I'm stating the same thing that I'm
stating today, and they
agreed that
I should move forward
to pursue the two-family dwelling.
Okay, questions from the board.
You've been operating as a two-family dwelling? Yes, ma'am.
Okay, and what do you do about the trash for each unit?
The trash is put out every Monday, and I pay for trash.
So there's no issue with them storing trash non-trash days on the outside of the property?
No, ma'am. I keep the police clean. Like you can see right there, I have other pictures showing that the corner is always free of debris, snow removal. I do everything to maintain my property for my tenants and for the neighborhood because I believe we are an asset in the neighborhood because my tenants also support other stores and businesses there.
And I also have one of my tenants here attending to verify what I just stated.
And is there a basement?
And if so, what is it being used for?
Storage.
All right.
And just for you or just for the first floor tenant?
No, for me.
Just for you.
All right.
Thank you.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
Not at this time, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
No hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission good morning do you want to have sorry you want to come up
good morning sir good morning good morning could you please state your name and spell
for the stenographer my name is robert chisholm r-o-b-e-r-t-c-h-i-s-h-o-l-m do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir chisholm would would you like to tell
us something about this property well i've been living there i've been a tenant there second floor
for 12 13 years now and we have no problems there thank you very much and thank you for coming here
we appreciate it okay i like i'm gonna let you know i like the neighborhood now
she's a very good landlord and i have no problem you got her smiling
she is a very good man but thank you very much we appreciate it planning commission
thank you chairman and good morning david vecto f-e-c-t-e-a-u with the city planning commission
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir please proceed
thank you sir chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
cmx2 commercial mixed-use zoning at this location this part of the neighborhood west of gross
street still carries its original 1933 zoning designations at some point this ground floor
front portion of the property was converted to a dwelling unit without the benefit of permits
however there are no commercial corners at this intersection a commercial unit here would be
However, there are no commercial corners at this intersection. A commercial unit here would be out of character with the block face. The city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for not including a commercial ground floor.
Thank you very much. MI 2026, 000181, 400 North Grove Street. I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tonetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Hi, Owen, my vote is yes.
Layla Bibi, my vote is yes.
Thank you. Thank you. Have your votes.
And sir, again, thank you for coming down. We appreciate it. I appreciate you.
All right, we're gonna go to number 11.
MI 2026
Horrock Street
David Miller is the owner.
Come on up.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Good morning, sir.
Sorry.
I got you.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name as Bell for the stenographer?
David Miller, M-I-L-L-E-R.
Excuse me.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Absolutely.
Our Vice Chair has a few questions.
Good morning.
Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have.
Okay. And you are here for personal services and single-family household living?
And within single-family household living?
Single-family household, yes.
Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to, you were refused because that use, what you're trying to do,
was prohibited in your RSA 5 district. You understand that?
I understand, right? I'm not supposed to be teaching and...
Yes. I'm just stating why you were here. So, okay, you can start your case and explain to
us why you're here and what you're trying to do and you can show your exhibits sure i just uh
upload them am i going to be am i staying as a stay as an attendee joins a panelist what am i
joining panelists very good
and there's the share okay i was wondering what happened to that okay so i'm a professional uh
guitarist musician i've been uh playing for 52 years and uh playing professionally for over 40.
I've been teaching my house. So the house I live in at 6311 Horrocks is the house actually I grew
up in. My mom left me the house. And I've been teaching there since 1998. So it's been about
28 years I've been teaching there. And I had, so I was, I got my variance in 2012. I didn't
realize I didn't think about it and then I ended up getting a variance just to
teach to teach guitar there I've been so I've been teaching it for 28 years I've
never had so why don't you do this why don't you could you go on your screen
sure right so if you're talking maybe we can start seeing what what we're talking
about sure and from me show some pictures of the house yeah whatever you
think you need to show. Good. So I'm going to actually see if I can just do this. I'm going
to share a couple. So this is I'm going to share a couple older pictures of the house and then
and then a couple newer ones because I always do the I do the front up. Try didn't try to make it
a nice place. Now it's coming up. Okay, good. So I'm just going to show a number of pictures.
So we have all your documents. So okay, good. So I'm just showing so this is this this was taken
a number of years ago. This is also taken a number of years ago at the front of the house. So I just
landscape the front. I try to make the front nice. I keep the neighborhood clean. I'm really the only
one on the block who goes out there and cleans up the street. I do it on a regular basis. I would say
probably three to six, seven days a week, depending on what's going on. So these are all from the past
over the years. This is the front of the house. This is the area in front of the house. And I'll
show you current and if I'm going too fast please let me know oh sure okay
good and then so this so this is a current picture and I have a few of them
This is the straight front of the house.
this is the straight front of the house
These were taken in the past three weeks.
So my wife and I put together the front.
She helped me.
I want to give credit where credit's due.
I think that's a good point.
That's a very good point.
All the women in the audience are shaking their head yes.
I just want you to know that.
Happy wife, happy life.
that's right men got to do right by the woman so um it's your post and we have that okay good so
um do you want to see some should i put up some pictures of the inside of the house or what
whatever if you want to show us where you teach that's fine okay sure so
so this is my teaching studio this used to be my mother's bedroom so i lived in this house um
From the time I was 14, I went up to Boston and did my bachelor's degree at Berklee College
of Music. I did my master's degree at New England Conservatory. I taught at Berklee
for a number of years. I taught middle school band and orchestra at St. Stephen St. Agnes
School in Virginia. I was a musical director for a theater company in D.C., a division
of the Arena Stage. I performed in Japan. I played in Germany. I played in many, many
bands over the years in the Philadelphia area
and in D.C. and in Boston.
How many people do you see a week?
I guess it depends
on the week. 25 maybe.
So four or five a day?
Yeah, something like that. 25
to 30. And
I've never had a complaint. There's never been
one complaint in 28 years of teaching there.
No complaints to L&I.
Never had the police at my place.
So I just
really try to
take care of the place. I'm probably the
the oldest living, the oldest resident, you know, in terms of, like, you know, my precedence there.
So it's, I've seen the place go through a lot of changes, and I'm just trying to be very upright
and say, well, you know, I should be zoned, so I'm here, you know, I'd just like to get that in.
I was zoned in 12, and then it fell out, and I hadn't thought about it. I'd just forgotten about
that life goes on and i just looked at it and said you know all right all right questions from the
board so does your um what do we call your students yeah they come through the rest of
the house to get to this bedroom is that yes it's the front bedroom yes okay um and
do they walk do they drive how well they just so they there's always room out front i end up
parking in the garage so i don't even take up room on the street so they park out front they
come up to the step they text me when they come and then this way it keeps a nice smooth flow in
the house and i let the other student out i let the student in they come up they leave their case
downstairs so it doesn't scrape the walls they walk up the steps and they come in the studio
and i've had some students for um there's one student i've had he's in his 17th year
and um i had a number of students who who uh who are one guy who's in his eighth year um one of my
students um is the head of the streets department mr gaddy the back of the room he's been with me
for three years three and a half years i hope that's okay a little plug a little plug any other
questions. So wait, so do you teach drums there? No. Oh, okay. Just guitar. I've taught all sorts
of instruments. I did my master's in jazz comp and also in my undergrad in jazz comp and music ed.
So I've taught K through 12. I've played all sorts of instruments. And your neighbors on either side
of you, no complaints about noise or anything like that? Never once. I mean, if they said
something i sure i take it up with them i mean you want to be polite with your neighbors for sure but
i've never you know i just try to have to like soundproof this room any or anything like that
i've never never soundproofed the room it's just um that's your mom's color that's my it's my color
it's been painted like that a few times it's okay no no it's okay it's okay um she left me the house
uh some years ago and um i i just uh with my fiancee we my wife we've just painted the house
over the past year I've painted the entire house so I try to take care of it I mean it's
it's home sweet home yeah any else anyone else how many how many um students do you have on a typical
day um I'd say six five on a typical day it could be anywhere from four to six something like that
something like that and then how late is the latest um is the latest lesson nine o'clock
and then how late is the latest um
are you we go till mine 9 p.m yeah and are you using the room for any kind of amplified music
after 9 p.m no no okay you've got it and then is there a bathroom on that floor that they have
access to sure i'm actually glad to show you um let me get out of this and i'll show you some of
the other pictures let's see and so this is the living room and let's see what we got here this
This is the dining room, and this is the kitchen, and this is the hallway, the stairwell to
the upstairs.
let's make this a little bit bigger this is the small bedroom this is my wife's personal room
do you live at the house too you're living there now yeah good this is yeah this is it
and right what else do i have here this is the hallway it's the upstairs hallway
so where do you how do you get your students i mean like are they referred somehow or
working with the school district or sometimes i referred i've advertised um i have a website
so okay i used to advertise in the yellow pages when that was the thing you know that was a while
ago that was a while ago a little stand-up comic too you got everybody in the audience laughing
behind you that's right that's right i would give robin williams a run for his money
all right i do i did see the picture of the bathroom did you see that
diet i don't think i uh i took a direct picture no but i saw the the doorway in the hallway
yeah yep all right other questions from the board and that's the front door at the bottom
or like right at the bottom of the stairs um no let me see no okay so i have the front
you know i don't know if i took a picture of the front door from the back i don't think i did
um well you know what let me see
this no you know i don't think i did
no the front door would be back in in this area okay so i apologize if i uh if i missed that i
missed that opportunity this is the back of the house keep this place pretty pretty clean and
pretty straight he didn't click on it he didn't click on it yet oh is it not sharing yeah there
we go okay sorry i'm just looking at my screen i'm not looking up to see what's okay all the
questions sure sure um did you submit those photographs yeah okay yeah i didn't see them