And again, I apologize
This construction crew periodically begins to drill
and makes a horrible noise.
Mr. Monroe, are you present somewhere?
He's coming back in as a panelist, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Hand.
Mr. Munro, can you put your name and address on the record and I will then swear you in.
Good morning, Matt Munro, Munro Law, 2030 Pemberton Street, 19146.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I do. And the board will give me a moment and I will share my screen.
One second. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
And have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, a copy of the refusal or referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCL, and do you have a letter?
Yes, to all, and this morning I sent an updated exhibit packet that included the tax certification and the support letter from the East Kensington Neighborhood Association, which we received last night.
Okay, great. And we have a non-opposition letter from Councilman Scuola. You may proceed.
Thank you, Chairwoman Tenere, members of the board. I'm pleased to be here today with my clients, Randy Cutler and her husband, Chris.
We this is simply an application to legalize an existing perimeter fence and to change the use of a very small property to a to a dedicated parking space for Randy and her husband who live nearby around the corner on Susquehanna.
Anna. Normally, I understand this would be a kind of an off the wall application, but we do have a support letter. And the reason is because the context of the, of the property and that it's extremely small. Here's my exhibit one is the deed.
and I'm just going through some of the exhibits. Here we have the refusal and the application for
appeal. As you can see, the lot, it's a CMX2 mid-block lot, extremely undersized at 392 square
feet. So building and maintaining a by-right structure on a vacant lot with an open area
occupying only 75% of the lot and maintaining a nine-foot rear yard according to the code is
absolutely impossible. Any practical use of the space for a building would be impractical and
my client would be, you know, no one could really bear the construction costs and have like this
tiny building that you couldn't really use for much. My client did explore using other things
for it, but ultimately because it is a vacant lot and immediately adjacent to other dedicated
And immediately adjacent to other dedicated legal parking spaces on the immediate lot over, and I can show you from the photographs, the context specific, sorry, this is going a little bit slow.
legal parking spaces.
So the facts here are, effectively, we've got a dedicated parking space next door, and
East Arizona is a small street at the rear.
A few years ago, the zoning board granted a variance to convert this industrial IRMX
property to a 52-unit apartment building that's, I'm sorry, right here, that spans East Arizona
and East York Street.
It's a very large property.
Right here, you have this like a little standalone mid-block CMX2 property that is behind what is also a vacant lot.
Most of these lots have been vacant for years.
They've been unmaintained and effectively used for parking, you know, but just not on a regulated basis.
And you can see in this aerial shot what it has looked like.
by legalizing the parking use for this small lot 2143 east arizona you'll have an owner who's
dedicated to maintaining upkeep and making use of the lot for these areas which like i said have
been you can see there's a lot of abandoned vehicles on the adjacent property and this
will be one little area that they can maintain clean up and keep together there's also here's
just some context pictures of what the lot looks like over to the right is when the apartment
building was under construction in here as you can see there's a one-story dedicated parking
and this is also from a couple of years ago here they've taken over the property they've cleaned it
up there's the existing fence here and um from the submission to lni uh you can see that they're
planning on uh adding a uh adding curb cut along with the um a parking pad uh that they'll be
putting here and um with that i know the board's working through um its calendar list and here's
the tax cert that we got this morning, $0 balance on the property taxes. If the board has any
questions, because I didn't anticipate any opposition, we do have support. The hardship
is clear because it's this completely undersized lot and it's impracticable to build here.
And the parking here is adjacent to existing and dedicated legal parking. This is an appropriate
place for a dedicated parking space does the board have any questions no is there anyone in
the virtual audience my clients are here and if uh uh can they adopt your testimony
yes if you could raise your virtual hand please
hey good morning uh randy are you are you with us i am
hey oh how do i start the video miss cutler do you swear for him to tell the whole truth
and nothing about the truth um i do yeah okay and um and miss cutler uh uh are you uh are you
there with uh with chris i am hello i do as well okay great yeah and so yeah and sorry do you um
Did you hear the factual statements that I made on the record?
And were they accurate?
You adopted them as your testimony?
No further questions.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing CMX2 zoning at this location.
There are two refusals here. The use is a special exception. So with regard to the use refusal,
we don't believe that the special exception will cause detrimental impacts to the neighborhood
beyond what would normally be expected for the use. And so we recommend that the
board grant that special exception. Thank you. Calendar number 1410-2143.
three. Yes, Tanya. I hate to interrupt. Did we get the community? I might have missed it.
I thought I asked if there was anyone else out there. Okay, no problem. Thank you. I'm a little
confused today, but thank you. I think everybody is. Calendar number. Let me find the calendar number.
Calendar number, let me find the calendar number, 1410-2143 East Arizona Street, my vote is yes.
One four one zero.
Confessor Plaza, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, yes.
Thank you, Mr. Monroe.
Thank you, may I be excused?
Yes, you may.
All right, have a great day.
Thank you.
You too.
Calendar number 2267-533 West Montgomery Avenue. The attorney is Leo Mulvihill.
Madam Chair, this is Sharon Saleta. Since sending you the summaries, we have received a letter in opposition from Councilwoman Sanchez.
Okay, and we also have, hello, Mr. Mulvihill, can you put your name and address on the record and spell your last name?
Certainly, Leo Mulvihill, M as in Michael, UL, V as in Victor, I-H-I-L-L, address 315 Green Street, 1st floor, Philadelphia, 19123.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership tax compliance, refusal referral, photos under plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
Thank you. You may proceed.
Good morning, Chair and members of the Board.
I'm here today for 533 West Montgomery Avenue.
We have my client, Diaz and Bravo, S, as in Sam, K, PH Realty, LLC.
add the refusal appeal and project information form at page one area zoning maps at page seven
deed at nine commercial activity license at 17 tax clearance at 18 by zoning notifications at 20
with a letter from south kensington community partners at 22 photos of property at 25 and
revised plans at 57 so members of the board what we're here for today is for a two-family dwelling
in a single-family district this would be a new two single-family dwelling and this has revised
plans what we did overall initially we had a much smaller rear yard and we decided to increase that
to the 25 required open area for this zoning district in our revised plan what i'm showing
now is page three of 61 which is our refusal our parcel is indicated on page seven of the packet
now on your screens in this blue area it is zoned rsa5 it is in a mixed area with rm1 icmx cmx2
and other variations on zoning.
So it's not all single family.
In fact, directly across the street
in that RM1 is new condominiums.
Down the block at the corner of Montgomery and Reese
is a multi-unit building as well.
So while this is a request for two family
in a single family district,
it is not unprecedented in this neighborhood
to have multifamily or two family dwellings.
Currently, it is a vacant parking lot.
It is fenced in partially
and members of the communities
where we can see the fact that it is currently being used as a parking lot page 25
to the left of page 28 you can see the new multi-family dwelling that i was discussing
you have new single family
new multi-family on the corner which i was discussing as well with the graffiti on the side
this is looking outward towards germantown avenue
And now we'll see this multifamily dwelling in various stages of construction as we go through the other postings.
This is the most recent posting.
Now on page 57, we have our revised proviso plan form.
This is ultimately showing the site plan and elevation of the property.
the property itself is not to exceed 38 feet as required in the rsa 5 zoning district we have 25
Thank you Chair Tanari. My video has been disabled, but this is Ian Hegarty from the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
In 2016, the neighborhood was remapped in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan.
This block was intentionally kept at RSA 5, which reflected a legislative intent to maintain single-family use on this block.
the applicant's hardship claim is not supported with evidence of unique physical conditions as
this is a vacant cleared lot ready for development the ability to build a two-family home despite
single-family zoning does not constitute a hardship city planning commission would recommend
that the board deny the variance thank you calendar number 2267 533 west montgomery avenue my vote is
no. Confessor Plaza, my vote is no. James Snell, my vote is no. Thomas Holloman, my vote is no.
I apologize for that noise. Thank you, members of the board. Have a good morning.
Thank you. You as well, Leo. Calendar number 1415610-12 South 6th Street. The attorney is Dan Raleigh.
Madam Chair, this is Sharon. A clarification on this one. The applicant is submitting revised plans. They made a change at the request of the RCO, changing a residential unit, a proposed residential unit to a commercial unit.
um i would like to get clarification from lni as to whether this requires an amended application
and if it does um that the applicants submit the amended application in either case because this
has been presented to the community there's no problem with going forward today but if you could
hold the vote okay great thank you you're welcome sorry for the long explanation that's okay it's
been a different day. It certainly has. Mr. Raleigh, are you present?
Mr. Raleigh has been allowed to speak at this time, ma'am. Yes, good evening. This is Dan Raleigh.
I'm here. Can you see me or just hear me? I can just hear you. So can you put your name and
address on the record and spell your last name and I'll swear you in. Sure. My name is Daniel
Rowley. Rowley spelled R-O-W-L-E-Y. I'm with the law firm of Kaplan Stewart and the address is 910
Harvest Drive in Bluebell, PA. Do you swear if I'm to tell the whole truth and I'll think about
the truth i do do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy
i do and have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof
of ownership tax compliance refusal referral photos and or plans of the property five days
in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and do you have a letter uh yes to all of
above okay you may proceed i'm sorry madam chair this is tanya may we call one second to allow
jason to promote the attorney to a panel that's already been done the socket
we'll be rejoining as a panelist okay and now you can see me and i'll share my screen
So good morning. As I stated, my name is Dan Rowley. I represent Rosecap Holdings and Ambit Architecture, the equitable owner and the applicant in the ZBA application for 610 to 612 South 6th Street.
The deed, the redacted agreement of sale, and the letter of authorization, and the tax compliance certification can be found at Exhibit A1 through A4 of our exhibit package, which was emailed to the board.
I'll just quickly scroll through those.
uh the property is located at the corner of south 6th street and cater street it's just one
building off of south street aerial and street view photos of the property can be found at exhibit
a five. The property is located within the CMX2 commercial district. The property has been under
the same ownership for approximately 60 years and has not undergone much renovation, if any.
and has not undergone much renovation, if any, during that time. And as a result, the property
is in poor condition currently. The property has an existing commercial space on the first floor.
You can see that here in the photo. Maybe I'll rotate it quickly. So this is an existing
commercial law office that the current owner of the property occupies. The rest of the building
is six residential dwelling units. The applicants who are local to the area are proposing to make
a substantial investment into the property in order to update and improve the building,
including a complete renovation of the interior and exterior of the building and a construction
of a fourth floor on the building. The refusal, our appeal to the board, and the project information
form can be found at Exhibits A6 through A8, which I'll quickly go through. So, Refusal,
our Appeal, and our Project Information Form.
um okay i was i now i'm unmuted we have a letter of non-opposition from bella vista
and we also have a letter of non-opposition from councilman squilla but we're going to
hold the vote on this we need more clarification is that correct miss zoletta well i um i'm sorry
to interrupt i i still have a few things i want to get to i apologize okay you can that's fine
yeah so i just wanted to make sure that was on the record well i i think we'd like to you know
push back a little bit and um see if we could get a vote here today uh like i said this is an
existing commercial use on the first floor and it has been for many years the property owner
operates a law office out of the first floor um the the revised plans essentially are keeping the
commercial space um as is obviously it will be renovated but we don't see that there is a change
of use there um so if we could have a vote today we would appreciate that um but just getting back
to my presentation the the photos demonstrating that the property was posted with notice can be
found at exhibit a9 um just a note on this quickly um the property is required to be posted 21 days
prior to the hearing which was july 7th which um was a wednesday we did not receive the required
posters prior to july 7th from the zba and we followed up with the zba staff we were informed
that the posters were not properly sent to us in time to post. And then they were subsequently
emailed to us on July 9th. After we received the posters on July 9th, the property was
subsequently posted. So I just wanted to note this for the board that we were unable to comply