My name is Ronnie, R-O-N-Y-A Wilson,
and I'm a neighbor of this property.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth,
the whole truth is nothing but the truth. Yes, I do. Please proceed. Thank you. My family has been
neighbors to this property since 1952. I took over our family house in 2010. This
I took over our family house in 2010.
This property that was redone has been an eyesore and a problem for a long time before it was reconstructed.
I have talked to the owner and my only concern was trash and he guaranteed that there would be no problem with trash.
I did hear the last testimony about the alleyway and other neighbors not having access to the alleyway, but I cleaned 24th Street, and that alleyway wasn't accessible outside of three weeks ago when the city came and cleaned it out.
There was never any access to that alley anyway, and the addition to the property doesn't block the alleyway at all.
Um, I don't know all of the legal things that are going on at this point with this property, but I know that since it has been constructed and up is cleaner. We don't have any trash storage by the unit anymore. Like I'm a person who lives in this area and I know all of the people that are, are, are talking about like the legal, the legalness of what's going on with this property.
I live in this area and this is a hard area to live in and we're trying to keep it clean and
trying to take it back and we don't get much help for it so what Mr. Martin did was come along and
fix up something to show that hey this is a place that somebody cares about I don't have to clean up
as much trash as I used to have clean up there's we have bad uh dumping in this area uh even an
apartment across the street who who they they fixed up and have uh tenants in there we're having
dumping area problems next to their property he comes along he cleans off the the uh papers that
the delivery people put on there like he comes around he checks on the property he talks to
the area people um the reconstruction of this property has been good for the people who live
in this area where actually i'm actually focused on trying to get 24th street to be beautified
and 2400 block of Oakdale is the trashiest block that we have over here. So just putting that
property on the corner helps a lot for 24th Street in itself. So I don't have a problem with him
having a property there and I don't have a problem with two people living in there as long as the
trash situation is taken care of. I have no problem. And like I said, he assured that it
would not be an issue. I have no problem with it. I appreciate his help in the neighborhood.
He's not just a landlord that came and threw up something
and tried to collect some money.
He actually cares, and he's around in the area.
I know what that man looks like.
He gave me his number.
I'm able to call, and I appreciate that
because we don't have a lot of that in this area.
So that is all I wanted to say.
Thank you very much for taking the time to close.
We appreciate it.
Is there anyone else in the virtual audience?
Martin Fraser has his hand up again.
Do I allow him to speak?
That's fine.
Yeah, please.
mr frazier
hello mr frazier just state your name for the record just state your name for the record
uh this is jamar folly i'm mr frazier's next door neighbor i live at 2402 west oakdale street
could you spell your name spell your name for the court sonographer j-a-m-a-r last name folly
f-o-l-l-y right you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do are you in favor or against this project i am in favor of the project when i purchased my
property next door it was 2019 and um mr frazier's property was in poor condition
i was getting raccoons rats and everything else in my backyard and on my roof since mr frazier
rehabilitated this property. I haven't had this issue since. I do not have an issue with trash
because me and Mr. Frazier already came to agreement that they will steal the trash on
the inside if need be. Mr. Frazier done a remarkable job with this property and I was
in attendance at the walkthrough. I was under the understanding from the RCO that she was in favor
of everything because she was thoroughly impressed as well. I don't understand where the opposition
comes in that when there was trash dumping on the side of this property before Mr. Frazier
rehabbed this property. There was trash dumping candy corner to this property before they rehabbed
the property. I don't understand what the big issue is. Mr. Frazier came back and corrected
all the illegalities that was going on. He's trying to get his zoning done property,
but they're hindering him over trash and I don't I just don't get it the the property was it was a
total mess it was an issue for everyone and you know the money that he's dumped into this property
It was an issue for everyone. And, you know, the money that he's dumped into this property and hasn't been able to rent it out over simple issues is just absurd. I don't get it.
Thank you. Thank you for taking the time to call us. We appreciate it. Is there anyone left in the virtual audience?
Yes, I got it. Keith Harris with the hand raised. I have allowed them to speak.
Mr. Harris, hold on, Mr. Harris, just state your name for the record.
Keith Harris.
All right.
And Mr. Harris, you've already testified.
What do you want to add?
I want to add Mr. Frazier is no stranger to the community.
His father operated a business for years, exemplary business, on Lehigh, the 2,500 block of Lehigh.
He was a beauty follower.
And so he is an institution in the community.
He's not an implant.
All the neighbors, as a ward leader, I've spoken to most of the people on the block, and all of them, they love the project.
They don't have any opposition to it, and they support Mr. Frazier 100%.
We respect the RCOs, but sometimes they just can be wrong.
And I believe this is one of those times that they're wrong,
and they don't live on the block.
When there's violence on the block, they don't come around
and try to squash the violence.
They do what they do, right, like with the zoning and stuff.
But Mr. Frazier is constantly on the block with the neighbors that speak,
and they'll call me sometime, and we'll talk to the neighbors.
We got relationships, even with the people that do violence.
We try to talk to them, but Mr. Frazier has seemed to really quiet their block down along with those neighbors, and so I'm hoping we give him some leniency and allow him to go forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harris. Is that it? Any one left in the virtual audience?
Yes, one more hand. Alexis Hargrove has their hand raised. I've allowed them to speak, sir.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
yes alexis hargrove first name a-l-e-x-i-s last name hargrove h-a-r-g-r-o-v-e right you
swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes are you a neighbor
i own a property across the street yes okay uh are you for or against this project
i'm for this project all right is there anything else you could add that hasn't already been said
uh similar to what has been said the trash in the community um was terrible prior to Mr.
Frazier coming along and improving this property um Mr. Frazier is very active and actively goes
over to the property to clean it out consistently since before the construction started I would see
him over there checking on the property um what I see is nothing but an improvement
and would strongly and strongly in support of this being zoned and allowing them to move forward.
Thank you very much for taking the time to close. Mr. Anastasia, do you want to respond quickly?
Just very quickly, Mr. Chair. Swamp Poodle testified that if the board were to, in fact, grant the variance,
They had provisos, all of which we are okay with, not to exceed two units, that trash
would be kept inside, that there would be no basement living, and that there would be
no roof deck.
All four provisos that they placed out there contingent upon the passage of this appeal,
we are in tune with and we agree with 100%.
Because this property has been a duplex since 1962, because my client is just trying to
legalize what he thought he could do, which with the expansion and, but now understands he couldn't.
Because we've had six witnesses, three of whom actually live on the block and support this 100%,
three of whom don't live anywhere near this block, and just did, and not even all of them
went to a walkthrough. There are times to support projects like this if they improve
the overall quality of life of everyone in that area and this is one of those times thank you
planning commission
amy void with the city planning commission the comprehensive plan recommends no change the
existing rsa 5 single family zoning at this location there is evidence that the appellant
renovated the property from one family to two family without zoning permits and erected in
condition without proper permits as well therefore the claimed hardships are self-created the planning
commission recommends that the board denied the requested variances for multi-family household
living occupied area and rear yard depth thank you I'm curious if the planning commission
knows that the property was deemed a duplex from 1962. is that something that that they are aware of
Amy, you can answer that if you if you have that information or if you want to answer it.
Amy, you can answer that if you have information or if you want to answer.
We are aware. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Council, we've had a lot of dialogue about this. I want to hold this to our executive session.
We will do this next Wednesday and we will vote at 930 a.m. next Wednesday.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much.
Number 16, MI2024, 000354, 823 Christian Street.
There's a letter of non-opposition from the Bella Vista Neighbors Association, a letter of non-opposition from Council Member Squall's office.
Sean Wellen will be coming back in as a panelist, sir.
Good morning, Council.
Could you just state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Certainly. Good morning, Chair. Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client and relationship to the property?
Yes. I'm here today on behalf of VJS, all capitalized, Land LLC. That's the owner and
applicant for this.
Our Vice Chair has a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to
a diagnosis? Yes, I do. Have you emailed then all the required documents and exhibits that
is needed to pursue this case five days in advance of this hearing? Yes, I did. Thank
you, counsel. Please proceed and share this with me. Thank you very much. So I have, I
know we've had some difficult cases this morning. I have one that I hope is pretty easy to round
out your morning session here. Very quickly, Sean Whalen here from Vintage Law on behalf of
823 Christian Street. We are simply seeking to legalize an existing condition in place for over
130 years. So very quickly, what you see here, standard corner rectangular property, 17 feet
wide on Christian Street and 62 feet deep on South Darien. This is right off of South 9th,
about halfway between 8th and 9th Street. What you can see here, there's one existing building
that fronts onto Christian Street. There is actually a separate building. They were built
together at the same time. You can tell from nothing's been changed to the facades or anything
in history. There's actually a second building that fronts onto South Darien Street. This is a
oh here you go South Darien Street so you can see there is actually a full divide. It's a full
walkway between the two. You actually access the second building through that corridor and here is
the first building with christian street at the top and south darien street on the side
so we are seeking to i guess i'll do this now um the christian street building has three existing
units one on the first floor there is no basement in that building there is one unit on the first
floor one unit on the second floor and one unit on the third floor the darien street building i'll
call it, has one unit on the first floor with an unfinished basement, no basement living
in either, and a one unit on the second and third floor by level.
So we are seeking to legalize the existing five units at the property with no first floor
commercial.
We presented this to the Bella Vista Neighbors Association.
And as you can see down at the bottom, BVNA was not opposed to the application and had near unanimous support for the project.
This is a CMX2 block along CMX2 corridor, along Christian Street.
And we have two refusals.
One refusal is that there's no commercial which is required in CMX2 along the frontage of Christian Street, which is deemed the front street here.
The second refusal is that we have five units, and five units is too many units for the underlying square footage of the property.
So the property, as I said, is at the corner of Christian and South Darien.
It's approximately 1,050 total square feet with these two existing buildings.
We are not seeking, notably, any new construction.
There have been no violations to the property.
There have been no violations to the property.
We are not seeking any change, in fact, whatsoever to this property.
We are not seeking any change.
So you can see there's a gated alleyway between them.
You access here.
This is the South Darien Street building.
You have two units in that building, and you have three units in this third building.
Um, interestingly, as, uh, as sometimes comes out when you go to the RCO meetings, um, there were members of the RCO board who could, uh, discuss this history, the history of these buildings in detail back about 50 years and describe who was there and who lived there and what resident, you know, what residents were, weren't there.
And notably, the owner of this property, VJS Land LLC, Jim Spadafora, will be on in a minute to adopt my testimony.
But this has been in the Spadafora family since the 60s.
So we're over 60 years that this property has been in their family.
It's always been in the same condition with no changes.
The only change was that the first floor of the Christian Street building, as I'll call it, was changed in 1995 from a commercial unit to a residential unit.
The other four units have been existing at all times.
And interestingly, this actually only came up all of the uses as you see them now have been approved throughout history in the zoning archive.
interestingly though the zoning archive has never made a distinction between the two buildings
and so you keep you keep having conflating approvals uh for each of the two buildings
being shown on the same property um so again here's the existing condition along christian street
you can see the two buildings uh you know you see the separate the clear separation they're both
delineated here. Again, not a condition that my client created. Actually, these are just the two
buildings separately. If the board has any questions, we had professional floor plans done
showing the existing conditions. Again, these have all been in place. Interestingly, if you go back
to this is the 1895 Philadelphia Atlas map you can actually see right here is 823 the Christian
Street building and right here is the South Darien building so this has been in this condition since
at least 1895 when this map was done the two buildings are shown again on the 1910 Atlas map
And so what I would suggest here is simply, this is deserving of a variance because we have a clear hardship. That hardship is an existing building, or I should say existing two buildings that are in their current condition.
it would be an extreme hardship to either demolish, essentially to come into compliance,
we'd have to fully demolish the rear building in order to be in code compliance. And we would
have to demolish all improvements in the first floor unit on the existing Christian Street
building to turn that back into a commercial use. So there's an extreme hardship given the
existing use that's been in place, again, approximately 140 years that these buildings