001order the regular building board of appeals meaning for July 21st 2022 roll call darling here Robert Hart here you Fleck absent David arnstore here um Kevin Cox here for staff we have Glenn Dempsey here um Michael Redmond here John Reiser your myself Deborah Williams did I call Bob Hart yes okay I'm still here we have a quorum okay thank you we have a quorum public commentaries is there anybody here for public commentary commentary I have no one in the waiting room next item in the agenda is approval of the agenda we have a motion to approve the agenda move to move to approve a second motion and support those in favor all right you'll be imposed agenda passes next on the agenda is approval of the minutes for the June 21st 2021 meeting now we
002have those in our packet is there any uh coming on over and if not we can have a motion to approve them move to approve the minutes a second who's in favor aye aye those are approved next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from the last month's meeting of June 16 2022 is there any comments on those not can we have a motion um to approve the June 16 2022 meeting minutes second those in favor aye that passes next item on the agenda is appeals actions and show cost hearings and um the first item on the agenda that is appeal BBA 22-0202 [Music] at uh variance appeal for 616 East Washington Street Ann Arbor Michigan and um we'll have the order of this as we'll have a staff report and then we'll
003have the applicant come up and make a presentation about their appeal and then we'll give an opportunity for the staff to comment on that and then it'll go to the board for comments and come back to me then go to the board for questions formation of so after after the after the board has comments we'll go back to Glenn again back back to staff and then we'll have a motion and then we'll vote and uh for a motion to pass we need the majority so that will be three out of the four um board members present so um Glenn do you want to make your presentation first you want to have the application come up and make his presentation first you want to do your well I give a staff report okay so I'd like
004to go over a little bit of the background on the application and then the recommendation from staff this is a property at 616 East Washington is in process of constructing a 19-story building which will surround three sides of the screen room for the Michigan Theater screaming room as it will continue to exist is on the property of 616 East Washington and adjoining to the 19-story building the applicant is requesting the allowance of a single exit leaving the screen room ending entering the Michigan Theater foreign exiting through the Michigan Lobby the applicants intended to create a three-hour firewall separation the Michigan to separate the Michigan Theater from the 19th story building and the screen room the hope of the applicant is to keep the screen room for the Michigan Theater open and available to the public
005through the construction process until which time proper exiting can be provided staff recommends under recommendation staff recommends this application be died as it does not meet the standards for approval the code has not been misinterpreted additional definitions and code sections have been provided that will reference that you can also see that in the documentation on the denial that was provided back to Scott Bowers at Scott Bowers and Associates it identifies the requirements for an exit passageway a horizontal exit and other other code sections that may be applicable staff believes that or I believe that the interpretation has not been misinterpreted and that the quantity of applicants and the exiting is not proper to allow this space to be continued and used until proper exiting is in place and that would be until either the exits
006were in place or the construction was completed thank you all right there's the applicant here you can come up or sign-in form there still Deborah is having them sign in and uh make a statement about their appeal hello um I'm Laura Eder with ESG Architects with the architect of the highrise Tower Scott vauers is here with me and Brad Moore um do you have the we can do it after the presentation after oh you weren't you ready for the president no I think yeah okay so um if that's all right I'll go through the presentation and just kind of talk about what we're thinking through the the process here up on him all right um so we're talking about temporary egress out of the Michigan Theater screening room during the construction of the 19th Story
007Tower at 6 16 Washington um you can go to the next slide so this is an aerial view of the existing condition prior to the start of construction the small residential units to the north have been demolished at this point and the egress was through those residential lots through an easement that easement is now vacated because we have put the screening room now on the 616 parcel it used to be its own parcel mid-block so it used to be a property line on all four sides of this building um until it was re-surveyed the building existing right now is type 3B Construction and all exits currently exit across easements to get to the public way next slide so the existing exits are to the north of the two doors shown there's one within the screening
008room and one within the screening room kind of foyer Lobby there is an existing three hour wall shown in red that that divides the screening room from the corridor that takes you to the Michigan Theater and um Glenn and Scott have talked about the addition of a new three-hour firewall on the property line so there's a three hour wall of the Michigan Theater there's not one on the 616 property so we will be constructing this new Orange Line prior to allowing 49 occupants per this request so that wall will be installed prior to the start of these 49 occupants one exit discussion that we're talking about today next slide please so that is a section showing the auditorium on the right hand side with that screening or with that Corridor leading over to the Michigan
009Theater those three hour walls go to the roof in a 3B type construction the roof is unreaded just for knowledge um next slide please so this is the potential exiting plan that we're showing so we would just we would have 49 occupants exiting the screening room into the Michigan Theater Lobby and exiting through the lobby while um the uh 616 19 Story Tower is under construction this would be um for approximately um 180 days until we pour the fifth level of concrete and it is deemed safe for um occupants in the Michigan theater screen room to exit across this site we're a little over an acre on the entire or a little over half an acre on the entire site and it's not really feasible to phase the construction to do one half and then
010the other half of this concrete Tower to kind of try to keep some exiting here um so on the next slide so once we are through that fifth floor of construction we'll have various routes through the construction site to be maintained for Section 3306 of the Michigan building code that protect protects pedestrians to get to the um public right-of-way and then the next slide is the finalized version of exiting where we will be exiting the existing screening room through the 616 East Washington Street Building since it is on that block so it will go into exit passageways and exit two exits to the public right away next section this is two sections through the um existing screen room there is no construction going over the screening room we will be adjacent vertically with three hour
011walls but there is nothing that's happening on top of this um screening room during during construction um next slide this is the plan that was provided with the application to go through the temp exiting plan so from the I can't even read this from the circle in the auditorium there's a pink route and a light blue route that gets you within 75 feet of that three hour Corridor which is kind of called an exit passageway in this sense so you'd have a safe exiting out of the screening room into a three hour rated enclosure then you would hit the Michigan theater doors which will be in a three hour firewall and then you have less than 70 I believe less than 75 feet to the exit and you can clearly see the exit of the
012um screening room as you go through those double doors into the Michigan Theater Lobby again this is a temporary exiting plan during construction we would like it to remain under 180 days but with the way construction happens the market we can't really commit to exactly that number but it would be around 180 days next slide so the schedule of construction the next sign so right now we have two exits onto the 616 property out of the screening room that will close when the screening room is closed to do the construction of the new three-hour firewall in the South facade that'll take us to the end of the year then once that three hour wall is constructed we would like to open the screening room to 49 occupants exiting through the Michigan Theater for approximately 180
013days then we move into stage four which is exiting out the 616 property as it's safe and as it's not still keep that exit back through the Michigan Theater which would be the duration of the project and then stage five the two exits which would be completion of the project that would exit on it onto the 616 property out of the screening room next slide occupancy load so right now there is 257 total occupants based on the existing drawings of the screening room so if you go back to the permeable drawings when the screen room was built they're saying that the occupancy was 257. we would like to post an occupancy of 49 that does not allow more than 49 occupants within the screen room building at one time this would be um screened electronic
014ticket sales staff would be educated to understand this and I believe Russ Collins with the Michigan Theater has sent two letters to the board stating that they would they would be on top of this 49 occupants whether it's removing seats um covering seats kind of whatever the building board of appeals would feel comfortable with to make sure that that they can't fill the seating that's currently in there I think right now it's somewhere around 190 seats that are actually in the space um next slide exit passageway so we're calling this an exit passageway through the three hour Corridor to kind of limit that 75 feet of common path of travel for one exit so we're having two exits out of the screening room itself into this three hour rated exit passageway and then that termination
015is supposed to take you to the public way it does take you through the Michigan Theater into another building that the Michigan Theater Lobby is sprinkler now so the Michigan Theater is not what the lobby is and then that would take you directly out um if you go to the next slide exit travel distance so those are the the exit doors that you would see once you came out of the um the screening room and those are the doors that you would come into the screening room through as the ones on the right hand side and the travel distance for an a occupancy with a sprinkler system is 250 feet and those Dash lines that we're showing add up to 141 to 211 so depending upon which way you went um those are the total
016numbers uh next slide uh safeguards during construction so chapter 33 says maintenance of means of egress there is an exception during construction that if the existing means of egress do not need to be maintained where an approved temporary means of egress and facilities are provided and that's basically what we're trying to ask here is for a temporary use during construction can we provide this this exiting it's an interesting situation since it is crossing the property line but both buildings are owned and managed by the Michigan Theater um next one and this is a copy of the letter sent from Russ Collins just um stating support from the Michigan Theater basically the idea is that um we don't want to close the Michigan theater screen room for two years so or even a year um to
017keep that the Vitality of the Michigan Theater going for the city okay thank you thank you glad you have any other further comments I'd like to make a couple comments in response to the appeal the appeal and what's happening here with the request the um there are three standards for approval one is the true intent of the code or the rules governing construction have been correctly interpreted of which this is the basis that the applicant is appealing the process provisions of the code do not apply in an equal or better form of construction is proposed with their three-hour quarter that they're providing it does not take it to an exit it takes it into another space that's across the property line into another building while it's suppressed the theater area the screen room is not
018suppressed the distances that would be measured would would be the total distance when interpreting distance and so while you're allowed with a success building you're allowed a certain distance in this case that screen room is not suppressed so it does not fall into the same ramifications or allowances for distances of travel I would like the board to keep that in mind the um [Applause] the additional thing is the occupant load nothing's been proposed um with the occupant load of how they're going to limit other than just now removal of seats and allowances we take a lot of things in consideration for occupant loads additional space standing um we try to be consistent with those those approaches and I believe the space is far greater than just a applicable sign being put up to indicate the
019occupant load I guess one little one additional thing to add jumping back to the passageways and Horrors on Alexa horizontal exits are great but they're not the first required exit and while they had this three hour separation be in the corridor they're going into another building the horizontal exit can't be the only exit the passageway is the exit that is required and it goes to an exit not into another building so passageway accent is allowed if it goes to the exterior I've provided definitions code sections and if you have questions please feel free to ask me thank you just uh four have questions for the applicant so the screening room is not sprinkler the Michigan theater Lobby is sprinkler but the theater the main theater itself is not sprinkler is that um So currently the
020Michigan Theater screening room is sprinklered it will need to be detached during construction because we're not allowed to connect across the property line um which currently is being served out of the Cadillac building which will be demolished so when that building gets demolished and originally we wanted to tie it into the Michigan Theater fire sprinkler system that's part of the lobby but that crosses a property line which is not part of the code that we can that would be another reason we'd be here if we were going to try to tie it into that so um Glenn is not wrong in the sense that it will not be sprinkler during this temporary means of egress but it is currently sprinkler and will be sprinklered off of the tower once the tower is is built and
021so is there a fire alarm or enunciation system in the yeah the screening room [Applause] there's not a temporary means of hooking up the fire suppression system so that the room camera be remain sprinkled we'd have to come back from the Michigan Theater and I don't believe that was a choice but there could be a possibility of doing it it's just that all the properties are being under construction except for the Michigan Theater right and in the end it needs to come from the 616 building because that's the property it's on so again if there is a there isn't a fire alarm system for the screening room there is a fire alarm system for the screen is there an enunciation system yes there is so an announcement can be made inside that room yes okay
022and that's within this where is that within the not within the feeder building it's within the sixth assume in the building itself that that alarm system and notifications The Alarm Systems actually out of the Michigan Theater so those alarm systems connecting to each other but not the buyers are preciousness yeah yeah it's a nod situation yeah foreign is there a can can there not be a constructed temporary means of egress out of the room through the construction site with scaffold I mean oh I know OSHA's got a ton of requirements to go through but is they're nothing that can be constructed to go across the construction site we are going to construct something but they they the construction company won't be able to do it until the fifth floor when they're out of the way
023so that's the that's the problem that we're having so they will can they won't be complete enough to be able to do that because everything's under construction there but once the fifth floor goes on they'll have temporary egress through the building and Scaffolding um per code and that'll be emergency exit only I assume or as you see exit only yes and that won't be in talk 180 days roughly where we are constructing a a new door and a new exit way out into the lobby from the screening room to that exit passageway which is directly across the door to the lobby Glenn would make a difference if the continuation of the egress path that dotted green line that leads to the exterior can you I can't hear you oh sorry would it make a difference
024if the dotted green line that's shown on the egress plan was in an enclosed or dedicated fire rated Carter if it went to the exterior all from the start to to finish well that's that's the whole idea and you're saying which which line are you indicating though so so on the on the on the the part plan that shows all the different colored means of egress out of the screening room the final leg is a dotted green line that leads to the exterior and it's got a hatched area my question is if that what if that hatched area was a dedicate was a dedicated fire rated enclosed tunnel would that make a difference I'm not sure if I'm looking at the right picture three patrons somehow instructed so it picks up the three hour ready
025yeah so your effect you also have been affecting the other part of the mission for you but well I mean I'm not saying that they use the whole thing folks if you're going to deliberate or talk it should be on the record yes he didn't see the diagram so no but there was discussion that I don't know about these phones thank you we'll revisit that so everybody can hear so if there was a proper exit passageway the current passageway is not according to the code requirements if there was a proper code code defined passageway that met those requirements to the exterior yes that that would that would meet the one exit the other part of is the occupant load we would require a second exit 49 requires one and it's supposed to be an exit
026passageway that goes from the exiting right or to the exit the horizontal exit which is what they're proposing acrossing the the building property line um it's not allowed by itself it still has to have an exit that goes to the exterior so whether you make the determination that there are 49 applicants under certain requirements um it has to be a passageway that goes to the exterior to the exit I provided the definition for you to look at also um and just one thing to add to this too is the the interesting scenario between these two buildings so we came to you a year and a half ago to ask for this door between the theater and the um and those the screening room you're not allowed to have a door on a property line so
027this door is already kind of a convoluted code issue here because technically you shouldn't be entering in the Michigan Theater and crossing the screening room Crossing this threshold to go into the screening room to begin with because the screen room should be on the Michigan Theater property so if that was the case then this this building would be part of the same building you wouldn't have this scenario so the egress would all want to go that direction the problem is that's not how this was built and how this was put together this screening room is on a completely separate property which is why we're building a 19 Story Tower around it if I might comment on that it is a convoluted it's been approved for those extra doors allowing passage to and from however again
028a passage a passageway has to go to the exterior it shouldn't enter into another Lobby it should go to the outside these are safety safety restrictions that allow for exiting and in a temporary situation with construction going around I myself do not believe it's it is safe way only requires a minimum of a one-hour rating and this would have a three hour rating so we are a more substantial rating in this passageway now it is going to send you into a building instead of directly to the exterior as Glenn has noted but once you get into that Corridor you're within a three hour rating on either end with the doors protected um once you come out of that Auditorium and again we're asking for this to be a temporary means of egress this is not
029something that we would want the board to consider for long term this is more during construction for the safety of the occupants because we don't feel like going across the construction site would be safe it's also worth noting that you're only entering the Michigan Theater screening room through the Michigan Theater so in the event of an emergency it is noted that most people want to go the way they came in and so that's just just for for the record the only way into the screening room from a purchase ticket is through the Michigan Theater entrance um if I might add condempsey building official um one additional comment well even they indicated earlier that construction does run into hurdles and and issues that come up that may drag the process on this could end up being
030a year of which we don't have proper egress it might not be six months it might be a year it may be seven months that's hard to figure out as complications run through on a construction process if we put a condition on there for duration if it went past that they would lose occupancy of that space or or have to come back for other variant or something I don't know if it was thank you if stipulations were put in place and they exceeded the stipulations that would be an enforcement that we'd have to go forward with a question for you Glenn I know most corridors require two means of egress is an exit passageway only required to have one mean to be aggressed you're entering from one end and exit at the other so you
031wouldn't need to have a second way out of the corridor you typically have two stairways that you exit at each end or should have too long of a dead end so there are allowances for one exit situations when you get in occupant loads that sort of triggers the second exit or the space but a corridor itself typically always has two it allows if it's a one exit it's a lot that passageway allows allows you to exit one exit Yeah so basically you're actually you're not having anything else so it's one exit because nothing else is but it's it is supposed to go to an exit not into a Lobby and then a horizontal exit I know buildings didn't have fourth and electrics where you actually in an area of Refuge in a way they're treating
032that Lobby like an area of Refuge where you're going through a firewall you're in a separate safe space are those doors on hold opens between the twos and those would close at the fire alarm went off then that would give you that that safe area so they would close if the fire alarm went off in either building eventually doors that go into the screening room where your dial the lines going across the double doors yeah the double doors and they'll be rated for three hours it looks like on the site plan I guess you can't connect there's you have too much construction going on there but you can't get from your building over to the to toward the to the west where there's currently something goes back up to Liberty Street you can't get there
033no we're dealing with a lot of foundational issues that I think is going to take quite a bit of time along the existing building we don't really want to incur any damage on the Michigan Theater so there's quite a bit of foundation work that goes there yeah and it happens all the way around the building um and it's just kind of costs imperative to to stop construction on half of it and then mobilize that team again because it's such a small site what was early conversation with the building department when they went through the planning phase of all this of hey you're going to be blocking this off was this not really talked about or thought about was it brought to attention is this like a last minute oh hey this is going to happen
034you know what I mean like so through the building getting it approved and everything was there ever a letter sent out saying you're blocking these exits something has to happen you have to provide a mean to be aggressive for this other business stay in business because right now the construction of this building is going to impact a business to require it's it's a movie theater so you know like you're you're you have to shut down this entire room so their business is going to be impacted by this was it ever discussed with the Construction Company saying or the planning of whoever owners saying you have to do something about this so this is a very complicated building it's hard for us to see this in many jurisdictions across the country you've got really three buildings
035that are affecting this construction very difficult while certain things are addressed we didn't have specifics on what they're what they're going through now they went through a recent board of appeals to get some exits allowed and so forth in the in the doors um that are allowing other uses other amenities uses such as bathrooms being located into a third building so it's a very complicated building we don't have anything specific that we discussed on one exit going through this you know this this is in in code eyes a safety issue and while you know we wouldn't want to put a business out of business right we we have I believe higher concerns when it comes to safety of the public and that's why the codes have been developed for minimum these are minimum codes so
036that's what you have to keep in mind in your in this appeal process and from our perspective when we went through the zoning um for the height and um kind of site planning for this we did talk about closing the theater and or exiting through the construction site and as we've moved forward through design and we're basically in for permit drawings and moving forward it just deemed really not feasible to go through the construction site and the Michigan Theater feels that it's not acceptable to close so we're kind of in this rock in a hard place and and I'm sorry you you you work for I work for ESG Architects who's doing the high-rise the high-rise and Scott Bowers is the architect for the Michigan Theater okay and screening room um and you guys have
037talked about the oh he's the architect so um it's just hard because you guys are closing down to business it's a theater just coming off of covet that there's probably one of the worst people that were impacted during all of covid and now really if we vote no to this they have to close down half their business so that you guys can do your thing and a year later maybe they can go back to business as normal that's correct what are the operating hours for the screening room so the operating hours of the screening room will not collide with the operating hours of the construction site so they will not operate the screening room when construction is going on so we have discussed this with the construction team and Russ kotlin's with the Michigan Theater
038they will operate the screening room at nights and weekends when the construction is not taking place so it's a limited number of hours during the week and presumably a limited number but longer hours during the weekend question for the fire department could this all be somehow mitigated if there was a fire watch installed well a fire watch by definition is for a system that's impaired so I don't want to compare apples to oranges in that sense because the fire watch is really either a fire suppression system that is down a sprinkler system shut down fire pump shutdown or fire alarm systems shut down where a human actually becomes that detection to get people out that's not really the issue here the issue here is still an occupant mode and egress issues well these are both
039life safety issues and fire code I understand I mean I don't understand the the Holley fire watch would help out this the scenario for this well because the the two letters indicated that they were going to leave it to staff to take the necessary precautions to guarantee state or to to ensure safety and Mike so I'm asking whether I and since the suppression system is going to be shut down during construction would the system being shut down and if the Billings occupied they're gonna have to be on firewatch anyways occupied you go on firewatch for it but we're still at a position where that's like having ushers are trying to get people out you still the ushers are still going to be taking them through a egress system that's not code compliant foreign I believe
040this is one of the questions that Glenn asked me before but I believe the construction type and the size of this building screening room only doesn't require fire suppression so that's why we were able to unhook it even alone until we got one 616 out there running foreign I guess I'd like to ask one more time if if the three-hour card or that they're creating within the screening room is continued out to the an exterior exit in an enclosed egress tunnel which would be an extension of the egress passageway would that would that be feasible as a as a code for Code Compliance if it were a proper passageway if excuse me if there were proper code compliant passageway and it went to the exterior yeah yes but nothing's been proposed as such for us
041to look at this was a proposal that you know the inter there are my interpretation are the building Department's interpretation was incorrect oh okay but that's what I wanted you answered my question okay is that possible so the stairs that go to the second floor of the Michigan Theater are on the right hand side of that plan kind of on the right side of that Dash Green Line in the Michigan Theater entrance for the first floor is on the left-hand side so people would have to enter the Michigan Theater with a divider and go either direction so we'd be limiting the egress out of the Michigan Theater exits um so I don't I don't believe that would be possible to create a course how can you come up we'll do that we interrupted Sarah the
042balcony would would be the impacted by horizontal exit there or that enclosure it could be that the space is pretty tall so I think you could create a tunnel that comes out of those doors the challenges you've got the stairs coming down on one side and you've got the entrance to the other stairs on the other side and you've got the majority of your exits kind of on that yeah I feel like you you'd have to come into the Michigan Theater and go in one door or the other door whether you were upstairs or downstairs and I think that would um it would it would be challenging you can see those stairs on the actually you may not be able to see those stairs yes on the there's a brake line on the plane that's
043just difficult to tell with the dimension that you're talking about is yeah can you go back to page five in your presentation okay foreign and then the doors that go into the Michigan Theater auditory and I hope everybody has their glasses so with 6 30 under construction East Washington under construction or is that not under construction there could you exit sooner it is currently under construction um we're up to the second floor right now um it is planned to be complete and the restrooms are operational before they tear down the Cadillac building so we will have fire suppression occupancy exiting from that building until the restrooms are complete and then the restrooms and the 630 East Washington building will be open so that would be also another caveat to this Corridor through those you couldn't
044get to the restrooms without going back outside um because your other variance is approval to go through the restroom as an exit right yeah so yeah the exit from that building goes through the restrooms but you're not exiting across buildings in bye now and that's not to the point of construction-wise you can get through there now you couldn't make temporary construction through that you would be able to go through that so we could consider some Corridor that would take you into the restroom building and then you could go through the restrooms but I'm not sure if that's an elevated level of exit you're now going through it's a type one construction it's fully sprinkler we could create a corridor from the screening room that has doors into this fire rated passageway that takes you into
045the restrooms but that would still put you into another building to pass through to exit yeah but if that building is directed to another it's shorter to the ACT shorter distance to the outside to the outside but it's not it would solve you maybe not have to make a quarter through the historic hobby yeah it is so you'd get you'd kind of continue in in the three hour Raiden enclosure by going that direction intuitively it seems a little odd to address everyone through the through the restroom stalls but there's one it's an option it may be odd but it was approved previously it's approved for the egress out of that building which is just restrooms so there's a foyer and restrooms in that portion of building so the egress is if you're in the toilet
046room you go out to the outside directly from there it's not an egress approved to leave any of the other buildings and go through there but it is it is the egress for that building and that portion of the building and people that go to the screen room will need to be using those restrooms so they will know where that is too and the future means egress is through the 616 building correct so you're still going through another building future you're always doing that you're always doing that yeah you're always doing that no matter what we do one either going out one way of building the other you're going out another way of the building yeah yeah which could also be more confusing because you don't know what that other side of the building looks
047like so you're probably going to go out the way you came in it's most common yeah right yeah we're that way correct the other two the future two exit doors out of the screening room will put you into a continuous completely new building a passageway that you have no idea what you're doing until you follow the exit signs because you will never have gone in there except for to exit an emergency situation yeah it's Laura indicated again Glenn Dempsey building official as Laura indicated the exiting each building will have its own exiting and it'll have its own science to help guide the public out and that's part of the code requirement I mean and that's the the tricky part of this intersection between three buildings is typically you don't go into another building on a
048property line so now we're having three buildings kind of acting as one for the Michigan Theater and that's already been approved 100 times over again whenever something else wants to happen we have to get a variance on can we approve this because you're going over another building line right I mean please keep in mind each building will have its own exiting requirements it'll meet the code requirements the inner workings are to allow access to some of the amenities and that's why the fire doors were put in so that if something happened those doors would be shut down while the people were using the restrooms and so forth so but they each will have their own exiting meeting code requirements sound event of a fire in case of a fire now those doors that go in
049and out of there would close and would be shut down or would those be now have to stay open is that what so if the fire alarm goes off those doors would have to automatically close right now in case of a fire that is correct and then you wouldn't have exiting out of the screen then you wouldn't have then they'd be true if your intention is is allowing into the Michigan Theater right you would not have any exiting so now if there's a fire if we allow this they would actually have to rework those doors stay open so people can actually exit the intention was to shut down to separate to separate 100 separate the buildings yes typically typically all the rated doors close on emergency and then you still egress through them they still
050all have panic attacks those doors would want to close if there was a fire in either building and you'd want you'd Panic egress through them with the with the push bar so they've none of the doors on property lines would lock in an emergency situation you'd still be able to access them they're just going to close so that the fire doesn't spread from one side to another and currently you guys are just banking on the fact that the employees the ticket sales are going to stop 49 people is there going to be like a presentation inside in case of invented fire this is the routes you have to take for this temporary basis over the next few months is that too much to say that almost like you're boarding a plane here's your exit Rose
051you know um I've just can you speak yeah so in my discussions with Russ Collins the director is here he he would be willing to do whatever his staff can do to effectuate safety so if it's the direction of the board that there's a human being at the beginning of every theater showing explaining just as you said the exit is here the exit is there I think he would be happy to do that and put it in a letter to commit to do it so as a reminder again the appeal was based on a misinterpretation of the code we're not meeting the exiting requirements by code it should have an exit to the exterior that allows the screen room public maintenance staff whoever is in there to get to a public way so so if
052if there was a way to cons to extend the passageway it to those to that bathroom core building that has an egress to the exterior is that something that they could try drawing up and seeing if that would pass muster understanding that the occupancy issue it's still an issue that you have to somehow there have to be some guarantees or in place that the occupant load wouldn't exceed 49 no matter what but if they could clean up the egress situation so that there was a contained exit from the screening room to the exterior to the exterior even if it's through that that other building with that with that fly so the passageway is supposed to take you directly to the exterior it's not supposed to take you through other other areas of the building isn't
053that the future design also contemporary treatment it would be temporary without permanent so to answer your question um no the 616 and the and the screen room which is part of the 616 address we'll have a proper exiting when everything's in place the each building will have its own exiting ability though but through another building though no this building will have its own exit requirements met okay 616 in the screen room have will have proper exits they will not have to go into another building in the end result maybe in construction in the end of construction yeah but going into another space is not the you know does not meet the definition of a proper passageway foreign thing I know one question was about the travel distance I don't have never seen in what the
054actual travel businesses are you're exceeding 200 or 250 but I haven't seen a number on here what the what all these travel distance add up to all the way to an exit is that then calculated the longer three hour corridors 141 feet and the other one's 211. so from the worst case scenario spot in the auditorium paint to purple to Green is 211. and then blue to green green blue to green is 149 feet correct within the 200 limit of a non-swinkal building both those are called within the 200 feet of the unspringled building prep for travel distance it looks like yeah so you have to keep in mind the other part of the code is a horse there may be a horizontal exit that meets meets an exiting requirement for horizontal exit but it
055can't be the only type of exit the passageway takes you directly to the outside there can be a second horizontal exit or a second exit that is a horizontal exit but it can't be the only exit so because it's an accident not a horizontal exit horizontal X it's going to be a far better enclosure or an exit is this a travel distance correct we are common path to travel we'd have the choice of two ways to get out so typically your horizontal exit can be an exit when there's more than that is the exiting settlement as far as I'm like is he actually once you get to the enter the extra horizontal legs that you are in the exit correct a horizontal exit a pass situation passageway exit takes you directly from a certain point
056to the exterior horizontal X that takes you through could take you through various areas but it can't be the only type of exit in this situation so a passageway you can look at the definitions there yeah and the horizontal exit puts you technically in a in a new building so you can start your travel distances and everything over again once you pass a true horizontal exit we were debating on is that three hour wall between Michigan Theater and the screening room considered a horizontal exit because then you could stop that path of travel calculation at that point and start over when you get into the Michigan Theater lobby but it's been saying that's one exit even though you're only required 49 one exit and 49 occupants the code does say that in the definition that
057a horizontal exit cannot be your only means of egress um you're coming out of two doors into a passageway so there's two doors into the passageway which is three hours and then you're going through another three hour walk so there's there's a high level of of fire safety in that scenario where you're in a three hour enclosure before you get to that three hour wall and then you're in a sprinkler lobby but it is not the true definition of a horizontal exit or doesn't comply with the true definition of a horizontal exam so if you look to the definition of exit passageway that gives you how that works it's a horizontal direction that gets you to the exit so you can look at that and then you can look at the requirements for a horizontal
058exit and exiting requirements it's not allowed to be horizontal exit in itself is not cannot be the only way out it has to have a second exit passageway and this is currently an issue because the construction's gone and going to right now you're in the situation that you can't occupy the space the screening room or the screening room currently occupied it's occupied I think there's still open exits because we're building 6 30 but not 6 16 yet yeah so the foundation system excavation and underpinning of the Michigan Theater which all has to happen um is it ongoing yet because there's still a part of an existing structure not yet demolished which whole which holds the bathrooms for the theater so people are still using the screening room and the existing bat um when the new
059bathrooms are commissioned and operable we have a certificate of occupancy that will allow the final demolition of the remaining structure and then we can start the excavation and underpinning the knob of foundation work and it's that foundational underpinning at work which will block the other exits for the screening room um yeah remember Cox mentioned um we are trying to do something that's not found in the code because it's a unique circumstances which doesn't exist except for a brief period of time in the construction where we want to keep the Michigan Theater open because there was nobody anticipated coveted when we started the project um there has also been supply chain issues so whereas the project was originally engineered in steel and precast concrete plank quicker less shortening required now it's pork concrete so you have
060this Forest of Shoring that has to be left in place as you begin to pour the concrete to let it set and Harden for a longer period of time which impairs the ability to put those tunnels egressing onto the screening room until we have enough curing time for those floors for that Shoring to be pulled up the whole Confluence of things that nobody anticipated when we started the planning process that's what's going on so when is that scheduled to end their current exiting pattern you have in the next couple weeks you're going to lose your second major so what is your timeline here 's the dates we started with with October so we're talking about starting in October because we're going to build that three hour wall within the Michigan Theater on the property line
061within that Corridor on the Michigan Theater property first so that's in place first so we're talking a couple months from now um and when we Build That Wall the Michigan Theater will have to we'll have to close the screen ramp because that will be under construction I believe the construction timeline for that is a month or less they're trying to get it to two weeks to Build That Wall if I might add one additional just a note on this project it's not uncommon in these type of projects to close down other areas of use until the construction is done so while um they want to leave it open and try to leave it open it's not uncommon to shut them down during construction phases and then bring them back up when when they can you
062have any questions or a motion from the board [Applause] one last try here is there what is the elevation situation between the existing screening room in the Michigan Theater itself four feet what portion of the screening room um maybe maybe even more five four four feet so the the auditorium slopes up to the lobby and then the lobby foyer on the kind of west side of the page has a ramp in that Corridor that slopes up to the machine theater so it's for like two and a half feet in the auditorium of a ramp and then another two and a half feet or so in the in the corridor um we've looked at punching holes into the Michigan Theater yeah but you kind of come you kind of come into the foundation of Michigan Theater
063because of um where it is so we'd have to drop because the Michigan Theater actually slopes down and there's a basement and it's we don't really want to punch holes into the historic theater foreign we've definitely looked into that and then you're also exiting into the theater which is also which is currently and does not need to be sprinkler so it feels um it feels like going through the sprinkler Lobby would be a safer alternative since it's intuitively the way that you'd enter the building I don't know if there's any benefit of you're going to do more exploration you can come up with other alternates we can table it or we can or we can vote on the way it is now based on the discussion we had today we could uh propose to temporarily
064re-sprank all the uh if allowed across the property line uh screening room in the hallway as an added measure does that have a redressing it helps a safety but does it help our egressing I guess is safer gives you longer distance but does not change the direct tags in so you would change you would be asking for a improved the three reasons you can grant our variance already the code doesn't apply or it's been misinterpreted or provided something or better so which one of those three would that would fall out or need be better I understand I understand these construction sequencing 16 6 16. when you look at the overall plan and you there's a section along the Michigan Theater line leads to the east or to the right on the plan toward Lane Hall
065there's nothing that can be done to put a temporary passageway to the exterior along that wall it will be done that way however it cannot be done until they're up to the fifth floor because there's 19 stories right there as well why the fifth floor that'll give it in time to cure and they can remove the Shoring so it's just because of Shoring it's not going to be removed in time because that's your time we can't remove it until it meets its ultimate strength what's your plans 21 days but we've several floors so that's where they've deemed that to be a safe because you're looking at 21-day strength on the country to remove correctly that the existing grade is about three feet lower than that um exit to the screening room that goes directly into
066the Michigan Theater so if we were to go out we'd have to go downstairs if the building was not in place as as construction would go on that's one of the difficulties of the existing site and the screening room are very at varied levels so we can't just poke a hole and go all right we can go out this side and then when we're working on construction we go about this side because there isn't um there's a pretty significant great change and as they try to level the site to put the other building in there's a lot of work that needs to be done we've we've thought about this in a lot of ways and this is kind of the best scenario that we have is to go through a temporary we'll call it 180
067days approximately of construction where we limit the number of occupants to have one exit um I I would say that we're open to ideas that would make you feel comfortable approving this whether it's changing the number of days or I guess you know I I don't know how to go about this but I do feel like going into a three-hour enclosure within 75 feet with less than 49 occupants is a fairly secured fire safety one exit is only required for 49 occupants once you cross the property line you are in a different building and the idea of a horizontal exit is when you're in a different building the fire egress pass all that starts over again this is an unusual situation but it's a temporary um allowance during construction maybe there's there's some um some
068way in your review of the code that says this wouldn't be what you would approve for the final occupancy but because it's a temporary means of egress for construction safeguards is it safer to send people across the construction site or is it safer to have them to go back to the Michigan Theater Lobby because I guess the the concern that we're having is we feel it's unsafe to send them back through the Shoring of the of the construction because it's not it doesn't meet the egress width we won't be able to build walls and safety wide enough for people to egress through that until that Shoring comes down so I guess either way it's unsafe right I don't know Assurance gun um I still think it would be personally I'd rather go through the Michigan
069Theater for all of construction than trying to cross the construction site if that's the way I came in that's the way I'm going to try to leave regardless of which direction the exit arrows show just as a as an occupancy means of egress if I walk in the door I'm going back out the door I came in but that's not that's not how the code works that's just it's just a user experience one last question sorry um is the is the completion of 6 30 foreign is the completion of 6 30. that's the bathroom core [Music] of the screening room but there are bathrooms in the Michigan Theater there are a few it is not code compliant not accessible or I mean they're not compliant for quantity or both it's not accessible because they're on
070the second floor and there's no elevator that's what the Cadillac building is serving now so we cannot we cannot tear down the Cadillac building until the mission until the 6 30 restrooms are available um and then we will increase the so all right so let me ask this since all of this is is everything is contingent on everything else in this project so suppose that suppose the 630 bathrooms weren't fully completed in one form or another but there was a way to create a passageway from the screening room through the 630 building to the exterior since this is all a temporary situation right the bathrooms aren't completed just yet because it's a temporary situation the I don't know how you how you achieve the accessibility issue but that hasn't been an issue apparently for the
071existing Michigan Theater so I'm asking is there some way that the timing of the completion of 6 30 could be structured in a way that you could get a direct passageway to the exterior I think you could come through those double doors come into the Michigan Theater Lobby create a corridor directly into the 630 building that's fire rated for exit passageway and then you'd exit through those restrooms and we just need an access door into that corridor from the Michigan Theater so people could use the restrooms or get to the use the restrooms that can be completed until you know you can get the full switch over to make to make the screening room code compliant for egress the 630 restrooms will be complete before we start the foundations of 616. so the 630 restrooms
072will be complete and operational before we go to 49 occupants in it in the screen around okay because we'll have to tear down the Cadillac building to start the 6th 16th I guess that's my question is there some way to finesse the completion of the 630 bathroom core building if you want to call it that so that it can function as a true exit passageway during those 180 days or whatever it is that you know we're we're debating whether the screening room can remain open or not I like your options I like where your head's going but I think the concern would be that we would have to shut down the Michigan Theater because then it would not be code compliant and it's in its Plumbing talks because we would be short three quarters of
073the restrooms that are required for the Michigan Theater if we didn't have because because the Michigan Theater has restrooms now in the Cadillac building there's I believe restrooms on the second floor I believe there's six or eight total restrooms and I think they need somewhere around 20 per um you might know that math better than I do but it's closer to 15 to 20 per men's and women's so the Cadillac building right now has all of the restrooms that make the um the Michigan Theater code compliant and plumbing talks to build the 616 building we're gonna have to tear that building down which is why we're building the restrooms in the 630 building I understand that from a Time sequence what I'm really trying to suggest here is some way of finessing all this temporary
074stuff so that the issue isn't a fire safety and life safety issue it's I can't wait to go to the bathroom issue I mean it's it's another type of non-compliance but it's not a life safety issue it could accomplish it might accomplish the a way of getting the pro proper egress for a reduced occupancy in the screening room to happen to let the screening room function through the whole construction period the trade-off would be that they wouldn't be bathroom compliant is that is that clear that's clear yeah the building department allow the Michigan Theater to be operational without accessible and up to the plumbing count correct I think you have I think in order to get that approval I would have to have you go to the state of Michigan barrier free design board yeah
075because then they would be non-ada compliant because anyone that showed up that was accessible couldn't I couldn't access the restroom so that what is correct the possibility of it a temporary accessibility accessible bathroom Port-A-Potty in the back alleyway yeah we'd have to talk to the State Plumbing good for that that's not something that I think I could answer I think it's a reasonable question I mean I understand I'm I'm fishing here you know but that's honestly that's the only other way I see out of this you know basically things that you can the Confluence of all of these variables have basically painted you into a corner um so I might add um they could approach the state and ask for see if they would allow that but no one's I don't believe anybody would give
076them an answer without it going in front of the board and their proposal being requested so I mean yeah they are reducing the afternoon to 49 so that reduces a fixture account at a certain point but doesn't resolve the accessibility issue accessibility and even the number of bathrooms so 250 to 49 it's probably reducing some stalls but you still need an accessible ones yeah you have a you have a business there that's operating it might not be six months it might be might be a month but it might be more than six months and so then during that time frame the inadvantaged do not have cannot go because or they may have a problem if they have to go and they don't have access so I would have to take that would have to go
077to the state of Michigan if we could we prefer if we could be tabled for a month to come back with a different approach similar to Wish Your Heart was talking about I I couldn't quite that you really could can I ask one question have you looked at using rapid set at more rapid setting concrete for your first five floors so you can pull the forms faster I don't think we have again that's something next month we'll ask the contractor what the options are because I mean I've been on projects we use seven-day concrete with both forms in seven days routine we'll definitely ask them the tables for one month yes which variance number is this PBA 22. okay okay I moved it in the matter of BBA 22-2002 variance appeal for 616 East Washington
078Ann Arbor Michigan that the matter be tabled for a period of one month until our next hearing a second that was in favor aye aye anyone opposed no it passes his table until August meeting foreign thank you