time chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david fecto with the
city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single
family zoning at this location the zoning archive shows that the building has a history of use as
an office this block is primarily mixed use containing multi-family units institutional
and commercial uses the applicant has shown that the single family zoning presents a clear
hardship to the building's reuse and the city planning commission recommends that the board
grant the use variants for three dwelling units. Thank you. Hillary, do we have to make reference
to demolition or just vote vote at normal? No, we don't need to do that. Thank you.
Yeah. All right. MI 2022 006748712 North American Street. I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes. James Snell. My vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much, Commissioner.
Have a great day.
Number 11, MI 2022-006-840708 North 43rd Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
Letter of support from West Belmont Civic Association.
Mr. Clinton is coming back in now as a panelist here.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Mr. Clinton.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in relationship to the property?
My client is Don, E-D-O-N, Shlomo, S-H-L-O-M-O, and he is the principal of the LLC, which
is the owner of the property.
And our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, Mr. Shahid.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Thank you, counsel.
Please proceed to share your screen.
Thank you, Mr. Shahid.
Mr. Chairman, is my screen visible now?
It is. It is.
Well, again, good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Henry Clinton here for Mr. Shlomo.
This property is 708 North 43rd Street.
This is my table of contents, along with my presentation package.
And I'll go through all the exhibits, AA through A-10, including the historical zoning records indicating this property has been a six-family dwelling on and off since the 1930s.
And also, I wanted to show the board the remaining zoning records of other properties on the 700 block of North 43rd, which are multifamily.
So our request today is to take this long, vacant lot and restore it to its historical use, which is multifamily.
The refusal, we have four refusals, two for use and two dimensional. Basically, this is an RSA3
zoning district and the refusals indicate that multifamily is not permitted.
And the refusals indicate that multifamily is not permitted. And also there's open space and rear yard refusals that I will address as we move through this presentation.
We do have a unanimous support of West Belmont Civic Association. We met with them on one occasion and they liked our project and they made a recommendation, as you can see in the second letter, their attachment letter, suggesting that we have a trash plan that does not include putting the rubbish in front of the building.
So even with that proviso, they were in favor of our plan.
But nevertheless, my client still revised the plan.
And I want to show you how we address the trash situation at this property.
So this is on the 700 block of North 43rd Street.
And as you can see, the west side of the street is mainly vacant lots.
I was there last week to confirm that.
While this is a dated photograph, it still is an adequate reflection of what's going on in the Manitua section here.
On the other side of the street, there's some single family and some multifamily.
And at the end of the presentation, I'll show you those addresses and go property by property where there are other multifamily, including eight units, six units, four units, and several duplexes.
This is a data photograph showing you what the lot used to look like. Our client acquired the lot, has cleaned it up, and here's proof of our zoning notices that were posted in a timely fashion.
Our plans, if approved today, we do have a proviso, and proviso is because we basically included a covered side yard for the trashy areas that the community group requested.
This is the front elevation. It's a three-story property. We're not looking for a roof deck or any situation like that. We do have window wells in the front and the back of the property for access for the bedrooms.
uh the floor plan and here's the change we made mr chairman if we go over to uh the first floor
plan we have a breezeway leading from the front of the house to the rear yard for access to the
rear yard but more importantly we have carved out of the first floor a trashing utility area
the community group is very concerned about any trash being on the front of the property trash
bins trash enclosures also they were concerned that they didn't want any utility meters on the
front of the property so we went back to the drawing board and carved out a part of the first
floor for trash for the units in the front and we did the same thing for trash and utilities
in the rear of the property we're basically asking for six units again this was an historical use of
the property back in the day and i'll show you those plans as i work through it
This was our old plan. I just wanted to show the board that, in fact, we did make changes
to accommodate what the requests were from the neighborhood group. We now have a breezeway,
as I said before, leading from the front of the house to the back of the house. The front elevation
is all brick in keeping with the typical style in the neighborhood. No metal or wood or vinyl
on the front. This is our tax certificate. The other documents are your pro forma documents that
you would see in a presentation like this. Our lot is a rather large lot for the block.
Here's a deed indicating ownership. And I understand, Mr. Chairman, there are a number of
neighbors and residents on the call who do want to pipe in and chime in on their feeling as to
this development. So here's the zoning records, and I'll blow these up for you, of
surrounding properties in the neighborhood that are multifamily. All of these on the 700 block
of North 43rd, except for one on Aspen Street, which is just right around the corner, and I'll
show that to you. And then on the right-hand side, I put the years when these properties were
permitted. And I have copies of the fronts of each elevation of each of the properties,
as well as the zoning permits. So what I'm trying to show the board and what the community group
recognizes, there's a lot of vacant lots on the block. There hasn't been that much development.
And any of the development that has taken place has been multifamily. In fact, this property at
749 North 43rd is under construction now, and that's six dwelling units. And again, I don't
want to speak for the community group but you know sometimes when you have a situation where
You know, sometimes when you have a situation where there's not a lot of development, you want to try to get more folks and more development spurred on that particular block.
there's not a lot of development you want to try to get
And when other developments come before the community group down the road after the multifamily are constructed, they may be in a position to say, you know what, we don't want any more multifamily.
We have a lot of people on the block as a result of what they've done in the past, and so there's a stopgap that could be used in future applications before the board.
But for the board today, we're asking for six dwelling units, and we're going to continue to press forward and show you the reasons why we think that really makes a lot of sense.
So this is a refusal from 1939, indicating that this is a six-family dwelling, and it was granted.
And here's the zoning permit indicating that it is a six-family, two apartments on each floor, and it was a one-family vacant dwelling back in the day.
And from the historical records, I've been able to determine that this property was demolished sometime between 96 and 2004.
I can't pinpoint that because there's no demolition permit in the file.
This is from 1951. Again, six apartments, six units.
And this is the Certificate of Legality of Use from 1961, again, indicating six family units right here.
Again, some redundancy, but just to show the board the historical use.
And now here is what's going on currently.
On the 700 block on North 43rd Street, this is an existing three-story property, brick front, with eight dwelling units.
This is a photograph of the front elevation and attached to zoning permit, indicating this property was permitted in 2018 for eight families.
Next is a property adjacent to the property I just showed you at 749. This was approved for a six-family dwelling unit in 2022. So it's just under construction right now. Those photographs, Mr. Chairman, were taken by me just last week.
next is on aspen street which is from the aerial photograph i'll show you it's just
right around the corner this is a four dwelling unit which was approved in 2019
and here's the zoning permit that's attached to it
and on the set again this is all in the 700 block on north 43rd
these this is a property with four dwelling units you can see that there's four mailboxes
on the side wall there on the front elevation. And then here's a rental license, including
the reference to four units, and it is an active license.
Then again, on the 700 block of North 43rd, it's 729 and 727. These are multi-family again,
three dwellings in 727, three dwellings in 729. And here's the use permit indicating
that this was permitted in 2012.
So there is multifamily on the block
that is from the early 2010 area up until today.
And then here's one at 753 North 43rd Street,
again on the 700 block, multifamily, three dwelling units.
And this permit was issued in 2011.
So, again, just to give you the context, we have eight family, six family, four family, three family, three family, many vacant lots on the west side of the block, although there is a garden right here, as well as on the east side of the block.
And this is the one on Aspen Street right around the corner.
So I just want to bring this to conclusion and just make a couple of comments, Mr. Chairman.
And as I said, there are members of the community who want to weigh in.
So we basically have a block that is really kind of starving for development.
I think the community group recognizes that, and that was recognized in their overwhelming vote, even before we made changes to the front of the property.
We do have an enclosed side alley, which will deal with the issue of side yard requirements here.
It is enclosed, but it still provides a breezeway to get to the rear and to provide for fire access and also for means of ingress and egress.
We also are in a position where we're offering a number of two-bedroom units, which, again, I believe the community wanted because, again, it's going to bring people on the block, feet on the feet, walking the streets, more neighbors.
people on the block, feet on the feet, walking the streets, more neighbors.
We also are going to have lighting on the outside as well as security cameras.
I will have my client adopt my testimony, Mr. Chairman,
but just wanted to give some legal basis for why the board should hopefully favorably look upon this application.
historically this has been a multifamily property six units for over 30 years recently
in the 90s it was four units so it's always been multifamily we're not altering the essential
character of the neighborhood there's more vacant lots on this block than residences
and a proportion of the residences are already multifamily so we're not out of character we're
We're not altering anyone's or any property owner's light and air requirements.
We're not impacting any development on the block.
We're in harmony with the code and certainly in harmony with what the community desires by their overwhelming vote.
So with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll entertain any questions and or have my client adopt my testimony.
Why don't we have your client adopt your testimony?
Don, are you on the call?
Chair, we have someone with the phone number ending at 7798.
That's right.
Caller, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Yes, E-D-O-N, S-H-L-O-M-O.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Shlomo, were you on the call when I just made the presentation concerning your project?
I was.
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
Thank you, Mr. Shlomo.
Questions from the board?
Questions from the board?
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
According to Council, the zoning archives had two units each floor.
and you have three floors so I assume the basement was utilities only so I recommend that the
basement has no bedroom space. Yeah Mr. Holliman on the plans I can go back and say you have egress wells
at both the front and the rear which is required by code for anyone in the basement to certainly
exit the property. And also the access to the property is in the middle of the building. I
guess I can go back to plans, which also provides for a means of egress out of the property. And
when someone would come up from the basement, if there's ever an issue, you're able not only to
exit toward the front of the building, but also to the back of the building. Let me get that up.
Here's that floor plan right here, Mr. Holloman, where if anyone was in the basement and needed to
get out they have access through the window wells and also through the middle of the property rather
than running to the front of the property they're able to exit in the middle of the property and get
out to the rear yard or the front yard but i appreciate your comment i appreciate your
i understand counsel but if you follow the zoning archive basement was utilities only
It was multifamily, but they weren't using the basement for living.
I agree. I agree. Thank you.
And also, I just point out, you know, the code was different than the basement walls were likely stone or rubble.
We have four concrete foundation walls.
We have a perimeter drain to two sump pumps, which will take out any water that would get into the property.
and we have ample headroom in the basement
and would meet all code requirements,
including sprinkler.
Other questions from the board?
No, no, Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have a caller
with the phone number ending in 2677.
Caller, please unmute yourself
and wait for the chair.
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
yes uh my name is michelle berstein i'm sorry and what did you need after that
uh could you spell your name for the court reporter please okay m-i-c-h-e-l-l-e last name
capital b-u-r-s-t-e-i-n thank you do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do proceed
Proceed.
No, I just wanted to say that I think the lot right now has been maintained pretty nicely, but I would much prefer to see construction go up there instead.