things but like off
but like it gives a deadline
for everyone involved. What about August
20th? Yeah.
That's one month.
So August 20th at 2 o'clock.
August 20th, 2 o'clock.
A short resumptive year. Thank you.
It's a closed other than responses
to... Right, that's the vote.
It's scheduled, yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number 7, MI2025-001-321-4928 Walnut Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Good afternoon, everybody.
Is this the first time you've been here since you've been back?
No, I was lucky enough to-
Once before, right?
Once before, I got to present at like 7.30 at night.
were we all still here were we all here i mean or you i do remember it happens
you i didn't remember it was so late you guys had you know shoved it out of your memory i'm sure
you state your name and spell for the stenographer certainly sean whalen w-h-a-l-e-n
here from vintage law on behalf of the owner of the subject property light up gold llc do you
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
I notice there's unanimous support from the Walnut Hill Community Association.
And do you waive the reading of the reviews and agree with it?
Yes, I do.
Okay, please start.
Thank you very much.
I'll share my screen.
So I have what I hope is a nice, easy one for you today.
This is to legalize an existing triplex.
there you go okay so it's up uh this triplex has been is on the 4900 block of walnut street
um it has been in use since at least 1967 the prior owner bought it in 1967 and just sold it
to my client recently uh turns out he didn't have any permits or approvals or anything it's
Turns out he didn't have any permits or approvals or anything. It's just been in use.
has been in use. It was a trip
It was a triplex when he bought it. So you can see it's mid-block property. This block is fully
built out and tellingly, and I think a large part of the reason why we did get full support from the
community is there is not a documented single family house on this entire block. You'll see
that the um so again just showing you mid block there uh here it is right here with the red dot
on it you can see that no vacant lots or anything um sorry and i'll show you the zoning map this
whole block and across the street has all been designated rsa3 at some point in time for single
family residential attached again going through the documented zoning records for every property
on that block and in fact walking up and down that block you can see evidence of every single
property that has anything showing or anything of record is actually generally speaking a triplex
There are 10 triplexes. There are five duplexes. There's a four-unit building, a five-unit building, a six-unit building, and there are actually two rooming houses or additional lodging buildings on that property.
So this fits completely in with the context of the neighborhood and this specific block.
We did receive two refusals.
One, because this is RSA 3, you know, multifamily proposed use is not allowed.
And also in RSA 3, you have to provide off-street parking.
It's always interesting when you get a district rezoning like this on a fully built out block where there's not parking for any single property.
So now every property is a prior non-conforming use.
Again, here we had unanimous support from the community.
Here's an image of the front of the building.
There is no basement living.
the basement is unfinished and has actually the only thing that's in the basement aside from
some storage is you can see there's actually separate gas and electric meters already installed
for the various units so this has long since been considered a triplex by even the public
utilities and everything again my client bought it went to pull a rental license for three units
and realized that you know there was no zoning in place so now he's trying to get this done so that
he can move forward with that we have um the existing uh property i should note there's no
new construction or structural work to be uh part of this application no additional height or
anything it's just going to be cosmetic work you can see the interior of all of these units is
pretty tired um you know a mess and pretty tired trying to be polite and so all of this is going to
be you know gutted and rehabbed um to try to bring it up to the current standards of this is a very
nice neighborhood and yeah you have kind of this mid-block building that hasn't been touched
probably since the original owner bought it in 1967 being polite um so again all the units this
is now the second floor unit. All the units are vacant. We did not want to put anybody in, did not
start any work until we were able to get through this variance process. Again, very nice bones in
the building, so there's no need to do any structural work. We have the existing floor plans
here. The first unit is 1,128 square feet. It's actually a three-bedroom unit. That's on the
first floor. The second floor is a 530-square-foot one-bedroom, and the third floor is a 750-square-foot
two-bedroom. Those are going to remain unchanged. Again, those are nice large units here for
everyone to move into. So with that, again, we had the owner, when he sold the property,
We had him sign and notarize an affidavit of continuous use, since obviously my current client couldn't do so since he was buying it new just recently.
And with that, we have a clear evidence of a hardship here.
There's an existing building.
It's fully built out as a triplex.
It has been for 70-plus years, and it would be prohibitively expensive to redo it.
It's the least minimum variance in that we're not asking for any additional units just to maintain the status quo.
we're not asking for any additional units just to maintain the status quo and there's obviously
from the letter from the of support and just contextually there's no detriment to the public
health safety or welfare okay um is your client here yes uh dan hewitt you should uh please raise
your hand they will be coming back in as a panel shortly
I saw his name pop up.
I am here.
Can you guys hear me?
Yes sir.
Could you turn on your video please?
uh yes would you please state your name and spell for the stanak
dan hewitt d-a-n-h-e-w-i-t-t you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth i do please proceed counsel thank you very much chairman mr hewitt uh you're here today
on behalf of light up gold llc correct that is correct and did you hear all the presentation
that i already provided i did and do you believe that information to be true and correct to the
best of your knowledge and information i do and would you adopt that testimony as your own
yes i would uh is there anything else in addition to that testimony that you would believe pertinent
for the board to hear today i think you covered it thank you very much mr hewitt uh board question
from the board sure i was trash managed i was going to say that there is a substantial amount
of space on the side of the building and in the rear of the building um not even on the side it's
more in the rear the tenants keep all the trash in the back and they can't it's you can't see it
from that view it's actually on the other side of both of those pictures but there's a probably 10
feet between the buildings and behind uh the uh basically each each unit has had its own trash can
and they take it out on trash day and it's not stored in the front okay board member johns i
apologize for not addressing that already what you can see here is the rear of the building that
i showed there's a an alleyway breezeway between the two buildings the main entrance is right up
where in front of this white section and there's a large backyard here with an open area where all
of the trash is stored so that no trash is stored on the street. Other questions? Basement is just
used for utilities or laundry? And who has access to it? The only way you can access the basement
is through the first floor unit, but there's nothing down there except the meters for the
electric and the heater it would be just storage all right and we would be perfectly fine with a
proviso of no basement living it's not it's not finished now uh it's not going to be finished
gotcha you said that's the only access to the basement how are the other tenants that aren't
the first four unit gonna coordinate access to utility meters when needed there there's well
So there's actually, or go ahead.
Mr. Ewan, I'll handle this.
In my experience, actually, when we go through, because we're going to have to get zoning now, we're going to have to get a new CO issued.
In order to issue the new CO, the basement meters will likely be required to be moved by PICO and PWD.
um you know as i've been going through this process now for 10 years they come in they tell
you what they want to where they want to move them to how they're going to do it i presume that's
what's going to happen here i just showed here the separate meters as evidence that you know
this has been actually used as uh an existing triplex with separate meters to date again but
good question it will likely be moved at the requirement of pico and pgw here actually not pwd
because they require street access so they'll either put it in the back of the building
or at the front in a case keep it right there so it looks like there were four units in this
at one time i see first floor front second floor front second floor rear third floor
or or there was just how many there were always three units in the building there there have
always been it has always been a common space um for reasons that we don't know and unless and
until we open up walls the rear of i can show you the existing floor plan so this is real quick the
rear of I can show you the existing floor plan so this is real quick the fourth meter is the
fourth meter
house meter there's actually five right yes so there are actually five meters one is the house
meter um Miss Graham what you're referring to is when you come into the building right here off
the street this is this is the entirety of the first floor here are the stairs in the rear that
go down to the basement they also go up and the third bedroom is actually on the second floor
um we have no idea why that is and the prior owner said that it's just always been that way
so i i believe for whatever reason they put a separate meter for the second
rear area could have been an add-on to the to the house
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
Questions or comments from the virtual or present audience?
No hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing zoning of RSA 3,
Residential Single Family.
The plan has demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances
that would prevent the property from being used in conformance with the zoning code
and that the proposed use is in character with the block.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant their request variants for multifamily and parking ratio.
MI 2025-001-321-4928, Walnut Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
General Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Iowyn, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much, Board Members.
mi2025 001-339-267 green lane william o'brien is the attorney
uh good afternoon mr chairman members of the board william o'brien for dexter street partners the
owner of 267 green lane mr o'brien could just for the record could you spell your name for this
stenographer? W-I-L-L-I-A-M, O'Brien, O-B-R-I-E-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Do you waive the reading of the refusals and
stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Okay, and I see that
hold on one minute there's a letter of support for the manioc neighborhood council
18 in support three in opposition there's also comments made we would like to highlight that
the applicant engaged with manioc neighborhood council at an early stage and that their plans
being presented include modifications resulting from the engagement please start your presentation
thank you if i may share my screen
this is the index page there's a 56 58 page exhibit package i'm not going to go through
each exhibit but i would ask that these exhibits be included in the record
thank you they are the uh let me skip quickly to the
philosophy water department map parcel map uh this is 267 green lane it fronts as as you would
expect on green lane but it extends along boone street and then also extends up to fleming street
it's approximately 9 000 square feet and it has frontage on all three streets the proposal is to
subdivide the parcel and create three lots from the existing one lot. The Green Lane property is
now a legal triplex, and the plan is to introduce two single-family homes fronting on Boone Street,
each with off-street parking. There are two refusals. One is for the parking for the proposed
new construction and introducing parking for the existing triplex. The triplex will have parking
in its rear yard. The proposed new single-family homes will have parking on their side yards,
and technically that's prohibited under the zoning code. The other refusal is for two trees,
and I'll get to that in a second. It's tree number three and tree number 10,
and I'll get to that in a minute.
Let me go through some photographs.
This is the existing triplex facing Green Lane.
You'll notice the zoning poster in the foreground.
you'll notice the zoning poster in the foreground. This is the Boone Street side of that house.
This is...
The lot is this area where the white car is parked. And again, the zoning poster
is in the foreground. And then finally, this is the Fleming Street
side of the lot, which is steeply sloped. It's not being disturbed, but it is steeply
sloped from Fleming Street down towards Boone which is why there is a chain link fence there.
This is the approved subdivision plan.
Again you'll see this is the proposed what will remain 267 Green Lane where the triplex is
and then the two lots fronting on Boone Street. They each extend up to Fleming in terms of their
legal dimensions, but the improvement is in the flat area. There's no steep slope disturbance.
And I also note that the cart path, this is Boone Street, but it's also known in the community as
Little Boone Street, the cart path is only 12 feet wide. There's no street parking on either side.
So the introduction of the curb cuts will not remove any existing parking for the neighborhood.