what his property looks from the inside it helps in getting a better clientele of tenants
and then simple floor plans here uh again you know we we have one unit uh that's on the on the first
floor um and lower level we have another unit on the second floor and then we have two units on the
third floor. This is all existing conditions. We met with the community on March 21st. We sent out
that notice on March 7th. We emailed that notice soon after we sent it out, emailed it to the
coordinating RCO and relevant parties. We mailed it out to 152 addresses, list the addresses,
proof of mailing to those addresses. And then, you know, my client actually made the original
submission for 1236 West Allegheny Avenue.
So he included the notice of refusal, project information
form, and then showing the deeds of the property, showing that Berg
1236 W Allegheny Ave LLC is the owner of the property,
and a certificate of tax clearance showing that there's
no balance. Before my client comes on, I would say
that, again, this is a responsible operator of
visitor accommodations. He has a long history of such. He made a strong presentation to the
community. I know the board is more inclined to give a three-year temporary variance. We would
ask for a five-year temporary variance, given that this is such a long process, such an expensive
process. And given his history, I think he's a responsible operator. So with that being said,
And I would ask that Mr. Burgos virtually raise his hand.
Burgos, you've already sworn once today, if I remember correctly.
Just please state your name for the record.
Mr. Chair, I...
Mr. Chair, I don't seem to see Mr. Burgos in the virtual audience anymore.
Mr. Nakamase, your officer of the court, questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hilliard Emerson?
Just briefly, Mr. Nackamstorn, is your client seeking to change the use from the quadplex to visitor accommodations, or does he wish to maintain the multifamily household living along with the visitor accommodations?
He wishes to maintain the multifamily nature as well, along with the visitor accommodations.
Okay, thank you. Mr. Chair, I think you know my recommendation based on that.
COMMENTS FROM THE VIRTUAL AUDIENCE?
NO CHANCE, MR. CHAIR.
PLANNING COMMISSION.
RON BEDNAR, CITY PLANNING. THE PROPERTY IS INDICATED FOR MULTIFAMILY RESIDENTIAL USE.
THE CITY PLAN OR ADOPTED DISTRICT PLAN RECOMMENDS NO CHANGE TO THE EXISTING ZONING AT THIS LOCATION.
THERE IS NO UNIQUE PHYSICAL CIRCUMSTANCES AND NO CONDITION OF THE PROPERTY THAT WOULD BE PREVENT
being used in conformity with the zoning code. This is an overuse of the property. The City
Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the proposed use variance for visitor accommodation.
2023-006-889-1236 West Allegheny Avenue. I vote yes with proviso.
Visitor accommodation temporary variance expires 424-28.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso.
Dishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Have a great night.
We're going to go to number five.
Is, you're going to, this is a former PHA property.
I'll recuse myself, yeah.
LeBaron, we're going to use you on this case.
So, number five, MI 2023-006-890, 2020-24 North Banbury Street, letter of non-opposition from Strawberry Mansion Community concerned with provisos.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Whalen, I think I probably, somewhere this morning, I swore you in.
Could you just state your name for the record, please?
Certainly.
You definitely did already get me once today.
Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
And could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
Certainly.
The owner is Dante LLC, and the owner of that LLC is here today,
or the representative of the LLC is here today to adopt my testimony.
Mr. Holloman, could you follow up with the questions, please?
Good afternoon, counsel.
Good afternoon.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance?
thank you please proceed and share your screen all right again sean whalen from vintage law
here on behalf of the owner and applicant for this project uh you should be seeing
an aerial map this is a triangular awkwardly shaped triangular property right at the corner
of Page Street and North Bainbury, essentially just off the corner of North 25th Street and West
Diamond. We have a relatively, this is an image you can see it's fully built out. What we're trying
to do today is just legalize an existing building that's been a long-standing duplex, actually
dating back to 1968. And we are not seeking any new construction or height. We're just looking
to revitalize uh what has been a dilapidated building in this neighborhood you can see there's
a lot of vacant lots in this neighborhood a lot of properties in need of rehabilitation
and that was one of the main things that the rco was very excited about when they uh you know chose
not to oppose so again the the property is a triangular property here you can see at this
corner of Page and Bainbury Street. Like I said, it's zoned RSA 5, which only allows for single
It's zoned RSA 5, which only allows for single-family use.
family use.
However, there is an existing duplex, two-story use that's been fully built out at the site since at least the 1940s, which I'll show.
We received one refusal, the only refusal being that two-family household living is not allowed in an RSA 5 residential zoning district.
and here you can see the strawberry mansion community concern we did meet with them last
week and they were they provided the following i think the only proviso that really affects
this board is we did agree to do a commercial trash pickup twice a week at this property
so here's the existing building obviously you can see it needs a little a little tlc
This is North Bainbury Street here.
Page Street is up to the left.
You can see the existing front door here.
The status of the building has been and always has been.
There is a first floor unit.
You go up the center staircase and there's a second floor unit.
Both units stack and are three bedrooms for each one.
There is a basement.
However, the basement is not full height.
It's actually only under the rear portion of this property, not this kind of narrowing portion of the triangle.
And it is not living space and it will not be does not provide any living space currently.
And there's no discussion of living space down there.
And again, it's it's unfinished in storage only in limited capacity.
So, again, here you can just look down. This is the property on the left.
You can look down the street. They're all pockmarked with vacant lots and crime and drug use has been a rampant issue here in this neighborhood as raised by the RCO.
This is looking down North Page, the same side of it.
So, again, everything's just going to be cleaned up, new windows.
The roof is going to be addressed and we'll be putting in new tenants in the duplex.
So this is looking down north page. You can see the same sort of neighborhood condition.
And then this is the rear portion. There's a triangle portion here that is a rear yard.
That will be fenced in and there will be a private section for the trash cans to go right in this corner with a gate just right there for the private trash collection.
the property was posted on both sides of the building
and as I promised you have the in the zoning archive itself this building has been duplex
since 1968 and in fact it's actually before that was a four-family building from 1942 on
So, you know, we are not we did not create any condition at this property and we're not exacerbating any condition at this property.
Here's the overall site map view.
You can see the dark gray is the as built condition.
This light white section is that rear yard portion that I was describing.
That'll be cleaned up and fenced in and the trash will go right in this corner.
there will be a small trash hauler that'll pull up, go right across the sidewalk, pull the trash
cans over and put them back. So there will be no trash from the added use. And then what you can
see here, I will zoom in. Again, they both stack. So looking at one is the same as looking at both.
This is as built. There's no structural change taking place or being requested.
You walk in the front door, there's a full bath, a large kitchen and living area, and then one bedroom, two bedrooms, and three bedrooms.
So again, the total site area is 1,280 square feet, and we do believe that this meets all the requirements for a variance.
There is a hardship, which is the existing building in its current condition.
It's already built out as two three-bedroom units, and there is other multifamily use
in the neighborhood as well.
We do believe that there's no detriment to the public health, safety, or welfare as revitalizing
this property into its current condition for residential will match the residential nature
of the neighborhood and it will bring more eyes and attention onto the street and kind of this
And it will bring more eyes and attention onto the street and kind of this quiet corner,
which has been, like I said, rampant with drugs and crime.
And then finally, this is the least minimum variance request, because although it is a
single family zoning district, we are simply only seeking to develop this or rehabilitate
this property into its current condition.
We're not seeking any additional use over and above the intensity that's already been
there.
And with that, I'd be happy to call Movita Johnson, if you could raise your hand.
Movita?
Good afternoon.
Take your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer.
Movita Johnson, M-O-V-I-T-A-J-O-H-N-S-O-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Chair.
Ms. Johnson, you're here today on behalf of the owner and developer of this property, correct?
And you heard all of the testimony that I already presented today?
And do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
Yes. And would you adopt that testimony as your own? Yes.
Okay. Board chair, with that, I would offer myself and my client, Ms. Johnson, for any questions the board may have.
Questions from the board?
No, chair.
No, chair.
Questions or so is, did you vote then?
oh yes yes i did excuse me okay so that's okay that's okay mr holliman
mr holliman
can you hear me mr chairman oh i can't i can't tom vote please do you have any comments or questions
no okay um lebaron
chair not hearing any questions from the board um maybe we could call planning commission while
sure planning commission uh ron bednar city planning hold on mr chair um we just did questions
from the board i i did have a quick comment and then we should go to the public okay um and i see
i see um lebaron is back i think he was just having some technical issues okay yeah for just
a second the right time to do it huh but all good now do you have any questions lebaron for
regarding this case okay um mr chair and just um as mr whalen noted there are provisors requested
by the rco um commercial trash pickup twice a week is enforceable um the other one that i saw
that was enforceable they asked about basement living um i think we could do something if the
board was so inclined uh as no household living in the basement thank you thank you miss emerson
and we would be fine with that again uh board chair because uh it's actually not possible to
put any living in the basement it's it's not a full full height or full size basement or finished
anyway questions or comments from the virtual audience yes we have a handout from strawberry
mansion community concerns i have allowed them to speak hi could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer all right can you hear me i i can okay hi uh good afternoon
uh bonita coming b-o-n-i-t-a c-u-m-m-i-n-g-s yep do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
told truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed um we did have a non-opposition or
unopposed to this development um strictly due to um its its existing structure being uh
reconfigured to this island-shaped property um but there are um uh as we tried to describe in
the proviso that if it's not something that will be a proviso, we definitely want it to
If it's not something that will be a proviso, we definitely want it to be in the record.
be in the record.
This could turn very quickly into more than one person per room.
So we just wanted to make sure that it is what they described, a single room occupancy protocol for this type of multi-year property.
So that it was described to us that it would be one person per bedroom.
uh they discussed the commercial trash pickup the only concern we had with that was to make
sure that the trash is actually separate from what they described as going to be a yard space
uh for the residents of this property so they're not sitting in trash that that
it'd be defined as to where that trash space ends and the actual activity yard begins
This property comes with no air conditioning for the building, so I don't know if that's a concern for the zoning board, but I would imagine it would be quite uncomfortable if not described how cooling would take place in this property.
They talked about no basement living. It has been proposed that there was no drug or recovery rehab use or house. And then, of course, again, no rooming house.
they talked about external grounds and property maintenance and another concern is that a project
like this where you have three separate people or maybe unrelated people living in rooms
they're not really privy to the eviction program so we were concerned that being that they may not
had leases that that could turn into maybe a problem of um evictions for uh the the members
that would be or persons that may be involved in um renting in these in these rooms so that's
what we wanted to get you know get in directly okay it's on the record conditioning thank you
very much for your for your call is there anyone else in the virtual audience
no further answer mr chair planning commission
So, Ron Bednar, city planning. The property is indicated for residential use on the city plan. Our adopted district plan gives that recommendation. Given the documented use history, we have no objection to the granting of the requested variance.
Thank you. So MI 2023-006-890-2020-24, North Bambry Street. I vote yes with proviso. Commercial trash pickup twice a week. No basement living.