Everybody in. Yes.
Okay, Chair,
seems like we only have 10 attendees okay that's probably the quick because we do have a couple
of cases that are four and five more the case okay that's fine thank you good morning my name
is bill bergman and i will be chairing this morning's dba hearings with hearings with me
is carol tanari our vice chair present mr chairman ismail shahid our board secretary
and Thomas Holloman, our board member.
We also have with us our board attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Before we begin, here's our virtual format.
Be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
A video will be available by contacting our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkett, at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you are participating by phone, and if you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and the address
of the property in question. And last, please note the question answer box is not for testimony
or comments. Any comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunken. So first
of all, let's look at continuances for this morning's meeting.
number six mi 2021 001 959 2349 north 20 street this case will be continued mark must be tried
for the next listing and number seven mi 2022 000 666 2452 west toronto street that case is
continued. Are there any other cases that there's continuance requests for?
I see no hands, Chair. Thank you. We're going to go to our first case that's an add-on. MI 2021
005-122-7511 to 19 Stenton Avenue. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Sorry, Mr. Chair,
This is Hillary. I'm recusing myself from this case, and Amy Gaylor is filling in on my behalf.
Thank you. Thank you, Hillary. I vote yes with the following provisos. No blinking lights or signs
on signs. No flashing colors, lighting, or letters on sign. Hours of illumination for signs,
Monday to Friday, 9A to 5P, and Saturday, 8A to 1P.
garyl i'm not voting on this case oh i'm thomas thomas holloman thomas holloman my vote is yes
thank you we're now going to our regular list number one mi 2021
221-003530-2237 North 3 Street.
Henry Clinton is the attorney.
Mr. Clinton is coming back in as a panelist.
Morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
Morning, Mr. Clinton.
Could you spell your name for the court reporter, please?
Sure. Henry, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Henry, H-E-N-R-Y, Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Right.
We'd like to hear all your five cases together. Is that okay?
Yes. I think that's a very good move.
So the first one is MI 2021 003530 2237 North Street.
Street. Number two, MI 2021 003529 2233 North Street. MI 2021 003528 2231 North Street. Number
four MI 2021 003525 2214 North 3 Street and number five MI 2021 003526 2225 North 3 Street
letter of support on all five from NARS Square Community Alliance our vice hope by the way
Your client, please, Mr. Clinton.
Yes, the owner of the property is 2020 Reese LLC, but both members of that LLC are on the
Leo Osilovich, that's I-O-S-I-L-E-V-I-C-K, and Jerry Namor, N-E-Y-M-U-R.
Both are on the phone call.
Thank you.
Our vice chair, Carol Tenere, has a few questions.
Good morning, Mr. Clinton.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet for all of these cases with proof of ownership, tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have letters?
Yes, to all of you, Bob.
Okay, great. You may proceed and begin with sharing your screen.
Thank you.
Thank you.
uh is that large enough to say it's good okay good morning mr chairman members of the board
henry clinton uh on behalf of 2020 reese llc uh and we're here today to discuss five properties
on the 2200 block of reese street uh the refusals are all the same except for 2231 reese the
refusals uh have to do with uh this is an rsa5 single family zoning district and the request
is to have each of these properties a two-family dwelling. So the refusals are the same, except
for, as I say, 2231. And I'll show you, there's an extra refusal there for open space. The code
calls for open space of 25%, and we have 25.13%. So I'm arguing, taking the position, that's a
de minimis variation. So throughout this presentation, I'm basically going to say that
all the refusals for all five properties are the same. This is my table of contents,
including exhibits AA through A10, which I ask to be admitted into evidence today. This is my
appearance statement, and this is the refusal. Again, I'll walk through each one. This is 2214,
refused because two-family household living is not permitted in an RSA 5 zoning district.
Likewise with 22-25, 22-31, and here's what I pointed out to the board, the occupied area is a little bit off by 0.13 percentage points.
The next property is 22-33, same thing, RSA-5 requesting a two-family dwelling, and the last property is 22-37.
We do have a letter of support from NARA Square Community Alliance, and one of the reasons we had that letter of support is because there was concern about having one large single-family home on the block, or five of them on the block, and the affordability of that particular single-family home.
So my client has committed that each of these two family dwellings will be condominiums.
And you can see it's in the letter of support because everyone thought that you had it as a two family, three story dwelling.
You can make it more affordable. Plus, these lots have been long, long vacant.
And I'll show you an aerial photograph depicting the block.
So this is the 2200 block of Reese Street. The property's involved.
there's one on the even side of the street, the west side of the street. The others are
on the east side of the street. None of them are adjacent to an existing property other than
2225, and 2225 is two uses. There's commercial on the first, and there's residential above.
and there's residential above.
Again, just another perspective,
we're looking northbound, the vacant lots,
four of them are on the odd side of the street,
one on the even side.
Again, just some perspectives,
and this is that two-use building commercial
in the first residential above,
and we're looking north again,
and now we're looking south
to give you another perspective.
And this is the vacant lot where 2225 hopefully will be constructed.
And this is the building adjacent, as I indicate.
There's two uses here, commercial on the first and residential above.
The plans, Mr. Chairman, and members of the board are all the same for all five.
So I thought what I might do with the chair's permission is just discuss one layout,
because the layout for all five are the same that's fine okay basically we have a three-story
property with brick and the the bays will either be stucco or a metal seam standing seam
siding the first floor and basement will be one unit the second floor and third floor will be one
unit the second and third floor will have open space on the rooftop deck first floor and second
floor, we'll be able to descend into a rear yard. And I'd just like to point out we have no refusals
for height or for rear yards. The rear yards are typically more than 10 feet and nine feet are
called for in the code. And our open space is good with every project or every property,
except for the one which I mentioned 2213.
again this is i have five in a row so i'm going to just go through these and move to the floor
plan because again they're all the same the lots are about 55 feet deep the property lines vary
from 14 to 16 so they're significant size lots and then the floor plans a little bit the
overdrawn here because the electrical outlets and other items are drawn into each property,
but basically we have the basement and first floor. That would be a three-bedroom unit with
two full baths. And then we have the second and third floor, again, with three bedrooms
and two full baths with a rooftop deck.
Again, just a cross-section of each property.
Again, I don't want to continually repeat myself,
but all the floor plans and all the elevations are the same.
And I don't mean to go through this quickly,
but I don't want too much redundancy.
Again, the tax certifications,
We have tax certifications for every property.
And then the rest of the documents are the pro forma documents that you would typically see in a presentation such as this.
For application, the zoning map, the deed indicating ownership.
And again, I have an application for each of the five.
There's a zoning map reflecting RSA 5.
I have a zoning map included for every property involved.
Again, all RSA 5. And the deed indicates this is my client, and they purchased the property back in 2019.
So, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, I think we have some unique circumstances here.
I can't say we have unique physical circumstances, but I think we have some unique circumstances where we have long vacant lots on a block that's not really developed.
The community group would like to see the property, excuse me, the block develop.
And the way they see that happening is if a developer will come in and try to make these units two-family, sell them as two-family, sell them as condominiums, individuals can have their own home ownership, they become members of the community and members of the block, and just would add vibrancy to the whole area.
We're not going to impact lighter air development on either side of the property.
We are in harmony, generally with the code.
Again, there's no issues with regard to the rear yard other than that de minimis at 2213 rear yard.
We're okay with height.
And so we're just asking the board to look at this as a long-term project for everybody involved.
Now, again, as other projects come up, perhaps a community group will say, look, we don't want any more two families.
We've already jumpstarted the block and we may look at other future projects and say single family only.
look at other future projects and say single family only but in this circumstance because
whether this circumstance
of what i've outlined they're in a wholehearted agreement with two family dwellings in this rsa
5 zoning district and with that i would open the floor for questions or have my client
adopt my testimony mr why don't you have your client adopt your testimony
sure leo can you uh raise your hand and the administrator will unmute you
hi this is leo hi could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
hey my name is leo islevich so it's l-e-o and my last name is i-o-s-i-l-e-v like victor
i-c-h right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
I do. Proceed, Mr. Clinton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Isilovich, you were on the Zoom
call when I just gave this presentation, were you not? Yes. And if you had the opportunity to
testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own, and would you find that testimony true and
correct? Yes. Thank you, Leo. I appreciate it. What questions from the board? No, Mr. Chairman.
questions or comments from the virtual audience chair we have sloan folks
good morning mr folks
good morning mr folks
he's unmuted chair i'm not sure what's going on
Mr. Folks?
Looks like there's some technical issues.
He might need to leave and come in.
He's not even showing up on my end.
I'll text him, Mr. Chairman.
IT'S YOUR CALL, CHAIR.
LET'S WAIT ONE MINUTE HERE.
MR. FOLKS USUALLY GOES ALONG WITH NARA SQUARE COMMUNITY ALLIANCE IS.
i just texted mr german are there any but bob we're waiting is there any other comments from
the virtual audience we have mr folks on a different device fine thank you mr folks good
morning good morning chairman can you hear me well we hear you now could you i apologize that's okay
Hey, state your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Yes, good morning.
Sloan Fuchs, S-L-O-A-N-E-F is a fire, O-L-K-S, Office of Councilwoman Maria CUNY Sanchez, room 508 City Hall.
All right, do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, sir.
Thank you.
Proceed.
The applicant, having met with the coordinating RCO and Norris Square Community Alliance,
receiving a letter of support on all of the requested variances.
The councilman supports the various requests.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Folks.
Planning Commission.
Morning, Chair Bergman.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
That's Ian Hegarty, H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Good morning, board members. In 2022, several of these properties were rezoned from RSA 5 to RM1
in accord with the comprehensive plan. With regard to 22, 37, 33, and 31, the proposed use
for these variances conforms to the newly enacted zoning district on this block.
And with regard to the remaining parcels, those are not recommended for RM1, but given the existing
uses on the block and consistency for adjacent properties city planning commission recommends
that the board grant the variances for each of these five appeals on reese street thank you very
much. MI 2021 003530 2237 North Reese. MI 2021 003529 2233 North Reese. MI 2021 003528 2231 North
MI 2021-003-525-2022.
MI 2021-003-525-2214, North Reese, and MI 2021-003-526-2225, North Reese Street, I vote yes for all five.
Carl Tonnery, my vote is yes for all five.
Thomas Homony, my vote is yes for all five.