you know, a cup of coffee on a 12 degree day, you know, putting clothes on my back when I didn't
have anything, really just opening that space of me feeling comfortable. So when I was approached
by that outreach worker that day who had consistently came and checked on me and gave
me services and offered me services, it left the door open for more when I was in vital need of
some serious wound care and antibiotics. And how would you say, how would you rate the access to
basic necessities of health care in the immediate vicinity of the property?
Outside of prevention point, you're saying? Outside of prevention point. Absolutely. I mean,
I think that's how I ended up there. You know, there really isn't any other means for, you know,
individuals that are living how I was. I was on house, no insurance, no ID, no cell phone,
no mailing address. And they were still willing to see me and give me care. And I think that was
really my only option outside of an emergency room, which I had tried that route and I wasn't
treated as compassionately. Thank you. I have no further questions for Mr. Sherman.
Thank you. I have no further questions for Mr. Sherman.
Questions from the board?
Questions from the board?
Okay. So, Mr. Phillips, this is what we're going to do.
That's the majority of your case.
When we have a resumptive hearing, we're going to open it up to the public,
to the virtual audience, to get comments on whether it's for whatever side it's on.
Absolutely.
All right. Thank you very much.
For everybody else, we're going to take a five-minute break,
and then we're going to come back and we'll take care of the 3.30 list.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, Chair.
And we have 50 attendees, Chair.
50 attendees?
Thank you, Chair, as you wish.
Say that one more time.
We have 50 people in the audience?
Mr. Chair, it appears that there may be some people here
that we're still from the prior case
on the 2 o'clock list on Kensington Avenue.
If you are here for that case,
we will be scheduling a resumption hearing.
If you register today,
you will get notice of that resumption hearing
and we'll be able to testify at that time.
Thank you for coming, by the way.
Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Bill Bergman
and I will be handling a chairing the 330 list.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismael Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
There's non-opposition from the Bella Vista Neighbors Association.
Coming back as a panelist now.
Takes a while for me to join, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon.
Afternoon, Mr. DeMarco.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon.
and Richard DeMarco. Last name is spelled D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Are you referring to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Do you identify your client and relationship to the property?
The client is St. Paul's Church, and my client is Father Paul Galetto, who is the authorized
priest at the church.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or
stipulate to its accuracy yes have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's
needed to proceed with this case five days in advance uh i emailed all the documents i was
was a day late on the on the exhibits i was out on friday i'd asked for some leeway there's no
opposition from the neighbors in this case and all the everything was posted and uh this is a
continued matter and the the oscio process was already wrapped up before the actually the prior
hearing. So my apologies for that. I'd ask the case be heard. No problem. Thank you for your
due diligence, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen. Will do. Yeah, like Mr. Chairman said,
the case was heard by the Bella Vista Town Watch prior to actually the previous hearing.
My client, the church, did not have an attorney, and since it's a religious use, it didn't need
counsel. They retained me in between the hearings to represent them today. I have the refusal on
the screen. It's basically a variance to reface an existing monument sign attached to the church
that's been in existence for decades and make it a digital sign. Let me show you that. So there's
a variance for the area of the sign, but like I said, it's actually the refacing of the existing
sign that's there, and it's becoming digital, but it does not project brightly onto any homes.
There's a school across the street, so there's no homes impacted. The sign actually pre-existed.
This church actually was constructed in the 1800s, as you can see from our deed.
And I'll show you the drawing so you can see it. Actually, the new sign will be slightly smaller
than the existing monument sign. So really, we're refacing an existing sign. Like I said,
we posted for this hearing. That's attached to the exhibits. And let me show you the signs
so you get an idea of what we're talking about. This is a front view of the church.
This is the existing sign here I'm indicating with my cursor. It's pretty large. The digital
sign will be slightly smaller. So here's the digital sign. It's a rendering as best we could
to show you what we're dealing with this sign uh members of the board will have public service
address announcements it will obviously advertise the um the services of the church but there'll be
other you know weather um traffic updates so forth father father galetto could give you a little bit
more information but um obviously this was not controversial to the neighbors church is a
long-standing member of the community. I would argue that the hardship is really a de minimis
issue because the sign is existing and is really just being modernized and made into something
that's a little bit more service-oriented. And let me just show you. Here's a close-up of the
renderings. And like I said, they're refacing the sign, but it'll actually be a little bit smaller.
The Bella Vista Town Watch, almost unanimous vote in favor of the application.
The church actually handled the notices, and the vote was, it's right here, nine were in support, only two opposed, 14, I'm sorry, 14 in support, two opposed.
So with that, Mr. Chairman, I'd ask you to grant this variance.
Where or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Please proceed, counsel.
Father Paul, good afternoon.
Can you, did you hear my presentation of the board today?
I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it is.
Can you adopt it as officially as your testimony in this case?
And you had told me some interesting things that you were going to be using the sign for.
I don't know if I gave all the uses.
Can you just explain to the board some of the other purposes of the sign as far as public service?
Sure. So, you know, if we had the board up now, we would be running our All Souls Day thing where the those who have died in the past year, we honor those.
We have a slideshow of that. We have a slideshow of our veterans for November 10th.
We honor those who have served or are serving in the military.
We hope to do public notices like this past Saturday. There was a bike ride through the city and there were street closures. It took me an hour and a half to get home from I-95 in Columbus because nobody knew about the street closures.
And we try to provide public service. We talk to the township, I mean, not the township, to the neighborhood community about publicizing when trick-or-treat is, when there are open markets down in the Bella Vista neighborhood. Our goal is to bring the community together and to try to use this board to keep people informed about what's going on at the church as well as in the neighborhood.
And was I correct to say that the sign does not project outward? It's kind of internally illuminated, and there's no homes facing the sign?
You are correct. Yep.
So, Mr. Chairman, with that, I'd ask the board to approve the variances. I believe that the church has that actual signbox has been there for over 100 years. The church is a pillar of the neighborhood. There's no opposition, and they're really just modernizing the existing sign.
questions from the yeah questions from the board
um so what is the difference in the size of the new sign compared to the current sign
uh so i this is the this is the best running i have of the if you go back if you go back here
this sign there you see the 72 inch one currently the sign is 70 inches and that one was rejected
because it was two inches bigger than the space that's there so the new sign will be the 48 inches
so the current 70. okay but the 48 inch sign is still above the minimum or the maximum sign
requirement it's no bigger than what's there it's smaller than what's there now currently
Board Member Wynn, there's an existing signbox there now that is larger than what the new sign will be.
Understood. Because of the actual refusal, which is around the size of the sign, I just wanted to clarify.
The sign that's there now, did it get a previous approval?
So it actually predates the actual zoning code itself.
If you look at our deed, I'll show you.
The church has been in existence since the 1800s, so there would not be any zoning prior to 1933.
That's how old the church is and how old.
The building, not necessarily.
Has the sign been there?
Here's our deed.
Father, has the sign, let me ask Father, has the sign box that's present on the property been in existence for as long as you can remember being involved with the church?
So, you with us, Father?
We lost you.
father uh you with us did you hit mute by accident
see oh he's um he's uh um oh he came back in for just a moment and then signals yeah his signals
yeah hello oh there he is yeah i don't know what happened there uh so our oldest parishioner
is in her 90s
and as far as she's known
she has always known the sign to be there
so that's
there's no historical documentation
about when it was installed but
living witness says that it's been
there as long as anybody that
has been here has known
questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney
Hillary Emerson
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Mr. Chair, I have a hand from Andrew A.
Or I did have a hand, but they seem to have put it down now.
Or I did have a hand, but they seem to have put it down now.
I believe we had some parishioners that were in support.
That might be who we have.
Do you see any other hands out there?
Jason?
No, sir.
No further hands.
Planning Commission.
Good evening, Mr. Chair and board members.
My name is Nina Solomonic for the Planning Commission.
Nina, just for the record, could you spell your name for the courts?
sonographer. Yes, my name is Nina N-I-N-A, last name Solomonic, S-O-L-O-M-O-N-I-C.
Where are firm to tell the truth, told truth, nothing but the truth? I do. Please proceed.
This property is indicated for residential use on the city plan. No changes have been recommended
to the existing zoning at this location. The appellant's hardship is not supported with
evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions that would prevent it from being
used in conformance with the signage requirements of the code. Both the size and digital display
are prohibited in this area. Therefore, we recommend that the requested variances not
be granted. Thank you. MI 2024-002-285-923 Christian Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Tana Graham, my vote is yes.
Ed Wynn, my vote is yes.
Esmail Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. Have a good afternoon and good evening.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called?
I do not see any further hands, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, everyone.
You know, you know, one of the things we tried to do today was we we didn't want to start the public comments and have to cut it.
So if you there was like 50 people in the audience.
So what we'll do is we'll we'll take a day and just do is just public comment and we'll see where we stand in that case.
But thanks, everybody. I think we had a good, pretty good day here.
Yeah. Thank you all so much. See you all next week.
Yes. Have a good night. Have a good night.
Have a good night all
Good night folks
Be careful