Welcome everybody and I apologize profusely for the glitch on the sound but we do have to have this meeting recorded. So this is the August 13th, 2019th City of Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals. My name is Chuck Sally and I serve as chair of the board and I'd also like to introduce the other board members here today. So to my left is Gene Deacons and then my immediate right is Jenna Stevens and next to Jenna is Marcellus Promise. I would also like to introduce the staff that will be assisting us today at the table. Rachel Bailey, the zoning administrator, Hope Hasty, the deputy zoning administrator, Andrea Wolfe and Erica Hyen. The board is charged with hearing applications for special exceptions, variances and administrative appeals. All testimony is recorded for the record and anyone wishing to speak will need to be sworn in and come to the podium to speak. No testimony may be taken from the floor. When you come to the podium, state your name and please speak clearly into the microphone because this meeting is being recorded. Applicants with cases before the board are allotted a presentation time of 10 minutes. This time also includes all persons presenting information on half the applicant. This time limit does not include any questions asked by the board or staff regarding the case. Any member of the public may address the board in intervals of three minutes or five minutes if a spokesperson for a salvaged body of three or more. The applicant then has five minutes for a buttle. The board reserves the right to amend these time limits on a case by case basis. Those of you who plan to speak, you must be sworn in. So if you are here as an applicant or here to speak in any case, please stand up at this time and raise your right hand. You refer more test that the testimony you will give today is the truth and nothing but the truth. At this time I'll turn the meeting over to Ms. Bailey. Good morning everyone and thank you for your patience. The board uses the consent agenda to approve noncontroversial or routine matters by a single motion and vote. If a member of the board or the general public wishes to discuss an item that's on the consent agenda, that item is removed and considered during the meeting. The board then approves the remaining consent agenda items. The consent agenda today consists of the approval of the July 9th, 2019 minutes. Item number two, case 20190040 for 2225 Sloan Street for variance to the maximum lot coverage requirement for a single family resident. Item number three, case 20190041 for 2534 Wheat Street, variance to the accessory building setback requirement for a detached carport. Item number four, case 20190042 for 700 Jervais Street, variance to the maximum height requirement for a proposed hotel. Item number five, case 20190043 for 3818 River Drive, variance to the maximum height requirement for a wall in the front and side yard setbacks. Item number six, case 20190044 for 314 South Edisto Avenue, variance to the front and side yard setbacks for an addition. And item number seven, case 20190048 for 2200 Hamden Street, a special exception to permit an alternative parking service. That is all on consent agenda today. Okay, we're about to vote on these items. Before we do, is there anybody on the board or in the audience that would like any of these items removed from the consent agenda? I see none. I would like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda subject to all stipulations and comments of the applications by staff. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. The consent agenda is passed. We'll give one minute for everyone to proceed with the regular agenda. The first item is number nine, case 20190034 for 2823 Columbia Avenue. This is a special exception to change a nonconforming use within a design preservation district. As this is not a request that comes before the board very often, I'll give a little bit of background. Within a design preservation district, instead of the 12 months restriction with nonconformity, they have 36 months. If it's vacant for longer than that, they lose that status. But if they request this within the 36 month period, which the applicants are kind of right at that point, they can come before the board and suggest an alternative nonconforming use that is more in line with the district. So if the board finds that it's more in line than the original quadruplex, as in this case, they can decide as they see fit. So this is an existing quadruplex they're suggesting and requesting to go down to a triflex. And why are they approaching the 36 month variance? It's been vacant. It's with a nonconformity in usual districts, you can if it's vacant or abandoned for 12 months or more, they lose that status. Design preservation gives them 36 months. So it's the vacancy that's been there. Please please do not speak from the floor. You'll have to come to the podium to speak. And first of applicant will speak first. Applicant can come forward. And then if anyone in the public wishes to speak, they can speak after the applicant. Morning. Terry Shepherd. Speak now. Yes, man. Okay. I'm Terry Shepherd and Columbia Avenue has been in our family for about 45 years. John's mother Jesse Lee owned it and it operated as a quadruplex for the entire 37 years when Ms. Shepherd developed Alzheimer's. It turned over to their older sister Linda. And from that time until now it has been in really bad repair, not being taken care of. There were tenants in it up until 35 months ago. So it was occupied up until the 35th month. And we took it over a couple years ago. And one of Ms. Shepherd's wishes was that, you know, the folks that were there and not be asked to move because all three of them were in very bad physical condition. There's one gentleman in a wheelchair and legs cost me back and she just, you know, so until she passed, we tried our best to honor that. It has been a while. We've had possession of the property for a couple of years. And I have all my receipts. We have been paying out of pocket to date. We've spent about 70,000 total on the renovations. They're still a long way to go. We've since this all happened, we've secured a line of credit to finish the repairs. I feel like we could be finished by December or January that operated as a quadruplex for the four years. So for the, you know, 40 plus years. So we're asking because it would be nonconforming, I guess, to go back to the quadruplex. So we're asking to step it down to a triplex so that we can finish it. And it would be devastating to us financially to not have it operate as a quadruplex for what we've paid for it from the family estate and what we've put in it so far. We're almost there. There was just so many dollars in repairs to do. Very good. And are you familiar with the criteria that you filled out when you would you mind just going through those real quickly? Yes. So the first one was just a request to change it from a quadruplex to a triplex and that we feel like that that would you know, reduce cars there for parking reasons. There's plenty of parking on the side and on the front, but it would limit some of that. It has been operated as a quadruplex. We're proposing for it to go from four to three, you know, which would afford nicer units on the inside. But the number of occupants would go down then. So then you just be rain three units instead of four. It was grandfathered in and operated like it was. And you know, stated that we want to restore the property to its original look. My husband is a licensed builder. We've built about 10 homes a year on around Lake Murray. So we appreciate the architecture of it. We don't want to change it. We've had special wood milled for some of the replacements we've and that's why some of these materials cost so much. There's still a long way to go. But we've done a lot since we've had possession of it. And and we continue, you know, we'll continue. I have our records here where since we've had possession, it is not set completely stagnant for more than a few weeks at a time. We use this project as fill in work. So there's been a continuous stream of people there doing work.  We'll get a few extra thousands that go fix that. We've just been trying to do it out of pocket. But maybe that wasn't the right way to handle it. I like the cobblers children doesn't have any shoes. Yeah. Yeah. But we we appreciate the area. We appreciate what's going on in the area. One of the problems that we had, of course, was obtaining a loan because there were no comparables to support it to be able to get a loan. So that's why we've been doing it out of pocket. But I'm assuming that two of these one or two of these units are going to become larger. Is that the plan? Not necessarily for more people just a little bit larger for a better sized unit. So, you know, some of these are considered studios, but now there'll be a true one bedroom. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you very much for your testimonies. Anyone here speak in favor against this application? Please come to the podium and state your name I'm Felicia Brown and I stay at 28 27 Columbia Avenue next to that property. And I've been there for a little over 20 years. And when I first moved there, Miss Shepard took really good care of the property and there were good tenants there. And it was a good property to live next to. But over the years, it's, it's gone downhill. It's been dilapidated. Is they patch it up that the tenants move they're in and out. It's it's not a good property. I feel like it lowers the value of my property. And it's been empty for, like she said, 35 months and they they patch on it for a couple weeks and then it'll be empty for months and and vagrants have broken in and and I've complained to the city and because they've been living in there and they come and lock it up. And this has been going on for a while. And I just don't feel like it's going to get fixed up like it's supposed to be fixed up and that that you know, that it's going to be what it's supposed to be. So I'm against the multi family dwelling being continued. Understood. Is there anyone else here? Would you approach the voting again, please? Add that this is within a design preservation district. So we exterior work in between this. Right. I mean, there is no doubt about it. I don't disagree with her. All I can do is commit to move quicker. And that's what we'll do is we'll commit to move quicker. Since this has happened, we've secured some additional money to finish it and we'll finish it. And it'll be a nice property. How long do you think that's going to take? John, I talked about it this morning.  We're not going to do that. We're not going to be able to do that. We're talking about it this morning. I mean, we, um, December would be aggressive. Um, but if we had a timeline and we said we had to do it by December, we could the roof leaks on the interior of the home literally rotted out the interior, the whole interior. So, um, he's had an engineer there for load issues. It's just been a slow process. But we will understand what she's saying, and we will commit to putting the property back in a good condition. Um, what's the timing on this if we give her, um, the, the, you know, requested exception? It is up to, the board has the ability to set put safeguards in place. Okay. So, um, I also just want to note there are some code enforcement. Um, they've been out a few times on this property. I think they are working with applicants on rectifying some of those issues. So, those are in works as well. I'm not sure of their timeline. Well, and we're very familiar with the codes because my husband is a builder, which is what stops some of the project as you're moving forward to go. Well, if we fix that, then we have to fix that. And if we fix that, we have to bring that into code and staircases and things like that that we just had to bring into compliance because of course he wouldn't have it any other way. But um, it just became a much bigger project than we originally. Sounds like that y'all could, you've got the capabilities to do this. It's just a matter of carving out the time and energy and money to do it, right? So, um, if we, uh, if we gave you this exception, um, uh, provided that you completed the construction by the end of this calendar year, would that be, um, acceptable? It would make it happen. Yes, sir. Are any of the changes to the exterior footprint or is everything interior? Most of us interior. There's some exterior that the staircase that was rotten, the staircase that was rotten, of course, you had to remove the exterior to get to it. That's just the way the construction of the building was. So, but that material is replaceable and it can be milled and made to be exactly like it was originally. Do you have an architect involved with this project? No, um, we are, I'm a designer. My husband is a licensed contractor. We've built homes for 28 years. So, we are capable. We draw our own plans now. We have, um, designed folks that work with us, but we ultimately give the, it's more of an on-site type project. I guess the reason I asked the question, I think it would have been helpful if we, we had some of those plans or renderings to look at, understand what you're trying to do, but I really don't have a feel for the details of the project. Not necessarily a deal breaker, just would have been helpful. Right. I mean, I do have a list of the scope of work to be continued. I don't know if that'll help or not, but I have that. I guess it's just, it probably would help if you could just give us just a 30-second, um, brief overview of the key, key highlights of what you've done and what you have left to do. I also just want to note when you're, if you are setting a construction timeline, you can mine, if they have to go to the DVRC or anything, that could cause some delays, just depending on when they get in that application monthly and if the board makes a decision right away, because sometimes we do our own things in two months. Understood. Right. He doesn't hear very well and he probably didn't hear what you said back there. So, he's saying he wants to know what, what's been completed and what's still needed to be done. Okay. It's John Shepherd. Oh, thank you. We've, uh, we've replaced the roof and structural repairs to the roof. All the windows and doors have been replaced. We've done some minor interior repairs to the plumbing and some minor exterior repairs to the siding. However, in lieu of what, uh, what we've run into, um, you pull a section of wall off and be rotten. And, and, uh, so what needs to be done is the electrical plumbing, heat and air, all upgraded to code. By radio sheet rotten on the whole manual. So, um, when we got into this thing, when I pulled the first permit, it was, our bill was about 35, 40,000. You do minor repairs, but my mother didn't take us good care of it.  So, uh, if anybody who knows me and knows all the property, and I don't know them slum lords, and I don't know them slum places. So, you know, when I'm a part of whatever I'm a part, it's done to the T. So, to answer your question on that, there's still quite a bit of work to do. Four months is formidable to get it done, but if it's going to be done right, it's going to need electrical plumbing to be in there. The outsides, my wife and both my mother want to maintain to look like it originally was. So, that requires some special people to come in and do that, which we have access to that. So, anyway, that's what's to be done. Thank you. Okay. Any questions or questions from the board? Sure, there's a whole lot of other options. I don't know if economically it's going to be feasible to turn it back into a single thing as well. Only from a quadruplex, non-conforming use to a triflex is better. Reasonable plans for sure? I think that, yeah. I think the big issue is to make sure that it gets completed in a commercially reasonable time period. And I understand that approvals make that, requirements make that somewhat difficult. So, I'd like to make a motion that we approve this application for special exception to change the non-conforming use within a design preservation district conditioned on the owner and applicant, you know, using commercially reasonable efforts to complete this project by the end of the calendar year 2019, subject to delays caused by awaiting on approvals from the DDRC. And I would also add that the zoning administrator would be the arbitrator and of that what is reasonable for the delays in those permits and subject to all other stipulations and comments of staff in the application. Second. We have a motion in the second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item on the regular agenda is item number 10 case 2019-0045 for 314 South Attisto Avenue. It's a variance to the maximum lot coverage requirement for an addition. So, the applicant is here and is welcome to come forward. My name is Samuel Truma and we live on 314 South Attisto. We currently on the home there. We're trying to comply with you. We're adding to the house and we want to keep the line of the home. So, that's the first item on the agenda that was approved but also we're trying to add to the home and we are asking with the current plan is that we asked for is 39.6 percent occupied of the lot and the allotment is 40 percent. So, we're asking for 39. I mean the current plan is 39.6. However, we're asking for 3 percent more just in case we want to add something here and there with construction to make it 42 percent. So, to be clear you're asking for a special exception to exceed the minimum lot coverage by 2 percent. Yes sir. Maximum lot coverage by 2 percent. Would you just real quickly go through your, do you have your application? Yes sir. So, you know, number one I mean I'm going to just do these very quickly extraordinary exceptional conditions. Apply. You don't intend to exceed the limit but you're doing, you're asking for a 2 percent variance to do so. I believe that you've got a larger lot than and you have plenty of room so I think that that's that makes perfectly good sense. Doesn't generally apply to other properties or structures in the vicinity. I would agree with that with a single story lot going back is the only way you have to go. Yes sir. There and it would then be to restrict the utilization of the property again with that large backyard and your only access for expansion. I think that forms for that and then it would not be adverse to the public or additionally explained any other things. I agree with that. It's not really conforming to the lines of the house and shouldn't affect the neighbors. And then it's the minimum necessary and I think that you know the 2 percent fudge factors if you will is probably reasonable. It's certainly the minimum. I believe it would be harmonious and the purpose of the zoning ordinance is not interest to the neighborhood as well. Thank you. Is there anyone else here speaking favor or against this application? Any questions from the board? I'd like to make a motion that we approve this special exception based on the applicant's testimony. I'm sorry. Thank you. I approve this variance based on the applicant's testimony both written in oral and subject to all stipulations and comments of staff in the application. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. May I say one thing? The staff is fantastic. They've been so helpful for us and amazing. Thank you everyone. Very good. Okay. Item number 11 on the agenda this case 2019-0046. This is for 2200 Hampton Street and 1416 Pine Street. It's a variance to the buffer transition yard for an institutional use and to give some background on this one the original application was to provide a fence along the entire buffer. They have since changed that after speaking with staff to DDRC as well as adjacent neighbors to where their request is now for a six foot masonry wall along one shared property line that's going to run to some existing vegetation and then become the eight foot wall so instead of the or the eight foot fence so instead of a fence all the way around it's masonry wall and then fence. The applicant is welcome to proceed. Good morning. My name is Dr. Flavia Elder Meyer and I'm the historian on the project. We've been in our university has been in the community for almost 150 years. This particular property has been vacant for about 15 years and has been over the years in decline. Our goal is to restore the project and also to add an addendum to the site. We have some We've had an opportunity over the past couple of months to meet with community members to share our plans for the site it will be a mixed use site in that the building the historic portion of the building will remain we're going to try to keep as much of the historic interior and exterior as possible without any just major improvements as as needed. It will house an education education center on the lower level. We would just receive the approval to open our education offer education major at the university. We have a donor who's willing to have the school named in their honor. For that portion on the first floor we'll have a wall for the historic Waverley community and that will recognize those doctors and nurses who were a part of this hospital when it was good Samaritan hospital. We'll also create a palmetto hall of fame to recognize prominent African Americans throughout the state and it would be housed there as well. The new addition on the first floor would include a 200-seat auditorium and definitely let the construction gentlemen Mr. Barnett explain more about that but that will be named after the Emmanuel 9 in recognition of their the tragedy that happened but also to bring around stability. That would be a facility that will host world-renowned debate. It's not going to be used every single day. It's going to be staff with high tech so that conferences can happen across the country. The building itself has national, federal, and city historic recognition and so we are trying to improve their community, improve the university, but also keep the historic relevance of the site. I'm going to defer now to our construction engineer and from GMK. Hey I'm Hoy Barnett with land plane group part of the GMK design team. As you know when you've got an existing building you can't move it and so we're stuck with where the existing placement of the building is and so we don't meet certain distance requirements from the property line and so that's basically what this variance is for. We are going to change and do the masonry wall along this is Bruce property line and then convert that once we get into a thicker existing wooded area to a naked tall wooden fence which will then come around the side to Pine Street and then end at the house and I think one of the various exceptions that we've got is there's a very thick wooded area in the corner I guess the upper right corner on that screenshot there and we feel that that's almost an opaque barrier and so why take it out to replant if it's already doing its purpose. So questions we've got GMK here as well to talk about the building if you want to discuss anything about the building you've also got other representatives from Allen. So just a quick confirmation Rachel I'm looking at the the aerial site plan that shows the addition of the one-story lecture studio and I see where it's been redlined where six foot masonry wall will be installed is that the wall we're talking about. That was me working up there existing site plan. Sorry it's a little rough. Yeah that masterpiece. Yes the masonry wall will run for the majority of the shared property line for the first lot on the shared property line starting kind of at the front corner of the building that'll be the brick wall and then where that existing vegetation is marked out is where it'll move into the wooded fence to come along down on the pine street side for that shared residential buffer. Just so you know the wooden fence was the recommendation by city to kind of keep with the neighborhood feel so that was what we kind of talked about in our meeting. Yes staff to DDRC has been involved in some recommendations on this one as well specifically with the masonry wall so because they will review the building plans and the wall and fence at the DDRC. And the president's prepared to do what's necessary to move keep the project moving forward. It's an 11 million dollar project at this point with an 18 month completion for spring 2021. We've already began to secure funding for our various investors who are in grants to help us raise that 11 million dollars. Great is there any one here in the audience speak in favor against this application. Yes ma'am would you please approach the podium. Would you please approach the podium. I beg you I apologize. I'm Catherine Bruce I live at twenty two fourteen Hampton Street which is right next to the historic Waverly building that we're speaking about. So I just wanted to verify that we have had lots of good conversations with Allen. You know I've talked to the doctor I've met with Dr. McNally I have also been a part of the neighborhood meetings. So we have very good communication and I was made aware of the change to add a masonry wall. I think between a commercial and residential is typically eight feet. So I don't know I see it six feet there but you know typically it's eight feet but we're glad to have the brick wall there and also glad to have the trees there for the privacy element. So just wanted to put that in there. Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. And that's to clarify I'm the way it is in the landscaping ordinance is a six foot masonry wall and eight foot wooden fence. Gotcha. What's the so the eight foot wall is permitted outright the city of Columbia a fence I mean if it's part of a landscaping buffer you can go up to eight feet with a wooden fence that serves as that buffer on its own it would require. There was an existing eight foot fence along that property line too so we don't like this. Come on Stephen Martin I'm in Wade related. Yes sir. You should be right there in the neighborhood we're born in the house and I live in the 1412 my concern is the park does this have anything to do with the residential parks. I'm not I'm not. This is a variance for a buffer transition yard. Well anyway I'm in 1412 town with any problem with their application. She just informed me that you're not going to change that house that is except 1460. Right that's going to remain. So those like that's going to remain and the people who are in that house right now still are in the same area with you right. Me too that building. Do you all mind coming a little bit closer to the microphone. Yeah. It's concerning was the house that we own next door to his property or on the street on two doors down from Pine Street where it blew that house will remain in place intact and they're currently is used right now as the Dickinson Green Theological Seminary. Those offices will be moved into the building once the building is completed and they will reside on the second floor of the building. The house is going to stay there. Yes the house is yes it's going to stay. They're not doing anything. No we're not going to tear it down. No it's going to remain it just be a different office. I'm all for it. Yes. Thank you so much. Yes. Good to meet you. I'm Steve. You can hear me clearly. Yes. I can very clearly thank you so much. And the next component is around parking. So once we finish this we'll move to parking. All right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you for your written application it's very thorough and I think the presentation explains it so I think we're any any questions or comments from the board? It's a very good project. Very good job. I think the lecture studio addition will be a benefit to the university and to the community. Yes. I think the presence of the natural buffer back there with the trees on the backside of the site does help alleviate the the landscape buffer requirement. And in essence you have it it may not be as wise as it needs to be but Mr. Burnett's testimony regarding the presence of the existing structure that you really can't move them around the centermen of the site such as a newer vacant site and meet all the current land development regulations is absolutely true. So I think it's done a very good job with this. We've we've seen a lot of projects and Waverly that come in front of this board and when there's a big problem with the neighborhood they are always here vocally speaking the opposition for it. So without that very good site planning and a very good thing from the university community I would absolutely do that brother. And our president had a duplicate meeting this morning or he would come but I am pretty familiar with the project and I've been working with him from the inception and I helped write some of those documents. So yes. Well you did a fine presentation so just tell him to know that. I'd like to make a motion that we approve this request for a variance buffer transition yard based on the applicant's oral testimony and written application believe that they have proven that they meet the criteria for a variance subject to all comments by staff in the application. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye all opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. The final item on the agenda involves the same properties it's case 2019 0047 for 2200 Hampton Street and 1416 Pine Street. It's a variance to the off street parking requirement for an institutional use. Okay so I have the chief of police and he responsible for the planning for the parking on campus. So I'll let him speak. This is our chief of police chief Calvin Davis. Thanks chief. Good morning everyone. Thank you for your time. First I think it would be best interest to say that all of our parking associated with the university is decal driven. That means that every faculty and staff a student has to have a parking decal. Now if you look at your I think you may have that list of the parking in terms of locations. I think if I'm not mistaken the Waverley Hospital listed 28 hospital parking spaces. There's also parking spaces that is broken down to where the people can park. So I give you a typical example students generally park at the campus mall based on the decals. And when they park on street doesn't have any reflection on what we do as an institution is that they get a ticket. They get a ticket. So in that arena faculty and staff park on main campus. So this would be sent around visitors faculty staff and students of course the visitors would have a temporary decal making park there. So based on the way it's laid out it's a small campus 10 acres you know it's geographically kind of public streets run through the university Hampton Street Pine Street Oak Street we don't think that's going to change. So I think it helps out sometimes more than it hurts. So we have 28 parking spaces dedicated to this spot and the students know where they can and can't park. So we do a lot of ticketing through the city of Columbia through the city managers we write city of Columbia parking tickets and we also as a control mechanism and we also told very heavily when it relates to people violation violating parking on campus. So that's where we are right now. Total number of parking spaces in that particular area for the tow account campus is broken down and various the dormitory itself 27 total parking spaces two handicapped possible three additional and six in the Waverley Hospital 28 and it's different scenarios for different ones based on the layout that the civil engineer has to perform.


let's go okay perfect what's up hi guys how are you doing or great how are you good thank you we'll go ahead and get started so i'll just introduce myself first my name is ava i'm the peer advisor for csc and i'm currently a junior majoring in computer science engineering and today we have spark erasing here with us to tell us a little bit about their project team so do you guys want to go ahead and introduce yourselves yeah absolutely i'm peter i'm a senior studying mechanical engineering i'm the project manager for spark uh but i do i'm involved in the fair amount of cs stuff so that's why i'm here and i'm here with chris yeah i'm a sophomore but i'm the software lead of the project team uh so i deal with all of the computer science on the team awesome okay that's great um and then just so you get started if you guys want to talk a little about what is spark um and kind of like what your main goal is um with this organization yeah so spark is a project team through engineering obviously um our goal is to design build and race electric motorcycles um our you know ultimate thing we don't have a specific sort of uh like sanctioned event we go to um which we love and gives us the flexibility sort of go and compete in any kind of motorcycle race we want to be um so that could be anywhere from like dirt bike racing to like land speed records but we choose to do road racing uh and that is sort of really fun because we don't race against we do race against other college teams we also race against a lot of privateer teams and some you know like professional teams uh in like real world professional club and professional racing um so the ultimate goal is to build uh sort of the fastest electric bike we can specifically for racing um and and show the world what university michigan and what spark is able to do or sort of exist in a cool spot too because electric motorcycles aren't that you know like they're on the it's not really developed industry or market yet so we get the luxury of being able to like sort of be on the cutting edge of the entire like my industry as it exists so we that's why we love that's great that's great overview um and then if you also want to go into maybe talk about the different teams that you have within spark um and kind of what they're called or what they do within those themes yeah so we do a lot of the major like subdivisions just based off like the discipline of them so there's a mechanical team um there's a software team and then there's an electrical engineer and our business team of course because we have to pay for what we're doing we cannot forget about but that's sort of the main subdivisions and then beyond that we'll have like um team leads be below that so like busting all those big disciplines up in like the respective subsections in the bike so for software for example there's like an embedded lead um go out like a powertrain control uh data yeah data analytics display and then it's the same mechanical has a suspension lead and a powertrain lead more than i can count yeah so let's sort of look the hierarchy we run it yeah that's awesome okay that's awesome there's different teams um and then what kind of skills can people learn through spark or like what kind of skills have you guys learned so many so many skills whatever you decide you want to learn so peter has learned everything about this bike he knows it inside and out um but the average member i would say learns a very unique set of skills that's unlike anything you learn in school so for example software it's so different than anything you would learn in an eeks class as you're learning how to interface with multiple other companies and how to use their technologies together and it's it's unlike anything especially with it's such an undefined project that is really fun to like it's almost like real-world experience of what how coding is used out of the classroom yeah yeah it's it's a whole bunch of like hands-on like learning um stuff that the university like you it's it's you know it's hard to teach that um all the all the real world problem solving things when you actually get a real tangible problem how you're gonna solve this um that along with a lot of important like life skills like you know like pitching yourself to companies how you get sponsors how do you meetings with real people um not just like fake meetings like you have i personally like the basic skills you'll learn um as any member on any team is you're gonna learn how an ev works um so straight up that makes you super super sick asset um to anyone in this world knowing you know all the basic systems in ev how they go together how they interact and how they go to make you know a vehicle move um and then beyond that you know basically whatever you want to dive into we don't really like push anyone in specific directions so whatever you find interesting you can jump into that and you will pretty much learn all there is to know about that part of the industry especially with most ev stuff so we're on like you know a cutting edge of a lot of battery stuff we really have great ties with the battery lab university of michigan um we're doing custom made battery management system so that's like a lot of computer engineering and software engineering on that and that's going basically all the way down from you know what's currently at hand at the research level all the way through like what's been done in industry and what can we do to push it further um so i've learned an incredible amount i've gotten hired for a job because of spark um because all the stuff you learn i mean it's it's truly incredible and you and just the real world real world experience that you can't get in the classroom um in terms of design and manufacturing is unparalleled that's great that was a really great answer in school over the skills and then with that too do you think you need to have prior experience to join spark or did you guys have prior experience beforehand or what the typical experiences of people first did you have prior experience before i so i came into spark last year with absolutely zero by the time when i joined i was starting 280 um and really it it doesn't help at all to have prior experience if you know how to like work your way through the terminal of a computer for on the software side that's about all you need to do um and it's really about you kind of build up your own sense of maturity um on the team of understanding your boundaries of what problems you can try and solve and then that's where the learning comes it's picking your fights and finding out how to solve them which is very different than learning school which is here's a really well-defined spec of what you have to finish and we'll tell you how it's just going to be hard we don't really deal with that whatsoever especially on the software side and we do emphasize like learning we understand that you know we are a college team so everyone's working sort of part-time um you know full-time students part-time engineer on spark uh so we are big recruiting classes they're primarily freshmen or sophomores um we love to have you know seniors join but that's really that's really the the majority is freshmen so we prioritize learning we know each people what they need to know we know a lot of nothing our very little limited stuff that we do is taught in the classroom so we have um pretty much the first like half of the semester for when we when we start a design cycle we have new candidates new recruits in it's just focused on learning so we have a lot of established curriculum things we call crash courses for sure specific to um you know those sub teams we talked about below those major disciplines and so you don't even know anything coming in pretty much um oh i don't think anyone who runs the team chris is now running this entire software team didn't know anything a year ago um you learn fast hard uh but we encourage that because you know having our members be as well educated and as well you know competent as possible is the goal um and we can't expect industry professionals to step in when they're 18 19 years old so it's great to hear that you guys have like a set um curriculum it sounds like for teaching people on so that's that's really great to hear and then um moving on from that i kind of want to talk about competitions um you can mention that in the beginning that you guys do some um competitions so do you want to talk a little bit about what those are like um where you guys have traveled to before um and kind of like if everyone goes or i guess like overview competitions yeah so our competitions um currently for the bike we were built now um we're racing the arma racing series it's it's the american historical motorcycle racing association which is really funny um because we're nothing historical about what we're doing but um they're really supportive teams and they have a an electric class um and electric motorcycle racing classes are harder to find in the u.s than they are in europe so for right now we're racing with them and they've been super kind to us so so far we've gone to a race in new jersey over the summer that was in june uh that was super fun at new jersey and new jersey watersports park um and then we also went to a race in september in south haven michigan at gingerman raceways so uh they're super fun we rent an airbnb for the weekend and it's thursday's through sundays um we we get there on thursday and then it's all hands on deck like we're running long day as long hours we take generally around like 15 people to a race um in the past that's been basically everyone who wanted to come um we into in the future it's especially with like during those were like during the summer so we let people who actually show up um and then during the first week of the year so it's like a little more limited people who can be there we're having races sort of next semester we anticipate a lot more people coming um so in terms of who goes and who doesn't go it's more like a seniority thing who's going to be able to race and this is their last opportunity to who who has like four more years of opportunities to race as well as you know people who really are critical to making the bike run um it's not like so like chris and i will be there because we built and programmed the bike um and we you know know what's going on when things break because things always break it's a very hands-on unique experience of a weekend where every weekend we go we say it's going to be so fun we're gonna have so much free time and then it's 12 o'clock and we're working on the bike and like trying to figure out what went wrong today usually like six a.m to midnight days um working on the entire day because things always break inevitably but it's they are some favorite memories from college they're like so much fun um we can about sort of the people that we've worked with we've been on a team before and then you come back as like really good friends because you've been locked into you know weekend driving sometimes 12 hours out to new jersey um and it's super funny a lot of really interesting people at these races a lot of usually like older people with which are really cool vintage bikes but also some really cool modern bikes um it's more of like a club series so it's very relaxed atmosphere um and there's a lot of fun we had and i think i think having the competition aspect of it and being having the ability to go to races um and we do races like very frequently we try to race at like around six times a year that we have like a good what we're like um between like six times a year would be ideal um you know we race a lot so we have a lot of opportunities to have to have that fun um and keep campaigning a bike which we like um more compared to like other teams when they only you know unfortunately they only have like one shot a year um to compete that sort of you know me so so um that's why we love it and they're they're insane they're really really funny that's awesome that was really good over your competitions too they sound like a lot of fun like stress but fun so that's good um and then i wanted to ask so you had mentioned um briefly that you know spark has helped you a lot professionally too were companies have like recruited specifically for you because you're in spark so can you talk a little bit about what kind of companies people who are in spark typically go to work at um if there's like different companies or is it more in the same field um or i guess your experience as well there is a whole bunch um we send people all over the place we have like obviously we exist in the EV space so we set we've sent quite a few Tesla um and then adjacently quite a few SpaceX um it's like the big but i mean all over sort of like the industrial field um i know people who have gone to the company um jeez we have a whole like slideshow or whole like presentation slide about this but a lot of big name companies you know the automotive companies love to see us um we have and we have some new Arabian interns are sending out which is really cool but um oh yeah the EV companies love to see the experience with with EVs and not only EVs but the fact that we sort of have to approach EVs differently um we can't supply a generic EV recipe we're more you know limited on the power density we're we're smaller vehicle right we need to have a lot of power compared to how small we are um that just kind of how motorcycles work uh so you know in terms of how the amount of EV stuff we need to like cram into a small thing um it puts us you know in a unique experience to where you have a lot of like like a lot of experience making custom batteries you know integrating stuff that's not just off the shelf but more of a custom application which is cool um beyond that like oh i mean yeah there's a lot of big name companies lost small name companies um i know and like you know one of the interviews that i've done i've had i've had internships i've had internships but like spark is like the primary thing um companies want to hear about uh they love to see that the leadership opportunities should you want to be a leader of the team um and like just actual work you've done um that's sort of self motivated i think companies like to see that as well uh you know we're doing this for free and it's a large time commitment um and we're also on top so it shows really good time management it shows really good drop in ambition um as well and then and professionally we like to do a lot of stuff for like development so um our president leo who is uh he's doing the one-year master's program at ross for the masters of management but he is a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering so um he's done a lot this semester to really push a lot of like the business stuff and a lot of stuff he's learning in terms of like we do uh like a presentation on you know how president is interviewed all sorts of stuff so like yeah it's like this semester where it's sort of critical for students um we like to do a bit of those like business developmental things to help you know make make spark more than asset to the students because they're helping us out obviously um build bikes so you know we want to we want to show them the tools so they can get the most out of themselves definitely yeah that's great to hear there's like the professional opportunities as well you're part of that so it's awesome um and then with that too i was going to ask for professional opportunities but i think you answered that question um i also want to ask maybe about like some social events um do you guys tend to do social things as well we try yeah absolutely um try to do a bunch of stuff we social events are great for building the team environment um everyone's like when you have friends on the team you're way more likely to keep showing up yeah we want you to keep showing up so um you know beyond like the usual club things like parties and like whatever um we'll have like movie nights we'll have we played like volleyball instead of instead of having a general meeting we just went out in the north camp volleyball court played volleyball we recently had a sad who are iam soccer league yeah we were spark iam soccer um what else my spark minecraft server um for those who we have our own dedicated server for spark um and and a bunch of other ways we try to stay connected we do we try to do like silly things like tonight's meeting is going to be um where each of like the the team leaders is going to present on another one actually me and Chris are presenting presenting his information um which i'm going to gather you know so it's just more um more enjoyable more excited yeah in a better environment um because that just makes we found just makes it so much better both retention um that like we're everyone's part time so keeping people on enthusiastic and stuff about that right that's great that's really good to hear um and then moving on from that side i kind of want to talk a little bit about how specifically cse people can get involved so i know you mentioned christy the software lead so if you want to talk a little bit about maybe um how people can get involved in the software team if they're maybe new coming in so yeah really the all the all you have to do is get in touch with us um our e-mail website which will just lead you to our email um if you get in touch there's no like vetting interview application you just have to start showing up and you're on the team that's as much as it takes um because really it's not being on our team that matters it's like caring enough to dive in and learn what you're doing um what's gonna make make you feel like you're actually a part of the team um right now you're not gonna know what you're doing and you're not gonna really meet other people outside of your team and it will just feel like a job and a chore but if you show up to our meetings uh you'll be welcomed in um on the first day so that's as much as it takes just wanting to do it with that too and i previously you had mentioned there's different like sub teams in the software team how are people placed into those results specific ones people have to go into or is it just off of interest it's more of like what your interest is pretty much you don't really want to like box people in those certain teams even if yes you decide you want to do mechanical engineering or electrical engineering totally it's really we're just looking for people who are enthusiastic about what they're doing and that's that's that's it because that's what really matters honestly so like if they have a certain like skill that um that they might be better at we might encourage them to go one direction or another you know if they have like rigorous c++ experience you might throw them on a certain part of the team um but it really is up to them i think a lot of people actually come in as undecided and then bounce around between a lot of the sub teams or like the disciplines and figure out oh i like this part of engineering the best um and then each of our each of our leads like chris are like sort of advertising their their kind of engineering and then kind of getting but yeah it's it's what do they want to explore what do they feel interested in is what they can do and then if they don't want to do that they can bump around and choose what they want to do so that's great that's awesome um and then with it too i wanted to ask um kind of how the time commitment has been um for you guys or how you guys balance classes with it i know you mentioned too that a skill that you guys have learned has been time management so how has that been i guess balancing that with classes i'd say for for us or for me um the beginning of this semester this was the first semester that i was an admin on the team it was it was a real shock at the beginning of the semester how much time this team was going to take um because i didn't realize how much logistical work goes into running a team this big um but now that my feet are under me it really just feels like it's a part of my life and it doesn't feel like a time commitment anymore as much a thing i do like going to any other class um so i would say it's an hour to a day on average um but if you're good with time like it doesn't it doesn't matter it'll it'll vary too so like i mean for us we're running a team with like a hundred engineers on it there's there is like Chris had a lot of logistical work that has to go into that um but if you're just like a member um you know that we i say i don't care if you put in one hour or if you put in a hundred hours per week um we're happy to have you help as long as you're consistent up and you're enthusiastic about your work um we don't want to you to get in the way of your classes like flunk out of your classes um i choose to flunk out of my because i run the team of it i'm not going to make you do the same um that's not so much but um you know like chris said i think we like to sell or like to have people buy into the dream um what we do is really really sick really cool it's an amazing opportunity for people to do this in college um especially to like not have to like interview for it or pay for it or have really any negative consequences get to do like what we're passionate about so um if we can get people to buy into that then then the time commitment just becomes like oh it's like another class i'm taking or it's like my hobby um spark is definitely before the hobby the hobby um yeah and and for like you know if you're holding a leadership position um we'll like you know like the the seriousness of them will step up so from like a member it's like a team it's like this can lead to like you know the top of the thing um we'll stress during like elections say like this is you know this is a more serious commitment and there's definitely people that are just so happy to take that on and there's certain people that you know you with you know where they are in terms of how much time they're spending um spark and outside of spark and so i think that affords people a lot of different ways to be involved without being forced to do too much um definitely didn't want to become the type of team that's going to be hit like crazy timelines or crazy quotas and like becoming our life unless you want so that's it right that's that's really good that the manage the time management is there as well so for can i ask really quickly um for software team though is there like a weekly meeting or something like that i guess like a general commitment for general members for the general commitment is that on sundays from one to three um you'll be up at the wilson center around the wilson center um although that does still even even that which is our software meeting varies um sometimes smaller groups won't be able to make or will have a better time so they'll as much it's really we can work around anyone's schedule and then the same Tuesday nights we have our general meetings um and those you can't really work around but a couple no one we're not taking attendance it's just whether you want to go or not yeah that's great that's great to hear um and then i guess my last question i wanted to ask was for both of you what's been your favorite part of spark then i think my favorite part i think my favorite thing we've done on spark was our first race um felt like all the hard work that i had watched other people put in last semester paid off um but now like out of the things i've actually done i think seeing the team come together this this year and this semester has been the most rewarding aspect of it of it feels like people are now buying into what we grew to love over the summer absolutely yeah in terms of like specific events i have to agree that first really fun um we hadn't used a bike in a long time because of like covid so it had been in three years i think and so like no one on the team ever raced before we had been working for a long time on our that that bike atlas to get it done so fun being getting it seeing it on the track seeing it work we finished it like weeks a week before we left um just fighting to get it done um and then being there and happy mostly um was really fun sort of being on a vacation it was like summer with like a bunch of our friends um getting close buddy we were like you know and we're in a completely different state so that was really that was really fun um but like yeah like like chris said um i've been i've been on the team since 2019 so well yeah so it's been a long time and i've been running the team for like two and a half years uh so seeing sort of like the regrowth post covid sort of getting the team back on its feet and being something more than it ever was before um and all those things we put into fruition you know like a year ago finally coming in and and being impactful let us build or have our team like double triple the size of it and be way more effective and we're taking on projects that are way more ambitious than we ever thought we'd ever take on and we're getting companies sponsoring us that are bigger than we ever thought would be um so you know coming in to like a little rinky deep team um leo and i always have to say we joined did join when there was like 15 people on the team and now we're a force we reckon with um you know both just university and also sort of in in the world which we would really like to see so it's fun it's fun to be on it yeah that was a great answer um those were all my questions here so i really appreciate you guys joining us today to answer everything um i personally want to join spark now i think it sounds amazing so that's really awesome um but like i said thank you so much and we'll have this recording posted later so people can come watch um again hear all your amazing answers so thank you so much have you guys today bye