ZBA Hearing - January 10, 2024

I'm sorry, so three additional units, not four.

Again, which was what the original use of the building was prior to them converting the space to medical office back in the 1980s under previous ownership.

Great. Now, with that correction, would you be willing to verify that the remaining of my testimony or presentation would be true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?

Yes, I do.

Thank you.

questions from the board no mr chairman questions or comments from hillary emerson our attorney

not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience

no hands chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david effectos

with the city planning commission uh chamber and board members the comprehensive plan recommends

no change to the residential single-family detached zoning at this location, the appellant

seeks to convert medical space in a legally non-conforming apartment building into three

dwelling units, bringing the total dwelling unit count to 47. The proposal brings the building

closer into conformance with the residential zoning district, and the proposed three additional

dwelling units will not injure the use of adjacent properties. The City Planning Commission recommends

of the board grant a proposed use variance for multifamily residential dwelling units

okay thank you just one thing zen yes the are we at 46 dwelling units because you had 43 and a plus

three um so i let's go back to the refusal i think that would be uh the clarifying so it is um it's

moving up to 47 total units i i guess it was but in 88 it was 43 and he said it was a plus three

Yes, but I think the ADA numbers might be off by one.

Mr. Ward, can you verify there's going to be a total of 47 units total?

Nathan, are you there?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Verifying that we would be moving to 47 units.

So there are 44 units now.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

MI 2023-003-441-5901-19 Winfield Avenue.

I vote yes.

Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.

Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.

James Snell, my vote is yes.

Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes.

Thank you, counsel. You have your votes.

Thank you. Have a good day.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Number 13, MI 2023-001-967-6614 North 13th Street.

Darlene Threat is the attorney.

There's a letter of opposition from the

Oak Lane Community Association

There appear to be a split vote

Darlene 3 is promoted to panelists, Chair

Good morning, Council

good morning commissioner darling on behalf of the applicant

do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth

yes i do can you identify your client the relationship to this property

my client is actually uh miss uh vedita cadilio who's the applicant the owner who i also represent

today is noelis perez okay uh our vice chair has just a few questions

good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its

accuracy yes 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 i have

thank you please proceed and share your screen

good morning commissioners uh today i uh represent uh miss badita cadelio as well as the

applicant uh noelis perez let me just get my presentation up here can you see my presentation

we can we can yep okay uh commissioners uh the applicant purchased this property back in

2022 and proceeded to make a apartment on the lower level for his mother. I have

made a package today which contains 11 exhibits containing 43 pages. This is actually was a

single-family dwelling which was converted into a duplex. Commissioners, I'm going to

go through our package for you here today here is the refusal which shows you that this was actually

a rsa2 that multi-family are not permitted in this zoning district we filed an appeal to the

case and submitted the appropriate documents which i won't go through a tax clearance as well as the

Indeed. I'm going to start off with the plans here today, and I don't know why that plan is upside down. Commissioner, just give me a second. I think I have the wrong package opened.

Thank you.

Okay, I think this is the correct one where the exhibits are right side up.

Commissioner, I'm going to ask if you will come back to my presentation.

I believe I have the wrong package up, and I need to find it with my exhibits.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We'll come back in about 10 minutes.

Okay.

Number 15, MI 2023, 003-498-4023-27germtenance.

0-0-3-4-9-8-4-0-2-3-2-7-Germton Avenue.

Alan Dockamson is the attorney.

There's a letter of support from the 13th Ward RCO Committee.

Alex Goldberg has been promoted to panelist.

Sure, sure.

Good morning, Mr. Goldberg.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman.

It's going to be me, not Alan, this morning.

Okay. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?

Alex Goldberg, A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.

Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Could you identify your client in the relationship to the property?

Yes. My clients are Sukwinder Singh and Harwinder Carr. They're the owners of the property.

And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.

good morning counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its

accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed

and required to move and to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing

i have thank you please proceed and share your screen

can you see my screen it's coming up yeah we have it we have it

okay so um thanks again my name is alex goldberg of knockamson pc

going to give a brief presentation uh regarding the variances requested at 4023-27 germantown

avenue and then i'll ask my client uh suquinder singh to come on and adopt my testimony

We are seeking variances for the approval of a personal vehicle repair and maintenance use, in addition to the previously approved uses at this location.

The backstory here is that this exact variance was approved in 2017.

The property owners, which were the same people then as they are now, opened in good faith.

They just unfortunately didn't pull the permit in time. It expired.

And when they were recently in the process of attempting a tire retailer license, they were notified that their zoning was not correct, which caught them by surprise.

They did some investigation, realized what had happened and hired us.

So we're going back through the process.

This is a actively operating neighborhood business that we're just trying to sort of get the zoning sorted out for them.

Here's a table of contents. We have a notice of refusal. There's two refusals here. A letter of support from the 13th Democratic Ward, which we met with on January 3rd and received unanimous support from.

A motor vehicle repair license, which was obtained at the time of the original variance.

The zoning map, photographs of the property, architectural plans and drawings, the RCO meeting notice, the application for appeal, the deed to the property, and the certificate of tax clearance.

So here's the notice of refusal. You can see it was issued in May of last year for personal vehicle repair and maintenance with one repair bay.

The refusals that you see on the screen, the first one is for the use itself.

This is IRMX. It's an industrial mixed use zoning classification.

So there are similar types of uses nearby. It fits within the fabric of the block.

And again, this has been in existence for seven years now.

The second refusal relates to parking that is required at a two-to-one ratio per repair bay.

We're not providing accessory parking spaces here for the code requirements.

We do have a 10,000 square foot structure here that's mostly open concept that has space for the storage of vehicles,

as does a lot, sort of an unoccupied portion of the lot.

That's a part of this parcel that you'll see on the site plan.

Here is the letter of support from the coordinating RCO.

You can see support nine to zero from their meeting

and a letter of rationale as well here stating that this is a win-win for the community.

They fully support this business, which is an asset to the community.

here's that license you can see it was obtained in june 12 20 june 12 2017 it's still active

um we're just hoping to get the the zoning permit straightened out and uh then ultimately they will

be obtaining a tire retailer license as well here's the zoning map irmx again this is a large

parcel um it's near icmx and i2 so this portion of the neighborhood

um it's near icmx and i2 so this portion of the the neighborhood here is is industrial uh in nature

neighborhood.

here's a google maps perspective you can see an outline of what that building structure looks

like it's rather large our lot itself is 10 880 square feet um here is a an aerial view of the site

on germantown avenue some photographs so this is the front of the property a current um you know

active represent or accurate representation of the current condition of the property and here it was

in 2017 um after they had obtained their variance you can see there's a big grand opening sign right

here at the front um they thought they had done everything right they almost did they just forgot

one last step, which was pulling that zoning permit. So that's why we're here now. Here's

the notice posting, which was posted on the property in multiple locations in a timely

fashion. Here's to the right of the property on Germantown Avenue and to the left.

Architectural plans and drawings. This is the same thing twice, essentially. You can see

this sort of hashed building structure here is the building. There's also an outdoor portion

of the lot here and here as well. This is a very basic floor plan of the building. You can see

there's a sort of a shop in the front, a waiting area, a bathroom, and then the rest of that is

is storage and workspace in an open concept in that building structure here's the rco meeting

notice it was mailed out in a timely fashion to 59 properties not a super dense area

here are the list of those addresses and the mailing certificates the application for appeal

and the project information form here's the deed to the property showing suquinder and harwinder

are the owners of the property and have owned this property since 2015.

And finally, the Certificate of Tax Clearance showing that the only taxes owed are those

that are not due yet for 2024.

A couple more notes.

This business operates during normal business hours so as not to disturb the community 9

to 5.

They employ members of their own family as well as members of the community, not many

working at a given shift so there's not a large demand on um you know parking and uh just general

density when this business is operating um and it's it's known as sing tire center

uh so with that i would ask linder to uh adopt my testimony okay

good morning sir

Good morning.

Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?

Quinder Singh, S-U-K-H-W-I-N-D-E-R, last name Singh, S-I-N-G-H.

Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do.

Please proceed, Mr. Goldberg.

Good morning, Mr. Quinder. Did you hear my testimony today?

Yes, I did.

And was it true and correct?

Yes.

And you adopted as if it were your own?

yes thank you questions from the board no mr chairman no chair no chair

what's your comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair

what's your comments from the virtual audience yes chair i have charles richardson and i will

allow him to speak morning mr richardson just state your name you've already been sworn

mr richardson there we go uh there you go there you go if you've always been sworn just state

your name charles richardson r-i-c-h-a-r-d-s-o-n office of councilwoman cindy bass room 508 city

hall the councilwoman is not opposed to granting the variance thank you very much for calling in

is there anyone else in the virtual audience

there are no hands here planning commission

thank you chair bergman and board members good morning david effecto with the city planning

commission chair and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to

the industrial and residential mixed use zoning at this location the zoning maps here were changed

in 2021 during a community supported map change this property has a documented history as a

personal vehicle repair and maintenance facility. The City Planning Commission recommends that the

The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variants for personal vehicle repair and maintenance, and the proposed variants for not providing required parking spaces.

grant the proposed use variants for personal

Thank you. MI 2023-003-498-4023-27 Germantown Avenue, I vote yes.

Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.

James Snell, my vote is yes.

Ismail Shahid, my vote is yes.

Thank you, Mr. Goldberg.

Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

All right, we're going to go back to number three.

MI 2023-004-274-5800 Catherine Street.

David Chandler is the attorney.

David Chandler is coming back in as a panelist.

Thank you.

You're welcome.