you and uh just give it a second on mr jachico
Thank you.
okay chair we're at about 44 people here attendees you can go forward thank you good morning everyone
my name is frank de chico i'm the chair of the zoning board of adjustment i'll be participating
in today's hearing, along with our Vice Chair, Ms. Carol Tenere, Board Secretary, Confessor Plaza,
and Board Members, Mr. Thomas Holloman and Mr. James Snell. Board Administrator Yvette Benton
and our Attorney, Ms. Sharon Saleta, are also in attendance. For those of you who haven't yet
participated in one of our virtual hearings, I'll go through some of the basics of what you can
expect first we will be administering oaths to individual participants prior to their testimony
second we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded and that by
participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded and that the recording will be
made available to the public on the web or otherwise third for anyone participating by phone
if you wish to testify you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute
yourself. I'll repeat. For anyone participating by phone, if you wish to testify, you must raise
your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself. Finally, to enter an
appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548 and leave your email address and the address
of the property at issue i'll repeat for anyone participating by phone if you wish to testify
you must raise your hand by hitting star nine and then star six to unmute yourself
and i made a mistake when i apologize to enter an appearance statement called google 267
270-5548 and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue
I'd also like to remind everyone, please do not attempt to testify in the chat, or any and all comments should be directed to our Board Administrator, Ms. Benton.
With that, I will read a list of cases that have been requested to be continued on the 930 list.
number 13 mi 2021 that's 000457 7226 oakley street and uh i think that was it so far
if anyone disagrees with that continuance please raise your hand
no chair we have a jocelyn clark with her hand up
miss clark you can unmute yourself and speak now good morning miss clark please spell your first
and last name and i'll swear you in my first name is jocelyn j-o-c-e-l-y-n last name clark
c-l-a-r-k you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes and you are here calling in reference to what case 22 the case i'm sorry 22 30 west ontario
i need to open my it's number six on your list thank you are you requesting a continuance
I already had requested a continuance and this is my new date perhaps I misunderstood yeah you'll
we'll get to your case next I'm so sorry I I missed no no no worries no worries we'll get
No, no worries. No worries. We'll get to your case in due time. You're number six on our list. Right now, we're asking if anyone objects to the continuance for 7226 Oakland Street.
to your case in due time you're number six on our list right
And if no hands are up, I will now ask, is anyone requesting a continuance or withdrawal? So please raise your hand.
Chair, we have Vern Anastasio.
Mr. Anastasio, you can unmute yourself and speak now.
Morning, Mr. Anastasio. Please identify yourself with the records, spell your last name, the first and last name, and I will swear you in.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, Vern Anastasio. It's V, like Victor, E-R-N, like November.
The last name is A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O, 1315 Walnut, Suite 1006, Philadelphia, 19107.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you. Please proceed.
Mr. Chair, I was hoping to put this case on today, but it turns out I'm going to need to ask for a continuance, 1553 North Marston Street.
Okay. MI 2021-000463-1553 North Marston Street is continued.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
there are no hands at this time chair okay with that carol we're going to move number 14
yes okay calendar number 055748 south cleveland street the attorney is rachel pritzker
rachel's been promoted to panelists
hi rachel can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name please
yes rachel r-a-c-h-a-e-l pritzker p-r-i-t-z-k-e-r 1635 market street suite 1600
philadelphia pa 19103 and i'm joined today with my co-counsel maddie monroe
do you swear do you swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes uh matt do you want to put your name and address on the record as well
Sure. Matt Monroe, M-A-T-T-M-O-N-R-O-E at Monroe Law, 30 South 15th Street, 15th Floor, 19102.
And do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy, both of you, I guess?
Yes. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral photos and or plans five days in advance of this hearing? And have you met with the RCO? And do you have a letter?
Okay, you may proceed.
Thank you. I'm going to share my screen.
This is 748 South Cleveland Street. We represent the owners, Adam and Leslie Pritzker.
um i'm going to just go through the application um basically what we're providing here is for
the erection of a rear and third story addition with a roof deck and pilot house to an existing
single family attached home uh we have two refusals the first one is for um our the eight
foot setback uh as the board is well aware anytime that you have a property that is directly adjacent
into two-story structures, you're required to do the eight-foot setback. The other refusal we have
is based on an existing non-conforming structure, which is for rear yard depth. This lot is less
than 45 feet, so we're required to provide the seven-foot rear yard. However, we're only providing
three feet, 11 and three-fourths inches, which is actually just an existing condition to the house.
It's an existing non-conforming structure. So essentially what we're here for is not to provide
the eight foot setback here's our application for appeal um and i'm just going to go through
sort of the two refusals and the hardship that we have uh chairman members of the board essentially
we're asking for a mansard roof um we are asking to provide i believe it's going to be 32 feet six
inches total in height as opposed to the eight foot setback which as the board knows can be
really difficult to provide, especially with a small lot. This lot is 16 by 44, an extremely
small lot. The eight-foot setback, we could do it at 38 feet, which would actually be more
impactful, we believe, to any rear neighbors. And providing a mansard roof, which will allow for
this family to stay in Philadelphia, expand their home, and add a bedroom and a bathroom
to their existing home. I also have our tax clearance certificates, the deed of the property.
our tax clearance certificates, the deed of the property. I'm going to just show it quickly on
Atlas. I believe it gives a little bit of a better depiction of the property as far as the rear yard
As you can see, the property is extremely small at 16 by 44 and sort of the shadowing, you can see the existing building.
This is the property here with the blue marker.
As you can see, the property is extremely small at 16 by 44 and sort of the shadowing, you can see the existing building.
you can see this rear yard here is sort of encroaching into this property and on the backs
of all these making an existing non-conformity in a very small rear yard space our addition that
we're proposing is just meeting the existing building our architect scott woodruff is on and
we'll go through that as well it's just to meet the exact bearing walls not to cause any waterproofing
or sort of double roof issues other than that again just a mansard roof and we're providing
it less than the 48 feet um sorry 38 feet and 40 you know 41 with a three foot parapet wall
that's required or permitted uh by code i'm going to go back to the packet um again as you can see
um how small this lot is um and again you know what we're providing is we believe the minimum
variation from the code to allow for relief this is the exterior of the home um as the board may
be familiar the board granted a variance for another mid-block property on this block 774
south cleveland it actually provides a completely flush uh third story does not end at 38 feet it
does not provide any sort of the mansard roof or anything of that nature um this is sasna's
letter to us um one of the reasons we have um so many folks joining the call today as the board
we'll see is because there was a lot of support, not only from Sazna, some of Sazna's zoning
committee, but also from the near neighbors who are on today as well. But there was some concerns
about keeping the historical preservation of the block. As the board's well aware, there's no
historical significance to an eight foot setback. And what we are providing is actually more common
in the neighborhood. I have some examples, the directly south block with the mansard roofs here
on Dorrance, and a lot of individuals are using sort of the mansard instead of the eight-foot
setback as it provides a better long-term aesthetic. It holds the cornice line, keeps the
front facade of the building in shape, in addition to providing viable living space, which, you know,
we're all hopeful that people want to stay in Philadelphia and grow their families. As you can
see, it was a pretty divided vote. Sazen took a position of opposition, although they have a policy
to allow for a mansard roof and also did allow for the for a flush building at 774 which is a
mid-block property but we also went and included a significant amount of the existing near neighbors
letters of support as well and a lot of them are here today to speak on behalf of the project the
last thing I'll mention before I'll let Scott speak is that we also although we were not required
to we also included provisos that we agreed to um and that we have revised plans so that we were
we were asked to lower the height of the of the structure even though we were only at 33 feet we
lowered the interior from 10 foot ceilings to nine on the third floor we included a transparent rail
for the parapets so that we were even less impactful in addition to reducing the overall
height of the building um which was i think a foot off uh than what than what we had provided again
lower than the 38 feet permitted um if we were to do the eight foot uh setback so i'm going to have
scott um so here's what we're looking to provide um again revised plans it's also worth mentioning
that 746 will be in front of the board as well in july providing exactly the same application
also adjacent single family home as well. And if I could just two very quick points before
Scott takes over. Rachel alluded to the small lot size and the total square footage of a lot
is 704 square feet. That's a pre-existing lot size obviously and under the current building
code the minimum lot size for an RSA 5 property is 1,440 square feet. So effectively what we have
is a property that's less than half of the uh if we were going to be creating a new lot a uh
the minimum lot size and then uh secondly um i think one point that got lost at the sasna meeting
I think one point that got lost at the SOSTA meeting as somebody who lives in the neighborhood and as a former member of the Zoning Committee and Board of Directors, I think there was a lot of emphasis in part on impact to neighbors at the rear.
as somebody who lives in the neighborhood and as a former member
Neighbors at the rear, there will be no material impact whether or not there is a setback at the front of the house or not.
This is really the key issue. There's no material impact to the folks at the rear, and I just wanted to raise those two points.
Thank you. I'm going to, just for illustrative purposes, is, do you see Scott Woodruff on? Just for illustrative purposes, this is what we've now created when we do this eight foot setback. And you may hear from people that you want, they want to keep some level of uniformity. There's no way that the eight foot setback like this provides any level of uniformity.
I know that we all know that the eight-foot setback was created sort of the 11th hour
with the revisions of the zoning code and we believe what we're providing is actually more
in context with other historical properties even though this block is not designated as historical
and neither is this property but really looking to provide something that has a little bit of a
long-term aesthetic appeal and allowing for a little bit more consistency overall than the
eight foot setback has has provided um and again like i said 774 uh this board approved recently i
have the um the records of that included in the packet as well and that was actually provided
flush um and somehow sasna was able to support that um as well so i'm going to stop sharing my
screen and let scott provide the plans and go through the changes that we made again um you
You know, we're offering these changes as a compromise and an ability to, you know, work with the new neighbors and further remediate any concerns that they may have.
Rachel, these changes were presented to the SOSNA at that time, at the time of the meeting?
They weren't presented at the time of the meeting, but they sent us a proviso form memorializing them.
And then we went back and had said to them at the meeting on the record that we were fine making those changes.
That was asked of us and we agreed that we would make those changes.
Rachel the person you're looking for is their name Scott Woodruff yes ma'am okay
he's been promoted to panelists Mr. Woodruff you can unmute yourself and speak
good morning Mr. Woodruff please identify yourself first and last name please
Scott Woodruff, W-O-O-D-R-U-F-F, 4001 Main Street, Philadelphia PA, 19127.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Thank you, Ms. Pritchard.
Scott, can you just go through the plans?
Changes that were made.
So again, just going over, this is the 3D axon of what was proposed with some of the updated changes.
uh things that you'll notice is the railing at the front that's set back again transparent uh
sasna had recommended either a glass or metal railing either or to try and minimize light
impacts we also brought down uh the front roof line and parapet uh to the maximum extent we
could um and then also drop the whole third floor ceiling height um from 10 feet floor to ceiling
to nine feet floor to ceiling. Here you can kind of see the site plan. Again, as Rachel said,
we're building over just the existing footprint of the house. One thing to note is there is a
shared alley along this right side here that is shared with 746 that cuts through on the
first floor and is provided for egress for this property. Looking at the plans, again,
first floor no changes this is existing condition it was asked that we provide the existing second
floor plan here which we did so again we're building on the the first floor footprint here
the second floor as you can see is a bedroom with a very small bedroom and a bathroom
so this addition allows for an actual usable bedroom here as well as a third
bedroom on this level with an additional bath.
Looking at the elevation, you can kind of see we're minimizing our parapet here to the maximum
extent. We have two inches, I think, here just to make sure water doesn't blow off the edge.
um but top of structure is at 31.9 again permitted as 38 feet so we are uh you know seven feet plus
below or 60 feet plus below the the actual height limit that is provided again trying to to minimize
u plus below the the actual height limit that is provided again trying to to minimize the impacts
on the neighbors that are adjacent
again side elevations one of the the things that was asked was that to make sure that
this pilot house was sloped which we did do again to further mitigate impacts from all surrounding
neighbors um with it and then you can see here the the section with our our nine foot uh ceiling
hits on that third floor um i took a few views uh and presented these in sasna just to understand
what this may look like from you know other people's third stories or and or roof decks
um we didn't really have a lot of opposition but it is something that we did look at this
is directly across the street. This is down the block a little bit, kind of looking back at the
city that's over here. And then this is the updated and proposed rendering. Again, you can see that
the mansard, which I think does a nice job of sloping back away from the street and also has
about a one foot, one foot six back from the edge of this cornice line, kind of steps the addition
and back doesn't really make it very prominent or proud, but still allows us to use the space
for the actual bedroom inside. And you can kind of see the parapet pretty much completely bleeds
away. You really only see it from the side here, but, you know, from the front, it's completely
invisible. Rachel, happy to go over any additional questions or any other points that you want me to
over no i i think you did a great job scott thank you thank you any questions for this hold on before
you go any questions for this witness from the board no no okay rachel no um i just we have a
bunch of people that are on the call to speak in support so and a couple of them have uh hard
stops and flights so uh we appreciate the board allowing us to to go first and also wanted to
just make sure that those folks that are here can and put their testimony on the record yeah i just
would like to if if there's anyone from sasna i'd like to hear from that individual first and then
we'll go to your witnesses okay there anyone from sasna chair there are four hands up but i don't
know exactly who's from sasna well i'll ask the question if you're not from sasna from the sasna
board please put your hand down momentarily