my objection mr chair this has nothing to do with the direct examination so i don't know how this
can be um this can be approved on the cross so so i i think i'm going to let that continue and
you know mr phillips try to get to your point with this well basically mr phillips each of these uh
large uh well i have a very small place but uh mike ramus has a very large place and each of us
has he has about three parking spaces i have two
so when i see here this is a subdivision plan for both 266 west top of hawking mr where mr
ramos's house and then this right here uh past 265 west pastores and then you see four parking
spaces here four there and those spaces are used by you said you and whom else who else uses those
And Mr. Ramos and his family and also deliveries. We had used to have oil so that the two easement spaces were used by oil trucks. And I really don't know what I'm looking at here, whether or not this was the new survey that was done before I bought the place in 2015 or 2014.
uh there was an an error in the deed and uh i know that i i remember mr bilby mentioning
that i had applied for parking spaces that is not the case i never applied for any parking space the
survey forced the reapplication of the parking spaces for the city in 2015 i believe or maybe
it was 2014 i'm not clear on the date but these parking spaces were created in the 1980s
clear on the date but these parking spaces were created in the 1980s and as you see if you could
move further down uh mr phillips on your picture um i park about 20 feet from the curb mr ramos
and his family park at least 10 feet from the curb compare that to slanted aprons that are
right off the parking spaces where people either back up or pull out into a sidewalk cartway
um does anyone your home uh is it a single family house it is okay and you're in well no actually no
i'm sorry it's a twin so my house is connected to the other carriage house on the other side i have
about a third of the long building and my neighbors have about two thirds and their parking is on the
right side there yes so these would be your neighbors in their parking right correct so
they have two cars and two spaces and they also park far away from the curb um they can turn
around in their property as we can turn around on our property all of the older parking spaces
were uh you know uh careful to make sure that we were a good distance from the cartway because it
is a sidewalk this public street is a public sidewalk so there are these parking spaces here
are solely for your use and Mr. Ramos's use right that is correct okay so I'm gonna I'm gonna ask
for an offer of proof here I just don't understand the relevance to how does this relate to his
application for 15 parking spaces spaces for two single families but Mr. Phillips why don't I mean
i think we went over this really well why do you get to the point so you're not miss willard you're
not suggesting that uh the eight parking spaces you have uh between yourself and mr ramos uh
should be eliminated right i'm not suggesting they be eliminated because they are appropriately
placed long from far away from the curve where we have plenty of space to turn around within
the property and we're not backing up into people we're pulling out into people without giving
pause you know we we can we can take our time right we're not right off of an apron we're not
you know uh we're not a 10 feet we're not our parking spaces are not 10 feet long
right off of an apron and that is what mr bilby has
i'm sorry i can't hear you mr you're breaking up again mike
i have two parking spaces i own two parking spaces most people on the block own two parking
spaces mr bilby has 36 15 on a proposal here 22 within his property and he has way more space
within his property to create better and more appropriate parking especially for his handicapped
tenants. Use your parking. Do you either take a right and go out to Walnut or a right and head out
to Wayne Abbey, take a left and head to Green? Well, I'm glad you asked that question because
often one side of the street is blocked. For example, this past weekend, we had cars parked
and flashing on the green street side and so i used the wayne street side often on the wayne
street side like last this past weekend we had the gas company there um there's also comcast
there are delivery trucks there are uh you know uh there are all kinds of cars cars that park with
flashing and that block one side of the street and that's the problem for us right with a one-way
Street. We have to be able to get out. The cars on Green Street were parked there for three hours
this past Saturday. So we couldn't use Green Street.
Mr. Phillips? Yes, sorry.
my cut out again um can you hear me we hear you now we hear you yeah yeah apologies for the uh
technical difficulties uh there are other other than yourself other uh uh properties along
pastoria's have ingress and egress to pastoria's correct correct within about i'd say the closest
One, without thinking about the garage on the corner, the closest one is my next door neighbors.
And again, you see they have about 15 feet in a drive into their property, two parking spaces, and they can turn around.
uh in in a drive into their property to parking spaces and they can turn around within their
property there's nothing preventing uh pedestrians from walking along wayne ave tolpa ho park in or
west walnut to use uh those as streets to travel east west is there yes there is i mean you know
the the myself my neighbors um uh you know the the uh the the couple that bought the 241 west
Pastorius from from Tobahock and Mansion. The people across the older couple that's been on
the block for 30 years, Susan Wright, none of us have access to the other blocks. But I think what
you're referring to is the larger community. And unless you want to stop pedestrians, you know,
with a stop, no pedestrian sign, people are going to walk on Pastorius for a number of reasons. One,
it's a smooth surface uh there aren't the broken fragmented sidewalks that there are in the
surrounding area uh two it's an architectural gem you know it's a it's a late 1860 1870 uh
architectural footprint from from the late victorian age and a lot of people like walking
down the street there you know it's a nice walk um but it is uh you know we are jeopardized by
cars even when they go slowly they're not always predictable and certainly school kids and children
we need to protect um and are you aware of uh how many automobile accidents have been
on west pastoria street since 2010 uh i am not aware of how many there have been i would assume
assume very little very few um there have not been there are only about 100 cars a day there
even with mr bilby's 22 within his property and i know that at least i'm told that they cannot use
his front gate he has a design plan on atlas that shows a landscape buffer blocking the front gate
so i guess that they all use uh pastorius but maybe they go out on green i don't know
um the wallingford apartment has 18 cars but they use one curb cut that's 14 feet wide
as opposed to 150 plus feet of curb cut it's excessive you know it's excessive and as you
remember mr phillips we tried to speak with mr bilby in 2019 about opening up his front gate
and taking some of the traffic on topahaken and he refused um and it would be your preference
that all traffic be directed towards Topohockin and that the property at 224 West Topohockin
and the 36 residents solely use Topohockin for ingress and egress.
Is that correct?
That wasn't me.
That was the zoning board in 2017.
I'm asking about you.
I agree with the zoning board in 2017.
The zoning board gave Mr. Bilby all he wanted, 20 high-end rental units on the condition
that he not use Pastorius, use the Tolpahawken curb as it's written in that vaguely worded
proviso for his tenant traffic. And we would like that this zoning board to please
honor that proviso. Nothing, no conditions have changed in our neighborhood.
Without getting into the past and the interpretation of the proviso, again, I'm asking
that it is your preference as you sit here today uh the owner occupant of uh
251 or 265 west pastoral street yeah that that uh all of mr uh bob's tenants and all of the
residents and occupants uh at 224 uh be prohibited from using pastorious and be limited to only
using Topo Harkin for ingress and egress is that correct? Well I mean it's not totally correct
because Mr. Bilby also has Green Street I mean he has a huge property right so he could also use
the Green Street curb there's a curb cut on Green Street that he owns you know there his Topo Harkin
frontage is really wide he could create a if he didn't want people to use his front gate which is
what he continues to say he could create I guess he'd have to get approval another curb cut on the
other side of Topohokan, near the corner property, for his tenant traffic. He has a lot of options,
right? I'm not saying that he has to use Topohokan. I'm just saying that we need to be
really careful about allowing 36 cars to only use Pastoria Street. It's excessive.
But it's not excessive for your eight cars for the two single family uses?
I don't have eight cars. I have two spots and I have one car. I have people visit me. I have
family to come and visit. I have deliveries, but I have two cars, you know, and so does my neighbor,
But I have two cars, you know, and so does my neighbor.
My grandma's have two cars.
my grandma.
Most of the people who are couples on the street have one or two cars.
We don't have 36.
So then all those cars could use Topohokin, not Pastorius.
That's your point.
I'm not saying they have to use Topohokin.
Mr. Phillips, please let me be clear.
He has many options for egress.
I don't think Pastoria should be an option, certainly not if he's closing off Topahokin Street, which you yourself told me in 2019 that he refused to negotiate on.
And he's told the president of our neighborhood association very recently that he's not negotiating on his front gate because, as he said on the meeting on March 15th, this is my home.
but we also have homes you know um and and so we're just we're we've we've wanted to talk with
mr bilby we've tried several times we tried in the fall of 2017 as well um but we don't seem to
be able to get past the the block uh on the topahawken curve for him which is really where
the zoning board said he should have his tenant traffic right well again that's 2017 we're here
today speaking that's right we are after a commonwealth court ruling that said he should
not have any of those new curb cuts right that's your again i don't believe that's what the
commonwealth court said but we're not here to debate that i just wanted to know the facts of
who parks along pastoria's and who should be and shouldn't be allowed okay so okay to sum up for
the zoning board the people on pastoria's beyond topahawken mansion uh couples and singles uh
have one or two cars each. We have two, sometimes three and a half, I guess, parking spaces each.
Each one of those parking spaces is way far away from the curb with ample room within the property
to turn around. So that's a summary. And what about the Wallingford apartments? You did mention
that, right? Yep. They are, they have a gate or rather a door, right? So that they open up their
door. There's one curb cut. There are 18 cars inside a property, inside a garage where they
can turn around and they can come out face first on one curb cut. Again, I think there's something
like 170 feet of curb cut that that the topo hawkin mansion has created or 160 it's more than
a half of a football field and i don't know really anybody that wouldn't be upset about that i'm
sorry if you live on the block i'm repeating myself now so maybe we're trying to repeat ourselves
yeah there there is no 170 foot curb cut i will stipulate you know there was at one point that
was proposed, there is additional landscape buffers. So there are these separate curve
cuts that I'm dragging my cursor over here. But I do want to, you just raised an important point.
Well, I do want to say, Mr. Phillips, I welcome you talking to me about stipulations, but we
haven't been able to have any conversations about stipulations. So this is the first time I'm hearing
that you want to stipulate to something and let's talk about it and let's get the board some
stipulations that we can agree to certainly um but for for right now i want to talk about miss
you mentioned the importance of uh coming out uh front for uh uh front first right onto the street
not backing out and you have to back in yeah yeah so um and would you agree that you know given your
you know if you had the choice of whether cars had to back in uh or whether they could um you
know pull in front first and back out onto pastories it would be your preference that all
cars back into the spots and drive front first into pastories right it would be my preference
that they park inside the property that new alternative and safer parking be created what
you have here mr phillips if you look i mean i guess you can see the raised curb where there
is landscape buffers you have you know up and down up and down up and down on this so-called
sidewalk the whole stretch now i don't know maybe it's not 160 feet maybe it's 145 um you know but
it is almost a half a football field long if not more it's a long it's a long excessive stretch
you're asking my opinion absolutely and if cars backed in to the spot and are uh facing pastoria
street can you tell me what the difference is between that and a car that is stopped at the
wallingford looking both ways before turning on to pastoria yes i will tell you the difference
the difference is that wallingford has one curb cut it's a huge difference you don't have 15 cars
You don't have 15 cars backing in and pulling out from a linear parking lot.
backing in and pulling
This is a parking lot.
This is not a garage.
There's a huge difference.
You have one car.
How about if people leave for work at the same time?
How about if people come home from work around the same time?
You know, I mean, Wallingford has one curb cut that allows one car to pass, right?
Are you in agreement with that, Mr. Phillips?
and these would be one car all facing pastoria street yeah but they're they're lined up as 15
it's a big difference um all right i uh i don't believe i have any further questions for miss
willard and i know that there are other i appreciate i appreciate you and there are
other people i just want to say something that you know i'm going to finish i don't i don't
Hold on one minute. Hold on one minute. Now, now, now, now. If your attorney wants to talk to you.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Do you have anything else, Steve?
I don't. Well, the only thing I have on redirect is, Carla, is there anything else that you wanted to add to the board at this time?
Yeah, thank you. I just want to say that these parking spaces were finished after Commonwealth said that they could not be built.
So here you have a developer building something and asking for approval later.
uh it it's it's just really problematic that's all i want to say thank you um steve are you done
uh with with um professor worldard yes yes and mr phillips you have nothing nothing further right
okay please call your next witness all right mike we're still having trouble
all right uh next witness is going to be mike uh ramos okay
they have been promoted to panelists hi good morning mr ramos could you state your name
please and spell for the court stenographer
i don't see him
there he is hi mr ramos state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
can you hear me yes yeah i can hear you all right uh my name is michael ramos
m-i-c-h-a-e-l-r-a-m-o-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do okay um mr masters it's your witness yeah if we can let's try to
avoid anything that's been brought up by the prior person and see what new we can get out
we've we've prepared all of our witnesses to have unique okay that's great thank you so much thank
You're welcome. We're trying to help out. Mr. Ramos, can you describe where you live in proximity to Mr. Bilby's property and the location of the proposed 15 new parking spaces?
Sure. I live on, well, my address is 266 West Tupperhawken Street. That is on the same block as the subject property down closer to Wayne Avenue. I'm not sure exactly how many feet it is, but I'm essentially down the street.
And your address is on Tupperhawken, but do you have vehicle driveway access onto Tupperhawken or do you have it only on Pastorius?
I do have vehicular access solely on Pastorius. The property does front on Topohockin, but my access from a vehicular standpoint, yes, is on Pastorius Street.
Okay. Can you describe your experiences walking along Pastorius Street with your wife and baby?
Sure. So, you know, my wife and I do use Pastoria Street to walk. The front of our house is very steep, as are many of the Victorian houses. You know, there's high retaining walls, terraced gardens and such. So it's easier to go through Pastoria Street.
Uh, my, my side of the street is a little, it has a, you know, a higher elevation, uh, uh, from, from the, from the house to the, to Tobelhockin, uh, than it does on the other end of the block where the subject property is.
Um, so, so yeah, we do walk down Pestoria street every day, uh, multiple times a day.
Um, you know, uh, we have had vehicles, um, you know, and I think the nature of the street has already been described.
um you know uh it's it's a very narrow two-way street uh my wife and i do uh walk uh with our
son there uh pushing the carriage and um yeah so the um it's very difficult to actually it's
virtually impossible to stay on the sidewalk the sidewalks are basically unusable uh you know as