to get their car into, where's the safety of the people coming here
Sorry, I don't understand the question. You don't understand the question.
Okay. That driveway is used by the
neighbors to get their car to their garage and they have 15 feet of easement you only own 50
50% but you don't own 100% of the driveway. So now they drive the car into the garage
percent but you don't own 100 of the driveway right
and your people going to and coming from your building get hit because there's no separation.
They have use of 100% of the driveway. You can't take that away from them.
even though you have 50 ownership so now right there sorry how do you provide safety for the
people coming and going 24 7 from your building i mean it it used to be a parking garage so
clearly there was some collaboration before and we're not even suggesting cars there was no there
was no collaboration before. That's why I'm speaking to your architect. There's no collaboration.
It was used for an exit for the fire tower. That's what it was used for. And how often
were you going to have a fire or a fire drill? One a year? It wasn't used nor intended to be used
for entry 24-7. The owner's explained to me that the old use was
a garage for at the same side in the passage driveway where the where we're talking at issue
here behind the the residential properties it used to be you know they used to utilize that
driveway as passage so well it wasn't just for fire escape it was for cars and pedestrians as
well Rachel in the aerial view is that the one we're focusing on so I can understand what Tom's
saying. Yeah. His concern is if we're having people exit here and we have an easement for
pedestrian access, and these homes also have rights to park their car and utilize it to park
their car, how are we going to ensure 24 hours a day, seven days a week that these people are not
going to get hit by a car? And I don't have a better answer than this building was currently
was previously used as a parking garage and there's also going to be people living here and
clearly there's factories and people living here so besides trying to not have vehicular access in
and out of here and which we have it here and and lighting and the like i don't know how to
address that with a unique site that doesn't offer another opportunity for you know pedestrian we've
tried to work with this property to get a sidewalk put in i know we are going to continue to have
those conversations but we we only have what we have and we've sort of tried to provide it in a
way to we've cut down the unit count we've cut down the number of parking spaces and you know
have tried to address as many concerns with with the unique lie I mean this is a very just unique
site and I can't guarantee that we can you go counselor can you go to building entrance the
the elevation you have for the building entrance yeah Tom before she moves that the aerial view
can you put your cursor on on that building and people will be driving out of no they're going
to be driving out of here we also here's the building here but what is what's the problem
his concern is is this this easement and where do the people who live in those homes
park their cars in the back in the back in the back the same driveway they use the same same
driveway you see people here on a sidewalk there's no sidewalk there they can't put a sidewalk there
anyway and when you see people walking out of the building going in building coming out of the
building the people who's going to use their cars to drive to their garage on 15th street people
people on 15th Street, they use a driveway in back. They drive their cars. They can easily
hit these people. There's no separation of pedestrians and motorists.
I understand that. The way that we were trying to resolve some of that, and again,
you know, we're here for the variances just for the height. It was to eliminate anybody
having driving access from our building out of this shared driveway and to have the traffic go
this way I mean this other than that there's there's no other way to handle it besides
controlling sort of who's entering and exiting and whether it's vehicles or people and we have
you know there's a small bit of space here that we have to utilize. Counselor I don't agree with
you. Counselor your only solution. I'm clear on that I'm clear on that I'm just trying to
what is the tom what is your solution right the only solution is you have to get an easement
You have to get an easement on the property on Grain Street.
on the property on grain street you got
You got to get a pedestrian easement from the property that's on Grain Street.
That way you have a direct access from the street to your property.
Because your property is landlocked.
Let me ask you, though, how does that, if we have an easement over here to Grain Street
and we have an easement over here to Grain Street, what other easement do we need to
have from this building that would provide more than an easement from here to green street and
easement from here to green street i don't know what other rachel can you can you go up slide up
with this so this is further off on the screen so the problem the problem cancel is you have
you have an easement in a driveway you don't have an easement separate from the driveway
you need an easement separate from the driveway for pedestrians we have two easements on this
property is what i'm saying so it's a little shared with a driveway now tom are you looking
at the existing easement condition and the proposed easement paving that proposed easement
paving is for everybody's backing into each other everybody's driving to their garage
so we're not bringing vehicles down that that would be that would be for these residents of
bringing people down this well you can't restrict the people from using their driveway to get to
their garage i'm not saying let me finish i'm not suggesting that i'm saying on as far as our
building is concerned we are our proposed use for this easement and remember there's another one on
the other side of our property. So there's two. You can't use the other one either. Yes, we can.
We have an easement for this. We have two easements. Yes, we do. I'm trying to tell you
that. Where's the other easement, Rachel? It's right here. So that's where people would pull in
to park. Correct. And they would exit. There's no opening for anybody besides pedestrians
to exit on this side. There is an easement here for pedestrian and vehicular access. There's an
easement here only for pedestrian access. So all the cars are going to be from these homes because
to your point, no, we cannot control or not allow these folks to park here. This is an entrance for
us. This is not a vehicular entrance. It is just a pedestrian entrance. So asking us for another
easement, we do have another easement. It's highlighted right here, which is where the
cars are going to go in and out and pedestrians could walk in and out. There's no other place to
put an easement. Chancellor, that is not the easement that I'm referring to. I understand that.
The easement that I'm referring to is on the adjacent property, the frontage on Grains Street.
Grains Street has a frontage. It has a property which you do not own, but you have to somehow
get an easement from those owners so you could get directly into your building from the street.
But I'm not understanding what how we if we have an easement from our building here
for pedestrian access. Let me finish please. I'm not suggesting we own 100% of it. I'm suggesting
think that we have an easement from Green Street for pedestrian access in and out on this side
and pedestrian and vehicular access in and out on this side. I don't know where else you'd put an
easement given they're constructing 30 some odd units here. There's no other place to go. We have
two entrances and exits. Can I speak to you, architect? Yes. Sir? Yes. Do you understand what
i'm saying yeah i understand where you're coming from that there is actually um 30 inches of space
between our building and the easement that could be solely for pedestrians so it's not like
pedestrians are going to walk in an easement anyway or in a driveway correct
but so are the cars
you're supposed to have safety you're supposed to separate motorists from
pedestrians that's a code that's required that's why they make sidewalks that's why
people don't walk in the street i understand that i think what where we're at here is that
with what we have with this building and the two easements that we have and the 30 feet that we
have this is what we have done in order to ensure you know as much safety as possible these are
current conditions that have existed here this isn't you know i know this is we're adding on
to the building but this building the prior use was a parking garage and so this has been existed
for decades as such.
There's got nothing unique about the youth.
It was existing for a garage, which is more problematic, in my opinion, having cars go
It was existing.
in and out when we're not suggesting cars are going in and out from from the side that you have
issue with. No, they had a separation because the cars that went to the garage. We don't know that.
Well, they had the options to do. I don't know what they did. You don't know what they did.
they had the option built into the plan
and now you're taking away the option
the people who are using the driveway
for the people who live on 15th street
they want to use 100% of that driveway
to get their cars into their garage
because the garage is on the slope
so they have to back in and back out
they're going to hit somebody
because you have people coming in with the entrance 24-7
where is the safety there's another easement on the other side of the property on grain street
for an entry and exit that is two ways to get into this building one of which is prohibited as
far as cards are concerned from our tenants so i i don't know how else to to make it more safe and
i don't know how another easement somehow is going to make that any better again i refer to the
architect. Can I speak to the architect? Yes, I'm here. Okay. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Yes. Okay. Do you have a separation between pedestrian motors in that driveway?
Yeah, we have 30 inches of separation.
Well, how big, how wide is the sidewalk has to be? And you don't, first, you don't have that
labeled on your site drawing that 30 inches that you have for free. You don't have that on your,
I looked at your drawings. You didn't have it on your drawings. And also on your drawings,
you call that driveway street frontage. And it's not street frontage.
You got the drawings mislabeled. Thank you.
where does it say street frontage if it does say street frontage it should say
easement frontage it doesn't say that i read it it says street frontage look we'll look on your
i'm going to interrupt the refusal on this is height isn't that what we're discussing
yes madam chair that is i that is madam chair if we approve the plans
we're not going to we're going to discuss this in executive session okay for the safety of the
neighbors if we're going to approve plans for the safety of the neighbors it should be not
only height it should be all safety for planning okay well we're going to rachel is there anything
else yeah i mean because my concern about having this then voted in an executive session is that
we still haven't like the alternative then is that nothing nothing gets built here or that a smaller
building with a little less height by right gets built here and that still doesn't get addressed
so i'd rather work this out in a way that everyone feels good about and we can address those concern
as best as possible in consideration with what we have here you know this any other easements
going to have the same requirements as this easement because nobody's just we're discussing
height and several people don't feel good about it and I think it would be best that we go to
executive session with it. I'm in agreement with that Madam Vice Chair. Excuse me this is Sharon
yes and then the chair would also have an opportunity to view today's video and could
participate in the vote. This would be next week the record would be closed after today's hearing
and the vote would be after next week's executive session. According to my notes the hearing today
was not only for the presentation of the additional plans,
but for members of the community
who weren't able to testify at the last hearing
to have an opportunity to testify.
Is there anyone here from the community?
Thank you, Sharon.
I see no hands, Chair.
I'm going to close excuse me I'm sorry chair um Charles Richardson hand just raised okay
Mr. Richardson good afternoon again madam chair hi I do know that uh that members of the community
were coming online I don't know if they're having issues or things along those lines but
they also sent another letter uh which uh to which I forwarded to Ms. Saleta uh which is excuse me
uh which uh to which i forwarded to miss saletta uh excuse me mr richardson i did send that letter
to the board members excellent okay and uh i just you know i just wanted to make sure that if they're
out there they have the opportunity to to to testify just to reiterate the councilwoman still
remains in opposition to the uh to to this this property property to this project and uh you know
for all of the reasons that were mentioned earlier,
also something that Mr. Holliman was touching on
was the, you know, that use of that driveway
that they share with 15th Street
where people are going in and out for 24 seven.
And also the use of what Ms. Pritzker is saying is the...
What Ms. Pritzker is saying is the driveway access
on the other side, and she's
trying to say
that they're going to be able to. I'm trying
to get Ms. Brodus on the line here.
She just called me and see
if I can put her on speaker. Sandra, are you
on? Yes, I'm here.
Can you give me a second?
Is Sandra going to speak?
She is.
Name and address, please.
they can hear you they can hear you okay name and address sondra
sondra can you hear me
hello i think they can hear you yes sondra is that you
okay i'm going to try one more time and then i'm going to close the record today
and we will discuss this in executive session giving the chair an opportunity
to discuss it with us sondra are you there madam vice chair um can i make one suggestion if sure
i know that miss brodus has been waiting to testify if she could call me on my cell phone
i would put her on speakerphone okay great can you do that can i yeah can i just log in again
i'm i'm so i'm not sure why i'm not i'm talking we can hear you now yeah it sounds like it's
solved now yeah we can hear you sondra yes you can hear me yes i can this is a good thing name
and address for the record, please. Sandra Broadus, D-R-O-A-D, as in David, U-S.
Okay, and do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Okay, you may proceed. Okay, good afternoon, Madam Chair, and thank you for being
patient. I am the president of the coordinating RCO who's been working with this case. I'd like
to first just address the concerns that were raised earlier about the pre-existence of what
Mr. Richardson we cannot hear you
can anyone hear her no she's familiar with the property and the
The driveway was always a driveway for the residents of the 5600 of 15th Street.