property is better suited for a two-family dwelling and it makes sense for his family because the
house is too large for a single family further the change of use to two-family dwelling will
not affect the neighborhood and will not harm the neighbor's use of their properties
Increased traffic congestion will not place undue burden on public facilities,
and there will be no significant change in occupation of the property.
Also, I wanted to mention that the neighbors were also concerned that there was neighbors
that took steps to change their properties back to a single-family unit. However, that's really
up to each individual property owner, and there's no guarantee that it will completely eliminate
the multifamily property, and my client wants to preserve this family, you know, neighborhood
and status. So we respectfully disagree for this reason to deny the variance.
So in conclusion, the owner will be living in one of the units with his family, and the proposed
uses consistent with the neighboring houses authorization is necessary to enable reasonable
use of the property so the owner can live in the property and use the rest of the space as a rental
unit the hardship is the physical features of the property is better suited for a two-family dwelling
and it makes sense for his family because the house is too large for a single family um with
that i don't know if the order needs questions or i can call the property owner let me ask you the
house that it's attached to is that a multi-unit uh it's like a it's um half of it is his property
that's like um yeah but i'm saying the house that it's attached to is that a multi-unit oh is that
the multi-unit um i actually i need to check that because it's the 56 west why don't you bring your
client on yeah it is a direct uh neighbors 56 west pulmon i i can ask my client that question
uh jimmy what's your client's name jimmy rosie r-o-c-i please raise your virtual hand
Jimmy Rossi, R-O-C-I.
Jimmy Rossi, please raise your virtual hand.
I see no hands, Chair.
Okay, so Council, you're an officer of the court.
We'll take your test.
I don't know if the designer is on the line.
What's the designer's name?
John Payne, if you're in the virtual audience, can you please raise your hand?
I see no one by that name with their hand up here.
Questions from the board.
I have a question.
Did you say your client lived there as a single family or they would like to move in as a multifamily?
yeah they want to move in at the moment they don't live there yet they want to live in there
um if they can renovate it to have you know to rent right now the house is empty yeah yeah
thank you so so they just they just bought the property i'm not in 2022 they bought it
what's the property to renovate before moving in so they bought it as a single family house
and they want to convert it to a duplex yes okay but you but you don't know whether the house next
door is a single is still i could do if you can i just want to double check no no you don't you
don't have to do all that it seems that you should have had that information but um okay thank you
all the questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney
um just briefly um miss cow is there um any parking at the property i notice it's zoned rsa3
um there's street parking there's street parking okay it's just likely that a refusal was missed
in this case then for for parking spaces because an rsa3 parking was required one per unit so i
just wanted to note that on the record doesn't really change anything here today but i just
wanted to note it note it for the record sure thank you thank you question questions or comments from
the virtual audience there we have charles richardson charles richardson please unmute
yourself and wait for the chair good afternoon mr richardson i haven't seen you today yeah the
First time today, Charles Richardson, R-I-C-H-A-R-D-S-O-N, Office of Councilwoman Cindy Bass, room 508 City Hall.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Okay, so the Councilwoman is against granting this variance.
The applicants made a lot of disingenuous statements during the RCO meeting, talking about they want to have their children go to the local schools, things along those lines.
lines they have grown children uh you know we did something there was a little bit of background
check that was done with regard to that they uh they just really bought a single family house
that's somewhere up in i believe it's the northeast or something like somewhere in that vicinity uh
and then they're talking about they want to move into into this uh property if they're able to get
the get it get it done as a as a multi-family it just didn't make any sense and and everybody that
was there in that meeting after the fact expressed some type of apprehension to the fact that these
folks were not being very truthful. And that being said, the councilwoman is joining with
the RCO and asking that you deny this variance. Thank you. Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Stephanie Vogel. Stephanie Vogel, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Yes. Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, sir. My name is Stephanie Vogel, S-T-E-P-H-A-N-I-E, last name Vogel, V-O-G-E-L, and I'm here as the RCO chair in the PCC RCO.
All right. Do you swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
So thank you very much for hearing this case. I also actually live on the same block at 38 West Pomona Street. And so I'm familiar with these buildings, as well as the previous owner of this home. She recently passed away.
The house next door, I can confirm, is a single family house. And I can also confirm there is only on street parking. And this is already a challenge.
Um, and the majority of the houses on the block are one family house as is mine.
and the majority of the houses on the block.
And there is a desire for the community to maintain some one family home.
Now we understand the attorney mentioned some houses that may or may not have a couple of
different folks living in there.
And, you know, those wouldn't be legal by any means.
And I don't think that that should serve as a justification.
So I'm here to represent the RCO in case there's any questions from the community.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to call us.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
There we have Pomona Cherokee.
Pomona Cherokee, please unmute yourself or wait for the chair.
Could you state your name, please?
Hi, my name is Sabra Townsend.
I'm the secretary of the Pomona Cherokee Civic Council.
and i'm also vice chair to stephanie vogel on the pomona cherokee rco sabra do me a favor could you
please spell your name for the court sonographer yes sir my first name is sabra s-a-b-r-a last
name townsend t-o-w-n-s-e-n-d right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth. Yes, sir. Please proceed. I am on 67 West Washington Lane, which is around
the corner. I lived there all of my adult life. I grew up there and went away to college and then
came back. My concern is that there are numerous multifamily, multi-unit buildings in the
neighborhood. I submitted a document that was prepared by another member of the Pomona Cherokee
Civic Council that speaks to within a mile of the intersection of Pomona Cherokee, which is why the
organization is named that, and this is right on that corner. Within a mile of that corner, since
2019, 487 units have been built. If you expand that by a half a mile, 1.5 miles, there's an
additional 225 units. And even then, since this was prepared, there are two other properties
that uh have plans for units to be built i will also add that um uh the the zoning the
community got together to reverse the zoning so some of the uh
properties that are multi-family were grandfathered in i understand why don't we do this
Why don't you concentrate on this one here and tell us if you're against this one or for it?
Against this particular property for all of the reasons stated.
The density of the area is being overrun.
And so given that we participated in the meeting and the owners were not genuine in their statements,
they talked about little children going to elementary school,
and they already mentioned that their children were in college.
Thank you very much for taking the time to cause. We do appreciate it. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Suzanne Ponson. Suzanne Ponson, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Suzanne, could you please state your name and spell for this stenographer?
Suzanne, S-U-Z-A-N-N-E, Ponson, P as in Paul, O-N-S-E-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor?
I am president of a neighboring RCO.
Are you in faith?
I'm in support of the decision that the Pomona and Sherry King neighbors have arrived at, which is to deny this.
All right. Thank you so much for taking the time. We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Here we have Donna Streets. Donna Streets, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
yes i'm one of those people i live right across the street hold on hold on hold on hold on hold
on could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer yeah my name is donna d-o-n-n-a
streets s-t-r-e-e-t-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes are you in favor of this project or against the project against thank you for taking
in time the course and we know you live right across the street we appreciate it is there
anyone else in the virtual audience chair i see no further hands at this time my planning commission
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
amy board with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
The Comprehensive Plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning location.
The appellant has not shown that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances
that would prevent the property from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
Therefore, the Planning Commission recommends that the Board
can add a variance for two-family household living.
Thank you.
MI 2023-007-132-58 West Pomona Street, I vote no.
Michael Johns, my vote is no.
Gerald Gaston, my vote is no.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is no.
Tywin, my vote is no.
James Snell, my vote is no.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is no.
Thank you, counsel.
Number seven, MI 2024-002-007, 1725 North 27th Street.
Great. Pascual Colavita is the attorney. There's a letter of non-opposition, but there are provisos
from Strawberry Mansion. Mr. Colavita is coming back as a panelist now, Chair. Okay.
good afternoon counsel could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer
absolutely pasquale colabita pasquale last name c-o-l-a-v-i-t-a i am the
pardon me good your attorney for who for uh the owner 1725 hwb llc angela battle being the sole
member do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do our vice chair has just a few questions okay
good afternoon counsel do you agree to waive the read another refusal or stipulate to its accuracy
we do have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed
we have received this thank you council please proceed and share your screen
sharing uh our table of contents here as stated earlier i applied on behalf of the owner
for a variance to the property.
It's in an RSA 5 zone.
It received the refusal for use only.
The request is for two-family dwelling.
In essence, I'll try to give this,
before I even get into the table of contents,
a brief because, as you can see,
it is paper-intensive.
it's it has been a it's a legalization of a pre-existing use that's been at the very least
in miss battle's family from her grandfather in 1982 to the present and get right to the hardship
the hardship would obviously be that this is a cost of retrofit the cost of retrofit this property
would well exceed the market value of the property after everything was said and done.
It would require eliminating staircases, multiple HVAC systems, hot water tanks,
bathrooms, et cetera, multiple kitchens. And as stated, this property has been in its
present condition since 1982. As you can see here, the property, and there's my 1982,
I'm sharing the deed owned by Howard Battle, went to Dorcas Battle, who is Angela Battle's mother.
We received the refusal again because the property changed to an RSA 5 residential district.
This is also a legal argument.
So initially what happened was I was hired to assist her in the Eclipse system.
At one point or another, and I'll get to it within our exhibits, you'll see our exhibits that we had licenses in 1998 for a two-family dwelling.
What we did was at one point or another, I had actually contacted David Fecto in the Planning Commission.
The problem we have here is what I'm going to do is I'm going to stop sharing for one second.
I'm going to share a different screen and show you the biggest problem that we had here.
Because typically what I would do is I'd go on to Atlas.
I'd upload our zoning archive that showed that it was a two-family dwelling.
i'd upload our zoning archive that showed that it was a two-family dwelling
unfortunately as you can see i is this being shared yet or no um no okay give me one moment
let me share the screen and as you can see on atlas 1725 indicates that there is no zoning archive
I actually went to the basement after much consternation, constantly contacting individuals on Eclipse.
We showed multiple different proofs that the property was previously done.
For example, we showed them affidavits from the prior owner.
We showed them the leases that it was two units.
The MS, I'll show you the MLS listing, the previous licensing.
They were not satisfied with that.
This code pursuant to a letter from, let me stop sharing here.
So my email back from David was that this property was rezoned in 2014.
So it means that the original 1933 code was here for at least 1925.
So what I did was I also went and sent them a copy of the code.
They didn't want to buy that argument, and hence, after multiple, multiple different emails with them, attempts at trying to convince license and inspection that this should have been an over-the-counter approval of a two-family dwelling license, we decided we're going to spend the extra money.
She hired an architect. I filed the appeal, our application, after receiving the refusal that's, as we stated earlier, at Exhibit 2.
Exhibit 3 is our appeal. Again, this is the least restrictive use and modification of an RSA 5.