one is north of me at 211. the person at 211 did a major remodeling. he was an architect named greg williams. we discussed all the items he was going to do. he took into consideration my feelings about what i wanted. i also had to take into consideration his feelings about what he wanted to do. he did a very beautiful house, but he did a slight rise of the roof which upset me. so he cut in half in order to accommodate me. i wish this sort of thing that has happened to judge robertson would not have happened. it seems to me there has been a kind of a president to maintain the footprint of the building that exists. it does not mean you cannot expand the space. but if you keep the foot print,

you preserve all of the light. this has been mentioned by all the previous people. particularly in the wintertime, which we are coming back on, there is no light in these places. i would hope the discretionary review would expose this footprint as a major principle. president olague: whether any additional speakers in support of the dr requestors? that means the persons that are challenging the project. you can come up to the microphone. anyone in favor of the dr requestor. >> my name is chuck geithner. i live on the house for this to the south on the same side of the street, up the hill.

it is as far as you can get from the project and still be nearby. yet i oppose the design. everybody has spoken in terms of footprint and so on. i ask you to look at the aerial photographs. the poetry of the neighborhood that everybody wants to live in -- why are some neighborhoods desirable? why do people scramble to get into some neighborhoods and to say, "not really" about others? the reason people want to live here is because it is so livable. it is not filled with mcmansions. it is filled with homes that are home-sized. they are livable space is.

the reason i ask you to look at the hearing is to see how close together the houses are on edgewood. we are not always good neighbors, but we are always close neighbors. it is that closeness which is now going to be made almost razor-thin between the properties in question here at 178, 184, and i do not know the one on the other side. i have experienced what dr. campbell spoke to you about the shuttle that falls on his property from the house built next door to him. the house is also next door to me. a nice guy built it, a wonderful architect. the house is bigger than anybody thought it was going to be. it was built on what was a vacant lot next door to my house. it extends beyond the edge of my house, as this one will. president olague: thank you. are there additional speakers in

support of the dr? >> i would just like to confirm that you have the letter in your packet from joe boyle. president olague: i saw it. >> thank you very much. president olague: any additional -- would you like to speak, the lady standing up? did you want to speak on behalf of the dr requestor? >> ad lib at 183, across the street. i have been there 55 years. the thing that makes edgewood incredibly perfect is the spaces that were shown on those lines between louis st., belmont street, and edgewood street. it is a park-like situation to

our south. it is very special. i think the house is very nice, but i think it is too much into the park-like part. the neighbors to the north of them are going to have the sun go out, which is very difficult. i feel sorry for them. i wish you would consider that. thank you. president olague: thank you. any additional speakers? seeing none, project sponsor, you have five minutes. >> thank you, commissioners. thank you for the opportunity to present our project. my name is john dibenedetti. i am here with my wife and my daughters, natalie, who is 14

and in eighth grade, and grace, who is 11 and in fifth grade. we designed this house with great sensitivity to the neighbors and with a lot of attention to our unique needs. particularly, my needs as a blind person. i lost my sight when i was 11 years old. the fact is that living as a blind person there is a lot of concern that i need to pay attention to every daily activity, navigating and reading papers. i need a lot of help doing that from time to time. my goal in life is to live as independently as possible without having to rely on my family for help as much as possible. with that in mind, we designed the house of 184 edgewood.

i will walk you through a few key elements that our design -- that are designed to meet the unique needs. i have this raised-line drawing of our property that is printed out on a special printer. the actual drawings that printed out. i will be walking through this as a describe some elements. i am intimately involved in the details of the project so that i can comment on what works for me in my situation and for our family's needs. i will start with the lower level in the garage. we are expanding the garage to fit a car in the garage. if we are not allowed to do that, we would have to park the car on the street, which presents a big challenge for me to locate the car. i attempt to be helpful with my

family. unloading the car is one of the things i do. the fed cannot unload the car, that is a major challenge for me. there is an office proposed on lower-level. this is designed for me to have a separate space to work with my personal assistant to read me papers and not impose on my family in the common areas. i will share an anecdote from more than points the need for some separate space. i went into my office the other day and did not realize somebody had left a cup of coffee there. i knocked it over on to some very important papers. it was very frustrating for me to have to make mistakes like that. that is the reason for the office on the lower level. we also have a family room planned. i have a very personal reason

for wanting to have the family room for our kids to play their. i am not able to shuttle the kids around to other people's houses and other events. i would like to have them have a safe, an area of their where they can gather some of their friends there so i do not have to rely on anybody else to shuttle them around. moving upstairs to the main level, of the kitchen is a deck. i try to do my share of barbecuing and hopping around the kitchen. to create extra steps on the transition from the kitchen to the deck would be a real hazard to me. we are proposing to keep that level and flat. that is how we designed that. moving upstairs, one thing i have been fairly consistent on

is to have a separate closets so i can keep my clothes organized and do not have to rely on anybody else to point out what is mine. not long ago, i went to a wedding and was the best man. i showed up at the wedding and found out i had my white -- my wife's dress shirt and not my own. these are specific needs in why we designed the house the way we did. i want you to walk a mile in my family issues so you know why this was done. i have to admit it is very painful and embarrassing for me to have the kind of public setting two point out my limitations. i have always tried to overcome challenges. is it reasonable to ask for that? president olague: we have a few

speaker cards for the project sponsor. grace dibenedetti followed by natalie dibenedetti. >> i am bob planthold. akin to speak because i think everybody needs to change their thinking. i think we need to pay attention to the facts and circumstances that mr. dibenedetti lives in. he has no light, period. you have to respond to that need of his. what do i say? you heard complaints that this is bigger than normal for a kitchen or open space. you have to think of his needs

to function easily, smoothly, and safely. federal highway administration guidelines and public right of way access say for foot minimum for somebody using crutches are speaking with a cane. you have to start thinking there needs to be room for his kids, for books, sports equipment, friends, and a clear path to travel despite having those books and sports equipment. he needs a space big enough. you heard complaints that they should not have the levels that are built out flush with the rest of the house. that is a safety issue. if he and is kids need to get out, they should not have to navigate the have level or the steps. he is making it consistent with what has been the case for these structures front -- court

records -- a case for the structures for decades. nobody mentioned disability accommodation. the world has changed since 1990. we hear people wanting to preserve as that? from 1965. that is not the world we live in. that is not the world should make decisions on. you should respond to these family needs. there is too little accessible housing. president olague: nina keovich, mike mcclain. >> i am david gass, the architect on the project. i have been practicing architecture since 1980 with my own firm. we understand how to produce homes that respond to our clients' needs, the neighborhood

context, and the neighbors who are adjacent. we think we have accomplished that. could you get the computer on, please? we think we have succeeded next door. i think we are proposing here is in keeping with the neighborhood and will be another project that i am proud of. we have worked with our clients in the planning staff to craft a budget that was responsive to the presidential design standards and the historic character of the area. we started that process prior to filing for a permit. we met with the council. which of the project to the historic review team, meeting number of provisions in response to their input, and then worked with the residential design team to ship the product in a way that would respond to residential design standards.

we also made a number of changes that responded to the neighbor'' comments and concerns. if you looked at the front of the building as it is now, as proposed, we have raised the building about a foot and a half. we are putting in new windows that match. we are doing brick stairs, planters, trees, planting in the sidewalk space. we are raising the house. this is the existing garage slope. you can see where it bottoms out. we are trying to raise the house a foot and a half to provide adequate space. president olague: are there any additional speakers in support of the project sponsor? >> i am nina, one of the project

sponsors. we currently live just two blocks away from edgewood. we definitely appreciate the wonderful neighborhood. i have always walked there and thought i would love to live on the street. when this house came for sale, we decided to remodel. we saw it was a house in this repair and thought it was a good opportunity for us. we have been living in the current house for 14 years. we remodeled that house also to modernize it. and we never would ever want to do anything that would damage the character of the street, because that is one of the reasons we are moving there. we really appreciate it. we are trying to design a house that is responsive to the neighborhood before we bought the house. i had david gass come with me.

we looked at the backyard. we discussed the code requirements. president olague: if you can keep the side conversations to a minimum, we are still in a hearing at this moment. >> we looked at the houses to make sure our project should be in keeping. we saw the house on one side had a similar rear addition we thought me what what -- what me what what. president olague: we're going to have to take a five minute recess because there is too much noise and we are still in the middle of the hearing. >> we're going to have a break anyway. president olague: i wonder if there is an overflow room. i do not know. people have a right to get here when they arrive, so i am not going to ask people not to command.

>> but we are still, still. president olague: i think this lady has another minute. we will just have to -- i guess we have to continue on. i am sorry for your interruption. i believe you have a least a minute left in your testimony, if you could continue. we apologize for that. i would like to remind the public that we are in the middle of a public hearing. the longer it takes us to get through this, the larger -- the longer it will take us to get to your hearing. if you can please keep your side conversations -- just not happen. i was going to say keep them to a minimum, but we need silence in the room to get through this hearing so we can make it a

reasonable hour. >> i have called the sheriff's office so we can have crowd control. we are trying to set up overflow in the north court. we really do need you to not make noise. we are in session. we need you to be as quiet as possible. do not top of stores open. either come in or stay out, but do not hold the door open. president olague: there are some of the seats. >> there is no standing in this room. those of you who are standing have to exit the room right now. >> generally, until the overflow is set up, we allow people to sit down here, but we have a fire hazard because it is

so crowded. commissioner sugaya: all the people standing in the back will have to leave this room right now. >> if you could wait outside so we can continue this hearing. president olague: just stand in line outside the store. once this hearing is over, there will be seats available and you will have first dibs of the seats since you were here. i realize you are here for this item. if you see any seats, you should sit down in them. if you available, please sit down. do stand outside the doors to you can come in as this hearing and. -- as this hearing ends. >> we look at the adjacent houses. this was george robinson's house. it has extension and there is a tree between our property and their property.

we looked to the north and found a property extending beyond ours and designed a house that fit within the context of our particular lot. it is smaller than our neighbors to the south. our law is a little bit smaller than our neighbors. our lawn is larger than our neighbors to the north. we recognize that whatever we do is going to have some affect on our neighbors, so we tried to do the best we could to really try to figure out how we could make as little of an impact as possible. since the beginning of meeting and changes we have made -- president olague: thank you. are there additional speakers in support of the project sponsor? >> my name is natalie.

i live in this house. one part of the house i am looking forward to is my own bathroom to share with my sister rather than my whole family. i am also looking forward to the downstairs family room. this space will give me -- will give my family and friends a space to have get-togethers and play. my sister and friends will be able to sit and leave simple items on the ground without having to worry my blind father will trip over them. this room will be a great improvement to the home, giving my family and friends room to be together. thank you. >> my name is cheryl clements. i am john's personal assistant. i have been working with him and the family for the past year. they are friendly, kind human beings who take priority in giving back to the community.

mr. dibenedetti's disability is not something he likes to discuss openly, but it does have a great impact on his life. my work has been valuable in allowing him greater independence in his daily life. because of his disability, he uses carefully organized systems that must be meticulously maintained. examples include extreme organization systems and separate spaces for his documents. he does a considerable amount of work from home and does need a separate space to be able to execute that work. as anybody who lives with children knows, working from home with children in the house can be very distracting. in addition, his independent life is very important for his personal daily rituals. he already mentioned the

embarrassing incident with bringing his wife's shirt instead of his own. just having his own space as far as closet space, not having to share a restaurant with four people in one house, -- nunnelee to share a bathroom with four people in one house, will make a difference to him. does not create a liability based on a small amount of space for them to function. the neighborhood they are proposing to move into is great. i walk a dog in that area every day. they are very aware of it from living around the corner. in my opinion, the proposed remodel is not excessive. it is necessary in order to continue daily life. president olague: thank you. are there additional speakers? >> jeremy paul in support of the project sponsor.

i would like to point out that both of the adjacent property owners, both of the dr requestors facebook tonight, both of the horizontal additions at the rear of their property. this is from the site design checklist prepared by the planning department. you can see the department meticulously reviewed this application and found that it had minimize its impact on the light and air of the adjacent properties. we did some studies, shadows studies, which provided to the -- which we provided to the dr requesstors. they told us they were inadequate. there is impact. there is no doubt that at the winter solstice, when the sun is to the south at its most, there is impact. however, the house to the south

is higher than we are and extends as far as we do. there is a large tree in the backyard of the robertsons' that provides a lot of shade. this is the direction that the view goes from these houses. it goes to the east. it does not go to the south. this is the view from robertson's home. that tree is what they see when they look from their upper deck, from their middle deck. the will see our structure when they looked directly south, as does the current building to the north. if you will look at these burials -- aerials, you see how this block papers. this house was designed in specific response to that paper. you can see the resident design guidelines that address it in this way. the person who said this might

be a mcmansion has a much larger house than this one. president olague: are there any additional speakers in support of the project sponsor? >> i have lived in the neighborhood for 15 years. i cannot even tell you how many times i have ridden my bike or walk up and down that street. i cannot tell you how many times i have been a different houses that have turned over over the past 15 years. the house as it is now is more inconsistent with the neighborhood than what they are proposing. the addition is being characterized as a manchin -- as a mcmansion. that is absurd. as for the green space, i have been in backyards down there. the backyard is nice. they are all large. the code is 25% remaining

backyard space. it would still feel enormous in context of that space. there is a lot of sun. it is on a sloping hill. i saw the shadow studies in december when there were put up. i did not feel like there were impacting. there is some impact. whenever you build, there is a point to be an impact. but to say it is as negative as i am hearing today is an overstatement by far. i support the project. president olague: thank you. additional speakers? seeing none, dr requestors, you each have two minutes for rebuttal. >> on behalf of the robertsons, i would like to take more than two minutes since the other side took 50 minutes on their presentation. the couple of things to address. at the end of 5 minutes, we were trying to describe the

alterations with would find satisfactory. i want to point out on the overhead that at the rear is a slight reduction in the size of the family room in the back to make it more consistent with the average of the rares of the two and adjacent buildings. it would still allow a large family room to be made even larger if the rooms behind it were adjusted somewhat. i really wanted to talk about the variance and the request to raise the house 18 inches. the request came to raise the back of the house 18 inches to make the deck level with the kitchen. we certainly appreciate the need for that. the handicap makes that an important issue. but they want to raise the entire house 18 inches. we do not think the grounds for a variance have been met. variance can only be granted if there