start putting into the right could you come up ask her partner to come up and turn on her computer
right and then start showing us what she has okay okay
and then as you testify you can like point out things to us from the computer okay
so i hope and
there you go it's coming up okay so why don't we do this we have all your
all of her documents, what she should do is go and show us photos or plans of the property.
So go ahead. Why don't you show us photos of the property and or plans?
Okay, that's the property there, so there's a fence in the front, is that what I'm saying
where the fence is in the front?
Okay, so why don't you tell us what you did there?
Okay, perfecto.
Entonces, esa es la propiedad, la que está resaltada ahí con el cursor.
Cuéntenos, por favor, qué es lo que usted hizo exactamente ahí.
so remember he he has to tell us so just just slow down a little bit okay go ahead sir
so yeah the thing is that like uh we installed that fence and around like april or may 2020 and
it's uh it's a like a very recurring place like in regards to traffic and i have my my small
grandson with me okay siempre salgamos frente a tomar sol en verano
interpreter okay so and it was my mistake but once i was wasn't paying attention and
he threw the ball to the like out on the street while he was playing
me di cuenta y me asusté demasiado entonces por eso porque decidí poner la pinta
okay so and the thing is that like the kid went to the street and i was so scared when i realized
that i was very very scared so that's why we decided to put the fence there all right
is there any other could you show us some other photos of the fence as she's talking please
las que de la cual usted no se está hablando
okay so
is that just an awning could you answer questions just is that an awning on top of the fence
y eso de ahí que que está que es lo que está encima del de la cerca es como un techito así
it's like a kiosk okay the ones that you can get at home depot yep keep going
the body I can't use a la fence I mean I see Toma segura cool con el nene
I saw gamma porque no lo yo ballo party pola inseguridad care ahora mismo
yeah I said I'm a recrear no
you show after that I decided to install the fence because of the baby and we
don't we don't go out to the parks or anything like that right now because of
all the insecurity that it's happening so that's our recreation area basically okay so yeah i know
let's see i'm trying to figure this one here too do you have photos of the rear
okay um
um okay could you tell us
could you tell us what what you did in the rear is that an addition you put on the house
factory on a fabric so yeah I did add it something like in the back of my house
but the thing is that there is like a factory you know like a warehouse behind
my house basically
so i started adding uh i started uh doing that because like before um it wasn't very populated
when we got the property you know so there was a lot of like mice raccoons bees like you know
a lot of garbage you know but now it's a little bit more populated
but it's an actual i mean theoretically this is this is an addition you put on the rear of the
house right yeah we could basically say that because i closed it out okay thank you um
Questions from the board.
So are there any other homes on the block that have enclosures or fence like you had in the front?
No, en mi bloc nada más soy yo, niño chiquito tengo yo, hay una vecina que tiene una bebé, pero ella lo tiene como en el de Kea, yo cuido a mi nieto yo, no tiene nadie, piensa grande.
well nobody else has that big fence only me because i only have like small kids that i
take care of rest of the people i think they do day
did you talk to any of your neighbors before you erected the fence
Can you speak with some of your neighbors before you stop?
My neighbors are all good people, I've never had a problem with them, even there was a
man who died, that was always going to help me, he was always going to be in the street,
well all my neighbors are good people you know i i used to talk with a lot of them and uh there
was actually one one guy that would like be outside you know and he would like just pass
in front of my fans he would like be cleaning and stuff and i would just like speak to him but
like nobody so far nobody complained about that nobody has said any
yeah one of my neighbors like one of my closest neighbors to me uh he actually uh made this letter
Okay. Any other questions?
okay um any other questions
I'm sorry. Who did the work for you? Was it a licensed contractor that did all your work?
well so i don't i'm not sure you know i don't i don't think i know that because honestly the guy
that did the work for me was recommended and you know it was it was wrong on my side not to like
really find out if he was certified or not but he he actually did it for me but then i did not know
that it was gonna be like something this serious because i i just got the complaints i didn't know
that i was like out of work michael so that's i was just you know this is so out of character
from the rest of the eight houses or 10 houses that are on that block.
The other fence that's on that block is about two foot high, maybe three foot.
And, you know, between this six foot high fence in the front and this addition on the back,
and I know we're not here for that, it just seems...
I think we are, Michael.
Oh, we are.
Yeah, Michael, it's one of the refusions.
Oh, it's one of the...
oh so it's the back and the front the rear yard is only two foot nine inches
okay yeah so i mean you you got a lot going on that's kind of just been done um so
it's it's all questionable so um so questions from our attorney yes
oh go ahead yeah go ahead sorry that was a lot no worries
no en en este caso yo pienso que eso de ahí pues está bastante fuera de carácter porque no del
resto de las ocho o diez casas que están en su bloque debido a que la otra la otra cerca que
estaba ahí mismo en el bloque más o menos está como a dos o tres pies de altura verdad pero
está aquí tiene seis pies de altura en la parte del frente si entonces añadiendo esto de de la
parte de atrás pues no o sea bueno nosotros sabemos que es una una de los rechazos verdad
entonces simplemente que el hecho de que todo lo que se ha hecho es bastante cuestionable
questions for attorney not at this time this question questions or comments from the virtual
audience i do not see any hands raised
position interpreter no hay ninguna pregunta ni más preguntas de parte de la abogada del comité
ni tampoco de la de los presentes
planning commission good morning chairman david facto f e c t e a u with the city planning
commission do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth with nothing but the truth
yes sir please proceed thank you sir um the comprehensive plan recommends no change
to the rm1 residential multi-family zoning at this location
entonces la comisión de planeación muy buenos días el señor presidente le saluda david facto
de la comisión de planeación de la ciudad entonces el plan el plan completo recomienda
ningún cambio a esta residencia multifamiliar de esta zona en esta ubicación hasta el momento
this part of the neighborhood still carries its original 1933 zoning
in this part of the barrio todavía carga la zonalidad original desde 1933.
The appellant built a fence in their front yard and a rear deck without the benefit of
permits.
La appellante construyó una cerca en la parte del patio frontal y en la parte trasera
sin el beneficio de permisos.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the proposed dimensional variances
for the deck, the fence, and rear yard depth.
yard depth
So MI 2025-005-990
1023 orthodox street i vote no michael johns my vote is no
el señor el señor presidente dice que no el señor michael jones vota que no tampoco
cheryl gaston my vote is no
carol gaston no tenetta graham my vote is no
jennifer graham and bota que no ryan mcadams my vote is no ryan mcadams bota no tywin my vote is
no tywin vota que no all right well uh interpreter number one thank you for your good work as usual
and and we had a vote now i'm very sorry for you guys okay thank you all right
We're going to move to number 11, MI-2025-005-860-4529 Baltimore Avenue.
Vern Anastasia was the attorney.
And Interpreter, I think we're all set for today.
Thank you very much for your service.
Mr. Chair, they'll be back in shortly.
yeah give me one just this i'll finish this coffee thank you ma'am what kind of candy do you eat
verne good morning mr chair good morning um verne you've already been sworn in could you just state
your name and spell for the stenographer sure it's verne anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o on behalf
of mr dimitri corrales right and i notice we have a letter of non-opposition with provisos from
spruce hill community association correct our uh vice chair has a few questions good morning
morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes and do you waive the reading of the referral and stipulate to its accuracy
i do okay thank you you can show your screen and proceed with your case thank you
We're coming.
There it is.
4529 Baltimore Avenue.
I've got a 44-page exhibit packet that I'm going to put into evidence in addition to the letter of non-opposition with provisos from Spruce Hill Community Association.
This property is already zoned, CMX2.
The application is for a takeout restaurant.
My client wants to just do an ice cream shop with no interior seating whatsoever.
instead everything would be through a service window I'm sorry the takeout
windows would be right here where my cursor is and inside would just be for
staff. There's also a restroom for staff and some storage.
There's also a restroom for staff and some storage.
This is on a block that has considerable amount.
Here's the property in question.
Considerable amount of commercial activity.
There is an Ethiopian chicken restaurant right here.
There's a nail salon right here.
This is where the ice cream shop will be.
This will be the service window.
So right to the right of it is an Indian restaurant.
And then we have a large longstanding pharmacy on the 4,500 block of Baltimore Avenue.
So it's very commercial oriented.
Here's the space.
My client's been in the food industry for quite some time, different sorts of enterprises.
And he'd like to get this up and running so that for summer he's able to serve ice cream.
There's the rear of the property where the trash will be stored.
There's the letter that went out to all individual households.
97 households were mailed.
We actually had a pretty good turnout at the RCO meeting, which, as you know, there was a consensus to, in fact,
offer non-opposition with the provisos that there
be cold food service only, which is perfectly
fine with my client.
Hours of operation are going to be from about 11
a.m. to
6 p.m., but then later during the summer months, of course.
And with that, I'd like to bring it in Dimitri Corrales, if he could raise his virtual hand.
We do not expect that this use will have any greater impact than one might expect of an ice cream parlor.
it's a chair council i do not see that individual in the virtual one this morning no hands have been
raised very well mr chair i asked as a member of the bar you take my presentation we will questions
from the board okay so what are we going to do about uh trash and what have you from well any
takeout place has to have a trash receptacle out front um there's already one there but we'll have
one over here on the other side uh and that receptacle will come in at night and larger
bulk trash will be taken care of with commercial commercial trash pickup and is this takeout window
is it there now or are you going to be putting it in there's the window right there okay i mean it's
not a takeout window right now but it's a window that that was my question right you don't have it
now you're going to put it in yep okay and then how wide is this sidewalk i mean are people going
to be uh getting this ice cream and walking away or you think they're going to loiter or how is
this going to work well i think it's the general consensus that people everyone hopes people hang
out right that's the whole idea of restaurants places like this that there's street activity
there's sidewalk activity um but there will be no tables or chairs
okay all right and um i wasn't sure if this is sort of like sidewalk cafes in that you need some
sort of streets department um approvals um we don't you don't because it's a takeout window
and you're not going to have seating on the street is that why that's correct yep ah okay
All right. Thank you. Yeah. There will also be there also be, by the way, lighting and cameras out front for safety.
OK, thank you. What's driving the decision to have the takeout window at the facade instead of have customers come in and create a vestibule where they can do takeout inside the building itself?
um i think convenience he just he'd rather uh have the window because he thinks that's going
to be better for for business uh it again it is is not unlike the coffee shop that i brought to
you on emerald street last week and the pops bun shop uh in bella vista that i brought to you
about eight months ago.
The window model is one that is increasingly something
increasingly something that takeout places are embracing because it seems to work better than
that takeout places are embraced.
asking people to go into a facility. It could be because of the post-COVID concerns about
germs and contamination, but that just seems to be where we're trending.
Yeah. I mean, I think the difference is Pops is on a corner and this is not on a corner. It's an
interior space I just know looking at a few of the other ice cream shops that in the city that
have done this I think of Weckerleys on uh on Gerrard Avenue I think of the one that's now
on the other side of Gerrard at 28th Street and like in the height of summer I think of Fairmount
Flavors and Fairmount and there's always these like you know 10 to 15 person lines outside of
the ice cream shops that are blocking the entrances or blocking the sidewalk whereas like
Like we talked about now in the fall, there's not really much activity.
But when you're talking about like height of season, it becomes something that overflows
what's already a kind of narrow sidewalk and there's not a lot of businesses on that side
of or that stretch of Baltimore that kind of have that type of sidewalk activity.