again, I'm not saying they're going to- I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. Okay. Again.
But the other thing is, I'm not saying people are going to order food at 11, but if they're
ordering it at 1030 and it gets delivered to them just before the kitchen closes,
I would think then they're enjoying their meal. Again, just from experience.
okay any other questions questions for attorney not at this time mr chair questions from the
virtual audience yes chair i have a hand up from ashley tracy i will allow them to speak
ashley tracy you have been allowed to speak please unmute hi hello can you hear me i i
I most certainly can.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
My name is Ashley Tracy.
It's Ashley, A-S-H-L-E-E-I.
Tracy is T-R-A-C-Y.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed.
I just had a comment.
I think my other comments and questions have been pretty much other people have said them.
um there was a note about this side of frankfurt ave not having as many bars as the south side of
frankfurt ave and while that is somewhat true just two blocks away there's a new bar called
cormant or cormont or something like that and literally the next block south there is uh the
nut hut saloon which is a bar and restaurant so this you know a food and drink concept is not
out of character for that end of frankfurt um that's my only comment thank you alan do you have
any questions counselor you have any questions thank you very much is there anyone else in the
virtual audience yes chair i have a hand up from uh robert everett from uh mr everett i'm mr
everett mr everett
well i think i lost him and i lost him
okay he's been enough to speak hi mr everett how are you state your name and spell for the
stenographer yeah i'm coming online now okay
my camera's on i'm just waiting for it to click on the camera's not on but we we we know you
are you get testified i recognize your voice right away voting you right now so you should
come back in shortly all right excuse me chair sure
okay here i am hi sir could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure first name is robert last name everett e-v-e-r-e-t-t do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed sir my usual you have our letter
in hand i'm sure you all read it so we'll leave it at that i just did want to mention the petition
that was shown on the screen earlier i did catch several names on that petition who are not fish
town neighbors association verified members nor do they live in fish town one as far north as
harbison and levick so to the opposition attorney's point we don't know if they're legitimate do you
have any questions questions council all right thank you anyone else in the audience yes uh
mr chair samuel how many were hands do you have jace that was the last one mr um samuel franklin
has been about to speak there's no panelists no that's no he's here he's here here he he's here
with us thank you um planning commission what do we do with that hillary next week um so no um
And Liz Fusilay is on.
She's just on virtually.
Oh, good.
So, yes.
I mean, Liz, could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer?
First, I just want to say I'm sorry.
My video is not working tonight, and I'm very frustrated.
We know it's you, Liz.
Got it.
You know it's me.
This is Liz Fusilay, L-I-Z, last name Fusilay, F-U-S-E-L-I-E-R, with the Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
I please, Bashid.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the CMX2 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
The appellant has shown that the proposed sit-down and take-out restaurant will have no detrimental impacts beyond what might be expected.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed special exceptions for a sit-down and take-out restaurant.
Thank you very much.
for both council and everybody else we've had a tremendous amount of testimony um i'm going to
take this through our executive session we'll vote on this next wednesday at 9 30 a.m all right thank
you don't have to come but you'll come on air you'll hear the results of the thing okay and
we listen to everybody and i think we we really hash this around and i appreciate everybody okay
thank you thank you mr chair number 10 mi 2025 0 0 5 8 0 5 14 2 5 0 to 60 busselton avenue
rachel pritzker is the attorney um we'll be back and as a panel shortly mr jack we'll we'll get
them all seated and then we'll let let them seat and then we'll go take a five minute break
We'll take a five-minute break, and I'm sorry, everybody.
We've all been sitting here a long time, and five minutes will be back.
So number 10, MI2025, 005805, 14250 to 60, Busselton Avenue.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from the Somerton Civic Association.
The vote was 15 in opposition and 11 in support.
Rachel?
Oh, there she is.
Rachel, you've already been sworn, just for a record, state your name.
Rachel Pritzker. Okay and could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes so my client is the tenant of the property Sarver John Kush Batave. I'm pronouncing that
right. And our vice chair has a few questions. Sure. Good evening have you submitted your documents
and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing? Yes. And do you waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy? Yes. Okay, thank you. Just share your screen and start your case.
Thank you. Okay, can you see my screen? We can. Okay.
so as mentioned um this is 14 250 dash 250-60 busselton avenue
um the i'll go through this but the property is on the base zoning rsa2 however
I'll go through this, but the property is on the base zoning, RSA 2.
However, this property received a variance back in 1983 to be used for CMX 2.
So it's treated as if it's CMX 2 for the sake of all applications on this property.
Basically, what we're here for is just for use as a smoking lounge.
It's an existing smoking lounge in an existing structure that has been there since at least 2013, if not earlier than that.
The only refusal we have is for the smoking lounge, eating and drinking establishment.
The smoking lounge is now that under that category.
As mentioned, this was an email that we asked for clarification from L&I related to the CMX2 uses because the site is owned RSA2 despite it being a longstanding shopping center.
So all the uses are to be treated as CMX2 per an earlier variance.
Just going to go to visual of the site.
This is the tax clearance.
I think I just want to make sure that it's clear that we're not here because of any violations on this property.
the reason that we're in front of you is because the city has decided to randomly now enforce
use permits for businesses after 2020 for smoking lounges. Prior to 2019, there was no zoning
classification specific to smoking lounges. So they were approved under eating and drinking
establishments and or for retail sale of consumer goods. So this wasn't triggered by any violations,
no complaints by near neighbors, no 311 calls. As I'll go through in the packet,
the client decided to renew the tobacco license as a result of getting a document from the city
that required that. And then the health department let them know that they're now finally enforcing
these laws that have been on the books since 2019. And so we have to go through and get a whole new
permit. I'd argue that this is grandfathered in because it has had a permit since 2013
for eating and drinking establishment, but a smoking lounge in particular,
retail sale of consumer goods. This is just a copy of the lease. And so the only way to get
relief from this is to go in front of the zoning board. But this has not changed uses for many,
many, many, many years. This was the sort of notification that the current tenant who purchased
the business so he doesn't own the property the property is owned by somebody else that owns
this six it's a six uh retail center six stores he purchased the business of this uh smoking
lounge hookah lounge um from the prior owner who had had this so at that time there was no in 2020
there was no um violations on the property the tobacco license was active there was no issues
When he went to change it over to his name and renew it, this is was the information that was provided to him, which is, you know, the tobacco retailer permit.
We were able he was able to get this. But then when you go to the health department, we got a notification.
He had had conversations with her and she had said specifically, Ellen, I put zoning regulation on the books in 2020.
We as a health department found out this year that we are enforcing it now for whatever reason.
So the retailers that had a permit and exceptions prior to 2020 are not required to get zoning.
The business came after 2020, so the zoning is needed.
Even if there was another hookah business at the address before, it's not relevant.
So the current business owner, you know, needs to apply for it.
I don't believe that's an accurate representation of how grandfathered in works.
But all to say, either way, we decided to move forward with the process so he could keep his business open.
Again, this was brought on by the city's unenforcement of their own rules and their interpretation of that.
But either way, you know, we're happy to come before the board and get a permit.
It's just obviously caused time and other considerations.
So just aerially, like this is the site, it's Busselton Avenue.
new. It's a very busy commercial area. This building in particular is six retail units
set back with a parking lot. It's been a retail shopping center since, again,
1983 when the zoning board at that time granted permission to build this and, again, the CMX2 uses.
It's a small shopping center, and these are small spaces, so it's not a massive two-story
smoking lounge or hookah lounge like you see at Van Gogh or any of those. It's a small
a small minority owned business that's again been established for a long time
minority-owned business that's, again, been a
this is the interior of the space just so you can see you know kind of what we're talking
about this isn't again a massive place it's clean nice vented and again has been in establishment
since uh 2013. just like a front view of it so you can see it's all surrounded by again
there's a flower shop i think there's a pawn shop there's um a beauty salon so just these small
businesses uh directly adjacent on busselton avenue next to it there's other pawn shops and
things of that nature as well this is directly across the street another shopping center across
busselton avenue directly adjacent businesses a lot of these smaller buildings have been converted
to businesses this one has a unit above but um kind of a mix but really all all commercial
this is the permit from 2013 which was for the retail sale of consumer goods in that space
it's technically suite one is the space although it's been a little bit difficult with the records
because it wasn't cleanly laid out that way um on atlas so as you can see this was applied for in
2013. And this is the permit that resulted. The application for that permit said specialty
tobacco establishment. And the permit that was issued as a result, the zoning classification
was retail sale of consumer goods. Because again, it wasn't until 2019 that a smoking
lounge was a use that was even identifiable in the code. This is just the uses in CMX2.
I think it's important to point out that we could have a marijuana dispensary here by
right um there's other uses that we could have building supplies and things of that nature that
we could have by right but again we're just trying to get this existing business in compliance
based on now the city's enforcement
we met with the somerton civic association i actually went in person to this meeting with the
the tenant um there was no representation from the council office at this particular meeting so
um i'm just going to do my best to explain kind of what went on so we went to this meeting and
we actually brought five or six letters from the all the directly adjacent businesses right there
because it was important that we showed that you know the directly adjacent business owners he's
not had any issues with them you know there's no problem with the way he's been operating they
don't feel like it's going to affect their business. And we provided those letters to the
in person to the to the RCO. Nobody who voted on this project lived in the neighborhood. There was
a prior project for a new hookah lounge that a lot of people were very upset with. But we made
the distinction that, you know, this is not that project. It's not the same owner. And this is an
existing establishment that's been there. And again, no violations, no 311 calls like this
has not been an issue. And nobody lives near this. It's on Busselton Avenue on a commercial
corridor. The votes that are shown on this paper, 11 votes in favor, 15 opposed, did not take into
consideration the five letters that we brought from all the adjacent property owners. And at
that meeting, the community said to me, or the leadership on the board said, could you actually
have the people write out which shop it was that, you know, they had, because we just had the
address. We said, sure, no problem. We'll go do that. And we'll provide it to you. Obviously,
it couldn't provide that at the meeting. We had provided already those five letters,
but they wanted some more detail. So we went and did that. A lot of the concerns you'll see,
and I'll show you those letters in a second. A lot of the concerns you'll see is just about
smoking lounges in general. It's a little bit of just a disdain for just this type of use.
Although, again, and things like air quality and quality of life issues, although obviously all that gets addressed by the building code, this would be one thing if this was a nuisance property, I would get it, where if there was people outside and they're angry about it and the near property owners were pissed, I think you'd see them here if they were angry about this.
but there's been no issues with this property at all. And again, because of the 2019 legislation
that's now being enforced five or six years later, I guess it's six years later, is why we're here.
Again, their concerns were not relevant to zoning and we're just for a disdain for this type of use
in general. As requested by the community group because of the 11 to 15 vote that didn't take
into consideration the five letters we already submitted to them, which would have made it 16
to 15, which is not monumental, but it's not, you know, 15 to zero, it would have been one
It's not, you know, 15 to zero.
It would have been one more in favor and we would have moved on with our lives.
more in favor and we would have moved on.
We ended up having the neighbor, the tenant go back, re-get everyone to sign those letters.
And then also I had him walk around and get other letters of support to make sure that we really covered, you know, the area.
So as mentioned, we were asked, I wrote the community, we were asked to send these letters.
Here's the letters you asked for.
And, you know, I followed up with them, do you want us to come back, and any of that,
and said we received the letters of support, but we're not going to update the vote to reflect
these letters that we asked you to get or the letters that you had at the meeting that would
have made it 16 to 15. So these are the letters that, again, we went back and added, you know,
exactly which businesses in particular signed, because a lot of these all have the same address