Good morning. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Yes to everything on the above, with the exception of the letter from the RCO, which we've requested and have not received.
Okay, you may proceed and please share your screen.
Thank you.
members this is a application for a special exception to convert an existing group center
to a child care center it was the denial was based on the fact that it's in a commercial zone
it is zoned cmx one uh my client has rented at this location and run her existing daycare center
since 2019 there let me post the
There, let me post the notice of referral.
Let me just get this real quick.
I have a text to the notice of referral.
Can everybody see it?
Again, presently, with the existing permit as it stands, there's presently about 24 students or children that can be held at that time.
And when the client is seeking us to expand the number of children that can come in for daycare type services, she does have already a certification from the state of Pennsylvania for what she is doing at the moment.
There, most importantly, there's not going to be any alterations to the existing building itself.
It's not going to require any other building in order to, or any additional building in order to accommodate these additional students.
There is a lease in place.
It is a triple net lease.
It's at 17 of the package.
The lease does expire next year, October 23rd.
My expectation now is that this lease will be extended.
The tax certificate clearances have been given both for the tenant Golden Land LLC, as well as for Little Golden Academy, who is the tenant in place.
what I have provided is to give an idea first is a drawing
from some previous work by the way this is only the lower level that we're speaking about this
is a two-story structure about 400 square feet here are the drawings I can just just to give
some idea of of of the daycare pretty simple with the front door entrance there's a rear door
entrance in the back uh mr garcia mr garcia do you have some photos of it i think mr
terribly think i'm just about to show those okay um in fact it'll be on this following page it'll
be just here's from the exterior just give me a second and i'll get these focus here here's the
exterior with a notification of the meeting. Let me reduce this in size to give some perspective.
Here's additional photos. Two of the posters were placed, one in the exterior and the other one
inside of the office built or of the location. Here is the rear of the building.
That's really not really used for other purposes than just to bring in material or other supplies
that may be needed this would be looking towards the rear of the property i'll expand that a better
perspective this again is one of the locations again this is looking from the front to the rear
here's additional rooms that are located on that first floor i'll just move over to
Here's one of the bathrooms, two bathrooms at this location.
Here's the changing area, which I've highlighted at this point.
there is a letter of authorization at that was issued by the landlord sorry that's the next one
by Mr. Tseng
and there's also a lot of support from the landlord himself.
If there's any questions, I could certainly address the dynamics
between the applicant and the RCO in this matter,
if that's an issue for anyone.
why don't you do that yeah this was um again this finding was in the midst of the pandemic um
And, I'll just start this out.
start this out
Initially, the, my apologies, I'll put these in the incorrect order.
Here we go.
When we filed the application for the special exception back in March 21st of 2021,
my letter to Mr. Ruditsky, who I believe was the designated representative of the RCO Take Back
Your Neighborhood was sent, basically in the reference explaining the application and its
purpose of requesting a meeting. And I had cc'd a number of other RCOs and their representatives.
And the reason why was when we received the package upon application for special exemptions, they listed these other RCOs.
We weren't, and we attached a notice of referral also to it.
We really did not receive much communication.
That followed a letter written in August, if I may scroll, August 10th, again, not knowing exactly who it is that was going to raise their hands as the RCO in this group, and I had followed up with a letter, again, requesting a group meeting with the RCO and the neighborhood.
uh at some point in time i believe there was a gentleman and i don't have in my notes his name
and i apologize for it but i think he was from the planning commission that interceded and we
did have finally a not a group meeting we would have been glad to meet with the neighborhood but
it was a site visitation that was from the members of the board of take uh your uh take your
neighborhood that was mr radinsky i believe and i did have a confirming email which is at page 40
i can just show that this was my email just confirming that we were going to have or meeting
at that particular time and and he did respond we did they there was about five four or five
members plus a member someone from planning commission i think it was the same gentleman
that attended the site visitation um at least my impression in the comments throughout the time
that we were there were that were favorable i believe there was a request there was a leak
that was emanating from the upstairs um nothing major but they wanted that corrected which
miss lamont um had asked the landlord too and he apparently made that correction um again
And we would have been glad to meet with a neighborhood that that's represented or that's being represented by by this RCO that did not happen.
So when the original hearing that had been continued was rescheduled again, I had sent out this zoning board adjustment hearing letter just to advise them that that was that that's what was taking place.
The proof of the mailings, and I'll put that right now in front of everybody, are the various receipts.
I haven't bothered counting, but I know there were in excess of 100 that were sent out.
No one's gotten back to us on this.
No, we haven't heard from anybody, quite frankly.
This is also an area that I believe the former council person, Mr. Bobby Heenan, his region within the city, and we certainly didn't get anything from the councilman's office, possibly because, again, this is just an application for a special exception.
It just increased the number of children that can be taken care of at this location.
is there any other questions
let's go over the special exception it's already it already is licensed or has a special exception
for a daycare right correct and the purpose of this is you want to enlarge it we want to increase
the number of students or not students but of children that can be taken care of right now
as it stands is it's for 12 with the new uh if the board with a grant the special exception
it could increase i believe up to 40 or 44 in the code
it could increase, I believe, up to 40 or 44 in the book code.
And as the photographs demonstrate. So, Mr. Garcia, my only point would be is
part of the presentation should be showing that it has the capacity to do that, right?
Correct. And those were the photographs that we had showed.
Yeah, maybe, why don't you go over the photographs again and tell us how that would happen.
Certainly.
Hillary, do you agree? I mean...
Yes, you can take another look at the photos. So, in terms of the number of children,
that's determined by the state when they do their measurements on the basis, but it's, you know,
the special exception standard is whether the use would be expected to cause more harm to the
community than okay all right thank you normally expected i'm sorry mr burger that that's that's
exactly correct um while the code may may list it as to a specific number it would have to be
there have to be a certification from the from the state and if i can point it out um
this is the certification that is existing at this point of compliance from the state
and they would she would are the applicant would need to get that from the state in order to
operate a nexus and they would you see here on the license right yeah i got it thank you
in other words there's not going to be 44 kids in there it's going to be whatever the state believes
in that okay okay thank you thank you questions from the board
no Mr. Chairman
Mr. Chairman
could I ask
Ms. Lamont to raise her hand
Norma would you please
raise your hand virtually
there's been enough to speak sir
hi could you state your name and spell
for the court reporter please
Norma Lamont
okay could you spell
your name for the court reporter
n-o-r-m-a-l-a-m-u-t-t right do you swear firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes proceed counsel thank you um miss lamont you've heard my presentation of what i've stated
before to the board members yes and the what you heard is that true and correct to the best of your
knowledge and recollection yes and do you adopt my statements made uh to state to the board
yes thank you thank you questions from the board no mr chairman questions or comments
from the virtual audience i did not see any further hands mr chair planning commission
good afternoon good morning chair and members of the board this is greg walden planning
mission staff the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed use zoning at
this location the applicant has shown that the proposed daycare center would have no more of an
impact than a daycare center would be expected to have the city planning commission recommends that
the board grant a special exception for a daycare center. Thank you. MI 2021 001 010 6747 Caster
Avenue. I vote yes. Carol Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. Thank you,
Thank you, Councilor. Thank you. Thank you, members. Have a good day. You too. MI 2022-002-347-807
North 2nd Street. Rich Miller is listed as the applicant. No exhibits. First listing.
okay i promoted mr miller to panama sir
hi good morning mr miller
good morning hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
Sure. It is Richard Miller, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-M-I-L-L-E-R.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Miller, we don't seem to have your documents. Have you sent them in?
Yeah. So this might be the confusion on our part.
the refusal for this space was needed the Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association
approval. We are opening this space as a smoothie bar. This was previously used as
Bimini juice bar. I know, I know, but the question is, did you send your document?
uh bimini juice bar and i know i know but the question is did you send it your documents into
the zoning board yes they were when we filed the application they were sent in for the zoning change
of use hillary do we have anything no we do not there there are some initial documents that need
to be sent in in order to for the appeal to be filed but you have to submit a separate
exhibit packet with additional documents five days before your case is being heard in order for the
hearing to move forward you did not receive anything that we receive said that there were
no directions the um zoning and from from for this meeting it said directions from the board
and it was completely blank so that was a misunderstanding on our part okay there would
There should have been an attachment to an email that you've probably received a couple emails from the board that gave you instructions about what you needed to submit.
But that is okay.
This is the first listing.
I'll let the board determine how to move forward.
Mr. Miller, we're going to continue it.
We'll be in touch with you.
And then if you have any questions at all, call the zoning board office, and we'll gladly help you have the appropriate package.
okay all right thank you thank you very much and we'll we'll get this straight you're very welcome
all right thank you is there anyone in the virtual audience whose case has not been called
that i do not see any hands mr chair okay thank you everyone see you tomorrow okay okay bye tom
bye bye bye good day all we'll see you tomorrow jason thank you