i'm going to allow them to speak sure
good morning sir hello thank you for taking my comments board could you please um state your
name and spell for the stenographer my full name is thomas de rego t-h-o-m-a-s-d-e-r-a-g-o
you swear affirm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i do please proceed sir
I don't recall receiving any letter for public discussion of this change. Can't say I didn't see it. I saw a quick look at the addresses they sent the letter to. Wasn't sure if I was on there. 1618 South 10th Street, if you want to look, Henry or Mr. Clinton.
The first notice I got was the notice of refusal that was mailed to me by L&I, so that's why
I'm attending this meeting. I don't particularly oppose what's going on, although I feel that
regulations are not being followed currently, and I think it'll just be exacerbated once
the new shop is opened up uh in particular trash pickup while it may happen daily doesn't happen
between the hours that are supposed to happen generally happens about 4 30 to 5 30 in the
morning i know this because it wakes me up frequently i live across the street 1618 south
10th street uh you mentioned there's a loading zone well frequently the owner parks his truck
in the loading zone which means any customer that comes by is either hanging off a corner nearby
for pickup so the park the customers need to park illegally because the owner of the business
parks his truck in his loading zone as his personal parking spot so i feel that is a
misuse of a loading zone i also do not believe they have a grease trap currently and because
i've never seen a grease truck come and clean it out i do notice that they sweep the inside of
their establishment every night into the street and if you would look at the sewer grate next to
their shop it is caked in grease it's rather disgusting those are my complaints all right
and i think they're just going to be exacerbated with another shop and flatting what the regulations
should be thank you very much for taking the time to call us is there anyone else in the audience
i see no other hands at this point would you want to respond
uh quickly yeah only that i i just went to the list of addresses and uh
1618 south 10th is listed if you didn't get the letter uh i i know we sent it so i apologize for
that. Certainly no intent to overlook what you're doing. Mr. Esposito is on this call right now
and I think he'll take your words to heart as far as parking in that spot. I don't think he
should be doing that. If he is doing that, I'm going to direct him not to do that. And I know
I think he'll reach out to you directly to address any other concerns you have because
he's right across the street i got your last name again sir just so i have it
durego wasn't it durego got it d-e-r-a-g-o planning commission
to that yeah planning commission thank you chairman and good morning David Vecto with the
city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends no
change to the RSA 5 residential single family zoning at this location the city rezoned this
neighborhood in 1998 and a council supported math change the proposal to expand the existing
catering from 1627 South 10th to 1629 South 10th will have minimal impact on surrounding properties.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant requested variances for
multiple principal uses and a commissary kitchen. So Hilary, this is closed, right? And this is
closed until we have an amended refusal? Yes, it's closed except for the amended refusal.
And then we'll have, you know, listed when it needs to be listed. Well, yes, we'll just
pull it up for a vote on the add-on list once we have the amended refusal all right thank you mr
clinton you just said right once we get the amended refusal we'll vote got it thank you very much thank
you very much is there anyone in the uh 9 30 a.m list case has not been called i see no hands at
this time too okay everyone we uh we have a very uh early break thank you i appreciate it
the first all right
good afternoon everyone my name is bill bergman and i will be chairing this meeting of the
philadelphia zoning board of adjustment with me is our board of vice chair tenetta graham
present mr chairman our board secretary cheryl al gaston present mr chairman our board member
michael johns he's there he's there our board member uh ty owen and she should be on very
shortly and our board member ryan mcadams president mr chairman also here present our
our attorney uh hillary emerson our zoning board director ian haggerty and our board administrator
lakeisha dandy recording of this hearing will be posted on the zba website by participating you
consent to be recorded this is an in-person meeting with remote capabilities whether remote
or in person if you're called to speak you must state and spell your name then wait to be sworn
in once you've been sworn in please state your name each time before beginning your testimony
any person may enter their appearance to become an interested party you can identify the case
property address in your zoom webinar you can see a staff member or you can call the zba appearance
line by the close of business tomorrow call 267-270-5548 leave a message that includes your
email address and the address of the property of the appeal case the following guidance is
for our remote attendees when directed you must raise your virtual hand in order to be recognized
if you are called to testify you will be prompted to join as a panelist please accept the request
and turn on your camera. Third, the webinar Q&A is for questions about the hearing. Do not comment
on the cases in the Q&A. And finally, if you are participating by phone, press star nine to raise
your hand and star six to unmute. For our in-person attendees, please refrain from talking, eating,
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The nearest stairwell is to the left outside the doors. In case of an evacuation, the rally point
is love park directly across art street please remain there so we can account for you so let's
look at our schedule for this afternoon number one mi 2025 002 750 1122 frankfort avenue
that case has been continued attorney moving party
um here number three mi2025 002849 2619 north 29th street verna anastasio is the attorney
i see a request for a continuance mr anastasio
hi chair i'm karima cantana i'll be your co-host for today
And I'm going to promote Byrne to stand.
And I'm going to promote Byrne to stand.
Thank you.
on the list is there someone from his office can you please raise your hand someone from burns off
did we hear from him today he is okay but he continued
yes um he did indicate via email um with the rco and we were copying on it um that he was okay he
was not opposed to a continuing continuance as long as the case could be rescheduled on the sooner
side um which i believe our continuing state is in 4 15 i think okay perfect thank you so mi
2025 002 849 2619 north 29th street at cases continued until 4 15 26 at 2 p.m number
number six um mi 2025 003 209 3427 north 6th street um
this case is continued attorney moving party um until no date okay and is this a must be heard
mr chair and mark must be heard thank you now do we stand with number 10 i don't see joe here
um we we received the required document so we'll go on with that okay right yep we're good that
thank you and then number seven mi 20 25 003 591 40 23 west gerard avenue um we have no exhibits
it's this is the second listing one Gerard one Gerard property LLC is the listed owner
USA remodeling construction
okay this this case will be continued and it'll be marked must heard so MI 2025 003 591 4023 West
road avenue cases continued mark must be heard 4 15 26 at 2 p.m
that's good any other requests for continuance
no hands at this time chair thank you we're going to go to our add-on mi 2025
five zero zero five zero four nine four leverington avenue i vote yes to reconsideration and rehearing
michael mike oh oh i think my mic is going can you hear me now my vote is yes okay yes to
reconsideration and rehearing thank you cheryl gaston my vote is yes to reconsideration and
re-hearing. Ternetta Graham, my vote is yes to reconsideration and re-hearing. Ryan McAdams,
my vote is yes to reconsideration and re-hearing. We're going to go to our first case will be
number 11, MI 2025-007-367-765 South 43rd Street. Could you please state your name and spell for
stenographer yes my name is roses laughlin r-o-s-e-s l-a-u-g-h-l-i-n do you swear or affirm
to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do could you identify your client
a relationship to the property yes the my client is the philadelphia water department who is the
um owner through the city of philadelphia and we have a letter of non-opposition from spruce hill
And also a letter of support from Council Gauthier. Council Gauthier has said this is a very necessary piece of infrastructure and the site in question is too physically constrained to provide the parking required in addition to the substation.
Our voice chair has a few questions for you.
Good afternoon. Have you submitted your documents and exhibits five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, they were submitted last Friday, February 6.
Okay, and do you waive the reading of the issues or stipulate to its accuracy?
see um yes okay all right thank you you can see your screen and proceed with the case
um before i share the exhibits i'd like to make an opening statement
um good afternoon mr chairman and good afternoon
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and good afternoon to the board.
The Philadelphia Water Department is proposing to replace the existing water pump station located at 765 South 43rd Street with a new pump station facility at the same location.
This project will increase the capacity of the pump station from 8 million gallons per day to 108 million gallons per day.
PWD has designated this pumping station for replacement because it is nearing the end of
its useful life and has faced flooding and operational challenges. Replacing the station
with increased wet weather capacity will significantly reduce combined sewer overflow
discharge into the Schuylkill River, improving water quality and environmental health for the
city of philadelphia replacement of the pump station and the resulting water quality improvements
are also part of philadelphia's federally mandated long-term control plan
in order to proceed this project needs a variance to allow off-site parking code section 14802
section 9 excludes I2 industrial zone districts from having off-site accessory parking the new
water pump station includes a plan to utilize three off-site accessory parking spaces two of
these parking spaces are along the curb line on one side of the street a third parking area is
along both sides of the curb line which may require 42nd street to be closed during monthly
preventative maintenance on the CSO chamber and tide gates additionally PWD will first utilize the
driveway of the facility for purposes of parking this driveway has capacity for 1.5 vehicles or
approximately one van the existence of the new pump station will not increase the need for parking
from its current use and PWD will continue to utilize the same parking areas as it currently
does for maintenance of the facility. Preventative maintenance is performed one to two times a month
by three different crews one mechanical one electrical and one electronic. Each crew uses
one vehicle so if all crews were performing maintenance at the same time three or maybe
BEFORE VEHICLES WOULD BE PRESENT. ADDITIONALLY, A ONE VEHICLE CREW VISITS ONE OR TWO TIMES PER WEEK IN ORDER TO REMOVE DEBRIS FROM THE DEBRIS SCREENS.
um and now with the board's permission I'm sure why don't you show your presentation
we have all your paperwork so you can go through that pretty quickly
this is the initial zoning application right this is the notice of refusal
um the application for zoning variance yep
the project confirmation form
um but I think would be worthwhile if you have photos or drawings I think that would be the
thing to show uh this is the deed yep and then the certification of tax clearance here is the
um pump station architectural site plans um starting from here then
so maybe what maybe what you might want to do is show where the pump station is and tell us where
that is relative to okay the the map year ago that might be easier go ahead yes this is the
just the notices of zoning appeal and here is the current pump station right photos um so this is
there's an elbow of 42nd street which goes around um where this pump station is located okay
and then this is from the
and then this is from the presentation that was provided to the RCO um here is the existing site
and you have a rendering what it's going to look like when it's done yes so why don't we see that
oh it's the rendering looking if you have a rendering
very nice um and here's a more aerial shot right um okay all right um
and council persons ford and also spruce hill community association right so questions from
the board yeah i just want you to uh just highlight where the parking is relevant on one of the
drawings that you have or flight plan so um this is the what i'm sharing now the red highlighted
areas are the identified parking areas can you zoom in that parking would be a couple times a
month is that what we're saying yes so there are three crews that each visit one to two times per
month okay so all right why zoom in a little bit did you say the did you say the areas that are in
red are the parking areas yeah the or just or just or just the area one or is the area all three
areas are the parking areas yes so area one is highlighting the curb line there for um the
maintenance at the pump station and then area two is highlighting the parking for maintenance to the
junction chamber which is adjacent um and then area three is the um part the parking that i
referenced for the cso maintenance and why don't you say again that if all the three places were
together how many cars would that be all three crews i believe so all three crews were there
at the same time uh three or maybe four vehicles okay all right thank you all right questions from
board yeah yeah yeah i i don't see there's any issue really with this site in terms of parking
um i'm very familiar with this on part of st joe's campus and it's at the end of the hill
and it's right near the train and there's sort of nothing really around there um so i don't think
there's any issue with parking in st joe's as a huge if they still have the campus has a huge
parking lot right behind that so um definitely don't see that as an issue my question is um um
are you doing anything with the existing landscaping that's around the the parcel
are you adding to it or you are you um so i have the trees some there are some existing trees and
whatnot that are there um i have a witness that would be better qualified to answer that question
oh why don't we who is it uh it's uh brian sparks brian
mr sparks yes i'm here hello okay hi could you please state your name and
and spell for the stenographer yeah my name is uh brian sparks that's b-r-i-a-n-s-p-a-r-k-s
right do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do mr sparks did you hear the issue about the landscaping yes i did yes could you uh respond
to that yeah so um rosa like in the um powerpoint we had some uh landscaping plans i believe if you
want to go back to the PowerPoint presentation. And then I forget what slide it is. Maybe we
can just flip through this, though. Oh, yep. You just had it on the last one. Yep, there
we go. So that's what the final landscaping conditions will look like at the site. So
we're going to plant some larger trees along the driveway that abuts this former St. Joe's
campus. And then we're just going to do native ground cover around the new junction chamber
that we're constructing any other questions thank you yeah i have a question because looking at
aerial maps it looks like there's other cars already parked um on the private side of 43rd
um on the private side of 43rd street is that street closed to regular vehicular traffic
street is that street closed to
or can regular cars still go back there park and turn around um when st joe's was still the owner
of the site they had their recycling operation back on 43rd street so they had some dumpsters
in that area that they also accessed um now that they sold it to the new owner i'm not sure if
going to need access to that um but there shouldn't really be any um public uh need for
for accessing that area um i guess i should also mention too that septa requires access to their
um right away for their um track area so they also have a an easement to to enter that section
of 43rd and 42nd street okay but south 42nd street is if there's not like public parking
spaces back there any cars that i see are just they might even be water department vehicles i've
guessed if i'm looking at overhead views and google maps yeah that might be accurate i can't speak
whether or not people do park back there i guess when we leave the gate open anybody can you know