Sonetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Diane Wynn, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Counsel, one more, right?
So MI 2025-003-660-660-38 East Seltzer Street.
Zen, could you just state your name?
Zen Jen, here on behalf of the applicant.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is 28 Seltzer, LLC.
Mr. Verona is also the owner of that business.
We do not have an RCO letter, right?
And, Hildrey, we do have the proof of the...
Yes, Mr. Sherry, I just want to put on the record,
while we understand there is difficulty scheduling the RCO meeting,
we believe that the applicant has met requirements for posting
as well as mailing to the near neighbors and we have received proof of that. Thank you. The Vice
Chair has a few questions for you, Mr. Jin. All right, good morning. Have you submitted your
documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing? We did initially and then we updated
as late as this morning with additional documentation. Okay, and do you waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Okay, you can proceed with your
case. Thank you. I'm going to share with the board the latest submission. Can the board see my
screen on there? We can, sir. Thank you. So there's been extensive communication between the
our office and the RCO. I'm going to not rehash that information, given Ms. Emerson's statements.
This is an application for a use of an existing property at 38 East Seltzer Street, also as a proposed duplex.
This is Zone RSA 5 and therefore was refused for that particular use.
The property is located between Somerset. It's located off of Seltzer Street with 8th Street, Somerset Street being the nearest streets.
It is on a residential block and is a property that is an existing three-story structure.
Again, it was partially renovated.
My client, again, purchased this as a potential investment property.
His plan with this property was to build out two units and allow it to be used as rentals
for a local area hospital, which actually has people that have reached out to him with
interest to rent apartments in the area.
the proposal is to have
the space fitted out into two separate units based on the three stories that exist
so this the basement uh is for hvac mechanical electrical the first floor would be the first
unit with the living room and kitchen with the bedroom. The second floor and third floor is the
second unit with two bedrooms, I'm sorry, three bedrooms total, a family room and the living
spaces in the, I'm sorry, it's bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and family room on the second floor
and then additional bedrooms on the third floor.
There is an existing roof towards the back half of the third floor.
There's an addition being proposed that is going to be part of the back part of the property.
However, the addition itself is not a refusal matter as it is within the dimensional requirements.
So this property, my client and my office tried to reach out to the RCO.
We did not ultimately get a meeting.
However, we have notified the neighbors and we have not had any outreach in opposition.
had any outreach in opposition. And it is my understanding, my client has done outreach and
And it is my understanding, my client.
has generally been met with favorable responses from the neighbors. So essentially, this is to
rehab a property that has been vacant for a long time. And we would ask the board's favorable
review for the proposed use variance as a two-family dwelling. My client is here again to
verify my business. If you would, could you talk about the rest of the block and the area?
Sure. The property is located on a residential block. Let me see if I can pull up the photos again.
so the property is located on a residential block uh there are some vacant properties and
there are also primarily residential properties it is zoned rsa5 it's a residential block
there are other properties that look like they're duplexes however we're not sure if they're legal
or not. Again, with the block makeup, my client has met with some of the neighbors, so he's aware
of the block makeup and the neighbors are aware of his proposed use. And again, based on feedback
from the neighbors, we believe that they're not in opposition to our proposed use of this property
as a duplex. Bring your client on, please. Sure.
Mr. Verona, can you raise your hand again to be identified?
I no longer see your client in the virtual recording.
That's surprising.
think okay here they go okay great
i'm sorry i don't know sorry you won't listen to me you've already been sworn just for the
record state your name i'm sorry can you say it again because you've already been sworn in
could you just state your name for the record? Yes, sir. Guillermo Verona. Okay. Counsel,
please proceed. Thank you. Mr. Verona, were you able to see my presentation and hear my
representations to the zoning board earlier? I did. I think I missed the last 15 seconds
because my screen blacked out and I had to log in. Okay. Can you verify what you did here and
what I did represent already to the board is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Yeah, about, you know, turning it into a duplex with the bi-level apartments.
I don't know if you told them I spoke with the neighbors on the block, the homeowners and the block captain and everybody had no opposition.
They're willing to sign, you know, anything that the board might ask for on my behalf.
Mr. Colonel, what's the rest of the block look like for multiple families?
Well, honestly, there's a couple of properties on there. I don't know if that's legit or not, but they do have like two mailboxes, like for apartment one, apartment two, apartment A, apartment B.
Okay. All right. All right. Questions from the board.
Trash. What would the trash be stored for your units?
uh well two two ways uh the first floor have access to the back so they can store their
trash in the back um i could do a uh a roof deck on the back because the structure is three stories
but the back is two stories the third floor is set back yeah i'm sorry yeah i'm sorry so do
either a roof deck or a closet
you know just for that
in the hallway
on the second floor
to be clear that would be off the kitchen right
on the second floor
questions from our attorney
not at this time Mr. Chair
questions
to the virtual audience
is the RCO present
i see no hands chair is there anyone else besides the rco
nope chair no hands at this time planning commission thank you chairman and good
nope chair no hands at this time planning commission thank you chairman and good
morning david effecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single family zoning at this
location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2018 in accord with recommendations in the
comprehensive plan this property received a rental license for one dwelling unit in 2004
uh or sorry 2024 and residential building permit in january 2025 for a second story addition
there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that prevent
it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code this is a primarily single family
block face the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variance for two
dwelling units mi 2025 003 660 38 east seltzer street i vote yes i vote johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
i am with my vote is yes thank you thank you council
Yeah, number nine, MI 2025 003649, 6325 Palmetto Street.
Isaac Slepner is the attorney.
There is unanimous opposition, 80 votes against, from Longcrest Community Association.
isaac slepner will be joining us as a panelist
good morning uh mr chair and members of the board council could you please state your name
going to spell it for the stenographer? Sure thing. Isaac, I-S-A-A-C, Slepner, S-L-E-P-N-E-R,
counsel for the property owner today. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Do you identify your client and relationship
to the property? My client is 6325 Palmetto LLC, which is the owner of 6325 Palmetto Street.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I did, except that I had technical issues with one of them, and I submitted the correct
item this morning and was in contact with Mr. Hegarty about that earlier this morning.
And thank you.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
All right. Will do.
All right. And here we go.
So everybody can see that it's coming. It's up now. Yeah, we have.
OK, great. So this is just my index of exhibits.
So exhibit A is our original application for appeal project info form notice of refusal, which we already stipulated to and read.
and the sort of mailing address list and the letter of my notice to neighbors so
I'm just gonna quickly scroll through this is the sort of mailing as you can
see right number of addresses this is our address list and notice to
neighbors informing them of the RCO meeting which was held on 1113 Exhibit
Exhibit B is the deed in favor of 6325 Palmetto.
They purchased the property in about two years ago at this time, December of 2023, and recorded
the deed on 12-13 of 2023.
I'll just scroll all the way down.
There you can see the full copy of the deed.
Exhibit C is a photo taken, I want to say it was 11-19, because that was 21 days ago,
of the orange poster on the front door of the subject property, 6325 Palmetto Street.
And you can also see a good frontal view of the property.
Now, exhibits D and E, I want to take you through, and this is going to be a bit of a walkthrough.
Exhibit D are the original building plans, and exhibit E are some updated building plans.
So I'll kind of walk everybody through the building plans.
This, as I said, are the original building plans to the property.
The original plan was for five dwelling units at this property.
One of them was originally planned for the basement.
We have ultimately decided that we're going to concede on that one and remove that one from the plan, but we'll go.
concede on that one and remove that one from the plan, but we'll go on into why in just a moment,
but I want to give everybody kind of the physical layout of the place and show the photos as well.
So this is the front porch. This is Palmetto Street right here, and this is the main entrance
to the house. This is the door to Unit 1. That's the door where you previously saw the orange
poster. This is a separate door that goes up the stairs to Units 2 and 3. So Unit 1 is at ground
level. It's an open-plan kitchen living room. There's a small laundry room, the
bathroom, and one bedroom with a closet. Unit 4 is also at the rear and Unit 4 is
a bi-level. Unit 4 is accessed from ground level but at the side of the
house off of one half of the driveway. Unit 4 is also accessed here to rear
windows. Unit 4 is accessed and it's another open plan, living room and kitchen. Then there is a set
of curved stairs that goes up to, you can see over on this side, this is second floor. This is Unit 4's
two bedrooms, hall, bathroom, and some closet space, and then the stairs back down to the ground level
of unit four. The stairs up from the entranceway, this is the second door at the front entrance at
the front porch. These go straight up, and they go to a hall up here, and then this is unit two.
So unit two is the front half of the second floor of the house. Living room, bedroom, closet,
another bedroom or some more open space, bathroom, bathroom and closet, and a third
small bedroom could be considered an office space. Stairs, these stairs continue going up.
This is the entrance to unit three. You've got, it opens into the main space. You've got another
room over here. You've got a double door out to the roof deck over here. You've got a bedroom at
the front and bathroom. My understanding of all of these is that they all have in-unit laundry,
but I'll call my client to testify to that. So exhibit E is the updated plans. After we had our
meeting with the RCO, they seemed very upset about the basement unit and we decided to eliminate
that as a dwelling unit and repurpose the basement for just a storage unit. So you'll see
on these plans we've got the basement marked as mechanical room slash storage. Otherwise the
layout is the same for units one through four. Counsel, counsel, can I ask the question what
how is it used now? Right now it's been built out. My client purchased it and it had already
been built out as these five units. They were brought on and they purchased the unit and have
intended to get the CO for it, which of course first involves getting a zoning permit. We had
a meeting with the community in which they did not respond very positively to us. They voted 30
votes against us. However, we went back to attempt to work in good faith with them and I'll show you
those communications, I've already sent those through to the board, but I'll show you those
again, in which we offered, and we're going to anyway, remove the use of the basement unit as
a dwelling unit. It had been planned as like a caretaker on-site maintenance dwelling unit,
but we're going to eliminate that entirely and just have it be mechanical and storage at that
basement level. There is egress but the community did not seem to look very
kindly upon it. I have photos of the interior and exterior of the property
next that I'd like to also take a look at. So exhibit F is my property photos.
Here is again the front, that's the door to unit one, this is the door to units
two and three. Around this, these driveways are both unique to our property. They are not shared
driveways with the properties on other side. 6329 Palmetto, by the way, and I'm going to go through
this in a moment too, appears to be a multi-unit that was actually never permitted. 6323 to the
other side appears to be a single family but regardless both of these driveways are unique
to our property. This is one of the units, this is unit
This is one of the units. This is unit four, actually, that's accessed from around the side at ground level off of the driveway.
This is the kitchen living room area, and these are the steps to a bedroom that is up here but is not, can only be accessed from this unit, from unit four.
This is a photo of unit one that is at the ground level.