eat work play so to speak um you know i myself have stayed in several of those units when i've
when i'm down in miami when i've been up there and uh you know they're really great even so
the other questions questions from our attorney hillary emberson
um just a clarification because i noticed on the the floor plans that it looked like only
part of the unit was actually being converted like the third and fourth floors would be
computed to residential correct okay so i i just want to point that out to the board because it
it may be that it's not the entire unit 117 it's only part of it so if the board is inclined to
grant you may want to include a proviso that indicates the use is limited to the third and
fourth floor yeah i should be okay okay yeah so the second or are rented to bottled
right and there's no connection from the second floor to the third floor
questions or comment from the virtual audience
no hands at this time chair planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission the
comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current cmx5 commercial
mixed use the proposal is to add a dwelling unit in an existing mixed-use building where
residential is already allowed the planning commission sorry the planning commission has
no objection to the board granting the requested variance for single family household living
MI-2025-005-588-109-South 13th Street. I vote yes with proviso. Limiting use to third and fourth floors.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes with provisos.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with provisos.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with proviso.
Iowa, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you.
you. Number seven, MI-2025-006068-2009 North Howard Street. Andrea Solomon is the attorney.
They're being promoted to panelists here. Yep. Okay. Andrea, you've already been sworn.
um could you just state your name for the record thank you andrea solomon uh from claire harrison
with me today is the principal of the owner applicant 2009 north howard alpha llc
i'm sorry my unanimous support from norris square community action network
and non-opposition from council member lazada our vice chair has a few questions
good afternoon had you mailed your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes
i'll just add that we submitted our revised exhibit package to include the letters of non-opposition
and support thank you and do you waive the reading letter refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case thank you it's just
Thank you. It's just allowing me to rejoin.
allowing me to rejoin.
okay thank you good afternoon again i'm here on behalf of 2009 north howard alpha llc with me
today is in attendance is mr michael scanapico um as chairman bergman stated we met with the
coordinating RCO North Square back in December
and received a letter of unanimous support.
The meeting was very well attended, 21 votes in support,
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
The applicant acquired the property in 2022.
This application is limited to the ground floor units.
units right now they're zoned for industrial artist studios since the applicant acquired
the property they haven't been able to lease them as artist studios they've also marketed
them for retail use as permitted by right tried to get a coffee shop some other bakery
use other uses in there and have not been successful in getting commercial or industrial
tenants. So we're here today to turn eight of those bi-level units into dwelling units
for a total of 88 dwelling units at this property. It's improved with two buildings,
two four-story structures, and parking on the ground floor. This is a photo of, it fronts both
hope street and howard street hope street is very narrow and primarily residential use
and same thing with howard is a little bit wider but has legal street parking on both
sides so essentially same with but again a very residential block
this is the layout of the typical bi-level unit it's about 900 square feet
And the refusal because of the building, though, the surrounding block is primarily residential, is zoned for IRMX.
This is the view of the interior of the units.
They're bi-level units, very light and bright.
Initially, we were trying to get, like I said, artist studios in here.
Thought it was a good space to get up-and-coming artists up and running, but they haven't been able to lease.
so we want to get some uh the rental of the dwelling units in here um with that being said
um we're i'd like to ask that uh michael be sworn in so he can adopt my testimony
michael could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
no here you go much better michael scanapico uh m-i-c-h-a-e-l
S-C-A-N-N-A-P-I-E-C-O. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the
truth? I do. Counsel? Michael, you saw the entirety of my presentation. Is it true and accurate to the
best of your knowledge? Yes. And do you adopt it as your own testimony? Yes. And I'll just ask,
can you talk a little bit about the marketing efforts, the possible tenants that you approach
to try to get in here? Yeah, sure. Happy to. So we did marketing in a number of different ways.
We tried, you know, Craigslist. We tried approaching some neighborhood tenants that
we thought could be a good fit. We also worked with the team at Scout, who has an office building
with creatives about 200 tenants uh in south philly to try to be a newsletter there um and then
you know this is a eco-friendly building solar has a lot of different elements to it which makes
it somewhat unique so try to use that to also push kind of the retail concept um out um you
know website and everything else so wanted to get some perspective so there was eight units left
There's a total of 10 units on the ground floor.
there's eight there's a total of ten units on the ground floor two of them are already
Two of them are already dwelling units and eight artist studios that we're converting to an additional eight dwelling units.
You said these are bi-level?
That's correct.
They're bi-level units?
Yes, they're about 900 square feet.
Okay, so the pictures that we're looking at, that's the one is the second floor, so it has two kitchens.
i'm just is that it's it's the same floor ground level floor on both angles
on two different angles so it does have two so what's
go ahead i can show the floor plans the the ground level floor does have uh two
two um egresses one to the street side and one towards the parking which is in the center
of the ground floor
And is the intent? Okay, they're going to be live work.
That'd be ideal and make them more affordable for artists. Yes.
The questions questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time, Mr. chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience.
No, hands up at this time.
chair planning commission amy boy with the planning commission when the district plan was
written this parcel was wrapped i2 medium industrial the plan recommended no change
and in 2016 the property was remapped ir max industrial residential mixed use the proposal
for ground floor residential is in character with the surrounding neighborhood and will have minimal
impact on surrounding properties the planning commission recommends the board grant the
requested variance for ground floor residential thank you thank you MI 2025 0060682009 North
Howard Street I vote yes Michael Johns my vote is yes Cheryl Gaston my vote is yes Tanetta Graham
my vote is yes my McAdams my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you very much have a great day okay
Okay. Number two, MI 2025, 004-573-1715-68th Avenue. Olivia Gabriel is the attorney.
They're being promoted to panelists.
Good afternoon, everybody.
My counsel, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, good afternoon.
My name is Olivia Gabriel, O-L-I-V-I-A-G-A-B-R-I-E-L, and I am counsel for the applicant.
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes did you identify your client a relationship to the property yes my client is 66 beachwood
properties llc and i also have the owner of the llc sundra heman present all right thank you um
is that an rco letter there hillary we do
it looks uh looks like it we had not yeah we haven't we have not received the rco letter am
i right oh sorry this might be from the other one oh yeah right well uh counsel do you have
a letter from the rco i requested it i have not received that i we did have a meeting okay our
vice chair has a few questions for you and then we'll proceed okay good afternoon have you um
submit your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes okay and do you waive
the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy yes okay thank you you can share your
screen and begin your case thank you um i did submit omitted exhibits to include uh tax clearance
certification and with the board permission i will submit another um omitted exhibit i because
i have labeled some of the photos to reflect uniformity with the plan with the rendering
and i will share screen
All right, so the property is located at 1715 60th Avenue.
When my client purchased the property in 2021, they believed that they were purchasing a
property that was zoned for four units.
and one of the reasons why they believe that it was zoned for four units is because the previous
owner gave them a rental permit for four units. After they purchased the property, they started
to make cosmetic renovations and unfortunately the cosmetic renovation took longer than they wanted
due to COVID, limited funds and illness. The work was not completed until 2023 and they purchased
the property in 2021. When they attempted to renew the rental permit, that's when they found out
that the property was actually zoned for three units, not four units.
So this is the refusal, and the reason for the refusal, whereas the proposed use multifamily
unit four unit is prohibited, but it's already zoned for three units.
And this is our application for appeal.
there is no there is no renovated renovation all renovations have been made already
this is just to legalize what already exists
um this was our letter for our public meeting we did have a public meeting in
november of 2024
This is her tax clearance.
This is a copy of the rental permit from the previous owner.
As you can see, number of units 4, 1715, 68th Avenue.
And this is dated 2020.
And my client purchased the property in 2021.
This is our posting, our posting, and this is what we posted on the property.
All right.
So I'm going to go over the rendering just to show the layout of the property.
So it's three floors.
On the ground floor, there are two efficiencies.
on the first floor there is a two-bedroom two baths and on the second floor there is another
two-bedroom two bath all right all right so on the ground floor we have the two efficiencies
Studio A and Studio B. This is the general living area for Studio A. This is the bathroom
and kitchen area. And Studio B is a mirror of Studio A. We have the living area, the bathroom
and the kitchen. On the first floor, we have a two-bedroom, two-bath. Alright, so
this is the living room area. This is the kitchen. This is the first bathroom. This
This is the first bedroom, the second bedroom, and there is an ensuite bathroom.
And this is the second floor.
The layout is similar.
We have the kitchen area.
area, we have the bathroom, and we have another bedroom here and a bathroom. I'm sorry, a
living area and there is the bathroom I mean the bedroom in the bathroom
And there is the bathroom, I mean, the bedroom and the bathroom.
So this is the side of the property.
And the white portion is the front of the property.
And once we go up the steps, then you can go to the first and second floor.
To access the ground floor apartments, these are the two doors on the side.
And this is the overlay. As you can see in the neighborhood, we have many mixed use properties.
These, there are some buildings with nine units, seven units, and four units.
We have taken some photos of the inside of the units.
The first one, this is the ground floor studio A, the living area, the bathroom, kitchen,
the bedroom area. And studio B is a mirror of studio A, kitchen, laundry area, the living area,
bathroom area. This is the first floor, two bedroom, two bath. This is the, trying to make
it a little bigger. Oops, oops. Oh, maybe I should not have done that. Okay, here we are.
Okay, living area, bathroom, number one, living area, let me make sure that I stayed where
I was, sorry.
Okay, first floor, two-bedroom, two-bath, okay.
Okay, second floor to bedroom to bath,
bedroom one, bedroom two,
bathroom one, bathroom two, kitchen, living area.
Okay, this is an outside photo of the property.
I'm going to reduce this indulgence, please.
Okay, there you go.
Okay, so this is the side of the property.
You can see a posting.
Okay, this is the back of the property.
This is a parking area for two cars.
only two tenants drive so there is only two spaces needed but in the future if
more spaces are needed there is on street parking. This is the front of the
property. Here it is and you can see there are five meters each one of the
units have their own meters, and there is one meter for common area. This is for tax clearance.
This was the permit for the previous owner, and this was the application in 1959
for the three units. I believe in 1959 that's when they receive
permission to have three units but between 9 15 59 and prior to my client purchasing the building
it became four units you don't know exactly when that happened
and this was our notice for the meeting
this is the deed of the property. All right.
That's the extent of my presentation. My client is present,
cindra hemens that's a bring your client on please
can that person raise their hand
all right here she is