it? Well, it's been used for shorter term rentals of a month in duration, but there is demand for
shorter term rentals in the community. As I said, there are no hotels in Roxborough.
And if you have a family event, an anniversary, a birthday, a graduation, and you're having family
coming in from out of town, they have to stay distant. This allows some transient use for the
neighborhood for those events. As you can see from the photographs, the single-family home is
as incredible finishes. This is a first-class venue for visitors.
okay so other questions yes so who is managing this like usually with these you have to have
some kind of um uh connection to uh the airbnb or rebo or who who is going to be managing well
Well, Franco Sposato, who's testified, and his sister Angela live in Roxborough, work in Roxborough, and this is, they would be personally managing it.
Franco, where do you have, where would you have this listed for rental?
This would be listed through Airbnb, as well as through Furnished Finders and a VRBO, another possibility.
Okay. And then I don't understand one of these provisos, and I'm not sure whether it's enforceable about, what is it, advertising about food and beverages?
I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.
What is this about the proviso about not advertising about food and beverages? I don't understand.
Well, the neighborhood feels that if it's advertised with food and beverage and nobody wants it to be a party house, including Mr. Sposato.
This is basically for families visiting friends and neighbors or visiting family in the neighborhood.
This is not a party house.
Mr. Sposato doesn't want that.
So he was very quick to agree to the neighborhood, the civics request that the advertising would exclude it being leased with food and beverage in place.
Yeah, but, okay, well, that's something that you would have to work out with the Airbnb folks and that kind of thing, and I don't know that there's advertising about food and beverages.
is now what some of the managers of these places
and the owners of these may do
is they may leave for the tenants some of the local.
for the tenants some of the local restaurants and places of interest in the area i'm sorry i'm not
able to hear okay i said that what um some of the uh managers or the owners of these airbnbs do
is they'll leave for their tenants some information about you know different
things in the area like restaurants or places to visit and that kind of thing
they may do that but they wouldn't be advertising this like to just any old
to just come in be there I mean it's not so I I I'm not sure what you're trying
to agree to is something that you can really we're not going on or any of the
right am I correct so we're not involved in anything but I'm just saying I mean
mr. mr. Sposato has has reviewed and approved an agreement that the civic
group is now reviewing that will be an agreement between he and his sister and the civic group
that's what i was going to say i don't think any of the provisos or things that we could
that we could add if the board decided to approve this so that's good that they have
a separate agreement because i know their support was contingent on these these provisos so that
will i think that will satisfy their concerns okay any other questions yes do the owners have
any other experience doing um short-term rentals of this typology no they do not own other airbnbs
this is their only one and they have no interest in having more this is uh the spisados have a few
business interests on ridge avenue a restaurant and a car repair facility on umbria street
they're very involved in the computer community for a couple generations um and this is the only
airbnb that they would intend to operate okay and and how did they so so what is what is this
house here i mean they don't live there right they do it's not owner occupied no right so
so what is this is this like some house that's maybe been in the family and they're trying to
use the airbnb money to do upkeep and maintenance or how how well franco and his sister would be
responsible for doing that and they have been doing that on the current rental which is month
to month okay but this is like how how do they own this property or how are they
connected brother as brother and sister is tenants in common okay all right so
this is like a inherited safe from the parents or something is no Franklin and
his sister Angela purchased this about three years ago I think it was okay so
they purchased it and they've been using it for month-to-month rental well they
aren't allowed to do rentals less than a month without being approved for visitor accommodations
but they haven't been did they ever do a like a yearly lease or anything or is this just no
they've always had it the shorter term rental uh people coming in and needing somebody's being
transferred they're looking for a home they need a place to stay for a week two weeks three weeks
this is an opportunity that's that's that's been the market up to now but there's a there's a
demand for having shorter term rentals visiting roxford all right thank you any other questions
questions from our attorney
if you could please mute your microphone
Any questions or comments from the virtual audience?
You're not seeing any hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning from the existing CMX2 commercial mixed use.
The plan has not demonstrated that there are unique physical conditions or circumstances of the property
that would prevent it from being used in conformance with the zoning code.
the planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed variance for visitor accommodation
so mi 2025 000 396 6228 ridge avenue i vote yes for a temporary variance that expires 6128
i vote yes for a temporary variance that expires 6-1-28 michael johns my boot is yes with proviso
cheryl gaston my boot is yes with proviso tenetta graham my vote is yes with proviso
ayewen my vote is yes with proviso ishmael shaheed my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel
thank you thanks for hanging around all day we appreciate it okay thank you
Oh, is Kevin ready?
Oh, here you go.
We still got to get back to the...
This doesn't work.
We'll go with her.
We're going to share the screen.
There you go.
Okay, so you've already been sworn in, right?
And you just started to say that you have a client wants to open this.
Is that what we're talking about?
Okay, so go ahead.
There were certain provisos that the Northern Liberty's Neighborhood Association requested
in um in um for their approval letter and let's see how can i get to the approval letter now
well yeah they they had trash stored in the basement and hours of operation 11 a to 12 a day
right right um trash will be stored in the basement it will be picked up between 6 a.m and 11 a.m
The operation of the facility will be between 11 a.m. and 12 a.m.
You can see in the plans, if I could actually move through the plans, that there will be dropped ceiling audio panels in the ceiling as one of the concerns for not only the neighborhood association, but my client, was any noise that the upstairs tenants would experience.
Is this already built?
No, no, it's not.
This is something you're going to build proposed.
Yeah, these are proposed plans, yeah.
In addition, my client has a ventilation system
that will run from the kitchen through the second floor up to the roof
so that any odors and things like that
that might affect the neighborhood would be up into the air.
And they have...
This is the exhaust you're saying?
Yes, an exhaust duct system.
Along the side of the property or the front of the property?
Along the side of the property, running from the kitchen up through and then out into the roof.
Say again?
Your question again?
It is in the, you mean where you can see it?
Where you can see it in the plans?
It's in the mechanical plans.
These are the, not the mechanical plans.
I also have the mechanical plans.
yeah there it is that's it
you know what can't hear you
oh sorry Mike I asked if the exhaust was going through the notch
and it is
we need exhaust for sushi
well it's noodles
noodles well it depends on if you like the smell of sushi but no they will be um you know some
japanese noodle um um dishes so some things will be cooked but it's mainly a sushi restaurant
and the basement is for storage at the basement is for storage um and as i said because of um
the concerns of the neighborhood association garbage will be stored there but it will be
moved between 6 a.m. and 11 a.m.
This is using commercial trash pickup?
Say again?
Using commercial trash pickup?
This is a vacant lot now?
No, no.
It is currently a residential building.
The first floor is a garage.
My client owns...
That whole building will be the restaurant or you'll have...
No, just the first floor, just the first floor.
And in fact, that's why the audio panels were put in.
Yeah, you can see it.
I guess two questions I have.
One, it does look like you're doing some changes to the facade.
The facade will be glass.
Is that happening just where the garage door is,
or is it going to be sort of a reconstruction?
As I understand it, it will be kind of a reconstruction of that eighth of the first
As I understand it, it will be kind of a reconstruction of that eight of the first floor of that 831 will be full glass so that the patrons can look out and folks walking by can look in.
But there will be no outdoor dining in this facility will be all enclosed.
And then what's the plan? Just having spent a lot of my 20s eating over here, the it gets very crowded over here and most of the restaurants are very small and there's often a lot of people crowded out.
side and it started to cause a lot of issues with the neighboring businesses what's their plan
to sort of like manage crowd control well i think that um one of the things they will be doing is
using the um online um reservation planning so that they can actually control the amount of
people that they expect to be in there at any specific time because obviously crowd control
is a concern. What about signage?
Signage will go, I think in one of the plans you can
actually see the signage. Signage will go directly above the
glass enclosure. I think it's called igaro or ishiro
but it will go directly above that glass enclosure. Can you see the
There it is.
And how many seats are we talking about?
in this space um i think it will be approximately between 35 and 40.
okay and then what's the construction plan for this because you guys are like what's being
proposed is actually a very different facade and it looks like these are existing rental units above
yes they are they are the rental units of 831 um yeah my client rents those out to um
so renters yes what's the plan for like egress and access during the construction of the
new front space for the restaurant the the um egress ingress and egress um would be
conducted during weekends when they can work um they've notified the tenants that this would be
going on with the intention to impede their progress as little as possible, but they've
been notified that this is going to occur.
So assuming right now the tenants are entering through the existing 831 door that we can
see, and it looks like a lot of the reconstruction is relocating where the tenants are going
to get upstairs.
I think that, again, giving them the notice and constricting the work to certain hours, they're just going to work with the tenants to allow this to happen, but they would restrict the hours.
It would not be something that would impede, say, someone from going to work, coming back from work, that kind of thing.
They would restrict those hours.
and then are there any other do your clients own any other restaurants in the city um not that i
know of i know that they own um 833 which is not a restaurant but um no and then are they they're
not the owner operator right the owner operator of the restaurant is a different entity and they're
just renting the space or are they no they are they are going to yes yes yes yes so my only i'm
not telling you this it what ty talked about people back and getting backed up with trying
to get in there i found that we've had one not far from there about maybe a year and a half ago
where they when they sell things to go some people start dropping a car running over picking things
up in fact it wasn't far from here and it really did create a lot of problems with the neighbors
about understood and even if you're saying well i'm going to you know use they still got to park
their car somewhere where do you how do you get into these places i'm just got you okay all right
any other comments our attorney uh just briefly i just want to note the refusal doesn't specify
that it's just the first floor and that there's other uses there so that may be something if the
board is inclined to grant they may want to specify um also in terms of the other provisos
that are requested um the ones that appear to be enforceable are the trash stored in the basement
yes um which actually then they used to be in the first floor and the basement um and then
there there was a proviso for hours of operation 11 11 a.m to 12 a.m is that daily it didn't
specify on the proviso the it would be 11 a.m. to 12 a.m. I think Tuesday through Sunday
Okay, and close them Monday.
okay and close them Monday okay okay because it's right yeah it provides it in say
Okay, okay.
Because the provider didn't say.
And I assume your client's agreeable to those.
Yes, absolutely.
Thank you.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.