05-10-10 Council Agenda & Packet

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Area Board of Zoning Appeals _ April 7, 2010 around the rental property at 1021 N. St. Peter Street During the last 3b years we have had to deal with many problems that were caused by the renters at 1021 and the absentee landlord fox failure to keep the property up to City codes. I strongly urge you to review the city files on this property before considering the request. First of all, we have had to deal with drug dealers. One incident occurred in front of my children where a drug dealer chased a person down the street firing a gun at another man. We reported suspicious activity to the police and formed a neighborhood watch many years ago. Ovex the years at 1021, there have been regular loud blaring music till eaxly morning hours and I just want to add here, I work the day shift at the hospital and I have to get up at 4:30 and when they play they're rap music_until 2 in the morning and I get up to have to take care of people that are dying, I can't handle it. I can't take good care of these patients. And that's my dedication is the dying, okay? We have had multiple incidents with loud drunks including out of control drunk driving down the alley and down our street during early morning hours multiple times, loud domestic disputes, f ghts and a stabbing. A renter, one of the guys over there, exposed himself to one of my daughters while she was playing in the back yard. V,le have had to deal with roaches, rats and mice after fumigation on that property. When the apartments at 1021 were acquired I saw the renovation plans that were to make two 2 story units. However, we were informed by the formex absentee landlord, that was Demitris, that the new landlord was going to try to renovate the apartments so that 10 persons could rent the apartment, that legally he is only allowed to rent to four. This fall when the present renters were having a loud party with between 35 to 40 kids, I went over to ask them to turn dawn the music because my grandson could not sleep due to the rap music that was blaring sexual, violent lyrics to a heavy deep drum beat, in our quite little neighborhood, I asked one ofthe men how many people were living there and he said "10, but we're grandfathered in." He repeated to me four times as I walked away. And rr~y only response quietly and I said this to him, "this is a family neighborhood and we'll see about that." Please investigate how many bathrooms are in this building. I think you're going to f nd out this landlord had no intention of following the code to rent to just four people. Parking is a serious problem. Caxs are being parked on the 1019 property's back yard on what's left of the grass. These issues have led us to believe the new absentee landlord is not fallowing the City codes and that he only wants to rent to as many persons as he can, possibly legally or illegally, at the expense of the families trying to survive in the surrounding area. We feel that the City's plan for this part of the North East side is to encourage single family home development. Indeed, the new construction on St. Peter Street and Notre Larne Avenue has been single family homes. With the never resident halls on the Notre Dame campus and the new apartments at the Foundry, we believe that there is no justification for student housing in the residential neighborhoods around St. Peter Street. We also fell that the City Council has set a precedent with the recent denial of Windmaor House, another non-conforming property one block from 1021, for variance because the character of the neighborhood is single family ownership. Our home has been broken into and our garage broken into several tunes. Our cars have been broken into sa many times that we don't even lock our doors anyxnare. A fight at the Notre Dame Avenue Apartments two blocks away resulted in the death of a kid. Rental units do not stabilize neighborhoods, home ownerships do. We believe that the real reason behind the request for the variances is to give the new absentee landlord the ability in the future to construct another rental duplex in the front yard of 1021, which I might add is very tiny. I mean I couldn't live in a house like that and my husband and me are the only ones left. I'm almost done. In fact, I, my husband was asked by one of the partners, one of the people over here, owner of 1019, 1021, what the neighbors would think if he was to build another rent unit in the front yard at apartments at 1021 St. Peter, My comment, this is facetious, but why doesn't this guy just tear everything 75