good evening the City of Boston Zoning Board of Appeal hearing for February 13 2025 is now in session this hearing is being conducted in accordance with the applicable provisions of the open meeting law including the updated provisions enacted by the legislature last year the new law allows the board
to continue its practice upholding virtual hearings until March 2025 this hearing of the board is being held remotely via the Zoom webinar event platform the this hearing is also being recorded in order to ensure this hearing of the board is open to the public
members of the public may access this hearing through telephone and video conferencing the information for connecting to this hearing is listed on today's hearing agenda which is posted on the public notices page of the city's website boston.gov members of the public will enter the virtual hearing as
attendees which means you will not see yourself on the screen and you will be muted throughout unless administratively unmuted when asked to comment board members applicants and their attorneys or representatives will participate in the hearing as panelists and they will appear alongside the presentation materials when speaking panelists are
strongly encouraged to keep video on while presenting to the board as with our in-person meetings comments and support will be followed by comments and opposition the order of comments is as follows: elected officials representatives of elected officials and members of the public the chair may
limit the number of people called upon to offer comment and the time for commenting as time constraints require for that reason the board prefers to hear from members of the public who are most impacted by a project that is those individuals who live closest to the project if you wish to comment on an appeal
please click the raise hand button along the bottom of your screen in the Zoom webinar plat platform click it again and your hand should go down when the host sees your hand you'll receive a request to unmute yourself select yes and you should be able to talk if you are connected to the hearing by telephone
please press star 9 to raise and lower your hand you must press star six to unmute yourself after you receive the request from the host those called upon to comment will be asked to state their name and address first and then prov can provide their comment in the interest of time and to
ensure that you have enough time to do so please raise your hand as soon as Mr stebridge reads the address into the record do not raise your hand before the relevant address is called or the meeting host will not know to call on you at the appropriate time mr stebridge
present madam Chair thank you miss Weo present the floor is yours Mr sunbridge thank you Madam Chair um for the hearings scheduled 5:00 for February 13th first we have case
BOA 1653711 with the address of 268 to 274 Center Street if the applicant and or their representative are present would they please explain to the board um yes good evening uh my name is uh
Lady Marceli i am currently the manager of Biva Mipa Restaurant um this restaurant was established in uh 2005 um we um and the reason why we decided to move to this location is because our
location in uh West Roxberry which is 5197 Washington Street in West Roxberry Mass um they sold the building so now we had to relocate and the relocation is 268 Center Street Jamaica Plane um we
are proposing um that the zoning license for the new restaurant with takeout uh and we have not uh made any changes to the existing location existing restaurant uh we've only done like you know uh decorations and and painting but
we have not done any uh changes to the building and currently this is the structure of the premise uh the premise consists of two um 2100 square ft it's only one floor it sits 24 it has 24
seats two bathrooms and no basement uh the hours of operations are going to be um are expected to be uh Monday through Saturday 9:00 a.m to 9:00 p.m and Sundays 11:00 a.m to 7:00 p.m um during
our community process uh the abuters meetings October 17 2024 and also the meeting with the Jamaica Plane Neighborhood Council zoning meeting in February 5th 2025th uh there were no complaints about it it was
very successful and um yeah so this is what I have for you guys to our location are the hours similar or the same as previously uh the other the hours are your
operation hours of operations similar yeah similar close to Okay yeah from from our other location no from what you're replacing oh I'm not really sure but I'm not really sure but I am aware i
I I saw the the the hours of operations in the surrounding neighborhood uh the other restaurants and they were around aligned with our hours of operations okay that's Any questions from the board hearing none may I have public testimony madam Chair and members of the
board for the record my name is Jeremy Benbury i serve as the community engagement specialist for the Jamaica plane neighborhood uh the applicant has completed the community process which consisted of an abuters meeting held on October 17th which was wellreceived by
the one guest in attendance uh there was only one person there uh they did uh they were supportive next the project was presented to JPNC Jamaica Plane Neighborhood Council where they received a vote of approval uh thank you for your time and the mayor's office of neighborhood services would like to
defer to the board for their judgment thank you thank you any other raised hands i don't see any other raised hands okay hearing none may I have a motion oh wait there's one raised hand okay let me see
uh Andrea hi can you hear me yes yes yes okay uh yeah no I'm a neighbor in the area i live in 225 Center Street and I'm here to support this new business in the area i'm from the South American community and it would be very nice to have another vendor that provides food for
our community in the area um it's I know the place has been vacant for a really long time so yeah we just really want to see something coming to the neighborhood and and sort of activating the space again it's such a such a loss and it's it' be great that if it's a a local small business so um yeah I'm here in
full support of the um thank you with that may I have a motion i will uh put forward a motion of approval thank you very much thank you is there a second second mr stebridge
yes miss Weo yes chair votes yes the motion carries good luck ma'am all right thank you very much next we have case BOA1683041 with the address of 55 to 57
Willow Street if the applicant andor their representative present would they please explain the case to the board hi I'm the owner and this is my contractor Larby Hamry um I've lived here since 2003 um it's a two-unit condo
i own the second floor and this is a current uh porch in the back that I've always had it's open and um it's you know needs to be replaced the boards are all rotting and so I said if I'm going to replace it I want to make it a little bit bigger um so we're extending it I
think about 5 ft forward and 3 feet 3 and 1/2 ft to the right um and enclosing it as a threeseason sun room so that I can use it more than just a few times a year questions from the board okay hearing hearing none I'm going to
take public testimony madame chair and board members sigy Johnson with the Office of Neighborhood Services this petitioner completed the ONS community process uh considering a limited scope of the relief our office asked the applicant to distribute anformational flyer to a butters in a
300 ft radius and thisformational flying solicited no feedback to our office uh the West Roxbury Neighborhood Council has voted to support this proposal with that background we defer to the judgment of the board thank you thank you any other raised hands yes Jennifer
uh yes i'm Jennifer Nelson at 55 Willow Street so I own the first floor of the condo unit and I'm in full support of this project thank you i don't see any other raised hands thank you with that may I have a motion
motion of approval may I have a second second mr stebridge yes miss We will yes chair votes yes the motion carries good luck thank you thank you
all right we might have set a record but any uh thank you everyone for your time and participation we will see uh you at the next hearing have a good night you're welcome