Good morning, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this morning's
meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our Vice Chair, Tanetta Grant.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Secretary, Charlotte L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Taya Nguyen.
She may be on her way. Also, here is our attorney, Lynn Reuter-Huber,
our ZBA Executive Director, Ian Haggerty, and our Board Administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
This hearing is being recorded and will be posted on the ZBA website.
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wait to be sworn in, and then after that, each time you testify, start by stating your
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If we evacuate, please go to Love Park, which is across our street, and please remain there
so we can account for you so let's take a look at our schedule today
number eight mi 2025 waltz road mi 2026 003033 um could the spanish interpreter please come on
Good morning, Chair. This is Doreen, and I will be co-hosting this morning.
Thank you.
You're welcome. The Spanish interpreter will be coming in as a panelist.
Sure. Thank you.
Good morning.
Good morning. Could you please state and spell your name?
rancor rodriguez f-r-a-n-c-o-r-o-d-r-i-g-u-e-c do you swear or affirm that you will interpret
accurately completely and impartially from english to spanish from spanish to english
thank you okay could you please call um maria good to teres to come on please
uh can you repeat the name sorry yes maria g-u-t-i-e-r-r-e-z
there are no hands raised okay uh interpreter could you uh we we're continuing with this case
until 9 15 26 at 9 30 a.m could you please announce this for us
thank you very much sir we appreciate your help is there anything else i can help you with today
no that's fine thank you very much all right have a wonderful day everyone bye bye all right
We're going to go to number one, MI 2025-004-134-3813 Folsom Street.
Alan Nockmson or Al.
Mr. Goldberg, this is a resumptive hearing.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Could you please state your...
Alex Goldberg.
Alex Goldberg. A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.
Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Goldberg, this is a resumptive hearing.
Our schedule is that we will have an update from you.
There'll be questions from the board.
We won't take public testimony.
It will be limited to what is additional today.
And then we will go to the Planning Commission.
So could you please start your presentation?
Sure, I can.
And you might want to just give a little overview of what the case is about.
So the property address is 3813 Folsom Street.
We presented to the board on June 17th at 3.30 p.m.
The application is for a three-family dwelling,
the erection of a three-family dwelling on a currently vacant lot this this application
was approved previously by way of variance in 2021 it had the support of the coordinating rco
at that time which was mantua civic association due to financing issues my client was unable to
build it the permit expired and they went to seek that variance again with the same set of plans
the application was again supported by the coordinating rco which was hope phl this time
around we also have a letter of non-opposition from the council member council member gautier
and when we came to the zoning board on june 17th there was some feedback that the massing of the
structure was out of character with the block and it was recommended that we create a mansard roof
or a third story setback so we've done that we have a provis proviso form and revised plans
that you can see. Let me go full screen mode. Right here, listing the changes to the architectural
drawings where we added a mansard roof to the third floor. There's a very slight increase in
building height just because of that mansard roof, but pretty negligible. We also shrunk the
building slightly in the rear to give a little bit more light and air in the back and rear yard
space, an additional six feet. In turn, that reduced the occupied area. We've also added a
built-in trash enclosure to the front of the property and we we corrected the front setback
which was previously listed at eight feet to match the adjacent property but upon an additional
measurement it was actually 10 feet so that was corrected these are those revised plans you can
see the mansard roof whoops the mansard roof there go to the floor plans i think it'll give
you a better idea of what we're working with here obviously the property was posted again
and here were the revised drawings so there's a trash enclosure in the front
there is obviously you know additional space in the rear yard uh 16 foot wide rear yard there's a
there is basement use but we've um sort of carved out a basement walkout out of the rear
and kind of like a sunken patio back there so what you're looking at is sort of top down here
the green the green unit is the top floor it is a two bed one bath the second unit is pretty
similar two bed one bath and then the blue unit is the first floor and lower level which is a
two bed two bath we added a porch at the front again out of the mansard roof and you can see
that there's you know this walk out here as well as a walk out of the rear here as well
um with that i'm happy to take any questions from the board questions from the board i guess if
you'd like for my client to adopt that you could if you bring okay heaven thomas is in the virtual
audience heaven thomas is coming in as a panelist thank you
heather he should be coming in now chair sure
heaven thomas can you unmute yourself
hello hello hi good morning could you good morning could you please stay
and spell your name for the stenographer hello my name is heaven thomas h-e-a-d-e-n last name
hello my name is heaven thomas h-e-a-d-e-n last name thomas t-h-o-m-e-s
Thomas.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
unmute please
you're muted hi hi do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes counsel heaven did you hear my testimony today yes was it true and correct yes and do you
adopt it as your own yes thank you questions from the board what's what's the material of the uh
uh trash can enclosure in the front and how high is that so the the trash can enclosure i believe
is going to be sort of like metal panel doors or like metal screen doors as far as the height the
first floor is two feet six inches above grade it looks according to this plan that it's just about
at that height level um so that so the trash cans will be pretty pretty well screened yes okay all
right all right thank you you're welcome all the questions yeah i'll quickly um so there's also
trash storage in the rear well that's just theoretically unit one could store their trash
in the rear but um you know i think it would just be easier to to store it where the rest of the
trash stored. Okay, thank you. Questions from our attorney? No questions at this time, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience or the present audience here?
There are no hands in audience, Chair. Planning Commission. Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission,
A-M-Y-B-O-Y-D. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth? I do.
please proceed chair we've already been on the record about this case but i'm happy to repeat
if you wish sure why don't you do that the comprehensive plan recommends no change to
the rsa 5 residential single family attached zoning at this location there is no unique
condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance
with the zoning code therefore the planning commission recommends that the board deny the
proposed use variance for multi-family household living thank you um um this case is closed uh we
will vote on this one 8 26 26 at 9 30 a.m okay all right thank you had conversations with council
about that yes okay thank you number five
Number five, MI 2026, 000492, 4055 West Dorot Avenue. Henry Clinton is the attorney.
henry clinton will be rejoining as a panelist thank you good morning mr chairman members
mr clinton could you please state and spell your name sure henry clinton h-e-n-r-y clinton c-l-i-n-t-o-n
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Clinton, this is a resumptive hearing.
My understanding, you will give us an update.
The board will have questions.
There will be public testimony.
And planning will also have a chance to take questions.
So why don't you start?
And if you would, please just give us a brief overview of where we are with this.
Is that visible, Mr. Chairman, the first page?
Yes, sir.
You might want to make it just a little bit bigger if you get a chance.
Got it.
So I was before the board early June on this project.
The project involved the rehabilitation of the long dilapidated building, 4055 West
Girard Avenue.
We had full support of the community for six units.
we presented to the board in the cmx2 zoning district the board was not enamored with the
number of units the size of the bedrooms uh as well as a apartment uh in the basement and we've
since revised those plans and i have those to present to the board today table of contents
here's a refusal it was simply concerning use we had no issue with open space rear yard it was
simply a use it issue in the cmx 2 zoning district we did have the rco east parkside
residents association full support with the initial refusal and we had
with the initial refusal and we had signatures from the block you may recall this building it's
a large building on gerrard avenue in bad shape my client has done some make safe issues with
the property to safeguard it and i'll show you the original plans and this may help you recall
what we talked about in June so these were the original plans that we
presented to the board again vacant commercial space on the first floor we
don't know what that commercial space will become we had a an apartment studio
in the basement first floor another unit and then on the second and third floor
we had two units there was concern from the board about the two bedrooms in the
rear we've since changed that and made those one-bedroom units the same with
the third floor so I'll move on to the revised plans again reduction in
apartments from six to five elimination apartment in the basement which is now
designated as storage inclusion of trash closets and kitchens of all five
apartments second of floor rear bedroom apartments are reduced uh the bedrooms that is reduced from
two to one here are the revised plans again commercial space uh in the front basement
storage in the rear there's an existing uh access from the sidewalk into this rear space
so it's really not in egress well it's it's an opening that you would see
typically on corner stores where there are iron grates that you can open up and
walk down into the basement on the first floor one apartment in the rear now
included the furniture in the drawings and again commercial vacant space in the
front you go up the stairs situated in the middle of the building to the second
floor, one bedroom in the rear, two bedrooms in the front, and that same floor plan is repeated
on the third floor as you continue up the switchback steps with one larger bedroom in the
rear and two bedrooms in the front. So that is the presentation. My client is here to adopt my
testimony why don't you bring your client all right my client is to my right your left can
you spell your name for the board please my name is nevin abedina n-e-v-i-n henry could you bring
him a little closer a little closer spelling is n-e-v-i-n capital a-b-e-d-i-n-a-j do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do debon you you sat
here when i presented your revised proposal correct yes if you had the opportunity to testify
would you adopt my testimony as your own and that's true and correct yes thank you uh questions
from the board can you zoom into the the plan so we can see the the whole board plan certainly
Do you want me to concentrate on the basement? Mr. Johns, I work my way up.
Yeah, that would be good. So, so you made the changes, the suggested changes, and that's just storage. I think that's great.
First floor is zoom out a little bit more so we can see the whole plan a little bit more.
Okay, and so you go through. So the access to the backyard is through the kitchen, not through the bedroom. Okay.
right yeah well there okay all right can you just zoom zoom out a little bit more so we can
see the whole the whole floor plan on both floors no zoom zoom out yeah zoom out not not in but out
okay okay yeah it's better that's better
Okay, stop moving slide slide it back. All right. All right.
Any other questions? Yeah, I think I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. So the storage for in the basement, is that for the units?
Or just clarify with that storage in the back and the rear basement.
That's really general storage for the commercial.
The green, the green space space. Yes. Okay.
okay other questions
Other questions?
not a question but a comment that first floor apartment has that condition that i don't like
where you have to go through the living room and the dining room to get to the bathroom but
you know i don't know how else you can rearrange it but
That's 1 of my issues with some of these.