okay good evening everyone uh welcome to the zoning board of appeals meeting uh on March 27th and we're going to be the meeting uh momentarily and I'm going to go over the ground rules excuse me by which this Bo operates under then we'll begin the actual cases in Garden of three members of the zoning board of appeals must be present to conduct a legal hearing applications will normally be heard in the sequence in which they appeared in the public notice all hearings shall be open to the public and no person shall be excluded unless he or she is considered to be a hindrance to the working of the board an applicant may appear on his own behalf his or her own behalf or be represented by agent or attorney the applicant or his or her representative shall present the case to the board representatives of the city shall be heard AB but us to the property present shall be heard I have to turn the page over and get it out of the file those in opposition to the application shall be heard members of the board who are hearing the case may direct appropriate questions during the hearing the board must render its decision regarding variance request within 100 days after the application was due filed in the office of the city clerk the board regarding special permits must conduct a public hearing within 65 days after the application was duly filed in the office of the city clerk the board must render its decision regarding special permits within 90 days after the closing of the public hearing all three members of the board must vote in favor of the variance of special permit for it to be granted approved the right to appeal the decision of this board is provided for in chapter 48 of the zoning act the information is available in the office of the city clerk no variance of special permit or any extension modification or renewal thereof shall take effect until notification from the city clerk that 20 days have elapsed after the decision has been filed in that office and no appeal appeals have been filed and it is recorded in the registry of deeds for the county of District the board requests that each person identify himself or herself as the name and address before addressing the board sitting on tonight's hearing is to my right Randle heglin clerk to my left melie cornette third member and myself Ray La fonders chair uh I also request that if you do have cell phones that they be silenced before we start the hearing in so there'll be No Interruption from any cell phone the meeting also is going to be taped and recorded does anyone object to that be it known there are no objections okay so I am going to actually go out of order with the first one so before the board tonight the first case will be 0 clock Street cral ID M32 111-115 a and it says submit a documentation what the documentation is and it's a request that was REM this case uh was denied by the board it was appealed by the applicant the applicant uh appealed a court hearing was held and the judge remanded it back to the board and with the information that was provided and gave the board a course of action so I'm going to read the documentation that was supplied it is dated March 26 2024 Raymond F lefon chairman zoning board of appeals city of gardener City Hall inex Room 101 Garden of mass 01440 regarding Harbor classic Holmes loc application for variance Zer CL Street gordner Assessor's map M32 parcel 6 case number 202 [Music] 2-10-1 C Dear Mr Leon please be advised that I continue to represent Harbor Classic Homes LLC Hereafter hch regarding the above their reference variance this letter is to request that the zoning board of appeals withdraw my request of January 9th 2024 that the zoning board of appeals one determined that the hc's action constitute an exercise of the variance or two Grant an extension of time to exercise the rights granted by the variance on January 30th 2024 I requested from The Building Commissioner determination that the clock Street variance as well as the century way variance had been exercised and did not lapse on February 6 2024 The Building Commissioner determined that the original variances had not lapsed and the extensions are not required therefore I asked the board to withdraw my request for an extension on a clock Street variance without prejudice thank you very much very truly yours Peter a cabasso Esquire with copies going to the client and John flick city solicitor so do I hear a motion to move on the request for withdrawal without pre seconded any further discussion none all those in favor of granting the withdrawal without prejudice say I I I all those opposed withdrawal without prejudice granted okay the next case before the board excuse me Mr chair is there anything that we can address uh pertaining to the continuance of the variance no the the he's withdrawing those variance request uh it's per order of the court so there variance is the variance stay in place how do it stay in place ask according to the judge he rendered that we're not going to go into that tonight because now you're opening up the whole case remember this case went was appealed by the applicant went before the courts and the judge the judge reviewed all our documentation all their documentation and the main Crux is he agreed that the the applicant has taken adequate uh adequate effort to work with the planning board and that he considered that as an exercise of due diligence and doing what he has to do to get the thing I'll give you one question or answer that that's it what significant progress has been done on the specific that is not here for discussion tonight the discussion tonight was the issue that was remanded back by the courts to us and to the Building Commissioner that he has satisfied the needs for efforts and that is the judge's decision so we're just moving on what the courts have said it is if you have an issue you you can go ahead and file an appeal with the courts that you don't agree with the Court's decision but that's your choice sir my understanding was the court did not make a decision and they just kicked it back to the city remanded it back to the city with guidance what guidance specifically I'm not going to go into it I we've just covered the withdrawal without prejudice I'm not going into all the details of the case and how the judge decided this and what he felt if you want to get that that you can go and search that data out and that would be public record I asked the building inspector and said there was no documentation for well I can't answer that because I noted the court so I don't know what they did so Mr chairman Tom go ahead um so the answer Mr trickin was not that there was no documentation for it Court documentation is under the control and custody of the court if you would like Court documentation you must seek that from the the courts itself um documentation that you're looking for which we discussed previously for exercise of their of their variances under the control of Economic Development and the planning board that's the planning board we're in the zoning board zoning board planning board you probably meant the zoning board no so he said he said planning board to me Mr chairman y so I've heard it the documentation sir that you were looking for that you were asking for and your most recent public records request is documentation that's under the control of the planning board right the the applicant per the judge has made made enough progress to what's called further their use variance therefore an extension of the use variance was not required so documentation that you're looking for would be through the planning board for their progress Mr jff for the few years I've been coming here and it's been brought up not by only myself but many citizens under all different uh cases and it's been clear to me that you have stated that the planning board and the zoning board are two different departments that one does not overrule the other and you are the zoning board MH why are you refer me to the planning board no if you know be when we ask that question you tell us that you have I'm going to give you with the answer and that's the last question I'm going to take on this Mr Campa baso appealed our decision to the courts and then after it if it went through us after that it goes through site plan review and Etc but it also has to be approved by the planning board and we the board originally in decision did not believe enough adequate effort was made to support the continuance of that variance when it went to the court the judge ruled differently he agrees that enough effort was made to the planning board they did the activity that they could rended his decision from there and that's the last I'm going to take on this if you have an issue go to the planning board go to the courts thank you all right my next case before the board is that of what to call Athol Holdings LLC of 15 subury Road sto mass and it's for a property located in the commercial one zone District uh it's outlined as a multif family dwelling and it is allowed under the garden zoning ordinance under attachment or 675 attachment 1-1 uh number five which allows for multif family housing and Commercial so I'll ask if there is Agent or attorney representing uh AOL Holdings L I'm bill wargan with wargan Architects Main Street in Pittsburgh Massachusetts Bill how do you say your last name please l r i g a n you said Main Street Fitchburg yeah 377 where is that on Main Street your city hall no it's down at the other end um oil close closer to the railroad okay all right that was just a question I had that's okay trying to get the location cuzz I know if you went more more North you run into roll stone rock and there's no more to go that's right go ahead please continue sure um so this property um there are two pieces of property that that are going to be joined they want to join the two pieces of property the owner of the pharmacy and then they're they're going to be buying the old police station combining them into one property so that there is the pharmacy still on the first floor there is going to be private parking for the residents in the existing parking garage and we're actually expanding the the parking garage with inside the building so we can get more parking on the site yeah excuse me I I was a little confused when I read your documentation you referred to a request for like nine Apartments which I assume that only over the police station yeah there are 15 and the the other six were in over the pharmacy I believe that's correct what are you addressing tonight I'm addressing the whole building because that's how it's being developed because the request I saw was for nine the document that was I believe done incorrectly I I did not do that um there are going to be nine over the old police at the old police station they're not going to be separated they not going to be separated buildings we have corridors Mechanicals all of that serving the the the residential floor so you basic then so you want to increase and they requested you have here for 9 to 15 that's correct and I have an issue with that me too the documentation I here have here that was submitted to the zoning board speaks to 11 one-bedroom apartments the app ation form speaks to nine one-bedroom apartments and if it's posted in the garden of news or whatever and if it's less than 15 I we cannot hear the 15 tonight cuz that's what was posted to the public and that's what everybody would read and that's what they're going to look at you know if they saw 15 there may be more people here they may not if they see 9 or 11 11 might not bother them but unknowns to them you want to move from 11 to 15 and I will not allow that hearing to happen tonight okay so that has to be corrected and come in with the now I I I do have a question for the the board do we need to actually go to the zba for this because we we're multi-use and that's permitted um by special permit special permit multi-use is by special permit I don't maybe I'm maybe I'm mistaken I don't know I'm sorry let's see if we can clarify want yeah Tom well be too what no in in our district it's uh permitted use they're looking commercial one res huh commercial one uh multif family dwelling commercial one is a special perm but no we're mixed use Tom number 30 why don't only have Tom speak to it so in the the first floor is a pharmacy there's a a parking garage and then there's a professional office okay all right and I'm not going to argue that cuz I know the pharmacy I'm saying is the two documents I have here do not mention mixed use you would like us to in less number and I'm going to first of all turn it over to the Building Commissioner and let him expand on that a little bit so Mr zuper would you care to address this sure uh so originally when this first came across my desk for uh for the development of the site uh two separate buildings that are connected by a demising wall two separate Parcels of land um the barel on 34 Connor street is a mixed use by right in commercial one so that would be the pharmacy with the apartments on the second floor however 31 City Hall AV is not 31 City Hall a is a special permit in the commercial one zoning District um what's changed recently was now you do an anr potentially combine both Parcels combine both buildings I had a conversation with the uh City's Law Department two days ago on this as well um his determination is the same as mine where if the primary entrance for the apartments and um the majority of the apartments are located on the 31 City have parcel city all out parcel then it's going to be a special perit even though we meet the the regulation about so that so that's that's where myself and the city solicitor um disagree with you all well because the primary business is located on Connor Street and currently you have two separate addresses so the way the mixed use reads is that your business must be on the ground level and on City Hall La there is no business on the ground level it'll be only apartments and it will be the majority of the apartments for the development but the the um there again there's going to be an anr on it and there's going to be one address who was going to be Connor's it's not going to have two addresses it's going to have one address okay so we'd have to look at that further but this the as of two days ago the solicitor's determination on that as well as mine was because all the majority of your apartments are going to be on an address that currently has an address of City Hall La which will be the first Flor ground level um it's your main entrance for the apartments it's your the majority of your apartments are on that level um um it doesn't make Conor Street the main address for the apartments it makes City Hall AB the main address for the even though the parking is around the corner on that other entrance that's what we have two entrances sure so the parking so the parking garage and then the and then the lower parking is also City Hall AV as well it's underneath City Hall AV um so that's where the the solicitor and I agreed upon that that it's still a special permit and actually the um City shist excuse me City shist that are if his has rendered an opinion two days ago we have not seen it so we are not privy to that so I think going to make a suggestion you can you got two I'm going to say you got two approach approaches here we can deny your application mhm that means you reapply and come in with it a properly identified or and I'll say when I say that if we deny it and you want to come back there has to be substantial change and I'm going to try to save you some time here has to be substantial change from your original application if you're going from 9 or 11 to 15 Etc that's substantial change but it has to go to the planning board and be approved before it can come back here your other option would not you what I can offer you is you can withdraw without prejudice tonight and you can reapply and come back in with a correct decision correct Tom um may I ask why it would have to go to the planning board may I ask why it would have to go to the planning board for my own because under the law if they denied they got two years to apply they have to wait two years before they apply again so I don't think you want to for some reason you would have to wait to 2026 to sit here again so you I you make the choice but the other option is to withdraw without prejudice as Attorney Camp abaso did for his case and get together I would suggest you meet with your councel yeah and if you need to talk with Tom or even our city solicitor be at It Go for and then reapply as fast as you can and I'm not sure the deadline to go in for the April meeting but case because of it's not clear and you're withdrawing your application tonight without prejudice correct okay all that's all we need we're just going to vote on this right now sure so that means it's not going to planning board it means just reapply right okay okay do I hear a motion to allow the withdrawal of this application without predjudice soone mov seconded any further discussion none all in favor I withdraw Pro was granted great thank you can can I ask one question just about the property um the city hall lab you guys are familiar with it it does have it's almost a commercial uh space right to the right of the parking garage yeah that's all can that be considered commercial it can well I mean no not that it won't be considered commercial it won't be considered commercial at the ground level know it's on ground level it's on ground level the parking lot that's on C Hall app which is which is below Grand right so it's Tech that is technically a parking lot sits level yeah sits lower than the street I don't believe that's the way it's written if I may interrupt this I would like to ask that discussion be held of course a little bit later CU I'm going to um sure youour this meeting Y and then we have no more business before us I just say something elsewhere I own the building across the street 57 City Hall Al and when the police station sold it to whoever owns it now okay they said to make sure that let me I'm going to hold you there you can have that discussion with these gentlemen and then you can come back to the next meeting if there's something but uh we don't want to really listen to those facts cuz one there's nobody here that may want to object to the whole Pro process and then we have now PR information okay so I would ask you if you would have that discussion with these gentlemen and then if it's important they can put it together with their plan or not I just don't want them to forget okay excuse me thank you sir thank you okay uh there's no further there's no uh correspondence no news do I hear a motion to adjourn second all in favor let me ask any discussion n all in favor I I meeting Jour 657 657