Mr. Chair Bertman, may I?
Mr. Chair Bertman, I didn't want to interrupt, but I just definitely wanted to just add something before the final vote, if that's okay.
Go ahead.
Pretty much just what I wanted to say is that we did have the community support.
When we do the mansard roof, it would maintain the cornice line by using the mansard roof.
And I just believe that we should be allowed to build as presented.
Thank you. So let me go back. MI 2023-003-123, 2021 Wilder Street. I vote yes with proviso. Third floor setback of eight feet.
James, my vote is yes with proviso.
I hate my vote is yes.
With proviso with proviso.
Thank you.
Thank you, man.
We're going to number 17.
I had to log out and come back in.
MI 2023-003-127-1033 Cross Street.
Anthony Carey is the owner-applicant pro se.
The application is the direction of a third-floor addition, a roof deck, and roof deck access, all on top of an existing attached structure, size and location for use of single-family household,
Whereas the roof deck access structure must be set five back feet from the extreme rear building, and a setback of four feet is proposed.
Whereas the applicant has requested a vertical extension of an existing nonconforming rear wall that does not meet the rear yard depth of the RSA 5 zoning district, seven feet required, four feet 5.5 inches proposed.
Good morning, sir. Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Could you unmute? Unmute?
Yeah, please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Good morning, Your Honor. My name is Anthony Theokary, A-N-T-H-O-N-Y-T-H-E-O-K-A-R-Y.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Our Vice Chair has a few questions. Good morning, sir. Have you emailed in all
the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case
five days in advance of this hearing? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
i should mention too you have a letter of non-opposition from passion square civic
and a letter of non-opposition from council member squiller yes
can you see my screen uh it's coming up now
we're okay good yeah all right so the property a 1033 crawl i own it with my wife
lauren theo carry and um the property is zoned rsa5 which you can see over here
and the lot area is 468 square feet the width is 13 feet occupied area is 410 feet and the open
area is 58 square feet the rear yard depth is four feet five and a half inches and the property is
20 feet in height and this is the proposed third floor deck that uh i mean the third floor
that we were proposing to put on the existing property and here goes the rear
of the property here goes an above angle and so what we propose is the third floor
addition and a roof deck with a small pile of house sorry my computer is a
And the home will be less than 1,500 square feet with the third floor and without the cellar.
and it does not exceed the allowable height so we got a refusal I'm going to
And it does not exceed the allowable height.
scroll we got a refusal for the rear yard deck which required seven feet we
proposed four feet five and a half inches and for the roof deck access structure
rear setback which we required five feet and we proposed four feet now the house itself is only
36 feet deep so with a very very small yard
they're with me I'm sorry
I'm going to show you photos of the existing
condition
so here goes
my property in the middle there
you can see my neighbor
to the right of me already has three stories up my name this is my neighbor that'll left of me
this is the condition of the home it's fully gutted
and then you're going to see the rear this is my backyard and this two foot
alley is actually there was an easement indeed that two foot section is actually a means of
egress for the neighbor to the left because they have no alleyway so I virtually have no yard
and here goes some floor plans
this is the basement over here which will be a den there will be no
bedrooms in the basement here goes this third first floor little living area dining area in
kitchen as you can see this is the alleyway right here that belongs to my neighbor now
and then here goes an alley that goes out to the street
and the second floor would be two bedrooms or one bedroom in an office with a full bath and a laundry
and this is the proposed third floor that would be a master suite for me and my wife and here
Here goes the roof deck that we propose with the step back only being four feet because
of where the stairs will land in the house.
As you can see the stairs on the third floor, it's pretty tight as is right now.
The roof deck would be just for us to have an outdoor area because we virtually have
zero outdoor area right now.
And here goes some more pictures of the front of the house,
what it would look like with a mansard room.
Over here, this is the back of the house.
And this is the zoning notice that I posted so everybody could see, and the refusal.
Some pictures of the property.
And this is the public meeting where everybody voted, so this is the letters we sent out
the neighborhood. And we met with the
Pashon Square Civic Association on July 11,
2023, and they voted non-opposition.
And I would just like to say that
me and my wife loved the neighborhood. We grew up around
neighborhood we found this house bought it it's a small house it's very small um so we would love
to start a family in that neighborhood we grew up in them you know we grew up right around there
both went to school around there and uh we eventually want to have children pretty soon
and the way the house is now it would be pretty tight um so we would love
you guys reconsider and give us the variance
and give us the variance so we can start a family and have a house in the neighborhood we love and
so we can start a family and have a house in the neighborhood we love.
you know just like i said the house next door to me actually already has three stories
um and we will not be exceeding any height um the height
and um i think that sums up my presentation and uh thank you questions from the board
no chair no chair no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emberson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair we have a agatha reister they have been allowed to speak
good morning could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Good morning again.
Agatha Reister, A-G-A-T-A-R-E-I-S-T-E-R, Landmark Architectural Design.
I would like to just mention that.
Okay, just for a point, you've already been sworn, so please proceed.
Thank you.
I would like to mention, and do a slight correction, the lot actually is 36 feet, not the house itself.
The house itself is about 31 feet in depth.
The lot is 468 square feet, which is pretty much half of current standards for RSA 5.
It is very small.
They truly have a hardship fitting even the stairs to accommodate for legal size bedrooms.
That's basically how the pilot house refusal came about.
And the fact for the lack of rear yard setback, we are following the line of existing condition for first and second floor.
And we would like to ask for the variance as there is truly a dimensional hardship at this property.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Sarah Bond with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing residential single-family zoning.
The appellant's hardship claim is supported with evidence of unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
MI 2023-003-127-1033, Cross Street, I vote yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you.
We're moving on to number two.
Thank you, by the way.
Thank you.
Okay. MI 2023-003-133, 1941-45, East Letterly Street.
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
There's a letter of support unanimous from East Kensington Neighborhood Association
and a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squill.
There is also an applicant provided 55 form letters of support from the neighbors.
Mr. Nockamson.
Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the board. Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name
Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to this property?
Yeah, my client is Jonathan Anthony James II, also known as J. James, and he's the
Okay. And our vice chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refu-
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the-
Do you agree to-
Excuse me.
Do you agree to stipulate to the accuracy or agree to waive the refu-
I'm sorry.
have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to
proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing uh yes we have that was a tongue
tie uh please proceed and share your screen thank you all right so again i'm here to present
1941-45 East Leroy Street. This is a proposed four-unit apartment building with four off-street
parking spots by way of an existing curb cut. So here we'll be presenting first our notice of
refusal. Then as the chairman stated, we have a letter of support from East Kensington Neighbors
Association, where as unanimous, 23 members of the community supported this project.
And in addition to that, we just received a letter of non-opposition from District
from district council member squilla which is included in our packet of materials
Council Member Squilla, which is included in our packet of materials.
and then my client made a concerted effort to meet neighbor neighboring property owners
and occupants and we have uh i believe almost 50 letters of support from nearby neighbors
with a corresponding map so you can see that all the properties that are nearby which would
be most directly impacted are in support of this conversion of a one-story garage
into a three-story apartment building with four units and four off-street parking spots.
Then we'll review the zoning map, which will also show that while we're an RSA-5 property,
across the street's RM1, so what we're offering is not out of character. And if this was an RM1
property, which it's not, this 3,000-square-foot lot would easily accommodate four residential
units. Then we'll review photographs of the property in the surrounding area,
our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, and we had a well-attended meeting of 23 members
of the community all in support of this project. Our application for appeal that we filed on
behalf of Mr. James, his deed to the property showing that he's the owner of the property,
and the certificate of tax clearance showing that he owes no real estate taxes
in connection with his property ownership. Again, at the conclusion of the presentation,
we would ask that Mr. James virtually raise his hand, be sworn in, and we'll then have a couple
of questions for him about my presentation. So first things first is notice refusal. Again,
this is a one-story garage, which is more commercial in nature than anything. And what
we're trying to do is do an adaptive reuse of that in this residential neighborhood by adding
two stories repurposing the first story as a garage which will also include a trash room
and we'll have four units of four parking stalls there and then on the upper on the second and
third floors we'll have four residential units so we have a few refusals um more technical in nature
two of the refusals has to deal with the parking which again we're repurposing uh the uh park you
know, this one-story garage. So I think that, again, we're not creating this curb cut from
scratch. So I think that's our hardship there. The second refusal has to do with the rear yard
depth. So we have a non-conforming building in terms of rear yard depth. By building on top of
that, we're expanding that non-conformity, and that's a technical refusal. But again,
And our neighboring properties, so left and right of us and behind us, have no issue with anything in that respect.
And the community doesn't either, so I hope that the board doesn't either.
And then finally is the multifamily use or proposed multifamily use.
We're proposing to have four units.
This building, this lot, excuse me, is almost 3,000 square feet.
So, again, we're R&1 across the street, you know, having this adaptive reuse instead of tearing down some buildings and, you know, a building which is across multiple lots, which have been consolidated over time and instead building up and using that parking that, you know, a lot of the neighboring property owners appreciate that we're using it with one curb cut getting four cars in there.
I think this is a responsible use of this property and building structure.
Sure. Letter of support from ECNA. Again, it's not very often that we get unanimous support with that many members of the community there. So you can tell that, you know, they really appreciated how we responsibly repurposed this building.
And then there's a letter as well that outlines their reasoning behind it. And then Council Member Squilla also just sent us a letter in non-opposition to this project. And I would gather not just because of the, you know, the four corners of our project, but also because of the overwhelming support of the community within the community meeting, as well as the community as a whole.
I task my clients all the time. I said, reach out to your neighbors, right? Not everyone attends a
community meeting for various reasons. And you just never know how that community meeting is
going to end up. So I task my clients that reach out to the properties that are going to be most
directly impacted. And I think that's one of the best ones I've seen yet of like he had 49 properties
other than his and he hit every single one almost. So I think he did a great job. And, you know,
Now, here are the, you know, again, that map is based on the letters we've received from him signed by occupants of these neighboring properties.
I'm just going to go quickly through it.
It's a form letter, but they had each one of them sign and provide information.
Okay, and then maps of the area, as you can see, while we're an RSA 5 property, there is definitely a diversity of zoning in the neighborhood, and most importantly, across the street to RM1, so again, a 3,000 square foot lot, this would be a four units would easily fit within the zoning classification of RM1, plus we're providing off-street parking, which is not typical of multifamily use.
Okay, and then maps of the area.
So we're repurposing a curb cut. So I think this project is a win-win for us and the neighborhood.