The meters are on Water Street and I think that's why.
yeah yeah that's the i would assume uh carl that's the utility room where exactly exactly
the water meters the gas meters i mean that's not your problem but yeah okay questions from my
attorney um well just um the photos that you showed of the conditions on the block if those
weren't previously submitted just make sure those are i will i will i thank you i'm sure they came
at the last minute not well because when we're not hearing back from the coordinating rco right
we then decided if this is an issue we'll quickly prepare but yes yeah that's fine yeah i just want
to have those on the record thank you questions from our virtual audience or audience here
i see no hands okay uh planning commission
now state your name madison matera m-a-d-i-s-o-n m-a-t-e-r-a okay do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes okay do you proceed the comprehensive
plan recommends no change to the rm1 residential multi-family zoning at this location the city
rezoned this neighborhood in 2009 and the council supported map change this property looks to have
been converted to three dwelling units without the benefit of permits city planning commission
recommends that the board deny the proposed use variance for three dwelling units may i just
respond yes briefly it's always been three units it's you know the history of the property had
the third unit on water street as a commercial unit and the hardship here is that ultimately how
the building is configured if we don't get this relief we will then have an empty unit and we're
asking for the least modification possible because the history of the property was a commercial unit
there we're seeking a residential unit um thank you um hillary the only proviso that was listed
from the rco was interior trash storage yes and if i understood um the applicant's position correctly
you were okay with that proviso for the ground floor unit only for for the water street side we
have no objection to interior trash storage for the north front street side we would say
stored outside underneath the staff with an enclosure of some sort okay so sorry which
which unit enters from the water street side which that that's the one we're trying to uh
to convert that is the ground floor unit right that is the ground floor unit okay so i just
wanted to just to clarify which which unit okay so we say interior trash storage ground floor unit
yes okay facing water street just to be cl to clear we can we can say facing water street yeah
so then it's perfectly clear yeah so that's fine okay thank you
am i 2025 zero zero seven one six six three one one dash 13 north front street
i vote yes with proviso interior trash storage uh on unit facing water street
just say michael john floor unit brown floor brown floor
yep um does she need to repeat it art we can move forward okay okay um michael johns my vote
is yes uh with proviso cheryl guest and my vote is yes with proviso i'm mcadams my vote is yes
with proviso hi i win my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank you apologize for being late
thank you madam chair thank you have a good day all right number 11.
mi-2025-007-311-3151 stamp first street augusta o'neill is the attorney
hi good evening could you state your name miss bella for the record
is the green lights on okay first name is augusta a-u-g-u-s-t-a last name is o'neil which is spelled
o apostrophe n-e-i-l-l okay and do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth i do okay could you identify your client and the relationship to the property
Okay. Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
my client is
My client is Nicole Frittini, who is the owner of the property.
Okay. And so we have a letter of support from the Home Circle Civic Association.
We have our board member, board secretary, sorry, Gadsden has a couple of questions for you.
Good afternoon.
hold on good afternoon council uh did you submit your uh documents and exhibits five days in
advance of this hearing i did and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do thank you you can share your screen and begin your presentation so much
um members of the board again my name is augusta o'neill i'm here representing the owner of the
property at 3151 stanford street this is a single family home this is an application to construct an
addition onto the rear of my client single family home on page seven of the exhibit package which
is currently up on my screen this is a image of the front of the property this is an rsa2 zoned
house in a neighborhood that's full of other single family homes on page eight i did try and
provide a little bit of context from Google Street View, which wasn't, which just shows,
again, the kind of context of the neighborhood that's all single-family homes. Again, you can
see on page nine in my exhibit package, just an aerial, again, showing the RSA2 context of the
neighborhood this home is in. The addition that my clients intend to construct on their home is
going to be to accommodate my client's mother so that she can live in the home with them. It's
It's going to be adding an additional 591 square feet of living space to this existing single family house.
The intention for the area is for it to have a kitchenette, a bedroom, some living space, a bathroom, and the second floor of the addition is going to extend that master bedroom that's on the second floor.
I do have some floor plans which were provided to the board, just showing what that is going to add to the house.
As I said before, there's going to be some more living space on the first floor.
There's going to be a kitchenette for my client's mother, her own bathroom, and the addition, because it's going up to the second floor,
it's also going to provide some additional living space for my clients who are going to be able to expand their master bedroom
and expand one of the bedrooms that's on the second floor but my client's mother will of
course have access to all portions of the house this is just to give them all a little bit more
space as they're accommodating my client's mother who is elderly we did receive a refusal for the
application the refusal is at tab one of my exhibit package the reason for the refusal is
because we are required to have 20 feet of a rear yard
in this RSA 2 zoning district
because of the proposed addition,
we're gonna be at 11.73 feet for the rear yard.
The hardship in this present case relates
to the orientation of the house that's on the lot.
As you can see from the site plan that's at page 11,
um this home is a little bit unusual in that it doesn't sit kind of squarely on the lot it's a
little bit oriented so we're at the intersection of albion and stanford street this is a corner lot
and it is kind of you can see a little bit skewed um facing stanford street so it doesn't sit
perfectly square on the lot matching the um matching the the setbacks or i'm sorry the
property lines so our architect is joe lombardi he and i spoke before this application um about
how difficult it would be for him to create any kind of an addition that wouldn't go into the
setback um it would be really difficult he said for him to be able to design something that's
going to give my client's mother this kind of living space that we're proposing without that
addition going into the rear yard this hardship was not created by my client she purchased the
home in 2009 but it's uh it was built back in 1950 according to opa records in addition to
creating the two-story edition we're all going also going to be making some property improvements
we are going to be adding a dogwood tree on albion street we're going to be removing a
decaying tree that was also on albion street um we did meet with the rco for this location on march
fourth of this year uh we were rescheduled for that meeting three times because of the blizzards
that kept happening um we did receive a letter of support which i included at page five
We did receive a letter of support which I included at page five of your exhibit package.
With respect to the variant standard, I would submit to the board that the grant will the refusal of the grant of variance relief would cause a necessary hardship to my client.
the logistics of the lot are such that in order to be able to provide my client's mother with this
addition that's going to provide as much living space we would need this variance in order to
alleviate that hardship the grant of the variance will not alter the essential character of the
neighborhood we're still keeping it a single family home this is going to be just adding some
more space to that existing house it will not increase congestion or burden on public facilities
or result in any kind of an environmental impact.
That would be underscored by the fact
that we met with the community.
We received overwhelming support for the application.
And we're gonna be providing my client's mother
with some necessary living space as she ages.
So with that being said,
I would like to call forward my client to dot my testimony.
Come on up, thank you.
You wanna state your name and spell it for the record?
Wait a minute, speak it into the microphone.
Nicole Fritini, N-I-C-O-L-E-F-R-A-T-T-I-N-I.
And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Go ahead, counsel.
Do you want to support this afternoon?
Was everything that I said true and accurate?
Would you like to adopt my testimony as your own?
Was there anything else that you wanted to relate to a word about your personal circumstances that motivated this application?
Oh, my father passed away in April of last year, and my mom is, oh, my father passed away, I'm sorry, my father passed away in April of last year, and my mom, she's still living currently in her house, which is getting very difficult for her.
she has rheumatoid and osteoarthritis and also lung fibrosis um she's getting to the point where
she can only walk maybe 30 to 50 feet at one time she's having trouble on the stairs and she's
needing more assistance we feel that having her to be living with us would be most beneficial to
all of us so that we can um you know be together and we can watch her and that kind of thing okay
all right all right questions from the board yeah I've got a question just a
question you can you follow up to pull up the plan I know I'm coming I'm the guy
in the sky she kind of looked around the floor plan and then just just just sort
of piggybacking on with the owner just mentioned which which popped out at me
was the number of steps that i see in the addition and how are you going to deal with that because
you know as you get older and she's having she's already having difficulty walking up steps how do
you are you going to deal with that with you know you've got a couple of sets of steps to that
addition she's not going to need the steps at all she's going to be on the first floor in the in the
back of the property and it's going to be her own separate living area the steps are in the rest of
house that's going to be um you know just kind of made for inclusivity to keep it in the in the
the house in the same you know uniform not just having like an initial with that i was but i was
looking at the her bedroom right there's a connection to i guess a living room right that
has steps am i am i um my client's husband would like to make a statement about that he's been
working closely with the architect. Okay. Who is that? This is Larry Meskimen, my client's husband.
Oh, your client's husband. Okay. You want to come on up.
I'm going to pull the microphone to you and state your name and spell it for the record.
My name is Larry Meskimen, L-A-R-R-Y-M-E-S-K-I-M-E-N. Okay. And do you swear or affirm to tell the
truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. You can proceed.
Yes. The stairs that are going down into her living area is going to be two to three stairs.
It's basically like a stoop when you come into the house, but these are all internal stairs and she can do two, three, four stairs.
She just can't do 10 or 15 stairs.
Like if you see in the actual house by the bath, you'll see the stairwell going up.
She can't make those stairs because there's too many.
right yeah it would be great if there was a way you can eliminate those stairs too
okay we could probably so that what so that's once she so once she's in the house she can walk
around and be you know at the same level of everybody on the first floor you could do a
you could do a ramp in there sir instead of the stairs yeah just take a look at it i just know
ramp in there sir instead of the stairs yeah just take a look at it i just
how from dealing with seniors it gets difficult as they age and more difficult so yes sir that's it
all right any other questions is this akin to an adu in effect i mean you got to say that louder
shirla so we can hear it all right okay you can tell me no but is this is sort of akin to an adu
in the sense that they're trying to create like a space for i would say no just because the intent
is that they're all living as a family as opposed to them as opposed to my client's mother's law
being separate the intent is that you know because she lost her husband they're able to um her adult
daughter and son-in-law are able to accommodate her and help her with her um daily living okay
is there any other neighbors on the block that have um put additions on their home that you know
of all over the neighborhood oh okay all right uh questions from our attorney
not at this time madam chair okay uh questions from the virtual audience
i see no hands okay now planning commission
yeah matt yeah madison matera planning commission staff the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the rsa2 residential single family zoning at this location
this neighborhood still carries its original 1933 zoning the appellant has shown that there
are unique physical conditions or circumstances of this property that would prevent conformance
with the zoning code city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed
variance for rear yard depth okay thank you um mi2025-0073113151 stanford street my vote is yes
michael johns my vote is yes cheryl gadsden my vote is yes ryan mcadams my vote is yes
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Okay. All right. Thank you. You had your votes.
Thank you so much. Good luck.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
All right. All right. So we have one more from a two o'clock list.
MI-2025-007317, 4401 Ridge Avenue.
Richard DeMarco is the attorney.
okay i'm here hello good afternoon mr demarco um i think i swore you in earlier today yes okay
all right so could you just state your name um for the record for me sure richard demarco d-e-m-a-r-c-o
okay and can you identify your client and their relationship to the property
client is 4401 ridge llc they are the equitable owner uh the property is owned by pha my uh
client is represented by eric marshall today okay all right thank you so um we have a letter of
support from the east falls community council um as well as a letter of support from council member
Jones. Also, we have a CDR that has been completed and an earth moving plan that has been completed.
Our board secretary Gadsden has some questions for you. Good afternoon, counsel. Have you submitted
your documents and exhibits by days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I have. And do you waive the
reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy yes i could wave and stipulate thank you
you can share your screen and begin your presentation excellent thank you very much
yes the board already mentioned the letters of support there was a long process with
the east fall civic and the cdr so i'm putting the refusal on the screen to begin with the as
As you can see, the property is zone CMX3, and we have complied completely with that designation.
However, there is an extreme amount of steep slope on the property, and I'll get to that in a moment,
but that is the single and only variance that we were requesting.
There is some impact on that steep slope.