our deed to property showing that sjc real estate is the owner of the property
and our certificate of tax clearance the only balance we have and there is a balance of 26 76
42 is because that's for real estate taxes for 2023 and those are not due until uh march 31st
of 2023 with that being said i'm going to unshare my screen i would ask that mr cooks
virtually raise his hand
Mr. Cook, could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter?
Hold on, sir. His hand is not raised. Mr. Cooks, if you're still in the virtual audience,
please raise your hand. Okay. He has been allowed to speak, sir. Okay.
Hi. State your name and spell it, please, for the court reporter.
Got T. Cooks. S-H-A-T-E-E. Cooks. C-O-O-K-S. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed, counsel.
Excuse me. Mr. Cooks, you heard everything I had to say about your zoning matter.
Yes, sir. And it's a term, correct? Yes, sir. And do you adopt it as your own testimony? Yes, sir.
Thank you. Questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman. No, Mr. Chairman.
No, no, Mr. Chairman. Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
To no further hand. My planning commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning. Properties indicated for residential use on the city plan or adopted district plan recommends no change to existing residential single-family zoning. Multifamily uses here is not in character with the block. The applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances that would prevent it from being used in conforming with the code. Therefore, we recommend the request for vans not be granted.
Okay, thank you. MI 2022-004-952-1250 North 18th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you, Counselor.
Thank you. Have a great day.
All right. MI-2022-004-927-1520-22 Arridge Street. Brandon Savron is the attorney.
Letter of support from Frankfort Neighborhood Advisory Council. Letter of non-opposition from Council Member Lozada.
He's rejoining as a panelist, sir.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Hi, counsel. How are you? Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes. Brandon Saverin, spelled S as in Sam, A, B as in Victor, R-A-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Do you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
My client is ASV Properties, LLC. They are the owner of the property.
Okay. And Mr. Hallman has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay. Good afternoon, members of the board. I haven't been here in a while, so I hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Good to be back.
I hope on my screen you can see the refusal for this case. This case concerns the legalization
I hope on my screen you can see the refusal for this case.
of an existing building. So there is no construction proposed by this application.
The refusal here is because the uses that were last in the building and that we're proposing
to reactivate are not permitted in this zoning district, which is RSA 3. So really, there's
technically three different refusals, but they all really say the same thing. What was last in
the building was a restaurant on the first floor and four apartments across the second and third
floors, so four apartments total. My client purchased this property, I believe, in early 2020
after a prior owner, who perhaps was not really up to snuff in terms of the maintenance of the
property, chose to help get out of some L&I violations by pulling a vacant structure license.
So my client came in and is attempting to, you know, get users back into the building.
And it needs to be re-permitted because that vacant structure license wipes away all prior permits, including zoning permits.
What I can tell you, and I'll show you in a moment, is essentially that the hardship here is that putting the building into really any other use than these uses, including single family home use, which is what the zoning code would require,
would be a tremendous expense. This is a unique property because you have two buildings that
still are separated by a firewall upstairs, but downstairs that wall is breached to create a
restaurant. So it's sort of a very unique structural situation and tinkering with it
would be a major undertaking that we're hoping to avoid. And that's why we're here today.
So let me show you some images of the area.
This is the zoning map.
So I'm going to try and adjust my screen here.
The property is on the corner of Aritt and Griscom streets.
And this here is the Aritt terminal, the station on the Market, Frankford Ale.
So we're one block off of that.
And as you can see, most of the properties in the vicinity are zoned CMX2.
In fact, we're here just beyond that in the beginning of this RSA3 zone.
But across the street, across Aritz Street here, is a sort of similar situation to what we're seeking to have.
It's an apartment above a dry cleaner.
And I'll show you an aerial photograph.
Thankfully, there has been a new potential tenant, a restaurant that has approached my client and expressed interest in, you know, taking space in that old restaurant space on our first floor.
And this is a PPA municipal parking lot open to the public right across the street from us.
So people who want to eat at the restaurant can park there, which is a wonderful thing.
Let me show you our letter of support from the RCO. The coordinating RCO is the Frankfurt
Neighborhood Advisory Committee. They chose to support the application after we had a meeting
that I attended with the client's representative, and I think there were about a half dozen folks
outside of the rep and myself who were in attendance.
To give you a little history of the property,
this is a zoning permit from 1962
that establishes, we believe,
the first record of the uses in the property
that have been there since
and that we're seeking to re-legalize.
So that is that there was a puncture
between 1520 and 1522 to make the one building on the first floor. That was, I think, what was
called here a bar lounge. And then there were apartments upstairs. This was filled out by the
applicant and is honestly a little hard to make sense of. Although if you read through it, I think
you'd come to the conclusion that it was a restaurant and four apartments. What's helpful
here is that there's an index card written by Ellen Dye that summarizes the permit. And it says
there bar dancing 1520 half of the building two families 1522 half of the building two families
1522 half of the building, two families. So that's where you get our total of four apartments that
so that's that's where you get our total
are still present. There is also a city survey that was in the zoning archive from 1945 that
just illustrates how this used to be considered two separate properties prior to the 60s. And
again, they were joined at the first level. Now they still today maintain two separate entrances
for the two apartments on this side
and the two apartments on this side
with the firewall in between,
which is a little bizarre,
but probably enhances the safety of the building
because it'd be very difficult for one fire
to affect both halves.
I think that beyond that,
I'm just going to show you some interior photographs.
This is a floor plan that my client had prepared.
It's a little hard to make sense of
because it uses text labels.
It's not graphical.
but here are some photos. So this is the property. Again, you know, we really need permits prior to
doing substantial renovation. So it looks a little drab, but this is sort of what we inherited.
This is where the restaurant space is. And there is sort of the perception that this used to be a
nuisance bar. This is going to be a sit down restaurant. We did not apply for, you know,
like a lounge or anything like that. And the RCO sort of heard us out,
actually got to speak to, I believe the proposed operator and is behind us.
This is sort of one half of the building. This is the other,
these are the apartments upstairs.
You can see how each half has the separate door I mentioned, but there,
this is all believe it or not connected on the bottom.
The restaurant occupies this whole space.
And then these are photos of the apartments,
which my client did make sort of cosmetic upgrades to already. Apologies, I don't have
these labeled, but you can see that these apartments are really ready to go. And it's a shame that we
can't have folks in there, but we will be able to have folks living there after we get this zoning
variance and then the CO and licenses that we'll need. That is my case. I have Carlos Giraldo
is the representative from the owner
if he's available to adopt my testimony.
All right, could you state your name, please,
and spell for the court reporter?
Good afternoon.
My name is Carlos Giraldo.
Carlos spells C-A-R-L-O-S,
Giraldo, G-I-R-A-L-D-O.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Carlos, did you hear the full extent of my testimony this afternoon?
I have.
And was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
It is.
And would you therefore adopt that testimony as if it were your own?
I do adopt the testimony as if it was my own.
And are you authorized to speak on behalf of ASV Properties, LLC?
Thank you.
My question is from the board.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
By Planning Commission.
This is Ron Bednar, City Planning.
While this property is currently indicated for residential on a city plan,
given the physical condition of the site and its documented use history,
recommend the request of answer to be granted.
Thank you.
MI 2022-004-927-1520-22 Arridge Street.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 2 p.m. case has not been called?
all right is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called
I'm sorry sir
I do not see any further hands at this
Okay we're going to take a five minute
Break and we'll come back and we only
Have a few cases to do on the
3.30 list okay so five minutes
We're back and Mr. Kelly you get set
For the 3.30
Thank you chair
All right
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello?
Hello?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes, Chair.
How are we looking?
Mr. Kelly, are you back?