and he's become extremely trusted and supportive presence in the neighborhood.
This is a notification letter that we sent out on April 17th in anticipation of our meeting
with the Central Roxborough Civic Association on June the 4th.
Almost 50 neighbors attended.
I would guess roughly two-thirds of there were there specifically to support John in this project.
The coordinators for the RCO can attest it was very clear that John and the business
are beloved in the community.
Here we have their letter of support in the meeting summary.
Community voted just about unanimous support for the project.
There was one person who did not vote in favor.
Apparently, he misunderstood what he was voting for, according to the meeting summary here.
As you mentioned, he also gathered, John spoke with nearby neighbors.
He also gathered 86 signatures of support from neighbors and customers.
So here we have the commercial lease entered into by my client on behalf of the tenant
entity and the property owner.
Again, John worked in the shop for over 40 years and then after the previous owner passed,
his widow entered the lease with John to continue to have him operating the shop.
Here we have the deed to the property, showing the property owned by John Rita Tice, and
Rita is the current owner.
Here we have our application for appeal and project information form.
here we have some pictures of the zba posters at the property known find the community of
the hearing here today we have our statement of real estate tax compliance
and these are the certificates of mailing for the rco meeting
notification letters that we sent out on April 17th so with that I'd like to
bring my client on John Kavish on to adopt my testimony and answer any
questions you guys might have you should be in the virtual audience
You should be in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
anything it might be either john cavish or donna cavish for what it's worth
and coverage is in the audience
yeah okay i thought he said he was on but
do we see him i i see him there actually okay uh john yeah he's listed as john cavish k-a-v-a-s-h
i'm you okay hey john we hear you hi hi john could you please state your name and spell for
stock it's john j-o-h-n k-bosh k-a-v-a-s-h do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do john could you turn your video on possibly we've been trying to
do that okay all right well counsel go ahead sure uh john uh have you heard my testimony here today
yes i did uh and was in true correct to the best of your knowledge
yes it was and uh would you adopt it as if it were your own
yes great uh any questions uh we'd be happy to answer on the board
all right i have to ask i mean it the use has been there for that long and you have to come
back and get zoning i mean with i guess i don't understand why why we're here i mean the zoning
shouldn't well zoning is supposed to run with the land so the fact that the prior owner died and
somebody else takes it so apparently when john was trying to get his business license for this
new entity um he ran he ran into some trouble with the zoning
all right okay just okay um thank you sure and all the um there's no tires stored on um outside are
there no all tires are stored in interior correct and there's no uh the sidewalks are uh clear
correct all right thank you you're welcome questions from our attorney
no questions at this time mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
let's see any hands raised
no hands raised no sir no hands raised planning commission
nina solomonic with the planning commission the 2017 lower northwest district plan recommends a
zoning map change from residential single-family rsa5 to industrial commercial mixed-use icmx
the variance for personal vehicle repair and maintenance conforms to the recommended zoning
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the use variance
mi 2026 001 144 424 rector street
i vote yes
michael johns i vote yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes
ryan mcadams my vote is yes thank you council thank you guys thank you thank you sure thank you
Number 14, MI 2026-001-234-3405 West Clearfield Street.
Vern Anastasio is the attorney.
I'll be coming back in as a panelist for Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon again, Mr. Chair.
a couple times today yes sir for the record state your name
a burn anastasio a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o on behalf of sharon gallagher okay our vice chair has a few
questions thank you good evening good evening submitted your documents and exhibits five days
in advance of this hearing i have and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
I have and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. All right. Thank you. You can begin your part.
accuracy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. You should have an email from the RCO in full support of this of this appeal. This is a double property here.
as you can see. And my client is well known in the community. She has other multi-family dwellings
that serve veterans, particularly elderly veterans. And that's what she'd like to do here.
The application was originally for a five-family dwelling. We're looking for four families.
The first floor unit in the front here, she is contemplating using it as a community room area.
for the veterans to gather perhaps also storage of some indoor trash area as well
but this is the property in question she does have plans to of course renovate the exterior
i'm going to show you some briefly just the interior of the property as it currently exists
And then I'll show you the interior layout in the plans.
She manages these properties.
She works with caseworkers and social workers to help these veterans.
She's very connected to the local veteran community.
We had a very well-attended RCO meeting, over 50 people in attendance with several veterans that she's already talking to and working with.
And it was an overwhelming vote of support.
I did forward that email that we received from the RCO.
We have it.
So that's the property as it currently exists. It's been a major disrepair for quite some time, and she would like to renovate it inside and out to get that going.
here's the refusal that was generated back in
February
again I'm sorry
we were looking for a five family
dwelling at this point
we're down to four
and I will pull up the plan for you
to take a look at
Here's the first floor unit. I'll blow this up. Here's the first floor. Here are the two doors
that are represented on the photos. This is the unit that she's considering turning into a community
room for the vets. It would also be able to house some interior trash storage
that would lead out to the rear yard.
Here is the other side of it, Unit 2.
And we have the second floor,
which would be Unit 3.
And the third floor, unit four.
This is the consolidation plan.
This is some additional exterior photos and the block itself.
We've already gone through those photos. I have a 104 exhibit packet that I'm moving into evidence.
In addition to the deed, here's the email of support from the RCO. And of course, we have the appeal documents as well.
So, this will be managed by my client, as discussed at the RCO meeting.
She will be, of course, utilizing again, working with the VA and other local veterans groups to bring in these folks and to offer them services, not inside, but of course, you know, outpatient sort of, you know, exterior assistance as needed.
There will be assessments done and vetted, and Ms. Gallagher is in the audience.
There will be assessments done and vetted.
And Ms. Gallagher,
I ask her to raise her virtual hand so she can adopt my presentation.
ms gallagher
yes hi could you please state your name and spell it for this photographer
Sharon Gallagher, S-H-A-R-O-N. Gallagher, G-A-L-L-A-G-H-E-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Ms. Gallagher, did you hear my presentation to the board this afternoon?
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Do you adopt it as your own testimony?
I'd like to give you an opportunity to speak because you did so eloquently at the RCO meeting.
I know we didn't plan or rehearse any of this, but I think it would be beneficial to the board
to hear your vision and what you do and why you do it. Thank you. Sure. Okay. Thanks everyone for
having me here. My plan is to turn the property into a multifamily property. In my family,
you either had to be a nurse or you had to go to the military so i chose to do nursing and take
care of veterans the best way that i could um so this property is for vets only and according to
the city they are desperately looking for one bedroom units for veterans so that's my plan
right now is to get the place together for that but it is down both properties are RSA five
properties but when we went inside there were five apartments inside I don't think anything
was done legally but I want to make it legal and just in support of veterans I just want to get
this place fixed up into five apartments and also offer a community room if possible for them to
congregate. I already have a property now that has a veteran in it and he's very instrumental
in getting veterans help. He just pioneers and a great advocate for veterans. So I want to also,
he's looking forward to move into the unit and also pull other veterans that are looking for
housing into the units as well. They gather monthly so that's why I wanted to do a community
room so I can give a safe place for them to be. Ms. Gallagher, you would be seeking four units
plus the community room, is that right? Four units plus community. Thank you. I have nothing. And that
veteran actually was one of the veterans that showed up at the RCO meeting, right, in addition
to the immediate neighbors? Yes. Thank you. I have nothing further. Questions from the board.
Yes, actually right now there are three units with two bedrooms.
But with the extra bedrooms and the units, we were just going to make those rooms just
an extra room for them or either, you know, somewhere where they can put storage or anything
like that.
But it would be considered one bedroom units.
One vet per unit.
One vet per unit, yes.
One vet per unit.
That was actually one of my questions.
The other comment I think is great to help veterans.
With the community space on the first floor, you're not connected to the main hallway and the main stairway.
So if vets want to utilize this multipurpose room, they have to come outside if it's raining, you know, snow, you know, it's you'd want to have a connection on the inside.
Hopefully, you know, if approved and you make these renovations, you provide some way that they can access without having to go outside to utilize the the community space, particularly since some of the units are, you know, not so big.
Right. Right. Yes. Yes.
is there a rear yard space there's a lot of yard space there's two properties and the yard is is
pretty huge and is the plan to have that them have access to the rear yard as well yes actually each
unit um in the back of the house they have um second floor has two decks
and the first floor does have a door to
And the 1st floor does have a door to from the kitchen to 1 of the units to the yard. And then the 1st floor, which would be the community area will also have a door to the yard as well.
And the other unit to on the other side has a.
Access to a deck right here.
Thank you.
Yeah, the questions, um, council, you know, the community room is that listed anywhere?
Yeah, well, no, it'll be a, it won't be a general community room for, for the community. It'll be for the rest for the residents.
only do we have to put that well i'll wait to hear from you okay go ahead i think if i may
mr chair i think if you say um yes with proviso let our lawyer okay i'll i'll let your lawyer be
your lawyer i'll i'll i'll be sharon's lawyer thank you thank you um if it's a common space
for the residents we don't need to we can just say four dwelling units okay i believe that it
said they're going to be four bedrooms if i'm i just want to clarify four bedrooms so we'd have
to have a provider well four four family dwelling yeah maximum four dwelling units i got that yeah
questions from the our comments from the virtual audience
there i do not see any hands raised
the solomonic with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change
the existing rsa5 residential single-family zoning wait i have them is this crazy
okay um the appellant has not supported the proposal for five dwelling units
the city planning commission recommends that the zoning board grant the variance with a maximum of
for residential dwelling units so mi 2026 001 234 3405 west uh clearfield i vote yes with proviso
maximum for dwelling units certificate of occupancy to be obtained
michael johns my vote is yes
you went off again did i i don't know what's going on my vote is yes with proviso can y'all
better speak louder can you got that yes okay all right my vote is yes with proviso
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
And Vern, thank you.
And Vern, I like that.
I'll let your lawyer be your lawyer.
I like that.
Right?
Why not?
Have a good...
See you next week.
Thank you.
She's not going to see us next week.
You're not going to see us next week, but that's okay.
Is there anyone in the audience whose 2 o'clock case has not been called?