##VIDEO ID:9CA2zryeSKs## testing one and two good evening welcome to the r zoning board of appeals if we could all rise and salute the flag please the United States of America the for it stands na indivisible andice roll call the members of the zoning board of appeals Mr lemina here Mr Lopes here Mr O'Brien here here Mr Pelton here here and chairman Tucker here here qum is present and please note that the alate member Miss Pratt is absent today first item on the agenda is application a419 on the application of nefta realy trust LLC 1176 Northshore Road requesting a six-month extension of the one-year exercise period from the zoning board of appeals associated with the granted variances of a 2329 to enable the appellant to construct a 10 story 144 unit apartment building on the properties known and numbered as 6 Agawam Street and 1198 Northshore Road good evening state your name and address for the record please good evening Mr chairman members of the zoning board of appeals my name is attorney Larry Simeone I represent the appellant before you today um my offices are in 300 Broadway Rivier Massachusetts the applicant uh is nefta realy trust nefta realy trust seeks an extension of the variants granted by this honorable body in 19 N the previous year and at that particular location we were allowed a 14 uh 144 units in a 10 story building since that time um my clients have been working with his architect Mr bosi who's here today and we'll be able to explain any schedule problems they're having or the status of their Construction in order to make sure that the the the board understands why we're asking for the extension um I don't think I really have anything further other than to note for the record that section 48 section 4A section 10 states that uh if the rights authorized by the variant are not exercised within one year of the date of the grant of such variance such rights shall be provided however that the permit granting Authority in its discretion and an upon written explanation by the grantee of such rights May extend the time exercise for the period no greater than uh 6 months M if you have any questions for Mr bosy he's here and no not at all it's it's just an extension so seeing that this is a public hearing for an extension I would ask if there's any proponents anyone in favor Angela Gino soai award 5 counselor I am in favor it's just an extension and I have no problem with it thank you thank you are there any other proponents seeing in hearing I I'll close that side of the hearing are there any opponents anyone opposed seeing in hearing n close that side of the hearing any members wish to speak there is a motion on the floor to approve second second ask for a roll call please shall the zba grante six-month extension of the one-year exercise period associated with the granted variances of a 2329 to March 9th of Mr lemina yes Mr Lopes yes Mr O'Brien yes Mr Pelton yes and chairman Tucker yes the time extension has been granted thank you Mr chairman thank you members next application is a2420 on the application of Daniel sea and Andrew sea seea Family realy Trust 21 Green Street Riv Mass requesting multiple variances from the zoning board of appeals to enable the appellant to file a planned unit development application for the construction of a 30 unit apartment building at 21 Green Street good evening council state your name and address for the record please good evening Mr chairman um good evening the members of the zoning board of appeals U my name is attorney Larry Sone I have a law office at 300 Broadway Rivia Massachusetts the evening I represent um Daniel sea Trustee of the um sea Family realy Trust along with his brother Andrew seika also the trustee of the seea Family Trust along with the trustees of 21 Green Street um this particular variance s is a variance that seeks the opportunity for my client to um if granted these variances will be able to go before The Honorable members of the city council and seek a plan unit development this particular property is located in the Ted District the project in mind will bear uh the resemblance that we are going to show you today which is 30 units S one bedrooms um if you look at the application that was submitted the applicant States as to the nature of the variance that the applicant shall require zoning relief prior to filing for its PUD application to one a non-compliance of with sections R revised zoning ORD 7 12 24010 table of dimensional regulations with respect to the minimum lot area the minimum lot Frontage the minimum lot front side and rear setback maximum principal building coverage and usable open space the second part of the variances required also include a floor area ratio so be non-compliance with r revised ordinance 172020 table of parking and loading requirements seeking a relief from the fact that we've only got uh eight spaces that are currently there on the lot and then um there's the distance between the parking and the principal structure which is R Revis zoning ordinance 1728 020a that allows uh for parking uh being located 100 ft away from a particular structure where it the parking uh assists with if the applicant should attain the zoning relief set forth herein then the proposal will be a 30 unit building approximately um single family and that project will make its way to the zoning board of appeals I have you're at the zoning board I'm sorry I make its way to the I make its way to the city council thank you for correcting me so the um I have uh with me um I have with me uh Mr second off and also Mr blazel and let them make a brief presentation as to the project chair members of the board thank you all for you have to speak at the microphone I'm sorry okay very good thank you uh board chair members of the board thank you first uh we come to propose a 30 uh unit uh single bedroom uh five-story building on the property at 21 Green Street as you see in the little um uh out little pamphlet that you have there are six there are five stories and there are six units on each floor uh there's no basement it's strictly a residential uh building uh the base would be a brick um and the upper floors would be clad in a clabber type material um obviously colors just not yet decided yet but we just chose a blue for now Windows have uh nice views there's plenty of air and light for the for the units as you know it fronts on Lee Burbank Highway and backs up on to Green Street that's just the unit sizes we did some quick little elevations to show the size and scale of the building this would be immediately adjacent to Commonwealth Auto Body and there's a larger building up on one end of the lot which is a u four story on a little higher elevation um office building that got renovated and of course um uh down the street the buildings get smaller and this fronts on to uh a residential neighborhood so it kind of shields the residential neighborhood from the traffic as Lee Burbank as you know is quite busy and aerial views of the building with this jeny so I'll open it up for questions it's a public hearing so I would seek any anyone in the audience as far as proponents anyone in favor seeing in here and thenone I'll close that side of the hearing anyone in opposition please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record hello my name is Amanda mcgi uh 18 Green Street um so that's just that's just their time oh oh okay um so uh um I and my neighbors are in opposition to this for a couple of reasons um primarily because it is gigantic proportionate to the single family and duplex homes that are on the street um this is very misleading this picture um the idea that it's going to open into the feeder to the highway and that's the entrance is unlikely but it is adjacent to single family homes they tore down a single family home there and are now suggesting to put 30 residences in place of what was a single family home with no parking the parking that they're offering is also misleading because they same person who converted that office building had to provide parking when they converted it for the office building and they use that same lot for that apartment building so the idea that all of these spaces are available and in addition during the day Commonwealth Auto Body uses that parking lot and those proposed spaces for their vehicles and this is all of same owner for all of those buildings and so he's I feel like playing pretty fast and loose with like what's actually going to be happening functionally the apartment building that's approved on the end of the street now has significantly increased the traffic on the street the street for all intents of purposes Green Street should be a one-way Street you can't have two cars going the same time and now we're propos he's proposing even more you can kind of see there building fully up to the property line including up to the prop property line of the single family house next to it so in this picture it looks like there's this big open space in between there is not you can see from the from some of the plans that were submitted he's suggesting completely overshadowing the uh adjacent houses that are there um on Green Street Green Street only has seven houses on it now we're going to add 30 more people in this one little footprint so is there anyone else any other opponents hey everyone Sean mle uh 18 Green Street so I kind of live diagonally across the street from this so I also oppose just the the size of this building I mean the site itself is just a little bit bigger than a little league infield diamond and they'll put five stories on top of this and if you look at the 50ft max height that is the top of the roof deck and there's a parit above that they don't represent a elevator Penthouse and who knows if it' be a stair Penthouse so like we're talking it's getting taller and taller and it's also located on the southsouth East part of the Green Street so if you look at one of the renderings I mean like this one right here the sun is behind it it's going to block all of the sunlight for the entire Green Street um so there's the height and then the floor plan the the footprint of it I mean again fast and loose with the zoning to try to get the maximum height but the need variances to use Almost 100% of the of the uh site for the footprint it's just too big for the context of Green Street um and then in looking at the floor plans I had a question like what is there strategy for trash because there's no trash room and now there's no site no room on site for trash and if the strategy is they're going to put it on an adjacent site in a dumpster well it seems kind of a poor strategy number one and number two you know neighbors don't want to live next to an open dumpster so I'm just putting that out there as well so again and it also has an impact on Green Street self uh Green Street is basically like she said one oneway street um entering and exiting Green Street is really sketchy um you can't exit and enter at the same time the person who's entering Green Street has like stop on the parkway for the person to leave so if we're adding more cars to this we're adding more potential hazards and danger for people coming in and out of Green Street so I feel just big picture look it's an empty site we know that something's going to be built there let's not you know let's not be naive but this is the wrong size scale in usage and contacts for Green Street than thank you any other opponents seeing and here and none I'll close that side here any members wish to speak Mr you want to clarify i' just like to finish my I to did I have one thing to say y okay so for the record U and on behalf of the applicant the enforcement of the zoning law would result in a serious hardship to the applicant who is the owner of the property and that the applicant will not be able to develop the property as proposed the grant of the variances will allow for development of the posil increasing its economic value resulting in an increased tax revenue to the city while at the same time minimizing the impact of the area and establishing an aesthetically appropriate development for the neighborhood thank you Mr chairman thank you any members I got a question Larry Larry Larry Larry where is the entrance and exit to this building the proposed uh exit the entrance will be on Lee bbang Highway uh we did have a meeting with the ward councilman that was one of the things that she suggested and we agreed to that she also suggested that it would not be a 50ft building but it would be a 46 foot building and we've agreed to do that as well okay thank you now Larry one thing was brought up and I I was sitting I was here when they did the 333 um build and converted it to residential from my knowledge no parking was part of the top of the street there am I correct to say that absolutely correct so it was all within that the additional parking additional parking needed for the 333 uh conversion building that went from Office Space to residential that extra parking came from um the uh the the Commonwealth Auto uh location yes that's what we appr and that's where it's just wanted to make sure that was clear that's what we approved if there's anything that that's that's being done otherwise then that's something you take up with other authorities building department whatever this here will go in front of the city council for a special permit after if we would vote on this um so with that said I would ask if if there's a motion on the floor to approve a motion to approve is there a second motion to approve roll call please the standard conditions with the our standard conditions including the parking the standard conditions incorporated into the question are as follows if the rights authorized by this variance are not exercised within one year of the date of the grant of this variance the rights shall lapse this variance shall not be valid until the appellant has recorded this variance in plan and the Sea County registry of deeds and submits document recording numbers and dates to the city clerk and building inspector of the city of Rivier the appellant must receive site plan review approval prior to applying for a building permit and the property shall not be eligible for participation in the city of River's residential and visitor on Street permit parking program shall the zoning board of appeals Grant the relief requested subject to those conditions Mr lemina yes yes Mr Lopes yes yes Mr O'Brien yes yes Mr Pelton yes yes and chairman Tucker yes yes the barrance has been granted subject to those conditions Mr chairman members thank you on behalf of my clients city of know [Music] next item on the agenda is application a2421 on the application of Robert El Greco Trustee of Franklin Holdings realy trust 221 Reservoir AV R Mass requesting a special permit from the zba pursuant to R revised ordinance section 17 24032 conditions for a special permit for undersized lots to enable the appellant to construct a single family dwelling at 35 Liberty AV reir Mass good evening state your name and address for the record please good evening chairman and members of the board my name is Nancy O'Neal and I'm an attorney with d Ambrosio LLP located at 14 Proctor Avenue I along with Attorney Jerry D Ambrosio of D Ambrosio LLP represent the applicant in this matter Mr Robert Greco Trustee of Franklin Holdings realy trust and we are joined here tonight by Mr delgreco and his family so this proposal is for the construction of a single family home on an existing Foundation at 35 Liberty Avenue with that home to be occupied by Mr Del Greco's son uh so what we are proposing is a modest single family home with off street parking to be occupied by lifelong Riv residents so this is not an income or rental property this is a single family home for family members so why are we here tonight the 35 Liberty Avenue property is an undersized lot meaning that this lot does not meet the lot size or fontage requirements uh for the ra1 district and because that lot is undersized a special permit of the zba under a VAR zoning ordinances 17 2432 is needed for construction of the single family home so this special permit uh entails requirements relating to lot sizes and frontages of surrounding properties as well as certain dimensional criteria and as we do not meet those requirements we are requesting variances of special permit requirements under RZ 17 2432 A4 A5 A6 as well as section B so special permit requirements may be varied under Mash gen laws chapter 48 section 10 which empowers the zba to Grant variances from the terms of the applicable zoning ordinance or bylaw and Massachusetts courts and recent case law have routinely upheld the granting of variances from special par requirements uh and what we are requesting here tonight is nothing unusual or out of the ordinary Boards of appeal across the state are granting variances from special permit requirements to allow projects to proceed at the board's discretion so the zba has full Authority Under Massachusetts law and the riv zoning ordinances to vary the terms of the undersized law special permit so it has been said that uh Riv zoning ordinances 17 2430 provides a blanket prohibition against zoning Le in North Riv uh this is simply not true nowhere in RZ 172 2430 does it state that variances are not allowed in North rer rz7 17 2430 generally provides for special exemptions from dimensional requirements for certain uh pre-existing Lots outside of North R uh but as relevant here uh 17 2430 does not provide special exemptions for north rer and we have not applied for Relief under that section uh so overall uh that section is irrelevant to our request for a special parment tonight so Massachusetts case law principles of statutory interpretation and the terms of their VAR zoning ordinances support the zba's authority to vary special permit requirements and this property is well suit its variance relief uh the property is subject to a north south grade change of 10 ft uh this is a severe grade change that runs diagonally across the property and as you can imagine the severely complicates construction on the property limits placement of buildings uh so Mr delgreco would undergo extreme hardship in terms of construction costs if that Foundation needed to be torn out and relocated to an unsuitable area so this proposal here tonight represents a modest a single family home with sufficient parking and I would now like to turn it over to Attorney D Ambrosio who would also like to provide you with some information thank you thank you thank you members of the zba I think Nancy laid out of the law for you folks you have the absolute right to vary uh the requirements of a special permit the law is absolutely crystal clear in Massachusetts especially in light of the last three cases over the course of the last year which by the way is the way the law is trending in the state of Massachusetts and the the reason it's trending that way is that we are in a housing crisis currently in Massachusetts we are I believe 47th out of 50 states in terms of permits for building homes and here what's before you here is the oxymoron of all situations in my in my 30 years of practicing law I don't think I've seen a more odd situation we have a lot that's a buildable lot in other areas of the city that's currently situating a foundation with no home on it again this is a lot that's roughly 3,800 Square ft which is a buildable lot in other areas of the city of river that's currently situating a foundation there is a foundation there that by the way the delgreco family who's sitting to my left uh uh the dad and the two sons of which Michael delgreco will be the uh occupant of the single family home we have a foundation with no home on it in the middle of a housing crisis so you might wonder why why are we here is this an anomaly is this house some sort of Castle that they're trying to build on this Foundation no it's 2,000 ft it's a 2,000 square foot single family home well you ask is it an anomaly are there no other homes in this area on uh lots that are 3,800 Square ft no absolutely not a review of the home shows that 20 breeding street right around the corner got 30 seconds sure that lot is 3,300 sare ft 500 ft smaller 156 Salem is 2 2,915 ft almost 1,000 ft² smaller 166 Salem Street is 3600 ft 200 ft LW smaller 34 Grand that's 3755 Square ft 11 Grand View 3766 Square ft 19 Grand View 3,649 Square ft 25 Grand View 300 uh 3,349 95 Liberty 91 Liberty 87 Liberty eight Walnut all smaller locks than the lcks that's before you today I I don't mean to sound indignant here but we have an empty foundation in the middle of a housing crisis when there are over a dozen houses around it built on a lot smaller than this so the question becomes does this DVA have authority to Grant these variances like you do everywhere else other than North Rivier Jerry I'm not going to cut you I'm going to cut you shot we got a cista his opinion saying we can vote on this so I'm going to end it right there thank you thank you and I suggest I suggest that not only do you vote on it that you vote positively on it and recognition of where we are not only in the city of river but the state of Massachusetts thank you see it's a public hearing is any of proponents anyone in favor and if you could read the proponents that were given by to the city clerk by email there were several proponents submitting their testimony via email they are as follows Angela Windsor 48 Grand View Maria Cutler 111 breedens Dennis De Oliva 58 breedens alisandra Baron 87 Liberty James pow 91 Liberty and Robert and Gina Mahoney to Paul Street thank you good evening councilor how you do Council jino w six counselor I just want to speak on um see right now we know we're going to get up there a single family house with the current laws in Massachusetts we don't know what could happen in the next year or two as far as the LW sizes and and housing and the possibility of two family go in that same lot so like like to consider you know the options that we have against us as opposed to we have in front of us where we know what's going to be put there that's that's the basic be be in a favor this year based on what could be there if this is not built we know the developer we know who's building it and we know the background and right now there's a foundation there with a bunch of trees on it and that's the basis of my being a favor here thank you there any other proponents seeing any here n Clos that side of hearing any opponents anyone opposed kindly step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record if you could press that button and there you go you can move that down if you'd like so that there you my name is Patricia Fango I live at 23 Liberty Avenue in North reia and I oppose to to this building I can't understand why it's even near to begin with it was illegally built 1999 there was went to court M Benson brand Danos and at papers and everything and the owners that are next to this house are over here they they just bought the house about not even a year not even a year now I don't understand how this bill building this foundation's been near this long and nothing was built on it because it was stopped by court now I oppose to this between the water the traffic coming off Route One coming up to our end of Paul Street going down to Lind Street Liberty a going into rivere it is a mess and I have water damage when it rains the sewage builds up up and we have water coming down from up the hill with the new houses that were built they get water up there and we get walks and whatnot now the people next to me is the S the seage line is sunking in that's not part of you'd have to take say I oppose to this wholeheartedly okay so thank you you have me any other opponents we have several oppositions on file here but if you'd like to speak sir just yes uh Richard dep Perry FY G you have I'm one of the abdes um he mentioned it's a modest house it's a 32 store it's a 32 foot building that's going to be staring at me I mean that he mentioned all these little you know smaller Lots the house is a regular size house this isn't a regular this is a tower so I don't understand and right the found we fought what almost 30 years ago because they were trying to build the house cuz the land's unbuildable he snuck in and put the foundation before he got any approval that's when they had to do a cease and desist supposed to remove the foundation never did it and just let the property you know let that stuff stay so I mean I don't understand if it's not buildable 30 years ago you know did it like grow because of the rain did it you know magically get big bigger so so I'm totally opposed like I says because I'm going to have a tower staring at me when I'm in my backyard thank you thank you anyone else in opposition please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record hi Norma Tango 51 Grandview W um I received a letter too on it and my biggest concern too is the height and the other concern is if you okay this for this property there's property behind me on Walnut Street that can't be built but they'll come up for a variance and they'll get it and they'll be towered so this is the issues that these people are facing that they're all small homes they can say whatever they want to say is the size of these homes that are on these small lands but they're single family they're not up and down they're small home this place they're going up high so I don't think it's fair I think we have to watch and look and see there's a there's a lot of land in re that's non-buildable so people are just going to come and put Towers in I don't think that's fair thank you thank you any other opponents please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record uh Joe 29 Liberty app so we are the direct but of the lot and we oppose the building plan so I'd like to start with read addressing a couple of facts so we reach out to Frank stringy the chef planner of the building department to make sure our understanding of the code is correct so our neighborhood fall in the nor Riv overlay Zone which has very strict zoning requirements so as defined by the city code any lot which is built upon with this Stone must comply with with the current dimensional requirements no law shall be exempt from the law Frontage and other dimensional requirement provided in this tle so what is the current requirement so the current requirement is 8,000 minimum square ft and 80 fet in Frontage so the lot we are discussing is not even close to meeting any of this ex criteria and also it's not just about the size and Frontage it's about the minimum front yard the minimum side yard minimum right yard and the maximum Building height so I know zoning variance should be allowed uh for special permit but it's only equival for HD LD and LL zones but not in nor R overly zone so in the zones where the variances are permitted the Lots need to have both a larger area and Frontage than 50% of residential Parcels over there and if we do any simple calculation you can find uh that lot is smaller than over 50% of all the uh parcel in the same accessive block or the party of Interest which means a butter to Butters and the applicant in their package they didn't provide any certification or any credential suggest they meet this criteria and four so back to 1990s the city respect the zoning ordinances in fact and voted two unlawful building permits on this slot one is for one single family and one is for two family so the Superior Court actually upheld the city's decision so a substantial amount of the efforts and public resources have been spent on this matter and without any changes to the zoning regulation in the nor River overl Zone I don't know why this whole situation whole conversation is restarted so I would also mention a few quick things that are more related to us as direct ABS so when the previous owner of our house Winston brandano lived here so the unlawful construction on that lot caused severe water damage to the house foundation and that problem could not be solved until the city voted their building permits and issue a seas and diseased order to stop that unlawful construction so there has been a long-standing water drainage problem in Liberty a and surrounding neighborhoods so the proposed construction May reintroduce all the water damage to us and also wor than the drainage situation in our neighborhood so the proposed structure is almost as twice as high compared to ours and it's located up here to us so the distance between their wall to our wall so please note here is W to wall distance not wall to fence or anything like that so it's less than 20 ft so this kind of overcrowed arrangement goes completely against the reason we chose to live in the North River and I believe you should receive a couple letters and also the petition letter signed by uh a lot of neighbors among these neighbors uh four direct buts around this house they are against it and all the neighbors will reach out are living within the 300 ft so we live in the same block therefore we urge the board to consider all the facts that's already written in the black and white as well as the voices from The Neighbors who actually live here in order to make a correct decision so as paty just said we bought a house last year we are the new neighbors to the community as the new homeowners and new members to rever we may not have a very long established relationship with the people but we place our trust and our to our very lovely and trustworthy neighbors and above all we put our trust in the fairness and the Integrity of the city of Riv thank you thank you any other opponents if there's any other opponents after this please step up to the microphone so we can move this along good evening state your name and address for the record please hi good afternoon Mr Tucker my name is Brandy SoDo I live at 32 Liberty AV right across the street where the proposals at um Jerry's a great speaker I just want to compliment him that was great but the fact is that it's it's not true it's not the foundation's there but it's an illegal Foundation they put it in they did a cease to theist he was great really convincing but when you put something illegally it doesn't make it right so it's not like this is there and it's like you know something that's going to waste and that there's no there's no hardship there because it wasn't even supposed to be there so that's the first thing um the second thing is I I'm not worried about uh what the councilman said about who's going to come and do something because the fact is that is not supposed to be anything there I've been living at Li Liberty a for the last almost four years I have a big lot this place is directly in front of me I have young kids I have a basketball court in front of my house the reason I bought this house was because when it was built we had space between everybody Riv is thickly packed this is why North Riv is the most desirable area because there's not that congestion we don't have everybody on top of everyone um you have Joe that moved in there a year ago great people the foundation which is illegally built it's not supposed to be there would literally put his house to L Mr lemman that's how we would be every morning from his house to my house my house to his house he'd have to be almost across the street from him to be near me I didn't pay for a house for that reason then if we're going to go about economic Reasons I'm going to lose value on my house I'm going to lose value is now I have a house that's across the street from my house is the size of my garage if that was the case then why couldn't we have built three houses on my property that's not fair to me and it's not fair to my neighbors so on top of all of this more importantly like I said is the safety I have young children everybody on my street knows me because I park more cars on the street than everybody else so everybody probably hates me for that reason here but I have resident parking and I have the parking they're going to have one lane of parking to park whatever cars are going to be there um a single family they have two parking spaces on the lot yeah they have two parking spaces in alignment the house is basically across the street which is a tight Street where right now okay but by right but by our zoning there's two parking spaces there they're not asking for a variance for parking absolutely but what I'm concerned about is the other people that come I only have two parking spaces as well but I have tons of people that come to my street and everybody here will tell you that the street is always packed up on on the weekend because of my visitors now yeah by you having all them visitors they they they should stop building absolutely not okay CU that's what it's sounding like when you're saying so let me clarify so it doesn't sound like that for you Mr Tucker the reason is that I I you looking at me I have the space and my property was there and if I have people they're parking it belongs there they don't have the space to to have the parking or to even be there they've put in a Legal Foundation there and now they want to build on it I'm directly across the street when they come out of their driveway they're going to pull up to to my side of the sidewalk right to to the curve of my street where my basketball court is and my kids are playing outside and now they're going to create more traffic on the street correct but any house would do that sir right but there's not supposed to be a house there is the whole point well that's what they're coming in in front of the board of appeals for and that's why we're here to prevent that so what I'm saying but they do have the right to be here I want to make that clear absolutely someone said it wasn't I went to the city solicitor they do have the right to be here I've never said they don't have the right to be here and if for whatever reason they are allowed it it is what it is but it shouldn't be is what I'm saying and since it shouldn't be it shouldn't allow their visitors and the traffic that's coming to the area on a smaller lot that's not allowed and it's going to bring an increased traffic then you have the water flowing you already have water flowing down when they did the illegal Foundation that they're talking about they created water damage to the two neighbors next to them so now they want to come in the other day they had to cut the tree because they haven't maintained the property either even though it's unbuildable and the tree branch fell down now they came in knocked down the tree started cutting the tree down they're not even maintaining it as an unbuildable lot when they bought it they knew it wasn't buildable so it's not that they have a hardship okay that as far as trees and stuff are not part of the zoning Board of appeal so I I understand I'm just tell telling you how is it impacting the area and the aesthetic of the area which is the the reason why people buy there you I spent almost a million dollars on my home okay so for a house the size of my garage to go up across the street to me I don't think nobody here would like that okay which is the reason why I'm bringing that up it's inconsistent with the whole area it's going to bring a negative impact to our property value okay I timed everyone you've reached the time just like they did so I have to cut you off I appreciate it Mr Cher thank you for your no problem at all is there any other opponents yes yes sir please step up to the microphone state your name and address for the record my name is waon run and and 46 Liberty Avenue uh I'm against this plan because the well I want to basically uh have the following points the first point is uh I want to emphasize that I think the for getting approval for this uh uh Vari there's has a some there are some requirements I think after reading this reading through it I think the there's at least one requirement says the plan if for example if we want to per if we want to allow this to happen the land has to be larger than 50% of the land with the residential buildings in the same block uh we did the calculation and I think the the current results that we get uh with the current size it's only above 21% which is very far from 50% that's currently required so this is the first the the first point the second point is I want to remind the board and also the chair that there there are already two previously permit that the they have to build this foundation and the house but see what happened there are also lawsuits and the the result is we cannot build the the house here I don't know what changed uh because I read through the application I don't see any specific plan in terms of fixing the previous issue that identified and uh whether I actually the I don't know what's the what's specifically has changed and I don't see any specific plans in terms of fixing the previous issues identified in the previously issues uh and then um I also want to uh respond to what basically the other gentleman that mentioned that although there are a lot of neighbors that probably voted for this plan but they are a lot uh a little bit far away neighbors for those that are currently sitting here we are direct neighbors that sit like within 30 300 ft to this site uh I can actually name of them basically there are like for example the uh we have all the names here they gave them so awesome and then I also want to mention that for example the we we completely understand there's a housing crisis across the country but I don't think that we should we can solve this problem by just allowing this variance to happen I think if for example they think the north PR is a region that we can have a land Building like we can have smaller land to build a house we can definitely change it we don't have to require like 8,000 feet square feet anymore we can change it but I don't think this is a place that we can try to solve that specific housing problem thank you thank you there any other opponents seeing in here and not all close that side of the hearing read please thank you yeah just for the record the uh petition that was submitted in opposition we're from the other following individuals who haven't already came up Francisco Rosa 41 and 61 Liberty AV Pedro braas 47 Liberty Chuck Tron 79 Liberty Daniela Lopez 31 Grand View Mark Tango 51 Grand View Ellen deadia 166 Salem Street and Lee Benda 25 breedens Lane thank you any members wish to speak um I got a few words to say I drive by all the lots that people want to build on and that's one of the ugliest Lots I've seen within the city um I don't live up there but if I did if I was a neighbor I would like to see a nice single family home built there it's going to increase the value of the property in that area and like the counselor said having a single family there with people that's been living in Rivier for 30 plus years is better than having a two or three family come down the line that's all I have to say about the situation thank you what's the wish of the council I have a question for the counselor so what's the story about this foundation so there and and and I can understand the neighbor's frustration with this but I think there's a lot of false information out there about the Foundation the foundation is not illegal it was legally granted as a result of a permit so the property owner at that time who is not my client uh who just bought the property in 2017 had applied for the permit it was approved by the building inspector and he moved forward and poured the foundation during during the tenure of building the house the zoning changed in that area what the motivation was in the early 1990s in the city of river up in W 6 as to what the motivation was as to why the zoning changed I think there was my understanding there might have been a little bad blood between some parties the zoning was changed and so while the house was being built legally not illegally there a there was a building permit issued for that foundation and it's in the jacket so while it was while it was being built the city changed the zoning and then withdrew the permit that's that's what happened and so there was a lawsuit there was a lawsuit in court and at that point the court said well it's up to the city it's in their discretion and if they are revoking it they are revoking it hence we're before you today as you all know any project that's denied has a 2year statute of limitation so honestly whatever happened in the 1990s that was 30 years ago the law was very different back then as we cited the cases in the briefs the the law on this issue has changed drastically as has our current housing environment in the state of Massachusetts and in particular in the city so that's why we're before you again it is a legal presentation uh it is uh a a a meritorious presentation and I I will also say one other point that it's important that that we don't that mistruths aren spread the law just changed on August 6th of 2024 a month ago the new law that's in place allows a judge on an appeal to require neighbors to post a $500,000 bond to cover the costs of the Builder if frivolous complaints and frivolous appeals are followed that's the law from a month ago that is the law of Massachusetts right now a judge is allowed allowed to require the neighbors to post a $500,000 Bond so it's important to note that we can't spread misinformation about things the reality is that that Foundation was built pursuant to a properly issued permit by City And Spector feruzi at the time and then it was in the court process it was held up and that's fine but it's 30 years ago and here we are today and this board has Authority and and and you have the right to vote on this and I'd ask that you do thank you can I say something okay I'm not going to go back and forth but from I I want you to know that I brought this to the city solicitor to make sure that we could vote on it and yes in fact the building permit was issued it then went to court and there's a foundation there because the house couldn't be built after it went to court I don't think we are we are very aware of that home I don't think anyone's against a single family home it's 32t high and you have the right to build up to 30 feet by a matter of right am I correct just so you're aware they're asking for a twoot variance for height cuz they have the right to build a home up to 30 ft so what's in front of us what's in front of us is is Si but they have the right to build up to 30 feet on the correct si yes but that's why they're here asking for a variance because they do have a right okay I'm not going to get into back and forth I'm telling you that this went to the city solicitor so that we could make sure we could vote on this they're asking for variances what is the wish of the council is there a motion to approve I'd like to make a motion to approve and is there a second I'd ask for a roll call please all the conditions the conditions standard conditions of the zoning board of appeals are as follows if the rights authorized by the special permit are not exercised within two years of the date of the granted this variance the right shall lapse the special permit shall not be valid until the appellant has recorded this VAR the special permit and plan and the Sea County registry of deeds and submits document recording numbers and dates to the city clerk and building inspector of the city of Rivier and the appellant must receive site plan review approval prior to applying for a building permit shall the zoning board of appeals Grant the special permit subject to those conditions Mr lemina yes yes Mr Lopes yes yes Mr O'Brien yes yes Mr Pelton yes yes and chairman Tucker yes yes the special permit has been granted with those conditions there's no further business no further business our next meeting will be October 23rd