uh dan do you adopt uh my testimony that you've heard today as your own um and can you um certify
that it's accurate i do uh and it is accurate yes thank you thank you any questions from the board
no anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
no more hands mr chair thank you planning commission property is indicated for ron bednar
city planning sorry this property is indicated for residential use on the city plan
proposal is consistent with the comprehensive port comprehensive plan support for accessory
dwelling units and existing accessory structures. Therefore, we have no objection to the ground.
Thank you, Ron. 002041, 101 East Sedgwick Street, my vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
My vote is yes.
Number 11.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Which one is next, Frank? There's one that I'm missing.
101 Ellsworth.
I have that. Calendar number 0051, 101 Ellsworth Street.
So Chair, Yan Jin has his hand raised. I will promote him to panelist right now.
Mr. Jin is our panelist.
Good evening, Mr. Jin.
Please identify yourself for the record.
Good evening.
Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N-J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838, Philadelphia PA 19103,
here on behalf of the applicant.
Thank you.
Swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Please proceed.
Sarah, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
30 agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
Have you also emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal, referral, photos, and plans five days prior to this hearing?
And have you also met with the RCO and have a letter?
I have, and we do have the letter, and it was submitted.
Thank you. You may proceed.
Thank you. Good evening.
this is an application for lot line relocation. We were actually before the zoning board once before
with this case and due to the number of changes made on the overall design,
the board asked us to obtain permission to obtain a new refusal from LNI and then come back before
the board. I'm going to go ahead and share my documentation so this way we can re-look at
this application. We sent the updated refusal along with the prior refusal to the board,
the community letter and support from Pennsport Civic Associations, photos, plans, tax compliance,
deed, appeal, and the hearing confirmation. The updated refusal is due to the fact that we had
redesigned this project with rear access parking as part of what the community and the developer
negotiated during our meetings with them. Because of this change, some of the parcel
rear yard space has been reduced as compared to the original, while the lot sizes have not changed
and the proposed open area did change due to, again, the parking being part of the rear of the
parcel at this point. If we compare it to the prior refusal, one of the primary things we
have removed from that refusal is the need for parking. So I'm sorry, the need for parking that
it's access from the rear rather than being accessed from the street. So from the perspective,
the overall design, really not a whole lot has changed from the last time we presented
to the board, except that we are now providing again, this access driveway, and this was requested
and approved by the community to provide parking spaces.
Let me zoom in because I can see
this is very difficult to read.
Let me zoom into the plan better
so we can see it more clearly.
Is this sufficiently large for the board to see clearly
or should I zoom in further?
Just tiny bit more.
that's good that's good thank you so this is a proposed driveway in the back that allows
each of the new units to have a off-street parking space and as a result what we did with the space
is to have a little bit of overhang on the upper floor which took away slight bit of the open space
in the back it did change the design slightly however by providing these parking spaces
the committee felt that it's still a better design than the original. The proposal again is for a
subdivision of what used to be a very large parcel into five separate parcels and each of these
parcels would then be built as a single family dwelling. The actual parcel right now is the
combination of the parcels actually covers the entire corner and a deep part of the block by
redesigning this what we have done is we have made the parcels five individual parcels that are
very consistent to what is now there on the block and our height and design would also be consistent
generally to the neighbor's properties because of the depth of the lot even with five parcels
the width of the buildings are almost 20 feet in width which is if it goes any greater it would
actually be out of character with the neighborhood. So as a result we have the final design as five
units single family access from Ellsworth Street with the parking in the rear access from front
south front street i'm going to go ahead and go down to the
floor plans for the board so that it's so this is the uh rendering of what the
end result would look like and we have the layout here of each floor starting from the basement
first floor where the parking is and the upper floors again this is a single family design
so these are designed to be
So these are designed to be household living
and for sale for those who's interested in purchasing.
The community, again, supported our application.
As you can see that the community
spoke with, met with us multiple times
and they were aware of all the ongoing issues
with the refusal and after the modification and design including providing the rear access parking
to each unit and only one curb cut located on front street they support the application for
variants that we're seeking before the board. I'm open to any questions and I will now
also share some photos with the board. This is the existing property. This is at one point
used as a community center, but it's been vacant for some time. And all this will actually be
demolished when the new construction takes place. Do you have a client you want to bring on?
Yes, I should have either Grace or Ms. Peggy Tang waiting.
Teng has her hand raised and I will come up and I will allow her to speak right now sir thank you
Ms. Teng good evening ma'am please identify yourself for the record spell your last name
last name is Teng T-A-N-G first name P-E-I-H-O-N-G
You're in the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Please proceed.
Thank you.
Ms. Tang, you heard my testimony and representation to the zoning board, including the updated refusal and the changes.
Can you verify that what I have presented is true and correct and adopted as your own testimony?
Yes, I do.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
anyone else would like to testify in this case if so please raise your hand
there's no one else Mr. Chair thank you planning commission on Bednar city planning
this property is indicated for single family residential in the comprehensive plan it is
zone for that use. The proposal is consistent with the surrounding development context therefore we
have no objection to the grounding of the variance. Thank you Ron. Mr. Jenner is there any revised
plans? Well since we have the revised refusal Mr. Chairman I do not believe we need any
okay good enough thank you thank you zero zero zero zero five one one oh one Ellsworth Street
my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes my vote is yes thank you thank you
Calendar number 0301, 1026 Pine Street.
Mr. Daniel Mita has his hand raised.
I will allow him to speak right now, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
please identify yourself for the record and i'll swear you in
good evening uh this is dan meta uh of duane morris representing the uh applicant and owner
mrs christina house the media would you please spell your last name m-i-t-a
and you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
I do. I'm sorry. Could we pause for one second? Jason, can you promote him to panelists,
please? He's now a panelist. Excellent. Here we are.
Hello, do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, with one caveat, which is that the rejection mentioned that the applicant was in connection with a visitor accommodation.
a visitor accommodation. And in fact, it's somewhere in between there. So I'll just reserve
And in fact, it's...
that of record. And I'll be glad to expound on that as we go through the presentation.
Okay. And have you also emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents consisting of proof
of ownership, tax compliance, refusal or referral, photos and plans five days prior to this hearing?
and have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter?
Yes, Madam Vice Chair, we do.
Thank you, you may proceed.
Thank you very much.
Well, thank you for bearing with us.
If it pleases the board, we're here to present the,
we're applying for a zoning variance
in connection with a use of 1026 Pine Street,
unit number five which is a three-story trinity home of four floors including the basement
this as a traditional trinity in philadelphia it's a little over a thousand square feet of
improved space sitting on a lot of 273 square feet so it's a typical stacked room per room
The applicant purchased the property back in 2015 and has been using the property for several years prior to 2018 for short-term rental stays consistent with an Airbnb, if you will.
um it came to the applicant's light uh knowledge that they had to acquire the proper permits and
license that the city has for such use and in the process of applying for it uh realized that the
current zoning uh is incongruent with uh her use of the property as an airbnb and just by way of
background um the property could be used for a series of evenings uh or it could be for weeks
uh etc thereafter uh and even there's been some instances of uh individuals staying for you know
over 30 days excuse me counselor you have any you have pictures or drawings yep yes i do
So I'm adjusting to the virtual platform, so bear with me here.
I will share my screen.
Sorry, I'm having some issues with my computer.
Can you see my screen now?
yes okay great um bear with me uh as i kind of muddle through this if you will on the technical
side so uh you'll see the property itself we'll go to a visual and i'll give you some um uh we'll
we'll get into uh pictures of the actual home itself but just so you can see it um we're in
between 11th street and 10th street in the washington square neighborhood uh just south
of pine street and there's actually in the vicinity here if you can see my cursor off waverly
there's a cloister of uh homes that open up into this courtyard space right here uh and that is
uh kind of the general area i'm now going to shift over to uh our application packet which contains
pictures of the home of the both the cloister and then can actually show the residents as well so
this is kind of the the cloister area I mentioned earlier where you have this very nice well-appointed
kind of bucolic courtyard here sounding like a realtor right now that's probably an upgrade
and then we have here the kitchen here you can see kind of the well window looking out
but it's your typical trinity where you'll have a kitchen in the bottom a sitting room another
sitting room and then a bedroom it's a one bedroom there's sometimes a cream two in there but that's
a kind of the sitting area on the second floor if you will and these are these are actually taken
off the the airbnb page the applicant uses this is the the bathroom
the airbnb page uh the applicant uses this is the the bathroom
another kind of sitting area off the stairs
and then the uh the single bedroom
and that's a thousand square feet uh 1095 square feet it's you know the wide angle lenses really
do a miracle job. Right. Invite the space. But so it is very cozy. But one of the interesting
things about this, you know, it being a typical Trinity, as you kind of highlighted with this
space, Madam Vice Chair, is this is really kind of habitable for one purpose. And I mean, you have
the one single bedroom, not one person, but it's a single occupancy, one bedroom unit, if you will.
um so what it does is for the purpose of kind of airbnbs and short-term stays like that
because you have a much smaller living space you have a different type of
individual that's going to be going in here usually one or two people a couple
um and it's there's not a lot of if you've been in trinity it's not a lot of space for
entertaining things of that sort so um it's well situated for the kind of quieter area
um in connection with the application uh also submitted uh uh for your review uh there are
uh four neighbors uh at 1028 unit 3 1028 unit 8 1026 unit 6 and 1026 unit 3a all of which are
neighboring uh these are all street addresses on pine street uh neighboring the property that
we're voicing uh support for the variance uh submission um and uh one of the things that
been acclaimed is that it you know it's been running smoothly it's you know it's unfortunate
there's this uh the need for the variance but insofar as practically it's been used
for this kind of short-term lodging use there have been no issues and the neighbors have been
it's been a pleasant experience if you will. Are there any immediate questions before the board
before I kind of get into the elucidating kind of the discrepancy and the rejection and kind of
what it is exactly, what relief the applicant is looking for.
Any board members?
And Mr. Amita, if you could summarize, that would be helpful.
Yes, I'd be glad to.
So practically speaking, the unit has been used for an Airbnb kind of short-term temporary
lodging that has a lot more flexibility dexterity than uh what you otherwise would have uh you know
the other forms that are uh more tailored in the zoning code uh would be things like hotels uh bed