basically for the parking i would believe
We do have the earth moving variance as well as a steep slope variance.
Some of these things we can't change because we are on a steep slope.
So during our presentation, we're first going to review quickly the original notice of refusal.
I noticed that there were a number of missions in the original notice of refusal.
So we asked L&I to amend the refusal.
to account for those additional variances we're requesting for. So exhibit two is the amended
notice of refusal. And then we have a petition that we circulated throughout the neighborhood
which shows support for this project. Then we have a correspondence from the Manionk
Neighborhood Council. So we did meet with them, I believe it was last Tuesday, regarding this
matter. Originally, we were supposed to meet on a Monday. There was like a confusion with the
current representative from the group. We had no issue meeting on a Tuesday. But, you know, again,
it originally was a Monday. Then we have illustrations of the 200 block of Greenock
Street and nearby of nearby off-street parking. And then we have maps of the area, photographs
of the property, our original architectural plans and drawings, but then we made some clarifications
with revised architectural plans and drawings, which is the basis of our amended notice and
refusal as well. Our RCO meeting notice, our application for appeal that we filed on behalf
of 251 Greenog ST LLC, our deed to property showing that entity owns the property, and the
certificate of tax clearance. At the conclusion of this matter, I would ask that Mr. Hardiman,
the owner's representative, who's also the member of the organization, virtually raise his hand.
I would ask AB sworn in, and then we can ask him some questions so he can adopt
my testimony as his own. And Mr. Hardiman may be able to answer some factual questions regarding
this matter as well all right so the noise refusal again we're not looking to increase density here
this is a single family uh sony classification what we're trying to do is is erect an attached
structure including a roof deck roof deck access structure um as well um as a another deck uh
including a front loading garage size and location um shown on the plans and the only refusal we
received was about the earth moving plan that we did not provide one i looked at it i said that you
know we're we're providing off-street parking so base level zoning because of the zoning
classification we would need a refusal we're also in an nco which uh does not allow for a front
loading garage so i understood you know that we would need another refusal uh so here is the
updated refusal specifically for this project. And if this board feels so inclined in October
to grant the variance request, I would ask that they grant it with proviso, with amended refusal
dated July 20th, 2023, you know, just for record keeping purposes. So three of the refusals,
the first three refusals all have to do with parking, as we understood the case would be.
The fourth refusal had to do with the earth moving plan or lack thereof that we provided.
And, you know, we'll provide that plan prior to next resumption here.
And then the last refusal has to do with earth disturbance.
So when you're on a steep slope like this, when there's more than 1,400 square feet of land area that's disturbed, that requires an additional refusal.
I will say that the majority of the earth disturbance is the building structure itself that we fall below that amount.
But for technical purposes, we are above 1,400 square feet.
So my client took it upon himself to personally go to members of this community.
And again, really the basic gist of this zoning variance request is parking and off-street parking in particular.
And you can see from the presentation, there are four other addresses on our block on Green Alk Street in support of this project.
There are a lot of addresses on RIPCA, which is parallel to us on Greenock.
ultimately is this, and you'll see this in our materials, this is a situation where we're not
Ultimately, is this, and you'll see this in our materials, this is a.
taking a parking spot off the street. And, you know, there was some issue about like, well,
there's parking allowed on the street. There's not. There's a no parking sign at the end of the
block. You'll look at the pictures. You'll see that. I even have a video. My client drove on
the block. And I would like to show that video shortly at the conclusion of my presentation,
which shows that there is there's no parking allowed on that side of the block so us creating
a curb cut is not taking a parking spot off the street so the thing is with this project which is
very particular is that where my client's property is there's not there the street's not paved it's
not completed so we're actually with this project extending our streets on greenock street where
we're creating two parking spots across the street so we're in in essence making a net
positive of three the reason why i'm discussing this is when my client was distributing the
petition a few a few members of the community that signed this you know stated it was a no-brainer
like the parking situation in maniunk is really hard it's there's not park there's not a lot of
parking in maniunk and to take one car off the streets by having a front-loading garage where
not taking you you're not eliminating a public parking spot on our side plus you're creating two
other parking spots across the street because we're extending the streets and having a net
positive of three many members of the community this willingly said of course i'm going to sign
this it's going to help the parking situation in manioc so anyway that's where we that's well
the gist of the petition and then here are the letters of support behind it
and then we got correspondence from the manning up neighborhood council
uh they did not think too kindly of our presentation um you know again they basically
it was this we're against front-loading garages this is part of our overlay and we're never for
it and i can understand conceptually that's the case a couple things to factor in again no parking
is allowed on our side of the street. We're actually extending the street out where we're
creating two parking spaces, which makes that even more unique than any zoning variance I've
ever asked for legalization of a front-loading garage. So that alone, there are particular
circumstances here. But what you'll see here is that no one in the affected area, at least how I
read this uh you know this letter no one with the affected area is against this project
the only people opposed to this project are mnc members which presumably is members of the board
of the manioc neighborhood council maybe some neighbors but no one within the affected area
actually voted against this project and if you look at their letter these are their issues a lot
of them are not even related to this matter the setback requirement there's a there's a reading by
the by the zoning examiner that stated that we complied with our setback requirement
the the manioc neighborhood council stated that the lni examiner was wrong and i said you know
we we actually double checked when we submitted the amended zoning uh application we even said
please look at this matter please make sure that that you're not wrong with this as well and they're
like no we're correct so there's no issue in terms of of of the setback and we'll show you on the
plans the next one deals with the front yard parking um we wanted to be set back in the front
it's a design element because of our steep slope which we can't avoid we wanted to have
habitable space like technically it's below but it's really not and how we're creating that light
and air for that lower level that's all above grades essentially because of the slope is that
we have holes like you know great a great basically as our driveway so it's a unique design feature
and we're asking to have it you know the buildings you know set back in the front to be able to
provide the light and air necessary for those for those other floors which we want to make
habitable that are all above grade. Then going to habitable space there there's an interpretation
that this board at the Manioc neighborhood council is making stating that we're not providing
habitable space in the front of the first floor in violation of their overlay. We don't agree
We don't agree with that interpretation. Actually, the City Planning Commission reached out to us recently specifically about this, whether we have habitable space, so we're not in violation of code.
with that interpretation actually the city planning commission
It was stated to us by Alex Smith and Aaron Hawley of the City Planning Commission that they wanted to make sure that we've dealt with this appropriately because they didn't want a situation where we got ZBA approval for a variance.
we get to the building permit stage and then we have this open item so we had a very detailed
meeting with them throughout the whole project I said let's not only talk about the habitable space
I want to make sure we comply with all the other requirements of the overlay and if we don't then
I would like to make sure that that's part of any refusal they confirmed to us that we met the
habitable space requirement because our 4a area which is not really a 4a area is more like a study
because we would have seating there, we would have maybe a desk there, it is habitable. And
they were in agreement, given the largeness of the space, given the functionality of the space,
that's not an item. But again, that's the second item that was brought up to us
as this L&I missed a refusal. And again, I feel like it's more so that they're missing refusals,
or we're not happy with the fact that you're doing off-street parking in violation of our
overlay. But during that meeting with Mr. Smith and Mr. Holly, we went through all of the requirements
of the overlay. And according to them, because I was there at that meeting, we met all the
requirements other than the front-loading garage requirements. And that's why we're here today.
And then the parking. The developer offered a series of off-street parking examples from the
area. They predate the current zoning, predate the NCO, and are not in a Ridge Park overlay.
Again, my philosophy in zoning variance law in Philadelphia is simple, and this board has heard
it before. If I walk by the property built or used as proposed, does it stick out like a sore thumb
or is it something that fits within the fabric of the community? Maniunk has a really difficult
parking situation. I take my dog. Every other week, I go to Maniunk and go on Main Street to
give him a bath. It's really hard to find parking around there, right? So if we can alleviate the
situation in Manningham by providing off-street parking where we're not taking away a public
parking spot by creating a curb cut there. Plus, we're adding two parking spaces because we're
extending the street out. Well, that makes sense. But not even that, it's on that block. There are
multiple instances on our side of Greenog where parking's not allowed, where there are curb cuts.
maybe yes they do they predate uh the overlay yes but it makes sense like again i feel like
the you know the manioc neighborhood council which i respect i think they're great i think
they're sophisticated i think they ask the right questions and i think most times are reasonable
here i don't think they're being reasonable i think they're trying to cut off their nose to
spite their face at least for the community because they're making the parking situation worse
What they're saying is build a single-family home with no off-street parking, put that car on the street with everyone else where there's a humongous problem in Manioc.
And the next thing they talk about, any claims related to the street appear to be speculative.
They talk about us creating that sidewalk, whether it's a public street.
You know, there was a whole discussion during the meeting. Well, this is not even an open street. This is not a public street. Well, we got records from the city, which shows that that's a public street, you know, specifically for this hearing, because I didn't even think this was an issue, a zoning issue, but we decided to do our due diligence and get that. And we have confirmation in these in open streets.
um they talk about mr knockamson mr knockamson could you go back one minute sure the the issue
about the you had correspondence from the streets department they said they never received it
what's that about correspond let's see hold on let me see a closer they assert that they they
they had discussions through the streets department and offers us a copy of the
correspondent. I don't know. Again, we share everything. So I apologize if we missed something.
No, no. I'm just curious what the correspondence was about. That's all.
I don't know. Alex Goldberg from my office.
Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Yes. So the earthmoving plan report, yes, we're going to provide that. And that's where we're
asking for the resumption hearing. And finally, about heritage trees. Our building footprint
is not large and we purposefully put our building footprint where we don't expect where we where the
And we purposefully put our building footprint where we don't expect, where the trees aren't, right?
trees aren't
We actually, one of the benefits of this lot, not only is it a steep slope, but it's surrounded by trees.
If in any way there needs to be a removal of heritage trees, which we don't believe would be the case, we are required by the building code to replace them.
And that's what we plan to do.
We want to create this type of foresty feel.
So again, I think that's also a red herring where they bring up all these things, but it ultimately comes down to this. They don't want off-street parking on this lot. And they're giving every reason why this project is wrong, but they don't really go to the crux of it. They try to add everything. This is just a single-family home on a single-family neighborhood that has off-street parking where there's much off-street parking similar to this.
and then here are the examples 283 Greenock Street I try to stay within our block or within
the block 255 Greenock Street 257 Greenock Street 275 and 277 Greenock Street 279 and 281 Greenock
Street this is the parking site on our side of the street at the beginning of the block
no parking anytime this is our hearing notice poster right you can see we're like there's a
house down on the bottom that's not ours but you'll see from the aerial view what I'm talking
about like how this is a unique property these are not in the NCO but these are properties that
are nearby which both would have front loading garages 450 4579 boon 266 cramps and then here
are all these properties which run parallel to us on Ripka Street, where it's 278-60 Ripka Street,
all front-loading garages. 304-08 Heritage, 4745-55 Sheldon, again, front-loading garages.
And then maps of the area, again, very unique property. But here we are on Greenog Street here.
and then just from a google maps perspective and then this is what we got from the streets
department so here's greenock street here's fowler we're on the other side of fowler and
you can see there's a there's a street here same thing here we received uh from the city
and then photographs the property so we're essentially right here you can see there
you know another thing they stated was like here you're taking away two parking spots from us
because these two cars here cars illegally parked at the on the dead end of public street is not
public parking it's just someone conveniently using it but that's not public parking but it's
a very unique uh uh lot and then here's green nog street from our perspective right everyone's
parked on this side we're on this side it's not happen chance that we're like you know that there's
no one parked on this side. First of all, there's a no parking sign at the beginning of the block.
Secondly, if someone parked on this side and someone parked on this side, there would be no
streets. You couldn't go through the streets. And then this is where we are over here, but this is
the dead end, right? We're extending the street out and we're going to be creating two legal
parking spots. So hopefully those two cars, which are not parked legally, will have a place to park.
And then these are original plans, which you don't have to worry about, but these are our revised plans. Again, the rendering. We're trying to really make it pretty because it's, again, a very unique property. But unfortunately, if we don't get the off-street parking, it's going to be fairly difficult for us to sell this property. That means you may never get built.
And again, as you know, when my client Darren Hardiman
canvassed the neighborhood and he'll be testifying,
that was stated over and over.
It's like the last thing this neighborhood needs
is another building structure
with no parking associated with it.
Here, we're doing a building structure
where there are three parking spots associated with it.
Two created on the street, one created off the street.
And then this is just another angle.
Again, very unique property
were nestled in this foresty area
and we purposefully situated this property
that we're gonna do as least damage to that as possible.
And if we have to relocate trees,
my client's more than ready, willing, and able to do it.
And again, you just see the slope
where the front part of the property doesn't look that high.
You go to the back part of the property,
it's really deep and humongous and there's four stories.
And it's just a very pretty, unique property for someone who's really interested in buying into Maniunk with parking.
with parking. And then this is, again, our site plan. This goes to the earth disturbance variance.
And then this is...
So 1,283 square feet of earth disturbance for the building coverage. And then there's an
additional earth disturbance of 229 square feet at the front of the property, where there is no
issue with the terms of steep slope. But we get over that 1,400 square foot requirement
when you're dealing with a steep slope matter so that's a technical refusal and then if you can see
here too in terms of this is the street extension right we're extending it's going to be wide of 33
feet 10 and a half inches two cars can fit now across the street and if you want to take it