an open space standpoint we are well within the boundaries of RSA 5 we have 57 occupied area
whereas we are allowed 80% occupied area because this is a corner property.
Here's the posting photos from both street frontages,
Gulf Street to the right and to the left.
Here's interior photos.
So this is the condition.
According to the architect and the general contractor,
the seal to the outside is solid.
obviously they'll have to make sure you know everything is built in compliance
with the code and L&I will have to come back out there and they'll have to get
new fire suppression permits plumbing permits electrical permits mechanical
and gas permits all of these permits which they pulled in 2020 but expired
because of the lapse in time plans and drawings so here's the elevation you can
see this is it's it's tagged whoops it's tagged as our rear yard on the plans if i can go back
but it's according to the code it's not right because this is our rear of the property it's
also why our pilot house height is being counted against us because it is on the rear lot line
floor plans there's a basement rec room there's a powder room down there and a mechanical room
on the first floor you have a kitchen living and dining rather large space you have about
760 square feet on each floor so it's a pretty big home on the second floor you have two bedrooms
and a bathroom and laundry third floor you have a primary suite and an office and then there's a
roof deck rco meeting notice we met with fna on march 3rd mailing addresses and mailing certificates
application for appeal deed to the property showing gumon properties llc
owns it and then the certificate of tax clearance with that i'd like to call my
client to adopt my testimony sure
could that person please raise their hand
they're being promoted to panelists thank you
How could you please state your name? Do we see him?
what's his name his name is talbender i see him there he's just made it he's muted
talbender if you could unmute yourself
uh no i am right thank you could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
uh no i am all right thank you could you please state your name
talvinder guman t a l v like victor i n d e r last name is g h u m a n do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes sir counsel hi talvinder did you hear
my testimony today yes sir and is it true and correct yes and would you adopt it as your own
yes thank you you're welcome questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair
what's your comments from the virtual audience come on yes chair we have a hand up from robert
uh the yeah i have someone in the office in the audience here let him come up first come on up
yep and then we'll get with the robert
make sure that make sure that's the one close to you please hi could you please stay hi could
you state your name is spelled for the stenographer i am chris kundra spelled k-r-i-s-k-u-n-d-r-a
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Sir, are you a neighbor?
Please, Rasheed.
So I have an opening statement here that I'm the neighbor, the adjacent neighbor.
This property goes back to 2019.
It's been a very big problem property.
I know we have a new owner and new lawyers and new contractor, but I'm here to kind of bridge the gap.
I'VE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH ALEX AND MR. NOTCOMSON AND THEY'VE INSTRUCTED ME THAT THEY NEED TO GET
THROUGH THE ZONING BOARD HEARING FIRST. TO ME IT'S LIKE I HAVE A 13 PAGE AGREEMENT THAT I DREW
UP THAT RIGHT AFTER THE FNA MEETING I SENT TO THEM. THEY GRACIOUSLY GAVE US A TELECON MEETING.
at that time nothing i was ready to discuss it and get into all the points of uh there's there's
some zoning things there's some construction things the property despite the pictures is in
is in pretty bad conditions been sitting for six years there's water damage roof deck is completely
gone i'm concerned that this thing is going to be attached to me um the i could get into a lot
of details but some of this stuff is spelled out in this 13 page agreement with a lot of details
that I was hoping to address, you know, water issues, how it's flashed, how it's joined,
and if we can't come to the, I'll start to say that they need to get into my backyard to finish
the project. There's an unfinished wall, so the outside envelope is not finished, and the water
is going through there every time it rains. They need to get into that, my backyard with scaffolding
whatever to put the siding on and that also needs to be sealed next to my my building i you know
it wasn't shown on the plans but you know i have tons of pictures and the agreement here
if anybody would like to see it um so i'm hoping to get this addressed before this gets you know
kicked down the alley i've been here before with the previous owners and the previous builders
i got yes i got lied to uh it was an absolute disaster so i'm hoping to avoid that this time
and get some of the stuff addressed up front rather than at the 11th hour wednesday did you
go to the rco meeting yes i did you raised the issues there you didn't i did not i voted i voted
though okay um so i want to respond yeah just briefly and and um what mr kundra said you know
i don't dispute and i i empathize with the fact that it's been probably a nightmare for the past
you know five and a half years six years um and i also would point out that a lot of the concerns
he has which are valid are not zoning issues and are also issues that my client knows he's
going to have to deal with if he wants to finish the project um so when we met with him you know
our discussion what you know we read through the agreement it's very thorough um a lot of things
that i'm not an expert on because i'm not a general contractor but mr gumon's hired a licensed
and insured general contractor and um you know again we fully recognize that if this project is
approved in order to finish it we're going to have to come to an agreement with him and you know
that's that's what we told him and and uh we're happy to be cooperative and and we know that we'll
have to be okay sure do you have anything else to say the first time the the board graciously
you know had me speak with the the the previous owner and lawyers uh to get some purposes in place
the the the previous owner and lawyers uh to get some for visas in place uh during the hearing
we're certainly not going to go through a 13 page agreement here but you know i'm not so sure that
some of these things aren't part of a zoning uh kind of thing um the height thing is mentioned
here in the application right that is that is a zoning matter that we're asking for the board
for a leave from today i feel like we have a legitimate hardship there based off of the
orientation of the lot and the fact that the building structure is there right that's twofold
hardship the same goes for the rear yard refusal and we acknowledge those are zoning items so
if you you know if you have questions about those specific items i think this is the forum to
address those i think the forum to address a an access agreement and you know the proper way to
fix this property i i don't think that this is the form for that um but again we're not um saying
no we're we my client knows he's going to have to work with you so sure i'm going by you know
the things that were submitted here um you know highlighted some things in the application or
the refusal and in here it says uh substantially or permanently harm your neighbor's use of their
properties or impair adequate supply of light and air again this thing is attached to me and it's
rotting you know their their structure walls off kind of the that's not an alley but it's
a bunch of backyards are in a row and the wall that is in my backyard kind of ends it so it
kind of does block the airflow going all the way through all that the next section does it
increased danger of flooding this wall will come down into my backyard that water's got to go
somewhere one of the things i address in my agreement is how to handle that that water
my drain is not hand not designed to handle the the amount of water that comes off so again maybe
that is considered a zoning so um okay is there anything else you want to
no no okay is there anyone else in the virtual audience
Sir, we had a hand up from Robert Everett.
Yeah, I'm here.
Mr. Everett, how are you, sir?
I am good.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the stenographer?
Certainly.
Robert, last name Everett, E-V-E-R-E-T-T.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, sir.
Well, I'm just confirming that we did, in fact, have the meeting, and Chris was, in fact, a participant of the meeting, and as he said, he didn't raise any of the concerns during the meeting, but we always encourage nearby neighbors, immediate neighbors, to work with developers or people working on their homes to rectify and make any kind of changes to properties smooth and easy as possible.
uh you have our vote so obviously almost everyone was in favor of this project and going back to
july 16th of 2019 the first community meeting we had the first time go around it was 21 in favor
and three opposed at that point so the opinion basically stayed the same as the you know community
over the last six years and we're just hoping to get this property done and not be an eyesore
anymore thank you very much is there anyone else in the virtual audience no hands at this time
chair planning commission in view boy with the planning commission the comprehensive plan
recommends no change in zoning from the current rsa 5 residential single family
the proposed deviation from height requirements is de minimis the opponent has demonstrated that
the unusual parcel shape constitutes unusual condition or circumstance that would prevent
the property from conforming with the required rear yard setback the planning commission recommends
that the board grant their requested variances for height and rear yard setback so mi 2025
007258 2205 gall street i vote yes with proviso certificate of occupancy to be obtained i know we
do it but i'm going to put it on record that it has to have a certificate of occupancy michael
johns my vote is yes with a proviso charles guest and my vote is yes with proviso tenetta graham
my vote is yes with proviso my name mcadams my vote is yes with proviso thank you thank you
number seven mi 2025 007 361 1911 to 13 north
north 2nd street alice goldberg is the
North 2nd Street. Alex Goldberg is the attorney. Mr. Goldberg, you've already been sworn just state your name for the record. Alex Goldberg. Could you also identify your client, the relationship to the property?
sure my client is dme holdings llc they're under agreement to purchase the property
and its representatives nikki tuscani and mike susinki are in the physical audience
i'm not sure which one's going to come up and join me but now would be the time
there's a letter of support from somerset
action network with, I believe, some provisos. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
I have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy?
Okay. All right. Thank you. You can share your screen and proceed with your case.
okay i'm sharing my screen and that letter of support came from the north square community
action network so i don't it's in the presentation materials it was submitted to the board
um oh i'm sorry you're right north square you're right all right so
let's see
i'm here presenting and while i'm sharing i'm i'm gonna speak i'm here presenting on behalf
of fishtown pickle project which is a philadelphia small business that you may have seen
in your grocery stores or farmers markets or specialty food stores um we are they're buying
the property or they're under agreement to purchase the property and they're seeking
variances to be able to move their manufacturing facility there and also have a small retail
component. So you'll see my screen. Okay. So you can see their logo on the screen. We'll talk
about their business. You feel free to ask Nikki questions about that component of it
when she is sworn in. But they got into the pickle business, I believe, because they were
getting married and this was like a wedding favor. They made pickles, right? And they were
And it went well, and their business has grown over the past several years, and they've grown
out of the space that they're currently operating out of, and they are hoping to open up in
this space that was a previous auto garage, and it's split zone, CMX 2.5 and RSA 5, so
there's a little bit of funkiness with our refusals.
What you see on the screen is the first refusal that we get asked for when we applied, and
that included artisan industrial, which we felt like this type of manufacturing fell into with
accessory retail sales because all of their retail happens through farmers markets and stores. They
don't have any retail component of their own, but they're happy to have a small space that you'll
see on the plans for, you know, incidental retail sales or people that are local retail sales that
don't live somewhere where they're being sold otherwise. So that was the initial refusal. We
continued the conversation and got an amended refusal to include wholesale sales and distribution
because of the way that their business is growing. We felt like in order to fully encapsulate what
they are now and what they could be in the next two to three years, we wanted to incorporate that
wholesale sales and distribution because as they continue to grow they might be selling on a larger
scale um maybe um you know we'll need additional facilities but we you know based off of what's
happening in the building we were more comfortable with that use tagged on there and you can see the
notice of refusal we're getting refusals for both of those i'd point out that under cmx 2.5 this
artisan industrial would be allowed by right so because of the split zoning we're picking up that
refusal and then there's a parking requirement for both of these uses three parking spaces total
this is an existing building structure that's 100 lot coverage right so you'll see on the plans
there is space for a drive-in area for their truck for their their uh you know their truck
and that's kind of the only parking option that we have and it's not even your traditional sense
of the parking there's no space to park on the lot again because the building structure is 100
percent lot area they have employees at their current location which is not too
far from here that don't drive you know some use public transportation or other
means we have an agreement with the coordinating RCO to hire from the
neighborhood so I imagine those people wouldn't drive either the last thing we
want to do is create a burden on the parking in the neighborhood and we don't
think that's going to be the case based off of how many people are working here
and how many people drive so here's the letter of support from the RCO we brought
we brought pickles to the meeting people loved it uh the you know there's recognition that
pickles to the meeting people loved it the
there's mixed-use properties on this block there's commercial properties is in close proximity
they didn't think parking was going to be you know too big of an issue and they recognized the the
agreement that we signed with them referencing hiring from the neighborhood this was a petition
of near neighbors that signed in support on the pale thorpe and second street properties
the generally positive meeting
about us so um they've been existence uh as a hot in existence as a hobby since 2018 but they
formalized in 2020 they currently have five to six employees plus 1099 employees who work at the
farmer's market i'm just going to keep speaking as i click through but small batch pickles
they work in the facility the facility is you know day-to-day operations with with those five
to six employees they are agreeable to commercial trash pickup once a week and are willing to do
more if necessary they also do compost because they have a lot of organic waste in terms of
machinery the only machinery they have is the spear cutter for the pickle sphere spears so
you know it makes some noise it's not super loud there's auto body shops on this block that i