so as it stands it's um it's housing that's just not able to be used in that area
there's the we also have recent postings i believe this is
um how long has this been a duplex it has been a duplex since before my client purchased it um
which i believe was in 2009 or 13.
one second
One second.
The Turner?
Yes, I'm sorry. I'm just pulling up the deed for the date of the purchase, which I believe
is 2009. But I'm just verifying that right now.
2014. So it's been a duplex since before it was purchased by my client in 2014.
you want to bring your client on certainly
mr. preak are you there can you raise your hand
there he is or i think could you just state your name please my name is r-a-n-t-i-k
p-a-r-i-k-h i believe i swore you in earlier today yes sir please proceed council
mr parikh um when did you purchase this property or i'm sorry what is your capacity um
in relation to east band trust i'm the trustee i see and um and as a trustee of east band trust
you were responsible for purchasing this property?
And when did you do that?
9th of September, 2014.
Okay. And what was the...
How was the property structured and organized when you purchased it?
It was two doors, one going to the second floor, one going to the first floor from the entrance.
And it was, were there, it was two separate units with separate meters for each unit?
Correct.
And at the time, was it occupied?
When we purchased it, no.
There are two gas meters and three electric meters, one for each floor and one for common
And so have you used it as a rental property since that time?
have you used both units or only one of them only one which unit are using the
first or the second floor first floor I see that's a one bedroom correct right
and am I correct in saying that there's a two bedroom on this on the second floor
right and and so what would be the difficulty in conforming with the zoning code we'll have
to do many structural changes if you want to convert it back to one family including electric
plumbing all work too because it's all separate right now i understand thank you um so i don't
have any other further questions mr churnall why don't why don't you have him adopt your testimony
certainly um and so all the testimony that i've given today um mr parikh um do you accept that
adopt that as your own yes i do questions from the board uh yeah can you go back to the floor
planes for a second and uh what's what's the basement being used for because it looks like
it's being used for living space no it's like a little party or a kids play area
so it has a kitchen
it's not really kitchen it's just the counters
it's no stove no refrigerator no uh okay so just it's just a sink it's like a web bar
what's what's in the what's in the what's in the back can you slide down the plan a little bit
the back has the elect meters okay so the proposal for this is is the request to have this as a
duplex and the duplex will be a bi-level duplex for the first floor it'll be a bi-level unit
okay questions from the board
yes how many other multi-family
Yes, how many other multifamilies are on this block?
How can I help you?
There are no other multifamilies zoned for this block.
I'm sorry.
I'm okay.
And then both units have access to this basement space?
I believe only the first floor.
No, only the first floor.
Only the first floor.
and then for the second floor is that a roof there's a there's a door in the bedroom leading
out to the rear right right we had we had a section 8 inspection pre-approved and they made
us put the railing there so it's been blocked out but but it's okay it's just not shown in the plan
No, because it's an old picture.
We had a Section 8 pre-approval done in anticipation of this hearing, and they gave us a list of
the work to abide by the Section 8 rules, and one of them was to put a railing in the
back for safety, and we did that.
So I have another question.
So the property was bought in 2014, and it's just now that you're requesting to have this legalized.
Why 10 years later?
Because I did not know how to do it, what to do it, to be honest with you.
So it's been vacant since 2014?
I used it partly myself sometime when I used to go and slip over on the second floor.
because i'm from jersey and i do have to go and slip over many times
other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair question or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any yes mr chair any commission this is uh ron bednar the first name ron r-o-n
last name bednar b-e-d-n-a-o you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do please proceed ron uh the property is indicated for residential use on the city plan
given the physical conditions of the site we recommend the request of variance be granted
mi 2024 000 899 5231 greenway avenue i vote yes michael john my vote is yes
Tanada Graham, my vote is yes.
Dylan, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, sir. You have your votes.
Thank you. Thank you, Bart.
Right.
Number three, MI 2024-002-062-6045 Shishler Street.
Alan Nockmson is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition from Take Back Your Neighborhood.
the applicant did provide
a petition of support
signed by 17 neighbors
and four form letters.
Student Occamson.
He'll be joining soon as a panelist.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the board. Alan Nockamson of Nockamson, PC.
Alan, just for the record, spell your name.
Nockamson, N is Nancy, O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth is nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
yeah my client is rosalind uh rodriguez the owner and the occupant of the subject premises
our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon counsel do you agree to
ways of reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy i do have you emailed in all
the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance
this hearing yes we have thank you council please proceed and share your screen
all right so i thought this is a straightforward matter uh 60 45 schistler street um my client
lives here. She's not a developer. This has been a family-owned property forever.
You know, she basically bought the property this way. And you'll see in the presentation that all she wants to do is convert the lower level space, which is already set up, like I said, in-law suite into a separate apartment.
You know, she basically bought the property this way. And you'll see in the
She lives there above. She's just trying to help pay her mortgage by doing this. And it's not out of character in the neighborhood to have multifamily.
And every single person, almost every single person on the block is in support of this endeavor.
So and the people who showed up from the neighborhood were in support as well.
So and we're a little bit confused as to why the community group wrote a letter of opposition.
So we'll review the notice of refusal. This is an RSA 5 property.
It's rather large in nature. It's 1,446 square feet.
We did get correspondence from Take Back Your Neighborhood and we'll review that. Again, you'll see the petition and we do a map, you know, to kind of illustrate that everyone who would be impacted, including the person behind us, you know, it's in support of this project or not even a project.
It's just my client who's an individual, a single mother who's just looking to find a way to be able to afford her mortgage by making this into a two-family dwelling.
responsibly. We'll review maps of the area, photographs of the properties
around the area. We took pictures of both the
upstairs where she lives as well as the lower level, which
is not finished but is an in-law suite for all intents and purposes.
Ultimately, if this board approves this, we would cut off the staircase
from the upper portion of the house to a lower portion of the house, but there's a separate
entrance for the other unit and there's
actually two parking spots as well one would be for each unit as well um then we have our plans
and drawings we created something simple from what our client you know explained to us as the
you know floor plans and um you know unconventionally the community meeting and the pre-community
meeting were at her house so you know alex goldberg from my team also attended those meetings
And, you know, those floor plans were based on his visualization as well.
Or RCO meeting notice.
Again, there are a few neighbors who showed up, you know, to this community meeting that was in my client's house.
And our understanding is that those people were in support of this endeavor.
So I still don't understand why then the community group sent a letter of opposition.
Our application for appeal that we followed with the ZBA, D-Tip property showing that my client owns the property and a certificate of tax clearance.
Rosalind is online, so I have a few questions for her to adopt my testimony as her own.
And, you know, she can take any questions you may have as well.
Notice of refusal, again, RSA 5 property, rather large lot size in nature is 1,449 square feet.
We're not changing anything or propose to change anything other than the fact that we would, you know, basically put a wall where the staircase is and going leading down to the basement and maybe making some cosmetic upgrades.
But it's already an in-law suite down there.
So this is the correspondence.
So we had a pre-community meeting also at the property.
And at the pre-community meeting, Alex Goldberg from my team was there.
my client was there with her boyfriend and then there were four community
leaders there or organizers there
in this letter they don't reference the fact
you know about that there was a community meeting a few months later
and that you know the people who showed up at the community meeting who were
nearby neighbors stated their support of this project so
again I don't know if there was a misunderstanding or
maybe they didn't remember that the people showed up to the community meeting and were supportive
of it, but that's what happened. And then there was a petition. And if you look at it, this is
our property. These are all the other properties on our block on our side. These are all the
properties across the street. And this is the property that's directly behind us. All of these
people signed letters to support. So it's almost every single house on our side of the block. I
I mean, a couple down here, no, but one here, everyone's said, oh, yes, of course.
You know, we know the Rodriguez family.
They've owned this property as a family for some time.
We know Rosalind.
You know, she lives there with her child.
We have no objection to this.
There's already off-street parking in the rear.
We don't see any negative impact here.
Here's our petition in support, along with some form letters in support.
And then this is the zoning map. Again, yes, we're an RSA 5 property, but there are other properties nearby which are also RSA 5 that are multifamily in nature.
And then this is the zoning map. Again, yes, we're in the RSA 5 property.
And again, we're not changing, we're not creating any new openings to our property. Like, there's no real, like, underground, like, living. It's, you know, everything's above grade because of how the property is sloped.
but you know this is our property this is the front of our property on schistler street
this is the rear and you can see there's two parking spots garbage is stored in the rear as
well but this is the back door well or the front door if you would think um to the property um to
the second unit but again it's above grade this is the orange notice posters for both you know
on schistler and on the rear this is schistler uh street to the right of the property to left
of the property. And again, it's a common drive aisle
behind us, so it's not a public street. But each
occupant or unit would have its own parking
space. Interior photos. This is just where Rosalind
lives, upstairs. This is
the lower level. This is, again, my client purchased it
this way. You can see there's a kitchen here. These
are the steps from the, you know, the house upstairs to the stairs. This is the only thing
that's going to be changed if the board feels so inclined to grant the variance. So obviously we're
going to close this up. We're going to clean this up too. Like again, my client has been using this
as an in-law suite for some time. Another picture of the kitchen area and the dining room area.
This is, I believe, upstairs and maybe that was upstairs too, but this is upstairs just showing
pictures of the property. But, you know, we had the community meetings at the assistance of the
community organizers at the property, and they did a thorough walkthrough of the property.
And these are simple floor plans, right? So you saw that door in the rear,
that leads to that staircase you saw, but we would just, everything's above grade, you make a right
or make a left.
And then there's a kitchen, dining room, living room,
one bedroom, one bath.
They would get one parking space.
Instead of the occupant on the lower level,