I appreciate it.
please. So, Mr. Chairman, on this one, my client had to leave. I'll ask you at the conclusion of
the presentation to accept my testimony as it is. So, MI 2024-006-151-423 South 50th Street,
letter of support from Garden Court Community Association, vote with eight in support,
six in opposition. Yeah, it's actually a little bit better than that, but that's fine.
And Mr. DeMarco, just for the record, state your name. Richard DeMarco, D-E-M-A-R-C-O.
Sure. And could you identify your client, their relationship to the property?
It's Evan Bacchetto, who is the managing and sole member of EJB Properties LLC.
Do you stipulate to the reading and the refusal? Do you agree with its accuracy?
I do. Please proceed, sir.
So, Mr. Chairman, I do want to speak about the refusal itself because there's an interesting little quirk. The examiner very astutely recognized that this particular property was a preexisting nonconforming use. And what we are proposing is merely to convert the existing very small storefront unit into a single residential unit.
So because that storefront is such a small, unusually small property, the zoning examiner acknowledged that it was a 10% or less expansion of the existing nonconforming use, that being the multifamily dwelling.
There are three other rented and legal multifamily apartment units.
So because the square footage of the new unit was 10% or less, the unit was permitted.
What we are refused for is not providing for accessory parking spaces, because once we
changed the to whatever degree the existing non-conformity the new parking requirements were
required under the rsa3 zoning district so we were actually required to all a new
provide for accessory parking spaces so that leads me to show you the photos so you see what
we're dealing with. And actually, it's physically impossible to provide the parking. This is the
property. It's a corner property. It's a nice property. This is the existing storefront.
It was a variety store. I'll show you the prior zoning permit in a moment. This is the
rest of the building. There's a rear yard back here that is fenced, but it is available to all
tenants for trash storage that is in an enclosure that is not viewed by the public. As you can see,
there's really no space whatsoever to provide parking. You'd have to destroy the rear portion
of the building here and have to have an abnormally large curb cut of
and have to have an abnormally large curb cut of at least two parking spaces.
Thank you.
And being this close to the corner, I would submit that the streets department would not approve such a curb cut.
Therefore, it's physically impossible to comply with that requirement.
So the proposed studio apartment is small, but it's dictated by the former site of the storefront.
My client bought the property from the daughter of the prior owner who passed away.
She inherited it.
The store became inactive, and it was empty for quite a while.
But it's an existing space.
My client's going to renovate it, make it a nice unit. It is a little bit small, but again, it's dictated by the building and the presence of this other unit that is occupied with a tenant.
um so we did have a neighborhood meeting um the total votes were um so so the reason why i said
i think we have a few a little bit more support than what you mentioned is because there's two
that were not opposed and i don't think you count them as opposition so it was 10 to 6
are not opposed or supporting if that makes sense okay but overall the committee did like
the project. They did not want us to destroy the property to create parking. There were some
concerns about the unit being abnormally small, but there's really nothing my client can do about
it. It's an existing unit that is being converted, and he does not want to evict the long-time
tenants that he has in the other unit. I did want to show you the existing permit. You see it's
retail sales of newspapers, medicines, greeting cards, cigarettes. So we would submit that the
residential use is a much less impactful use than a general store, you know, retail store that
probably is a little bit more busy and might attract, you know, vaping sales or, you know,
cigarettes or tobacco. So my client would testify as I just mentioned. This commercial space goes
way back into the, it looks like this was the 1950s or 1960, excuse me. It's an existing
non-conforming use. The hardship would obviously be that we cannot create parking there and through
this quirk in the code, it's required, even though the use itself is permitted,
we'd have to destroy the structure and evict tenants or terminate leases, and that would
cause a lot of pain. And so we would submit that the variances are clearly necessary and required
in light of the non-conforming nature of this property and its long-time existence as a
multifamily use. So my client would submit that that was his testimony. He had to leave. Sorry
about that. And that's all I have for now. Questions from the board?
I'll put the floor plan back up on the screen if there's questions.
uh where's the trash store for the units all units you said that everybody has a rear yard
right here that's available to all tenants right here no basement um there's no basement
questions
questions or comments from our attorney
Hillary Emerson
not at this time Mr. Chair
questions or comments from the virtual audience
no hands
no hands Mr. Chair
thank you Jason
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission
the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the RSA theory
residential single-family zoning at this location. The city changed the zoning maps in this
neighborhood in 2019. At the time, the city, sorry, at the time, the property was zoned CMX2
commercial mixed use. The property has a documented history as three dwelling units above a ground
floor retail. The appellant's proposal would convert the ground floor commercial space into
a residential unit, bringing the property closer into conformance with the residential zoning.
The addition of the 4th Unit triggers the parking requirements in the RSA 3 Zoning District.
The addition of the fourth unit triggers the parking requirements in the RSA 3 zoning district.
There is no space on the lot which the appellant could logically fit a parking space.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Board grant the proposed variance for the parking requirement in RSA 3.
I-2024-006151-423 South 50th Street, I vote yes.
My vote is yes.
General Gaston, my vote is yes.
Tanetta Graham, my vote is yes.
Thank you, everybody.
Have a great holiday.
Thank you.
Have a good one.
All right.
Number 12, MI 2024-006-095-2903 Diamond Street.
Tamika McCoy is the attorney.
There's a letter of support from Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation.
Vote was 14 to 2.
and what a proviso sure i'll recuse
they'll be rejoining us as a panel sir
good counsel could you please good good afternoon could you please state your name and spell for
the court stenographer sure good afternoon simi mccoy mc capital k o y
could you um do you do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth yes could you identify your client or relationship to this property my client is
karen washington she is the owner of the property and our one of our uh board members tenetta graham
is going to recuse herself from this uh property of this project do you stipulate to the reading
of the refusal, do you agree with this accuracy? Yes. Please share your screen and start your
presentation. Sure. Thank you. So the property located at 2903 West Diamond Street in 2019
was approved for a variance for a three-unit apartment building. I'm going to just move to
a photograph of the property that we are referring to, and it would be this property here with the
white door and that has the wooden slabs that are in front of the windows as of right now.
The current application is to essentially still provide for a multifamily property with two units
rather than the three that they were previously approved for moving forward. We did submit
a copy of the application. We sent notices to approximately 158 affected neighbors for this
particular property. And the RCO meeting was conducted on November 21st of this year.
The results of that was that there was overwhelming support for the project, and so the Strawberry
Mansion Community Development Corporation also agreed and submitted this letter of
support to the board.
The total in attendance were 27 people.
Everyone essentially, all 27 supported.
there were two RCO board members that were in opposition, that should be noted, but there was
overwhelming community support for the project. A part of that overwhelming support comes by virtue
of this area having five additional comparable locations that are approved for multifamily uses.
I'm going to go to the floor plans that we provided.
And I did include the documentation of the multifamily properties that had been approved
in this actual area that shows that it would be consistent with what's happening for this
particular location in our city.
The floor plan I'm showing is the side elevation.
The basement is going to remain a basement property, and the first floor unit occupies
the first floor and a bedroom on the second floor.
The second unit occupies the second floor and third floor, so each are bi-level units.
When we look at the plan, the first floor depicts living areas with lots of proper natural lighting, a bedroom to the rear of the building, and also steps that go upward to a second bedroom.
So there are two bedrooms that will be available for this first floor unit, one on the same first floor and then a second bedroom on the second floor.
one on the same first floor, and then a second bedroom on the second floor.
The second floor unit is accessible by stairwells that basically is a common area. And there's
a kitchen living room area. And then up the steps are two additional bedrooms that would share a
bathroom. And that would comprise two bedrooms for the second floor unit as well. The basement
is just going to essentially be there for utilities and mechanicals. It's not going to have
finished living area. The tenants would be able to use the basement as storage as well.
There is a trash plan where residents would be able to essentially utilize garbage disposal bins
that will be stored in the rear of the property until every Wednesday when it will be put out
after 5 p.m. We did provide interior photographs right now. It's essentially a work in progress
that would be consistent with the plans that have been depicted here today. And I would like to
also show this is one of the other multifamily unit buildings that's on the block is directly
across the street. Ms. Karen Washington, who is the owner of this property, grew up in the area.
She currently lives in one of the affected properties. Her grandmother also lives around
the corner, and she's essentially been a lifelong resident of this community, which is part of the
reason for the overwhelming support. I would ask to introduce Ms. Washington so that she could
adopt the testimony. Meanwhile, we do that. I'm looking at the, um, if you're standing in front
of the property, you look to the right, you're seeing down the block. And then this is the
opposite direction that shows the corner of 29th and diamond street.
This Washington.
do we see miss washington's hand thank you miss washington could you please state your name and
spell it for the court stenographer my name is karen washington k-a-r-e-n-w-a-s-h-i-n-g-t-o-n
you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
Please proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Ms. Washington, did you hear the testimony and presentation that was done before the board today?
And would you adopt it as accurate?
I would.
I would submit on that and be prepared to address any questions.
Questions from the board?
Yes, I have a similar issue that I had with the other project that we looked at with having to go through the bedroom to get to the backyard,
which is just not a good thing to do. But you also mentioned that both units will have access
to the backyard for storage of trash. How does that second floor unit get to the backyard?
It's my understanding that the second floor would be able to access through
the side yard. But I'll ask Ms. Washington to actually provide the information relative to that.
Yes. The second floor can just go. Our building is fairly rarely to the corner, so they can just come out. Both tenants will have access to the yard. It will be a combination code on there. It's the only day you can get in there. I already have a commercial contract with the City of Philadelphia, which is, and I will just add that building.
Gotcha. How does the tenant that lives on the second floor have access to that rear yard?
based on your plan they have to go through the other tenants apartment to get to the backyard
and through their bedroom no what she is essentially saying is that they would have to
use the um front door entrance and then go access the yard through the back um the back alley through
an alley yes so so the tenant has to come out of their unit go around the corner through an alley
well we're we're we're one house from the alley it's not like they're going right through the
alley once they turn off of 29th street that's our building secondarily um there is separate
second from the corner.
Second from the corner, yes.
So they have to come out of the house, go around the corner,
Pass that other house into the alley, pass that other house into the yard.
pass that other house into the alley,
pass that other house into the yard.
No, it's only one house. There's one house on the corner.
No, it's only...
And then it's my house. The yard is right there by her yard.
Right. So you have to go through an alley, pass the house, not somebody else's yard to get to that yard.
Yes. Yes, that's that's.
Mr. Johnson, another potential solution is that the common area that has the stairwell where the entrances are also has the basement access as well.
There is storage as well in the basement.
Not based on your plan. Based on your plan, the only access to the basement is through that first floor unit.
No, no, no. You don't have to go through the basement, through the unit. The basement is right by the stairs.
Okay. There's no interest. Everybody, okay, to get into the basement, everybody has their own
interest. Like you, when the person comes from the second store, they can turn and go right down
in the basement. Okay. Person come out the first floor, if they need, they can go come right through
that little walkway, and that's the basement. The second floor don't have to go through nobody's
apartment to go through the basement. Listen to what I'm saying. I hear what you are saying,
but your plan does not show that okay the plan that you present here does not show that
this shows an entrance to the basement only from this first floor unit this this foyer serves the
second floor and into the entrance to the first floor unit that's not a that's not a shared way
to get into the basement so that's um this is what your plan shows
because the basement is on the side of the steps
well um that's all that's that's those only comments i have so okay what you're saying
and what you're showing the plan are two different things okay that's all the other
questions from the board.