would like the opportunity to meet with miss andrews and see if there's an you know all right um hillary
um mr chair we could do you know one of one of we could we could do a resumptive hearing um or we
can um close the record and just hold the vote for a couple weeks for further discussions
it's whatever the the chair would like and i do see we have another hand if we if we close the
vote for just the rco and additional discussions do we want the planning commission to take a
position beforehand um well if there's going to be changes they may want to wait on that although
i let them okay decide but do you see we have another another hand raise okay fine all right
Okay, fine. All right. Thank you. All right. Who else in the audience?
thank you all right who else in the audience
Chair, we have Eileen Griff. Ms. Griff, can you unmute yourself and wait for the chair?
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, thank you. My name is Eileen Griff, I-L-E-N-E-G-R-I-F-F.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am the attached neighbor. I am the house on the corner at 4033 Paliton. My property
backs up to 315 North Preston.
Okay. Proceed.
So I am a 30-year resident of the neighborhood and these properties, one used 317 North Preston
used to be a single-family house and 315 used to be a garage. 317, a developer did apply for a
variance a few years ago and got denied. This project would just create so much density on
this block. We really would love to see more single-family homes. And I kind of resent Mr.
Nothamson saying about the single-family homes because I am in a single-family home and there
our single family residents, longtime residents on this block. And we really want to, we were
hoping that the RSA 5 zoning would be preserved on this. You know, I'm invested in the neighborhood.
I keep my property up and I am just opposed to the zoning change. Thank you. Thank you for
taking your time to call in. Is there anyone else in the audience? There, I see no other hands at
this time okay um planning commission how about if we hold your vote dan that would be great that's
actually what i would all right so what we'll we'll do is we'll hold this for a few weeks
uh we'll get back to you alan what a date and then we'll we'll come back in okay yeah so
we're going to close everything other than the rco a response from you and planning commission
Well, the only thing I would say, instead of closing the record, if we decide to change our plans in any way, I want the opportunity to be able to do that.
That's right. Right. OK. Yeah. Mr. Chair, I was going to suggest a resumptive hearing.
Oh, that's even better. OK. Yeah. So let's and I don't know that we will have a date for that immediately, but Keisha, Keisha can weigh in on that.
But if we don't go ahead, Keisha. Yeah, I'm sorry, Hillary. May 17th at three thirty.
do you think that's
I defer to the community group.
I work under their time
constraints.
Is there an opportunity,
Pamela, for us to meet with
your organization and or the community?
If it has to be a
full community meeting,
we typically give our
letters.
Why don't we do this? Why don't we take that date
and you get a hold of
Pamela and figure if it works. If it doesn't,
but then we'll have to figure out something else.
But for this point, let's go with that deal, okay?
That sounds very good.
All right, thank you.
Thank you.
Number eight.
MI 2022-007-037-431-North 41st Street.
Same general issues that we talked about before.
Opposition from West Palton, Saunders Park,
and also opposites from
Councilperson Gauthier.
This is now a request
instead of six, it's four.
Did I hear that?
I think we lost Alan.
Chair, he should be coming back in as a panelist.
Sure, sure.
Yes, Mr. Chair, we actually have modified our plans to have.
Okay, good. Okay, good. All right. All right. Could you just for the record, identify your client?
Yes, my client is Poplar Development LLC. In the virtual audience is its member, Christian Sanchez.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing i have thank you please proceed and share your screen
uh mr chair just i wanted to give a quick note for the record um council member gotti's office
um council member gotti's office reached out to me said they would be amenable to a resumption
reached out to me said they would be amenable to a resumption
hearing in this in this particular case so that there's an opportunity to discuss the new plans
with the neighbors for both of them well they didn't know they didn't if this was before
okay this was earlier so it was just about this one that we're discussing right now
41st street alan do you want to do that oh yeah no i actually that was i was going to say that
that we we communicated with uh the coordinating rco in the past 24 hours reducing our unit count
to four something that they requested of us um and they you know i i don't want to speak for them
but that was a positive development well why why why don't we do this why why don't we just hold
this one too well they said that they i well with this one they said all right okay let's let's go
on with it and if they come on we'll bring them on okay yeah my understanding is we want to do
a resumption hearing everyone was in agreement to that okay um so we have a notice of refusal
we have revised plans so we got rid of most of our uh of our of our variance requests went through
those revised plans and that was requested us from us um by the community we have the
correspondence from the west paladin saunders park rco and you'll see that the one thing that
we changed based on that letter was the unit count. We went from six to four. And I think
that's something that is positive, a positive development for them. We have a zoning permit
for this property, which we'll review. And then you'll see that what we're requesting is not out
of character to this part of the neighborhood. Maps of the area, photographs of the property
in the surrounding area. Our original plans and then comparing it to the new plans, which if this
for appeal to a client after a resumption hearing to grant it by way of proviso. RCO meeting notice
application for appeal deed to the property and our certificate of tax clearance. And in the
virtual audience as well is Christian Sanchez. Our notice of refusal. So originally we're proposing
six dwelling units and one off-street accessory spot in the front. We got two refusals for parking,
off-street parking. At the request of the community, we removed that, and you'll see that
in our revised plans. We got a second refusal, or the third refusal, two of them is for parking.
The third one dealt with the amount of units. It's an RSA by property, but six units. We're
agreeing to a maximum of four units. And then our minimum rear yard, five feet required, nine feet,
I was just saying nine feet is required, five feet is proposed.
No one has issue with that.
And then these are revised plans.
We're not only removing the off-street parking at the community's request,
they also wanted us to remove the roof deck.
Even though that's not a variance matter for community relations,
we were, of course, agreeable to that and amenable to that.
And these are revised plans showing no roof deck and no off-street parking.
And then, you know, we met with the West Paladin group, and in there, it actually says three to four units is favorable.
So, and that's what we're providing is four, maximum four units.
That was a development that happened in the past 24 hours when we just got the letter, and we would like to, you know, hear from the group, but the group needs additional time after today's hearing.
um you can see here what we're proposing is not out of character for this property
we found the zoning permit that this property had previously a quadplex use so that's more in line
than the six units that we proposed if it has a history of four units or asking for a history of
four units we're actually not increasing density in that respect and then not out of character for
that part of the neighborhood too you can see the the 400 block of north 41st street
uh has a significant multi-family uh history and then maps of the area uh this is an rsa5 property
maps from a google perspective photographs of the property as you can see it's a very well
maintained vacant lot uh this lot has been vacant for some time uh and we're hoping to activate it
by way of this plotplex uh proof of posting of for today's hearing north 41st street to the
of their property north 41st street to left their property as you can see we're on the trolley line
there's ample public transportation interior photos uh so mr sanchez um you know is a very
experienced developer and contractor and this is the type of work product that he has
uh for his units always try to give examples of that so the board can see um that
for his units i always try to give examples of that so the board can see
and then just our plans and drawings again we have one dimensional uh variance requests regarding
the rear yard uh but you can see that it looks like our rear yard doesn't go
as uh far back as the rear yard that's over there on the side of us
and then our floor plans again those floor plans will change so i figured we'll skip that and we
can go over it later when we have uh more finalized floor plans but what was important to my client
was to do a responsible trash storage and maintenance plan and there's there's actually
a trash room here uh so again we always encourage our clients to responsibly deal with trash because
I know it's an issue in most communities,
and we want to be the solution, not a further problem.
Our RCO meeting notice on April 27th,
we met at 7 p.m., 133 addresses.
We're notified this meeting, listed the addresses,
proof of mailing to those addresses,
our application for appeal showing that
public development LLC is the owner of the property,
along with the deed showing that public development
is the owner of the property.
and our certificate of tax clearance uh with that being said um i would just ask
mr sanchez virtually raise his hand just so he can be sworn in and adopt my testimony
mr sanchez state your name please spell for the court reporter
mr sanchez please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
Mr. Sanchez, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Christian Sanchez.
C-R-I-S-T-I-A-N-S-A-N-C-H-E-Z.
Christian Sanchez.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Sanchez, you heard everything I had to state about your zoning matter.
And is it true, correct?
Will you adopt as your own testimony?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Pamela Andrews.
Ms. Andrews, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Hi, Ms. Andrews.
I think I already swore you in
once today, right?
Ms. Andrews?
Cher, I no longer see her hand.
There it is.
She just put it back up.
Hi, Ms. Andrews?
There we go.
You should be able to hear me now.
I could, Ms. Andrews, I hear you. We've already sworn you in once. Could you just state your name for the record?
Pamela Andrews.
Okay. And Ms. Andrews, I know your position. What's your feelings on this case?
First of all, I wanted to let everyone know that this particular property came up for us for a variance back in August, August 30th, 2017.
It was denied by the zoning board at that time. The other thing I wanted to mention was Mr. Nakasom stated that his client takes care of the property and the pictures that he showed you showed, you know, cut grass and lawn.
One of the issues that many of our community members had is because they have been actually maintaining and managing that property for decades.
And I'm talking about long-term tenants who've lived in the area for more than 20 years.
And part of their issue about not wanting to support a multifamily variance for this particular tenant was because of how he did not actively engage in managing his property.
effectively. We had decided to think about allowing a variance for this usage,
but what we had asked him when they originally came, preferably because most of the variances
that we've allowed in the area have been for small apartment units, we were asking for
possibly six units, I'm sorry, possibly three units, because that's normally what is in that
possibly six, I'm sorry, possibly three units, because that's