Welcome back to our show. Hola y hola, everyone, and feliz año nuevo. Feliz año nuevo, happy new year. I'm your host, Barbara DeLuca, President and Co-Founder of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. And I am Marisol Ruiz. I am the Vice President and Co-Founder of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce here in Hawaii. So we had a great year. We're going to recap 2023 and talk about our initiatives for 2024. We just had a productive meeting in December to talk about what we're going to have in store for you for 2024. So we're so excited. And we want to start off with some of our progress that we made last year. It was a great, exciting year, right, Marisol? Oh, yeah. Exciting is an understatement. There was a lot of work. But this is what we love. We're trying to bring our Latino community together. So it was rough. But you're going to keep on going. And it's only getting better. So I'm really excited for this recap. And just to highlight what we've been doing this last year and what we're going to do moving forward. Right? So in 2022, we had our meeting in January. And we decided, OK, in 2023, we would love a podcast. And we even had a name for it. And it was Ola Iloha. And here it is. It came to fruition. We reached out to Think Tech Hawaii. Thank you, Think Tech, for giving us this platform. And we're going to start off with some of our shows. So if you go to our website, we're looking at one of our shows that we had with Tito Buenthe Jr. He was here for Hispanic Heritage Month in October. That was a great discussion, right? Oh, my god, he's so dynamic. Like, 30 minutes wasn't enough.  And it was really exciting. And he didn't even, when he performed at the festival, he was even more dynamic, which was wonderful. So it was an honor to share space with him. Oh, he's so personable, too. He recognized each one of us from our talk show. So as soon as he saw us, everybody was trying to get a picture with them. But he's like, come on, Marisol, come on, Barbara. Let's get a picture. Yeah, do you remember that? I know. I was like, ooh. We were like groupies waiting. And he just called us out. It was awesome. Yeah, it was really good. It was great. Especially since I just got back from Florida, the conversation flowed. I was able to talk to him about Miami and our visit there. And unfortunately, he wasn't there for this event that I was at, who's in Puerto Rico. And let's look down. Let's go down to some of our other guests. I see Mercado de la Rasta. That was great. Oh, that's awesome. And they actually also, yeah, they're wonderful. And we talked a little bit about what they do in the community because they're really community-centric and really trying to bring people together and businesses actually really trying to expand and grow. And so they do a lot of charity work as well. But they were, we'll talk about this event, but they were panelists at one of our largest event we've had in 2023. So we'll get into that. But they were wonderful to share space with as well. Yeah, Alex Villarino and Megan Chun. Shout out. Hi, how? They're stores. The only Latino grocery store on the island, in case you didn't know, they're looking at a baritania right across the street from Safeway. And they carry all Latino products. And if they don't carry it, just let them know. And they'll, you know, they'll, I'm sure they'll do their best to get it in there. And you know, one thing that I've heard from people too, it's not just like when people think like Hispanic or Latino, most of them will think like Mexican, right? Or kind of Central American. They have products from Argentina, Brazil, other islands. Oh, yeah. They really, really are diverse. So it's a great, it's definitely a vibe in there. And while you're in there, you're probably going to find out one of their pop-ups. You'll get introduced to another locally owned business that they're supporting there, right? And their Merchant initiative there. Exactly, their Merchant Latino. They have that on Saturdays. And they bring in local vendors. And some of them are members of our chamber. And growing as well. So we like what they're doing in the community. Just like RIP Fitness, I'm looking at our other video here. They, Marisol, why don't you talk to us about RIP Fitness? Because you were at one of their masterminds recently. Oh, man, RIP Fitness, that's a whole other vibe too. It's so wonderful. If you want to work out in salsa and bachata, in between sets, that's the place to do it. And it's safe. And everyone is so wonderful and welcoming. And same idea that we all have is just uplift and inspire one another, support one another. There's enough room for everybody. So always fun to go in there. And then aside from just really owning their gym, they do sipping shops. So again, supporting one another in our businesses. So they'll bring out vendors. The one we went to last time, how many were there? I mean, at least 12, right? Vendors that they had out there.  You can lift weights if you want and support these other businesses. And then you remember how we started, right? It was just a kind of a passion project where he would get him and friends. And they'd go out and work out on Saturdays at the park just to get people together. And they're actually doing that. If I'm not mistaken, I want to say, let me look at the date. I want to say it's January 13th. They're kind of going back again to remember that Saturday event that we had gone to, they're going to do it again. Again, going back to kind of their initial roots, right? And how they started and getting the community involved again. But they recently, I went to a mastermind. Again, not just the gym. Their idea is to really uplift people. It was wonderful. I was there for a few hours at this mastermind. And it was just members of the community and talking about 2023 goals, finances. What are we projecting? Talking about even faith and different aspects of how can we grow and be better as individuals in our own homes and in our communities, in our places of work, our places of worship. We talked about mental health. I mean, it was wonderful. And this is something that they're planning on doing later in the year as well to kind of hold people accountable. Because we get excited, right? We'll do something, but it's like, how do you maintain and continue to support? So they're not just a gym. I mean, it's pretty awesome. So that was my experience just a few weeks ago. And they even have merch. They sell their own merchandise. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, I mean it's great. And they participate in all the, I mean, I go in there and it's amazing to see these transformations. Like, you think it can't really happen until you see it. You'll see somebody and then how dedicated they are when they're training them to do these competitions, you know? It's a thing. And you know what? When they go out to these competitions because it's such a community. They rolled so deep in such a community, like they're doing dancing and, you know, chime. And so they really bring that Latin flavor and that family culture to competitions, which there's no other group like that. So it's pretty awesome that, you know, they're part of the chamber and they're here to support us. And again, they also were, you know, active participants in our Latino Business Expo, which we'll talk about. So it was great to support another. Yes, they were. And they're located in Maipahu in case you haven't been to the gym. So look them up. RIP Fitness fell with a one, R1P Fitness, right? Oh, and I still would love to post this video on there, but one of our last guests that joined us in November was Ana Valdez and she's the president, CEO of Latino Business Collaborative. So they've been doing this report the last seven years. And it's basically on the Latino GDP and what would contribute to the economy and how we affect the voting block, real estate, entertainment, just all different facets, every industry, it's so interesting this conversation that I have with her. So I'm gonna post that on our website to share. And I'm just, you know, so happy that she took time to join us. She was in New York at the time. Right, and this is a guest that we should probably bring back on again because everything is data, right? I mean, and if there's data there to be had and we can talk all we want about, you know, how we're growing and who we are, you know, whether it be in Hawaii or nationwide, but the numbers speak for themselves, right? And so we can back up our passions and what we're seeing and trends with the data. So I think we need to bring her back. What do you think? Yes, definitely, especially as we, you know, make those relationships and connections with corporate members and, you know, the data is very important and how we do contribute 3.2 trillion to the GDP and all of those great numbers and how, you know, we're one in five Americans is Latino and how we're, you know, the youngest Americans, you know, about 20 years and younger is our average age. We have lots of opportunity in years to grow, you know, continue to grow the economy and buy homes and graduate higher levels and get those CEO positions. So it was a great conversation. Yes, we definitely have to bring her back. Good. 2024. 2024. So, oh, Marisol, do you want to talk about our Latino business expo since that's next on our website here? And, you know, it was great. Yeah, it was, you know, this was our first Latino business expo since we are a business chamber, right? But that being said, we're also, you know, extremely fun and passionate and, you know, we love the dance and the food. So we were thinking of how can we incorporate? How can we support our Latino businesses? Keep it still professional, right? Support one another and still, you know, have fun and really let who we are as the people shine. So we've been talking about this Latino business expo. Our vision is much larger, but hey, this was the first time, right? But it was incredibly successful. We had how many vendors did we have? 35 vendors and not all of them sold food. I would say half of them, 15 or the 18 were vendors. I'm talking Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, Peruvian, Mexican, all different. Brazilian, Cuban. And then the other half were business owners like myself and Marisol. We had a booth there as well for real estate and lending. Right, right. That's right. I'm a mortgage broker. I'm a mortgage broker. We were out there promoting our business along with RIP Fitness and Mercado de la Raza. Oh, and we also had a great conversation on stage. And you want to talk about that. Who was our guest on there? The four different Latino business owners in our community. Yeah, we had the Mercado de la Raza. We had RIP Fitness. We also had H&L to LAX, the Barber Shop, right? And then we had the one and only Chero. And the one and only. Hector Garcia Gomez from Arranchero, so. Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, and again, because we are a business chamber, right? Like, yes, are we going to have fun in the fiestas and the food? Yes, we're going to do all of those things. But at the end of the day, we are entrepreneurs. We hustle. We want to start businesses, whether it's a side business, a real business, a corporation, or some of us, you know, maybe don't work for ourselves and but we hold, you know, positions in other companies. The goal is to promote one another. So it was really awesome to have a panelist because people have ideas. Like, I want to start my business, but they might be afraid or they don't know how or they might not even know somebody in their own sphere that has actually done it. So we really provided that platform for people to talk about their experience because each experience is unique. So I thought it was exciting. I mean, that thing could have gone for hours. So we, you know, tried to keep it kind of concise and, you know, it was hard to also choose who we wanted as panelists, right? Because everyone has a story and I want to hear everyone's story. So maybe that's something that we can work on for 2024 as well as how can we and we do that when we do our talk shows, right? We highlight our Latino and businesses and how they got there. Where did the idea come from? So it was really fun to do that. But it was our first time, right? And it was, how many? 1200, over 1200. And we got a low hat tower marketplace. So it was a beautiful venue by the water and we had a VIP networking event. So that was sponsored by Taramana Tequila and we sold tickets for that event and the money went to our fundraiser which we can talk about next. And at the event, at the, sorry, at the VIP networking event, we were able to network with some of the business owners and the money went to a good cause and it was sponsored by Taramana. So you can't go wrong. And we also had a low riders. Duke's car was there, that was fun. So we represented all facets of our culture. Oh yeah, also the ballet folklorico, we can't get those amazing young people. Yes, we're gonna invite them back out. I had lunch with one of the girls who was here during the holidays to visit family. Yeah, no, they were wonderful. It's too bad we don't have yet, maybe, right? That's something that maybe in the future will, you know, as the Latino community grows, right? We don't, we have to kind of bring people in from the mainland, you know? But I mean, they're wonderful. It was a beautiful site, actually. Latina was there, they had a booth and actually the competition is coming up in January. I have to, we'll post details, maybe we'll bring them on to talk or, you know, we'll figure that out. Wait, which competition? The Miss Latina pageant is coming up in January. We've got it called Nancy Ortiz, she's the organizer and if we can have the girls talk about their platforms or, you know, yeah, we can at least talk about the Miss Latina pageant. It's a great way to bring the girls in and get them involved and not only that, this year one of our initiatives is to start a young people network. Yes, that's gonna be spearheaded by one of our members who actually, she was asking the questions on the panel as to the discussion. So she was a moderator, that's the word I'm thinking of, the moderator. Moderator. Yeah, Maria Arieta. So we'll have more news to share as that grows and develops her and Rolando Santiago, they're gonna spearhead that. So Marisol and I are gonna meet with them this month and talk about how we're gonna grow our young people network. So that's how we're gonna continue to grow the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. That's right. I mean, there's so many, I mean, and as we're growing, right, we're learning there's growing pains with everything, but I mean, wouldn't you say, Barbara, the response that we're getting, I mean, even just the Latino Business Expo, this was our first time, we really didn't know how successful it would be. We know in our minds, right, what we thought, I think it went better than we planned. And I mean, we had people that wanted to participate. Do you remember they were coming after the event? Like, who can we talk to? We wanna participate. What can we do for next year? And we're like, we had to, you know, it was limited. So we didn't even think that the support would be that as much as it was and we couldn't satisfy everyone, so to speak. So think about how big 2024 is going to be for everybody. Yeah, it's gonna be exciting and we might need a bigger venue. Let's see what happens. All of the food vendors sold out. So that was a good, you know, indicator. Yeah, no, it was great. So, yeah, we're looking forward to 2024. And so, and anybody that wants to, you know, join the Chamber, it's for Latinos and those who love us who have, you know, who are good in certain areas, maybe, you know, fundraising or marketing or they just wanna be a part of something, you know, you're more than welcome to come and join and be a part of our committees. Right, thank you. You're absolutely right. Everybody's welcome, Latinos and those who love us. Come out to some of our networking events. So we're going over last year, but what we did last year, we're gonna continue to implement this year. So our signature events such as the Latino Business Expo and we have another great event that we're planning at the end of the year for Dia de los Muertos. So that one's gonna be our Gala fundraiser. So we'll have more information to share with you guys as the year progresses. We're gonna start working on that early. And some of the networking events are on our signature events page on our website. So if you just wanna go check it out. Yep, there you go. We had a great turnout. Every other month we would have a breakfast networking. It was called Buenos Dias Breakfast Networking and we had six of them. So they were every other month at El Ranchero and Capolei. And we talked about, let's see, what do we have here? Ricky Niguez was going over some financial things and AI, how to build a website. If you scroll on there, we had a great time. Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking, I'm like, we've missed a couple on our website, but that's okay. I mean, yeah, we just, we did a lot this year, last, we're in 2020 already. You would think at eight in the morning, 8.30 in the morning, it's one of those things where like, well, let's see what happens. So it was out in Capolei and it's kind of hard to say who's gonna come out that far, but we had about 35 to 40 people at each of our breakfast meetings. This year what we wanna do is continue to have them, but plan them at different locations closer to town and see if we can capture some of the attendees that might have missed our breakfast networking just because of the location, but that was it, that's definitely a great location. We wanna keep them there. And if you go all the way to the bottom, we kicked off our year, the last two years with Beads for Leeds Business Networking, and this is at the Boiling Crab in Cacaaco. It's also Latino owned and for those who love us, anybody, everybody's welcome. So this is our first signature event that we want to, well, that we're gonna be planning for February. It's on Fat Tuesday and you bring your beads and get some leads and it's always a great night, right? This will be our third year, so that's exciting. And I did say that we were gonna talk about the Maui fundraiser. So if you go to our homepage, we were honored to be able to, the fact that we're a 501C3, we were able to raise $5,000 for our Latino business owners in Maui and we awarded three recipients. So we'll be sending that information out in our newsletter. We have a newsletter that we send out, I would say every other week. It's also called Hola Y Aloha. But we're able to share updates on our breakfast networking events and signature events. Right, yeah, the newsletter is great because it does, it recaps and then it highlights events that are coming up for sure. And then you know who else we miss on one of our networking events when we were at Locahi Brewing Company, right? That's right. But yeah, that was an awesome event. That was, he's over there on King Street, I believe, right? Locahi at the brewery and serves good food, has a food truck. So we should do plan one there again. Well, we actually did talk about it. So that would be a nighttime one. Yeah, no, that one's great. Right, so maybe if not a Buenos Diaz breakfast, so you know, Buenas tardes. Yeah, thank you. That's our version of Calhona, Buenas tardes. Right, yeah. And then 2023 was three this year, we're going to implement joining our chamber because we do have a lot of value to offer. And last year we were able to grow.  I can name a few and Marisol can name a few, but we have Barrio Cafe, Dash of Sastón, Alejandro's. What else do we have here? I got to put my glasses on. And then the salsa. Oh, yeah. Awesome. We got a hat. Raisa, tortillas, poquitos, the sifu cartel, taqueria, ranchero, boiling crab. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so those are some of our restaurant vendors and if you scroll up, Marisol, you want to read off some more business members. Let me see, hold on, I'm trying to. I know, go to my fast. I'll start with the designs, there we go. Graphic designs. What are we? Sorry. Okay, Marisol Cochin, the Latino Healing Institute, World Fast Notaries, another notary, HNLAX, the Barbershop, Arietta, soldier to soldier, RIP Fitness, Arthur Murray. Yeah, that's what they have. Politics, via business consultants, M&M consultants, insurance advisors, and we even have a cell phone company here, personalized white tours. Oh, wow. Yeah, so, and we need to update the website. Since our Latino Business Expo, we did have quite a few more people that joined us and companies and that's just people that own businesses. I'm spot on joined us, you know, they do people restaurants. So that's exciting, just collaborating with some of our corporate members. But like I said, you don't have to own a company like Marisol said, it's also for individuals that just want to network and might work for another company. We all work somewhere, right? Well, yeah, and I think a lot of the feedback that we get too, yeah, and I'm glad that you reiterated that again is you don't have to own a business. But at the end of the day, I think people are looking for a space or somewhere to connect with others or, you know, we get calls, right? Like, oh, do you know an immigration lawyer? Yes, we do actually, you know, or do you have an accountant or a tax preparer that speaks Spanish? Yes, we do, right? So it's like, they might not own a business but they're looking for certain resources and we're here to provide resources, you know, a hub for everybody to tap into when something is needed but you do not have to own a business. Correct. And one of the things that we are working on for this year, like, you know, we did discuss where we can improve and that's our website. So we do want to create a directory so we can connect with each other on the website. Right. That's been requested and definitely necessary. And Barbara, do we have planned like a members meeting to get everyone together? And is that something that we're looking at for our next quarter maybe? What do you think? Definitely, yeah. That's something that we discussed. So the best way to connect with us is to sign up, go to our website and sign up for the newsletter because we send that out every other week just discussing any upcoming events like our members meeting. Right. That's something we are working on. And you'll be probably getting a personal phone call from one of us, someone on our board saying, hey, make sure you come to our meeting when we have that. So look out for the newsletter and then it's off. We do have people that do want to, you know, volunteer for our membership committee. So some of our new members are volunteering for the membership committee. Right. One of them is her name's Chris Calderon and she owns a security franchise. Oh, that's awesome. Ignore security, I believe. Don't quote me, let me look it up. I'm sorry, Chris, but I think that's it. She's great. I went to lunch with her too. She lives in Millani, so we were able to meet up. So yeah, if you're interested in helping out or volunteering, please connect with us. Our contact information is on our website. Sorry, I was trying to read the chat, but I don't have my basketball. Oh, let me see. Do we have a chat? Two, with a two minute countdown. All right. Why are you just ignoring the countdown? Countdown, happy new year. Woo, I hope you guys all had a happy new year. I know we did and we're blessed to live here in the beautiful islands of Hawaii and just growing the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and partnering with Marisol. And, you know, we talked about this Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and growing it and bounding it back in 2019. And here we are at 2024, Marisol. I know. Is that crazy? No. I feel like blood, sweat and tears, but here we are. I'm like recharged again. It just takes a little conversation and it's like, OK, why are we doing this again? It's wonderful. There's so much potential. And we'll be reaching out to a lot more of our corporate members of the community for support because we have a lot to do and a lot to say and pretty exciting. But we do need some support. So if anybody's interested in participating and putting in some work, we're here. We're taking you with open arms. Remember Latinos and those who love us. But thank you for joining us, you guys. And we look forward to another year of think tech support. And thank you for giving us this platform and joining us on Ola y Aloha. And like I said, this is Barbara DeLuca, your host signing off with Marisol Ruiz, our vice president and co-founder. Thank you for joining us and happy new year. Thank you. Happy new year. Feliz año nuevo. We'll see you soon.


ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help. It is Tuesday, April 9th at 7.34 p.m. Good evening, everyone. My name is Christian Klein. I am the chair of the Arlington Zoning Board of Appeals and I'm calling this meeting of the board to order. First, I'd like to confirm that all members and anticipated officials are present from the Zoning Board of Appeals. Patrick Hamlin, well, Patrick, you're on mute. Here. Thank you. Elaine Hoffman. Here. And Adam Leblanc. Here. Thank you. Just for the record, I would note that Roger Dupont, Venkat Hawley, and Dana Wrikadelli all have conflicts this evening and are unable to join us. From the town, Colleen Ralston, our zoning assistant is away tonight as well. So she is not joining us. Then going down our docket, for docket 3779, Nine Morton Road, Kate and Anthony Gregorio. Yes, here. Good to see you. For docket 3781, 165 Franklin Street, Kristin Germano, and Gregory Salinascus. Here. Here. Great, good to have you with us. And for docket 3788, 70 Robbins Road. We have Andrew and Janet Sparks. Are they here or is a representative for them here? Come back to them. We are hearing. So this open meeting of the Arlington Zoning Board of Appeals is being conducted remotely consistent with an act. Let's just map it in my video. Oops, sorry about that. This open meeting of the Arlington Zoning Board of Appeals is being conducted remotely consistent with an act making appropriations for the fiscal year 2023 to provide for supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects signed into law on March 29th, 2023. This act includes an extension until March 31st, 2025, the remote meeting provisions of Governor Baker's March 12, 2020 executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law which suspended the requirement to hold all meetings in a publicly accessible physical location. Public bodies may continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location so long as they provide adequate alternative access to promote meetings. Public bodies may meet remotely so long as reasonable public access is afforded so the public can follow along with the deliberations of the meeting. An opportunity for public participation will be provided during the public comment period during each public hearing. For this meeting, the Arlington Zoning Board of Appeals has convened a video conference via the Zoom application with online and telephone access as listed on the agenda posted to the town's website identifying how the public may join. This meeting is being recorded and it will be broadcast by ACMI. Please be aware that attendees are participating by a variety of means. Some attendees are participating by video conference. Others are participating by computer audio or by telephone. Accordingly, please be aware that other folks may be able to see you, your screen name or another identifier. Please take care to not share personal information. Anything you broadcast may be captured by the recording and we ask you to please maintain the quorum during the meeting, including displaying an appropriate background. All supporting materials that have been provided members of this body are available on the town's website unless otherwise noted. The public is encouraged to follow along using the posted agenda. As chair, I reserve the right to take items out of order in the interest of promoting an orderly meeting. So we're going to start this meeting, item two on our agenda is docket number 3779, Nine Morton Road. So introduce Mr. Gregorio and if you could give us an update on the project. Yes, Mr. Chairman and members of the board, good evening and thanks for making the time. I'm joining tonight with the hopes of withdrawing our application. We just realized through the process how complex and costly the project would be. And so we decided to put it on pause and may revisit down the road, but I appreciate the time. Thank you. Are there any questions from the board in regards to the request? Seeing none, the chair would accept a motion to withdraw docket number 3779, Nine Morton Road without prejudice. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hanlon. I move that the, I think the way to do this is to, I move that the board accept the request to withdraw from the applicant in the case that the chair just named into the record. Thank you very much. Second. Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc. So this is a motion to accept the request to withdraw for docket 3779, Nine Morton Road without prejudice. So a roll call vote of the board. Mr. Hanlon. Aye. Ms. Hoffman. Aye. Mr. LeBlanc. Aye. And the chair votes aye. So that docket is withdrawn. Thank you very much for coming before us tonight and good luck with the future planning. Thanks so much for your time. You're very welcome. Thank you. This brings us to item three on our agenda, which is docket 3781, 165 Franklin Street. It's a continuance of a prior hearing. I could go ahead and ask the applicants to reintroduce themselves and tell us where they are in the process. And I need to find Mr. Grisling and give him permission to share. Okay, all set. Thank you. Good evening. Thanks for having us again. I'm Christian Germano. I'm the owner of 165 Franklin and I'm here with my GC Greg Salanskis. Hello. Good evening to you. It's there. Based on our last conversation, we've made some revisions and adjustments to the plan. And I'm gonna hand it over to Jim. Just to let you know, I also did reach out to the neighbors as suggested this week. I was on site. I gave them a couple of hours, a window, but I didn't hear from anyone. And I also gave them my phone number, but I didn't hear back from anyone. Thank you for that. All right. Good evening. I'm James Risling of LR Designs. We would like to show you the changes that we've made to the project based on the feedback we received over the last few hearings. I think the story is best told by looking at the elevations. So we had already made the addition, the proposed addition more compact, reducing the proposed footprint and increasing the side and rear yards. I'll go back to the site plan for that. So this is our more compact footprint, the increased side yard, increased rear yard. Since then, we've reduced the height of the ridge of the addition to 27 feet four inches above the average grade at the curb, which is almost eight feet below the allowed building height. And that brings us down to a low one and one and three-quarter story structure as the building tapers back. We understood that was one of the major concerns of the previous proposal, which is in the center of the screen in which the two-story rear addition continued through the depth of the building. Now we're presenting a development with some hierarchy from the front house to the kitchen L to a connector, which may read as a barn and then a small back house. We'd like to, again, talk about density of the site. Our lot is 11,088 square feet, which is almost two times the required 6,000 square feet in the R2 zone. And it should be noted that only a few of the lots conform within this block. The others range from 5,700 to 3,600 square feet, having both single and two family homes on them. So part of our argument is we really almost have a double lot here. And also might be noted that our proposed site coverage of 3,125 square feet or 28.5%, which is below the allowed 35% site coverage is only 28.5% of 11,088 square feet. Numbers 169 and number 171 has a site coverage of 2,956 square feet or 30% of their 9,900 square foot lot. So just to keep that into perspective, that's a delta of 196 square feet on a lot that is 1,188 square feet larger. I also want to restate that the existing house has been assessed by the Arlington Assessor's Office as a two family since the mid-60s. And I know that that's not really a concern of this board because it is a conforming use, but I think it was brought up to sort of muddy, make the development look excessive. The current two family consisted of a three bedroom with two baths and a two bedroom with one bath. So that's a total of five bedrooms in the existing house. Our proposal over the two units is to have a four bedroom unit with three and a half baths and a three bedroom unit with three and a half baths, which is an increase of two bedrooms on the site. And it's our opinion that it doesn't seem that the addition of two bedrooms within the two units, which will be of high end construction would alter the traffic patterns or the safety and welfare of the neighborhood. In fact, it's our vision that this would attract families that would intend to stay in their home for a rather a long time. I think I would like to maybe open it up to Kristen to maybe speak to the quality of your projects and what people can expect when the landscape and everything else is in place. Thanks, Jim. I appreciate that. I do not feel, I know that I do really need high end quality. I put the best products in. I did have to go through the historical board so that only cemented the high end quality and products that I have to use, but I don't do anything cheap. I want it to look beautiful. I want it to fit in. I'm really dedicated to this being a historical property and doing it properly. I think my neighbors and the community right around will really find it to be a well done and beautiful property when it's finished. And I do it all the way to the end. The landscaping, there'll be all new plantings, there'll be trees added. I think everyone will be pleased in the end. Great, well, thank you for both. Mr. Riesling, if you wouldn't mind just taking us through the floor plans. Sure. Thanks, Rich. Have you seen the elevations now? Yep. So in the front unit, there's an entry hall with an officer den, which is a feature that many of Mr. Mano's buyers are looking for these days. Living in kitchen, dining area, which is sort of an open concept. Mudroom to their one car garage. The rear unit enters here. Unfortunately, I'm not showing my door to the garage, but that would have a connection to the garage, a little mud area, then a living dining area and kitchen on the ground floor or first floor. The second floor of the front unit has three bedrooms, a primary and two bedrooms. And then the back unit has an en suite, two more bedrooms, and then an office at the top of the stairs. The front unit would also take advantage of the existing half story under the eaves with the addition of a new dormer towards the rear of the building. And then the plans are enlarged here for more detail. And then could you show us the four elevations as well? Sure, sure. So the top row are the currently proposed, so we have the restored front elevation, which is garnered the approval of historical, as well as the side elevation. They do take into consideration all elevations. The rear, or rather as it steps back, again to the kitchen now, the garage piece and then the rear house. The left side, we are also stepping down with some relief and then the rear elevation. We've brought the ridge down to 27, it says 27, three and three quarters, which is just a function of AutoCAD, but it would be 27 feet, four inches. And that's measured to the average grade at the curb, which is the proper way to assess the average grade of this site, since it's nearly flat. That puts an eve at 18 foot six inches off the ground. Our previous proposal, we had a ridge of 31 feet three inches with an eve at 22, four inches. All right, thank you. Could you speak a little bit to, I know one of the primary discussions we had had last time, we were really looking to reduce, you know, reduce the height of the unit towards the rear and you have brought it down somewhat and you had addressed the program briefly, but did you look more extensively at all at making the rear unit smaller, as opposed to larger in a number of rooms in the front unit? This program is a necessity for Mr. Mano to make the project work. So the size of the unit is rather important. But we did bring down the size, Jen. Yeah, we eliminated a bedroom in the attic and we reduced the height fully, so. These are meant to be family homes. I have sold, I have worked in the last few years and I've had a few developments and I do sell my own properties and the feedback, I'm always listening to the clients, what they need, what they want and three bedrooms, that's a minimum in an office space. It's just necessary to sell these. They need that third bedroom, preferably a fourth, but it being three in the back will actually make it more difficult to sell. Okay. Are there additional questions from the board? We can come back to the board for additional comments. What was that in mind? We'll go ahead and open the meeting for public comment. So the public questions and comments are taken as they relate to the matter at hand. It should be directed to the board for the purpose of informing our decision. Members of the public will be granted time to ask questions and make comments. Members of the public who wish to speak should digitally raise their hand using the button on the reactions tab and the Zoom application. Those calling in by phone, please dial star nine to indicate you would like to speak. You'll be called upon by the chair given asked for your name and address of the record and given time for questions and comments. All questions are to be addressed through the chair. Please remember to speak clearly. And for anyone wishing to address the board a second time during any particular hearing, the chair will allow those wishing to speak for the first time to be called upon first. And once all public questions and comments have been addressed or the allocated time has ended, the public comment period will be closed and the board will do its best to show the documents being discussed. It is 7.54. So why don't we plant to go till 8.30 and see if we need additional time at that point. So with that, we have a hand raised. It is Ben Mangrum. Yes, hi. My name is Ben Mangrum. I'm at 37 Hamlet Street, which is an abutting property to 165 Franklin Street and my wife Ashle is also here. So I just have a few comments about this proposal. So the first is when I checked this morning on the town website, I didn't see this current proposed plan as part of the meeting agenda. So I'm just now seeing these plans for the first time and I haven't had the day to develop a fully fleshed out response to them. So it would be nice to have more time to more fully assess the proposal. But from what I can tell based on what I've just seen, the first point I wanna make is that it seems to be just a very modest revision to the proposal that we considered a month ago. And just as was the case with that proposal, I don't see how this is more harmonious with the surrounding properties and with the neighborhood than the last proposal. So we're still talking about two homes on one lot as opposed to a multifamily single structure. And so I think that that's not consistent with the surrounding homes. Thinking about one lot as a double lot, I mean, that's a function of the lot I realized, but that's not a justification for building two homes on one lot as opposed to a single structure that's multifamily as is the case in the nearby properties. And the height at the back of the lot is also not conforming with surrounding uses. So that's another reason in which this seems inconsistent with the bylaws for approving a large addition. The other point I wanna just make is that because the property was already zoned as a two family and already had two kitchens, so on and so forth, expanding doesn't actually add density, it just adds square footage and those are not quite the same. So while Arlington wants to increase density, allow more people to move here, this doesn't actually do that for that reason, it just allows for larger homes and more expensive homes. And just to respond to Mr. Mano's invitation to have a conversation, I apologize I didn't reach out. I got a note when I got home from work on Thursday in my mailbox asking the next day on Friday, last Friday to come during the workday. So I'm just not able to take off work with less than 24 hours notice, but I'd be happy to send an email and have a dialogue. I'm assuming the plans were already made prior to that invitation, but again, I do appreciate reaching out. So that's all I have to say for now. I may circle back at the end of the conversation after my other neighbor speak, but thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mangrum. I would note, I was just looking on the agenda and the plans for tonight definitely are there and I'm pretty sure they've been there before. They're just at the very, very bottom of the list. So it's possible that- I may have, but that may be my fault. I apologize if that's the case. Okay, no worries. Next on the list is Dan Ledger. Hey there, this is Dan Ledger, my wife Lauren. We live right next door at 169 Franklin Street. I think Mr. Mangrum did a very eloquent statement and that was kind of exactly what I was gonna say. This seems to, I think the big point of contention last time was just the height of the structure in the back of the lot and it seems to be very, we've added some dormers, but that hasn't changed much. And so I think it seems like we're sort of in the same place we were a month ago. And we'd also welcome a conversation. We didn't receive any outreach. Our front door is a little hidden because we're on the bottom floor here. So it's not always easy to find a front door, but we didn't receive any outreach about this. And otherwise we would love to have a conversation about it. Anything you wanna add? It's interesting because I would say that among the neighbors I've talked to and among the person I live with here, I have been a little bit more positive about the plans going on that I really like how it looks from the front and I'm excited for something to be rebuilt here. But this plan, seeing it today made me feel really, like no one had been listened to during the last meeting because it does seem so similar to what we saw last month. We, as Dan said, would welcome a chance to have a conversation with the homeowner and tour our house. You mentioned that you wanted to build houses that people have lived in for want to live in for a long time. And we've been in our house for almost 16 years, we have raised two kids here and our neighbor upstairs has been here almost as long as we have. And we have smaller places. Ours is just one floor and the backside of it is just one story, which as I mentioned last month was really helpful to our neighbors who had opinions about it too. So we'd welcome a chance to let you see how this has worked out for us here. Thanks. Thank you. Next on our list is John Donnelly. Yes, good evening and thanks. I'm at 41 Hamlet Street, I'm one of the abutters. And let me just get this out of the way that I did not receive a note nor would I probably have been able to go with one day's notice. But I would be willing to talk about what this lot should look like and what the neighborhood would like it to look like. And I'm willing to talk anytime, I just didn't get a note. So I would go back to my zoning bylaw argument that this house does not fit in this neighborhood. And I think we talked about this the last time a month ago and we said that all of the mass all the way up Franklin both towards parallel and going the other way are two family homes. One house, two families live it in. Not two homes with two families. And this to me is not a two family house, it's two homes. And I don't think that fits in this neighborhood at all. And I think that has to be a big concern for the zoning board that it simply does not fit. I'd also like to look at some of the numbers and I'm looking at the total gross area and the total gross floor. And I think the numbers aren't quite right because I'm getting 200 feet less than the attic but they're saying it's 293 feet. And I can't come up with the other 93 feet. And that's a small point but the numbers don't seem to be right to me. I could be wrong, but yeah. And also to get to the point of where families stay in a home for a long time. I think everybody on this call, hopes that we can stay in this neighborhood for a long time. I've been here 30 years and that's a long time. I hope to stay here forever, but I don't know. I mean, I know my neighbors are extremely stressed out about having to attend these meetings once a month and granted the board is great to deal with you. Thanks for listening and all of that. I'm proud to be a citizen of Arlington but this can't go on forever and I'd like it at least to have some more discussions and make it fit in with the neighborhood. I'm sorry, but this is a builder and I'm not concerned about them making money or anything else, which is what they're gonna do.  And then we're gonna be stuck with this colossus in the backyard that's 27 feet high, which does not fit again. So I really want this house to be like the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Let's have a mass, let's have two families living in it. And if they can't make it work, then get somebody else in that can make it work. And so I'm getting a little frustrated because it's very stressful for all of my neighbors who I've known them all for a long time. It's a great neighborhood, I love them all. And I just feel that this is not any different. As Lauren said, it's not a heck of a lot different than it was last month.  So I'd just like to thank you again for listening and that's all for me. Thank you, appreciate it. So next up is Ushwalsh's stuff. Can I ask you a question? Hey everyone, I'm Ushwalsh Resta. I live on 134 Webster Street, directly behind the property in question here. I really want to echo the sentiments that was just expressed in terms of the changes that have been proposed right now in this new proposal. I think the fact that we're still gonna, the proposal still has two stories in the back unit. There's not changed the experience at all for us from what I had explained last week, in terms of having this property right behind our yard. The openness of the view that we have right now would be taken away. And I am also kind of, I also second the sentiment that it is kind of difficult to make these meetings every month. So the fact that the proposal has two units that is not in, it doesn't really fit with the rest of the properties in the neighborhood. The fact that the open views that our kids and the families enjoying the neighborhood would be taken away by the two-story building at the back and the open view that we currently enjoy would be gone are some of the points I wanted to make. And I do also want to emphasize the fact that the plan does not take into account the two stories that we have emphasized in our last meeting. So those are the points I wanted to make to the board. And thank you for giving me this chance to talk about this. Thank you. Next on our list is Diana Abterova. Hi, how are you? Can you guys hear me? We can, yes. Great. So I, you know, I have a just, I think echo. If I could just ask you to reiterate your name and address of the record, sorry. Yes, so Diana Abterova, I live at 45 Hamlet Street right behind the property, one of the smaller lots. And I feel like I echo pretty much all the concerns, you know, other people have. I agree that the plan did not really change much. I think, you know, in my view, the height of the building is probably the thing which concerns me the most because our lots are very small and the size of the property is just too big. So I think it really needs to fit with the sizes of other homes. And I feel like, you know, the plan needs to change accordingly to that. So thank you so much. Thank you very much. Are there any other members of the public who wish to address the board at this time? If not, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing, but I just want to close, excuse me, not close public hearing, but close public comment period for this hearing, which would, so this would be your last opportunity if you wish to speak to this item this evening. Seeing none, I will go ahead then and close the public comment period. Okay, so what the board has before it, so this is a request for a large addition under 542B sub six, which is any addition over 750 square feet outside of the existing foundation requires findings by the board. And those findings are that the alteration or addition is in harmony with other structures and uses in the vicinity. We are to consider the dimensions and the setbacks in relation to abutting structures and uses and we are to consider conformity with the purposes of the bylaw. And in addressing those findings, we are to use the standard findings for a special permit, which would be that the requested use is allowed or allowed by a special permit in the district, that the requested use is essential or desirable to the public convenience or welfare. We need to find that the requested use will not create undue traffic congestion or impair pedestrian safety. We need to find the requested use will not overload any public system. Let's find that the special regulations, the requested use are fulfilled. We would need to be able to state why the requested use will not impair the character or integrity of the neighborhood, why the requested use will not be detrimental to the public health or welfare, and why the requested use will not cause an excess of use detrimental to the neighborhood. Those are the findings that are required by the board. So certainly the sentiment from the butters and what I had first noticed when I saw the revised plans is we had talked very extensively last time about making the back part of the property as low as possible, preferably going to a single story. And what we have here, we've reduced the ridge height. We may have reduced the floor to floor slightly, but it is still essentially a two-story or close to two-story structure. And I had asked previously about that and about the size and sort of reducing the program and you had stated that the program was necessary in order for the project to go forward, which I assume would imply that in order for the project to be profitable, it would need a program like this in order for the units to bring in enough funds to cover the cost of the land acquisition and the new construction. Is that a fair characterization? It is. It is, Mr. Chair. It may not be appropriate. Could I please show some photos from the site at this point? Sure. That I think will address some of these concerns. Okay. Are you seeing the image on my screen? No, we're just seeing, we still have the old plans. All right, fine. I will do a change here. Okay, you should be seeing Franklin Street right now. Yes, we do. Down to the intersection of Hamlet. These are some of the two families on Franklin. There's a home there with an extension. This is Hamlet Street and Hamlet Street is a quite lovely little pocket of two and a half or two and a third story houses on smaller lots. This is the intersection of Franklin and Hamlet. These are the two families. This is Webster Street, the new town homes, the other two family homes. Again, Webster, all two, two and a half stories in height. If we go, oops, I had some more. I have some from the interior of the site.  And this is the step down that it sounds like everybody desires. But even here is a good facsimile. You could see the distance between the buildings is comfortable and it does allow the step down to work. Another home on Franklin Street. So we're not seeing other than 169, 171, many other properties that immediately abut this that step down to one story. And in fact, our almost two story will still be lower than those homes that are abutting our lot. So I just, I wanted to, you know, present again where we're coming from in terms of the building height and that we have already reduced the unit from our original proposal and we've already reduced the height. It may seem insignificant, but we're quite a deal different from where we were when we started. Just to add to that, Jim, I think it's hard for people that aren't architects who actually see in the picture, you know, that's what is it, eight feet that we've taken off. You know, I think it's hard to see that and recognize that in the drawings. Yeah, no, I understand that. I understand that. And if, yeah, so that's it, Mr. Chair, that's all I wanted to share. Okay, thank you. Any other questions and comments from the board? Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hanlon. So I have to say that I just, I'm to some extent is sympathetic with the applicant. There's a lot of indications that, you know, conformity with dimensions and so forth, as Mr. Risling pointed out early on. But over the course of the issue here is really not something that's easily reducible to arithmetic. And I think actually that if this were just a regular special exception with no special regulation attached to it, I think that Mr. Risling and the applicant might have quite a bit stronger case. But the provision that we're dealing with on large additions is put there to address a situation in which the numbers work, that the application doesn't violate the bylaw in any way. But nevertheless, because the neighborhood is already built out, there's a special concern with harmoniousness that doesn't necessarily exist in every case where the concept of interfering with the character at the neighborhood is somewhat broader than that. So there's a kind of what I like to think of as a thumb on the scale with large additions that it's especially important to pay attention with the way in which a new proposal works with the existing neighborhood. And it's certainly not sameness. If you look at this particular block, the houses on Hamlin Street are quite a lot different from the ones on Franklin Street. There's a mix in terms of whether they're a single family or two family, and I'm not that hung up on that. I think it was Mr. Donley who pointed out that he'd be happy actually if you had a genuine two family house, which like the ones where you have upstairs and downstairs, here he thinks that this looks a lot more like two barely joined one family houses. And I think it does underscore the way in which it's not a question of what the density is, density of two is appropriate in our two zone. It really is how that density is achieved and whether that's achieved in a way that is specifically harmonious with the neighborhood as it has built out. And I think where I was at the last hearing and I was persuaded by pretty much by Lauren Ledger's approach to this, I thought that something that would make this look a little bit more like the house that was immediately next door on a similar lot with a similar kind of configuration that something that looked more like that, I mean substantially more like that. If you remember, I made a comment at the very end encouraging the applicant to try to do something substantial in order to make it fit in and was pretty clear on where I at least thought fitting in what that would mean in this situation. And I get it that the applicant doesn't seem to think that pencils out and I'm sure that they're right, that given their plan and what they're proposing to do, it may not pencil out. And I don't really think there's a whole lot more to say sometimes when you're in a situation where one party and another party disagree, they disagree because they have to because there's no overlap in their interests and that may be the situation here. But I'm persuaded that the proposal that we have before us is not a big enough step towards what we signaled would be what would be needed in order for us to find that this is harmonious. I think that they've done what they can and I don't blame them at all for not going further than they did. But to me, they didn't get over the line towards being able to find that this is approvable and consequently, I'm inclined to vote against it. Thank you, Mr. Handlin. Other members of the board? Mr. Jack. Mr. LeBlanc. I agree with Mr. Handlin in terms of where we were last month and my recollection of the discussion and maybe where we thought we should go. I was in agreement with Mr. Handlin that it seemed like the adjacent properties set a good example, I think, for how to approach a lot like this in a neighborhood like this. And I think what we have before us tonight, I appreciate the applicant and the architect taking a look at it and really trying to pare this down. I know it's not easy to try and balance everything that I'm sure they have to balance in order to make this work and that they tried something to give back to us through review. So I appreciate that. I think, I apologize when we go on a little rant here, but I think one thing that I've noticed a lot around town is this idea to jam townhouses into these masses that don't really befit townhouses. And I feel like this is just another example of that around town. And as Mr. Handlin was kind of alluding to, there's a different housing style that all of the abutting properties are, which is duplexes. Now, obviously I don't know a whole lot about everything that the different pressures and stuff like that going on with this project, but I think that that might fit kind of what is going on with this lot. And I think maybe my last point here is, I think what we're dealing with is a perception of perception of mass and kind of what Mr. Handlin was alluding to there a little bit before of, we're keeping the same amount, it's still a two unit place, but we're creating a wall basically along the whole length of the lot and that it gets perceived very differently than the rest of the neighborhood, which are these still two family or some townhouse units around that are just more reculinear in fashion and fit in with just what is the neighborhood. I think it's a little unfortunate situation of this lot is quite a bit different than the rest of the neighborhood. So it's getting some constrictions of course upon it, but I think the lot still needs to react to the neighborhood itself. And would it be possible to go back to the drawing board once more? It is difficult because this is historic. So we really can't touch that mass in the front and alter it. So it does pose a challenge for us. Yeah, and that historic point is a valid one in that they would like to understand the massing of the building so that the historical house could be read. Yeah, like I was saying, I don't underestimate the other different interests that are going on here. There's a lot and there's a lot to try and solve for and that difficulty is not lost on me. I know that there's a lot to try and solve here, but... Historic was happy with the first plan. So to keep going back, it's a challenge to say the least. But historic, they're good for bringing back the historic character of the house, but which is a great thing that I'm glad you were willing to do and do that. But now I think we're at the other level of it where, okay, we're gonna get this house that's gonna bring back the historical nature of it, but now we also need to make sure it still fits and goes with the rest of the neighborhood. I agree. Thank you, Adam. Mr. Chair. Ms. Hoffman. I just wanted to chime in that I think I'm very much on the same page as Mr. Hamlin and Mr. LeBlanc. I think I just wanna bring us back to the gross area calculations because I'm very sympathetic to this idea that there are currently two bedroom and a three bedroom and you're only really looking to add two bedrooms total, which that alone feels extremely reasonable. But the delta in area is very, very significant even though you're just adding one bedroom because there are, and I know that, try to keep the architect in me contained, but I know I'm just talking about kind of ancillary spaces here, but there are very large closets and you are adding quite a few number of bathrooms. So I don't know if there's significant area that could be picked up there, but I think it's going from currently three bathrooms to seven and there are quite a few large walk-in closets. So I don't know if it's those supporting spaces that are leading to the dramatic increase or helping to contribute to the dramatic increase in gross square footage, but I like the idea of going back to the drawing board and just seeing where there may be opportunities to tighten it up a little bit. Particularly in section. Thank you for that. Chairman. Mr. Hanlon. I'm going back to the drawing board. Since I come to these meetings twice a month anyway, I can't really complain, but we've been here quite a long time on this case. And I don't think it's likely that baby steps will do it. And if the applicant is able, the applicant knows the, by now the applicant knows the picture and it also knows what they can do and what they can't do in order to come up with a project that they can live with economically. And I'm perfectly happy to go along with giving them a continuance and giving them another shot at it, but I really would expect that if that happened, that we'd look at something that's really basically a best and final offer that would be significantly different from what we have now.  I think that something that is a major step in favor of what I've described earlier as harmonious is necessary in order to make going back to the drawing board with our time and with the applicant's time. And I hope that now that the conversation with the neighbors can begin earlier at this point so that it's worked out in a kind of partnership to at least have people involved in what's going on and get feedback during the course of the process. So I just wanna make sure that if we're going forward with still another hearing, or not another hearing, but another session to this hearing, another evening where we get to have a pleasant conversation with one another and this has been a perfectly amicable conversation the whole way given that people have strong feelings about all of this, I think that's to everyone's credit. But if we do wanna go another time and have another conversation, I think that we need to look at a fairly large step towards coming to a resolution. Thank you for that. I wanna go back briefly to the slide here. So this here is the sort of showing the black outline is the existing house on the property. The red is showing the current proposed addition and the blue is where it was initially. And I do appreciate the reduction in plan that this shows. But I think you can tell from the property behind the two-story portion ends at the break where the building sort of turns in the back and the back attached portion is a single story and then there's space and then there's a separate detached one-story garage and it's a really different appearance than a two or as you would say 1.75 extension all the way to the rear. It's a much different presentation and has a lot more volume than anything else in the neighborhood in terms of the ground cover and the height of the project. And to go back to one of Mr. Hanlon's initial points who we had sort of given a fairly strong charge at the end of last session where we really wanted to see something different, something that was a single story, something that was significantly smaller. And so I would really ask the applicant if they could really sort of address that question of what was the process of looking at where they were last time and considering what they were gonna present this time and what their sense was in terms of reducing the program and reducing the size, because as Mr. Hanlon says, if we can come out of this meeting and decide that you would like to take one more pass at this and you can make a dramatic change to the bulk of the building that is towards the center in the rear of the lot, then that's something that could be worth considering. But if you have already looked in this and this is really as far as you can push this process, then it's probably time for the board to just go ahead and vote. I'm not the architect. Okay. Jim. Well, I... What do you suggest? I mean, we have to discuss obviously. I understand what they're looking for. I mean, I... Mm-hmm. I believe I do too. And I regret that it's taken this additional hearing to get there. I think we can definitely look at the supporting spaces as Elaine suggested. I think we could address the parking differently to reduce the mass of the building. Something that we thought was nice, a nice feature maybe is really binding us up.  And I think their rear addition is wider than what we were proposing, but that that's just minor. I mean, I think if certain dimensions allow for certain spaces and I think our kitchen aisle is maybe under 16 feet. So it's hard to do two rooms across the kitchen aisle. But that again is minor and that's my problem to solve it. I don't know that we can... I mean, if we can get it to look like a single house is probably very difficult because of what the direction we receive from historical, but I do think we could step it down much more and really maybe... And Kristen, I'll have to work with you on your end of it to see what we can do there, that rear unit. Because originally the building was a two family with one tenant on the first floor and a separate tenant on the second and attic floor. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And so this is really changing it to a duplex where they're side by side. Right, well, I mean, I know there's little... There's some empathy about the cost of the project but to restore the front house, the house has to have a little more cache and people don't necessarily want to be on top of each other. And that was the buyer we were approaching. And maybe that's misguided, but that was our approach. You know, typically when I do a project, and obviously this is my first historic project in Arlington and I know the money doesn't make a difference but the money does make a difference as far as it's gonna cost a lot more because it's historic. And the windows I have to purchase and everything. So it's substantially more. So trying to balance all that out and not go bankrupt while doing it. Of course I want to make a profit but I'm trying to create something beautiful too. It's not that I don't care. I love historic homes. I love restoring. This really interests me. I want to do it properly but I don't want to go bankrupt while doing it either. So I know money's not an issue with the board but it does come into play here because it is historic. It's not the typical two family that I would do a gut renovation on and add on and so forth and it's quite different. I'm understandable. I know from the initial plan, there was a small side addition that you're removing. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. What was the reason for removing that? It's not historical. It was an addition. Oh, it's not historical. Correct. Okay. So given our discussion, do you think it's that should we give you the extra time to come up with another iteration that you'll be able to do something that's significantly different from what we have seen that will address the concerns? The only way I can see changing it substantially and I don't know if you agree, Jim would be possibly removing the garages which I thought was a nice thing to have but to move that out, maybe we could make it look smaller that way, Jim. You'd have to chime in here. I think so. I think that would help us with the massing as we go deeper into the site. So for the board, would the board be amenable to a request for continuance? Mr. Chairman. Given the, that we were at, Mr. Hanlon? So I expressed some, I think that Mr. Mano and Mr. Rizzling, they understand what they understand it and they know and they don't think it's a waste of their time. And so if it's not a waste of their time, it's not a waste of mine either and I'd be willing to support a continuance on the understanding that they would make the kinds of movements we've been discussing for the next last 10 or 15 minutes. I agree with that as well. So looking at the board's calendar, we do have hearings May 14th and May 28th. Would either of those dates be within your timeframe? I think so, yes, either date would work. I think Kristen would like me to hustle and get ready for the 14th, so. I didn't say that, Jim. Okay, so then the board would be, so we'll look at a motion to continue in special permit hearing 165 Franklin Street to Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 at 7.30 PM. Mr. Chairman, so moved. Thank you, Mr. Hanlon. Second. Thank you, Mr. LeBlanc. So just to the neighbors and the butters, I know many of you had expressed frustration at the continuance as we do understand your concerns about the length of the process and attending these hearings. I hope that you'll accept our indulgence to go one more session on the hope that we can come to something that really addresses the concerns that the neighbors have expressed and that the board has, for the most part, taken and absorbed into our findings as well. So with that, what the board has in front of it is a motion to continue the special permit hearing for 165 Franklin Street to Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 at 7.30 PM. So a roll call vote of the board. Mr. Hanlon. Aye. Ms. Hoffman. Aye. Mr. LeBlanc. Aye. And the chair votes aye. We are continued on 165 Franklin Street. Thank you all very much. And we look forward to seeing what you've come forward with at the next session. Thank you for your time. And thank you to all the neighbors as well. Okay. Next on our docket, item number four, docket 378870 Robbins Road. Or the Andrew and Janet Sparks available. Or there is anyone here in support of this application? Anyone here in support of application for 70 Robbins Road, docket 3788. Hi, this is Dan Connell. I live, I'm in a butter. I live in St. Paul Robbins Road. I know the family is home. I saw them earlier today, but I'm not sure why they're not here. I don't really know much about the project other than what's on the website. And I was curious to find out what their, I mean, I guess I know what their plan is. But I don't know what happens now if they don't show up. That's a very good question is not happened to us before. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Hanlon. I think that it would be a little bit too draconian for us just to deny it out of hand. And so it seems to me that probably the best thing to do is to defer this for until the next reasonable hearing. We've got a pretty heavy one, I think, coming up on the 30th, I guess is what it is. And so maybe we should send this off to the first hearing in May and then we can work with the applicant to find out whether they've, I mean, what happened and make sure this doesn't happen again. So I think that probably the best thing to do is to keep it on the docket and give them another shot at it in a couple of weeks or a little longer given our calendar. Since we do have members of the community here, I think we have technically opened the hearings. So I will do just a short public comment because I know there are probably people with questions and I apologize that we probably are very unable to address any of your questions. But if there are members of the public who have questions at this time, you can use the raise hand feature in the reactions tab or if you're on telephone, you can dial star nine. With that, Joe Tully has his hand raised. Thanks, Christian. I didn't have an opportunity to go to the website so if it can be done in 30 seconds or less, could someone just enlighten those of us who may not dispute on what the project entails? Absolutely, plan set, that's the one. Actually, this is Dan Connell again. I did look at the plans and basically the idea, Joe, was that they were gonna enclose about three quarters of their front porch, stain footprint, but they were gonna enclose it. So it's part of the house basically. It's not a porch anymore. It's finally loaded. So this is the front page. So this is what they're proposing to do with their house. This is the existing photo. So stairs on the right side of the front porch, front porch spans the front of the house. They are looking to essentially remove that existing front porch and replace it with some slightly wider steps and an enclosed portion on the left-hand side. Similar to what they had found at number 42, Robbins Road has something similar to that. And then the plan, so the existing first floor, this is their existing front porch. They are looking to enclose this portion of the front porch and convert it into part of their living room. And that is the full scope of what they were requesting. And under our bylaws section 539D, the enclosing of an area of a porch that is within a setback can only be done by special permit, which is the reason that they were initially before us. Thank you. Yo, you're welcome. I'm seeing no other hands. I'll go ahead and close that again. So I guess we will have a motion to continue. It was advertised as a variance for 70 Robbins Road. It'll be continued to Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 at 7.30 p.m. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Handlin. Second. Thank you, Mr. Blank. So motion to continue the variance hearing, 70 Robbins Road to Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 at 7.30 p.m. So roll call vote of the board, Mr. Handlin. Aye. Ms. Hoffman. Aye. Mr. Little Blank. Aye. And the chair votes aye. We are continued on 70 Robbins Road. Thank you, everyone for coming out for this hearing. Apologies that we are unable to do more in regards to this property this evening, but we will take it up again on May 14th. That is the end of the items on our agenda this evening. So for the board, our next scheduled hearing is Tuesday, April 30th. I believe we have four new items that are appearing on that evening. That will also be the elections for the board. So if there's anyone who is interested in taking a turn as the chair or the vice chair, please consider that. And if you have any questions about those positions, you can always ask Pat and I about them. And we will have elections for those positions coming up on the 30th. And then thereafter May 14th and May 28th are two May dates and obviously we've just continued two things onto the May 14th date. That's what we have coming up. So having no other business this evening, I would like to thank you all for your participation. It's a nice meeting on the Earrington zoning board of appeals. I appreciate everyone's patience throughout the meeting. I especially like to thank Colleen Ralston and Special Services and the legal department for their assistance in preparing for and hosting this online meeting. Please note the purpose of the board's recording the meeting is to ensure the creation of an accurate record of its proceedings. It's our understanding that recording made by ACMI will be available on demand at ACMI.tv within the coming days. If anyone has comments or recommendations, please send them via email to zbaatown.arlington.ma.us that email address is also listed on the ZBA website. And to conclude tonight's meeting, I would ask for a move into adjourn. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Second. Thank you, Mr. Blank. The roll call vote of the board to adjourn, Mr. Hanlon. Aye. Ms. Hoffman. Aye. Ms. Phillip Blank. Aye. The chair votes aye. The board is adjourned. Thank you all very much for being here this evening and I will see you in a few weeks. Good night. Good night. Take care, everybody. ACMI productions are only made possible with your support. Visit patreon.com slash ACMI to learn how you can help.


We're getting legit about what we need to do for this race, for the safety of the volunteers, the workers, so Basin all about the crew. Good morning. I'm awake. I don't quite know how, but I am awake. I'm going to roll out real quick here where I'm staying and then get in the car, zip to this other ski resort. I don't even know it's snow Basin, I think, Utah. Anyway, let's try it. Let's see what we can do. Let's see what we can do, all right? That's all you can try. That's all you can try in this world. See what you can do. Oh, my goodness. It's exciting. It is exciting. Here we go. Roll it out. Roll it out. Oh, yeah. All the Cirque series. We got some rain last night, ladies and gentlemen. This is, I'm OK with that. We'll see. So I've got to, I do have an hour drive. And after yesterday's race, the legs, of course, are a little tired. I know they're going to be tired. And we'll see how sore they are. Actually, when I arrive. But this rain in cloud cover is, we'll see if it's going to stick around. And if it's an hour away from us as well. But this is, I'd say, great news. The cooler, the better. In my books, what does the temperatures say? Oh, I don't even know where it's at in this car. But anyway, we're off. Looking like rain the entire race. Looking like rain the entire race. OK, time to go register. And yeah, here we are. There's the finish line right there. And there's the mountain. Oh, Nellie. You watch the vlog? What's up? What's your name? Noah. Awesome, man. Thanks for watching. I appreciate it. I know, I'm here. Yeah. Is this your family? Hey, what's up? This guy, this viewer. It dried pretty good after yesterday's creek, creek washing. Yes, it did. Looking, looking fresh. Looking, looking fresh. We're getting legit about what we need to do for this race, for the safety of the volunteers, the workers, the basin, all of us, the crew, and you. But you cannot race unlikely. We're not going to put you out there to do nothing. And it wasn't meant to be today at the XTERRA race. That is OK. What are you going to do? Lightning wins the day. They canceled the race. At about 9.15, we waited for 15 minutes, and they decided to call it because of lightning risk. You guys know how I don't like lightning, especially out in the mountains. So I'm OK with it. And guess what? Turn a negative. It's a little bit of a negative because another night away from the family last night, I had to change my flight yesterday. But turn a negative into a positive. What does it mean? It means I can start recovery a day earlier. You know what I mean? Like what are you going to do? You can't control the weather. But my next race is September 29 out in New Hampshire at the US Trail Championships. And then the big dog, Amsterdam Marathon, is, oh my gosh, what is it? Five or six? No, I think it's about six weeks away. So this is OK that I was unable to race today. It just means I can get my legs recovered and back to running, back to training. And remember, I asked the question of the day about two months ago. I believe I said, if you had to choose one, and I know this is not how life works, but if you had to choose one, do you prefer training more or racing more? And for me, if I had to choose one, I would say training. So again, the cancellation, where'd that go? There it is. There's my singlet. So the cancellation of the XTERRA race, basically, it speeds up the process of me getting back to full training. And you all know my volume of training is about to go up quite a bit, getting ready for Amsterdam. So it's water under the bridge. You can't change it. And we move on. All right, I am in Salt Lake City now. I'm going to go get a five mile run in, nice and easy. Again, just getting back to what I love doing, training, training, training. So all right, shall we go explore Salt Lake? Let's do this. Come on. And we're back, ladies and gentlemen. Back to Denver. Back to the studio. I have to say, back to Chile, Denver. I got the hoodie on. It is cold here. I can sense that crisp, fall, cross-country weather is right around the horizon for a lot of us, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. So I'm excited for that. But good trip to Utah. I'll probably talk about the CERC race in tomorrow's vlog when I have a little more time. And even though the race was canceled today, the XTERRA race, it was disappointing. But at the end of the day, you've got to keep everyone safe, including the people. I didn't think of this when the race director canceled it this morning. You've got to think about the volunteers up on the mountain who are waiting there. Now, I don't think they were above treaty line by any means, but they're just kind of waiting for us to run up the mountain. So at the end of the day, it was probably the right call after I thought about it a little bit more, because I didn't hear any thunder. But anyway, that's what she mentioned as we were leaving was don't forget about the volunteers out there waiting for us in the freezing weather. So anyways, OK, I always want to strive to bring as much value to these vlogs as possible, even when I can't film a race like today. So here we go. I was thinking on the airplane ride home, how can I bring all of you even more value to the daily vlog, or should I say to the weekly vlog? So here's what I decided upon. I've been thinking about this for a while, but if you follow me on Strava, you can certainly see my training plan. But what I'm going to attempt to do every week, so every Monday morning in the description, OK, so the description of the videos down below, you have to click. If you're on mobile, you have to click on that little arrow. I'm going to try to remember and do my best to post my weekly training schedule for the upcoming week. Now with a caveat, big, big asterisk, I often change my training during a week, depending on how the body's feeling, if I have any aches or pains, if life just gets busy. In fact, I quite often have to flip-flop runs. And the reason I'm doing this, posting the training schedule down below, and also I'll try and put it in a title of the vlog, is because I want to be as open with you all as possible about not only what I believe in in training, but frankly how I enjoy to train, OK? So that's number one. And number two is a lot of questions come in through Instagram about training. So hopefully this helps at least give people a snapshot of my week coming up. And it might help answer a few questions, whether they come from Instagram or Twitter. And so anyway, there you go. That's a new strategy for the vlog. I hope you enjoy it and can get a little value out of that. And keyword, we're going to go with lightning. Because lightning on the day, that's OK. And question of the day, when was the last time? And I apologize if I asked this recently. I may have. Sometimes the days blend together. But this is actually the second race of 2019 that was canceled because of weather or, I guess I should say, Mother Nature. So the first one was Avalanche Danger back in March in Aspen, Colorado. My brother and I, we were going to do a vertical kilometer race canceled because of Avalanche Danger. Now lightning, anyway. It's been a crazy 2019. So the question of the day, when was the last time you had a race canceled? Why was it canceled? Where was it? Any epic or crazy stories are welcome down below in the comments. All right, everyone. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. And we'll get you the Cirque series race from yesterday on the right-hand side. If you want to watch yesterday's race of the Cirque series, fly the W. And on the left, I'm just going to pick a random training vlog, a big training vlog, but a random one over the past six months where I go out and get some vertical. All right, see you to work hard and love each other. See you tomorrow.