My name is Dorian Noel, that's D-O-R-I-A-N, last name Noel, N-O-E-L, like Christmas.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, thank you.
Mr. Noel, did you hear my testimony, and did you see the exhibits that were presented to the board this afternoon with regard to your case?
Yes, sir. I heard everything.
Okay. And do you agree with that testimony and accept those exhibits as your own?
Yes. The only thing that was wrong, it wasn't 2009, it was 2019 when my father had school.
2019. Okay. And you wish to adopt that testimony as your own with that correction of the year?
Okay. Thank you. I have nothing further.
Thank you. Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Mr. Chair, I see Mr. Richardson's hand raised, so I think he can provide more information.
But he did just forward an email from the coordinating RCO, indicating that they thought there was going to be another meeting in this case.
So I will let him explain that further.
um questions or comments from the virtual audience that will be me mr chair yes sir
just state your name for the record you've already been sworn charles richardson office
of councilwoman cindy bass room 508 city hall uh received a email because i had made an inquiry last
week to uh allegheny west to find out whether or not a meeting had taken place because i didn't
to have any follow-up. And as I asked, was there ever an RCO meeting? And I just forwarded this to
Hillary and to you guys as well. The response was from Regina Smith, who is their coordinator.
Hi, Charles. We met on 3-19-24. The community and Tina Marie, who is another RCO chair,
requested, and they agreed to come back for another meeting. I have not heard from them.
So at this point, we would ask for a hear and hold if that be the case, or resumption, rather,
because of the fact they do need to go back and meet with the community, because that's why you
have no letter from the RCO, because they were supposed to come back. Okay. All right.
I was unaware of that. I know they said they would email me or follow up with me,
But, you know, if they want to meet again, I guess that's fine.
But that was not communicated to me or made clear to us during that evening.
to us during that evening so it would have been nice if we received any correspondence or letter
So it would have been nice if we received any.
regarding that but okay all right mr richardson thank you is there any other person in the
audience from for the verse from the or virtual audience who has comment um yes i have a hand up
from a number and again three five five two i will allow them to speak at this time good afternoon
June, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, I'm Adrienne Fernandez, Swampoodle Neighborhood Puzzles Association, RCO, and my last name
is spelled F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
please proceed okay um we uh had um a meeting for i believe it's the same owner for 1514
west lehigh avenue and um i wasn't aware that uh there was a meeting because we did not get a
notice of um public meeting so i understand that there's going to be a resumption i was listening
and also that um there'll be another meeting and i'm just asking that the applicant party
send out the proper notices and the proper proof of mailing to all of the all the affected rcos
thank you for your comments i have that yeah i i absolutely have if i can respond i actually
you know we served everyone with a certificate of mailing and all the uh addresses um
Um, so I, you know, we have that and I can certainly, and I believe I included that in my packet, but I can certainly upload that to the board.
Right. Is there anything, anyone else in the virtual audience?
No further answer, Mr. Chair.
Planning commission.
Good afternoon, Chair, members of the board. This is Greg Waldman from planning commission staff.
Greg, could you spell your name, please, for the stenographer?
Certainly. My first name is Gregory, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y, last name Walden, W-A-L-E-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair.
Please proceed.
The Copyrights Plan recommends no change to the existing commercial mixed-use zoning.
A previous permit from 2001 indicates that there was a grocery store on the first floor,
and two residential units above.
Their grocery store has since been closed,
and the adjacent CMX2 properties have had their ground floors converted
to residential dwelling units.
The applicant could develop two units by right.
However, the applicant could utilize the low-income option
of the mixed-income housing bonus to achieve one extra unit
for a total of three dwelling units.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board
grant the variance for ground floor residential
but deny the variance for recalling units above two, since that by-right option is available.
All right. Thank you. So we're going to hold this case, hold the vote. It'll be closed other than
letters or comments from the RCO. Also, we would want to see the tax issue. And if we have a
Resumptive hearing will be the RCO making comments and also, Mr.
Derizio, you responding to their comments.
Yeah, I was going to say, if I can make a suggestion, Mr.
Derizio, once you've had or scheduled that follow-up meeting,
please contact the ZBA and then we can schedule a resumption hearing
accordingly.
So we schedule it now.
We don't know when the meeting is.
We don't want to have to reschedule.
so just contact us and we'll we'll reschedule a resumption hearing and Mr. Chair I think we can
just leave the record opened for the time being since we'll have a resumption all right thank you
all right number three MI 2023-005-992-1600 to 18 West Hunting Park Avenue
No RCO letter, but there was a meeting held on January 9th, 2024, with the 13th Ward RCO.
Dorothy Ann Hamill will be rejoining as a panelist.
Afternoon, counsel, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Dorothy Hamill, D-O-R-O-T-H-Y-H-A-M-A-R-I-L-L, Sterling Lesser and Benson.
Go ahead.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
My client is the owner of the property.
Also, attending the hearing is the proposed operator of the property.
Banquet Hall, Simeo Reeves.
Okay. And our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, Counsel. Do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate towards accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of the hearing?
Thank you. You may proceed.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Dorothy Hamill. I'm representing the
applicant in connection with a proposed use in an existing building for assembly and
entertainment. That use is not permitted in the zoning district, which is I-1.
um the this is a copy of our zoning refusal uh i would note uh i would point out to the board
that in the notes there's there was actually a previous application uh two years ago which
granted the use uh with provisos um frankly i'm not sure what happened to that but um so this use
was previously approved. Also, just a little bit of history on the building.
The building had a banquet hall back in 2012 as well. Together with, there was also a daycare,
fitness center, and some other smaller uses. Currently, the property has 46 residential
apartments and a daycare center on the first floor. This proposed use would be the other use
in the building. This is a copy of our zoning application. We did have a meeting, which I'm
getting to our letter. This is proof of ownership. We did have a meeting with the community
organizations tax clearance through may 23rd this is a copy of the notice that was sent out
along with proof that we sent notices to the 200 the residents within 200 feet this is this is from
the RCO. We had our meeting. The RCO provided a letter of support for the proposal. However,
there were several provisos which were requested in their approval. We have agreed to those
I'm looking for because I don't know why. It's not fully on the, it's not fully in my proposal, but the provisos were that Banquet Hall would not have a liquor license.
So let me let me go back a second before getting into that. The proposal is not, you know, a large banquet hall for large parties.
The idea is for it to be a local gathering place for showers, church functions, anniversary parties, family reunions, things of that nature.
The proposed operator is a resident of the neighborhood and operates an existing business within the neighborhood, and so is very vested in the community.
the um there'll be no cooking on site uh people will either hire caterer or they will bring food
uh bring their own food in um it will be a byob so clients will be able to
It will be a BYOB, so clients will be able to have alcohol.
However, they will have to provide proof of insurance.
They will have to have all of the appropriate licenses necessary.
And as part of the contract that they sign for use of the facility, they will have to enforce a limit of three drinks per person.
And they were, you know, we had proposed those and the RCO was very supportive of that because that's something obviously they are concerned about that it not become, you know, a party hall.
And that's certainly not the intention, particularly. Given the residential nature of the building, the proposed hours of operation for the facility will be Monday to Friday, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m., Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 12 a.m.
The idea is that during the daytime, we're proposing those will be predominantly business events and family gatherings, such as repasts, church functions, and they'll last somewhere between one to four hours.
Evening hours will be 5 p.m. to 12 p.m. for evening events.
There will be commercial trash pickup behind a locked gate,
and we'll have commercial trash pickup at least twice a week
if it is determined that there's more trash, then two days a week we'll be able to handle,
then we certainly recognize that we'll have to and we'll be willing to increase the trash pickup.
The other issue that was raised by the RCOs, which is included in their summary, is they're concerned about security and how we were going to handle that.
And they wanted to make sure that there would be no armed guards during 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
We certainly have no intention of that, you know, certainly not during any time that the daycare center is in operation.
We are going to require all guests to provide security for evening events outside to make sure that, you know, not only the guests are safe, but that there's nothing surrounding, nothing that will affect the surrounding neighbors or businesses.
Um, they, so I think that we agreed to all of the provisors and concerns that the RCOs
raised, which is why they provided us with a letter of support.
The, I have pictures, uh, this is just from the letter.
it's the letter this is proof of all the mailings to the neighbors
let me uh let me shrink that down a little bit uh these are the uh these are the notices
we're still we're still looking at council we're still looking at the original
vote of the uh rco oh oh you are oh can you see it now okay we're looking at the rco vote
are you looking at the presentation now can you see rco vote the rco vote
Can you see it now?
RCO vote.
The RCO vote.
I don't.
I don't, uh.
That's odd because it's not up on my screen.
So, I don't know.
Let me see.
Take that out.
Does that do it?
It's not up on my screen.
So, I'm not.
Let me see.
Ms. Hamill?
You might want to stop sharing and reopen the document and then share again.
Let me stop share.
I will bring it up again.
Here we go.
And then share again.
Share.
Share.
Better?
Move it up.
Keep going.
Keep moving.
That's all the mailings.
Let me scan down.
Do you have a picture of the property?
Getting to that.
Shrink it down a little so we can see.
A little more.
That's it.
Proof of posting.
Proof of posting of a building.
A couple pictures.
This is a picture of the building from across the street.