Questions from the Board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning, David Fecto, F-E-C-T-E-A-U, with the City Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you, sir.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
This property has documented history of three dwelling units.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant their proposed use variants for three dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2024, 000106, 1357 Dyer Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
My vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Number eight, MI 2024, 000107, 177 West Norris Street.
Roger Perry is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from the Norris Square Community Action Network.
Roger Perry, please raise your virtual hand.
They have been promoted to panelists.
Good morning, Mr. Perry.
Good morning, Mr. Perry.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good morning. Roger Perry, R-O-G-E-R, last name Perry, P-E-R-R-Y.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Yes. The client is Jack Investment Group, LLC. He's the owner, and I represent the LLC with regard to this application.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
good morning council do you agree to waive the read and other refuse or stipulate to its accuracy
yes i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed
five days in advance of this hearing yes i have thank you council please proceed and share the
screen i'm clicking on share screen and it looks like we have it
And it looks like we have it.
Thank you.
And you should see it there.
We see it, sir.
OK, thank you.
OK, these are this is the exhibit package.
OK, so this is 177 West North Street.
It's at the corner of North Street and Hancock Street.
It's a vacant lot.
And this is the lot itself.
And you can see it from the side here and so forth.
This is a request by the owner.
And I'll go back to the beginning with the refusal and so forth to build a structure,
just investment group as the owner.
And this is a request to pull permits to build a structure, all new construction with a commercial
use entirely on the first floor and four units above, two units on the second floor, which
involve the proviso from the North Square Community Group, and then by levels on the
third and fourth, a total of four. The refusal, let's go down here. Notice the board hearing.
Okay, the refusal is for two bases, one small. One is, because this is a CMX2 district,
CMX2 allows a commercial or requires commercial on the first floor as is proposed,
and three dwelling units are allowed above the commercial use in this quest.
In this matter, the applicant has requested four.
The discussion with NSCAN, which is North Square Community Action Network,
was that one of these units, which are two bedrooms, would be available for a discounted rent
and that they would refer potential tenants to the property, which we agreed to do so.
Property is slightly larger in terms of coverage area.
This is to allow the two full bedrooms plus a separate access stairway that comes up on the north side to the property and so forth.
And I can show the plans to the, and we did the mailings and it has a tax clearance form.
this is the property itself hosting of the property the notices were all mailed this is
the property diagonally across from 177 west north in a small park area directly across these are
several of the other properties on north street and here we have the uh the plans and i think
the architect can answer questions if you if you need to let me blow this up a little bit
okay so what we have here is a roof deck with a setback we have a basement and a cellar
and see it's down here somewhere okay it's over on the on this side um let's see if i can move
that over. Okay. So commercial on the first floor, trying to get it all, and seller to service
commercial area and so forth and so on. Then we're going to have two bedrooms on the, or two living
units on the second floor. The third and fourth floor are bi-level units, again, with two bedrooms
and so forth.
I'm just trying to see if anything.
Floor two.
Okay, here's the two bedrooms
on the second floor.
Tax clearance certificate.
And this is the proviso
that the community has requested.
It was last dated May 17th, 2024,
signed and counterparts.
We would ask that the proviso
be included in any approval
for this variance.
The neighborhood had several meetings
and we discussed it at great length with them
in terms of making this property available
in the neighborhood with four residential units
and a commercial,
also agreeing to have them make recommendations
as to the nature of the commercial property
that they made.
We're not obligated,
but we certainly agreed to meet with the community
to see what commercial uses may be most appropriate for this area.
With that, I'll ask if we should be a Mr. Nguyen
in the virtual, as well as Mr. Guthierre as the architect.
If Mr. Nguyen is available, I can have him adapt my testimony.
Mr. Nguyen, please.
N-G-U-Y-E-N.
representative from jack investment group please yes they have been allowed to speak
Yes, they have been allowed to speak.
hi hello good morning good morning could you please state your name
Hi. Hello. Good morning.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the course stenographer?
Jack Nguyen, J-A-C-K-N-G-U-Y-E-N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you. Mr. Nguyen, thank you for joining us.
Were you able to hear my presentation with regard to the use and the community input?
Yes, sir.
And are you able to adapt it as true and correct as if it was your testimony?
Correct.
Thank you very much.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Anderson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Any commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission. Mr. Chairman and board members, the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the split-zoned residential multifamily and commercial mixed-use
zoning at this location. The proposed variance for occupied area is minor and in keeping with
the purpose and spirit of the zoning code, so the commission recommends that the board grant
the proposed occupied area variance. However, the appellant could have sought an administrative
of remedy for the additional proposed dwelling unit by applying for the mixed income housing
bonus. This would provide a guaranteed affordable unit enforceable by the city, while affordability
and a community benefit agreement cannot be enforced by any city agency. So the City Planning
Commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variance for a fourth dwelling unit.
Okay. So, MI 2024, 000107177 West Norris Street. I vote yes. Use registration for vacant
commercial space at first floor required prior occupancy. Maximum three dwelling units.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Number 10, MI 2024-000-148-8430 Busselton Avenue, number TA-224-608, Zen Jin is the attorney, a letter of unanimous support from the Vaughnhurst Civic Association.
then jen is joining us as a panel so there's a letter of non-opposition from councilman o'neill
good morning good morning council could you please state your name and spell for the court
sonographer yes my name is zen jen z h e n last name j i n um 1617 john f kennedy boulevard suite
1838, Federal Alpha EPA
19103 here on behalf of the applicant.
Do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth? I do.
Could you identify your client, the relationship
to this property? Yes.
My client is 8430
Busselton LLC. They're the
owner of the property
in question, and Mr. Tony Jung,
the representative, is here with us.
Our vice chair has just a
few questions, sir.
good morning counsel do you agree to weigh the reading or stipulate to its accuracy
i do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed
and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
i have thank you counsel please proceed and share your screen thank you i'm going to share
with the board the uh previously submitted exhibit um it should be up on the screen
before the board. Can everyone see it? Yes. Thank you. So we submitted in copies of the refusal,
the RCO letter, photos, plans, and related documentation. So this application is for
a development of what is currently a surface parking lot. And it's a corner property that's
rather large. And the proposal is to develop it according to more of a CMX commercial zoning
district type use with accessory parking spaces, which is essentially commercial offices and
commercial, I'm sorry, commercial spaces, offices, and parking space. To better understand what we're
talking about, this is a lot that really is very similar to other large corner commercial
large corner commercial properties in the area. However, it was somehow still zoned RSA 3.
properties in the area. However, it was somehow still
But if you look at this lot, it is abutting a commercial property, and it's also a corner
property that is essentially a large open parking lot at the present. It was, in fact,
as far as we know from a short history search, never actually used for any kind of residential
development and has always been some kind of commercial use. My client's proposal is to
develop this entire parcel as one single development of what is essentially a commercial
style structure with two floors, the first floor being separated commercial units and the additional
floor being offices. And the end product would look something like this with on-site parking,
accessory parking, we can maintain access through a curb cut onto the street that actually exists
because it's currently a parking lot. When we approached the community with this proposal,
I'm sorry, let me go back and stay on the plan here. When we approached the community with this
proposal, we were met with overwhelming support, partly because everybody remembers and knows that
this lot is really part of a commercial corridor off of Busselton. They don't really see viability
of this used as single-family property, and their commercial use is similar to it in other
corners, large corners in the area. So we received unanimous support in our request for these
variances. I understand that this is a substantial change from RSA 3, but I believe RSA 3 really
isn't the proper zoning for a lot of this size and at this location. So with that, we would ask
for the board's favorable review of our variance request. My client is here. He's on Zoom and
should be able to verify my testimony. Thank you.
Client's name?
Tony Zhang, Z-H-A-N-G.
They have been allowed to speak.
Good morning. Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?