is to simply have the property as a two-family dwelling.
The plans itself even shows that the basement,
which was an office and it was vacated,
they would rather just have that
as part of the first floor existing residential unit,
making the two total residential unit
the legalized use for the property.
As far as the property itself,
the layout of the property is such that the basement level really exists above grade it's
almost like a first floor which is the basement and then the first floor is substantially elevated
and then the second floor above that this is basically how a lot of the properties on the
corners in that area are situated and traditionally a lot of these basement spaces were used for some
kind of commercial use whether it's nail or office and again the community was well aware of this
property previously having a realtor's office and an office used in that space they were also aware
that the second floor and first floor were originally separated as residential units and
in fact many were built that way with two families already in the building and then the basement
so our conversation during the meeting more or less affirmed that this building really had
pre-existing conditions that probably were built that way so the community had no issue
despite the RSA 3 zoning with the proposed use overall but again as you can see I'm going to zoom
with the proposed use overall but again as you can see I'm going to zoom in with the plans
to better show that the proposal here based on the plans really is to maintain the existing
second floor residential unit maintain the existing first floor residential unit it is
already connected to the office space internally so the proposal simply have the basement level
be converted to kind of a storage. There's a wet bar proposal, bike storage, workout area.
So it's essentially becoming part of the first floor residential unit rather than maintain it
as an office, which would actually be not quite how my client would prefer to use it in the long
run. So what we're asking the board today would be to have this approved, if approved, as simply
a two-family dwelling. With the first floor and basement being one unit, and then the second floor
being the second unit, I do want to point out again, the basements fully walk out. Actually,
there are two exits to walk out of the basement. And so it is not a below-grade basement,
alleviating a lot of the fire safety concerns that normally would come with the basement
being part of a residential unit. So that is essentially what we're asking from the board
today, is your favorable consideration in our request to have the two-family dwelling,
which essentially existed in this property from the time it was built, to be legalized as its
future legal use. My client should be here to verify my testimony. I do know that he is at work
and therefore may be replying to the board from his vehicle,
but I asked him to pull over on the side of the road to be safe.
Alan Zhang?
Alan Zhang, right?
Alan Zhang.
Alan, if you're there, can you please click the raise hand function on the Zoom?
I mean, Xen, you're an officer of the court.
We accept your testimony, and I think you've explained it the best you could anyway.
Questions from the board?
The basement is only accessible from the first floor unit?
Well, so it's both accessible from outside directly because it's above grade.
two two uh means of uh egress there both here and here that actually walked right out to the
sidewalk as well as internally from the first floor which is actually elevated where normally
a second floor would be uh if we were to look at this from the side of the building if you look at
the elevation profile it shows it again that the entire this is the basement level and those are
the two doors that actually leads to the sidewalk because the actual building first floor is elevated
and the entrance is on a hill in a sense where you walk up steps to get to the first floor entrance
in the front okay and then if so if you come out of the basement do you have to come
i guess up the common walkway to the stairwell that we're seeing in the front elevation to get
to the sidewalk no no so yeah so this this so if you come out of the first floor you actually have
to go down steps to get to the sidewalk okay but the basement comes out on the sidewalk okay
other questions i think the photos may be clear on that as well let me actually put that back up
for the board oh yeah yeah so you see this yeah okay yeah so right here they come right out to
the sidewalk and that's that's the back with the parking and this is actually the front where they
have to go up steps to get to the door questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
um just a just a couple of things so so the the refusal is incorrect in that it's
in saying that the business and professional office use is remaining
right so they originally applied with the intent to keep the uh business professional office
but after consideration of how the building is situated my client decided it'd be better to just
simply have it as two family and and forego the business office because it's actually
they have to do more work to maintain the business office and then
separately lease it out it's it's actually more difficult for them to handle
and manage all right so i i would suggest to the board i know planning is going to
All right, so I would suggest to the board, and I know planning is going to suggest this as well, that there be a proviso indicating that the approved use is two-family household, living only, no business and professional office, just to clarify that.
suggest this as well that there be
And then this is an RSA 3, so parking's required, and it looked like there was some parking in the back, but I wasn't clear if that was, because it wasn't noted on the refusal.
it's not a refusal item partly because it's existing and i believe it is legal parking
okay they have access way that leads to that parking spot okay and it's like a park it was
like a parking is it a parking pad off of a shared driveway yes in the rear okay all right thank you
thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
yeah i do not see any hands thank you uh jason planning commission amy boy with the planning
commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the current
rsa3 residential single family the absorption of the business and professional office into one of
the two existing dwelling units brings the property more into conformance with the residential nature
of the zoning district however two dwelling units in addition to a business and professional office
would constitute an overuse of the property the planning commission recommends that the
grant the requested variance for two dwelling units with proviso no business and professional office
mi 2025-005-255-2000 oakmont street i vote yes with proviso no business or professional office
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
well they're asking for two units yeah yeah
yeah michael i think michael yeah yeah i did i wrote it michael johns my vote is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso iowen my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel
thank you number four good evening sir number four mi2025-005-345-6040 ed edmund street
um savian rodriguez is the owner applicant
they're coming back in as a panelist now with the chair
so how you doing everybody good afternoon sir could you please state your name and spell for
the stenographer um my name is sabian rodriguez um is s-e-i-v as in violin i-a-n right um good
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes
so this application for users of multiple family household living three dwelling units in existing
semi-detached structure whereas the proposed use multiple family household living is prohibited in
the RSA 3 zoning district our vice chair has a few questions for you yes hi good evening have
you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing yes and the chair
rates your refusal so do you waive the reason of further reading the refusal and stipulate to
its accuracy uh stick to its accuracy okay all right you can uh share your screen and see what
your case and the whistle whistling gnomings civic association has sent a letter in of non-opposition
okay let me see uh share my screen should be a green button on the bottom yeah
yes I see okay everybody see my screen yeah it's up okay okay it's the the notice that I got um
uses allowed residential district refusal um reasons for refusal where areas the proposal
was used multi-family three dwelling units household living and is expressly uh prohibited
sorry about that uh prohibited in the rsa3 residential zoning district can i say my
testimony sure i think what you do is start your testimony okay and then you should show them like
it might be worth your while to show some photos now right as you're talking show photos and then
we'll look at some plans okay all right these are the photos of the basement so me and my wife um
we're newlyweds so you know we got we just got married
we own the property right here at 6040 edmund street um we're it was college students
the property right here at 6040 edmund street um where it was college students um instead you know
we was dealing some financial constraints and um you know we decided to you know make our own
apartment you know it will be way cheaper instead of um instead of you know running one out so we
decided you know since i already have a duplex i have a duplex with a basement with a separate
entrance um separate entrance the size is is really big um the ceiling is seven foot seven
feet um height to ceiling ceiling to height um so you know at the time i was like you know i
wasn't planning to rent it out um i wasn't planning to rent out the basement so so let me let me ask
you this you already have a duplex you're saying yeah it's a duplex now you want to add a third
i want to add a third unit because and where's the third unit where's the third unit going to be
uh the third unit when he shows the photos here yeah yeah let me see right here sorry about that
so the third unit was going to be right here uh where the brown door is at
and then there's a unit on each floor above yeah there's a unit in each floor above so there's two
doors on the side of the building one goes to this floor and one goes up top and when i bought the
property i searched up the zoning because i searched up the zoning and it was arm one before
i bought the building and then later on when i was doing the apartment and you know i received
the notice i was just so confused and and i see on the notice and i it says residential uh three
single detached and you know I was just so confused of situation you know it was
my fault or not knowing at the time you know not knowing at the time that you
know even though it was my property and I was still planning to move in there I
should have still got permits and zoning either way but since I thought you know
I was the owner I'm making it for myself how long have you had the property two
years about you said it was a duplex yes when i bought it here it's still a duplex it's still
too it's still a duplex right but you wanted to now you want to put something on the first
for another apartment yeah another could you show us some photos of inside yes so
sorry about that computers
this is the bathroom right here um i'll make a few adjustments uh where's that in the third
in the first floor the first floor yes this is the floor you want to add yeah this is the floor
i'm adding this is the lawn just where they're going to be the laundry room uh this is the
bedroom and this is the living room and where the kitchen is going to be at
are there any windows in the bedroom yeah we're always gonna there's two windows now
is there windows now yeah there's windows now there's two windows and there's windows in the
front and and and there's windows on the side as well but the first the the the the other two
apartments are not zoned either, right?
Am I correct?
It's a RSA.
When I bought the building, it was already
you like that.
I'm looking
at the zoning history, Mr. Chair.
Could be one second.
sorry i'm a little nervous right now sorry about that that's okay
so um i don't see any permit history um associated with the property um
there hold on i have my rental license as well i was gonna say yeah i do see a rental license
there is a rental license for two units um that was just issued in 2024 so um okay it appears that
the the city to and there was a prior rental license to from 20 2001 to 2022 under the prior
owner for two dwelling units so it appears the city has recognized this um as a duplex in the
past all right continue to tell us about your where you want to move what okay okay um so me
and my wife we were planning to move um where the brown door is at um the separate entrance
um to the bottom unit all the way in the first floor uh so we're planning to move
here sorry about that are all the windows glass block yeah glass block you know i was
their glass block, but I was, you know, planning to change the windows.
They're glass-blocked, but I was, you know, planning to change the windows, changing the windows to, you know, the appropriate windows to the proper living.
I was planning to try to add an e-brus.
Let me ask you this.
Did you draw up any plans?
Yes, I do.
Could you show the plans?
The plans.
Yeah, right here.
so these are the zoning plans right here this is the basement underneath could
you make it a little bigger take a look at it
right sir
so this is
this is right here
this is this is the basement this is where
me and my wife are going to live at
is there a garage there too uh no there's no garage okay
all right questions from the board
what are you doing about um trash for three units uh we was thinking about doing the stackable trash
uh say that again the stackable trash stackable i couldn't hear you i'm sorry uh the stackable
trash the stackable trash cans oh stackable trash cans yes okay so where would they where would the
trash cans be stored say prior to trash day uh usually the trash will probably be
last minute so i will usually take out my trash before trash day and it'll be in front of my
property where everybody else in the proper where everybody else on the neighborhood puts their
trash so where are you directing your tenants to store their trash before trash day so right here
right here in the front of the property right here like on the side or you have a photo of that one
that actually the tenants store their trash on their side right here they they store their trash
on the side of the building so on like right here on the side where the two entry doors you see when
you walk up and there's two doors right here and right here there's a space for the tenants to put
their trash in and um i can also fit my trash as well in this space as well because there's a good
amount of space to store trash or i could put my trash right here on the corner um near my door
near my doorway entryway as well um i don't know if i can search it up on zillow of the property
the picture that's fine yeah i think we understand it yeah other questions
yeah i guess i i guess i i understand uh i think the idea of storing the trash on the side is