The appellant has a lot fronting on Norris Square.
Hancock Street has parking on both the east and west sides.
Off-street parking is an unusual condition on this block.
There's only one other curb cut.
There's also a new row home at 2100 Diamond Street on the same block as this, as the proposed project, which received permits in 2021 and does not have a curb cut.
And the proposed curb cut will remove a street tree, an action which conflicts with the city's tree plan.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed variance for a 72-foot wall at the rear of the property,
but deny the proposed variances for a deck in the side yard
and for off-street parking access from a primary street.
Thank you.
Sir, I'm going to hold this until next week.
We'll vote on this next week.
I just want to have a conversation in an executive session
with the rest of the board.
So thank you for your presentation.
We'll vote on this next week at 9.30 on Wednesday.
Thank you.
All right, we're going to go to number one, MI 2023, 004-856-853 North 42nd Street.
Richard DeMarco is the attorney, Golani Development.
There's a recommendation of support from the West Belmont Civic Association.
And Council Member Gauthier has taken a position of support.
Richard DeMarco has been promoted.
Good morning, Mr. DeMarco. State your name, please, for the record.
Richard DeMarco, last name spelled D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Do you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yeah, Golani Development is the client. They are the owner.
it's now lc and our vice chair has a few questions for you sure good morning council do you agree to
waive the reading of the refusal stipulate to his accuracy i do have you emailed in all the
required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to perceive this case five days in
advance of this hearing i do uh but the uh proviso plans form got stuck and i had to send it on
monday to hillary sorry about that but yes otherwise yes thank you council please proceed
Right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, members of the board. Richard DeMarco here for the applicant. And yes, we did meet with the RCO, did obtain support. I'm going to put the refusal on the screen first.
this is a little bit unusual in that the RSA 5 zoning was very recently initiated for this
property. The applicant and the owners have been operating under the assumption that it was RM1.
So that, and it was literally a matter of weeks whereby the new ordinance that changed the zoning
was passed by city council and reported out of committee. The pending ordinance doctrine applied
and the applicant, even though both L and I and the applicant were all operating under the RM1
zoning, it was literally changed after the application was filed, but we missed
the cutoff because it was reported out of committee before the application was filed.
So we are under the pending ordinance doctrine of the zoning code. We have to deal with the RSA-5. So that is why the refusal, you'll see there's a 45-foot proposed height. More on that in a moment.
But that was intended to be an as-of-right scenario because they were taking advantage
of the mixed income bonus height bonus, also the density bonus for RM1.
That is why five units were proposed.
This was going to be an as-of-right project under the RM1 based on a mixed income scenario
where they promised to pay the in-lub fee and be able to build a higher property.
uh, um, property. What happened was we realized that, um, we would be meeting with the neighbors.
What happened was we realized...
We wanted to try to maybe do something that might be amenable to the neighbors. So the plan was
revised to meet the height requirement. Okay. So we have, we are not requesting this 45 feet,
as you see on your screen, we are requesting a 38 foot tall structure and we are meeting the
setback requirement for the third story i'll show you more on that later um the third story sets
back eight feet and meets that requirement okay and you'll see it in the rendering it mitigates
the view and we actually meet the cornice line i'll show you that in the rendering in a moment
and we knocked off one unit so we are a total of four units okay and obviously the community
was receptive to this. The property is not in good condition. As a matter of fact, let me go
ahead and segue down to some of the photos. You can see the property is not in the greatest
condition. There are some serious renovations that need to be done. You can see it's boarded up.
There's our posters. Let me show you the panorama. There's some issues with the structure,
as you can see here. More boarded up windows. The facade is crumbling. We are going to retain
the structure, renovate it, clean it up, clean up the property, et cetera. That's the posting
of the refusal. Let me show you the block. So there are some larger structure. There is some
multifamily on the block. This is the property here. We are setting back. So let me go ahead
and get to the... This is the Z1, Mr. Chairman. This is the revised drawings. You can see the
setback here. That's the eight-foot setback, and only four units is proposed. And that's in the
proviso plans form that has been sent, that was added to the packet and was also sent separately
to Hillary. Here you can see the rendering of the proposed building. You see the setback here.
So we are not crowding the neighboring properties, okay?
This is the materials.
There's the third story there.
All right, let me show the...
In a minute.
So I don't believe we have opposition.
So at the conclusion, I will ask the board to...
Let me show this.
Actually, let me show the proviso form.
This is the Z1 drawing, one page. We'll ask the board if they're willing to grant these variances to stamp the revised plan so we have the four units and only the 38-foot height instead of what's reflected in the refusal.
Here's the proviso form that I sent to Hillary. It must have got stuck between the pages, and I submitted it accordingly.
Okay. Last but not least, I'll show the RCO letter. So, I mean, these are the mailings and the certificates of mailing that we sent in advance of the neighborhood meeting. Had a nice meeting with the neighbors.
Here's one more thing, and then I'll go to my client.
Here's the neighborhood letter.
So there was one opposition, but you see pretty strong support from the neighborhood group.
So to conclude, Mr. Chairman, obviously we feel there's a hardship that's brought on by the unique scenario whereby this was RM1 for decades and was literally changed while the application was being submitted.
So the client expended significant sums and money on a development that would have been an as-of-right project, would have taken advantage of a beneficial policy of the city involving the mixed income bonus.
That was taken away by the rezoning of the block to RSA 5, but we were already committed to the project.
So we modified the project to meet some concerns.
We think this is a beneficial scenario. The property will be cleaned up, will be well managed. There's trash storage available for all tenants in the rear yard that's accessible to all the tenants. It's going to be cleaned up. And obviously, we feel that it's a necessary variance to overcome the hardship of having had the property change classifications literally in midstream.
Even L&I didn't know and had to let them know at the last minute that they would have to issue a refusal.
They actually approved it first and then took it back saying, oh, sorry, that was changed to RSA 5 and we have to issue a refusal.
So let me ask Jason Fumann to raise his hand virtually and I'll ask him to adopt my testimony.
raise his hand virtually, and I'll ask him to adopt my testimony. And I think in light of the
and I think
support from the RCO, we can then conclude and rest with our exhibits. So Jason, if you're with
us, I'm sorry, it might have been Scott. My fault. There's two brothers. My bad. I think it's Scott.
Scott? Yes, Scott Fullman will be allowed to speak.
Yeah, sorry about that.
Thank you.
Yeah. Scott, are you with us?
I'm mute. Yep. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Scott Fubin, S-C-O-T-T-F-U-I-M-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Fubin, did you hear my opening and presentation and the facts and circumstances that I laid out for the board?
Yes. Are they true and accurate to your information and knowledge? Yes. Can you adopt them at my statements as your official testimony in this matter? Yes. With that, Mr. Chairman, we would ask the board to grant the variances with the proviso plans form, single page, based on the support of the neighbors and the unusual circumstances involving the zoning, recent zoning changes.
Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Chair. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from Hillary Emerson, our attorney?
Just a quick question. Mr. DeMarco, I can't tell from the refusal, is the existing structure being demolished and a new structure being built, or are you building on top of the existing structure?
um my understanding is it's not being fully demolished it's they are obviously bringing
it back to to a shell and renovating but i'll ask scott to confirm that because i i believe
that's the case but i uh you're right the refusal is not specific about that so let's ask scott
can you answer that can he be um allowed to go ahead he just needs to unmute
oh the architects are available as well scott's scott are you with us
yes he's there he's just muted
there he is yeah i mean architects can answer better but the the rco
asks us that we keep the front
so facade.
Right, Bar?
So Bar Levy
is the architect. Let's get
the definitive answer. That's a good question because
I don't want to confuse an L and I later in the game.
Okay, so Mr. Levy,
Mr. Levy, come on and state your name,
please, and spell for the court stenographer.
Raise your hand. Yeah, raise your hand virtually.
Bar Levy here.
B-A-R-L-E-Z-Y.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Levy, the question is asked, is this a full demolition or is this a renovation of the property, the existing structure?
So as it stands right now, the entire rear of the building is failing.
However, the front wall will be maintained.
So it's a combination of the two.
We will bring it to a shell while supporting temporarily the front wall and attaching to it the new foundation and the new structure to come to the back.
So we are, this was a response to the neighborhood wanting to remain at the front wall where it is, and so it will remain.
It looks like a demolition.
All right.
Thank you so much for the clarification.
All right.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning.
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 zoning here was changed from
residential multi-family to residential single family in 2023 during a community requested map
change under the proposed under the previous zoning four dwelling units would be allowed by
right the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variance for four
dwelling units. Thank you. MI 2023, 004-856-853 North 42nd Street. I vote yes. Revised plans,
one page, stamped by ZBA on January 10th, 2024. Maximum four dwelling units.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
So, Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, we're provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, everybody.
Thank you, everybody.
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Number two, MI 2023, 003-447-2926 Ridge Avenue.
Number two, am I...
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
We do not at this point have an RCO letter from the Strawberry Mansion CDC.
Vern Anastasio is promoted to panelist.
good morning counsel could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
good morning Mr. Chair Vern Anastasio A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O I represent Ms. Nia Logan owner of
the property in question right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing
but the truth I do sir our vice chair has just a few questions good morning counsel
do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy? I do. Have you
emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this
case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, sir. Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share
your screen. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Chair, members of the board, 2926 Ridge Avenue. This is not,
we're not here seeking a variance we're here for a special exception uh it is a referral which as
you know means that our proposed use is in fact considered compatible with the code my client
would like to do an event space in in this commercial space and that's why we're here
i'm going to show you some of the interior layout
and some photos before I go over some details with you.
This is a longstanding commercial space on a longstanding commercial corridor of Ridge Avenue.
In my exhibit packet that I offer today, there's 40 pages of history from L&I that detail the previous uses.
This is the property in question.
As you can see, there are residential units above.
And there's your proof of posting.
This is Ridge Avenue. This is the block. As you can see through the aerial shot, there is lots of vacant lots on this particular block.
We've got vacancy all through here and in here to the left.
We've got additional vacancy adjacent to the neighboring property.
So this is, unfortunately, a block that has historic disinvestment over the last several decades.
Here we are over here.
And then, again, there's a different view of the various vacant lots.
In addition to the vacant lots, there are many vacant storefronts.
And for those reasons, my client was interested in breathing new life into the commercial corridor.