Did you hear that you presently, you own this property, 502.504 South Juniper Street, correct?
And did you hear the statements that I made to the board today?
Yes, I did.
And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you very much.
Question from the board.
Do you know what the height of the buildings to either side of the new structure will be?
I'm sorry can you say that again the heights of the buildings to either side to the roof
uh I don't know the heights of those structures now but we again we are we are proposing a
dimension link client building at 38 feet tall that's um that has been reviewed and approved
by the historic Commission okay I mean you can see that 1330 is is you know is pretty getting
pretty close i mean obviously we've constructed an additional story four stories so we're going
to be taller than the buildings to either side um so you can see that here
and 1330 does have these um extended uh uh chimneys as well that reach the same height as
our building yeah i mean that that'll all be done as far as it whether the status of the chimneys
at 1330 that'll be all handled presented to the building codes okay yeah all the questions from
the board questions or comments from the virtual audience or the current audience
questions or comments from the virtual audience or the current audience
no hands oh chair there's a hand just went up sure and that hand is oh that was donna
de stefano well that she already testified am i correct we're going to bring her back on
all right bring her back one sure
Donna, you have been promoted.
Donna?
Ms. Stefano?
Donna, can you unmute yourself, please?
donna unmute yourself sorry about that i thought i was unmuted my apologies do me do me a favor
you've already been sworn but just for the record state your name donna de stefano okay and you have
additional information i just that wall that you mentioned james is a parapet wall with nothing
behind it it's just the the peak that was part of the historical and that we talked about that
door and the three feet whatever it is it was the stairway um i do appreciate david saying that he
would follow the you know the zoning as far as the lni i'm sorry not zoning the lni regarding the
height and any kind of um chimney because i stated before i don't know if there's any chimney there
or not but i would be looking forward to seeing what happens with the new building going up so as
long as everything is followed i have no problem thank you thank you very much um anyone else in
the audience there are no more hands here planning commission amy boyd with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning to the current r1 residential multifamily
the condition of the 18 foot depth of parcel b at 502 to 04 juniper street is existing and presents
a unique physical condition that would prevent the property from complying with the rear yard
setback requirement the planning commission recommends that the board grant the requested
variance for rear yard depth thank you mi 2025 003 848 502 204 south juniper street i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tennetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes iowen my
vote is yes thank you counsel thank you very much all right number five mi 2025 004 752 1551
north franklin street william o'brien is the attorney there's a letter of opposition from apm
So, Brian, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer can't can't hear you? Can't can't hear you. Is the mic on the mic on?
there we go okay uh good uh good afternoon mr chairman members of the board william o'brien
w-i-l-l-i-a-m o'brien o-b-r-i-e-n from the maniunk law office do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client a relationship
to this property my client is gentian cadrew gentian is in the virtual audience and our vice
chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing yes the exhibits are presented and then yesterday i supplemented with
one additional page okay thank you and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to
is accuracy. I do. Okay, thank you. You can share your screen and proceed please.
I'm looking for the
link to share my screen and I don't see it.
Should be at the bottom of the page.
Oh, I don't know if you're on, but that's crazy.
You have to be in the middle of your skin.
No, no.
Okay, just raise my hand, okay.
Okay, thank you.
You're coming up now.
Okay, so here's the refusal or the property is at the corner of I think it's Oxford and Franklin streets.
um the building was built and the co was issued in 2020. uh a zoning permit as noted on the
refusal was issued uh in 2017 when the property was zoned cmx2 uh so a four-story building was
erected pursuant to that uh with first and the the permit as it says uh first floor had to be
commercial and limited to those uses in table 148022 that did not require parking.
So to that end the two apartments that consumed the second and third floor were rented
and the first floor space was rented I think in late 21 early 22 to an office use.
They rented for a little over a year went into a month-to-month lease
Mr. Kadru terminated the lease. He had some complaints from the residential
tenants about the noise that that commercial tenant generated and then
began looking for a new tenant. Last year he found a nail salon that wanted to
come in and then he found out when he made an application that the zoning had
changed. We did have an RCO meeting. There were eight persons that attended.
One was in support, three had no opinion, and four were opposed. Mr. Kadru
stipulated to this RCO that he chose personal services because he thought it would serve the
community, serve the neighborhood, hair salon, nail salon, barbershop, and stipulated that uses
such as a tattoo parlor or a piercing salon would be excluded. He's not going to go anywhere near
there. They're destination uses. He just wants a use that will help serve this neighborhood
personal services. Let me show you the building.
Okay, so that's the four story building the top three floors are two apartments, and then the first floor commercial space.
This is just a different angle. That's Franklin Street in the foreground.
The rear of the building.
That's Oxford Street. And you can see in the background, there is another commercial use,
first floor commercial use in the next block. So this commercial use is not foreign to the
immediate neighborhood. The interior space of this commercial unit, this is the first floor
bear with me while I try to get the right size okay so this is the first floor looking towards
Franklin Street with the entrance there in the right corner same floor looking at the entrance
which you're to your left to the back of that first floor bathroom on the first floor this
This is the ground floor, looking with Franklin Street to your back, and this is looking towards
Franklin Street.
This is the zoning permit that was issued in 2017, if I can get it to come over.
this is page 14 of the package and the following page 15 is the certificate of occupancy
And the following page, 15, is the Certificate of Occupancy that was issued in 2020.
that was issued in
If I can ask my client to raise his hand.
When you went to the RCL, what was the reason?
As they mentioned in their letter, they thought it would be more appropriate to be used for a nonprofit educational purpose.
My client's not able to do that.
Okay, why don't you bring your client one?
Thank you.
Mr. Kadru, would you raise your hand?
He's been promoted.
Mr. Quadru, can you unmute, please?
Gentian Quadru, can you unmute yourself, please?
She's not hearing anything, he says.
okay um you're an officer of the court and um we'll take your testimony right i spoke to gentian
on the way here um and he asked excuse me he's i'm sorry he's unmuted now okay sir could you
please state your name and spell for this photographer gentian
he's probably having technical difficulties
i can let's go i don't have my phone but i can get my phone and call him
if that would be what would that now you're an officer of the court we will take your testimony
okay and i just want to reiterate that i spoke to uh mr codru on the way here and he asked me
make it clear that he absolutely wants to nothing to do whether you want to adopt as a provisor or
not but nothing to do with the tattoo salons yeah i got it wait a minute here he is now now
mr cadrew yes can you hear me yes sir could you please state your name as bill for the stenographer
gentian cadrio g-e-n-t-i-a-n last name k-a-d-r-i-o you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes counsel mr cadrio were you in the virtual audience during my
presentation yes and did you hear my testimony yes is it truthful yes and do you adopt it as your own
yes thank you questions from the board
yes yes I guess my question is personal services meaning what you say what you won't have there
what are we talking about here and do you have any specific clients who are planning
there was a nail salon that wanted to lease it last year and when Mr. Kadri went to get
a permit for it that's when he found out that it changed that tenant is gone
they had to find another space they couldn't wait for this process to end so whether it's a nail
salon a hair salon a barber it's going to be something that will serve this community it
won't be a destination personal service like tattoos or piercings and how can we limit the
types of there's no agreement in place like with the community or anything i mean we can't say
what personal services may be i mean you'd have to get some kind of permissions to have it i'm sure
but i mean how are you planning to well there's a record of this of this commitment that my clients
made that it will not be anything to do with tattoos or piercings it's going to be a personal
service such as hair salon barber nail salon that will serve this immediate neighborhood
Okay, I think because the so unless so if we don't have a sorry, if we don't have a specific use like it's going to be nail salon hair salon yet, then we can't provide that the specific use.
However, body art services is a separate subcategory under personal services.
So we could provide though no body art services.
got you right okay thank you thank you other anybody else yeah i have a question just because
i can see that there was some opposition in the neighborhood and was wondering if you could
elaborate about what happened at the rco meeting and any feedback that you guys received from the
community i i reading their letter um perhaps i didn't make it clear um i tried to explain that
the hardship is that this building is really very very new and was designed according to the current
code five years ago and as you can see at the end of their second paragraph the owner is now
As you can see at the end of their second paragraph, the owner is now requesting to revert the zoning back to CMX 2. Of course, we're not trying to do that. And I think there may have been some people in the audience at the RCO meeting that was concerned that we were trying to change what they had worked hard on in changing the zoning district. And we're not trying to do that. But, you know, we're kind of stuck with a non-conforming building and want to have it occupied.
requesting to revert the zoning back
And I think my second question is just curious as to why limit it to personal services instead of consider any other retail use.
Well, I guess that was his frame of, I should elaborate, the application was made by my client.
And when he made the application, he had a tenant that was personal services.
Well, I mean, he's here.
so i guess the question now would be like why limit the commercial space use to personal services
that's the application that's the refusal um if he can't find a tenant then i may be back here
yeah okay but he feels confident that you can find a tenant yeah all right understood
anything else from our attorney hillary emerson um i just wanted to note that i think there may
be refusal missing for multiple principal uses now that the zoning's been changed from cmx2 to rsa5
so if the board does grant that would be incorporated into the variance duplex use
no no the no the fact that it was cmx before so it had both commercial and residential but now
it's rsa5 which only allows one principal use per lot and it's multiple principal uses proposed so
just wanted to note that for the record questions or comments from the audience for the or the virtual audience there are no hands in a virtual audience planning commission and people with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
no change in zoning to the existing rsa 5 residential single family in 2017 this property was remapped from cmx to commercial mixed use in accordance with the comprehensive plan
the property received a zoning permit by right under the cmx2 zoning in 2017 for two family
and vacant commercial this presents a unique physical condition or circumstance of the
property that would prevent the ground floor from being used for residential and personal
services are allowed by right under the cmx2 zoning the city planning commission recommends
of the board grant their requested variance for personal services
so mi 2025 004 752 1551 north franklin street i vote yes and could our council give us
a proviso sure provides a no body art service thank you michael johnson my vote is yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Teneda Graham, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Iowyn, my vote is yes, with Proviso.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, counsel.
Number six, MI 2025, 004-805-1515 East Pass Shunk Avenue.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Nockelson, number one, we haven't seen you in a new year.
Happy New Year to you.
Happy New Year.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Alan Nockelson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockelson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is Jordan Griska, the owner of the property.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
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 refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Okay, and share your screen and proceed with your case.
All right, thank you.
And there's a letter of non-opposition from Passong Square Civic Association, also non-opposition from Council Member Squillett.
And there's other signatures from the block.