01-28-13 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Area Board of Zoning Appeals—December 5, 2012 trying to run down the neighborhood but promote it more and take this dilapidated building that's sitting on the edge of their neighborhood and bring something great to it and something they can be proud of also. So 1 have looked at other properties. I feel this one for what I'm trying to do,with everything I'm trying to do, offers the space, offers the location, and will facilitate everything I have planned for it for the future. MR. URBANSKI: I have a question. You said that being able to be on Mishawaka Avenue and easy access, somebody had said earlier if you're coming east, I guess it would be southeast on Mishawaka Avenue, isn't there in the center of the road concrete or...? MR. WINDT: Yes, yes. You have to do a turnaround down the block or you have to come from one direction or another. In the future I was planning on looking into the possibility of having, not necessarily that taken away but even just an opening cut where you turn into the building right there but also still keep the partition in place. MR. HAWLEY: Gabriel, forgive me, maybe this flew over my head, what do you right now, where do you work? MR. WINDT: Currently I'm working in construction. I was working at a tattoo studio formally known as Point Blank Tattoo &Body Piercing which was very respected in the area. And then became Stillhouse Tattoo &Body Piercing. I had personal differences with the owners there. Just a conflict of interest so I chose to leave and seek out my own endeavors. That's why I'm here before you today because I'd like to start my own tattoo studio and also grow beyond just the idea of a tattoo studio or tattoo parlor. I want to be snore. I want to showcase all of my talents in art. I've been a graphic designer for half my life, for 15 years. I've owned my own computer business when I was 19 years old in Bay City, Michigan, called Tri City PC Solutions. I got into tattooing because it was a chance for me to make a living doing what I love to do every day. I love to draw. I love to create art and people and my experiences with people and having those personal relationships with my clients and in the community meeting the different person every day and discovering how you can touch their life with artwork that you do for them. I do portraits for people that have lost loved ones. That gives them closure to the fact that they've lost their loved one. Their pets, breast cancer awareness,the list goes on of the emotional impact I have on peoples lives. And I think that's overlooked and forgotten about because the negative stigma that's attached to tattooing. But what about the positivity that it brings to peoples lives. What about the impact that we have to snake people feel good about themselves or give them closure or anything that touches their life in a positive way. MR. BULOT: There was reference made earlier about the 500 foot separation from any religious use or any public or parochial school between grades K thru 12. In looking at one of these photographs of the site,to the east along Mishawaka Blvd., there appears to be on the building it says Revival Ministry Center. Is that a former sign or is it currently being used? MR. WINDT: I think it's a former sign because when I went to the Building Department with my paperwork I asked them about the building itself. They told me to look into it as deep as I could, and I tried to, the facility is never open and I pecked into the windows and there's just stuff piled up in there. It doesn't look like it's in use. So I felt comfortable with the idea. I felt comfortable with the idea that perhaps it's just 49