Zba - Regular Meeting

I don't know.

Good evening. It's 6-10 on September 9th. The Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing is now in order. I will introduce you to the commissioners. To my far right is David Kalinka.

Good afternoon.

To my near right is Charles Breland. To my far left is Paul Miller. To my near left is Eric Johnson. And I am Robin Shepard, the chairwoman.

Item number D1, 115 Clifford Street on the north side of the street west of Newfield Avenue, seeking a variance of section 3.90.60 to permit the construction of a one-story single-family dwelling in the NX-2 zone.

Chair, members of the Commission, Chris Russo with Russo and Rizzio LLC, offices of Tensasco Hill and Fairfield. Good to be before you. We submitted a letter today. My client informed me that they would like to withdraw this application. We have received some comments from some neighbors, council people, and we are, we need additional time, essentially, to be able to meet. Everybody's got summer schedules, and so it put too much of a time crunch ahead of this meeting. So we're withdrawing, and then, you know, to be able to take that time and discuss their concerns or comments. And that's all.

D2? Okay, item number D2, 273 Ash Street. I'm sorry, that's 650 and 670 Knowlton Street, east side of the street, seeking a variance of section 3.170.8 to legalize the permanent placement of two storage containers exceeding the maximum allowed area of 180 square feet in the RX-1 zone.

Chairman, members of the commission, Chris Russo with Russo and Rizzio LLC, offices at 10 Sasko Hill and Fairfield. Here on behalf of Attorney Rizzio, who is representing this applicant. Unfortunately, Attorney Rizzio had a conflict today, a personal conflict today, so he was unable to make it for tonight. So he asked me that I continue this application to your next hearing, where he will present it. It's open, yeah, and then continue. Yes, please. Thank you.

OK, here we go to item number one. 1108. to 1110 Pembroke Street, south side of the street, northeast corner of Arctic Street, seeking a use variance of section 3.60.9 to allow for the construction of two additional apartments within the preexisting mixed-use building, which currently contains ground floor commercial space and eight residential units above in the NX-2 zone.

And...

Now we go to C1, right? 381 Bishop Avenue, west side of the street, 600 feet south of Barnum Avenue. Seeking a certificate of location approval pursuant to section 11.120 to establish a motor vehicle upholstery workshop within a former tire storage building in the industrial zone.

I'm Edwin, and this is Robinson Cruz. He's the one applying for the. Edwin Soto?

Oh, Robinson Cruz. Oh, he's Robinson Cruz. Yes.

We were here last month, and I just send it to today. And someone's supposed to go look into the place of some of the people that were here. And they made an arrangement to go see the place, but they never showed up. And it caused him some hardship because he's trying to do his business. And he has done everything that they requested. Place is nice and clean. There's no cars in the area. At the beginning, there was a big mess of cars that were lined up in the street. But the city and other people, when they stamp, they put stickers and people move their vehicles out of the street. So now from where the garage is to the corner, hardly nobody parks there. And he doesn't park in the street. He has a space for six cars. So when someone comes in and bring a vehicle, what he does is bring it inside, work on the car, and then deliver it to the owner. So there's not reason for, you know, there's not going to be any harm, anything bad in the street. You said that they did not try to see you? I asked him a few times. He goes to my office quite a few times. He told me all the time that nobody has to show up. We already, you know, spent money, put a handicapped bathroom in there, did quite a bit of work.

Oh, because?

We paying rent for six months at . Uh-oh, I don't know. Yeah.

So did you try to talk to the NRZ? Did you go to the?

No, she didn't. Oh, right. She never called me or call him on anything. Oh, boy.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So the council person said she tried to... Anita. She said she tried to come into the place and you... She said she tried to come into the place and you would not allow entry into the establishment.

It's supposed to be closed because it's not supposed to be in business there until it's accepted. So if she doesn't call him, how are they going to get in touch? He's not supposed to be there waiting for somebody to show up. I live down the street. I live two blocks, and I pass by there every single day up and down because I got my office on East Main Street. I don't see anybody, not even on Saturdays.

Okay, so, yeah.

And exactly, do you know exactly what he said that she wants to look for?

No. Do you say the business is closed?

Well, it's closed because there's no permit yet to, you know, to start working. Do you need to get a permit yet? We're waiting for this, or we could continue with the rest of the paperwork with the fire department and all of the...

If somebody were to bring their car in to you to have it worked on, where would the car go until it was worked on? I was over there yesterday morning and could barely find a place on the street to turn around and leave. It was so crowded. There seems to be no parking anywhere, and you're in an industry that wants to have cars coming in. No.

The way that he operates, he doesn't get any cars in there until he makes an appointment with them. So he makes sure that he has the space to bring the car inside the garage. He lay in the morning and they pick it up two or three days later because the work that he does, it takes time and handcraft. You know, upholstery, cars, he also does, you know, mine furniture from the office if I want to. It's not just cars, but mostly cars, and he could put up to six cars inside the garage. It's a pretty big-sized garage.

So you're saying there will not be any cars parked in the front of the place?

It could be one the moment that they leave it, but it's not going to disturb anybody because from there, there's a three-family house right next to it. Yep. They got their own driveway. Yes. And then that section to the corner is Hoffman Oil. Oil, yep. And there's nobody parked there. They all park around the corner in that big lot next to it. But ever since, I noticed ever since they put the race stickers on those trucks, I hardly see any car anymore. And that's been like what, six months ago? But it did work. Most of those cars were always from the garage, which is like a repair mechanics garage.

Can I read to you what the city councilwoman sent a letter to us? This guy just doesn't care. This is about a half an hour ago. This was on September 8th. I was on the traffic stand still as he pulled in cars to work on. Those vehicles in front of the establishment are all his as well. He did not make an attempt to come before the NRZ as discussed at the last meeting, nor has he allowed us entry into the establishment as discussed during his first zoning hearing, which was continued to fulfill those accommodations. Can he continue to be violated? I think she means can we continue to be violated? He has not been zoned to operate. So she seems to be not too happy with you guys.

Well, I don't know where this is coming with that from because, like I say, in the morning at 9 o'clock when I go up the street.

At 9 o'clock you open.

Then sometimes I go around because I have businesses in the area that I take care of. Like right on the corner by where they are. New bakery. I do the bookkeeping and taxes and stuff. And I go by there all the time. I don't see no cars. I mean, I have to hear my... Oh, let me ask him something. There was nobody there. And the cars that are there, I know for a fact they not belong to him. Now the garage door, they continue putting cars in that little stretch, but they already told them not to do that. They keep doing it. So we're not going to take the fault of somebody else.

You know, in this case.

My perspective, you're the one asking for the barriers.

Yes.

So you're the one who needs to meet with the NRC, meet with the councilwoman.

Don't wait for them to contact you. What was the other thing?

So you're saying that...

Allow them entry into the establishment. So that's on you to arrange those things, not on them to come looking for you and... No, we understand that. You're asking for the variance, so it's your responsibility.

We understand... I'm pretty sure he understand that and I understand that. The only thing is, how am I gonna get in touch with the person, okay? I'm in my office all day. You know, I go out also, but I have three secretaries that work in my office. And he's waiting for somebody to either go or call him or find him so he could go and open the place. But he not gonna open the place until somebody goes there with him because he's not working in the place. They could go in there. They're not going to find any vehicles in there.

So he hasn't had the place open? Is that what you're saying?

No, he opened it at the beginning because he didn't know anything about, you know, the procedures of what is the paperwork and everything that he needed to have. But now that he knows that he cannot be open, he's not being open.

Was it open today?

I don't know. That's not true.

I was there. I parked there. I stayed there for two hours. People were coming in and out. Of his garage? His garage.

381 Bishop Avenue. Bishop, but you just told us it was closed. It's closed for operations. He leave his pickup truck. He has a red pickup truck and he bikes it. But it's not open for operation.

Okay, there was no red pickup truck in the front. There was a van and a BMW in front of the place. I sat there for about an hour and a half, two hours. And I seen a young man in a red Honda come up, ring the doorbell, someone let him in.

And then someone else came and they let him in.

So my question is, is it as this notice, is it closed period, no one can go in and out of the place, or they can go in and out and clean up? If they can't be in there, why are people coming in and out, and why are there cars in front?

I have pictures. I've taken pictures. So he cannot use the place inside to park his car? But the place should be closed, so why is there a car being parked in there? Because he's paying rent and he's paying utilities and everything in the place. If I'm not using it for anything, it's a garage. I could use it for parking my vehicles.

Well, as far as we know, the place, nothing should be, no automobile should be in the place.

Am I right? Empty completely. Then you just said there was a car in there. Oh, the car that is there is his truck that he goes in and out when he needs to take it out.

There shouldn't be anything in there. There shouldn't be no cars in the place, am I right? Right, no cars should be, you shouldn't be pulling that gate up and pulling the car in there. So now if the councilman or zoning just happens to go by there and they see something pulled out, they're going to think that you're working on it.

Well, I understand that, but according to what I know, there's no cars being worked on. To have a car work... Well, that's what you're telling us.

But if we see a car being pulled out or pulled in, we don't know what you're doing with it.

Let me explain something. When you bring your car into a shop like that, it's not a job that is being done in an hour or two hours. If somebody goes in with a car... We don't know. That car is going to stay there three or four days probably.

Regardless, three, four days a week. Nothing should be pulled in or out of there. That's what was said, right?

That's what was said.

He's saying it's his own personal car, but we don't know that. The councilwoman doesn't know that. Zoni doesn't know that. And who says they're going to sit there, they're going to drive by, they see the gate come up, they don't know how long that car's been in there. So in their minds, that car was just worked on. It's been in there three, four days, and it's been worked on. That's what I'm trying to say. Should anything be coming in and out of there?

In the time that I've been working with him, I have seen the place open once, but I'm not a person that's going to go in by there and make sure that it's open or closed. That's not my... That's not what I'm supposed to do. He told me that it's not open. So I believe what he said. Now, you guys went by and see it open. I mean, that's something else. Why is it open? That's why we have to find out.

You keep saying it's not open, but you're not saying it's not occupied.

Well, it's occupied with one truck. His driving thing, what he drives every day, that's all he's in there. When he leave it there.

So it is occupied.

Occupied with one truck?

So what he's saying that when he goes there, check into something, he pulls the truck in there because he don't want to leave it in the street. He don't want to get a ticket. He says everybody is against having cars parked in the street, which I don't understand that. I mean... If I park my car in front of the garage or whatever, I pay access and plate to have my car in the street, you know, not all the time, but when I have to.

Okay, so let me ask you this. You said that nobody got in touch with you, but it was on the onus for you to get in touch with them. so that you could go forward with this. That was the whole reason why we continued this, so that you could talk to NRV.

In the sense, yeah. But my thing is, how are we supposed to get in touch? I mean, if I would have a phone or something the day I was here, I would have called it the next week or a couple of times, but I didn't have no point of calling. They're sitting working. No, I don't. If the person is here and they want me to call them, please, let's share telephone.

So what you're saying is you...

I called a couple of times the zoning department. Okay. And they told me, you know, they said, we don't know who's in charge of that or who's going to go. They told you what? That they don't know who's the person that was going to go look at the garage or look at whatever they have to look at there. And I called a few times. You talked to Nick? No, I didn't talk to him. I talked to the other guy. Spanish guy. No, yeah, he can say something that wasn't there. Right, this is what I'm saying. We understand it's our responsibility.

Right, that's where I'm going with, it's your responsibility to get in touch because the last thing we did, we did a continuous because the last thing we said was you were to talk to NRZ and let the council people in. And you didn't do either.

So who went to look at the place? We don't know who went to look at the place.

She's standing right behind you.

Right, yeah. Okay, so now I know that.

But my thing is, a city council person, you can always get their numbers.

I have Lydia Martinez number. I have Angie Nieves number. I don't have her number.

But you could have called them and asked for her name.

It's one thing that, you know, I'm just working with him. I tell him what to do, because I have done this a few times already for legal license efforts. And I know that if they have to call, we know we have to call back this morning or whatever. So are you describing something that can't happen? Are you saying that that meeting cannot happen? No, I know it did not happen. Are you saying it cannot happen? It won't happen. There is no way to make it happen. Of course we need to have it happen.

Okay, so what are you going to do to make it happen?

No, whenever they are available to go look at the place, we'll be there.

How are you going to make that happen?

I know about it. I won't ask any of them for the person's number so I could be in touch. Or I go to City Hall on Broad Street and find out if I have to.

So are you willing to say that if you can't have a meeting this month, That's it.

If we could, yes. Okay.

Is there anybody to oppose?

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm glad that I was connected to the live. So it drew me in because I didn't have the email of today's agenda. to remind myself that's why we didn't have the rest of the NRZ.

But let me just say this for the record.

I have no problem supporting any businesses that comes to our district. What I have a problem with is with liars. I have a problem with anyone that's gonna lie, not only to the board, but to the elected officials in the district. So Keith Williams, on August 25th, stopped by the location and left a letter for the NRZ meeting, which was being held at Newfield Library on August 27th. This individual is connected to Alfredo Castillo, who I speak to on a day-to-day basis. He was smart enough to have Alfredo call me to ask for my support so that he can open his establishment. The problem that I have here is that zoning, building, and health have been to this location and they have cited them for the violations of operating without being approved, and they continue to do so. When I sent the picture in, I was stuck in traffic because there was a cargo van right in front of that establishment with a dealer plate blocking the entire driveway, which they cannot say it didn't belong to them because as traffic was moving, a young man was coming out of the establishment, getting into a white SUV that was parked right in the driveway. And when he opened the gate, you can see right inside that there were cars in there. They have been working on vehicles. They also do tinting there as well. They tint windows there. So they have a multiple of businesses that they're operating out of there. Should he be straightforward, meet with the NRZ, allow us to visit the establishment. Mr. Pedro Soto knows good and well how to contact me. He knows good and well how to contact me. He does the paperwork for the individuals who, and I'm gonna say this, illiterate. So he charges them to do the paperwork. So he's done paperwork for a Dominican store owner in my district and he knows good and well how to get in contact with me. that he's saying that he doesn't know how to get in contact with me is baloney. That's my problem that I have. I would support this man if he would follow city policies and procedures and wait to be permitted before he opens his establishment. Everybody has to eat. Do it the right way. That's the problem that I have. Thank you.

You have a re-bio?

Do you have a rebuttal? I asked you, did you have a rebuttal?

Okay.

Is that it? Yeah. These are just votes. What about Pembroke? Did we do that? Yeah. Pembroke was?

It's a referral. Referral. I mean deferral.

D1 was first, which is 115, Clifford. Okay, we're gonna start with D1, 115 Clifford Avenue. And they just need a withdrawal. So we just need to vote on, to accept their withdrawal.

I make a motion that we accept their withdrawal. Second.

Okay. Aye.

Aye.

The next one was D2 and that's 650 and 670 Knowlton Street. And they opened it and they're gonna continue it. So we just gotta make a motion on that as well.

Make a motion we continue Knowlton Street. Okay.

Still open, yeah. Okay, and number one is 1108. and 1110 Pembroke Street, and that is being deferred until next month.

So we gotta make a motion on that. To make a motion, we defer 1108, 1110 Pembroke Street till next month.

Okay. Second.

Aye. Aye. Aye.

Nick, did you get straight with Chris what they are actually looking to do on that particular building, It's currently eight apartments with two retail outlets. I was confused.

Yeah, they want to put two more apartments.

They want to add two.

Yeah, and where was it coming from? Because they never showed the plans from the pre-fire building.

Now they're showing the proposed plans. Yeah, they're showing the proposed plans. You know what the use is now. Okay, now it's C1, 381 Bishop Avenue. Do you want to have them continue until next month?

to give them the opportunity to make the calls that they should have made this month?

I think that's reasonable.

Wow.

You know, I really.

I really would say to them continue, because if they didn't understand, they didn't understand. I don't know, because we don't know if they don't understand. So now they do, and he has our card, he can call, he can meet with NRZ. And if he does not do that, that's next month. That would be a problem.

I make a motion that we continue. 381 Bishop Avenue till next month, provided that they meet with the NRC.

And let the council people in.

And let the council people in, yes.

Second.

Aye.

There won't be an excuse. Yes, the last time they can continue. The notes. We gotta approve the minutes. Gotta approve the minutes from last month. From August 12th. The only thing is David's name is not up here. Oh, it's up here, it's not over here. Okay, I just wanted to make sure.

I make a motion that we approve August 12th, 2026 meetings.

Minutes. I second.

Right.

I make a motion to adjourn this meeting at this time. Second.

Thank you. 643. 643.

Yes. They're going to do something else, right?