is that how does that valet only and there there are two types of membership anticipated
one is storage membership if you will where one is storing a car but there could also be
a social membership where you you like to have your car at home and you're you don't want to
pay for it to to be in this facility but you want to come and be with other people who who like cars
okay so that gets us into the whole um idea of what you're calling now or what the code is now
calling in event what is it assembly facility which used to be what we would call like a private
membership club these are a bunch of people who like cars and they want to get together and they
want to talk about it and maybe look at the you know ones that people have and that kind of thing
okay all right yes and then what are we doing about uh and are these cards all going to be on
one level or no uh maybe i should pull up again one of the uh one of the images bear with me for
a moment. I think it will be helpful to have it back up on the screen. Okay. So here, there's an
example, if you can see it in the conceptual rendering, where the valet will have the cars on
three levels, actually. Okay, so there'll be elevators to take these cars up to these different
levels is that why we have la here that in addition for other reasons also but it's it's
it's the most professional way to most safe way to handle uh cars and also people in the same space
okay and so this will not be cars that are disabled in some way because they have to be
driven there correct correct yes and what about the exhaust fumes and what have you what are we
doing about ventilation here? I know you said that they wouldn't have an environmental impact, but
thank you. Right, the building will have a carbon scrubber system that runs continuously
from the facility and an exhaust fan system with sensors to measure CO levels in the air,
turn on when certain thresholds are met. This typically only activates when cars are
started up within the building, but Cannonball has such, they're not going into this for the
first time. So these types of important measures are in place. And we're talking about through
the roof, not impacting surrounding area. Okay. So there will be this system where there will
be venting of these exhaust fumes through the roof, you say? Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank
you thank you any other questions from the board just quickly can you just flip through the
renderings one more time i just want to yes yes mr johns let me bring that back sorry
okay um you can just flip through okay
that's the entirety of course thank you um i have one other question were there any provisals from
the uh rcos no ms graham okay thank you thank you so labor just out of curiosity
Does much work have to be done to the historical facades?
The facades are all in all in good shape.
There will be some investment expenditure of funds in order to bring them up to the standards, to Roland and Jason's standards.
We've we've come before this board on some other projects like this, and they've won Preservation Alliance Awards for the way they do things.
We've come before this board on some other projects like this, and they've won.
So the answer is it's it's not a terrible situation, but but the property is salvageable and it's going to really be a gem on Frankfort Avenue.
one question chair um council is there going to be a commercial kitchen in this building
uh yes mr shaheed as part of the uh the club similar to on a smaller scale say than
a fitler club or some of the other types of clubs that i've mentioned yes there will be that uh
opportunity for, on the inside. Okay. Correct. Questions or comments from our attorney,
Hilary Emerson? Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair. Planning Commission.
Amy Wood with the Planning Commission. These statements will be for 1105 through 09,
Frankfort Ave and 1111 through 1113 Frankfort Ave. Thank you. The Comprehensive Plan recommends
no change in zoning at this location from the existing commercial mixed use CMX 2.5.
Proposed use event assembly facility is compatible with the commercial corridor of Frankfort Avenue
and will not ensure the use of returning properties. The City Planning Commission
recommends that the Board grant the requested variance for event assembly facility. Thank you.
MI 2024-004-038-1105-209-Frankfurt Avenue, and number 10, MI 2024-004-041-1111-13-Frankfurt Avenue, I vote yes to both.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes to both.
Gerald Gaston, my vote is yes to both.
Tannetta Graham, my vote is yes to both.
Ishmael Shaheed, my board is just the board.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.
Have a good day.
Number 11, MI 2024-004-045-109 West Lowden Street.
Justin Crick is the attorney.
Letter of support from the 42nd Ward with the following enforceable provisos.
No household living in basement must obtain a certificate of occupancy.
Mr. Crick will be joining us as a panelist.
Thank you.
Mr. Crick, could you, good morning, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good morning, Justin Crick, last name K-R-I-K, and I am here on behalf of the owner and applicant.
And the owner is Ismael Castillo, and I have his wife, Vanessa Castillo, to adopt testimony at the conclusion of my presentation.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the read and other refuse or stipulate to its accuracy?
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this
case five days in advance of this hearing yes thank you council please proceed and share your screen
thank you
okay members of the board um the application for the property at 109 west loudon street
seeks to legalize the two-family dwelling at this structure, which is currently zoned as RSA 5
for single-family dwellings. The reason we are here before the board and for legalization
is that this property has essentially been constructed and characterized as a two-family
dwelling for the greater foreseeable history. And historically, L&I has issued two unit rental
license for this property to previous owners, one back in 2000 and as early as 2001, I believe,
through 2012, and then another from 2014 through 2015, which I will show you shortly. But in
In general, the property is situated on West Loudoun Street near the intersection of Rising Sun Avenue, and it is attached as a semi-detached structure at the left side of this structure and in between Hope and North Howard Street.
and in between Hope and North Howard Street.
And this is right.
And this is right along, as you can see,
there's a rear yard with a side alley that is strictly for,
it's not an alley, but it's an alley for this property
to gain access to the rear yard.
And as you can see, there's a front porch
and an open area in the front.
There is no parking associated with this property.
The area in general is RSA 5,
but again, it borders this commercial district
which has a lot of CMX2 and a sizable property next door that's RSA5 that is currently just
pretty much an open lot. And we are talking about this left side of this semi-attached structure.
The property on to the right of it that is attached is also at one point was licensed as a duplex with
a two-family rental license, but the current licensing is not available to witness. But
our property does have, and I will actually jump to it for a moment, historically,
there was a two-unit rental license that was issued in 2001 to a previous owner that became
inactive in 2012, and then later from a previous owner in 2014 that became inactive in 2015.
2015. The current owner purchased the property in 2022 from one of those prior owners. They did
not use a real estate agent and had believed from the historic documents that I've just shown you
that the property was approved for this in the past. As we go back, I can show you that from a
standpoint of layout, the property is situated with a first floor unit that has a single bedroom,
full bath and a living room, and a second floor unit that has three bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen
and living space. The basement is not accessible by either unit, but rather by an exterior door
in the rear of the property that is only used by the landlord and is not rented as habitable space
to either party, but is also used for access to utilities and through the landlord's approval to
gain access. As you can see, the property has electrical meters that, you know, appear to have
been there for a substantial amount of time in a separate configuration for two stories and two
floors. I will go back to the layout for a second and show you that there is one main entrance off
the porch into a small vestibule area that allows for separate entry into the first floor
unit and the second floor unit.
The property itself is about 1440 square feet, and so the improvements thereon are roughly
just shy of that with the rear yard space accessible by the first floor unit, and the
rear yard is accessible by the second floor unit along this side alley of the property,
and trash is to be stored in the back in containers before for trash pickup.
Some photographs, you'll see that this is the rear of the property.
This is that rear entrance to the first floor unit that I was referring to.
And here is the entrance to the basement.
Again, no entrance through the interior and there's no habitable space down there,
no intention to do that.
front of the property. You'll note here that the second floor has access to this rooftop and I make
that as well as this second floor has access. These are both bedroom areas that have access
to roofs because one of the items mentioned by the RCO was a concern that the central bedroom
on the second floor did not have adequate egress or they were concerned about a little bit more
adequate egress since we have an alley that is part of our own property we have conformed with
their request and the occupant has purchased and installed or left to the to the tenant
that picture is right here a portable fire escape and we'll have these available to the occupants
of the unit. To go a little bit in further detail regarding what's in the property, here's the main
entrance. When you come in that door, you have the staircase going up and then a staircase to the left
to get into the first floor unit. Some photographs of both units. This is the staircase up to the
second floor unit hall, second floor unit bedroom, bathroom, additional living space,
kitchen areas. And so we had, we had sent a notice to the new 42nd.
We had we had sent a notice to the new 42nd ward and had met with them on September 19th.
Here's proof of the notice to those near neighbors and all of the neighbors that were notified with receipt.
We received a support, a unanimous support from everyone who attended this meeting from the new 42nd ward.
they have asked in their letter of support that we provide the fire escape ladder that the basement
not to be used as rental space which it is not intended for at all and again no access from
inside of either unit it would have to be only accessed through the exterior and then at the
time that we are able to obtain the rental license should this board approve the request
we will provide them with copies of the rental license and certificate of occupancy to ensure
that it's legalized. The property is tax compliant. There are no real estate taxes owed on the
property and the applicant has posted the property with the zoning notice. And once again, I'll just
point out that the deed that Mr. Castillo, who is the owner of the property, purchased the property
in 2002. We believe that the use of this property as a two-family dwelling is in line with the
current code in that, given the long history of a use in this manner, it would not be a substantial
increase in congestion or injure the public or any nature of an adjacent property,
um nor would it unduly burden public facilities since it has a characteristic of over decades
of use in this fashion um the the hardship that the applicant feels is that um
that it had been allowed for many many years and other than it expiring under a prior owner's
ownership uh and the owners admitted um lack of of getting the full details before making the
purchase wanted to get on this once they realized that there was no rental license available or
that they could not get that rental license for this. So with that said, I'm open to questions
and I have my client, Vanessa Castillo, the wife of Ishmael Castillo, ready to speak and adopt
testimony if that is okay with the- Why don't you have your testimony adopted first and then
we'll open it up to the board. Yes. Ms. Castillo, if you are there, please raise your hand.
Vanessa Castillo has been allowed to speak. Could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer? Sure. Vanessa Castillo. V-A-N-E-S-S-A-C-A-S-T-I-L-L-O.
where are firm to tell the truth the whole truth is nothing but the truth yes please proceed
counsel thank you miss castillo have you had an opportunity to hear my testimony to the board
today yes i did and do you believe that my testimony is true and correct to the best of
your knowledge yes would you adopt my testimony as if it was your own yes um my only other question
is are you uh authorized to speak on behalf of your husband uh with relationship to this property
yes he he is with me too so he is here too if needed um if he is with you if you would have
him state his name sure and the board can swear him in as well sure my name is ismael castillo
did you spell please for the stenographer sure my last name t-a-s-p-i-l-l-o
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth sir
yes i do please proceed counsel uh mr castillo i will ask you the same questions that you have
an opportunity to hear my statements and testimony to the board today yes uh was my
testimony true and correct to the best of your knowledge? Yes. And would you adopt my testimony
as if it was your own? Yes. One other question is, are you agreeable that the basement will not
be used for residential habitation at all? Yes. Thank you. Questions from the board?
yes uh when uh did uh your clients um purchase this property
yes my client purchased the property as indicated by the deed in June of 2022
okay so then it hadn't been used from 2015 to 2022 well my client actually the property had
Well, my client actually, the property had been in use. They just didn't check to see that the prior owner had not appropriately renewed any of the rental license that she had obtained.
been in use, they just did.
So, I'm sorry, let me make sure I heard you correctly, that it was licensed for rental for two units from 2001 to 2012. Is that what?
Yes, there is a rental license that is on file with L&I that was issued in 2001 and then went inactive in 2012 from a prior owner.
And there was another one from 2014 to 2015.
Correct.
Correct.
And then this prior owner, Ms. Hill, who sold it to my client in 2022, apparently also did not renew or reactivate, reissue that license through the term of her ownership.
Okay. So someone else owned the property during a time that there was the rental license. Is that what you're saying?
That's correct. There were other owners with the rental licenses.
Okay. And then whoever had the property from whenever this license expired from 2016 here till 2022, this property was, there was no, either there was no rental or they just didn't bother to get licenses. I'm not sure which, and I'm not accusing anybody of anything.
No problem. That is the understanding that they either didn't have a license or weren't renting it from 2015 through 2022.
Okay. But then your client purchases the property and say as a private sale and assumed that the property could be used as a duplex, even though there was no licenses or anything to say that that was so. Is that what we're saying here?
That's correct. And I should have indicated that the first floor unit had only become rented in
March of this year. So it did sit vacant for some time when they purchased it in 2022. At least there
was no tenant when they purchased it. And the second floor unit, they had rented in July of
23. So about a year after they had originally purchased it. So there were no tenants originally
with them. And then they have new tenants that they had brought in and recognizing that they
need to legalize what was there, given that the structure, the way it's configured, the meters,
they were just under the impression that it was allowable to use as a two-family.
The only thing I would say about the refusal, and I don't waive its accuracy, but this is a
legalization. Had I applied or filled out the application, I would have written legalization
for that reason. Okay. And, uh, do you have pictures of the, uh, uh, meters? Yes. There
were pictures of that. Yeah. All right. And, uh, so there, okay. So they did have a license
for rental of one unit is that what we're saying no well the the this owner did not uh is legalizing