ZBA Hearing - April 17, 2024

And spell for the court stenographer

Can you hear me?

Can you hear me, sir?

Okay

I think it's

all right wait a minute

it appears he's having trouble

with his audio chair

I think maybe she goes out again

and come back in

yes or he has the option to call in

if that doesn't work

yeah call go ahead

Okay.

thank you thank you could you please state your name that's okay please state your name

name is spelled for the court stenographer? Joshua Reibstein, J-O-S-H-U-A, Reibstein, R-E-I-B-S-T-E-I-N.

Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

I do. Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property?

Could you identify your client in a relationship to the property?

Client is 53 12 Ridge Avenue, Silveram, and Barasam.

And I am the attorney for him.

Our vice chair has a few questions.

Aish?

Tom?

Good afternoon, counsel.

Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?

Yes.

Did you email all of the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to this hearing?

Yes, I did.

Thank you.

Please proceed and share your screen.

Thank you.

Let me go ahead and share my screen.

if you can see that it is um a presentation you're not up we don't see it you don't see it okay

push the share the screen button

the green share button at the bottom of the screen

Yep.

Recording in progress.

We're good.

I'm back now.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

So, just a few present slides for the presentation.

Certificate of occupancy for the existing building.

So, what this is, is we have an existing 36-unit apartment building at 5312 Ridge Avenue.

The building got a certificate of occupancy at the end of 2021.

The current owner, Mr. N. Barisan, would like to add one additional unit to make a total of 37 units.

And we are zoned CMX1, and so we were approved for 36 units.

We need a zoning variance for density for one additional unit.

the the additional unit will be in within the existing building footprint there won't be any

required additional parking and we're not changing the actual building the the external

of the building anyway in the presentation i have a certificate of occupancy for both

the existing building and the unity coffee shop that's on the ground floor in the front on ridge

Avenue. I have the zoning refusal, the application for appeal, the deed, tax center printout, and then

the mailings, the list of mailings that went out. The meeting summary from the

Wissahickan Neighborhood Civic Association in which they opposed this zoning variance, frankly,

and there, a letter also here in which they explained their rationale for that.

Here's a picture of the zoning notice.

And here's the property that's off of Atlas.

Property, as I said, is zoned BMX1, front on Ridge Avenue,

and it backs up all the way through to the opposing side of the street,

which is Salinac Avenue.

So this is that triangular piece of Ridge Avenue and Salinac in Roxborough.

Here's a picture of the existing building,

the front of the existing building on Ridge,

So here's the back of the building with our parking, with our underground parking here.

And then the proposal is to add a – and this is probably the best way to do it.

Let me zoom in a little bit here.

So our building has a coffee shop on the ground floor.

The coffee shop did not take all of the existing ground floor square footage.

So our owner is left with this, like, 400 to 500 square feet of extra space, basically.

Our original plan or his original plan was to make it into a gym.

He then kind of pivoted and said, you know what, let's make it into another apartment, and that's how we have landed here.

so um you know the the property is not going to function in any material way differently for

having one additional unit there's already 36 units here they operate very well they're

they're professionally managed and fully leased um having one additional unit is is simply just

because we had because he has the space to do it um and i guess i would just show you that

access to that unit would be through the back of the garage.

Access to that unit would be through the back of the garage, and there will be a door here, and then the next slide down will show kind of a floor plan of the building, of what's proposed.

So it would be essentially a one-bedroom apartment.

You would enter from the back of the garage.

You would go in.

You have a bedroom.

There's already an existing bathroom in this building, in this location, so it's just a matter of adding a kitchen, obviously getting permitted and getting approved for that.

But, you know, this is obviously the first step.

I think the neighborhood associations, their rationale essentially was that they didn't want an extra parking spot or have to have one extra car in the neighborhood.

They thought that there might be some better uses for the space that could be maybe a gym or maybe a rental unit.

They proposed like a little hotel unit, which is also not available for use.

They proposed some storage.

Those are all things that he considered.

It's just he has a thought that one additional unit shouldn't really be that much of a stretch since there's already 36 units here.

and the space is there.

So that's all I have on the – that's all I really have.

So why don't you bring your client on and adopt your testimony?

He's not available.

Okay, so you're an officer of the court.

We'll accept your testimony.

Questions from the board?

Okay.

No, Mr. Chairman.

No, Chair.

No, Chair.

Questions or comments from Mr. McShury, our attorney?

No, Mr. Chair.

questions or comments from the virtual audience

there are no hands here planning commission

i'm bednar city planning while this property is currently indicated for commercial mixed

juice on the city plan given the site's physical condition we have no objection to the granting

the request of parents. Thank you. MI 2023-004-534-5312-18 Ridge Avenue, I vote yes.

Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes. James Snell, my vote is yes.

Great. Thank you very much, gentlemen. You have your vote, sir. Is there anyone in the three?

Is there anyone in the 3.30 list whose case has not been called?

There are no hands here. Thanks everyone. Long day but we appreciate it. Got a lot of work done

today and a lot of nice cases. Thank you. Good job Bill. Thank you all. Good night everyone.

Good night team. Good night.

Thank you.