Planning Board - Regular Meeting

going to call the January 27th zoning board review to order. We're going to start with a roll call. Um Back to the green sheet. Here we all. Sorry about this. Here we go. Mark Donnu here. Tom Heeney here. Rick Lombardi. Yep. Alicia Reyes

here. Rebecca Rogers absent. Judith Rosenthal here. Chris Row just absent. Anton Vos here. Okay. First order of business is the adoption of the zoning board minutes from our last meeting, November 25th, 2025. So moved. Do I get a second? Second. Anton, you're not a vote member tonight. Second.

All in favor? I. Motion passes 5 nothing. Next order of business. When we look at the docket tonight, we have nine new petitions. We don't have any continuences. We don't have any summaries. So, what we're going to do is we're going to call each one in the order that they're listed. We're just going to call the name of the petitioner and the ad, [clears throat] excuse me, and the address and we're just going to ask you if you're ready to continue. We just simply need a yes the first time through and then we'll take them in the order that they're listed on the agenda. Okay. First up will be Timothy Beck, 117 and 119 Vernon Avenue.

Are you ready? Okay. Next, Richard Splain. Um, 247 Oafont. Next is Chris Silos and Dan Herchin Rother, 29 Newport Avenue. We're just waiting for the architect. Okay. All right. [clears throat] Um, next, Richard Hart, 299 West Main Road. Yes. Okay. Next, Diane Vitali, 56 Crest Street. Yes.

Harry K. Ellis and Sabrina Hulkar. Ellis, 535 Indian. Elizabeth Orchard, 190 Boulevard. Yes. Royal Plaza LLC, Ortho, Rhode Island and Ortho, Rhode Island, one corporate place. Yes. and John P. Kennedy and Caroline Moran and Clayton Sherf six Buav Vista.

Okay, so everyone's here, all nine petitions. We're going to take them in order. So now we're going to read each of the petitions in one at a time and we're going to ask the petitioner or their representative to come forward. So go ahead with number one. Okay. First petition petition ZBR25-28 Timothy Beck owner for a variance from 321A 803G and 903 to replace existing 12tx 10 ft deck with a sideyard setback of 13 ft where 15 ft is required. said real estate is located at 117 and 119 Vernon Avenue and further identified as tax assessors plat NE lot 54.

State your name and your address, please. Timothy Beck, 100 Wintergreen Drive, Middletown, Rhode Island. Would you raise your right hand? Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. Please explain your petition to the board. I purchased the property in November of 2024. It had an existing 10 by 12 deck on one side, the 119 side being a duplex. The deck the deck was uh not permitted. It was in disrepair. Needs to be replaced. It does not meet the setback of 15 ft from the side. I'm requesting a 13t variance or two foot variance to 13 ft.

Okay. And you're just replacing the existing or you also put one on 17? 117 was permitted last year. It's already been done. It's already been done. Okay. So, it's already there. Okay. Good. Any questions for the petitioner? The one on 117 is a mirror image of the one you're putting on. It's actually smaller. Okay. Um because there's a garage on that side. Uh it's 10 by 10. So, it does meet the uh 15t set back on that side. Okay. But and the one you're replacing is the same. It's basically same dimensions just that will be 12 feet by 10. So I because of the sliding door. Okay. I need that centered on the sliding door. Correct. Okay.

Other questions. No further questions from the board. Uh I'd like to now open up the hearing to the public. If there's anybody in the audience that want to speak for or against this position, please indicate by raising your hand. Seeing none, I'm going to close the open hearing. And I'm going to ask for a motion. Motion to approve. Okay. Do we have a second, Alicia? Okay. Motion to approve in a second. Any discussion?

Okay. Looking Oh, sorry. Go ahead. I think it's pretty straightforward. He's just asking for a couple of feet. Okay. And looking at the structure, um, it's the expansion of the deck in that direction isn't outside of what you've already got. I mean, the actual, um, dwelling, you're not going all the way to the end of the dwelling. So, you're not correct. I'm replacing an existing deck that was there prior to my purchasing the property and it will actually be the same distance from the property line as it as the building is the original was

and the neighborhood on Verning and Shangrila are all duplexes. The majority of the houses have decks to the rear of the house. I went and checked out the neighborhood. So you just in keeping with the characteristics of the neighborhood you're asking for this variant. So I'm going to support the position petition request. I think all in favor I opposed. Motion passes 5 nothing.

Thank you. Next up, CBR2-32, Richard Splain, owner for special use from 27C, 803A, and 902 to add one bedroom to units A and B of the existing STR footprint. said real estate is located at 247 Olivant Lane and further identified as tax assessors plat 112 lot 64. State your name and your address.

Good evening chair, members of the board. I'm Kelly Moran. I am here uh on behalf of the owner Richard Splain for 247 Olive Lane. Okay. Would you raise your right hand, please? Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. Continue. Please explain the petition to the [clears throat] So, uh, 247 Elephant Lane is a duplex. Uh, it has currently four bedrooms on each side. They're mirror images of each other, and the property owner is just looking to, um, add a wall within the confines of the property uh, to add a bedroom to each side, making it five and five. Okay.

So, as as far as this property, is this a rental property? That's correct. Yes. Okay. Short-term rental. Correct. It is a short-term rental. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here. So, that Mr. Chair, because it's a short-term rental and because of the change in the ordinance, it's a legal non-conforming use. And under our code, any alteration or expansion of a legal non-conforming use requires a special use permit.

Okay. But it doesn't change the fact that they already have permission to have a short-term rental under the previous conditions or now. Is this So, this my understanding is what they're seeking to do is to take the two four bedroomedroom short-term rental units and make them five bedroomedroom short-term rental units. So, so in this case is so in this case would it expand the parking requirement from the eight spaces that was previously there to the 10 for two for each of the bedrooms now? It does. Okay. And do you have the parking at that location for the 10 separate spaces?

Yes, there is plenty of space there. It's a quite a lot all the way in the back of the lot and you've got a long driveway going in there. Okay. Yes. And you've got some parking aprons. There's a there's a lot of parking back there. There's quite a large driveway that's shared by four or five houses actually. Yes. Yes. Okay. Uh Peter, they're going from a grandfathered use. They're already a short-term rental. They're changing and they're ask they're going to they're getting special use. Yes. Are they required to go under the new ordinance?

No. Would you under our ordinance um any and I'll just pull it up here. Um uh this is section uh 803 u a illegal non-conforming use may not be added to extended or enlarged without first receiving a special use permit from the zoning board of review uh in accordance with article 9. So you would apply the spe the normal special use criteria and since this is a residential single or two family property uh in addition to the the criteria uh in section 902A you'd also apply the additional standard of whether it will cause significant negative traffic or parking impacts in the neighborhood.

Thank thank you. This property is well back off I I I know the I know the property well. I just curious. That's all. Any other comments, ma'am? I'm not sure, but I'm happy to answer any other questions. I have a question. So, your um your Middletown um short-term rental registration is active. Yes. Do you have an active state registration? Yes. Because I wasn't able to find it. Interesting. Uh there I could go get the number in my phone if you'd like, but

I have the number because that that was listed. Um but if I try to find it by address and the state database, I cannot find it. Uh I can't speak to that. I know that the state database won't allow you. At least when I checked last week, you still were not able to actually search by address. They were switching into a new platform and therefore were not able to search any of the addresses. I was able to search several several of our registered short-term rentals by address um successfully, but I could not find this one. Okay. I'll have to look back on that, but I know that Middletown will not issue a license unless I have the state active. So, if for some reason it is inactive at the moment, I will correct that. Yeah.

Okay. Any other comments, questions from the board? So, so currently your max occupancy is with the two units eight% per so 16 it's going to go up to 20 or 10% [clears throat] other questions hearing none I'm going to open the hearing to the audience is there anybody in the audience that want to speak for or against this petition indicate by raising your hand seeing none oh I got that one. Okay, I have one question. Come on up. Come on up to the mic. [clears throat]

Ed Sylvia and a Butter um 275 Olive Lane and 32 James Francis Terrace. Raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony you're going to give or the question you're going to ask is the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. My question is, is the footprint of the house changing? The answer is no, it's not. They're just putting up an internal wall on each side, the A and B side of the house, splitting up a long room on the second floor in each of the two quarters. Add that wall is going to add an additional bedroom. That's my question answered. Thank you. Sir, can I get you to spell your last name for me, please?

S I L V I A. Okay, great. Easy. Thank you, Mr. Anybody else? If not, I'm going to close the hearing and I'm going to ask for a vote. I mean, excuse me. I'm going ask for a motion. Motion to approve. I'll second. Thank you. Any discussion? I would just like to make sure that um we can verify that it is registered with the state and that it's active. So the condition for having a a short-term rental in Middletown means you have to have it registered previously in the state.

Yeah. So I mean there may have been a timing issue where it was active when you renewed your Middletown registration, but it may have lapsed. Um, good possibility. Yeah. Mr. Costa, um, when was the last time, do you have an idea? I I think the renewals, the new inspections are coming up. Correct. They're starting to come in now. They come in every year. Coming in now. Every year we have a renewal and every year we make sure that the state registration is supplied to us. I'm aware. I'm I'm just curious as to have you done your in your your inspection, the new one? Yes, sir. You have. And when was that? Oh, uh, few weeks ago.

How long? Two, two, three weeks ago. So, so the bottom line is her it was inspected by your zoning officers. They checked I'm hope I'm assum I'm assuming that they they had checked because they would not have approved it if they didn't have the state registration in order. Am I right? Absolutely. I'm I'm trying to see now on and pull that registration if it's attached to that application, but I could see if it was something that was done a while back, but it was done as recently as a week or two ago.

Yeah. Um I'd just like to verify that. Well, I'm I'm trying to say that if it was done within a week or two ago, what I would suggest here, and I know um there are times when we would put a condition on something like this, um but since part of the standard process is that the new registration cannot be issued without the point proof of the registration, state registration, then I don't know that that's necessary in this particular case because once again, that's part of the standard process. process, okay, that Mr. Kasa's office will follow. If I may, I have it right here. The 247 elephant lane registration for the state. If you need to see it,

um, be great. Okay, it's so the Chris just for your purposes the re number is 01205- STR and this is the state registration and the expiration date is 111626. six.

And just to add on to that, um the the state requires one registration per unit and the town requires one for the whole building. Uh unit A has been in operation. Unit B has not been rented yet as a short-term rental, which is perhaps why if you saw one but not the other, B maybe hadn't been registered yet, but A is active. Okay. Any other comments by the board? Nope. Okay. So, I'm inclined to support the petition based on the footprint already existing and all we're doing is building internal walls on each side. I don't see that this is going to be detrimental or substantially changed in the neighborhood in any way other than slightly more traffic obviously where you've got full occupancy on each side. So I'm inclined to support this position.

Yeah, I'm I'm also inclined to support um however I got some concerns. I think a 20 person um short-term rental is big, but I also know you're tucked back by the airport, by the tradesman center, and away from things. Um you know, I just m over in my mind a little bit when one of these comes up in the midst of a residential neighborhood. Um how we deal with it at that point. I mean, again, then the traffic thing, I don't see the traffic being an issue here. You got loads of parking. I've looked at it. So, yeah. Anyone else?

So, I'm inclined to support it also. It's not changing anything other than the number of bedrooms. Um I did uh inquire um with the zoning officers to find out if there had been any issues with this property and uh they got a clean record. Um and they've been I guess they've been a short-term rental for some time. So um based on that, I'm inclined to approve also. Anyone else? All in favor? I'll agree with everybody. All in favor? I I opposed. Motion passes 5 nothing. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

Okay. Next up, petition ZBR25-33. Chris Silos, owner, and Dan Herchinrother, architect, for variants from 603, 803G, and 904 to construct a second story addition, a covered front entry, and a deck located 14.97 ft from a northern front property line where 23.04 is required and 16.59 ft from the southern real prop rear property line where 27.65 is required. said real estate is located at 29 Newport Avenue and further identified as taxers plat 115 SE lot 157A.

State your name and address please. Yes. Uh Daniel Hkin Rother 36 Aquitic Avenue Middletown. Daniel, raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do. Okay. Uh, and also the owner is here too, Chris, in case we have owner questions for him. So, he's okay. I'm not representing him. I'm here with him. Uh, but I was going to go through just a general plan of the uh proposed structure. You you've testified in front of this board as an architect on a number of occasions. So, we will recognize you as an architectural expert.

Okay. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to pass out I'll get to this in a little bit. There's a revised scheme. I've got copies from everybody. Just want to hand that to you now so you guys have it. proceed. And we will mark this as exhibit A.

Thanks.

Thank you. This is what we already have on file here. Okay. So, just a quick uh review the proposed site. It's on Newport Avenue. Um, and we've had a I had a job a couple years ago on 169. It was very similar to this. Uh, Newport Avenue has a really far setback. So when you you you look at the properties, you think there's plenty of room, but actually there's this there's a large setback all the way up Newport Avenue. And when you look at the existing site plan, this is a corner lot between Warren and Newport Avenue. And the wedge that's left is is pretty small. So I think it makes for a unique uh site and the existing house is located to the east of the lot where the setbacks get really tight. So it means anything that you would do to the house would require a variance because most of the house is outside both the front and the rear setback. The site of the lot size is almost 10,000 square ft. So it's not a super tiny lot. It's just the setbacks that are imposed on the lot make it really tough to expand uh anything that we want to do. The idea was to add a second story over the first floor footprint. Uh the second story is the same size as the first story. It works out to about 2,300 square feet in total. So in my mind, that's a typical size house. Uh there's no third story and the height of the house is 5 ft below what is allowed. So it's a it's a 30- foot high house where 35 is allowed. So our thought was we weren't maxing it out too much. it it does have a little bit of recessed area on the right. So,

it's not just a huge box that's there. Um, but what I brought for the other alternate scheme is we could if we wanted to not follow the second floor, we can put an addition to the east and build the house up where it would be within the setbacks. Um, it just takes away more of the yard and it brings the house really close to Warren Avenue. the the scheme that you have that is a uh 74 foot long versus a 62 foot long. So we could build the house 12 ft longer. We could build the house 400 ft larger than what we're asking. So I just want to give that for reference point that we're not really pushing the bounds too much. If it was a new house built on this lot, we could easily build what we're showing. But because we're dealing with the existing footprint, it pushes us into this gray area that we're stuck with the setbacks. Um, so I just want to go through a couple of the points here. The three big ones that the hardship from that the applicant seeks relief is due to the unique characteristics of the subject land. Uh, I think this site is unique with it's a corner lot. It's got a really big front setback. The the site is long and it's along Newport Avenue where the big setback is. um that the hardship is not the result of any prior action of the applicant. Uh this house was built around the 1980s. Uh this owner's own it since about 2010. Uh so they haven't really changed anything that's there. And then the third one was granting this requested variance will not alter the general character of the surrounding area. And that's where I think you can kind of see a zoning compliance scheme is actually larger than what we've shown. Uh so it was our hope that just by following the second floor keeps it simpler. It keeps it further away from Warren A. Um, this house is still going to be 36 feet from Newport Avenue, so it's not really very

close to the street. We're still really far back. Um, and I think that's most everything if you have questions. So, um, the one you just handed us is an alternate you could do shifting the whole thing over. You'll still have the old footprint, but you'll be extending it to the I guess the east. East. East. Yeah. Yeah. The old one you're just building up. You're building up. Yeah. And it's the old one's about 42 feet from Warren Avenue.

And this revised one ends up being 26 feet from Warren Avenue. So, it would be a little bit more aggressive to the street. Um, also what we're doing is we're adding a second garage in below the basement which uh widens a driveway so they can fit instead of one car in the garage and two cars in the driveway they can now fit a total of six two garages. So it does also enable them to expand the garage and expand the driveway too with the scheme that we are proposing. And the widening garage is only on the alternate proposal. Uh, both of them. It's on both.

No, the the alternate the revised zoning compliant one. We can't expand the garage because that is again is in the setback area. So, it's a no-go area. So, we couldn't we couldn't add more garage. We couldn't add more driveway because unless you move the whole thing.

Yeah. It's because we're going over that way. Okay. So, the covered entry, you already have an existing entry, and all you're asking to do is put a cover over the existing entry, and you're not expanding the dimensions at all other than adding cover to it. Uh, yeah, they were actually adding 14 square feet to the entry. Just the roof is a little wider than than the actual covering. So, I included that 14 square feet.

Okay. So, going back to what you were just talking about, you are gonna develop the property to the west, which is going to allow you to increase the space for a garage. So, you'll have two garages that are centered on the driveway where there's only one existing right now.

Correct. Okay. Just just so I'm I'm still a little bit confused. It's just me. Um the one you handed us out now, I had looked at the original and printed out a picture of it. Um is that off the table now? And this is what you're asking for instead? This is the new one that you're asking for as of 3:00 tonight? No, we're still like to go with the original that we asked for because it's smaller. have this. Oh,

because there's an objective letter that would that wants it to be smaller or so we wanted to just to show what the other scheme was. So, we'd we'd like to stick with the re the original scheme because it's on the footprint of the existing house. It's smaller. Um, but we just wanted to show that as the backup if we had to. We just wanted to get pull the board. Um, you can read the objector's letter and see what your thoughts are.

We we understand that there's correspondence with one of the neighbors objecting. Okay. So because of that, you showed that you could have gone in the other direction and you could have gotten a larger building than the one that you're asking for. So what you're trying to show in that comparison is you're asking for less than you could. Yeah. We we feel this scheme is more more uh less of an impact to the neighborhood than the alternate scheme which is larger, longer and closer to Warren. So this is this is what you can do by right. Correct. If you don't get the the correct Yeah.

Yeah. But it would be simpler just to build on the footprint that's there and it would be farther away from the road. Okay. I I kind of missed that comparison. I'm sorry. Myself. So, all right. Any other questions from the board? Yeah, please. The owner. Yep. I was ask question of the owner. Chris Rick, can you pull your mic? Sorry. Sir, would you state your name and your address, please? Silos 124 Riverrun Road, Middletown. Would you pull your mic down? Yes, sir. Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Uh 124 Riverrun Road, Middletown. Raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony that you're given this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do. Yes, sir. Proceed. Okay. Question. You You just answered one of my questions. Yes, sir. So, this is not your primary residence? No. It's a rental property? Yes. Is it a short-term rental? Is it what? No. Is it a short-term rental? No. Um, is it rented now? Yes, it is long-term. Yes. And the people that are there now will be there when you're going to be doing this this construction. Well, they're going to move. They are military. I It was rented for 10 years to one individual. They moved out last winter and a military family rented it and they're still there now. So, if we decide to go ahead, you know, with this plan, they're going to move. They're going to move anyways because they're military family

and then we're going to proceed. Just I wanted to know what the conditions were. Yes, sir. As far as the rental and what your intentions were and Yes. what your you're you're a Middletown resident. Yes. Perfect. Thank you. Yes, sir. That's That's it. That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm sorry. Unless anybody else has something. I have a question. Yes, sir. [laughter] That was it for me.

It's okay. Anything. Any questions you have? Okay. So, you're going um your request is um I mean you're going to go from three bedrooms to six bedrooms. So, can I ask what the intended use of the space is? Um because um you're going to have a separate entrance to the second floor. Well, you have the plans there. So, this is going to be so this is an old home, right? And this is an opportunity for us to upgrade the value of the home and the aesthetics and everything. So now we see an opportunity to do that. And who knows, maybe in the future we may move from where we live now to moving there. You know, we don't know in the future, but for now we're planning to rent it. So

as as a single family as a single family home. Yes. You intend to keep it as a single family? As a single family home? Yes. Yes, ma'am. And and just add on, do you understand with the new um guidance, unless you were to move in, you couldn't turn it into a short-term rental. Yes. We're not planning to turn it into a short-term rental, sir. No. Thank you. You know, we're putting a lot of money into this home. We don't want people in announced. It's enough of a Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anybody else? Thank you. Thank you, sir. One more. And I know I know we're going to hear from an objector because we've already talked to that. Have you two talked to each other?

We had a lot of cordial conversations. Uh he and I had a very friendly, good conversations. There's nothing between us person, nothing like that. He's a nice man. Um he likes history. I like history. He was a history professor. So we spent hours and hours talking about history. But

uh so um last conversation that I had, but it was mostly with his uh I don't know if he's your relative or friend. you were in a car together because what happened is the only time that I heard anything about this home was from Mr. cost associate. I'm sorry, I'm getting old. I can't remember his name, but he showed up to my house. He was on a lawnmower. Long story short, there there some trees. Somebody was complaining on your website. And this person who works for the town was like frantic. Oh, there's a website now. And everybody's complaining that there's some trees in the way. I went there and I looked and I saw sure enough looking, okay, I'm going to cut them down. I care about people's safety. I don't care about, you know, trees. And the same day I went cut them down, took them out of there. And uh Mr. Costa was actually on the phone with him and stuff and that was that. That's the only complaint that I ever had. Um, and what happened is uh Mr. John here and his uh they drove by and we had a little conversation about the trees how they're high and his and his neighbor was concerned. He doesn't like not being able to see into the water. Yeah. He goes, "I got to be honest after all that conversation, you know, I don't like not having a, you know, I'm concerned about." I said, "I'm sorry, but you know, trees are trees everywhere. There are trees. If we cut down all the trees, you know, so that's we've never had any issues with each other. I never had any issues there. No one in the home since then." Um, yeah.

I can tell you from personal experience, there is no ordinance that says how high your bushes can go, your trees can go, your hedges can go, there's no ordinance that governs that. But if they impede the public right away, if they impede so that you can't see an intersection, then that's certainly an issue. But height, we regulate stone walls. We regulate fences, but we don't regulate the heights of trees apparently. Yeah. And it is what it is. So, I get it. But the fact that you took the initiative and you understood that there was a safety issue that you took

um took the initiative to take care of that, I I give you credit for that because I know sometimes it's a battle for Mr. Costa and his people to get that stuff done. Um so I got to give you a credit for that one. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Any other questions? No. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Her. Do you have anything else? Uh, no. That's all that that's all that I had. Okay. Do we have any additional questions for the architect?

Okay. Seeing none, I will open this up to the audience. Is there anyone here that would like to speak for or against the petition? Yes, sir. Please come up to the mic.

If you can pull the mic toward you. There you go. Thanks. Okay. My name is John Perillo on 53 Newport Avenue. Yes, sir.

And I live uh right above him. uh Chris Celos and uh yeah, you know, pretty cordial and uh let me tell you the history of that house. My father built my house at 53 Newport Avenue in 1953. So our family's been living there. I'm I'm there full-time for the last 21 years living there. And um in 1980, uh a person came approached my father, not not Chris, uh to build the house 1980. and it's an undersized lot. And at the time they told him it was uh a nonconforming use of a piece of property. Okay. Uh it's a triangular lot. Um and uh we knew the people who built it and my father said, "Oh, go ahead. You know, one one level it wasn't going to hurt our view of the water. Um we could go with it." But we were told also by the town that you cannot improve a non-conforming use. In other words, you have one floor and then have a second floor. I'm assuming that's the same law that goes today because if you're at the top of Newport Avenue, all of you have gone down Newport Avenue, you get one of the most beautiful views of a pond. And it's just one more chunk that they've taken away from us. And uh aesthetically it's a disappointment. And uh um I think uh Chris failed to mention yeah he has trees. He's got 30 40 trees. They were little bushes. I never said anything about the bushes but they're like 15 ft high. And uh you know we we I'm living with it but but uh now you know with a second floor plus a hip roof or whatever they call it. It's going to obiscate all of our view of that section. And then uh if you go by

uh Newport Avenue like I just did this more uh this this afternoon um that's the worst part of the street because you you're supposed to be a four-lane highway. I was told this 10 years ago when I added my house uh I I put an addition and uh we had all the plans. The architect says it's a go ahead and then somebody said you got to go back another 20 ft because it's four lanes. Newport Avenue. I don't know if that's true or not. You're saying no, but the guy 10 years ago says yes, it is. Okay. You look on the paper, fix it for everybody. So, um I came down here and uh it's barely a a one lane and a half to go down in the snow. So oncoming traffic coming from Aquidnik Avenue, we'd have to stop and then very slowly pass by.

Now, do you understand that their proposal is to not go any closer to Newport Avenue with this construction at all? Okay. They're going up and they're going west, not going toward the road. The question is, he's always had rentals, right? He's He's going to make 11, but now he's going to have two sets of rentals. No, he's not. It's not going to have two sets home. You're telling me this now and then 10 years from now when he sells it. Well, we'll have eight people there. Seems like there are a number of people who have told you things that weren't exactly correct. But what I just stated to you, the f the home is a single family dwelling. Y

it cannot become a two family dwelling unless they come here in front of the board and request a special use to change the use of that home. Okay. Okay. So, it's only going to be the proposal is a single family and we're only approving if we approve it a single family home.

Yeah. Okay. Well, uh we were told, you know, no no more than one story. I went along with it. my father 1980 and uh here we are doubling the size of the house uh one of the things uh where he parks his cars he's usually got three four cars granted you know he's got rentals last you know 10 years ago he might have had kids each have a car now you're going to have what six bedrooms you're going to have six cars seven cars you heard you heard the proposal that they were going to double the garage okay where you going to park the cars that's the problem. Yeah. Able to put six cars, two two in the garages and four in the driveway.

Okay. And then how about the visitors? But but that's that's if we if we don't that's if we don't approve what he's asking for because he can do that by right. Right. So if we if we approve what he's asking for, his driveway is going to remain a singlecar garage. Correct. Single car garage with the driveway leading up to it. So, and actually you'll have less cars if you approve what the re if we don't approve it, you'll be able to build more by right and we have no say in it. Thanks for that clarification. The other issue is uh the trees. Where's he what's he going to do with the trees? Are you going to keep the trees? The 20 trees. Yeah,

you have to. I mean, we can't answer it. So, you'll have to come up and answer. Please. Sure. come to the microphone. Yes, sir. I'm going to keep the trees. I mean, that's the whole microphone. Sorry, John. You have people that are listening. The whole point of, you know, I'm the one that I got the machine and I planted the trees. The whole purpose of putting the trees in there so they grow, you know, that Okay.

And we had the land also surveyed and the trees are on our side of the boundary. They're not on the sidewalk or anything like that. And they had a concern at that time here. And there's uh because there's a rock there also. They were asking where that rock was because the town's supposed to move the rock and and there was even a flower there and I even cut the flower down. I mean there's all these things and requests. It's like I don't know. I'm trying to make him happy. Yeah. I went out to the property today. Obviously the trees are larger than they were when you planted them, but they're still well within your property. And there's no ordinance on the height of those trees, so you don't have to remove them.

Yeah.

I mean, hey, hold on. We see you. Hang on. We'll we'll get you next. Um I I'm going to reiterate that and and we ran into this in other areas of town when it comes to the right to a view. And there is nothing that governs the right to a view. Can you can you hear me? I'm I want to make sure you're hearing what I'm saying. I'm not saying that I like it. I'm not saying I dislike it. But the fact of the matter is that if you're going to make an argument about the trees blocking your view or the fact that he's going to go 30 feet, and he could go to 35 ft, but he's only going to 30t, but if he went to 35 ft, he could do that by right. And there is nothing that says anything about maintaining your view of the pond. I I understand how you feel. There are a lot of people in this town, particularly on that end of town where a lot of construction has been done, new construction, and people build on the existing footprint and they go up and the people that are on either side of them are behind them say, "Well, you're blocking my view." Well, there's no ordinance that that says that you have a right to a view. I I I hate to put it to you that way, but you should understand that. So, he doesn't have to trim his trees lower and he can go up to 35 feet and he's not going to or at least he says he's not going to. That's what the plans show. So, to be honest with you, I I just think for everybody that's in the room to understand that we have to follow the ordinance. The ordinance is the way they're written and that's what we're doing right now. So he could do one plan by right, which is what we're looking at, or he could go with the other plan. And you know, I I just And you know, the fact that it's a non-conforming lot, I don't know how many non-conforming lots that are in that end of town,

particularly that neighborhood, but there's a lot of them.

Most of them are. And if you can't improve [clears throat] on your property just because you bought a property that's on a non non-conforming lot, I think that's an issue in and of itself because he has a right to be able to even if he has to come in front of us, he has a right to improve on his property. But I would say I would venture to say to you that I don't even want to say the percentage of lots, but it's a lot of lots in that end of town, particularly in that neighborhood that are non-conforming. a lot of them because back in those days when they did those lots, there were no zoning ordinances. They stuck as many lots on those pieces of land as they could do back in those days. And it's one of the reasons why zoning ordinances came to be so that we could regulate it and and you know it would be easier to improve on your property. And the standard, you know, R10, R20, you know, that's why they came up with those those audiences. I at least I believe that and maybe Mr. Rean could have could you know confirm that but I believe that's the case. So I'm I'm just trying to explain to you that I understand your complaints. I'm kind of sympathetic toward it but you know

Yeah.

Ron Minski I I

I don't I don't disagree with you to a degree. Philosophically, I don't disagree with you, but the fact of the matter is that they they they they created the zoning ordinances so that it wouldn't look like that. so that you would have rules that you had to follow and and they're they're trying to follow the rules and I don't know what else to tell you. I mean, we're we're we have to look at it from a narrow scope narrow scope and that narrow scope is what the ordinance says. We don't have the ability to say I like it, I don't like it. Uh I, you know, we have the all we have to do is look at the ordinance as it is. Does it fit? Does it fit certain criteria and then we have to rule accordingly?

And and if I could um I guess for you Mr. Pillo um you're in a two store are how many stories is your house? [cough] Okay. And there's a lot of there have been a lot of growth. There's a lot of two-story homes in your neighborhood. Correct. Mhm.

It's two lanes. It's two lanes. The zoning official just said it was two lanes. Yeah, it's too late. [laughter] Anything else, sir?

And any any of the proposals that are approved here tonight has to go through the town engineering. All of that has to be correct before they're going to be allowed to proceed. Mr. Silent. Thank you, John. Thank you. Just a second, ma'am. Just a second. You may proceed, Miss House. Ma'am, would you like to proceed? Hi, I'm Jane Perillo, 53 Newport Avenue. Okay.

And my problem is that if he's increasing the number of tenants, we've had problems with people parking people parking on the street and it says no parking on the street and we've had cars lined up and you can't get around that corner. It's a very dangerous corner and I called the police once and then one time I actually went and knocked on the door and they cursed me for for saying something. Um, so it's a real problem with if he's adding people to the rental. Are they going to be parking on the street and giving us a hard time getting around that corner? That's they're not allowed to park on the street.

Well, I know they're not. And I've I've like I said, I called the police once and I complained to them once, the re the renters and I got cursed. So now there's going to be more people. Well, it's they're they're this is a single family home. It is. So if they're doing a long-term rental, I assume, which is dangerous, that they're renting to a family. I mean, I was a I assume they are. I'm not complaining. for for many years as a military family. I moved around and I was very thankful that we were able to find rental homes that my family me and my family could live in. Absolutely. I I agree. But what I'm saying those left anymore.

But what I'm saying is they're not obeying the rules of not parking on the street. That's my problem with it. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Y what he's asking for is not an exception to be able to park. No. No. But he wants to put more people in there. That's what That's That's true. He's asking, "Are we going to have more people on the street? A larger home doesn't end up at the police again saying get off the street." If that happens, I would call your neighbor. I will. If I know his phone number, I would have called him. I didn't know who he was. I didn't know who the owner was. Yes, please. Thank you. Mr. Costa. All right. Thank you. Mr. Costa, do you know if that street is posted, no parking?

Do we know? It's probably not. I probably I do not know that the answer to that question. This is a I believe it is no parking. It is it I know it's it's no no parking. I get it. Well, but is it posted no parking? I'm I'm looking at a Google. It's from 29 2019, but there's a sign that says no parking on road. That's what I'm asking. And she says it is. Okay, that's good. Free parking. So, my suggestion to you, it's posted no parking. Yep. And if you can't get cooperation from the owner of the the house to get it under control, you pick up the phone and you call the police. That's the suggestion. That's how you fix it. I'll get his number now. So, I'll have it. But that's how you fix it. Okay.

Anyone Go ahead, Chris. You got a comment? Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. Did you have a comment? I don't. Okay. Anyone else in the audience would like to speak for against this petition? I'm going to close the open hearing. Any other questions or comments from the board before I ask for a motion? I'd like to have a motion on this petition. Motion to approve. I'll second. Any comments?

Yeah. Um, I just want to say that I understand your um your concerns blocking your view in your opinion pro you probably are devaluing your home. Um, but you know, as board members said, there's no ordinance saying that um that can't be done. And to address the parking issues, the the applicant is requesting um variance for his setbacks. And I just want to make sure that I understand it. In the plan that you are presenting for tonight, you're adding a garage which will increase parking. If we don't approve if we don't approve this this request for relief, then they can come back and he can put a second story. He can still put a second story on that building and shift it so that he's does not have to request a variance. You're still going to have two stories and he's not going to be able to increase parking. Is that correct? So

wait, no. If you shift, you will increase parking. No, because now you have two garages. Nope. And the original plan, there's two garages. The original plan, still two garages. Yeah, the original plan is two. Okay, I see it. Got it. I went and looked. Okay. [laughter]

So, I personally believe that our ordinances are in place to provide homeowners the right to do with their homes what they need to do to enjoy their homes, but also to protect um the residents in the neighborhood. But in this case, it sounds like he's trying to do the best the best option. So, he's going to put up he's going to put up a second story. Um I think that it's best to allow this variance. So, at least he's on the original footprint. So, he's not incre he's on the footprint and he's going to be adding parking. So um that's that's even though I agree with you on a lot of points um I think that we have to follow you know

like our colleague we have to follow we have to follow the follow the the guidance and do the best we can. So the open hearing is closed. The public hearing is closed. Sorry. Yeah. I agree. uh he he's not increasing the mass of the house and I think that um it's unintrusive and what he's asking for is reasonable um and it's not going to alter the characteristics of the neighborhood. So I would approve the petition.

I I also agree um just about everything that's been said so far. they kind of took away a little bit of my thunder, but um so I I I just think that as a as a as a landlord um you really should make a strong effort to your renters to please conform with the parking ordinances so that doesn't cause you any aggravation. I think the fact that they're willing to work with you and they're willing to call you if there's an issue is a good thing before you get the police involved. Um, I I think that the fact that the law is non-conforming restricts what you can do and and so I I think in that in that vein um there's merit to to what you're doing. um the fact that you're going to stay below the height 35 limit is is fine, but um so I I I just think that you meet the criteria and of the ordinance and you know I'm going to support the uh I'm going to support the petition.

Anyone else? All in favor? I Anyone opposed? Motion passes 5 nothing. Okay, moving along. Next up, DBR 25-34, Richard Hart owner for special use from 602 and 902 to obtain approval for an owneroccupied short-term rental. said real estate is located at 299 West Main Road and further identified as taxes plat NW lot 350.

Hi, good evening members of the board. Thanks for having me this evening. Hang one second. Please state your name and your address. Please. My name is Richard Hart located 299 West Main Road in Middletown, Rhode Island. Thank you. Richard, would you raise your right hand? Do you swear the testimony you're given this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? [laughter] Yes. Okay. proceed.

Yes. Um I just filled out a shortterm uh application to um you may be familiar with the old business, the former business was located over there. Uh the the property that we purchased 299 West Main Road is located right next to the Hampton Inn and also the Howard Johnson. It abuts that property line. Uh we do have 15 parking spots in our parking lot right now. The building also has a uh fire alarm and a sprinkler system throughout. It is a five bedroomedroom, four full baths and two half baths about 5,000 square ft and [clears throat] um we're just uh approaching the board and would like to um shortterm that property.

Okay. Just a couple of the stipulations. You understand that as the owner applying for this new short short-term special use that you must be present during the rental of that property on shortterm basis? Yes, sir. I understand that. Okay. Other questions? Yeah. Are you living there presently? No, sir. Uh currently living in Portsouth. Um, once this does get approved, I will be there when any guests are are there. So, it's not your it's not your full-time residence. Not at the moment.

Concerns me, but how we I don't know how we regulate that. Okay, Peter, since the stipulation is that the owner must be present during short-term rentals, does it have to be his primary residency? I believe so. Let me just give me one moment. Thank you. And again, I do plan on moving in there in a couple months. Okay. You plan on moving? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Full time. I I got the impression from your answer that you would move in whenever you were going to have a short time.

I'm sorry. So, I bought the building and we were planning on moving in there and that is still the plan and we also wanted to get this approved. So, Okay. Yeah. So, you will occupy it as your primary residence? Yes, sir. Yes. Before you start short-term rentals, correct? Okay. Thank you. Um, Mr. Chair, just to answer Mr. Lombardi's question.

Thank you. Under the definition in uh section 400 of the zoning code uh requires that the owner who is in charge and manages such rentals residing on said property at all times during the period of such rental. So it does not require to be the primary residence. It requires the property owner to be present however during the rental period. Thank you Peter. And if I could on the house it's a big house. Yes sir. um says on the GIS, which I know might not be up to date, it's two bedrooms, which kind of shocking. I say there's a lot more than two bedrooms in that big house. How many bedrooms is it really? And is that something for Chris, is that something that when they do the inspection, they would

Well, it's a mixed use. So, there's businesses in there, you got residential in there. I don't know how he's divvied that up at the moment. you know, when we go do our inspections of the premises, you know, we'll we'll see what we have for and what he allocates for a short-term rental. Okay? You know, you might have a six-bedroom home and only allocate three of them for your short-term rental because all your all your personal stuff goes in the other three and and the short-term rental is limited to no more than six people. Right. Right. So, regardless of the number regardless of the number of bedrooms. Okay. Great. [snorts] So to get it on the record, you said earlier that there were five total bedrooms in the building. Yes.

Is that correct? So how many of those five do you plan on having available? Four. Four of the five for short. So the ordinance states no more than three, right? No. Says you could have no more than six people. More than six people. It doesn't limit Right. Doesn't limit the number. It limits it by people. So it could be two bedrooms, right? You could have could have six people all with their own bedroom if you want so long as there's a place for the owner to sleep.

So I have a question as about that. So considering that we have 15 current parking spots. We have a full uh sprinkler system in there that's inspected every few months. Um a fire alarm system. We do abuts the Hampton in the Hampton in uh Howard Johnson right across the street is the residence end. So we're in that district. Um I do have 15 parking spots. Would if this does get approved, could we maybe have eight people instead of six? Okay. Yeah. Under the definition limits you to six people. With more than six people, you are something other than a short-term rental. So

Okay. Sounds to me like you want to turn it into a hotel. [snorts] You will find a hotel. I'd rather deal with one person than multiple people, you know. I get it. So, it' be easier just to do Airbnb and limit to six. We don't have any issues with parking, obviously. Yeah. Plenty of parking. Yeah. Okay. So, you understand that in the new short-term rentals, you can only have a total of six rental persons in there spread across those four rooms? Yes. you're talking about. Yes, I understand that.

Okay, good to go. Other questions? Okay, just let me uh open this hearing up to the public. Is there anybody here present that would like to speak for or against this petition? Seeing no hands, I'm going to close the public hearing and I'm going to ask for a motion. Motion to approve.

Second. [clears throat] discussion. I think the property in question is obviously large enough to have uh short-term rentals. Again, we've kind of hashed out the details here of what under the special use you have to conform to and you've agreed to those and in good faith I think that you will and I'm going to support this petition. Thank you members of the board. Anyone else? We don't. Okay. Okay, no other comments. I'll ask for a vote then. All in favor? I opposed. Motion passes 5 nothing. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, she was right. Next up, petition ZBR235. Diane Vitali, owner for variance from 603, 803G, and 903 to cont to construct a roof over existing front por front porch. Said real estate is located at 56 Crest Street and further identified as taxes plat 116 Ne lot 160. Ma'am, state your name and your address, please. Sure. Uh Diane Vitali, 56 Crest Street, Middletown. Would you raise your right hand, please? Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do.

Okay. Explain your petition, please. Um, right now we have a um existing open front porch and I want to put I guess you call just a roof. Um, I think mostly for the weather, have packages delivered, everything gets wet, and I think it'll look nicer, too. Okay. And as far as the existing porch and the roof that you're covering the existing porch with, you're staying within the confines of the dimensions of the existing porch. Um, come on up. This is my contractor. Okay. Please state your name and your address, please. Richard Lachland, 2635 East Main Road, Portsouth.

Okay. Raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. Proceed. So, she currently has an existing porch. It's 5 and 1/2 ft off the house, 12 ft wide. Yep. Um, the new one's going to actually shrink down a little bit. It's going to come down about 18 in just so that way the new post that hold up the roof doesn't block her window. Okay. So, we're actually going to come down a little bit and it's just a little overhang be within the same restrictions of the existing footprint. So, definitely within the existing footprint good to go. Thank you so much, ma'am. Anything else you'd like to add?

Uh, no. Any additional questions from the board? Okay. Hearing none, I'd open the hearing to the public. Is there anybody present this evening that would like to speak for or against this petition? Seeing none, I'm going to close the hearing to the public and I'm going to ask for a motion. Motion to approve. I'll second. motion first and second discussion. Got it. I I think it's pretty straightforward. I I don't see any issues here. Um I I absolutely will support this.

Yep. And certainly this is due to the unique characteristics of this neighborhood. I drove by today. I mean the houses are almost right on top of each other particularly in that section. So, understanding the need for the protection from the weather certainly based on the weather we've been having, it's uh seems to be reasonable request. Absolutely. All in favor? I. Anybody oppose? Petition passes 5. Thank you.

Over. Okay. Next up, ZBR25-36 Arie K. Ellis and Sabrina Hulkar Ellis owners and David P. Martland attorney for varants variance from 604 C and D and 321A to install a portion of an ingground pool 10.8 ft from the sideyard where 20 feet is required. said real estate is located at 535 Indian Avenue and further identified as taxes plat 129 lot 300. Uh good evening uh Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Uh

David Martin on behalf of the owners and applicants. uh as indicated uh this is a petition involving 535 Indian Avenue um and is uh a variance request for a small portion of a pool to be located within uh the required setback. Um the closest uh portion of the the pool to the sideyard setback would be 10.8 ft. uh if I could approach and uh provide the board with um uh an exhibit showing illustrating that area of the the pool that's within the setback

approach. Mr. Martin, this will be marked as exhibit A.

Thank you, Dave. I probably just [snorts] um so this is just sort of a blow up of the area around um from from the site plan. The the hashed area that's sort of arc located uh on the bottom right hand portion of the proposed pool is the area that's within within the setback. U my client um when they were looking at installing a pool looked initially to install it uh completely in the rear yard, but there there's a pretty significant drop off. The topography run runs off uh pretty quickly. So, they looked at doing it in in the sideyard. Um, the actual original property line did not jog. Um, so in order to accommodate the pool, my client acquired a 12-oot strip of land from the abuing neighbor. uh they applied for uh and I believe received a building permit to install the pool at a location that was further to the west. So there was no need for any variance relief. Shortly upon uh going to construction, they learned that there was a septic field um located to the west and they needed to be 25 ft away from that uh septic

field. And so if you look at the top left hand portion of where the proposed pool is, that 25.2 2 ft that is the distance to the to the septic field. So they when they pulled it back that ended up resulting in uh the requirement to to seek a variance for this really small portion of this. I think it's it's it's very minimal. It really results as a result of the unique characteristics of this property. My client did try to um uh eliminate the need for a variance by acquiring this strip of property. Additionally, they looked at well could we acquire a little bit more property? Um however that property beyond those property lines is owned by the homeowners association. there's a four lot homeowners association and this conservation easement that is uh been impressed upon it as a result of that subdivision process. So that really wasn't feasible.

So the largest lot which is abuts the coast is an open lot that is shared ownership of the other three lots that surround it. That's correct. Is that what you're telling us? Okay. Exactly. All right. That's 304 is the lot that's right up against the coast. Right. and and that's in a conservation easement and can't be subdivided, can't be, you know, utilized for any for any of those purposes because in appearance it looks like they're all joined and they all share some of that, but we I saw when I went through the records that they were four separate lots there.

That That's right. You got the four four lots up at the the top and then the the bottom is that one large conservation um lot. I do have a an exhibit if you uh for the record that that would will help illustrate that. And this is exhibit B. Thank you. Thanks. there.

So the the subject property is the um 300 and I labeled it as the subject property. the and then the land to the to the east is all that conservation land and that's owned uh in common with 300 301 302 and and 303 [snorts] which had all been uh one one property at one point. So there was really no other feasible way and this really came up at the last minute. So, um, we've filed this request for for the variance and we think it's as a result of the unique characteristics of of this property and is minimal to the reasonable enjoyment. And as you can see from that illustration, we're we're really just talking about a very small portion of the pool.

Okay. Yes. Do you have the ab budding neighbor in particular where it's the one person to the little have they been discussed with um the there was a late letter of objection that came in this today from not from this abuing neighbor it was from the other side uh the the the side into which it incurs they have no objection. Okay. The 301 301 has no objection. Yeah. So, is is this pool considered an accessory?

It's it's an accessory structure structure. That's correct. And for an accessory structure, there's a a 20 foot sideyard setback. Um, and it's supposed to be 10 ft from the building. Correct. I I some accessories like like sheds, garages, things of that nature for fire purposes to be built if they're constructed closer than that structure would need to be rated, you know, for fire when they're detached. Being a pool, I don't think it's applicable. Okay.

Other questions for Mr. Martin? Okay, hearing none, I'm going to open the hearing to the public. Is there anyone present that wants to speak for or against this petition? Just for the record, we do have a letter of correspondence that will be read in for the neighbor that is to the south and west, I believe. south and the east south predominantly south who objects uh to the pool going in but it doesn't impact directly that of butter. It's on the opposite side of the property. So for the record I just wanted to state that. So there's no one here president that wants to speak. So I'm going to close the public hearing and I'm going to ask for a motion.

Motion to approve. I'll second discussion. Um I'll go ahead. I'll say I think um the hardship here, you know, between the sewage field, the HOA lot that can't be subdivided between. I think they've really worked hard to fit this pool in there would do the absolute minimum. So, I think that's what we're looking minimal required. Um it's not going to change the characteristic of the neighborhood at all. Not by a long shot. And um I'm going to vote to approve. [laughter]

Yeah. Um, I looked over the plans and as far as the hardship, I saw the septic on one side and um, I feel that um, you really did um, do your due diligence to um, fit within compliance and it's only probably a quarter of the pool that's going to be in that setback. Um although I do understand the opposing um neighbor, you know, worrying about us continually um continually approving these variances and at some point it could be detrimental to the neighborhood. But we review all of these things very closely. So, um I don't think that there's enough of an impact to question um the applicant. So, I would support this. Anyone else? And the only thing I'd add is that this is definitely due to the unique characteristics of these lots and it's not not due to the owner or anything the owner's done. So, I'm going to support it also. All in favor?

I opposed. The motion pass. Position passes 5-0.

Okay. Next up on the right one. Here we are. Elizabeth Orchard O ZBR 25-37. Elizabeth Orchard owner for a variance from 603, 803G, and 903 to install a dormer on the west side of the second floor of the existing house, resulting in a 5-ft setback where 15t is required. Said real estate is located at 190 Boulevard and further identified as plat 95. State your name and your address, please.

My name is Elizabeth Davis Orchard, 190 Boulevard, Middletown. Okay, raise your right hand, please. Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, sir. Okay, proceed.

We are here to request a variance, a setback on our south border where a 15 foot variant or setback is required and we have only five feet. Um, it is a dormer on the second floor that we're lifting. No increase to the footprint of the dwelling. Uh it's merely to give a little bit more headroom in the second floor, which is a living area now, and to uh adapt code stairs to this second floor, allowing my husband and I to age in place safely. Um that's about the extent of the request. Um I do have the support of the southern boundary uh neighbors where the setback is required. They are here to support us. And I do have to tell you that there is a typo on the request. We're request the dormer on the west side.

It is actually the east side which the drawings do support this. Uh the drawings are accurate. The architect is CDE CDA um in Middletown. Um and I'm available to answer any questions or concerns. Thank you. Is it okay if we pen and ink that and note that the west side setback is actually the east side setback, Mr. Reagan? Okay. Pen and ink it or or do you want us to do two motions in terms of the uh two motions the change the west side to the east side?

You just noted in the uh in the decision I think. Okay, good. Thank you. Mr. Reagan, any other questions for the petitioner? Okay. Ba based on what you're asking for, based on your location, obviously we just stated that you're actually going east, which is away from the road. Correct. And uh as far as the improvements made are going to be within the existing footprint. It looks as if you, you know, obviously designing a much better house for you to do as stated age in place. So, I'm going to open the hearing to the public to see if anybody is here that wants to speak for or against this petition. Please approach the podium, please.

Hi, my name is Marier. I live south to um Elizabeth's house, 196 Boulevard, and we welcome this change. It's not going to raise your right hand. [laughter] Do you swear that the testimony that you're going to give this this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes, absolutely. Thank you, ma'am. Proceed. So, to continue, we welcome this change. It's not going to obstruct any views. We both have ample yards. So, you know, they good neighbors. We have good neighbors all around us and nobody's against it. So, and just for [clears throat] the record, there's also a letter of correspondence in this file stating the same. Yes. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you.

Thanks. Anybody else? Seeing no one else, I'm closing the public portion of the hearing. And can I get a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion first and second. Discussion. Seems like the improvements as stated are for the betterment of uh the property so the occupant and owners get full use of the property and can remain in place and therefore I'm going to support this petition. Anybody else?

Y I I totally echo the chairman. Um I believe that more of us that can age in place the better. Um, and um, I it's pretty straightforward and the fact that, you know, it's not going to obstruct any views and you've got a neighbor who nicely came forward speaking favor says volumes because we always hear the bad stuff and never the good stuff. So, I'm all for I'm all for this. Thank you. Anyone else? All in favor? I I Anyone opposed? The petition passes 5-0.

Thank you very much, all of you. Thank you. Okay, next up, petition ZBR25-38, Royal Plaza LLC owners, Ortho Rhode Island applicant, and Matthew Lee's attorney for special use from 1212 and 902 to allow an additional freestanding sign where one freestanding sign is permitted. The sign is 18 square feet where 16 square feet is permitted. said real estate is located at one corporate place and further identified as taxes plat 106 lot 170. Good evening Mr. Chair, members of the board. Matt Le representing the applicant tonight. Mr. Le,

good evening. Uh the applicant Orthor Rhode Island is a tenant at One Corporate Place which is located at the corner of West Main Road and the access road in the office business zoning district. As you're all probably aware, the access to one corporate place from West Main Road is very confusing. A person seeking to get to one corporate place from West Main Road can see the building on West Main Road, but there's no access from West Main or from the access road. Instead, a person has to uh seeking to get to the building has to go down the access road, take a right on Commerce Drive, and then another right onto Corporate Place back in the direction of West Main Road to get there. So, if you're coming north on West Main Row, the situation's even worse because you've passed the building before you even see any of the the building signs on the wall and then you have to try to turn around and do the same thing. [snorts] Um, so it's a very uniquely bad situation there as I think we all know. Um, my client has many patients in Middletown and the Aquinic Island community. Many of those patients are are older folks uh particularly who need more assistance getting to the office considering the confusing route to get there. Uh the site is also an express care center. Uh so people who have just broken an arm or an ankle or something uh and maybe looking to get there urgently um andor are in pain um you know need to find the location the access to it without uh without confusion. Um and my client can expand uh representative my client is here to sort of expand on that experience. Um so the plan is to put uh some signage with an arrow pointing down the access road from West Main Road that will guide patients to the Ortho Rhode Island offices. Um it's just designed to help people who are already looking for the offices. It's not designed to grab your attention or distract you as you're coming down

West Main Road. Um, from a traffic standpoint, it may actually alleviate traffic because you won't have people driving around looking for the access to to the one one corporate place uh property. Now, my client's sign vendor was not aware of the requirements to get zoning board approval uh for these signs. And so, uh they put up signs, one sign at the corner of West Main Road and the access road, which are here for tonight. And they also put up signs at the corner of the access road and Commerce Drive and the corner of Commerce Drive and Corporate Place um without zoning board permission. The zoning officer contacted my client said, "You need to go to the zoning board." And he requested that they cover the signs until we come to the zoning board and unless we get permission. So that was some time ago. In the meantime, we've been working on trying to get permission from the property owners of the other properties to place the signs on their property. And so far, we haven't achieved that. Um, so my client at this point, it kind of looks like they're closed because the signs are covered. You know, they want to get some direction for people to get to the office. So, they've decided to come forward, at least at this point, and ask for permission for the one sign that's at the corner of West Main Road and uh and the access road. So, we're here for a special use permit under the sign ordinance. And in particular, we need relief as indicated from the requirement of no more than one freestanding sign on the premises. There's currently two. One is for the Sinesta uh Select Hotel that's down the road and the other one is for the VA clinic which is also uh at at one corporate place and probably has the same similar problems that my client has. Uh also the relief saw is to allow an 18 square foot sign where 16 square

ft is the maximum allowed. Uh again they weren't aware that that that would be uh require zoning board approval. Um, however, I think as my client will indicate, we could be flexible on the sign size if the if the zoning board sees fit. So, as I indicate, I have witnesses here, uh, representatives from Ortho, Rhode Island, also have the sign vendor here who can answer any questions that you may have. But first, I just wanted to mention the standards and sort of address how we meet them, and then the witnesses can come up and and provide testimony to that effect. So under your sign ordinance section 12.12 uh the zoning board uh looks at the quality, character and appropriateness of the sign. First this is a you know as we all know this is a heavily commercial area where such a sign is not going to be out of character. Uh the sign's professionally prepared of quality materials tastefully done. It's got attractive colors. As you can see in the rendering it's just white and kind of baby blue. It's not illuminated uh such that it would be a distraction. It's reasonably sized, just just 18 square feet. So, it's really just a it's a subtle sign with an arrow to guide people to the office who are already looking to get to the office. The next factor uh under your ordinance is aesthetic impact of the sign on the public right ofway. I think that's kind of the all the same rationale that I just mentioned above. There won't be any negative uh aesthetic impact. The total amount of sign area on the premises is actually on that building there's far less building mounted signs than would be allowed under the ordinance because there's 16 tenants in that building but only six tenants have building m mounted signs on the on the front face. In the OB you can have two building mounted signs per business. So and also there's no variances for the sign sizes on that building. So there's not not an excessive number of of signs on the property. Now, um there is there was a there is a

variance for the Sinesta uh select sign to be there back when it was originally when it was a Marriott. So, it's legally there. Uh the next factor, existence of non-conforming signs on the premises. Uh again, it's just the Sinesta Select sign has a has a variance. Uh so, it's it was legally established. It's been a couple of other variances over the years. The General Dynamics had a had a variance, but they're not they're not there anymore. So um and I think the same thing applied for another business out of rearence but they're not there anymore. The next factor is site design and layout of the property. And I think this relates to the confusing site design and layout of the property particularly access that I described earlier. Um so the the proposed sign is kind of appropriately located right in that corner of West Main Road and the access road so that people can see it coming north or coming south on West Main Road. It's also set back from the road enough that it's not going to block any any sight lines if you're at the corner of the access road looking up or coming down West Main Road. So, those are under your sign. You also are to look at section the section 902 special use permit standards. One is it will not result in significant dimmunition of property values in the surrounding area of the district. Again, it's a heavily commercial area. So, it doesn't seem likely that any an 18 square foot sign that's, you know, kind of subtle and tastefully done like this, unilluminated, would have any uh dimmunition of property value. Uh will not create a nuisance in the neighborhood. Again, not illuminated, not oversized. It's attractive and it'll actually probably reduce the nuisance of people driving around looking to get to the access to one corporate place. the granting of such special use permit will not be detrimental to or substantially or permanently injure the appropriate use of the property. Um I think for the same reasons that that's the case. And then the granting of such special use will not result in a

hazardous conditions or conditions enimical to the public health, safety or welfare. um you know for all the reasons I just mentioned that also applies and especially really most importantly you know it will guide patients some of whom are are there going there under urgent circumstances andor in pain to the office um which I think would be actually a furtherance of public health safety and and welfare. So I do have a representative of my my client who can come up and testify to some of the personal sort of experiences they've had with that that trouble. Present your witnesses. What's that? Go ahead and present your um if I like to call

Katherine Marott. Good evening, Mr. Chairman. Very nice to meet you all. Thank you. State your name. Katherine Marott and your address. And I'm at 14 Brandy Wine Lane in Naragansa, Rhode Island. Raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Proceed. M. Marcott, what is your position with Ortho Rhode Island? Yes, so my role at Ortho Rhode Island is I'm the director of practice performance and strategy. And how many offices does Ortho Rhode Island have? Right now we have seven offices in total and that includes Middletown. And how long has Ortho Rhode Island been at one corporate place in Middletown?

We approximately since 2023. Um, we've been there I don't know the exact date that we moved into the building, but yes, 2023. Okay. And have you occupied the same amount of space since you've been there or have you expanded since you've been there? Yes. Well, I think when we first looked into the lease, we looked into one footprint, but then as we got a little bit excited about being here and being in Middletown and serving the community, we did add a full X-ray suite and a full DME department because we found that that was that express component for us and that the DME is the durable medical equipment, braces, casting, etc. So, we we did expand the footprint a bit within the building. Okay. And uh you're personally obviously familiar with the property and the surrounding area. Yes.

And you agree with my description of the building and the surrounding area? Yes. And you also heard my description of the difficulties faced by Ortho Rhode Island patients? Yes. And you agree with that? Yes. And do you have personal experience hearing from patients andor and staff about such problems of finding the access to the property?

Yes. you when we first arrived, of course, it's the challenge of getting it out there so that people even know you're here. Um, my role is unique and and very fun in the organization because I actually get to oversee not only our facilities components, but our whole practice components. So, I work with the physicians, the practice managers, the patient concerns, um, and some of our outreach to third parties. So, have PCP outreach, um, nursing home type of outreach, athletic groups, whether it's the local pickle ball court or or that type of thing. So, I do I'm fortunate enough to be kind of on the front line. So, I do get feedback everything from where my team's calling me to solve a problem about a transport who can't quite find the way to get the nursing home patient here or the mother who's calling in and maybe the child just broke their arm at baseball practice on the athletic field and they're, you know, they're a bit distraught, right? So, then they get turned around in the second lot and they they don't know where to go and they're thinking about jumping the median. So, you got to you kind of talk them down and you talk them through, but it is a very challenging direction to give over the telephone. Um, and many times we stay on the phone with them until they've arrived at the front door, you know. So,

and so across Ortho Rhode Island's offices that you have, would you say that the problem of access to this office is is a unique one? Yes. And do you believe the signage proposed in this application will alleviate those problems for the benefit of your patients? Yes, I do. Okay. And with regard to the signage itself, it's not the intention. It was the intention to just guide people who were already looking for your office. Correct. Yes, absolutely. Um, and you're personally familiar with driving to the office and trying to get to it.

The location of the sign doesn't block any uh sight lines or anything up and down West Main Road. Is that correct? No, I don't believe it does. I'm there fairly often in a number of different types of vehicles, so I I I have not found that at all. Okay. And do you believe that better signage uh to guide people is going to be important in any decision for Arthur Rhode Island to stay in Middletown in the future?

Yes, I think it's our intention to grow and to grow in the space. Um we've started to make a name for ourselves. So it it is important for us certainly as far as staying that's beyond my position in the organization. [laughter] Um, but I do know that as a leadership group that I get to sit with, you know, we're very committed to being part of Middletown and and um, you know, we want it to work. We want to increase our patient flow. We want to be very accessible. And so why is this application important to Ortho Rhode Island?

Well, I think big picture, you know, we again successful. We want to be successful in all of our locations, but here, you know, for us as an organization, I think we pride ourselves and talk about it every day in our values internally that we're very committed to best-in-class patient experience. If we can achieve that across the board, we'd be winning. Um, so we do like to make sure that the patient throughout their entire journey has ease of access, right? ease of access whether they're just calling into our phone lines or they're at a clinic appointment or we're facilitating PT for them or the like. So the the fact that there is this challenge in getting that patient to the provider and making sure they're taken care of that for us that's a little bit of a glitch right because that isn't what we want for our patient. We want our patient to have a smooth smooth journey through the process.

Yep. Those are all the questions I have for Miss Marott. If anyone has any questions for her, I have one I have a question for you. You can answer yes or no. It's up to you. I don't have to elaborate too much. But Mr. Lee's indicated that the signs were put up without you knowing that you needed to come in front of us. Correct. Yes. Yes. Um, did did the sign vendor discuss the possibility that you might not be in conformance? No. So, I can I can tell you truthfully, I was not involved at that point or in any of the discussions regarding the sign at this point. I [clears throat] understand that, you know, we feel that we were not aware um that we were out of compliance.

I'll get to that in a minute. Yeah. Um, personally, I know the area well. I don't think the VA sign um is an issue. I think it helps for people who want to get back there. My eye doctor is back there and I can tell you that yeah, you're going through a neighborhood too on top of it to get back there too. So, um um I think you you know I think you're fine, but I just needed to ask you that one question. So, thank you. Of course. Can you spell your last name for me? Sure. It's Marquette. M A R C O T E. Okay, great. Alicia, um did you mention that there's also an express care or an express clinic that

Yes, we are open for express care um from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. Is there a sign toward the northern end of that parking lot that identifies the express clinic, express care believes? I don't believe so. Northern. No, it's not. I mean, this sign would identify it if it was approved. Yeah, I don't believe so. But there's no other sign that does. Okay. Well, it doesn't say express care though, does it? It just says It says No, there's no Yeah.

Oh, and I did have one other question for you. Sorry. If the zoning board saw fit to limit the size back down to the maximum 16 square feet, would Ortho Rhode Island be agreeable? It it's my understanding that we are we we want to be flexible and we want it to work and we we really very much wish to relay that we were unaware that it was out of compliance. So just so to confirm hours of operation for the office is 8 to 4. Is that what you said? Okay. Because that goes back to the non-lighted sign piece that I was interested in. Okay. Thank you.

Yeah. I just want to comment that I am one of the older people who has used your facility. [laughter] Um, and first of all, I'm really thrilled that that the facility is there, that there's an express. Um, and I it is a little bit difficult. I mean, I have GPS in my car, so it wasn't that difficult for me even though I'm older. Um, but I could see that it would be for some people, especially, you know, if there's an accident um with a child and the mother's, you know, just upset and it would help to have a sign there um on the West Main Road. So,

yes. Thank you. Just a comment. Is this sign a two-sided sign? So, it points Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Miss Mucker. Thank you very much. Thank you. So, Mr. Lee, could you ask the uh sign vendor to come up? Yes. Yeah. Good evening. State your name and your address, please. Uh Ryan Bey, 61 Rum Boulevard, Attboro, Massachusetts. Okay. Raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth? The whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yes, sir.

Okay, proceed. Mr. Leaves, what company do you work for, Mr. Bey? Uh, Sign Design, Inc. And what is your title with that company? I'm an account executive, which is basically a fancy term for like an account manager. Okay. And are you familiar with the Ortho Rhode Island sign that's the subject of this application tonight? Definitely. And could you discuss the materials that the sign would be made of? Uh, yeah. It is aluminum posts with PVC sleeves, an aluminum composite panel, and a vinyl graphics. Okay. And these considered high quality materials in your industry? Definitely standard issue sign material. Okay. And they're durable in the weather. Durable in the weather. UV lamb, so it shouldn't fade.

Okay. And you're familiar with the site itself, correct? Definitely. And I also have had trouble getting to the entrance myself the very first time I went down there. So, I definitely understand the uh issue. Yeah. And um so you understand that. And do you believe that the sign um is designed for good visibility from West Main Road? Definitely. It's right on that main uh turn where, like you had said to me, if you go by at that point, you're not going to um realize, oh, it's too late. I got to turn all the way around. And then you got people trying to cross East Main Road trying to get back towards the lights and then you're waiting at the light and everyone knows that's frustrating. So,

and do you believe that the sign is compatible with the site and the surrounding area? Definitely. You don't think it'll have any negative aesthetic impact on the road? I It shouldn't It should help people. That's what it should do. And you believe it's appropriately placed back from the road so it won't interfere with sight lines or cause a traffic safety issue of any? Yes. Those are all the questions I have for Mr. Bey. If anyone Mr. Lee, I don't think anybody up here is going to dispute the sign, the size of the sign, the make of the sign, the visibility. It's not going to impede traffic or anything like that. We think it's a I think it's a good idea. I don't say we. I can never speak for anybody else up here. [snorts] My concern and I have questions. Mr. Bey, is that you?

Uh, Bey B is in Boston. Bey Mr. be um how long has your company or the company you work for been in business? So, kind of an interesting story. Um Sign Design has been in business since 1999. Signs and Sights, which was the original company that was contacted by Ortho Rhode Island, uh has been in business since like 2003 or 2005. In 2024, Sign Design purchased Signs and Sights, which was located in Secon, and I was brought on in May of that year. Um it was a transitional period of moving stuff, moving accounts. We were transitioning over to Brockton. So I get that.

And um how many communities have you personally in Rhode Island um done sign work for companies like Arthur Rhode Island? Many. Many. Yes. Um so Bristol Warren, Barington, Naragansa, Providence, wherever. Right. Yeah. And they all have sign ordinances. Am I correct? Yes, sir.

Correct. So, you took it upon yourself or your business took it upon itself to put up a sign that was not did not fall into our ordinance. I I find it difficult to believe that you didn't do the homework to go to the zoning office or the building inspector and research the zoning ordinances about the size of the sign. And I I find that really dumbfounding to be very frank with you that you would put Rhode Island in the position that you did where they had to cover up the sign. Sure. Okay. I I find that very concerning to me. Yeah. No, I get that.

I I Well, no, you you can say yes all you want, Mr. Lee. Wait, you can say yes all you want. I It almost sounds to me like we're going to do it and if it doesn't work, we're going to beg for forgiveness later. Maybe maybe you did know and you went ahead and did it anyway. We find that happen a lot by the way. Mr. Costa is the one that's going to deal with it. Sure. Yeah. So that is so I don't know what kind of an excuse you're going to give us, but the fact of the matter is you did it and you did it in in contrary to the ordinance. Sure. And it should never have happened. Yes. Frankly, no. I I don't need to hear any excuses. Mr. You're in business.

Okay. Mr. Lombardi, if you're asking him a question, you should let him answer. I understand that this is not, frankly, the subject of the application, but if you're going to ask him a question, you should give him the opportunity to answer. Go ahead and answer. I want to hear it. So, I I I totally understand your concerns. Um, like I had said, it was a transitional period and it wasn't an example of us just going, "Ah, screw this. We're not going to look at the ordinance." Excuse me. Excuse me. You want to get closer to the to the mic?

Oh, sorry. Um, and we were uh in a transitional period. It wasn't a case of us not looking at the ordinance. It was a case of us looking at the ordinance and honestly misinterpreting it and and that's our fault. Uh we interpreted it as directional signage. And so our thought was if this is directional signage, it's all it's doing is providing guidance to people as to get around to the access road and to get to one corporate place. I to be 100% honest was not fully involved at the beginning of this. So, I can't speak 100%. But I can say that there's a ton of towns that we do business with and the laws in those towns vary greatly. And so, a lot of times there might be something that slips through the crack. And this is just an example of us making a mistake and misinterpreting. I

strongly suggest to you in the future to avoid somebody like me coming after you on this. Yes. That you do your homework. So, I mean, personally, I can tell you that I make sure to call every building inspector myself since I've come on. Um, I can tell you from experience that Mr. Costa will bend over backwards for you. Sure. And and and that's what you should do to avoid anything like this. Absolutely. Because, you know, we see too much of it in other instances where it's a case of we'll do it and beg forgiveness later maybe. Uh, you know, then then Chris has got to deal with it and I know he'll agree with me on this. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

So, in the future, sorry I jumped all over you, but No, I I understand the frustration. I really do. I mean, we hear it, too. And it's the first thing that stuck out in my mind. I think the sign is great. I travel that road all the time. Not a big deal to me. Yep. That kind of an issue troubles me as you can see. Always double check our facts from now on. I mean, that's one thing that I've tried to implement as I've come on to this job, but so again, I can't sit here and say, you know, we obviously did it. So, it was it was a mistake and and I do own it and I do apologize and we just want to correct it so people can get to their perfect, you know, location.

Any other questions from the board, Mr. Lee? Uh, that's all I have, Mr. Chair. Um, I think we've covered everything and uh would respectfully ask for uh the board to grant special use permit for both the sign and the exception to the signage dimensions. Yes, if please. Thank you. Can I get a motion? Motion to approve. Second. I'll second. Go ahead. [laughter] A second. Discussion.

Yeah. I just have one thing to say. Um, with a lot of the development that is going on on our on the island and particularly that corridor, [clears throat] um, we have an obligation to maintain some standards and abide by our ordinances unless there's good reason to make exceptions. Um, in this case, I believe that the sign is more directional than it is marketing or advertisement. So, I believe making the exception um to have an additional sign um is okay. I would prefer that we keep the signs to the regulated size just so that we don't get into you made an exception here. We need to make more exceptions. Um, I wouldn't I won't let that um sway my um decision to support it. I just wanted to make that comment. We are making a conscious effort here to rein in the signage um on these on these roadways. But that's it. um to to that point um given the location of the sign and um it it's I think just given the location of the sign and the issue of being able to find that building um I I think I'm going to I would support the exception. I think we should be taking these issues uh not as a cookie cutter but on a case-byase basis. Um, I am fully aware of the issues we're having on West Main Road with signage, particularly lit signage and things like that. I I'm fully aware of that, but this location in particular is unique

and I don't have a problem with the exception in this case. Um, but I agree I agree with you that West Main Road needs to be controlled better and that's part of our [clears throat] job. But in this particular case, I don't see a problem with the uh the exception to this to the ordinance. So, I'm going to support it with that with that exception.

I'm also going to support it and probably for hopefully for a reason that hadn't been discussed yet is we're very happy to have author island in Middletown and we're happy to have that kind of service being provided to our residents where there was limited support other than going to the hospitals. So I think that's a very good thing and understanding the importance obviously of patrons being able to find the location. I think the sign is necessary. The sighting of the sign is appropriate in the size even though we given a little bit of variance here is also appropriate for the location. So I am also going to support this other comments.

I just totally agree with you. [laughter] Make a note of that. All in favor? I I opposed. The petition is approved. 5 nothing. Good luck. Good luck. Well, I hope not. I hope not. [laughter] I've had enough problems with help. Okay, last one.

CBR 2539. John P. Kennedy and Caroline E. Moran owners and Kaitton Sherf architect for variance from 603, 803G, and 903 to demolish and reconstruct a new dwelling 4T from the west side yard where 30 ft is required. Said real estate is located at 6 Bueno Vista and further identified as tax assessors plat 129 lot 72.4. Let's go. Sir, state your name and your address, please. Kaitton Sheriff, uh, 38 Belleview A, Newport, Rhode Island. Okay, Kaitton, raise your right hand. Do you swear the testimony that you're going to give this evening is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do.

Okay, proceed. Um, so the applicant, we're proposing to remove an existing outdated single family residence in a non-conforming legally non-conforming lot in the R60 uh, zoning district and replace it with a new single family residence. Um, could you could you speak into the mic a little? Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great.

Um, the new the new residence will uh remain generally in within the existing building footprint. The lot predates current zoning requirements and it is constrained by uh CRMC regulations um which limits the ability to relocate the new structure. Um the existing residence uh is located about 6.3 ft from the western property line and the new proposed would be about 4 feet from the western property line. Um, I just want to make a note that the western property line abuts uh the owner's other property. They own both properties. Um, this will require dimensional uh dimensional relief, which is what we're asking for, as well as um a non-conforming lot making it conforming or so the the other part of the proposal, we're actually the existing structure, if you're not familiar with it, um it is over the 35 ft height limitation. and very unique

and very unique. It's actually has an elevator that goes up to a greenhouse that has no egress. I don't know how that got there, but um it's a young family that's going to be moving in. So, uh we're going to be taking that out and make it, you know, more usable for family friendly. Um so, we are just we're trying to make we're trying to bring it back to as much conformance as possible. We're going to try to limit as much uh disturbance by kind of putting it in the existing footprint as much as we can. Um we're just seeking dimensional variance for for the western property line and then uh because it's a non-conforming lot uh requesting relief for that.

Okay. Questions from the board, please. Um you have the um square footage of the lot listed as 31, 400. Um when I look at the town records, it shows it as 21,000. Um where did you have a survey? Did you get So we have a survey. We got a survey done um by Northeast Engineers. Um and on there and I can bring this up as an exhibit if you'd like to see it. I just lost my connection so I can't look at it.

That's okay. We'll just we'll live. Yeah. Is that one of your um files on included in your application? Okay. I just lost connection so I can't look at it. Um got Mark looking at it. So let me let me record that as exhibit A for this petition please. Yeah. It's just that's quite a sizable difference. Yeah. Yep. And fair to say one of the reasons you can't move this property further to the east is because of the CRMC buffer. The Yeah, right. The CRMC buffer.

Yep. And we're trying to we're trying to hold it back as far as possible and because the existing footprint is so large, we're trying to reuse it generally within that location. U Yeah. And um I also understand that um although you're gonna you're increasing the um encroachment on that on one side um of the property step back, but you are um lowering the the height

um and ensuring that you are in compliance with all of the other. So in essence, you're actually bringing it closer to compliance than it currently is. Correct.

I'm going to chime in that I do not attach to this application see a Rhode Island surveyed stamp on anything. I have Hulk Hoveve Designers on here. Uh it's the last attachment. It's it's attached separately. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Understand at the building permitting time is when I do all of my job looking for that proportionary by a Rhode Island licensed surveyor. I do regardless of what it is on vision appraisal or, you know, camera, we're going to we're going to be expecting that as my job for the building review. That's all I want to make clear. Yep.

Yeah. If it's if it's not attached, then I'll I'll make sure to attach it after this. I'll check on We have the file open. It is on the last page as you stated. Yeah. Can I just I'm And it's stamped. Yeah. Yeah. It may it may be because I attached it separately and not with that file made file. I put a lot of a lot of trust in those with that's why you pay the coin. We're going through the deeds, the records, make sure that it matches the area. That's all I had. And it matches the square footage. You mentioned 314 something. It Yeah, correct. Y other questions.

Okay. So, you also uh state in your proposal that it minimizes environmental impacts. So, how so? How specifically does this minimize environmental impacts? By that I meant we're reducing the amount of disturbance of uh new soil by trying to maintain the existing stay in your footprint and then also not trying to encroach right and pulling it back further you know further. We're actually pulling it back further from the coastline as well.

Um and then we're relocating the uh the sewer uh to the uh the front front side. Right now it's located towards the water. We're taking that out and we're actually removing and pushing it further back away from the coast. Okay. And then I think you already explained it, but also in the proposal you talked about the common ownership, but you explained that a little bit more clearly in your proposal. The same person owns both lots. Yeah. The same the same person owns both lots. He's not objecting. I don't [laughter]

All right. Other questions? And it's it's actually it's located next to the the earlier uh applicant that was saying the big lot that has the uh common. You're on the opposite side. We're on the opposite side of that. So yeah. Yeah. It's a beautiful spot. Okay. So for the folks at home, there is nobody in the audience other than the owner. So I'll go through the formality. Is there anybody in the audience opening this up to public that would like to speak for against this proposal? Seeing none, I'm closing the public portion of the hearing and asking for a motion. Motion to approve. Second.

Motion to approve and second comments. I think based on the existing structure and what you're asking for, it's not only reasonable, but you're reducing the height. You're reducing the overall structure. you're making a much better conforming structure for a family to grow and live in. So, I think all of those are big improvements and will obviously be in character with that beautiful location and the homes that are in that location. So, for all those reasons, I'm going to support the petition. I agree with you. Two [laughter] three. All in favor? I opposed. Petition passes 5 nothing.

Thank you very much. You're welcome. Good luck. Thanks. You're welcome. I need a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn. Oh, one second. Second, Alicia. Okay.