no hands at this time chair planning commission good morning chairman david vecto with the city
planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the
rsa5 residential single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this neighborhood in
2004 and a council supported map change a prior owner converted this property into two dwelling
units the city planning commission recommends that the board grant the proposed legalization
of two dwelling units in my 2024-006-754-226 ritten street i vote yes um maximum two units
michael johns my vote is yes with proviso cheryl gaston my vote is yes with proviso
tenetta graham my vote is just with proviso ryan mcadams my vote is yes with proviso
i win my vote is yes with proviso thank you counsel thank you um mr masters is back and i
can see he's ready to go yes uh just for the record state your name again you've already
been sworn steve masters please proceed sir
am i getting promoted
okay great
I don't see my
screen being shared though
let's do the sharing
it's coming up, you're up
awesome, okay
all right let's make this this one's going to be the charm i think all right so um
we're here on this project it's um single family zoning we're proposing
um two family zoning and we have 34 signatures from very close neighbors
these are all right right on the 4800 block of Fairmount
right around the corner on Reno Street but almost all of them are on
that block or the next block of Fairmount
in the 2035 plan for Mill Creek which is the neighborhood that we're discussing today
section D says that all of the parcels that are within the section D that are RSA
all of the parcels that are within the section D that are RSA or RSA 3 or RSA 5
are proposed to be RTA 1, which is duplex, or RM 1, which is multifamily.
So now we go down to the area of the map. So this is Fairmont Street here,
and the d area is right here and our property is right um here so it's straight it's it's
unsolidly within the area that is supposed to be converted into duplex and and um and multifamily
this is some contextual uh so our property is here there's fairmont um on the edge here
of of these structures is the american legion hall and across the street is a long time uh
vacant lot suggesting that there is uh that that the current single-family zoning is not
conducive to continued development in the area
for trash our trash plan is that there will be two units of course the first unit the trash
will be secured in the rear of the building inside a security fence and gate the tenant
will be supplied with at least two 96 gallon trash cans with wheels and attached lids the
trash will be picked up at each tuesday by the philadelphia trash unit tenants will be required
to pull the trash cans to the curb for the trash removal, and then once the trash has been removed,
tenants will be required to return the trash cans to the rear of the building and secure the trash
behind the security fence. For the second unit, the trash will be secured in the front of the
building inside the security fence gate. The tenant will be supplied with at least the same
or the same procedure as the first one the as we'll see from the plans the the unit the the
bottom unit has access to the backyard and the top unit has access to a a roof deck so that they each
have outdoor space that they can enjoy with their with their family here are our drawings
Our elevations are here.
this is the rear elevation
so that door would be accessible for the first floor tenants
but not for the for the top tenants and there's the side elevation
our floor plans coming up next
there is proposed
two bedrooms
in the basement
a living room
and one bedroom on the first floor
and then the combination
second and third floor
we have
one bedroom on the second floor
and two bedrooms on the third floor
All right, on the third floor, there are three bedrooms.
So the second unit has four bedrooms total,
and the first unit has three bedrooms.
This is built.
This is a photo of the outside of the house.
This house was profoundly blighted
before Mr. Page purchased it.
and instead of leaving it in its blighted condition while he waited for
And instead of leaving it in its blighted condition while he waited for the whole process to unfold for obtaining his duplex zoning permit, he decided to do what he could by shoring up and repairing it as a single family.
And basically, as you'll see, he took it all down to the studs, but he was able to beautify the outside, which the neighbors at the RCO meeting last week were extremely appreciative about because he could have just said, I can't do anything.
My hands are tied until we go to zoning on this.
so you can see the the side the there was there was quite a lot of praise given to him at the
RCO meeting for for the quality and the and the artistry of of what this building looks like from
the outside so here we have the first floor and the stairs that go up those stairs are are going
up to the second unit which is the second and third floor and then the door here would be open
into the the first floor for the for the lower uh unit this is um mr hage help me out here are we
looking at the the um the dot the bedrooms and here on the first floor i might have to right
how about if i oh sure right could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer
yep you go good morning my name is anthony page uh anthony a-n-t-h-o-n-y page p-a-g-e
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth yes i do please
proceed counsel all right mr page we're looking at um a photo of the first floor can you tell the
board uh what is going to be um what what that area is going to be used for yes uh so uh initially
when you walk into the door there, that will be entrance, living room space.
Then there will be a small kitchen to the right.
I'm sorry, I apologize, small kitchen to the left.
And then there's a bathroom in the back there, and then one bedroom.
And this is the actual close-up view of the bathroom on the first floor.
Steve, I think you might want to go to the basement.
Oh, okay.
Just give us an idea what the basement's like.
Okay, this is...
We're just going fast through the second floor.
Is it third floor?
Third floor to the roof.
Third floor, second bedroom.
Are these photos current condition?
Well, we went in, like I said, we went in, it's actually looking the same, but we went
in and actually cleaned up a little more so some of that trash you see is no longer there.
But this is the basement view here.
But these photos are how old, Mr. Page?
Yeah, it's still framed up.
It still sticks as it is.
and this will be
I believe this will be one of the bedrooms
in the basement
and where you see the blue
and the blue and red lines
there will be a bathroom there
and this is the other side
this will be the second bedroom
that will be in the basement
just to the right of the bathroom
okay that looks like
What do you have in terms of windows in the basement or access to light?
Yes, there's two emergency.
Each room is going to have one window with an emergency exit with a gate that allows the tenant to,
if there's a fire or emergency, they can exit through the windows there, which shall lead to the side of the building.
Do you have a sense of the dimensions of those windows?
They would be on the drawings, I believe.
Okay, let's look up.
On the plans, I'm sorry.
Yeah, there they are from the outside.
Let's look at the plans and get the exact
sides of the windows.
Okay, so this is the basement on the left, correct.
Can you zoom up?
Can you zoom out so we can see the whole plan instead of just kind of zooming into the that pressure there? There's a window there. I believe it's.
Yes, 36 by 56 windows.
can you zoom out so we can see the whole layout sure okay
is that is that the right size for you mr. Johns yeah that's that's good okay
If I may speak, if you look to the far left, that's the basement there, and then if you
go up a little, if you look to the right of each bedroom, that would be the, that's one
window with the fire escape exit there, and then also another window with the fire escape
exit there as well.
And I believe the windows are 36 by 56, I believe.
Mr. Johns, do you want any more views?
No, I can see.
I can read the plan.
I don't know that we're ready for questions yet.
Yeah, I just wanted to just quickly go through the posting.
This is the posting for today's hearing.
we also have a um a tax uh clearance payment agreement that was entered into by our clients
yesterday this is the documentation from the city
it is dated october 30th 2025 showing that the llc has entered into a payment agreement for
all arrearages for
property taxes
which we submit as in livable tax
certificate tax clearance
exhibit 8
is the deed
Exhibit 9 is our application
for appeal.
It's starting to run out of battery, so why don't we...
Okay, sure. And then we have the proof of mailing to all the RCO.
Your client's already been sworn. Why don't you have them adopt your...
Sure. Mr. Page, you've heard my testimony today. Do you
agree that it was accurate and true and do you adopt it as your own yes do you have anything
further that you wanted to to share with the board about your project um uh all that i want
to say is that um you know i i look forward to it if possible to uh advance one in the community
that changes you know some of the properties in the area this is my this is my first project um
initially i was going to move into the actual uh building myself with my my daughter and my wife
But the building was very, very huge.
So I decided that, you know, maybe I can, you know, turn into a duplex and, you know,
I can live on the top floor if possible and possibly rent the bottom out.
So, you know, I just want to say thank you for having me here today and hopefully things
work out for me.
Steve, what's the rest of the block look like compared to multiple units?
Well, the planning commission in that section D said that basically it's a multifamily
area um there is the uh the the home for the um the american legion that's like three three
stores down um we we we were able to to document some of the multi-families but but um i i don't
have a full census of it yeah questions from the board yeah i think most of the block is single
family two stories and this is three story though it's not necessarily issue for me because it's on
the corner. But my question, my sort of bigger question is, this was a significant amount of
work done. And so I'm trying to figure out how we're here.
And so I'm trying to figure out how we're here at zoning.
And there was a third-story addition put on,
bays put on, rear addition put on.
And it's pretty much complete other than sort of finishing,
you know, closing up and how are we here at zoning now?
So Steve, it looks to me like he went in and said it was a single home
and then it got approval to put a third story on from l and i correct and also rooftop deck is
right thing else and and he built it consistent with the single family zone he had he had permits
for everything but in the process of him uh putting that together he concluded that the
amount of rent that he would need to to do a single family with with um seven bedrooms was
going to be out of sync with the the going rate for housing in that neighborhood so he determined
that it would be better to have like more naturally occurring affordable housing by
splitting it he did start out by saying this is a single home down high he did and he and he and he
actually he told the community last week that he intended to do a single home and then he realized
that the the money the the economics didn't work on it other questions michael anymore yeah i did