no open space there is no ability for the the property on the further end to have access out
um you had mentioned that all the properties on the north side of tasker street that we do not
have access we actually have an easement i'm at 1133 there is an easement that goes across
and there's an alleyway that all of us can access so there is an outdoor access that we
on the north side of the property can get to except for obviously these two properties so i
just want to clarify that because you were talking about that a moment ago um you know through here
august 2018 the fencing has been you know the weeds as you can see uh you know we have i have
you know i have now have three kids but you know i have an older kid who's seven we had lots of
kids on the block cracked concrete it's just you know shopping carts littered it's just a dangerous
scenario um this is actually the siding picture for here for march 2019 exactly looks exactly
the same right now i mean there is siding peeling off of this thing that flies into our properties
uh especially marines next door um which is dangerous you know it sits there it flaps in
the wind anytime there's a bad windstorm more goes flying off um again dangerous trash open
rusted nails you can see off the wood um and last summer uh i guess the applicant uh appealed again
for a variance um you know there were scheduled eba hearings they were cancelled there were there
was public notes for one of them but afterwards there was no public notes for any of the other
ones um i uh mr demarco noted that there was uh i guess a permit granted for exterior masonry work
um which was then revoked i believe december or january i think that was for like the minimal
work at the bottom of the property they weren't supposed i'm guessing they weren't supposed to
go above that but then they continue on with the brickwork and probably that's why it was revoked
if you look at the permit it says minor alterations which to me a whole brick facade
of a building or two buildings is not a minor alteration again I don't mean to interrupt I
know what you and the neighbors have been going through as I said I I'm very familiar with this
property in fact I received calls at my home from some of your neighbors asking me as the
former council person if there was anything i can do to get the property cited and right
the matter cleaned up so again i i don't want to dismiss your testimony uh i guess the bottom line
I guess the bottom line is we are where we are today.
is we are where we are today with the board
The board is going to be asked to make a decision.
I don't know what the timeline is.
We'll have to speak to the owner and the contractor.
What are the next steps in getting this property secured and completed?
Right.
So I have two points to that matter.
Let me share one other screen right here, if I may.
Do you see a spreadsheet right now that says Exhibit E?
So I haven't updated this since the pandemic shut everything down.
This was my tally of all the open violations currently on 1143 Tasker Street.
As you can note here that many of them are still open,
and many of them are deemed a hazard.
So, you know, there's continuing ongoing work at the property.
um we don't you know there's they've been working to stop work orders i don't know what they're
doing i don't know what they're drywalling over the neighbors don't know they have existing
electrical hazards code violations you know we want this fixed we want to make sure we know we
don't want to see this you know sitting there looking ugly like that we want it to be fixed
we want it to be repaired we want it to be done the right way i think part of if you if if the
border proves this you lose the city loses any sort of leverage to get them to repair
these permits uh these these violations um you know the city loses any leverage so i'm not i'm
not sure of that because there will be inspections and there will have to be a certification
after everything's drywalled up and over all these electrical issues i mean they shouldn't
be working on them they should get them this fixed and then work on them what i want to see
uh close what that's what we're going to be at we're going to ask the contractor what are the
next steps to address all these open violations um and obviously the l and i will have to be
paying a lot more attention uh to the development as it continues as it goes forward right okay i
I mean, that was one main point is to make sure that these are addressed.
And I want to make sure that the city does not lose any sort of point by granting approval to this in getting the applicants to address these hazards.
The other point, and speaking to the actual variance and the sizing of the property, as you can see, there's trash shooting about.
There's building materials all over the sidewalk.
Part of that is because they don't have enough open space on the property itself to store any of that or to have any sort of dumpster or trash in it.
The exact design, what they've built, has forced them to put all their trash on the sidewalk.
So the precedent that would be set by the ZBA, by approving this and saying, oh, it's okay, it's fine, you did this.
I mean, they've constructed this so that they're forced to put that trash on the sidewalk.
It's not just that it's neglect.
It's they have to do it because of the design.
Mr. Cho, I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Wholeheartedly.
What is the alternative?
Tear these buildings down or let him complete it and hopefully we get, not hopefully, that we get L&I to stay on top of this project because they're very familiar with it to make sure that the developer slash contractor address all these issues.
I mean, there's no other alternative.
I understand that.
I mean, I don't think any of us think that, you know,
expect that it'll be torn down and restarted.
So that's all.
And I appreciate I'm not trying to cut you short.
We get it.
I mean, I get it.
And I'm sure the rest of the board gets it by now,
is that we've got a situation.
It's a horrible situation that was put on the residents of that block
for many years.
I sympathize with it.
I've seen it.
I don't live.
I live a few blocks away.
but this is we have an issue to deal with today and hopefully the board makes whatever recommendation
we make we'll get this project up and running in in the truest sense of the word to get it
completed and completed uh to meet all of the standards of the building building standards
and we will not we will put in a cut we will put in a proviso that they must get a certificate
within a certain amount of time that will force the issue on getting these uh violations cleared
up i would just ask that the violations are cleared before the zba approves it that's
my recommendation but thank you for letting me uh things letting me testify and share
thank you appreciate your testimony thank you may i respond now mr chairman
so a lot of incorrect statements were made by mr cho and again i and i i heard what you said
mr chairman from a legal standpoint let me make make this clear the violations don't just disappear
Let me make make this clear. The violations don't just disappear because you grant the zoning variance
because you
The violations we're in court. We're in court with this. Okay, so first of all
there's no precedent set other than
You would grant these minor dimensional variances that we're looking for. There's no legal precedent at all and
We still have to deal with L&I
with all of the open violations if you grant the variance we've still got to comply
the building code issues so you know the community you know and listen they're they're
my neighbors too i live there i grew up there in that area um if you're going to basically if what
the community is saying don't give them the zoning and that way nothing will get done it does not
make sense with all due respect we're trying to fix the problem the zoning is the first piece
it's a mess and i'm sorry and the doctor's sorry that it was um it was poorly handled there were
mistakes made uh but the building is intact it's structurally sound um they're under a stop work
order so they can't do any cleaning without getting arrested there's a stop work order in
place so nothing can happen well i think you could clean up the sidewalk without covering it
back getting i'm sure we could clear up the sidewalk yes that i that i can guarantee you
they did do that okay if you clear the violations and then get the stop work order taken away
that's fine and then get the get the zba to approve that's that's fine you're not why
listen listen listen listen opposition hello hello hello hello hello you if you guys want to have a
off the record conversation i encourage you to do that but let's get back to the issue in front of
us please and richard yeah it's pure frustration on the behalf of the people who've lived there
for 10 12 years with this horrible situation right that they shouldn't have to live with
i know i agree i agree right i agree but the doctor has to a doctor has to take responsibility
as well yes and believe me uh his office is only across his office is only across the street yeah
um he was fined i don't know if i want to get into the well i'm just but it's on appeal mr
chairman he has suffered a serious almost a catastrophic fine that i took understood yeah
so it's not like there hasn't been enforcement and there's not going to be enforcement members
of the board to know, he's paying the price in a big way. And once we get the zoning straightened
out, he's got a whole nother process. Understood. So that's all. I would move my
exhibits into evidence. I'm sorry. I've got to figure out how to do this and how to share my
screen. All this was submitted to the board on Thursday. All the building permits, my engineer's
letters, the overheads. Yeah, it's a little deep, but just to address one of the issues,
Mr. Cho said there is an alleyway.
It is blocked by our immediate neighbor.
There's a cinder block wall.
So we couldn't even connect to that easement
even if we wanted to create an easement,
which technically we still could do,
but it would be useless
because it doesn't go through that particular property.
Understood. Thank you.
Tommy, do we have any other witnesses?
Yes. Suzanne Tavani,
you can unmute yourself
and begin your time thank you very much please identify yourself spell your name for the
stenographer suzanne s-u-z-a-n-n-e tavani t-a-v-a-n-i i chair the zoning committee for the
passion for civic association which is the rco in this matter and be swearing if i'm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed thank you
mr chairman um i'm not going to recount everything that everyone has recounted and mr chairman i
understand that you are very familiar with this property and you gave us a lot of time when we
appeared before you in march uh at the continuation and our frustration is is one that is obviously
shared with the neighbors. The issue is, is that Dr. Zaccone, on many occasions in the past few
years, was invited by the Patrick Square Civic Association to appear and to present to the
neighbors, if anything, as a minimal show of goodwill and respect for the neighbors. And the
neighbors didn't even get that much. There are many violations for this property. There is a
total lack of goodwill. And when we had our zoning meeting back in March, which was the last one
before we were shut down, we actually asked questions and Mr. DeMarco was there so he
we actually asked questions, and Mr. DeMarco was there, so he knows this. We actually asked
understand.
questions of, I guess, the project manager who was there. We asked him some basic questions like,
who's the contractor? And everybody kind of looked around the room like, oh, we don't know.
And now today we have Mr. Matea who was saying that he's the contractor. So this has been a
project that has been fraught with comings and goings, and nobody knows who's on first,
and it's just a really, really bad Abbott and Costello trick, and it's got to be stopped.
So it sounds like you are going to grant the variance, but there has got to be some serious
provisos that go along with this, because this has been 10 years of nightmares for those neighbors,
and they don't deserve it. So that's what I have to say. I'm not going to bore you anymore with
what you already know. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Ms. Devonnie. Thank you.
Thank you. We have Barry. You can unmute yourself and speak. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and the panel and everybody else. I'll let go what Tony and Ms.
Devonnie said. The only thing I want to add is, I mean, we're kind of damned if we- I'm sorry,
Barry?
Mr. Chair, could you please swear him in?
Chair, can you unmute yourself?
Thank you.
Mr. Castle, do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
And did you spell your name for the stenographer, please?
B-A-R-R-Y-K-A-S-S-E-L.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
And I echo what Mr. Chow and Ms. Tavani said.
I just want to add, you know, this situation has put us in a situation where we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.
If we don't oppose, they'll appeal, and this thing sits for another God knows how long.
If we do, you know, if we, you know, fall, if we don't oppose, you know, look at the place, Mr. DiCicco.
You know what it looks like.
there's no confidence in some poor unsuspecting buyer where buyers are going to buy this place
after it's been out there like this in terms of Mr. DeMarco you know what Mr. DeMarco I kind of
agree to a certain extent if if early on the doctor went around and said look this is what
I want to do I may need a variance I don't think there's anybody on this block that would have
denied it. You know, that may be, but I know these people. We're friends. I mean, we want
this kind of stuff in this neighborhood. But like Ms. Devonnie said, this has been a shell game
from day one, you know, and in terms of interest, you know, our interest is obvious. You know,
it's almost like it's being rewarded. And Mr. DeMarco said, all this is predicated on a mistake.
it ain't a mistake a lot of this was done to cut corners and and and do things you know the cheap
way or the fast way I mean look at the place my grandsons could build a better place with tinker
toys and and you know I've spoken to Mr. DiMatteo or Matt Mattia these guys are nice guys but as
Mr. Vani said I mean who knows what's going on but it is I I feel I feel at a loss because we're
damned if we do and damned if we don't. Nobody wants to see that place torn down because then
we're starting again. But you're right, Mr. DeMarco. If this thing had started from the
beginning the way it should have been, and you know what? The doctor had probably 10,000 chances