Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Chairman, it should be with the Proviso first or only.
Okay, do the vote over?
Why not?
MI 2026, 000223, 1528 North Dayton Street.
I vote yes with Proviso.
temporary variance that will expire 6 18 2029 and first floor only thank you
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan mcadams my
ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
is yes with proviso.
okay number 14 mi 20 26 00 00 90 16 15 to 17 mckean street eric carroll is the attorney
they're being promoted to panelists okay
Good morning, panel.
Good morning, counsel.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
Eric, E-R-I-C, Carroll, C-A-R-R-O-L-L.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel, could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client, the applicant, is 1615 Auto, LLC.
That is the entity that owns the property.
and bethany asplund one of the members of that llc should be in the audience
okay our vice chair has a few questions for you good morning have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes i have and do you waive the reading of the
refer results to play to its accuracy i do okay all right thank you you can see your screen to
proceed thank you okay this property that brings us here today is 16 15 to 17 mckean street uh
that's on mckean street between 16th and 17th obviously but more specifically between the
small streets of chadwick and bancroft street uh this is a property that is zoned i2 um
this is what the property looks like as we sit here today in the past
it has been used on the first floor as a body shop and a lot of the properties on this block
are very similar and have had similar historical uses however the nature of the neighborhood is
is changing there's a lot more residential there's a lot more retail and restaurants
and we are seeking a variance today for the use of a restaurant as opposed to
the use by right which would be some sort of industrial use like auto body repair and maintenance
this building it's a 4946 square foot building there are two residential units on the second
floor. We were actually here a few years ago getting a use variance in place for that
residential use. That variance was granted. The residential apartments are being rented out
currently. My client now intends to put a restaurant on the first floor called El
Mechanico, which will be an Italian restaurant. Then the Italian word El Mechanico is a nod to
the to the building's historical use uh in our documents that were previously submitted i had
the refusal as you can see um the application was for a sit-down restaurant in an existing attached
structure in the same building with all the uses as previously approved uh that is prohibited in
this zoning district which is i2 we are seeking again seeking a variance for the restaurant sit
down restaurant use i submitted the application for appeal
project information form the deed uh date of january 25th showing that my client 1615 auto
is now the owner of the property um we have the uh document showing a zero tax balance on the
property we met with the point breeze community development coalition back in may um
they voted unanimously there was only three votes three people present but they voted three nothing
in support of our project we've also included the notice was sent out and the certificate of mailing
to 153 addresses in the immediate area. This is the view from McKean Street. And then this is the
view from Bancroft Street. You can see from McKean Street, there is a garage, a roll-up
garage door in the center. To the left or to the west of the property, there is a door that leads
to the stairwell that goes up to the two residential units. This is the view from
residential units. This is the view from Bankrupt Street. You can see there's another side door
Bankrupt Street you can see there's another site
that goes directly into the first floor, into what was the garage. And then all the way to the
north or to the right, there's another roll-up door. These are the Notice of Zoning Appeal
posters that were posted on both sides of the property. This is what the interior currently
looks like. You can see the remnants of the auto body. That has not been in operation for about
four or five years or so um but this is looking from mckean street towards the back of the
property so to the north and then this is looking from the opposite direction from the back of the
from the north of the property down to mckean street
uh the area the square footage of this first floor is about 2500 square feet
what we want to put here instead of that garage is depicted here in these plans
just blow this up a little bit so
the plans to the right are the first floor as it exists now which essentially is just a vacant
space but what my client wants to put in there is this restaurant so as i said the apartment
entry is through that door to the left or to the west of the property um this would be the front
entrance from McKean Street. There's a dining area. There would be a bar to the left. And as
you go towards the back is where the kitchen would be to the left, restrooms in the northeast corner.
There would be a trash storage area, an enclosed trash storage area in the northwest corner
of this property. Trash service would be as often as needed. There's a brew pub just across the
street that may be instructive on the trash delivery. My client intends to have the trash
out in the morning or as much as service levels require. Hours would be, this is primarily going
to be a restaurant, not a bar. There is a bar, but the main function is as a restaurant. Hours
would be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, open Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 10, Fridays and
Saturdays, 4 to 12, and then Sunday from 12 to 10. So this is not going to be a late night
operation. So we feel that this use would be beneficial to the neighborhood. The Point
Breeze Coalition agreed with us. It's just completely impractical at this point in time
in 2026, given the nature of this neighborhood, for this to be an I2 use. Certainly, I don't
think any of the neighbors want another auto body shop or vehicle maintenance shop going in in the
middle of this block which is which is largely surrounded by residential so we ask your support
um again i have my client here bethany asplund the member of 1615 auto um i can bring her on
unless the board has any questions well why don't you bring her on and then we'll have questions
Bethany, can you raise your hand, please?
They're being promoted to panelists. Thank you.
Hi. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Bethany Asplund, B-E-T-H-A-N-Y, last name A-S-P-L-U-N-D-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Thank you.
Ms. Asplund, you are a member of 1615 Auto LLC, is that correct?
And were you present on the Zoom and listening to my presentation?
okay uh did you hear all of it i heard the whole thing yes i've been on it for hours
to your knowledge was everything accurate and truthful yes okay if you were to testify
here this morning would you adopt my testimony as your own precisely okay thank you miss esplan
council do you um could you show the venting how are you going to vent it
um there would be a you're talking about like in terms of a hood
Well, you've got to vent it somewhere, right?
Is it going to the roof or?
Yeah, so the, hold on, let me bring the plans back up.
Sure, thanks.
Okay, so the kitchen, as you can see, is in the northwest corner of the property with the stove and the flat top to the left.
We're going to have to rework some of the HVAC here, but it will go straight up through the.
we're going to have to rework some some of the hvac here but it will go straight up uh through
through the through through the uh through the ceiling i i'm like beth is that accurate or is it
the hvac gonna go the other way can i chime in absolutely okay so we're currently working with
a a kitchen designer to get this right um because the um the stove needs to be vented
all the way up to the to the sky so what we're probably going to do is move the stove over to
the back wall sort of where it says storage area right now making it easier to go out to the wall
and then up as as required so because we can't go through people's homes and that's what's directly
above us okay so they are the units above i'm sorry are the units are is the you said they're
tuning two units above correct this and they're occupied they are awaiting occupation we are
currently getting them occupied we there was a hold up with figuring out the hvac side okay
Well, then I think there's an opportunity that you have here to vent completely up through the roof and avoid having a vent through the face of the building, which is, one, unsightly, and it looks like you're trying to do something really nice here.
And it's just a better situation for the exhaust just to go straight up instead of trying to go out in front of the building.
um so that's my comment on that can you zoom into more of the plan absolutely any particular
portion no i just want to see the whole i just want to see the whole okay um
zoom out so we can see the whole oh zoom out yeah yeah and you talked about the the trash
and and so there'll be um uh seating outside of the restaurant too on the pavement
so that's uh extremely uh how can i say temporary we're just gonna have folding chairs and folding
tables that on the most beautiful days we can uh just put out there we had a discussion with
the neighborhood about their wants and needs around that um and so we're going to be respectful
and not put anything permanent or large or sidewalk blocking out there the rco's concern
was the sidewalk blocking as ms aspland said and then we if there is anything out there temporary
it would just be these two tops uh rather than anything larger that would cut into the sidewalk
mr johns you're muted yeah yeah yep that's fine the questions yes um i don't see where are the
tables going to be you said this is going to be mainly a restaurant but I only see the bar set up
and I'm not seeing where the so that would be in this in this 550 square foot dining area in the
middle okay so do you have any idea of how many seats you're planning to have
do you know the answer to that um we do not currently have an exact number but uh what
will fit in that area which i'm i'm assuming at max is going to be about 60 people sitting
at tables maximum 50 probably okay all right and then um so you're going to be converting
a space that's been used for industrial use shall we say here so do you have um the water kind of
connections that you need so that you can uh do the um well the health department is going to want
to of course lay out your kitchen and as part of that they were going to want you to have like a
three-bay sink for washing, rinsing, sanitizing, so you have that kind of capability?
Is that what I'm seeing in here or isn't it there yet? And what about drains and things like that
for the restaurant space? So we have not put any
funds into actually developing the space until we receive zoning but of course the plumbing
will be plumbed as as per code yes and then and and I guess the
It's going to have to be. Yes. And then, and I guess the question is the same for the
restrooms, which I see here. They exist already? Are you going to convert them? How is that
going to work?
These are the restrooms that we have designed to be actually better than code. We're required
to have two unisex bathrooms we have chosen to have two three total one ada compliant
okay and then what are you gonna do with these roll-up doors that's my question okay yeah you
got the roll-up door in the front and you have a roll-up door down the street here on this side
here to the right so how is how is that gonna work in terms of you know access to the property and
I guess the comfort of the patrons because you know I'm not sure what kind of um
yeah I mean are you gonna be trying to open this up when the weather is nice or what are you
what are you planning to do with these roll-up doors yeah that's a good
question currently the plan is to replace them with aesthetically pleasing
doors which are also insulated but maybe with windows in them and with man doors
in them that maybe can be open on a beautiful day we are currently I so I'm
doing this business with three of my sons and so we're uh we're currently discussing the pros and
cons of of that it's there's something really cool about you know on a gorgeous 70 degree day
opening up and having everybody sort of open and like a block party feeling um and we we just need
to discuss the re the reality of that and and the feasibility and okay so this is my last question
and i maybe i should have asked this in the first place have you ever run a restaurant before yes
my uh second son who was in business with us uh owned um a spot up in fishtown a three floor
restaurant bar okay so there's some experience among the group as to running a restaurant okay
well i raised i raised boys that count yeah no it yes there's some experience all right okay thank
you any other thank you questions from our attorney uh thank you mr chairman um if there is going to
be a vote in favor there should be a proviso limiting the use to the first floor questions
or comments from the virtual audience no hands at this time chair any commission
thank you chair the comprehensive plan recommends a zoning map change from excuse me to rm1
residential multifamily the appellant has not shown that the property cannot be used in strict
conformity with the zoning code and that a variance is therefore necessary to enable the
viable economic use of the property city planning commission recommends that the zoning board deny
the variance mi 2026 000 90 16 15 to 17 mckean street i vote yes with proviso limited use to
first floor michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaston my booty shots with proviso
tenetta graham my vote is yes proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
here mr chairman i think we should go back to jermaine thank you thank you thank you
jermaine yes here you go um you've been sworn before sworn already right yes i have been all
right and we're computers good right sounds good our vice chair has a few questions for
you, Sarah. Could you identify your client first again? Eduardo Rivera. Okay. All right. And our
vice chair has a few questions. Good morning. Have you 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 accuracy? Yes, I do. Okay. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed. Thank you.
yes i do okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed thank you
all right uh good afternoon uh again my name is jermaine harris and we are here for the
legalization of a security gate in the rear yard of an existing single family so this is a lot
that well this is a house with a very large lot this is it right here and this is the lot on the
side now this is the front view this is the posting of the zoning hearing and
there's another picture of the front the lot size is about 4,500 square feet
which is a pretty unusual size for this particular area and what we have here is
the rear of the property and the aforementioned security gate. It is 7 feet tall at where
I'm pointing at and the top part that I have the cursor on is 11 feet. Now this would have
been permitted by right uh if it was six feet but because it's seven feet that is where there is the
issue now the reason why this was uh erected is because my client uses this is a view from the