the rco and do you have a letter yes okay approval you may you may proceed all right good morning
members of the board uh my name is sorry mr yusuf hold on one second yes are you going to um be
presenting mr yusuf yes okay let me just promote you so you can share your screen okay
Yes. Okay. Let me just promote you so you can share your screen. Okay.
Okay. You can now share your screen and present your case. Okay. All right. So in this package,
I have a list of things, the refusal, project information form, application for appeal, deed certification.
I'm sorry, sir.
Are you sharing your screen?
You don't have it yet.
You don't have to do anything to share it.
This is my first time.
So hit the bottom of the Zoom screen that says share screen.
It's green.
Okay, let me see.
Oh, God.
So once you click on that green button, then you go to your documents.
Is this the one? I'm so sorry. Share a screen. Here you go. I got it.
Do you see it now? It's coming up. Yes, we do see it.
All right. Sorry about that. It's my first time.
No worries. All right. Okay. This is the, I have,
On the document, you have the refusal, project information from application for appeal, deed, certificate of tax clearance, plans, site pictures, posted zoning pictures, and RCO approval letter.
We are only asking for the 2.8 foot, the variance that we built without knowing, but they said that we are like off of like by 2.8 foot, that's what we're asking.
do you have any photographs yes it's attached
on page 14 we don't have that in front of us you have to scroll down and show
okay i'm sorry
okay yeah those are the pictures uh we don't have the picture uh of the the project in the back
but the design you can see it on page 14 this one right here rotate rotate that rotate that
sir okay okay this is right here where the shaded part right there this this part right here is what
we are talking about and then we i was told we are yes this is where it is
you have a letter from the rco yes it's right rco could you show us that letter please
yes sir
and rotate that as well
there you go
it's taking longer
it's right there
thank you thank you you're welcome all right um any questions from the board no no
anyone else like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no hands at this time chair thank you planning commission
this is paula crumbler burns with the city planning commission we have no objection
thank you mi 2020-000974 4224 brown street my vote is yes my vote is yes
my vote is yes my vote is yes you am i 2020 dash zero zero one one nine two five one two one
funston f-u-n-s-t-o-n street funston street
Mr. Joseph, you can all unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in.
Good morning.
Good morning, sir.
Please identify yourself with the record name and address.
Joseph Consul, Consul Madison, 1 West 3rd Street, Suite 204, Media, Pennsylvania, 1-9.
suite two zero four media pennsylvania one nine zero six three please spell your last name for
the reporter c-o-n-s-o-l-e you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do thank you carol yes do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate
to its accuracy i do and also have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents
including proof of ownership tax compliance a copy of the refusal or referral photos and or
plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing we have met with the rco thank you
and you have a letter we have and we do thank you you may proceed uh good morning did my screen
share the zoning appeal packet it's up okay thank you uh good morning everyone uh joseph
console here on meeting ID MI 2020 001192. The property is 5121 Funston Street. This block of
Funston Street is between 51st and 52nd Street and runs parallel between Brown and Parrish
Streets. The property is owned by Michael's Construction and Mr. Michael Spencer is here
as representative of michael's construction um the property which i'll pull up
all right one second property was purchased uh by michael's construction june of 2019
This is a Google Maps photo from 2012 at that time.
We believe that's when it was renovated into a two-unit and it was eventually sold to Michael's Construction in 2019 as an occupied two-unit property.
That purchase obviously contained a mistake by Michael's Construction as it was only zoned single family.
but that is why we are here today to seek a variance for the second unit got a copy
of the plans which i'm pulling up here the first floor is a studio apartment with a combination
living room and bedroom and a separate kitchen and the second floor is a two-bedroom unit
the basement is strictly for storage. Since the time of the purchase, there has been some turnover
and Michael has done internal renovations on the unit. I've got some pictures of that,
photos, the exterior as it stands now. And here's some photos of the interior of Funston Street and
work that michaels did to spruce to spruce it up as you can see in the pictures that i'm going to
pull up now the block itself is roughly 50 to 60 percent vacant properties or boarded up properties
we believe michaels construction providing a clean and safe two-unit property on this block
is a benefit to the block that will help improve and beautify this part of the neighborhood.
We had an RCO meeting with the Mill Creek Advisory Council on November 9th.
We got support from the RCO without opposition. The RCO requested a couple of changes,
one of which is Michael building out a closet for the first floor unit before he re-rents it.
uh the first floor unit i forgot if i mentioned that is is vacant right now uh and the second
as he seeks his variance and the second uh has a tenant in it um so uh installing a closet for
the first floor unit before he rents it and the other is installing garbage disposals in the units
which was something that just came about as a result of the second floor tenant appearing
at the RCO meeting and responding to some questions the RCO had that was something else
they wanted was garbage disposal to call to both units. Mr. Spencer agreed to both of those
conditions. I'd like to just call Michael Spencer if you could Michael if you could raise your hand
on Zoom. Okay. He's available. Michael Spencer? Yes, I'm available. Hi. Good morning, sir. Please
identify yourself for the record. Spell your last name. Michael Spencer, S-P-E-N-C-E-R. Could you speak
a little bit louder or get closer to the mic
please
um michael spencer s-p-e-n-c-e-r can you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth
Michael Spencer
S-P-E-N-C-E-R
can you hear me
nothing but the truth yes mr consul please proceed good morning mr spencer did you hear
my testimony just now regarding 5-1-2-1 funson street yes is it accurate to the best of your
knowledge and do you adopt it as your own is true and correct yes do you have anything you'd like
to add um i think you may have covered everything all right thank you mr spencer i have nothing
further thank you questions from the board no no anyone else like to testify in this case if so
please raise your hand no hands at this time chair planning commission
this is paula brumblow burns with the city planning commission we have no objection to
granting of the variance thank you very much mi 2020 dash zero zero one one nine two five one two
one funston street my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you board have
a nice day thank you thank you do likewise mi 2020 dash zero zero one four four two eight zero east
sharpneck street mr patterson you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in great hi good
morning good morning mr patterson please identify yourself for the record and i'll swear you in
Sure. Ronald Patterson, P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N, Claire Harrison Law Firm, 1835 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19103.
Thank you. You're swearing the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Thank you, sir. Please proceed.
Mr. Patterson, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
uh miss tenary this is a um um a held case from january 29th so um we had did previously of
course submit that at the 29th january 29th hearing okay so this is a you may proceed
okay thank you let me bring up these documents here
can you see that no yes no we're still in your files okay
Okay. All right. I'll get back to that.
But you met the file.
Yeah, I got to get the file.
There we go.
So, just by way of background,
this case we heard on January 29th.
It regarded initially an existing building, as I'm going to show you.
we still only have your file oh interesting you might have to stop sharing yeah i'm gonna try it
again okay now yes yes beautiful yes
oh these were scans of the old original this is the original submission
You got it now. Thank you.
So this is the package that I submitted in January, showing the existing building here.
It fronts on along here is Magnolia Street, to the right is Sharpnack Street.
It was a long existing building, long vacant, just to rehash.
It had a zoning permit last used for 12 dwelling units, a store, and a barbershop.
There's a view across the street where there's new homes going up.
There's another view, some additional views.
So the application, it's in an RSA 5 zoning district that we demolished the building.
The lot is kind of what I call double wide on Sharp Neck.
and deep along Magnolia. It was possible, as we had mentioned in the hearing, but difficult to
have a bi-right plan that would work and be viable.
have a buy-right plan that would work and be viable.
We figured out that it would probably be four, maybe five buy-right homes,
but they would be too wide to probably be occupied and be viable for a project.
So we redesigned at the time the homes to comport with the adjacent home sizes.
So we had proposed six lots. Along here is Sharp Neck, Magnolia. There was an entrance off of Sharp Neck, and in the rear, there were a series of decks at the second floor, which I will show you.
That's Magnolia Street. We had a series of decks here, and there's that greenhouse that was next door to us.
um we had proposed six six houses uh east with um parking in the rear and the second floor deck
the deck had gone out to um the property line and you know at the hearing i you know the the board
we had a discussion and with the board's really learned i said you know i think that these uh
decks here are very cavernous and create really much a deleterious effect in that there's no
light getting to the ground floor. And Mr. Holloman had commented that the deck, even though
we had safeguards in place that this deck was riding on a separate, well, he was concerned
about being too close to this house here so we had asked then to have it held and then on
march 16th i submitted a revised package that we want to have considered today we we have had
which i can go through several meetings with east mount airy neighbors both two regularly scheduled
meetings, other meetings with local residents and smaller groups. We had discussed this. We have
not reached an agreement. We had offered a community benefits agreement, which I'll talk
about in a minute um i want to um go back sorry can you see that now no we only have your uh file
uh can you see that yet no i only have your file again okay
figure this out sorry
I'm in there.
if i could suggest that you open up your file first and then share screen because for some
reason it doesn't come out the red box has to go around the document all right let's see
I apologize for this I can't get it to go let's try one more time
you see my file we're back to your file okay no letter yet we just we had just
saw the letter was it this letter yeah we just saw the letter previous to this
okay so if you have this file open when you share a screen just click on the
document that's open.
We got it.
Perfect.
Sorry about that.
It's always worked before.
Anyway, this is the letter that we had sent with our revised plans.
And I would note that there was a series of refusals and most of the refusals had to do with the rear deck, not having a setback, not providing your rear yard because the deck was covering the ground from the sky, not having the support poles less than or equal to 18 inches from the house since they were all at the property line.
So these revised decks, which I'm going to show you, actually eliminate these four refusals because we now have compliant decks and eliminated these refusals.
The remaining refusal had to do with lot lines, sorry, lot sizes, which I'm not going to go into again.
But to summarize, you know, we presented a hardship case and also that the design of these homes was in character and context of the houses in the area in terms of widths and depths.
So what we're asking to consider today, here is a site plan that we had submitted.
Again, there is our view with the decks removed with a slightly little European deck.
I'm going to show you one more document if I can.
can you see that yes okay so uh we continue to negotiate and trade what we'll call cba's
community benefits agreement even until this morning and i have to say that um
The CBA initial one was a version unlike anything else I've ever encountered, and I've only been saying this, I've only been shocked twice by a request, and this is the second one that's probably number one.
I wasn't really going to get into the details, except for the fact that East Mount Airy submitted all of the community benefit versions this morning, so now it's part of the public record.
And just to show you what we have been dealing with, the proposed development, they've asked us to remove one of the houses.
They've asked us to commit to these three things.
We'll take the first two, which I'll have Mr. Falso testify that these offerings amount to about $500,000 worth of work.
plus a contribution to what's called a revitalization project of $550,000.
Yes, that's not a mistake.
Over one additional house.
So with that said, I would like to have Glenn Falso, F-A-L-S-O, admitted.
Ronald Glenn, G-L-E-N-N.
He's with Ruggiero Plant and Mr. Jim Baker.
So I can confirm my testimony.
May they raise their hands, I have a Jim Baker.
Jim Baker, you can wait to be sworn in.
Is Mr. Baker one of your clients, Mr. Patterson?
Yes, sir.
Yes, he is.
Sir, please identify yourself with the record, spell your name, and we'll swear you in.
It's James Baker, J-A-M-E-S-B-A-K-E-R.