Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with proviso.
Number two, 2025-007-585-2129 Sybert Street.
i vote yes with proviso internal trash storage michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is no sonetta graham my vote is yes with proviso ryan mcadams my vote
is yes with proviso tye win my vote is yes with proviso number three mi2026 000 792 753 north
44th street i vote yes johnson my vote is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my
vote is no ryan mcadams my vote is yes i am when my vote is no number four mi 2025 007 186 36 15
spring garden street i vote yes temporary variance expires 4 29 29
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
i can see that oh okay so i'm sorry per amended refusal dated 4 17 76 it's a referral temporary
temporary uh variance expires 229 29. johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
tennetta graham my vote is yes with proviso i'm mcadams my vote is yes with proviso hi
owen my vote is yes with proviso and mr chair just a note for the record it's now a uh referral
special exception yeah so just temporary special exceptions at the temporary variance so just you
don't have to revote. I'm just clarifying for the record. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's
interesting. We're going to start. Number one will be case five, MI 2025, 007, 641, 254 to 60 South 24th
Street. Elaine Hong is the appellant.
This application is for a third floor above roof deck opening at the third floor about, here it is here,
above a teen two-story building for use as a single-family household building
who's going to testify
he's going to work the computer for you all right could you do me a favor could you please
state your name and spell for the stenographer
yeah no is your you have to turn it on right
my name is elena huang it's e-l-e-n and the last name is h-u-a-n-g right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do our vice chair has a few questions for
you okay good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of
hearing we have okay and oh go ahead all right nope all right so um so you have uh two refusals
do you waive the reading of the refusals or do you stipulate to the accuracy of the refusals
okay so your refusals you have two refusals right do you stipulate to their accuracy do
you know what your refusals are i can read them to you if you need me to no i understand
all right okay all right so thank you you can show your screen and proceed and the center city
residents associations is a non-opposition correct all right share your screen so my name is elena
huang as i stated before um this is my husband larry leso he is the stated um appellant on the
file but i'm the homeowner so we weren't sure i i'm happy with that hillary okay that's what i
thought okay okay all right um thank you so much we're proposing to renovate and expand our single
family one-bedroom property into a two-bedroom property. The second bedroom will be created by
adding a third story. A portion of that third story will contain a small roof deck and the
property will remain as stated a single-family dwelling. ZBA approval is needed because there
dwelling zba approvals needed because there are two variances that we're requesting the first is for
are two variants.
section 14 305 6d for non-conforming structures the existing rear wall of the first and second
story is non-conforming under the current code section 14 701 2b7 the required rear yard depth
for the lots less than 45 feet deep is seven feet and the existing rear yard depth is 5.54 feet
under section 14 305 6d a vertical extension of the rear wall does that does not conform to the
code is not permitted as the existing rear yard does not conform a variance is required from
section 13 14 305 60 to allow for the extension of the wall for the proposed third story
So that's the first. The second is for 146045A for roof decks. This requires that roof decks be set back at least five feet from the front building line. The proposed roof deck has zero setback from the front building line, and a variance would be required from the section to allow for that construction.
What do you do in your words? Tell us what you want to do.
So we'll go from there.
He's a land survey and civil engineer. He wrote what I'm supposed to say.
Oh, well, you know, I mean, why did you listen to him?
I was practicing last night.
My understanding, my layperson understanding of this situation is that essentially for the first piece about the third floor, that it would need to be 18 inches set back from the existing first and second floor, which would then require a wonky design to even be able to support them the roof above it.
And then also be a concern in terms of water, right? So you would have this ledge of 18 inches that's set at the top of that first and second floor that would be sticking out if the third floor were set back according to code.
So that's our understanding is that, you know, we're trying to request the third floor to match the first and second floor extension.
And then the roof deck, the goal here is because of the layout of the existing structure, which he's showing now, where the plumbing and mechanical systems exist for us to then be able to carry that forward to the new proposed floor, the third floor in the roof deck is that the existing stairs occupy the space to the right of the building existing bathrooms are currently in the back left portion.
So to be able to keep those structures in place as we move the third floor in, we, the roof deck pretty much can kind of sit only in that front left position.
And I think so I said stairs, I said plumbing, let me make sure I've got everything else there.
So I see the building next door is most of the block three stories.
Most of the block is three stories, you are better.
Yes, correct.
And to also clarify about the other houses on the block a roof deck closer than 5 feet to the front building line would still be in character for the neighborhood there.
As you can see, my neighbor also has a roof deck that also comes to the front of the building, and we have a list of other and pictures of other similar roof decks in the area.
Summary of the RCO meeting, that was February 24, 2026 with the CCRA. We presented this and
they granted their decision to not oppose the request. We then have many photos and proposed
plans that we can share in answering these questions. Why are you doing it? Why are you
doing it? Why don't you tell us why you're doing it? Do you want more space? This was my home for
many years until we got married, had two kids and moved to the suburbs. I've been able to
rent the home out to pretty good tenants over the years. Most of them stay for a year to
three years. And we do find that it's an awkward space, kind of a funny building that only
has one bedroom. So it's a little bit tougher to find the right tenants who are going to
take good care of the place and enjoy living there. So we often have people like, oh, you
to do a second bedroom is there another option for um us and our family to be there you know
having a child having a roommate those are all things that we've kind of run into in terms of
finding good tenants so there's only one bedroom in the current only one bedroom so you're doing
this to put an extra bedroom in like a little deck outside that yes and you know to be truthful
it's an old old building so um you know we have this discussion from a construction and cost
Do we just renovate it and leave it as is? Do we make it in the existing structure into a very small two bedroom option? And we're attempting here to think about try to make it a really nice place for people to stay.
Okay. Questions from the board.
Questions from the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience or this current audience here?
Mr. Chair, I do not see any other answers for the matter.
Planning Commission.
Amy, board with the Planning Commission, AY, B-O-Y-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
The Comprehensive Plan recommends no change in zoning at this location to the RSA 5 Residential
Single Family.
The proposed addition will have minimal impact on surrounding properties.
However, the Appellant has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions
or circumstances of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with
the zoning code for roof setback.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the requested variance for extension
of the rear yard non-conformity and deny the requested variance for the roof deck setback
thank you mi2025-007-641-258-60 south 24th street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tanetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
I win my vote is yes you you have your votes okay thank you very much thank you
you're very good by the way I'm just good presentation not my day sound
number one MI 2024 003 927 545 5344 Ray Street
Moomin Islam is the owner.
What's that?
And great attorney.
Okay, Moomin is the great, great, great, green, green, green eagler.
Oh, the green eagle program.
All right.
You don't have to stay, by the way.
You don't have to stay unless you want to stay for the rest of the day.
Mr. Chair, Moomin Islam will be back in Ezebubanaga shortly.
good afternoon council could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yes mukman
m-u apostrophe m-i-n last name is islam i-s-l-a-m as in mary you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client a relationship
to the property uh my client is uh green eagle properties uh they are the owner of the property
53 44 ray street and the 44th ward has unanimous support for you and our vice chair has a few
questions all right good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days
in advance of this hearing uh i have submitted them from previous hearings um i did send some
updates that were uh sent in a couple of days ago i had given the new tax clearance and the poster
okay thank you and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do all right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case all right thank you
all right
there you go you're coming up now sir
All right.
Give me one second.
All right.
I apologize. Good afternoon. My name is Mukmin Islam. I'm an attorney and I'm with Ace Law.
I am here to present regarding this property. This property is 5344 Race Street. As you can
see right here, this is the front facing of the property. I'll get a little bit into the
detail with about it in a minute, but what we're asking for is generally speaking is
minute but what we're asking for is generally speaking is a rsa rsa3 and we're asking for it
to RSA, RSA,
to be modified to allow for a duplex and i'll explain to you why we're asking for legalization
today as opposed to this is not new development this was already built as it was constructed
and my clients and um are wishing to have it as a duplex based upon um the structure that they were
they they have when they moved into it all right I should say acquired it
okay can I get this move
it's my screen moving not sure all right there we go it did not move there bring
this down all right let's try it now there we go all right give it a little background on the
property hold up hold up it didn't move it moved now it did not move stop sharing and then reshare
All right, I'm going to re-share.
Re-share.
you see the screen now it should come up but I it hasn't come up yet
there you go all right rather than showing in the presentation mode it seems like my computer is not
cooperating so i'm just going to show it in the format here as you can see just to give you a
brief description of the owners green eagle properties the primary owner samuel yuxel
he is the managing member of that entity they are currently have several development properties
that they're working on or have either managing or are developing the list is here there's 900
east shelton is another project that was approved by this board 1818 south canastoga 1325 linden
world um currently they're managing those other three properties and as i mentioned earlier my
name is mukman islam and i will be i am the attorney on this file a brief overview as i
mentioned earlier what the developer is trying to do is to have this legalized i'll show you a little
bit in a minute on the floor plan but there's already a current structure where it's two separate
units essentially that were created. It's not
two inches, which is something we would like to propose, but what we're asking for
is currently it's a RSA3, and we're asking for it to be
an RM1, or at least just to give the legalization to utilize it as a
duplex.
Did something happen to my screen or not?
It did not move yet.
You see it says overview now? I see the overview, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's where I'm at.
That's where I am. Just give you a little explanation. I'll show you the grid in a second. The properties around this unit are somewhat mixed use. There is a unit that's on a corner that is a three story unit and a three unit construction that was recently constructed. So that's that there. And then also you'll see that there are on several parts of this corner on these blocks. You'll see that there is some commercial activity.
So the use that we're asking for as a duplex would not change the current structure of the neighborhood, and it wouldn't necessarily impact it with additional traffic and things of that nature.
Lastly, regarding the tax clearances, the tax clearances, I want to demonstrate that.
Now here is right here what I was talking about as far as what the current layout is.
The property that we're talking about is around this area.
What you have is you see some CMX, CMX, CMX, and then you also see some other commercial properties.
So there is some commercial activity in the area. Some of them are corner stores. I understand one of them may be a daycare or at least some type of home health care type of program. And that's what you have in the area. So it's not completely just residential. And then secondly, if you look at this map, this is a very good map as well, because you'll see the same thing here. So the orange represents the commercial or other activity. I don't think it's commercial, but the purple is the commercial.
and you'll see this one right here this is where my client's property is right
where my client's property is right on this street here on ray street so it's right about here so
on this street here on Ray Street so it's right about here so you'll see that
you'll see that there's two commercial right near in that area which one thing i would say that my
client did purchase the property with the understanding that it was a duplex at least
based upon how it was currently construed at the time i'll show you some pictures of the inside so
you can see how it's hard this is already things that were done when they walked into the unit
and what you can see is here as you can see there's already a pre-existing uh i would say
for the elect uh not electricity but the um the appliances so the gas and or um electricity is
coming already because they already had um when my clients purchased the property the built-in
kitchen on one level and this is the second floor then you look at the first floor very similar it's
already set up with that structure um it looks like as you can see uh i believe maybe one word
here but you'll see already in this unit that there's already this structure where you'll see
it as if there's one floor going this way and one floor going that way and um when my clients
purchased the property um when they walked in and saw it like that that's what they thought that it
was already zoned as which is why they're asking for the legalization today uh this is the back of
oh i'm sorry this is right here this is more of the basement um as you can see right here you
already have the two not different lines because I do think they're all in one
line but you see the pump here which is a brand new pretty much was already was
installed by my clients and it's already there available to fit out or provide
services for both units here is the back just to show you a picture what the back
of the unit looks like this development at least of the repairs or the you know
the furnishing up they did do the back stucco and things of that nature so they
have done the back now I'll show you the neighboring unit so this is the clients
this is the property of 5344 so right here you can see this is the unit and
as you see right here even this bigger this is the taller one that I mentioned
that I believe did recent construction within the past five to ten years and in
doing so now they have three units so you literally have a unit here unit there
and a unit on top I'll show you a little bit of the floor plan what the what what