man, circ fits in this neighborhood or not,
but there's the potential there.
But I guess the other piece is that the rest of the houses
on this only 10 houses or something on the side and they all have porches right so there's something
that could possibly be done to kind of make that work and be more consistent with the character of
the rest of the block um and just one other sort of minor weird thing um is you've got the the bed
at the the back on this on the second floor but you but the door is kind of like in a weird spot
so you have to even the way you arrange furniture just created like a weird kind of circulation
space but has nothing to do with zoning but those are my comments okay thank you very much i like to
go back to my point i think two things one every house on this block has an aligned porch at that
right even the house that is filled in next door they're all at the same height this is actually
proposing even you're like stairs at a completely different height so i think there were ways like
that if you were to rethink the facade that this could blend in better with the rest of the block
it doesn't the windows don't exactly match up it breaks the corners line that exists so i do think
like there's ways that it could be made to fit better in with the rest of the block because it
is an intact block which we don't have in a lot of these neighborhoods all right so so you know
they i i definitely hear about the porch and they make you fall more in line with the character in
neighborhood but definitely appreciate the fact that you raised the the basement up of the of the
you know that that four feet is better than a lot of other things we've seen in terms of the height
of the basement right questions for attorney none at this time questions or comments from the virtual
audience mr chair i do not see any hands raised planning i'm going to do a resumptive hearing on
this because well i'm not sure where we're going to end up or what it's going to look like right
that that's correct right so you want to hold the vote on that
i thought we were going to do whole um here and hold do you want to well what i mean we're i'm
i'm going to hold but i'm going to make it a resumptive because i think he's heard an awful
lot right and you know can we get simply you come back and you'll respond to what you heard
yeah i i would ask that maybe we not wait to mid-november yeah that's what i said but
well get and meet with the rco yeah you go see the rco yeah then you heard some things here yeah
right you make some changes you come back for a resumptive here and i'll give you a little time
yeah um but maybe not mid-november but 11 17 9 30. well the only thing i would say is if we can
because this is not our fault this one this one is saying it yeah yeah but i mean i think
you do have to take some time to figure out what you want to do right yeah i mean you know yeah
to figure out what you want to do right yeah i mean you know yeah uh so um do we have a better
Thank you.
date that we can push it up a little bit ian we have anything else no for a resumptive hearing
no chair we can do a hold if it's only one two things but 17 at 9 30. all right i'm sorry about
that okay all right thank you all right thank you all right now who uh who's doing number 12. what's
no that's not me see uh i only get the hard one you only get the hard ones no no most of yours
are just you know easy it's you know this is straightforward straightforward
even sure i was laughing about that being straightforward
all right number 12 mi 2026 002 059 1122 mcclellan street
alex goldberg is the attorney mr goldberg just state your name please alex goldberg okay um
Do you identify your client in a relationship to the property?
My clients are Carmen LaRosa and Denise LaRosa.
They're the owners of the property.
I believe Carmen is in the virtual audience.
And I understand here this is going to be here in the whole because we're waiting on a correct refusal.
Is that right?
It's correct.
That's right.
Other than that, it's straightforward, right?
Has or has worked?
Our vice chair.
don't give me that one you got to come up with his own good afternoon have you submitted your
documents and exhibits five days in advance in this hearing i have and do you waive the reading
of the refusals and stipulate to their accuracy i do all right thank you you can share your screen
up again okay so uh let me just raise my hand so i could be promoted to panelist
um while that is happening um this property is street to street from mcclellan to siegel
or Seigle. It's owned by my clients. They're from South Philadelphia. Their family currently
lives in the single family home there. And there's a detached garage in the back facing Seigle Street.
The entirety of the application is to split the lots in half. We're not proposing any construction
and to legalize a use in the rear lot on Seigle Street.
Let's see.
No, I'm sharing my screen.
We are not proposing to make any modifications
to the existing single-family home on McClellan
or to the existing storage garage on Seigle Street.
We are probably just going to put a by-right fence
across the backyard and split the open space in the back.
The reason my client wants to do this is twofold. Number one being he wants to ultimately rent this to someone who's not his family. And right now there's, you know, with the exception of a lockable door, there's, there's passage between his garage or his stuff is in the back and the home that's there.
and I think he would feel more comfortable
putting a fence there
and having these two separate properties
and then for insurance purposes,
having the two uses separated is cleaner
and was recommended to him by his insurance carrier.
There is no development proposed on the Seigle Street.
We met with East, sorry, I got ahead of myself.
This is the notice of refusal.
All of these refusal items,
the dimensional refusal items
are existing conditions of the site
that are created because of where the lot line is drawn.
The occupied area of the site in total is not changing,
but we're flagged for that
because of where the lot line is being drawn.
The same goes for the lot area.
While not out of character,
we are not meeting the lot size requirement for lot A
and the rear yard requirement.
Again, the open space
between the building structures is staying the same the line is being drawn drawn such that the
rear yard doesn't comply the two use refusals specifically have to do with the rear lot which
is parcel b non-accessory parking carmen has i think what he told me is he has a classic corvette
he wants to keep that in there and he has which you'll see photos of storage of building materials
in the rear we applied for use of storage and building materials and equipment i think is what
it's called under the code and that i guess was not clearly put on the refusal but that's sort of
ultimately what it's going to say which which requires a variance nonetheless
nonetheless we met with east pass young crossing in july um there was no one in opposition the
we met with east pass young crossing in july
entire committee was in support and all the attendees either supported or abstained because
i believe they were there for a different project these are similarly situated lots with non-accessory
parking so what we're asking for is not out of character these this is our block so we're 1122
these other lots are split or were split and have parking garages on the back
other lots in the neighborhood as well there are also other lots below 960 square feet again this
is technically because of where we're drawing the line but just for the board's understanding it's
not out of character from a lot size it's also de minimis because we're required 960 and we're
proposing 923 on mcclellan alone 1116 1112 1110 and 1108 are all below the required lot size
have a bunch of those in there for the record here's an area aerial view of the site you can
see the open space back here that's essentially where the line is being drawn i'll show you more
clearly on the zoning plan here's an aerial view zoning map interestingly this lot is
split zoned we're not cutting the lot where the lot where the where the zoning changes because
that doesn't line up with where the building ends. So if this is approved, the McClellan
Street lot will be entirely RSA 5, but the Seigle Street lot will be split zoned RSA 5
and CMX 2. Google Maps perspective. Here's some photographs. So this is the front of
the street. This is the front of the property. It's the rear. Here's notice postings on both
street frontages this is to the right on mcclellan residential block we're not proposing to change
anything about that and then cycle street you can see is is a rear street for the most part
there are some properties on the opposite side of cycle street that are using that as their
frontage and some of those properties are actually are actually have a commercial use
such as 1118 which has an artist studio and retail sales 1120 which has a photography studio
and the corner at 1826 south 11th which has wholesale and distribution of tofu
didn't know we had one of those in philadelphia here's the interior photographs of the single
family home these uh the photos are shown as you know empty but there is um it is occupied
here's the garage in the back old structure you can see a lot of his stuff is in there
and we just would like to keep it that way and document that use
and then here is the
the proposed plan you can see where the line is being drawn right here
which creates the conditions that require us to get variances for
lot size and rear yard depth and occupied area the RCO meeting notice with
East Pass Yonge Crossing mailing certificates application for the
variance deed to the property Carmen and his wife Denise own the property in
their own names has a positive relationship with his neighbors and the proof of tax clearance so
with that I'd like to ask Carmen to raise his virtual hand and adopt my testimony Carmen
Carmen LaRosa will be rejoining as a panelist here.
Thank you.
Carmen, are you on?
do we see him i see him he's yes carmen rosa is in the panel but uh is not speaking
carmen you have to unmute
all right um council you're also the court we're going to take your testimony questions from the
board i have a question about the lot subdivision so right now it looks like with the current lot
even though it's split zone it's majority rsa5 which means the whole lot takes uh
they have rsa5 carries when they're split what percentage of lot or parcel b is cmx2
that is a good question um it's 50 okay i think it's probably more than 50 cmx2
okay which was partially my i feel like my concern is looking at the rear of these most of the other
garages and houses on the block have not been subdivided and that subdivides parcel b and
allows parcel b to potentially become overbuilt in an alley um without having to come back before
the zoning board and well if it complies with dimensionally which is not a part of my client's
plan but overbuilding you know you'd have to overbuild with the proper setbacks um i'm not
sure if there would be egress issues i mean it would be a project but it's also the one that's
at the corner next to the alley so i feel like yes you're right all of the things that you're
saying there's a lot of what ifs but it is in the best position in that alleyway to overcome the
what ifs okay so i guess i just have like a slight i don't know who that goes to i feel like it goes
over here actually um yeah and i think like it goes over here and and my my understanding is you
know in a situation like this i i think the planning commission would choose like the most
restrictive zoning to apply to the property typically yes but that typically also would
have happened in your opa review like for the subject so yeah this was like i think that's
my first question my second concern is about addressing now because if they're two separate
like yes the current owner is the same as the house but should he ever sell parcel b
like what's going to be the future designation for that rear alley well we'd have none of that
was on the site plan we'd have to submit an application to the opa right if this permit is
approved i mean from a sort of logical numbering standpoint i think the cycle street would be
17 21 11 21 yeah i mean that's about the number but more about is there a possibility to deed
restricted to the like do you restrict the relationship to the house i don't think so
i know that's complicated i'm not quite sure on that yeah but you're right it would have to have
the address would be on the backstreet single street side it would be yeah it would have its
own address and own tax id number and all those things well yeah i think this is another part of
all right other questions yes have you done any of this has there been any subdivision
plan advance well that's what that's part of our application that we're in front of the board for
today the the only physical subdividing of the lot that will have to happen is a fence between
you know and the lot line there's not the buildings are not connected so they you know
they don't have to be physically detached because they already are is that what the properties do
the properties do correct so if this is approved we'll we would get a zoning permit for you know
for the use and for the creation of two lots and we'd apply for you know new tax id numbers we
would draft a deed of subdivision we would submit that to the city and that's how properties are
subdivided but that's we haven't gotten there yet because we don't have the permit to allow that
you don't have to
it it's called redrawing a black line and that's right we don't we don't we don't
we don't give those permissions in this case that's what our application includes just like
In this case, that's what our application includes.
Just like earlier today with 7040 Oxford, where that application was trying to split one lot into two lots.
earlier today
Similarly, this application is trying to split one lot into two lots.
Because of that request, it creates conditions that require variance in addition to the uses.
it's so and and my understanding is that is under the purview of the board because of the variances
it creates if it was a buy right subdivision let's say on a vacant lot of this size I don't
think we would be here but it's not vacant and we're not proposing to demolish anything
is my understanding correct counsel I don't think so
what was uh set forth right now but we're we're holding in here you know we're gonna hold it I
mean the the description there's a here and hold I understand that but I don't we we don't we we
can't you haven't even submitted anything for the subdivision so we have the subdivision plan
was submitted to l and i and approved by the survey district that's how we got the refusal
which says in the description that's what i was asking you i asked you if you had submitted the
subdivision we did we did and that's how oh you you said before that you hadn't that's that's why
i was asking i misunderstood we haven't sort of finalized the subdivision we submitted i understand
that, but I was asking if you had submitted the subdivision plan and request. Okay. All right.