yes we have and do you waive the reading of the results and stipulate to the accuracy i do all
right thank you you can share your screen and proceed with the case mr chair members of the
board you remember may remember this case um this is based on a motion for reconsideration right
uh so we you know we thank you so much for agreeing to grant that motion for reconsideration
giving my client the opportunity to represent this matter um am i i need to be promoted to
as a panelist okay okay that should be an opportunity thank you for this case
so this board already heard uh the majority of this um matter it's in a in a legal addition
or improper addition of of to this two-story structure where my client put 100% law coverage
she did not do this purposefully she hired a contractor and this is a story that happens
over and over again where someone relies on the contractor to do the right things get permits did
not happen um and you know i'm just not that this should come into consideration english is her
second language um and she she really did get taken advantage of and just to add to it the the
major issue that the board had if you look at the video was the fact that there were openings on the
party wall. There's a, there's a baking lot to the right of us. My client had windows installed
on the party wall. The board was not happy about that. And given the a hundred percent lock
coverage, there was concerns about safety of how someone would get out of that property.
She thought she purchased the property next door to her. So she's had a series of unfortunate
events where she thought she was buying this baking lot to the right of her where she was
going to combine it that's why we had the you know the openings of the party wall regard irregardless
we are submitting and again just to give the board some refreshing of this matter
originally we had 100 law coverage we now have revised plans where we have now a five
foot rear yard setback so we're decreasing all the variance requests for the occupied area
So we're decreasing all the variance requests for the occupied area, rear yard depth, and rear yard depth area.
So now we have a five foot rear yard setback, which would create an open area of approximately 70 feet and an occupied area of 90% of the lot size.
Again, it's a reminder to, and we have revised plans as well.
As a reminder, as you can see, the community group that we presented to supported this project as is, 100% law coverage.
When we were, and it was unanimous, when we were unsuccessful in front of this board, we asked that, you know, that the council member issue a letter supporting our request for a motion of reconsideration, and that letter is there as well.
and you know actually i think in the previous and maybe it's an exhibit but we have a petition too
and the person to the left of us who would be most directly impacted by our extension of our
building structure is in support of this as well my clients lived in this property for 20 years
or since 2007 20 years will be next year she has a family she just wanted to extend her out her
building structure she thought she was doing everything legally but if the board feels so
inclined to grant this this motion for now this new matter um we would ask that it would be with
revised plans uh where it would be a five foot uh rear yard setback on the first and second floors
yeah well i mean we have the plans right here sure so like let's just go to the floor plans
let's go to right straight to the floor plans so this sliding glass door is actually on the
party wall and that was i think disturbing to the board how we're changing things now
you'll see we have a five foot proposed setback here in the rear yard and how is that going to
affect the floor plans well now instead of this sliding glass door here now we have a normal door
that would go outside of a kitchen area and and it's a five foot rear yard setback which would
be more appropriate under circumstances we also did that in the second floor we shortened the
second bedroom but in addition we created a window here for that second bedroom as well
everything else is existing or will be existing you know hopefully existing but that's that's
the basically the two rooms that would be most directly impacted again I could give a full
presentation this presentation was given to the board previously I would ask that maybe Dan
Addis who's the architect can kind of walk us through about he yeah Dan can you virtually raise
your hand
can everyone hear me yes could you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer
my name is dan addis d-a-n-a-d-d-i-s right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth i do council all right so i made some representations to the board
about the change in plan specifically um that we will have now a five foot rear yard setback
that that's reflected in your drawings right yep that's correct and how we're removing the openings
for the party wall as well and redirecting that openings to the rear of of the building structure
now right correct all right and and you've been actually in the property recently is that correct
uh that is not correct um i were i wrote i worked with um the proposed contractor to do the to do
the renovations uh after uh if the variance request is uh granted um and worked kind of hand in hand
with them to do field measurements and coordinate okay so you're working with the contract in terms
of field measurements yeah but you also are you hired to make sure that things are going to be
done correctly absolutely yeah so the way that this the way that we work this out is that obviously
the first step is to go before the board get to present our case um come up with whatever is going
to be permissible and then at that point there's a whole second effort where we've got to go do
field verification to make sure that um past zoning that everything is is done as above board
uh field verify existing conditions and identify that all like fire rated uh partitions and
necessary party while conditions are satisfied for uh the irc yeah and and when you say the
yeah and and when you say the past zoning you mean applying for the building applying for a
past zoning you mean applying for the building
building permit yes so if we're granted a zoning approval or variance here the next step would be
obviously that gets a chase back to the zoning um review that variance gets requested we get
a zoning permit then we have to go in for a residential building permit to do the corrective
action and um and do field verification and you've been engaged to represent this client through this
this until a co is issued yes all right thank you that's it um you want to bring your client
on or no um i i don't think so all right well you're an officer of the court we'll take your
testimony questions from the board so this this work isn't already done yet correct no it is
that's the issue and so what we're going to have to do is chop off oh we're going to have to chop
off a portion of the building structure as part of this process and then you know obviously get
you know all permits and approvals and and inspections done until we have a co
and like i said she did not know yeah other questions
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience
planning commission planning commission has nothing to add from our further from our previous
testimony okay so mi2026 001 478 3438 north bodine street i vote yes with proviso
revised plans one page stamp by zba on january 3rd 2026.
michael johns my vote is a yes with proviso
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ian McAdams, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Ron, could you come up and start setting up and we're going to take a quick five-minute break, okay?
you ready okay so okay here we go mi2026 000 450 1435 east oxford avenue ron patterson is the
attorney mr patterson could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
sure uh good afternoon ronald patterson p-a-t-t-e-r-s-o-n 1835 market street philadelphia
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Mr. Patterson, could you identify your client or relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is the owner and developer of the property developing Oxford LLC.
The principals are Natalie Cohen and her brother, Adam Cohen.
I see there's a letter of non-opposition from Fishtown Neighbors
and a letter of non-opposition from Councilman Young.
Our vice chair has a few questions.
good afternoon have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing
yes i have okay and do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
yes i do all right thank you you can show your screen and proceed with your case beautiful thank
so thank you this application regards 1435 east oxford avenue you see in the picture here
It's an intermediate lot on that block. The lot is 1,188 square feet. The proposal here, and I'll show you some context here.
so property lies within an immediate area on the block and it's over here
make sure of it here
and the proposal is to demolish it and rebuild a compliant rsa5 house
currently it's abandoned it was abused by squatters it's partially demolished it's missing
portions of its roof we were required to get to make safe permit for now to make it safe
so the application as i mentioned is rsa5 but what we're proposing is a front garage
access from the front and because of that it's triggering the variance here since parking is
scarce and desirable we're proposing that front garage for one car it's a 12 foot wide curb cut
wide curb cut uh proposed three stories four bedrooms and five bathrooms and i'll just
proposed three stories, four bedrooms, and five.
show you some contextual pictures here
the property i denoted here in red red dot
there are many many other uh properties on the block that have curb cuts for parking
As I'll go through these photographs, and this is on the same exact block, both across the street and on the same side.
On this exhibit, I can enlarge it.
I've noted where the other properties are with the blue lines, where they have curb cuts for front parking access.
Refusal.
Go through the site plan briefly.
you'll see here this is our curb cut this is where the garage would be
the plans were reviewed and approved by streets department here's a basic floor plan
so in the garage location here um bedrooms and bathrooms the the uh this is a a basement seller
just for use for like an office area not a bedroom
and here is a rendering
so as i mentioned we're proposing a front garage with this construction having a garage makes the
house and its use viable avoiding unnecessary hardship due to the fact that we have to
reconstruct the property. Yet we believe the garage and the curb cut is consistent with the character and in context with that immediate area of the media block as I've shown on the photographs, thus creating no detrimental impacts to the public health, safety, welfare, or traffic. Um, the photographs, I think, are pro pro to show that there are numerous curb cuts for these houses on the block already, including one right across the street, which appears to be, uh, large enough to accommodate
date, four curb cuts, four cars, sorry. Get back to that photograph.
this is 1435
this is the one I'm speaking to
I don't have a ground level photograph
we did meet with the
Fishtown Neighborhood Association on April 7th, they voted their support, which I believe
evidenced the fact that it would cause no detrimental impacts. With that said,
if Natalie Cohen is available, I'd like to vote her.
Ms. Cohen?
I'll be back in English.
Thank you very much.
hello good evening could you hi could you please state your name and spell before the stenographer
yes natalie cohen it's spelled n-a-t-a-l-y-e cohen is c-o-h-e-n do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes counsel hi natalie how are you
I'm good.
You've heard my presentation.
Would you agree it's true and accurate?
And would you adopt it as if it were your own?
Would you like to comment on the condition of the house when you first obtained it?
So the previous owner had purchased the property with the intent to renovate it.
So they began starting the process of renovation, which was only in one portion of the home.
So they began starting the process of renovation, which was only in one portion of the home.
They abandoned that for at least two to three years and left it where part of the house was basically demolished with some new framing.
And the rest of it with old framing that's been decaying in terrible condition.
They also left a hole on the roof.
So when we purchased the property, our first thing was, of course, to make it a make safe and also more importantly, to ensure that the home was properly closed because there had been problems on the block with squatters in the home.
So when we got in there, we cleaned everything out.
There was a lot of like belongings of people that was just kind of left trashed in there.
So we made sure to clean all of that out and we properly boarded up the back doors and locked in the front doors as well.
OK, so as to the parking, when you presented to the Fishtown Neighborhood Association, what was their position on providing a parking space?
The majority were very in favor. As I'm sure you know, Fishtown is incredibly challenging to find parking in.
The side of the street that the house is on, there is no parking on that street on that side. It's only on the side across. So it wasn't taking a space. It was instead adding a space because instead of that person who will purchase the property using a street parking space, they'll have their own space. So the Neighborhood Association was very in favor. They were also very happy that we are going to be redoing this home because it's been an issue and an eyesore for them for several years.
very good thank you if the board has any questions about the floor plan or the construction
adams here to answer that um ron did you go to the rco meeting uh i did not but my associate did
okay so the vote was 19 am i right correct and four against correct okay all right questions
from the board do you know what the issues were or the folks that were opposed
we didn't get to actually hear the deliberation so we didn't get to see like what exactly
uh specifically they didn't like about it but we spoke with a bunch of the neighbors everyone that
we spoke to was in favor hold on hold on hold on could you please state your name uh adam cohen
right and uh firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
All right.
Go ahead.
So my question is, I'm not seeing any rendering.
Oh, okay.
Is there a rendering?
If, if Ron, if you can scroll down until I say stop.
Before I do that, by the way, this is the, this is the property across the street with the three or four curb.
Yeah. So that's directly across the street.
And if you want the, the colored rendering on them.
Yeah. So this was the rendering that we came up with.
Did you want to see the floor plan or just the facade?
I was looking at the facade. Like, where is this? It says a garage.
is there yeah it's gonna be like a wood paneling look to it ah okay yeah so it's gonna be gonna
yeah because i was very well camouflaged oh okay yeah yeah because the other thing you can do is
you can do the plexiglass kind of look so that it's not um it's not closed off it's not yeah
but that's that's even nicer okay all right yeah thank you okay thank you other questions
questions from our attorney hillary emerson not at this time mr chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience yes chair i have a hand up from wasin amash on danny okay
Welcome to our speaker.
Welcome.
Hello.