue. That case is continued. Attorney moving
party. Number eight, MI 2022-007-347-224-30 West Topohockin Street. This case is continued.
10. MI 2022-007-282-4100 Orchid Lane. That case is continued. Mark must be heard.
Number 11, MI-2022-005-205-4204 Parkside Avenue. Cases continued, attorney moving party.
And number 12, MI-2023-002-342-1716-18 Addison Street. That case is continued.
Is there anyone in the audience who has comments relative to the cases that have been continued?
Good morning, Chair. This is Nadia. I will be your co-host today. I see no hands.
Thank you. Are there any other requests for continuance?
i see no hands okay uh case number one mi 2022 002 121 202 spruce street
is verne anastasio in the audience
he's coming in as a panelist now thank you
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Sir, could you state your name for the record and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, sir. It's Vern Anastasio, V-E-R-N. Last name is A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
All right. Do you swear, Vern, to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. And I'm here representing Mr. Joseph Onisky.
Is this case being withdrawn, sir?
Yes, it is.
Yes, it is.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I am I.
MI 2022-002-121-202 Spruce Street.
This case has been withdrawn.
We're going to go to our list.
We're going to start with number seven, which is MI 2023-001-876-2315 Power Street.
Jennifer Brazillo is the attorney.
our vice chair will be handling this this case
Ms. Bozzillo has been promoted to panelists
Good morning
Good morning
Do you agree to wave the read
Excuse me
Do you want me to swear in for you?
You swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Please state your client and your connection to your client, please.
My client is Zubin Hensler, who is the owner and operator of the tenant of the property, Home Cone Audio LLC.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal to stipulate to his accuracy?
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed
and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
yes please proceed to share your screen
excuse me this is hillary i just want to note for the record that this is a resumption hearing
um and also um miss bazidlo if you could just spell your name for the court reporter
Thank you. Sure. Sure. It's B as in boy, A as in apple, Z as in zebra, Y, D as in David, L as in Larry, O as in Oscar. And Jennifer is just spelt the normal way.
all right so um and we we filed a request for reconsideration um on a limited issue um on on a
on february 8 2023 a temporary variance was granted for this property to use the first floor
uh for professional recording studio primarily for recording and editing podcast um the decision
has the end date of the temporary variance as March 1st, 2025. And we're here today asking
only for the, oh, and what's important is that my client, while he's renting the first floor as a
commercial space, lives in the second floor residential unit above the commercial space.
So what we're asking for in the motion for reconsideration is to just move the end date of the temporary variance from where it is right now at March 1st to July 1st of 2025, same year, just a few more months, so that it coincides with the renewal of his residential lease.
Since he's both working and living in the building, it would be beneficial for him if they could both end at the same time so that he could find a new space for both living and commercial business at the same time.
I just wanted to note that this is a shorter period of time than what was agreed to by both the Civic Association, Fairmount Civic Association, which agreed to a full three-year instead of two-year variance,
And also what was supported by the neighbors, the immediate neighbor of the property who also approved of a full three year variance.
So we're just asking for two years plus a couple of months so that we can be in so that both leases can coincide with each other, both the commercial and the residential unit above.
okay any questions from the board
it doesn't seem like you had no mr chairman uh pictures
questions from the virtual audience yes i have a one hand up patricia wilson
out loud on the top. Good morning. This is Patricia Wilson from 2302 Parish Street. I spoke at the
last meeting. Please spell your name for the court reporter, please. It's Patricia Wilson,
P-A-T-R-I-C-I-A-W-I-L-S-O-N. I spoke at the last... The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I spoke at the last meeting, and I encouraged you folks to consider a shorter, you know,
I do. So I spoke...
were it that you were going to grant essentially a use variance, that there was not a hardship,
and having heard the Planning Commission also agree that this should remain residential,
I'm still sort of perplexed here. The applicant got a two-year variance. He always has had the
ability to come back in after that ended to say, okay, now I want another year. This change,
in my view, is not only not warranted, but again, should you determine that you're going to grant
this extended variance that that you also put in your proviso the stipulation that as testified to
this will be one person working there this will be strictly podcasts the applicant said tv radio
recording you kind of need to know this is clearly very residential if you walk down power street you
will see there are maybe three commercial operations, Angelino's restaurant, the Lumos
yoga studio. They are absolutely uses that are good for the neighborhood, good for a residential
neighborhood and have been longstanding. So I'm going to urge you once again, if you've already
granted it, limit the period of time. If it works out well, he can always come back and limit the
number of employees and the basically the hours of operations so that we don't turn this truly
into commercial space because honestly no benefit to the neighborhood to this being here none at all
thank you thank you for your comments anyone else on a virtual order sure council sure so we already
discussed this at length in the original hearing this building has a long standing use as a mixed
use building. It has at times been residential. It has at times been, but it's always been divided
into several units and was in fact constructed as a commercial corner property. We're dealing with
a corner property. The previous use of this space was commercial for a fitness studio.
Ample testimony was put on at the original hearing of why this was an appropriate use,
and the board agreed we are only asking to have an additional four months so that the leases
coincide with each other. This was information that we could not have known at the time because
we did not know at the time of the original hearing as we did not know what proviso and end
date that the zoning board would have put. So I would say that we just need to the only issue here
is not any of the other issues that neighbor brought up, but whether or not the zoning board
would approve of extending this just a few months, not an entire year, not beyond what was approved by
the community association and the next door neighbor, just a few months to coincide with
the residential lease of the unit above that is occupied by the operator of the business.
Thank you, council. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands. Planning commission.
uh ron bednar i believe we already provided testimony about this
oh yes do you want to add anything else to uh your testimony ron no from the planning side
not at this time not at this time thank you excuse me this is the court reporter could
Mr. Bednar be sworn. Oh, I'm sorry. First name is Ronald, R-O-N-A-L-D, last name Bednar, B-E-D-N-A-R.
All right. 23, M-I-2-0-2-3. I'm sorry, Chair.
I'm sorry, Chair, this is Tanya. Can you just swear him in for the record, please?
You want him sworn in, although he didn't, he's not making the testimony?
i do all right no problem um do you ron do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do as i as indicated i believe we already provided testimony for this
case and you don't want to add anything further right ron we do we do not thank you thank you
Thank you kindly Chair. No problem. MI-2023-001876, 2315 Parrish Street. My vote is yes with proviso to extend the proviso.
to extend the proviso for a temporary variance to expire July 1st, 2025.
My vote is yes with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ish.
Number nine, MI 2022-005-080-1529 Reed Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Letter of support from East Point Breeze neighbors with uses under the CMX1 zoning district.
Mr. Whalen has been promoted to panelists.
Good morning, Mr. Whalen. Could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Certainly. Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
Certainly. My client is Alex Klein, K-L-E-I-N. He is the owner of the property.
And our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Certainly.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents that are needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So hopefully you can all see right now I'm showing an aerial view of the neighborhood of 1529.
I've attempted to try to highlight the existing building here for you.
We have a relatively low use ask for you today.
This is South 16th Street, South 15th Street's right over here.
This is an existing three-story building.
There's an apartment on the second floor, an apartment on the third floor.
Those are not subject of this application. There's going to be no change there.
Rather, we're just asking there's a longstanding commercial use or history of commercial uses, I should say, on the first floor and in the basement.
These are very small floor plan. You have about 400 square feet on the first floor and approximately 300 square feet or so in the basement usable.
They are not built out as part of the basis of the hardship.
They're not built out for residential use.
Rather, they have been sort of operated as a standard kind of CMX1 commercial corner
use in the neighborhood for some time now with smaller entrepreneurial tenants, fashion
designer, political office.
um you know historically there was a hair salon there um and what you can see again here's
south 16th street and here's the property right here at the corner of
south mole street and this is south hicks just to give you some examples uh right across the
street from us is a very large apartment building and as you can see uh the icmx
portion here is the apartment building. The highlighted in blue portion is our existing
property. Very small lot area, only 778 square feet for the entire lot. And you can see as
a standard in most neighborhoods like this, the corner lots are dotted with CMX1. And I'll show
you in just a second photos documenting that there are four or five properties just to the other side
of us on the east side that are also being operated currently as cmx1 kind of low intensity uses
so again here's the existing building uh should make clear no new construction no signage on this
plan nothing of that sort has an existing uh corner access we are only talking about this
lower first floor and uh the small basement uh immediately underneath again it's about 400 square
of feet. It's been used as multiple small businesses. A lot of small first-time entrepreneurs
are using this site and then either, you know, hopefully succeeding and moving on to larger sites
or just moving on in general. So again, this is just across the street. Diagonally,
just across the street. Diagonally, you have a hair salon.
you have a hair salon.
Down on the same block, you have a small corner grocery store.
And immediately across the street, there's the hair salon I was talking about. There's the
apartment building. You have a small corner flower shop. So again, these are standard small
corner commercial uses in the neighborhood. And what we have is the property, I should
make clear, is zoned RSA 5. So it's zoned RSA 5, single family residential. What happens
is every time, even though it's had a history of commercial uses, every time the owner gets
an application for a commercial use, they then have to go through the variance process