ZBA Hearing - December 6, 2023

Yes, Chair. We have Charles Richardson.

Mr. Richardson, just state your name for the record. You've already been sworn, sir.

Yes, sir. Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass.

room 508 city hall please proceed sir thank you sir uh councilwoman is not opposed to granting

the variance thank you very much is there anyone else in the virtual audience i see no hands here

planning commission thank you chair bergman and good afternoon david effecto with the city planning

commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the

residential two families zoning at this location the appellant requests two variances for fence

height, six feet at the front and rear yard lines, while only four feet are allowed in the RTA

district. The appellant has shown that a public safety issue is leading to the requested variances.

Granting these variances will not injure the use of adjacent properties. The City Planning

Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed dimensional variances. Thank you. MI

July 2023, 004-603-4934 North 13th Street, I vote yes.

Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.

James Stone, my vote is yes.

Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.

Thank you, counsel.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose 2 p.m. case has not been called?

I see no hands, chair.

Okay, we're going to take a five-minute break, come back, and we'll take care of the 330 list.

Thanks, everyone.

Thank you, Chair.

Good afternoon.

My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the 330 ZBA hearing.

With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.

Present, Mr. Chairman.

Our Board Member, Thomas Holloman.

Present, Mr. Chairman.

And our Board Member, James Snell.

Present, Mr. Chairman.

Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.

Here's our virtual format.

Be advised the proceedings are being recorded.

Video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at phil.gov.

For the benefit of our court's doctor, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before a test find.

If you're participating by phone, you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.

To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.

Leave your email and the address to the property in question.

And finally, the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.

All comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunken.

Let's look at this afternoon's schedule.

Number two, MI 2023, 002-857-1720 West Ontario Street.

That case is continued.

Number four, MI 2023, 003-996-5400 Valley Street.

That case is continued.

We also have a few cases here with no exhibits.

Number three, MI 2023-002-864, 3140 North 24th Street.

No exhibits, first listing.

Leslie Powell's enlisted applicant.

This is the first listing.

Ms. Powell has been allowed to speak, Chair.

Okay.

Hi, Ms. Powell, could you state your name as spelled, please, for the court stenographer?

It's Mr. Powell.

L-E-S-L-I-E-P-O-W-E-L-L.

Right.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do.

So, Mr. Powell, this is your first list, and we do not have the exhibits.

Yes, and you had the address wrong.

3120?

3130?

Yes.

All right, what's the address?

it's 31 30 i thought you said 31 40. right okay i have i if i did i've been

it's 31 30 i thought you said 31 40 right okay i have i if i did i have a mistake it's 31 30

north 24th yes so here's what i think you need to do you need to call the office

and ask them about what you need and how to get it into them and you know we'll your next case

we're going to mark this much peace tribe we're going to go along with it okay yes all right

mr chair this is it is hillary um mr powell what is your what is your relationship to the

the property it's my property okay so you are rcp management group llc yes ma'am okay so you

will need an attorney to represent you at your zoning hearing because the property is owned in

the name of an entity as opposed to an individual yes ma'am okay i just want to make sure you were

aware of that requirement the office can assist you well your attorney your attorney should know

exactly what documents you need and how to submit them so but you can also contact the office for

any questions? Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you, sir. Number five, MI 2021-003-593-4829

Longshore Avenue. This is the fifth listing. We still do not have exhibits. The attorney is even

use mr hughes excuse me even hughes has been allowed to speak chair hi hi could you state

your name please and spell for the court stenographer uh good afternoon uh good

afternoon sir this is evan hughes on behalf of applicant um evan h u g h e s right do you

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do, sir.

So, counsel, this is the fifth listing.

We still do not have the exhibits.

Could you give us an idea of what's going on?

Yes, sir.

I apologize for not getting the required package in.

My clients did make the required postings,

And I did send in copies of the photographs of the postings that were done, the public notices.

I have not been able to get the full package together because I was on a jury trial and also had two Superior Court appeals.

I know that is the fifth listing.

I do sincerely apologize for that inconvenience.

It's my request for one last opportunity to finish up that submission package because

my clients do have, I do believe that they have a good case here and they did start the

process.

I just have not been able to finish it off.

So Mr. Hughes, I understand all that, but on the 10th of May, you requested a continuance

and we still don't have it.

I understand you may be busy, but we're going to move to dismiss this case.

is that is that uh with with prejudice commissioner uh i'm going to say it's

dismissed period okay thank you sir i understand all right understand and by 2021-003-593-4829

longshore avenue i vote to dismiss thomas holloman my vote is to dismiss

james snell my vote is to dismiss ishmael shahi my vote is to dismiss thank you sir

and then we have number one mi 2022 001 056 2223 to 29 north 31st street this case has been

withdrawn. We're going to move to number six. MI 2023 002853 453 to 71 North 5th Street.

Colin Clibon is the attorney. Letter of support from Northern Liberty's Neighbors Association

based on revived plans. Letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.

following clive one you will have to unmute yourself uh uh mr i'm calling clive in that's

c-o-l-l-i-n-c-l-i-b-o-n right um i'm also joined with another hold on hold on hold on hold on do

Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

Yes, sir.

Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?

Yes.

So my client is the owner.

My client is Building Service 32BJ Health Fund associated with the SEIU.

Okay.

And our vice chair has just a few questions.

Good afternoon, Council. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

Good afternoon, counsel.

Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?

Yes, I do.

Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required?

Yes, we did.

Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.

All right. So, all right, Mr. Chair, board, can you see what I have currently displayed on the screen?

uh it's coming up now yeah there we all right um hold on yeah it's yeah it's you're you're good

now all right thank you sir um i'd like to start off so we uh we did have a refusal on this this

is a for a fence um at the property our property is an office space it's uh used by um uh members

of the Building Service 32BJ Health Fund associated with the SEIU. There was a request for

a larger fence to deal with some trespassing, to deal with some crime that was coming through the

area. Initially, there was an eight-foot fence that was proposed that consisted of chain-link

fence and some other property. That plan has been significantly revised with feedback from

the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association. Displayed on the screen currently is the notice

of refusal. Next, we have the application for appeal. We also have the project information form.

With that, my property, sorry, my client is the owner of the property as the building service

32BJ Health Fund. And here is a copy showing our tax compliance. The firm, sorry, the fund had

recently merged, so we were unable to get a straight tax clearance, but here is a copy from

the tax department of our tax compliance status. Here's a copy of the plans as they were submitted

it to L&I. And actually, if I can, excuse me one sec, if I can go ahead and reduce these,

you can see the plan as submitted included the chain link fence and incorporated the

existing short masonry wall at the bottom. Here are actually some pictures of the property as it

exists at the time of submission and essentially as it exists today. Just kind of a view of what

the property looks like. There was an existing fence in the back that was similar, but with

feedback from the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association, we were able to make some revisions

of the plan in order to make sure that it is better in keeping with the local style.

So we moved from the chain link fence with the topper to a more ornamental style, the removal

of the masonry wall, and the inclusion of some plant material to add to the aesthetics of the

look. From there, we included our proviso plan. And here are some 3D renderings of what the

property would look like after the change. So as you can see, there's been significant movement

after our interactions with the neighborhood association. We displayed our posters and we

also had timestamped our date when those were posted. We do have some frontage. So we wanted

to make sure that we displayed, uh, the postings, uh, along all sides, um, with many different

copies. Um, we held a meeting, uh, with the, um, Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association. We

also sent out the appropriate notices for that meeting. Um, we attended the meeting, we received

feedback, we continued to receive feedback. So as you can see, we had, uh, a significant

communication back and forth with the, uh, Neighborhood Association. It was a very, you

know useful dialogue and we were able to improve the plan um we also um during this process got

pictures just to get a better idea of what the neighborhood association was looking for

we were able to incorporate that into our plan um with that being said um

we moved their meeting so the the letter of support is right here um and of course they

also incorporated the revised plans as well. Mr. Chair, that is what I have to present on this.

My client is being represented by the individual from the organization from 32BJ is Clinton Hunt.

My client is being represented by the individual from the organization.

He is in the room.

OK, sure. Why don't we swear him in?

All right, Clinton. And I see him popped up on the screen.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Clinton Hunt Jr., C-L-I-N-T-O-N, last name H-U-N-T-E.

Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?

Yes, I do.

Please proceed, counsel.

All right. Mr. Hunt, what is your position with Building Service 32BJ?

I am the Director of Facilities for the Benefit Fund.

All right. And Mr. Hunt, would you adopt my characterization of our claim as it was stated previously?

Yes.

Testifying yourself?

Yes.

um chair bergman uh i uh and panel i i have no further uh all right all right so let's let's

see questions from the board no mr chairman no chair questions from our attorney hillary emerson

not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience

i see no hands here planning commission uh ron bednar city planning first name

I'm Ron, R-O-N, last name Bednar, B-E-D-N-N-R.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Please proceed.

This property is indicated for community commercial mixed juice on the city plan.

The site was remapped from I-2 to CMX-3 in 2015, consistent with our adopted district recommendation.

the applicant's hardship is not supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances

or condition of the property that would prevent it from being used in conformity with the

code requirements therefore we recommend the request of variance not being ran

thank you MI 2023 002 853 453 to 71 North 5th Street I vote yes

Thomas Holloman with proviso with proviso revised plan one page stamped by ZBA December 6 2023

Thomas Holloman my vote is yes with proviso

James Snell my vote is yes with proviso Ishmael Shahid my vote is yes with proviso

Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Thank you.

Number seven, MI 2023-002-865, 5028 North 12th Street.

Peter Elliott is the attorney.

Recommendation support from the Logan Civic Association and a letter of support from Council Member Phillips.

Thank you.

Peter Elliott is coming back in as a panelist.