 That's for the camera. So welcome everyone to the December 11th, 2018th City of Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals. My name is Chuck Sallie and I serve as chair. The board, and I'd like to introduce the board to my far left, it's Reggie McKnight My immediate left is Jean Dinkins and then to my immediate right is Marcellus Primus and then to my far right is Jenna Stevens. I'd also like to introduce the staff that will be assisting on the at the desk next to the podium. So Rachel Bailey, the zoning administrator and Hope Hasty, the deputy zoning administrator. Also assisting today are Andrea Wolfe, the land use board coordinator and Erica Hyen. The zoning planning coordinator. This board is charged with hearing applications for special exceptions, variances and administrative appeals. Our testimony is recorded for the record. Anyone wishing to speak will need to be sworn in and come to the podium to speak. No testimony may be taken from the floor. When you come to the podium please state your name and please speak clearly into the microphone. Applicants with cases before the board are allotted a presentation time of 10 minutes. This time also includes all persons presenting information on behalf of the applicant. This time limit does not include any questions asked by the board or staff regarding the case. Any member of the public may address the board in intervals of three minutes or five minutes if by Spook's person for an established body or group of three or more people. The applicant then has five minutes for rebuttal. The board reserves the right to amend these limits on a case by case basis. For those of you who plan to speak, you must be sworn. So at this time if you plan to speak as an applicant or for or against any application, please stand and raise your right hand. Do you affirm or attest that the testimony you will give today is the truth and nothing but the truth? At this time I'd like to turn the meeting over to Ms. Bailing. There were a few cases that were deferred or withdrawn prior to today. So I just want to clarify those. Item number seven on the agenda, 2018-0-0-1-1-2 for 121 Shop Road Extension, that has been administratively deferred. Item number 11, 2018-0-1-1-0 for 11-12 Hardin Street, that was withdrawn. And item number 12, 2018-0-1-1 for 3038 Bronx Road, that has been deferred until the January meeting. We will begin with a consent agenda today. The board uses the consent agenda to approve non-controversial or routine matters by a single motion and vote. If a member of the board or the general public wishes to discuss an item on the consent agenda, that item is removed and considered during the meeting. The board then approves the remaining consent agenda items with one motion and vote. On the consent agenda today, we have the approval of the November 13th, 2018 minutes. Item number two, Case 2018-0099 for 3401 Farrow Road. This is a special exception to permit a daycare. Item number three, Case 2018-0-1-0-4 for 2238 Sumter Street. This is a special exception to permit a print shop. Item number four, Case 2018-0-1-0-5 for 2323 Harrison Road. This is a special exception to establish a general farm primarily crop use. Item number five, Case 2018-0-1-0-8 for 4121 Palmetto Avenue. This is a variance to fence height requirements. Item number six, Case 2018-0-1-0-9 for 315 South Maple Street. This is a variance to fence height requirements. Item number eight, Case 2018-0-1-1-6 for 1101 and 1105 Pine Street in 2123 and 2125 Senate Street. This is a special exception to expand a religious organization. Item number nine, Case 2018-0-1-1-8, this is for LaBruce Lane. The TMS on this one as it does not have an assigned street address is 13807-0314. And this is a variance to set back requirements to construct a single family residence. So that is everything on the consent agenda. If a member of the public or the board wishes to discuss a case, please let us know now. For the sake of clarity, we are getting ready to vote on all of the items that Ms. Bailey just announced. If anyone is here, we'd like to remove those from the consent agenda and put them on the regular agenda where you'll have a chance to speak for or against those items. Raise your hand now or forever hold your peace. I see no one, and I will accept a motion. Let's make a motion that we approve the consent agenda subject to any staff comments. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries. If anyone was on the consent agenda and they wish to leave, they are welcome to stay too, but we'll give them a minute. All right. We will continue with the regular agenda. The first item is case number 13, 2018-0113 for 1700 Wayne Street. This is a variance to set back requirements for an accessory structure. If the applicant is present, they are welcome to come forward. Good morning. How are you? Fine, thank you. I am Ladi Howard, the owner of 1700 Wayne Street. This morning we are talking about a gazebo that I've constructed there. Just a little bit of, I'm getting feedback, so this sounds funny to me. It does sound a little funny. Is it, maybe if the distance from the, I can, but I wonder if it's being recorded so it has to be, yeah, there you go. You've got, your voice carries very well. Yeah, it does. In my ears, like, I feel like, I say a word and I want to stop, I want to take a break. Okay, I'll try and deal with it. So a little history. We purchased the property in 2002. I don't know if you're familiar with Wayne, with the Arsenal Hill area, but it's one of the oldest areas in Columbia, I'm trying to give you a history lesson, but what's important for me to articulate to you is that when we were, when we purchased the property in 2002, the character of the neighborhood was completely different than what we have now. Of those residents, there are probably three original residents left, Ms. Bradshaw, Mr. Richardson, and Ms. Davis, and we were the first to come in during that time and construct new residents, new residents there outside of Governor's Hill. So there was a very active component there. I'm telling you that to tell you that I care about the neighborhood and the history of it and everything that we've done there a whole lot. Everything that has been developed there, it's kind of come after we came in and invested at 1700 Wayne Street. When we did that, we purchased that property from the Development Corporation to revitalize the area. And so when we purchased that property, we did so with variances already in place. That property, as most of the properties there, don't really meet the zoning codes. My particular property has a house and roughly a 9 foot 7 inch fence there that is right on the property line. The wall of that house and the wall of that fence is actually my property line. So when we purchased that property, we purchased it with an easement so that the occupants or the owners of that would have an ingress and egress to that fence in the back. I think you can see that here. We're on the Wayne Street side there. That driveway, all of that is actually right on the property line. So there is an existing variance in most of the neighborhood with most of the structures. All of the properties there, the lots next to me, there are three lots. They're about 45 feet wide. They're not really the standard size lots. Our lot is not a standard size lot. We built it back about 16 years ago. We had to dig out and go down about five feet when we built that house. So all of it in most of the neighborhood is just kind of an exception in that they're not really a whole lot of ways that you can really observe that setback. In this particular instance when we built the gazebo, a couple of things. The neighborhood as you see doesn't have a whole lot of tree structure, a whole lot of coverage there except for a couple of trees that I planted. So when we are trying to enjoy or do things there at the property, we get a direct sun in and so it's kind of hard to go back in the back, especially in the heat of summer and do anything. Plus there is a tree that is on the property right next to us and that tree is kind of tall and overgrown. I'm pretty good with plants but I cannot think of the name of this one. It has this little purple, little green berries that fall all over the place. So it comes over and there is that residue from the tree that comes over into the yard. We built the gazebo to continue to enhance and enjoy the property but to also kind of keep some of that out so that when we do things that we're doing there, when we did this particular structure and it's not completed because we got this right before we had to leave the country four time, we were doing it because we had an event that was going on and we have, because our yard is dug out we don't have any other space, we put a guitar player up there for our event. It's pretty nice. But in order for us to continue to enjoy the property and do things like that, we have to do it. Now the set back from the wall, the set it back to have this enforced to sit this back from the wall, kind of push us right where we had to dig out that property and we really don't have the traversing space that we need to move around. And I have a pomegranate tree right there that I planted and I'm kind of in the plants my whole property is based on scent. I was trying to stay away from the pomegranate tree as well so when we put that there and stay away from the fence that the neighbor needs to get in and out of there. So I would ask for a variance here and that's just kind of a background of what is going into this property as we've constructed it and enjoyed it. This is an open structure. This is not something that when I decide to build a fence, when I purchase this from Fred Delk at the Conn Development Corporation, we purchased it with a full knowledge and ability to be able to build any fencing or anything that we wanted to build as long as we allowed that easement in and out of that back fence there. So to enforce this zoning code here, I'm not sure that it would really further the interest of anyone here because it's still an open structure. We can still go in and build that fence that allows us to keep. We have a lot of traffic in the neighborhood because of Finley Park. So one of the issues that I have that I'm planning to deal with and this gives me what was part of it is that sometimes I'm in my backyard outside of my workshop and I have people that I don't know walk right through there which is private property and come out the back and go into the woods there. So we're having a little issue constantly maintaining and dealing with that. So this is all in an attempt to continue to develop, continue to enhance and develop the property and to enforce the zoning code at this point what I think ignore the existing variance that is there with that wall in that fence and it's not going to really protect the ingress and egress from the property because it's an open structure and there's full, any access that the city would need is still there. So I would ask for this consideration just because we really are sitting on property lines that are not the same as they are in any other area of the city if you look at the new development and our area that has all come since we did this. There are new neighborhoods and the developments there which with I think zero lot lines. I think that's the proper term all of the most of the new construction there there is property development here development of the street battery all of those have different setbacks than what is generally on the code I believe so I'll take any questions. Thank you so much. Now you mentioned an easement is there is this structure on an easement an existing easement? No no no the structure is if you pull up that can you pull up that picture again? Okay so the easement you see it okay so you see the cut out there there's the wall of the house there you see where the house ends and then you see where the fence is right there that is a gate for the property right next next door you see that between the fence in the house yeah you can't you can't really see it there's a flower but if you look down you'll see a flower pot on the ground there yeah so that little cut out you see that little cut out right there that's actually a gate that the the property next door needs to be able to get in and out of their backyard the easement I'm sorry the easement is actually right there on the wall it's right there along the the fence the wall of the house no the the property is all owned by by me but the there's a parking pad there that the that anyone can use and of course they can use at that particular property no one uses it because then the incline is really too steep it has been used in the past but when I have pulled up I have to kind of big car it will scrape your car so no one really uses that but it is it is there it's more I think that easement is there more for us to walk or for them to walk in and out and to actually park to actually park but you but the easement does cover them to be able to park there as well and that once again that's because the walls of that house and the fence are actually on the property line I'm having a hard time really visualizing this it looks like that the photo that we have or like there's a there's a house there that's not shown on the on the actual photo that's right that that's the house right there that we're talking about if you go back to the previous right there so that's that's not my house that is the house that's actually the walls of the house are actually on my property line so that's my that's all of my yard space there but that's the that's the wall of the of the adjacent property and the adjacent fence so that fence as far as maintaining that the outside of that fence I can maintain the outside of that fence or keep it clean do whatever put a structure against it um that's all on the property line my house is right here the break house okay this picture is the picture is showing this house because that's that's the yard and that's the two-story house next door to that gotcha right okay so the easement just to clarify again the easement because this is our property this house this house right here needs to be able to get in and out of that backyard carry trash out to the street pull the trash out from the backyard do all those things on the other side of this house which is not shown it's the exact same situation I believe there is no that that property has sits on two property lines I'm not going to speak too much to the other side because I'm not exactly sure as to whether or not there is any any setback but the property line is is very narrow there as well I just I think we'll well let's come back to that but first of all um let's see what if there's anyone else here they want to speak for this or against this okay my name is Cliff Spann I'm the owner of 1708 Wayne Street which is adjacent to the 1700 Wayne Street location for clarity is that the is that the gray brick painted brick building yes one story brick building adjacent to that we're seeing in the photograph yes sir with the 10 roof but I'm requesting that the board deny the request of variance for not meeting all the criteria for a variance as stated in the municipal code and I broke this out into a number of things like Lattie we also moved into this area of Arsenal Hill back in 2003 for the purposes of not only help building back to Colombia but also revitalizing this neighborhood and I would agree with Lattie it is amazing to see what has truly happened and transpired within this neighborhood and I enjoyed serving as a neighborhood president for about 14 years in the neighborhood but as we talk about this Mr. Howard states in his application that it is that the lot is narrow and enforcement of the code would prevent an open structure that is necessary for shade and usefulness of the narrow outdoor space and would force him deeper into the lot which would crowd the flow of the gazebo however the resulting size and shape of the side yard must have been considered when the home was being planned the flow around the gazebo is mostly crowded due in part as you can see that one of the four sides is attached to the existing 1708 Wayne Street wall Mr. Howard is also limited by not placing items permanent or temporary that could impede the ingress and egress pathway of the 1700 or the 1708 back gate I did provide in the back of that the easement because I know that came up as a question so there you will be able to see and there's also a picture on the front page that shows the actual gate going into the center block wall which contains an open courtyard behind this 840 square foot dwelling that was constructed prior to 1900 but as we all talk about these conditions do not generally apply to the other properties in the vicinity that's part of the criteria however many people living in Arsenal Hill and many of the downtown communities have narrow side backyards and oftentimes their homes were constructed on the zero lot lines an all-party still must comply with the city variant or the city codes regarding setback rules and we've run into that with a number of neighbors and I petitioned on behalf of a few neighbors that were trying to go against the variants which were not successful because these conditions the application of the division of this particular piece of property would effectively prohibit or unreasonably restrict the utilization of the property we would disagree mr. Howard has every right to use and enjoy his property this is his property however I do not believe that mr. Howard's application for an additional recreation structure to be located on the property line proves an unnecessary hardship denying the setback variance for the structure does prohibit mr. Howard's use and enjoyment of his side yard nor does it prohibit him from building an approved structure that fits the property on his fits properly on his property in addition mr. Howard references the need for shade in his application however the area of the property is is in the northeastern corner it's written in the minutes that it was the northwestern it's partially fully shaded throughout much of the day but this is what i really wanted to focus in on is item number four the authorization of variants will not be substantial detriment to adjacent property or to the public good and i've listed out five different reasons as to why it would hinder and be a detriment to the overall good of the neighborhood characteristics and last but not least because i don't want to read everything in the in the uh with the allotment of time but i did want to point this out lastly mr. Howard submitted the board an application in which he had to affirm and attest the seven statements the last statement in the applicant applicant has to attest that the property is not restricted by any recorded covenant that would prohibit the requested activity mr. Howard was fully aware of the recorded easement created by the previous owner of 1700 as well as fred delca the columbia development corporation and we both agreed or the previous owners agreed for ingress egress and vehicular parking and that is our desired intent for this is to actually have a parking pad within the confines of the easement stated but again thank you so much for the time in which to discuss this matter and appreciate it so where would the the parking be how did the how do you access that for the parking how do you access is it like where the gazebo is right in front of the gazebo so if you take a look at the actual easement you have 20 feet from the sidewalk and then it stair steps back to the actual back of the property so if you take a look at the easement and i've blown it up i did not blow that one up so this would be so you come in from the sidewalk from from the west you will head in 20 feet and then you will go inside a total of 5.8 feet and then you will go east another six feet and then you will go in another five feet so it's stair steps but that's indicated or it's uh the easement was originally constructed for a parking pad beside the home as as i read this um sketch here on the front page i see the structure is lying outside of the access easement it is outside the access of the gate no i i the way i the way i interpret it and this is a little small picture i see the proposed structure or existing structure as not being located within the access easement at all oh it's outside of the access oh i thought one of your points was regarding point seven that mr howard attested that the subject property is not restricted by recorded covenant etc there was an existing easement that again it pretty much stated that anything regarding that wall the only thing that could be built would be a fence or a post that's it there is no concrete pad that would be allotted because the actual concrete pad of which the uh structure is built is actually attaching to the wall so as you take a look at the actual easement it'll state is that in this package that you said it's on page two of the actual easement that was reported on item number four the grantee or future grantees of the rv which is river vista property shall have the right but not the obligation to construct a fence or wall immediately adjacent to but not on in the easement area which fence or wall may be connected to the patrick rear wall that was the previous owner of 1708 so you could build a fence or a wall maybe maybe i'm misunderstanding but i don't i don't understand your point because i see the proposed structure being outside of the easement area what we're saying is is per the actual statement was there was no there was no type of easements that would preclude him from building there what we're stating is that it was defined that only a fence or a wall could be built there and that both owners are responsible for that rear wall in terms of painting and maintain and maintenance of it but i'm not contesting that i mean that is that is within his property description that property and the structure is not being built within the actual confines of the easement but the picture that was represented i think really does do service because it does look like it actually belongs to me and that's how we were first brought aware of the of the building of the structure we had a number of neighbors call us and what are you building and so for us for the hopeful use of a providing a lease as well as selling this house it could be a we see it as a huge detriment seeing the unsightly structure that was constructed quick provide one view of it from the roadbed where you can see from the roadbed of wane street as well as a sidewalk quick question i think you said that you were the neighborhood president correct yes sir uh did you get the views of the input from your fellow neighborhood members oh yeah yeah what is that what are their thoughts on it uh two of the neighbors were very much against it i do have one letter from one gentleman i did speak with a few or two others uh they didn't want to get embroiled within a neighbor neighborly dispute but they were not in favor of it okay thank you and i have made known to the uh executive staff of the arsenal neighborhood association of not only the the proposed request but also our response so we've got them informed so this looks like it would get granted the easement on which you have sketched out on that on the front of the property which may be fenced i guess by either either party so long as it doesn't encroach on the easement and can touch the wall and it can't attach to the wall and attach to the wall yes sir right i just want to clarify for the record that this is a private easement between the private property owners it does not override any zoning requirements um it's something that you can consider but it's not the ruling document here the ordinance says and the um so the this building is actually on the line is that correct yes sir all the way from the where the house goes all the way through that where that concrete block wall is yes sir and the actual uh rear wall is actually about three inches inside the property line which would be to mr howard's property line so i believe that's what he was talking about about the existing variants is at that point in time all those houses many of them were built on zero lot lines built on the actual property line right so we want to consider that as an existing variance or that's just the way in which it is it is not an existing variance we'll clarify as well um many of the structures were built before our current code were in place so they just predate our ordinance so that would but it would be considered an encroachment daddy would you like to come back to the state was anybody else here to speak about this matter i do want to clear up just a few things um just um i think accuracy issues uh one mr span is not the existing president he is the former president okay of the neighborhood association he doesn't live in the neighborhood anymore he's a an investor in the neighborhood um the i think the first point an accurate statement that was made just in i think mr dinkins actually was asking the question okay so the easement which was not between me and mr span it was between me purchasing the property and it was there with the previous owner of that property doesn't go past that fence okay the easement goes up to allow ingress in the egress egress to that fence so that this pad in no way involves that easement at all the construction of a fence on that property once again is not by either party it's by me the owner of the property um that can then be maintained but they can't come and build a fence across that property which would then go into mine because that house is actually on the property line so i'm the one that can build and maintain that fence they can as as them having an easement of course they have the maintenance issues but they can't have they don't have any building capability there the other thing is there was a statement i now i'm completely unaware as a resident of the neighborhood who's been there since 2002 i was not aware that there was any aside from the correspondence from the zoning that there was any anyone took an offense to the to the structure it was referred to as being unsightly i have to say that the structure is not unsightly it is the beginning of a gazebo we had an event the time ran out and i left the country for over a month we got the notice right before i left the country i didn't touch it again because i was not going to do any more building or completion of the structure after receiving correspondence from zoning the tarp that's over the top of that is a temporary tarp because i told you we had a guitar player there um the sun does beam down and beams down it doesn't matter where you are you're going to get sun exposure so we have a temporary tarp there that we had to have for that evening for that we had to have for that evening i did not remove it i did not do anything else to finish out the structure because we we received the letter from zoning complete i was i was completely okay uh mr towered um let's just go through the criteria that um you're required to meet um real quickly just to you've kind of explained some of just so we'll have it for the record and be clear so um describe the extraordinary exceptional conditions such as the size shape topography etc that pertain to the subject property and why um this uh variance is necessary so we have a because of the um the uh size of the lot we had to go up okay so and when i say go up i mean construct in the house but we did that we had to structurally dig out the lot because we actually built we were the first construction here um after 2000 i mean recent construction there everything else came after we invested in this property to get that structure there um we had to dig out about five feet and so when we did that that in this backyard which is hard you may be able to see it here but between the gazebo now and that front yard i mean the backyard there's actually a five foot drop-off that goes into the courtyard area so staying back from that is is actually a safety issue for us so that when you walk around there you don't get too close to it you need if you're in a kitchen in a kitchen or i think you need at least 36 inches out there moving around you need a little bit more space so that you don't actually get into an area where you might fall five feet into that courtyard area so that that is one issue there the other issue is there we just don't i mean that's where the space is that's our backyard is right there in that back corner and as far as the enjoyment of that property and what is useful for us and the things that we are and we have to do there that is the only area that we could we could put that structure block out the sun be able to use that backyard and not not do anything that's going to interrupt the the ingress and egress according to our easement to that property that we're trying to protect there the uh the parking pad well i'll wait maybe maybe you'll get to that yes sir yeah right that's right there right there that's right it's in that back corner if you look at the white it's in that back corner which is all our property and there's no attachment to the property there's a pad on the ground but the structure is completely independent of that wall uh there was a reference made to the to the parking pad and there's there's actually an old parking pad there now that would be on i've thought about putting one there but we would be the ones who construct that pad there is nothing to prevent and as i said in my opening testimony which i think was fairly accurate there is uh nothing there to stop parking in that area this this gazebo and everything is well beyond the easement area and we have maintained that i've even i haven't torn up what is there and built a better one there um but the parking pad the original parking pad is still there so um describe the conditions noted above that they do generally do not apply to other property or structures in the vicinity i'm sorry describe how the conditions noted above meaning the extraordinary exceptional conditions such as size topography and all that are not same as other um or different from other um properties in the vicinity okay so the property is roughly and i you have to forgive me i don't i didn't know there was any opposition to the to the um gazebo i'm really uh so i didn't come with all of the the measurements and all that but the property i'll tell you that the home is sitting basically on a 45 by 66 foot lot something like that uh when we when we constructed that and went through the planning of that property um we we we had to use pretty much let me back up the the desire when we were when we went in with fred delk and the development corporation to invest in this area to spur development there was to do a structure that was going to be and keeping kind of architecturally with the area but that would also show a significant investment as per interest in the area um i think we accomplished that pretty pretty significantly because every other development i mean every other investment and development in that area has come prior to my wife and i bringing our young kids there and building that area i was one um that had to deal with the heroin dealers and the prostitutes there i was the one that did that um prior to all that so we we built a structure there that pushed us to the limit structurally so that our outside yard um was very limited there and we did that wanted to give us as much space because the lot is narrow so we had to go up but to also give us a structure there that would help help spur interest in development there you would see you see up the street as our governor's hill and then right across from governor's hill is a neighbor that came soon after we built there but that was the type of kind of the type of structure and um it was we just wanted to show an investment in the area that would that would spur other interests and people wanted to say okay people are making an investment in this area they're willing to do this here uh we're willing to come into the area so we wanted to maximize that space is what i'm trying to say in the in the home and then in the design of that just i'm i'm kind of getting a clear picture here i'm sorry i've taken me so long but your your house actually faces Blanding Street our house faces Wayne M Blanding Street in fact we have two addresses so your driveway is on Blanding Street is on Blanding Street right and so the driveway on we have two driveways i'm sorry we have two driveways right all right so you have a driveway on on Wayne Street too so that's right and that's where the easement right the easement is for the parking so a car can actually the easement kind of covers the parking so it's wider there a car can park there but as far as ingress and egress you know we have you have to be able to get to the fence so when he was talking about the stepping in that's where you step in to actually go in and go into the fence on the back so you can you can pull your trashcan out walk into the fence then you come down the easement gets a little wider there because you can park and i think it's like 15 by 18 or something like that i didn't bring all the measurements because once again i didn't realize it was it was contestant i would have to defend to that extent but that's basically what it is you have a parking easement so you can actually pull the neighbor can pull a car into the drive then you also have a kind of a walking easement to get in and out of the backyard so it does this it looks like that's the only access um to Wayne Street it's via that easement that's the only access to that to that house well they have a front door right there um that right right they have a front door and then they have a backyard which makes the easement necessary but once again we're out we're completely outside of the easement the easement doesn't extend past that gate at all we're not touching that and the rest of you know the rest of the neighborhood uh i mean we're just i love the neighborhood well we we don't have any plans to go anywhere um most of the neighborhood really has i think i inaccurately said earlier there's an existing existing variance that technically is incorrect but there is an existing there's an existing variance or encroachment because the whole area kind of has those exceptions to it if you look at all the houses we have it's just an old neighborhood with all right bear bear them if you will um describe the ways in which the application of the requirement of the zoning ordinance effectively prohibit unreasonably restrict or your utilization of the subject property all because of this the safety of that drop off there um we wanted to stay away from out there is a five foot drop off in that backyard um like the courtyard area you cannot see it from there but we had to dig out structurally to go in there there is a five foot there's a five foot fall all around there um is that would that be on the back of your house right if you pull that up again look right in front of that gazebo okay right there um you can't i know what it is so i can you can't distinguish it there but there is an air conditioning heating and air conditioning unit right in that corner which is what you're seeing okay uh right there in front of the gazebo is where that drop off starts you can't you're not going to be able to pick it out right okay so between so let between the gazebo and that area it's roughly eight feet roughly yeah which is where that which is where so this is this is the yard the gazebo is right here you have about eight feet and then right there and that goes all the way to the to the uh property line on the front and all the way back to the corner of the house looking at this photo so the um the accessory set back to be three feet correct so if you were to try to build this to be though and conform to the learning code and regulation you have to be three feet toward your dwelling so what i'm just asking why can't you do that so i mean i guess what i could do uh the only thing that i would have to do i according to my understanding and this would be onerous at this point because they because that is set in concrete which is the issue um i could just i could basically just cut those post and move the post up a few feet and i would be within i would be within the zoning the issue is of course when we set those posts and you pour concrete pour them in the pour them in the ground and then that that to me that that has a um the structural element of that would be the thing is when we're asking to describe extraordinary and exceptional conditions you know regarding the yard topography etc i don't see that because i understand why you didn't why you don't want to move it's already done but that was you know before receiving the required permit and so simply the fact that it's existing now i don't think that creates unnecessary approach okay that's the thing you know well when we when we constructed the when we constructed there um and i guess this goes to understanding to some extent we i'll accept i have to accept responsibility for building the gazebo because i built the gazebo but we hadn't had any we hadn't had any issue or have any of this come up because when we were we were kind of recruited to to invest in this neighborhood and when we did that we were we didn't have many limitations on on that i mean we were we were asked to we came in and encouraged to do a lot there to spur the and that's what we did perfectly understandable i mean i see how you got where you got no problem there i just i when we're when we're when we're asked to grant a variance when we run through the specific criteria i got you i just have a hard time seeing that that meets a threshold okay that's that's what i mean but i understand how you got there okay we're looking at number three gene i i mean i don't want to put words in your mouth mr howard but i think you answer number three by the five-foot drop off you had to move it over so that there is space as a safety issue so there's space near that yeah i think what mr daken's is saying is technically i could move those posts um i would really like i could move those posts in and still have a usable structure i think when you get too small and that is really not usable you want to gazebo would be a certain size and that's really a standard size gazebo 10 by 12 is what it is so to cut that down and it would actually make the gazebo a lot less functional but you know i'm not i didn't really didn't come prepared to uh to contest i didn't realize there was aside from the zoning letter i didn't realize when he really had an issue so okay number four is described the way in which granting the variance will not be a substantial detriment to the adjacent property or to the public good additionally in what ways will the granting of the variance not harm the character of the district right well i think that was pretty obvious um the variance doesn't touch the the easement to the existing property um the structure is it's already our property i already owned the property so maintaining that is um is our responsibility but we don't touch the easement we protect the easement um so it just has it has no effect on it if we are allowed to continue to um complete the the gazebo of course it would be very attractive the only thing that makes the it's a gazebo now i mean the only thing that makes it somewhat appear unsightly is we have a temporary tarp on the top which i have not been able to remove we left to go to italy for a month for something that we had to do and i have not been able to touch it since then because of the letter from zoning that's the only reason that is in that state and i want to clarify to you just along those lines um depending on if this case is approved or not when a permit is applied for there will be a level of design review as well as it is in the city center design development area so they would planning would be looking at the actual design of the structure as well i'll be happy to do um rachel i've got a question for you so um does the concrete slab is that is that affected by the setback or just the gazebo that's the actual structure so essentially that slab can stay just where it is it doesn't have to be ripped up it could be extended three feet and the gazebo could be moved over three feet closer to his house and that would that would satisfy the the zoning ordinance concrete that that can go up to the property line for driveway for example it's the actual structure that those three feet from the property line five feet from the main structure those setbacks may i have one more thing when we did that we i didn't think we had any problem with the pad at all um the i think the the openness of it is probably what confused me because it's completely open structure um i i contemplated before and this might be outside of the purview of this but i contemplated before doing a hanging garden back there against that wall because i've actually had a garden i'm a garden in that area um if i wanted to do a hanging garden i would have gone right up against that wall and had things coming down it it's just never been an issue and because it's open i i didn't realize the post would even cause it it's just kind of i have no more to add i'd be happy to answer any other questions but i hope that we can continue with this it'll be a very beautiful and usable structure and continue to enhance the neighborhood as we've done for the past the other the other um the fifth the fifth um uh item four that we consider is is it is it the minimum necessary i think we've had that discussion do you want to add anything to that is it the minimum necessary i'm confused on that yes it's just the minimum necessary yeah yeah yeah the structure itself right yeah yeah it's the it's the minimum size um necessary for i mean 10 by 12 is generally what they are i think what they mean by that is does it have to be where it is or could it be it kind of has to be where it is unless put off of where it could be it kind of for the way out the way i feel um from a safety standpoint is the further we can stay back from a five foot drop off in that backyard um now my son is 15 years old he will jump down off of the wall into that yard but i'm 48 now and i'm not i don't want to have to jump into that backyard so i want to stay away from it and be able to have the flow of the the flow of traffic back there when we have when we entertain to stay away from that drop off it doesn't look like there's anywhere else you could put it because if you move i'm looking at this if you move that way you're moving into the easement if you move that way right let's take the road you can't come we can't come forward um i've never wanted to do anything to to uh stop the to interfere with the easement i mean i'm an attorney as well so understand not violate in the easement we've done everything to try and enhance the prop enhance the property and protect that easement i'm i i've even contemplated building another parking pad for that area just because it's my responsibility to do so they can't come in and construct anything there but i would like to do it just to enhance the look of the property i've done everything that i can to um to protect that very well the last one is explain how your proposal um is it harmony with the purpose and the tenor of the zoning ordinance they will not be injurious to the neighborhood or otherwise detrimental to the public welfare so my understanding of of the zoning ordinance and ordinances in general is to protect one one you want to keep a minimum distance between properties and i think the functional reason for the zoning requirement is to allow especially in a city setting to allow movement in and around property lines you never know when the city or some other uh entity may have to come in and maintain and so you maintain a setback from property lines to allow that sort of movement between that property so that whatever needs to be done can be done this structure has no impact on that whatsoever um if the city needs to come in and move around the property lines even though that house sits on our property line this structure will not inhibit the city at all from being able to come in and move between the property lines for surveys or whatever it needs to do i think that both of the uh presentations have been made very well um is there any any uh discussion um from the board the tight situation where if everything uh mr. howard has said i understand how he got where he also i i have a hard time running through the criteria seeing the necessary hardship here i kind of i'm in the camp if you could move this thing at least the covered portion of it three foot fours the existing house and have you do that but i guess the bottom line is i wish or i would like to see the neighborhood be okay with it but if they're not then i have a hard time justifying that's well said um i think that the most the biggest hardship has caused because it was constructed without a permit and now it's got to be moved in order to inform as opposed to had it been planned out before i think it could have easily been constructed to conform to the zoning ordinance good morning everyone i'm Joseph Azar upstairs odium video and i'm the one applying for this i do have some other things may i pass out to the group um first of all is a letter from chief melron kelly our assistant chief i should say who has said that they take no position on this meaning they're neither for nor against the second one is my neighbor uh redwebber it's supercuts and he is in support of this he is running to the same problems i have and he is tired of the the method is there excuse me he finds a lot of the same things in front of his door that i find in mind and actually i have um some pictures here uh that you may want to look at or you may not want to look at of how people use their front door and finally completely off the record has nothing to do with this but love to invite you to a concert friday night in which i'm playing it's a free concert and uh we'd love to have you come so columbia community concert band we have about 75 pieces in that we have the we have the busiest corner in five points it is um where uber lift come uh taxis right there all four of those corners are very busy mine and the fountain those are the two we're right in the center of the bar scene of five points everybody congregates there especially about 1 30 in the morning when the bars start letting out and people start coming out and they're there to get a ride friends come pick them up whatever we run into a lot of pee puke and poop i hate to say it but um i've had people up going up my stairs to my front door and urinating on my front door that is no fun to have to clean up it stinks i have seen him up there in fact one guy knew very well and he was in the back of the paddy wagon the cops got him for doing that uh mr zarka we go to the criteria um it's kind of stake stick on that let me i'll know that you actually followed it but um the first one is you know to describe please the extraordinary conditions uh excuse me that ordinary exceptional conditions such as the size shape topography so they pertain to your property for this request which is um request looks like it is for a um variance for operating hours for temporary vendor um that's the second request this first one is for the parking okay so this is the parking variance request is so there's two these are two this is a double request or is this something else they're yes they're back-to-back requests but for the second one to be heard the first one heard and improved we've got to operate yeah this one is the parking variance requesting just zero parking spaces on site from six p.m. to three a.m. it's just a variance for a certain period of time after regular business hours okay can we stick to that one yes sir all right on the first part then and then um kind of go in there so so this is this is a parking variance for specific hours of the evening yes sir would you like me to comment on that uh yeah do you want me to read you again the um so um please describe the extraordinary exceptional conditions um such as the size shape topography of the property etc that pertain to this request i'm not sure i understand that exactly the problem we have there is that people come and park in that lot and they go all over five points we don't know who's in the lot what um my store closes at six o'clock grill teriyaki's open on thursday night till 10 on friday and saturday night they close the doors to the store about 10 or 11 o'clock but they have a to-go window and they sell out of that the problem with leaving the store open a grill teriyaki is too many people a lot of problems inside and that's why they run the window again the lot's full we don't know who the people are if we i'm not there all the time sometimes i work late at night grill teriyaki if they tow somebody off somebody drunk comes back really ticked off about it could start a fight they come back knock the windows out do some damage so you know they don't know who's there and what they don't get to use the parking lot i don't really get to use the parking lot it's not of use to us because people are coming through we also have motorcycles that spill out into the street over the sidewalks and all we have a lot of hip hop cars i should say with loud sound systems and flashing neon lights it'll sometimes park there it tracks a crowd and it tracks too much and it causes problems sometimes some violence which we're trying to reduce if so what are your what's your proposal to the proposal is to be able to control that lot to block it off i believe you have the pictures that show the police blocking it off if you could pull that up please the police actually have either come in and put barricades over there uh some nights or they have parked their cars in three of them side by side or at an angle across it they blocked us off they blocked trips it has reduced a lot of the problems by doing that still they also put cones on my stairs to keep people from going up though some of the kids have thrown the cones down the street and still go up and sit on the stairs and litter my my stairs with rice and dressing and all the mess that i have to clean up when we come in on Thursday Friday morning Saturday morning that sort of thing so we're asking you to allow us to control that lot on Thursday Friday Saturday nights and if there's a special event to something that's going to bring masses of people to five points to be able to block the lot off so that we can control it and keep people out from all the mess that we have and the police again like i said they like the idea they're the ones who blocked it off in fact and brought police barricades down and i apologize that those pictures actually did not make it into the packet but he did provide a picture showing the barricade i think i do have some on my cell phone if you'd like to see those i still have no i couldn't get the picture it's pretty easy so your business is closed mine is closed but this is required for the restaurant question for Rachel it applies to both businesses on that parcel there's four teriyaki and upstairs audio share a parcel so in the variance in 2002 was six spaces to be shared by both businesses so that was the existing variance in place and so right now what we're talking about is a request of variance to basically eliminate those spaces between the hours of six and three a.m. or something like that right and okay so i'm finally starting to catch on i apologize for being so slow so let's let's get back to that i think the extraordinary exceptional conditions that you're describing as you were saying was that basically it's those spaces become a loitering place for for for parkers that are not using those businesses even though they're supposed to be private parking for those businesses and controlled by the businesses you're asking to be able to block barricade them off is that correct after hours that's correct if we don't i mean the police have been you know at their will and uh we still don't get to use it so it's you know i think you were getting at they don't generally apply to other structures in the vicinity because y'all are at the the corner of hardened and green which is a is a large congregation area for outside part of yours in the five points area quite a bit that's where i hate to say it most of the violence has been i hate to say about the shootings and such but most of them happened right there then you know as far as demonstrating ways in which this variance will not be substantial detriment to the adjacent property or additionally other ways granting the variance will not harm the character of the district is this a joint application that's being made between you and the restaurant or is this just an application being made by you in the restaurant is i'm the landlord so you're the landlord for the restaurant yes gotcha so essentially you're saying that this is not going to be detrimental um and it's basically there to stop loitering in property damage after hours is that what you're saying yes sir and then explain how this request is the minimum necessary minimum necessary i think that you're saying that you would only want to do this between a certain hour of the 24 hour day when you're not business is not open um and it's so it's not a you're not eliminating these parking spaces uh during normal business hours no we don't want to affect the daytime business it's just that thursday friday and saturday nights are big nights for college students and thursday night's kind of the and that is and just to take that a little further so this request is limited to 30 friday and saturday nights yes we'd also like to ask if it's a special event in five points let's say there's some big event that happens let's say there's it's a tuesday football game haven't forbid but there's something like that then they're all going to pile into five points after the game we want to be able to control that if we don't i'm sure the police will come in and lock it off anyhow you know it's something like that you know they're different events we just want to make sure that we can keep it clean keep the traffic down the problems down that's what we want to do and then you know finally uh explain how um your proposal is in harmony with the purpose and intent of the zoning ordinance that will not be detrimental to the neighborhood or otherwise to public welfare i can't see it being detrimental to any of the other businesses actually beneficial if you see that note from my neighbor he has the same problems with the type of things he's had his door busted in because people are hanging out on the street and all so actually we feel it's beneficial to help in that sense we're not taking anything away in essence because again grill teriyaki doesn't have use of it at night when the cars park or whatever or the motorcycles are there which the police do not want those motorcycles hanging over there they not only fill out a lot they come over the sidewalk and they're in that area if you can see it that little piece where it goes down into the street they're out in that area too so it's causing people to have to walk around and out in the street sometimes and actually the former landlord i mean former owner of grill teriyaki had a problem with that she was saying that the people in the cars and the motorcycles were harassing especially the girls that walk by you know talking smack to them that sort of thing bothering the people there and they did not like it at all leave one or two spots for grill teriyaki to do take out to allow the spot cars to well i guess that's in the second part of this i was going to address that in the next issue i guess what i'm getting at is what how will this look how we physically barricade the will is it okay to address the second part of this too okay the second part of this and it may if i may with your permission address the second issue on this which ties into this having a person there with a cart that's selling allows us to have someone who has eyes on the place part of my agreement with them is that they will clean the place up at night after they leave so we don't have that mess that you see but they will watch people keep them from going upstairs and onto the roof keep the cars out that are coming in and to answer your question right against grill teriyaki having one or two spaces that are marked maybe with some standing signs that say or their pickup because right now the uber eats people the bite squad and all the others that come in to pick up at night they pull up out in the street either in that ramp down part or farther out they pull up into the turn lane so they're parked there and they're sitting there and they're waiting for the orders to come out from grill teriyaki so they can take and deliver them so actually they're blocking the street up the cart vendor would be required to watch that and keep people out as well that's part of the job that's part of my requirement if they do not do that they do not get to be in the lot so the cart vendor is an essential part of this to make sure it's kept clean kept neat keep the people out keeping from going behind the dumpster and using my dumpster as a public bathroom which we believe what we find back there I hate to tell you oh keeping it clean and watching if there's a problem calling the police letting them know there's something coming down they think there's some you know we I see I'm down there sometimes at two o'clock at night and I see people you know pushing each other talking smack or they get ready to have some violence I've stepped in the middle of it sometimes and tried to break it up and I've called the cops over you know they usually sit across the street where the trucks park you can't quite see it right there on salute of that little place that goes through by the fountain and I'll holler over form a wave to them they'll come over and that's what the cart guys or whoever runs the cart is supposed to do as well so we keep that down because again most of the violence that has happened late at night and it usually happens between 130 and 230 when everybody's getting out and everybody's being pushed against each other that's what we want to keep down we want to keep five points clean and happy place right so the item for us at this moment is to allow you to basically fence off or cordon off or block off the six parking places in front of your property from public use between the hours of 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. on Thursday Friday and Saturday is that the way I'm reading this for the variance it's from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. gotcha I'm just to give some clarification of how the two tie in because we'll hear the second variance after this one if approved um for a temporary vendor to go on the site a temporary vendor cannot take up a required parking space and so since he is required to have six spaces on site the variance request is in place to allow him to be able to even have a vendor. I will tell you the reason for 6 a.m. is I mean 6 p.m. is because that's when we close upstairs audio and that's when people start coming down to go to restaurants bars and such and actually the police have come down when they did bring the barricades and they say can we start setting them up now to keep that out I mean otherwise I would have said probably eight or nine but they're the ones who actually started early and I'm following their lead on this. Since we have to take these one at a time let's just have um see if there's anyone else in the room that's here to speak in favor or against this application. Please come forward. I'm Amy Beth Franks I'm the executive director of the Five Points Association we are a nonprofit governing body that looks out for the best interests of the neighbors of the merchants. Mr. Azar has been a long time and good-standing property owner and business owner in Five Points and I am not here to speak out against or for necessarily but rather voice some concerns that my board has for you to consider in making your ruling. I hate to hear the problems that Mr. Azar is having and I believe him what he said about people gathering and loitering at night is is absolutely happening and what I've experienced. I do have concerns that what he's proposing might not necessarily eradicate what's happening that he's opposed to. If there's any way that we could consider looking at some sort of conditional approval so we could allow him the opportunity to close it and have a food vendor and maybe reevaluate after some time. We do have some other private property vendors that have vendors in their parking lots and I don't want to call them out while they're not here to defend themselves but some of the concerns we have with those property vendors or property owners is that those vendors are not completely breaking down when they're done so obviously we would want to make sure that there was absolutely nothing left in terms of tent or mats and set up. I also worry about these vendors not cleaning up after themselves and I would hate to see a vendor brought in that competes with one of the brick and mortar businesses. You know we're here to support all of the businesses there's 150 approximately in five points and while I very much want to fix what's happening to Mr. Azar's property and make sure that his business is not hurt by what's happening at night time I want to make sure that we're going about it in the right way to eradicate his problems but not hinder any of the other businesses. Thank you. To clarify for the record any temporary vendor would have to get a permit there are some issues in the five point area of ones that come in after 30 hours that we are not entirely aware of so we have been looking at a few of those but a condition of a temporary vendor permit is they are supposed to break down entirely when they are not in operation so that is something that we could enforce from a zoning perspective outright from the permit. Got it. Glad you clarified that. Anyone else? Joe you cannot speak from the thing if you want to say one more thing then come up to the podium and spoken microphone. Thank you. Oh I agree with Amy Beth Franks. When I built the building I put a lot of money and time into it to make sure it fit five points. In fact if you go around behind to the post office you'll notice instead of concrete block it's brick that time it cost me another five or ten thousand dollars to do that but I wanted it to look good I'm not going to do anything there to hurt my property or hurt five points. Any vendor that's going to be there is going to have to clean up they're going to have to hose down if there's what you see in those pictures they're going to have to shovel if there's human fertilizer I should say or hose down whatever and believe me I found in my parking lot I've seen people squatting in my parking lot doing their business. I have no problem with trying it out what I want to do in my neighbor is we want to reduce the problems we know there's no cure for alcohol and hormones you can't fight youth unfortunately all you can do is try to reduce the problems and this is the whole idea I have you know it's just come to a head that we can't take it anymore when we find this on our stairs and all and all the problems even the police who have now decided that they want to barricade it because and we've allowed them to to do that but still with the barricades we do find problems so having the cart vendor there that is responsible a responsible that has to live up to the requirements that I set will help reduce that and keep an eye on the problems there so again question for you how do you intend to barricade off the block off the parking we can either use bar the police barricades again you ask the question about the you know the two spaces a space or two for pickup you know getting some sort of signs there and if people come in to park and walk off the vendor would either call the toke company first hopefully tell them not to but we'll have signs there and right out not in the back but in the front so if that's the back of the parking space right here before you pull in you'll see that sign so that will be for pickup for grill teriyaki we want that and we do that or allow the employees of grill teriyaki to actually park there so we block it off let them come in so the cooks and whatever can be there in the parking lot at night that sort of thing because they don't have any place to park either so essentially you want to block it off so that you can control who has access to it yes sir we really want to do that you know in one way or another but as it stands now it's used by everybody else but us park there and they go everywhere and i i do check that i feel the hoods of the cars to see if they're warm or not they're pretty stone cold so we want to try to help make five points a better place and keep it clean and keep it safe i mean i'm a long time thank you down there thank you very much is there any discussion with the board or any questions from the board well so are we taking we've got two separate issues here we've sort of blended them together obviously we're going to take two votes but i mean this is it as far as presentation regarding this matter and we we didn't fully go into the second one um so this motion will just be for the parking so if you all wanted to discuss the second one now it might be better to just go ahead and close out the first case and then we'll hear the second one which is the operation operating hours so that makes sense procedurally that's certainly the way we need to do it but so addressing the first one only and i realize we've sort of led into the second issue this this to me seems to be a a no-brainer um you know we've got an opportunity here to improve the safety in five points you've demonstrated very thoroughly to us the reasons for the problems and your concerns so you know we're being asked to grant a variance to all street parking requirements for this mixed use building as evidence that the spaces are not needed is this the simple fact that you're having this problem you know if you needed these spaces or we're using these spaces i feel like you wouldn't be having these issues so to me this this is an opportunity to improve the safety in an area of five points that's seen a tremendous amount of violence in the past few years and i think it's absolutely appropriate that we approve this variance for you the building's not open you don't need these spaces and this will help clean up the area so fully in support of this thank you okay um for clarity um you're okay with us granting this variance um between the hours of six p.m. and three a.m. Thursday night through Saturday morning Sunday morning yes sir um i would like to uh make a motion um that we approve uh the variance um for the operating i mean for the uh the parking uh request um between the hours of six p.m. and three a.m. um on start beginning on Thursday at six p.m. and ending on sunday morning at three a.m. subject to um any comments in this application uh or or uh suggestions by the board coming by the uh don't need administrator second all in favor say aye aye all opposed thank you um so now we come to the second um case which is uh the uh temporary vendor yes case um 2018 zero one one five it's a variance to the operating hours of a temporary vendor um we covered some of it during discussion of the last case but within 400 feet of a residentially zoned area um the operating hours are limited to nine p.m. um they cannot operate from nine p.m. to nine a.m. to clarify um this parcel does from lot line to lot line come within 400 feet of a residentially zoned area so and it doesn't matter if there's a house on it goes by zoning district not by what is actually on the parcel so the the variance then basically is operating until three a.m. as opposed to um closing at nine p.m. yes it is to allow a temporary vendor once permitted to be on the parcel past nine p.m. so in the same the other conditions of a temporary vendor apply such as they must break down and clean up when not in operation understood so um I think you've thoroughly explained why you want this this these hours is because those are the hours that you want someone there to be looking after your property and making sure that it's not being uh just passed on um after hours yes and if you wouldn't mind could you pull up the map that shows where the residential areas are this is the subject property here at the intersection of green and harden the residential zoning again at this line it's a yellow which is a city park yeah but it is residential zone part g1 so and it's from zoning district if I may point out we're not the we would not be the only vendor if you look in the middle of the block um where it was the chinese restaurant at one time he grills up chicken and such at night as well so he's just as close to it and then over on the corner where lucky's barn grill is which is where the magic mark is too there's a vendor there and um they're close to that as well and actually there is a residential area down on um sand tea some houses there so they're actually close to that and I do know that the old harper's building which serves alcohol is close to the church over there as well which uh so we would not be the only ones that would be so close to that residential area which is actually a public park as you mentioned and I don't believe we would be hurting anybody at all by having a vendor in there a lot I can't see that somebody doing hot dogs hamburgers or barbecue or something would bother the park at all late at night after all there's yeah I think for the second time I think that we have our discussions on this is currently have thoroughly vetted out the the different criteria that are required and why you need those and why this is a special situation with your property and its location and the hours of of operation of the general public in and around your area and so I don't think we need to go through that again um I would like to make a motion that we approve this request subject to the limitations of 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. from Thursdays through 6 p.m. beginning at Thursday at 6 p.m. and ending down Sundays at 3 a.m. and that I don't believe that I believe that the the city permit for a vendor will continue to apply to this I don't think we need to put any additional restrictions on that and just for procedure sake I just wanted to make sure there was no one that wanted to come up and speak as to this specific case for the motion. Yeah so I'll table that motion and ask that anybody in the audience would like to come back up and speak about the second request please raise your hand I see none okay thanks um all right so um going back to my motion I would only add that it be subject to any criteria stated in the application recommended by staff all in favor say aye aye all opposed motion carries thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and love to have you come to our concert there's some invitations there thank you Friday night case on the agenda is item number 16 it's case 2018 0117 it's for 2013 Green Street this is a variance to the off-street parking requirement for a restaurant so and to give background on this one as well a variance was granted in 2016 when the restaurant was expanded this allowed for the restaurant to maintain just the existing 18 parking spaces that are on site this request is to eliminate those 18 parking spaces so that they can expand to build the parcel I believe the applicants here they can come forward morning I think it's appropriate following mr. Azar and the challenges that his business faces and things that we're trying to do in five points to support the efforts of Amy Beth and the five points association in rebranding five points in matter of speaking to be more family friendly less bar focused so our request has to do with that and those efforts in doing that before we came before the board here or the council we did get with Amy Beth and the five points association and informed them of our intent and they supported our efforts and we appreciate them on that very much so first if I can go through a couple of points here for you and and be happy to answer your questions the reasons for the request is based on four primary areas that we have dealt with and observed over the last three years of being in business in five points changing habits of consumers in driving safety economics and of course the efforts of the five points association are the primary points that I'd like to go over in our three years of existence we have supported the efforts of the five points association of the city of columbia to rebrand five points as less of a late night only district into a family friendly 30 plus friendly safe entertainment district we have had to deal with the well written report in the state the expose on the articles about five points and the challenges that five points faces and we have tried to be I don't want to say on a tip of the spear but towards the tip in helping get away from that bar focus we have continued to offer fresh made from scratch food at a very fair and reasonable price we close earlier at night than our neighbors so as not to attract or encourage late night drinking we have had no issues with underage drinking or any issues that would be considered unsafe safer unethical in short we have supported the mission to alter the perception of the five points district so going through these four points for you number one again I'd like to state that we are grateful for the support of the five points association and specifically Amy best Beth Franks they have provided industry requests and understanding and of the importance of this request and how helpful it is in their efforts to broaden five points appeal point number two in the last three years it has become increasingly increasingly obvious that consumers have altered their habits when it comes to transportation the proliferation of services such as uber and Lyft have shown that many more people choose not to drive personal vehicles when going out socially for both safety and economical reasons people choose to not drink alcohol and drive which is a very positive thing for everyone we have seen a tremendous increase in the amount of people using the services of uber and lyft also we were very happy to see the addition of the bike rentals in five points the availability of these bikes encourage their use we support that we have added a bike right rack actually in the back and it has been greatly appreciated and used regularly also the amount of people of all ages that insist on walking their dogs and bringing them with them to eat has increased dramatically being pet friendly nowadays is a requirement not an option we have also seen a dramatic increase in the use of personal motorized scooters to get around these trends by consumers and their needs have changed dramatically younger people have shown a preference to not own vehicles next and following up on that point the issue of safety as recent events involving the Ford Motor Company and General Motors shows with the closing of plants eliminating the production of many cars and focusing on trucks and SUVs it has become an increasing issue for our location to handle large vehicles safely our building is 70 plus years old the alleyway along the side is very tight the back parking lot is approximately 50 to 60 feet wide at its widest there is nowhere to turn around if the lot is 50 full excuse me the average truck SUV nowadays is 20 to 25 feet long our parking lot is approximately 50 to 60 feet wide this is led to vehicles hitting each other scratching each other etc people have gotten back there with no need to turn no way to turn around and have had to try to back out which is very dangerous in short the simple truth is that the parking area for a 70 plus year old building is outdated and unable to safely accommodate today's larger vehicles which has proven to be the preference we upset more guests by having to maintain this outdated lot than we can accommodate successfully the fourth point is more of an economics point to maintain the quality of food and the level of staffing the prep work required to execute a made-from-scratch menu that is healthier and still flavorful requires a much higher level of labor cost than a bar focused on just serving drinks to open from lunch through dinner requires more staff and more management to do it successfully and safely more so than a bar that just opens at night to serve drinks from a strictly economic perspective it is much more profitably to be a bar than it is to be a restaurant also due to five points reputation is merely late night college zone in the fact that the lack of offices and daytime businesses is limited to students or locals local business lunch business traffic is very limited is expensive to prepare fresh food every morning and provide for a very limited lunch crowd without the ability to maximize traffic and seating during early evening and dinner we would have to look at ways to cut labor cut operating expenses and limit our operating hours unfortunately that we cannot unfortunately that means laying people off we have held steady for three years but again from an economic perspective we cannot compete with bars and five points from an economic perspective we would like the city council to look at our requests in a similar manner to when governments offer tax incentives for businesses to go into areas that the city state is trying to alter the economic conditions the difference here is that this request requested variance would not be a tax reduction however it would be a tax increase based on increased revenue production along with not only not laying people off but hiring more people we believe the city council's support in approving our request serves as a very similar purpose in five points as does tax incentives in conclusion we do not come to asking for this request without having three years of efforts on our part to work with any guidelines as they exist i am reminded of an old phrase if you always do what you've always done you always get what you always got we support both the five points association and the city of columbia's efforts to alter the perception of the five point six district we believe we have shown that support by not following the path of least resistance and coincidentally the path of increased profitability by being an alcohol focused business we believe that if we are successful in getting approval on this matter we can continue those efforts we are sincerely appreciative of the tremendous support on this matter we've received from Amy Beth Franks and the five points association board we are grateful our landlord Dana wolf of wolf hotel supports our efforts 100 percent we know that what we are trying to accomplish is what will make our current guests very happy and to help attract more people and their pets we also know that the world is changing the transportation the environment and not driving well drinking has all changed and will continue to change i believe we can support and embrace these changes through how we operate i hope these items show that we have spent three years observing and studying this effort we do not come to this request slightly or without forth are we hope you see the challenges and opportunities and we do as we do and support our request any questions is there anyone else here to speak in favor or against this application if you come to the podium you may and i'm joseph azar upstairs on your video i look at their building every day when garibaldi's closed down we were so afraid here comes another late night bar and all the garbage trash and everything love of clothes done a great job they wonderful tacos and they have an excellent hamburger i got to tell you um it's a great place it's run well um i have to agree with them in a traffic yeah people are taking uber and lift now um so it we don't need as much parking sometimes saying they're coming out in front of my place like i said i see him all the time in uber and lift in a parking space that tight like he's saying what can you do it does cause problems in fact i didn't even know he had the parking space for a long time back there so i gotta say i think there are a real asset to five points i agree with them and if the city of columbia which has bought the building the state building on divine street if they take that parking lot too and we use that for city or five points parking is loss of a few spaces will be greatly offset by what the city does and hopefully they will do that and hopefully someday we'll get another parking lot for five points as well which we could use and then we'd be like the vista where a lot of places don't have parking but there is parking for people to come down so i gotta say thank you to public co for improving five points and i hope you'll approve their request thank you that was unrehearsed okay there's someone else who would like to speak quickly i won't eat up too much time again amy beth with the five points association i just wanted to confirm our support of public co's request they've been a stellar member of our community and we're happy that they're working hard to improve our image we do ask that this approval not be conditional only to that brick and mortar building no matter who occupies it that should public co expand and move out of their space and a new business come in we'd like for them to have to make the request as well and not necessarily carry the same parking variance thank you um just for a quick clarification i believe that would be the case right um the variance runs with the property we cannot make it specific to a specific property owner however um it would have to be the same use coming in it would not just be a blanket variance it would have to be another restaurant coming in for the parking variance to apply but it does run with the property not just with the property owner okay um i would say that um you've made a tremendous um and very appreciate your your application i think you've addressed uh very succinctly all of the um of the questions asked of you um in your written application and also verbally in your testimony and so we appreciate that um i don't have any of any further um questions is anyone from the board have a have a question i will entertain a motion motion to approve second we have a motion to approve this application in a second all in favor say aye aye all opposed thank you very much yeah have a happy holiday no other business is on the agenda today happy holidays everybody see you next year yeah i make a motion that we adjourn second all in favor aye i've been hereby adjourned thank you