the session. Thank you.
Chair, we have 41 attendees and we are ready to begin.
Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Bill Bergman and I will be chairing this morning's ZBA hearings. With me,
It's Thomas Holliman, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
James Snell, our board member.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Also with me is Hillary Emerson, our attorney for the zoning board, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised these proceedings are being recorded.
A video will be available by contacting tanyasunkett at philip.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
If you want to enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email address and also the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sanger.
Let's look at continued cases this morning.
Number three, MI 2022 003 457 623 to 39 North 39th Street. That case is continued. Number four, MI 2022 007 282 4100 Orchard Street. That case is continued.
you. Number six, MI 2022. Hold on.
Be with you in one minute. MI 2022 004555 1711 to 17 Rittenhouse Square. That case is continued.
Number seven, MI-2022-003-368-4701-15 King Sesson Avenue.
That case is continued.
And number 10, MI-2021-005-236-776 Martin Street.
That case is continued.
Is there anyone in the audience who has comments relative to the continued cases?
Good morning, Chair. This is Doreen Blakey, and I will co-host this morning, and I see no hands.
Thank you. Is there any other requests for continuances?
I see no hands.
Thank you. And I also have case number five, MI-2022-002-379-4890 Somerdale Avenue, Lot 2.
That case has been withdrawn. So we're going to start our regular list today
with number nine. MI 2021-005-076-5217 Amara Street. Sean Ward is the attorney.
Hold on one second, Mr. Ward.
Sure. We have a letter of opposition in this case from the 12th Ward RCO, but they do support the variance for parking.
And we also have a second letter of opposition from Solo Germantown.
Mr. Ward has been promoted to panelists.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
good morning Mr. Ward good morning Mr. Chairman how are you today thank you for
Good morning, Mr. Ward.
getting me in early I do have a code enforcement trial scheduled for this morning okay and I hope
to be brief okay so could you state your name please and spell for the court reporter
certainly Sean S-H-A-W-N Ward W-A-R-D attorney for the owner applicant of the subject premises
All right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do. Could you identify that client, please?
Yes. My client is V&V Holdings LLC, represented by Vargas Oganesian. That's V-A-R-D-G-A-S.
It's Oganesian, capital O-G-A-N-I-S-E-A-N.
And the property is 5217 Marstreet.
And Mr. Holleman has just a few questions.
Good morning, Counselor.
Good morning, Mr. Holleman.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as far as five days in advance to the hearing?
Did you meet with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
The documents were submitted less than five days,
pursuant to my discussion with Hillary, as I was away last week,
and I was traveling this weekend.
But they were submitted prior to the hearing, and she did receive them.
Thank you.
And yes, and yes, and yes to the other questions. We did meet with the RCO. There is a letter. I will address that in due time.
Thank you. Please proceed.
Thank you.
Okay, let me switch my earpiece here.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair. This is Hillary. It looks like we were just joined by Board Member Shahid.
Just wanted to confirm.
I'm here.
Good morning, Ish.
Good morning.
All right, Mr. Chair, can we confirm that my screen is shared correctly?
Your screen is up, sir.
Awesome.
I've submitted my typical exhibit application, which is on behalf of Vargas Oganesian, doing business as V&V Holdings, LLC, for 5217 Morris Street.
Pardon me.
A1 is the zoning refusal. This was an application for a permit for the erection of a new single family dwelling, resulted in two refusals. One is for a side yard setback.
uh this property now being mapped as rsa-3 an eight foot side yard is required whereas a four
foot is proposed and under rsa-3 uh parking regulations once off street parking space is
required whereas zero is proposed accordingly we need variances for both of those
um very quickly though a2 is the zba application of appeal a3 project information form a4 proof
of ownership a5 proof of tax clearance a6 is the zoning site floor and elevation plan
a7 is the zoning location map a8 are photographs of the subject property including posting aerial
photos street views i did attach at a9 the rco letter from the 12th ward as you said mr
Chair. It's a quasi, you know, partially in support, partially in opposition, as I read it.
A10, if submitted, would be district council's letter. A11, as far as relevant zoning history,
there was a permit on file from 1986 for renovations or repairs to a single family dwelling.
Then again, in 2001, there was an application for a legalization of a six-foot high fence
as part of an existing vacant lot.
A-12 is a zoning map and A-13 is an aerial photograph as usual.
So very quickly, this is the refusal.
It discusses the aforementioned two refusals,
one for minimum side yard and one for required parking
in the residential district.
This is the application of appeal.
It was filed by Cluck Consultants, LLC,
the design professional for the owner and applicant it included the PIF you know project
information form I also attach a copy of the deed V&V acquiring this property March 22nd of 2021
Also attached as proof of ownership, I know there's been something raised by Solo Germantown, one of the RCOs involved, regarding 5217 and 5219 Marsh Street.
also attached as proof of ownership
They were redevelopment authority properties.
However, simultaneous with the purchase by V&V or near simultaneous, there was a release, removal and termination of any reversionary interest by the city with regard to the development of that property.
And therefore, we submit that this is a freestanding lot and it is not part of nor parcel to 5219, as may be suggested.
um again the tax clearance as you can see any taxes due are for this year and they're not due
till the end of march however they are clear through 2022 uh very quickly with regard to the
plans uh this is the cover sheet for the zoning sheet zoning plans this is a a survey of the
existing conditions. As you can see, 5219 is an existing single-family home, three stories in
height. 5217 is an existing vacant lot, which is attached to an existing alleyway, which is
separating 5215 from 5217. The proposed footprint of the structure is pretty much equal to
that which exists as 5,219.
We are proposing a four-foot setback
from the property line
in addition to the existing three-foot alleyway.
I direct your attention
to the opposite side of 5,219.
You'll see that the four-foot setback
appears to exist at 5,219 as well.
With regard to the floor plans,
not proposing anything out of the ordinary.
Yeah, there would be a basement level for mechanical storage and whatnot. The first floor is predominantly the living area, a front living room, center kitchen and dining area with access to a rear deck, two bedrooms on the second floor, and then what would be the master suite is on the third floor of the structure.
It does have access to a roof deck. The roof deck is set back in accordance with zoning requirements. And basically, the roof deck is predominantly going to be used, my understanding is, for the air conditioning and mechanical, but it will have access for residential purposes, which is obviously permitted in the district.
When we talk about the zoning elevation plans, you know, when we submit to L&I, you know, we are submitting that the house will not exceed a certain height, which in this case is, you know, a three-story single-family home.
I would point out that we did make representations to the RCO that we would do our best to match.
uh you know here here's a photograph of the existing property as renovated by
uh vmv prior to the sale to the current owner uh we did represent that a community we would
match to the best of our ability uh the front facade of the structure so that it in fact looks
like a twin home uh you know you know identical in appearances so uh so you know again it resulted
in two refusals. One is the side yard setback, and the other is the fact that we are supposed to
provide off-street parking. If we were to provide off-street parking, despite the fact that there's
an existing curb cut, it would have resulted in another refusal for parking in the front yard
setback. To provide parking on the side of the building, we would result in even a thinner house
than proposed. If we were to comply with the eight-foot wide setback, we would have roughly
a 12-foot dimension exterior dimension of the home, which would result in an approximately
11-foot interior dimension of the home. And when you start adding non-bearing partition walls and
stairwells and whatnot, it really hampers the ability to provide reasonable living space
in a structure. Accordingly, we were looking to match the four-foot-wide side yard setback,
which is common on this block at various locations. This block is unique,
and I think photographs will probably
And I think photographs will probably do us justice here because, as you'll see, it's a mixed block of what appears to be attached structures, semi-detached structures, unattached structures or detached structures, all in the same block.
One thing you will notice, Mr. Chair and members of the board, is that other than two other
properties on the block, there is no off-street parking.
And in order to accommodate SANE, it just creates problems unique to this property,
given the size, dimensions, and the zoning classification to install parking off-street.
There is no access from the rear.
there is no common driveways and therefore that's why we seek that variance in addition to the side
yard setback so um you know a site location map uh this this is in the uh you know lower germantown
area i would submit it's near the germantown cricket club located on marsh street in between
west queen lane and whoops i lost that one sorry all right uh moving on uh these are uh this is the
subject front of the property as you as you can see there is a curb cut but it's not used there
is a masonry or stone wall uh you know obscuring or blocking any access for parking purposes
This is 5219 here, as indicated by my cursor, the fenced in area, you know, as I mentioned earlier, was a zoning permit to legalize that fence to close off this lot.
Between us and the 5215 property, there is a three foot wide alley for access to the rear.
Again, this is the Google angle view showing that, you know, there are no off street parking spaces for the most part.
You have one here and then there's one on the other side of the street. I do have photos
indicating those. So there's a picture of our posting.
At the request of the 12th Ward RCO, they asked that we post a copy of the RCO meeting notice
on the fence as well, which we did in advance of the meeting. This is I believe 5230 Mars Street.
they do have a curb cut and they do have access to a driveway which takes them to to the rear of
the property and again across the street from that uh i believe uh 52 it would have to be an
odd number but it's it's basically directly across the street uh there is another curb cut uh as you
can see with with access to the rear it does not appear to be used as off-street parking uh however
I cannot verify that fact. So with regard to the 12th Ward's letter,
we've loaded it up so we can read it.
They did take a position overall to oppose the grant of the variances.
There were 11 people in attendance.
They provided a letter of explanation.
um and and mostly they spoke of the you know you know the fact that we did not provide renderings
of what the home would actually look like um you know when when we were not seeking any variances
for relief from the height of the structure however we did indicate that we would build a
structure that uh matched to the best of our ability that which was next door so they did
uh indicate in their letter of uh explanation that they support the variance for the parking
however because we did not provide renderings um they're in opposition to the side yard variance
request which you know i find disingenuous uh disingenuous in given the fact that
in order to do so uh you would have an 11 foot wide home interior dimensions and uh in order to
enable reasonable use of the property the side yard setback is relief is requested again this
is the zoning permit from 1986 as back then it was a single family dwelling nothing new or
different than we're proposing today and then in 2001 there was an application filed for the
legalization of the fence as part of an existing vacant lot.
Again, the property is zoned RSA 3.
It's on a mixed structure block consisting of attached homes, semi-detached homes, single
homes, and to comply with the side yard setback renders a unique hardship upon this property.
you know, renders a unique hardship upon this property.
And again, you know, looking at the, whoop, didn't mean to do that, hold on.
Looking at the aerial photo, you know, we're looking to mimic basically the footprint of 5,219.
And to the best of our ability, we will mimic the front facade mirror image,
you know, to be consistent with the character and nature of the blocker.
So that is all I have, Mr. Chair, if we can elevate Varghese Oganesian.
If he could raise his hand, he can verify and adopt.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Varghese, you need to unmute yourself.
There you go.
Yeah, I did.
State your name and spell it, please.
Hi, gentlemen.
My name is Vargas Oganisian, V-A-R-G-G-A-S, and Oganisian, O-G-A-N-I-S-E-A-N.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, to hold truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed, counsel.
Sean, you're muted.