August 14, 2024 Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

42 (Pages 162 to 165)42 (Pages 162 to 165) Page 162 1 the ten-foot ceilings, probably still within your 2 requirements for height, but my question really is s 3 around whether or not the settlement agreement 4 addressed in part or all the proposed rooftop deck, 5 which is both for public access, as you described, 6 in the center of the building as well as private 7 structures that people would reach through their 8 apartments, and that to me, appears to be a de facto 9 fifth story, so my question is: Was it included and 10 was that, again, part of what was taken into effect 11 or not relative to your design? 12 MR. PLOCKER: It's in the ordinance. 13 The ordinance permits rooftop amenities, and then 14 I'll let Mr. Appel answer the question. 15 MR. APPEL: Yeah, and I was going to 16 -- my recollection, and I don't have the ordinance 17 in front of me, but that it did permit rooftop 18 amenities without it being considered an additional 19 story. 20 MS. WHITE: Okay, so with that, if you 21 can, looking at that part where the Howell side 22 faces, that flat face there, what is the height at 23 the highest on that place? That is a place that I 24 will look at from my home, as will many of my 25 neighbors. Page 164 1 or in their backyards, that people living in those 2 buildings would not be able to see our homes. And 3 I'm asking that because there was testimony given by 4 your civil engineer addressing a balloon test, which 5 I understand were never performed, I'm not sure why 6 they weren't performed, which would certainly give 7 us some assurance that if I am in my home or in my 8 backyard, that people would not have purview to the 9 activities there. 10 MR. APPEL: So -- 11 MS. WHITE: And looking at what I see 12 here, nothing tells me, other than whatever trees 13 you decided to draw in, that that privacy would be 14 maintained, especially given the size of those trees 15 relative to the size of the property itself. 16 MR. APPEL: Well, I -- I think that 17 the -- based on the topography as well as the trees 18 in between the house and the building here, provide 19 buffering to the -- to the building itself. 20 MS. WHITE: Okay. If you could then 21 just help me for a second. I'm trying to understand 22 this; I'm not an architect. That structure you have 23 to the right, can you tell me approximately what 24 house on Howell Drive that represents. 25 MR. APPEL:

or a second. I'm trying to understand 22 this; I'm not an architect. That structure you have 23 to the right, can you tell me approximately what 24 house on Howell Drive that represents. 25 MR. APPEL: The corner -- Page 163 1 MR. APPEL: Well, I think what you 2 have to look at in here is that when you look at the 3 edge of the building -- actually, let me do it... 4 MS. WHITE: Is that looking -- 5 MR. APPEL: So -- 6 MS. WHITE: -- onto Howell -- 7 MR. APPEL: So -- 8 MS. WHITE: -- or is that looking 9 down? That's -- 10 MR. APPEL: So this -- this is the 11 section -- 12 MS. WHITE: Um-hum. 13 MR. APPEL: -- right here 14 (indicating) -- 15 MS. WHITE: Okay. 16 MR. APPEL: -- going over toward 17 Howell. So you can see that the building steps 18 down, so the dimension that I gave in prior 19 testimony was measured from the low point in here, 20 not measured to the wedding-cake stepping as it goes 21 farther and farther back. 22 MS. WHITE: Okay. So if I'm reading 23 this correctly, I'm looking at the little dashes you 24 have, it gives the appearance that if I'm sitting in 25 my home, or my neighbors are sitting in their homes Page 165 1 MS. WHITE: Okay. 2 MR. APPEL: And this is an 3 extrapolation just to be diagrammatic. 4 MS. WHITE: Right, and I understand 5 that. So, again, looking at the height of the trees 6 relative to the height of the structure, we are 7 given no assurances that whatever existing trees are 8 there and those would clearly be extremely old trees 9 to have that height, that none of those trees would 10 be moved or removed, because to replace that with a 11 standard tree would not give the privacy that we 12 have been enjoying up until now. 13 MR. APPEL: So the only thing that I 14 can tell you is the site engineer gave testimony 15 that there was a very large area that had preserved 16 trees. I -- I -- 17 MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC: (Inaudible) 18 MR. APPEL: Outside of that area, as 19 long as there's -- anything that is outside of that 20 property line obviously won't be touched and the 21 area that would be cleared would only be to 22 accommodate the building and grading, not clear- 23 cutting all of that, uh, that growth in there. So 24 what we did with the, uh, with the section was to be 25 as representative as possible.