Yes, Chair, I have a Stephen Haskins with their hand raised.
I will promote them.
Do you have any other hands after this?
No, sir.
All right, thank you.
Stephen Haskins please unmute and wait to be sworn in hi mr. Haskins could you please
turn your video on hi mr. Haskins could you please state your name and spell
it for the court stenographer yes Stephen Haskins s-t-e-v-e-n last name is
Haskins h-a-s-k-i-n-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes mr haskins are you a neighbor yes i am please proceed please
proceed your testimony mr haskins what do you have to tell us oh so uh speaking with my block
and definitely the direct neighbor mrs virgie which she couldn't be on but she would like me
to speak for her a lot of the seniors on the block did opposed to having an apartment building that
was sitting there on the block excuse me um miss virgie uh really stressed it that she was opposed
to having that she said it's too much that will be over there by her going down that side of the
street are older people um she could not get on zoom but she said if there's something that she
can call she'll do that um well mr haskins where just don't tell me what somebody else
Are you taking a position on this project?
I'm standing up with my neighbors and going for what they want, because when we break it down, single dollar family homes is what we wanted.
We did speak on that and they were talking on restructuring the game plan that they had for it.
All right. All right. Thank you.
Alan, do you have any questions of this man?
No, I believe that Mr. Haskins is the block captain for that block, and we worked well with him, and he was honest that they had an issue with having anything but single family, but again, there's nothing on that side of the block.
Other questions from the virtual audience?
Mr. Haskins has his hand raised again.
Mr. Haskins.
Mr. Haskins you have something else to say
I'm also here with one of the
block captains from the 1900 block of
24th Street they couldn't get on their own
Zoom because it kept kicking them out so
she's here on
mine. Could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer. Hi my name is
Lachelle Myers the name
is spelled L-A-S-H
E-I-L-D
last name is Myers M-Y-E-R-S
Do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Are you in favor or against this project?
against the project all right thank you very much for taking the time the calls we appreciate it is
Against the project.
All right.
Thank you very much for taking the time to calls.
We appreciate.
there anyone else in the virtual audience i do not see anyone else sir planning commission amy
boyd with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa five
residential single-family zoning at this location the appellant has presented that there are unique
physical conditions or circumstances that would prevent the property from being used in conformance
of the zoning code for multifamily
and that three units is the least minimum
to afford the relief.
The requested maximum occupied area variance
is de minimis.
The Planning Commission recommends
that the Board grant the requested variance
for occupied area and for multifamily
with proviso max three units.
Alan, we're going to take this
under consideration.
We're going to vote on this next Wednesday
at 2 p.m.
Thank you.
Thank you, sir.
Alan, just keep moving here.
Which one?
11. 1247 East Columbia Avenue.
Childcare. You have a letter of support from Fishtown Neighbors Association.
Letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
Yes. Good afternoon.
Alan Nockmson.
Mr. Nockmson, could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
uh yeah so to the left of me is jim maransky the owner of the property which is e p d g lp
um in the virtual audience and that's the reason why jim is here uh is the operator of the property
kia mclaughlin i don't know if she's going to be able to be on because she has another daycare
at 1441 germantown avenue but you know i have all of the necessary facts and jim can verify as well
about our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon council do you agree to wait to read
another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required documents
and exhibits as needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing we have
thank you council please proceed yes all right so we have 10 exhibits here 216 people were notified
of the community meeting and we have rco support from fishtown neighbors association so our notice
This refusal is simply this, we're an RSA 5 property and we're looking to put a daycare
here this property by way of variance in 2012 was approved for 35 units in a vacant commercial space
so even though it's an rsa5 property it was like thought of when this project was previously
approved or originally approved to have vacant commercial space here the letter support from
fishtown overwhelming support we're at the corner of east columbia avenue and east thompson street
From a both maps perspective, both zoning and Google Maps, photographs of the property.
This is the Ice House condominiums.
Again, 35 residential units.
We're looking to make this vacant commercial space into a daycare.
This is the property from both sides of East Thompson Street and East Columbia.
Proof of posting of the notice posters for today's hearing.
This is East Columbia Avenue to the right of the property, to the left of the property, East Thompson Street to the right of the property, and to the left of the property.
Interior photos, it's a rather large space of almost 2,200 square feet.
It's first floor and lower level.
The lower level has high ceilings of almost 11 feet high.
So even though it's a lower level, it has a nice height to it.
And, again, just like the personal care facility we talked about earlier, in addition to, obviously, hopefully getting your ZBA approval, we have to get permits through L&I, and on top of that, there are many state regulations and inspections over the course of time.
And, again, my client has a successful operation at 1441 Germantown Avenue.
These are simple plans.
I'm trying to look at it on this screen.
But you kind of come in here, there's one play area here generally, there's a childcare
area here, and then there's another lower play area, childcare area here where the kitchen
is in there as well.
Our RCO meeting notice, we met with the community on April 1st, 216 addresses were notified,
216 addresses were notified proof of mailing those addresses again our
proof of mailing those addresses.
application for appeal or deed to property showing that Jim's company owns
the property and our tax clearance certificate so let me give you some data
about you know the hours of operation would be 6 30 a.m. to 6 p.m. again we're
regulated by the state, so the maximum occupancy is 35 children. We plan to have a 0 to 12 room
where there would be requirement of four children per teacher. We have a one-year-old room where
there'd be five children per teacher. We have a two-year-old would be six children per teacher,
3 to 5 would be 10 children per teacher, and 5 and older would be 12 children per teacher.
In addition, my client is required to give background checks for their employees, which they
plan to do. They will provide food for the children there. Obviously, their employees have
first aid training uh they do have another location at 1441 germantown avenue as i stated
and uh that's basically it i mean they're looking to you know they see a need in fishtown for this
and i think the neighbors saw it as well so i would ask that hopefully kia is online so i would
ask her to virtually raise her hand?
We'll be coming back in as a panelist shortly.
There you go.
Perfect.
I'm here.
I'm sorry.
Hi, Kay.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
I'm going to step outside.
I just got home and my brother's gone crazy.
I'm sorry.
I mean, it's Kia, K-I-A, McLaughlin, M-C-L-A-U-G-H-L-I-N.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Allen?
Yeah, Kia, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
Yes, sir.
And is it true and correct?
Yes, sir.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Do I adopt it as my own testimony?
Yeah, yes.
Do you adopt it?
Yes, sir.
Yes, thank you.
questions from the board real quick so what is your like drop-off procedure like is there a
drop-off zone yeah so they actually a good question they applied for a loading zone on
columbia avenue and i believe uh they're waiting for confirmation from that but kia um is what is
that correct what i stated that there is a loading zone application yes that is correct oh and my
understanding it has been approved from the owner of the property all the questions yeah is this
only on the lower level you said it's both levels it's the upper level and the lower level it's a
bi-level so it's an internal staircase uh for the uh for the facility on the commercial facility
okay and what age children are these uh we have children as as as infants all the ways up to 12
years of age is that right kia yes it is correct okay and and where will these younger children
The younger children will be on the upper level, 0 to 2.
The lower level will be 3 and up.
All right.
Is the building split?
Yes, it is.
I thought the only space the daycare was operating was the first floor.
No, for now.
lower first and lower yeah that that was actually going to be one of my my questions because the
refusal says just first floor and then when i saw your packet it showed the first floor and the
ground floor but it also says space 37 dash c1 and i wasn't sure if that space includes i that's
the first and ground floors that i can't control sometimes how the refusal speaks so i don't know
what that's that's an examiner like what the examiner did so all i can tell you is that there's
only one commercial space as part of this building that was approved by way of variance
and it's indicated we have one vacant commercial space with a first floor and lower level okay
i mean we if the board is inclined to grant this we may want to just specify that it's
it's the the first floor and basement just because they did write that on their refusal that's just
it's the the first floor and basement just because they did write that on the refusal that it's just
the first
the first floor and um okay they usually that usually carries yeah that that was the point of
my question because i was confused as to um what was presented as i know our office did apply for
it and we did apply for both first floor and lower level i can't you know obviously control what the
examiner puts on the refusal so um and i guess i have another question um usually when you have
um i think there's some rules about uh children who are younger where they're not capable of
self-preservation about there being enough um uh uh points of egress uh for um a property so
have we provided that and what other steps are you taking to make sure that if there's some sort
of emergency there's some way for these younger children to be evacuated from the premises yeah
and i can't speak about the state regulations because that's beyond my understanding honestly
but we do have secondary form of egress in the lower level there are steps leading up
uh to to the uh first floor let me uh share my uh oh okay yes well you gotta be sworn in first
can you go back to the plan though so we can see it sure could you and could you spell it please
sorry about that james maransky j-a-m-e-s-m-a-r-a-n-s-k right do you swear for him to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth I do please proceed the
building has two means of egress on the main level where the younger children
will be you where they'll be housed so there I believe the intent from Kia is
to have the younger children on the main floor and the older children on the
lower level and on the main floor we can see that there's a main entry and then
there's a secondary means of egress and ABA means egress right there at the
bottom coming out towards that stair okay in terms of the lower level there is a there's a
form of egress here that leads to steps to the to the to the first floor outside the front of your
building is that correct the main stairway that goes up and then there's the egress well there