But then if we go back even further, same thing.
It was vehicle repair as well.
And that was as of 1997.
And that was from the prior owner of this particular building.
We have here the deed, evidencing ownership, and we have the notice of refusal from L&I, which was issued almost two years ago.
So, again, the application was for vehicle repair and maintenance and personal sales.
This is a CMX2 district, and there's a lot of commercial uses in this.
So really, what we would ask for is an approval of this particular use, since this is a use that has been in existence for many years of the predecessor address of 3041.
And I also have here with me the owner of the property, which, if you would allow for him to be promoted, Ibrahim Shaji, I would ask that he be promoted so he can adopt my testimony.
Mr. Shaji.
They've been allowed to speak, sir.
Sir, could you please state your name and spell for the courts?
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the courts stenographer?
Absolutely.
Your Honor, my name is Mahdi Shaji.
I am the applicant.
Could you spell your name, sir?
It's M as in Mary, A as in Apple, H as in Harry, D as in Dog, I as in Igloo.
and the last name is s is sam h is in harry a is in apple j is in jackson i is in igloo
do you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes your honor please
proceed counsel okay mr shaji did you hear the testimony that i just uh presented to uh this
board yes yes counsel i have and do you agree with excuse me mr harris i'm i'm sorry to interrupt
I just want to clarify, is Ibrahim Shadi and Mahdi Shadi the same person?
No, no, ma'am. That's my father. He's on the line right now. He's at his home. I'm not sure if he's able to speak.
Dad, are you able to unmute and speak since you're the owner of the property?
Is he calling in on a phone, do you know?
He's calling in on a phone line.
okay um could he do um this is star nine to raise your hand so that we can we can allow him to
then unmute himself well i'm gonna text him right now to see if that can happen he's he's not really
techno technological savvy so i do apologize so he just needs a star nine i believe it's
star nine to raise hand staff please let me if i have that star nine you're raised in star six
to unmute. Darn it.
Once we give you permission to unmute, yes.
I do apologize. He's
70 years old. That's okay.
It's okay.
I'm just waiting on his
response.
I mean, I am the applicant. I just submitted
the application for him because I had a feeling this
was going to be a little bit of an issue.
You work in the business with him?
Yes, Your Honor, I do part-time, correct.
But for any reason, due to technical reasons, if we're not able to get him on the phone, I'd be more than happy to speak on his behalf.
Well, so, so, Mr. Harris, you're an officer of the court.
And we accept your testimony.
okay all right okay questions from the board questions from the board
no mr chair no chair i do apologize my father said he just is responding right now so i'm
trying to get him on the phone i apologize okay
Mr. Shaji?
Dad, are you there?
Mr. Shaji?
I'm just, I'm just texting him, say press star nine.
Okay. So here, sir, listen, I apologize.
Sir, sir, listen, your counsel can, has spoken for him.
He's also the court. We accepted his testimony.
No questions or comments from our attorney.
Yes, your honor. I apologize.
Okay. Questions or comments from the virtual audience.
i do not see any further answer mr chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good
morning david fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from commercial mixed use to
industrial and commercial mixed use this property has a history as personal vehicle repair and
maintenance under the recommended zoning this use would be allowed with a special exception
and vehicle sales are incidental to vehicle repair the city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the proposed use variants for personal vehicle repair and maintenance
and vehicle sales and rentals but since this is a new zoning application the appellant should
bring their property as closely into conformance with the zoning code as they can so the city
planning commission recommends that given the history of this property the board grant the
use of variance. Oh, I already said grant the use of variances. However, we recommend that
the appellant be required to comply with the landscaping screening requirements in the zoning
code. And the code allows either a landscape buffer with trees and shrubs or decorative
masonry wall or decorative fence. Thank you. Mr. Harris? Yes. Mr. Harris, we will not vote on this
today we will wait till the tax issue is handled whether that's what a plan or not
and then we'll bring it back after we have word that that's been done okay okay your honor so
just so just so that i'm uh clear then once i submit the because i've never had this situation
before so once i submit the tax uh the tax clearance then would i be given another date or
would i my understanding is once you submit the tax clearance we will we will have a date for this
to be voted on by the board oh okay and would i yeah this will not just just to clarify this would
not be a resumption we've done everything that we need to do it's just once you send it in
Yep, the case is closed, except for the tax cert. Once you send, once we receive the tax cert, this will be put on an add-on list to be voted as soon as possible.
Okay, thank you for the clarification, Ms. Emerson.
Thank you, Mr. Harris.
All right, take care.
Okay, number six, MI 2023-005-882. 221 Tree Street, Jennifer Rizzillo is the attorney. There's a letter of support from the Whitman Council.
And there's a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Mr. Chair, I do not see Jennifer Bizzitlo in the virtual audience, but I do have a hand raised from Angela DiPrima Bucci. Do you want me to allow her to speak?
I believe that is the property owner, Mr. Chair.
Well, the Brian Thomas and Viola Bryson are the property owners.
Oh, no, sorry.
Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, this is Jennifer Bizzidlow.
I signed in with the wrong link.
No, that's okay.
That's okay.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
I just want to also say I haven't been promoted to panelist yet either.
All right.
Why don't we promote her to panelists?
Shelby, we're joining those panelists shortly.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Jennifer Bazidlow.
That's B-A-Z-Y-D-L-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth?
Nothing but the truth.
Thank you.
Would you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Viola Bryson, who has been the property owner for 70 years.
Okay. And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. I also just wanted to note that I supplemented the record yesterday with 51 letters of support from near neighbors.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
All right.
Okay, so again, my name is Jennifer Basidlo.
I'm here today on behalf of Viola Bryson, who has lived and owned and lived in this property since 1954.
If we're calculating, that's 70 years.
I also have several of her family members online today, too, in case we need them as well.
since Ms. Bryson is fairly old and has some issues with technology. So I just want to go through our
packet. We submitted, we have the refusal, which are for dimensional variances. The deed showing
that Ms. Bryson has owned the property. If you see here, Viola, she is the owner of the property.
um the property taxes are paid we have a letter of support from uh whitman council
unanimous support a letter from um council member squillo in non-opposition uh and we have some
other stuff we're going to go through the aerial views of the property um there's also in here
zoning map photographs uh which we'll come back to as well there's the rear of the property
property inside the street. And then we have, this is the property next door. And then we have the
plans for the addition. So let's just go back to the one photo so you can see what we're talking
about. So this brick home in the center, this lighter brick home, is 221 Tree Street. This is
a relatively small property uh that is only 715 square feet uh the dimensions are 14 feet by 48
so we have a small south valley lot here it is zoned uh rsa5 and we are still proposing single
family use here uh viola has lived in this home like i said for the past 70 years and she has
lovingly cared for it uh and treasured it uh raised her children in it um as you can see when
we go over and we have these 51 letters of support from near neighbors including 19 on this street
and also a bunch on the Jackson Street which is the street that faces that that backs up to this
property. Unfortunately 223 Tree Street which is this property to the left here was a problem
house for a long time. And then in July of 2021, it was intentionally set on fire for arson. It
destroyed that property, obviously, but it also destroyed large portions of Viola's home. And she
has not been able to live in the home since then. In March of 2022, there was a make safe permit
issued to um basically to reconstruct the rear of the home as it had completely been destroyed by
fire um that work was done however it was later realized that how this was redone required a
zoning variance um the difference between what was there and what is current what was rebuilt
is this second floor addition was built out about a foot further than it was before to align with
the rear of the property. So this was once they discovered that the work was done and it was
discovered that they needed the zoning variance. That's why we're here today. It's about it's an
expansion of a nonconformity by about a foot in the rear of the property. Let's see. So that's
why we're here. It was rebuilt. It was rebuilt a little bit bigger. I will add that that is an
additional bedroom space. And as I mentioned, Ms. Bryson is elderly. The additional space in the
bedroom is great for mobility purposes, allowing for mobility aids to move around in a sleeping
quarters, that sort of stuff. So, you know, not only it really is a functional addition for her
It really is a functional addition for her as well so that she can continue to live in her home.
as well so that she can continue to live in her home.
She has currently, for the past couple of years, been living with various of her children and is really eager to get back in her home.
So the refusals that were issued, I'm coming back to these photos too, but the refusals that were issued were for rear yard size and open area requirements.
um so uh the rear yard requirement we're proposing eight and this is only at the second floor um the
the first floor is grandfathered in we built on top of the existing um wall line there um required
is nine proposed is eight uh there's a couple of things here first of all there is an alley to the
rear of this property that is four feet uh so when you consider half of the rear alley we have 10
feet between the rear of the building and kind of the mutual property line between the properties.
As you can see, the top row of houses here is Jackson Street. This is our property right in
the middle. And they do have larger rear yards, so we still have a good distance between properties.
And as you can see, all of the homes on Tree Street here are roughly the same setback. We're
not doing anything tremendously different um from like deviating from what's there i'll also add
that this is is a small property again it's 715 square feet um if it was um either and it's 48
feet long if it was 45 feet only three feet shorter we would only be required to have seven
uh it's also worth noting that the square footage of this property is more in line with the rs6
zoning district, which only requires 700 square feet minimum. And in that zoning district,
only a seven foot rear yard is required. So the code is acknowledging that it is pretty hard to
meet these dimensional requirements when you have this kind of small, short lot. And so what we're
proposing at an eight foot at that second is a reasonable compromise between the existing code
And the reality of what's on the ground at that property. Same thing for open air. You know, the rear wall is roughly in the same place it was before the fire. And the addition is only on the second floor. The open air requirement is on the second floor.
if we were at 45 and 48 we would have no open air requirement only rear yard um so again we're still
proposing a fairly compliant um addition based on the conditions of the property regardless of what
it's actually zoned um and like i said it's not out of character with the block we have a block
that's has all sorts of you know relatively similar size rear yards um and so we're not
building all the way to the property line we got a nice space there's access for fire safety purposes
with the rear alley out to the street all that sort of stuff um so let me just go back to
the letters i've mentioned this a couple of times yep yep so we had i wasn't at the meeting the
clients were there themselves but they had the support the community is in support everyone's
very excited to have viola back on the on the block and this is one of the things that's
preventing her from getting back into her home. So, um, so counsel, here's what, here's what we
could do. Um, you could call your client and if she has a hard time getting on, we will gladly
accept your testimony. Great. I, I have, um, I have, I believe people who have a power of attorney
for her on the line to adopt my testimony, if that's acceptable, or you can just accept my
testimony. And we gladly accept your testimony. You've talked to the client, right? So your,
Your testimony is accepted, okay?
Okay, great.
Thank you so much.