infrastructure on the street and as i said it was not built for this many homes it is i was told in
the community meeting this is where i learned this information for the first time it is an undersized
sewer pipe in quote terrible condition that is what the board said at the prior meeting in this
case for the whole block yes there are about 17 homes on this street that access this sewer pipe
it was not built for that so this is apparently a known problem that again i only learned from
the board in the community meeting they said the last time development came up on this street
the neighbors filled the room 30 people all complaining about this my assumption is that
those people sold to us because the neighbors on the street don't really seem to know this now
so i was told this is an undersized sewer pipe in quote terrible condition that could cost
millions to excavate and repair we do not have a homeowners association on the street
there are two small water drain inlets for 17 homes and a prior contractor destroyed one of
the dreams with the construction of one of these homes by letting the concrete
drain into the storm drain
moving on to the basement um there are basements have water problems on this street there should
not be a basement put in in this property it makes no sense for the new owner to then
assume responsibility for i'm going to object uh for she i don't know what her knowledge is in
terms of the other properties uh plus like you know she's it's bordering on expert testimony
in terms of you know what she thinks about this property as well so so what you know to be true
yourself i own the home that is adjacent to this lot and i get water in my basement uh 907 south
Shell street. Um, there is no egress from the basement. So, um, correct. So I don't know what
an egress well from a basement is, but I am not aware of any basement on this street having egress
from the basement. Um, mine certainly does not. Um, as I mentioned, the egress, I did not occur
to me when I built the home. You built that house yourself? Well, no. You bought the home. I bought
the home. I might have misspoken. I apologize. Sure. So it did not occur to me when I purchased
the home that there is no egress from the upper floors of my home. Okay. And obviously that is a
problem not only with respect to fires, but domestic violence, burglaries, any number of
situations. The new, let's assume for a moment that this home gets built. How would the buyers
know about the stormwater problems on the street and the egress problems so they're inheriting a
problem that is either being caused or worsened by the city granting these variances that
is not being fixed by the city because the city doesn't claim ownership over the sewer
with respect to the construction plan in this particular project at the last meeting
no real plan was presented for construction logistics beyond a mini excavator and planks.
Shell Street is a pedestrian street. Cars cannot come down. So every home that has been built on
So, every home that has been built on the street has caused a problem for the neighbors, including the most recent build, a truck got stuck and the neighbors were expected to climb over the truck in order to get to their homes.
the street has caused a problem for the neighbors.
so i i would not personally be comfortable with this board granting a variance absent a much
clearer plan for how materials will be brought down the street how it will affect the adjacent
properties including the fact that i already get water in my basement and all of the homes on the
street and some homes that are not on shell street but are on montrose the adjacent street
all tie into the same sewer that as i mentioned is so i'm going to object in the sense that there's
No, I don't even know how relevant it is, but you know she's making allegations regarding the sewer line.
I don't know what's what again. This is a single family zoning classification.
We want to put a single family home here. It sounds like if there is any type of development, she would be against it.
well why don't you continue thank you let's just try yeah yeah
um i will point out for the board that water was not mentioned at the last meeting so i assume
this team probably learned of these storm water issues along with me
and the sewer issues, but a plan has not been presented to this board for what they're going
to do about that. And I learned from the last hearing that the board advised that all of the
neighbors who can get ran barrels. However, with new construction, gutters are internal. They're
on the interior of the home. So ran barrels will not help. So no matter what happens, we know we
have an inadequate sewer for all of the homes on the street without a plan of how to fix that
why don't you try to sum up where you i think that's all if i could just have a brief moment
so i would assume you're against this project i am and my understanding is that i have several
neighbors in the zoom as well i know they were there at two o'clock i don't know if they're
still problem do you have any questions yeah would you be against any development for this property
uh well if you can build in compliance with existing zoning law then i don't really have
a basis for objecting for that but the neighbors currently use the lot i actually offered to buy
the lot so it's not that the lot would uh merely go to waste for the city but but your issues
regarding the inadequate like uh piping that's in the street it doesn't matter the size of the lot
i mean the size of the building structure of course if we we built it by right you know we
wouldn't be here but it would have the same issues regarding stormwater inadequate piping below
there would be no change in in what your issues are with and the construction issues too none of
those issues would change if it was a by right project or a variance project well i would have
no basis for opposing a by right project so no i get it but the issues that you're talking about
would be the same whether it's a buy right project or a variance project right
no it would not and here's why that lot is the only permeable surface on the street
the zoning code requires i believe it's a seven foot yard so under existing zoning code they are
not permitted to build on this street because a yard is required for the street the fact that
the city in years past granted variances does not mean it is safe or healthy to build on this lot now
so why don't we do this let me see if there's anyone yeah of course okay um and thank you
you've been sitting there yeah but one one question sure you you have no rear yard right
that's correct thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes mr chair i have a hand up from a joe banks i will allow them to speak
can you hear me
i can't hear you chairman can you please state your name is spelled for the stenographer uh joe banks
j-o-e-b-a-n-k-s do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do um proceed um this is the first i'm hearing about it i was notified by um by my neighbor
um i live behind on darien street and i do have a backyard and this is as she stated the only
permeable space on the property and um as the lawyer was trying to argue about knowing about
what's going on there was a property on the other side of shell opposite this proposed development
that did get water in the basement and did have a big issue and did have construction happening overnight.
that did get water in the basement and did have a big issue and did have construction happening
overnight that was a nuisance to me behind her block. So with respects to what the city allows,
doesn't allow charges, taxes towards properties that are only walkable, which Darien is an only
walkable street too, to add property to Shell Street will take away from the fact that when
I bought this over a decade ago, there weren't three or four of the developments. So these issues
are compounding based on developers that come in and do what they're doing. I believe this gentleman
was the developer on the one next to this site. And I believe they claimed that it was going to
be their son was going to live in it and they sold it. So I think we get lied to a lot as property
owners and as neighbors. And if they have issues with stormwater, it's going to compound onto our
block and if the city's not going to take ownership and charge the same taxes to a walkable
street as someone who can drive up to their street that's not fair to folks and these guys
are trying to develop something and then pass it on a problem to someone else all right thank you
very much for your time is there you have any questions alan no no is there anyone else in
the audience no further answer mr chair planning commission i do have a couple questions as a
follow up to the testimony with my from my client sure go ahead all right um raphael um we showed
you a a buy right option which would include a one bedroom on the third floor a bathroom and a
laundry facility on the second floor and no living room whatsoever on the first floor just the
kitchen is that something that you would be able to build financially and sell uh no okay
and and why is that because I mean one bedroom there's no there's no living room apparently so
it's not worth to build and you know it's you would make no money on money at all okay thank
you thank you planning commission Michael Gall with the Philadelphia City Planning Commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing RSA five residential single
family attached zoning at this location the appellant has demonstrated that the lot cannot
support building in conformance with the zoning codes dimensional requirements therefore the city
planning commission recommends the board grant the requested variance for rear yard depth
um alan there was an awful lot said here and i really do have to sit and talk to our group um
i'm actually going to put this off two weeks so that i'm not killing myself
next week with the amount of people so what's that date
chair that would be august 26th at 2 p.m august 26th at 2 p.m we want we'll vote
in yes that's correct chair august we'll do is we're going to take this to executive session
that morning okay all right uh did he adopt my testimony i don't think he can if you want go
ahead yeah i just want for record keeping perfectly yeah yeah uh raphael you heard everything i had
state today about your zoning matter yes is it true and correct yes and do you adopt this your
own testimony and we'd like to move these exhibits into the record we are good thank you um all right
uh alan who's who's next um you can you can go online you can listen online
the outcome yep all right thank you um reese street you got reese street uh that's alex
Okay, Alex, very good.
Yes, you did.
all right number six mi2026
zero zero one seven seven six 28 59 to 61 north free street um
mr goldberg is our attorney could you state your name because it's already been sworn in
alex goldberg could you identify your client in relationship to this property
sure my client is dune mfg llc and it's representative joseph varis is sitting to
my left all right our vice chair has a few questions good afternoon have you submitted
your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing i have and do you waive the
reading now the refusal is to relate to its accuracy i do all right thank you share your
screen and proceed i'll try to be efficient to get the board back on on track uh this is a property
that is zoned for single-family living, RSA 5, but has a long non-residential history.
non-residential history. My understanding is it served as a furniture warehouse for a furniture
My understanding is it served as a furniture warehouse for...
manufacturer that operated on 5th Street. This property is obviously on North Rees Street.
My client is an artist. He's a metal fabricator that does large-scale and small-scale pieces for
displays and other types of things like that. I have a sample of some of his work and he currently
has a space that is at American Street and Diamond Street that he's grown out of. His
business is going well. He needs a space that's a little bit larger to do larger scale pieces
and he's hoping to be able to utilize this building structure. It's attractive and, you know,
we're hoping to obviously give it some tlc on the facade as well as some renovation work to the
interior to be able to fit his needs we are dealing with one refusal for artist studio and
artisan industrial um again he works with metal mostly to you know build his pieces i'll give you
a flavor of what kind of equipment he uses but he can obviously at the end answer more detailed
questions static tooling for bending mechanical non-electric tools some pneumatic bending tools
a horizontal bandsaw and tig welding which my understanding produces no no smoke no spark
no noise and is the cleanest version of welding there are no toxic chemicals used in his work
only water-based finishes and he also has a machine that filters air 10,000 times per hour
and just honestly sounds like a fan we met with the coordinating rco on may 12th they were
interested in what he does they supported the application um and just asked that you know
we implement soundproofing measures which we plan to do and we manage the trash which there will not
be much of and obviously be a good neighbor which of course joe is interested in in doing he's
already had relationships conversations and and begun to develop relationships with the neighbors
on the block who welcome you know him to the block he also circulated a petition to nearby
neighbors you can see that many of these signatures i believe all of them are on the 2800 block of
north reese street looks like there's cambria on there as well so you know the word is out about
what he's trying to do and his neighbors are supportive. While this block is primarily zoned
single-family, there are non-single-family uses, two specifically that are directly across the
street from him. An auto shop at 2860 North Reed Street and a garage at 2821 North Reed Street.
Sample work. So this is some of the work that he does. You can see the work in progress at the top
and then on display at what I assume is a mall on the bottom.
He, you know, his company is called Noivara.
He's got a presence online and on social media where you can see more of his work.
And as you can see, some of these things are big.
And in the space he was at, it required a lot more, you know, piecemealing once they left his space.
Some of that may still be required in the space he's trying to go into,
but it will give him a little bit more flexibility.
There's a zoning map.
Photograph, so this is the front of the property.
Here it was in 2012, so it's substantially the same as it was back then.
Notice posting.
Here's to the right on North Reese and to the left.
Joe has one employee besides himself.
He rides his bike or will plan to ride his bike from his from where he lives currently.
So we do not believe parking will be an issue.
There's not it's not a customer facing space.
So there will not be people, you know, coming to pick up things from him.
And, you know, we believe, you know, from that aspect, minimal impact on the neighborhood.
The renovation we're planning to do, you know, we're planning to use Rock Wolf for soundproofing and also whatever fireproofing will be necessary.
we plan to do as well currently the building's vacant you can see there it consists of two
floors and a basement here's the plans and drawings so this is just a cleaned up version
of the facade and here's the floor plans so the basement is pretty much as is for storage
mostly the first floor right here there's an office in the rear he's got a bathroom
and uh he has a hoist way sort of like a dumb waiter to bring some materials up to the second
floor and then obviously a staircase leading up to the second floor where there is uh you can see
And then obviously a staircase leading up to the second floor where there is, you can see the existing stair opening is being moved to where it is now.
An additional bathroom upstairs, some skylights to let in some additional light on the top floor.
But for the most part is designed to be open space to give him as much flexibility to build his pieces as possible.
uh here's the rco meeting notice we met with apm in may we mailed out 180 mailers
the application for the variance
deed to the property he has owned it since uh 2021
21. And here's proof of tax clearance. So with that, I'd like to ask my client to adopt my
testimony. Sure. Could you please state your name and spell it for the stenographer? And if you
could get close to the mic. Thank you. Joseph Varas, V-A-R-A-S. All right. Do you swear or
affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? I do. Okay. Please proceed,
counsel joe did you hear my testimony today get close drinking please don't you don't have to
push a button just leave the light on yes go ahead was it true and correct yes and you adopt it as
your own yes okay questions from the board yes i have a few questions one in a lot of the photos
that you showed of his current space where he's working it's a double height space and this one
seem to have pancake floor plate situation and so i guess my question is how is any more
interior renovations being done to cut into the floor plate to allow for that double for
double height space at this location is your plan to cut through the floor at all and is this your
space where these pieces are or is this just where this piece was actually so i built that structure