##VIDEO ID:feI8suq1tN4## thank you good evening the city of Boston Zoning Board of appeal hearing for November 7th 2024 is now in session this hearing is being conducted in accordance with the applicable provisions of the open meeting law including the updated Provisions enacted by the legislature last year the new law allows the board to continue its practice of holding virtual hearings until March 2025 this hearing of the board is being held remotely via the zoom webinar event platform this hearing is also being recorded in order to ensure this hearing of the board is open to the public members of the public May access this hearing through telephone and video conferencing the information for connecting to this hearing is listed on today's hearing agenda which is posted on the Public Notices page of the city's website boston.gov members of the public will enter the virtual hearing as attendees which means you will not see yourself on the screen and you'll be muted throughout unless administratively unmuted when asked to comment board members applicants and their attorneys or Representatives will particip in the hearing as panelists and they will appear alongside the presentation materials when speaking panelists are strongly encouraged to keep video on while presenting to the board as with our in-person meetings comments and support will be followed by comments in opposition the order of comments is as follows elected officials representatives of elected officials and members of the public the chair May limit the number of people called upon to com to offer comment and the time for commenting as time constraints require for that reason the board prefers to hear from members of the public who are most impacted by a project that is those individuals who live closest to the project if you wish to comment on an appeal please click the raise hand button along the bottom of your screen in the zoom webinar platform click it again and your hand should go down when the host sees your hand you will receive a request to unmute yourself select yes and you should be able to talk if you are connected to the hearing by telephone please press star n to raise and lower your hand you must press star six to unmute yourself after you receive the request from the host those called upon to comment will be asked to State their name and address first and then provide their comment in the interest of time and to ensure that you have enough time to do so please raise your hand as soon as Mr stbridge reads the address into the record do not raise your hand before the relevant address is called or the meeting host will not know to call on you at the appropriate time okay Mr stbridge good evening Madame chair president good evening Miss B brazo good evening Madame chair good even pres floor is yours Mr stbridge thank you madam chair uh before we begin with all the cases uh we'll ask if there are any requests for withdrawals or deferrals from this evening see a raised hand Adam barnoski Adam go ahead oh yes uh thank you madam chair members of the board good evening Adam barnoski 255 State Street here in Boston I'm an attorney for virtual fulfillment center we are seeking a deferral on boa 1599 485 uh to the board's November 19th hearing date can you provide the address for Mr stbridge yes it's 39- 325 Old Colony Avenue thank you as I will repeat that will be for case boa 159 9485 with the address of 309 to 325 Old Colony Aven um you anything else You' like to say about that no that is all uh what length of uh deferral are you seeking uh we are seeking if uh if available to be heard on the November 19th hearing date Caroline yes we have Spates during that time okay may I have a motion motion to appr motion to approve referral until November 19th is there a second second Mr stbridge yeah Miss bza yes chair votes yes motion carry see you then thank you there are no further the request for withdrawals or deferrals then then oh Danny's iPad hi yes this is Dan 550 Liberty Street at in 0284 oh you want two devices Danny you may want to get off one because we're hearing an echo oh sorry sorry Danny are you requesting a deferral correct fulfill what's I'm sorry um attorney baronsky just asked for deferral so it will be on November 19th okay I was requesting at the federal until the our like legal action is heard by the judge and we'll see like based on what the the judge decides on that motion like the filing that I filed today so we're going to be deferring it until November 19 and you can provide public testimony at that time beautiful thank you so much thank you no other requests we'll move on to case boa 164 4118 with the address of four cross street if the applicant answer their representative present would they please explain to the board hi if you can you raise your hand oh okay I see Stephanie is it are you on for this case that's correct please proceed I'm Stephanie mashik um mashik mlan Architects uh um The Architects for the proposed um addition at four cross street um this project um or this building is pretty much um pretty much occupies the entire footprint of the um of the plot um we're seeking to demolish a deck that sits um at that upper so if we go to the page just before that yep so that first plan is the basement plan um the next one over is the first floor plan there's a currently a deck in that upper um leftand corner of the plan um it's the only piece of that first floor plan that's not shaded uh that um occupies that corner we're looking to um make an addition of um an 88 foot square foot footprint addition um at that first floor level with basement below it um which will leave about half of that um current deck space open for um a new deck um at that same level the um the addition on the first or the uh the addition is um maybe we could go to a 2.1 which is uh shows the um proposed plants there we go this a little confusing to read just because of hatching showing um showing areas of demolition um Etc actually I believe this is the demolition plan so if we could scroll thank you there we are a little clearer so the first plan is the basement plan um so providing um essentially a a space below that um that addition on the first floor and on the first floor the plan in the in the center of the screen um the addition uh is um is a kitchen that uh allows for contiguous space between living dining and kitchen at that first floor level the owners um have three small children currently their kitchen sits in the back corner where that um that little powder room is shown and just difficult for them to operate smoothly as a as a young family um on the second level just to point this out um we would use the roof of that um that kitchen addition um for a small roof deck um Stephanie your only violation is f can you just um tell us what it uh what it is now and what it what you're proposing the current um f is um 2,281 gross square feet the proposed is 2354 gross square feet okay any question questions from the board I don't have any questions the sections are pretty self-explanatory thank you may I have public testimony Madame chair members of the board sigy Johnson with the office of Neighborhood Services this petitioner has completed the on community process our office hosted and a Butters meeting on October 1st at which no comments were made we unaware of any additional Community concerns at this time with that background we defer to the Judgment of the board thank you thank you Jessica any other raised hands we have no raised hands at the moment thank you with that may I have a motion Madame chair I like to put forward um a motion of approval is there a second second Mr stbridge yes Miss B brazza yes chair votes yes the motion carries good luck thank you next we have case boa 5 62426 with the address of 30 Dwight Street if the applicant in the representative of pres they please explain to the board yes greetings Madam chair members of the board Mark laass attorney for the property owner Jake kidson who is on with us as well um this application involves a familiar rear deck if we could scroll to the floor plans and elevations there we are that's good perfect um at the rear of a building in the South End um in the South End an extension into a rear yard on a rowhouse or townhouse is considered conditional even if it otherwise satisfies all of the dimensional requirements which is the citation that we have here article 64- section 9 sub paragraph 4 and we are proposing as shown in the middle there the addition of a rear deck at The Parlor level which in the back is one story above the garden level and this is a uh unit that is multiple floors owned by this owner um there is an existing overhang that was there prior to the renovation um involved here um that has been retained you can see that in the in the photographs it was a sort of a portico over that rear door so what we're proposing in the middle screen is the uh new deck area sort of on the left hand side where the two doors are um for access to the deck and that is six feet from the rear of the building um but that so it looks consistent as shown on the right hand side we're bringing the railing around that little jog area so we actually pick up just a a little bit of extra space on the existing roof of that overhang just to make the deck look consistent and bring the railing into you know the alignment of the entire existing structure but the new portion of the deck is six feet and as shown on the right there are C Del brackets supporting the deck which makes it consistent with the planning department design guidelines and that is the extent of The Proposal um before you tonight thank you any questions from the board do you have approval from the Southend Landmark Commission it is on the rear of the building and there's no alley down Dwight Street on this part of the property so it's not within not their perview no okay great thanks no fur the questions thank you may have public testimony good morning Eric good afternoon Madam chair and members of the board my name is Eva Jones I represent the mayor's office of Neighborhood Services regarding 30 Dwight Street our office will defer to the board's judgment on this matter a community process was conducted including an a Butter's meeting on May 8th 24 which was attended by two constituents Additionally the proposal has been in communication with 8 streets neighborhood association and while the applicant has not yet met with the eight Street civic association they have expressed that while they have no issues with the proposal there are growing concerns about a tree located on the property whose Roots were cut due to a project on the abing property and is now at risk of falling and damaging several surrounding properties due to construction uh at this time the mayor's office and Neighborhood Services diff to the board's judgment and thank you for your time and consideration good afternoon maner manager members of the board Laura Toano here from cul of's office at this time Cil of would like to go record and support due to a good Community process with the neighbors it is our understanding that the a streets neighborhood association is also not oppos Council respectfully request that the proponent continue to work closely with the neighbors on any quality of life issues during the construction phase thank you okay and Madam sh oh go ahead is anyone else speaking okay you have no additional raised hands thank you thank you uh Mr Cy just want to address that tree issue before we move on um the tree is not related to this particular part of the project um the property next door did some construction work the tree sort of on the property line and Roots have been cut uh in in connection with that project but it's not really related to this um this deck at all has you know it's just there so the Civic group asked about it while um part of this project but it's not it doesn't impact what is before you tonight got it thank you with that may I have a motion Madam chair I like to put for a motion of approval I have a second second Mr stbridge yes Miss bed Baraza yes chair votes yes the motion carries good luck thank you kindly next we have case boa 164 9258 with the address of 43 Bing Street if the applicant and where they representative present would they please explain the case to the board I'm here uh for the record Lawrence EST toara 175 Federal Street in Boston uh joining me is David Thomas one of the owners of the property Kelly Robbins whose firm manages in all overa construction and most importantly Derek Bloom the architect who can explain the plans this is one of those brick buildings across from the what used to be called the salt and sto building at 100 Cambridge Street and um uh sometime in the 60s before the present zoning code one of the units was transformed into an office and we're now reversing that and we're making one additional unit and building a slight addition to a second unit using all the space it was a multifloor office um the floor area ratio is excessive but it always has been the open space is insufficient it always has been off street parking is insufficient but it always has been but because this is a matter where they're uh switching from office to residential it triggered review by this board and uh we've met siggies on the line uh I think uh uh we had in the butters meeting and nobody showed up to complain we met with the zoning and Licensing Committee of the Beacon Hill civic association uh no problems um and we look forward to getting blessed by you folks and by the full board and fixing up this building Derek you want to go through the plans sure we'll do hi Derek Bloom from plume architecture um so as Larry mentioned yeah we're converting Office Space to residential currently the office space occupies um the basement uh in full except for some mechanical space that's down there uh the entire first floor and H the rear half of the second floor um on on these drawings the street Oden streets at the bottom so the rear refers to the thinner part in the back there um so we are we're sort of uh adding this is a funny view because it's a ceiling plan but can we go back one maybe um sure this is good so um so the apartment labeled 2f the far left uh is is the front half and we're adding the back half of the second floor to it as well as um part of the back of the first floor so 2f gets bigger it's not a new unit it's being expanded um the new unit will be on the on the remainder of the first floor which is the front half and the basement so that'll be the uh the new residential unit unit count overall for the building doesn't change um it's just that that one commercial flips to residential um in terms of apartment sizes we've got uh the first floor basement unit is 885 square feet and the result of expanding the second floor unit will be um 1,120 square feet so we can keep going we'll see the proposed layouts this is still kind of in the demo still demo if we can keep going please this seems like out of order to me wish I could not that's structural uh sorry I'm not seeing the sheet um I usually that's fine can we does this does show it but it's a ceiling plan so you're seeing everything dashed but at any rate um in terms of the zoning uh data um the there's there's no change to any anything uh lot area width Frontage floor area ratio height things like that the only change is the usable open space per dwelling unit because we're adding technically a dwelling unit even though we're not adding a unit um that's an existing non-conformity the requirement is 150 square feet per du we have currently 22 and we were proposing to have 19 square feet per unit uh all of the other non-conform um there's a couple more are not changing on the result of the project thank you are the questions from the board hearing none may have public testimony Madame chair members of the board sigy Johnson with the office of Neighborhood Services this petitioner has completed the on community process our office hosted in a Butter's meeting on September 18th at which no concerns were raised proponent went on to present to the Beacon Hill civic association zoning and license in committee on October 2nd which returned a vote of non opposition uh with that background we defer to the Judgment of the board thank you thank you any other raised hands mam sure we have no raised hands at the moment thank you thank you with that may I have a motion Madam chair I like to put for a motion of approval may I have a second Mr stbridge yes Miss B brazo yes chair votes yes the motion carries good luck thank you very much next we have case boa 1651 1513 with the address of 20 Myrtle Street if the applicant end their representative of pres would they please explain to the door yeah good evening uh Madam chair members of the board attorney Nick coula mcder quilty Miller and Hanley are here today on behalf of Heidi mck who's the property owner uh and operates hounds tooth consigners uh with me tonight as well I believe is Doug stefanov who's the architect um uh Miss mcken recently purchased this is an existing single story commercial building uh in property at 20 Myrtle Street uh near the corner of Myrtle in Joy Street uh in the Beacon Hill Neighborhood um she's looking to open and operate her towns to consigners um this would be her second location um and she's got her first location in Hamilton Mass for about six years or so um and she purchased the property um and after opening the store she learned uh kind of much to her surprise that despite operating as a commercial building uh in retail store for various storefronts for many many years uh there was an office use there previously photography store Barber Shop Etc that her local retail consignment shop actually needed zoning code relief uh in the form of a conditional use permit uh in order to properly operate because previous owners had never actually uh properly changed the use and occupancy to their stores so it turns out you know when when we did some digging at ISD the recorded use uh was not retail um and I think it was potenti I think it was actually a law office um use um and so we are seeking to change the occupancy uh from office to retail um this unfortunately required two conditional use permits um one for the existing non-conforming change of use uh from law office to retail and then the non-conforming use change as well um no changes otherwise to the storefront to the footprint the building Etc um so it's a fairly simple request for a change of occupancy and honestly somewhat of a cleanup uh on six of the records with ISD so happy to pause here and ask uh and see if you have any questions but again fair Fairly straight forward to occupancy change thank you thank you any questions from the board hearing none may have public testimony Madam chair members of the board Siggy Johnson with the office of Neighborhood Services our office hosted an abutters meeting on September 30th at which no concerns were raised proponent went on to present to the Beacon Hill civic association zoning and license ing committee on October 2nd which returned a vote of non opposition that comprised the community process and with that background we defer to the Judgment of the board thank you madam chair we have no raise stand at the thank you with that may I have a motion Madam chair I like to put for a motion of approval have a second second Mr stbridge yeah Miss B Braza yes chair votes yes motion carries good luck thank you next we have case boa 166 0656 with the address of 590 East Broadway if the applicant Endo their representative of present would they please expain the case through the board Madame chair members of the board Frankin nienberg on behalf of Higher Ground Fitness um we are seeking to take what is currently a multi-use building with one dentist office and two residences and subdivide the dentist office um the dentist office will remain and in the basement space put a uh pilates studio which under article 68 qualifies as a fitness studio and as a forbidden use so pretty simple project just subdividing space that was already in use and just changing uh the use to a fitness studio which is uh has been accepted by The Neighborhood okay thank you are there questions from the board um the two residential units there's no change at all correct correct they are just two one-bedroom apartments that have been there for so you're just really changing the use of professional office to you said a pilates studio correct okay um I know we received feedback Madam chair regarding um inadequate plans but I I think this is sufficient for me so I don't have any further questions I will agree uh any uh with that may I have public testimony Madame chair members of the board sigy Johnson with the office of Neighborhood Services as petitioner has completed the on community process our office hosted and ab Butters meeting on September 26th at which no concerns were raised uh proponents additionally corresponded with the Gate of Heaven neighborhood association which is the active Civic group in this area which indicated no opposition to The Proposal with that background we defer to the Judgment of the board thank you mad mad shair members of the board Laura here from cul F's office at this time the cular would like to go on record and support based on a feedback for Neighbors cul of f respectfully requests that the proponent continue to work closely with the neighbors on any quality of life issues that arise thank you thank you and Madam shair we have no raised hands thank you with that may I have a motion Madam chair can I ask a question I'm so sorry um if the if the professional office is going to in the description it actually says that you're going to remain it's going to remain as a professional office and you mentioned it's going to be subdivided with a fitness studio is that correct correct the the professional office occupied the first floor in the basement space uh the profession the dentist office is going to remain on the first floor the Pilates studio will take over the basement space where the where the professional office used to be yeah it was dental lab and storage space for it's all Dental right now okay I think the I think the project description that was given to us is uh was not accurate um because it's mentioned that the professional office is going to remain but I don't have any further questions think it is that is g to remain on the first floor that's the dental office okay got it okay great that with that clar clarification I like to put forward a motion of approval may I have a second second Mr stbridge yes Miss B brazza yes chair votes yes motion carries good luck thank you next case has been deferred so that takes us to two companion cases first is case boa 16404 59 with the address from 5 to 7 Den Street along with that we have case boa 164 0461 also with the address of 5 to 7 Den Street if the applicant and their representative present would they please explain the cases to the board hello yes ma'am yes yes so I would like to do the presentation about this can you just identify yourself uh your name and address for the record uh my name is tin fam the owner of 5-7 Denver Street dochester and hran is my contractor but um he's running a little bit late so I will do the presentation today thank you um yes please proce so um so um the first one is about the remodel the kitchen and uh soon remove the kitchen in a better location as you know the old houses they have different um uh organization right now we are um we um so we propose uh to um to reorganize the kitchen in a more functionable way and then we have the existing two deck so we would like to add one more deck on the top of the third floor but of course it still I remain as the two family and we all live together as a family so that is uh one um one case and the other case we would like to apply for the cup cut and propose uh two new parking space so I know that we take out one parking spot from the uh public from the street but then we are all family so we we we can park at least two car in there and we can uh arrange among our s at least two maybe three cars so to leave the parking on the street for public uh we are familyowned we are not rental so we hope that and you know on the same street on shepon Street there are a lot of single family they only have one car but they still have all of them have the curve cut and they can only fit one car in there so I really hope that I can have the cup cut for the parking so we can put more car our family there and leave more more spot in on the street for the public to park because that area is very thickly uh settled a lot of very busy uh area lots of car over there so we don't want any burden for the street anymore so that's why we propose that uh thank you very much if you have any questions you can ask me thank you um can you just uh clarify on Denver street is there do you have a curb cut uh on septon Street sh so you're requesting one on shepon is there anything existing on no nothing existing okay no it's too small yeah okay questions from the board um uh there's um request for two sorry sorry there's a request for two parking spaces um but it it really kind of eats up all your open space uh you don't really have open space on the property would you be open to having a curb cut for one parking space and allow for some open space in the rear Yes actually I'm only repos one spot and uh as you can see we park two car but one after another so we only request for one yes we know we shouldn't take too much from the street it's very hard to park there and snow here so we only try to po one okay um okay so I don't have any further questions if you are agreeable to provide open space and to have one parking space only yes okay thank you thank you may I have public testimony good morning or good evening sorry guys I'm getting that one wrong uh good evening Madam chair and members of the board my name is Eva Jones representing the mayor's office and Neighborhood Services regarding fact to 7 Denver Street our office will defer to the board's judgement on this matter a community process was conducted including an a Butters meeting held on September 4th of this year which was attended by three constituents the primary feedback was this meet for this meeting was that the community supported the applicants project to renovate their home for her and her family but definitely did not support the curb cut or the Stacked parking layout siding removal of parking spaces on the street for the community concerns about the stack layout if the uh of the parking if the applicant ever sells a property and those spots have to be shared by rent and lastly due to the proximity of the driveway to other homes constituents are also concerned about idling car fumes entering through an open window uh the proposal was reviewed by the St Marks area civic association which expressed many of the similar concerns shared by constituents they support the home renovation but not the curb cut and especially not the parking layout on the driveway uh at this time the mayor's office and Neighborhood Services defers to the board's judgment thank you everybody for your time and consideration Madam chair we have no raised hands at the moment okay thank you and just uh I don't know if someone wants to read Bob deo's uh comments for the record from BTD if you have them give me one moment if not it's okay um I don't know do you have it Caroline you said that it did comply with btv's criteria okay that's fine uh any other questions from bottom line yes got it okay uh with that may I have a motion Madam chair to s five Boston planning's Department concern regarding open space I like to perform a motion uh that doesn't compromise for both the applicant and Boston planning um review of the project uh the motion is to Pro to have a motion of approval with a provis that it be for only one parking space to allow for open space re at the rear of the parking space is there a second Mr stbridge yes m b brazza yes shair votes yes yes motion carries uh and sorry was that on both uh was that motion for both Miss B Braza both cases well I don't I'm not sure if Norm Mr stambridge read the other project the other case for the record yes he did okay so so applicable to both okay thank you yeah excuse me so does it mean it is approved yes it's approved tentatively approved we just need to officially uh take it to the full board uh the next full board meeting which is later this month okay so I have to wait um I have to join another full board meeting end of the month uh you don't have to join it it will it'll be read as part of our recommendations so unless you just want to join it yes okay yeah thank you very much thank you and finally we have case 164 9103 with the address of two Michael Road if the applicant and or the representative present would they please explain to the board sorry if you're on for this proposal can you raise your hand okay I'm sorry see I raised hand here um Leah I just sent a request to unmute you yes there we go thank you can you hear me yes uh excellent uh so my name is Lee over I am here with my husband Michael telman we live at two Michael Road and our proposal for this property is to essentially correct a uh difficult entrance so the way we bought the house recently and the way the house is designed the front door which takes up the three the normal regular 3et it opens pretty much exactly into the stairs and so because of that it's extremely difficult to maneuver around the front of the house and I'm particularly concerned if we had anybody that had any kind of accessibility issues it would be pretty much impossible for them to get into our front door and so what we would like to do is essentially bump out that front door by about 4 feet to improve the ability to access the front of the house uh so on the presentation that we have we show exactly what we want to do we increase the floor plan by um there we go there we go like that there we go uh by 48 ft total it is 4T in uh depth and 12T across the front of the house which will also improve access around that hallway there that's a little bit on the difficult side right now the reason that we need your approval for this this is a older house and already we are too close to the front of the street within the 20 foot uh abutment Rule and so this would eat up slightly more of the front yard uh by the six feet kind of the house also has an over hang so we're actually only extending the footprint of the house by 2 feet outside because of the already existing overhang that hangs over by 2 feet already um this is an older community the setbacks along the street are not standard and so in a way by pushing it out by this additional four feet we're actually kind of bringing the house closer to what our neighbors are already um so that's in essence what we would like to do great thank you uh any questions from the board hearing none may have public testimony Madame chair members of the board sigy Johnson with the office of Neighborhood Services this petitioner has completed the on community process our office hosted in a Butters meeting on September 26th at which no concerns were raised proponent additionally presented to the Brighton Alon Improvement Association which is the active Civic group in this area on October 10th which then voted to support The Proposal with that background we defer to the Judgment of the board thank you thank you okay anyone else all right I have no additional raised hands okay with that may I have a motion Madam chair I like to put forward a motion of approval may I have a second second Miss uh Mr stbridge yes Miss B brazza yes chair votes yes the motion carries good luck ma'am thank you and good night everyone see thank you thanks everyone thank you good take care folks