devising a plan. And that plan consisted of community outreach. We created a mentoring
program, which we call it, it's a learn and earn program where we're exposing local brewery town
youth to commercial real estate by giving them a seat at the table and showing them the process
from acquisition to development to CO and letting them get exposure to the different aspects of
real estate from financing, law, community outreach, property management, etc. So we've
definitely become heavily involved with the community from that respect and trying to have
an impact. In addition to that, we've helped senior citizens with tax appeals and getting them
access and helping them understand different resources that the city is offering in tandem
with the Brewery Town Civic Association, which we've essentially almost worked out of
almost worked out of their offices on 30th and master. So I think we've created a pretty good
out of their offices on 30th and Master.
rapport and the other concerns around parking and affordability. We decided to add an affordable
unit in this building to kind of help with any of the concerns regarding affordability of rent.
And Josh, just real quickly on the parking. Isn't it true that providing the off-street
parking is what drives our our height refusal yes that is correct i mean we otherwise it would be a
four-story building which would could be built as a matter of right correct that is correct okay and
again during the meetings the prior meetings with the other project and then in this meeting as well
the community voiced uh serious concerns about mitigating having a project that um they looked
the number of units but also the number of bedrooms and then looked about whether or not
and how much off street parking was being provided correct and again we received a letter of non
opposition from the community group correct yes okay thank you thank you thank you and i don't
know if ian smith is on or not the architect i'm not sure to adopt my statements in our statements
regarding my statements regarding the design of the project is he on if you could raise his hand
not sure if he's on or not i see no hands
okay thank you any other questions from the board no mr chair thank you
mi 2022 003082 1525 north stillman street i vote no carol tinerian my vote is no
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you, Ms. Garfinides.
Number three, MI 2022, 002-112-4942 Germantown Avenue.
Jermaine Harris is the attorney.
letter of i believe support now from 12th ward democratic committee
am i right hillary on that yes that's correct mr chair it's they have not submitted a new
letter but it's my understanding from the council office that the coordinating rco is now in support
of this project. Thank you. Mr. Harris.
Yes, good morning. Hi, could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
Yes, it's Jermaine Harris, and I'm counsel for the owner, and my spelling, my name is J-E-R-M-A-I-N-E-H-A-R-R-I-S.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and their relationship to the property?
The client is Termantown Masjid and the president, Chris Jackson, is here.
And the address, the property address is 4942 Germantown Avenue.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Hi, Mr. Harris. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, 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 do.
Okay, great. You may proceed and begin to share your screen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm just pulling up the exhibits right now, sorry.
OK. Mr. Chair, this is Hillary. I just wanted to note quickly, the Councilwoman Bass is in support of the project.
Her position was not opposition, but her position now is support. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay. So again, this is for 4942 Germantown Avenue.
Again, this is for 4942 Germantown Avenue. And the application is that there is a seeking for this building to be, we're seeking for a use variance for this property to be used as a school.
Currently, right now, the property is being used for tutoring, and it's neighborhood and members, children within the community, within the Germantown community, and currently there's about 50, there is approximately 50 kids that go there, and this has been a staple within the community for the last three years.
My client purchased the property in 2017. And when they purchased the property, it was previously used as a, it was basically used as apartments.
It's in a CMX zone, a mixed-use zone, but it was used, all the floors were used specifically for, were used specifically for apartments, so the hardship here is that my client, he wouldn't be able to convert this to a mixed-use
without incurring substantial expense and converting it into a mixed-use manner.
The interior configuration is all rooms.
Now, I'll go through my exhibits.
Exhibit A is a listing of the posting of the zoning notice for the property.
And here we have the deed right here, evidencing ownership of Germantown Masjid.
we have here also this is a three-story building
and we have here the property details uh it's a 3900 square foot uh building so it's a it's a
pretty large building. We also have plans here. So we have essentially we have the front, we have
the first floor plan right here. As I'm pointing, we have a front entrance and then we have a side
entrance. There's two separate entrances in the front of the building, which I'll get to when I
get to the actual front photos. But then there's a lobby right here. You enter in. Then there's a
main lobby. You have a bathroom right here for the first floor. You have an office. And then you
have classrooms right here. That's the first floor. Second floor. As you go up to the second
floor. You have a classroom, another classroom. In the rear, another classroom, another classroom.
Bathrooms right here. Walk up the stairs, go to the third floor.
You would have a classroom, classroom. So the plan is for this, each classroom to
house approximately eight students per class. This is the front of the building. This is
one entrance. This is the side entrance of the building, which is an emergency exit.
So those are the two front entrances for the building.
Then we have just the individual rooms, which would be classrooms, stairs, door of a classroom, it's another room, another classroom.
uh let's see another room
another room this is the rear of the building which is the third exit uh for this uh building
uh for this uh building continuation of the rear
it's the tax clearance right here
it's the refusal letter uh it was previously it's a commercial district as i uh make as my statement
was before CMX. It was previously used as a three-family household apartment.
It's the appeal application.
I have here a letter. We had a community meeting and we had, it was on July the 12th
and there was significant community uh support for this there was a supporting of the there
were four rcos that were there uh faith cdc wakefield 49ers 12th ward and solo there was
a total of 38 people
that were
33 community members
a total, again, a total of
38 individuals that was
there. There were support
from two of the
there was support from two of the
there was an opposition
by the 12th Ward
and then there was a non-opposition
by SOLO
And, essentially, I'll just briefly, if I may, just discuss the concerns that the opposition RCO had.
They had concerns about the safety of the children being able to get in and out of the building.
And, unfortunately, this wasn't discussed at the RCO.
We didn't learn about this opposition or the concerns that they had.
until they sent this letter. Otherwise, we would have addressed it at the meeting itself.
But one of the main things was the lack of exits, and there are three exits there
to the building. Also, trash will be stored in the rear of the building through dumpster,
We're going to have a commercial dumping dumpster for that.
Also, as far as parking, my client owns two, they're going to offer off-site parking for their staff.
We anticipate on having three or four, because it's a small school, we anticipate on having three or four staff members, teachers there.
And the off-site parking would be 506 Germantown Avenue and 508 and 5010 Germantown Avenue, which my client owns.
My client has a very strong presence within the Germantown community area, which is why there was such a very good turnout and good support because they recognize what is being done here.
As far as congestion, there was issues concerning congestion, and as stated in this letter, my client plans on directing, first of all, they plan on hiring a crossing guard, a private crossing guard to assist with that,
and are going to instruct the parents of the children to drop off the children on the side
street, not on the main thoroughfare of Germantown Avenue, but on the side street of Seymour Avenue.
And so that should address the congestion issues. And we would just ask that given the fact that
there has uh been significant support there's support by the councilwoman um that this
uh variance be granted and i also have uh christopher jackson uh who who should be
online right now who can adopt these statements that i have mr jackson
i don't see a hand for mr for mr jackson but i have um it's could he be listed under another name
that's the jack hassan hassan imam yes all of them are women names
okay it may be his partner it may be his uh partner what what what name do you see i mean
It may be his partner.
What name do you see?
I mean, I'm sorry, Anya.
May I ask all to lower their hand and only the individual call.
Please raise your hand so we can promote you to speak.
Thank you kindly.
OK, thank you.
I think Amina was I Amina is also a representative of the.
And if she raised her hand, that's also a representative of my client.
We have someone by the name of Yassir.
He's barely able to speak.
Excuse me.
Okay, fine.
Hi, could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
caller please unmute yourself so you can speak
yeah i'm saying my name is yasir y-a-s-i-r
okay and could you state uh did you hear the test statements that i did wait a minute wait a minute
could you state your name again please and spell it sure yeah my name is yasir
y-a-s-i-r right do you do you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth yes proceed counsel yes could you state what your relationship is to the uh
to the germantown to the applicant uh germantown masjid please
i'm basically the um the treasurer in the masjid okay and did you hear the statements
that i uh made for this presentation yes i did and do you adopt those uh test that those statements
as if you made those statements on your own yes okay is there anything that you'd like to add or
would you that you like to add to what i stated or would you stand alone on what i stated
i would stand alone with what you said okay questions from the board no mr chairman
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Charles Richardson.
Good morning, Mr. Richardson.
You've already been sworn to state your name.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Charles Richardson from the Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 312 City Hall.
The Councilwoman has no objection to granting the variance,
But we do acknowledge the fact that there were safety concerns that were raised by all four RCOs, the three of which are supporting the granting of the variance as well.
SOLO is still opposed as far as I know at this point.
But Councilwoman has no opposition to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
Hi, Mr. Chair.
This is Tanya.
may I please respectfully interrupt and request that the witness provide a full name or did I
miss it I think that was his full name just the one name if we can verify on record I asked that
twice okay just want to make sure thank you any other comments from the virtual audience
yes chair we have someone first name miriam okay miriam could you state your name and spell it for
the court reporter please sure my name is miriam anor that's m-a-r-i-a-m last name a-n-n-o-r
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Okay, so currently I work as the school manager at Germantown Meschet Academy.
We've been in operation as a tutoring center for about eight years now, and we are requesting,
as Mr. Harris stated, to become a fully functional educational facility in order to register
with the Department of Education.
By doing this, we'll be able to provide full services to our students and our families.
We have a very small population, a small group of students that we service.
Some of the concerns that were brought up by the RCOs were not mentioned in the meeting.
However, we have taken extra measures as a part of our plan to address safety concerns, traffic concerns, and trash removal and things like that that were brought up.
For example, as relates to the...
For example, as relates to the emergency exits and safe evacuating students and staff out of the building in the event of an emergency, we have began training staff.
Teachers are aware of our disaster plan, which is in place.
We are basically following the similar protocols that other schools have in place without working under the umbrella as a school.
We have evacuation plans in each of our classrooms.
We have three exits, the two that Mr. Harris showed.
We also have the rear exit.
We have three floors and have designated a specific exit per floor.
Um, we are planning to work closely with the, um, fire department and, um, the department of education and also following what the school district does in terms of, um, monthly fire drills, uh, providing training, uh, providing other, uh, evacuation, uh, plans, uh, uh, quarterly.
um in addition to that in terms of i believe the other concern that was raised was the traffic
concern uh the traffic control and that's something with a small uh student population
we don't anticipate that we don't anticipate a heavy traffic load considering there are other