Thank you. You heard my testimony here today, Ms. Harrison?
And is it true and correct?
Correct.
And you adopted as your own testimony?
Thank you.
My question is from the board.
no mr chairman oh no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands chair oh wait i have one up sorry chair a craig craig medellison
has raised his hand i'm gonna okay could you state your name and spell it please for the
court reporter. Craig, C-R-A-I-G, last name Melidosian, M-E-L-I-D-O-S-I-A-N. Right. Do you
swear? I think I swore you once today, didn't I, sir? Yes, you did, chair. Okay, proceed. I just
simply, we've worked with Ms. Harrison for quite a while on this. We have confidence in her
desire to deliver this type of housing in the area, which we need, and we are in support of her
as long as she remains in compliance with the state regs.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for calling me.
Is there anyone else in the first audience?
I see no more hands here.
Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
While this property is indicated for residential use on a city plan,
the proposed use should have no more of an impact
than would be expected at this specific location.
there for we have no objection to the grounding of the special exception. Thank you. MI 2021-002-010-2528
Lloyd Street. I vote yes with proviso. No sleeping accommodations in the basement.
Temporary special exception to expire on 3-1-26. Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes with provisos.
Jane Snell, my vote is yes with provisos.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number seven, MI 2021-002-016, 4271 North Bodine.
Joseph Vicarro is the attorney.
letter of opposition from Esperanza, letter of opposition from Council Member Lozada.
Mr. Vaccaro is coming in as a panelist.
Good afternoon. Can you see me?
Mr. Vaccaro, just state your name. We've already sworn you in. Just for the record,
state your name. Joseph Vaccaro, V-A-C-C-A-R-O. Right. And could you identify your client,
the relationship to this property? Sure. My client is United Homes, LLC,
the owner of the property. And I have in my office, Mr. Moises Rodriguez, the principal owner of
United Properties, LLC. And he's also operating the grocery store located at this property.
I'm correcting myself. It's United Homes. Right. So our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Absolutely. Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
towards accuracy yes have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits to our offices
within five days of this hearing yes thank you except for except for one screenshot which i took
today did you get that over to us uh i i could send it right now or i could just share it it's
It's just an image from Google Maps.
That's all.
Okay, please proceed and share your screen.
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Recaro, this is Hillary.
If you would like that added to the record for this case,
just please email it to us by the end of the day.
Thank you.
Fair enough.
Thank you.
Okay, I represent United Homes, LLC.
I'm sorry, United Homes, Inc.
United Homes, Inc. is owned by Mr. Moise Rodriguez.
He does not speak English,
so I'll be making the presentation on his behalf. He is seated behind the computer screen in my
office observing these proceedings. This is an application to legalize the grocery store that
the grocery store that is currently operating at this location.
is currently operating at this location.
When United Homes had purchased, when Mr. Rodriguez through United Homes had purchased
the property, this is what it looked like. I could share the screen.
That's what I'm trying to do, share the screen.
this is what the property looked like it was an empty it was an empty grocery store hasn't
been used in about 10 years and he and he turned the property into this to find the photographs
I'm trying to show you the photographs of what the store looks like now.
Do you see this?
We, yeah, I'm not, yeah.
Maybe get acid.
Okay, so that's what it is now.
Right.
This is what it looks like.
It's a nice grocery store operating as Leslie Market, same individual.
That has the LLC that owns the property, same individual that's operating the store, Mr. Rodriguez.
It's a two aisle grocery store, fully stocked shelves.
This is the back area of the property.
It's a corner property.
Behind this gate is where the trash containers are.
Here's the back of the property again.
More photos showing the counter, fully stocked refrigerator.
He would like to serve hot food when it's permitted.
He's not doing that right now.
Another shot of the store.
Another shot of the back.
Washing sink.
Candy behind the counter.
Hot coffee.
And now we're going, we'll be going into the back area where the trash containers are stored and refrigerated.
Oh, I thought that I had the photographs of the trash container.
So this was refused. This was refused because it's zoned as single family.
Mr. Rodriguez, through his LLC, had purchased the property in this fashion.
by way of record here there was a there was a grocery store at this location until 2009
and then from 2009 for the next approximate 10 years the place was empty as I had demonstrated
in the previous photograph we did have a meeting with Esperanza on August 17th of 2021 and we and
And I was shocked and surprised to see the letter of opposition from Esperanza, considering that no one from the community other than the members of Esperanza, the council, the people that run and operate Esperanza, were the only ones that participated in this meeting.
there was no opposition voiced uh there were some fair questions normal questions as to the
hours of operation as to what days of the week um there were two and and as we as we told
as as we told the rco uh during the meeting uh there were two workers at the store
mr rodriguez and his wife uh there's always a possibility to include more workers as as the
as the demand would be necessary. They're operating seven days a week. The hours from
Monday through Saturday would be from 7.30 to 9, and from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Mr. Becker, could you show the letter, please?
can you see the letter now we do we do okay and it we had the meeting on august 17th of 2021 after
several misstarts uh we had the meeting um and again there was nobody from the community other
than the the core members of esperanza and i never even got the letter until the fall of 2022
And I never even got the letter until the fall of 2022.
I kept asking and asking for the letter.
I kept asking and asking.
I finally got it close to a year later, and I was shocked.
I was shocked to read the line.
And I quote, we have submitted a letter of opposition to the ZBA, as well as to Sloan
Folks, the representative for the Seventh Council District Office.
I tried to set up some new, some follow-up meetings with Esperanza, but then there were
between the upcoming elections. They couldn't accommodate us. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New
Year's, and here we are in front of the zoning board. And this matter has already been continued
several times. So we would ask that in spite of the position that Esperanza took, and again,
I'm reiterating the fact that there wasn't even a negative word said during the RCO meeting.
We had notified all the neighbors. We have the proof of mailing. We had notified everybody. And I was just shocked to find this letter of opposition close to a year later, even though it's dated September 1 of 2021.
What else can I show to support this application? There was a prior history of this type of use.
um the posters that members letter do you have that i'm sorry the council members letter i do
not have i do not have the council members letter but um at the time of the rco meeting at the time
of the rco meeting the council member for this district was maria quinones right um she has
been replaced by ketsy lozada the same individual who authored who authored the letter from esperanza
I want to share a screenshot of, I want to share a screenshot of the neighborhood where that would be serviced by this store.
Can you see?
I'm trying to show you the Atlas shot.
No, I apologize.
I'm just trying to get this screen to expand so I can show it to you.
But there are factories across the street and down the block, as well as the Esperanza School, about two blocks away.
So this store, there aren't any other stores nearby that would compete with this.
And in fact, this store can service and can provide a great value to the factories across the street, which are active. There are recycling centers across the street and up the block, as well as the Esperanza Charter School two blocks away that can be serviced by this store.
um i can also show you we have the notification of the rco meeting that's been
that's been resolved and i'm still just trying to show you the map of the area
which is just not working so i would hope that the board that the board takes my word for it as
as an officer of the court this is probably from it if you want you to try to stop sharing and then
open up your map and then you show it all right and then i'll just start that again
can you see that now all i get is this tiny screen oh
can you scroll down and there you go yeah i'm there oh sheepers okay you had it
oh my client wants to tell me something
yeah he he's telling me that he he serves a lot of the students from this from the school as well
as the people that work at the recycling center up the block is and and and the other factories
across the street and up the block is this can you see this now can you see the can you see the
map okay yes i wanted to show you so my store is this little orange this little orange rectangle
where my cursor is you have homes down the block you have some homes caddy corner and
homes across the street but then you have icmx over here and other factories and then the esperanza
center is closer a little bit a little bit further to the left of where my cursor is
the store could provide a lot of service to the neighborhood a service that's needed one of the
A lot of service to the neighborhood, a service that's needed.
One of the questions that has a school there.
questions
Yes, yes.
On the corner of 5th and Bristol.
And they're objecting to the store.
And that's what the letter says.
That's what the letter says.
There was a question about trash pickup.
But my client, he has arrangements with a private trash company.
he has arrangements with a private trash company
to handle the trash hauling
so we would ask that the board
grant us this variance
given the past history
the past use of the property
that there was a grocery store there before
operating in accordance with
with a variance
it's my understanding that there was a variance
and we asked for the variance to be
reinstated
obviously the variance had gone away
since it was not being used for
10 years
You're an officer of the court, so we'll take your test money because your client has a language issue.
Am I correct?
Questions from the board.
And the only thing that he chimed in on is that he serves a lot of people, and I just reiterated that.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands, Chair.
Planning Commission, Ron Bednar City Planning, this property is currently indicated for residential on the city plan, given the physical circumstances of the site and the documented use history, we recommend the request for fairness to be granted.
MI 2021 002016 4271 North Bodine Street.
I vote yes.
Tom Howard, my vote is yes.
yes jane snell my vote is yes ishmael shaheed my vote is yes thank you counsel thank you uh mr
bergman i just didn't hear i just didn't hear the first vote here was it all five yeses four