And that one is accessed through this front door directly.
And then on the second floor,
how many units are there? There are two units on the second floor, one of which is the one that
Ms. Terry intends to live in. Okay. And how many bedrooms, how many baths for these two
units on the second floor? One of the units on the second floor is a two-bedroom, one-bath,
and the other one is a studio with one-bath. Okay. And then on the third floor, there's a
two bedroom and one bed that's correct okay all right and how do we how do we get into those
units so if you said you're pointing to some railing over here on the side so are there
stairs there or what i mean without without any kind of floor plans a little hard to
sure so this this railing if you can see i i apologize for the the lack of additional pictures
or floor plans but this railing if you can see is a bit raised from the porch level so it's about
three steps up that leads to a side door oh okay so so let me say something uh olag there's just
so much of this we can't see we don't know i mean i'm gonna we're gonna put this for in for a
resumptive hearing because we just you know you can't see the side you can't see the units and
And I'm not I'm not complaining, but it's just hard to understand it.
Like, you know. What should you know, show me what it looked like when there was you know, when we knew there was three units and then somewhere along the line, it became four.
What does that look like and where was that at?
So I'm going to right now, we're going to continue this and bring you back in.
And I think you have to make it clear to show some shots on the side, show some floor plans.
You have to show some shots on the side, show some floor plans, so that we at least know what's going on.
So there will be at least no...
And it's just really hard to figure out what's going on with this, right?
Understood, Chair. And if I may just ask, do you plan on continuing it or just having a resumptive hearing just because of the difference in notice posters and things of that nature?
We will have a resumption hearing.
We're going to have a resumptive hearing, and it'll be July 15th, 2025, at 9.30 a.m.
Understood.
Okay, and, you know, we just, we've got to move on, okay?
Understood.
Thank you, members of the board.
And just so you know, if you have any questions, call the office about what you think you need, but I think you understand what we're looking for.
Certainly, we'll certainly have additional pictures, and we'll get some rudimentary floor plans.
All right, thank you very much.
Thank you.
okay is there anyone in the audience whose case has not been called
what do you say for the two o'clock list for the for the two o'clock list
okay so now we're heading to the 3 30 list
thank you so much
Okay. All right. So, let me start here. Good evening, everyone. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing the meeting of the Philadelphia Zoning Board of Adjustment. With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Our Board Member, Sheila L. Gaston.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Michael Johns.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Board Member, Taya Wynn.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, our zoning board director, Ian Haggerty, and our board administrator, Lakeisha Dandy.
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By the way, there's nobody here.
so so i'm so so i'm going to uh see what our schedule is like right now
so i have three cases that are um together that um so number five mi 2024
4-0-0-7-3-8-5-5-30-North Preston Street, number 6, MI 2024, 007-386-532, Preston Street,
and number 7, MI 2024, 007-387-534, Preston Street. In all three cases, the lawyer and also
So the the council person has requested a continuance.
Those cases will be continued until 10, 8, 25 at 3.30 p.m.
We also have case number five, MI 2024, 007377, 4636 Oakland Street.
Lyra Cupid is the listed applicant.
um lyric b cupid the living trust is the listed owner there are no exhibits this is the first
listing this may need an attorney lira cupid okay so mi2024 007377 the case is continued
The case is continued until 10-08-25 at 3-30 and marked must be heard.
until 10 08 25 at three
We're going to go to our first case, MI 2024-007-169-2200 South Kroski Street.
Destiny Sharice Royal is the owner applicant.
Hello.
Hi, could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. My name is Destinee Sharice Royal. First name is D-E-S-T-I-N-E-E hyphen capital C-H-A-R-I-S-S-E. Last name is R-O-Y-A-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
This is for change of use to a two-family household living in an existing structure. One-use refusal, two-family household living without commercial space is prohibited in the CMX2 zoning district. There is a letter of support from the Tasker Morris neighbors, and our vice chair has just a few questions.
Good evening. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, I have, sir.
Thank you. You may proceed and share your screen.
Yep, you're up.
You all see everything? Okay.
We do.
Great. Okay.
So why don't you tell us what you want to do?
Yeah, so this is an existing property, CMX2, two-story,
and I would like to turn it into a two-family home. By right, it would be able to be a store
on the first floor, but it's not set up to do so. The property is an existing residential
structure, and it is too high up to be compliant with ADA to get a ramp, and it's not set up to
be a commercial unit. This is the zoning for it, and it's the original plan that was submitted
to L&I. As you can see from the schematic on the right, there are stairs on the Jackson
Street side that go into the property, and the elevation is quite high. It's almost four
feet. So there's several steps you have to go to to reach up that way. And so I'm seeking a variance
to alter the interior of the two-story property to two-family. This is a block in a neighborhood
full of RM1 structures with residential duplex conversions allowable by right. The subject
property is zone CMX2 like other corner lots, but unlike the other corner lots, the existing
structure was originally built for residential use, and it was never set up to be commercial
storefront, and it's close to gray commercial entrance. This is a close-up of the zoning map.
You can see the project site is my house. It's a CMX2. Everything else around it is RM1.
This is similar to what I just said, but it's approximately three feet, eight inches elevation,
And it has six steps up to the first floor level.
This makes it an unnecessary hardship to make it compliant with the ADA, Americans with
Disabilities Act, to provide wheelchair accessibility.
This is an example, one block just to the east at 2200 South 22nd Street.
You can see that there are only two steps there, which would make it easy to be more
accessible and the windows are quite low to the ground. This is the view of my house, and you can
see that the stairs go up several steps. So again, the configuration is not set up for commercial use.
Existing wall and floor assembly, and I'll show you some pictures, do not currently comply with
the rated assemblies required in past building codes. So I'm requesting a variance or special
exception for change of use permits that are necessary to convert the property to a residential
duplex. This is the entryway. This is facing out to Jackson Street. This is the main entrance to
the house. So you see the view looking out, you see the view looking towards Krosky Street,
side, and you see the view that is towards the party wall.
This is the upstairs.
These are where the stairs lead to.
This is the hallway with the view towards the back of the house.
And then towards facing Kroski.
And this is the front room that faces Kroski, where the triple window is.
and this is the front room that faces Kroski where the triple window bay is.
This is the basement. These are the stairs to the basement. This is the view towards the
Kroski side in the middle and towards the back of the house on the Jackson Street side.
There are several windows. One of them is actually obscured by some film tape,
but there is quite a lot of light with it being a corner property and the windows being so big.
This is a view from the Jackson Street side of that same 2200 South 22nd Street, which is a block away.
Mine, in comparison, again, the windows are much higher off of the ground, as is the main doorway.
You can also see the back of the house, which has a little patio area, and there is an exterior door there.
This is the site plan for my structural engineer. This shows what it could look like with changes
to convert it to a duplex. Here you can see on the bottom right that there is a staircase added
on the Krosky Street side where the bay is and one of the windows would be converted to a door
and a stairway would hug the party wall
going upstairs to the second floor unit.
Also, there would be living space in the basement
and these on the left side,
you can see a new staircase exterior
going to the basement
and the existing stairs would be removed.
This is, oops, sorry about that.
This is a drawing of the interior to see how it could be changed to be a duplex.
Again, the short side is the Krosky side.
I'll do the first floor first, which is to the right.
There you see the stairs hugging the short side, which is Krosky, going up into the first floor.
And then the stairway hugging the party wall going up to the second floor, which would be a two-bedroom apartment. There's two bedrooms. I'm sorry. Upstairs would be two bedrooms, yes, but this is the first floor plan.
So there would be two bedrooms on the first floor, a bathroom, and then the basement would be the living space, and it would have a half bath, some utilities, and also the kitchen.
So this would be the main living space.
The idea is that the first floor would have easier egress for occupants in case of an emergency.
And there will be a lot more light than having a basement with bedrooms.
This is a close-up.
I've drawn these arrows here to show the exterior stairs from each of the angles,
from the first floor and also from the basement.
This is, again, the exterior on the Krosky Street side.
So just having them side by side, seeing the addition of the stairs.
on the Crosky Street side and the conversion from a window to a door.
I'm not an attorney. I'm doing this all by myself. I wasn't sure exactly what you all did.
You're doing a great job. You're doing a great job.
Thank you.
I thought maybe you were an attorney personally.
No, I just followed the directions. The attorneys could take some notes.
I'm just following the directions. I wasn't sure if I was meant to do the revised proviso plan
because what I submitted to Ellen, I initially, the site plan was not part of that. It was just
the zoning plan. So for the site plan, I wasn't sure if that needed a revised proviso, but just
in case I filled one out. But this just explains the things that I discussed just now. This is
the refusal that I had on the left. And it was saying that because it's a CMX2 property, which
is typically just commercial on the first floor. That was the reason for the refusal. On the right
is the letter from the Tasker Morris Neighborhood Association, which was support after the community
meeting. This was my application for appeal. Everything on here is I'd drawn already in the
presentation. This was my tax clearance certificate, which I got twice now as my case
my case was continued. On the right is the beginning of my deed from 2020. These are the
additional pages of it. This is the posting of my zoning notice for this hearing. And
And this was the letter I sent out to 235 neighbors and community members.
this was the letter I sent out to 230.
This is the certificate of mailings for all 235 of those mailings along with those addresses.
And that concludes my presentation.
Questions from the board?
First of all, I appreciate that you're asking for a zoning approval prior to doing any work.
this is the first step so appreciate that um the uh the the depth of the basement below grade
there was a section i believe it's five foot if you can go back to that section
or that that shows that um you mean the site plan yeah the site plan and on your basement plan it
looks like four foot something are you eliminating windows because on your basement plan it looks
like the when some a lot of the windows are gone no the um the only window that might be compromised
is the one by the um stairs on the krosky street side like i i would love for it to stay in this
just be a metal stair but um the way it's drawn now that um is the one that possibly could be
eliminated but the others um would get to stay i think the one that's by the the door i'm sorry
by the stair the exterior stairs would become a door or it would be like converted to a door
i think that's how that that is set up
okay do you want the i think i have a closer up version but i don't know if
that's helpful it's just the top of it it doesn't have the no i was looking at the basement the
walls of the basement look like when i looked when i saw looked at the the pictures it looks
like there are more windows on the basement on the at the basement level than you show on your
plan so but if you're not planning to take out any windows oh that's no i mean the point um is to