Church on 55th and Happenford Avenue.
Reverend, do you, hold on one minute, sir.
Could you spell your name, please, for the court stenographer?
It's R-O-O-D-N-E-Y-E-L-L-I-S-K-I-N-G.
Thank you.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
I'm the senior pastor of the Philadelphia Baptist Church, and we've been there for 17 years.
And I support this particular project because there is a need for low-income housing for single mothers.
It's a lot of single mothers in that area. And I really support it. We have a food ministry in which we provide food in that neighborhood for parents and families who are in need.
And it's a great need. Now, that land, that property, I've seen it for many years.
It used to be Haverford multi-services for older adults.
And the building just sat there for years and years and yet nobody done.
And the building just sat there for years and years, and yet nobody done anything with it until it caught on fire.
And nobody said anything about it.
People were going in the building, and some folks even died in that building, and no one complained.
but now here's a positive program in order to support and and help the community help
vitalize that community and and now some people want to complain about it you know
about drainage reverend we appreciate you calling in we just want to make sure we get to everybody
else so thank you so much oh i'm sorry i didn't mean it no no no you had great
insight and we appreciate everything you've said is there anyone else in the virtual audience
um yes sir the hand the person who had uh the samsung sm has their hand raised again i'll
allow them to speak again at this time okay hi could you state your name and spell a piece
for the court stenographer sir or madam it is star six two unmute
still have a problem chair you can move on okay thank you very much is there anyone else
no sir that is all planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernardo for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends a change to rm1 multi-family residential at this location
the proposal is largely consistent with the recommended zoning accordingly the planning
commission recommends the board grant the variances thank you very much mi 2023 000 731
5500 haverford avenue i vote yes revised plans two pages stamped by zba june 14 2023
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with Provaizo.
Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes with Provaizo.
Counselor, you have your votes.
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the board.
Have a good afternoon.
Thank you.
Number 12, MI-2022-007382-2817 North 12th Street.
Stephen Pollack is the attorney.
recommendation of support from 37th Ward RCO
Mr. Pollock if you're still in the audience
please raise your virtual hand
The hand keeps going up and down for some reason, sir.
His hand?
Mr. Pollack.
All right.
He's been promoted to panelist, sir.
Mr. Pollack, state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer.
Hi, Mr. Pollock. How are you? State your name, please.
Good afternoon, Chair.
Stephen G. Pollock, S-T-E-P-H-E-N, G. Pollock, P-O-L-L-O-C-K.
Right. Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
I'm representing the Builder of Better Neighborhoods LLC, and I have with me the principal, Jim Henry, who will join us at the appropriate moment to go through our testimony.
Okay. Our vice chair has just a few questions for you.
Pardon me, Mr. Chairman. Could he be sworn?
I'm sorry. Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth? Nothing but the truth.
I do as an officer of the court.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good afternoon, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to his accuracy?
I do, Mr. Shahid.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, sir.
Thank you so much. Please proceed and share your screen.
Do you want to bring your first one, Mr. Pollack?
Do you want to bring your personal one, Mr. Pollack?
Yes, if you could bring Nika Realbuto in.
Yes, if you could bring Niko Rialbuto in, that would be appreciated.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm notorious now.
I need a second.
You're not notorious, but.
I'll be coming back in soon.
That'd be great.
Here we go.
Okay. Okay. This is a, Mr. Chair, members of the board, this is a request by Jim Henry and his wife, Paulette, to allow this. They have a consolidated lot that includes the house just to the right. The center area is two other lots that have been consolidated in the one lot.
We want to have two accessory parking spaces in this lot.
We also have gotten permission to remove this stockade fence, and we have an as-of-right permission for a gate and a fence already.
And, Nico, if you could go to that, to just show you the style of the fencing that we have gotten permission for.
The permit for that is at our Exhibit A4 at ZP Permit 2023-003403.
that allows this stockade fence to be removed, to create this open estate style fencing, and then have two spaces behind it.
So if we could go to show the photos again, Nico, just of what's around it.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board, unique property.
It's set back officially to the fence, where the fence will be.
It's going to be about 30 feet from the curb line.
12th street is officially 12 26 and 12 for a roadway meaning we have a 12 foot
pavement in front of us then we are set back at 18 feet then another foot to the where the
building is and another foot for where the proposed fencing will be so we'll be about
30 feet away from the 31 feet away from the curb line so this area of refuge creates a good area
for a car to come in and out
so it won't surprise somebody walking in the neighborhood.
And as you can see, the property to the immediate left
at 23 is also owned by Jim Henry.
And then the property's to the left of that.
And if we have to go to some of our other pictures,
to the right is our property,
similarly situated, the Jim's,
but they have porches and a little front area
in front of them. Jim's property is this unique property. The lot itself is 46.5 by 91.5. So it
yields about 4,200 square feet. This front area that will be an area of refuge is about 883 square
feet. And so it has great side triangles. To the left of the building that we've identified Nico
showing as at 2823 are all single family homes that are the traditional right up against the
property line so this is something that we are saying that um across the street from this is
the climber school they it's between on 12th partially on 12th between rush and william and
there there's the climber school it's directly this is from jim's front porch where there's a
sort of a cordovan car in front and that's uh rush street there and during the school year
what happens is jim allows parents to park uh who are ready to pick up their children
at opening and closing or dropping them off at opening and picking them up at closing.
So having a defined area like we would have with the curb cut that has been approved by the streets department,
we have that streets department approval at our A5, at SR2022, 0132829, we'll do a couple things.
One, it allows for less congestion from the school when they have pickup or kids arriving because the parents will be allowed to park in that front area.
So we don't believe we're going to be causing any congestion in the public streets.
By having three lots that are the consolidated area, we have 46.5 square feet of frontage along 12th Street.
We believe that that gives you adequate space and is not really detrimentally taking away a parking space.
We have the hardship is because we are allowed to have all street parking, especially for a single family home, as this is.
But in the RM1 district, you either need a shared driveway, an alleyway or a rear street that has that has no parking on the side abutting your lot.
Well, physically, there is no rear street abutting our lot to the rear.
Well, physically, there is no rear street abutting our lot to the rear.
And as you can see.
And as you can see, there is no shared driveway or alleyway that gives us access off of North 12th Street.
So Jim and his wife rehab the property to the right where he resides along with Paulette.
And these two lots that are proposed for, Jim uses them as a garden.
And Niko, if you can show the board, I think it's in our segment too.
We had to split this up into two segments because our server wouldn't let it go.
But these are these are shots.
Nico's arrow is showing you that they use it for some plantings and ceilings.
And Jim has a couple of big dogs.
He's got his barbecue unit in there.
So it's all for personal use and everything like that.
And but these were two vacant lots that he acquired from the housing authority back in 2009.
And so I think the support of the neighborhood, which was 15 all members unanimous who showed up, plus Denise Anderson exercise 10 proxies she had to give us a 25 nothing vote was because the people in the neighborhood know Jim and know Paulette and they know that they've been very good neighbors with that regard.
So with that, Mr. Chairman, I would ask that all our exhibits be included into the record. As you know, we do have support from the 37th Ward, RCO, and I would ask that if Jim Henry could be especially not only listed as a panelist, but if we could just have Jim be shown physically on the, for one, as I ask him the questions, that would be great.
so jim i hopefully you're there and you've
i know we've been talking well texting all the time and he knows
do we see a hand jason um yes he's been allowed to speak sir okay can we let him be seen too jason
if it means taking down my exhibits great i don't care can you hear me wait yeah we can hear you but
We can't see you quite yet.
You have to hit that mic.
So I say, Mr. Pollack, I'd like to move it along.
Mr. Henry, could you state your name and spell it for the court sonographer?
James, middle initial E, last name Henry, H-E-N-R-Y, the third.
Right.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Jim, you've heard what I've stated on the record.
Were you here during, you did hear everything I stated on the record.
You were here during the whole presentation of your test of our testimony, correct?
Yes. And do you in your opinion and your belief was what I stated on the record?
True, correct. And in the affirmative? Yes.
And do you adopt that as your testimony today as if you've stated it on the record?
I do. OK, with that, Mr. Chairman, again, just move.
Mr. Powell, Mr. Powell, just one question. That side of the street, is there parking there?
Yes, there is.
All right.
Thank you.
If you look at the pictures, Mr. Chairman, you can see that it's sporadic parking because there's several homes.
Jim, if you're still on, maybe he just, there are several homes that are vacant and being rehabbed or in disrepair.
Jim, is that true?
So that provides.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
no chair what should your comments from the virtual audience
i see no further hands mr planning commission
good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends a change to rsa 5 single-family residential use at
this location. The applicant's hardship is not supported of evidence of unique physical
circumstances or conditions on the property that would prevent it from being used in accordance
with the code. Additionally, we feel this proposal represents a privatization of on-street public
parking. Accordingly, the Planning Commission recommends the Board deny the variance.
Excuse me. Mr. Park, what I want to do is I'm going to take this to
executive session and talk to the other board
members to see exactly where we stand
with this. Thank you for your
presentation.
I will
have over off next Wednesday, the following
Wednesday, we'll do this at 2
p.m. I'll have it.
As we stated, these are
three properties consolidated.
I understand. They have the unique physical
circumstances of being set back
30 feet, 31 feet
from the curb. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Park, I understand your point.
Thank you very much.
We'll have an answer for you in two weeks.