I will do that. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Anyone requesting a continuance or withdrawal, please raise your hand.
yes chair we have a cecile
stelzer cecile stelzer yes hello please spell your full name ma'am c-e-c-i-l-e-s-t-e-l-z-e-r
do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do in which case are you speaking to ma'am i'm talking about the case of downey's restaurant
at 526 south front street correct yes that's a case number 10 on our list yes well i didn't know
we were uh which case we were on when i put raise my hand for a continuance i was referring to this
uh case not the previous one where the last speaker was addressed you're requesting continuance
for 526 out front yes i don't know what the result is of our last zoom and uh i'm here to
listen to what's going on are you representing either party no i am a concerned citizen yes
very close neighbor to the property well no one as of yet has asked for a continuance so that's
what i'm waiting for now if we don't get a request we'll continue with the case uh it'll be i don't
know what time it's going to come up but it's case number 10 on our list well i meant after today's
concerns that uh i didn't know if everything was uh settled or not so we don't we all know that
the board hasn't heard the case yet okay well then i take away my request for the continuance
of this current meeting okay thank you thank you uh any requests for continuances or withdrawals
please raise your hand no more hands here thank you with that we'll proceed with our number one
on our list, MI 2021-002833, 1200 Ellsworth Street. Meredith Felger is the attorney of record.
Meredith Felger is the attorney of record.
Sharon, have we gotten to receive the letter from Pasang Square?
I haven't, Chair, but I am not always copied, so it's possible.
Okay. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Meredith. Please spell your full name and I'll swear you.
Meredith Ferlger, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R of Delworth-Paxson, 1500 Market Street, Suite 3500E.
Do you want me to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Ms. Tendry has questions for you.
Hi, Meredith.
Do you agree to wait the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yep, I sure do.
Have you also emailed an exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy
the refusal or referral photos and or plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing
and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter yes to all the above i think i joined at
the very tail end of your conversation we do have a letter from the rco it was just sent i believe
yesterday i have it in my packet it is a letter of non-opposition and that's from passion square
civic it sure is great you may proceed thank you uh mr chairman members of the board my client
here today is Leibco Properties and I have with me Lee Berman who represents Leibco Properties.
Leibco is the equitable owner of the property who's under an agreement of sale
to purchase the property before you today which is located at 1200 Ellsworth Street.
Now the lengthy history of this property is ultimately what brings us before the board today.
I'll walk you through some background and then I can quite efficiently sum up our clear hardship
as it relates to the use of this property. As I mentioned, we did receive a letter of
non-opposition from Pass Young Square Civic. I also included a petition of support from
near neighbors at Exhibit 13, which has nearly 20 signatures on it. This request relates to
1200 Ellsworth Street, which as you know, is in the city's Pass Young Square neighborhood.
As you can see on the zoning map I have up at Exhibit 6, this property sits at the corner of Ellsworth Street and South 12th Street and is zoned RSA 5.
I'll bring up some photos for you which are included at Exhibit 15. So you can see here it's this corner property.
You can see that this is an existing three-story brick structure that sits on a quiet residential street.
Now, the permit history that we've been able to gather from the property shows that since at least 1955, which is the earliest permit that I was able to find, this property contained two apartments with a ground floor commercial space.
And I'll put up one of the permits here, which I've included at Exhibit 10, which is really quite a fascinating flashback into history, where the city issued permits for apartments, labeling them as a woman alone apartment.
So I was really quite amused to see that permits were issued this way.
But you can see here, based on this permit, the first floor was used as a luncheonette and then there were two apartments above.
The last available permit that I was able to find here was in 1976.
And this, as you can see, it was still the two family with a ground floor luncheonette.
Now, at some point between 1976 and 2009, the ground floor commercial space was converted to a third residential unit.
There's no permit history to suggest when this was done, and the current owner of the property was unable to give us any clarity.
However, as you can see in the photo here that I was able to pull off of Google from 2009,
you can see that the first floor commercial entrance had been bricked up by this point.
I suspect that there was an entrance right here at the corner that at some point was filled in.
You suspect correctly.
Yeah. So I did include some photos of this first floor unit. You can see it has been in existence
for quite some time. The property has three separate gas meters and I have photos of those
as well. Three separate gas meters, three separate utility meters, three water heaters,
three separate washer dryers. I did also include floor plans at Exhibit 5 here just to show you
what the current layout is of the existing structure. Our application does not include
any physical changes. So of course regarding the refusal, because the property zoned RSA 5
So, of course, regarding the refusal, because the property zoned RSA 5, the application was refused for the multifamily use.
However, as you've seen from the evidence presented, the two dwelling units that have existed since the 1950s would be considered legally non-conforming units.
The only dwelling unit at issue today is that ground floor unit.
So the hardship here is quite simple.
because the ground floor has not been used as a commercial space in decades, it would require a
variance to have a commercial use in this location because it's zoned RSA 5. Conversely, there's no
feasible way to have a single family use in this location, nor would the code require it for the
two long-standing non-conforming units. If the board is interested, I did include several cases
in my exhibit packet at Exhibit 14 that would confirm it would be unreasonable and by no means
the least minimum variance to ask the property owner to convert this structure back to either
a single family use or to a solely duplex use after the long history of multi-family use.
It also goes without saying that this is not a self-imposed hardship as my client is purchasing
the property and is undertaking this process to ensure the property has all the necessary permits
in place. Just as a note, the proposal is in fact consistent with the area which does include a mix
of single-family homes and some long-standing multi-family uses. I did include permits in the
exhibit packet of other multifamily uses on this block, which includes 1217, 1221, 1238, and 1246
Ellsworth Street. We do submit the proposal will not increase congestion, harm neighboring
properties, or impair light and air. Full analysis, as always, is included in my memo of law submitted
at Exhibit 8. Now, with respect to the community, Passion Square's letter, let me bring that up for
you so this was the uh petition of support that we had signed because we had not received a letter
and after we received the petition of support we did end up getting the letter of non-opposition
from passion square which does in fact corroborate the long-standing multi-family use their letter
suggests the ground floor may have been converted around 20 years ago so at this point i will bring
up my client to adopt my testimony and then take any questions you have. If the administrator can
unmute Lee Berman we would ask that Lee raise his hand
he's available to speak hi lee name and address please
uh lee berman and the address for the property or my current address your address
634 pine street and spell your last name berman b-e-r-m-a-n you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes thank you marie lee you've heard all of my
testimony that was given before the board today yes and would you agree that that testimony was
true and accurate and would you adopt it as if it were your own yes thank you we're happy to take
any questions thank you any questions from the board no mr chair no no anyone else like to
testify in this case if so please raise your hand no hand share thank you and i'll for the record
I'm very familiar with this property.
It was a luncheonette for a long time
and maybe more than 20 years ago
it was converted.
And there was a single woman who lived on the second floor.
Having said that,
Planning Commission?
Peter, we're having a hard...
Peter, excuse me.
We're having a hard time hearing you.
and maybe try without your headphones
right this way all right perfect thank you that was great
uh peter bernard for the planning commission
nice name peter and i swear you went
uh b as in boy a as an apple r as in roger and as a nancy
B as in boy, A as in apple, R as in Roger, N as in Nancy, A as in apple, R as in Roger, D as in dog.
Do you affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in the existing residential single-family zoning for this property.
This property has a documented use as two apartments and a ground floor commercial space.
We believe the applicant has demonstrated that a hardship exists that would prevent the ground floor from remaining or being in commercial use.
We recommend that the board approve the requested variance.
Thank you. MI 2021-002833, 1200 Ellsworth Street, my vote is yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes.
Professor Plaza, yes.
James Snell, yes.
Thomas Holloman, yes.
Thank you. Case number two, MI 2021-002384. 1227 Belmont Avenue. Rachel Pritzker is the attorney of record. East Parkside Residential Association submitted a letter of support.
chair if i could interrupt for a minute um we also this morning received an email from
uh andrew goodman saying that councilwoman uh got the a wholeheartedly supports the variance request
thank you very much that'll be part of the record miss pritzker please identify yourself
earlier this morning good afternoon mr chair it's brandon saverin again oh sorry about that
Yeah, that's perfectly okay.
Tell your full name.
And you're still under oath from earlier today.
Thank you.
It's B-R-A-N-D-O-N.
Last name is Savarin.
S as in Sam.
A, V as in Victor.
R-A-N.
Thank you.
And Ms. Tenere has some questions for you.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you also emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to all of the above.
Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you, Madam Vice Chair.
and while we're at it I'll just mention I'm also going to be filling in for Rachel on 417
Manton Street which I think is much further down our list today. Number nine. Thank you. Okay
I'll share my screen. Let's see. So the property in question is 1227 Belmont Avenue. Here's the
zoning map. It is zoned RM1. The block next to it is zoned CMX2. Above it is CMX3. And I believe that
prior to a 2019 remapping, this block was also at least along Belmont Avenue, CMX.
And that brings us nicely into the hardship here. So my client is Stephanie Smiley.
she is someone who purchased this property a few years ago was not aware that it was sort of
in the process of being remapped there are already two apartment units on the upper floors of the
building because the property is now rm1 conformity with the code would require her to convert
the downstairs unit away from its current vacant commercial configuration into another dwelling
unit, and she does not wish to do so. She actually wants to reactivate this vacant commercial space
as an assembly and entertainment space for 50 people or fewer. Stephanie,
well, let me go. I'll just give the board a sense of where we're at here. So this is the property,
1227 Belmont. The two apartment units are on the upper floors there. It has a separate entrance for
what will be the commercial unit. And there's the entrance for the apartments with the mailboxes and
address marker. This is the block. I actually am under the impression that one of these two
storefronts has also been reactivated as a cafe recently. And you have an auto repair place next
door or a couple doors down. Here's Belmont. There's commercial uses directly across the street.
uh there's gerard avenue so um it's sort of a mixed block commercial versus residential
um in terms of our uh property the um the space has been a commercial space since at least 1994
The space has been a commercial space since at least 1994.
There was a zoning permit and a CO pooled for a laundromat.
there was a zoning perm
So really the hardship is the money and the effort it would take to convert this into
a residential space when that's not the recent history.
It's also not the recent zoning.
The property was living by its former commercial zoning in the past.
so it's really the remapping that uh brought us here um so um i do have although uh this being
a change of use i believe they're optional the client did have an architect prepare
floor plans and a site plan and i have the architect here so if the board is interested
i am happy to have her walk through those i'll also just add um as you heard we have a letter
of support from the east parkside residential association and support from the councilwoman's
office um does the board need to see the uh plans would you like to say we're okay
all right thank you okay um well i can bring stephanie on to adopt yeah let's get your client
on to adopt your testimony so stephanie smiley would be her name stephanie raise your hand if
you're out there. And she's available to speak. Stephanie. Very afternoon, ma'am. Please spell
your full name. Yes, my name is Stephanie, S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E, Smiley, S-M-I-L-E-Y. You swear
affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Thank you. Hi, Stephanie.
Stephanie, so were you able to hear the entirety of my testimony this afternoon?
And was my testimony true and accurate?
And would you agree to adopt it as if it was your own?
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Any questions from the board, I think I asked.