SHED UPDATE: 3/1/16 ONE LAST STEP

SHED UPDATE: 3/1/16 It feels awful to ask for support again. And yet, I must - because, even though the JP Zoning Board, as well as the Neighborhood Council (2 separate entities with 2 separate meetings and votes) have both voted to approve the Variance needed to make my shed legal, the ZBA meeting (as it turns out) is the one that “counts”. I’m cautiously optimistic that they will approve the variance for my shed/workshop because, as everyone knows, I had a permit, and ISD has stated that although they “made a mistake” and are “so sorry” they do want to work collaboratively to make the shed legal. Hopefully this will be the case. However, because this meeting is public, given the unpredictable nature of people, and the viciousness, lack of information members of the Board indicated by their comments (although for weeks it was readily available to all of the Board members) it will be enormously helpful to have a group of people attending to show that they support the City honoring the agreements they made that now require this zoning variance. ZBA Meeting Details: March 24, 2016 5:00 PM at Department of Inspectional Services (ISD) 5th. floor 1010 Mass. Ave. Boston, MA SHED UPDATE 2/22/16 I was informed yesterday that, in fact, the process I went through - which included printing and putting 65 notices in abutters and neighbors mailboxes two times, the first for the abutters meeting and the second for the JP Zoning Appeal meeting, as well as both of the meetings themselves, and a vote by the Board to approve the request, which they did (!) and a meeting and vote by the Neighborhood Council, which happened without notifying me - did not actually result in the variance. I’m still under the “Stop Work” order. My yard still looks awful. I have been unable to go forward with finishing my little building since November 10th, and now, as of yesterday, I’ve been informed that the next step will be yet another ‘public process’. I was explicitly told at the meeting hosted by the Commissioner of Inspectional Services (ISD) that although a “mistake had been made” and that they were “so sorry” and “only human” - that this would be a simple process of “working cooperatively” to “legalize the little building” and that going through the community process was essential to accomplish what we “all” want. I was told that once the JP Zoning meeting had happened, they were going to “Fast Track” this. In addition, it was stated that since they supported this zoning relief, they would have the ZBA meeting right there at ISD instead of downtown, with only 3 Board members, and that it shouldn’t be a problem. I had no idea that this next step was to be yet another opportunity for ‘public process’. My experience of this ‘community process’ has been as horrible as I imagined, if not worse. Because I have, over the years, heard numerous awful stories from other individual homeowners about their experiences, I’ve always been clear that I would not do anything that would require me to go through a zoning appeal. This was the original reason for telling ISD every detail of what I intended to build because, as I told the person who granted my original permit “… I want to be sure everything is as it should be, because if I need to go through the JP Zoning board, I won’t do the project.” As we now know, I was granted a permit, built the shed/workshop, and then was informed that ISD made a mistake. Since the only option I was given was to go through this Appeal for Zoning Relief, I have gone forward. Part of my willingness came from the assurances of “working together” towards zoning relief in the form of a Variance, and what I understood: that the challenge was the JP Zoning Board because once we were through that, the rest would be easy. It is hard to imagine subjecting myself, in the public arena, to more viciousness, distortions and outright fabrications from people that do not know me. It has taken weeks to recover from the last meeting. I have a solid, ill, physical response to hatred. Being forced to do it again feels awful, and, to me, illustrates yet again the capricious and whimsical nature of the whole process. Please, if you are able, come to this meeting. Thank you all again. So much.