you in favor of this project or against? I am. You're in favor? I am in favor, yes. Thank you
very much for taking the time to call. Do we have another hand? Yes, there are three hands up. Jenny
Braun will be allowed to speak. Hi, can everyone hear me? I can. Can you please state your name
and spell for this stenographer? Jenny, J-E-N-N-I-E, Braun, B-R-A-U-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Are you a neighbor? Yes, I am. Are you in
favor of this project or against? I'm in favor of the project. Thank you very much. Next hand,
please. Margo Seifert will be allowed to speak. Hi, could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer? Margo? Oh, there we go. Can you hear me? I can. Could you please state your
name and spell for the stenographer? Margo, M-A-R-G-O, Seifert, S as in Sam, E-I, F as in Frank,
E-R-T. You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes. Are you a neighbor? I am a neighbor. I live on the opposite block. I also live in a third story home. Our block on Wharton Street is a third story already. And I'm. Hold on a moment. Are you in favor or against this project?
Definitely in favor. It would not cause any issue in terms of view or anything like that.
We've had a lot of construction on our block in the past couple of years with no major issues or concerns.
And we would love to have the family stay in the neighborhood, especially.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for taking the time. Next hand, please.
The next hand is Lauren Ouch will be allowed to speak.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Hi, Lauren Auk, L-A-U-R-E-N, Auk, A-U-C-H.
Is there a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Are you in favor of this project or against?
I am in favor.
Thank you very much for taking the time to call us.
Do we have any more hands?
There are no more hands, Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, David Vecto, City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA-5
residential single-family zoning at this location. The appellant has not shown that not following the
eight-foot setback provision for a roof deck will cause an economic detriment to accrue.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed dimensional variance from
the eight-foot setback provision for a roof deck. MI 2024, 005-320-1227, Titan Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes. Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
I am Wynn. My vote is yes.
I am Lynn, my vote is yes. Snedder Graham, my vote is yes.
Snedah Graham. My vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed. My vote is yes.
Thank you. You have your votes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So number, I believe we're going to number seven.
MI 2024-004871, 2015 Orthodox Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the
Frankfort Neighborhood Advisory Committee
The Frankfort RCO
voted to approve this request
Henry Clinton is coming
in as a panelist
Good morning Mr. Clinton
morning mr clinton what is suburban all right could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer sure uh henry clinton h-e-n-r-y clinton c-l-i-n-t-o-n you swear or firm to tell
the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth i do would you identify your client the
relationship to this property sure my client is gordon kane g-o-r-d-o-n kane c-a-i-n he is on the
call and we also have the architect greg standeven s-t-a-n-d-e-v-e-n on the call also
our wife share has a few questions sir good morning counselor do you agree to waive the
another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits
that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this area?
I have, except we flipped the floor plan
and we sent that in two days ago,
and I'll show everybody why we did that.
Okay, thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Shaheed.
Is that visible, Mr. Chairman?
It is.
All right.
Again, good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Henry Clinton on behalf of Philadelphia Investment Group, which is owned by Gordon Cain, who is on the call.
This is a request for a four-family dwelling unit adjacent to an existing four-family dwelling unit, which previously was four-family as well as a store in an RSA 5 zoning district on a block where there are other multiple.
multiple family dwellings. These are my table of contents, A1 through A10, including zoning
records. You can see that there's other four-unit properties on the block. There's also an American
Legion post. There's an office, and there's a 9,200-square-foot commercial building.
Refusal, as I indicated, this is an RSA 5 zoning district, single family. We have three refusals.
The main refusal is for use because it's multifamily in an RSA 5 zoning district.
We have two setback issues, which I will explain and show you on the plans why that is a de
minimis issue, or that's the way the client and the architect and I see it, and hopefully
the board will see it the same way.
We do have an RCO letter of support from the Frankfurt Neighborhood Advisory Committee,
which you referenced at the outset, I believe.
They support the request.
Photograph.
So this is the 2100 block of Orthodox Street.
This is currently a vacant lot where my cursor is.
You can see there's other vacant lots on the block.
And adjacent to the property is a four-story unit, which I'll give you a closer view.
And then to the right of that property is a large open-air storage space.
It's overgrown in this photograph, but a subsequent photograph will show you what it looks like.
This is a closer view.
Here's the outdoor storage area, existing property, four units, another four unit at the end of the block, two, three, two, three, and then directly across the street, a little bit catty corner.
It's a 9,200 square foot commercial building, and the American Legion post is in this area.
Again, a little bit overgrown, but I have other photographs to bring it more into perspective.
We're looking down or up Orthodox Street.
Here's the existing building.
The vacant lot is right here.
Here's the American Legion post right here to the right-hand side.
There's a triplex, three mailboxes adjacent to it, a vacant lot.
And that open-air storage area is where my cursor is now.
Just looking from the other direction, commercial building to the left, the open-air storage area.
The commercial building to the left, the open-air storage area to the right, and existing four-family dwelling.
Again, just some more photographs for perspective.
You can see that there's six electric meters on the side of this existing building.
It is being used as four, so I believe there's a meter for the common space as well as for the outdoor lighting, but that's just a guess.
Closer view.
proof that there are signs were posted
in advance of the hearing.
And here are the plans.
So I just wanna spend a little bit of time
to explain to the board what's going on here.
So when you see the renderings,
you'll see that we don't have any building
in the front of our proposed building.
It's open air.
And then the building is set back a little bit
to give more light and air into the building.
And there's also a passageway underneath the second floor to get to the rear of the building because it is four units and we need to have some exterior trash storage, which we do.
We'll have a separate fenced in area for that.
So residents of the building can come out the middle of the building and come down and put their trash in the rear.
this is just a cutaway view of the property i have unit in the front unit one in the rear
it's a bi-level and then the third unit's on the second floor the fourth unit on the
third floor and there is a rooftop deck so this is the building the rendering as i said
at the outset. The building is set back, which has resulted in two of the refusals, indicating
that we have a deck coming off the front, the second floor, to give that resident some light
and air. But it also opens up the whole front of this building and as well permits some light and
air to come into the building, which is next door. We're still going to maintain the alley that's
there now. It's about a four-foot alley between our building and the adjacent building. But here
is the walkthrough where you can get to the rear yard and to the center of the building.
This might be a better shot of it. You can see there's still the alley that's existing will
remain and then our building has the walkthrough all the way underneath the second floor to get
to the yard. This was the original layout with bedrooms in the basement. We have since reversed
that and I'll show you that layout as I walk through the property. The second and third floor
has not changed. There's going to be one living unit on the second floor with two bedrooms and
then one living unit on the third floor, again, with two bedrooms and bathroom, two baths, kitchen,
living and dining area. I'll go back to the basement and the first floor because that's
part of my proviso sheet. Rooftop deck. So here's a better rendering on the left-hand side where you
can see that below the second floor, which is cantilever, you can come out the center of the
building and then get to the rear yard very easily and also get to the front yard.
This is our proviso sheet if the board looks kindly upon this.
And here's the plans for the basement. So this is the basement, bi-level unit, basement of first floor, and bi-level unit for unit one and unit two.
And the basement's going to be an office in the immediate room with the laundry. There's no bathroom in the basement.
Excuse me, Mr. Clinton, can you make that bigger, please?
Sorry about that, Ms. Grant.
Thank you.
so the lower drawing or plan is the basement uh it's going to be the meter room in the front of
the first unit uh some storage office media room and mechanicals and then washer and dryer and
that same layout is going to be repeated uh in the rear of the building as i said there's a
there's a set of steps between the basement and the first floor the first floor will basically
be the living area with the bedroom and kitchen area the remaining documents or the typical
documents you would see in an application such as this what i want to bring you to
the tax clearance is in place the zoning map it is an rsa5 directly across the tree from the cmx2
The deed indicating ownership.
I just want to walk through the zoning documents.
If I may, this is our notice to the neighborhood indicating that we mailed out 115 pieces of mail to everyone within 250 feet of the property.
to everyone within 250 feet of the property and so here's the zoning records and i'll walk through
And so here's the.
these briefly um and i'll spend as much time as the board wants me to on any particular address
but the one i do want to point out is this is 2015 that's our subject property
and i have records to back this up back in the day it was four units and a store
So this is 2000 Orthodox, two rental units, 2001, four dwelling units, 2006, American Legion Post, which I pointed out, 2015, excuse me, this is 2008.
This is for a three-family dwelling.
2012, this is four units.
It was four units, two apartments on each floor.
Then it was switched to an office on one apartment.
And this is the subject property.
2015, I was able to find a zoning record from 1961,
indicating that it was a vacant store with four apartments.
Then it became a steak shop and four apartments.
Now, I don't know when the building was demolished.
I could not determine that.
And no one at the community meeting was aware of when that happened.
This is 2017.
This is the property adjacent to us, four family, which I pointed out, the big white structure.
Again, 2017, one apartment, two apartments, another apartment.
So it's four apartments and a vacant commercial.
So I guess at one time, the first floor of not only our subject property, but the property next door,
was commercial. I mean, it is across the street from the CMX2 zoning district. And evidently,
the commercial is then converted to residential on the property next door. And in our property,
it was simply demolished. Again, 2017, there's an active rental license for four units.
So that is a presentation. Before I bring my client on, I just want to summarize and say that
This property is on a street where we have many multiple dwelling units, some commercial, an American Legion post.
So it is kind of mixed across the street from CMX2 zoning district.
We are basically in harmony with the code because we are going to keep the property residential, albeit it'll be four units.
We're hearkening back to what it was used for in the past.
We're basically in harmony with the code, and we're certainly in harmony with what the neighborhood group wants to see something developed on this particular lot.
And with that, I'd ask my client to mute himself, and I can ask him a few questions.
And certainly, I can bring the plans back up.
I didn't mean to disconnect.
Hi, Mr. Clinton, what is your client's name?
Gordon Cain, C-A-I-N.
Thank you.
Gordon Cain has been allowed to speak.
Hey, Mr. Cain, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes, my name is Gordon Cain, G-O-R-D-O-N-C-A-I-N.
Where or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?