good morning mr chairman good morning could you uh state your name and spell for the court reporter
please yes steven zafuto that's s-t-e-p-h-e-n last name z-a-f-f-u-t-o you swear a firm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes mr holliman has a few questions for
you thomas do you agree to the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy yes
we have documents that we receive rco letter and individual letters in support from neighbors
thank you proceed sir um excuse me chair i don't believe we do have the rco letter right you're
right uh was there an rco meeting yes there was a meeting in last month um i had some
communications with the rco liaison for esperanza and as of last week she had indicated that they
didn't have um they hadn't decided anything so i i guess if they haven't today then
and there's no objection
okay so why don't you proceed okay uh all right so i think i have a witness that should be on
via the phone line, as well as Mr. Kashif Jones, who is the applicant.
I believe he's in the video, in the video meeting.
So I'm just going to go through.
We entered a PDF with, I think, 14 numbered exhibits.
Just very quickly to go through.
There's one refusal.
I'm sorry, Steve.
you have it that you could put up please yeah should i share my screen yeah you should yeah
yeah i'm getting the same message host disabled
can you also please try turning off your video and then trying to um share your screen if i hit
stop video first um yes okay it's the same message same message okay i think it might
be an upgrade issue i'm going to check on that okay well it's the it's the same um packet that
that is in the pdf that was set out last week um should i just i guess go through it verbally
uh chair is just tanya if we could um allow him to go forward and i'm fine i can pull stuff up
because we like the virtual audience to see what's going on as well so i'll try yeah i can make some
references to the exhibits if if it's not practical then i can just you know make the references and
and you could be able to look at them you can continue as normal it's just the audience that's
not going to be able to see it okay sure so that exhibit one i guess we'll say a1 is the refusal
A2, the appeal application, we did not have a copy of.
We were retained, I guess, some point along the process,
so we didn't have a copy of that,
but I think that could be obtained.
A3, the project information form.
A4 is the lease for the property.
We, Mr. Kashif Jones is the tenant.
a five posting photos a six are some archive site photos there's a collection of street view
either google street view or the city's uh you know street view photos taken from the city's
database as well as gis images of the lot um seven photos of the property
eight is the zoning map nine and a current aerial photo 10 is the rco notice letter like i said we
did have that meeting last month 11 tax clearance certificate 12 are the nine support letters from
neighbors and 13 i have a and b a is a 1988 zoning permit for this property and b is the 2013 use
permit for the same property and then 14 we entered the opa's information for the property
so what i would like to do i want to make sure that so the owner of the property is named mark
eisen he has agreed to to testify as a witness today he is connected via the phone line what
What I would like to do is basically an offer of proof, read through some summary of his testimony and then have him adopt it.
What I would like to do is basically an offer of proof, read through some.
So if you could.
So why don't you have him come in, state his name and spell for the court reporter?
What would be the last four digits of the number?
Give me one second.
Five, eight, eight, eight.
Okay. And sorry, you can unmute yourself.
He may need some. Is it just pressing the mute button?
Star six.
Yes. Mr. Eisen, if you press star six, you'll be unmuted.
mr eisen
i see that he's in the in the meeting but i just texted him to press star six we'll see if
that works okay here we go hello this is mark eisen could you spell it please for the court
reporter? First name Mark, M-A-R-C, last name Eisen, E-I-S-E-N. Do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Proceed. Okay, I will give a summary
of this testimony first. So Mr. Eisen has owned the property at 101 West Wyoming Avenue since
1985 he constructed the there's a garage building and a trailer on the property he constructed both
of those um and in 1988 he obtained variance relief from the this board uh for quote erection
of a trailer parentheses for use as an office and parentheses accessory to auto sales lot on the
same lot as a garage structure, parentheses used for auto repair and accessory storage
and parentheses, end quote. And that is in what's provided at Exhibit 13A, that's that
1988 zoning permit, the application number 105204. The property was used in that manner
for for 25 years as auto sales uh in on the lot with the trailer used as an office and then the
garage building used as repair and maintenance for personal vehicles
mr eisen was himself a principal of the used car business during that that time he was very proud
of his record uh having you know not had violations from the city or and you know not
being the subject of of lawsuits from his clients and providing service to the community
just to quickly refer to exhibit six there there's letter numbered
photos included so six c d g and h show
different photos from the time that the property had been used
for this used car sales lot. So Exhibit 6C was from 2004.
D is from 1996. G and H, I apologize on the outline, it says they're December 16th. They're
actually from 2008, these photos. And there are street view photos that show what the lot looked
like at that time. Unfortunately, Mr. Eisen had a horrifying incident where he was held up at
gunpoint, had two guns pointed at him. He suffered symptoms of PTSD and eventually stopped running
the the used car business after that this would have been around in the early 2010s
around 2013 he entered a lease with mr humberto de la cruz for the property and um mr de la
cruz obtained a use permit in 2013 for personal vehicle repair and maintenance mr eisen was not
aware of this this application being made um i believe he said he had moved and did not get
notice. He didn't give consent for Mr. De La Cruz to run. He ended up running a tire shop on the
property. There were there were multiple city violations for the use during that time. And he
and Mr. Eisen himself actually was engaged in a lawsuit, did get a judgment against that tenant.
um was engaged in a lawsuit did get a judgment against that tenant um since that time i don't i
don't know exactly when uh the mr de la cruz um was you know left the property abandoned the
property was sometime around i think 2017 2018 since that time the property has been vacant
um excuse me this is sarin saleta so yes you are representing mr eisen not mr cruz no i
Sorry, yes, I'm representing Mr. Jones. I thought it made sense to put Mr. Eisen's testimony first.
Because he could testify to the historic use.
I asked only because the only proof of ownership that you, or an ownership interest in the property that you submitted was the lease, not the deed.
Is that correct?
Okay. If you are representing the tenant, that is fine.
Yes, that's correct. Okay.
um so so why do you have do you want to have your testimony adopted for Mr. Eisen is that
what you're saying um yes is that is that right Sharon
yes that's fine but also um since Mr. Eisen is not his client whoever his client is so why don't
why don't we bring your client on is that okay yeah sure so that my client is Kashib Jones
i believe he is in the in the meeting as well
mr jones you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair
mr jones state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Hashif Jones.
K-A-S-H-I-F
Jones.
J-O-N-E-S.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay, proceed, counsel.
Okay, and just to wrap up
the testimony for Mr. Eisen's part,
I want to make reference to
Exhibit 13A again, that's that 1988 zoning permit.
There is a site plan that's included in there.
It shows the location of the trailer, of the garage, and there's, I believe, 27 marked spaces for display of cars on the lot.
The lot is configured exactly as it was in 1988.
Essentially, that site plan could be used for this application.
Nothing else has changed.
um so mr mr eisen stopped using the property himself due to the incident but he has he has
since hoped to find a new tenant to lease the property for the same use that's used car sales
and repair and maintenance uh mr jones the applicant and mr eisen executed a lease in
April of 2021 for that purpose. Shortly after discovered that the tenancy of Mr. De La Cruz
apparently resulted in the loss of the used car sales use you know pursuant to the previous variance
and so now I would ask to have Mr. Eisen answer a few questions. Are you still there Mark?
Yes, I'm here.
Were you present for and did you hear my earlier comments?
Yeah, I did. And everything was correct, except for one clarification I'd like to have made on the record.
And that was about the garage. When I purchased that property, that garage had already been sitting there for many years.
I did not build a two-car garage.
That was part of the property when I purchased it.
And was all, other than that, was all the information I presented true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, everything was true and correct.
And do you adopt my statements as if they were your own testimony?
Oh, absolutely, yes.
Okay, and do you support this application being brought by Mr. Jones today?
i i i certainly do all right and if the board has questions for mr eisen he will be available
i don't know if it makes sense to do that now or i have a few questions for mr jones as well
money money move on with mr jones okay sure all right uh mr jones could you are you i guess he's
already sworn in he was okay mr jones you live you live a few blocks away from the property
And you're very familiar with the area?
When did you enter a lease, the lease of Mr. Eisen for this property?
When did you enter a lease, the lease of...
Around May last year.
Of 2021?
Yes. No, of this year, 2021.
And that's included as Exhibit A4.
So you knew you wanted to lease property for a used car lot, and what attracted you to this property particularly?
The intersection is a four-street intersection.
Also, the fact that it's me starting my first business in the neighborhood I grew up in.
And is the property set up specifically for vehicle sales use?
Did you know that it was a vehicle sales lot before?
all right and you um so you found out shortly after you obtained the lease that you would need
zoning relief to conduct used auto sales yes i mean you went in and had somebody help you
fill out the application yes i've
and and you uh i guess you engaged my firm after being advised by uh the rc the representative for
the RCO of the needs of bank council okay um since you added the lease what business have you been
conducting in the garage area uh doing uh mobile detail not mobile but detailing cars okay and
have you also been making improvements to the trailer and the lot in the property yes
Could you describe what improvements you've made?
Well, first it was just like regular things like cleaning, ripping down all the bushes.
Like it was like a lot of weeds growing around.
Then we remodeled.
For the most part, we're not always done, but remodeled the trailer, the office trailer.
okay and we have um in exhibit seven there are photos of the property taken recently
and you can see that the lot has been cleared of overgrowth the trailer has been repainted
and the interior has been renovated do you plan to make additional improvements if this
variance variance is granted yes there's a lot more things that need to be done
I just didn't want to, you know, start investing money into, you know, use car sales and I won't be able to sell cars.
Understood. Did you attend the RCO meeting with Esperanza last month?
And there were concerns raised primarily with parking. Is that right?
uh you you said at that meeting but could you explain uh how the proposed use would actually
alleviate parking issues along the frontages of the property i will be there to like stop people
you know and once people see that as a running business like as of now look kind of vacant so
people would just park anywhere but i'm pretty sure like once everybody see that it's an open
business they would respect the fact that you just can't park blocking car driveways and none
of the cars that's doing that is you know have anything to do with the car lot is more so just
people not not uh you know obeying the law when it comes to parking because there's nobody there
they just feel like it's vacant they can just you know okay and at the meeting um concerns were
raised regarding the potential for you to park extra in extra vehicle inventory from the lot
on the street why is that not a realistic concern because when you park right now
well for one is insurance purposes if you park a car outside your your garage i mean your lot
anything happen to the car they won't cover it so that's what the lot is for is for you to store