have as many windows um as much light as possible giving us a corner property i'm not trying to
take any of that away if i you know if it can be helped if there's a structural concern after
you know opening up the stairs or something you know then that would be the compromise but
as it is now it would be try to keep as much light and air down there as possible. Okay and only that
that only that basement first floor unit has the access to the rear yard. Yeah as it's set up now.
Other questions?
Questions from our attorney?
Just a just a brief comment just to clarify for you. So this is a change of use application so
plans were not required. I know you submitted them to L&I and that was fine, but just you don't need
there's not plans attached to this application that'll be if this is approved to your building
permits and all that moving forward. So I just wanted to clarify that for you. Okay, thank you
so much. I wasn't sure, but I knew that when I went to the community meeting after I was speaking
with Mr. Reeves, he's like, you know, people kind of want to know what it looks like and stuff. So
you should have something. So right, right. I just want to clarify for you. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I know
All of this is, I guess, subject to change. It has not been submitted to L&I. I wouldn't do that until I got zoning approval for the space. So thank you for coming.
No problem.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
Planning commission.
Amy Boyd with the planning commission.
The comprehensive plan recommends a change in zoning at this location from CMX 2 commercial mixed use to RSA 5 residential single family.
The property has a documented history as a single family dwelling with no ground floor commercial.
A second unit in the place of a commercial space is more in line with the spirit of the zoning code.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the board grant the proposed variance for no ground floor commercial space and for two units.
Thank you.
MI 2024-007-169-2200
South Crosskey Street, I say
an enthusiastic yes.
My vote is yes.
Cheryl Gaston, my vote is yes.
Taya Nguyen, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, by the way. You did a wonderful job, seriously.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Do I need to do anything else here?
no you're good okay so i will uh exit the meeting thank you so much thank you
number two mi 2024 007374 12737 ella nora road jennifer betzillo is the attorney
there's a letter of support from parkwood civic association the vote was
32 in support 10 in opposition and a letter of non-opposition from council member o'neill
The applicant also has 17 letters of support from neighbors off the immediate block.
from neighbors off the immediate block.
Hi, Jennifer. Hi, please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Sure. Jennifer Bazidlow, B-A-Z-Y, D as in dog, L as in Larry, O as in Oscar.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client, the relationship to the property?
Sure. My client is Sinclair Velasquez, and he is the property owner.
Okay. Our vice chair has a few questions.
Good evening, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that's needed to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Please proceed and share your screen.
so i'm gonna try to keep this quick because i know it's been a long day and i think that
that will be generally have support here so um i'm just going to go through a couple of exhibits
here um like i said uh this is a single family home um for sinclair velasquez he lives there
with his wife tiana his two kids and um his mother-in-law as well um basically what happened
here i submitted uh refusal deed proof of tax payment just so we can scroll through quickly
here there's the zero tax balance um letter of support from parkwood um and let's see okay we'll
keep going from here uh there's also a bunch of other stuff but you've seen them so let's just
get to the photos. All right. So what we have here is, um, one, two, seven, three, seven El
North street is that end of a row, uh, RSA for property, um, that, uh, single family home. Um,
and in that, uh, the Velasquez's have lived in since I believe 2020, um, last fall, uh,
They constructed this carport, not realizing that having a permanent, they had had a temporary carport there and not realizing that when they made it a permanent structure anchored into the ground that that required permits and they received a violation.
And within a few weeks, they had taken action to correct that violation and go about the permit process, hiring me and an architect within a few days to try to remedy the problem.
I will note that Mr. Velasquez is a Philadelphia police officer, so he is attempting to follow the rules and laws of the city and just didn't know that this was one of them.
So when we submitted to L&I, the issue basically is, when we look at the refusal, is that the carport is in the required front yard.
The front yard here, the existing building is set back 19 feet, and the required front yard is 15 feet.
There is nowhere to put a surface parking spot or the carport that is not in a required front yard space.
So we don't have any further construction planned.
It would be approving what is there.
obviously we need to go back through and if a zoning permit is obtained go through and get
the building permits and make sure everything is done to code only modifications that would be made
would be if if there was somehow an additional requirement necessary
in order to make sure that this structure was code compliant
single family home going to maintain single family use
um so i just wanted to say too that prior to meeting with the community group mr velasquez
did um go out and specifically talk to his neighbors um it's a rather small block um and
he was able to talk to a lot of them i just wanted to highlight this one um from danielle
his neighbor danielle who lives across the street specifically noting that he's a really great
neighbor and that they enjoy looking at the carport. They think it's an improvement, not
a detriment to the aesthetics of the neighbors. And with that, we did go to meet with Parkwood
Civic in March. It was a very well-attended meeting. There's 50 people there. I will note
but none of them were the neighbors from this block.
So when we look at these numbers,
you can see a large amount of support
You can see a large amount of support from the overall community, and that is in addition to the support of the near neighbors as well.
from the overall community.
And that is an
And really, the people who were in opposition were nowhere near this property, and in general were just opposed.
I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but they weren't near neighbors.
So with that, I just want to say that, you know, again, this is going to be we're going to make sure it has all the permits correct and that everything is brought up to, you know, is or is brought up to code.
You can see the plans here we have drawn.
So the hardship is really we have no other place to park this car.
and even parking on the surface spot requires a variance because it's in the required front yard
even though that is pretty much what people on this block do you can see all the cars parked
in driveways in front of these houses on this block I will also note that this is a end of row
so there's additional parking for this particular property and some of the other overflow on the
corner here um there we go um minimum necessary uh is we're just asking to park the car in the
driveway and have this open air carport it's not blocking light and air access it's open on all the
sides um so it's not blocking sight lines views air flow anything like that um won't harm the
neighbors use the property as this is pretty much in line with what other neighbors are doing as
well and remaining a single family home and this is well supported by both the local neighbors and
the overall community. Why don't you bring your client on? Sure Mr. Velasquez are you here can
you raise your hand? Hopefully he's here he's been talking to me.
He's coming back and he's a penalist.
Okay, thank you.
Can you guys hear me?
I can.
Could you please state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Good evening. My name is Sinclair Velasquez. My first name of spelling is S-I-N-C-L-A-I-R. Last name Velasquez, V-E-L-A-S-Q-U-E-Z.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you try to put whatever your video is, could you put it on yourself because we're seeing the floor right now?
in your hand there you go hey okay all right please proceed counsel uh mr velasquez i just
want to um double check with you you are the property owner and you live at this property
correct yes ma'am and you heard by testimony here today and believe it to be truthful and accurate
yes ma'am and you would adopt it as your own yes thank you questions from the board
Yes, I have a question about the sort of columns on the carport.
And do you know if there were foundations for it to anchor them into the asphalt?
Mr. Velasquez, do you know the answer to that question?
They were lag-boated onto the foundation of the concrete and lag-boated to the posts of the pillars.
And then what's the material that the over that the roof is or the covering is made out of that is made by by wood and underneath is is just the bottom portion of like of like porch.
And then what's on the top?
top it's it's uh yeah it's a special made uh like a rollout roof that's supposed to it heats up for
snow and then did you get an engineer to come in and measure it for snow load well just me me my
brother my brother he's um he was actually giving me advice and and helping me because he's also a
He was actually giving me advice and helping me because he's also a contractor, but he was just telling me, guiding me through the process as he helped me build it.
contractor.
Was this custom built or did you order it from, like, was a shop drawing done by the manufacturer or did you get an engineer to come out?
You have a very nice car.
I'm just, I want to make sure that it doesn't, the snow doesn't, you know, collapse the roof onto your car.
yeah i will also add that we will go back through and make sure that it's building code compliant
because that'll be part of the process of resolving violations sorry i didn't mean to
cut you off sinclair um i just wanted to add in that that go ahead and then my other question is
uh do you at the point that you purchased the house did it not have a garage because it does
look like a lot of your neighbors have
garages off that driveway?
Some of the houses had
garage. It just had the
garage door, but then it would just use
for my property, it would just
use for storage.
They minimized the garage
and made it into
a bathroom.
driveway and the fence
were existing. All you added were
the covering.
And the four posts. Yes, ma'am. OK. Other questions?
Just out of curiosity, where did you get the idea to do this?
The idea was, well, I was looking around the neighborhood and I've seen people did curb cutouts.
But then I talked to my neighbors and told them, hey, how would you guys feel instead of a curb cutout?
how about a carport because it's being considerate of taking up another parking spot especially a
corner property now you have two driveways which is and i was like you know so the neighbors were
more or less in agreeance with oh carport's cool because you say it was a parking spot because a
lot of neighbors on my that live in my area have two to three cars so there was more considerate
of the carport then okay all right other questions for the board
so there is there where is the curb cut here no that was another that was just another route
yeah it was existing right here and he was talking about instead of putting this carport here
putting it somewhere else on his property um instead of just using the existing driveway
with the carport over it um so this is an existing curb cut that's already there
okay because it was a driveway before right correct okay all right uh questions or comments
okay and and you didn't get any kind of um refusals for all this fencing around here
no the the fencing is rather low and open so um when you say low and open
are you talking about the black railing fencing yes yes so that that is um the black railing
fences is you know uh code compliant fencing that was already there okay and when you say
code compliant how high is this fence four feet and more than 50 percent open um open
that fencing is four feet
because if you look at the other fence that it backs up to this is a six foot fence
all right thank you questions or comments from our attorney
not at this time mr chair questions or comments from the virtual audience
planning commission
amy boyd with the planning commission
The comprehensive plan recommends no change in zoning at this location from the existing single-family residential RSA-4.
There are no unique physical circumstances or conditions of the property that would prevent it from being used in strict conformity with the zoning code.
The Planning Commission recommends that the Board deny the requested variance for a carport required in the front yard setback.
Thank you.
MI 2024-007-374-1273, Eleanor Road, I vote yes.
Michael Johns, I vote yes.
Cheryl Gaston, I vote no.
Taiwan, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
You have your vote, sir.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I want to say thank you to everybody, you know, for actually listening to my case.
And I really do appreciate you guys and what you guys do to keep the city in compliance.
I really do appreciate you guys and what you guys do to keep the city in
compliance.
Thank you.
I just like the car.
Cool car, right?
All right.
Have a good night, guys.
All right.