ZBA Hearing - October 6, 2020

we have the aforementioned development next door which is 12 units that are for sale and

constructed and an empty lot that was I believe there's plans to make that multifamily as well

and there's another empty lot up on Montrose and third which has an upcoming hearing to get a

variance very similarly to turn it into multifamily homes. I think this will exacerbate parking

issues and generally just flood the market with all these multi-family smaller dwellings uh that

are not needed thank you uh do you have off street parking correct yes how many how many spaces

i don't personally have any spaces i mean i just no i'm asking mr clinton i'm sorry

oh sorry we have two off-street parking spaces all right thank you anyone else

wish to testify in this case please raise your hand

that's it chair any commission

planning commission

Good afternoon, Chairman and members of the Board. Ian Litwin with Planning Commission staff.

All of this parcel is zoned RSA 5 is directly next to parcel zoned RM1. This proposal is similar

in scale to the three properties of new construction to the south. Since this project

is in the Queen Village neighborhood conservation overlay, it will be subject to Planning Commission

designing view at the time of building permit. Accordingly, we have no opposition to granting

advance. Thank you. MI-2020-001199 1007 South 3rd. My vote is yes with proviso maximum two units.

Yes with proviso. Yes with proviso. Yes with proviso. There was also a revised plans proviso.

Vice, plan, one page?

One page.

Approved today. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, this is Henry Clinton.

Did you say the proposal is for three units?

Action, two units.

Understood.

Thank you.

Meeting item MI-2020-000593-3114, Byberry Road.

good morning good afternoon excuse me good afternoon mr demarco uh you

good afternoon good afternoon mr de marco uh you you agree to waive the reading of his refusal and

stipulate to his accuracy yes i do okay he's on the road from earlier uh have you emailed

an exhibit packet within the with the required documents proof of ownership proof of tax

compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing yes

Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?

We do.

We have a letter from the council and Brian O'Neill as well.

Thank you.

Please identify yourself for the record.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Richard DeMarco.

I'm here on behalf of Yuan Sheng Construction.

My client, Michelle Huang, is available, and I'll ask her to speak in a minute.

There is a little bit of history on this one, so I do want to go through just very briefly a few things.

what what happened is uh the application was filed uh prior to my representation of of this client

uh i recommended a change to the way they phrased the application it was a multi-family application

without subdivision i realized that it was their intention to subdivide and sell

the units fee simple so we did a revised application we also had very serious concerns

from the councilman's office and from the rco at the meetings at the end of last year

so i asked for an amended refusal this board was kind enough to present a letter

and i'll start sharing my screen so you can see all of that uh desktop

Give me a moment, sorry.

Here we go.

So I did put the original refusal in just for illustration purposes.

That's it right there.

We changed our proposal significantly.

We also reduced the density.

we went from six proposed units to five let me show you the amended refusal and your board's

letter that's the old refusal this is the letter from your board from last year allowing the

amended refusal because we were going to subdivide instead of presenting it as multi-family

and then this is the amended refusal so we have a we have a permitted use single family

single-family lots but we have dimensional refusals for a lot area a lot with semi-detached

and I think that's it open area so what's curious about this property is the property

this is the old house it was a mansion style property with a pool none of this was usable

my clients will testify this was a very large lot very out of character with the neighborhood

here are attached dwellings with front pad parking across the street from our lots

are front loaded garage pad parking and attached dwellings but to here to the left of our lot

are fully detached three properties with fully detached but when i get to the rest of this

you'll see that we sit on the boundary between the fully attached pad site parking and we are

the lone lot that is this large we are a unique property and again this mansion property when i

show you the photos it was an extremely poor condition it was unusable and unsellable in that

condition it needed a lot of work it was vacant for a certain period of time prior to my client's

involvement now let me make let me address this right away this was the request of the councilman

that we have larger more open lots on the ends uh we wanted to be deferential to the district

councilman we want to avoid any potential appeals so that is why we put larger lots on the ends

just so you know that didn't come out of nowhere we we wanted to work with the district council

person here is the current proposal fee simple lots larger lots on the ends lots of open space

in the rear a lot of these neighbors wanted us to maintain some significant rear yards

we met this their concerns and i would say this is why we have

We met their concerns, and I would say this is why we have approval from the RCO and the

councilman.

The councilman wanted more brick facades.

Our facades are brick, and we met that request as well.

I just want to show you, and then I submitted the revised plan form only because I wasn't

sure we had changed the application.

I certainly agree, Sharon, and I spoke about this application.

She said we do not need stamps and a revised plan form

because the amended refusal reflects the plan.

And that's the amended refusal.

Again, let me just show you the overhead so you can see what I mean about.

This is our meeting notice for the in-person meeting that we held last year.

We were able to get support from them.

i'll show that in a minute that's the old refusal

sorry these are our notices there's the rco letter there was a little bit of opposition

but the vote was overall in favor of our proposal as revised by the way

oh and we did ask the rco to update their support we did get that we got it a little

bit after the five days but they were sent to the board i'll show you those in a minute

we did get updated letters from the councilman and this is the updated letter from the rco

based on the new refusal

from mike doyle that's the old property that was in poor condition i'll show you the photos you can

see this is the interior of the property when it was bought very poor condition uh you can see

Neither was, I don't want to use the term hoarding.

I don't know if that's politically correct.

You get my point.

Very poor condition.

Okay, so let me see.

It was really bad.

The walls were in poor condition.

The walls had to be ripped out.

Okay, you get my point.

Let me just show you the overhead.

These are the attached dwellings to our left.

This is our current property here.

These are the structures.

Could you rotate those, Rich?

I'll try.

Lord.

Mr. Chairman, I am not sure how to do this.

I apologize.

All right.

No problem.

But this is across the street. They're attached front pad parking. This is our property here.

These are the three detached dwellings that are unique to the property that are to our left.

So there are other smaller lots that are fully detached, but you can see all back here, it's all

All attached front pad parking. And the overhead will show this. That's our updated tax cert, our deed. Bear with me. This doesn't show the lot. I was hoping those would show the lot sizes. They don't. But you can see it here.

all this is the area all attached front pad parking this is the photographs across the street

here's our property here we're very large this is our the only lot that was this size

these are the i'm sorry there's more than three there looks like it's five

five detached dwellings everything else is consistent with our current proposal

attached dwellings in fact we are far larger and less dense than these

here's the overhead i wanted to show you our property is here and luckily i don't have to

rotate this there's across the street here's the attached dwellings to our left which are similar

and again i say mr chairman our proposal is larger and deeper larger lots less dense than

these across the street that's the old property okay

same here this is us here this is all behind us some semi-detached but mostly attached front pad

parking all right you can see our our our lot's unusual okay and so i'm going to see if i have

michelle on board with us today michelle are you there can you michelle huang is on tanya if you

can find her and authorize her? She can unmute and wait to be sworn in. Thank you.

she can unmute and wait to be sworn in thank you very much good afternoon this is michelle huang

hi michelle would you please spell your first and last name for the record

yes my first name is m-i-c-h-e-l-l-e my last name is h-u-a-n-g

you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth

Yes, I do.

Thank you.

Mr. DeMarco.

Michelle, were you able to hear all of my factual statements and testimony on this Zoom hearing?

Yes.

Great.

Do you adopt it as your own factual testimony and agree with that it is true and accurate?

Yes.

And do you agree that the existing property on the lot was unique to the other lots in the area?

Yes.

And do you agree that the property, as when you purchased it, was unusable and dilapidated

and had all sorts of structural and aesthetic problems in the interior?

Yes.

Were you able to sell that property as is?

No.

Okay.

You responded to complaints, not complaints, but you responded to concerns from the neighbors

and you redrew your plan to meet those concerns, right?

Yes.

And the brick fronts and the large lots on the ends were the request of Councilman Brian O'Neill.

You were willing to meet his request, correct?

Yes.

Okay.

Mr. Chairman, let me show you the Councilman's letter.

We did get that.

That would be, I believe, this one.

Yes.

Has no objection to the granting of the variance.

all right any questions from that's it yeah that's it thank you questions from the board

no no anyone else wish to testify in this case if so please raise your hand

no hands at this time thank you tanya planning commission

good afternoon chairman members of the board

Ian Litwin, Planning Commission staff.

Although zoned for single-family development,

this proposal is similar in scale to the overwhelming majority

of the surrounding development in the area.

Accordingly, we have no opposition to granting the variances.

Thank you.

Thank you.

M-I-2020-000593-3114 by Berry Road.

My vote is yes.

My vote is yes.

My vote is yes.

My vote is yes.

thank you for your time everyone okay medium item MI 2020-001-207-1618

Germantown Avenue and the attorney is Henry Clinton yes

Mr. Clinton, you still under oath. Do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal

and stipulate to its accuracy?

I do.

Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,

proof of tax compliance, copies of refusal or referral, photos and plans five days in advance of this hearing?

I have, Mr. Plaza.

Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?

Yes.

Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record.

I'm Henry Clinton. I'm here for the applicant, 16-18-20, Germantown LLC. And Ms. Sunkit,

can I share my screen? I'll start the presentation.

Yes, Mr. Clinton.

can you see my screen not yet not yet

got it got it thank you um good afternoon mr chairman members of the board of planning