616-3907
to 11 North 3 Street. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman.
I vote yes.
James Snell.
My vote is yes.
Ishmael
Shaheed. My vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. May I be excused?
You most certainly can.
Number 6. MI
004-618
850 East Madison
Street. Lynn Nichols is
the attorney.
There was a zoning. There was a
RCO meeting when 1026
22. We don't
have a copy of it as of yet.
Good evening. Hi. Could you
state your name please and spell for the court
reporter? Lynn Nichols.
L-Y-N-N. Last name
N-I-C-H-O-L-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
His name is Chris, C-R-I-S, last name Kier, K-E-A-R.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his
accuracy? Yes. Have you emailed all the documents five days in advance to this hearing?
Have you emailed all the documents five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, except for the RCO summary.
Okay, please proceed and share your screen.
Good evening, members of the board.
Can you see my screen?
We can.
Here we have the exhibit packet for 850 East Madison Street.
This project is to legalize an existing structure.
The applicant purchased the property, and when he did, there had already been a deck
attached.
He did some renovations, and during that time, he was made aware that he had to get a zoning
permit to continue the renovations, which is why we're here today.
His project that he seeks represents the lease modification of the code to provide relief.
No action on his part will increase the congestion in the public streets or in any way endanger
of the public, nor will it substantially permanently harm the neighbor's use of their
properties or impair light or air. It will not increase the traffic congestion in public streets
or place undue burden on the water, sewer, or other public facilities. It will not create an
environmental damage, pollution, erosion, or increase the danger of flooding. And in this
case, it's a hardship economically for him because this structure was already attached to the
property. He had been renovating it, as I stated, when he was made aware that he had to get a zoning
permit to legalize it. And here I'm going to show you the deed for the property.
The tax certificate, which we obtained and sent to Hillary yesterday. These are the neighbors that
were notified. We have the proof of the community letter that was sent in October for the meeting
that we had with the RCL. We still haven't received a summary. This is the proof of mailing.
This is the proof of the notice for zoning for this hearing today that's posted. Here
you see the front of the property which is sitting by itself on the block with no neighbors
connected to it beside it. This is a view looking to the right of 850 East Madison.
This is a view looking to, I'm sorry, this was the view looking to the right. This is a view
actually looking to the left. I mislabeled it. I apologize. This is the rear of the property. This
is the side showing the structure that existed, but it's been renovated. This is a new wood here
that the owner had put up when the renovations were done.
This is, again, looking at the rear of the deck.
And these are the steps that go up the side of the deck.
And here we have the plans.
I'm going to show it in this screen.
As you can see here, these are the pictures of what it looked like
before the renovations actually happened.
And so there already was this existing wood deck attached to the house when he purchased it.
And this is looking at the rear.
The deck itself on the back is approximately 14.25 feet wide.
And on the side, it's about 16 feet 6 inches.
It doesn't encroach into the rear alley.
It only takes up the property that the owner has here in the back.
and it doesn't impact any neighbors because there are no structures attached to it
on either side. At this time, I would like to call my client. Is Chris Kier in the audience?
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Christopher K. Kear
Mr. Kear
Please call your name please for the court reporter
My name is Christopher K. Kear
K-E-A-R
My last name
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
The whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes chairman
Please see counsel
Thank you Mr. Chair
Mr. Kear are you the owner of this property
850 East Madison Street? Yes. Have you heard
the testimony that I gave here today? Yes. Do you adopt
it as your own? Yes. And Mr. Chair
before I let Mr. Kiara off, when we had the RCO meeting there was
no opposition to this project. Okay. Okay. Is that correct
Mr. Kiara? Yes. Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
no no mr i'm sorry thank you um tom well we have two that's enough um questions or comments
from the virtual audience chair we have sloan folks okay
hi mr folks sloan folks office of councilwoman ketsy emlazada 7th district room 316 city hall
uh i record i'm sorry i'll go again i reckon state that there was a community meeting held
with the coordinating RCO in October, I believe the date was the 12th, we just asked the record
be held open. And I have reached out to the RCO in the past two days requesting a letter for the
record so that it could be on the record. We just ask that the record be held open for one week so
that they can get a letter in to you um and then the record be closed thank you um planning commission
this is uh ron bednar city planning uh the property is indicated for residential on the
city plan given the physical circumstances replacement of the existing structure on the site
recommend it we have no objection to the granting appearance thank you um the record is closed except
for an rco letter and we will vote on this next week thank you uh chair and members of the board
thank you number seven mi 2022 004-647-1248 day street lisa pitnick is the owner pro se
there's a letter of opposition from the fishtown neighbors association
Ms. Pitnick is coming back in as a panelist.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Board. I just need one second. I'll pull up my video.
Could you state your name first and spell for the court reporter?
Certainly. My name is Lisa Pitnick. It's spelled L-I-S-A, the last name P-L-I-T-N-I-C-K.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And just a few questions from our vice chair for you, okay?
Good afternoon.
Did you email all the exhibits and documents that were required for this case five days in advance to this hearing?
Yes, I did.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
Share your screen.
Okay, so first I'd just like to show that this is a copy that I provided that shows
the application that I made for a visitor accommodation at my home in Fishtown.
This is a copy of the refusal letter and the justification for that is that I'm in a RSA
a five zoning district and visitor accommodations are not permitted in that zone. And so I did file
for an appeal. And this is a copy of the application for the appeal. This is my proof
of posting. This is a photograph. It's dated December 28th. And also as the documents I
provided this as a copy of the deed in my name. I showed proof that my taxes are all up to date.
And this, as you mentioned, is a letter from the community meeting, from the neighborhood
association, indicating that they did oppose. They preferred to have the home either owner-occupied
or for a long-term rental use.
I did actually speak with a couple of other neighbors
who were not able to make the community meeting
and they, I know it doesn't matter, right?
But they would have been in support.
So there's a person in the, it's a row home
and the person in the home attached to mine
has never had any issues with any of my guests.
And another gentleman down the street a little bit
indicated that he actually thought I lived there
because I'm there often enough that,
And he's obviously never had any issues with any folks staying in my home.
Can you show us pictures of the property?
I sure can.
So I have some pictures here.
So this is the exterior.
This is the front and the rear of the property.
There's a little deck out back, and I've prettied up the back, and I put siding on the back there.
prettied up the back and I put siding on the back there. This is the kitchen, which
has egress to the back of the home and to the basement. These are photographs of the living
room, which is the main living area in the home. The master bedroom, which is a three-level home,
and this is the third floor, the master bedroom. There's a second bedroom on the second floor.
This is the bathroom also on the second floor. Then also there's a basement, not technically
finished, but better than it was. So I just want to speak really briefly about my hosting history
and how I consider myself to be a responsible host. I would agree to a proviso
I put five years, whatever you feel is appropriate, I would agree to.
All the guests are screened.
I avoid parties by not renting to any local guests.
I only use official websites to book guests.
I have strict rules regarding parties and quiet hours.
I don't allow anyone younger than 25 to rent the property.
I've got front and rear security cameras.
I am my own property manager, and I only live about 45 minutes away.
I come to the house between guests to check on things and make sure everything is in order.
And both the adjacent neighbors have been provided my contact information.
And as I mentioned, I'm there often enough that the other neighbors also know me and know that this is my home.
And we handle stuff.
How long have you had it as an Airbnb?
I had started, I thought I put a slide in here. I must have missed it. I started in, let's see, 2020, April of 2020. And I had it open for a little over a year.
And then back in July, this past July, I decided that, you know, since things were getting complicated with the zoning and the permits and the licenses, that actually, after actually having Ellen and I come to the house and they gave me a $600 fine for having an Airbnb, I decided to just not poke the bear.
and so i i shut it down in august and so it's been shut down since august but i do have
a year and a half worth of history and there's never been any parties and the home is pretty
small okay sorry i've never had any voice complaint calls to the police okay all right
questions from questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no handshare by planning
so ron red inner city planning the property is indicated for residential use on the city plan
and the adopted district plan recommends no change the existing residential single family
at this location the applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical
circumstances or condition of the property that were prevented from being used in conformity with
the code. Therefore, we recommend a request for variance not be granted. Thank you. MI 2022-004-647-1248
Day Street. I vote yes with proviso. Temporary variance expires 2-1-26. Thomas Holloman, my vote
yes with proviso. James Snell my vote is yes with proviso.
You you you have your three votes. Wow oh okay I'm sorry I didn't know that was it.
All right thank you very much. I really appreciate your time. Take care. Number eight MI 2022
202-004-621-625 West Cumberland Street.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
Recommendation of support from 37th Ward RCO.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.