Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much.
We appreciate your time.
Thank you, board.
Thank you.
Number five, MI 2022, 001-989-8417 Chippewa Road.
Jay Feinschill is the attorney.
Letter of non-opposition from Roxburgh Civic Association.
Letter of opposition from neighbor on block.
Of course, applicant finished building structure after notice of refusal issued.
Mr. Feinshield, could you please raise your hand?
He's coming back in as a panelist now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
counsel could you state your name and spell it please for the court reporter
sir you're on mute oh gee after all that i'm sorry okay hi could you state your name is spelled
please for the court reporter yes i apologize my name is jay fineschill my last name spelled
F as in Frank, E-I-N-S-C-H-I-L.
I represent Mr. Mathis, the owner of the Chippewa Road property.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
And could you state your client's name again, please?
His name is Joseph Mathis, M-A-T-H-I-S.
All right.
Thank you.
Mr. Holloman has a few questions.
Certainly.
good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulation?
and stipulate to its accuracy i do did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required
such as proof of ownership tax clearance copy of the refusal pictures of drawings of the property
five days in advance to this hearing did you meet with the rco and do you have a letter
yes i do for all those things thank you please proceed and share your screen
green button at the bottom green button at the bottom
what is going on here
i don't see oh sorry let's share the screen
and just make sure you have your documents open but uh before you hit that green share button
Thank you, LaKeisha.
Open your documents. Can you see that one? No. Now open your documents,
and once they're open, then hit the share screen. All right. That's open. Hit the share screen.
Come back to Zoom.
all right I'm going to hit the share screen yep and then it's going to ask you to click
on the documents that you want to share just click on that and hit share oh I got it okay
here we go and hit share all right all right that's the property in question that's 6417 Chippewa
and i'm sorry sir you went muted you gotta you're you you unmuted yourself
she'll be on the bottom on on mute
there you go all right let's try it again all right now where are those documents all right
you're good start there um can you see that no yes is that is that the house in the background
no uh that's the neighboring property uh that's the show us a picture that shows this in front
of the house um that's the neighboring property too i don't have a picture it shows in front of
the house. But the refusal of the permit was conditioned on that the house was within 10 feet
of the property line. So that was a problem there. Rather, the shed was within 10 feet of the
neighboring property. It is three and a half feet from the property line and that it exceeds 150
square feet. It's 450 square feet. We had the RCO meeting. Let me see if I can get a new share up.
All right. We had an RCO meeting. There it is.
There were 17 people, I think, who attended.
no one opposed
the building of the shed
and I would like to draw the board's
attention to that the
budding neighbor on the side where the structure
in question was located
he was present at that meeting
he indicated that he had no opposition
so there was no opposition
from anyone the board
the civic association
was unopposed to it
one of the reasons
there was no opposition to this is
that this is a development in which the houses were built.
There were no basements built in.
There's no attics for storage.
There's no garages for storage.
All throughout the neighborhood, there are these kinds of sheds built throughout the neighborhood.
And I've taken the liberty to present some photographs showing us.
is that in the behind the boat in the back there yes okay
that's directly across the street okay
there it is share okay there we go okay so um that's right behind the boat that's right on the
property line that is uh 6430 chippewa it's right across the street it's actually two feet from the
property line it's 400 square feet and you can see it a little better on that's behind that's
behind a property all right that's behind the property correct no and the one that we're
talking about is in front of the property yeah it's on the side it's on the side of the property
okay um and is that a garage yeah your property is that a garage
no his uh mr mathis is is right now just a shed there's no driveway leading to it what what's
inside of it he's he's just throwing his tools in there there's no place to he's got no place to
put anything um there are several properties like that and i could have posted 30 or 40 but i i took
photos of several. This is 8428 Chippewa Road. This is also 400 square feet. That one that you see
in the back there that is right on the property we're not seeing anything now we're seeing a list
of uh of things to open all right i gotta share that
start a new share you're at 84.28 that's what you have listed now yeah you might have to um stop
Stop sharing and then open it here.
And then open your documents.
You're trying to open 8428, right?
I'm trying to open now 8430.
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
is the document open
that's the one i opened this is 84 28 okay uh i want to get 84 28 you see this one here
You will have to click that green share button again.
Where is it?
It's on the bottom.
And just make sure you're in Zoom.
It's not coming up, I don't like to share that.
So, so let me, let me, let me ask a few questions. So the ones you're trying to show us, as you said, about 400 square feet.
Yeah. 8430, when I did manage to show you, it was 400 square feet. It was two feet from the property line. 8428 Chippewa, which is right next door to it.
chippewa which is right next door to it right it's 400 square feet on top of the property
Right. 400 square feet on top of the property.
let me wait wait wait wait now is that in the rear uh that one's in the rear right right listen
and they may ask you this do you have any a picture of any other ones besides your own that's in the
front? No. A couple on the side. Ours is on the side. And ours is on the side too. The rest of
them are all on the side. They're all almost on the property line. One is on the side.
Let me see if I can get a picture of Mr. Mathis's front.
all right so what you're saying there's other there's other property similar is what you're
saying right yes yes here's a picture of uh mr mathes's property but the notice let me see the
picture of his again yeah this is this is a picture that you haven't seen in which you can really
There's the notice.
Okay. All right.
That's his house.
Yes. The shed is right here. It's on the side of the house.
Okay. So could you show me the shed again?
Here's the shed again.
That's it. Okay.
Here it is.
Not pictured, because it's on the side of the house.
Right.
There it is on the side of the house.
All right.
I'm sorry about that.
Mix up.
But as you can see, his shed is in, comports with the other sheds in the neighborhood.
So just out of curiosity, does he intend to use that as a garage?
I think he might go for that later on. Right now, he's just using his storage.
How would you get a car in there?
You have to build a driveway up to it.
Okay, thank you.
Okay, so if the affected neighbor, which is the neighbor next door is not only not opposed to it, he would have written a letter of support for it.
He's ill right now and could not get the board that letter.
And the RCO did not oppose it.
So why don't we do this?
Why don't we swear your client in and he can adopt your testimony?
Very good.
He's right here.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Joseph Mathis, D-O-S-E-P-H-M-A-T-H-I-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Counsel, proceed.
Do you affirm what my testimony was before the board?
It is true and correct to the best of your information, knowledge, and belief.
Yes, it is.
Do you adopt it?
Questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Can we do a proviso?
No living space allowed?
Mr. Mathis doesn't intend to have anybody living there.
proviso would be fine. Any other questions from the board? No Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments
from the virtual audience? Chair we have a Michael Dunn with his hand up. Mr. Dunn please unmute
yourself and wait for the chair. Hi Mr. Dunn could you state your name and spell for the court
reporter. Yes, sir. Michael Dunn, M-I-C-H-A-E-L, D-U-N-N. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Proceed. Yes, sir. I had written
email testimony for this building. Should I read the testimony, the main points?
Well, why don't you just tell us, if you want to read along, but just tell us what your thoughts are.
Okay. It's a commercial-sized storage facility that's close to the street.
Okay. It's a commercial-sized storage facility that's close.
I have not seen any kind of buildings that store different garden items on our block that size or close to it.
It's not in keeping with the character of the neighborhood.
There's no other storage building like that right up front on the street side.
Usually they're way in the back of each property.
Now, I did at the RCO raise my hand in opposition to this structure.
And the president had acknowledged that I had.
At the meeting, the homeowner said he intended to build a driveway to the shed for vehicles.
I just see it as an inappropriate use of the space since it's so close to the street and no other building is like that on the street.
Okay. Thank you for calling in.
Counsel, what I'm going to do is I'll see if anybody else has any comments, and then I'll let you have a closing comment, right?
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience that has a comment?
I see no hands, Chair.
Counselor, you want to respond to the-
Yeah, just a couple of words.
Mr. Dunn was present at the RCO meeting.
As I recall, and as stated in the RCO's letter, it says one of our members expressed some
concerns about the contention that the structure was in keeping with several others in the
immediate vicinity, but did not wish to oppose the granting of the variance.
Mr. Dunn did not oppose the granting of the variance at the RCO meeting. He now apparently does. But I've submitted about 10 photographs of nearby properties that have similar or larger sheds and garages that are very much in conformity with the one that Mr. Mathis