MI 2025-006-491-216 Durant Street.
i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes charles gaston my vote is yes
ryan mcadams my vote is yes tyo and my vote is yes
it's not a graham my vote is yes
you have your vote sir okay thank you very much okay
Number one, right? Number one.
Council, just for the record, state your name.
Steve Masters. Right. And you've already been sworn.
I think I think we know the issue with the where we stand with the RCO.
So why don't you just start your presentation? Sure.
And as you know, we're gonna hold a vote on this, Steve. Yes.
There we go.
It was hiding from me.
All right.
Still morning.
Good morning.
It's so good.
Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Steve Masters here with Sammy Mustafa, who is the owner of this property.
this um this property is um one of the unique ones in the city where we have uh we have his
one of the unique ones in the city where we have we have historic information going back to before the zoning code was implemented in the late 1930s.
So I'll start. Actually, did you want to ask me questions about about the submissions or anything?
I don't know not right now I mean okay all right sure okay we're ready to all right Hillary
the vice chair asked her questions no well I did that because we already talked about the RCO I
thought we could move okay all right that's fine right so in the in the notice of refusal
there are notations for two past zoning variances that were granted to this property
one in 1959 for truck storage, and one in 1981 for storage of trucks and storage of
building materials.
But I wanted to just briefly go through the zoning archive to show you how far back this
use goes in this property.
So we're going to go to page 24.
or so this is from the zoning archive and it is um it's part of a application from 1958
and it states that um the present use was storage of motor vehicles the last previous
use has been the same since 1930 and it's currently used for the same purpose so storage
of motor vehicles at this location literally has been the case since before we had a zoning code
in 1959 we're gonna do 20. the the board granted a a variance for the storage of three trucks
in page 18
the application in 1959 stated that the last previous use was storage of 10 to 12 trucks,
and then they were proposing to store three trucks.
The last one, we have pages 811.
The last one, this is the 1981 variance that was granted by the zoning board. The application was
for storage of three trucks and storage of building materials. And it references the 1959
variance. And so what I found interesting about this is that there is no distinction in the
zoning code between three trucks and 11 10 to 12 trucks um and the the analogy that comes to mind
for me is a u-haul storage facility we have many of those in the city we don't as the zoning as
the zoning board knows we don't tell the tell you all you can only have four storage units or 25
storage units or 190 storage units. You have storage units. The use here is storage of
cars, vehicles, and building supplies. While it's totally true that on some of these variances,
there was a notation that they were planning to only store a certain number of vehicles
at the time that they applied it doesn't say up to three units up to three vehicles or up to three
pieces of of of of equipment for for construction it simply says storage of vehicles and storage of
building supplies so it's our it's our belief that um if we can show the board that there was
a continuous use for this for this use we obviously don't need to go back to 1930 we just need to go
back to um around 1981 when the last uh when when the last uh variance was was issued um then this
is this is basically the the continuing uh use that that has already been approved if the board
doesn't find that we've met our burden of showing continuous use then we'll be we will be asking
for a variance and in this case the the hardship is is um has been a
The hardship has been established since literally before the zoning code was created.
In each of the times that this property has come before the zoning board, they have always found hardship and approved the storage of a certain number of vehicles and of building supplies.
so there's no there's nothing different about 2026 that would change the hardship
rulings that have been made consistently every single time has come before the board
let's go and and look at some photos so um
then i'm gonna return to my client's testimony around the petitions for support and and and
of what's happening on his property.
All right, like I said, it's a very long archives for zoning.
Okay, we, one of the reasons that this case was delayed
was that we asked for leave to go back to LNI
because we thought that LNI could verify for us
that it was a continuous use
and then there would be no need for a variance.
we would be able to just operate continuously using the the variance from 1981 so in February
of 2024 the board allowed us to go back I included in our exhibits the correspondence between
our firm and Elizabeth Baldwin several times her basic decision was that she felt that
Ellen I was not in a position to ascertain whether or not there was continuous use, and therefore she said to go to the zoning board and the wisdom of the zoning board will will will make will will decide the the outcome of it.
So that's why we are back here, and that's why we didn't notify the the community early on, because we thought that that would be very confusing to tell them that we have an appeal to the zoning board.
but we believe that we um are doing something that is already approved of by by the city um and and
we thought that that that was it would be better to hold off and then to only approach the community
when when now we we realize that we needed uh to to continue to go before the board uh
so in exhibit four it's our affidavit of continuous use this is a form that is submitted to ellen i
when a property owner wants to verify
that a use that was approved is continuing.
So Mr. Mustafa made this affidavit of continuous use
back in 2024.
We also then received affidavits from four individuals
who have longer history of living
at very close to the property.
So Mr. Troy Scott moved to 7129 Yoakum in the 2021-2020 era.
He testifies in his affidavit that he saw cars and trucks parked there on a daily basis for three to four years.
There were lots of different ones, cars, trucks, vans, always cars, always trucks there.
And he also saw the church, which is next door.
We'll see the photo in a moment.
use the the property also to to park their vehicles as well um mr or ms nana adu uh
provided a an affidavit um they lived in um 7123 yokum um between 1996 and 2009 uh and
mr masters i'm sorry to interrupt i just wanted to to clarify on on the record that this this is
of variance matter you are not you are not appealing l and i's determination that the
variance has expired are you because that's an appeal against l and i that's different we are
not no okay so this i just want to be clear for the record and for the board that we're considering
whether to grant variance relief in this case but this is the context that this use has i understand
and this yeah no and this goes towards yes i understand this goes towards your argument but
i just wanted to be make it clear on the record that's what we're doing thank you for the wisdom
all right um so uh uh nana adu states that as a matter of fact i can't remember any time when
there weren't large trucks parked at that property uh the next the next um affidavit comes from
uh rashin jones who um testifies that they currently reside at 2114 south 72nd street
They've seen cars and trucks on the property for 10 years on a daily basis.
They've seen cars and trucks on the property for 10 years on a daily basis.
And then the last affidavit is from Eugene Jones, currently resides in Sharon Hill,
but also has resided at 2114, 2114 South 72nd Street.
Mr. Jones has seen cars and trucks on the property for 10 plus years and corroborates
the other testimony.
why don't we do our presentation then yes okay basically everything you said ellen i did not
accept no they don't deny at all they they they basically um they basically said we're not going
to don't even so they yeah they gave it to you they they sent it back to you they said um they
said they said we we they they declined to get into some kind of a process yeah um when we look
at the city's cyclone cyclone media photos this is from 2019 the property that we're
talking about is here it it is it is a unimproved except that it does have some asphalt on on
the on the surface lot to the left here is the church to the right is a is a single family
building. And right here in 2019, this is well before our client bought the property. This is
a trailer that belongs to the church. And it shows that the church was using the property
for storage of vehicles at that time. And this photo is from 2010. It's an aerial photo showing
three vehicles that were being stored in the property in 2010. The next photo is from 2018.
This shows seven vehicles being stored. This is also before Mr. Mustafa bought the property
sheriff's sale then in 2025 you see uh two six twenty twenty five yes and he's got all those
cars are his actually he will be he'll be explaining this but he he leases this area
and so there's a there's a there's an individual who parks cars there and then brings them to his
auto body repair place and so this is this is a total storage of vehicles but these are not
they don't belong to mr mustafa they belong to uh to a tenant of his uh here's a here's a photo
showing uh this is the view from uh yokum street into the property um and the the church is here
on the left and the single family houses on the right this is um stepped stepping into the street
uh this this is the um the security fences um and also shows will show a larger photo of the of the
zoning poster this is another view of the zoning poster and this shows the the vicinity of the
church wall and here we have a side view of this is the property and then this is the church and
it goes down down the the the block here is our zoning poster for today's hearing
we also have a tax clearance for azab llc that is the um the owner of the property and
Mr. Mustafa is the sole member of the LLC.
This is the deed.
It's sheriff's deed, and it is dated...
8-4-2021.
The application for PO and the project information form were completed by a expediter early on
in the process. Exhibit 11 is our mailing that we made to all of the community groups
and to the near neighbors. We stated that their RCO had not yet set a date.
to the near neighbors uh we stated that their rco had not yet set a date um but we provided
all the information for today's hearing to all the neighbors as well
and this is our certificate of mailing of 72 pieces
so now i'm going to um turn it over to uh
yes but he's also going to explain some things too sir could you please state your
name is spelled for the stenographer sammy mustafa spelled please s-a-m-y mustafa m-o-s-t-a-f-a do you
swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do counsel um mr mustafa
i'm gonna first um ask you about these petitions that we have on the on the screen now um that i
you you did fairly recently yes i did it yes i'm being in the area and i spoke with the neighbors
okay what i'm doing when i get this property it was in bad shape i clean it and i cut the tree
i make it secure i bought fence when i when i went to this property in the beginning
it was card there so i'm asking to continue to use it as a way it is more than that
that it's more secure it's no noise the way i look it's much much better than before
no impact no commercial activity in the law just storage so this more
helpful for the neighborhood i spoke to most of the neighborhood nobody
have any issue with that no impact in the neighborhood because it's just storage
uh no noise you know garbage nothing so mr mustafa we're looking at these um signatures
um and it looks like the first one was from tiffany kennedy tiffany is the one across from
the lot she said she has no issue with that the second one in the other side that's eugene um
mares? It's on the other side. Oh no, Haja Romard? Yes. Okay. She says she has no issue. She's new
in the area. She say it's okay. Okay. No complaint, nothing. Eugene mares? All the same. Even some
neighbor, I couldn't meet them, but I spoke to them before. They don't care because I'm doing
something good to the ability to the neighbors the 7211 location is that um bastion jones the
corner the second the other corner okay in the right corner okay um and we're gonna request
because we're gonna go before the the um rco we would like to be able to collect some more
signatures and and we it's okay to keep the record open for that um we had a form but it somehow
didn't get to the get to the the time that where the signatures were made um mr mustafa there you
heard earlier um that there were a bunch of negative um things that were said about your
business um at the at the beginning of the of this um hearing i saw uh mr greg he was saying
that it's a junkyard no there's no work there is no activity just storage beautiful cars
there's no mechanics there's no mechanic no communication with the public or anything
but just so i understand right because you said this earlier he has nothing to do with the cars
other and he rents them their property but the arms on them tens of property no he owns the
property and then he rents it to someone to store the cars there right he's storing the cars but he
might be in the future storing the cars all right all right yeah okay all right so i mean he's at
this point he wants it to be legalized yeah i got it yeah um the the gentleman who who does um own
cars that are stored there now his his place of work is 6210 glenmore avenue so it's a few
blocks away and that's where he operates an auto repair shop i believe or or a or a body shop i'm
not sure what it is but it's auto repair okay um okay talk to us about the church next door
and and what your conversations have been with the church about this i met the the guy he owns
the church or his father on the church and he has no complaint he tell me he everybody in the church
he come in the neighborhood he come here and i will look to all the the signature with no issue
here and i would look to all the the signature was no issue but yesterday i was looking for him
and i think i couldn't reach okay so i did this myself in one day i spoke to everybody in the
neighborhood all right almost everybody all right do you do you know um can you confirm whether the
church was using your property before you bought it to store things yes their car is used to be in
my lot i saw and i have pictures do they ever ask you if they can if they can put cars in the lot
these days or or or no they want to do it but i have to do my phone is they want to keep the car
there but i say i have to clean it first because there was three there always laura trash then i
clean it all right so the last thing i want to ask you about is um is the difference between
three cars which um some of the times where the where this property has gone before the zoning
board in the past there have been requests for for storing three cars or three vehicles or three
trucks and we know there was one time back in the 30s and and maybe the 40s where it was 10 to 12
trucks and and or vehicles why why do you want more than three uh the ability to have more than
three vehicles stored um at this property just to make it legalize the the thing you know like i
want to be obeying right right but but i'm saying the number um why why is the why why is it important