and here's what they did they did a really incredible job this is the second floor so
originally it was the first floor um this is uh and i'll show you in a second there at the back
of the second floor when i say the back heading towards the east because we front on the east side
of uh southeast street along the north side of fulton street uh there's a for the staff there's
a kitchen. And then off of that, there's a deck that was approved previously. It's a roof deck
above a one-story portion that's still being built. And you can see the rest of the second
floor here. And then there's a door that goes up to my client's unit, his dwelling unit up on the
third floor. You can see here, this is the third floor. Beyond that, this application involves a
deck that's beyond the third floor to the rear of the third floor and then a roof deck above the
above the third floor. You can see here on the plans that were submitted. So here's the deck
third floor you can see here on the plans that were submitted so here's
that I was kind of showing you from the inside. It's off the back of the third floor. It's above
the previously permitted roof deck, and then above the one-story portion, and then there's a third
floor roof deck above that's for the use of John, his personal use with the pilot house. Part of
this application also involves a really cool sign. Right now, there's no signage on the building.
There's some cool lights that they light up at different times of the year, different holiday
colors and whatnot along the Fulton Street side. And by the way, Fulton Street is, although it's
called Fulton Street and has a street sign, like we'll show you in a minute, is not actually a city
street. And that, as a result, initially, there was a refusal that was issued about requiring a
setback from Fulton Street for the roof deck for any of the decks. And that wasn't that wasn't
necessary because Fulton Street's not an actual street. And but it does result in one of the
concerns I have or issues I have with the notice of refusal. But you can see here the application
involves not only the deck off the back of the third, which garnered a refusal, the roof deck
with the pilot house, which did not result in a refusal. And then this flat, flat wall sign,
statically illuminated sign uh in a and these i should notice a treble clef i believe um and here
you can see a rendering of what it'll look like um and these are the drawings that were submitted to
lni so um the property is located as i mentioned on the it fronts on south 8th street it's on the
north side of fulton street you can see right here um fulton street is not on the city plan
And here's the street cards, PSD, Phillip Streets Department card for the property.
And you can see here that the property, as I mentioned, is on CMX1.
Back to the aerials, it's interesting.
There is a 10-foot alley.
So this is before I think the decks were, even the deck at the first floor was started under construction.
The property extends at 17 feet, 2 inches wide.
It's 77 feet, 6 inches deep.
And then behind it is a 10-foot wide alley. There's a single-family dwelling to the east of us. And then there's a rental property or a property to the north of us, 759. I believe the owner of that property may be still on the call. We were having discussions. I contacted my client right before the hearing this morning to talk about a couple things.
there is a looks like there's a three unit rental license uh on atlas for that property but if that
owner's here he can speak to to what his use is of that property but here you can see the aerial
and these these are all taken before the renovations were done because you can see the
boarded up windows at the ground floor as you move around here um historically street view images
going back. You can see during the construction back into, you know, during 23 and then back in
the 20s. There are no zoning records back to that point, so I'm assuming by the looks of it,
even though it was in CMX1, that it was utilized for single-family dwelling.
So I'm not going to go into great detail because it's getting late. I did include in my exhibit
book some information about Mr. Johns Music School, much of which I presented back in 23,
both regarding their mission, their vision, their core values, some screenshots from their
website. They give lessons all around the area. This is one of their permanent locations.
They're also now located in Atlanta, where my client is presently. He is actually teaching
a class right now, so he may be able to come in and adopt my statements when we're finished.
But again, here are the current images of the property as they exist right now.
I did show you the zoning plans and the renderings, the notice of refusal.
There are three refusals.
One has to do with the deck, this deck at the third floor.
It can't be located, now they said, within the rear yard.
There is no rear yard, so there's a question as to whether that's legitimate,
but measuring nine feet from the rear yard depth from where the rear property line is,
that deck is located within that area.
It's a question of whether, if the building already extends at the ground floor all the way to the rear, whether there is a rear yard or not, be that as it may.
Again, here we're showing, you can't see it, this is another view, the rear elevation and showing the existing deck at the second floor and the deck at the third floor.
And you can see here, but there is that 10-foot alley, as I mentioned, shown here on the site plan beyond our property.
And then to the east of us, as you can see in the exterior photos that I have here, it's just the wall of the property as I swing around.
um as i swing around and you just see right here there's a wall of the property that's to the east
And you just see right here.
of us i think the woman that actually lives in the building to the east of us on the other side
of the alley parks in the alley so it's not like that the deck off the back of the third floor is
going to be looking in anybody's window there is there is a i would call it a legal window
small window up in the west facing wall of that building to the east of us but it's on the property
line. And that's why I say it's not legal, but it is what it is. It's a very small window and there
shouldn't be any impact upon that property owner in terms of the deck being located. The deck can
question that issue with the notice of refusal impacting that property. The other refusals,
this is the other one that I have an issue with. In CMX1, and I have a copy of the zoning code
provision right here, you're allowed one square foot feet for every one, every linear foot of
street frontage. LNI interpreted with the fact that Fulton Street is not a street. They said that
we get zero signage, even though it functions as a street, that we're allowed zero signage
facing Fulton Street. The zoning code provisions do not say that that applies only to that frontage.
It just says you get that much signage. Granted, at 17.2 square feet and given the number of square feet for that sign, we would still not be in compliance with the maximum sign area requirements for this sign.
However, we believe that they got it wrong as far as how far we're off.
We don't believe that it's zero.
We believe that it's 17 point whatever, I think 1.667 square feet, which, again, we do exceed, but it's not zero.
The other thing is, is that we would receive a refusal because the for the location of the sign.
All signs are not permitted to be located above the second floor windowsill.
And here you can see here you have the second floor and we're located up here.
I mean, 8th Street, there's a lot of commercial businesses up and down the block.
There's a lot of signage.
Again, this is not an overbearing sign.
The illumination is like it's very classic and it's very subdued.
It's not a digital sign.
It's not flashing.
It's static.
And we believe that it looks more like almost like a mural, like artwork than like a sign.
But it does help to identify what the use of the property is, which is as a music school.
Included in my exhibits are a copy of our deed at tab six that shows my client owns the property.
Again, in this deed is a legal description that does show that we do have that 10-foot wide alley to the east of us,
buffering us, and buffering, acting as a buffer that's greater than the required rear yard depth
for CMX1 for the property to the east of us. We have our tax clearance certificate,
the copy of the notice for today's hearing, and that it was posted on both frontages.
Again, Fulton Street technically isn't a street, so technically we wouldn't need to post Fulton
Street, but out of an abundance of caution, we did post Fulton Street, as you can see here.
And then the 14303 notice. Here's the email from the Planning Commission identifying Bella Vista Neighbors Association as a coordinating RCO for the project. The list of addresses to which we mailed the notice for the hearing, and I highlighted 759 South 8th Street, our budding neighbor to the north, because I think there was a question from him earlier today that he didn't receive that notice.
But here's a copy of the notice and the and the the list of the certificate of mailing showing that we mailed to all 255 addresses that showed up on the with the list of addresses that we secured from the planning commission.
So in terms of the refusals, we challenge the first refusal as to whether or not it's actually in the rear yard.
But even if it is in the rear yard, it's above a by right deck at the ground floor or above the one story portion.
So to say that that deck, even though it's a roof deck, in that sense that it's a different type of deck, but it has the same type of impact.
It's at the third floor. There is that 10 foot wide alley to the east of us.
The property to the north of us has the upper floor set back.
You can see here in the aerial, as I get in a little closer, you can see they have a one-story portion here.
And then their upper floor, if we go swing around here, you can see it's set back a little bit from the rear of our building.
So it's actually a little bit behind.
So somebody from this deck would actually have to look around to intentionally look into the back windows of that building.
We did have discussions with that property owner, and if he's still on, he can speak to that.
We did have discussions with that property owner, and if he's still on, he can speak to that.
We've agreed that along this side of both already the permitted deck and the proposed deck, we're going to come back.
We're not going to come back to the zoning board because we can do it as a matter of right.
The zoning code allows a 60-inch privacy screen, 60 inches tall, no more than 50% opaque as a matter of right.
And we'll go back after the fact and we'll submit for that because, again, that is permitted as a matter of right to address any privacy concerns that he has there.
But, again, so we questioned the first one.
We questioned the second one in terms of the degree.
But, again, we feel that given the nature of the sign, given the – if you take a look at the exterior photos that I provided up and down the street, the other businesses that are located, the other types of signs.
you have projecting signs you can see right here right across the street and then going up and
down the street you have other actual projecting signs that are located above the second floor
some of which are of similar size some of which are not you can see here flat wall signs larger
flat wall signs and sitting down 8th street we believe that the and then the third one that has
to do being above the window so i just addressed for so for those reasons we believe that there
There is a hardship here, given the other commercial uses and commercial nature of 8th Street, given the other existing signs,
given the subdued, the nature of the sign that is being proposed, having a minimal impact.
There's not going to be a lot of glare.
It's not going to cause any issues for the properties across the street.
That light will be turned off when the business closes at the end of the day.
So it's probably only going to be on for a limited number of hours in the wintertime.
They generally close around 10 o'clock. And the decks, again, the roof deck does not require any variances. And the third floor deck really doesn't have any more impact than the second floor deck. And for the reasons and with the modifications that we're going to come back and do for the screening, we believe that any impact that there is, and even with the by right deck, is going to be mitigated with those actions by my client.
And with that, I would ask that my exhibit book be moved into the record. And I am not sure. He said he was in his class, but he had his earpiece in, was kind of listening.
OK, so, Mr. Orphanides, you're a officer of the court. We will take your testimony.
Yeah. And I also have the architect, but I'm not sure if he's on. And if the same thing, if you would accept my statements, you can just move on from the board.
questions from the board yeah could you tell me the height of the building where the deck
the third deck uh sure let me take a look at that do not know that off the top of my floor
top of my tried to make it out i couldn't see yeah you know what i don't think we have that
on the plans um i will say well like let's put it to you this way so the bottom of the sign is at
18 three um the middle of so what is it is 12 feet so that's so that kind of cuts almost through
the middle so i would i would probably say it's around 20 23 feet it's a little bit lower than
that so that will put the total the total building height at the deck at what i know which are you
talking about the roof deck or the so the roof deck is by right yeah the roof deck is by right
That's not an issue in this notice of refusal.
So the height of the roof is 33 feet, three inches.
I'm sorry.
I just assumed you were talking about the deck.
This is the deck that's-
Yeah, that's the third floor deck.
I'm sorry, the third floor deck.
Yeah, the third floor deck is right here.
So not the roof deck.
So there's a deck off the rear of the third floor,
which is what one of the variances for.
There's a roof deck that we're also applying for,
but that's a matter of right.
So this is one that you asked me about.
The third floor deck that you keep pointing to.
that's on the back of the third floor.
Yeah, I would say that's at about,
I would approximate that that's at about 24 feet.
Can you scroll to the white
and close out the X on your bookmarks?
Because I think it's on the drawing.
I think it's covered.
I didn't see that it actually,
I don't know that we actually have the height of it.
We had the third floor marked,
but we don't have the dimension of it.
We have the height of the building,
but we didn't put the heights of the floors.
And again, it's, you know,
The third floor deck is for its own private use as well as, you know, as is the roof deck.
All right, other questions.
Okay, I guess I have two questions.
One, for the illuminated sign, is the second floor all music school?
So what time?
That was the variance from the last case.
I understand that.
I'm clarifying things because I was not here for the last case.
No worries.
So for the sign, is it going to be illuminated at night?
Is it going to be illuminated at night?
It is going to be illuminated at night, but only until the school closes, which I said is around 10 o'clock, maybe sometimes 11.
It is going to be illuminated at night, but only until...
Okay, so at 10 p.m. they're shutting this sign down.
When they're closed for business, the sign is being turned off, and they'll probably be on the timer.
Okay. And then were there any light studies done to look at potential light pollution both into the business and into the existing residential window across the street?
We did not do a light study, but actually John is actually a lighting expert.
He does lighting installations as well.
And he says he can, he just texted me and said he could jump in.
And he can tell you the exact type of bulb, the type of light.
He basically equated them to Christmas lights.
But if, John, if you can hear me, if you can jump in, you can answer the question.
My other question is, given you got a use refusal for the deck at the third floor, what is the need for this third floor deck, given there's a roof deck and a second floor and he owns the whole building?
i mean it gives some additional i mean the reality is is that having the roof deck above
is they're generally not as accessible or utilized as much as one that just is right