Tanya, let me know when people are in.
Sure, Chair.
Thank you.
We're starting with 36 attendees, Chair. You can start as you wish.
Good morning. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's EBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Present.
Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
he's okay thomas hallman our board member president mr chairman james snell our board
member present mr chairman also our executive director tanya sunkett's with us and our board
attorney sherman toppin good morning mr chairman before we start here's our virtual format be
advise these proceedings are being recorded. By participating, you acknowledge your agreement
to be recorded. The video will be available by contacting our Executive Director,
Tanya Sunkett at phila.gov. For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and
witnesses to identify themselves before testifying. If you're participating by phone,
if you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548. Leave your email and the address
of the property in question. And lastly, the question answer box on the screen is not for
testimony or comments. Any comment should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunken.
So let's look at first continuances that we have this morning.
number two mi 2021 004 526 110 south 20th street number four mi 2021 004 462
150 to 64 West
Burke Street and
number 11
MI 2021
3504 Ainsley Street.
Does anyone have comments
or questions about those continuances
in the virtual audience?
I see no
hand. Just a moment. We have a Lindsay
Bowden with her hand up here.
Ms. Bowden, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please?
My name is Lindsay Bowden, L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, last name B-O-D-I-N.
All right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Which of the three cases are you involved with?
The final one that you had mentioned, 3504 Ainsley Street.
I am here as a stakeholder filling in for the RCO, whose chair is out of the country right now and was not able to find somebody else to fill his spot.
He had submitted a request yesterday to the CBA formally requesting a continuance because appropriate posting was not done 14 days prior to this.
OK, we're going to continue it, ma'am.
OK, thank you.
Sure. Any other comments about those continuances?
Chair, we have Henry Clinton with his hand up. Mr. Clinton, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning, Mr. Clinton. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Mr. Clinton, unmute, please. Good morning. State your name and spell for the court.
Unmute, please. Good morning. State your name and spell for the court reporter, Mr. Clinton.
Mr. Clinton.
it must be having technical difficulties okay Mr. Clinton if you can may you put a question
in the Q&A and we can assist that way we're unable to hear you
okay so those three cases will be continued number two number four and number 11 are there
any other can we have someone else with their hand up okay we have a mr wade albert with his
hand up mr albert you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair mr albert could you state
your name and spell for the court reporter sure uh my name is uh wade albert uh w-a-d-e last name
is a-l-b-e-r-t right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but
the truth? I do. Which case do you want to talk about, sir? I want to talk about 110 South 20th
Street, number 2021-0081. Yeah, we're continuing that case, sir. Yes, so I'm counsel for the RCO,
the Center City Residents Association, and I just wanted to clarify, I wrote an email to the ZBA
yesterday, and there might have been some confusion. I don't know if that continuance
request was technically on my behalf or whether it was not it's on the applicant's behalf sir
okay i appreciate that thank you very much sure yep anyone having any other cases they wish to
continue chair we have someone with their hand up with the phone number ending in 5532
whoever has the phone number ending in 5532 please unmute yourself and wait for the chair
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
You have to unmute, sir, or ma'am.
5532, you have to unmute.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
This is Henry Clinton, CLIN.
Oh, good morning, Henry.
Right.
Yeah, I'm having a...
audio difficulties my video is working but my audio is not for whatever all right henry henry
let me swear you first you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth i do which case do you want to talk about i just want to talk about 440 queen lane uh i am
not asking for a continuance or anything i just wanted to alert the board and miss sunk it that
but I'm on telephone by audio and visually I can present.
Thank you.
Sounds good.
If you have any issues, you can put it in the Q&A, and that would be helpful to us.
Any other requests for continuance?
Chair, we have Vern Anastasio.
Mr. Anastasio, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning, Mr. Anastasio. State your name and spell for the court reporter, please.
Good morning, Mr. Chair. Vern Anastasio, V-E-R-N. Last name is A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
1315 Walnut Street, Suite 317, Philadelphia, 19107. And I'm here to...
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir.
What case, Vern?
Thank you. The address is 2035 West Toronto. I've advised Mr. Richardson from the council person's office that we'd like to go back to the RCO. We had a wonderful meeting, as their letter states, but then subsequent to that meeting, they secured information that we were unable to address.
so we'd like to go back
and just clarify the record for the community.
That case will be continued.
Thank you.
Any other cases for continuance?
I see no other hands at this time, Chair.
Case number nine is a withdrawal.
MI 2021-004522-2314 East Albert Street.
That's a withdrawal.
Are there any other withdrawals?
I see no hands at the side, Chair.
Thank you. We're going to go to our add-ons for today. MI 2021-003-960-40 East Silver Street
Thank you.
We're going to go to our add-ons for today.
Am I...
is an add-on. Request for reconsideration. I vote no to the reconsideration.
Carol Tenere, no to the reconsideration. Thomas Holloman, no to the reconsideration.
James Snell, no to reconsideration.
Ishmael Saheed, no to reconsideration.
Thank you.
MI 2021-003952, 6237-45 Germantown Avenue, request for reconsideration and rehearing.
I vote no to the request for reconsideration.
Carol Tenere, I vote no.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no to reconsideration.
James Snell, my vote is no to reconsideration.
Ishmael Shaheed, no to the reconsideration.
We're going to start our regular list.
MI 2021-004547-1030 Winter Street.
Councilman Squilla in non-opposition.
Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, letter of support.
Douglas and Peggy Jung.
Mr. or Ms. Jung, if you're in the audience, please raise your virtual hand.
Chair, I see no one by that name at this time.
No one with their hands up.
There's someone with their hands up. There's a Jerry Gutierrez with his hands up.
okay case one is continued
case number three am i i'm sorry chair um i just would i'd like to make sure if it's okay with you
to check and see if mr gutierrez may be sure an attorney or something if he has his hand up
You can allow him to speak, Ms. Yvette.
Mr. Gutierrez, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter?
Good morning, Mr. Chair.
My name is Jerry Gutierrez, Jerry, G-E-R-R-Y, G-U-T-I-E-R-R-E-Z.
You swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you involved in case one?
Yes, sir.
I am the architect for the project.
I represent Ms. Jung.
I just spoke to her via phone a few minutes ago.
I believe she might be having some difficulty connecting to the computer.
So, Mr. Gutierrez, we'll have her try to correct it, but we're going to move on and we'll come
back when she's available, okay? Okay, thank you. Anya, could you figure out how we get a hold of
her and when we'll know she's available? I can wait for her to resolve her technical issues
and see if we can promote her. If not, we would have to continue it. Okay, if we don't hear from
her, then we're going to wind up continuing. Let's move forward. MI 2021-004519-1145 Tasker
Street. Paschung Civic Association, letter of non-opposition. Councilman Squala, letter of
non-opposition. Rich DeMarco, attorney. Chair, Mr. DeMarco is coming back in as a panelist now.
Good morning, Mr. DeMarco.
State your name and please spell for the court reporter.
Morning, Mr. Chairman.
Richard DeMarco for the applicant.
Last name D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Our vice chair has a few questions for you.
Hi, Mr. DeMarco.
Do you agree to wave the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do. It appears that you've submitted all the required documents. Is that correct?
Yes, we needed an extra day or two to obtain the tact clearance. I have it today for you.
Okay, great. You may proceed. Everything else was submitted timely, though. Thank you.
Thank you. Madam Chair, excuse me, Mr. Chair and Madam Vice Chair. Good morning.
So this case is kind of a companion case. And I'll share my screen and show you there are two twin homes that were in the process of being constructed.
So this case is kind of a companion case.
What happened was while the builder did build pursuant to a valid zoning permit, the footprint of the building was deeper than what was shown on the plans.
I'm going to share my screen. I'll show you a couple things. And I just clicked off, of course. Anyway, this board voted the companion case, 1143 Tasker, in 2020 and voted yes. So it's the exact same footprint. I'll get to that in a minute. I accidentally clicked out of the zoning board's notice of decision. I was going to show it to you.
Anyway, so this is the refusal. We are asking for only two-dimensional variances today.
They're not insignificant, but they're also not unreasonable. It's basically because of the rear
yard. It's slightly non-compliant. You see it here. These are two-dimensional variances,
But the use is permitted use, single family, no height variances, no other variances at all.
And again, it matches the property next door.
Let me show you that to understand why it's necessary.
And look, we agree.
The neighbors, while they were not in opposition, you know, there was frustration with the builder prior to this moment.
And we understand that.
There was an L&I enforcement matter that was involved.
Now, the prior owner paid, was subject to significant fines.
He paid the price for these mistakes.
But there's a new owner who is John Chang.
Let me show you the tax clearance so you can see it.
Gosh, I'm with you.
There's our tax clearance, which we obtained yesterday.
Here's the floor plan and site plan.
You see here, here's the companion case here.
this the board this case here the board voted um in 2002 and this is our case here same backyard
we match identically the neighboring property and it is a corner property so if we were to not get
the variances today we would have to demolish a structure that's existing and again i do agree
that there were problems in the past but there is a new owner who has pulled the make safe permit
and has complied those violations and all that's left is this final piece of getting the zoning
straightened out so the house can be completed. Again, if we do not get the variances, we would
have an issue. We would have to actually demolish an existing structure. So that is why we are
claiming hardship. You can see over here, let me move my view. This is an older photo, but these
are the two twin houses. They're exactly identical. And again, the board voted this one favorably