And that's why I think we received a letter of non-opposition from the East Mount Airy neighbors and community support where it was 33 to zip.
So usually you don't have that type of support, you know, at all.
And so I think it was because we worked really hard and diligently to change our plans based on community input for a previous type of project that the community did not want and instead have a single family.
We did do analysis on the 100 block of East Sharp Neck Street, showing properties of a similar lot width.
And the reason why we're saying that is all of our lots are 16, essentially the building structures are 16 feet, eight inches, which is in character to what you would see in the neighborhood.
We have side yards for lot one and lot three, which are five feet each.
And that was at the request of the community.
We have maps of the area, photographs of the properties around the area, our plans and drawings.
Logan Dry did a great job, I think, with the architectural plans to mimic what's in the neighborhood.
We had a well-attended meeting.
We had proof of that, not just a notice to that meeting, but proof of mailing of that notice to the meeting.
Our application for appeal, our deeds to the property, showing that my client, the corporate owner, owns it.
And we have certificates of tax clearance.
And we also have Joe Parker in the virtual audience, who is the owner's rep, who will adopt my testimony as his own.
So the notice of refusal. Again, these are two RSA 5 properties. We're consolidating them to make three single family homes.
and, again, in character to the size of other lots nearby.
The only refusal that's here is that the lot two is only 868.5 square feet,
while 960 square feet is required.
Not 100% sure if it should be 960 versus 1440, but that's where we are with that.
A letter of non-opposition.
Again, you know, the hardship is that this, you know, property has been vacant forever.
And, you know, in order to for this property and this project to be, you know, to hit the ground running and to activate this property, you know, we need to have this additional essential unit.
It would be out of character, like 141 is 1,598 square feet, while 143 is 1,606 square feet.
Those lot sizes are out of character with the neighborhood from a single-family perspective for these RSA5 properties.
It's more in line with the three proposed lot sizes that we're proposing for this project.
Again, if you look at here, we just gave examples of the widths of the building structures,
which kind of mimic what we're proposing as well.
We also took some of that architecture with the roof lines.
This used to be, I would assume, some type of porch at one point.
Same thing here, the porch, again, mimicking the brick facade.
And again, the widths are kind of similar to what we're proposing here.
Maps of the area, no dispute that this is a single-family portion of the neighborhood, and that's what we're proposing.
Photographs of the property, again, these are all vacant lots.
Proof of posting for today's hearing, of the hearing notice.
This is East Sharpneck Street to the right of the property.
You can see there's porches in the neighborhood, bay windows, which we try to mimic.
Each sharp-necked street to the left of the property, again, porches, brick facades, interesting sharp-edged roof lines.
sharp-edged roof lines. Architectural plans and drawings. You can see how our roof lines mimic,
Architectural plans are drawing.
our bay windows mimic, our porches mimic what's in the neighborhood from an architectural
standpoint. And again, these are all single-family homes. So, but, you know, we try to, you know,
again, lay out these properties, you know, with furniture. So you can see in the first floor,
you you walk in there's a living room a dining room in the kitchen you go down the flight of
steps uh there's a home office and there's also like i guess a guest room of some sort or or maybe
an entertainment room there is a bathroom down there so someone doesn't have to go all the way
to the second floor to go to the bathroom instead of going on the first floor down the flight of
steps you go up a flight of steps and there's two bedrooms in the bathroom and then in a laundry
room as well and then what you would expect is the third floor is a master suite
we send notice of this community meeting a few days longer than we usually do so it was the
community meeting was september 24th we usually try to do two weeks in advance i think maybe it
was asked for of us to do additional notice so we did september 5th we emailed that notice along
Proof of that notice to the coordinating RCOs or coordinating RCO and other RCOs.
109 addresses were notified at the community meeting list of those addresses.
Proof of mailing to those addresses are application for appeal that we filed with the ZBA along with the notice of refusal and the project information form.
Deeds to the property showing that my client, the corporate owner, owns the properties.
And the certificates of tax clearance.
I would ask that Mr. Parker virtually raise his hand and be sworn in.
Mr. Parker, could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Joseph Parker has been allowed to speak.
Mr. Parker, could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Joseph Parker, J-O-S-E-P-H-P-A-R-K-E-R.
where or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes please proceed counsel yes mr parker you heard everything i had to state today about
your zoning matter yes and is it true and correct yes and do you adopt it as your own testimony
yes specifically you know part of this process of community input you originally
had a different, you had multifamily, right?
And it was at the request of the community
to go single family, is that right?
Can you repeat that?
It was at the request of the community
to have single family use instead, right?
And then even the design aspects,
you took into account what they wanted to see
from a design standpoint, is that right?
yes thank you questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair i have a hand up by the name of charles richardson they have been allowed to cease
Richardson, just state your name, please.
Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N,
Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass,
Room 508 City Hall.
Councilman has no objection to granting the variance.
Thank you very much.
Is there anyone else in the VRCS audience?
Yes, Chair. I have a hand up by the name of
Sergi Pavala.
They have been allowed to speak.
This is the last case.
oh hello uh i'm kind of like hello sir sir sir sir that that case is over
uh we had i was blocked but but i can't we can't take the testimony now
because the people involved are no longer here yes you can continue chair
anyone else in the virtual audience for sharp neck street no chair i see no more hands at this time
okay planning commission thank you chairman and good afternoon or good evening david effecta with
the city planning commission chairman and board members will start by confirming the appellant's
assertion that the minimum lot size for rsa 5 properties in the eighth council district
that the minimum lot size for RSA 5 properties in the 8th Council District is still 1,440 square
feet. Then we'll proceed with our testimony. The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
RSA 5 residential single-family zoning at this location. The appellant requests a dimensional
variance for lot size for the three proposed lots. The proposed lots are in keeping with the
size of the lots within this block, which range from approximately 900 to 1,500 square feet,
the City Planning Commission recommends the board grant dimensional variance for lot size.
MI 2024-004-949-141 East Sharp, Mack Street, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowan, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Nockmson, you're on one more time.
You have your votes.
MI2024-004-951-907-South-10th Street.
Mr. Nockmson.
Yeah, so, Allen Nockmson still.
Just for a point of information, Alan, we no longer see you.
I noticed that.
Yeah, I was actually going to mention that.
I just noticed that.
I don't know why.
You disappeared.
No comment.
But, yeah, I don't know what happened.
I don't know why I'm black.
Are you going to be able to show your documents?
Yeah, I can.
I noticed that during the last presentation all of a sudden.
I'm good.
All right.
All right. Could you identify your client, please, and the relationship to the property?
Yeah, my client is Chris Brewer, the owner of the property.
We have a letter of non-opposition from Bella Vista Neighbors and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squiller.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Council, do you agree to wait to read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits as needed to, needed and required five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed, please.
Thank you. I think I figured out my camera situation.
All right, so this is really a straightforward project.
All we're trying to do is legalize a parking spot that's in the rear.
This property goes street to street from 10th Street to Delhi. There's no parking allowed on the street in front of our property. And we're near the Italian market. So it only makes sense to allow for the legalization of this off-street parking that's been there forever.
So we're going to review the notice of refusal.
Again, we have a letter of non-opposition from Bella Vista Neighbors Association, as well as a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squilla.
Not out of character to have off-street accessory parking nearby, maps of the area, photographs of the property.
Just, again, a site plan, you know, showing the off-street parking.
and the RCO meeting notice,
it was a well-attended meeting
or application for appeal
or deeds of property
showing that Chris owns the property
and the Certificate of Tax Clearance.
Chris is a consumer.
This is where he lives.
He's not trying to develop it.
He's just trying to legalize his parking
and it's rather large rear yards back there.
Notice the refusal here.
It's a surface parking lot.
That's one refusal.
It's off-street parking.
It's not considered a rear street.
That is the second refusal.
Letter of non-opposition, again, very well attended meeting.
You had 17 people show up.
Overwhelming support.
There were two board members who were opposed to it.
Probably just on like, again, conceptually, they're probably opposed to any off-street parking.
But it makes sense here because you're taking a car off the street and not affecting public parking at all.
uh well explained it just like that in the letter of non-opposition and you know council member
scroller also is not opposing this variance request not uncommon to have off-street parking
on new delhi or south delhi uh is 908 it's on our block uh then around the corner 939 montrose
935-37 Montrose Street. Maps of the area, this goes street to street, single-family use,
not changing the density. Again, we're near the Italian market, so it makes sense to
lessen the burden of the Italian market by taking as many cars off the street without
affecting public parks. So this is a net positive one for the community.
So this is a net positive one for the community. Photographs of the property, newer construction. My client didn't do that, but you can see it's well-maintained in the front. This is the front of the property as well.
posting. So I wanted to show you that we posted both on the 10th Street side and the Deli Street
sides for today's hearing. Again, this is the rear. I think it's almost like 30 feet deep.
So there's much, much room, not just from a legal standpoint for service parking,
which is 18 feet deep. You have another 11 feet on top of that. For the rear yard,
I think that was referenced in the letter of non-opposition by the coordinating RCO.
and this has been like that forever. We have a picture in 2017. The only difference is I guess
they took away the fence, but it's the same thing. Again, you can see here, no parking allowed. This
is an aerial view kind of showing that this has been like this for the longest period of time.
This is South 10th Street to the right of the property, to the left of the property,
South Delhi Street to the right and left. As you can see, no parking is allowed, but there is
off-street parking, you know, on Deli Street.
Plants and drawings, you can see it's a pretty
16-foot wide property, 30 feet deep, more than
enough room for one car. Meeting notice,
we met with the community on September 3rd.
We emailed that notice to the community two weeks prior to the
meeting. We showed them that
169 addresses were
sent to a community notice
along proof of mailing of that
community notice, our application for
appeal that we filed on Mr.
Brewer's behalf,
along with the deeds of property,