Mr. Monroe, if you're in the audience, could you please raise your hand?
Thank you.
He should be coming back in as a panelist now, chair.
Mr. Monroe, state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please.
Boy, it looks like we're having a problem today.
do we see him
i see him chair i tried to promote him
mr monroe can you raise your hand again
he's coming back as a panel thank you
thank you mr monroe could you i'm good morning sorry could you state your name and spell for
the court reporter please uh yes uh good morning uh chairman bergman uh matthew monroe law
2030 pemberton street philadelphia 19146 right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the
whole truth and nothing but the truth i do the vice chair has a few questions
Ms. Monroe, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I agree to waive the reading of the refusal, Vice Chair Tenere, but we don't stipulate to the accuracy because, as we noted at the RCO meeting and previously, we believe that there was an open area refusal that should have been included and was not included on the refusal.
So that was an additional refusal that we just wanted to note for the board.
Okay. It appears that you submitted all the required documents. Is that correct?
Yes, we did.
Okay, you may proceed.
And thank you, Vice Chair Tenere and Chairman Bergen.
In the event that the ZBA votes in favor of this application, which we hope you will,
we did submit proviso plans with a form last night to be adopted.
um chairman bergman this is a uh um i'm pleased to be here on behalf of my client uh uh joe dean
and uh who's this uh 1930 hoffman was a family home uh it's been in uh in the missoula family and
joe missoula's family uh for decades uh he's been working in uh los angeles with plans to
return to Philadelphia where he attended high school, grew up, and his grandmother was very
active in the neighborhood and part of the block. Joe and his husband, Vince, are planning to move
Joe and his husband Vince are planning to move back with Joe's mother and they're planning to
back with Joe's.
come back to the family home in 1930 Hoffman Street which has been in the family as I said
for decades and in order to make a livable home for three adults in what is a pretty small two
story home row home in Philly with just a very small 644 square foot lot they're seeking to add
a third story edition. Of course, as the board knows, a third story edition is available as of
right. But in this instance, some dimensional variances are required in order to make a livable
space for three adults. So what we have is essentially just taking the two-story row home,
adding a third story uh with a with a roof deck and uh this is in an arm one zoning district i
think that the the refusal that we have that's an issue uh primarily is the um uh is the front
setback requirement which we received a refusal for and um uh and that's i think what we'll be
discussing primarily but just to kind of go through some of the preliminaries i've attached
in my exhibit packet, the deed at Exhibit 1, the refusal, which we've gone over, the application
for the petition for appeal, and the, I'm sorry, the petition for appeal with the
notice to the community. We have a certificate of bulk mailing as required under the regulations,
and uh the house was properly posted as you can see here and um here we have some of the plans
and just i'll scroll to the bottom uh for the board's edification we do have a tax cert um and
we did have a placeholder we did not receive a letter from the point breeze develop community
development coalition but we did attend the a well-attended meeting um there um so as you can
see here at 1930 Hoffman Street, we have the photograph of the existing home and the proposed
home. The project has been designed by S2 architects, S2 design, Christopher Stromberg and
Emily Stromberg. They've been, they're South Philadelphia architects. They've done a ton
of residential properties. Both Christopher and Emily have been involved in the community
boards and are familiar with the process here. And it was really important both to Joe,
the primary client, and to Christopher to maintain that what is traditionally a South
Philadelphia looking home. As you can see, the brick facade that they proposed is they want to
bring that back. So as you can see, there's been sort of appears to be Baltimore stone on the
bottom. They want to clear that out, either restore the brick or bring back the brick facade
and to maintain the stoop there. I think that the one issue, and it's just something that
Christopher Stromberg has been successful in this board, has seen as a fit and reasonable
design fixed whenever somebody's coming in and does, as we believe, have a hardship in order to
eliminate that eight-foot setback at the front, and that is to create a mansard roof.
So you can maintain that cornice line. As you can see right here, it draws up the eye,
eye, but you have a slope on the mansard roof with a traditional slate looking tile, or sorry,
it's not tile, but the slate roofing, it's actually a rubber material that they'll be using, but it
looks exactly like slate when you see it. But we have a very small row home, and they're looking
to expand it, as I mentioned. If you go down to the floor plans, you can see that they're
looking to make some changes uh on the on the ground floor just to open up make more livable
space uh to have a bedroom on the second floor uh and a bedroom slash home office on the second
floor as well um presumably that's where joe's mother would be uh living and then on the third
floor is the um as the primary bedroom and uh in the bath and then a pilot house going up to the
roof deck. As I mentioned, we do have some refusals for the rear yard. We do not have
what we anticipated to be an open area refusal, but we do have a rear yard.
a open area refusal but we do have a rear yard refusal and as you can see here from the site
plan and elevation and this is the one that was submitted with the proviso plans and was presented
to the community is that the this is not a case where they're trying to go any bigger
than what's already there the existing footprint of the two-story structure is the existing footprint
that they're building over. The reason why we have a refusal here at the third story is because
if you just go straight up, there's the existing rear yard. We're not asking to make it any smaller.
We're just going straight up. And when you have a pre-existing legally non-conforming structure
as this one is, and then you extend above that, that extension of the pre-existing legally
non-conforming structure is deemed to be a refusal. And so that's why we have that. But
just to be clear, the rear yard is going to stay the exact same depth and area that it currently
exists in. And just to draw the board's attention to the front here, you can see how that mansard
roof slopes back to the rear and at the top of the cornice line, at the top of the cornice right
here, which Christopher Stromberg is seeking to develop. We met with the community and there were
a handful of folks who came out from the block in support of the project. I think some of the
comments that we heard were from some people in the neighborhood who were concerned about a third
story without the setback as a precedential issue. I would just submit to the board that
from what we heard, the comments were not coming from near neighbors. They were coming from some
community members who do have experience in the RCO and community process, but I would just
submit that these were more, they were founded in understandable concerns, I think, but at
the same time, some were just related to a general concern about eliminating a setback
rather than the particulars of this particular proposal, which really seeks to just make
this home a livable home. And it is based on the small lot size, as I mentioned, is about just over
600, I think 644 square feet, which is less than half of the minimum RSA 5 and minimum RM 1
lot size under the existing code, which is 1,440 square feet. So it's based on that. And the fact
that we do have the right to build up to a third story, but because of this very small lot size and
very small footprint for the home in order to make it livable. The hardship is that we need to
have that extension just to make use of the full third floor. There's also some cost considerations
when you're building up the cost differential between adding the roof or the third story
without the setback versus with, it's negligible, but you just lose such a substantial amount of
the space. And then on top of that, we're just seeking to maintain the block. As I mentioned,
Joe is from the, he grew up in South Philly, went to high school in South Philly, he's been working
in LA and just looking to come home. And I believe architect Christopher Stromberg is here
And if Joe is on the call, I think you might be calling if he could raise his virtual hand.
Right. Why don't we do that? Why don't you have him adopt your testimony, please?
Sure. Joe, are you on the call? Mr. Mazzulla?
Mr. Mazzulla, if you're in the virtual audience, please raise your hand.
I believe he may be calling in, so I'm not sure if that's possible.
And I can tell you what his phone number is.
He is on.
I have a text message from him.
Do you know what the last four digits of his number is?
Okay, I see the phone number, but he needs to raise his hand.
Okay, I see the phone number, but he needs to raise his hand, even though he's on the phone.
Okay, Joe, can you hear that? Can you raise your hand from your phone?
Counsel, you're an officer of the court. We'll take your testimony.
As an officer of the court, I will say that I will represent to you that my client has texted me and said he has got my testimony.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chair.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, we have Pietra Gamble with her hand up.
Ms. Gamble, please unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
scramble yes i think you i swore you before right yes the previous one could you do me a favor just
state your name peter gamble right and could you give us your comments again this is another
project i just received the votes yesterday i will be sending a support letter for this project
thank you very much
so we're going to close the record
we will not vote
or the planning commission will not take
position
until we've received the letter
Tanya is that okay
thank you very much council
thank you very much chairman
MI 2021
421-0044652 McPherson Street, RCO East Mount Airy, Neighbors, Letter of Support, Vern Anastasio.
Mr. Anastasio is coming back in as a panelist now.
mr anastasio just state your name you've already been sworn
good morning verne anastasio v-e-r-n last name a-n-a-s-t-a-s-i-o
our vice chair has a few questions for you hi mr anastasio do you agree to wait through
the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy i do it appears that you've sent all the required
documents in, is that correct? Correct. Great, you may proceed. Thank you. I'm going to share my screen.
It says my screen sharing is paused.
I'm going to try again.
I think I got it this time.
Do you see it, Mr. Chair?
We do.
Make it just a little larger.
Of course.
How's that?
all right great may i proceed yep thank you this is uh an application for the use
excuse me as a three-family dwelling in an existing structure um this property
is zoned rsa5 but as you'll see and here's the uh the uh drawn to scale at the
first level, the first floor, and then the second level, all in excess of 600 square feet.
It's a very unusual property. As you can see, it's over 8,000 square feet. The home sits here
on the corner. There's a common driveway and then another large lot in the back.
The house is a corner property. It already has multiple electric meters. It has two entrances, one here, one here, and then a front entrance as well.
additional shots of the corner we have interior photos again this has been
multi-family for quite some time there's a long history of it here's the electric it is hardwired
for fire also has three separate furnaces these are not new they've been there for just about
also has three separate furnaces these are not new they've been there for just about ever
and then the history of the property has always been three units either a three family dwelling
right here 1947 or later on a two family dwelling with some sort of commercial space
but it's always been three units and that hasn't changed and we have a documented evidence of that
from the 40s from the 50s all the way to the 80s um and that's you know obviously with the
separate utility accounts the three separate entrances it's pretty apparent that this
that's what this property is and with that we did in fact meet with the RCO
East Mountain Area Neighbors Association at a public meeting on the 23rd of February
and we have a letter of non-opposition actually a letter of support I stand corrected a letter of
support that the variance be granted given the history of the property given the layout of the
property and given the hardship it would cause to get this property into compliance
after 70 some odd years there's proof of mailing to 83 individual households
and with that we respectfully request that the variance be granted it is on a corner property
where multi-families or mixed use seem to be more acceptable to the planning commission we do hope
given the history that they feel the same way with that I'd like Mr. Amanati to raise his hand
so that Bob if you could raise your hand so that you could be acknowledged
Mr. Amanetti, you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair.
Good morning.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Yes, Robert Amanetti, R-O-B-E-R-T-A-M-O-N-I-T-T-I.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Proceed.
Thank you.
Mr. Amaniti, did you hear my presentation to the board this morning?
Was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Yes, it's true.
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I have nothing else.
I'm open for questions.