933 Lindley Avenue, Mr. Chair and members of the board received unanimous support
from the almost, I'm sorry, virtually unanimous support from the RCO,
the logan civic association that's not the document that i wanted hold on please
sorry bear with me i have a lot of different documents up here
There it is. So I gave you the last part first. I just shared with the RCO, the letter from the RCO, showing all but one member who attended the meeting in support of the project.
This is the legalization of a three-family dwelling that sits at 933.
Lindley and
it is zoned rsa3 which is why we're here and i'm going to show you the plans
This is the property in question it's interior and exterior photos, side areas for trash.
this is the property
And let's look at the plans.
Here's the first floor.
We'll zoom in a little bit here so you can see the entrance with a large living room.
large kitchen, eat-in kitchen, and two bedrooms, and, of course, a bath.
Side staircase goes up to the second floor, where we've got an 858-square-foot unit,
710 foot square unit on the second floor 722 square foot unit on the first floor
so as you can see these are pretty ample in size uh and of course they will afford a young couple
or a small family to live in a newly renovated quality residential spot right on this corner
property. There's a letter of notification of both the RCO meeting and the Zoning Board
hearing. All the addresses that were mailed, 109 individual households were mailed. We do have a
tax clearance and a deed that was sent under separate cover. This property was recently
purchased by my client and the tax records were not reflective of the tax balances being paid
at settlement. However, those documents did get to Attorney Emerson. As a result of
the neighborhood survey, meeting with the neighbors, and knowing the history of this
long-neglected property, the neighbors were in full support of having the three-family dwelling.
My client understands that that is going to require that any building permits need to adhere to the International Building Code, which will make this property, of course, full of the fire mitigation requirements and full safety measures.
Again, the trash storage is in the rear, accessible through the side for all three units.
Property will have a management team as well.
The management team information will be placed on the property per the immediate neighbor's request.
And as such, because rehabbing this entire building for single family development would put it out of reach to just about everyone in that neighborhood because of the cost of rehabilitation,
the cost of construction, but providing three quality two-bedroom residential units where
a family could easily move into any one of them at a more approachable price point was
exactly what this RCO and the immediate neighbors were looking for, and we were pleased to oblige
and present and as such we respectfully request the granting of the variant
with that i'd like mr olsic to raise his virtual hand
we get his client in
is he there
I don't think so
what's his name again
Jeremy Olsik
Mr. Olsik out in the virtual audience
I'm not showing him
but I'm showing Jomar
last name ending in a P
two of them
Actually, two users by that name, Jomar, J-O-M-A-R, last name ending in P as in Peter.
Vern, you recognize that?
Yeah, yeah, please have him, please.
Thank you.
Sir, please unmute yourself.
I'm here.
I'm here.
Thank you.
Hello, Joe.
Can you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Jeremy Olesik, J-E-R-E-M-Y-O-L-E-S-I-K.
Jeremy Olesik, J-E-R-E-M-Y-O-L-E-S-I-K.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Jeremy, did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon?
I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Correct.
Thank you.
I have nothing further, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
thank you counsel do you have any uh questions from the board no vice chair no vice chair
any questions from our attorney hillary emerson um a couple briefings first an announcement that
doesn't apply to this case we're getting a lot of questions in the q a about cases on the 3 30 list
we are currently on the 2 p.m list once we finish the 2 p.m list we will take a brief recess about
five minutes and then we will come back to the 3 30 list so i just wanted to let people know
who are kind of wondering where you know where we are at we are still on the 2 p.m list
we will get to the 3 30 list once we finish the 2 p.m list um uh and mr anastasio i just wanted
to note briefly for the record because this is an rsa3 property i think we had one of these the
other week there's a refusal missing for parking spaces we don't need to get a new refusal but i
just wanted to note that for the record that technically parking is required and i don't
believe there was any provided in this case is that correct right this is this property is
consistent with every other property on the block uh there all the parking is on the street okay
great thank you and i did get your document for for the taxes for this one um i just want to ask
the board to hold this for one week because i want to make sure revenue everything is clear with
revenue i know there's liens on the property and those take time to get cleared off but i want to
make sure um revenue has everything they need and and this is fine from a tax compliance perspective
so i would just ask for a one week hold i i know i can get a response fairly quickly on this i don't
want to delay it unnecessarily i see from the documents that taxes were paid as part of closing
i just want to make sure everything is clear um it's because of the code requirements so um that's
all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Planning Commission. Oh, excuse me. Anybody in the
virtual audience? I see no hands, Chair. Planning Commission. Thank you, Vice Chair, and good
afternoon. David Fecta with the City Planning Commission. Vice Chair and board members,
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this
location most of the homes on this block face appear to have been built as duplexes the city
planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants but with a maximum
of two dwelling units in keeping with the predominant character on the 900 block of
linley avenue and the proposed use variants for required accessory off street parking
thank you so we're going to hold this right here uh ver until next week on the two o'clock call
Understood. This is an end of row, which traditionally would be more dense than anything else on the block, which then this proposal is consistent with that. But thank you.
Yeah, so this is closed. Just waiting for additional information.
Understood. Thank you.
All right, moving on to number six, MI-2023-005584, 2111 to 2141 East Rush Street.
Henry Clinton.
Mr. Clinton is coming back as a panelist now, Vice Chair.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon.
Seeing you already once for the day, can you please state your name?
for the record? Sure. Henry Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Can you please give us the
connection to your client? This
property or these properties are owned by an LLC. Principals of Witt
are Sam Dhaliwal, D-H-A-L-I-W-A-L
who is on the call, and Paulie Singh, P-A-L-I-S-I-N-G-H.
Thank you.
uh we have a couple questions from mr hollman good afternoon counsel do you agree do you agree
to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy i do did you email all the exhibits
and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing uh 90 of them or 95 uh two days ago
90% of them, or 95%. Two days ago, we continued to make changes to the plan, which we submitted. And then, actually, this morning, we got more tax information that we submitted to Ms. Emerson. So, other than that, yes.
we continue to
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Holleman.
Is that visible, Mr. Vice Chairman?
Yes, it is.
Good afternoon again, Mr. Vice Chairman, members of the board. Henry Clinton on behalf of the owner of these properties, Rush Street Partners of Pennsylvania, LLC. This is my table of contents containing exhibits A1 through A10, which I ask to be admitted into evidence. I also have some zoning records to show the board at the end of the presentation, which are tied into the aerial photographs that I have.
This is a lengthy refusal, but I think I can boil it down relatively simply.
We're requesting that seven existing lots be consolidated.
And on those seven lots, which will be consolidated, we intend to construct, hopefully, 25 single family homes.
Because of the way the project is laid out, the row homes are attached in, and the code looks at those attachments as buildings.
So even though we are proposing single-family houses, the examiner and the code looks upon these as multifamily household living, which they're not.
And when I show you the plan, I think it'll become evident.
The other refusals, some of them we've dealt with and had them removed, actually. Bicycle spacing, parking, they're calling for Class 1A bicycle. Parking space is nine. We have 25 bike parking spaces now. They're not all Class 1A because they're outside, but there are 25 bicycle parking spaces.
The refusal concerning multifamily household living is expressly prohibited in RSA 5 zoning district. We understand that, but our project is a blend of zoning districts, ICMX, as well as RSA 5.
the third from the bottom refusal has to do with again I believe the interpretation of
multifamily we're not multifamily next refusal has to do with two percent of the parking spaces
or at least one has to be accessible that's in a multifamily use circumstance but we've
complied with that that was one of the changes we made recently and I'll show you that on the plan
And then the first refusal has to be, it concerns one principal building.
Again, we have several buildings, but they're all RSA 5 single family homes.
And hopefully I'll be able to explain that to the board as we walk through.
This is a letter from the local RCO, which frankly, I was surprised.
I mean, you can see it's overwhelmingly against the project.
And you'll notice that there's no letter of explanation why.
And as I go through the project, I'll explain to you why, because I don't often come before the board without the support of the neighbors.
But frankly, the reasons that they gave for not wanting the project are a little bit irrational because they're not zoning issues.
some of the issues that were raised and i have the notes in front of me have to do with we don't
want gentrification we want parking and our project you'll see is one for one parking 25
parking spaces with 25 homes they didn't like the siding on the front elevation we changed that to
all brick they said the project doesn't fit in it's going to displace us you'll see when i show
of the aerial photographs. This project is replacing a one-story industrial building
that is underused, and the current occupant of the building is actually relocating his
auto repair shop within the neighborhood, and there's not loss of any jobs. The community
also basically said we're driving them out. It doesn't fit in, and it was just, it was
really, really a tough meeting because when my clients
purchased this property, they looked at all
the multifamily that were being constructed around the neighborhood
and I'll show you those projects and we said, you know, this is a single family
neighborhood, let's do single family and we know parking is a concern
so let's give the neighborhood parking. So we did both
So we did both of those things. And maybe that's why the councilman sent in a letter of neutrality. Maybe that's why we also were able to get, you know, 27 signatures of neighbors that supported the project.
of those things and maybe that's why the councilman sent in a
so here's the photographs just to put this all in context where my cursor is this is a one-story
industrial building used many moons ago as an automobile showroom now as i said is used by a
a local gentleman who conducts auto repairs he doesn't use the entire building because it's
massive and it's one story so our project is going to fill in these two empty lots and also
demolish the building and then put single family homes on Rush Street, which is here. My cursor is
Amber Street. And the idea is you're going to come down Rush Street. You're going to go into a drive
aisle, go behind houses on both sides of Amber and Rush and park in the rear. And then there's going
to be an exit on the other side of Rush Street where you can come out. So it's a flow through
traffic pattern. So I mentioned the amount of development multifamily that's going on in this
particular neighborhood. So in the very dark black is our project, which again, this building would
be demolished. To the right is a five-story building with 72 units. Down to the left is
another building that's going to contain 28 multifamily with nine parking spots and professional
and business offices. And directly across the street will be single family, which is what
this neighborhood is. So again, when my client and his architect and myself, when we looked at
this project, we said, let's go to the community with single family. Now, salted on the board here
are various dots. The red dots indicate all the neighbors that have signed a petition in support.
You can see it's pretty varied throughout. The blue dots are just indicate to the board that
there's a lot of vacant and empty lots on Amber Street.
Excuse me, I keep saying Amber, it's Auburn Street, on Auburn Street.
So we couldn't get signatures.
So it is a pretty good support of people who are nearby.
They couldn't make the meeting, but at least they signed the petition.
These are photographs to show the board, the one-story building.
It used to be an automobile showroom, and then back, way back,
It was a manufacturing industrial plant for American paper products.
View looking east, excuse me, west on Rush, are postings.
Again, some photographs of the building.
And these are some of the projects that are in the area.
This is a project, Somerset Square, 70 condominium units within one block of our project.
This is the project that has 72 units.
We were able to take pictures actually just two days ago to show you that here's the elevator tower for that building.
It's going to be a large five-story building directly across the street from the parking lot, excuse me, from the playground and adjacent to our project.
Again, some more photographs of this large multifamily project right down the street.
And then in the background, this is the one-story building that we propose to demolish.
So here's the plans. We had one set of plans and then revised them. So what I'll do is show you
generally what we proposed and then show you what the changes were to try to accommodate some
comments that we got. So this is Rush Street at the top. Auburn Street is below. And the idea is
you're going to come west on Rush. You would enter a drive aisle here. There's four houses to the