none of those buildings have pilot houses on it none none not one whatsoever i owned the
previous building on 2200 and south street which is presently now ants pants cafe i sold the
building i was limited to three units in that building three units not five but three right
okay um thank you sir test is very important to have that released all right okay thank you
thank you very much for taking the time to pause um are we done with the hands yes chair okay mr
mr chair can i briefly respond you can mr not okay so in terms of any soil testing um and this
is not zoning related but as i stated excuse me a state and a community meeting if we're lucky
enough to be able to build um here um as part of the construction loan uh approval process the
lender is going to require of us to do a phase one and if potential a phase two testing and
remediation. But that's not something related, but I just wanted to state that that was discussed
at the community meeting and we explained what would happen. In terms of the trash,
it was asked of us from the community to store the trash inside. We were perfectly willing to
store the trash outside. We are doing commercial trash pickup. That's a proviso that we would
agreed to. The community asked us to store the trash inside. We created ventilated trash closets
in each of the five residential units. As far as the commercial unit, there's the lower level,
which is ample space to store the trash. But again, we're using commercial trash pickup.
In terms of the economic viability of this project, we cannot build it with three. Unfortunately,
with rising interest rates, they're going down a little, but they're still very, very high.
cost of construction, it just is not economically feasible to do this.
In terms of, you know, all of the modifications we made to the project at the behest of the
community and nearby neighbors, I think that was acknowledged by a number of people.
It sounds like some people, like, again, this deal was made last night because we only found
out about the letter, like, yesterday, and so we diligently pursued that. If, you know,
the community and wants to review that letter i mean those changes i would ask that the board
hold their vote let the community maybe give some other further input a week from now and and then
the board can vote but we've acted really in good faith here over multiple community meetings inside
and outside all right thank you um council david or do you want to you want to make another comment
And not fact, though, the attorney.
Thank you, board chair.
No, we have nothing else to offer at this time.
So, Hillary, I am going to hold this.
And maybe the two councils can figure a way to have this information reviewed by additional people.
So Planning Commission, do you want to vote on this today or will you want to wait till additional information comes back?
Planning Commission, do you want to vote on this today or will you want to wait to additional information?
Sure, we'll go on record.
Okay, please proceed.
All right. Thank you, sir. And good morning, David Effecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chair and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at this location.
The appellant seeks two additional dwelling units, additional occupied area and a smaller rear yard than the code allows.
Since the appellant is proposing to demolish the existing three-story structure, there is no reason why the appellant could not conform with the code's dimensional requirements.
There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board deny the proposed variances for five dwelling units, occupied area, and rear yard setback.
Thank you.
So, Hillary, what I want to do is hold this.
i think we might need more than a week possibly um let's look at maybe two weeks
um yes i think that would be fine mr chair and the other thing is i mr chair would you would
you prefer maybe a resumption hearing so we can have the attorneys report back and what i thought
about from the community we we could do that we could do that that may be easier why don't we do
a resumptive hearing but but try to limit it that it'll be the two attorneys reporting out
and maybe you know the neighbors on where they where they stand now i mean i don't right after
reviewing the changes right i think i think that would be and i i believe that date would be um
and if staff could affirm i believe that would be february 14th at 9 30 yeah we could do a resumption
um and that would be again limited to the the attorneys just following up with the board
regarding any further discussions with the neighbors and we could take public testimony
only regarding the changes um that were made you know within the last 24 hours
mr knock i'm saying are you okay yes all right uh mr anna karner are you okay yes thank you
All right. OK, so that's where we are. We'll continue this to February 14th, 930.
We'll have this reported out and we'll try to get that voted on that day. OK.
Thank you very much. Thank both of you. All right.
Number nine, MI 2023-006-623-3408-50B Street.
Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from HACE, a letter of support from the 7th Ward RCO, and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
The applicant also provided a petition of support signed by approximately 40 neighbors.
Rachel Pritzker has been promoted, Chair.
Good morning, Counsel.
Good morning.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, Rachel, R-A-C-H-A-E-L, Pritzker, P-R-I-T-Z-K-E-R.
You swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
The client is 3408 B Street, LLC.
They are under contract for the property, so they are the equitable owner.
Our voice chair has just a few questions for you.
Mr. Holloman, could you handle that, please?
Good morning, counsel.
Good morning.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to its accuracy?
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents
as required and necessary five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you.
Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
can you see my screen we can okay so this is 3408 b street um as you can see it's an existing
abandoned warehouse um sort of you can see the aerial view as well um some of the roof is open
um and it has been vacant since at least 2017 um it is uh zoned i2 as you can see in the purple but
is primarily surrounded by RM1 properties. The refusal in front of us states that we're proposing
from I-2 to multi-family household living for 50 dwelling units,
16 class 1a interior bike spaces and eight off-street accessory parks
16 class 1a interior bike spaces and eight off-street accessory parking spaces with one
van accessible space the two refusals we generated were for the multi-family household living
in i2 industrial and then for the parking space ratio i'm gonna go through my exhibit packet
quickly
So we have our memo of law essentially laying out our hardship in this instance, as you can see from the photos.
Again, this property is in a primarily residential area. It's been vacant since 20 at least 2017.
We're looking to do an adaptive reuse with the one story addition to bring this back to a viable use for the community and the neighborhood.
I, too, doesn't allow for any multifamily as an industrial district.
However, this is an almost 20,000 square foot lot that is sat vacant.
There's really no industrial use given sort of the lack of real sufficient parking, the lack of loading.
Its location directly adjacent to these residential homes and the fact that it has sat vacant has shown that pure industrial use is not appropriate for this property.
the lease modification is the adaptive reuse that we're proposing and you know we're proposing 50
units to withstand sort of the financial viability of the project in addition to the fact that there
was a lot of structural violations that were cleared that have been long-standing on this
property as well we have our architect Ray Rolla should be here to just go through the plans and
as mentioned by the board we have a letter of non-opposition from a say which was the coordinating
rco a letter of support from the seventh uh ward rco which we were asked to meet with as well
and then non-opposition from the councilwoman's office um
you want to bring them yes if we can promote sure yeah if we can promote ray rolla
I'm enrolled is promoted. Good morning sir. Thank you. Good morning, sir.
do we see him right
I don't yes I did promote him I see him in the audience
good morning sir looks like i'm unable to promote him
i'm going to try one more time
hello can you hear me yeah we hear you now sir could you state your name please and spell
for the court stenographer. Raymond
Rola, R-O-L-A.
Do you swear
or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth? I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Ray, are you able to share your screen
and bring up the zoning plans
to go through them with the board?
I just hit share screen under settings.
Can you see anything?
Do you want me to share my screen?
Yeah, counsel, why don't you share your screen?
That would be great.
Can you see that?
This is the site plan.
And this is the site plan that has been, we worked with the streets department,
carefully for landscaping and also the location of the parking spaces. There's basically four
parking spaces to the south side of the property, which is the left side on this screen, and four
parking spaces to the right side. There's also a fence proposed in the rear to provide some privacy
between our property and the residential row houses that would be to the west.
So there's eight parking spaces.
There's landscaping as required by city planning.
by city planning um you can see from the elevation there's an addition it's a it's going to be a
You can see from the elevation there's an addition.
three-story structure the 50 apartment units there's two exit stairs rachel do you have the
plans uh that you can bring up the plan um give me one second the floor plans yeah the floor plan
yeah and also i don't know if you have the renderings
Yeah, these would be the floor plans. The main entrance is off of B Street. Basically, there's an entrance lobby. The building is actually two separate buildings.
There's sort of the south portion and then the northern portion where you see where we have a lobby and an elevator.
And there's a corridor that links two fire stairs on each side, each end of the building.
There's also an enclosed trash room that services a trash holding area on the first floor that services two trash rooms on the upper floors.
And so the trash is stored inside and then brought out through double doors.
There's also a bicycle parking, bicycle storage right next to the trash room.
We have a lobby area that's a good size that can also handle mail.
There's always lots of mail these days and packages.
So there's a total of 50 units.
They're all one bedrooms except for two, which are two-bedroom units.
and they're all uh uh good sized units um so you don't have the renderings do you
rachel no i don't have them it's a shame um i can search for them if the board is interested
in seeing them i i think we have a pretty good idea of what what what you're trying to accomplish
yeah i just also want to mention chairman um just on the parking uh the only way to comply with more
parking spaces would have been to demo part of this building and that would have compromised
some of the structural integrity so that's the reason for the second or the other refusal just
so you're aware. Could you bring on your client? Yes. Do you see a Judah Angster? I think he has
his hand raised. Yes I do and I will allow him to speak. Thank you. Welcome.
hello hi could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer my name is
judah inkster j-u-d-a-h last name inkster a-n-g-s-t-e-r do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes i do please proceed counsel
judah have you heard my testimony today in front of the board do you believe it to be true and
accurate and do you adopt it as your own yes i have and yes i do thank you uh rachel what was
the votes at the rcos what was the votes besides non-opposition what was specifically the people
vote i'll pull it up
I'm just going to share my screen.
Just want to quickly go over the petition as well, as you mentioned, we did say as part
of their process, ask for the developer and owner to walk through the neighborhood and
get support from directly adjacent near neighbors.
So we provided them with 40 or 41 signatures in our petition as well.
Here is the RCO notice.
And then the letters should be, here's the letters.
Non-opposition, five in support to oppose.
Thank you.
The other one.
And then the other letter, it just says we are in approval of the project.
And you also have the council person, non-opposition.
Correct.
And I believe Sloan, folks, is on from the councilwoman's office.
Okay, good.
Questions or comments from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
Sloan, folks, has a hand up.