compliance did you submit that already did when did you submit it this morning or uh i believe
that sorry when you said submit did you email or did you put it in the portal i resent i think i
sent it yesterday and also this morning okay jesus checking thanks all right questions or comments
from the virtual audience there are no hands planning commission good morning liz fusely
with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rm1 residential
multi-family zoning at this location excuse me the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1971 in a council
The city rezoned this neighborhood in 1971 in a council-supported map change.
The proposed animal service use is in keeping with the commercial character of this block base.
The city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for animal services.
number eight mi 2025 006 398 518 south fish street i vote yes proviso first floor only
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso commercial trash
my vote is yes with proviso charl gaster my boot is yes with provisos tenetta graham my vote is
with provisos layla bb my vote is yes with provisos thank you thank you council so much
number 10 mi 2026 000 476 4129 power street joseph consul is the attorney
yes that was part of it it was proviso first floor and commercial trust
joseph console will be coming in as a panelist sure thank you
good morning board morning council could you please state your name and spell it for the
stenographer yeah it's joseph console that's c-o-n-s-o-l-e do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do you identify your client a relationship to
the property yeah my client is sidric lane and he owns lean investment group llc which is the owner
of the property we have a letter of opposition basically a split vote from bell belmont alliance
our vice chair has a few questions good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits
five days in advance of this hearing i have and do you waive the reading of the refusal and
I do. Okay. All right. Thank you. You can show your screen and proceed with your case.
Okay. Ding. Right.
Sharing my screen. Good morning again, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Joe Consul, Consul Madison for Lane investment groups with me is Cedric Lane.
we're here on a use refusal for a property that is currently although only recently in
the rsa5 district we understand visitor accommodations is not by right
however we believe with this specific property and the history and the layout
this is appropriate for a visitor accommodation variance relief so this property while it's
currently in the RSA 5 zoning district. That was a 2023 change. My client operates and built a
legal three-unit property in an RM1 district. It changed in 2023 to RSA 5. So he's fully compliant
with a three-unit rental license for this property on Parrish Street. So let's see. That license was
issued in 2021 when you rehab the property it's not a single family home
uh we're not you know um doing doing any kind of
change in that respect the first floor of the property
and i'll go through some pictures in a second is a full-time residential pha
unit that tenant is in support of the use
of the second and third floors as uh as a visitor accommodation and in fact
one of the floors has been used
As a limited lodging operation, and that's sort of how this idea germinated, one of the tenants that was in the third floor had a visitor accommodations, I mean, a limited lodging permit, and that was something that was very successful and led my client to have the idea to use the second and third floor as limited lodging.
As mentioned, we did go to the RCO. The vote was effectively split. You see 41, 47 percentages don't exactly match up to 100, but there you go.
So in my opinion, and you'll see when we show the petition from the neighbors, the folks that opposed were more ideological.
The neighbors on the block, we have what I consider to be close to full support from folks up and down the block.
They know my client, they appreciate my client, and they support this as a variance.
um some of the folks in um i've dealt with this all over the city just have an ideological
some of the folks and I've dealt with this all over this
issue with visitor accommodations and i understand that uh but we believe this is a good example
considering that it has operated as such at least one of the two units
for a visitor accommodation variance to be approved it says 41 and 47 percent which slightly
tipped to the opposition. There's our proof of mailing.
Exterior of the property
showing three units and one common meter.
Properties
either side or multifamily.
We do not have photos of the PHA tenant unit on the first floor, but we do
have photos of the the furnished and unoccupied second and third floor units.
Oh another important point and my client can speak to it is these are both small the second
and third floor the second floor is a small one-bedroom and the third floor is a small
studio so we don't believe that one of the typical concerns about these sorts of variances
is is that it will lead to any kind of parties we don't believe that the layout out is conducive to
that um yes while the first floor is larger the second third are are much smaller it's my client's
deed to do tax clearance i believe we have the petition at the end the petition is legitimately
from up and down parish street specifically very close to the property itself and he can attest
that he he could have gotten more but on the couple of days that he was going around he got
who was available on those on those days there have been no complaints about the this property
when it was a limited lodging and being used as such and we believe that this is appropriate
variance, and to the extent the board is willing to grant it with a temporary, some kind of a temporary variance, we would be amenable to that as well.
With that, I'll call my client, Cedric Lane, to raise his hand.
cedric lane you're allowed to speak
okay now that i'm unmuted good morning sir could you please state your name and spell for the
stenographer uh yes yes good morning um my name is cedric lane spelled c-e-d-r-i-c-k
last name is lane l-a-n-e and i'm the owner of the investment group i love the truth
absolutely yes council uh good morning cedric did you hear my testimony just now regarding
this property yes i did joe do you adopt it as your own yes would you briefly just speak
to the board about your experience with this uh um a visitor accommodations property in the city
and just generally how you handle it? Just really quickly so the board knows that you're not fly
by night or anything like that. Absolutely. No problem at all. So yes.
So I purchased this property. This property was a fire damage property. I purchased it back in
February or January of 2020, right? It was fire damage. It was abandoned. It was in terrible
condition i and it was at the time it was zoned uh rm1 so i made it into three apartments by right
i got engineer architect all permits sprinkler systems fire alarm system i do everything right
i don't try to as joe said fly by the night i'm not that guy um we don't i don't operate like that
I do everything according to zoning, according to the code. But the zoning did change in this
particular instance. That's why we're here today, because I was operating the studio apartment,
right, as a short and midterm rental, not just short term. I've been renting it out to travel
nurses since 2021 without incident. I've had many people stay. I've brung people into the community
I've brung people into the community, into the area who typically wouldn't pass through or even
into the area who typically wouldn't pass through or even stop.
stop in this type of area just because it's not on their radar, it's not on their map, but
they're using our public transportation, they're shopping at our stores, they're
patronizing our restaurants in the area. So I've never had noise complaints, not even from my own
tenant on the first floor of the building and she has a larger unit it's a three bedroom
two full bathroom bi-level unit on the first floor in the basement um she has never had to
complain in fact she was the first person to sign the petition um and i intentionally stuck to
paris street to get everyone that i could um on paris street to support the project i didn't
convince them. I didn't have to. A few of them, I already know just in passing, I'm an active
landlord. So like even on trash night, I put the trash out myself, right? Our trash day is Monday
morning. I go Sunday night faithfully. I put the trash cans to the curb, the recycling bins to the
curb. So I'm hands on. I have active rental license, never been elapsed there. I've, like I
that maintain inspections as far as the pha inspections obviously right um for that tenant
her occupancy i have uh the fire alarms is everything is inspected sprinkler system
everything is in good working order um there's not really i i can't even say you know that i
don't even know what else to say honestly i'm not really i think i think you're good cedric
yeah all right questions from the board yes so okay so you're using the this application is to
have the uh visitor accommodation for the second and third floor units correct okay not the first
floor one not at all we plant she's been there four years plus she's a great tenant we're going
keep it as a tenant we're not looking to turn this into anything other than no no no no no no
that's fine just just trying to understand what the application is really for and so
you um you said you've been doing this you had done this before the zoning uh changed to
make it so you had to get special permission for visitor accommodation. So is that what you said?
No. I said, for this particular property, it was zoned RM1. So when I bought the burned,
vacant, fire damaged property, by right, I was able to make it into three apartments.
That's the only thing I've said about this.
uh well she did uh cedric just to just to put words in her mouth um you did you one of the units
was a limited lodging approved unit for some time correct absolutely and you worked with one of the
tenants for that you that one specific unit absolutely yes so you said limited lodging
that's one where the owner occupies the property not or the tenant that's that's yeah like the
person that's occupying the space, they're using it as a primary residence, but partially they're
able to host guests. That's what has been done in the past, but I've never been a resident at
this property. It's always been an investment property for me. Okay. And then I guess I'm a
little confused about the vote of the RCO. Were either one of you there for this?
Yes, we were voting.
We were both there, yeah.
All right.
Can you just wait for my question, please?
Okay. My question is, I'm not used to seeing percentages in terms of a vote. I'm used to seeing there were this many votes in favor, this many votes against. And the percentages here are a little strange. 47% in opposition and 41% in support.
So my question is, if you were there for this, how many people were actually at this meeting?
I believe that the number on the form is accurate.
It wasn't quite 20, but it was more than 10.
They have 17 listed there, and I don't think that counted Cedric or myself.
So it was a well-attended meeting.
So it was a well-attended meeting, but I couldn't say 17 exactly, but that's what they're saying, so I'm going to agree with it.
but I couldn't see
All right.
Well, I'm just going by the notes that we have here.
And I didn't understand.
Yeah, yeah.
It should be on the screen right now.
They put 17 number of attendees, and I'm saying I believe that to be accurate.
Yeah, but that's not usually how it – okay.
usually it'll say this many people were in in opposition or this many people were in favor
oh they didn't let us they they kicked us out before the actual vote I understand that but
I still you know it's a little unusual to see um a vote done with percentages and I I don't know
how 47% of 17 works out or whatever, but I'm just that that's, it's not really a question. It's just a, it's a little strange. So I'm not sure where, and I would assume that their main opposition would be that this is, again, the issue of visitor accommodation, which a lot of communities are not in favor
of because um you have transients you have uh uh the potential for um some kind of disruption
in the neighborhood and yes it was we think there was something like ideological like i said i mean
that's not maybe not the right word but um the block itself in our opinion was there in support
uh and other folks too and then there was just um folks that show up to the rcos for visitor
accommodations to kind of you know say why it's bad as a as a model yeah would this be the
neighbors on either side of this property or do you do you know about that are they in favor
so from the petition that i um got the respondents from that's literally only on paris street this
exact hundred the near neighbors on the across the street next door you know on either side
that's i only went on paris street because obviously they would have the most knowledge
and be the most familiar with what we have going on or what we did have going on previously
um because i said another thing the people who may have opposed obviously i can't speak for them but
from what I recollect during this meeting in March was that there was a lot of speculation
and it was like the overarching, you know, like short-term rentals, Airbnb, parties, disruption,
parking, you know, trash. I've never had these issues. Like it's not like I'm saying I want to
i want to bring short-term rental to your area i was already doing it prior to
the licensing in in the the city ordinances that changed the route that we had to go so i've
already been successfully operating without incident there's been no disruption um no trash
no parties the units are small i stress that they're a studio unit in a one bedroom you can't
hold the party my guess maximum is two guests per unit no more only two people so there's no parties
there's no noise there's no disruption okay all right thank you thank you question can we do with
extra neighbor on the less than uh as a signatory uh on both sides is that right just sorry i'm
sorry what'd you say job did you get the both neighbors to sign on either side i see 4127
i see 20 right so 41 the other side um i did not i wasn't able to reach them but i'm sure
they don't have a problem they are actually moved in like they had some people move out
move in there's not going to be an issue with 4131. the questions
questions from our attorney uh no questions at this time questions or comments from the virtual
audience no hands planning commission good morning liz fusillade with the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single-family zoning at this
location there is no unique physical condition or circumstance that would prevent the property
from being used in conformance with the zoning code the 2020 zoning ordinance passed by city
council which regulated short-term rentals did not change the basic rule prohibiting
full-time use of a dwelling unit as a short-term rental this type of absentee management where the
as a short-term rental. This type of absentee management where the owner does not live in the
owner does
unit has been illegal since the first short-term rental zoning regulations became effective in
2015. What's changed since the passage of the 2020 ordinance is that there is now a licensing
and enforcement mechanism. The City Planning Commission recommends that the board deny the
proposed use variants for visitor accommodations so mi 2026 000 476 4129 paris street i vote yes
with proviso temporary variance to expire 7 23 29 and second and third floor only
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl cast and my vote is yes with proviso
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Layla Beebe, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
All right.
Number 11, MI2026-000480-3251 Fox Street.
Isaac Schleppner is the attorney.
Isaac Schleppner will be joining as a panelist.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
Isaac Slepner here on behalf of 3251 Fox Street Limited Liability Company.
All right.