the property is currently 16 feet
wide, 16 feet wide, by approximately,
it goes down south, approximately 60 feet south on
25th Street. The structure, the proposed
structure would be a total of 13 feet, 10 inches high, plus the roof deck. Scrolling down,
there would be a proposed of two single-floor apartments. The first floor, the second floor
would have one apartment and the third floor would have apartment. The first floor would be
used for my client's dream to have a pizzeria for eat in and take out. The basement would be used
for utility and storage and the roof deck. Again, my cursor is over the roof deck. My cursor is now
off over the basement for utilities and storage. This would be the second floor apartment. This
Each with two bedrooms, kitchenette, and a dinette.
Here's a rendition of the proposed roof deck.
Here's a rendition of the proposed roof deck.
Here's a rendition of what the building would look like once it's completed.
First floor, second floor, and third floor.
Here's another view.
This would be the view from 25th Street.
This would be the view of the roof deck.
we have a list of some of the near neighbors who have who have expressed support for this project
my note the notice that i sent to the rco for the community meeting that we held on november 25th
that was our second meeting with the rco so we've had a total of two meetings with the rco
So, and as was indicated before the hearing started, we have a letter of support.
Sample menu, obviously, starting the project is a long way off because if the board would
be gracious enough to grant us this variance for the use, the building would have to, my
client would have to obtain a permit to remove the current building, to demolish the current
building, and then to build up the building as proposed.
Insofar as the neighboring properties, as indicated, this property is zoned as I-2, as well as
2502, 2504, and 2506, all three of those properties are also zoned as I-2. However,
they're being used as residences. And we just would hope to be able to use this property for
the eat-in and take-out restaurant on the first floor, as well as providing for two residential
units upstairs. Proof of tax clearance, zero balance on real estate taxes. Does the board
have any questions? Or I could bring in my client, Ms. Gentiana Dinage, to adopt my testimony.
So, Mr. Vaccaro, what is that south of it?
It's south of?
On 25th Street. What's that building there?
This building that my cursor is pointing at?
No, no, no. South.
shaft the other way to the left oh oh oh i believe that that's another residential
building with commercial on the bottom i could have mr nudge confirm that why don't you bring
your client on gentiana can you raise your hand so they could bring you on
tatiana if you're in the audience please raise your virtual hand not tatiana gentiana
Jen, I'm sorry.
Jen, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
There is no hand raised with that name.
Mr. Vaccaro is a officer.
I'm sorry.
She just raised her hand.
Excuse me, Chair.
I will have heard this point.
They will be allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
unmute i go here you go
gentiano state your name and spell for the stenographer d e n t i a n a
d-i-n-a-j
do you swear or affirm
tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes I do
Mr. Vaccaro please proceed
thank you Mr. Nodge
did you hear my presentation
and did you hear
Mr. Bergman's question what's the building
to the south of yours so
my cursor
is pointing over this building.
So what's
in that building?
It's just
a vacant building. It's nothing
there. Okay.
So there's no business? There's nobody
living there? Nobody. Nothing. They are
under construction, I believe.
Okay. And my research
has indicated, Mr. Bergman, that that
too was an I-2 zone building.
Okay. Thank you.
Mr. Naj, following up on my testimony, did you hear my presentation?
Do you agree with that?
do you have anything else to add or to correct me on no would you adopt it as your own yes
Do you have anything else to add or to correct me on?
Would you adopt?
you were to testify yes thank you any other questions or concerns i don't have any other
questions i'm sorry i was asking the board so so mr vaccaro before i go to the board uh
hillary do you have an issue with this so um the the refusal is a little bit confusing mr vaccaro
So if you don't mind, I just want to ask a few questions just to clarify, because the way the refusal was written, takeout and sit down restaurant are both primary uses, which, as you know, they're basically mutually exclusive.
You can have sit down with, you know, accessory takeout use, but by code definition, they're mutually exclusive for.
so there does appear yeah if you could pull the the floor plan back up for the
the restaurant and then enlarge it that would that would answer some of the questions
let me just scroll down to the floor plans
all right yes if you just and i'll zoom in thank you to the restaurant now
Obviously, Ms. Emerson, we do understand that Eat In and Take Out are mutually exclusive.
Gentiano, could you mute yourself, please?
Thank you.
And obviously, we understand that Eat In and Take Out are mutually exclusive.
That being said, we do want to be able to start off the process with the use permit to be able to have this restaurant be used as a sit-down restaurant.
Okay, yeah, so that's where I just wanted to clarify, and this is helping.
So for a sit-down restaurant, you need to have more than four seats, which it looks like you could accommodate here.
There's not a table layout, but it looks like it would be big enough to have more than four seats.
I do see a public restroom plans, which is also something that you'd see having you need to have in a sit down restaurant.
And where this would be a pizzeria, there would be commercial, a commercial kitchen with, you know, exhaust and that sort of thing.
So that's also something you would see in a sit down restaurant as well as take out, but sit down.
um so it's is it anticipated like the other the other big difference um is that you know food is
is not served in um like disposable containers that sort of thing in the the sit-down area
so if it's a plan to you know have it have you know like a sit-down area where people you know
orders are being taken and then people are paying for their food afterwards as well as to have like
a you know pickup area then it can be considered um a sit-down restaurant is is that is that the
plan for the applicant that's that's the plan for the applicant here again here we're here to
to be able to use the place for the use because number one here where the place is not zoned to
allow the two apartments upstairs or any type of a restaurant on correct on the first floor and we
don't want to have to keep coming back to the zoning board for every little thing that we want
to do right right so yeah so i think um and mr chair i had drafted a proviso just to clarify the
use here and i think that proviso would be appropriate to clarify that this is a sit-down
restaurant obviously you can have accessory takeout but the the primary you know food and
drink use is sit-down restaurant and then the the two um family household living above so i just
want to one way to put that proviso of the board approves put that proviso in just to clarify
because the refusal was unfortunately written in a confusing manner so and i did discuss this with
ellen i so those the things that i discussed with you about the bathroom and the number of seats are
things that we kept we went over to to differentiate between take out and and sit down as which one is
the primary primary use and and also you know insofar as the measurements uh trash takeout
everything is going to be planned and and done and built and permitted all according to code
because again without the use everything else becomes moot right we don't want to have to keep
coming back to the zoning board right no absolutely absolutely okay thank you thank you
questions questions from the board question on the on the trash for the restaurant um how are you
how are you planning to deal with the trash sure i uh the trash we plan on holding the trash in that
Sure. We plan on holding the trash in that little alley space in the back. And obviously, this is not a good representation at this point because of the way the current structure is located and built. I'm looking for that photo as I'm speaking.
a little out.
Here you go. This is the back area. And obviously, this little alleyway is too small. This little alleyway is currently too small. This building that is currently there that belongs to my client, as I indicated, is going to be demolished.
So when the time comes, we do plan on having sufficient space to have trash be held in the back.
And obviously there should be their plans. We plan on having sufficient space for the trash.
This is the empty building. Is that alleyway part of this property or is this or is that a common alleyway between the.
I believe it's part of the property, but we certainly are going to be holding trash on our property and not on any common areas.
Are you going to have commercial trash?
Of course.
Of course.
Of course.
And we already discussed about the venting for the restaurant itself.
Absolutely.
That's all going to be according to code.
Okay, so so where would the residents on the apartment store their trash.
There would there would be provision made for the residents to store their trash.
Where again, you know, the building, the actual design hasn't.
This is just a conceptual design that we have at this point, but there certainly will be provision for the tenants.
questions from the board so you mentioned venting before so venting through the roof
no venting out the side of course okay and we can do that as a proviso that's we that's standard
according to code i'm not you know well i don't know you can actually fence out the side of the
it's usually frowned upon i know but it's something that you can do to code so we would
want to have the venting through the building up through the roof mr johns we can add that
as a proviso mr vicaro it sounds like your client would be amenable to that as a proviso all right
thank you the other questions questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes i have a hand up by edan shlomo will be allowed to speak
could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
hello all right could you uh state your name and spell for the court stenographer please
Yes, this is actually Catherine Shlomo. I don't know why it's coming up a Zidane. C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E, Shlomo, S-H-L-O-M-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth? Well, hold on. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
Okay, please proceed.
um so i did attend the original community meeting in october um which the community had a lot of
questions that at that point were unanswered they seemed to be very unprepared at that point and
that's why the meeting was rescheduled for november which we actually never got a notice
of the rescheduled meeting um i only found out about it because i saw the sign for the board
meeting on the garage door. But I was not and I still am not in support of the project. I don't
think this is the residential street to have a pizzeria on. I've been here for about eight years
and I've seen many of the restaurants and commercial spaces on Federal Street that have
new owners every few years and one particularly in 24th and federal that's been vacant for two
years and um we didn't have any answers which i know is hard for as far as when the place would
be closing i do have four-year-old we have a lot of families in the neighborhood so my biggest
concern is how late how late they're going to be open people standing out front of the building um
Um, and, uh, based on those things, I'm still not in support.
Based on those things, I'm still not in support. I do not mind, obviously, residential, duplex, triplexes. I think that's great for the neighborhood. But I'm also just not, I just do not support the project.
I do not.
May I respond?
Why don't we do this? Why don't we wait to see if there's anyone else in the audience?
And you can respond one time. Ms. Shlomo, thank you very much for taking the time. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Yes, Chair.
Now there's Edon Slomo will be allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name?
Edon Slomo, E-D-O-N-S-H-L-O-M-O.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
The last person was a relative of yours?
Yeah, we are direct neighbors of the property.
um the issue that we had we attended the first meeting because we received a letter the rco
that was given this property was uh the point breeze uh rco and this is actually properties
listed in grace ferry which we are located in and because of that we were never notified of
the second meeting to have any questions answered for the rco and like my wife said we didn't tell
we saw the letter on the garage we didn't know that there was a meeting we tried to reach out
the rrco which wasn't sure why they haven't received it we're um i'm opposed as well it
seems like a lot of the questions that we had the original meeting which we had 20 some people
at uh were unanswered such as uh like what our time as far as they originally said maybe opening
at seven closing eight nine ten midnight was the answer they gave originally they had and then uh
this is a very residential area which has been filling up with side parts of duplexes single