the appeal today is for the 25th street lot which is still zoned rsa5 this lot's size and depth is
today is for the 25th Street lot which is still zoned RSA 5. This lot
in keeping with the other row home lots on this block face of 25th street most of which are single
family with some being built as recently as 2021 there's no unique physical condition or circumstance
of this property that will prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code
the city planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variance for
three dwelling units thank you um hillary we're gonna bring this back for better drawings as
we do a whole resumptive hearing for this um yes mr care schedule for resumption please
council you'll bring make sure the new drawings are submitted and we'll bring this back when 3 18
1625 at 9 30 a.m okay thank you thank you
next case number nine mi 2024 005 1515 1613 north phillip street christopher dean is the attorney
there's unanimous support from south kensington community partners
christopher dean will be rejoining us as a panelist
good morning mr chair and members good morning council could you please state your name and
spell it for the sonographer christopher dean d-e-a-n all right do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
the relationship to this property mitchell clark and he is the owner and he is present
All right. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
I have. I will just add to that. I did email Hillary this morning.
I inadvertently, I believe, sent the wrong external photos, and I couldn't find a way to delete them.
So if you see, if there are external photos of a garage, it's not for this parcel.
And I won't be presenting that today.
Understood. Please proceed, council.
Great. Okay. Just confirming that my screen is shared.
We see it, sir.
Okay. So good, Mr. Chair and members, thank you for the opportunity to present 1613 North
Phillip Street. On behalf of my client, Mitchell Clark, we are here to obtain a variance for a
duplex in a RSA 5 single-family use. I'll briefly go through the exhibits and then just focus on
the pictures and what we think makes our hardship today. It's my client's deed. He purchased the
property slightly over three years ago for fair market value. My client resides at the property.
here is the refusal proposed to family household living the and we'll get into these documents but
the property itself was listed as a duplex for sale the physical dimensions are of a duplex
and there was a rental license at the property for a duplex and the reason for the my client
was not grandfathered in was because this went this use did go inactive for a period of over
three years which necessitate the filing of this variance this is our application for appeal
project information form let me zoom out
and these are this is page one of the of the plans you can see
the front of the property it's a three-story duplex consistent with neighboring properties
these are the plans and i will show more with the actual pictures from the mls
but you have a unfinished basement you have unit one you enter on the front door
there is this egress a large egress which we will show pictures of to access unit two which
is access through a deck and all in all it's a you have a you have a one bed one bath one living
and then you have a two-bed, one-and-a-half bath.
Both units have kitchens.
Both units have washer and dryers in the unit.
Some comparable zoning.
1639 North Phillip Street is a four-story, three-unit multifamily dwelling in the same zoning.
The same could be said for 1628 North 2nd Street.
1614 North 2nd Street is a three-story, three-unit multifamily.
and 1612 North 2nd Street, three-story, four-unit, multifamily.
And I have attached the zoning permits at the end of the presentation.
So as I mentioned, this is a large egress.
There is actually and there's two lights. One is one is operated by a switch or the proposed tenants to use.
There is actually, and there's two lights.
One is operated by a switch.
And the other one is the neighbor has a motion light. So there's two ways to to ensure the area is well lit at night.
This is the access to the rear unit. You come through through the gate, you go up these steps and you access it.
you access through the rear. And here's another picture of the same egress in the front door
where my client resides in the front. And here is an interior photo of the one kitchen. This
would be the second unit's kitchen on the second floor. The second floor is where there's a wall
a wall dividing unit the front unit and the rear unit um this is a so when my client purchased the
property and this was is key to his the hardship um the property was advertised could you just make
it a little bit larger it's a little hard to say oh my apologies let me know if this that's a little
bit better if this suffices so this was the advertisement um which you know led to my client's
ultimate purchase. You'll see it does indicate it's a three-story duplex, and then it highlights
the features of how you can use the duplex. These are actually pictures from the listing itself.
My client has not done any alterations to the property. This is the front unit.
This is the front unit's kitchen.
This is the rear deck access.
And then this is the, which we showed another picture of, the second unit's kitchen.
You're coming down these steps to here, and then you have the relative bathrooms and bedrooms.
We did meet with the South Kensington community partners.
We did get full support.
In fact, one of the voting members has been in the neighborhood for, I believe, over 20 years, and she did mention that it was her belief that this property has been used as a duplex for as long as she's been in the area.
And this was the meeting summary.
This was another letter of support from a local school principal, you know, supporting my client and supporting the actual duplex.
my client's tax clearance we just received it yesterday i originally did submit the proof of
the taxes but we did get the tax clearance yesterday this was the historical zoning
that i mentioned this was approved for duplex previously and we there is a rental license
here's the rental license 2009 at the property a two two unit dwelling residential license
that did go inactive which is why my client had to go through the zoning process
um and this is just a zoning this was a building permit um for any work on the property to show
that was done um in consistency with you know um that my client didn't do any um unpermitted
alterations this was our notice of the rco this was our notice to today's meeting at the zba
and the rest is
these are all the certificates of mailing
and then I did include at the end
the 1612 North 2nd Street
historical zoning
for multifamily use that we did include
in the plans that were submitted
and the same can be said for 1614 North 2nd Street
to a three-family dwelling unit.
So with that, I will have Mitchell Clark,
if he could be sworn in.
Bring him on, please.
Mitchell Clark, if you're in the virtual audience,
please raise your hand.
Chair, Mitchell Clark is coming back in as a panelist now.
Mr. Clark, could you please state your name
is spelled for the stenographer mr clark
mr clark state your name and then spell it for the stenographer yes mitchell clark first name
m-i-t-c-h-e-l-l last name clark c-l-a-r-k-e do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed counsel uh mitchell clark did you hear
the testimony that i uh laid out before the board yes and would you adopt my testimony as
laid out before the board yes and would you adopt my testimony is a true and accurate
rendition of your testimony i do um and just to clarify the pictures i have um on the screen now
was that the condition of the property when you purchased it it was okay um and did you believe
you were buying a duplex when you purchased the property yes sir okay questions from the board
questions i do okay so uh this entrance to this second unit is it only through this access way
and these um steps um through this deck is that the only way you can get to the um second unit
that yeah that is that is correct it's through this is this the door you're referencing
Okay. All right. And when you purchased this property, did you or your attorney check any zoning records before you purchased it?
Or did you just go by what was in the records from the seller of the property?
I went by what was in the records. I didn't have a lawyer at that point. So I was brought to my attention at closing.
Okay. And did you have title insurance when you purchased the property?
And did they look into what was the actual zoning for the property and what uses would be allowed at the property?
Yes. So it was kind of later in the process.
Okay. And then in addition to that, there is such a thing as a city certification,
which you can get from the Department of Licenses and Inspections,
which tells you what uses may be made of a property,
what the prior uses were and what have you.
And while they put a lot of disclaimers on it,
it at least would have given you a better idea of what the property was
actually zoned for.
Yes, I'm aware of that now.
It's been a learning experience.
Gotcha. Thank you.
Questions or comments for our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the audience?
Questions or comments from the virtual audience? We have one. Chair, we have Daniel Trumman with his hand up.
Okay, hi, could you? You didn't allow to speak. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer that was a mistake my hand
wasn't supposed to be up sorry
so you want to testify okay
pardon me damn powers at the city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the RSA 5 residential single-family zoning at this location. This property has a
documented history of two-family use dating to at least 1957. The City Planning Commission
recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for two dwelling units. Thank you. MI
2024-005-515-1613 North Phillip Street, I vote yes. Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes. Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes. Tyowin, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheen, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
Thank you, members.
Have a good day.
Thank you.
Number 10, MI 2024, 005-516-1010 West Cologne Street,
Cologne Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
There's unanimous support from the North Central East RCO.
Vote was 8-0.
Letter of non-opposition from Council Member Young.
can you please raise your virtual hand
he's coming back in as a panelist now chair
morning mr chairman hi mr clinton you've already been sworn just for the record state your name
Henry Clinton.
Can you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
My client is Michael Salomone, S-A-L-O-M-O-N-E, and he is on the call.
Right.
Our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yesterday the tax record was
Yesterday, the tax record.
produced and one additional zoning record but everything else was produced five days before
thank you mr clinton please proceed and show your screen thank you mr sheen
Mr. Chairman, is that first page visible to you?
I might want to make it just a little larger.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
I'm here on behalf of Michael Salamone concerning 1010 West Kelowna Street.
This is a proposal for a two-family dwelling in an I-2 zoning district that's surrounded
by RM1, which, frankly, was previously approved in 2020, but because of COVID, my client wasn't
able to get to the project.
He had a zoning permit from 2020 and a building permit from 2021, but after three years, the
zoning permit expired.
So we're here again before the board asking for what was previously approved about four years ago.
I have a table of contents A1 through A10.
We also have zoning records indicating that we do have a prior zoning permit and a prior building permit several years ago.
This is the refusal I-2 zoning district.
We're requesting a two-family dwelling.
Two refusals, two-family dwellings are not permitted in an I-2 zoning district.
And in an I-2 zoning district, the two-family household will require some off-street parking, which we do not have.
This is the RCO letter, as the chairman referenced at the outset.
We do have support. We met with them on two occasions, and the community is behind the project, and they were previously behind it in 2020.
So, Temple Field to the south, the project is right here at 1010, and actually in 2020, my client came before the board and had 1010 approved and 1012 approved.
So, we're only here today on 1010. We will likely come back before the board in several months on 1012.
but you can see this is an industrial area at least to the right and i'll show you the zoning
plan but it's primarily residential across the street is fill abundance it's been there for
several years and based on historical photographs we understand and also based on meeting with the
community we understand that that this lot 1010 has been vacant for decades just another perspective
looking east