here just
that's fine good thank you
thank you everybody
you can listen on the phone
alright and you'll
hear the vote 2 o'clock
yep yep two o'clock yep right all right thank you everybody
all right mi 2024 007 313 5826 north howard street gabriel fellis is the attorney
There should become a vacant letter, but we understand there was an email from the RCO
about this.
I'm muted myself there, sorry.
There's also a petition with 11 signatures from neighbors.
do we see council's hand
please state your name and spell for the stenographer
it's gabriel fellis g-a-b-r-i-e-l
last name is fellis f as in frank e-l-l-u-s
as in sam you swear or affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth
I do. Could you identify your client, a relationship to the property?
My client is Mr. Finchley Etienne. He's the owner at 5826 North Howard Street.
And our board member Graham has a question for you.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes. And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes. Okay. Thank you. You may share your screen and proceed.
do you all see the table of contents we do great thank you mr chair uh we're here today seeking a
variance uh for use of the property as a two-family dwelling in a rsa 5 zoning district
after purchasing the property in june 2024 my client was frankly unaware of the zoning process
he was required to go through uh to convert the home into multi-family dwelling um he reached out
to a contractor who told him he could just do the work without any city approval or permits
and started the construction process just a few weeks after obtaining the title.
He only realized the issue once he received a violation in September. He immediately
directed the contractor to stop the work and then reached out to our office to try to resolve those
violations. But since then, he's been extremely proactive and engaging with local community to
get their support, address their concerns, which we'll get to a little bit later in the presentation.
but here's our refusal issued in november again the property is owned rsa 5
so the refusal was for use as a two-family dwelling
so this here is the deed showing mr etienne's ownership of the property of the purchasing it
in june of 2024.
so this is the front of the property which will remain unchanged and in character with
rest of the properties on the block again all the intended work was going to be interior renovations
and change in interior layouts so here we have some interior filters of the property
in the condition that it's been in since mr etienne received the violation of the notice
at that point the first floor renovations were complete
and his contractor was about 90 finished with the second story unit reservations
are the tenants already in the building no they're not they they stopped work uh just
after they got the violations so it's essentially in halfway completion right now okay uh so these
are site plans the proposal is for a two-story structure with two residential units each with
two bedrooms um the basement is going to be exclusively used as a mechanical room and storage
when you when you go back gabriel go back and if you would enlarge it so they can actually see
the plans absolutely kind of small look at absolutely let me know if these are better take
up take it up find it you can see it better on your end yep great
this is the uh i forgot to include an aerial shot showing the the garage from the rear
i don't think we saw the sec could we see the second floor absolutely
It will be right here.
Load up.
Can you guys see it?
Okay, great.
just let me know when to stop okay
I'll move on to our zoning maps unless you guys want to see any more details.
else we have any actual proposed drawings are they all tomorrow plan yeah these are all the
plans that we have right now unfortunately okay okay and so this is our zoning map um again it's
rsa5 and a very densely populated rsa5 zoning uh block um however there is heavy precedent of other
RSA 5 properties in the immediate area that are being used as multifamily dwellings and have been
issued rental licenses. We include a few here demonstrating the appraisal is not entirely out
of character with the neighborhood. This is our application for appeal and our project information
information form as you mentioned Mr. chair we have our petitions of support and this
is the notification letter that we sent out to neighbors of the April 14th meeting at
the search playground along with certificates of mailing uh maybe I saw the the back street
that you showed how about howard street how many multiple families on howard street on howard i
don't i don't believe there are any multi-families being used at least that went through the zoning
process on howard street okay um but the uh april 14th uh in-person rco meeting i was extremely
well attended there were probably over 50 members of the local community there in attendance along
along with representatives from the Sheriff's Department and other local organizations.
As you mentioned, we had a little bit of an issue after that meeting.
Isaac Jackson, I believe he was serving as sort of the interim RCO chair at the time.
He informed us that all attendees were in favor, but unfortunately, after multiple attempts
at follow-up, we never heard back from him.
um we documented those requests those repeated requests here um and now we're we just became
aware in the past week that atlas now says that there's no rcos found out the address
um so hopefully we're just asking the board to kind of consider the email confirmation
and a strong turnout as evidence of that community support
um so we have here our statement of real estate tax compliance and our zba posters of notification
that were hung at the property um so with that i'd like to bring mr etienne on to adopt my testimony
uh answer any questions go back one minute so you're saying the rco told you we're not sending
a letter they didn't say we're not sending a letter they said the day after that all attendees
were in favor and they'll send me a summary or the letter soon but uh we followed up almost every
three weeks from april 14th until last week and we just never heard back from uh the rca chair
um again I'm not really sure who to reach out to this point because atlas now says that there's
no RCOs associated with the property okay that's what we have we see here
bring your client on please yes when did you say when did your client buy this property
June of 24, so last year.
And it wasn't a duplex then?
He decided to make it a duplex?
Correct, yeah.
He moved to the city in 2019.
He grew up abroad.
I just don't think he was aware of the zoning process in general.
And a contractor told him he didn't have to do anything.
And he could just do the work immediately.
And they started weeks after purchasing the property.
All right.
Questions for them.
Bring your client on first.
He has just joined.
Hi, Finchley. How are you?
Hi, sir. Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
My name is Finchley Etienne. Finchley, F-E-E-N-C-H-L-A-Y-E-T-N-E-T-I-E-N-N-E.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
Please proceed, counsel.
Mr. Etienne, have you heard my testimony today?
Yes, Mr. Gabriel.
Is it true and correct to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, Mr. Gabriel.
And would you adopt it as if it were your own?
yes okay and any questions questions from the board what what did what uh did your next
any questions questions on the board what what did what uh did your next door neighbors
are they in the support or no yes my two next one neighbor it's 58 um 24 and 58 28 they are in support
and i got i got their signature over here with me and these are the plans that you've submitted this
is this look like okay so there's i'm just trying to understand your plan for the second floor unit
uh where's the living room for the second floor unit um the second floor used to be um a three
bedroom unit um i removed one bedroom and to do the living room and keep um two bedrooms
centimeter.
So that
kitchen is a living
room and kitchen? Yes.
That doesn't quite work.
All right. Can you
go back and show the picture of the house?
The front of the house?
Okay. Is that the
address? Is that the house?
I think it's across the street.
is that the front of your house no okay this is the wrong house i thought so um 58 26 correct
yes 58 26 the odd side of the street yes i'm so sorry about that the one with the door
um gabriel can you show the one with the appeal on the door is the house
yes this one you can't see the whole house though yes picture but that's a different
type of house the houses are are two-story and the porches and the the roof lines are totally
different from the ones across the street yes i'm so sorry about that i can definitely provide
different pictures all right any other questions from the board
questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any hands mr chair
um questions or comments from the planning commission thank you chairman and good
afternoon david effecto with the city planning commission chairman of board members the
comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa5 residential single family zoning at this
location the city rezoned this neighborhood in 1974 and a council supported map change in 2005
the city issued a rental license for one dwelling unit for this property this is a primarily single
family block face there is no unique physical condition or circumstance of this property
we're prevented from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code the city
planning commission recommends that the board deny the proposed use variants for two dwelling units
thank you um mi 2024 007 313 5826 north albert street i vote no michael johnson my vote is no
cheryl gaston my vote is no tannetta graham my vote is no i am mcadams my vote is no
i am wayne my vote is no thank you council thank you
MI-2025-001-797-1034-Shackamackson Street.
Eric Bodesen is the attorney.
I'll be coming back in as a panelist shortly, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
it looks like there was an error you should be coming back in shortly
good afternoon mr chair i apologize i was logged out of the zoom okay um could you please state
your name and spell for the yes of course eric bodson uh b-o-d-z-i-n a blank row right do you
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth
and nothing but the truth? Yes, I do.
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client, a relationship to this property?
Absolutely.
My client is Shackamaxon Street Partners, LLC, and its principal, Scott Sperry, who is the owner of the subject property.
Our board member, Tenetna Graham, has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon.
Have you submitted your documents five days in advance of this hearing?
Good afternoon.
Yes, I have.
And do you waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Okay, thank you. You may share your screen and proceed.
Thank you so much.
Mr. Chair, does my screen appear on yours?
Yes, it is.
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much, Mr. Chair, members of the board,
Eric Bodson, on behalf of Shackamax and Street Partners, LLC,
and Principal Scott Sperry. Scott Sperry is the owner of the subject property at 1034
Shackamaxon Street. Scott and his family also live on Shackamaxon Street, just a block away
from the subject property, which they acquired about two years ago. Since that time, Scott,
who was already a very active member of the Fishtown community, has walked door to door,
reviewing with his neighbors the specifics of this proposal to replace three aging single-family
homes, and the result I am pleased to share has been extensive support from the Fishtown Neighbors
Association, including a unanimous vote of support from near neighbors, a project support letter
signed by 40 neighbors within a single block of the project, and additional support letters from
neighbors unable to join today. And I understand that the F&A president, Bob Everett, and other
neighbors are also in the virtual audience today here with us to speak briefly as to the
collaborative design of this project. And to Scott, who, as a devoted Fishtown neighbor,
best described in one of the support letters in your package is, quote,
that guy who picks up the litter on the sidewalk after the trash trucks come by because it's the
right thing to do. So the proposal that Scott plans to redevelop is here at the corner of
Shackamaxon and Wildey Streets in the Fishtown neighborhood of the city. The subject property