All that beautiful work would have to be torn out,
and we would hate to see that.
That's certainly an economic hardship.
all right so we're going to hold this to next wednesday uh we'll take it to executive session
where everybody have a chance to uh voice their views on it and we'll come to uh a conclusion
okay and we'll thank you at 9 30 a.m just want to move my entire exhibit packet into evidence as
well as well as the letter from council member uh brian o'neill all right thank you very much thank
you number three um nicole span
I think I already swore you in, right? Just for the record, state your name again and
turn your computer on. Nicole Spann. S-E-O-L-E-S-P-A-N-N.
Our Vice Chair has just a few questions for you.
Good morning. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this
hearing yes ma'am okay and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes ma'am okay thank you you can share your screen and proceed with your case
Okay. All right. So that's your posting, right? Yes. Okay. So that was the close-up of the posting. Yep. Then there was just another picture of the posting. That's the property right there, right? That is correct. And that's a duplex? No, it's a single-family home, and I'm trying to – I'm here today for the duplex issue.
but but it it already is a duplex and you're trying to let your it's a duplex that you want
to legalize right okay so my story bought the property with my fiance at that time um went to
ellen i to get the rental license and that's when they informed me that it was not a legal
duplex okay how long have you owned it since 2021
21 and it was a duplex when you bought it correct okay here is a copy of the deed yes we have we
have all your documents okay i think where you should be is show us the photos of the property
my pleasure
so here's a pictures of the property um if you notice like in this very first picture
where this is the downstairs the first floor and back here like through this walkway those
are the steps to the second floor uh it's a clearer picture on this bottom right screen here
on the first floor is two bedrooms one bathroom living room kitchen
uh same same thing for the second floor two bedrooms living room kitchen bathroom
this is the porch to the first floor right what do you have in the basement in the basement
uh right now which is tools there's no access to the basement from um in the unit this property
which drew it to our attention it has a five car garage a six car driveway
um but it does not have access from either of the units okay
um but it does not have access from either of the units
oh i'm sorry i keep scrolling the same picture
um here you'll see this is the second floor yep uh this is the living room on the second floor
that's the kitchen on the second floor bathroom on the second floor bottom left
uh go to the next picture do you live in one of the units ma'am no okay
on half but the first floor okay moving on to
i'm sorry yes
sure this is one of the bedrooms on the second floor right that is a closet also on the second floor
Oh, this is another bedroom on the second floor here.
So two bedrooms on the second floor?
Correct.
that's the second floor as well that's the garage this is the living room on the first floor
that comes in off the porch am i correct correct
the living room the kitchen area
more pictures
this is bedroom number one on the first floor
sorry at the bottom right that's the living room on the second floor just
wanted to point that out this is another bedroom on the second
floor on the first floor and there's two bedrooms on the first floor that is
correct the first floor of the basement the first floor the basement is a is a
basement it's not it's not liable i think that stucco ceiling threw you off stealing in the
window we actually ripped that down recently and um you know made it flush with drywall
this is the laundry area um it's like a separate area coming out the hallway from the living room
kitchen one bedroom uh the laundry area and to the right is where the bathroom is
this is just a storage area like i said that ceiling yes we pulled that out made sure everything
was good that's the bare basement there like i said there's no access from the unit to the
basement we pretty much use it for storage at the bottom right that's the driveway area like
said it holds about five or six cars there and this is the base this is your basement here
correct that is the basement and at the back of the driveway that's the entry to the garage
this is the door on the outside in the driveway that goes to the basement
and that's well this is the like i said the garage area
um this is the certificate of uh tax compliance
Terrific of tax?
Clarence.
Questions from the board?
Are the units completely separated?
So like there's separate utilities for the first floor, the second floor, and the garage separately?
When you purchased the property, did you get title insurance?
And did any of this come up on the inspection report?
Surprisingly, no.
none of this came up until i went to get a rental license and the plan is to keep this as a and like
sort of a rental property for both units correct are you using any parts of the property uh personally
the garage the garage in the basement and then how are you all using the garage in the basement
and storage space storage space okay other questions correct yeah question for you um
so so the that first floor extends all the way to the garage or is that a
separate because I mean it was kind of looking at the looking at the building
kind of looking at the looking at the building and um it it looks like this the first floor
and it it looks
extends all the way back to that first that that one-story garage area right correct and is that
part of it is that part of the apartment no sir until you get to oh it's not okay no so the garage
right there's no access to the garage from the to the unit from the unit that's set at all okay
correct okay okay and then how do you get to the second floor unit it was on the left hand side
on the other side so right here at the bottom you can see where you got a close-up shot of that
why don't you look for it i saw the close-up before oh okay gotcha okay yeah there you go
no that was good i saw i see the door so that door at back there it goes to the second floor
that is correct all the way in the back that goes to the second floor and this door right here to
the front goes to the front the first unit okay yeah it looks it's interesting because the house
looks small from the front but it's actually pretty pretty long and it's because it because
the rooms look pretty decent look like a decent size yes all right where's the trash store for
your uh tenants so there's a driveway and that's where the trash cans usually sit
the driveway going into the garage I'm sorry the driveway where the garage is correct right
okay other questions do the tenants um have use of the driveway yes so they can park yes that
block um unfortunately is parking limited yes questions for attorney um not so much a question
i just wanted to note that the refusal doesn't say anything about the parking um and that there's
existing parking so that may need to be recognized i don't see any permit history relating to
parking on here so that may need to be done through a separate zoning permit application
um and this is rsa5 and it's accessed from a main street so you might actually need a separate
variance to legalize the parking that's already there i just wanted to flag that for you um so
unfortunately anything we can do about it now but i just wanted to make a note because
um i noticed it wasn't on the refusal and i checked the zoning history um you know clearly
was put it put there at some point well before you um and the garage is there and all of that
but just wanted to note that there isn't a record of that parking being approved so just wanted to
flag that for you because you may need to do something about that in the future okay all right
questions or comments from the virtual audience i see no hints at this commission
thank you chairman good morning david vecto with the city planning commission
chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 5 residential
single-family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 2019 in accord with
recommendations in the comprehensive plan this block face has a mix of single-family homes
duplexes and triplexes so the proposed two dwelling units matches the character of this block base
the city planning commission recommends of the board grant the proposed use variants for two
dwelling units so mi 2025 000 486 35 22 to 24 north 8th street i vote yes michael johns my vote
is yes cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes mcadams my vote is yes
thank you thank you you look awful very you look happy
all right so number four mi2025 000 592 2296 brinmar avenue
rodney wright monique wright are the applicants pro se
there's a letter of support from winfield residents association 12 in support five
in opposition and a letter of support from council member jones
on eighth grade right will be rejoining as a panel sure
we're here well that's great to hear thank you could you uh thank you could you please state
your name and spell it for this stenographer monique are you going to testify yes okay please
state your name and spell for the stenographer monique m-o-n-i-q-u-e gray g-r-a-y right w-r-i-g-h-t
do you or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do all right so this application is for the legalization of a hundred percent
All right.
So this application is for the legalization of 100% opaque six-foot tall fence along the frontage of an existing detached structure for no change of use from single-family home living, for no change to existing accessory parking garage with two spaces have previously approved,
Whereas any fence located nearer to the lot line than the required building setback or the actual distance of the building from the lot line, whichever is greater, shall be no more than four feet high, no more than 50% opaque.
whereas fences on any side of our corner lot building facing a street shall
comply with their front setback rules set forth by section 14-706 apostrophe
three apostrophe a one our vice chair has just a few questions for you okay
yes good morning have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing yes okay and the chair just read your refusal so do you
You stipulate to the reading of the refusal further, and do you stipulate to its accuracy?
Thank you.
You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
Can you see my screen?
It's coming over there.
We see it.
Perfect.
Okay. So this is the side and backyard of our home at 2296 Bryn Mawr Avenue before the fence was erected. Although we have 2296 is our home, the front of our home is on Woodbine Avenue and the side and backyard faces Bryn Mawr Avenue.
to the next one in a second please
can you see this one no let's say it hasn't moved yet
oh can i can i stop sharing a share again please sure thank you
Can you see it?
uh it's coming up right now we we see i guess you're showing us a nice snow shot
can you see the first picture of the home i see them yep the side in the yard yeah okay
great thank you so this is the uh side and backyard again is on brenmar avenue and i'll
show you a picture of the front right now. So the reason why we erected the fence is because we had
theft to our property. Delivery people didn't know where to deliver our property, so they would
deliver it to the back steps. People walking down the street would go to the back steps and take
the items. People also use the side of our yard as a shortcut to get from one place to the other.
they would leave the sidewalk and go on the property. So this is the pavement for pedestrians
and this is our personal pavement to go to the front of our home. They would also leave dog
feces. Animals would come on to our property but the most reason is because in the snow we have
seen footprints to the back of our home and animal prints to the back of our home which is quite
dangerous um when people should not even be back there people take it upon themselves to
um walk back there that made us less secure um in our home they've also stolen things from back
here so we can't leave anything outside it's really unusable um from this perspective before the fence
after the fence this is the front of our home that faces whereby avenue and the fence is located
behind our front yard so our front yard is huge and substantial and the fence is behind that
which is lined up um directly with the property once we put the fence up uh delivery men were able
Once we put the fence up, delivery men were able to walk on our private path to the front and deliver packages so that they would no longer be stolen.
to walk
People no longer had the ability to walk past and take things from our property that was not theirs.
But the main issue was when we would have family functions and things like that on the side of the property, there would be pedestrians and people walking past that would literally, excuse me, drive up, park, and come and start asking us questions.
So we felt that that was a lack of privacy and unsafe.
They would say, oh, is this a barbecue?
When should we come back?
Can we have some?
They would not only speak to us, they would speak to our guests.
um and in a way that's kind of frightening because people walking up and down this down
the street you really don't know what the motive is and you don't want to have to get into you know
any conversations with people that you really don't know okay
so this is the uh our property from the corner perspective so you would walk downward by avenue
You will be able to see directly to the corner. Around the corner, you would have to pass our front yard in order to even to get to the backyard. This is another picture as well. So the walkway, you would walk down the street. We wanted to show you the intersection. So if cars were coming past, they would be able to see fully around the corner and down the street.
I'm sorry, my exhibits are going too quick for my fingers.
Apologize.
So if cars were coming down the street, they will be able to see around the corner.
And as you can see right here, the city put three lines in the street right here.
So which means that you can't even park in this distance so that cars can see around the corner.
They also put a street sign over here for no parking.
so that when cars approach the intersection, they can also see around the corner.
So cars as well as pedestrians can see around the corner when they come up to our property.
This is a picture from Bryn Mawr Avenue, and you can see from across the street,
you can see all the way down the street.
So pedestrians were crossing the street or cars were coming down the street,
you can see without obstruction.
There are no obstructions to sight lines where the fence is located.
Monique, that's a fence right across from you, too, right?