with, you'll understand why that was required. The other is this front-loaded parking for the
larger home, which is basically lot C on the refusal, and the open area. What I'll show you
for the front-loaded garage is that we are not displacing any on-street parking, and there are
multiple curb cuts along this block of North Lawrence Street, including literally on both
sides of us and several right across the street. So there is a predominantly front-loaded garage
already existing on the block. And then on this maximum occupied area refusal, we actually
increased the open area with due to the revision that was requested by Northern Liberties. And we
have actually gotten very close to the requirement. We're only off by about 2%. So we'll obviously
be arguing that it's a minimal deviation from the code. So let me then jump to the
survey. So you could see what we were dealing with, why it was a challenging property to start.
i want to mention that so this is the let me shrink this a bit so you can
so these were the existing lot dimensions this lot here runs through to leithgow
but if you can see these dimensions here these are 12 foot six feet inch wide lots
which render your home homes very very narrow and difficult to work with this long lot is
vacant and has been vacant for decades. My client's a resident of the area or was a resident
of the area for a long time, can verify that this lot has been extremely difficult to develop and
has thus been vacant for 20, at least 25 years, even through the residential
development boom that this area experienced. This lot was not developed. So we reconfigured
the lot to do as follows from this scenario, which is existing to this. This is the larger
property here that I'm circling with my cursor. That's going to be the new home, the new larger
home. And then this lot will have the smaller home. So we were only working with this small,
narrow piece to begin with. So what the developer felt was the most feasible was to build a larger
house along Lawrence Street with an accessory curb cut and then a smaller tiny home, which a lot of
people like these days, along Lithgow. So there are three addresses and two homes. I'll show you
the plans now. This is the revised plan for the larger lot. We'll start with that. These are the
larger lot. We'll start with that. These are the floor plans. So basically the neighborhood group,
floor plans. So basically the neighbor
Northern Liberties and Larry Friedman, here's the site plan. We shifted the location of the
curb cut to try to save this tree. I'll show you some photos in a moment. The tree is very
challenging, but we did commit to trying to save it. And we will, of course, try to do that. So
we shifted the driveway away from it. When I show you the picture, you'll see it's a little
tight, but we hope we can pull it off. We think we can. And we increased the rear yard. So it's
now 22.84% instead of it was like an 18 or 19%, I believe, on the refusal. So that's the new
layout of the larger home. These are the floor plans. There's like a mezzanine. There's two
walkouts. Walkout in the rear, but obviously this is a single family house. No multifamily is
is proposed at all. And I'll show you the rendering. This is the rendering here. This
is the old rendering. The curb cut is actually centered in the property due to the request from
the neighborhood group. All right. Let me just show you the, I have photos in the packet, but
let me just show you the Google Earth layout. You can see all the curb cuts all around us.
this is the property here it's this small slender house here that is
two stories it will be demolished and this is the open lot here you can see there's curb cuts
next to us on either side curb cuts down here and then curb cuts right across the street so
obviously we feel that the front loader garage is a appropriate request I want to show you the
parcel maps, you can see that the tiny lot, the tiny house that we're creating is
in keeping with some of the other homes, many of the other lots on Lithgow. You can see here,
this is our property, the 963, and this one. So you can see the lot right next to us is
actually the same size as what we're creating. And then if you look down here,
All of these lots are all similar with, and obviously we don't have control of the 966
Leithgow lot, so we couldn't create a larger property there. So the thought was to create
a smaller, more working man home. And let me show you those plans now, and then
I can get Brian on the line and we can try to wrap up. We did meet with the neighbors. We do
have a support letter from them. I think they understood the challenges that we were dealing
with. And we, of course, altered the plan per their requests. And hopefully we got something
that works for everyone. All right. This is the site plan for the time. I don't want to use the
word tiny, excuse me, the smaller home. No curb. Well, there's an existing curb cut, but we are
we're not proposing a garage um and here's the floor plan and so with that mr oh here's the
rendering um and again this is consistent with other homes along lithgow let me just show you
just a few photos and i can have brian accept my testimony and um i just wanted to see the
again that's yeah that's the property that's the existing house this is the the empty house
so let's have brian mayberry um raise his hand virtually so he can
accept my testimony and make a couple comments
mr mayberry
they'll be coming back in as we panelish shortly okay thank you
okay is that can you hear me okay yeah sir could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer sure it's brian mayberry b-r-i-a-n last name mayberry m-a-y b-e-r-r-y you swear
referring to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do mr mayberry
could you turn on your video please um one second there we go
thank you oh almost thank you okay sorry sorry about that council mr mayberry um why don't you
just update the board on uh the tax clearance uh just give them a one sentence update on where
you're at with that um it should be rectified by my accountant in about a week or two we had
I had a failure to file from 2023 that popped up like a month, a month and a half ago, but, you know, it was – our taxes were filed.
It's just some paperwork error, so we're going to clear that up and anything else.
So I expect it hopefully by Friday, if not by the beginning of next week.
So it's a – you know, unfortunately, it wasn't done in time, but it will be rectified.
And you, first of all, did you hear all of my factual testimony?
And you – first of all, did you hear all of my factual testimony?
Was it true and accurate?
it wasn't
Yes, it was.
And can you adopt it as your formal testimony in this case?
Yes, I can.
And when you were looking at the configuration of these homes, was this the minimum relief
that you wanted to request to be able to develop this?
Is this the minimum variance relief that you could ask for in order to be able to pull
this off?
Yes, it is.
it's a challenging lot um but it was the best solution that i was able to come up with i feel
and was i right that the the vacant lot was empty has been empty as far as you can remember and
you've been in the neighborhood for over two decades is that right um yeah i mean i bought
my first house on 1019 north lawrence street which i still own actually i lived there for a while in
2001 so and it was a full gut um but yes you're correct i don't i don't remember it there wasn't
the house there or anything for forever. And if that I can remember. And are you able to develop
this lot at all if you don't get some form of variance or relief like what we're asking for
today? Um, no, I'm not. It really does economically. If we just put one house on
Lawrence street, it doesn't economically, it doesn't work. Um, you know, I'm asking the board
just to be able to right now on the parcel, there is a 12 foot wide house. So I'm kind of asking
just to move that to the back and then put a you know a larger house on lawrence street so i mean
there is a technically a 12 and a half foot wide house on the property already it just it's from
1880s or 1890s so it just needs to uh you know be a um bulldozed and refreshed that's all i have
for mr mayberry mr chairman i did want to i i don't know if there's going to be opposition i
don't believe there is but in the event there is i have plato maranakis who's the architect i was
going to have them put something on the record i'm willing to just uh see if there's opposition
if not i can wrap up why don't we see what it is and if you have to you can very good if i could
have that opportunity that'd be great thank you questions from the board yeah question rear yard
for the uh smaller property there i don't believe there is one let me bring it up for you there is
some kind of yard i don't have the in front of me but oh there is uh there is uh board member
johns there is a rear yard here let me i'll try to blow it up bear with me here you could turn it
turn it also like turn it 90 degrees so i'll i'll try okay hold on i think it's this one yeah we'll
rotate i gotta go clockwise okay and that rear yard backs up to the to the 12 foot rear yard
of the other property yes sir yes exactly we must have met the met it for the rear yard or we would
have had a refusal um i believe that the yards the yard the parcel is fairly deep so i i'm pretty sure
that i again i i can't see the plans right now but uh what do we got it's like it's probably
because the lot's small enough the the yard was large enough to meet the requirements and how
and how do you access the yard is it through the basement is there a basement it'd be come out
through the back door of the house.
Okay, where is the...
Here, I'll shrink
this so you can see the whole layout.
Okay, all right.
There we go.
Thanks.
Any other questions?
Did we answer your question,
Mr. Johns? Yes.
Okay, thank you.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
I just want to
note, Mr. DeMarco, the refusal
doesn't list the two addresses that are involved in this lot line adjustment. So since we're
holding this anyway for taxes, I'm going to reach out to L&I and ask them to issue a corrected
refusal with that information since it should have been included in the first place.
Obviously, I don't have a problem with that, Hillary. If you just keep on top of them,
it's so slow sometimes over there. I'm sure they will listen to you more than me. So if you could
drive that, please. I will send that request over right away.
okay questions or comments from the virtual audience or the present audience
mr chair i do not see any hands raised any commission no need to thank you chairman
yeah thank you chairman of good afternoon david vecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential
single-family zoning at this location the appellant proposes to change their lot lines to create two
lots parcels c and d proposed parcel d is significantly undersized according to the code
however it is in keeping with the average lot sizes of the properties on lifgow street requested
variance for maximum occupied open area uh for maximum occupied area sorry on parcel d is minor
and in keeping with the purpose and spirit of the zoning code proposed interior off street
proposed interior off street accessory parking on the proposed lot c matches the character of the
accessory parking on the proposed lot c
other homes on this block face the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed
dimensional and parking variances thank you hillary um is next wednesday too soon
um so we follow wednesday we're closed right following wednesday off so probably the 23rd
to be the best state that way we would have the the corrected refusal should be should should be
done by then i'm requesting it now um but that gives you the one to two weeks to get the taxes
in so okay thank you okay so we're going to continue this to 4 23 25 at 2 p.m uh it's closed
except for what we received for the tax right and the refusal okay thank you do you need me to
by my name, Mr. Chairman? Do you need me to appear?
We're going to announce our vote.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Have a good afternoon.
Number three, MI 2024-003-335-621-25.
Reed Street.
Leonard Altieri is here.
We have
opposition from
pen passion square and opposition from council member squilla could you please state your name
for the record yes mr chairman and members of the board leonard altieri a-l-t-i-e-r-i with the law
firm of claire harrison harvey bransburg here you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
and nothing but the truth i do mr chairman um this is a uh resumptive hearing uh hillary
correct ma'am for long we're going to go over the amended refusal am i correct yes that is correct
mr trey this is a resumption hearing posting and tax compliance and we have an additional letter
from council member squill in opposition so i'm just waiting to be admitted to share
Thank you.
All right. Perfect.
So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. As you said, you are correct. This is a resumptive hearing for 621-25 Reed Street. With regards to exhibits, very short. We do have the corrected refusal, which was attached as tab one. We also have the updated posting of the property for this hearing, as well as no issues with regards to taxes.
Do you want me to do a little historical background?
Why don't you do that?
Yeah. So by way of background, Mr. Chairman, and I will, just in case there's anything with regards to the site property here. So by way of background, this goes back all the way to about 2019 when my client received a zoning permit to construct a one-story addition and to use the property as vacant ground floor commercial with 12 residential units on the upper floors.
This property is located, as is being shown here on the screen, in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
My client has never been able to rent that space out.
As was testified at the original hearing, which was back in November, November 13th of 2024, we had our broker who testified from MPN.
We also had our client who was here as well.
The pandemic exacerbated the ability for that space to be rented out for commercial in this neighborhood.
My client then filed an application to change that commercial vacant floor space to four residential units. While there was support by some of the property owners, the RCO came out against it. They did, and this predates my time at the firm, did come to the zoning board.
there was kind of a discussion with then chairman to say hey is there a way that we can kind of
strike a compromise the compromise that we came up with is the plan that's currently before the
board today which is to have two units on the ground floor two residential units and four
accessory parking spaces excuse me four indoor parking spaces and i apologize this is not a
dense but as you can see here so this is the new plan to have two residential units on the ground
floor and four parking spaces inside the parking spaces was kind of seen as something that we were
trying to do to accommodate the neighborhood knowing that parking is so limited in that
passion square area um as i said we came before the board back in january um excuse me back in
um excuse me back in 2020 that plan was then denied um we then tried to resume this again
2020, that plan was then denied.
with the with my colleague coming here in january we had to have a corrected refusal
because the refusal was missing a few items which is what brought us here today there was testimony
a full uh hearing was held back in j in uh november excuse me and for today's purposes
it's just the result of here and what what seems to be the main point between the neighbor and
And actually the council person, too.
So with regard to the RCO, and I believe, and I don't want to speak for the council member, but I believe he's just going along with the RCO's opposition.
The RCO's opposition is that they feel that we have not done enough to market that.