Thank you.
chair we have 35 attendees and you can start as you wish
thank you um i'm sorry we um pause for one second um hillary is trying to work on her audio
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
And to all the attendees on behalf of the ZBA, we apologize for the delay.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
can y'all hear me now oh here we go we can very clearly all right i just had to switch
i'm having an issue with my other computer i'll have to get it fixed later but all right i'm all
good thank you for your patience ready to go yes chair good morning everyone my name is bill
Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's meeting. With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail
Shahid. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board member, Cheryl L. Gaston. Present, Mr. Chairman. Our board
member, Tanetta Graham. Present, Mr. Chairman. Also present is our attorney, Hillary Emerson,
and our Deputy Director, Kathleen Grady.
Here's our virtual format.
Proceedings are being recorded.
With your participation, you agree to be recorded.
Video will be available by contacting
Kathleen.Grady at phil.gov.
For our court stenographer,
we ask attorneys and witnesses
to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone,
Press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Deputy Director Kathleen Grady.
Let's look at today's schedule.
number five mi 2024 003 145 1732 north howard street that case is continued
number six mi 2024 003 294 5000 warrington avenue ta 329 9796 cases continued hearing on this
appeal will be scheduled if necessary, finally following the final resolution of the litigation
concerning the ordinance at issue in this appeal. Are there any other requests for continuance?
Good morning, Chair. This is Jasmine Webster. I will be your co-host for today.
Do we see any other hands?
I see no hands at this time.
Number two, MI 2023, 002-575-6531-7th Street.
Is Mr. Zaragunde in the audience or Ortslyn Bowser?
Any hands?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Okay, so MI 2023-002-575-6531 North 7th Street, this case is continued until we receive a letter of withdrawal.
And number four, MI 2023-007-158-3533 North 16th Street, this case has been withdrawn.
We're going to start today with number three.
MI 2023-006-846-6922 East Roosevelt Boulevard.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
The coordinating RCO in this case conducted a site visit.
Vern Anastasio is coming in as a penalist.
Vern Anastasio is coming in as a penalist.
Morning, Mr. Chair.
Morning, Counsel.
Could you please state your name for the record?
Yep, Vern Anastasio.
On behalf of the owner, Gao Ming.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Our place chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, Counsel.
do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to a diagnosis i do i've emailed in
all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in
advance of this hearing i have thank you counsel please proceed and share your screen thank you
mr chair we're here and members of the board we're here good morning we're here for 6922 east
Roosevelt Boulevard. We have a 70-page exhibit packet that I'm entering into evidence.
In addition, there is a separate document that I'll be presenting later in my presentation to
also submit, but the application is for the legalization of a pre-existing two-family dwelling.
it's a corner property as you can see it's a walk up walk-in basement and two additional floors
there's a separate entrance here on the side for the second unit and what the property history will
reveal is that there's been two units here at least for the last 27 30 years
It was a two-family dwelling, which that conversion occurred about 10 or 11 years ago.
It was as far back as 1983, which actually makes it longer than 35 years.
It was a one-family dwelling and a professional office.
So this property hasn't been a single-family home since the 70s.
And since the 80s, it's been a single-family home and a professional office for a dentist.
And then after that, as the history shows, there was even a further conversion to a beauty salon, where, of course, there was lots of traffic in and out with regard to clients that were open five, six days a week at the beauty salon on the lower level with the single family dwelling above.
About a decade ago, the property, that space that was first a doctor's office and then a beauty salon was converted to a, you know, physically interior converted to the living space.
and people were living in both units for a better part of a decade with no incident.
There was, in fact, a problem tenant in there, which I believe precipitated L&I's
compliance action. And as such, Mr. Ming, in fact, vacated the entire building December of 2023.
The building is empty now, and he's going through this process to legalize what he believed was already legal, but also to prevent any problem tenants from being able to stay in the building moving forward once he secures a rental license for both units.
So because this property has in fact been two units for the better part of 35 years, because the property was converted over a decade ago with no incident, and because my client took immediate action in vacating the entire property, and we have the notice to vacate, moving that into evidence as well, dated December of 2023.
and the property remains vacant and will remain vacant until it's legalized here and then getting
a proper CO. We respectfully request the granting of the variance. And I'd like to call Mr. Galmay
to the stand. If you could raise his virtual hand.
Good morning, Sheriff.
Mr. Brown has been allowed to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Mingao, please unmute yourself.
Good morning. Could you please state your name? It's spelled for the stenographer.
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
my name is min and last name is god
would you spell please for the stenographer
the first name m-i-n-g and last name is g-a-o right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed counsel thank you mr chair
mr gall did you hear my presentation to the board this morning
that's a yes or no yes okay thank you and is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge
yes and you adopt it as your own testimony
uh yes thank you nothing further thank you questions from the board
no chair
uh yes can i see the uh prior uh approval uh again please yes of course
This was approved as a dentist's office and a one-family dwelling back in 1983.
Well, this is the refusal. You showed a page where there was some other.
There is no permit here.
but pursuant to this application and the history of the use and the neighbors confirmed there was
in fact a dentist office there since the early 80s and then at some point about 1989 that dentist
office became uh a beauty salon which is right here but there are no permits in history uh just
the applications that were approved and of course from the arts meeting itself uh everyone uh you
know was was an agreement that this property has been used as two units however one being residential
one being commercial since the early days i see what you're saying i just don't see any like stamps
or anything yeah yeah no permits either but it says here see application zoning board of adjustment
granted a beauty salon here's the history in 11789 so okay all right that's that's that's evidence
and confirmation if not a stamp or a permit. Okay. And then this other the application I think you
were showing was for a sign for the beauty salon. Say it again. I'm sorry. I thought it said earlier
that one of these applications was for a sign for the beauty salon. Yeah also for signage.
mm-hmm okay all right but as far as the use is concerned the two previously approved uses
was the immediate from 89 was the beauty salon and prior to 89 from 83 to 89 was the doctor's
office okay all right thank you you're welcome how many bedrooms was that unit where the office
is going to be what office currently is now how many bedrooms i'll pull up the plans for
us i did not get to the plans although they are submitted with the packet
So here's the basement plan, and it's two bedrooms, very large living room, large eat-in kitchen, ample bathroom, mechanicals, and two bedrooms with a washer-dryer in the unit.
And there's the side entrance that I referenced earlier in the photos.
And it's 100% above grade, of course.
All of this will be subject to a certificate of occupancy.
The applicant will be required to go through an analysis for the International Building Code, of course, pursuant to securing the zoning permit.
Of course, pursuant to securing the zoning permit. Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Just two quick notes. One, just Mr. Anastasio, as you know, just make sure that you upload the additional document that you showed today so that we have that as part of our record.
um and the the zoning history that you showed i believe it was for the other
corner property on the block is 6900 roosevelt boulevard but there is a listing on the refusal
that there was a chiropractor's office on the first floor of this property previously approved
in i think it was 1968. right here 1968 yep yep so i just wanted to clarify that i think that the
zoning history is actually for 6900 roosevelt not 6922 so but there is um there is history
of commercial on the ground floor at this property thanks for confirming that yeah
actually even even even longer history yeah 55 years questions or comments from the virtual
audience yes chair i have a hand up by the name of ting wing they have been allowed to speak
ting wing i could you please could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
um i'm sorry it was a accident okay good all right thank you um
Any other comments from the virtual audience?
For the record, Ms. Wang is, in fact, the property manager.
She was responsible for ensuring that the problem tenant was driven from the property and will continue to manage the property responsibly.
Thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Planting commission.
Chair, I have two more hands up.
Patricia Steele has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
Patricia Stairs, S-T-E-E-R-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I live one door over from this property.
This picture that you're showing is the wrong picture.
It's not the property.
I've been living here for 25 years, and it's been a one-family home where not this picture.
This picture is Distant Street.
The one that you're talking about with the beauty salon, that's on Longshore.
That's the block over.
I've been living here for 25 years, and it's never been a chiropractor beauty salon.
It was a one-family home that lived here when I moved here.
And they moved out, and then it was vacant for a while.
And then he bought the property and tried to turn it into a two-row.
um the first picture that you show where the air conditioner was that's not the house that's the
house from the across the street from there at the next block from the house that's across the
street from there there there was a beauty salon there there's a place where you go and vote
that house right there that he's trying to turn into a two-bit room it's been one family living
there like i said i've been living here since 2000 it's been a one-family home the only problem
I had with it was the upkeep of the property. If I was to take my phone out there, I'll show you
now. It's bottles all around on the ground. It's trash, the grass. He just got somebody to cut the
lawn yesterday. The bushes are coming over. The tenants that lived upstairs were very noisy.
They would party all hours of the night until five, six o'clock in the morning,
bottles of beers outside. My neighbor that lived directly next door had went to the police station
numerous times to complain about the property and the people that's living in there, because
they get up at four or five o'clock in the morning to go to work, and they have a little
girl there, and they will complain about it.
Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I don't need to cross the exam, but I do want to make sure that the record
is clear.
The history was corrected, that the beauty salon was across the street, that the chiropractic
use was in place since 1968, and that over 10 years ago, that unit was converted to a second
family dwelling. And yes, we do stipulate that there was a problem tenant in there
that the client has driven from the property. Thank you. Other hands in the audience.
Yes, Chair. I have one more hand up. Peter, last name, Indian and T, has been allowed to speak.
good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
Good morning, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
yeah my first name is peter last name is t-s-i-c-h-l-i-s do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor sir yes i live three doors
down okay now here's my statement i i i've been putting up with the side apartment parking cars
on the sidewalk. I cannot walk my dog
past it. I have to walk out into the street.