mason matera planning commission staff m-a-d-i-s-o-n-m-a-t-e-r-a do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes please proceed the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential single-family zoning at this location this
property has a documented history as a two-family dwelling with the commercial space converting the
vacant commercial space into a third unit brings the property into closer conformance with its
residential zoning the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed variance
for three dwelling units thank you mi2026 000 483 6203 western rod avenue i vote yes
michael johns my vote is yes charles gaston my vote is yes tennetta graham my vote is yes
Ryan McAdams, my vote is yes.
Kyle Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Thank you, board.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Go back to number five.
MI 2025-005-345-6040 Edmond Street.
Sevian Rodriguez is the owner.
they're being promoted to panelists here okay
how you doing everybody good morning could you please state your name and
spell for this stenographer my name is sabian rodriguez um my name um the way how you spell
is s-e-i-v-i-a-n rodriguez is r-o-d-r-i-g-u-e-z you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth yes okay so this is a resumptive hearing and what we're scheduled to do
you're going to present supplemental information that um came out in the last hearing there'll be
questions on the board it'll be public testimony and the planning commission will make a recommendation
so why don't you start your presentation if you want you can give us a quick overview of what
you're trying to do and what the supplemental information is okay okay um so my my apartment
building it has two units on the top um it has a basement that's on in the front of the house that
has a separate entrance um so i'm creating it as a unit uh for me and my wife to live
we're college students so i was like you know you know what's better than you know
having a place you know running out your own place you know what i'm saying you living in
your own place so i don't have to pay monthly rent um because you know times is hard so you
know, I was like, you know, make it to our own. So, you know, we decided to put it as a unit to
try to make it as an apartment, that basement. And then, you know, we got stopped.
make it as an apartment that basement and then you know we got stopped uh because of the you
know permits and all of that that we you know and because of the zoning so why don't why don't you
show photos again so we can oh so let me see right here and pull up the photos this is in a way
let's see so these are the this is the photos of the property this is the front of the property
this is the front of the property right here you see where the door is open that's the unit that
we're trying to make um for us to live in uh this is the side of the property right here
this is where you put the trash on the side of the property
this is where this is unit one this is unit two this one goes upstairs to one unit
this one this um second unit is in the bottom
and this is the back of the house and um this is photos of potentially unit three
uh this is the living room slash um kitchen uh this is the laundry room
um this is the hallway
um this is living rooms this is the other angle of the living room slash dining room
slash kitchen uh this is the bathroom uh do you have do you have plans for this to show yes
yes i have plans why don't you show us the plans okay the plans this was a basement before
with two apartments above yes pull up the plans plans a lot of plans right here so this is the
plans so this is this is the potential unit right here this is the entryway entrance this is where
the kitchen is going to be at this is where the living and dining room it's going to be at
the restroom this is the laundry room and then this is going to be a bedroom and it's the closet
and this is where you get to the water the heat the water gas uh and this is the
this is the second unit this is the first unit this is the one that you go upstairs
and there's the living dining room bathroom and this is the third unit right right here
third unit so you currently have two units there yeah i currently have two units you're trying to
convert the basement into another unit? Yes. And this is the supplemental information is the
drawings? Yeah, this is the drawings. This is there anything else that you want to supplement
this with? I have more photos of the basement. So I think we saw the photos. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
questions from the board
let me ask you this what's the rest of the block how many units are on the rest of the block
there are duplexes all along there yeah there's a duplex all along beside me is this the first
basement that's being converted to a third i'm not entirely sure um i know there's properties
in the area that also was a rsa3 just like me and got converted to arm one okay questions from the
board so you're um the mechanical for the upper units is in your unit is in the basement yes
so you're going to keep the mechanical and the hot water for the units above in the uh
in in that unit in that third unit yes okay i believe your your your basement is below grade
and the back so you would need egress wells out of there yes this is uh right here in my drawings
um this is the potential egress window this is where it's currently um planning to go to
it's really more room yeah you may have an issue with the ceiling height of your ceiling height is
only seven feet yeah so but that's all i have all right i mean i'll i'll just say that your living
space still for the two units that you plan to rent out is still very small for the bedroom to
public space ratio so that is something i know i mentioned it last time that's still the case but
But I do think that the, the plans are a lot easier to read. So thank you for.
Doing that questions for attorney.
Briefly, Mr. Rodriguez, there's no excuse me. There's no parking at the property. Is that correct?
Yeah, there's no parking. It's public parking.
Yeah, there's no parking public parking. Okay. All right. I just wanted to check that because it is zoned.
Okay. All right. I just wanted to check that because it is zoned RSA 3, which requires parking, and that was not noted on the refusal.
Nothing you need to do. I'm just noting that for the record. So, thank you.
Questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience?
No hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Cymaterra Planning Commission staff comprehensive plan recommends no change to the RSA 3 residential
single-family zoning at this location there's a documented history of two dwelling units via a
two-unit rental license for this property it appears the appellant did work to convert the
basement into a dwelling unit without the benefit of permits the appellant has not demonstrated
that three units is the least minimum the Planning Commission recommends the board deny the variance
for three dwelling units mi2025-005-345-6040 edmond street i vote yes michael johns my vote is yes
cheryl gaston my vote is yes tenetta graham my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
thank you sir you have your votes thank you so much appreciate it um so what do i do for um
What is the next? You can give the office a call. They'll take care of you. OK. OK. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you to all. All right. Number four. MI 2025 004706184 Cotton Street. William O'Brien is the attorney.
Mr. O'Brien, we'll wait for this other attorney to come in.
so uh Mr O'Brien could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yes good afternoon william o'brien w-i-l-l-i-a-m o'brien o-b-r-i-e-n
all right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do counsel could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
richard vanderslice for the neighbor fran pillar v is victor a-n-d-e-r-s-l-i-c-e
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
This is a resumptive hearing.
And what we have here is the applicants will finish his presentation.
Protestant will have his presentation.
I do see a note here that the protestant's attorney may wish to cross-examine the property owner, but I think what we're going to do is start with Mr. O'Brien to finish your presentation, and then we'll go from there, okay?
Thank you. Mr. Chairman, just to remind the board, at the last hearing, February 24th, I didn't get a chance to enter anything.
Okay. So do your presentation. Thank you.
I'm just rejoining now.
Oh, yes. Mr. O'Brien, so you know, we have several complicated cases today, including I'm
going to call yours a complicated case. Maybe you will not call it a complicated case, but
you have 30 minutes and then we're going to have to have a resumptive here. I'm telling the both
of you, okay? So if we can, we'd like to see you get this in in 30 minutes. In respect for the
board's time, there's still an outstanding LNI appeal that affects this matter, which is why
Mr. Pillar is contesting the matter. It affects the retaining wall that
um um our position is it it doesn't their plans do not uh address the issue that's the portion of
that appeal yeah i'm not i'm not sure that we're that's what we're here to hear am i correct hillary
it it was the we're going to address that okay you're going to okay yeah i was going to say i
believe i believe there was already some information submitted about the retaining wall
discussed previously and i'm and it's not on the subject property i'm correct okay it's an orphan
It's an orphan parcel between Mr. Piller's property.
parcel between mr pillar sure yeah all right so i want to use
So why don't you start?
This is the refusal.
There are two, the property zone at RSA 5, the proposed use, single-family attached homes, is consistent with the neighborhood.
The two refusals, one is for not having a shared driveway for the parking, and the second is for disturbance of some steep slopes.
Because of the topography, it's literally impossible to have a shared driveway, and you'll see that in a moment.
and um the uh the steep slopes is actually uh the result of this failed retaining wall and
how we're going to address it um the uh applicant met with the rco many up neighborhood council uh
it was their position is non-opposition their report which you have in front of you now it's
a lot there are 55 persons present but only 34 votes were recorded so i i really can't explain
that but the position is non-apposition um this is an area this is an atlas map uh here you see
uh the location of the parcel it's at the corner of cotton street and boone street
and as i said with the exception of across the street which is a former
dining hall which was converted to apartments rm1 the rest of it is older rsa5
um get some just photographs just have to change the
size okay so that is the existing attached single-family home at 184
cotton street you see to the right there's some green space that extends uh approximately 60 feet
to Boone Street and it behind that post on the porch you can see a stone wall that's the failed
retaining wall. This is the view from Boone Street and this is a view from the top of that wall at
Boone Street looking down. The structure you see behind those saplings, those trees, is the 184
Cotton Street. That's the structure. And the change in grade is approximately 20 feet
from Boone Street down to that house.
This is another image, a bit of a closer image, showing the failed retaining wall.
this was cited by the city in 2008 as being imminently dangerous
um its condition hasn't changed since then um i'll come back to more of that in a second
uh this is the subdivision plan
here you see the existing condition here is the three-story house and then to the right
going east is open area and then boone street here at the right and the proposal is to subdivide
it into three lots uh rebuilding a new home or the where the existing house is on cotton street
and introducing two new homes on Boone Street, premises C and premises D.
Above premises D, where I'm moving the cursor, you can see the wall and the note dilapidated stone retaining wall section.
As you can see, it's not on the lot.
It turns out that the wall is on an orphan parcel.
the properties to the south excuse me to the north are 43 34 and 43 34 and a half boon street
their legal descriptions come down and there's about a three foot gap and that's where this
wall sits so we uh attempted to file a development plan and we were told no you can't we don't accept
development plans when there's an unsafe condition we should know we know the house is unsafe and
we're filing an application to demolish it no no no there's a wall we time out the wall is not on
our property well there's nothing we can do licenses and inspections cited your property
and the neighbor's property and you're gonna have to live with it so we filed an appeal to the board
building standards and the board suggested that because of the proximity of this parcel d
and the failed retaining wall it was suggested that we incorporate our foundation and the failed
It was suggested that we incorporate our foundation and the failed retaining wall to correct the problem.
We agreed to do that.
The board said, okay, we'll file an application to demolish, file an application with your structural plans showing that you're going to incorporate this failed retaining wall into the foundation.
And then you'll be able to submit your zoning application, your development plan.
So this, that was the recommendation.
Here's the notice of decision.
we have an applicant has 120 days from today's date to apply for a make safe permit for the
retaining wall demolition purse for the house and a zoning permit for the new construction we did
get an extension to that ultimately we submitted a complete set of structural plans this is page
s3 zero I think the whole set is about 30 pages long but you can see this detail
I'll make it as large as I can.
This detail, it shows the retaining wall on the left, the failed retaining wall, and then
the new stone foundation.
this was reviewed by L&I and approved and part of that application included an affidavit from
the structural engineer this is to certify that we have evaluated the condition of the existing
retaining wall between the property at 184 cotton street and 43 34 and 43 34 and a half noon street
and it is our professional opinion that this wall can be and will be incorporated as part of the
structural design foundation wall system for the proposed three-story building on 184 cotton street
let me show you what is proposed for this site
So this, there is a one-page proviso plan.
We met with the Civic Group's zoning committee, there were some suggestions made which were
incorporated into the design you see.
Originally, we had the parking next to each other with one large curb cut.
The RCO observed that if we separated the parking garages, that it would provide an on-street parking space.
So we made that change.
And then additionally, you'll see in subsequent renderings, the original pilot houses for the roof decks were at the far ends of each house.
We moved them to the middle so that there was less visual water from those that live to the east.
This is an image showing, so this is the proposed new house on Cotton Street.
And these are the two houses proposed for Boone Street, showing the rear of the Boone houses and the front of the 184 Cotton Street.
they all have roof decks they're all height compliant
this is a side view showing so Cotton Street is on the city plan it is not open as you can see
it's a sidewalk with stairs to Boone Street that will be retained and and landscaped
According to the driveways, this block
of Boone Street has