to this page. And there are details on how exactly you can fit all those people in the property.
But, but, but, but Brandon, tell me 12 people there. What does that have to do with the part?
Well, it has to do, it's simply to say that the veracity of the petition is not to be trusted.
And I am totally unclear on what his interest in this case is or how he is aggrieved by it,
given that clearly he is operating a business next door and a business down the block.
And the last thing I'll say to this is the property is available for rental,
as you can see in these screenshots, throughout the entirety of the year.
and finally he does not have the license that is required to operate a business of this type
on that property and i i appreciate that but i don't know him not having a license has anything
to do with the parking well he he doesn't want the parking he seems to have claimed he lives
there and he does not and his address on the most recent permit is in delaware county so i i just
think that totally debunks that evidence. All right. Well, thank you. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Okay. Mr. Chair, may I? Sure, please. First of all, the folks who are listed on the
petition, most of them occupy the buildings. So the fact that some of the properties may in fact
be owned by LLCs, I don't think is relevant. Also, the objection to relevance is my client's
property, if it has a visitor accommodation permit or not, a license or not, is not relevant,
nor is the physical condition of any applicant relevant. The only issue before this board
is, is there a unique physical condition to this property that would require front-loading
parking in smack dab in the middle of townhomes with none. That's it. That's the only germane
question that needs to be answered. And I don't believe there's any evidence of that. Further,
Brandon's client has not purchased, or the purchase, the witness who testified that she's
under contract is purely that, under contract. There is no hardship. It's not like the closing
went through. Had they purchased this property, believing the false marketing that it was proper
parking, then we would be having a different conversation. And I don't necessarily think
I would be here representing opponents because she would have relied reasonably on marketing
that was incorrect. But here she's on notice that this property, like every other property on that
block is prohibited from having front-loading parking. So for the life of me, I can't figure
out why relief should be granted in this one. Thank you. Questions or comments from
relief should be granted
in this one. Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair. Madeline
Shacumba will be allowed to speak.
Hi, could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer?
Hello?
Madeline Shacumba, can you unmute
yourself?
i keep lowering my hand and i don't know i'm waiting just for one property to come up if it
hasn't already come up yeah but yeah it hasn't come up yet ma'am oh okay is there anyone else
in the virtual audience yes stephanie whitener hi could you please state your name and spell for
the court sonographer not never mind not her um i'm going to go on to nathan curry low
hi could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
sure my name is nathan carillo n-a-t-h-a-n-k-u-r-y-l-o do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do are you a neighbor yes i live on thompson
street are you in favor of this project yes i am um thank you very much for calling we appreciate
Is there any other people in the audience?
And so just a quick comment on this as well, if that's okay for one second.
Sure, go ahead.
So as I mentioned, so I'm a neighbor on Thompson Street.
I've lived in Fishtown for many years and just wanted to raise in favor of support of this case.
So I walk by the, I have a dog in the community, frequently walk by this home.
And like Brandon mentioned, right, I think it's clear that the prospective owners are thoughtful in the design.
actually the community will regain a parking spot on the street from the design of this
by shrinking the width of the curb cut.
Also, I'd like to highlight that I think it's clear that when I frequently walk by this location,
there are often cones there blocking two parking spots from the community with the current use
and have often seen cars that are actually parked in the lot.
And so by actually supporting this project, I believe that there's a net benefit for the community with the design of the curb cut, reducing that width, and also the appearance of the home, which will be a net benefit for the community with the garage.
Thank you for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the audience?
yes i have carly morris how many more hands do you have after carly there's two okay thank you
carly please state your name and spell for the court stenographer hi my name is carly morris
c-a-r-l-y-m-o-r-r-i-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth and nothing but the
truth i do are you a neighbor yes all right are you in favor of this project or against it i am
in favor okay thank you very much for taking the time to calls could i just share one comment just
to support different than what we've already heard i just wanted to reaffirm that i have the
same experience as nathan mentioned and i believe that this project would provide a lot of value for
the community to fill in this vacant lot and i have seen it been used as parking in my experience
All right. Thank you very much. We do appreciate your call. Next hand, please.
Yep. Not Madeline. Mackenzie Gifford.
Hi, Mackenzie. Could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
Hi, my name is Mackenzie Gifford. M-A-C-K-E-N-Z-I-E-G-I-F-F-O-R-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
Are you in favor or opposed to this project?
I am in favor.
We've heard quite a bit of testimony about it.
Is there anything different you could tell us?
No, I would just echo the statements already said for the reasons of my support.
Thank you very much for taking the time.
Next hand, please.
There are no more hands.
All right, thank you.
Planning Commission.
thank you keith davis city planning commission a comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
rsa5 residential single-family zoning here as the code states accessory parking for attached
residential is prohibited unless it can be accessed through a rear street with no on-street parking
this meets neither criteria as approval removes potential on-street parking spaces
uh this is particularly uh this is particularly this is particularly of concern in this case
uh because 100 feet from the frankfurt or sorry 100 feet away is the frankfurt
or sorry 100 feet away is the frankfurt avenue commercial corridor in fishtown
avenue uh commercial corridor in fishtown uh there is no unique
there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property that would
prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code city planning commission recommends
that the zoning board would deny the variance thank you um for both council uh we're going to
take this to executive session next wednesday morning i'll vote on a two we're going to vote
We're on at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, okay?
And thank the both of you.
Thank you for your patience, everybody.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, thank you.
MI 2024-001-332-5301 West Montgomery Avenue, E.
Augusta O'Neill is the attorney.
Let's see here.
letter of support from the winfield residents association based on revised plans
augusta o'neill has been promoted
good afternoon counsel could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
sure augusta o'neill a-u-g-u-s-t-a my last name is o apostrophe n-e-i-l-l
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Would you identify your client and relationship to the property?
My client is 53rd Street Partners LP.
They are the owner of the property.
All right.
And our vice chair is going to ask you a few questions, but I see here we can hear case based on revised plans, but we'll need to hold the vote.
Is that correct?
That's correct.
All right.
Our vice chair will ask you a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel.
do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy i agree to waive the
reading of the refusal because we are going to be getting an amended refusal understood uh have
you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing i did thank you council please proceed to share your screen
Thank you.
Great. Okay. Sure. Sorry. For some reason, the PDF settings have changed. I'm not sure if that's on your end or mine. Apologies. So good afternoon, members of the board. I'm here this afternoon representing 53rd Partners LP.
They're the property owner.
I'm here.
They're, I'm sorry.
They own the property at both 5301 West Montgomery, condo number E, and the property at 5322 to 30 Moore Street.
This is an application to relocate lot lines and create one lot from two lots to permit a multifamily use and to permit some accessory parking.
Both of these properties are zoned RSA 5.
But while they are zoned RSA 5, as you can see from the picture on my screen, most all the properties that are on this block are triplexes.
There's a number of rental licenses on Atlas showing that they are being used as triplexes.
My client bought these two properties because he's constructing the Hawthorne, which is a development across the street.
It's a multifamily building with 98 units.
For context, I have provided in my exhibit package some renderings of the Hawthorne,
which is going to be constructed across the street and is going to be constructed by my client.
Just as an overview, so you can see this property right here, this is where the Hawthorne is going to go.
And these are the two properties that bring us here this afternoon.
As a result of developing the Hawthorne, my client developed a very close relationship with the local community stakeholders and RCOs who very much appreciated the efforts that he and his team made to create a project that worked for everyone that was in the community and showed their commitment to their neighbors in Winfield.
um after they'd gone through cdr on the hawthorne they decided that they wanted to buy these
properties that were across the street um and spruce up the garage that's on moore street which
i'll show you a picture of and uh also put in a commercial use on the ground floor of this
property over here this is 5301 montgomery number e um specifically my client wanted to have a plant
shop on the bottom floor at 5301 Montgomery. We met with the affected RCOs for this project
We met with the affected RCOs for this project back on May 6th of this year.
back on May 6th of this year.
The feedback that we received was that neighbors were concerned about having a commercial use in the bottom of that triplex.
So my client asked the neighbors what they would like to see instead, and they said they wanted to see an affordable unit in there instead.
so we're going to be providing a 548 square foot affordable unit on the first the ground floor
along with two parking stalls instead of the plan shop that was originally proposed and so that's
why we're going to have to go back for the amended refusal because we're changing the use that was
initially part of this application so this application did receive five refusals two of
which were related to the commercial use,
which is now moot.
One is related to the multifamily use.
Again, this property is zoned RSA five,
but as you can see, most of the properties
that are part of this condo are being used as triplexes,
like what we're proposing now.
And there were two parts, I'm sorry,
two refusals that were related to the parking spaces.
So this is the other property that my client bought.
So here's 5301 West Montgomery. This is the parking garage that I was referring to.
My client is going to use it to provide additional parking to those residents at the Hawthorne, his other building.
And the purpose is to keep cars off the street.
And so he's going to make some cosmetic changes to this garage.
He's going to add a new roof, add some new siding.
But because he's reusing what is there and trying to maximize the space so that he can, again, provide as many parking spots as possible and keep cars off the street, we received refusals related to the stall space size and one related to drive aisle width.
the stall space is existing so that's not a refusal that was created by the application
and that drive aisle width is going to be necessary so that we can maximize the number
of spots that my client can offer. I can't emphasize this enough just to keep cars off
the street because there are going to be a number of units of Hawthorne. I'd submit to the board
that this application therefore meets the criteria for hardship because these refusals are unique to
this property there's going to be no adverse impact on public health safety or welfare because
we're providing an affordable unit with additional parking spaces in an area that that needs it and
this is the minimum variance that will afford relief there's also going to be a tenant amenity
space just in the side yard so between this garage and 5301 west montgomery again as i indicated
earlier we did meet with the the affected rco the winfield uh neighbors association while their
initial response to the plant shop was that they didn't want the commercial use um they have sent
to the board a revised letter um which uh applauds the team for returning to discussions
with the neighbors um to come up with a solution that really worked for everyone and the letter
stated and i quote this is what the process should look like end quote um with me this afternoon is
alex kennedy he's part of 53 53rd street partners lp um i would ask that he be called forward and
i'll make myself um and mr candy available for questions the board may have
could you please state your name sir
i'm looking for him okay i will
He's been allowed to speak. Thank you. Sir, could you please state your name and spell for a court stenographer? Yeah, Alex Kennedy, A-L-E-X. Last name is C-A-N-A-D-Y. Do you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Please proceed, counsel. Thank you. Alex, did you have a chance to hear my presentation this afternoon? I did. Was it true and accurate? Absolutely, it was.
was there anything that you would like to to add um to my presentation um just just to uh reiterate
the fact that um this we're really passionate about um this local neighborhood and we want to
make we want to be as good as neighbors as possible um you know knowing that we're putting in
uh a big building across the street so we thought this was a great way to um help alleviate some of
the pains um that come with a big new neighbor like that so um yeah we're really excited at the
opportunity thank you um mr chairman we're available for any questions at the point so
i want to go over one more time so he he's buying he has the property down the street