reading or the refusal or stipulate towards accuracy yes have you emailed in all the required
documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of
this hearing yes thank you please proceed and you can share your screen okay thank you no problem
okay can you see the photo we can sir okay thank you so again my name is daniel reisman i represent
the applicant keegan smith i've handed up or submitted in advance of the hearing exhibits a
through 10 which you can see on the side they include the letters and support that mr chair
There are mentioned photos of the property, the zoning posters, the tax clearance certificate, the deed and the lease.
the application is for the approval of personal services at this property and specifically
an indoor baseball and softball training center for youth boys and girls that would serve the
neighborhood the parkwood neighborhood in the city examples of groups groups that would be
served are the somerton youth organization elite baseball pensbury gym softball uh this is a direct
photo of the property but i'm going to first go to the zoning map
you'll see here is the property at the corner of mcnulty road and southampton road um
my client is leasing the space in suite 104 which as i mentioned is approximately 5 000
square feet it's um and it's in the parkwood neighborhood in the far northeast corner of the
city the zoning is industrial one the reason for the variance is that personal services are not
permitted in i1 here's a google map showing the property and what you'll see is number one
the use is very consistent there are a variety of uses first of all within the building
They're not able to fully lease up the building for all industrial uses, so this is an example of another use.
The board actually approved on December 6, 2023, so about a month ago, the board actually approved the exact same use of personal services for a fitness facility called Erica's Fitness, which is immediately adjacent in the same building.
You'll also see across the street is another fitness center, and then the armory is about a block away, and there's an urgent care here.
So it's very consistent.
There's just a variety of uses in this neighborhood and in the building itself.
Just to show you a few photos, again, here's the property head-on.
You'll see that there's ample parking at the property.
And these are some surrounding views from the property and the surrounding area.
Here's the armory that I mentioned.
You'll see it's a very, you know, spread out area, not high density.
here's the fitness center fitness and dance center that's right across the street
and then i want to i'll show you the key plan so you can get an understanding of
where the space is within the building
this rectangular shape right here is the 5 000 square feet as i mentioned the board approved
the same use it's an immediately adjacent space over here that was approved at the december 6
hearing
so to summarize the building can't be used
for all industrial uses. So they're leasing it for some other uses that we think fit very well
into both the building uses and the neighborhood, in this case, personal fitness. It's very
consistent with the uses in the neighborhood. The use certainly does not have any adverse
impact on the neighborhood and has a very beneficial use in that it serves the community
and children. And as the chair mentioned, the council, Councilman O'Neill sent in a letter of
support and the RCO, the Parkwood Civic Association voted, the board voted 5-0 in support and the
attendees voted 16-0 in support. So it also has very strong community support. And that's the end
of my presentation. If the board has any questions, I can answer those or my client.
Why don't you bring your client on and adopt your testimony?
Why don't you bring your client on and adopt your testimony?
Keegan Smith, if you would raise your hand.
Keegan Smith.
Keegan Smith has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court sonographer?
Keegan Smith, K-E-G-A-N-S-M-I-T-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Smith, did you hear my testimony today?
And is it true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
And you adopt it as your own?
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
i see no hands at this time chair planning commission thank you chair bergman and good
afternoon david effecta with the city planning commission chairman and board members the
comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from industrial one general
industry to industrial two general industry this property is located in one of the city's few
remaining intact industrial preservation areas 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 use variance for proposed personal
services. Thank you. MI 2023-005-952-12285 McNulty Road. I vote yes with proviso. Use limited to
suite 104. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. James Snell, my vote is yes with proviso.
Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes with proviso. Thank you, counsel. You have your votes. Thank you,
Mr. Chair. Number five, MI 2023-005-893-2214 West Ontario Street. Rachel Pritzker is the attorney.
letter of support
from Allegheny West
Civic Association
Mr. Chair
this is Hillary
we also just received
a letter of support
with provisos
from Swampoodle
Neighborhood
Parcels Association
okay thank you
Chair Rachel Fritzker
is coming back in
as a panelist now
my counsel
could you
hi could you state
your name please
the spell for the
court stenographer yes uh rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes could you identify your client
relationship to the property uh yeah my client is uh zev um he the llc is
second uh sd realty llc and he is the uh owner of that llc and our vice chair has just a few
questions sure good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate
towards accuracy yes have you emailed in all the required information uh the documents and
exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing
yes thank you please proceed and share your screen okay and just bear with me i'm a little
sick today so if i sneeze or whatever no problem i feel better thank you okay
can you see my screen it's up
yep yep okay so this is the refusal uh for 2214 west ontario um this so this site is zoned i2
uh it's an existing uh structure we are looking to do an addition on this existing structure
um and uh with our plans what we have logan dry go through in a minute and we're proposing um
Use for multifamily, 63 dwelling units with 40 accessory surface parking spaces, including two van accessible spaces and three electrical vehicle spaces and 21 Class A bike spaces as well.
The project generated a number of refusals, which I will go through, including landscape buffering, some parking considerations for loading and drive aisles and through driveway and interior parking and off-street loading and multifamily use, given it is in I2.
I just want to give you sort of a visual of this site. This is the building here. It's an existing warehouse. It's been baked.
This is the building here. It's an existing warehouse. It's been vacant for a significant amount of time. It's actually never had any buy-write uses, although it's been zoned. It was like G2 and now I2.
This is a really great adaptive reuse project. As you can see, kind of bound by train tracks, a bunch of vacancy on the right side of the screen and some industrial and mixed use properties on the other side of the train tracks.
This building was a factory and a warehouse that's been vacant since at least 2019, according to L&I.
But images of the property show that really there hasn't been much going on since at least 2015.
Regarding the use variants for multifamily, we believe that I-2 designation prohibiting residential causes an unnecessary hardship
because the property is just ill-equipped for rental or sale of any uses that are permitted in
the I-2 district. It's a smaller multi-story structure with one singular vehicular access
point with about a 15-foot wide drive aisle with no ability to expand that given the surrounding
properties and the building's existing condition. It's also directly adjacent to some residential
properties, as you can see from the screen, making it a really poor candidate for modern-day
industrial use, and also given it's not close to any easy access points to the highways, which is
important for industrial. Again, for those reasons, we can't really obtain a user that would be
beneficial for I2, a buy-right non-variance proposal. The property was originally owned by
an outreach ministry, and according to the city's archives, again, it had never been used for a
by-right purpose for at least the last 27 years. With this adaptive reuse project, it's important
to note that we spent probably a year fixing violations on the property that had come from
the prior owner, specifically related to some make-safe structural work. So there was a
significant amount of structural work done to this property, in addition to erecting new load-bearing
walls, repairing the roof, floor, ceilings, repairing exterior masonry walls in order to
make sure that the violation was cured and that this is a safe structure. With that in consideration,
the number of dwelling units, 63, played a role in that. In addition, also making sure that there
was sufficient space use of this building in addition to stairs and exits and things of that
nature. And so that's sort of the reasoning for the 63 units, in addition to making sure that we
can provide something with a reasonable price point and also that can actually be financed in
this current market. The code related to sort of non-uses, just to go through them quickly,
the code mandates a landscape buffer between the property and the adjacent railroad tracks,
but it's a bit unnecessary because the area is already paved and we'd have to remove the
paved service in favor of a planted surface, which would reduce the area available for parking and
trigger other refusals in addition to the safe maneuvering of residents' vehicles and service
vehicles just to create just more green on the property. So the balance of that really didn't
create any substantial public benefit, especially because it's on the extreme northwest corner
of the property. So it's not really directly adjacent to any of the surrounding residences
and it's not visible by the street. The code also mandates installing screening between the
parking lot driveway and adjacent residents. It's also a hardship that creates no public benefit
because the driveway, which is only 15 feet wide, cannot be made narrower. Otherwise,
Otherwise, it won't be able to safely accommodate any safe vehicles, any turning around.
And it already, again, is narrow.
It can't be widened either to then additionally accommodate landscaping.
So we believe that with what we've provided on our plans, we have an adequately safe buffer.
And more importantly, we have the correct maneuverability for cars to come in and out, which is, I think, a little bit more important than landscaping just in this particular instance.
We also wanted to make sure that we were able to include as many parking spaces as possible, as that was one of the community concerns as well.
So the change off of landscaping versus parking was a little bit tough, especially because we're working with an existing site.
We weren't going to demo portions of the building, and we certainly were not going to do underground parking.
The request that we've asked for as far as the use and some of these buffering and parking considerations, we believe are the least modification of the code.
And as the chairman mentioned, we do have support from the both of the RCOs and the coordinating RCO.
And I'd like to have Logan Dry come on just to go through our plans briefly and then happy to take questions and bring my client on as well.
Well, counsel, before your client comes on, the records say back 10 years ago, there was a project here approved.
The records say back 10 years ago, there was a project here approved for 40 units. Is that right?
On Atlas? Is that where you're looking?
Yeah, it says 2014 ZBA approved 40 dwelling units, but the permit was never picked up.
Yeah, I wasn't around for that project and it wasn't.
Oh, I know. I'm aware. Yeah.
Yeah, no, I think to your point, Chairman, this project has gotten approved for multifamily by this board, you know, 10 years ago at this point.
So obviously at that point, consider it reasonable. I would just offer that the 63 units is a function of now the market 10 years later. And again, we did do probably a year's worth of work on the structural side of this project, which I was heavily involved with.
So is do you see a Logan dry in the audience?
Logan dry has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Sarah, could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Logan Dry, L-O-G-A-N-D-R-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Logan, are you able to share your screen and go through the plans for the board?
If you can share it, I can go through it because I'm actually between site visits now, so I'm on my phone.
Give me a second.
Do you see my screen, Logan?
am i pulling up the right plans yep there's a lot going on but in general um you know the site plan
we submitted to the city as rachel mentioned um you know it's an existing three-story industrial
building that fronts ontario and in the back um you know we integrated using the existing paved
areas um we put in 40 parking spaces we did do some landscaping just to dress it up a little bit
But it wasn't the level that, you know, was required by the code.
But again, you know, as Rachel mentioned, just based on the existing conditions and what, you know, we were buffering with the train track, you know, we couldn't meet those without probably, you know, reducing by another 20 parking spaces.
So we figured, you know, 40 was a good amount of parking spaces.
You know, we have some minimal landscaping that we were able to integrate as part of the design.
But, you know, the overarching theme back there was getting, you know, as many parking spaces as possible, the correct number of ADA spaces and still maintaining enough space for, you know, safe two-way drive aisles in and out of the site.
um the the sort of little plus hatch that you see there in the back we are adding that small
one-story addition off the rear um again not exceeding or changing the building footprint
at all everything's um you know within the existing building footprint outside of that addition
um this is a typical floor plan you know most of these plans look exactly the same because it's
you know, the same building plate. But, you know, again, we've got 63 units. We've got 21 units per
floor. They're a mix of, you know, one and two bedroom units. You know, we've got our two means
of egress that are required by code, as well as an elevator. So, you know, really, when we went
through and, you know, fit this out, you know, the name of the game was trying to get an efficient
unit mix um but also keep you know the the sort of ada accessibility and uh fire rating uh means
of egress in mind when we're trying to do this retrofit we do have you know the two means of