Leo Isilovich.
Mr. Isilovich, can you please raise your hand?
Mr. Isilovich, can you please unmute yourself or wait for the chair?
hi could you please state your name could you please state your name and spell for the court
reporter hi my name is uh leo islevich uh it's spelled l-e-o and my last name is i-o-s-i-l-e-v-i-c-h
do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
i do proceed counsel mr islevich were you on the call when i just presented the case
Yes, I was.
And if you had the opportunity to testify, would you adopt my testimony as your own and as true and correct?
And Mr. Isolovic, during the community meeting, did you advise the community that these homes would be all for sale and not for rent?
And then that was certainly a factor which led them to support this project?
I did.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
All right.
questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual
audience here we have sloan folks mr folks you can unmute yourself and wait for the chair please
good morning mr folks could you please state your name and spell for the court reporter
good morning chairman bergman uh and cba board my name is sloan folks s-l-o-a-n-e-f-s in fire o-l-k-s
representing the Office of Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sanchez from 508 City Hall.
You swear or firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do so, sir. Thank you.
Proceed.
The applicants, having met with the coordinating RCO and receiving a letter of support,
Council Member Sanchez has no opposition to this variance request. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Fuchs. Thank you very much for calling in.
Anyone else in the virtual audience?
Chair, I've seen all of the hands at this time.
Planning Commission.
Good morning, Chair Bergman, members of the board.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia State Planning Commission.
In 2021, the zoning map was amended to RSA 5 on this block in accord with a neighborhood
remapping process.
The intent of the single-family zoning designation, as explained during that remapping process,
was to encourage single-family infill on these narrow blocks consistent with their historical
development patterns we agree that the dimensional variance is minimal and does not conflict with the
purpose and spirit of the zoning code however with regard to the use variance the applicant
has not supported the hardship claim with evidence of unique physical conditions of the property
and i'll remind the board that there's no legal distinction between ownership units and rental
units and no such restriction can be enforced city planning commission recommends that the
board deny the use variants. Thank you. MI 2022-002576-2056-Dorth Bodine Street. I vote yes.
Harold Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is no. James Stel, my vote is yes.
Ismail Zahid, my vote is no. Thank you. You have your three votes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
members of the board number six mi 2022 002 278 314 pemberton street gregory shapiro and christian
daniello um letter of support from the queen queen village neighbors association
and letter of non-opposition from councilman member squilla mr shapiro can you please raise
raise your hand. He's coming back in as a panelist now, Chair. Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Shapiro. Good morning. Could you state your name and spell it for the court
reporter, please. Gregory Shapiro, G-R-E-G-O-R-Y, Shapiro, S-H-A-P-I-R-O. Right. Do you swear
for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. Our vice chair has a few
questions for you. This is an application for the erection of a roof deck and roof deck access
structure above the third floor of an existing attached building for use as a single family
for use as a single family household and there are two zoning and there are two zoning refusals
household
and there was two
the roof decks must be set back at least five feet from the extreme front of the building
line closest to the front lot line whereas the proposed roof deck has zero foot setback from
the front building line the second refusal is maximum building height allowed 38 feet proposed
is 40.167. Now I have to ask you this. Have you emailed the exhibit packet with the required
documents consisting of proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal referral, photos and or plans
five days in advance of this hearing, and have you met with the RCO, and do you have a letter?
I believe all those are yes. Okay, you may proceed and share your screen.
i'm confused about a point here hang on i'm sitting here with my wife
um can i mute and stop the video for a second to have an offline chat
yeah the architect i believe is supposed to be the one presenting these
now the architect can't present you have to present now if the architect's online he can
bring up the
presentation
and you can talk off of that, but the
architect can't testify. Is that okay?
She is. Tina is in the...
Okay. And if she has the ability
to bring it up for you to testify, then
that's fine.
I believe she does. Tina Geary. I don't know
how we get her... He's coming back
in as a panelist now, Chair.
I'm allowed to share my screen.
Yes, could you just share your screen and let him testify off the screen, please.
We can't speak as the architect.
He's going to do the presentation.
Is there a reason why?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, ma'am.
Do you have the presentation to put up?
Okay, so we're going to mute you.
and then the applicant will go forward with the presentation thank you kindly
and this is hillary i just wanted to to clarify that the architect is not the applicant in this
case the applicant is the property owner so you do not have standing to testify before the board
that is why you cannot present unless you are called as a witness by the applicant who is
testifying for their attorney. I am the applicant. No, you are the applicant maybe on the application
before L&I, but for zoning board purposes, you are not the applicant. It is only the person
who has an interest in the property, which is the owner or a tenant. Thank you.
Can I call Tina as a witness to do this on my behalf? Because I was not
I think Gregory listen to me I think what she should do she should put it up
and all you have to do is talk off the screen and we'll talk you through this
okay great okay sure just have her put it up this is Hillary if there are questions that
the board asks that you cannot answer because they're technical at that point you could call
your architect to answer but you need to give the presentation initially okay I will do my best
I apologize.
You'll do great.
Okay, so where do I see it?
Do you have it up?
Are you not seeing the refusal?
I don't see it yet.
We're actually seeing the appeals calendar right now.
I think the wrong tab is highlighted, maybe.
all right we see the refusal we're okay okay we understand that go on
so these are she has the drawings up Gregory why don't you tell us what you want to do
I mean basically what we're trying to do is create more outside livable space for our family
and so we want to put a roof deck up on top of our house that has as much usable space as possible
right okay
do you have pictures of what the property looks like now
okay so one is that your house there yes it is okay
yes it is okay so you want to go on top of that yes and we have uh somewhat of a unique layout
so you want to go
because we're kind of a we're a double wide but it doesn't have as much depth so that's why we're
having to build it the way we are because really we don't have much room to go back right okay i
got you. All right. Go back to the photos one more time.
Other places on the box have decks? Yes, there's actually a handful of them that have decks that
do come all the way to the edge. And I think probably for a very similar reason. Okay, great.
All right.
Questions from the board?
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
No, Mr. Chairman.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Chair, I see no heads at this time.
And my understanding is Queen Village Newark, Neighbors Association supported it,
and there's no opposition from the councilman, too.
Is that correct?
Yes, that is correct.
I'm sorry.
All right.
Thank you.
Perfect.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman.
Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
Board members, the zoning map was amended in this area in 2016 in accord with recommendations
from the comprehensive plan, but this lot was not changed.
The property, as the applicant has noted, is unusually shallow, and so strict compliance
with the dimensional requirements would not be practical.
we recommend that the board grant these variances. Thank you. MI 2022 002278 314
Pemberton Street. I vote yes. Carl Tenere, my vote is yes. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
James Snell, my vote is yes. Ishmael Shahid, my vote is yes. Thank you, Gregory. Thank you very much.
number seven mi 2022 002 211 24 2142 east sesquihanna avenue martina reich is the owner applicant
she's coming back in as a panelist now sheriff okay one minute let's see a letter of opposition
from Councilman Squilla, and letter of opposition from the Fishtown Neighbors Association.
I'm unmuting myself. I'm starting my video. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
Hi. Our vice chair has a few questions for you. Sure. Good morning. Good morning. First,
have you emailed the exhibit packet with proof of ownership, tax compliance, refusal, or referral,
photos and your plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with
the rco and do you have a letter yes to all of the above with one clarification we were asked
after the receipt of the packet to that the that the original submission to ellen i um receive
comments of the of the changes that the current proposed um plans were received and all of the
rest of the supporting document was received five days excuse me chair pardon me chair this is the
court reporter uh was the witness sworn i don't believe i was i thought she was but i'll we'll do
it again that's not a problem state your name and spell for the court reporter martina research my
last name is spelled r-i-s like in sam e-c-h do you swear a firm to tell the truth the whole truth
nothing but the truth yes proceed okay martina this is an application for the creation
of a surface of surface parking on an existing vacant lot for the erection of a fence wall
greater than four feet along the front lot line for two non-accessory off-street surface parking
spaces size and location is shown on the plan there are three use refusals one is the non-accessory
off-street parking is prohibited in the rsa5 residential zoning district two where off-street
parking is provided accessible parking spaces complying with icc slash ansi a117.1 shall be
provided. It's the first time I've come across all of that. Three, whereas non-accessory
it's the first time i've come across all of that um three whereas non-accessory parking two spaces
must meet required drive aisle requirements and no drive aisle is proposed there is one zoning
refusal any fence located nearer to the lot line than the required building setback or the actual
distance of the building from the lot line paren whichever is greater end of paren shall be no more
than four feet in height and no more than 50% opaque and a solid 10-foot fence wall is proposed.
So now you may proceed. Okay so let me share my screen so I can show you guys what the plans are.
Let me do this one and let me minimize the presentation for you guys. All right so
So, this is the existing plans that have been submitted.
Let me address in reverse order, let me start with the fence.
So we had originally proposed a taller fence and upon comments and concerns from the RCO,
we have shrunk the fence down.
This is in line with the existing cinder block wall that exists on the property.
I own the adjacent property of 2140, and these two lots have existed together since the construction of the home on this lot.
It has always been an accessory lot for this property.
However, they've been deeded separately.
So we have shrunk the lot.
Another concern from the RCO was that this may pose a risk to pedestrians.
we've included now here a pedestrian alert system. In addition, my concern about a four-foot wall is
that it will create security risk because this is our yard and our privacy and safety concerns
for the property really precludes us from creating a four-foot translucent, 50% translucent wall here.
trying to be mindful of the neighborhood which i love and the aesthetics and and beautification of
the neighborhood we would like to have it mostly opaque with a trifold door that would open again
with safety pedestrians in mind and an alert system and we're proposing that we put planters
on top to to give us a tiny bit of extra height without um compromising um security but this would
be trans um obviously not opaque um so that's the first concern the second concern if you look over