And I can attest, just because I myself received a copy, to the extent that Mr. Notkinson included documents that were submitted or sent to everyone by Manioc Neighborhood Council, I can only stipulate that that's an accurate copy of what they sent.
I can't stipulate to whether those are accurate or any of the assertions that are made.
They're accurate because they're not a party in this case and they haven't testified here.
I don't know. OK, that's fine. OK, so, Hillary, what we're not going to vote on this today.
Do we need anything? Yeah, I just want to jump in quick in terms of talking about the exhibit.
But, Mr. Knoxman, I was going back through the exhibit packets submitted for Boone Street, and all of them were marked for the variance appeal.
So if you could just resubmit the ones that you want for the record for this case, because it appeared to me that nothing was submitted for the appeal against L&I because they were all marked for the variance appeal.
Yeah, I'll clean it up.
You know, we'll streamline those exhibit packets specifically to appeal against L&I.
Yeah, so we have those records. Yes, we could have that by the end of the day tomorrow. That would be great. That was my comment. In terms of, you know, next step, Mr. Chair, we can hold this for discussion, closing the record.
um mr knockamson i think i previously communicated to you that you know the board was not likely to
make a decision today um on this matter um we can certainly proceed with the hearing on the
variance case and hold that for discussion as well um but i don't know if you want to wait
for the decision first before you have the other case heard i think you know you know judicial
economies, I would believe
make sense for us to present
the variance request as well.
And as I stated at the beginning of
my presentation, if the board
grants the appeal against L&I,
the zoning appeal
would be deemed moot as
So, Hillary, why don't we
continue with the list? Let's give
Alan a little bit of a break, and then we'll bring
the other one on shortly, okay?
So, if I could just
so i was a little confused by that you will be hearing the variance case on 43 15 uh we are
boom today my great calorie we're going to hear that today right yes actually i had uh i had that
scheduled next mr chair so that we could okay fine everyone who was here for the these cases
could hear them at the same time um the city is uh beyond the recommendation of the city planning
commission the city's not taking a position on whether or not the board should grant the variance
Again, other than the recommendation from City Planning Commission. However, because I'm not sure what's going to what's going to come up in the context of that hearing, I would ask that I remain as panelist. I promise I won't say anything. But if Mr. Kelly and I can just remain as panelists in case because of things that have been said by Manioc neighborhood council. Thank you.
All right, so number 15, MI-2023-005-346-4315 Boone Street.
Mr. Nockamson, obviously, is the attorney.
There's a letter of opposition unanimous from Manioc Neighborhood Council, and there's a letter of opposition received from a neighbor.
Mr. Nockamson.
Thank you.
I share my screen and continue. Do I need to represent everything I just presented?
I think anything that was relevant to this, Hillary, we already have it and we'll accept it.
I think we just need Mr. Nockamson to make a statement for the record incorporating his prior presentation into this one.
I also want to note that we didn't name a date for the vote for the prior case.
That will be January 1st, not January 1st, January 10th, 2024 at 2 p.m.
Thank you.
Yes. So, you know, I move to incorporate the arguments and testimony that I elicited from the previous matter into the previous matter of the appeal against L&I into the zoning appeal argument as well.
All right. So let me continue. I may go backwards a little bit just because I think we skipped over some stuff.
yeah so i i think i ended with the makes
Yeah, so I think I ended with the make safe permit, you know, that we, you know, we did the work responsibly and, you know, collaborated with, you know, L&I in that matter.
and then we had a building permit but again i don't think this is pertains to the variance
request but there's been some indication by uh the manion group that you know we would be required
to seek a variance for a front-loading garage because we're technically attached we're not and
we have photographic evidence to in that respect but even if we were attached which we're not
And we needed to get the board's approval for front-loading garages and off-street parking.
It's not uncommon, even on this block, to have that.
So 4317 Boone Street, 4329 through 33 Boone Street, 4342 Boone Street, all have front-loading garages.
So it's not uncommon.
Maps of the area.
We're an RSA 5 property.
Just trying to create a single-family structure here.
A nice property.
unfortunate circumstances here led us here today. Again, we're in Maniunk. I think we all
understand that. And, you know, we have an existing building structure here that's incomplete,
and we've held off doing any additional work and completing it because we need to go backwards,
you know, because of this notice of refusal, which is the subject of an appeal against L&I,
But from even a variance standpoint, this screams of undue hardship here.
I mean, I don't know what else to do, or my client wouldn't know what else to do.
Like, all we want to do is build a single family structure.
If we're forced to tear this down for what, I don't know.
And then what would be in its place, I don't know.
All the work that's been done to date has been blessed and approved by L&I in terms of inspections and such.
um so and again the person that would be most impacted directly impacted 4319 boone street
they should be against this project if if if conceptually anyone should be against this
project they're in support of this project because we did right by this neighbor you know
trust me my client did not want this to happen but it's how people react to a situation when
And there was an unfortunate situation where there was a collapse of this of this property owner's patio.
What did he do? He fixed it at his cost.
And my my client did at his own cost and put that back together.
Now, there was a question about like whether we're attached to anyone else.
Here you can see from this photograph, we're not attached on that side.
And we're definitely not attached on this side.
So I just wanted the board to see that because, again, I want to go based on facts.
And then the board can decide based on those facts what should happen under those circumstances.
This is Boone Street to the right of the property.
Again, it's not out of character to have single family homes on our side of the property, of Boone Street.
It's all over Maniunk.
Maniunk is a steep slope area.
Boone Street to the left of the property.
And then our plans and drawings.
Like, you know, we, you know, my client hired an architect, he hired engineers, you know, try to do everything right.
Unfortunate circumstances led us here today.
And then this is the original site plan, which shows earth disturbance of 1134 square feet, right, down here.
And based on that, we wouldn't have to be here today.
because of what happened with the make safe permit and dealing with the neighboring property
owner to make sure their property is structurally safe as well we went to 1486 square feet
again just so you understand the average grade is is here for a property with a steep slope
And based on the architect's calculations, which was confirmed by L&I, our height is 35 feet and 8 1⁄2 inches.
And again, we're just building a single-family home with a front-loading garage.
There's nothing dramatic about this, but I gave you floor plans that we hope to complete.
And this is the earth moving plan, which is the subject of one of our two refusals.
This was stamped by City Planning Commission.
So that refusal should be eliminated from the variants.
And then we met with the community on December 6th this month at 7 p.m., 110 addresses were notified of the meeting, list the addresses, proof of mailing to those addresses, or applications for repeal that we filed on behalf of VP 4315 Boone L.
Our application for appeal that we filed on behalf of VP 4315 Boone, LLC, along with the notice of refusal, which we object to, and the deed to the property showing that my client owns the property, along with the certificate of tax clearance showing that they do not owe any taxes to the city of Philadelphia.
With that being said, I would just ask that Mr. Garcia, my client's architect, virtually raise his hand.
Mr. Garcia, could you please state your name and spell for the court's monography?
hi yes my name is zamir garcia z-a-m-i-r last name garcia g-a-r-c-i-a right do you swear for
him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do proceed counsel
yeah mr garcia um you your your company mercy design was the um is the architect in charge of
this project, right? Yes. Okay. And you're familiar with this project, right? Yes. And you obviously
work for Morrissey Design, right? Yes. Okay. So when your architecture firm submitted the original
site plan, there was less than 1,400 square feet of earth disturbance, right? Yes, that is correct.
And your drawings were truly and accurately depicted, right?
Okay. Now, your architecture firm was involved when there was a make-safe permit too, right?
I do not recall that.
Okay. But you prepared the second site plan where there was earth disturbance of 1,486 square feet, right?
We did, yes.
Okay. All right. And you're not aware of the – and the height of the building is under 38 feet, according to your drawings, right?
That is correct.
Based on the Philadelphia zoning code.
um and um to your understanding the building structure is not connected to
the building structure to the left and right of it right right it's not connected all right
thank you thank you okay um are you ready are you are you i would just have mr mr aronovich
uh virtually raise his hand yeah yeah sure
Hi, sir. Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Yep. Roy Aronovich, R-O-Y-A-H-A-R-O-N-N-O-V-I-C-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
Yes, Mr. Aronovich, you heard everything I had to state today about your zoning matter.
And is it true and correct?
And do you adopt as your own testimony?
yes thank you okay questions from the board mr go ahead mr reuter go ahead sure uh i just wanted
to state for the record um i'm not 100 clear but i assume mr knockinson that you are also
you are challenging the refusal as part of the variance case or did you did you wait i mean to
the extent that there's a challenge that they're still relying on the challenge the refusal in the
variance case the city would move to adopt our prior statements and argument uh in the appeal
against l and i uh again to the extent that you need that for the record that's all i meant
yes we we are challenging we're not waiving our right in terms of the refusal okay yeah so then
we would just move for that that all of all of the previous uh testimony that i gave that was
adopted by Mr. Hawley and so forth.
And the arguments would be adopted here, too. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. That's true. Questions from the board?
No, Chair. No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair. Questions or comments from the virtual
audience? I see no
hands okay planning commission i'm sorry okay we have a person by the name of kevin smith with
your hand up okay i've allowed them to speak hi sir could you state your name please and
spell for the court stenographer hello my name is kevin smith kevin smith
Hello, my name is Kevin Smith, K-E-V-I-N-S-M-I-T-H.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor, Mr. Smith?
I am the president of Manioc Neighborhood Council.
Thank you. Please proceed.
And we have submitted a letter that points out what we think are several inconsistencies, both in the earth disturbance, primarily within the earth disturbance, while the original claim of earth disturbance was 1,042 square feet.
um as can be seen that was the actual footprint of the building as can be seen
uh that the entire site was cleared and shortly after the building permit was issued
the site was dug out to a disturbance of uh well over 1400 square feet uh i'm gonna object
to um mr smith's testimony well first of all we don't know who took those pictures so from
that's hearsay to begin with and needs to be in those documents those pictures need to be
authenticated and then mr smith is not i don't know if he ever you know went to the property
and what you know when he went to the property and what his aptitude is to understand what earth
disturbance is and mr smith right where i think you should be with this is are you for against
the process the whole program um we are against um the issuance of the variants
but we believe there are there are ways to uh mitigate the current design of the house
um beyond that don't include tearing it down and starting over
but um we believe the the variants uh that they're
yeah okay you're over explain the pictures the pictures we've submitted were by john hunter
who is also on our board and should be in the audience and he can vouch for them and i think
they tell their own very clear picture okay uh mr smith thank you mr not gonna see how many
questions no mr reuter do you have any questions oh oh no no the city city's only participating
with respect to the uh challenge is there anyone else in the virtual audience
yes we have two hands peggy washburn has been allowed to speak okay hi could you state your
name, please, and spell for the court stenographer. Hi, my name is Peggy Washburn, P-E-G-G-Y-W-A-S-H-B-U-R-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Are you a neighbor? I am. Please proceed. Thank you, Mr. Chair and board members for
allowing me the time. I live at 4310 Terrace Street, just above and slightly to the south
of the construction site we're talking about. I'm a little bit nervous, so please bear with me.
You don't have to be nervous. You're fine.
I have witnessed the progression of this project from its inception,
and I'm here to testify that what I've witnessed is in direct contradiction to what Mr.
Nakamson and Mr. Goldberg and the developer Mr. Aronovich are presenting you with. My encounter
first with the developer Mr. Aronovich was a year ago in December when his crew showed up to clear
the steep slope at 4315 Boone Street. There had been no postings alerting the neighbors to the
fact that any work would take place on this site. Knowing that this is a very steep slope
with what I believe to be zoning protection and the fact that I live at the top of it,
I ran down to talk to the workers and explain that I believed the developer needed a variance
in order to clear this particular lot. Within a short time, Mr. Aronovich called me.
He was incredibly nice. He validated my concerns and reassured me with promise that they were only
going to take out a few trees toward the front of the lot, and that their earth disturbance