before the board so that is a good day sounds good thank you thank you thank you tanya mi-2020-000162
701 west york street this hearing will be resumed on october the 28th at 9 30 a.m
At which time
We will consider any feedback
Related to the RCO's position
Thank you
Thank you
Next one up is
That's
000719
Diamond Street
sharon earlier i think you asked us to hold this to the end um was that we do have any update on
that um i can check it was michael i'm sorry he's here i i just need abby i'm sorry pauline
could you promote him to panelists I'm unable to do it for some reason no
problem no worries thank you
okay he should be promoted to panelist
good afternoon good afternoon sir you swore in a firm to tell the truth the
whole truth for nothing but the truth I do do you agree to waive the reading of
I do. Do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy.
I do. Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copies of the refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this
hearing? Yes, I have. Awesome. Also, have you met with the RCO and have a letter?
Yes, multiple times, and a letter came over yesterday afternoon, which I emailed to the board this afternoon, and I do have a copy that I can present on the screen if necessary.
Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record.
Michael McElhenney, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, M-C-I-L-H-I-N-N-E-Y, Law Office of Orphanities and Toner, 1500 JFK Boulevard, Suite 800.
Thank you.
And I'm here today. I'm here on behalf of the equitable owner, Mazel Tov Development LLC, whose main member, sole member is Gary Murray, so he should be on the line as well. And I believe the architect was going to join us, Kevin O'Neill.
And if I may share my screen to present the exhibits.
What is the name of the entity again?
Mazel Tov, Development, LLC. Thank you.
I guess it's a matter of some housekeeping, attached on the screen right now is the exhibit index for today's hearing.
We have properly posted the property with the ZBA hearing notice. Those photos are at Exhibit 1. Tax clearances are at Exhibit 2. The current deed for the property is at Exhibit 3. And as I mentioned, my client's the equitable owner. So at Exhibit 4, we do have the agreement of sale through which he's going to purchase the property.
we met with the community uh registered community organizations it was a longer path for the past
year a little over a year to come to this point the original rco that was the coordinating rco
was the village arts and humanities group we met with them in january we had a positive
meeting result but they requested not to suspend the vote and to redesignate a different rco
APM to be the coordinating RCO because the project that issue is closer to APM's territory.
We then coordinated with Mary Jones of Councilman Clark's office, the Planning Commission, and APM
to change coordinating RCOs. We have met with APM. We met with them in August and had a positive
meeting, and we met again with them last week with immediate near neighbors so they could have a
stronger voice and ask more questions. That meeting was very positive. We do have a letter of support
now, which I emailed to the board just this afternoon. What do we have? I believe it was 14
attendees and the end of the letter just states that they're in full support of the variances
is requested for this project. So if I can orient the board to the subject property,
an aerial view of the property. We are dealing with a property at 919 Diamond Street and the
property to the north, which is 2107 North 10th Street. It's at 10th and Diamond. 10th and Diamond
is the Diamond Street to the south, 10 streets to the west. And as you can see, the train tracks for
the regional rail line and Amtrak run right through the property and slice it on an angle.
To the north, we have Edgley Street, which is mainly vacant lots. There are two houses on Edgley
Street, and to the east is Delhi Street. The property is currently used, as you can see, for
auto use, storage, junkyard. It has several industrial buildings on the lot that our
Our proposal is going to be to tear those buildings down as part of the proposal.
And the proposal here is for a commercial mixed-use building, ground floor commercial
residential above.
Let me zoom out a little bit.
So the subject property is in the center of your screen, and it is zoned I2 Industrial
hearkening back to this auto use that you saw in the prior photo, the
neighborhood, the characteristics of the neighborhood and the hardship that's
being presented to the board today is that the characteristics of this
neighborhood and the stretch along the train tracks, the I2 portion, has really
has really transitioned to a commercial residential sector.
transitioned to a commercial residential sector.
To the southwest of the property at 10th and Diamond
is another I-2 property that was granted a use variance
to do a ground floor commercial,
a five-story building with ground floor commercial
and residential above.
And we're proposing a comparable project
at 9th and Diamond.
and what i'd like to do is bring the board down to site photos of the property as you can see that
these are the industrial buildings that are currently on the property a little deteriorated
there is a curb cut on diamond street that we will be moving to the west as part of the project
when you go up delhi street which is the property the the street to the east it's kind of a vacant
stretch a desolate stretch with not much lighting it leads to some dumping as you can see a camper
on the side of the road right now there's actually a boat on the side of the road that came up with
a community meeting the other night the industrial buildings themselves are are out of date and need
serious repair but as we're proposing it's going to be demolition and I would
like to show there are some new construction properties on Delhi and
Percy to the east and importantly similar properties along the this train
corridor are comparable to what we're proposing at 9th and Norris is a mixed
use commercial residential development and the property I referenced just a
minute ago at 10th and Diamond is this five-story commercial mixed-use building
that's very comparable to what we're looking to do at the subject property.
So the reason we're here today obviously is it's an I-2 property and in I-2 properties if you're
doing commercial and residential you're going to get two refusals because those uses are
prohibited in the I-2 zoning district. The proposal here is to demolish all the existing
structures, consolidate the lot at 919 Diamond and 2109 North 10th Street into one lot,
erect a five-story building not to exceed 60 feet with the ground floor commercial and some
commercial on the second floor. We will have 99 dwelling units are proposed and as part of the
project we do have off-street parking but the third refusal is actually for we were only able
to fit 30 spaces under the building, whereas 45 spaces
technically would be required.
There we go.
So on the screen right now, page 73 of the exhibit packet
is the current lot plan showing the two separate parcels
at issue.
And we're proposing to consolidate those
into one large parcel that'll create 35,000 square feet of land area for the erection of this five-story building.
Now, we do have a, this is our zoning plans on the screen in Exhibit 12, and I want to make a note to the board that there is a proviso that was sent over as part of this to correct some typographical errors,
Scrivener's errors and also to account for changes that were presented at the
Civic Design Review and let me pull up the proviso form just so I don't miss
speak on the exact language. We added projections and balconies to a portion
of the Diamond Street front edge of the building and the other items are just
for correcting Scrivener's errors on the zoning table. This is Sharon Slitta. I'm
sorry but even if it was presented to the community any addition of balconies
at the front of the building would have to be reviewed by Ellen I that's a good
Good point, because that's not on the original zoning plan.
No, and they would have to review that in case it generates any additional refusals.
You could, if you were to remove the balconies and come back in a week with the plans as revised without the balconies, the board could vote it, and you could maybe then try to add them by administrative review.
But otherwise, you're going to have to file an amended application to LNI, which could take a while.
Understood. I think it would be best if we could then continue the hearing to make those corrections or to remove the balconies if feasible.
Understood. I think it would be best if we could then continue the hearing.
Okay, so we can schedule a date, Tanya, if in two weeks.
Should we go on with the rest of it and just leave that?
Oh, sure. Yes, I'm sorry, of course.
Yeah, that'll be the outstanding item, right? We can hear everything else and we'll address that in two weeks or whatever date we come up with, right?
Exactly. Yes. Thank you.
And I'll run through the rest of the plans, the floor plans and the renderings.
One thing I wanted to note on the zoning data.
It's an I2 zone property, so technically you can have 100% of lot coverage.
we're proposing 27,000 square feet as being covering the building and we
created some open space in the the center of the property to increase the
light and air for the residential units that are being developed. The rear yard
as part of the project has an eight-foot minimum. Due to the size of the
building we did increase that to a 10-foot rear yard to create an increased
buffer with the neighbors to the north. I think it would best we go to the CDR
floor plans to see the actual renderings. So, we're looking at page 89 of the exhibit
packet that's presented to the board, which is the ground floor site plan for the project.
the ground floor would can consist of a 12 450 square foot commercial area the main commercial
stretch would be fronting on diamond street the lob the the residential section the lobby is at
the corner of delhi and diamond street which would also allow for provide for the leasing office
elevators a commercial elevator to the second floor commercial space that i'll show you in a second
and as i mentioned a second ago we do have a buffer between the neighbors to the north with
a 10-foot rear yard and a six-foot privacy fence there's also a three-foot alley between
our property and the properties of north that gives it an extra buffer
so parking was one of the issues that came up as it does in many of these projects
in the city so we do have as i mentioned 30 off street parking spaces as part of the project
the parking is in the northern section of the proper of the project of the building it's one
building that's connected in the middle so it creates this courtyard open space between kind
of as if it was two separate structures the parking comes down 10th street runs north to south
The cars would enter in from 10th Street and go east and exit onto Delhi.
We were able to get 30 off-street parking spaces, two of which are accessible and two of which would be electric vehicles.
And as part of our application, we did have 30 bike spaces required.
We were able to get, actually, based off the dimensions and size, we could fit up to 90 parking spaces inside the structure,
which would be located behind the lobby at the rear of the rear of the lobby and also at the
rear of the the main the front building outdoor and in communication with the planning commission
we did had as many bike racks as we could around the property on diamond street and delhi and right
now we have about 18 outside bike racks also a big issue is what about the trash the project itself
has a refuse location in the middle of the building, which would have a trash chute for
the floors two through five that the residents could access, and also the commercial space on
the Delhi Street would have access to. The main commercial space has its own refuse location
on the southwest corner behind the loading zone. And I should mention, the commercial space,
The photo I showed earlier had a curb cut closer to Delhi Street. The curb cut has been moved over to abut the train tracks, which is where the loading zone for the big commercial space would take place.
That would create the buffer between the train tracks and the structure, which is good for the residences above.
One of the other comments from the community meetings was what about roof decks on this
From the community meetings was what about roof decks on this big on the five story structure. This property has no roof decks. This is a green roof is planned as part of the project. So there'll be nobody on the fifth floor, fifth floor level.
based on the five-story structure.
and looking at the aerial view as i mentioned before the res there's a residential court
between the two structures and on the west side there is a proposal for a second and third floor
deck area which would house a a deck at the second floor level and a pool at the third floor
the building itself was pulled back to the east to create a buffer from the train tracks and in
that, what would have been dead space, my client's proposing to add an amenity like the outside space
for the decking and the pool area. And here at page 92 of the exhibit packet is the view, the
rendering of the property from the corner of 9th from Diamond and Delhi. As you can see, the big
glass facade is the lobby, the main entrance to the building for the residences and for the
elevator for the commercial space. The stairs on the right of the of the screen
lead up to the outdoor commercial space and one of the comments from planning was
Delhi Street's not a huge street and pulling the building back to create to provide for more light
and air would be a good idea and that that was taken into account and it benefits the project
by creating some outdoor commercial space which in this day and age is an amenity.
Looking at the screen right now, page 93, is the view of the project from Diamond Street
looking north. As I mentioned, the main ground floor will be the commercial tenant. To the
west is the loading zone to service the commercial space, and to the right is the lobby entrance.
And on the second floor level, going up those steps that we just looked at, creates is this
second floor commercial deck area. The commercial space on the second floor is approximately 3,200
square feet, and which could be divided up to suit various tenants, one, two, or three, depending on
the needs and likes of the community. And we have various ideas and feedback from the community of
what would be a good tenant for that location. But with the outdoor commercial space, which is
accessible to the public, to the tenants, to anyone, it does provide some variety of services
that these tenants could use in terms of servicing customers outside, which is very beneficial to
commercial businesses in this current health environment. And taking the view from the north
looking south, the building, we do have that privacy fence. It's just a six-foot standard fence
to separate the subject property from the neighbors to the north, which are mainly vacant lots with
exception of two residences. On the screen currently is that two-story public space for a deck at the
second floor and a pool at the third floor. We do have a barrier that's proposed to create some
privacy between the pool area and also create a sound barrier between the trains and the building.
One of the comments at Civic Design, Civic Design went very well. It was very positively received. They did ask us to consider a material that might allow light to come through, but also provide privacy. And that's something the client and the architect are working through.
and looking at an aerial shot of the proposed rendering one thing I would like to call out is
the commercial space as I mentioned is about 12,500 square feet and it does go through to
Delhi Street the architect did build in windows at the ground floor level to provide light and air
into the commercial space to make it more attractive and as part of the rendering and
as far as the project, one of the things the community asked about was public safety.
Delhi Street, as I showed on the site photos, is a pretty desolate stretch right now that's
subject to tons of dumping, and it's not a pleasant place to be walking in the middle
of the night.