Board Administrator Tanya Sunkit and Board Attorney Sharon Saleta are also in attendance.
For those of you who haven't yet participated in one of our virtual hearings,
I will 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, for the benefit of anyone participating by phone,
we ask that attorneys and witnesses identify themselves prior to speaking or testifying.
Third, we'd like to advise everyone that this proceeding is being recorded
and that by participating you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded. Fourth, 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 will repeat, to enter an appearance statement, call Google 267-270-5548
and leave your email address and the address of the property at issue. With that being said,
and before we begin calling our first case, I'd like to ask if anyone is requesting a continuance
or withdrawal of an appeal listed for this afternoon's hearing? If so, please raise your
hand at this time. Sherry may not have seen it, but I did send an email letting you know that
there were continued... Okay, thank you. I have that list. I just went off. Okay, thank you.
henry clinton
mr clinton uh i think you're you were were you on this morning or not i forget
um anyway identify yourself with a record henry clinton uh 1313 south 33rd street phillip pa
19146. And do you swear to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. I believe you're requesting a continuance for 6463 Malvern? You are correct. Okay. All
right. So noted that MI-2020-000376-6463 Malvern Street is continued. Thank you very much. Thank
you. I have also a request for on page number two. Hold on, let me get my stuff together here.
What did I just do?
Okay, MI-2020-000867
2448 Master Street is continued, and number six MI-2020-000979, 706
Washington Avenue is continued, and I believe that we have not received any
exhibits for MI 2020-000978, 1600 North 52nd Street. If that is accurate, that case will be
continued also. If anyone believes that a case is being continued in error, please raise your hand,
or if you wish to request a continuance or withdrawal, please raise your hand also.
no hands no hands are up okay uh so confessor we will begin with uh i believe number three on our
no hands no hands are up okay
list um master street number two
master street is being it was continued continue okay i apologize number three
Okay, MI 2020-000983, 2345 North Reece Street.
I believe Seng Jin is the attorney.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, Zen.
you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its accuracy? I do. Do you swear
in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Okay. Have you
emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax
compliance, copy of the refusal, referral, photos, and plans five days prior to this hearing? I have.
Okay. Have you met with the RCO and have a letter? Yes. Great. Please identify yourself with
record, you may proceed. Yes, Zen Jin, Z-A-G-N, J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838,
Philadelphia PA 19103, here on behalf of the applicant, WD Development LLC.
My client is also here with us. I will ask him to verify my testimony at the end of the presentation.
If the board is ready, I will go ahead and share the screen of the information we submitted
to the board.
Please proceed.
So five days prior, we submitted a packet of exhibits including a refusal, the community
letter from APM, certificate of tax compliance deed, application for appeal, project information
sheet, photos, and plans.
I want to first address the community letter before moving into more details.
The refusal itself is based on a subdivision of the lots and the specific refusals are
addressed on the plans itself. The community issued a letter in opposition. However,
I want to point out to the board that we asked specifically for the community's basis for the
particular opposition and the primary concern seems to be real estate taxes and increase in
rental and home sale prices. There's mention about impact on a park that is about a block away but
that is they're worried about dust during the construction. They're saying that the single
family dwelling project does not offer safe space for area children. I'm not sure how we can address
that but we're certainly happy to and their general consensus is that they don't want new
construction on these lots. So I'm going to go right to the site plan at this point and explain
to the board what the subdivision is about. So this particular block is interesting in that it
has various sized lots but some of the lots are purely residential and most of the block is
residential, my client happened to have a rather large lot that is 32 feet wide and also 73 foot
deep. Even with the proposed subdivision, which is simply cutting the lot into the 16 foot wide
lots, which is actually more consistent to what is normally on the block, including across the
street and further down the block, it still produces a large lot of over a thousand square
foot. It is a little bit less than the 1440 that would be otherwise required to have a lot. However,
we believe that to keep this lot as a full size parcel and try to develop only that parcel would
make the house far too large for the neighborhood. As you can see, if you look at the photos of the
area this this is a residential block with some mixed commercial buildings on
certain parts and there are some vacant lots as well but most of these buildings
are in fact in even smaller lots as far as the width and depth are concerned so
we actually have even after subdividing some of the largest lots in the
neighborhood there are some unique aspects of our lot that needs to be
pointed out when it comes to the refusal. One of the key refusals is the front-loaded garage that
is being proposed based on our concept. The reason my client is proposing garages is because on this
particular side of the block where our lots are located, one is that it
where the lot, our lots are located. One is that there's no parking allowed on this side. The
parking's only on the opposite side of the street. As you can see, people are illegally
parking on the sidewalk, but they're not actually supposed to be parking there. And the other
structures on the block further down the street actually also have garages for that reason.
By adding these garages, we're not actually taking away parking from the street. What we're actually
doing is taking away cars from the street and adding parking to the area rather than taking it
away. As far as these are single-family houses, I think the two additional parking garages, one for
each single-family house, would only be to the benefit of the community and not a detriment,
particularly considering that the owners otherwise would not be parking on this side of the street
be fighting for additional on-street parking across the street. In addition, as you can see
from the rendering, my client took in consideration of height when they designed the building,
trying to keep the height level more consistent to the existing three-story structures. Although
across the street are mostly two-story structures and the block has inconsistent overall
height in some of the structures, we're trying to keep the height down to a 34 foot level
to try to keep things much more consistent to the neighborhood. These again the lot coverage
with the maximum allowed coverage variance we're talking almost a very de minimis amount of 1.6
or 7 percent difference from what is by right of 25 percent.
So these again are single family structures. The floor plans are here. I know I'm going to go ahead
and zoom in a little bit to make it a little bit easier to see the overall layout. So there's a
half basement because again of the parking pad, which will have essentially a rec room with a
powder room. You have your family garage and a powder room on the first floor along with some
storage and then moving up we have the living room kitchen and then finally the bedrooms on the
top floor so these are again single-family houses designed for a single-family zoning district
once again with regard to the specific opposition from the community none of the opposition comes
from the idea of a single family house.
The idea that the main thing they oppose to
is the idea that these houses will raise
the real estate taxes in the area
and also that they would be potentially raising
the overall value of the homes in the area
and therefore costing existing owners
a little more in the real estate tax.
And we have directed the community members
to talk to the council council office about protecting the real estate value as far as taxes
however ultimately that still was the main reason we ended up with opposition
on the vote from the neighbors and we did present in detail about the same project ideas again the
open area is a very small difference from what is required 282.6 versus 295.
So once again these are what we believe to be well-designed and positive single-family development
to the area and these again even subdivided will be on some of the larger lots on the block.
I am certainly happy to try to answer any questions from the board or if you
want me to redirect to a particular part of the documentation I will certainly
jump to that for you that you have a witness I do my client should be here
mr. mark Gersh
you can unmute yourself can you hear me i'm sorry yes yes sir please identify yourself with a record
spell your first and last name and give us your address sure my name is mark gersh m-a-r-k g-i-r-s-h
My address is 1006 Yorkshire Drive, Yardley, PA, 19067.
And do you swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Thank you.
Mr. Jinn?
Thank you.
Mr. Gersh, you heard my presentation to the zoning board.
Can you verify that my facts as presented are true and correct and adopt my testimony as your own?
Can you verify that my facts as presented are true and correct?
I do. I do agree with your testimony.
The only the only thing I would say is the garage, the houses with the garages would be right next door to what we're building, not down the road.
Oh, thank you.
Anyone else? Any questions from the board?
no no no anyone else who would wish i would like to testify in this matter please raise your hand
here we have sloan folks from the council person's office
the folks good afternoon i believe you're still under oath please identify yourself for the record
good afternoon chairman de chico zba board sloan folks office of councilwoman maria
quinones sanchez room 508 city hall the applicants having met with the coordinating rco and having
received a letter of opposition the councilman also opposes this variance request thank you
thank you um anyone else
no hands thank you planning commission this is uh ron bednar city planning
where's the firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing about the truth
i do thank you ron please proceed uh the property is indicated for single family
residential use on the city plan given the site constraints we have no
objections to the granting of the variance provided no front-loaded parking
thank you uh mi-2020-000983 2345 2345 north reese street my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes good luck thank you have a good evening
Okay. Mr. Chairman
Rising Sun, right? Number four?
Yes. Okay.
MI 2020
000980
Rising Sun Avenue.
I don't see an attorney's
Here we have Justin
Crick. Justin, you've been promoted
to panelists. You may share your
great in a mutual way to be sworn in yes i am here thank you
yes justin crick oh your name please you swear in a firm to tell the truth the whole truth for
nothing but the truth i do do you agree to waive the reading of its refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy yes have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents proof of ownership
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal, referral, photos, and plans five days prior to
this hearing? Yes, the tax clearance certificate was forwarded earlier today, but all the other
requirements were forwarded several days. Yes. Do you have a letter? The letter was forwarded by
the RCO on July 15th to the board. Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record. You may
proceed. Yes. Thank you, members of the board. My name is Justin Crick. Last name is K-R-I-K.
my address is 1500 john f kennedy boulevard suite 630 philadelphia pennsylvania 19102
i am here today on an application for 4760 rising sun avenue the property is a cmx1 use and we it is
currently operating as on the first floor a bar and lounge and the applicant is
seeking to establish a separate business with the upstairs portion of the
property to use as a banquet hall or as an entertainment venue as I will show
you here the the only application or refusal that we received primarily was
the the refusal for use and then a an accessory parking issue in which we
don't have any proposed parking on the site but we have explained and as I will do a diagram for
you shortly or show you shortly there is adequate parking that we are using located around the
corner which holds up to 20 cars and has additional flow of up to 10 cars located along the nearby
Howard Street. The property the owner of the property Mr. Castillo who is present with us
today has owned this property since approximately 1999
and has been operating it in similar capacities with
prior approval from the board however at this time
he does need approval to continue the use for live entertainment and the music
in the upstairs portion of the building we have
We have, I have the deed here indicating this is just a deed of confirmation, but further within the deed, there is language as to how he acquired it.
I have the deed here indicating this is just a deed of confirmation.
What I'm showing you now are maps of the surrounding area so you can orient yourself with Rising Sun and West Loudoun Street.
The property actually consists of three buildings that have been combined several years ago.
You can see from an aerial view that that is a continuous use across those three properties.
um and i'm going to give you some some just a perspective of the property here this is along
rising sun avenue and this is along uh loudon street uh the property has been um essentially
what we're trying to do when we met with the neighborhood was address their concerns of the
use of live entertainment um this is the these are pictures of the existing first floor which