I can.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court synodicator?
Sandra Broadus.
Sandra is S-A-N-D-R-A.
Broadus is B-R-O-A-D-U-S.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And you represent the RCO?
Yes, I do.
Please proceed.
This appeal has taken many, many turns.
And we started with a standard RCO meeting.
ACCA provided the Noccomson Group with our preferred meeting notice for 311.
And when we logged on to the meeting, there were no neighbors.
The Nockamson group advised us that they were going to ask to be heard and held anyway.
And so we didn't bother to log into the actual ZBA hearing.
um unbeknownst to us the neighbors saw the posting on the front of the building
and totally freaked out when they heard the they logged into the zoom they actually got the
notice off of the the the meeting notice logged into the zoom and were heard mr knockups say
that there was a community meeting and no neighbors showed up and Sarita Brown, who's
actually trying to speak now, she was the only neighbor that got through. Understand that Zoom
is still challenging for folks that haven't done it, but she was trying to tell the board that
the neighbors did not show up. They didn't get invited to the meeting. We sent a complaint and
the outline of those events. But in any regard, we asked the neighbors to verify that they did
or did not get the meeting notice by virtue of signing a survey. We've submitted that to the
board. Practically the entire block said they did not get it. But we had another meeting scheduled.
There was a resumptive hearing. I mean, we had to schedule another meeting. We had it at the church
on the corner of the actual block where this property is located, and we had a tremendous
turnout of neighbors who came who were very, very opposed. Apparently, these houses on this
block are large houses. They have beautiful backyards, and many of these neighbors have
been here for decades. The block is half a block off of Broad Street, and it is very much resented
by people who live on these blocks, residential communities, strong communities, to be
characterized as fair game, to be cut up and turned into multifamily dwellings. This block has a block
captain, the block captain maintains the lawns, the neighbors all know each other. And the bigger
part of it is that the 59, the property in question has been vacant as a result of vacated
attempts to convert it, which if the board granted that variance 10 years ago, circumstances
that certainly have changed in 10 years and because it has expired that same criteria should
not be applied to current day circumstances. The community has in fact been the one maintaining
been the one maintaining the property. They have no confidence in this owner because
the property. They have no confidence in this owner because
it has basically been neglected and the upkeep of it has been the community itself.
The neighbor next door has the same exact property. It's beautiful. We've shared a picture
of it with you. A huge yard. She's been there for 45 years and it's an ideal home for a single
family for single family. The neighbors on this block see their block and the beautiful houses
on the block as an opportunity for single families to own a nice substantial home that
actually have backyard something that is almost unheard of in Philadelphia and not just fair game
to be cut up and turned into multiple apartments. The close proximity to the next door neighbor
who's been there for 44 years who raised a family there is unthinkable that with these three units
with the proposed occupancy of nine occupants three per apartment would be burdening this
particular block and this particular household there's not going to be enough parking the block
is very, very small. There's a church on the corner. The maintenance of this particular block
is the reason why there's still safe passage to Howe School Elementary School two blocks away
because, yes, it's a block off of Broad Street, but children from the 8th and 9th District go to
Howe School and have to pass by these neighborhoods. And this block of Park Avenue, these seniors,
These people that have maintained this block all these years have been good stewards to this block, and it's not fair to them to have to live in the misery that will be represented in a house that does not even cut up appropriately.
The units don't make sense.
The second and third floor are sharing, units are sharing the same floor.
There's a huge yard that hasn't been decided how three apartments will harmoniously share it.
Pets will be allowed, so there's the potential for dogs in the yard, barking dogs.
We looked at the layout extensively at the community meeting, and the place just doesn't seem safe.
The railing, that's the second egress for the apartments, the wrought iron steps don't seem safe to navigate.
Seniors, who would be the ideal tenants, would never want to move in there.
So whoever moves in there would not gel with the existing neighborhood.
the neighbors are simply opposed to this
for so many reasons
and thank you very much
for taking this time
we appreciate it
thank you
questions or comments
from the virtual audience
I have a hand up by the name of
Sarita Brown
okay sure
Good morning, Ms. Brown.
Good morning.
Could you spell your name and state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Yes, my name is Sarita Brown, S-Y-R-E-E-T-A, last name Brown, B-R-O-W-N.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Can you hear the block happen?
yes i'm the cold block captain okay please proceed okay so um in addition to uh what
miss brodus was saying um yes all of those things stated as well as um i've been one of the last few
um people on the block to purchase my single family dwelling i reside at 5923 north park
avenue which is also one of the larger properties on the block uh we've been there for this year
will be seven years i have known that block to be a tight-knit community we do come together
on a couple weekends out of the month to maintain the block cleanup um we organize uh block party
events as a community we do do it as a whole i am uh extremely opposed to this just for the sake
of having again more crowdedness to the block and it's a concern safety when adding three
part units to the block and to be overturned possibly and potentially every year for
and to be overturned possibly and potentially every year for tenants coming and going.
It does serve as a burden when it comes to parking.
We are the only block in the two to three block radius that do not have the two-hour parking.
So outside of other people coming with their cars over living,
they do park on our block and walk to their destination,
even if it's one half block off of Broad Street.
So I just wanted to state that, again, just from my other neighbors, that we are extremely opposed to this three apartment dwelling.
Thank you for taking the time. We appreciate your comments.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Linda Hayes has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court's demographer?
H-A-Y-E-S.
Could you do it one more time, please?
L-I-N-D-A
H-A-Y-E-S
You swear to tell the truth, the whole truth.
Yes, I do.
Ms. Mallory, do you have on two devices?
We're in the same room together.
One of the devices have to be muted.
Thank you kindly.
Are you a neighbor?
She muted the wrong device.
You have to unmute yourself on the device you were just talking to.
I mean talking on.
Vicki.
I think Linda Hayes was the one that we swore in, correct?
Linda Hayes.
Okay, now she has her hand raised, so maybe she can unmute that device.
Morning, Ms. Hayes.
Okay, my address is 5931 North Broad Street.
I have been a resident on a block for 34 years.
I originally was a low...
Okay, I don't know why.
Can you hear me now?
I can hear you better now.
It's okay.
All right, let me...
Ms. Hayes, let me say this.
You've heard the testimony we've already had.
Is there anything different that you could add?
Okay, well, since I've lived on this block, and I can say probably for the past 15 years, Miss Mallory and I have been keeping that property clean.
We had squatters in there a few years ago.
We had to have them removed.
We remove all the weeds on the property.
And the property owners have never, ever, when we have inclement weather, they have never, ever removed the snow and ice from the pavement.
When you come to their property, we have to walk in the street.
they also disregard um when they started the construction they removed miss mallory's fence
without her permission and she asked them not to remove their fence so they can do construction
on the house i don't so so so miss miss hayes yeah it would be safe to say you're you're not
in favor of this project no i'm not okay um thank you so much for taking the time to calls we do
appreciate it is there anyone else in the virtual audience yes chair vicky mallory has been allowed
to speak okay i could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer my name is vicky
vicky lynn mallory i live at 5922 north park avenue vicky vicky do me a favor spell your name
please for the stenographer vicky lynn v-i-c-k-i-l-y-n-n one word mallory m-a-l-l-o-r-y
right do you swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do um miss mallory we've had a quite a bit of comments relative to this are you for the
project or against the project against it um we appreciate it you've heard numerous reasons why
people gave, and we do appreciate you calling. Is there anything you want to add? Yes, it's the
The untrustworthiness of the present owner with regards to them removing my fence, as well as the fact that-
untrustworthiness of the present owner.
We've had the testimony about your fence before from someone else.
So is there anything else?
At this time, I feel as though a single family dwelling would be best for this community,
primarily because of the respect and the way that our neighbors work with one another
with regards to upkeeping our community, as well as we are a close-knit family.
Okay. I've heard that. We've heard that from several people. Thank you.
All right.
And we appreciate you taking time to call. Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
I see no hands at this time, Chair.
do you want to add that note you have before we go to planning um well yes i just i just wanted to
to note um for the record it appears that the refusal is missing a refusal for parking because
it's rsa3 so there should be a refusal for not having three parking spaces because i don't
believe there's any parking at the property is that correct that is correct can i respond uh to
to that um uh refusal um what go ahead mr chair what okay yes you can yes go ahead uh yeah so
as you saw from the pictures of the property um it would be impossible to provide any off-street
parking on that property um and it would be also out of character for the neighborhood as a whole
to have off-street parking for this RSA-3 type of property?
Mr. Chair, can I respond?
So what I'm going to do before I go to the Planning Commission,
why don't you respond?
So there were a lot stated.
So I just want to state first, as this board knows,
I regularly appear in front of this board and the communities.
Our office, whenever we're told to send out a notice, we do.
Whatever the addresses are, we do.
So I don't know why other people didn't get it. You know, sometimes it looks like solicitation materials and, you know, that's just the process. I mean, we just send out the notices blindly.
As far as some of the comments made, I was not the attorney when this board previously granted a variance for three units, but I can only imagine that there were similar arguments made.
This is a 4,700-square-foot lot. We're asking for three units. There's a legal doctrine called variance by estoppel, in addition to a variance request that we're asking for.
But under the doctrine of variance by estoppel, when you take measures in detrimental reliance on government action here, an approval of a variance, and starting a partial conversion of this property into a triplex, there's legal grounds to allow for the grantee and the variance.
I heard the community state a couple things and I looked at Mrs. Broadus's letter we just got this morning. We would agree to a proviso of commercial trash pickup. We're not overburdening this property given its large size. But just to point out in the floor plans, there is no basement living.
If this was approved, we would have to do a fire suppression and an alarm system in the property. And some of the items were discussed was about railings and stuff like that and staircases. Everything would have to be building code compliant, whether it's single family or multifamily.
but my client is not making any changes to the physical structure at all.
They're seeking the least modification possible that you can expect in the Philadelphia Zoning Code
in that they're only seeking a use variant.
They're not changing dimensions of the property at all.
And, you know, for these reasons, we believe that this variant should be granted again
to allow my client to continue converting the property into a triplex.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Planning Commission.
Hi, Amy Boyd with the City Planning Commission, A-M-Y-B-O-Y-D.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?