the city planning commission recommends the board grant the requested special exception
for an eating and drinking establishment mi 2026 002 388 544 east gerard avenue i vote yes with
Proviso. Use limited to first floor and basement only.
Michael Johns, my vote is a yes with Proviso.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ioann, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you. Number five, MI 2026-002-425-191 West Roosevelt Boulevard, Jennifer Bazzillo is the attorney.
good morning or good afternoon oh my goodness good afternoon well yes that's yeah could you
please state and spell your name for the stenographer? Sure. It's Jennifer Bazzillow,
B-A-Z-Y. D as in David, L as in Larry, O as in Oscar. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Could you identify your client,
the relationship to this property? Sure. My client is Roosevelt Investments,
Inc., and they are the property owner. Right. And you have unanimous support from
the new 42nd ward RCO. Yes. Our board secretary has a few questions. Good afternoon, counsel.
Did you submit your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing? I did. And do
you waive the reading of the review zone and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Then you can
begin to share your screen and begin your presentation. Thank you. Great. All right. So
So, like I said, I'm here today on behalf of the owners of 191 Roosevelt Boulevard.
roosevelt boulevard um i can just show you the list of our exhibits um with refusal our deed uh
I can just show you the list of our exhibits.
proof of tax compliance we have unanimous support um from the rco and i'll be touching on these
other exhibits as we go through um so let me just go here uh to explain what we're talking about
because there are two there are two buildings on this property and we are only talking about
the rear portion. So, 191 West Roosevelt Boulevard is this whole large parcel
right here. It's almost 33,000 square feet. This front portion is an
existing kitchen and flooring supply store and what we were talking about is
this smaller building in the rear which is a little over 3,200 square feet. So
are posting this is and then that's the front um when you what you see when you come off of
Roosevelt Boulevard uh and then there's this dry vial to the rear and when you get to the rear you
have this building to the rear and we're talking about this building uh and what we propose to you
use this as is uh the the use category is commissary and catering services um and the exact
business is that they prepare food which is then served at senior centers and
community centers and nursing homes so basically to senior citizens off-site
it's the food is their primary hours of operation or 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. heavier on
the day and midday operations Monday mostly Monday through Friday and
occasionally on the weekends but basically they're providing breakfast and lunch to
these nursing homes, senior centers, community centers that provide meals to seniors.
The food is transported off-site not using any sort of large vehicle. Their vans were smaller box
trucks climate controlled when necessary and there's probably only about three a day that go
out so it's a relatively light on the traffic there's about five employees so and here's the
inside of the building obviously it's going to need renovations in order to be used as a commercial
kitchen but there is when you look at the parcel there is lots of space lots of parking
good access to a busy road here you can see it's on roosevelt boulevard
so we're really not having any sort of detrimental impact or really adding any sort of traffic or
congestion to the neighborhood. Garbage is going to be stored in dumpsters towards the rear of
the property, you know, just outside of this building. Again, lots of space for storage of
trash. To the rear is a property that has a cell phone tower, so that's what's the rear of the
property um i want to show you the zoning map because this is an area that's kind of
a mixed use of zoning um our parcel is zoned i1 so light industrial um
and this sort of use allows for things like auto body repair trucking terminals and sort of the
you know more intensive uses uh and as you can see there's an i2 property which has even more
intensive uses than rare. So the commissary and catering zoning use is allowed in more
commercial districts. So if it was the property right adjacent to this, we would be a by right use
and we wouldn't be here. So it's not out of character of the neighborhood and it's actually
less intensive use than would be allowed in the I1 zoning district. So we're really not having
any sort of detrimental impact and it's fitting in with the character of the neighborhood which is
this mix of commercial, industrial, and residential uses along Roosevelt Boulevard.
And I would just say that it's, again, a pretty minimal variance as we're only asking to use a
small portion of this property for this commissary use. And again, it's a very low
impact use considering that it's going to be, it's not going to have like commercial people
in and out of it. A few vans and trucks a day. I said we've met with the RCO. We talked to them.
You know, we explained what we're doing. They had no opposition. You know, we talked about access
and there's plenty of room to turn around, trucks, parking. It's a large lot that even with the
supply store that's on it is fairly underutilized so it won't cause any sort of overcrowding or
congestion and it will fix up that building in the rear and get it back to use with some employees
and also for a good portion purpose of getting food out to the seniors in the community.
The company is contracted with those centers to provide the meals.
The company is contracted with those centers to provide the meals, and they have done this
sort of business before.
This is not new to them, so they know what they're getting into, and they know how to
run the business.
Sorry, I'm just trying to zoom in on our plans here to show you the general idea of how this
would be laid out.
again it would need to go through uh get the building plans to build it uh build it out
uh get a co and all sorts of things like that too but basically you know you would have your
freezers you would have your prep tables you'd have your burners um storage that sort of thing
um but again it's it's basically a monday through friday daytime operation
um there's no late hours there's no um wouldn't be excessive noise to neighbors or anything like
that. It would probably have a much lower impact than if you were putting something that was by
right like an auto body shop in this rear portion of this property. With that I can have my client
and so I guess in summer really it is that it's a lower it's it needs a variance but it's a lower
use a lower intensity use some would be allowed by right on this property so has a pretty minimal
impact um i could have my client uh tin lu mr lu um if you can raise your hand um be sworn in
sure let's become a back in as a panel shortly thank you
while he's coming in i just want to say this is a one-story building there's no basement or
anything like that so it's just the rear one-story building think about what we
use for now just before when I get to it position the rear okay all right but
there is an issue of parking I just realized that mr. Lu yes hi could you
please state and spell your name for the stenographer yes my name is tin low my
My first name is T-I-N. My last name is Lou L-U-U.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Counsel?
Mr. Liu, did you hear my testimony here today and believe it to be truthful and accurate?
And would you adapt it as your own?
Thank you.
Questions from the board.
i have a few questions one uh jennifer can our council sorry can you pull up the floor plan
again because sure it did look like it was a different shape than the shell of the building
itself okay i think sorry this is one i think it was just because of how you resume of the
yeah so this is this is the this is the building it's a it's a rectangular building and a rectangular
floor plan hold on one second sorry it's just at an angle it's at an angle because the property is
technically at an angle so if you look here this is you can see up here that's the building in the
rear and then when you look at the plans we're over here it's it's right here so what's happening
because right now it looks like the building is larger than the kitchen area that's being utilized
what's happening in the rest of the space um i think that that's you see the frame yeah so
there's there's yes there's so that's where you know there probably will be storage preparation
to you know chip out any sort of you know once everything is prepared shipping staging that
sort of thing there's no like commercial space right like there's no clients coming in or out
of the space. Okay and then where what's the plan for loading of trucks that are coming to pick
these up or drop off materials? Sure so it's it's in the rear of the building and that isn't
utilized by the other space let me just get to the photographs one second
because it's easiest to show there there's no like large trucks coming
they're going to be sort of like fan size and they could just go to the rear
of the property through this drive aisle and they can just come right up to the
building and be loaded so I guess you're saying that the existing business in the
street frontage building is not utilizing the space between the two at all no they are not
okay and is there any plans to like stripe out on the ground or put a loading dock
in or trucks just gonna like come down this drive aisle and do whatever um again they're not like
large trucks so they would just be able to pull up on mr lou i don't know if you intend to stripe
the parking for the delivery trucks you can if you can
you have to have a small truck not too big yeah
i don't think it's a matter of their size i think it's a matter of just
being clear to anybody else this is a it's like
while it's it's there's a lot happening at this site there's a lot of cars
While there's a lot happening at this site, there's a lot of cars, there could be a lot of trucks and delivery, and there's this one, what is narrow for now its use aisle for both people who are coming to visit, for employees, and for deliveries, and there's not a lot of delineation explaining like where people could go, where things are going to be.
there could be a lot
So we could definitely put some wayfinding signs in the back, in the front, in order
to indicate that anybody that's coming for this business is in the rear.
Customers and clients of the flooring store do not come to the back portion.
There's parking for them in the front of the property.
It looks like there's nothing stopping them from parking along the side.
So I just think that's, like, there's no gate.
If I came off Roosevelt Boulevard, there's nothing that would stop me as a patron from
parking in the like an image you just had in that well what i will say is that the existing business
does not um because it's like kind of a warehouse place where it's more like people come in and
order um it's not like uh you know maybe like a furniture store where you would think like you
know there's 20 people in there at one time it's a it's a low traffic business it's largely two
um contractors and things like that that order ahead of time okay and then my second question
is now that we're dealing with food what's the plan for trash sure there's um going to be um
commercial trash pickup um towards um from the dumpsters in the rear of the property
yes okay um and then just when you guys did your meeting did you talk to any of the neighbors that
are in like you know back up to this on second street they were notified but there was no
neighbors at the meeting there were no neighbors is there any uh was there any i guess consideration
of like times that deliveries could happen drop-offs i just you know putting it right
behind residential homes sure it's um it's a daytime business so it's 6 a.m to 6 p.m typical
hours so it's not um there's no like late night deliveries or anything like that okay all the
questions yes okay so you said that this is going to be like a food commissary where um the food is
going to be prepared there and then who's who's is it being picked up from there so the company
contracts from there yes the company that that owns the business uh that prepares the food is
contracted with these senior centers and community centers um and they deliver the food to those
sites once it's prepared so this is how many meals are we talking about maybe uh so they prepare
breakfast and and lunch um mr lou how many contracts do you expect to have like how many
meals a day do you do you expect to prepare so right now we have around uh about 50 um customers
around 100 or more, you know, for now. But in the future, I don't know.
Okay. And who comes and picks up the food? Is it your employees? Is it from the community
centers? No, from my company. Your own employees? So your employees are
the ones that are driving the vans and delivering the food?
yes okay all right so this is and maybe i'm getting into the weeds but is this like a
distribution business it's it's it's so it's it's a commissary and catering which basically is like
a prep kitchen um where food is prepared um and then nothing is consumed or sold on site it's
just transported for for consumption off-site but you're still like preparing it at that site
and then transporting it to the ultimate customer correct yes i mean i'm just you know
you guys don't want to raise it i don't want to raise it
I'm sorry, I can't quite hear you. I don't know. I'll comment on it.
Okay. All right. And then I guess I'm like board member when I think there needs to be some kind of marking somehow so that people know where they're supposed to go and pick up whatever and where the parking is or whatever.
Understood. I will also just say that anyone who is coming to this business is an employee of the business or working for the business because the delivery trucks, the employees, they're the only people back here, essentially.
But I think that it would be perfectly reasonable to designate, you know, parking spots, delivery areas, that sort of thing. I don't see that as a problem.
All right. And has the owner done this before or?
All right. And has the owner done this before or?
Oh, okay. All right. Okay.
And I will just again say that, like, if it was the adjacent parcel, so like a few feet away, this is a by-right use of the adjacent parcel, but not of this parcel. So.
Gotcha.
It's not necessarily super out of character here.
Thank you.
our council um lynn reidel heber board council with regard to the issue that was brought up by
board member gaston um we're just looking at it from commissaries and catering services if there
is something with distribution that's not what we're looking at we're disapproving the use of
commissaries and catering services now you understand okay now you had mentioned about
uh trucks or something coming in and parking uh what you what you have up on the screen i
do not see any parking spaces are you going to be creating parking spaces there are parking spaces
along the side there are parking spaces along the side of the building it's right i don't it goes
back yeah it goes back i don't like right that building i didn't see any right here so there's
there's parking spaces to the side um okay so there's existing parking spaces you're not creating
any parking spaces because if you're creating you would have to get a separate permit for that
no we're not creating any parking spaces but if we need to designate a loading area for the
vans then we can do that okay but that's not part of what we're dealing with right now we're just
doing change news correct okay thank you questions from the uh virtual audience
okay i do not see any hands raised leaning commission amy boy with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from the current I-1
industrial to ICMX industrial commercial mixed use. The proposed use would be allowed under
the recommended zoning by right. The planning commission recommends that the board grant
the requested variance for commissary and catering services. MI 2026-002-425-191 West
roosevelt boulevard i vote yes proviso
use limited wait wait wait oh why are we going to say something else about where it's at
yeah that's what i'm about to say use limited good use limited to building in the rear of the