Zoning Hearing Board - Regular Meeting

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. to order. Why don't we salute the flag first?

I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Roll call. Okay. Uh, okay. Mr. Seabald, present. Miss King, present. Miss Gunin, present. Mr. Dawson, and Mr. Johnson, present. Thank you. We have a quorum.

Very good. We The first on the agenda for us is the election of two 2026 officers. And I'd like to nominate Laura Gunin for chairman. There a second. I'll second that. Thank you. You want to do a roll call or just verball? Yeah, I can call. Um Mr. Seabel. Yes. Miss Miss King. Yes. Miss Gunin, if I can vote for myself. Yes. Sorry. Thank you. Mr. Johnson. Well, Yes.

Oh, okay. Congratulations, Miss Gunin. You will be our chairperson for 2026. Thank you. Um, but I had that. Okay. Thank you. Well, you got to have something seats. No, that's okay. We can do that next meeting. Thank you. Okay. Um, okay. For vice chair. Uh, I would like to nominate Selena. Okay. Okay. Selena, second. Okay. Uh, Mr. Seabold, yes. Miss Gunin, yes. Mr. Johnson, yes. Okay. And Miss King would vote for herself, I'm assuming. So, we are good.

So, the first time in the city of Erie history in the zoning board, we have two females. Two females leading the show. Seems to be the trend this year. Congratulations to you, Laura, and to you, Selena. Thank you. Congratulations, ladies. Yes. And thank you. Do do we want to do we have one case today? We do. Do you want to hear that first and then go back and do this other stuff? If you'd like to, we can rearrange out of the way. Make it easy. Sure. Okay. You want to read the appeal number? I'm sorry. Because I just You can't Can

Oh, turn the mic on. Your mic. Let's make sure your mic is real close to your so they can hear online. Thank you guys. Can you hear me? Thank you. Okay, Mr. Hoover, do you want to come on up?

Okay. This is going to be appeal number 13329 by Timothy Hoover of Equity Trust Company Custodian FBO. It's concerning a property located at 302 Cherry Street, index bearing 17-4021-107. It's located in an R2 medium density resident residential zoning district. The appellant is requesting a dimensional variance for a proposed three family dwelling. Per section 205 of the ordinance, the minimum lot area per family is 2,000 square foot per family. 4125 on the lot is proposed. I do have one more document that you all need a copy of. Give me one second. And Tim, this should have been in your packet. I apologize. We had

I never got the technical difficulty. I'll give you a comment. I never got a packet. That's okay. We'll get you one. So, this is just your standard form that we always do. I had some problems with the printer on this one, so I just got you a new copy. This will show you where the dimensional comes in. There you go. Thank you. Is this an extra and Tim I'll provide you with all of that documentation for you over here. So, there's the form that talks about square footage on the family lot and then everything you provided the house. Oh, they have. Okay. Excellent. Okay. You may proceed. Well, you want to swear in.

Sure. Uh, you need to be sworn in. If you could raise your right hand, the stenographer will swear you in. Sir, do you solemnly swear affirm the testimony you're about to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Thank you. And if you could state your name and your address for the record. Tim Hoover, 324 East Second Street. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Continue. Yes, please. So, um, I bought the property at 302 Cherry. It was previously used. It looks to me like for the last You speak up a little bit.

Oh, I'm sorry. It was used as a church and I think they went out of business and I bought it like in September of this past year. Um, it had been from what my research has been I've it's been a restaurant. Originally it was a store with an owner's apartment above it and two apartments above. It was built like in the 1890s the building. Um, and I wish the church had pretty much taken all the walls out on the first floor and on the second floor, but you can see the old flanges of where things were. And then actually, if you look at the it was a restaurant in the 60s and the prices were quite good. We found that up there and very old clothes. So, I'd like to turn it into a three-unit with a storage garage downstairs. That's for me. Um, I do actually, as we speak, have three places to park there, which I guess is the issue. Um, I have one on the south side and then two on the west side of the building for parking. Um, and I had drawn plans to try to switch it over to that unit because it's quite large the building. Um, and there's a quite a large need in the apartments for onebedrooms and two bedrooms. We really don't need more four, five, six bedrooms. um less traffic um seems to be what we want these days, especially on the Lower West. There's a massive need and I don't have it. So, I'm I have two apartments. One's I have two onebs and one twobedroom that I'm proposing to do. Then I'm keeping the rest for storage for me.

Okay. What are the um square footage on the units?

Well, we can kind of guess, but actually I have the plans drawn up. Um, I didn't actually do this. I have There's the plan. So, all three units are there. And it does it does have double easements out for fire code because it was used as a commercial building. So, they've already put like the exits. They have the stairs to get out on the extra set of stairs on the second floor. Um, we're just trying to reutilize a space that was that's it there. Oh, there it is. So, that's my parking for one spot there on the left side. And if you come to the back, there's two more parking spaces. It looks to me they used to have a a two-car garage on the back of the building. Uh if you keep turning turning the other side, too.

Yeah, right there. There's my two spots right there. We cleaned up all the where that grass is. That's all cement that got overgrown over the years. And we have that all cleaned up right now. Two, three. That's a loft. So, two units upstairs, second two units upstairs, two apartments on the second floor, one on the first floor. And I addressed it for having two two one bedrooms and one two-bedroom. And I actually do have four toilet flanges. I have two heating systems. Um, I'm splitting the electric or attempting to split the electric. So, the garages are going to be on the Cherry Street side.

I'm not adding garages. That used to be where a garage was. If you look from there over there, that's the old foundation on the back of the garage. If you look right back right there. Yeah. Oh, okay. But there that's actually all cement right there. We took the bulldozer and opened it up. Well, so I'm You have garage on the Oh, that's just my storage area. I'm storage. Yeah. Like where those doors are on the front. I'm turning that into storage area. We have we um by a lot of building products and I always need places to put things. And that's the old entrance door to the apartment for the owner right there. That's all been blocked up. Who is Equity Trust Company?

That is a retirement account that I uh sent my money to. It's like if you have 401k, that's just my holder of I I buy property in that instead of buying stock. Gotcha. But it's a self-directed IRA. You have other properties in the city. Say again, please. Do you have other properties in the city? Yes. Many more than one. So then in terms of entrance, um the entrance for that door.

Okay. So the front door is going away. See where that ramp is right there? Yep. That is actually the entrance to the first the two apartments on the second floor. And then that upper, you see that like deck there? That's actually the emergency staircase that was built. So that's your two easements for the second floor. And then there's a door there's a common door for all three right there. And then there's another door in the back for the first floor unit. So they'll have two in and outs. Okay. When was settlers last there and occupied it?

Um the church I think I it was during the co they I used to live over at 210 Liberty and then they just there was no one there. I think they've been kind of defunct for about three four years because that had been on the market for quite a long time. Yeah. When I look at these advertisements the Beach Comr Hotel Oh definitely. But before that, originally the Lawrence Hotel. Yep. So, it's been a while. And according to Amy, I guess since 1968, there's no record of what it once was, but I you could tell it was a store originally with an owner that lived on the first floor and it's vacant currently. Yeah. Okay. The office lounge.

Well, there's no there's no walls downstairs because the church had pretty much taken everything out. question. I have a question and I I do want to see that too, but um Amy, is there still the screening requirement on the side and rear yards for this? Um, this is an R2, so there would be no screening requirements at this time. R2 zoning and they they still haven't switched my zoning from being a church to R2. I kept waiting, but we're trying to make it happen.

That's the c that's the county website. He was we had to clarify that the county website does use a C on their their information. That is not zoning in any way. That is for billing purposes only. So, a lot of people wait for that to change and think that that's their zoning and it is not. Okay. I'm still going to ask that cuz it says any R in our booklet. So, I just want to make sure that that was updated. I'll ask if we're going to caucus. questions. You have any questions? Um, so then where will the tenants park?

Um, on the there's a parking spot right there on the left for one and there's two on the back. Okay. Uh, if you switch around. So that that gives me the three cars. Okay. Back that way. Go down Third Street. It's on the back where the old garages. Okay.

Any other questions? That's where the two cars go. Right there. The other two. That's your parking. My apologies. Yeah. And it has a very wide a the apron the large apron's already there for it. Thank you. That was part of the review as all to make sure that there was one per unit. One um per rentable unit is the requirement. So he would need three in this case. I'll call up for a vote.

Well, okay. Thank you, sir. Anybody else here to speak in favor of the ordinance or the appeal? I'm sorry. Anyone else in favor? Anyone else in favor? Okay. Anybody here in opposition to be heard? Anyone in opposition? Last call. Anyone in opposition? All right, Selena, are you ready for a vote or did you want to caucus? You're good. Okay, Amy, you want to call the role? Sure. Okay, we are voting to approve this variance for dimensional. Um, Mr. Seabald, um, I would approve it.

Uh, Miss Gun, I'm sorry. Let me switch you guys up again now that you're changed. Miss King. Yes. Uh Mr. Johnson, yes. And Miss Gunshin also. Yes. Okay. Four to zero. Mr. Hoover, you have um been approved for your variance. So um next steps obviously the permit process. So please get your application in. I think your prints are over at BIOU currently. Correct. No, you told me to wait. Okay. Steve's here in the audience, so if you need to get that information from him, he's available. Okay. Okay. Okay. Did you need those plans or Oh, no. Um, coffee. Well, you can have those. You don't need

I didn't send anything. She said just wait. Let me just make a copy and get back to you today. Okay. I have extras. That's fine. You sure? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. My self-deterrorization. Thank you. All right, we're going to go back to the agenda. We have executive session to uh deliberate on the zoning hearing board solicitor contract. So, we're going to tape a brief executive session and we'll be back on the record.

Thank you. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. come back on the record. So, relative to agenda item number four, uh the zoning hearing board had put out

an RFP for a new solicitor upon the resignation of our previous solicitor. That RFP was answered by an individual who was interviewed by the board and it is the unanimous consent of the board to pursue that contract. So I'll make a motion to formally approve the contract. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Second, Tom. All those in favor signify. I I All right. Thank you. What was Lydia's last name? Caparosa. It's attorney Lydia Caparosa for McDonald Ilig Jones in Britain. All right. Moving on. Uh, new business. We just went through that. We're going to table item number six, approval of the December meeting minutes.

Thank you. Yeah, with the changes with Mr. Martini resigning, we do have to address that. The solicitor does do our minutes for us. So, once our solicitor contract is approved, we can provide minutes from the last meeting. So, we can anticipate those at the next meeting. All right. It looks like we have finished the agenda for today. All right. Entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved, Mr. Johnson. Second.

And Miss King. Thank you all everyone. See you next month. Heat. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat.