design
could you state your name and spell for the stenographer
Agata Reister
A-G-A-T-A
R-E-I-S-T-E-R
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed, counsel.
You've heard my representations to the board?
Are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
I guess with the correction of the access to the parking space, Matthew runs an HVAC company,
and what he wanted was an office that he can also bring in materials,
potentially park a vehicle if possible.
The space will be finished.
What you see in the front elevation is a garage door with the man door.
Occasionally there might be a unit that will have to be delivered
and stored temporarily in there.
Sometimes they are larger than 36 inches.
He will be able to then open the garage door up and store the material
and then bring the material out.
but it is intended to be a nice finished space
with basically having the flexibility
to accommodate his professional business
that he has right now.
It's really, it's like storage and loading dock
more than it is permanent parking space.
Like, is your truck going to be in there every day?
No, no.
Only when you have to load and load things out.
Any other questions on the board?
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions from the audience?
Questions from the virtual audience?
There are no questions, Chair.
Amy Board with the planning commission.
um the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the rsa 5 residential single-family zoning
at this location the city zoned this property in 2018 in accord with recommendation from the
comprehensive plan at this time the zoning of this property had been single-family since 1972.
this is a 1636 square foot lot neither unusually narrow nor unusually deep there are no unique
physical circumstances or conditions that would prevent the property from being used in strict
conforming with the zoning code this is a primarily residential single-family block face
and we also note that they may be missing a parking refusal for front loading in rsa5
the city planning commission recommends the board deny the proposed use variances for multiple
principal uses to family use and business and professional office mi 2024 005 791 22 2060
Finagle Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Iowan, my vote is yes.
Mr. Milo Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Mr. Chairman, have a great day.
Number 14, MI 2024-005-826-1222 South Harmony Street, Henry Clinton is the attorney.
we clear this coming in as a panelist
thank you mr chairman i can counsel could you please state your name and spell for the
court stenographer? Sure. Henry Clinton, H-E-N-R-Y Clinton, C-L-I-N-T-O-N. Do you swear or affirm to
tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? I do. Mr. Clinton, could you identify
your client or relationship to this property? Sure. My client is Cormac McAleer, C-O-R-M-A-C
McAleer, M-C-A-L-E-E-R. And he's on the call. You have unanimous support from the Grace Ferry
coalition and our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon counsel do you agree to wait to
read another refusal or stipulate to his accuracy i do mr shaheed have you emailed in all the
required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance
of this hearing i have thank you counsel please proceed and share your screen thank you
is that visible mr chairman it is sir great again good afternoon mr chairman members of
the board, Henry Clinton, on behalf of Cornick McAleer. This is a proposal for a single-family
home in an I-2 zoning district with a garage on a block that is primarily residential,
although I'll show you there's some industrial, and several of the homes on the block already have
garages and a curb cut and directly across the street. The industrial buildings also have curb
cuts. I'll walk you through the presentation. Table of contents A1 through A10, which I ask
be admitted. Refusal being the key document. This is in an I-2 zoning district, and I'll show you
the zoning map. The whole area is I-2, but it's primarily residential. We have refusal for
proposed use. Single-family household living is prohibited in the industrial district,
and our rear yard depth is supposed to be eight feet. It's only six,
but we are matching the depth of the houses on either side.
And as the chairman mentioned, we do have support from the Grace Ferry Coalition of Neighbors.
Photographs. So this is certainly an interesting part of the city.
This is the furthest point you can go in South Philadelphia until it becomes West Philadelphia.
This is the Grace Ferry Avenue Bridge. Once you cross that bridge, you're then in West Philadelphia.
And this is known as the Crescent.
Those familiar with the bike path, the bike path is going to wrap around this crescent, jump over a bridge and head all the way out to Bartram Garden.
So that's a little bit of background. But this whole area was industrial at one time.
But you can see there's all single family homes to the south.
There's a FedEx building to the west. And then the Pennovation Center is right here at 34th and Grace Ferry.
And then there's an incinerator trash area for trash trucks right here.
So the property is right here.
This is a close-up.
It's a vacant lot right now.
This is the residential properties on the west side of the street.
You can see the three homes that are to the north, actually constructed by my client,
are going to be basically reflected in the same type of home that he's going to build,
hopefully on this vacant lot.
This is a shot looking south on Harmony Street,
looking north on Harmony Street,
and then showing you the industrial slash commercial buildings
that are across the street.
Proof that the signs were posted, giving everyone notice.
And here are the plans.
So for this particular structure, instead of using metal siding on the front,
Mr. McAleer has decided to go with the standard red brick, which is preferred in the Bryce Ferry
neighborhood. One door to enter the single-family home and a garage door. There will be no basement.
This will be built on slab. We do have streets approval. This is a stamp at the bottom of this
plan indicating there's ample turning radius to get in and out of the garage. And I'll address
And I'll address the rear yard right now. So you can see that we're equal to the depth of the house to the north and we're less than the depth of the house to the south.
the rear yard right now. So you can see that we're equal to the depth of the house.
So our rear yard is six feet and then there's a three foot alleyway behind that.
Floor plan, relatively straightforward. I'll start from the left and move right.
First floor is a garage, as I said, slab on grade, a powder room, rear door to get to the yard.
You would come in the front door, go up to the second floor, have a living dining area and the kitchen in the rear.
Third floor, two bedrooms and a bath and our access to the roof for rooftop deck.
This is just, again, showing the turning radius in and out of the garage and also the sight lines from the middle of the block down to Wharton Street.
This is our application for appeal, project information form, our tax clearance, zoning map.
Again, as I mentioned several times, you can see this whole area was one time was industrial, I-2, but it's more residential now than it ever was, and it's continuing to trend in that direction.
The deed indicating ownership by Mr. McAleer, notice letter to the community, advising of the community meeting in early January, as well as the ZBA hearing today, proof of mailing, and that's really the presentation.
So what we're asking for is a single-family home on a block where there are numerous single-family homes already across the street from some industrial properties.
The facade will be all brick.
It's going to be in between two homes, a two-story on the one side and an existing three-story on the north side.
We're basically in harmony with, maybe not in harmony with the code because of the I-2 zoning district, but in harmony with the uses on the block, primarily residential.
We're not impacting any adjacent properties, light or air.
We are also not impacting any type of open air space or height.
We're all in conformance with that.
The request is basically a residential use in an industrial zoned area with a front loaded garage.
That's my presentation, Mr. Chairman.
Certainly, I'd ask my client to unmute himself.
Mr. McAleer, if you're still on the call, can you unmute yourself to adopt a testimony?
I know he was on the call starting at 930, so I don't know.
Counsel, we will gladly accept your testimony.
Is that Mr. McAleer now?
Yeah, he's there.
He should be coming in now.
Mr. McAleer, could you put your video on, please?
Mr. McAleer. Yes. Hello. Hi. Could you put your video on?
That's on. Okay. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Please proceed, counsel. Mr. McAleer,
were you on the call when I presented your project at 1222 South Harmony Street?
yes and did you hear what i said about your project
yes and if you had the opportunity to testify would you adopt my testimony
as your own and as true and correct
yes thank you mr mackalair questions for the board did you confirm that there was a full
uh support for this project well the support from the community group yes yes uh
three three um where is here it was three support none against okay so only three folks okay
any other questions questions from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the audience questions or comments from the
virtual audience there are there are no hands chair
with the planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this
location from i2 medium industrial to rsa5 residential single family this neighborhood
this neighborhood still carries the original zoning from the 1933 zoning maps the proposed
still carries the original zoning from the 1933 zoning maps the proposed
zoning of rsa 5 would allow single-family use and the proposal for six foot deep rear yard
matches the character of the other homes in this block base the planning commission recommends that
the board grant the requested variances for rear yard and single-family dwelling thank you mi2024
MI 2024-005-826-1222 South Harmony Street, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, my vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Tyowin, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shahi, my vote is yes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Is there anyone in the audience whose 930 case has not been called?
We're going to go to our 2 p.m. list.
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this meeting.
We're going to take a moment of silence at the beginning for the terrible airplane crash that the city experienced and the response from the city and all the people who were there and from the police to the fire to the utility workers.
So we're just going to take about a one minute break.
Thank you very much. With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Cheryl L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Tenetta Graham.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our Board Member, Taya Nguyen.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is our Attorney, Hillary Emerson, and Ian Haggerty, our Executive Director of Zoning.
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