The comprehensive plan recommends this property for residential multifamily zoning.
although there is
Although there is no documented hardship, planning staff believes that the proposed sign is in keeping with the nature of the signs on the adjacent property, which is the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the dimensional variance.
Thank you very much.
MI 2021-004976-16171 West Allegheny Avenue.
I vote yes.
Thomas Hollowan.
my vote is yes
Ishmael Shaheed my vote is yes
thank you counsel
thank you very much have a good afternoon
MI 2021
005013
the 31 North Front Street
RCO Fishtown Neighbors Association
letter of support
Matt Monroe attorney
Mr. Monroe, if you're in the virtual audience, can you raise your hand, please?
He's coming back in as a panelist now, Chair.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chairman.
all right you've already been sworn uh we just have several a few questions from mr holliman
for you sure good afternoon counselor do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal
and stipulate to his accuracy yes sir i do according to our records they've submitted
all of the required documents is that correct yes sir please proceed uh good afternoon uh
Chairman Bergman, members of the board, I'm happy to be here today on behalf of my client, Port Monarch LLC, which is the property owner and operator of the Evil Genius Beer Company at 1727 North Front Street.
We're here today on a very simple application. It's basically just for a dimensional variance
for a rear fence that's designed specifically just to prevent sound traveling from an outdoor
beer garden to the residential area behind them. I'll try to go through this quickly because I
know the board has a long calendar and we do have support from the Fishtown Neighborhood Association
as well as near neighbors. So I'll just go through this quickly. But I have submitted
the deed. And let me just go ahead and I'll share my screen.
Here we have the deed, the refusal, the application for appeal, all the RCO notice
letters went out, we do have a certificate of service in bulk mailing as required. And as you
can see here, the building was properly posted 21 days in advance of the hearing, as you can see
here. And what we have submitted, what you're looking at right now is just an elevation of
the steel fence that's going to go at the rear. Effectively, what they're doing is just putting
up a very solid slab of steel that extends 10 feet above grade under the code in this in this
zoning district you can't have a fence above eight feet but in order to ensure that the sound travel
that travels up like a cone goes up and over the houses and not back it needs to be at this height
And this is something that their architect, Russell Maloney, designed, specifically researched and got approval and support from the near neighbors.
I'm showing right now just a photograph of the beer garden that you can see in the rainbow color fence at the rear is roughly where it will be, though I imagine it will probably be right on the other side of that.
Um, and, uh, just, uh, so you can see here, we have the support letter from the Fishtong
Neighborhood Association.
Um, and, um, we were not able to get the, um, uh, tax certificate.
We were having a problem with, uh, technology, but I did include a, um, zero balance on the,
uh, real estate taxes, which we got.
And, um, so that's where we are, uh, today.
Is your, uh, is your client here?
You would want to adopt your testimony?
Yes, and Trevor, if you're here, if you could just raise your virtual hand on your Zoom so they can let you in.
Mr. Hayward, please unmute yourself or wait for the chair.
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sure. It's Trevor Hayward, T-R-E-V-O-R-H-A-Y-W-A-R-D.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed.
Okay. Mr. Hayward, did you hear the factual statements that I made on the record?
I did, yes.
and were they accurate yes do you adopt them as your testimony yes thank you and um chairman
bergman uh we did submit uh a um corrected plan uh that just had one correction uh to properly
show the elevation of the um of the fence at 10 feet in the zoning site plan it was that these
are the plans that were shared and so we forwarded a proviso form along with this application today
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr jim
mr monroe one one quick question have you had complaints uh uh in the in the past about the
the noise yeah i i think that there there were some uh initial complaints but my clients have
been in touch with and they keep communication with their close neighbors um and so this was
a solution that they came up with uh in the past to to address those issues all right thank you
questions or comments from the virtual audience chair we have mr sloan folks mr folks you can
unmute yourself and wait for the chair mr folks just state your name you've already been sworn
sloan folks office of councilman maria quiona sanchez uh chairman bergman zba board uh the
The applicant has no coordinating RCO and the community has received a letter of support from them.
Therefore, the councilman has no opposition to this various request.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Folks.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no other hands at this time, Chair.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair Bergman.
David Vecto, City Planning Commission.
Mr. Chairman, members of the board.
The Comprehensive Plan recommends no change to the commercial mixed-use zoning at this location.
While there is no hardship that would require an eight-foot-tall fence, the proposal would seem to have no impact on the adjacent properties, so the City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the height variance.
Thank you, David.
MI 2021-005013, 1727-31 North Front Street.
I vote yes with Proviso 10 feet.
Am I right?
Yes, sir.
Thank you.
Thomas Solomon, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with Proviso.
Thank you, Mr. Monroe.
Thank you very much.
mi 2021 0049882008 south third street gussie o'neill pennsport civic association letter of
non-opposition miss o'neill is coming back in as a panelist now chair thank you
Good afternoon.
Hi. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter, please?
Sure. Augusta O'Neill. My last name is spelled O-N-E-I-L-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Mr. Holliman has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon, Counselor. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal as it relates to his accuracy?
according to our records you have submitted all of the required documents is that correct
that's correct please proceed thank you so much i'm gonna share my screen
can everyone see that yes perfect okay thanks so much uh members of the board this afternoon
i'm here representing the owners of the property at 2008 south third street this property is
presently zoned RSA 5. Since 1962, the property has had two separate uses, with a floral shop
that was on the first floor of the building, and an apartment on the second half of the building.
This property is set up for those two different uses. It's got two different utility meters.
The two units inside are totally separate. The property down the street, just for context,
Next, we've got the Furnace High School on South 3rd Street.
This is where our property is.
There are a number of properties in this neighborhood that have.
There are a number of properties in this neighborhood that have, they're zoned RSA 5, but have businesses that are run from them, as you can see from the map that's on my screen.
My client intends to use this property to have its real estate office run out of the first floor where the florist shop used to be.
So as a result of the application, we received refusal for business and professional office because it's prohibited in the RSA 5 zoning district, as well as a refusal for having multiple principal uses in the same building.
The change in the florist, or I'm sorry, the change from having the business on the first
floor being a florist to a real estate office would represent a lesser trafficked use.
As we estimate, we would only get about one to two visitors at the location per day,
whereas obviously the floral shop received quite a bit more foot traffic to this location.
The designated RCO for the property is the Pennsport Civic Association.
we did meet with this RCO on February 7th of this year. The members of the community who
came out to that meeting voiced their support of the application, so we have a letter of
non-opposition. They agreed with us that this would have less of a use, I'm sorry, less of an
impact on their neighborhood than the previous uses of florists. So several of the neighbors
who came to the meeting uh expressed their support including the neighbor who is immediately adjacent
to this property a copy of the letter of non-opposition that we received from pensport
is submitted with my exhibit package beginning at page three so with that i would like to call
my client matt samola forward just to adopt my testimony and to make him available for any
questions that the board may have this afternoon. Mr. Samola, you can unmute yourself and please
wait for the chair. Could you state your name and spell for the court reporter? Matthew Samola,
M-A-T-T-H-E-W-S-E-M-O-L-A. Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth i do proceed mr small did you have a chance to hear my testimony this
afternoon yes and was everything that i represented to the board true and accurate yes and would you
like to adopt my testimony as your own yes um mr chair what questions from the board no mr chairman
No, Mr. Jim.
Questions in the virtual audience or comments?
Here, I see no hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Good afternoon, Chair Bergman, David Fecto, City Planning Commission, members of the board.
The comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning of this property.
The property has a documented history of commercial use,
and so the City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the use variance.
Thank you, David.
it MI 2021 004988 2008 South 3rd Street I vote yes Thomas Holloman my vote is yes Ishmael Shahid
my vote is yes thank you thank you so much all right thank you MI 2021 005018 2128 North Percy
street at this point no rco letter alan knockamson
mr knockamson is coming back in as a panelist now chair
good afternoon mr chairman board could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please
alan a-l-a-n last name knockamson n-o-c-h-u-m-s-o-n do you swear for him to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do mr knockam said at the same time can we do
21 20 or is that a separate oh i was going to ask uh the board if they can hear both at the same
am i am i 2021 005017 21 20 north percy street and uh mr hallman has questions for both good
afternoon counselor do you agree to weigh the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy i do according to our records there are some required documents not submitted such as the
RCO letter please respond yes actually I do have the RCO letter it's a letter in support the
the community unanimously approved this project it was in my presentation materials
unanimously uh approved this project it was in my presentation materials
okay thank you thank you may i share my screen yes
all right so i'm here to present 2120 and 2128 uh north percy street uh in my presentation packet
We will review the notices of refusal, the letter of support from APM, the coordinating RCO for this matter.
And as I indicated, 11 people showed up to this meeting, all in support of this project.
Nearby zoning variances of similarly situated RM1 properties.
These are both RM1 properties.
Essentially, we're here today because of the overlay, which requires per unit 425 square feet of lot size, while if we were under just general RM1, we would be allowed as a right.
We have maps of the area. It's Exhibit 4. Exhibit 5 are photographs of the property surrounding the area.
Exhibit 6 are plans and drawings. Exhibit 7 are meeting notices, showing that the notices went out for our community meeting and proof of mailing.
Exhibit 8 is our deeds of property, showing that Jacob Y. Mott, Inc. is the owner of the property.
and I have their representative, Dmitry Gorodetsky, who will adopt my testimony.
Exhibit 9 are our applications for appeal that we filed with the zoning board of adjustment
and Exhibit 10 are our certificates of tax clearance.
So first things first, again, just to highlight, both of these properties are RM1 properties.
uh we're essentially here because um we are within an overlay which requires 425 square feet
of a lot size per unit and we are 400 and we're just slightly short 2120 according to the city
796 square feet which if you know if this was straight rm1 we'd allow this right 2128 is 739
We have, you know, with both of these properties, we have an issue with the setback in terms of the deck.
Again, because of the shortness of the lot, you know, it would be very difficult to comply with the code.
And we have an open area or maximized occupied area refusal, again, because of the lot size.
And then the same thing is with 2128 North Percy Street as well.
So again, we met with the community, and they overwhelmingly supported this project.
We met with them on February 15th, and again, 10 people in support.
One person had no opinion, and because of that, they supported this project, and we got a lot of support.
Nearby variances, similarly situated.
This board granted one on May 21st of 2021 for 2144 North Darien Street, which is a nearby property.
Same thing for 2128 North Darien Street.
Again, RM1 properties, we're not trying to convert an RSA 5 property for multifamily use.
We're simply trying to use it for a duplex with the least modification that we can possibly do under the circumstances.
Showing maps of the area, again, you can see this entire area is either RM1 across the street.
It's actually I2.
And then we have the sprinkling of CMX2 as well.
Just, again, from a Google Maps perspective, where we are in the neighborhood,
We're between Diamond and West Susquehanna and 9th Street and North Delhi Streets.
Maps of the area.
Again, we are looking to put a three-story structure on 2120 North Percy Street.
And because of the size of the lot, it would be difficult for us to, you know, I think 2120 also has a refusal for the front setback.