i don't see anyone in the audience with that name what about donnell
d-o-n-n-e-l donald or donnell no they're they're not in the audience yeah because we were scheduled
no they're they're not in the audience yeah because we were scheduled for noon today
for noon
that's at least why we had 1206 so i tell my clients to come an hour beforehand that's why
i came an hour beforehand so um i can give testimony as to what i can tell you what they
would have testified to but the board wants to feel comfortable i can why don't why don't we do
this why don't we um one of you as an officer of the court give us your testimony yeah and then
we'll if we're comfortable that we'll figure out where we are all right great um so again he'll have
three staff members working eight hour shifts so one staff member per eight hour shift there um
they'll so it'll be staffed 24 hours a day his qualifications um in terms of he would do
background he has to do his own background checks he has to have a hipaa agreement he has to have
you know obviously this is a heavy heavily regulated uh practice not just for the city
but for the state as well so they have to do their own inspections um you know the the people
that work there have to have cpr certifications first aid certifications emergency response
training abuse neglect and reporting training training on de-escalation and behavioral training
So in addition to Donnell, who is a licensed nurse, he has to have this training, plus all staff members will have the training.
He will not accept any residents with mobility limits or who require evacuation assistance.
So he's not going to have anyone who has physical disabilities.
and he's not looking to hire to have anyone in this space that really can't just take care of
themselves like you know they just need guidance during that time just in case right like you know
they just need a human hair an adult to help them you know if if they just need assistance
he doesn't anticipate any of the members in the in the or the occupants to have like need for a car
He doesn't expect any of them to be driving, so it's not going to cause any issue with public streets and congestion.
No medication will be managed or administered at the property, and he's going to get a PhD ODP license.
and as i stated with the state they require regular property inspections
and he will accept state funding as part of the odp program uh trash will be stored in the rear
with city pickup and then the programming he's going to have is just different programming
events tv laundry he'll have there and he will have cooking on the premises where he'll have
staff members cook for the residents there uh and he'll take insurance so that's basically where
would the clients come from the state uh i believe so that is correct questions from the board i
didn't hear that last part where were the clients come from i i would believe they're they're they're
through the state okay the state and city program so to come again i i would defer to him but i
would assume they would be coming through some governmental program well what's the age group
uh he did say he would accept minors but i i don't want to state exactly who what the age
range is again he's not looking to to have people who have any physical limitations
and in terms of of their mental capacity they have to be functional like we're not because
we're not administering drugs there. So it's people who are able to take care of themselves
but need that extra assistance with adult supervision. And you can define that when
you're accepting individuals through programs that you don't want to take anybody that has
medications or takes medications? That's my understanding from my notes is that he is not
accepting anyone that requires medication that needs to be administered by his facility so i
don't want to state so why don't why don't we do this yeah why don't i move on to the next case
you could go in the back or wherever see if you can get them ready and then we'll go to you next
and that way the questions could be answered thank you okay thank you very much sure all right so next
one is seven number eight number eight number eight mi 2026 000 724 4182 to 36 decatur street
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
Rachel will be rejoining as a panelist
good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for this
sonographer yes Rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify your
client a relationship to the property yes my client is william redmond and he is the owner
of the property so there's a letter of non-opposition from homesburg civic and also a
letter of support from council member driscoll our chair has a few questions great thank you
good morning morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
this hearing yes and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
All right.
Thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Can you see my screen?
So this is 4132236 Decatur Street.
This property is owned RSA 3 and the application is for the legalization of a detached private
garage with one parking space which is accessory to a single family home within a detached
structure the only refusal that this generated was because of the setback so for private
residents garages and carports they are permitted in the rear yard provided that the residence or
garage for the carport shall remain a minimum of three foot setback this garage doesn't meet
that requirements whereas from the rear property line it's less than a foot however as we'll go
through this is this garage replaced an existing garage that burnt down it has the same structure
and sizing of those garages and this condition where it's not three feet from the property line
is similar to the adjacent properties above i do have to give credit to mr redmond he handled this
most of this application and process without me I got involved sort of on the later end just to
help through the hearing so just want to give him a little credit for the work that he did
and just share a little bit about his application again this is constructed on the same footprint
as the old burned down garage extended footprint into his property is about 540 square feet to
660 square feet. And again, any offsets were sort of where the old footprint were. And other
properties in the neighborhood, as mentioned, have zero setbacks or are directly on the property
lines. Use a foot setback adjoining the directly adjacent neighbor and a five-foot setback from the
private driveway, which allows the neighbors to access their garages as well. This is the
tax clearance and the deed for the property.
This is just the zoning map just showing its RSA 3 property, larger corner property,
as you can see from this slide.
I think the lot is almost 12,000 square feet, pretty large property.
And as you can see here, you have the single family home and then the detached garage as well.
Another aerial zoom out a little bit.
This is the front of the home, again, on a pretty large lot.
Zoning posters on the property, more photos.
Okay, this is the exterior view of the garage.
the siding was obviously updated which matches more of the neighborhood as well
than what was there the internal part of the garage just for one car
an exterior view this is the house over here and then the garage on the side
again another view
Again, another view, because that's the neighbor's yard to sort of the end of the garage.
This is the code section.
As mentioned, it requires three feet setback.
Again, we're providing almost a foot.
Mr. Redmond went to the RCO meeting, sent the required notices that are on the screen,
sent the mailing out.
I met with Holmesburg Civic Association, and they did not oppose the application for the
the variance for the non-compliance setback for the garage in the rear of the property.
And again, a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Driscoll's office as well.
So the plans that were drawn up.
So again, this is over 11,000 square foot parcel.
so you have the home here and then we have the one story metal garage that's here accessed by
this private easement to access it so and again it replaced the existing one that was there so
I think setting it over would encroach into this fenced area in the patio setting it back would
encroach into the play area and so it's just taking up again the area that was in if there's
five feet here about 0.85 almost a foot there and then all the rest of this is his property
and that's sort of it on this I want to see if we could bring Mr. Redmond William Redmond he
should be in the audience um to adopt my testimony
william redmond should be rejoining us now thank you you're welcome
Mr. Redmond, looks like he declined. I will try one more time. Thank you.
so rachel he had a fire then he rebuilt it himself without a permit is that what we're
saying correct so this is to legalize yep yep structure william redmond you're free to speak
hi mr redmond could you please mr redmond please state your name is spelled for the
stenographer. He's muted. William Redmond, can you please unmute yourself?
Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can, sir. Could you please state your name and spell it for
the stenographer? William Redmond, W-I-L-L-I-A-M-R-E-D-M-O-N-D. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Council. Mr. Redmond, have you heard my
testimony today do you believe it to be true and accurate and do you adopt it as
your own yes sir yes ma'am that's okay that's all chairman unless there's
questions from the board yes the neighbor next door do you have the
support from the neighbor because the garage is like really close to that
shared fence yes ma'am it actually works to his benefit it closes in his one side
of his lot in the back of his property both of those properties are in the process of being
rehabbed due to the fire they both burned out thank you does the new garage have an electric
line running to it yes yes it does it has its own electrical service which is the permit is in the
process of being finalized as soon as i get the building permit okay understood
other questions questions from our attorney not at this time mr chairman questions or comments
from the virtual audience no hands planning commission jonathan goins planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa3 residential
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing rsa3 residential single family zoning
the proposed dimensional variance is minimal and does not conflict with the purpose and spirit of
the zoning code the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant variance
mi2026 000724 4132 to 36 decatur street i vote yes go johns my vote is yes
tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes i win my vote is yes thank you thank you
counsel um i'll move on to number 10 because his clients weren't coming to 12 anyway so
So, number 10, MI20260007272913Jetson Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
Zen Jin has been promoted.
thank you
good morning good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes uh my name is zen jen z-h-e-n last name j-i-n here on behalf of the applicant
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do counsel could you identify your client and relationship to the property
Yes, my client is Amir Simpson, 2906 North Justin, LLC, the property owner.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Okay, and you have several refusals here, so do you waive the reading of your refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
Yes, I do.
All right, thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Thank you.
i'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted as our exhibits it should
be coming up on the screen can the board see my screen on there i can thank you uh good morning
this is an application uh for legalization of additions at a property at 2913 judson street
My client owns and occupies the property. He is a self-employed individual who bought the property, moved in, was excited about the ownership and did renovations without realizing that it triggered various dimensional zoning refusals.
i think the best way to kind of address all the refusals is simply go to the plans and photos
first it will better show the board what is going on with the property so the property is located
here uh it's on judson street kind of in the middle of the block there is a shared alleyway
behind and there are various neighboring properties uh this is actually the property in question here
And the front setback dimensional variance is regarding the enclosed porch, which is used as essentially a small room where he puts a closet and shoes.
We'll show that picture in a minute.
The property is actually abutted on one side by existing property, on the other side by a few lots, which also is owned by my client at the moment and is vacant.
Not every lot, one or two of the lots are owned by him.
The one thing that we are removing, and this is important with regard to visibility, is this deck.
He put a deck up that essentially covered the rear and side.
You can see here the rear where the wall is, that it covers it, so it made it pretty much an enclosed space.
The community had issues with that, worrying about visibility.
So he had agreed to remove it, and that will be removed as part of the process of moving forward.
The rear space is, because of an addition he did to expand interior space, the rear yard space really is very small.
As you can see, this is the wall in question about the 8-foot wall.
It runs all the way down. It's actually very similar to walls already existing on the block and runs the other way onto the other lots as well.
There is a door for access to the fire alleyway as needed, so it is not really locking him into the space in the rear.
The property surrounding and in the back really had no issue with the actual wall.
Their main concern was the deck, which made that space not visible.
So they were happy to hear that this would be removed.
so they were happy to hear that this would be removed and also my client does live in the
and also my client
property as you can see he's done extensive work to make the property nice for his family
this is the enclosed porch area right here in the photo as you can see it's just a little bit of
closet space some shoes for storage of his shoes and other items it's again a single family house
that he resides in uh this is some of the rooms as you can see uh this is the kitchen uh first
floor area this stair leads to the second floor this is the uh basement area here with the uh
utility closet and the uh small bathroom in the in the basement the plants also show that
i'm going to move to the plan so it's clear on how the space is laid out with regard to
the dimensions so what had happened is there is a existing addition however he did existing
addition because the next door property has the same depth and in fact a lot of properties on the
block have similar depth so he thought that by extending it to match the rear of the neighboring
property he's not violating any dimensional code however of course that is incorrect
the front porch enclosure there's another one on the block um when we met with the community
the neighbor the immediate neighbor and the neighbors really did not have objection to that
given that the front does look fine with the new design so the main concern the neighborhood had