And Mr. Glover, if you would please raise your hand so you can adopt my testimony and add anything you'd like to add.
They've been allowed to speak.
Hi, Mr. Glover, could you state your name, please, and spell it for the court stenographer?
My name is Travis Glover. That's T-R-A-V-I-S-G-L-O-V-E-R.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Glover, you've heard my testimony today with respect to this project?
And that upon our first meeting with the community organization, you decided to change everything from what was originally proposed as a rooming house to a three-dwelling unit apartment, correct?
Correct.
And you've had a chance to discuss this project with immediate neighbors, not just at the meeting, but also on the street, right?
Yes, sir.
is there anything else you'd like the board to know at this time no sir thank you mr glover
i don't have any other questions to you but the board may questions from the board no mr
chairman no chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
i do not see any further hands mr chair planning commission thank you sir and good morning david
effecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members the comprehensive plan recommends
no change to the residential single family zoning at this location this property has a documented
history of approvals for four dwelling units dating to 1966 the city planning commission
recommends that the board grant the proposed use variance for three dwelling units thank you
MI 2022-005717
MI-2022-005717, 3517 North 18th Street, I vote yes. Her amended refusal dated 8-21-23.
check.
Thomas Howell, my vote is yes, with proviso.
James Snell, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes, with proviso.
Thank you, counsel.
Great. Thank you, members of the board. Have a good day.
Number 10, MI 2022, 006-117-808 North 46th Street.
Sherman Toppin is the attorney.
Letter of support from the Mill Creek Advisory Council.
They'll be rejoining as the panelists, sir.
good morning um mr chair members of the board would you state your name please and spell for
the court's stenographer yes my name is sherman toppin s-h-e-r-m-a-n-t-o-p-p-i-n right do you
swear or firm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do could you identify
your client a relationship to this property my client is mr gavi atavison he should be on in
the virtual crowd right now and he is a developer and he is a member of the llc city land development
okay our vice chair has just a few questions sir good morning council do you agree to waive the
reading of the refusal and stipulate towards accuracy i do have you emailed in all the required
documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with this case five days in
advance of this hearing yes I have okay thank you please proceed you've already
shared your screen okay again thank you of members of the board and mr. and mr.
chair I'm here representing mr. Gavi Asavason would see land development
property is located 808 north 8 north to 46th Street which is there in milky
Mill Creek area of West Philly some two houses in on the corner of North 46th
Street and Brown and that's where we're located you see the picture there in
front of you is the vacant lot at this time there's of course an illegally
parked car there we're hoping to get this development done so that that kind
of use doesn't happen people are coming over the curb and using this lot for
dumping and for this blighted lot for dumping and illegal parking so we're
going to be making sure that that's taken care of should this we be
successful in this particular zoning hearing this is my exhibit package this
This is the road map for today, our refusal, our deed, our application for appeal.
The project information form is there.
We're going to be looking at a few pictures and aerials of the property as well as photographs,
plans, the notice of the RCO meeting which was sent, the addresses of the neighbors that
have received those notices, and proof certificate of mailing.
We will present that as well as the zone new ZBA hearing notice for this particular meeting
as well as the posting of that tax clearance and the RCO letter of support, which will end there.
So going right into it, the refusal for this particular property, we're doing it,
we're seeking to erect a two-family household with a roof deck on top.
The refusals sort of fall into two categories.
One, because the development is located between two-story homes,
there is a refusal for a third story to be set back.
What we'd like instead is to have the facade of the property go three stories straight up and not set back.
We feel that is more consistent with the character of the property and more attractive to the community.
The hardship there is because this is such a small lot, just 15 feet wide and 56 feet deep.
Every inch of square foot is important for the marketability and the rentability of the property.
And having that setback would really compromise not just the top unit or the size of the property for the purposes of interior living as well as the width and the depth of the roof deck.
The second group of refusal items are dimensional, and we find these dimensional items to be somewhat de minimis, the first being the actual living space, 615 square foot is 75% is what the code requires.
we're seeking to extend that to 86% of the square foot. Again, because of the unique small
dimensional footprint of the property, we're looking for a 705 square foot, which is only
90 square foot variance, one room basically in our proposal. The rear yard, we're seeking only
a 2.7 feet variance there. Nine feet is proposed as the depth of the rear yard. We're looking for
6.25. Again, we feel that's de minimis given the very small, very shallow depth of the lot itself.
And again, connected to the rare yard, the 144 square foot is the is.
again connected to the rare yard the 144 square foot is the is the required size of the rare yard
we are seeking 114 which is just 30 square foot off the mark and that is what we're going to be
talking about today so here these are just our required documents you see our deed is here
i'll shoot through some of this our application for appeal which reiterates what i've just said
Our project information form is here is Exhibit 3. Exhibit 5, you can see that we're located
get smack in the RM1 area. This is our property right there. Four properties in from the corner.
So that's our zoning map from above. Looking at it from an aerial standpoint, you see
the corner property is a demolished three-story. This property was three-story going straight up.
I'll show a picture from historically that shows that this is our subject property.
Here is a vacant lot, and this is, again, vacant lots behind it.
What I want you to see here is that all around in this particular area, there is no property built in this footprint subject to this of the third floor setback.
There's been no new construction to story in this entire area outside of a community development project.
This was a community development project where all these homes were done together.
As a single development infill, it is an economic hardship to have to comply when you don't have the benefit of sharing the cost as these houses do, to go just two floors.
So doing a single family two floor home would completely be out of the economic possibility for our applicant.
And to go three floors, compromise on the eight-foot setback, that really compromises the size of the second unit on the top floor or the third floor and makes it very difficult to make that property saleable and marketable.
So that fits into what we're talking about today.
Moving right down, this is what is proposed as the construction.
This is the front facade, the elevations going to the front, and this is the rear elevation of the same property.
Very standard appearing.
In fact, this appearance of the front facade matches what is four doors down at the corner.
So we're looking at something identical and already familiar in keeping with the character of the community, as it says.
And then as we move down to our plans, I'll make this slightly larger so that we can look at what's proposed.
And again, two units.
If you enter the first unit here, there's sort of a foyer.
one door leads you upstairs to the second unit the first unit is occupies the bottom two floors
you have your living room in the front kitchen and with one bedroom in the back so it's a one
bedroom unit on the on the first floor which is flex space at the bottom utilities and and uh
and laundry as you go to the second unit you're looking at basically open space a living room
open an open concept there with the kitchen on the first floor and you go to the top floor um
and you have second floor you have your two bedrooms and this is where you'd have a problem
if the if you had to set back the property it would almost cut this room in half make this not
usable as a bedroom then you'd basically have a two one bedroom units and that is where the
variance that's where the economic challenge comes related to my client and the third floor of course
is the roof deck which would be much smaller if the variance and if the setback were to be complied
with as we move down we did send a notice to the this is the notice we sent to the rco and all the
required neighbors uh have that notice there is exhibit eight as exhibit nine we've got 133 letters
that we send in the affected area all around as you can see this comes straight out of the the rco
notifications website these are the addresses we mail to and in exhibit 10 you see our certificate
of mailing. This goes on for several pages. Okay, we are getting down to, sorry about that length of
that. This was the hearing for this particular ZBA meeting and here's the posting of the notice of
this continued meeting on the property. Three pictures of that and this gives you a good sense
of the depth. This tree comes down and you can see that even with the shallow lot that we have at a
very thin, 15 feet across, every square foot is going to be needed to maximize the usable living
space here. And as you can see back behind here, there is going to be a space for a smaller back
patio, 6.25 feet versus nine, but there's still an open space to see. So there's not going to be,
you're not backing up to another structure. So there's still some openness going into the rear
in light of that variance that we're seeking here's our tax cert current through october 5th
through october 5th and we in the meeting that we had with the mill creek advisory council
and we in the meeting that we had with the mill creek advisory
was not a very well attended meeting however the board of the mill creek advisory council
were in support we discussed the property and there was a gentleman who lived right next door
the gentleman who lives at 806 was in the property and he was in support uh we invited him to be a
part of this zba hearing but he did not uh he did not again i don't believe that he is here but in
In any event, we did get the support of the community, and we do have, we would ask that
the CBA, in conjunction with that, would work with the community and would allow the community's
wishes as well as ours to be granted.
So I think at this time, I'd like to bring my client forward to adopt my testimony and
answer any questions.
Mr. Tovisin, if you could raise your virtual hand to be advanced as a co-presenter here.
morning sir please raise your virtual hand to wait to be sworn in
why could you state your name and spell please for the court stenographer
uh my name is gazi g-a-z-i the last name is out of seven a-t-a-s-a-v-e-n
right do you swear or affirm tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
yes i do sir proceed counsel ah yes mr mr thawison have you been listening to the zba
testimony that i've just i've just made on behalf of this application yes and would you adopt that
testimony as your own yes and is there anything missing or anything that you'd like to add or
supplement to what i've already testified to with respect to this application no okay well at this
time the board may have questions for you but i would ask the board to admit my exhibits into
evidence everything's admitted questions from the board no no chair no chair questions or comments
from the virtual audience there are no hands mr chair planning commission thank you chair bergman
and good morning david fecto with the city planning commission chairman and board members
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential uh multi-family zoning at this
location the appellant has not shown that an economic detriment will accrue if they are
required to comply with the dimensional standards in the zoning code the city planning commission
recommends the board deny the proposed dimensional variances thank you my 2022 006 117 808 north 46
street i vote yes yes james now my vote is yes yes thank you council yeah thank you members of
the board thank you all right let's see if we go back for number
Culver Street,
Nastasio's
Engine,
Okay. Number six,
MI 2023,
003-527-2518-44
Frankfurt Avenue.
Mark Feynman, you've already been sworn, sir.
He'll be coming back
as a panelist.
Mr. Feynman?
he's coming in now as a panelist chair
hi mr fineman
good morning hi could you could you state your name just for the record you've already been sworn
yes uh mark fineman f as in frank e-i-n-m-a-n and my apologies
Are we up and running?
I believe I'm up and running.
Now it's making something.
There we go.
My apologies.
I do have two separate computers working, so you'll see me in two spots because of the circumstances, but I believe I'll be able to present with what I have here for you.
uh i'll be able to present with what i have here for you you've already been sworn yes and just
You've already been sworn.
for the record uh there's a letter of non-opposition from the council member we also have a lesson
a letter i believe of support from east kensington neighbors so why don't you start with your
presentation thank you um um here we go
okay i see okay so on the
we see your appeal yes so this is this is an appeal as we indicated my client has property
located at 2518-44 Frankfort Avenue, has been at this property for many, many years.
The best description is it's a triangle at the end of merging streets.
My client has operated a convenience store there during the years of operations, has
been very supportive of the community.
my client in trying to meet the demands of the community wanted to expand the offerings and in
order to do that needed to expand the kitchen capabilities within the interior of the structure
in order to do that needed to to build an addition the proposed addition would be built to code the
reason we're before the panel is because we were advised that we needed special
um that's a special uh uh an exemption was needed by uh from the zoning board of adjustment for
for the erection of the addition to the existing building for the use of a grocery store um
essentially the the additional space and if i may scroll so we have we have all that what i think
would be helpful is if you showed us some photos of the property yes and that's what you want to