and the refusal is not for parking in open area, but for parking in the rear yard.
This is a multifamily.
There are steps, as you will see from the design, that lead up by the rear yard.
It's not really a space that's open.
It's just not like you walk out the back of the ground floor unit into the rear yard area.
so it's not something that even if we weren't parking there would be readily utilized by
you know naturally utilized by any of the units and again you can see the three-foot alley
which even we can't that's not part of our property we can't count it as open area or
rear yard space but does provide an additional buffer between our property and the houston
street properties behind us okay um here is a rendering of our property you can see this right
here. We've created bay windows all around, lots of air and light. We have two entrances. We've
tried to make it look like a single family dwelling as much as possible. So you have the
one entrance off of Trenton Avenue, and then the separate entrances, and you can see outdoor space
for each of the units, ground floor units, even with the parking in the rear yard. We have a
kind of a deck off the back of the ground floor, back of the second, that's a flat. Third floor is
a flat. They have a rear deck or balcony, and then the roof deck for their own personal use.
Based upon our meeting with the community, we enclosed the trash. Trash will be stored exterior
here, but there is a trash enclosure to shield it from view. But we designed this, the architect
designed this specifically to have it, even though it's not a single family, to have it read or feel
like it looks and look like a single-family dwelling by having the entrances, two separate
entrances, and this will read like the main primary entrance to a single-family dwelling.
Real quickly, our floor plans, you have a bi-level at the ground floor and the first floor
totaling over almost 1,500 square feet, over 1,400 square feet, so a nice size unit,
and then the second and third floor flats are almost 1,000 square feet. So we're not cramming
a lot in here in terms of making a bunch of 500 square foot units. Each of the units is a decent
size. One of the things we discussed at the community group meeting was the lack of and was
brought up by some members at that meeting, some members of the community at that meeting,
was a lack of market rate, more affordable housing. I'm not using affordable in the sense
that we often see it used with the affordable housing bonus in the zoning code. But if this
were to be a single family dwelling and looking at the property values, the homes that are selling,
let's say across the street or further up Trenton Avenue, you're talking $600,000, $700,000
homes where the prices that we're looking at for these units are more in keeping with somebody
who's trying to buy something, their first home. Again, we went through the Sanborn maps.
My client, here's a copy of the deed at tab 14 showing that my client owns the property,
the tax compliance certificate at tab 15 a copy of the hearing notice that was posted at the
property is at tab 16 the photos of posting along both frontages of the property is at
tab 17 and a tab 18 is the 14 303 notice that we sent out uh in advance of the community group
meeting and you can see a certificate of first class mailing and all the addresses that it went
out to about 87 well went out to 87 addresses and again we have a letter of support from ecna the
east kensington neighborhood association you can see that there was 19 in support only one opposed
and one um and not up non-opposition so effectively 20 to one and then we have the um letter of
non-opposition from councilwoman lazada's office so we believe that there is uh there's a hardship
appear long-standing vacant property with some unique surrounding physical conditions some man
with some unique surrounding physical conditions some man mostly man-made across the street our
parking is not taking any on-street parking across the street even though we're parking the rear yard
because of the surrounding buildings the alley to the rear of us the orientation of those buildings
the impact should not be what is anticipated in having that provision of the zoning code and again
And we feel that the number of units, even though it's not permitted under zoning code for the current zoning classification of the property is RSA-5.
We question whether this property should be zoned RSA-5, particularly when you take into account its history, as well as the non-single family uses of a lot of surrounding properties to the subject premises.
And with that, I would have the architect and my client quickly adopt my statements.
So Alex Duller from FUSA Design.
sir could you state your name and spell please for the court reporter
hello hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter
alex duller d as in david u l l e r right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel thank you mr bergman um uh alex you heard my statements
today? I did. And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge? They are. And would
you adopt them as your own? I would. Thank you, Alex. And then I have Lawrence Kalasauskas,
who's here representing, who is the property owner or here representing the property owner,
the LLC. Okay. Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Lawrence Kalasauskas, L-A-U-R-Y-N-A-S, last name, K-A-L-A-S-A-U-S-K-A-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Chairman Bergman.
Lawrence, did you hear the statements that I made to the zoning board today?
I did.
And are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
And would you adopt them as your own?
I would.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
Mr. Chairman.
Do you have a question?
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No further hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay. Planning Commission.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. David Vecto, City Planning Commission. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location. There is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code. City Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the proposal.
Thank you. MI 2022-007-003-2144 East Norris Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holland, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Mr. Orphanidis, we'll see you, I guess I'm hoping in about 15, 20 minutes.
I will be here awaiting.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman Bergman.
Number 10, MI 2022-006-981-1435 West Gerard Avenue.
Alan Notcomson is the attorney.
letter of support from the United Neighbors Alliance Civic Association.
Mr. Nockmson, just state your name for the record, please.
Allen, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is 1435 W. Gerard Associates, LLC.
And in the virtual audience is its member, Steve Shobleski.
Okay, our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exited to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have.
Thank you. Please proceed to share your screen.
Thank you.
All right, so a straightforward project, hold on, I'm in full screen mode, I'm not going
I'm not going to full screen. All right, well, we're not doing full screen mode today for this one. So 1435 West Gerrard Avenue, corner 15th and Gerrard, a little couple blocks away from the Broad Street line, has been a vacant lot for some time, and we're looking to put a 13-unit apartment building on this CMX4 property.
to full screen mode.
So we'll review the notice of refusal, a letter of support from the United Neighbors Alliance Civic Association.
One of our refusals has to do with a requirement of off-street parking, and we'll show you that it's out of character for this part of the neighborhood,
especially since we're on the Broad Street, adjacent to the Broad Street line, a trolley line, and a bus line to have off-street parking in the neighborhood.
And one of the reasons why we received so much support, I believe, is because the neighbors didn't want us to take parking lot for the street by way of any curb cuts.
We'll then review maps of the area, photographs of the property, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice where we had a well-attended meeting.
I believe 20 people voted in support of this project.
our application for appeal that we filed with the ZPA, our deed to the property, and our
certificate of tax clearance. You know, in the virtual audience is Steve Shobleski, who I will
ask to virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and to adopt my testimony as his own. First things
first is the notice of refusal. Again, this is a CMX4 property. We could, you know, build higher,
but we chose not to because we built it as out of character with the Niagara Heights.
So we're looking to do a 13-unit apartment building.
One of our refusals actually has to do with the fact that we're building less than six stories.
Because we're building only five stories, we're required to have an open area essentially of 10% of the lot.
We have 100% lot coverage here.
Again, if we were six stories, we would be allowed to do that as a matter of right.
Even though this is a CMX4 property, given the dynamics of the neighborhood and the scale of the neighborhood, five stories is more than enough.
And you'll see through our design, we're very cognizant of the fact where we are in the neighborhood.
We even sat back a little bit on Gerrard Avenue to kind of mix well with the neighborhood.
it. So the first refusal has to do with the fact that we're being mindful of where we're in the
neighborhood. And we would ask for that variance as a result. Second refusal has to do with off
street parking, where technically, and we oppose this section of the code, we think that the
refusal should be three off street parking spots, not four, but neither here nor there. We believe
that um having off-street parking on this corner uh would you know not would be a dangerous
situation first of all from a traffic point of view and i personally live not that far from this
part of the neighborhood so i i drive down gerard avenue quite often and it's at a snail's pace so
having parking off-street parking turning into our property would make the traffic a lot worse
Second, requiring curb cuts, where essentially it would be on a curb cut by curb cut basis where we would lose a parking spot on the street to provide a parking spot off of the street with something that the neighborhood did not want.
And again, in this part of the neighborhood where we are, just off of the Broad Street line, the trolley service, and bus transportation, it would be really out of character to have off-street parking of this sort.
Most properties in this part of the neighborhood do not have off-street parking, which are CMX4 in nature.
So we did get a letter of support from the United Neighbors Alliance Civic Association.
This is the updated letter of support.
The other letter of support that I believe you received earlier last week shows the vote count, where it shows 19 votes in support and none in opposition.
So again, unanimous support for this project.
Then afterwards, in my presentation materials, we did an analysis.
We looked at the nearby CMX4 properties, which are multifamily in nature, which have no accessory off-street parking.
And you can see here, there are 10 other instances, essentially within a block, that are of the similar accord.
So 1420, 1431, 1422, 1427, 1425, 1416, 1426, 1424, 1430, 1432 West Gerard Avenue are each CMX4, each multifamily in nature, and each of them do not have off.
Each multifamily in nature, and each of them do not have off-street parking, which is technically required under the code.
So what we're proposing falls in line with what do we expect in this part of the city.
And then this is just the backup permits that we looked up public records as well for each of those properties.
And then the maps of the area, again, we're on West Gerard, 15th and West Gerard.
you can see we're blocked off from the broad street line here and the photographs of the
property this has been a vacant lot for some time so this is from 15th street this is in 2007 that's
as far as google earth goes back for this property and as you can see it's been a vacant lot for some
time and then just a proof of bar hearing notice postings from both 15th street side and then
Girard Avenue street side. And then Girard Avenue to the right of the property, Girard Avenue to the
left of the property, North 15th Street to the right of the property, North 15th Street to the
left of the property. As you can see, there's really not much off-street parking that's dead
from an accessories standpoint. And then our plans and drawings. What we really did try to do,
even though we're five stories, as you can see, we are set back on the fifth story, even on
uh gerard we just wanted to really fit well within the the height of the community in general again
if we did a six story we would be allowed 100 lock coverage but we thought that was inappropriate
because it would just hover over those other properties and then this is just our elevations
and site planning and then here are some more renderings of the elevation
and then this is just our floor plans um every floor uh has anywhere um uh every floor has two units
and then um our our hearing excuse me community meeting notice we had a meeting on may excuse me
march 8th at you know at 6 p.m 114 addresses were notified of that meeting those addresses
proof of mailing to those addresses or application for appeal that 14 35 w gerard associates llc
filed with this board the notice of refusal the project information form our deeds of property
showing them the client owns the property and finally the certificate of tax funding showing
And then my client owes no money to the city with respect to real estate taxes as to his property.
With that being said, I would ask that Mr. Shobleski personally raise his hand.
He's been allowed to speak.
Sir, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, my name is Steve Shklovsky, S-T-E-V-E-S-H-K-L-O-V-S-K-Y.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do proceed sir uh yeah steve uh you heard everything i had this uh uh state about your
zoning matter today i did and is it true and correct it is and do you adopt as your own
testimony i do thank you questions from the board no chair no mr no mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience.
Mr. Chair, there is a Toastman postman
with their hand raised.
I'm going to speak at this time.
Hi, could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court reporter?
Hi, yes.
My name is Sean Smek, S-H-A-W-N-S-M-E-C-K.
I do apologize about that.
Hold on.
Hold on.
Hold on.
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth is nothing but the truth
yes and you're
you're are you live in the
area 1435 West Broad
yes I live just adjacent
two doors down to the left at 1431
proceed
proceed okay
yes for that