And bringing it fully into dimensional compliance would require building a completely new structure on the property.
So let's go back and talk a little bit more about what I heard from neighbors.
Or do you want me to?
I mean, I thought we said we're going to bring the neighbors back.
we're going to let the neighbors come in and testify at the next hearing okay if that's if
that's what you want to do um i will just note that there was one affected neighbor who was
there who was in support um but i i am going to address a couple of of um objections i heard
because i think it's relevant to my presentation my my my chief case okay um so like i said that
Wait, wait, wait. Objections that night at the hearing?
At the meeting?
Yeah, okay. I mean, but you're going to have a chance to object again then, right?
In other words, if they take, we're going to have public testimony, and we're also going to see if the Point Breeze wants to send a different letter in.
So, we're real clear, you're going to have an opportunity to talk to them now, but you want to go back and talk now about what happened?
i i would like to just address a couple of issues i'm not gonna i won't go ahead go ahead but so
i guess one of the concerns was the parking space and we talked about the size of the parking space
so i'm just going to reiterate that these are in fact large enough for small cars admittedly not
you know um gigantic suvs but small cars that are appropriate for city use um uh and that um you
You know, there hasn't been a commercial use in the CMX-1 portion in 1548 for a very long time, nor is a commercial use required in CMX-1.
So it's not an appropriate space because it's way too small.
And it's also adjacent to a lot of vacant commercial spaces on a commercial corridor.
And a commercial space is not required.
But we do have a property that's already divided into two units neighboring other two-unit buildings.
in that cmx1 um and then you know like i said this is market rate housing uh there was a lot
of concerns about the market rate housing portion of this um there's nothing this is not a large
project it's not a subsidized project it is a individual developer um looking to improve his
properties. The objection to market rate housing, I would just say that we are trying to give these
family-sized units that are going to be offered at a lower price point than if we had a single
family home on this property. So it is more accessible to a lot more people with the price
point of a duplex than a price point of a single family home while providing two and three bedroom
units that are suitable for family living. They aren't tiny units. They're the same size.
that are suitable for family living um they aren't tiny units they're they're the same size as a lot
of the row houses that are surrounding it um so i mean that was that was some of the things i just
wanted to get on the record to talk about here um but the reality is that we have um you know
a double wide property that can be subdivided by rights uh we have uh a lot of the refusals
are due to existing conditions on the property
that are losing their grandfather
because it's returning to two separate properties
instead of one.
And that the use of each of these units,
properties as two units is in conformance
with the surrounding area.
The CMX2 property, or CMX1 property, excuse me,
already has two units and 1544,
that's immediately adjacent to 1546.
we're building the same property with the same use um so it's it's really in line with the
surrounding areas um this this this use would allow us to uh maintain that existing property
and the existing cornice uh and preserve that building without having to tear it down
and um put up a whole new construction house uh which i think is is advantageous for many people
including my my client but also the neighborhood to preserve the existing structures um
I do want to add now that if for some reason the board isn't inclined to grant the use variances for the two units in each property,
we would ask that you grant the variances for the dimensional variances, for the rear yard, for the parking, the parking location, and the occupied area,
so that we could still proceed with subdividing the parcel
because without those variances, we cannot subdivide.
Do you want your client to adopt your testimony?
Yes. His name is Daniel Katz.
I'm not sure if he's here.
He was called out of the country to deal with a family matter.
So he said he was going to try to attend,
but I don't know if he was able to.
See if Mr. Daniel Katz is here.
Okay, I have a call-in user with their hand raised. I can let them speak if you wish, Mr. Chair.
Call-in user 2, please unmute.
Hi, Tiffany Green.
So Tiffany, she presented her case.
We're going to go give the Point Breeze Development Corporation a chance to meet with her again.
We do know that we have a letter from them in opposition, and you will have a chance at that next hearing to testify.
Can I just say for the record that I don't think that she should have been allowed to give this type of testimony.
I think that the community should be deserved to be at the public meeting to hear what she has to say.
And that's not right. And I want to say also for the record, for the record, I would appreciate the ZBA, a deal with the law of coordinating of RCOs. All RCOs are equal. Coordinating RCO only does the coordinating of the meeting. Nobody, nobody's opinion over.
Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, you're going to have your opportunity when we have the continuation of this case. Okay. I promise you. Thank you.
um do we see mr mr uh katz
all right anyone from the board okay thank you does anyone from the on the board have questions
for the council no mr chairman no chair hillary do you have any questions for council
Just two quick comments, Mr. Chair. One regarding Ms. Green's point that it is up to the board to decide whether or not to proceed, assuming that all requirements have been met, which is that a meeting has occurred, the posting has occurred, and those were met in this case.
So it is to the board's discretion to decide whether to proceed.
Secondly, I just wanted to note to clarify that we do have a resumption date for this matter.
It will be January 24th, 2024 at 3.30 p.m.
The case will be resumed for testimony and or letters from the RCOs.
We will take public testimony as well as the recommendation of the Planning Commission.
and we will give counsel for the applicant a chance to respond wonderful thank you
a chance to respond. Wonderful. Thank you. I'm sorry. This is Tanya and Hillary. I just wanted
to make sure that everyone knows that it doesn't have to be a reposting. That's the date that we
will go forward. Thank you ever so kindly. Thank you. Thank you, Tanya. Thank you.
Okay, let's move on here.
Number eight, MI 2023-005-105-625-27 West Gerard Avenue.
Brandon Saverin is the attorney.
A letter of support from the 14th Community Organization RCO.
Mr. Saverin is coming back in as a panelist, sir.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. Can I just confirm that
Board Member Snell has rejoined us? I thought I heard his voice
Jim? Mr. Snell, are you there?
Mr. Snell, are you
present?
Well, we're fine for this case.
It's okay.
No, we will just need him for another case.
That's why I was checking.
I thank you, Mr. Chair.
So, Brandon, you've already been sworn.
Just state your name for the record, please.
Yes, my name is Brandon Saverin.
Hi, Jim.
We hear you, Jim.
and brandon could you identify your client the relationship to this property yes my client is
625 w gerard jv llc the owner of the property and our vice chair has just a few questions for you
good afternoon counsel do you agree with the reading of the refusal
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case?
Thank you.
Please proceed to change.
Thank you, Mr. Vice Chair.
Good evening, members of the board.
So I have submitted 10 exhibits to the board.
I want to highlight, because it will help me keep my presentation very brief, that my arguments for why I think our situation deserves a variance are in Exhibit 1, which is my memo of law.
So I'm not going to rehash those arguments in my testimony.
I would just ask that you move those exhibits, including that memo, into the record following the hearing.
Um, and with that, um, what you're looking at right now is, um, a portion of exhibit 10. So
this is a, um, aerial, uh, photo of the property. The property is, um, look, look, let me start with
this. The property has a building that's relatively new, but has already constructed. So this
application is about a change of use within the parcel. It's not about further construction. So
no addition or anything like that. So here's the outline of the building. It's a strange
shape, but it's one property. So this is what it looks like. This is a photo the architecture
firm took. This is what the Girard Avenue facade of the building looks like. It's between Marshall
Street and 7th on the north side of Girard with the frontage you just saw on Girard, which has a
commercial space and frontage on Marshall. And originally the frontage on Marshall was also
going to have a second commercial space. But essentially what we're here to ask you to do
is to allow us to change the space along Marshall, sort of where my cursor is, which included what
was going to be the second commercial space into parking, into ground level parking.
um so um real quickly um at exhibit 2b this is our notice of refusal um we have uh just one refusal
which is due to the fact that um although in theory parking is allowed it's not allowed on
our property because our property is not served by a rear street or alley we're served by a side
street. And that's how you're going to access the parking, which our architect is going to show you
in a second. But just because of the sort of technical content of the code, side street is
not an allowed manner of access. So that's our only refusal. And the red text here talks about
so that's our only refusal and and the red text here talks about basically what i just said that
basically what I just said.
we're reducing the commercial space we're going to have a total of 14 parking spaces whereas we
currently have none we'll have some bike parking spaces and no changes to um the building height
volume or gross floor area um so i'll just uh only have a couple more things to show you and
then I'm going to pass it to the architect who's going to make an equally short presentation.
This is one of the pages of our zoning plan because I don't have, I didn't show you a photo
of the Marshall Street side. Here's an elevation of the Marshall Street side. And again, this,
this building has been built. What I like about this elevation is it shows you very clearly that
in the back of the property, there is already what I'm going to call a service alley. It's sort
of an area where a truck would pull in behind the building to unload for for the commercial spaces
and we'll still have one commercial space just not two and we're going to use that same curb cut area
as sort of the the driveway into uh the parking is as you're going to see um and um this is the
other page of the zoning plan the site plan and basically that right there is what you saw in the
elevation. So that's where the cars will come in off of Marshall and they'll turn and this parking
is going to be on the ground floor under the building. I think that the last thing I'm going
to show you is our RCO letter, which you mentioned, Mr. Chairman. It's a letter of support. There were
seven people at the meeting in total. They all voted in favor of the proposal.
I think the board in your sort of experience with RCOs would not be surprised to hear that
you know reducing sort of the the indoor space in favor of parking is um uh typically um something
that um an rco would would support and they did here um so with that um i guess i in in your in
your choice mr chairman of order i have the architect and the client to adopt my testimony
um well what's the architects going to just explain a little yeah basically yeah bring
the architect bring the architect on first okay his name is eric quick okay what's his last name
quick uh okay all right uh good afternoon everyone can you hear me i yes could you state your name
please and spell for the courts yes my name is eric quick e-r-i-c-q-u-i-c-k and i'm representing
Harman Deutsch-Oller Architecture. All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed, counsel. Thank you. Eric,
I'm going to share my screen again, just sort of for speed here. So you tell me between sort of
the RCO presentation or the zoning site plan. What would you like me to show while you're speaking?
Let's just start on the RCO presentation. Okay. You got it. Go to the first page.
this one or the cover the cover page just so we can see some um the existing pictures so um as
brandon stated this is a uh a building that's already constructed we have two frontages one
on gerard one on marshall um image number one shows our gerard street facade and image number
five i think is best representing the project that shows marshall that is the existing curb cut the
there's already an existing drive aisle and you can see there's an overhead door that accesses
the rear portion of the building which is already currently set up to be a garage
if you want to skip down two more pages we can skip that one so on the left hand side would be
our basement floor plan I don't think we really need to talk about it but we're adding an amenity
space to the basement and then this is our first floor plan where you can see we're adding
um 11 parking stalls into the portion he's mousing over right now and there are three
more parking stalls in the rear portion over there and then the pink area represents our
commercial space thanks eric and and mr chairman and i'll have my client adopt this in a moment
it's important for the board to know that um when you look at that photo and thanks for pointing us
to that, Eric. You know, it seems like the developer may have sort of primed this for
parking in sort of an unethical or illegal manner. But my client was not the developer,
right? So whether you want to view this as a legalization or a new, you know, the bottom
line is we're trying to clean it up. Okay, thank you. Yep, you're welcome. And his name is Mike
Garagulio if we could
bring him on.
Garagulio?
They better not to speak.
they've been enough to speak hi sir could you state your name and spell please for the course
stenographer mike gargiulo g-a-r-g-i-u-l-o right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes proceed counsel thank you thank you mr chairman um uh mike firstly
sorry for butchering your last name. Secondly, are you authorized to speak on behalf of 625
West Girard JV LLC? Yes, I am. Okay. Did you hear my testimony
in your zoning case this evening? Yes, I did. Okay. Was it true and accurate to the best of
your knowledge, information, and belief? Yes, it was. Okay. And would you therefore adopt it