Joseph Consol, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Chair, I see no hands at this time.
Is there anyone from the RCO present for this case, 2900 Distance Street?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
Voting on this will be myself, Mr. Holloman, and Ishmael.
I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
And number eight, 5129 North 5th Street.
This is a non-pro-tunk hearing.
i vote request to file no no mr chair mr chair uh we need to have we need to have mr perry come
on and give this presentation first okay and then we can vote thank you mr perry
Okay. And then we can vote. Thank you. Mr. Perry? He's being promoted to panelist now, Chair.
Hi, Mr. Perry. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes. Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Roger Perry, R-O-G-E-R-P-E-R-R-Y. I'm the attorney for the
owners of the property.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, Mr. Burton. Why don't you proceed and give us
your presentation. Okay, can I share
my screen if you... Yeah, you can.
okay that should be up you're you're fine yep okay thank you very much uh we uh were asked
yesterday uh to uh note that we were making a letter request a note pro tonk uh on this property
um at 5129 north 5th street uh by way of very brief background this property was granted a
variants on January 24th of 2018. However, they did not complete the building permit process
and then went in late and were noted that after three years, they had to reapply.
The owner's architect reapplied for zoning. However, they did not associate me with the
Eclipse account. And I was unaware at the time that they issued a refusal in September. So when
I heard from my client, it was five days late. And we contacted the board and they said to submit
the request by letter, which we did. And the administration and the board has kindly allowed
me to make this presentation with regard to this property. 5129 was granted this, and this is the
refusal that issued September the 18th of 2023. And because of our miscommunication with the
architect, the client is not English speaking, but by the time I heard through the client and
the architect, we missed it by five days, and we think it's sort of a de minimis. We did prepare
the paperwork for the appeal. The appeal is exactly the same as it was in 2017 and 18.
This is to legalize a neighborhood restaurant, which is next door to a church and in an area
here. This is the property commercial here, commercial down here, and was supported back in
2018. And granted, as the board can see here, other than the fact that I can throw myself on
the mercy of the board, noting that I was not associated with the application, and therefore
it went by me by approximately a week before I knew that an appeal. We're requesting the board
to allow us to file this Nook Pro Tung Peel,
which will be the same issue for this property,
which is to put a Vietnamese restaurant on the ground
and to put one apartment above it,
which was granted in 2018.
If there's any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.
My client is not here just because of the short notice
from yesterday.
Any questions from the board?
no mr chairman no chair our attorney miss emerson have any questions
um no questions mr chair just a comment um if the board um grants this request um the application
and any um associated fees should be filed with um the zba staff by friday november 17th
that would be fine thank you uh request to file non-proton granted
everybody have to vote that
yes mr chair
thomas holliman no proton hearing granted
james now no proton hearing granted
no proton hearing granted thank you gentlemen and i will follow mr perry thank you thank you
very much we're going to go to our regular list number two mi 2023 zero zero three seven seven
MI 2023, 003-777-3662 North 21st Street. Michael Matione is the attorney.
We have letter of support from Upper North Neighbors Association, letter of support from Swamp Poodle, which was then revised, and letter of 13th Ward RCO Committee, partial support.
good afternoon mr chairman good afternoon mr mattione could you state your name please and
spell for the record sure michael mattione m-a-t-t-i-o-n-i right do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client in
relationship to this property?
Certainly. It's Louis Vargas, and he's the owner of the property.
And our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive 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 to proceed on this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you.
Again, Mr. Chairman, I represent Louis Vargas, he's the owner of the property and we submitted
in advance materials including the tax payment confirmation, revised refusal, a letter of
support from the Upper North Neighbors Association.
We submitted an email from Swampoodle neighbors, and they sent another email at 1.27 p.m., which still supports, but asks that there be hours of limitation on the office use.
And I just got that at 1.27 p.m., so I didn't have a chance to add it to my exhibits.
And then the partial letter of support from the 13th Democratic Board coordinating RCO.
We submitted the site plan. We have an updated plan that's just easier to read. Elevation plan, support petition, permit from 1960, neighboring uses chart, zoning map, and photographs.
I'd like to turn to the refusal of this matter. It's Zone RSA 5 and we have four refusals.
One is because we're proposing two residential uses in the RSA 5 district. One is for proposing
a professional office in the RSA 5 district. One is because we have 82% lot coverage where
80% is permitted. And the other is our rear yard doesn't meet the nine-foot requirement.
There's our cycling. It's easier to see on this plan. Here's the building.
This is 21st Street. This is Erie Avenue. We're a corner property on the building.
I'm sorry. A corner property on the corner of 21st and Erie. And here is an elevation plan.
you can see the side of the building there's an addition and the first floor is used for business
second floor is an apartment and the third floor is an apartment Mr Vargas purchased this property
in 2017 and it was shown to be two residential units and an office it had not been used for many
years so any use permits had expired it had been vacant and in need of repair Mr Vargas renovated
the structure. He added an addition, modernized the structure, and made it habitable for both
residential and professional office. He retained an architect. The architect told him that he was
getting all of the necessary permits for all the work. Mr. Vargas had the work done. After it was
completed, he was cited by the city for doing construction without permits. Mr. Vargas then
contacted the architect and couldn't figure out why he didn't have the permits he had paid for them
but then as a result of that Mr. Vargas then filed for zoning approval and that's why we're here today
since at least 1960 this property in 1960 is a use permit for three family
use there. So this has been a multifamily structure since at least 1960 and at some
point in time the first floor was converted to the business use. Nobody
knows when and it was probably done without permits as we couldn't find any
in the records. But the building presently has a first floor office and two
but the building presently has a first-floor office and two apartments
requirements.
above each apartment has two bedrooms they're about a thousand square feet
they rent for eight hundred dollars a month so look at the photos this is the
building itself again that's the corner 21st and Erie here's the business door
entrance and as you can see they do tax returns and help out with some other
business licensing issues.
And it provides services that are not found anywhere else in this community.
There's nowhere else within a mile radius where anybody can go to have their tax returns
So this provides a service that you can't find anywhere else in the community, and it
is on a corner property.
The business has two employees.
It generally operates 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. anyway, except in the first quarter of January to
April when it would be open until 5 p.m. And again, it provides these services that
are not available anywhere else in the neighborhood. The professional office doesn't take up any
spaces, parking spaces at night. It's not open. And you might have parking spaces taken
off if you were a residential unit. And just some additional site photos. And then interior
of photos. This is the office. Again, just showing the interior of the office. And then
this is going upstairs to the residential units. As you can see, they're well done,
well maintained, well appointed units. And this was not much more than a shell when Mr.
Vargas acquired the property. And then the surrounding community, again, going south
on 21st Street, as you can see, there are several vacant properties and vacant land.
in the other side of 21st Street. Erie Avenue, there's no problem with parking on Erie Avenue.
In the middle of the day, there's plenty of open parking spaces again showing and there's
an industrial site as you can see across the street as well as additional residential uses.
It's important to note that there are also many multifamily structures on the street.
If you look down, you see almost every property on 3600 block of 21st Street is three-family,
four-family, two-family. There are very few single-family and some of the ones where they
say they're single family, they're actually vacant property. So these units are well-appointed
units. They have modern conveniences. They have washer and dryer in the units as shown
by the photos. Again, this is also a corner property and has a long history of office
and residential use. We went around and had petitions signed by 10 neighbors on the 3600
block of North 21st Street and 10 neighbors came in and supported the property, supported
the project and the variances requested.
Again, when we get back to support letters from the RCOs, the Upper North Neighbors Association
fully supported the variances requested.
Swampoodle supported the variances requested and in their last email, they said that they
would like a fourth proviso, and that is that the business not be open at 5 p.m.
They ask for another proviso, a limit of two multifamily units, no basement living, and
the trash be stored inside.
The 13th Democratic Ward supported the multifamily variance, but objected to the business variance
despite the fact that the business provides a necessary service in the community
and noted opposition, although I was at the RCO meeting
and there were a couple people asked questions,
but it did not seem as though, and I was not there when they took the vote,
but it did not seem as though there was strong opposition to the business use.
And, you know, again, we have a petition signed by 10 nearby neighbors
all supporting the business use.
So, again, if you look down Erie Avenue,
there's no parking or congestion. We believe that the granting of the variances won't increase
congestion. There's plenty of parking on Erie Avenue. Health and safety will benefit by having
this professional office use because you can't get the services provided anywhere else in the
community. And they'll also benefit from the active residential use on this property on a
block where there's several vacancies. Public facilities will not be overburdened by the
granting of the variances. This is an existing building. It's just being reactivated, and it
and they won't have any negative impact on environmental status. In fact, it would reduce
won't have any negative impact on environmental status. In fact, it would reduce the likelihood.
the likelihood of illegal dumping, and the property will be used in a different manner.
The configuration of the property, it's clearly been for a long time, since at least 1960,
divided into three units, and that creates a hardship to the land as well.
And again, when you look on the west side of 21st Street, even though it's Zone RSA 5,
There's at least six other multifamily uses in that area.
And it's only this block we're talking about, it's RC5.
Across the block is RM1, across the street is RM1, and then you have industrial as well.
And this is a corner property similar to another CMX2 zone corner property.
You can see most of the corner properties in the area are permitted for commercial uses
and that's again what we're seeking here as well. So if the variances are granted it would allow
the business to continue to provide necessary services and again it would allow for the
renting of these apartments at the very modest rent of $800 a month and there are two bedroom
apartments that have things such as washers and dryers in the units.
With that Mr. Chairman I would like to call Louis Vargas.
Louis Vargas, please raise your virtual hand.
Louis Vargas has been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good afternoon, Mr. Vargas.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Good afternoon, Chairman.
My name is Louis Vargas.
My name is spelled L-E-W-I-S, and my last name is Vargas V, as in Victor, A-R-G-A-S.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do, Chairman.
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And, Lewis, are you the owner of the property at 3662 North 21st Street?
Correct.
I have been owner since 2017.
And when you purchased it, was it divided into three units, one commercial space, and two apartments?
Correct.
The layout was already there.
And did you change any of the uses?
No, just a rebuild.
And what did you do to improve the property?
Basically, I converted the show into a usable property where it wasn't just vacant and deserted land.