001call the order the regular billing Board of the appeel meeting for November 16th 2023 start roll call Paul darling here David aror Hugh flat here Robert Hart here Kevin Cox here staff we have Mike Lemieux here Fire Marshall Redmond here myself DEA Williams roll call is complete and we do have a for thank you first item on the agenda is um approval of minutes from the August 17 2023 meeting is there any comments on those meetings minutes not can we get a motion motion second those in favor I minutes are approved the first item on the agenda for um new business is uh BBA 23005 a very for 311 East Liberty Street Anover Michigan and um so the process will be we'll have the applicant come up and uh present their appe you know summary
002of that for um five or so minutes and then we'll first we'll have a staff report and then we'll have the applicant come up and and then um present their Po and then the board will have questions for the applicant um and then we'll have a motion by the board and then a vote on it so please make sure to speak into the mics so can we have the staff report for this variance please yeah uh so the building at 311 East Liberty it's 5B construction uh the first floor is formerly mertile and it's proposed to be a b occupancy um the 2015 Michigan building code and is indicated in Sign Sealed plan submitted with the permit application blg 23- 0198 um the plan also indicates the Suites above to be B occupancies this property
003was given relief from accessibility requirements 5122 and 51 2.4 of the barrier barrier-free design requirements uh in which essentially stated that um the recessed areas on the first floor and into interior access to the second flooor um did not need to be accessible um in February 18th of 1987 the barrier-free design board um required a platform lift be installed to comply with their order to date the platform lift has not been installed the building permit application was submitted for a ramp on the east side of the building the building's approximately 7 ft 2 in from the property which is reduced to 5' 1 in for about 15 ft the petitioner is currently requesting relief from section uh 10:27.5 of the 2015 Michigan building code uh staff recommends this application be denied as it doesn't meet
004the standards for approval the code has not been misinterpreted provisions of the code do apply and not maintaining separation minimums is not equivalent or better than the requirements of the 2015 Michigan building code uh per section 10:27.5 of the Michigan building code staff recommends the appeal be denied and the order from the barrier free design board in 1987 be complied with the applicant should resubmit a plan that provides access and meets the minimum requirements of codeing thank you so can we have the applicant come up and present their um request please uh state your name too for the record and sign in there yep I will okay my name is Carl huder I am the architect of record on the project of first all I thank you all for being here today I know you
005have busy schedules and more importantly I thank those of you on the board you do important service to the city of an arbor um I don't believe in the 40 some years I've been an architect I've come in from this board more than five times because someone entering this room coming in front of this board is asking for a variance on a law a code section and it should be done when there's absolutely no other way of compliance so the burden of proof Falls entirely upon the owner of this property and in that proof we must demonstrate a practical difficulty and hardship that's not self-imposed and we also need to show that we're meeting the intent of the code section in our solution such that the life safety elements of that code are protected and
006the public is protected and I take this very seriously 311 East Liberty was purchased by vanan basmi in the 1970s and in 1987 his tailoring business grew to a point that he added on to the property in that time The Architects uh design architect involved house and black and Associates applied for an exemption from the Michigan barrier free code because they found that the Practical difficulties and hardship indicated it was technically infeasible to give exterior uh Ingress and egress into the building and they went in front of the Michigan Bureau of construction codes barrier free division received an exemption the work proceeded they received a permit and the work was approved in 1997 another building permit was pulled on this property where again they renovated the first floor and open the basement area up to
007a Mercantile use and at that point in time no barrier-free obligations were applied for or granted on this property and that renovation occurred and was approved based on the 1987 exemption we are not looking for a barrier-free exemption on this property we want to comply with the Buri free codes to provide Ingress and egress to the property as well as bathrooms proper sized doors corridors Etc inside the building the first item I handed out for reference is it took me several months to get this out of the uh Bureau of construction codes in Michigan uh but because this is a change of use and a level two renovation under the 2015 Rehabilitation code the exemption that was a grant in 198 887 is n in void so any reference to the 87 exemption is more
008a historical fact and the fact that on two occasions this property was looked upon as having a practical difficulting hardship it was technically infeasible to provide access to the facility during those two events sometime between the 1970s and 1997 the best median family acquired the property at 315 East Liberty and so they own both these properties which be part of this uh petition uh in the context of it um 311 and 315 are also part of the East Liberty historic district and as we all understand the anur historic district commission takes their job and responsibility on very seriously and in doing so it's very seldom if ever they Grant an exemption to do something through the facade of a building in a historic district they have very limited actions they take on sidey yards and
009mostly any Renovations or additions that occur occur on the backs of the buildings as part of the HBS uh historic American Building survey requirements they look at a historic district not only as the facades in the district but also the spaces between the buildings because the context of a historic district is made up of the buildings and the space between because it demonstrates a character and a fabric to the time and place that historic want District wants to be preserved to preserved to and that's very important that the space between the buildings is as important as the buildings themselves in a historic district I received this Commission in early 2023 and it came from uh another architectural firm that no longer could work on it and at that time they'd set a ramp up in
010their design on the rear of the building and you see that in the drawings documentations that I gave you uh we applied for a building permit in April of 2015 I mean of 2023 and in that application and the design we are seeking to put in a barrier-free ramp allow that access and that ramp because the the new tenant for the space is an A3 restaurant under the B business use and there's day-to-day needs for Gordon's Foods and things like that to run up the ramp to bring supplies into the building and back so it's serving two purposes it's our barrier-free access and it's also a rampway to provide service entry we're also improving all the fire safety in on this first floor and all the mechanical electrical and mechanical electrical Plumbing improvements are going
011to be upgraded to current standards as well as providing the rampway barrier-free bathrooms and all the compliance inside it's a level two renovation under the 2015 Michigan uh under the rehabilitation code in the packet I gave you there's an entire page on Technical and feasibility and if you read the rehabilitation code it demonstrates in there that if you have a historic structure and it's a level one or level two renovation that if it's technically infeasible to comply with a barrier free code you're exempt again this is just reference material we're not asking for an exemption we can comply if we can get the variance on the 10275 uh issue um so it is clear that this little 44x 60t piece of property where the building at the greatest distance the building to the property line
012is 9 ft in order to comply with 10 27.5 we need 14 ft which does not exist on our site to put a an an exterior exit way in and then then have the 10 ft of of setback that 10 27.5 is requiring and then to the property line it just physically doesn't exist so we have a practical difficulty and hardship it's technically infeasible to provide that 10 ft now to the intent I have read more and more about this I'm searching online and whatnot and it appears to me that the intent at 10275 is that in an emergency be it a fire or someone's injured or hurt that fire Emergency Services Andor law enforcement has visual access to that exit way and they physically can move from this 10-ft setback area onto that ramp
013whereare sidewalk and save someone's life we need to protect that person's life we need to see they're in danger and we need to go and rescue them very important and so the unique characteristic about this site is that 311 315 are part of this historic district there is a driveway on 315 a 10-ft wide driveway that runs from the street to the back parking area shared by 311 and 315 there is another driveway that's on the west side of 315 on the east side of 315 there's another driveway that is mostly on the 321 property and it's a shared driveway between 315 and 321 although there's no executed shared agreement for that so the only means of vehicular entry into the 315 parking area wholly on the 315 site is this 10-ft driveway so we
014have a 10-ft driveway we have a historic district that doesn't allow any major tampering of the clear space between the buildings we have a rampway that's totally constructed out of non-combustible steel materials the East Building wall of 311 we're going to bring up to conformance of section 75.5 which I've also included in the packet in front of you which states that if you have a setback of less than 10 ft if you upgrade the building wall uh that brings compliance to it so in front of you and there there are two ramp ways proposed in front of you but it's clear and obvious that the rear rampway that I was originally tasked to work to does not comply with 10 27.5 in any such way including the intent but placing the ramp on the east
015side of the building I have 10 ft of clear space formed by the driveway that has to be there uh we have the unique condition that's in a historic district and that space is preserved increasing the fire rating on the sidewall non-combustible nature of the rampway I believe that we're showing that it's we're showing the Practical difficulty and hardship and we're showing that we're trying to provide all the protections that 10 27.5 require just in a unique manner as most variances should demonstrate I'm here for any questions if you have thank you thank you questions from the board for the applicant yeah um so call yes the thing you just gave out this before the meeting if the the 1987 determination is null and void but in the background it's talking about barrier free design
016requirements for the I guess access to the first floor and recess that is in the first floor but then they're also talking about interior access to the second floor all right oh is this on no it's off I got to hit the button maybe push the button push oh is that better okay to to restate is the is the issue here just access to the first floor because the background description talks about access to the second floor with a lift so are we just talking about the first floor access I am tasked with uh rehabilitating the first floor of the building and I'm trying to bring that area of the building up to compliance hey Carl yes in in the exemption the exemption you need to tell them who you are so I'm uh Ken
017Jacobson the property owner's son-in-law in that exemption from the 80s which is exempt it talks about the lift for access to the first floor and there was an exemption for access to the second floor and and an exemption to a recessed floor for a display case on the first floor that's what was in the exemption which is void because it CH the change in use well it's time yeah because of the changes in the code is that what you said Paul change in use change in use the change in use from merant to business I think voids that yes exemption and access to the second floor is only by the stairway on the west side of the building there's a there's an interior access oh there's also interior yes okay was it use of the
018second floor is that going to be business it's vacant right now so it has been a hair salon and we're in the process actually of trying to plan out what we're going to be doing with the whole building um the building we have next door is a mix of commercial on the first floor and an apartment that was the second and third floor we're evaluating what we're going to do the tenant actually broke her lease and left us with a pretty high uncollectible receivable and the the basement is my father-in-law's shop and so the intent is he's going to go back in there and we're doing a clearance sale and then uh being 78 no 87 yeah I always reverse this too but being 87 he's intending to retire this coming year and then that
019will go to another merchantile okay it's the intent so I have a question about the driveway on the east side is that an Alleyway or is that on the adjacent property that you own the the driveway is on 315 and it runs right along the east prop property line at 311 and you have a right to use that there there a right to use that driveway aess across that driveway for the people getting out of the building owns both prop okay both prop so you can give yourself a right away easement that it won't be blocked correct yeah what if it's sold in the future and you'd have to have some kind of ease RightWay easement they have to set up before we you know to allow access there but yeah I mean I I
020think the historic District the preference was in the back I have to tell you um just from what I've seen of the building that I kind of feel the same way because the East ramp is going to be exposed to traffic corre in and out so somebody could presumably hit that ramp the other thing is the ramp blocks off access to all the gas meters that are on the side of the building so I don't know how you get in there and do any of that servicing or reading without climbing on the east on the east side yeah so so we're providing ballards along the side the ramp so Vehicles can't crash into it um and the the meter space in my conversation with Detroit Edison they said as long as there's a clear way
021at the end of the ramp along to the side of the building which we're providing they can access those meters to read them they also have remote meters and they can stand a certain distance away and read them also what about servicing what about servicing of the meters and pretty sure there's a Code about 3ot access even if fire department has to get access to them to shut off yeah there is for fire code there's 36 in clearance okay so we would need to re relocate the meters in order to comply that and that's if that option's preferred the nice thing about the back just for you to take into consideration is we have a problem in the back right now with homeless people that are setting up tents and stuff the intent is to
022actually upgrade that space so that would provide a deck the ramp would connect to a deck so it also be a seating area for the for the store ten yeah and that also would be helpful because it would right now it's just a a vacant Alleyway and a little hidden spot and by upgrading that we can kind of maintain the property we recently had the report to the police because they're peeing on the front door every every night and they're setting up tents in the back what is the 301 Easter Liberty what is that wall is that a fire rated wall with no openings in it yes 301 is on the west side of 311 and the north side and it's a seven or nine stories I can't remember it's a brick white and concrete
023block wall and 301 is is totally suppressed and that's has no fenestration in it all is a zero lot line no window elevation cuz it does seem like you know the intent of that part of the code is that you know if you have two buildings on the same lot they'd have no openings between for fire protection you know so at least the 301 and and is fire protected from the ramp in your building because it's a fire no openings you know probably a 2hour three hour wall so just curious what what that assembly there was there was an opening it's a it's 4our rated wall on the 301 two other sides yeah any other questions from the uh board so will you have to go back to the state for a different exemption to
024reuse the second floor depending on the use then we have to go back to the state for some other type of I mean depending on what we decide to do with that we're going to end up having to do whatever we have to do to where the intent is to actually bring everything up the current building codes and stuff I mean we're so there was there was uh water damage last we and because of that uh we started to open up some of the walls to and the more we do the more things we find so we found out like because it was built in the early 1900s there are no cross ties in the Attic uh so we're looking at like reinforcing the structure of the building as part of fixing things up because
025right now the roof is literally pushing down so we we need to reinforce everything moving forward and you know we have to look at Cost benefits of everything to figure out what we're going to do as far as use and stuff mhm and access to the first floor if your handicapped would be using that ramp either Exit or entrance yeah and there's no real way to get to the second floor at this point cuz there's no elevator I'm thinking yeah no there's no elevator was built in the 1900s but but there are two stairs an exterior stair and an interior stair that go to the second floor yeah what there there's a well there's three stairs but yeah there two stairs except ible from the first floor so this is going to be the means
026of erress Andress and ESS for this barrier free what's the outside lighting on that space is there more lighting proposed for that on the outside walls we're placing lighting all along that to provide the one foot candle along them the means of beess out to the street all way out to the street yes is there anything the fire department will need to have outside you know because I know sometimes you guys have strobes you know how how do you know to go in the back or if they're have access back there there's nothing that I know of code that would require for any any type of horns of strobes that's actually usually if that's on the outside do to signify if there's an alarm system for a fire going off or for FDC connection but
027other than that for for us in response if we're looking for the building there there's always a 360 done so most buildings not every building is going to have two forms of erress or but um it's just a you go to the KNX box and you go if they have a KNX box and then just going around the building and I mean if they have to if there's a lock door they force force entry of TV so what about barrier free design is there going to be do they need to have signage outside saying barrier free entrances and I think typically they would have have same it's not the if it's not the main entrance it would sign is directing go around directions can you talk a little more about the two options of the
028ramp on the on the backside one is like a pre-fabricated aluminum ramp and one is wood frame is that correct no they're both the the rear ramp is a pre-fabricated aluminum ramp and the East ramp is um um stick bu bespoke no it's it's all steel construction there's no wood on it at all it's I wanted to make sure it was non-combustible in both cases no I'm in that the back ramp comes off a deck that is built out of woods so there a piece of it that is combustible I guess the the deck is combus without the route itself and the back ramp once you exit it that that leaves you with the drive driveway yeah you're exiting on the driveway the driveway right now is gravel I think correct is that an accessible
029route I don't know if that comes as access so it's but there's sorry the the driveway is gravel but there's a sidewalk that's along the side of part of that piece of part of it what is it concrete or whatever yeah and then so your side ramp isn't going to interfere with the sidewalk the sidewalk will still be available the the East ramp is going to go over the sidewalk the re the rear though the the rear ramp comes out to the sidewalk and then you take the sidewalk to the street or and it look at there was no windows in the back of the house you were filling those up for the bathroom so there's the ramp is basically separated by fire rated assembly for both sides correct what's your deck material made out
030of it's deck Sur is wood treated would this still have to go to the historic TR commission for their review if you this got approved have to go back to them for this their approval of whatever you proposing here we've received approval on both ramp ways okay okay in the comments I make a motion I'm I'm having a hard time with a wood deck burning in the case of a fire I mean you could frame it out of like gauge metal I don't know what the decking material would be but you could use metal framing for the structural and maybe composite comp I don't bur composite though you're G be fire rard and treated lumber if we're going with the aluminum ramp would you just carry that you could use aluminum building yeah material straight
031to it potentially I'm hearing we want a non-combustible deck kind of what I'm thinking yeah yeah yeah there was a section in that in the section uh 1021 102 7.5 the last one about the similar to being other buildings on the same lot that the walls and openings are protected in accordance with SE 7al fire fire separation distance so I think what they're providing there was no openings on either side of the ramp would be potentially equivalent to that yeah I AG that's 1 hour whatever whatever time for for opening there so as far as the equivalency uh a motion any other questions I have no more questions uh I'll make the motion but it's going to be with favoring the back I agree ramp I agree yeah okay okay I move that in the
032case of BBA 23- 00005 the appeal of the building officials decision that the work proposed to 311 East Liberty granted relief from section 10 27.5 of the 2015 Michigan building code and the building Board of appeal reverses the building officials decision for the reason that the applicant has proposed an equal or better form of construction stipulations are that the accessible ramp and means of egress for the first floor be located on the rear or north of the 31 building with the provision that this condition is acceptable um as long as the adjoining adjacent 301 existing building with 4-Hour exterior wall rating remain and that the existing 311 Liberty building adjoining wall to the ramp retain its 1-hour rating and that the deck be constructed of non-c combustable material the approval of this appeal shall not
033be considered as a precedent for future projects incurring similar conditions thank you any comments on the motion I think it suggest a volunteer amendment to have some type of right away agreement from the end of that ramp out to the street because it's if it's a means of eress that we want to make sure that ramp continues to the right away over the other sidewalk is because right now the adjacent property they're two different properties we're discharging to a adjacent property car isn't that sidewalk already part of that building support that amendment I think they're looking up okay yeah I think that eement I think it's part of that same property the sidewalk is so I think that easement is already already there I think so the the ramp is going to go to the
034sidewalk and then the sidewalk they're yeah they're talking about this area runs down on the 311 property to the street right it's already the 311 property okay and and the ramp stops before the end of the end it was like the ramp was going almost right out to where the L was that was on the E when we were talking about on the side the east side of the building not the rear is where we were having that discussion so you have a path to right away all the way correct correct so no friendly Amendment needed then it doesn't sound like it doesn't sound like I guess we can make a provision that is that is in there so that whatever they do they do have right away I guess that's required by the building
035code no matter what out to the right away so that we wouldn't have to make that part of the motion so so in other words like someone couldn't build an addition outside the building because you need to maintain access that makes sense any other questions on the or comments on the motion from the board no those in favor say I I I anyone against no the motion passes thank you very much we appreciate consideration thank you so the board secretary will write this up and you'll get something in a month or so hopefully less okay thank you well gentlemen thank you have a good day enjoy retirement thank you Paul if I could there were a couple of things missed on the agenda um there was no public com commentary there were no people online
036and the approval of agenda I'm assuming that we'll go with the same people that approved the minutes if that's okay with the board okay yes yes thank you so is there any business see from the board or any from the audience business any communication for the board I have a building official question Glenn any updates on when the new code might be adopted the BBA is getting restless and nervous haven't heard any updates from the state on also um weren't we supposed to get an up update about the generator installation on on not not not the Wall Street or whatever where the development there 1100 Boardwalk Boardwalk um so the project was delayed um they're back to the original plan uh with the permanent generator okay up so they wouldn't need the variant B yeah
037so they they basically are to a point where they wouldn't be requesting occupancy without what was already approved on the original plans okay but does that mean they they didn't get the generator yet oh no they have it it's hooked up they're in testing now they have the permanent one in place okay yeah there other construction things from pring from AC other other things yeah correct yeah yeah all right anything else have motion to adjourn move to adjourn second those in favor I ni pass we're adjourned at thank you