if there's specific questions, but nothing as of now.
Would you want to have your client adopt your testimony?
I believe he's in the audience. His name is Iftikhar Chaudhry. Mr. Chaudhry.
Mr. Chaudhry, could you raise your hand, please?
Hi, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
I'm sorry. This is Tanya. May I just ask the question, sir? Do you know if he was calling in?
Yeah, he called in.
He called in.
We have a number.
We'll unmute that individual.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The phone number ending in 8320 has been unmuted.
Could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court reporter?
I-S-T-I-K-H-A-R, Latin C-H-A-U-D as in David, H-R-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
yes they do proceed mr shaw thank you mr chaudry if you had a chance to listen to my statement of
relevant facts and do you believe them to be true and accurate yes i do and are you able to adopt
those facts as your own yeah okay thank you sir questions from the board no mr chairman no mr
chairman no mr chairman question or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands at this time chair hi planning commission uh ron bednarcy planning while this
property is currently indicated for residential use on the city plan given the physical condition
of the property and its documented use history we recommend the request for the answer be granted
Thank you. MI 2021-003-084-2304 Allegheny Avenue, I vote yes.
Harold Teneri, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir.
MI 2021
North Front Street
Sean Ward
He's coming back in as a
panelist now
Mr. Ward, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let me just get my video started.
Sean Ward, S-H-A-W-N, last name W-A-R-D,
attorney for the property owner and applicant who are one and the same.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions, Mr. Ward.
I'm sure she does.
Hi, Mr. Ward.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
see yes i do madam vice chair have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents
consisting of proof of ownership tax compliance copy of the refusal or referral photos and or
plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco
and do you have a letter yes to all the above that's fantastic
and do you have a letter yes to all the above that's fantastic you may proceed
and please share your screen immediately
all right can we confirm my screen is shared yes it is larger thank you very much uh mr chairman
members of the board uh as usual i've attached my customary exhibit packet which was submitted to
the board five days in advance. I represent A-A-G-N-A Realty LLC, owner of the property as well
as Pankey Patel doing business as Pramuk Financial, that's P-R-A-M-U-K-H Financial Inc. for the
properties known as 2742 through 46 North Front Street. Attached at A-1 is the Notice of Refusal.
It is a permit to add check cashing to an existing pawn shop and retail sale of consumer goods, specializing in musical equipment, jewelry, etc.
We resulted in one refusal, which was questionable at best, but we'd like to confirm it with a variance.
A personal credit establishment is not permitted in the district, when in fact it's an existing pawn shop, which is considered a personal credit establishment.
In any event, we seek to confirm the additional use as a use variance.
A2 is the ZBA application of appeal.
A3, project information form.
A4, proof of ownership.
A5 is proof of tax clearance.
The tax clearance attached to the packet did not show clear for 2020.
However, my client did pay online.
I emailed this to Hillary. It's a copy of the online billing receipt. Thank you for your payment.
And I got to move something here. Hold on a second. As you'll see at the bottom of the screen,
the taxes for 2022, an amount of $787.12 were paid on April 29th. Going back to the packet.
A6 is a site map. A7 are photographs of the property. A8 is the RCO meeting notice and certificate of mailing. A9 is the RCO letter from HACE. A10 is a petition of support with pages of signatures from nearby neighbors and customers of this facility.
uh a11 is uh if submitted uh of course you know we don't always get copies but that would be the
district council person's letter a12 uh relevant zoning history from 1978 to present this has been
used as a a pawn shop so to a variance granted by the board uh way back when uh a13 is proof of
licensing uh precious metal dealer pawn shop and scales and scanners a14 is the zoning map a15 is
the aerial photograph. So not to belabor, but they're in the refusal dated 11-23 of 2021
for the subject property 27th. We saw the use of a check cashing, which is considered personal
credit establishment with other previously approved uses, whereas this use is prohibited
in the CMX2. So we also have the application of appeal, the project information form,
my transmittal letter to the board asking for an answer and hearing, copy of the deed. As you can
see, one deed encompasses 42, 44, and 46 on the 27-hour block of North Front Street.
as stated previously the original packet had indicated that the 2022 taxes remained unpaid
but they were paid last week this is a site map from google indicating the location of the property
it's on north front street at the terminus of east seltzer street s-e-l-t-z-e-r between somerset
and uh the other street i'll call it okay uh here is a uh a google angle view of the property it
encompasses the three tan buildings together uh 2742 44 and in 46 another google street view
of the property as you can see the three tan uh facade structures uh combined as one for the use
as a pawn shop. Another photo. Photographs of the interior, as you can see.
another photo photographs of the interior as you can see they do specialize in musical
equipment as you can see a lot of bongo drums hanging on the wall
this would be the check caching window on the other side would be the customer area
this is from the customer area looking in
and again another photo of the interior of the shop we did send out our rco meeting notice
on February 28th, indicating that the hearing would be held today at 3.30, before the property
at 2.742, and the RCO hearing meeting was held on March 9th at 5.30 p.m. via Zoom.
It included a copy of the refusal and one, two, three, four pages of addresses.
that was 166 addresses for this property and they were mailed out on March 1st as you can see by the
postal stamp. With regard to the letter from the RCO it does reference 2742 final position taken
was of support seven in support one opposed one abstaining. They do indicate that based upon
public discussion uh the zoning committee voted to uh you know vote uh seven votes to support
one in opposition and they submit this letter in support of the proposed variance
again i mentioned that we had multiple pages of a petition of support as you can see they're all
Numerous, numerous in content and therefore we submit that additional indication of support
and that petition was provided to Hase RCA RCO and then of course attached is the supporting
documentation for the continuous operation as a pawn shop over the years copies of their license
is etc etc it is zoned cmx2 commercial uh the the purple outlined one hang on a second
uh the uh purple one is 27 42 uh above that would be uh 44 and then above that would be 46.
and then of course i always conclude with a picture of an aerial photo from google indicating
the location. So going back, the bottom street is Lehigh, so it's between Lehigh and Somerset.
Based upon that, the board grant the variance requested to add one additional service to an
existing personal credit establishment based upon the support of the community, the neighbors,
and existing customer base. If the board needs, Mr. Patel is on the call.
he can either verify and adopt or as an officer of the court i'd be happy to indicate that based
upon my discussion with him he'd be willing to do so and in the interest of brevity i would
ask for board acknowledgement that he verifies and adopts that's fine you you you're an officer
the court will take that questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions from the
virtual audience or comments i see no hands at this time chair planning commission
property is indicated this is ron bednar city planning this property is indicated for commercial
on the city plan given the physical conditions of the site we recommend the quest for vantage
to be granted. Thank you. MI 2021-003-084-2304 East Allegheny Avenue. I vote yes.
Carol Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That concludes my business. May I be
excused. You can. Thank you very much. MI 2021-005-274-555-Vankirk Street. Octavia Brown,
owner, pro se. Letter of non-opposition from the coordinating RCO Longcrest community.
Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I need to recuse myself from this matter. Drew Aldinger will be
filling in if he can be promoted to panelists thank you thank you
octavia brown she's coming back it is a panelist now chair mr all diggers also
She's coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
And Mr. Aldinger is also coming in as a panelist.
Thank you.
Hi, I'm sorry.
It was just taking a little while to connect.
I'm just turning my camera on.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court report?
Hello, everyone.
My name is Octavia Brown, O-C-T-A-V-I-A, and Brown, B-R-O-W-N.
Do you swear, affirm, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Ms. Brown.
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property,
five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes, I've done everything. I have a letter. I received an email earlier today saying that I
accidentally forwarded you guys the long copy, I'm sorry, of the mortgage document that I thought
was the deed. I did at least send the deed, and I hope you have that, but if you need anything,
I have everything here that I can kind of pull up as well.
I think we're good. You may proceed. Please share your screen.
Okay, thank you.
Please give me one second to kind of navigate.
And I just wanted to be clear in regards to sharing my screen,
you guys just want to see the documents again that were sent in?
Okay, thank you.
I'm going to do that right now.
And I apologize.
I don't have, like, the PDF document that it looks like the lawyer's head.
But I do have everything that I can pull up one by one.
Is that okay?
And you guys can see that right now?
You can see your screen.
You should start sharing.
Thank you.
So I will have to get back in because this deed here is not the right one.
this is the original one and i'll get that right after i pull up everything else okay so the first
document that i'm pulling up i'm sorry this is tanya miss brown it looks like it's spinning
on our end does everyone see it's spinning it's spinning miss brown how about if you turn off
your video and then try to start and see if that helps with the um the sharing
um you're going in and out i think it's tech um technical
it might be low bandwidth how about if you um did you um take down your video
turn your video off
I think now she's frozen.
There she is.
Yeah, I think I froze.
I'm sorry.
I'm freezing over and over again.
So do me a favor and turn your put a line through your video.
Just hit the camera.
And that way it won't affect your sharing.
Hopefully.
And I'm sorry, I didn't hear a thing you guys just said.
Can you guys please say that again?
Can you turn off your video?
Oh, sure.
Okay, so I stopped my video.
Now try sharing again and see if it works.
Okay, thank you.
I think that's better.