What you'll see now, again, the locker room is below grade. What you'll see now,
there's essentially going to be an HVAC unit put on top of that locker room, and there's going to
be a fencing to obscure that and buffer that for anyone in the parking lot. Again, you can just see
the proposed condition there. And then this is now going on to the other side. You can see I'm
standing at the top of the hill. This is the existing area up there, and that's going to be
the uh the roof roof deck area uh a lot of these mechanicals will be moved and reconfigured to go
onto this side and again uh this is where we're going to put a door and have a have a um a designed
and and to put the cart before the horse uh we worked closely with the neighbors uh actually
So in working with the neighbors, we went out and retained a sound engineer to redesign the entirety of the roof deck to make sure that we capture all the sound and do not impose or impinge upon any of the neighbors.
So here's a rendering of what you can see.
Again, this is that new retaining wall that will be put in place where there isn't one now.
This is the new egress staircase and this is the proposed new roof deck area.
This is now that same image from Valley Green.
And again just a better view of of what that looks like. It's actually with the sound engineer
We've put in, essentially, walled it off here to make sure that the sound doesn't come out towards the neighborhood or Valley Green, and actually the sound all stays in.
It is now roofed over about two-thirds.
That roof and the walls inside are inclusive now of sound dampening materials to make sure, again, pursuant to the sound engineer, that we capture all that sound and it doesn't permeate out into the neighborhood.
This is an image of what it would look like.
Again, here's the roof you can see going out almost over the entirety of it.
the walls here kind of just trying to get an outdoor space for people to congregate but yet
keep it and maintain it without bothering any of the neighbors. This is just from the other angle
you can see there's one door here that's where people that's where the existing club area is
you'll come out there right on the left here this is that one stair that's just for fire escape
access. So you would open that up for the fire code to go down the new staircase that's being
installed right on that other side. So moving on to the signage, you can see this is the existing
sign on Cherokee. These are raised three feet out of the ground on posts, and what you can see is
it's very busy, and it's actually a very dark and difficult to read sign. This is the same sign
on the West Willow Grove side. You can see, again, it's actually raised out of the ground,
again, the same three feet. And here's an image of what it looks like. Again, it doesn't match
the current SCH. SCH hired a sign designer, went through and redid all the signage on their
property. They probably came before you in order to do that. So what we did was we went and hired
the SCH sign designer to redesign those two signs for us, improve their visibility for vehicular
traffic and wayfinding. So here's the notice of refusal with regard to the signs. The first issue
we have is freestanding signs are prohibited within the required setbacks. There's a 35-foot
there's a 35 foot setback requirement in rsd1 again these two signage signs currently exist
setback requirement in RSD-1. Again,
they are both approximately 15 feet away from the street frontage at this time they're going to
remain in that same location um the sign on uh cherokee generated a refusal this will become
evident in a second but 15 square feet are allowed and 15.54 square feet are what is proposed
the west willow grove the primary sign is larger and it is now in its current condition
15 square feet is allowed and 28 square feet is what is proposed
so again what what you'll see now and i have renderings that show this better
we're lowering the overall height so this is an 18 inch stone base the stone base is meant to
again fit in better with the imagery that SCH uses and now instead of having that busy sign
with all that language on it it just says WSIC and skating club for everybody to know where
they're coming from. Those are the details. So here's an example of the current signage that
SCH just redid at their property. And then here's an image of what the West Willow Grove signage is
going to look like. And here's a rendering of the two in their location. So again, the overall
height gets reduced, it does become a little squatter and wider. But again, just trying to
make it more visible, better wayfinding so that you can see WSIC and Skating Club. And of course,
the name is Long, so it does require a slightly larger sign. And then the last two things I have
to show you are we received two separate letters for the two applications from SCH, both letters
of approval and authorization to move forward, but also approval and agreement with our project.
And then we went through Chestnut Hill CHCA's meeting process, meeting with the DRC twice,
the LUPZ, the HDAC, and then finally before the CHCA board. And that resulted in a favorable
letter of support from them um with that that concludes my presentation i do have
uh kevin homel the president of the club when do you bring him on
kevin how have been promoted to painless thank you hi could you please state your
name and spell for the stenographer um kevin could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer there you go kevin hamel k-e-b-i-n-h-a-m-e-l do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do counsel uh mr homel you're here
on behalf of the club correct correct and did you hear all the testimony i already presented in this
case i did and do you believe it to be true and correct to the best of your knowledge information
and belief yes i do and would you adopt that testimony as your own yes i would
thank you mr homel uh board we're happy to answer any questions you may have but that
concludes our presentation is the signage going to be um illuminated
uh i'm sorry board never guess i believe you spoke but i couldn't hear what the question was
okay i'm asking is the signage going to be illuminated oh uh i apologize for not saying
that no it is not uh it is unilluminated uh signage okay but it's some kind of way that
it's going to be better seen than the other signs so what you'll see is it it's uh it's a brighter
blue background um and again i i think i i can go back to it um we have the signage it's meant to
match the signage at sch which uh was actually these the photos that i showed i can show again
were actually taken uh during the daytime so that you can see you know how much how much better
visible they really are so i just brought them back up um so these are actual photos they're not
uh prepared you know renderings or anything these are actual photos showing sch so it'll be this
same blue uh with the same white lettering and again it's just meant to have wisc and skating
WSIC and skating club in large white letters against that blue so that you don't need the
club in large white letters against that blue so that you don't
uh you don't need it to be illuminated uh but it will be visible all right and then um with respect
to this deck so is that a is it open on the sides there or is it completely enclosed or
i i was having a little trouble with seeing yeah so i will share my screen again sorry i just don't
want to give anyone vertigo by slipping through um so so what you can see is right right behind
me in this rendering would be uh the what the what the existing wall which is going to have
one door to open out from the existing club interior space onto this balcony. And then what
you can see is on the left-hand side, it's going to be completely enclosed. And then on the right
hand side, you can see those approximately eight foot walls are going to be put in place. The top
half will be clear and visible. And then that's going to be all the way down on, that's the valley
green side. And then the far side that you can see from this rendering is actually the side that
backs up to the existing SCH squash building. So it's not entirely enclosed. There is a slight,
you know, you can see from this rendering, there's a slight area that is opened. That is to give it
some outdoor activity. But again, this was, this originally did not have any of the sort of
plexiglass view that you have here where it looks like you're inside a hockey rink and it did not
have a roof and in coordination with one of the near neighbors actually the nearest neighbor
we went through the process of again retaining that sound engineer and then redesigned it to
look as you see now in order to make sure that all the sound is going to be kept internally
and not going out into the neighborhood all right so I mean depending on what you're calling it
usually and um I I hate to say this because I like the way this looks but um usually you're
not supposed to have a permanently affixed roof on the deck if that's what this is
So I'm thinking that that this is more considered in addition than it is that so Ellen I did I asked that Ellen I did not have a problem with that.
It was not considered an addition, but it also does not increase the it doesn't increase any building coverage or or trigger any other review issues.
um so in the end it ultimately doesn't matter what they call it i think it's technically a
balcony because it's on an existing deck and uh you walk out directly onto it on an existing floor
it's not increasing height um but yeah i leave that telling i i guess it's not quite fish or
foul it's sort of a a little somewhat of semantics yes i mean
i'm not sure i i'm not going to object i mean in that sense i'm just saying that usually you know
you're not supposed to have like this permanently a fixed roof on uh decks or stairs so when i'm
looking at this I'm like okay I'm not quite sure what to call this because it's not as you would
usually call a deck and it's right a residential deck usually where you have to get because this
is other than a residential deck you need to get some kind of special permissions for it so okay
all right all the questions thank you questions from our attorney not at this time Mr. chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience not at this time planning commission all right
chairman I'm going to enter testimony first for MI 2025 006114 um so uh uh David Fecto with the
city planning commission comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location
from residential single-family detached RSD-1 to special-purpose institutional SPINS.
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 1975 in a council-supported map change.
The replacement of existing signs will not injure the use of adjacent property.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the proposed variances.
Thank you. MI-2025-006-114-5...
And my 2025 0 0 6 1 1 4 5 5 0 West Willow Grove Avenue. I vote. Yes, Michael Johns. My voters. Yes, Cheryl Gaston. My voters. Yes, Tana Graham. My voters. Yes, Ryan McAdams. My voters. Yes.
i win my vote is yes all right so for the second one mi-2026-002-190
again david effecto with the city planning commission chairman of board members the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the residential single
family detached rsd1 to special purpose institutional spins the city rezoned this
neighborhood in 1975 and a council supported map change the city planning commission recommends the
board deny the requested variance for steep slope disturbance but grant the proposed variance for
rear yard number seven mi 2026 002 190 550 west willow grove avenue i vote yes michael johns my
is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tana graham my vote is yes mcadams my vote is yes i win my
vote is yes thank you sean thank you everybody i'll stop sharing my screen i hope you all have
a wonderful night sorry we kept you here so late i'm sorry you guys are stuck here so late oh we
like it here sean they're all we're off we're off the record right i know okay all right thank you
number five
001 165
North 63rd Street, Devin Upta
is the attorney
Mr. Chair, so for this case and the next one
Brittany Gardner is stepping in for
Mr. Upta
I see Ms. Gardner in the audience
Brittany Gardner is
allowed to speak
thank you
Brittany Gardner, can you unmute yourself?
Ms. Gardner?
Brittany, can you unmute yourself, please?
I'm sorry.
My dog is also barking in the background.
I apologize.
Okay, good.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the sonographer?
Yes, Brittany, B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y, Gardner, G-A-R-D-N-E-R.
All right.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes did you identify your client in a relationship to this property
yes i represent um let's see one second
1139 north 61st street and that is nikita i'm sorry nikita schultz ahmad i am standing in for
attorney of record um devin i could you if you could you please turn your video on
and our vice chair has a few questions for you good evening have you submitted the documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have i'm actually i don't see the camera option
on this zoom i just have the microphone the chat box i don't see the video option
uh let me see
okay can you hear me
it's because you're trying to figure out what to do with it
oh hi britney yes mr chairman i'm sorry i'm here sure um have you figured out how to get in yet
yes here we are i wasn't a pant listed as a panelist so there we are okay good great all right
there you go thank you okay um vice chair did you yeah nope nope uh so you uh to your
knowledge the documents have been submitted five days in advance of this hearing
yes okay and you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes okay all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with the case
already
is she a green button at the bottom
see a green button at the bottom yes 1139 north 63rd street there it goes it's coming up
we're there all right so here is the exhibits that were submitted prior to today's hearing
We have the letter of refusal. Our client, she wants to open up a child or group child care facility. She has, she already has a child care facility. She just needs to, she just wants to increase the number of children.
Karen. So she did receive the letter of a refusal. Did you, can you see my screen? I'm sorry.
We, we, we, we don't, we, you are coming up and it just disappeared. All right, let me try again.
Okay, I should come back up.
And we see, we see your, we now see your documents.
you can see it now yeah okay so here is the letter uh or the notice of refusal for the group home
i'm sorry the group child care facility um as previously stated it is already operating as a
child care um facility my client just wishes to increase the number um of children that she would
like to support. So here is a photo of the exterior. As you can see, there is a paved
driveway, so it's not impacting any traffic. It's not impacting any neighbors
in the area. The next photo that we have is the backyard. You see the bikes and things for the
children you have the trampolines again here is a photo of the driveway so we're
not impacting any neighbors with any traffic or anything like that right here
is a photo of the office so as you can see there's policies in place COVID-19
rules and regulations employees are supposed to wash their hands typical
policies that are usually seen in child care the child care industry on the next photo we have of
the interior is a classroom where the children do go in and learn on a day-to-day basis we have toys
we have books, iPads. Next photo is another office with, yeah, so it's another office in the interior
of the child care facility. Excuse me, Ms. Gardner, it looks, oh, maybe it's gone. There
was a black box there and over part of the photo, but it looks like it disappeared now. It was
related to the zoom oh okay wait is it clear now yeah it's clear now i just was blocking parts of
the photos but we it's okay thank you okay no problem um here's another photo of a classroom
this is the pre-k classroom um see more additional learning activities that the children are already