 Okay, in that case, this calls me to order. It's 705, it's a regular schedule meeting at the time of Berlin Development Review Board. And we have one application in line. That's an application for a waiver request against the Carpenter. And what I'd like to do is, this is not for anything. It's swear in those who tend to give testimony before this board tonight on this application. Please raise your right hand. I'm just trying to tell the truth, and I've got the truth. You made it before this board tonight on the penalties of perjury. I do, I do. I do. Thank you. So, I will read the morning, and we'll just proceed with the... There may be party status here, Bob. Okay, party status? Okay. Is anybody here that requests party status to this application? What does that mean? Well, party status is entitled you to appeal a decision if you so feel it's necessary to do that. So, the time you participate in the procedure, you participate just as a viewer. The time is you've actually participated legally to the last of the days after that. Questions, I'll have to go with what we have. But basically, it's not difficult. Party status is normally granted. Anybody that's joining or a budding property owner? Yeah, that's me. That's you? And that's one of the common reasons to request party status. And then to have meaning in the appeal, you have to provide testimony on any particular criteria we're discussing in case you feel that that's important to you. Okay. You can't just sit here the whole meeting and feel later on, you've got to actually speak. Sure. That's sort of a labored version of it. Yeah. So, why don't we see what you're telling us what's been going on here? Introduce yourself, please. I'm James Colchara. I'm a business partner to Nancy Carpenter and also a POA, Powered Attorney Officer Nancy. And we bought the Eric Belander house. We tore it down. We built a beautiful ranch with two car attached cars. We're almost finished with it. We didn't intend to put any kind of a deck on the back. Let me stop you one second. I don't know, you can pick that up on the recording with that background noise. No, yeah, you're good. You got it? You got it, okay. Okay. Yeah, so we didn't actually plan on building any kind of a deck on the back just because we were so tight within the parameters of the setbacks. And plus our money was what it was. So we didn't have another $3,000 or $4,000 to spend on ourselves. So we just didn't plan for it. Then a person, Brenda Lane came along and she looked at the house and she immediately wanted to buy the house. She used to live at the house across the street on the left. The cape she lived in for 16 years with her husband. So one day they were driving somewhere. He died of a massive heart attack in the car. She sold the house, eventually moved to Worcester, has been there for a number of years, found out we had this house for sale, came back. Her husband's buried in the cemetery. She wants to be there. She's very emotional about it. We agreed. We had other people that made bigger offers. We accepted her offer because we felt her story was so compelling. So now she wants to have a big deck put on the back of it. So she can really basically, so she can look at the farmland and look at her husband. He's right in the cemetery right there. So she wants to be able to do that. And that's really why we're trying to do this. We just didn't plan to put a deck on there, honestly for financial reasons. And now she's willing to pay for the deck and the changes, so we're willing to do it for her. Okay. And so you requested a waver on the rear yard setback. Yes. And is that a butt's of cemetery? No, and a butt's of the actual parent farm. It's a 30 foot. Okay, so that's your land? It's my uncle and I'm the executor of his will. Okay. We're about three weeks from finishing it and then it will be my land. And it's beautiful land. Isn't it? Come on in. Well, I grew up there. It's awesome. So do me a favor. I grew through your application. I presume the other members, the board handball and so. You've already addressed the criteria for waiver. We appreciate that and you've addressed them in writing. By the way, I should point out our recording secretary is not here. So you need to identify yourself when you speak especially your back is to the camera so that she knows who's talking. You've already identified yourself, but you know. But so you've provided responses to each one of the criteria and we appreciate that. The one question I had for you with regard to the waiver is you said there's a 2012 by 12-decade proposal, right? She'd prefer to go 12 by 16. 12 by 16? Yeah. 12 by 16. The 16's going out. Yeah, yeah, she wanted to go out so. And you indicate that the rear yard setback you have now in the existing building is 37 feet? To that, yeah, it's actually odd because the house doesn't run totally parallel with the line. It moves a little bit. You know what I mean? It's like a seven foot difference and six foot difference from this corner of the house to that far property line and from this corner of the house to that far property line because it's just the way we had to put the house in there. Okay. So yes, at that particular spot we're about, actually we just restrung the line across the pin to pin and we got about five foot, eight inches, five foot, eight, eight and a half inches to the back of the door right now over what the setback is. So we got about 35 feet, six and a half inches to the property line. Right, from the existing building. From the building that we just built. Just belly built. Yeah. And you want to extend that building by 16 feet? Yeah, we want it. You said 12 feet but. Yeah, I'm sorry about that, yeah. So you want to extend them by 16 feet when you're requesting a waiver to 15 feet? Yeah, oh, I thought I was adding 15. I thought I was doing 50% of the setback. Yeah, you say that it's going to go into the deck, the edge of the deck will be 15 feet to the property line. The numbers don't add up as much. Yeah, the numbers don't work for me. I'm sorry, yeah. Well, they didn't work for me either because Brenda's kind of changed things as she goes so it's been hard for me too to deal with that. But basically, if we can get it to be 16 feet from the existing house right now, we'd be happy. So you're really adding a 10 feet. So is the shortest distance over here or over here? It's over here by the garage side. Over here by, you know. The 37 feet is the shortest distance or is the shortest over here? No, the shortest is as you're facing the house on the right-hand side. So the 37 that you got here? Yeah. Okay, so it's okay. It's actually a little bit less than that once we strung the line and got it perfect again. So it'll be, that would mean that it would be 21 feet. Right. 21, if you want a 16 foot deck, then it would be 21 feet. Can we just make it 20 so we can put a such stairs off and you know, you decide, you know what I'm saying? Can we, I agree to disagree on that. I mean, you know. Well, no, I think whatever you want to ask for what you're. Yeah, I just want to be able to put, she really wants to be able to sit down and say that all week here. We're not anxious to grant waivers for more than you need. Exactly. In fact, typically, one of the criteria, it's not in here, but one of the criteria is that we don't grant a waiver for any more than necessary in your property. Gotcha. The purpose of the Africa. Okay. So granting a waiver to a 15 foot setback doesn't make sense when you're only proposing a 12 foot building. Right. You've now said I want a 16 foot building, 16 foot addition, but that still only says 21 feet. Yeah. Okay. Is that right? So. 21s. He's saying 20 now. 20. To give him a little leeway. Yeah, just a little, that'd be a good change. So, but I do have a question. And that is, you know, looking at the map with the older house that was there, it was much closer to the road. I was just wondering why you built back further than the house. Well, I'll give you a couple of reasons. Several of the neighbors believed that aesthetically the house, setting the way the rest of the houses facing the road would look much more appealing for the neighborhood. So that was the major reason for it. And the other reason was there's just so much stone buried along that line. It's unbelievable amount of stone. And I mean stone, you know, like big stone just buried deep, deep there. You know, so just to get a footing drains in there, got about 20 hours of digging just to move, you know, the stone so we could put footing drains, you know, to drain it the daylight to the low spot just to give him that. So that was, that's really why we had to, you know, put it where it really why we felt we should. So I think it looks aesthetically beautiful now with the neighborhood. It fits in the neighborhood now. Whereas Mr. Belander, he had a hodgepodge of eight different buildings there, you know. The question by other members of the board. So what, is it 20 feet, is that what, 18 feet, or means? I understand if the line varies, it's not directly parallel. Yeah, it doesn't. So you'd be most comfortable with 20 feet. 20 feet would be ideal. It's still, that's 20 feet to the property line. That's, and that's at the smallest. Yes. Yeah, it'd be a lot more at the other end. At the other end, it would be at least. 27 from the other end, at least. You're requesting a waiver to 20 feet. Yes. Do you have some deals, Tom? No. Other members of the board. Your name again. Ellen Moody. So the, I believe it's the south side of the house. It's facing the cemetery. It's three inches over the setback. Right now, as it's built. And if you count the overhanging of the garage, it's four inches over. And so our concern is that it's not an hour hand yet. It's still in the courts. And so we don't feel like we can negotiate yet. But our other concern is the driveway is half hours. And it always has to be, it's our only entrance on the land. So it's going to be entrance for farm equipment to get up in there. So, you know, the person that's buying it, they need to know that they only own half the driveway and they don't own any of that lawn over to the cemetery fence line. And we were in hopes that we could negotiate somehow and maybe rebuild our entrance to the fence. So it's really clear what hours and what days so we can get on to the land and not have any issues. I don't know, like dogs or pets or kids. Well, this woman probably doesn't have kids. She may have grandchildren. Future owners now. Future owners. Yeah, so I wanted to have it set up, you know, clear. And I wanted to be able to talk and negotiate, but it's not in my hand yet. I'm just the executor of the will. It is in your hand. Here's your hand, this executor. So this driveway, this driveway here, this is what your driveway to the farm is to? Yeah, to the land, yeah. Although you've got now. You said it's half yours? Yeah. Maybe half and half for us. Is it just shared? Yeah, it's a, well, I mean, we consider it shared. Like, I mean, you know, the Volander's had an agreement with your father for many years where it was just a shared access. Actually, to be truthful with you, when we purchased it, we owned all that. You know, it's actually, it was taxed by the town of Berlin for 40-something years as a .49 acre-pick parcel. Then when we had it surveyed, what had happened was we had every property surveyed, so our title insurance only has to go back 40 years. We had to go back a hundred years to find a handwritten note about that parcel land. Did you know that? Yeah, the farm's been in, since Berlin was a town, our family has owned the farm. Yeah. So they don't go back. I can tell you. Where's the property line? The orange. No. No? It's right in the middle of that drive. Oh, really? Well, what's the orange? Well, it's a tax map. You're looking at it. That's what they're looking at. So this is actually the property line here. Yeah. Oh, okay. And something I need to address, because I feel it needs to be, is that we are 100% confident with a surveyor that we pull the string from post to post and we're not encroaching on that set, that we are 15 feet or more away from that. So we do know that. You said it's less than 15 feet, did you go out and measure it? We just had, no, my nephew did. We just had it resurveyed for the completion of the probate. And so the stakes are there. You can see them. Yeah, yeah. They're the ones who did our survey. Same people? Yeah, same people. Yeah. Yeah. So we can go pull a string from post to post. Unless somebody picked it up and moved it somewhere, by doubt, and you can pull it and you can measure that corner and we're definitely inside of it. And we wouldn't have addressed that already. So we don't want to fight with our neighbors. We thought we were doing everyone a favor by putting a beautiful house in a place that was such an eyesore and such a rat-infested thing. So I have to just say that. We don't want to try to fight with you. We just want to give this woman a nice place to live and we're just trying to help out the town of Berlin. And I think we're helping you too when I'm trying to hinder it. So does the buyer know about all this? Yes, she was. The driver of the plane? Yeah, 100% of the time with it. Like I said, she lived on Scott Hill for 16 years. Brim the Lane. You must know her. She lived on Brim the Lane. But looking at it, you're not aware of property lines. And other people's properties go back further. So visually, it doesn't look like this property as small as it is. Yeah, because it's small. So there's not an easement. It's literally the deeded land is less than this square. There's no easement. It's just that from here over is your land. Yeah. But it sounds like if the property line goes down the middle of the driveway, or the shared driveway, then probably what happens in each parcel is there's an easement over the other side of that road. So it should be granted after that way. Well, for example. That's the way it should be. But the reality is there's probably nothing to that effect. There's so many years ago. Because I know the Volander's moved, they actually rented from my grandparents and they moved down there probably before 1940 down to that house. But the parties have been using that as a shared driveway for many, many years, right? Because prescriptive easement, they have developed it. Yeah. So your grandparents lived in the house that was? No, no. Up above the Scott Hill. Oh, okay. Do you object to the deck? My only concern is in the future. So we don't know exactly what we're gonna do to the property. What if we have cows out there? How many feet is that gonna be between where the fence line is in their deck? Are they gonna come play? That's what I thought. It's farmland. And that's why, and she understands that. She's lived up here, like I say, for 16 years. She loves it. But again. But she never had cows. Owners. Yeah. Owners' property changes. I think, well, then you're just, I mean, that's, you're coming to the music, so to speak. Yeah. I don't think that's a constitution. That's not a zoning issue, per se, you know. Yeah. The only thing we're here to hear tonight, that'll be about the topic, and I appreciate your concern, but the only thing we're here tonight is whether or not we should permit and encroach them their rear yard setback. Not encroach them, but their waiver from the rear yard setback. And whether or not have any adverse impact on the budding properties. And it sounds to me, your concern is really about the shared driveway. The possible future uses that may interfere with your future uses. And that's not. Well, it seems like with your cows, you're more concerned that that might be a problem for future owners of the house. So it's not so much, your concern isn't so much what they're doing as what the farm might impact on something that's so close. Yeah. And definitely the shared driveway. But that seems to me, that needs to be just an understanding between, I mean, it's an existing condition. Yeah, I mean, but it's, I mean, I don't know if that's an issue for us at this point, the shared driveway. Well, it is interesting to notice a shared driveway. Yeah. I guess, are you treating that as you have these but on their half and they have these but on your half? Yeah, I figured, I mean, the way that we understand it is somewhere it had to be written, you know, and if it hasn't, it's been happening for so long, it falls under some kind of new thing or that where it's gonna continue to be that way. So unless somebody fights it and they wanna spend money to have it done, if it's been that way for 70 years or 60 years, I don't know. That's an existing driveway. Yeah, that's an existing driveway though. But there's access to it. They widen the curb cut, actually. You folks widen the curb cut, you know, and I mean, that wasn't approved by the state or anything, but we're not gonna argue because we just wanna be friendly and we wanna share the driveway because we know that we're just trying to put a nice place in it. So I'll turn it off. I just have to say that we're not trying to hurt your farm at all. We really love it. Somewhere along the line, not for this board, but she should not be paying taxes for the land that's not hers. Yeah. Oh yeah, well, we've already dealt with that. Okay. Yeah, we've already dealt with that. We were gonna go take this to adverse possession. Our attorney, we got 100% case on it. We decided not to do it financially, so we just didn't do it. Well, not to ask to the Blanders. No, no, we would have had to adversely, you know, take it from you because it's... I mean, you would have claimed all of this. Yeah, we would have, we would have, we would have claimed it all. But to be friendly and financially, it wouldn't have. Yeah, it would have. We would have a case. We would have a case, yeah, we would definitely, our lawyers is a very good lawyer. Yeah, they've been paying taxes. Yeah, it's been part of the parcel for 47 years or so. But not to be, you know, combat, I'm just saying, we made a decision, we don't wanna do that. Why, we got a good thing going, we got it right away. Whoever buys it's gonna want, not gonna mind the right way or they wouldn't buy it, right? That's how I see it. Well, you know, it would be good to get this issue. I mean, I think it's separate than the issue of the deck. Right, right. But it would be very good to get that resolved by having an agreement, basically a shared easement agreement that says this road is, you know, each respected landowner owns to the center of it, but for 10 yards or whatever, the 10 feet to one side, the other party has an easement to run vehicles over that 10 feet and the other one has a right to do that as well. You can get that straight now. Yeah. Are you willing to do that? You know, I'm willing, you know, to contact my attorney about it tomorrow morning to find out if there's not already something written in there and if there is. It would just, it would seem to me, it would just memorialize the agreement that's already happening. That's already happening. Yeah, okay, yeah. But it would make it a lot cleaner for. For future owners, yeah. For future owners. Including, including the, you're, yeah, including Brenda. But as I look at the both parcels, each parcel has access separate from this driveway. Because this isn't the only way to get. Unless I was just going to ask. It's the only way to get to Harris. It is? Yeah, it's the only drive than this. Well, you couldn't put it, you couldn't broaden the driveway. Oh. Make it a blight. To the north. Oh, you. Add another driveway. Which seemed to me that you could easily move the driveway 10 feet to the north. So the widths that we put in last fall, we cut down trees was to add our own driveway. Right. Okay. And you could easily move the driveway, your driveway to the south. So essentially for the, whatever you call it under the road. Water drainage. It is wide enough for two driveways now. But there's not wide enough for a fence down the middle. Which would make it perfectly clear, but that seemed a little hard. Yeah. Ridiculous. I think, Josh, I think it should resolve this if you're either by mutual easements or some other fashion. But if I may, it's not really related to the application of the night. The application of the night is looking at the rear yard setback. And this doesn't meet our criteria for our zoning bylaws. And did you see the application? I did. Well, I didn't see the full application. Just the title on it. That's why. The applicant was indicated that the waiver will not have any undue adverse effect on current users. We're not all to the sexual character of the area. We're not a peer lawful use of development of the Jason property. And we'd not be detrimental to public health, safety, welfare. Okay. And those are what we have to find. Right. The waiver criteria. Exactly how close will it be to the property line? 20 feet. 20 feet at its closest point. And the setback requirements for that is 30 feet. I don't see a problem with that. I'm definitely interested in working with you on the use that. I'm glad to have met you. I've only talked to you. Is it your sister? My niece. That's your niece. Okay. And her boyfriend and her husband. That's your husband, yeah. That's cool. So where do you live up there? You might be asking me real quick. No, I live in Mofflett. Oh, you live in Mofflett? Okay. Because I would have knocked on the door if I'm all alone here. So, okay. Yeah, that'd be great if we could set something up. Is this the farm that's having the barn raising or? Yeah. Okay. And where's the barn going to be? Where the old milkhouse burned down. Careful, like the milkhouse burned down like 15 years ago. On the same foundation. Okay. Nice. This one. I mean, the other questions or comments regarding this application. I think we just need to revise his number three there to reflect that it's, it's a, we've asked him for 10 foot. Also, if we could. Rather than 50%. Clarify, because at one point, I don't know whether it was your thing or something that said a porch rather than a deck. This is saying a deck, right? Yeah, is this, all of this is gonna be a deck. Is this gonna be a flat load of the ground deck? It's gonna be 14 inches up and around. Maybe it was here. Can I call her a porch? I don't know. Yeah, you said constructional porch. Okay. That is just on your agenda. Oh. That's why. The application. Okay. Does it. Okay. We can motion to close the hearing. Second. Motion made and seconded to close the one portion of the security. Is there a discussion on that motion? All's good on that motion. Conceived by saying aye. Aye. The hearing is closed. We thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Put your email address. I did. Okay. Good luck with the farm. Good luck. Thank you. And the farm, we look forward to seeing you. Right. The farm raisers are good. Yeah. I think it's great. Hope that's it. He's putting it on. He's putting it so it's movable. I see it. Oh. He's moving it around. Who's doing the barn? Ben, my nephew. Ben Zabriski. Okay. And they're inheriting the upper farm. The huge part of the farm. Oh, wow. They're the organic farmers that put their asses. That's good for them. That's great. Nice to land those days in the farming. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The item we have on our agenda tonight is the approval of the minutes. Which minutes are these? Of October 15th. That's the one I did not come through, right? And I had a number of comments, which I've shared by email with everyone. I think perhaps the most significant, which is the easement information, but that's the way it is. Lot one will be served by an easement over lot two. And I also noted that Mr. Leinman is Mr. Leinman. Yeah. Yeah. Ron Leinman. And I would like to make sure that in the access to circulation, there'll be reference specifically to the conditions of the L.O.I., whatever, 10. And I pointed out that the spotlight is 45 degrees, so it's partial shielded, not finished shielded. So those were my edits. Do we have anything additional? I think I'm welcome to approve the minutes as amended. Second. Most will be made. Second? Discussion? Okay. Can you see if I'm saying aye? Aye. I'm gonna abstain because I might even receive the minutes and I wasn't at the meeting, so. I have no clue. It is perfectly all right, however, to vote on minutes even if you want to. But I haven't seen them, so. Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about. Voting things all the time, no. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.