families and causing issues with parking which is great because it means that people are moving
into our neighborhood families, but there's no answer as far as reserved parking for 30 minutes
if there's going to be designated areas for this. There's going to be a lot of construction on 25th
Bridge, which is going to cause more congestion than we already have, and I just think that
there's enough commercial space on Washington Avenue where there's pizza places, coffee shops,
bagel shops opening up, that another one of these, another restaurant opening up that's May,
we've had
a couple closed within a year or two
and then they stay vacant
I'm opposed to the project
I'd love to see more residential
and that's it
Thank you very much for calling, we appreciate it
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Elias Rivera
will be allowed to speak
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the stenographer
Elias Rivera
that's E-L-A
E-L-I-A-S-R-I-V-E-R-A
Where are you from to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I live a few doors down.
All right, please proceed.
I'm just concerned just about the timing of what time the restaurant is going to close.
The neighborhood doesn't need another restaurant.
There's pizzerias and restaurants all over the place.
another residential place would be nice to bring more family into the neighborhood
also the trash situation that he does they don't sound too confident on how the trash is going to
be situated on top of that with the parking with all the mess is going on in the neighborhood
where's all the parking going to go there's rarely any parking in the neighborhood
um that's pretty much it uh the trash and parking is a big concern of mine is also the
heavy traffic coming around there up and down the street is usually a quiet street
you don't hear too much just the trains so those are my concerns at this moment is the trash and
all the parking thank you mr rivera we appreciate your comments is there anyone else in the arts
audience yes michelle berstein will be allowed to speak i could you please state your name
misspelled for the stenographer.
Michelle?
Michelle Bernstein, can you
unmute yourself?
Michelle is still muted, Chair.
Is there anyone else in the audience?
There are no more hands.
Thank you.
Mr. Vacari, you want to respond?
Yes, insofar as the hours of operation, I was going to ask Ms. Dinaj, what hours of operation does she anticipate the restaurant being in?
Ms. Dinaj, can you unmute yourself, please?
Yes, so originally, we never said 12, but it doesn't matter.
So it was 7 to 10 p.m., 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
And and part of this project also includes some lighting to light up.
to light up yes correct yes so the second meeting yeah so the second meeting we have we
Yes. Correct. Yes.
So the second.
explained the issues of uh as far as the trash and and the lighting understood now uh this is my
this is going to be my testimony members of the board i had sent out a first notice of meeting
of the first meeting that occurred uh in october uh could you please please could you mute yourself
please thank you thank you uh and i had also sent out the same notice to the same list of near
neighbors for the second meeting which occurred in in in november and it was with the same group
of people. It was with the same RCO. So I don't understand what Mr. and Ms. Shlomo's positions
are about them never having received any notifications. It's the same coordinating
RCO. It's the same affected RCOs. It's the same list of addresses. Thank you. Thank you, Mr.
McCarroll. Planning Commission. Thank you, Chairman. And by the way, sorry to step on you,
You know, Mr. Fecto, again, this building, the current structure in place still needs to be demolished.
It's going to be several years before this place is up and running.
So this is a very long, long project, and this is the first step of a very long project.
Good morning. My name is Rita Ford, and I am.
Thank you.
Excuse me, Chair. Michelle Bernstein has raised a hand again.
Michelle, could you state your name is spelled for a stenographer?
Did we see her? Is she unmuted?
Yes, but she's still muted.
Okay, thank you. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chairman, and good morning. David Fecta with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the I-2 medium industrial zoning
at this location, the zoning for this part of the neighborhood dates to the original 1933 zoning
maps. The proposed restaurant would be in keeping with the commercial and industrial character of
25th Street, and providing off-street parking would render the building unusable. However,
the appellant has not shown that the addition of dwelling units is required to enable reuse of the
property, so the City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the proposed use
variance for an eating and drinking establishment, and the variance for not including parking,
but deny the use variance for two dwelling units.
Mr. Beccaro, I'm going to hold this until next Wednesday. I want to really sit and talk to the
board exactly where we are with this and have all the input we can get. We'll vote on it next
Wednesday at 9.30 a.m., okay? Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, sir.
All right, we're going to go to number 19. MI 2024, 005-373-38 Jackson Street. Roger Perry is the attorney. Letter of support from Whitman Council. Letter of non-opposition from Councilmember Squilla.
Roger Perry has been promoted.
Morning, Mr. Perry.
mr perry yeah hi here i am all right good thank you sir could you state your name and spell for
the stenographer yes good morning it's roger perry r-o-g-e-r perry p-e-r-r-y
where are a firm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth
i do could you identify your client a relationship to the property
Oh, yes. I have two people involved with this client. Frankie's World Foundation is a child care existing tenant for this property. And I also represent 38 Jackson LLC for the purposes of zoning, which is the owner of the property.
Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to proceed
with this case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I have. Thank you, counsel. Please
proceed and share your screen. Okay, can you see my screen there? Yes, sir. Okay, so let me give you
a little background here. I'm looking at the interior of the building as it exists. This is
an I-2 industrial district at 38 Jackson Street. My client currently has had a 10-year lease at
10th and Poplar Street. Frankie's World Foundation provides special needs.
Frankie's World Foundation provides special needs children child care for a large group, and they've been doing this for over 10 years.
By virtue of losing the lease, they went out and had to find a large area to move to, and 38 Jackson Street provides this opportunity.
This is approximately 18,000 square feet in an existing warehouse adjacent to I-95, essentially, at Jackson Street and Water Street.
This is, I'll scroll back up, but you can see that this is partially renovated, but primarily this is going to be all gutted and renovated in a very large renovation project here.
Let me turn this posting front.
This is the diagonally across the street.
This is the back of the warehouse here.
And this is the front.
So my clients are taking over with a variance, I-2, it requires under the refusal that this be converted to a variance for a commercial use. Special needs child care requires that it be a commercial use. It's not permitted under the refusal in an I-2 industrial district.
This notes the posting of the property for the hearing.
And we had a meeting with Whitman, which has noticed the board of its support.
We've posted both into the property.
There's the mailings, the refusal.
Let me come back up to it.
lost my
let me go down to
here I was going to locate the plans
there is some parking but it's really
intermittent parking in front of the warehouse. Primarily, we're going to be looking for
additional parking spaces under I-95, and we've been dealing with them in terms of that.
So the interior...
Can you turn that over?
Yeah, let me...
Turn that over, Roger.
Clockwise here.
Okay, go ahead.
I'm just trying to expand this a little bit here.
Okay, so this is approximately 18,000 square feet in terms of the first floor of this warehouse.
Other uses in the warehouse sort of are intermittent commercial uses as well.
And this is what was at the second floor level and so forth, vacant commercial and a couple
of other internet and uses.
I think there's a karate studio up there now and so forth, but we're using the first
floor in terms of this particular space.
As I indicated, I just want to reiterate that my clients have been over 10 years operating
a special needs child care at 10th and Poplar, and now they're looking for to move from their
lease there to this new lease that will require substantial renovation, which is under an
existing lease agreement with the owners of them representing for purposes of the zoning 38 Jackson
LLC. Frankie's World Foundation has been doing this type of child care for in excess of 10 years,
So they're very well experienced in dealing with both the city, DHS, and the state and so forth.
We've met several times with Whitman, and they're very looking forward to having this work done here and have them move in.
I don't think there's anything else in terms of what's going to be done.
I mean, this is essentially a shell, and the renovations are going to be somewhere in excess of $400,000 to make this compliant with DHS and city regulations for child care and particularly special needs child care.
I have my clients, one or more of my clients, Lockwoods, should be listening in, and they can adopt my testimony as necessary.
do we have one of the lockwoods here i'm checking now for you thank you you're welcome
yes i have connie lockwood would be allowed to speak honey yep
Connie, yeah.
all right could you please state your name
Go ahead.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
My name is Connie Lockwood, C-O-N-N-Y-L-O-C-K-W-O-O-D.
We're affirming the tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Please proceed, counsel.
Yeah, good morning, Connie.
You are indeed affiliated with Frankie's World Foundation
and have been running a special needs daycare for years and years?
Yes, we have.
Okay, and did you hear my presentation to the zoning board this morning?
Yes, I did.
Okay, would you adopt this as your own testimony if you testified separately?
Yes, I would.
Okay, thank you very much.
Questions from the board.
I have a quick question.
Where's the daycare's entrance in relation to the entrance to the businesses on the second floor?
Okay, there's going to be an entrance.
This is going to be completely redone, but the entrance is going to be on the Water Street side, which is closed off.
Water Street has been closed off as adjacent to I-95.
We're going to put in a circular driveway that allows vehicles to come in on the east side and go around, it would be over here, and go around in a circular drop-off because some of these special needs children have special drop-offs.
They have, I don't want to call them ambulances, but they have special vehicles for handicapped
accessibility.
That's going to be an entirely separate entrance on the east side, and they're going to have
an entrance built into the east side so that they're not going to be blocking Jackson Street
at all.
Okay, because I've noticed in the pictures, they depict a lot of entrances with stairwells,
with steps.
This is also a store with handicapped accessibility on the east side.
Okay, so your drawings don't depict the circular driveway.
In this drawing here, where would a circular driveway go?
I don't.
It would go on the east side, which is here, I believe.
Connie can correct me if I'm wrong.
It would be down the bottom where it says first floor.
It would be along that side of the street, right over there.
So you would come in, Jackson, turn it there.
Over here, okay.
yeah this is uh is this the east side here connie yes okay so it would be here in this area which is
water street and is that a two-way street no water street is closed off currently
okay you have access here because they have access uh to come in and i have photographs
of that let me see if i can go up and then um the building
okay let me see if i can
okay yeah this is the rear access to the rear of the property so this is the closed off water
street here okay there's a fence here but they're going to be allowed to put the handicap