 Chair for the board. This time we'd like to introduce the other members of the board. On my left is Katherine Finner followed by John Guignard, John Gregory, Marcellus Promise, and Thuya McIntosh. Also like to introduce the staff to assist the board. We've got Hope Hasty, zoning administrator, Erica Hyen, deputy zoning administrator, and Sky Robinson Barnes. Alright the board is charged with hearing applications for special exceptions, variances, and administrative appeals. All 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 can be taken from the floor. When you come to the podium please state your name and please speak clearly into the microphone because the meeting is being recorded. Applicants with cases before the board are allotted a presentation time of 10 minutes. This time 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 you're a spokesperson for an established body or group of three or more. The applicant then has five minutes for a buttle. The board reserves the right to amend these procedures on a case-by-case basis. Okay so those of you who plan to speak must be sworn. So if you are here as an applicant or if you're here to speak in any case please stand at this time and raise your right hand. Okay do you affirm or test that the testimony you will give today is the truth and nothing but the truth? Okay. Thank you. This time we'll turn the meeting over to staff. Okay so we'll start out. Good afternoon. We'll start out with the consent agenda. First item on the consent agenda is the approval of the November 3rd 2022 meeting minutes. Next item on the consent agenda case 20220038V737 Gadsden Street and it's a request for a variance to the maximum front yard setback for dormitory use. Those are all the items on the consent agenda. Would any member of the board like to remove an item from the consent agenda? Would any member of the public like to remove anything from the consent agenda? Okay so we've had a little confusion in the past so let's just be clear. We're getting ready to take a motion on this item and so now is the time. If anyone wishes to speak or say anything the item would need to be removed from the consent agenda otherwise we're going to move forward. All right I see none. I'd like to ask for a motion. Okay we have a motion a second. All those in favor please say aye. Any opposed? All right motion passes. Thank you. All right thank you. Moving on to the regular agenda. We've got case number 20220039V. This is 2419 Pendleton Street and 2446 Millwood Avenue and it's a request for a special exception to permit a residential care facility and we do have the applicant here and several of the applicant's representatives to present the case. Thank you. All right with the applicant light and approach. Hey my name is Michael Wenslinger I'm with Gowan Mills Kaywood and we're representing Julianne Avan and Mercy for this case. Okay thank you. So the property we're talking about is 2419 Pendleton Street. There's actually two parcels and 2446 Millwood Avenue and so one condition of ultimately approval would obviously be consolidating those parcels for purpose of developing the property and we can just give you a general overview if that works. You know we're happy to go criteria by criteria if that's helpful but we can kind of just focus on what we think is probably the most important and if you have any questions just let us know we can you know we can go back through those. But the the project is a youth supportive housing program. It'd be residential care facility under the special exception and zoning criteria. The house will be about 3000 square feet. You can see on the site plan that's not fixed or set the zone by any means but it's just sort of a general vetting of the property to kind of see how we might lay it out how it would fit. But the house is generally residential in nature it's two stories. There would be 10 individual bedrooms that would serve 10 women ages 17 through 24. There'll be a staff office living room kitchen you know kind of basic essentials for the facility. It will be monitored 24 hours a day with staff on site during that time. One of the bigger things I think looking at I think it's criteria too early on in the in the list but it has outlined in the in the zoning ordinance or just criteria we have to meet for special exception. And so like under residential care facility there's licensing a loading control program neighborhood communication program business plan and then some other criteria under rooming house or boarding house. And so we've met all those criteria. Licensing is not required by DHEC for this facility. It does fall under residential care facility but it's not like technically what it is. It's just sort of a broad category that you know we fit best within loading control program we provided some documentation to that effect. But obviously you know just house rules and the business plan kind of speak to that as far as having it monitored and people aren't allowed to just like sit out on a you know fortune smoke or anything like that. And then you know visitors and stuff all have to be you know checked in and improve you know with the facility and so it's a very controlled program. Neighborhood communication. So we have reached out to the neighborhood association. They support the project and you know there's a recent article in the news. I think yesterday several residents in the area also voiced their support of the project which is great. And so you know we're looking at investing about a million dollars into the neighborhood and it's really good to have their support. You know we're excited about the project. Business plans in there as well is pretty detailed and kind of goes through specific requirements and Julianne's here to she can probably speak better you know to that than I can if you have any specific questions to that regard. There are no individual kitchen facilities and then you know being accessed by common hallway it's not exterior access it's all interior. So I think we meet those you know those requirements pretty pretty clearly. You know items we've talked about in the past you know is looking at like a proliferation of this type of facility. I think you know the site we're looking at currently is further away than we have been in the past as far as previous applications and so I think that does address that adequately. There is one other facility over on Washington Street it's about 11 blocks away you know if you look at the scale of downtown that's pretty significant you know as far as the size of where we can where we can be and be reasonably located to amenities and facilities that would help support the residents of the of the house you know but also you know being as reasonably far away I think from the other facility so they're not you know they're not proliferating or creating a density of that special exception use. You know the house will be generally aesthetic and character. I think it's great having an example on Washington Street because you kind of see what it'll be. You obviously won't be exactly the same as that but it'll be similar and that it'll look residential and fit in with the general aesthetic of the surrounding area. You know as far as like other nuisances and traffic control and just general criteria. You know the the program is very quiet nature. You know if you walk past there now you know they monitor it really well you know we went by to take some pictures of it and they stopped us and said hey who are you and what are you doing you know we work with you but but you know they really do control it really well and it's just a quiet house frankly so I think it'll blend in with the residential kind of nature of that area and you want I think it's really good fit for it you know talked about you know mix of institutional residential I think this fits in really well where it's effectively a hybrid of those things and so it seems like a good fit and you know this is what we're bringing before you guys today for your review and approval and discussion. Any other questions or anything you'd like us to address more and more detail or specifically. Thank you I think your application was very well written and did a good job outlining the different criteria that we used to judge these special exceptions on so I personally do not have any questions I'm sure some other members of the board may. Okay great. Let me ask one question I'm just thinking about it just reading through the application and I guess you guys were directed towards this zoning MU1 just said. Yeah that's been ever since like I think it was like Andrew living good way back when when we did the Washington Street property it was like CU1 I guess back then which with the new transfers MU1 and so that's where we've been directed to by the city in the past as far as this type of facility I think if you read the description MU1 it's basically a mix of all those things so yeah you know it's kind of a little consolidation of that intent so I think it fits well. Cool. Thank you. Yep. Okay. Any other questions? All right thank you very much. Yeah thanks. Appreciate it. Sure. Okay would any members of the public like to speak on this matter? Okay come on up. You came in after you've not been sworn in have you? Didn't you come in a few minutes late? Yes. Okay need to have you sworn in before you speak. If you would please raise your right hand. Okay do you affirm or test the testimony you will give today is the truth and nothing but the truth? I will. Okay thank you. All right please state your name. My name is Vivian Armstead I live at 906 Oak Street 29204 I'm president of the MLK Law Waverly Neighborhood Association. I have met with Mercy about the petition to have the 10 unit space on the Pendleton short street area and I have converged with our executive committee for the neighborhood association and we are in full support of this going forward. We know that in this city we have a problem with homeless. We have a problem with mental health. We have a problem with housing period and so if we honestly say that we want to address it but every time it comes up nobody wants it in their community then where are we going to put it? So when we looked at what is actually going on in that area my teeth are clacking until I had dental work yesterday so excuse me getting used to this partial but what's going on down there is counterproductive to the community as it stands so those that have voiced opposition to it and the executive committee has spoke to them about do we just leave it as drug infested gang members and those types of things there's a church down there there's people that's trying to live and be productive members of society so if we don't change the community and the particular lot that they're talking about already has commercial entities on the Millwood side so it's not like it's approaching into the residential part the only concern that some people have expressed also to me is that if this goes forward what type of expansion would they be looking to do and put more of that in the community now they do have concerns about that but as far as this petition for this particular project we're in full support of it thank you for your testimony okay what do you about like to speak good afternoon my name is I'm Alex snipe and the owner of glory communications we own the building right next door to this proposed you'll get to speak a little closer to the microphone is being recorded want to make sure that I gotta work on that I own the property right next door to other proposed facilities to be built I own the two properties right across the street from where it's going to be built and no one has spoken to me about it I am in support of improving the community this proposal will not improve the community that is a troubled area I have been at 2440 Millwood since 20 2000 my business operates there we operate four radio stations out of that community we have served Columbia since 1993 in 2018 I bought the property across from this property 1107 1109 short street our property the one property on short street is depicted in the photos but the business next door is not I disagree that it's not going to make the community better because what it's going to do is bring more troubled people into that community and house them there their friends their families that come to visit it it is going to decrease the economic value of that area it is certainly going to decrease my investment in my property I'm investing in that community because I believe in it I want to see it improve and I think that those in the community that speak for it they're seeing the good that is going to do for those young people that may come through the program and go on to positive things but it's also going to be unsafe for them because they're going to be if you ever been there because I own the property next door I go I'm down on the weekends doing maintenance constant sirens and lances so you're going to bring more trouble people into that environment and think that you're going to do a lot of good for them they need to be someplace that is more protected that will provide them another optic as opposed to what they're going to see there when I brought the property in 2018 there were just homeless folks living in one of the buildings next door I had that building torn down and I fenced in the property so that we could make it a better place for the community there's a little less traffic this is just going to bring more pedestrian traffic of troubled people so I'm against it for those reasons okay thank you okay anyone else like to speak okay all right well thank you well with the applicant like couple minutes for a bottle I'm Juliana even I think y'all probably recognize me I'm getting good at this I would just like to say I'm sorry I didn't talk to the business owner I thought I was doing the right thing I'd work with city staff found out who was the neighborhood association so I do apologize to him for not going to him you know the the folks that we will house there are not necessarily all homeless a lot of our referrals into our youth home that we do for males are young guys that are still in high school but mama's got a new boyfriend and doesn't wanting to live there and so we'll get a call from the school social worker and we've had numerous people that that's been the instance and they're able to finish school and go on into jobs and so while there may be some that inner literally homeless that's not a requirement and it's not at all a requirement for there to be a mental illness when we started this program back after our visit to Salt Lake it was to intervene early for kids that have had some type of trauma that is resulting in becoming homeless or at risk of homelessness and what we've seen is if we intervene early we can break that cycle of becoming chronic homelessness or lifelong so it's not like everybody that lives there is going to be coming in off the street and not everybody's going to have a mental illness we're not set up for that to be this isn't like a management kind of home where you're managing problem behaviors that somebody may exhibit as a symptom of an illness okay all right well thank you all right okay well that'll close our public discussion and guess like to open it up for more discussion I'll go first go ahead see nobody else wants it um now I feel like this is actually a pretty good site for this just where it's located proximity I think it will be kind of good for the area to have something fresh and new you know that looks like progress and that people see that I mean I was a little concerned at first about the way you access the site but the site plan kind of took care of that and so it feels like it kind of would make sense you know overall from every side to kind of respect the millwood side and the residential side so do you feel like they meet the criteria for the special exception I think so I felt like I think this is an extremely good thing I thought the point that they made that there are at least 11 blocks from another similar site really does defeat the concept of it's not proliferation certainly and I think that was the biggest concern we had on the other site they were hoping to go for and I think it I was also extremely impressed with Ms. Armistead's comments I thought that you know I've often suggested I live over near Maxi Greg Park and that I much rather have some of these people living near me than some of the students I have living near me certainly quieter a little better maintained but I really appreciate your your civic-minded notions and you're correct I think this is a very good program and I think it sounds like it's homelessness prevention and that that's a very worthy thing I agree that it's you know it does meet everything I think the concern of I remember from previous applications by Mercy that there isn't a lot of loitering and hanging around by the people there so there isn't this sort of potential for nuisance of the neighborhood an exposure to more potential and so I feel like it does bring up and you might take people out of the community that are there now and make them better so it does improve the community but at the end of the day I think it does meet all the criteria for a special exception you know you might even argue that there's gonna be less loitering because of this when you have a vacant site based on some of the testimony we've heard today what do you think I think they meet the criteria for it I think it's gonna be good for the neighborhood all right John Gregor you ready to make a motion that's you all right I make a motion that we approve the special exception to establish a residential care facility at this location subject to staff comments second okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed okay motion passes good luck with the project any other business today those are all the items on the agenda thank you have a motion to adjourn to adjourn and a second second all those in favor please say aye aye aye all right motion passes good meeting