okay so what are we i'm confused what are we asking for he wanted the arrow view taken down
mr bennett do you have something in replay yes mr i do have pictures but i still want to just
finish with a timeline if i could and i'll be very brief okay but he hasn't been promoted yet
So you're asking to do a presentation?
I sent all my pictures in.
I'm asking a question, sir.
Do you need to present so I can promote you to a panelist?
That's all.
Are you going to be presenting photographs?
Yes, sir.
Okay, yeah, then we'll have to promote you.
Can you wait one minute?
We have to promote you.
Thank you very much.
He's been promoted, Ms. Sunkin.
Thank you. Mr. Bennett, please proceed.
You still there, Mr. Bennett?
Mr. Bennett, you have to unmute yourself.
I did. I'm sorry. I'm still here, Chairman. I'm sorry.
Okay. Thank you.
I just started on October 13, 2019, without a permit.
I actually approached Spade in regards to this, and he told me he was putting a new patio in.
in regards to this. He told me he was putting a new patio in. Mr. Spade receives a stop order
Mr. Spade received...
from L&I on November the 13th and he ignored that. Well I'm going to object Mr. Chair.
You can object but it's the truth okay. L&I from Giovanni Caputo they issued
and Mr. Spade continued to do the work in his backyard. Is that this past November?
November the 13th, the stock order was issued.
No, it was the 19th. It was L&I case number 715-522.
What year?
Okay, thank you.
He started this project 14 months ago. Now, the beauty of Mr. Spey is he did this project because he knew the city was under the COVID and no one was there.
i'm gonna have your mr chair i i i i need my time that's an opinion okay that's your
okay i'm sorry i'm sorry mr bennett mr bennett could you please just testify regarding the zoning
please we have so many other cases to get to thank you
mr bennett you're still there yes i am okay the lot is against the codes 14701 there is no
there is no open space there is no yard depth um the impact that i'm going through right now
is that it is it is creating a mold situation in my patio um maybe once a year i have to clean my
patio since since mr spade has put this aluminum drain on top of his rooftop it's draining into the
back alley and it's it's it's it's affected it's affected my patio it's also affected despite what
mr knockerman said because he doesn't live here the light and and the different uh the different
things that you enjoy of open space that's all away from me um i have safety concerns from my
family if if hopefully i can bring these pictures up or one of my associates will be able to do
it but that wall that is built i have fear for my family it is a dangerous wall it is just they
they put this thing up in a fire sale to get this over with they put stucco over ellen i came out
for the second time the same gentleman mr caputo and and ordered him to stop order mr i'm going to
object uh again if you know if he has documentation i i get a lot of his testimony hearsay
we could ask mr spay if he met with mr caputo we'll get we'll get to that mr bennett thank you
okay the other thing is um when i look at it it's built on it's it's a failing wall in an alley okay
it's between the easement and its property there is a window cut out that goes into the alley right
now and an actual window cut out um the the fact that he says he wants this for storage it's so
ridiculous he's got this project was pushed forward under the veil of secrecy and i cannot
for the life of me for being a businessman my whole life how someone could have the audacity
to go after our neighbors 439 days later he's before the board here 439 days later after he
did an illegal project and he's looking for a variance. That is the most ridiculous thing I've
ever heard in my life. He has no respect for his neighbors and he has no respect for the city of
Philadelphia. And that's honest truth. Thank you, Mr. Bennett. Anyone else? Sir, Mr. Chairman,
may I try to get my photos in? Quickly, if you could. I will. One second.
Okay, here we go.
okay here we go can you see this Mr. Chairman not yet
that you can see the pictures they're up in front of me
Sir, you have to select share screen at the bottom of your Zoom application first.
I'm trying to do that, not letting me do it.
Mr. Bennett, with all due respect, if you can maybe just describe what it is you were
going to show us.
We are still on our two o'clock list.
We have several more cases to go and then a 3.30.
We're not trying to rush you.
We understand it's important to you.
I'm trying to find the share screen if I could.
i'm trying to find the share screen if i could do you see a green button at the bottom of your
Do you see a green button at the bottom of your...
zoom application that says share screen no i'm looking at my pictures right now hold on one
second no you have to start at the zoom application
Perhaps Mr. Spitzer, who is also is looking to speak, Mr. Spitzer will be able to do that.
Is Mr. Spitzer going to offer us anything that we already haven't heard? And we mean that
respectfully um we don't need redundancy i think sir i think he could bring like i see all your
pictures right now online but i cannot see how i went oh wait a minute here's my share my screen
There it is. Thank you so much for your patience.
Here we go.
okay thank you mr chairman are you able to see it
we were but then you went out of it again
go back to your yeah we need to move along miss i i i don't know what other pictures we need to see
yeah mr chair yeah mr chair that was why it was really important for us to get a structural
engineer to go out after the community meeting that we we thought it was really we don't want
to do anything that's structurally going to cause issues that's why we again no disrespect he
shouldn't have done it in the first place all right without without proper permits and any
and again mr notkinson i got a lot of respect for you so i'm not it's not directed at you
personally all right all right anyone else something new and different
something we haven't already heard please are you still there Mr. Chairman I'm still here
Pamela Hoskin yeah we can only see a portion of your picture
I'm sorry I took them down uh I would like to move along too and yeah we're going to move along
right now all right we have Pamela Hoskin who can be sworn in chair thank you Pamela yes Pamela
Holskin, H-O-E-L-S-K-E-N. I'm at 1919 Panama Street. So for the sake of time and lack of
redundancy, obviously I'm concerned about property values, lack of light. That structure is blocking
my light. I have continual water problems on my back patio. I have algae growing and I have
safety concerns as well about the integrity of that wall and that it's compromised thank you
thank you ma'am thanks for your patience anyone else
questions from the board no uh mr uh josh spitzer i believe that is sir
wants to speak let's get mr spitzer please just identify yourself a brief comment
it's josh spitzer last name is s-p-i-t-z-e-r i live at 1915 panama so i'm uh mr bennett's
neighbor and i back up to the lancesque property okay you swear in the firm to tell the truth
the whole truth that is correct please proceed can you know what can you make it so i can share
my screen i have bob's presentation that um it's up on my screen i can show you a picture or two
and walk you through my concern
and then I'll be done.
It's pretty quick.
Tanya, are we able to help Mr. Spitzer?
Jason, can you promote him to panelists, please?
Yes, we're going to.
He's not a panelist.
i'm sorry clementa i put you back i apologize all right yeah we can hear you okay so basically
like i said i'm 1915 panama i'm bob bennett's neighbor i back up to the delancey street
um my concerns essentially um like everyone else has mentioned that
Um, my concerns essentially, um, like everyone else has mentioned that, um, with this wall
going, uh, or the structure being where it is, it's a hundred percent lock coverage,
um, which, you know, to me is a concern for several reasons.
One of them is for safety, um, and a fire hazard.
Imagine if we all build our property to the property line, I think that would be obviously
a concern up and down the street.
In addition, it was mentioned there was no permit. There was open air and light that is no longer there, although Bob does have some shrubbery. At the end of the day, the structure is, you know, 12 to 14 feet high.
and I'm going to show you, this is the pictures that Bob was alluding to.
So you'll see that the wall is obviously structurally pretty poor.
You can see that this is where they were doing the up above the skyline here.
they put in a window in the middle of a structural wall that's supporting a you know a above
structure to me like you had mentioned chairman if you were really trying to get rid of a water
problem most people I know would try and do it in the most efficient manner as well as the cheapest
manner and not build a whole new structure you could regrade your property and now because of
the way this property was built as you can see it was built up on cinder block without having
concrete. I would assume it was not done with concrete because you couldn't get a cement truck
in the back of our alleyway. The only way to do it would be by hand, which would be a fortune
or very difficult. So to us, our fear is that it's not done well. It could fall over. It could
kill someone, catch fire, et cetera. And lastly, you know, I wish Mr. Spaywell, I'm sorry, this has
to be almost confrontational between him and his neighbors, but we really are concerned
as neighbors that this does impact us in terms of fire hazard, open air and light.
And the water drain, Mr. Chairman, as you can imagine, when it rains, it rains in our
backyards, which then goes into the ground or into the sewer.
However, now with this new structure, the water actually rains off of the structure
into the easement alleyway, which causes problems for all of the neighbors, which, you know, people
have complained of mold, debris, et cetera. And my fear is if this is allowed, then why wouldn't
all of our neighbors do this, which would create all kinds of problems, I think, for the entire
street. So that's my personal view. And here are Mr. Benin's photos. Thank you. Okay.
we also have both a chris and an anthony spay hold on we're going to move on
questions from mr chair that's actually the property owner well we already heard from it
haven't we well he just adopted my testimony i think there were a lot of allegations i i know
this has been a long day and it's been it's not a long day and it's time and you know we're not
on a specific clock here but no i hear i mean i i don't know what i get him on mr spay it's on
that's it one more one more witness again nothing personal mr knock it's him i'm just
no i hear you this is just total disregard for neighbors and the city as far as i'm concerned
mr chairman the bottom line is you have you had a homeowner who did demo without a permit
and then they had a contract excuse me this is a reporter i have no idea who's speaking
That was Jim Snell.
I'm a board member.
Yeah, this is Christopher.
Christopher Spade, do you swear in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yeah, I don't deny some of the look of it currently, but what the neighbors are saying.
I went about this project with a general contractor who promised me to get me the permits.
Can I ask one quick question?
Jim Snell here, Ford Motor.
Who was the general contractor?
I've heard this banter about quite a bit.
What's the name?
A&B Contracting.
Giovanni was the GC on this particular job.
He is no longer employed with A&B.
I paid him a great deal of money to do this.
He promised me multiple, multiple times he was in charge in getting the proper paperwork.
um in writing and documented via text message um and that's why i'm here and it's taken 423 days
because he's long gone and i paid him all this money and i'm taking the reins behind this by
hiring an attorney to try to rectify the situation the structure out there the structure at the end
Sorry, at the end of the day, the homeowner has to take responsibility.
of the day the homeowner has to take responsibility you just can't blame the contract
He just can't blame the contractor.
I'm going to try.
I agree.
And that's why I'm here and he's long gone.
And I am trying to rectify the situation.
The structure as it is now is by no means complete.
It is not looking like what a finished product looked like.
We only put the roof part on, which is the black, to protect more water that was coming in.
The outside wall is not complete.
there's a ton of things that are not complete still. And I understand where all the neighbors
are coming from. The structure looks like hell looking from the back. From what Rosa said,
I'm more than happy to have anybody come in and look at the quality of work,
take on more recommendations for anything like that. I don't want people to think that that
structure, what they're seeing right now, would be what a final product would look like. I was told
that by him using the outside pipe and there was slab on the outside that was allowing water to
seep into my basement, that was the easiest way to do it. As he put it, simply adding a roof over
the exterior. The wall was existing. He simply put a roof. That's the way it was worded to me.
And, you know, I'm really sorry that, you know, it has looked like that for a year,
but it's taken me that long to get in contact with historical and the right people to try to
push this along. And, you know, again, I do respect my neighbors. I've taken a lot of pride in my home
and, you know, I'm more than happy to take anybody's advice in the area. And I want to
make it legal and i've paid for civil engineers and done all the above so um you know it's an