least two but it's kind of slow for me right now so yeah and you said you've
been operating this for a couple years now yes I've been here since 2020 I
signed my lease July 20 I'm at July 31st 2020 and I had my grand opening
September 19th 2020 I've been in business for the last six years okay and
haven't had any other any issues no i have not okay thank you so is this a is this but this is
this is you have parties here or anything like that or these are just these are classes and
things so it's basically like classes people do have like launch parties for example if somebody
was selling um like lip gloss and they wanted to have a like people to come they'll be at my store
and they'll decorate it they'll bring in all of their products they'll have
people to come there and like support them for their business it's basically
like for small businesses um I had one girl she um okay so I got you so somebody
but my point was you're not having like a cabaret no no all right that's that's
kind of what I wanted to hear okay no all right thank you
Other questions?
I'm sorry.
So can you explain a little bit more about what you actually are doing here?
I know you know what you're doing, but I'm having a little trouble understanding.
Are you providing a space so that other people can show their business or is it so that other businesses can show people their products or your products or how does this work exactly?
okay so mainly i promote like i'm an entrepreneur as well so i also have my own events here i have
my own pop-up shops for different business for different people in the community like right now
thanksgiving is coming up so i'll host different pop-up shops for smaller businesses in the space
who want to share you know things that they have um but i do want to rent it out for other small
businesses or other people to use this space for like i said pop-up shops classes launch parties
different things like that okay all right i'm still having a little trouble with understanding
the business model here so so i'm oh so you use it for your own as you put it pop-up shop so
yeah so it's a boutique it's a boutique plus beauty bar so i have a closing business called
posh fly gals um however it's kind of hard to bring a lot of traffic in for just me for one
person so i'll rent out small tables for other people for other small businesses to come in and
share what they have but other people outside of me want to rent the space so that they can
maybe have their own pop-up shop but like I don't have to be I wouldn't have
to be present because it won't have to be mine like I would just give them the
space I'll obviously make sure that everything is okay so me or a team
member that worked for me will be there but when I say like it's not mine like
I'm not hosting it so I want to allow other people to be able to host there
understood and then you said something about classes what would the classes be
um so again we are a boutique plus beauty bar so i had a couple of classes like nails of the girl
do nails if a girl do eyelashes she might host the last uh eyelash class or maybe she they might do
dancing so they might host a dance class it's just little small stuff that small businesses want to
that small businesses want to do um i had one lady she did like a um like a basket making class but
do. I had one lady, she did like a
it was just for kids so it was like really really nice but it's just small places okay all right i
understand now thank you thank you very much yes questions from our turn oh and then i guess i have
my other question how how did you how did it come to the attention of ellenai that there was some
um because i actually i actually had they actually didn't tell me they basically told me that
somebody gave them a complaint um and once they gave me the complaint ellenai came out to my store
um and then they told me like oh like you can't you can't host events here because you're not
registered as an event and i'm like well i didn't know i've been here for the last six years and
then they just told me what i had to do to basically comply because i'm like i've been
doing this for the last couple of years i didn't do anything different than what i've been doing
since i opened my store um so okay all right thank you you're welcome uh yes uh miss park
where is your business located in the property? It looks like, well, first of all, is 4744 and
4746 connected or are they separate? So we share, we shared a basement. Like we have one basement
downstairs. We shared a basement. So it's 4744-46, 4746. It's a Chinese store and 4744 is
Blackout's Glamour Room, which would be my business. Okay, so you're only on the 44th
side of it. Yes, I'm on a one-story side, so it's not two stories. It's just one story. It's nothing
above me. I was doing a lot of research trying to make sure that it's nothing above me. It's just
a basement under me that I do. I have my own part of the basement. We just share entry to the
basement so underneath my store i have my own basement underneath 4746 they have their own
basement but we share entry to get to our basement okay so you're only on the first the property
that only has one floor correct yes okay so um the board if you're gonna grant this the proviso would
be uh the use would be limited to know that we can't put that address because the address is
the combined address so we would have to put the um the use is limited to the first story portion
of the property okay if that makes does that make sense okay um the question the building that the
building that only has one you know one but it's 44 46 but right yes all you have to say limited to
the first four four the prop the pro the part of the property that only has one story on it
okay well i know i know what questions from the virtual audience
mr chair i do not see any hands raised planning commission
amy boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in
zoning to the current cmx2 commercial mixed use the proposed assembly and entertainment is
be accessory to the existing commercial activity at the space and would have minimal impact on the
surrounding commercial corridor the planning commission recommends that the board grant
the requested variants for assembly and entertainment mi 2026 002 177 4744 to 4744 to 46
north broad street i vote yes with proviso that the use is limited to the portion of the property that
only has one story wow john my vote is yes with proviso charl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
tenetta graham all of this yes with proviso brian mcadams my mode is yes with proviso
tyo win my vote is yes with proviso mayla baby my vote is yes with proviso um thank you thank
you and you have your votes okay so that means that is yes yes it means you're okay you're okay
okay thank you so much and no cabaret yes thank you
at my 20 m number 20 mi 20 26 002 180 39 54 paris street meredith furliger is the attorney
it's a shame this is an application for cabaret
could you please state your name and spell for this tonight meredith berliger m-e-r-e-d-i-t-h-f-e-r-l-e-g
Meredith Ferliger, M-E-R-E-D-I-T-H, F-E-R-L-E-G-E-R.
Swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
So you identify a client in a relationship to the property.
My client is R-E-K-R-Wrecker, LLC, which is the owner of the property, and that LLC is represented today by Roslyn Nikon, who is sitting to my left.
And we do have a letter of opposition from Mantua Civic, right?
um so we have here and that we may have to are your taxes straight
uh so let's look at each other here yeah uh we are aware that council has presented documentation
and indicates that um since the taxa went forward that all the delinquent taxes should have been
resolved but as we indicate in an email to you we're checking with revenue with regard to that
so it's going to be uh here and hold just to confirm if it is tax compliant i know that
council disagrees with it with the concept but we do have to confirm on it she should disagree
that's what they do i mean listen with the with the known issues with the sheriff's office uh
you know all right our vice chair has a few questions and we are yeah we have reached out
to revenue got it thank you our vice chair has a few questions good morning have you submitted
your documents and exhibits 14 days in advance of this hearing yes i did and do you weigh the
reading of your refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do yes i think you can share your
screen to proceed with the case i don't know if it's an issue with how they brought me in but the
share button is not functional oh there we go okay i got it
wow that's slow well i'll get started while hopefully this is coming up
ah there we go all right
before the board today is one property in mantua located at 3954 paris street
the board has seen significant activity on this block in the last couple of years
having approved a similar proposal at 3956 parish street in 2023 a project at 3962 parish street in
2024 and most recently a triplex at 3960 parish street just in April all of these are just on
this block that you will see in all of the aforementioned cases two of which I happen to
TO BE INVOLVED WITH, THE COMMUNITY DID PROVIDE A LETTER OF SUPPORT.
AS YOU SAW THIS TIME AROUND, THE VOTE WAS QUITE NEARLY SPLIT, PREDOMINANTLY AMONG PEOPLE
WHO WERE NOT PROXIMATE NEIGHBORS BUT HAPPENED TO BE IN ATTENDANCE AT THAT MEETING BECAUSE
OF AN IMPORTANT PWD PRESENTATION THAT HAPPENED TO BE ALSO SCHEDULED FOR THAT EVENING.
AS THE BOARD WILL SEE TODAY, THIS PROJECT IS IDENTICAL TO THOSE THAT WERE ALREADY APPROVED
and built so let me just reorient you to the location of the property we did already address
the tax clearance issue and i did also include the deed at exhibit three again you'll see this
property was purchased at sheriff sale in 2025 so all of those taxes pre-2025 should have been
removed by revenue as you can see here on the aerials at exhibit nine the property sits on
parish street just east of north 40th street in mantua now from these aerials again you'll start
to probably re-familiarize yourself with the unique nature of this block of parish street
prior to some of this new construction that you can see here this particular block and all of the
immediately adjacent lots fronting on parish street were completely vacant all the way to
union street until recently the investment in this particular area of mantua predominantly
focused more on the north 40th street corridor this has changed owing predominantly to the
board's recent approval on this particular street now from the south view looking directly at the
block that we're talking about you'll see the corner of north 40th street and paris street
has a brand new five-unit multifamily building, and then directly next to that fronting on Parrish
Street is a new six-family building. I'll go through some of the other contexts in a little
bit. Now, across the street, but further towards Union Street, are a row of residential homes.
And then across the street in, let me see, this next image here, you can see there is still a
commercial use across the street right at the corner of north 40th street
now again if we look at the photographs at exhibit 17 you'll see the existing
now again if we look at the photographs at exhibit 17 you'll see the existing vacant lot that's the
subject of today's request at 3954 parish street you'll see in these photographs the varied
character of this particular block which is fairly rapidly at this point seeing some additional
investment the long-standing vacancy of this side of parish street was a long-standing
impediment to new development but fortunately that tide has turned and this block is now
seeing some revitalization now across the street you can see there are some existing single family
homes and that is in contrast to the development that has now occurred on the opposing side of the
street that we're talking about today and then again if you look towards north 40th street you'll
see two of the new constructions that i mentioned earlier in the presentation there is another one
that was approved and should be under construction shortly and then if we look towards union street
again you can see that this eastern half of the block still remains fairly vacant and then you
know again just looking from north 40th street you see the commercial use that's just diagonal
from this property and then that five unit at the corner and then i did also include photographs of
our timely posting if we look at the zoning map at exhibit five you'll see that the property is
zoned rsa5 having been one of the many blocks that was previously zoned rm1 prior to the 2017
mantua rezoning initiative and again you'll notice that that rm1 line stopped just a couple of
properties short of 3954 parish street with that commercial use across the street retaining the cmx
one that would permit multi-family density if that were to ever be redeveloped
we did include the zoning site plans in the exhibits and you'll note here that we did
submit revised plans and i will address that as you can see here this is a new three-story structure
which has been designed to blend with the new construction on this block obviously when blocks
like this are developed by different developers one of the things that the board often sees is a
difference in design but what rosslin decided to do here is to look at his immediate neighbor
and essentially mirror that to try and add a little bit of that consistency that is lost
when you do have many different developers developing on one particular block so that is
ultimately the um the vision for this particular new construction to match the immediate neighbor
this building will contain three dwelling units which is consistent with the board's
recent approvals on this block accepting the sixth unit that was approved some time ago
just sort of at the book end of all of these and as i mentioned uh the the design intent
here is to match the one that is immediately next door so i included that as a rendering
since that is the intent here now although a roof deck was originally proposed
uh mantua has started to express some considerable concerns stemming some from some recent incidents
that they've been seeing in the community and so they did ask uh that rosslyn consider removing the
roof deck which he happily did and we did submit the revised plan and the revised plan proviso form
now although the plans themselves note the rear yard as being for unit one the rear yard itself
is actually common and you can see here that there is an alley that leads out to the street so it is
NOT IT IS NOT IN DESIGN ACTUALLY A PRIVATE REAR YARD AND CAN BE ACCESSED BY ALL THE TENANTS
AS YOU'LL SEE HERE ON THE FLOOR PLANS AND AGAIN THESE ARE ALMOST IDENTICAL FLOOR PLANS TO THE
LAST PROJECT THAT THIS BOARD SAW AT 3962 I BELIEVE THE UNITS THEMSELVES ARE ALL QUITE LARGE
THERE IS A TWO-BEDROOM UNIT WHICH OCCUPIES THE FIRST FLOOR AND THE PREDOMINANTLY ABOVE GRADE LOWER
level that measures over 1800 square feet you can see here this is two bedroom unit with
two bedrooms on that first floor each with their own private bathroom and then kitchen and dining
area on the first floor and then on the lower level some additional living space and office
for somebody that would want to work from home internal designated trash storage and an additional
powder room as well and then on the second and third floor uh you can see these occupy their
their own floor uh they are also two bedroom units and they are one of them is
They are also two-bedroom units, and they are, one of them is 1,090 square feet, the other is just over 1,100 square feet, so these are also quite large.
They also have their own in-unit ventilated trash storage areas, as well as washer and dryer and Juliet balconies in the rear.
Now, regarding the refusal, this proposal, like many of the others, only received one refusal for the proposed multifamily use.
no dimensional variances are requested or necessary and as many of the structures on this block it is
proposed to be a bit shorter than the code would actually allow here and again that that has been
designed to be as consistent as possible with some of the other new construction the applicant
submits to a hardship here given both the history of this particular property as well
as the considerably transformed character of this neighborhood and the block which are all highly
relevant to the applicant's entitlement to a variance now historically speaking and as you
can see here at exhibit 11 this lot at 3954 parish street was granted a variance back in
the 1950s to accommodate a four-family dwelling. Now, although this block has some remaining
vacancy, the available zoning history on this block shows that it was exclusively a multifamily
block until all of the structures were demolished over the last couple of decades. The historical
use of the lot and the block is consistent with this proposal and how the block has transformed.
confirmed building a new single-family home on this lot would represent a deviation from
the predominantly multi-family dwellings that currently exist and have all been recently
constructed on the block and even in the immediately surrounding neighborhood many of which this
board has granted via variance and as you can see here on exhibit 12 I have included a map
showing you some of the locations of new and existing developments with densities ranging from