Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Okay. No, thank you. Number seven, MI 2022-005334-7120 Montour Street. Alex Goldberg is the attorney. Let's see here. Recommendation of support from Burholm Community Town Watch and Civic Association.
The applicant also provided a petition of support from neighbors, the majority of which live in the 71-on-block of Montour and Claridge Streets.
Mr. Goldberg?
Hey, Mr. Chairman.
Hi. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Alex Goldberg, A-L-E-X-G-O-L-D-B-E-R-G.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Sure. My clients are Sarah and Leo Juwanmall, and they're the owners of the property at 7120 Montour Street.
All right. So our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
have you emailed all the exhibits and documents required for this case five days in advance to
this hearing i have thank you please proceed and share your screen thank you
are you able to see my screen mr chairman we can okay so again i'm alex goldberg of
So, again, I'm Alex Goldberg of the law firm Nockamson PC.
of the law firm, Nockamson PC.
The owner and applicant, Leo Jawanmall, is in the virtual audience, and I'll ask him to raise his hand and adopt my testimony after my presentation.
The subject property today is 7120 Montour Street that you can see on the screen.
we are asking for a few variances to legalize an existing rear deck that you can see in the image
on my screen we met with the burholm community town watch and civic association december 8th
and received overwhelming support for them so here's a table of contents we have a notice of
refusal showing our three refusals the letter of support from the coordinating rco that we met with
the petition uh leo and sarah have been living in this home for over 15 years so they have a great
relationship with their neighbors many of which appeared at the rco meeting and signed the
petition that you'll see in exhibit three number four is a couple of nearby properties with similar
rear decks that we are we are proposing to legalize to show it is not out of character
in this part of the neighborhood a few maps some photographs of the deck and the property itself
and the surrounding area the architectural plans and drawings the rco meeting notice showing we
notified the community in compliance with the city's requirements of that december 8th
community meeting the application for appeal the deed of the property and this and proof of tax
clearance so here is the first exhibit it's our notice of refusal that was issued late august of
last year you can see in the application we're proposing to legalize a rear deck of a semi
detached structure we've got three refusals the first one is because the rear deck encroaches
in what is by code considered the rear yard of the property although it's really just encroaching
on their existing driveway. The second refusal speaks to the rear deck sort of spilling over
into the side yard. There's a portion that you'll see on the plans that wraps around the side of
the house to give the owners access to the deck from their kitchen through an existing side door
because they opted not to sort of create a new opening at the rear of this property.
It encroaches 4 feet 4 inches into their compliance side yard, which leaves 5 feet 6 inches to the neighboring lot line.
And then the last refusal speaks to the vertical support beams for the deck.
You'll see a nice image in the presentation.
The beams are by code, supposed to be a foot and a half from the lot line.
Our beams are right on the lot line, just because that made the most sense, you know, during the construction of this.
And as you'll see, and I'll mention again, the attached neighbor at 7122 is in full support of this presentation, the most closely affected property, as their families have sort of grown up together.
they spend time together on that deck uh and um and yeah so here is the uh a letter of support
from the coordinating rco you can see here it's a letter of support uh and the vote count was 18 to
one the petition we have about 20 signatures on our petition and we've mapped them out here so
you'll see a lot of montour street addresses you'll also see a lot of claridge street addresses
Claridge Street shares a sort of drive alley with Montour Street, so the backyards of those two streets face each other.
So, you know, it was important for us to not only get the people on Montour, but also to speak to the people on Claridge Street because it sort of affects their backyards.
Here's the petition.
Just to highlight, 7122 is that attached neighbor, Robin Frames.
She spoke at the community meeting, sort of expressing what I've already said, that they're great neighbors, speaking of my clients, and they spend a lot of communal time on that deck together.
And if anybody should really care about this deck, in her words, it should be them, and she was fully in support.
More petition signatures, and then nearby properties with similar decks.
we just looked at where some other legalized rear decks in this neighborhood that are similar to
what we're proposing and there are a couple right across the way in you know Claridge Street like I
said sort of the backs of both Claridge Street and Montour face each other and those are sort
of just across the backyard here's a zoning map it's RSA 3 we're not proposing any
Here's a zoning map. It's RSA-3. We're not proposing anything use-wise outside of the confines of the RSA-3 code. It's a single-family home.
And then here's another map showing that drive aisle between Montour and Clerge.
And now some photographs. This is the front of the property, and here is notice posters.
and to the right of the property on Montour to the left of the property and then web street
web street is that drive aisle street this is to the left and to the right here's some photos of
the rear deck again my clients have lived here for a decade and a half they're not developers
they built this deck not knowing what process they were supposed to be going through as soon
AS THEY FOUND OUT THAT THIS WAS AN ISSUE AS FAR AS PERMITTING GOES, THEY RETAINED OUR
LAW FIRM AND WE SORT OF GOT ON THE ZONING CALENDAR THAT LED US HERE TO THIS HEARING.
THIS IS A USEFUL PHOTO TO POINT OUT THOSE VERTICAL SUPPORT BEAMS THAT ARE THE CAUSE OF ONE OF
THE REFUSALS.
THEY'RE RIGHT ON THE LOT LINE.
THAT GARAGE IS NOW JUST USED FOR STORAGE AND AGAIN THAT PROPERTY AT 7122 HAS NO OBJECTION
to this deck. A couple more photos. You can see the wraparound portion that I mentioned that sort
of extends for four feet four inches into the side yard is right there and in this next photo you'll
see where the access is. So you can see the door frame here. This leads to the kitchen. This was
an existing door. This was the design they went with to sort of wrap around the side to give them
access to that deck here's the plans and drawings very simple i'll zoom in um you can see that at
its deepest the deck is 21 feet 11 inches um the the main portion is 9 feet 10 inches wide
um and that sort of leaves a buffer of 10 and a half feet to that web street um drive aisle
zoom back out this next uh this next plan is just showing an elevation no changes to the
building structure itself um and this is again just showing sort of an outline of where the deck is
here's the meeting notice um zoom in a little bit it was sent out um in a timely fashion uh
FOR THIS IN-PERSON COMMUNITY MEETING, WHICH HAPPENED DECEMBER 8TH, HERE ARE THE PROPERTIES
THAT WERE REQUIRED OF US TO NOTIFY, AND A LIST OF THOSE PROPERTIES, THE PROOF OF MAILING,
THE APPLICATION FOR APPEAL, THE DEEDS OF THE PROPERTY, AND THE PROOF OF TAX CLEARANCE,
SHOWING THAT THEY ARE UP TO DATE ON THEIR TAXES.
With that, I will ask Leo Juwanmol to virtually adopt my testimony.
Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Sure. It's Leo Juwanmol, L-E-O-J-I-W-A, N as in Nancy, M as in Mary, A-L-L.
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes proceed counsel hi leo did you hear my testimony today yes and was it true and correct
yes and would you adopt my testimony as if it were your own yes thank you questions from the board
no mr chairman no mr chairman
no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
Chair, we have Dylan Mahoney.
Good afternoon.
Hi, Mr. Mahoney.
You've already been sworn.
Just mention your name, please.
Dylan Mahoney from the Office of Council Member Anthony Phillips.
Proceed.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the Board.
Again, Dylan Mahoney from the Office of Council Member Anthony Phillips.
We've received the letter of support from the Burholm Civic Association,
and the Councilman has no opposition to the granting of the variance.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no handshare.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
David Fechtow with the City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
The applicant proposes to legalize a deck built without benefit of permits.
Although rear decks over parking areas do exist on this block, the applicant has failed to show that an economic detriment would accrue if they were required to conform
with the standards in the zoning code.
The city planning commission recommends
THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDS THAT THE BOARD DENY THE PROPOSED VARIANCES.
that the board deny the proposed variances.
Mr. Chairman.
MR. CHAIRMAN, MAY I RESPOND TO THAT?
SO, YEAH, JUST TO REITERATE, THE PERSON THAT'S MOST CLOSELY AFFECTED OF THIS AT 7122
WAS IN FULL SUPPORT, THAT BOTH FAMILIES HAVE GREATLY BENEFITED OFF OF THIS REAR DECK.
AND, YOU KNOW, MY CLIENT, AGAIN, YOU KNOW, THEY'RE NOT DEVELOPERS.
THEY DIDN'T SORT OF UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS AS SOON AS THEY WERE MADE AWARE OF IT.
WE'VE BEEN RETAINED, YOU KNOW, AND WE ASK THAT YOU GRANT THESE VARIANCES.
MI 2022-005-334-7120 Montour Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Mr. Meshahi, my vote is no.
Thank you, Counsel.
Thank you.
Number eight, MI 2022-005-310-531 Turner Street,
Shannon and Norma Martin are the owners.
Letter of support from Old Kensington Neighborhood Association,
although some neighbors do express concerns about oversight and management.
Ms. Martin is coming back in as a panelist.
hi could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
miss martin you have to unmute yourself
yeah hi i'm shannon martin s-h-a-n-n-o-n and my wife norma is here as well
Hi, I'm Norma, N-O-M-N-O-R-M-A, Martin.
Do you both swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
This application is for the use of visitor accommodation in an existing structure, whereas
the proposed use of visitor accommodations is prohibited in the RSA 5 zoning district.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Did you email all the exhibits and documents required for this hearing five days in advance to today?
We didn't.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Okay. Would you like to see photos?
Yes. Photos and exhibits of the entire plans and your appeal of notice.
Green button at the bottom.
Share screen.
And start your video, please, also.
Oh, okay.
Sorry, I lost the button to share.
Oh, there it is.
Start my video.
Okay, there we are.
We see you.
Now, hit share screen if it's there.
Here you go.
So this is the outside property.
It's a 800 square foot property.
This is inside the front door of the living room, another shot of the living room.
This is walking into the kitchen, another shot of the kitchen, this is a master bedroom,
another view of the bedroom, the second bedroom, there's a bathroom.
Another shot of the bathroom, the laundry in the basement.
I just took a picture of the trash cans.
We are putting a plan in place for the concern with litter.
So, we have a trash can in the back along with the recycle bin, which we plan to take
care of.
Here's a screenshot of the notices that we posted.
and then also there was a concern with noise disturbance
we do live next door to the property and so we plan to monitor it
and we're not allowing more than six overnight guests
and you say you live next door we do we're right next
you say you live next door we do we're right next door and we also wanted to we're planning to um
this is some info from airbnb's website um some support and we want to make the neighbors aware
of these um tools if they have concerns or there's an issue with noise um there's instructions that
can go to Airbnb. We plan to have our paper with our phone number to hand out to the neighbors
here on Turner Street so they can reach us with any concerns. And there's a neighborhood
support link as well that we'll want to make available for people that have concerns. We're
doing this as for our family. We have two children. They like to be able to earn some
money cleaning and we want to be able to provide the opportunity for people to have a comfortable
spot to to stay while they're visiting our city how long have you had had you had the airbnb
we've had this property since 2005 it was our first house we lived here for several years
before we were able to buy the house next door and we had it as a long-term rental before our
last tenant was here for approximately 10 years and since she moved out um we just wanted to uh
try the airbnb so we have not have you have you been renting it with airbnb
no we have not yet you're just starting correct okay all right questions from the board