pointed out earlier to the parking lot now and I'll and I refused to propose
use and said I noticed a refusal let me show that to you know right here and I'm
going to make it visible we're visible let's see if I can get it there fit to
with okay there it is okay and the refusal was based upon um the proposed use an event assembly
facility is expressly prohibited in the ca1 commercial zoning district today algen respectfully
requests that the board grant it a use variance without provisos to create an event assembly
space at 5416 and presents the following and support thereof the ZBA's records
support alger's request for a variance specifically 15 5416 was in a
residential district zone r5 in 1970 nevertheless on January 22nd
Just give me a second here.
There we go.
And I just need to increase the size of this.
Let me see if I can get a visible fix.
There we go.
Nevertheless, on January 22, 1970,
the ZBA granted a use variance to the American Bakery
confectionary workers international union so that it could erect offices and a meeting hall on the
property now i couldn't get any records of that and find any records of that 1970 transcript or
a meeting but on this um refusal which i'll discuss a little bit later that was issued
And on September 11th of 2014, here in the box here with the, you see the little blue here, it says, see application 6167-K, Zoning Board of Adjustment Calendar number 691182, ZBA granted a variance for the erection of offices in the meeting hall in R5 Residential District on January 22nd, 1970.
well that's important because it shows the historical use of the property and
that the property qualified for a use variance at that time because the
partial was unique no okay the 1970 use variance of circumstantial evidence that
can leave this board to conclude that the 1970 zba found all the criteria for the grant of a
variance had been met and that the denial of the variance would result in an unnecessary hardship
in 1972 the union erected the one story a one story 6 500 square foot building let me get to that
okay square foot building okay here right here it's offering memorandum when I purchased the
building and it says here yeah the building was be used for four decades by the Union and it was
zoning approved for a religious religious assembly now here are some photographs right here we have
to the right in this red this part of the photograph that's encased in red
that's the footprint of the building and this this is the 300 block of Lima
This is the 300 block of Lehman Street here, and this is the 5400 block of Rising Sun Avenue.
Street here and this is the 5400 block
This is important because, as you can see, Lehman Street is vacant, was vacant in 2015,
and the 5400 block of Rising Sun on the north side of the street, on the east side of the street,
was practically devoid of parked cars.
so there'll be plenty of parking if this variance is granted now here are the
offices they're in the front of the building and this is the meeting room
as it existed in 2015 that's the stage and this is a rear this was the beer
cooler that they had in a hall this part in the front was a credit union and in
2014 oh by the way although the Union Hall was used as a was used by the Union
it was also rented to non-members for events it was in essence an event space
until 2014 in 2014 a religious entity attempted to purchase 5416 the
purchase was contingent upon it being able to use 5416 Hall as a knave for 275 attendees as you can
see right here that's where that's stated okay the entity applied for the zoning permit and it was
refused on september 11th 2014. lmi refused we're going to go to that notice of refusal i referenced
earlier um because the proposed use a religious assembly is prohibited in the ca1 zoning district
the entity appealed to the zba and on december 2nd let me get to that
and on december 2nd the zba pursuant to application number 546138 calendar number 23742
after public hearing granted the religious entity the use variance without further conditions
and that should lead this board to conclude that in 2014 the hardship that
existed in 1970 and was still in existence and was actually compounded
by the construction of the erected the offices that were erected and the Union
Hall because that's a very unique building in and of itself so the ninth
the 2014 used variants is circumstantial evidence that can lead this Board to conclude that the
2014 ZVA found all the criteria for a grant of variants had been met and that the denial of
the variants would result in an unnecessary hardship. In addition, while deciding the used
variants, it is arguable that the 2014 ZVA also concluded an additional layer of uniqueness
attached to 5416 when it granted the Union's 1970s use variants.
Specifically, the 1970s use variants allowed the construction of a unique building upon a unique parcel
and such compounded the characteristics of uniqueness to 5416
and exacerbated the hardship that existed in 2014 and still exists today.
importantly the parcel's physicality remains exactly as it was in 1970 the building's exterior
constructed 54 years ago in 1972 is the same except for the color the addition of an access
ramp and two exit doors the hall and interior are essentially the same most importantly Allison did
nothing while creating the center to exacerbate 5416 hardships those hardships include but are
not limited to the following the building is only approximately 14 feet high the building is built
on a thick concrete slab which hinders interior layout revisions as listed in the addendum
attached to a letter submitted with the application which is part of exhibit number one at pages 10
to 11 the building is limited with regard to other zone uses because it's either too large
or too small it would require almost complete demolition for other uses changing neighborhood
demographics and aging population changing trends related to online shopping banking and other
services and changing trends in child care adult care and in-home senior care given the compounding
and in-home senior care given the compounding of 5416's uniqueness resulting in an exacerbated
hardship as shown by the zba records i believe that algin has provided now sufficient evidence
for this board to reasonably find for the third time that one 5416's unique physical character
with these conditions and our circumstances peculiar to the property is was and will remain
a hardship two the property cannot be used in strict conformity with the zoning code
because its physicality prevents or serious or severely restricts the uses permitted as a right
or with special exception and a variance is therefore necessary to enable viable economic
use of the property and three the hardship cannot be cured by grant of dimensional variance
with regard to whether to propose use would harm the public interest as set forth in zoning code
section 1403 so section 8 e 1 b through h the use variance if granted represents the minimum
variance that would afford relief and will pre-represent the least modification possible
of the use regulation in issue for example I'm sorry hold on for example
there have not been and there will not be any changes in the building's
exterior the parking lot fencing are the partial or substantial exterior changes
caused by the proposed use the the proposed use is similar to that of
i should sit down restaurant and it sits down restaurant at 54 16 was which was permitted as
right just give me a second to catch my breath and and drink a little tea so i i i i um i think
i think you've made a pretty good case i mean if you if you have a little bit more please give it
to us but did you need to see the exterior the interior photographs you did we see them
you see them yeah yeah that we i mean of the current but okay if you feel i've made my case
a pretty good case well i'm ready i i i you've made a case to me so i mean there's other board
members i guess the question would be how are we going to go about doing this if i think i can do
workaround okay um attorney brooks do you have the um keith renwick who is the vice president
and secretary of the corporation available today oh he's here oh he can he's here in the room with
me he can adopt the testimony then okay if not i had to work around but okay okay why don't we
have that person come on and we'll take their name and swear them in okay um i think he he's
that he's in there now can you see him on the camera okay let's see if he puts his hand up
do we see his hand another person no he's with him can you can you see him no i i see him he
sort of comes and goes it might be helpful if you turn off your background you have the property
take your background oh okay hold on let me see if i can okay let me see if i can do that
okay hold on for a second okay here i'm at the background now let me see what do i do with that
how do i do that oh there are where did you pop up keep here here why don't you why don't you why
don't you take my seat okay there you go give him your seat there you go take my seat you take the
president's seat hi how are you sir could you please state and spell your name for the stenographer
sir please state and spell your name all right my first name is keith keith my last name is
renrick r-e-n-w-r-i-c-k do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth he's talking oh he was talking to you i'm sorry go ahead you swear to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth yes okay counsel you want to ask them about
the doctor in your testimony why don't you give him back to your phone so the
lawyer okay he said give it back to you Dave no no he needs to stay there he
needs yeah counsel you've got to ask that person does he want to adopt your
testimony okay if I could make an adjustment to the speakers that would
that would really help go ahead okay okay can't you just call him back and
really help.
Go ahead.
ask him to take your top your testimony okay Keith go ahead can you hear now
I can use okay I must remember did you hear my testimony that I gave to the
on board yes um was it truthful and correct yes you adopt that testimony as your own yes thank
you thank you questions from the board i have a question just about the operations of the extra
space is this going to be done by the current restaurant tenant or is it going to be a separate
business entity that's handling and staffing it it's going to be the same it's going to be
all run by algin okay so algin is the owner of the property and the operator of the restaurant
of the restaurant and of the proposed event space the event space okay so okay understood and then
my second question is in terms of this event space because i see that you also talked about
it being spillover space for the restaurant how often do we think that rear portion
is going to be used.
Excuse me, can I bring that back up?
There we go.
Here is the restaurant, okay?
And by the way, I built that.
Here's the overflow room for the restaurant.
There was some confusion, I think,
at the RCO meeting,
which, by the way, gave unanimous support.
And there should be a letter
in the file that I submitted,
which is which should be part of the exhibits we have we have that we have that okay this is the
overflow room for the restaurant as you can see there goes the piano right here and my microphone
because i'm a jazz vocalist and here goes the piano there this is the main room for the for the
99 seat sit down restaurant so there won't be any overflow from the restaurant the uh the event space
will operate separately if you would like I submitted a plan would you like
to take a look at the plan to get a visual of the building or is that
necessary if you would like to bring it up we could look at it but I think you
answered my question okay I won't be using the overflow space it is only
going to be for private events I'm sorry um would you would you clarify that
question for me please the restaurant will not be using that overflow room for regular food service
it is only going to be for private events oh no i'm sorry there's still some let me try to clarify
once again okay the proposed event space is completely separate from the restaurant understood
Good. Okay. That part I got. Okay. And the restaurant's overflow space is supposed to be
used when the restaurant has more than, let's say, 50 or 60 patrons in the main room. The
overflow room, the additional patrons would go there. So we're talking about three spaces,
the event space, the restaurant overflow room, and the restaurant primary room.
no we're talking about just pull up the floor just pull up the floor plan okay thank you okay
the restaurant is one room hold on let me sit right here here we go let me let me make a visible
okay make it visible okay okay here we go this part right here is the restaurant
see it this is the front of the building yeah see that there's a wall right here
yep okay does that answer your question no where's the where's the overflow you keep talking about
where is that this is the i call it the overflow room so but it's all so it's just the restaurant
though it's just it's just the restaurant just the restaurant okay so it's the restaurant
and this space in the back and that's it that's it all right okay gotcha all right okay so back
my original question the space in the rear is only going to be used for private events yes
how often are you anticipating that this room will be booked
i would say maybe
it would ideally it would be it'd be booked maybe two or three times a week um it would be used for
birthday parties, graduation parties, anniversary parties, they use for weddings.
birthday parties, graduation parties, anniversary parties,
they used for weddings.
It would be used for repass.
It would be used for...
Okay, I think we got the idea behind the types of events.
My second question, is the restaurant the exclusive caterer
for the event space in the rear,
or are people who are going to rent it
able to bring in additional or different food?
The people who rent the space,
if they want to bring their own food that's fine if they bring in a caterer they will have access
to the restaurant's kitchen okay and then what is your plan for the management of trash
okay now i showed you a photograph of the trash pad and i have i'm not talking about where it
goes i'm talking about the staffing of it right because you have a group of people who are
employed currently to run the restaurant, bringing in this additional use is going to increase
like how much you need them. So I'm asking more like on the staffing side,
how is the event space being staffed? There will be a staff assigned to the building
whenever it's in use, whether a restaurant or whether an event space.
The staff will consist of my employees.
I think how many employees I have now, Keith?
I don't know.
About 15 employees right now, Algen has.
So the staff will be assigned.
And, of course, we'll call in part-timers and experienced staff when necessary.
And the plan is to have the building cleaned immediately after every event.
the trash all bagged up all disposable all properly disposed of okay any other questions
questions from our attorney um i just wanted to lynn reidel huber board council i just wanted
to clarify is the event assembly for the whole entire building or for that portion that's walled
off well i would ideally it should be for the whole building because i mean that's fine that's
it says entire life that's all we want to clarify thank you questions or comments from the virtual
audience i see no hands here planning commission amy boy with the planning commission the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from cmx sorry from ca1