you basically had the front of the building and then the back of the building and we did some
renovations within the building too and it was the same kind of problem you had to try and do on
the upper floors kind of make it so that you could actually use all of the space as beautiful as it
is it makes it a very cumbersome floor. Yes. Yes. What's the height of the
pilot house and the elevator shaft above the fourth floor 55 feet?
You can see here that the existing roof, which is the peak here, is at 55 feet.
The lower portion of the existing 4th floor roof is at 53, 10 and a half, which is what we're marrying to for the new roof of the 4th floor addition.
And then we're showing the pilot house at 9 feet 5 and 10 foot respectively, which reach to 63 foot 3 and 65 foot.
Are they visible from the street?
Other questions?
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions from the audience
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair any commission
amy boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning at this location for the existing residential multifamily rm1 the appellant
has shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances that would prevent the property
from being used in conformance with the zoning code. The Planning Commission recommends that
the board grant the requested variance for increasing non-conformities. MI 2024-006-564-2012
Spruce Street, I vote yes. My vote is yes. Gerald Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanada Graham, my vote is yes.
my vote is yes
my vote is yes
thank you
thank you for the scheduling accommodation
thank you all
thank you
Mr. Nockamson
we're not
Folks, I'm sorry about the smell in the room.
I've talked to the building engineer.
We're going to see if they can get that abated, but there's no danger right now.
So, Mr. Jacobson, you've been sworn earlier today, and I think we're going to have case 6, 7, and 9 together, right?
So it's MI 2024-006-400-45 West Seymour, MI 2024-006-401-49 West Seymour, and MI 2024-006-465-47 West Seymour Street.
so um there's opposition from wakefield 49ers and a letter of opposition from some solo germantown
and applicant also has provided 19 letters of support for the neighbors
um could you identify your clients in the relationship to the three properties uh yes
uh good afternoon again uh members of the board alan knockamson of knockamson pc a-l-a-n the last
named Nochumson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N. To my left is Jordan Parise Ferrarini, part of the development
team. Behind him is Akeem Presley, who's also part of the development team. The reason why I brought
Jordan in here is not only is he part of the development team, he's also the general contractor
as part of this project. So I think he'll be able to answer a lot of technical questions the board
be able to answer a lot of technical questions the board may have regarding this sure okay so
behalf regarding this right okay so our vice chair
our vice chair has a few questions for you good afternoon counsel do you agree to wave the reading
of the refusal or stipulate two of that person i do have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits that's needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
yes i have thank you counsel please proceed and all right so i just realized that my connection
got disconnected from this morning and i try to go right back at it so just give me one second i
do apologize for that um so let me just read boot
I did earlier today and I just assumed that that would still be good for this afternoon
session and for some reason you can't reboot that.
So, let me, I should get the email momentarily.
Just waiting for the email to pop up to sign in.
Oh, here I am.
Join webinar.
Okay. Let me share my screen. Let me just make sure I have the right presentation.
Am I a panelist?
Yes, you are.
All right. Thank you.
It has a front porch.
It has a mansard roof.
It just fits very beautifully within the fabric of this community.
And, you know, as Jordan will tell you, as someone who...
I'm sorry to interrupt, sir.
There is smoke in one of the rooms on this floor,
so I'm going to ask for this hearing to get cut short
and ask folks to make your way to the elevator and get off the floor.
We're going to notify the building.
Thank you.
I'm stood.
Before we go any further, we're okay, right?
So before we go any further, case number 12, MI 2024-006-537-3740 North 18th Street, Vern Anastasio.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair.
Counsel, have I sworn you in yet today, Vern?
Yeah, this morning.
Just for the record, state your name.
Vern Anastasio.
And so 3740 North 18th, do you have an update for us?
Yeah, just that Mr. Richardson from Council Member Bass's office had asked that we seek a continuance.
in order to go back to the RCO,
so that's what we're gonna do here.
Thank you, thank you.
So, RMI 2024, 006-537-3740 North A&T Street.
Cases continue to 6825.
Thank you, Vern, for calling.
No problem. Really quickly for the court reporter. My name is Matthew Webster. I'm stepping in for Hillary Emerson as board counsel, just for a moment. Yes, Mr. Webster. Thank you.
No problem.
Really quickly for the court reporter.
so alan i think you were sworn i think they started to talk to you a little bit right
uh yeah i was sworn mr chair uh the you know the usual questions were asked of me i answered them
and i was and i was starting my wind up so why don't why don't you wind up all right there you
or what does somebody say or what or what all right so as i was saying if you look at this
picture here of the property um you couldn't tell like what's what um it's a really pretty
building structure and what was asked of us was to extend that mansard roof so like that
rendering slightly different than what you saw previously, what you've seen to the right of us.
Can you speak a little bit more into the mic? Yes, sorry about that. If you look to the right
of that first building structure, there was no mansard roof. It was asked of us by the community
to extend that mansard roof all around. Similar to what you saw, you know, the last presentation
in Center City, it makes it more architecturally interesting. It respects the character of the
neighborhood and and again as you'll hear uh jordan is one of those members of the community
who does a lot of work in the community uh who respects you know what the architecture is there
and hopefully what will be there so during our presentation we're going to first review the
notices of refusal there there are three properties 45 47 and 49 west evening street
the refusals are basically all the same and we'll go through them and then we did have correspondence
from Wakefield 49ers Community Development and Improvement Association group because they were
the coordinating RCO. It wasn't completely against. It was a split vote. More people were against it
than for it. But we had multiple meetings in front of the community. We had two meetings. So during
the first meeting, there were things that were asked of us, which we accomplished. And these
These things were asked of us by the community, mainly the people in close proximity to the
project.
Those people didn't show up to the second meeting.
We then reached out to them because we expected them to be there and they were surprised that
there was not community support overall.
We have letters of support from those individuals and you'll see they're all in close proximity
on that block or a half a block away.
We do have those revised plans based on that community input in terms of the unit count and some other matters you'll see.
And if this board does feel inclined to grant the zoning variances, we would ask that it would be by way of proviso with revised plans, maximum four units.
We are proposing five units originally.
And then you'll see the letters of support.
again all the people who are near us and again who are very supportive of this project and
who know Jordan and Akeem who are members of this community and trust that they'll fulfill
their obligations by way of this architecture and then we'll look at the property history 45
West Seymour Street was a five-unit dwelling that's what we mimicked this project as 45 47 49
were each going to be five unit dwellings originally it was a little bit too much for
the community. I mean, we are only a couple blocks away from Germantown Avenue, which is a commercial
corridor. And we thought that, again, in terms of city planning, it would make sense. Typically,
and you'll see from the zoning map, typically you have a CMX two and a half type of zoning or some
type of commercial zoning. It then bleeds into like a little lesser intensity from a residential
standpoint, typically RM1. Here we're RTA1, which is a more difficult zoning classification to really
adjust to, and then you go to RSA 5. So again, we felt like based on the history of the property
and then based on properties, and I have addresses nearby of five other properties
within a half a block radius, which are also four unit dwellings, we thought that that was
a reasonable accommodation to go to four units. We have an aerial view of the neighborhood.
So as Jordan will explain to you, and I didn't even know this, and I'm in front of this board
a lot. There's different Germantowns. There's different Germantowns that tell different stories.
And he'll explain that we're on the south side of Germantown. And there's differences. And you
can see even from that aerial view, there's a lack of development right there, right now,
right now in this part of Germantown, and the commercial corridor is struggling because of that.
in this part of Germantown. And the commercial corridor is struggling because of that.
We're trying to provide smart density, reasonable density, and beautiful architecture at the same
time. That's affordable. The other thing we'll talk about is the fact that, and Jordan will
confirm this, is that our AMI is between 60 and 70 percent AMI. This is not an affordable housing
project where there's a deed restriction but jordan is you know part of you know turn the
key program himself he's been embedded by the accelerator fund so he's well known in handling
affordable housing he also has a non-profit organization called trades for a difference
where he like you know again make sure that his his contractors are diverse and well trained and
then can do things outside of him as well. Then we'll have maps of the area kind of explaining
the zoning in terms of how we're CMX two and a half on Germantown. And then we kind of just go
straight to a more restrictive zoning where there's not that buffer where we're asking to
have that buffer. And again, not out of character based on the properties that I researched that
are half a block away. And then we have photographs of the property and surrounding the area. The
photographs of the surrounding area are going to show how we're respecting the the history and
architecture of germantown you know we're doing we're doing porches we're doing mansard roofs
like even the materials that we're using are more stone related we're doing smart architecture and
we're doing new construction where you don't see a lot of this new construction um because because
of this zoning classification it would be impossible to build and again we'll talk to
jordan after my presentation to kind of go with the hard check alan why don't you start okay as
you're going through this list i think we know most of it so why don't you start your presentation
all right so if if you look at the notice of refusal we have four refusals they kind of go
all in the same right so first if uh if service parking spaces and detached garages and carports
are prohibited in front rear side uh and front side of rear yards well not out of character
to the right of us on Garfield that's behind us there is parking pads and you know again there's
no parking allowed on our side of Garfield you would even see from the pictures there was
curb cuts on our property so again first one not out of character similar to other properties
second one in terms of multi-family multi-families allowed an RTA one just two units we're originally
we're asking for five units now we're asking for four units and we'll go through that third one
is about the side yard, de minimis refusal for all of them. So for 45 and 47, the side yard we're
proposing is 6 feet 9 inches, or 8 feet required as of right, while for 49, we're proposing 7 feet
4 inches. So we're 15 inches away from the requirement for 45 and 47, and we're 8 inches
away from the requirement for 49 again not it is de minimis under the circumstances and again to
respect the architecture and have a functional floor plan we're requesting that and then the
final refusal has to do with the parking it's a one-to-one ratio well again no one else has that
we're providing two parking spots and one of the parking spots is actually a handicap accessible
spot which we're required to do under the building code you know we would prefer not to but we are
we could potentially get three parking spots if we didn't and maybe we'll figure that out and come
back potentially later on if we can get that but we are providing two parking spots we're near a
commercial corridor we're near a bus line two blocks away so not of character not causing harm
to the community and that and those are basically the same refusals for 47 and 49 now the correspondence
from the wakefield 49ers organization i think they didn't completely understand what we were
doing in terms of the project so there's the second page of it talks about like the fact that
or i don't know if it's a second page but it may be where we're providing underground or below
ground living we're not actually as part of what we've made changes to is half so we're on the
slope the front part of the slope is the entry to unit number one which is completely above grade
and it has a huge window in the front in the back which was below ground is where we took away that
living because it was asked of us for uh hello can you hear me can you show the plans while
you're talking what oh you felt the plans right okay sure all right thank you
it's just because you're explaining stuff and you know then it's hard for us you know
we have to kind of explain it again to visualize it okay
why are you on that part alan you said it's below ground
Why are you on that part, Alan? You said it's below ground, but I'm looking at it as if it might be at ground level?
So, it is. In the front, it is at ground level.
So, as you can see here, this is just, and again, they're all similar, the plans.
I believe this would be 49. The type is a little small for me.
But if you look here, this is the first, the ground level here, and this would go into unit number one.
This is, again, above ground, and this is the porch area as well, where you would have access.
And then you have access here on the right side, which would get you into units number two, three, and four.