Directly next door to our property is the Jefferson Health Medical Complex, which has
been there for some time, permitted by variants.
These are our lots here, the vacant lot here, the pre-existing dwelling that was used as
a law office and an apartment was destroyed by fire, so that was demolished.
and again the existing structure so i do have with me today mr ward before you proceed just
uh that cursor to the left is that a single family home this is a single family home here yes
and left of that is another single family yes what is next this this is the bethe emmanuel
synagogue okay i wanted to make sure all right thank you that's correct okay uh i have alex
Ustiev on the Zoom conference, I asked him to raise his hand. I would like to bring him on
to verify and adopt. Sir, when you get on, please spell your first and last name and I'll swear you
in. Is it Mr. Ustiev who's speaking? It's spelled A-R-T-E-M-U-S-T-A-Y-E-V, like victim.
or firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing about the truth i do sir thank you
all right mr stye have you heard my representations to the board today
yes are they true and correct to the best of your knowledge information and belief
yes sir and would you adopt them as your own testimony i would all right thank you uh mr
chairman i would just add that this this strip of bustleton avenue i'm sure i'm sure the chair
familiar with it in your in your days and traveling the city um up in busselton is a very very highly
traveled uh corridor and we are seeking uh the permits because we feel that the use continued
use as single-family dwellings is not consistent with the character and nature of that strip of
busselton avenue especially given the health campus jefferson located partly to the north
And across the street is the, you know, the very busy George Washington High School, which generates a lot of traffic, both vehicular and school bus.
and across the street is the uh you know the very busy
And, you know, our research indicates that the highest and best use of this parcel is for a non-residential use as opposed to a residential use.
Now, would you happen to know the height of the health center building? It's a three-story building?
I believe it's a two-story for my let me go back to the
maybe that photo could
well obviously George Washington High School is three stories this is
I'm sorry well it appears to be you know one story with a raised uh you know roof uh from
the busselton avenue view i don't have a picture from inside the parking lot but
you're showing us what is that you're showing this the synagogue
no this is jefferson health oh i'm sorry the synagogue the other one right
all right any questions from the board no mr chairman no no no mr chairman thank you anyone
else would like to testify in this case please raise your hand mr chair and miss alice ufovich
has her hand raised i will allow her to speak at this time thank you good morning alice please
spell your full name and i'll swear you in good morning chairman members of the board alice udovich
u-d-o-v-i-c-h representing councilman brian o'neill's office we're affirmed to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth i do thank you please proceed chairman the councilman stands
by the somerton community in their opposition of this request this is an extremely excessive
variance request and the applicant has not proven hardship these these lots and that
one building can be used a single family thank you anyone else to testify in this case
No further hats, Mr. Chair.
Thank you.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chairman DiCicco, Ian Hegarty for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.
That's H-E-G-A-R-T-Y.
We're firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Thank you.
Please proceed.
members of the board the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the existing single
family zoning at this location the adjacent non-conforming properties and the nature of
busselton avenue with high traffic and institutional uses do give basis for the variance the use
variances proposed the proposed dimensional variances are minimal and do not conflict with
the spirit and purpose of the zoning code and so the city planning commission recommends that the
the board grant the variances by 2021 that's zero zero two one seven eight one oh one five
six busselton avenue my vote is no carol tenere my vote is no confessor plaza my vote is no
James Snell, my vote is no
Thomas Holloman, my vote is no
Case number 2, MI 2021-001860
1102-04 East Columbia Avenue
Dawn Tancredi is the attorney of record
Unless it happened recently
We have not yet received a letter from the Fishtown neighbors
although I see my notation say if there is a yes vote with revised plan one page
stamp one page approved today. Ms. Tancredi if you're out there please raise your hand
spell your full name and I'll swear you in. Excuse me Mr. Chair Mr. Richard DeMarco had his hand
raised I would promote him to panelists. Mr. DeMarco please identify yourself spell your full
name. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I am substituting for Dawn this morning, Richard DeMarco, D-E-M-A-R-C-O,
2005 Market Street. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry, finish. 2005 Market Street, Philadelphia PA 19104.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Ms. Canary has some questions for you. Good morning, Mr. DeMarco. Do you also agree to
Good morning, Mr. DeMarc. Could you also agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
the reading of the refusal and stipulate
I can certainly waive. I can stipulate to the accuracy.
There's one mathematical error, though, in the refusal that is covered in our revised proviso form.
There's a math error on the open space. It's larger than what is shown on the refusal as part of the revised proviso form.
have you emailed otherwise i can stipulate sorry okay have you emailed the exhibit packet with the
required documents proof of ownership tax compliance refusal referral photos and or
plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the rco and
do you have a letter uh yes to uh all the mailings and the emails we did submit some supplemental
information yesterday which are public information the zoning archives which i do want to refer to
today but all of the other things were submitted in a timely manner uh we don't have an rco letter
but we did meet with the neighbors and there was excuse me there was uh certificates of
you may proceed thank you thank you i'll thank you everyone i'll share my screen
what you're doing sharon did we get a letter from the rco
I didn't receive one. Thank you. I can say, Mr. Chairman, that there were some concerns from the
RCO. I don't know if they're fully opposed, but we can address the issue that we are aware of in
our presentation. So I put this collection of photos up first. As you can, first of all,
can everybody see my screen and hear me okay yes we hear you better than the other day but
apparently it's good you keep it it's on the back order mr chairman my microphone i'm sorry but i'm
very close to my screen today so hopefully that should be fine anyway it's better than the other
day that's for sure oh that's good so um this is the structure mr chairman and members of the board
As you can see, this is, and we're zoned CMX2, but it is a split zone.
If you follow my course here, the building actually includes this yellow RSA5 lot.
It's two long lots consolidated.
It's a CMX2 property, but the structure encompasses this RSA5 piece.
But because it's less than 20% of the total lot, it does not govern the lot,
and the CMX 2 property governs. We have a use refusal to not include commercial space on the
first floor. As you'll see from my testimony and the owner and Mr. Rustin Oler from Harman Deutsch,
this is an island of a commercial zoning in a number of row homes and residential single
family zoning. We are proposing to match that and actually provide a lower density than what is
permitted under the CMX2, and we're proposing five townhomes, five units total. As you can see,
Mr. Chairman, this property is an industrial property that is long vacant for over 15 years.
There have been multiple attempts to develop the property consistent with the underlying zoning
that have failed. Three separate attempts, which I will get into in a moment. But
this property was used in the past for woodworking, lumber, a typical industrial use
in a residential neighborhood. And the use is obsolete. The building is obsolete and it is no
longer viable and is no longer usable. And as the board knows, that is the essence of
unnecessary hardship. The new development in the area you can see down here their townhomes here
are single family in nature and we do have a variance for the parking. We are proposing and
I'll get to our plans in a moment but we are proposing five curb cuts for a one garage space
per unit. What we will show you in a moment is that this block of Wildey Street here has multiple
curb cuts. We are not displacing any on-street parking and there is a long history of curb cuts
and garage and pad parking along Wildey Street so we are consistent with the area. This is a design
document provided by Mr. Rustin Oler who will testify in a moment. We did look at all of the
lots of long-wieldy. The blue or the light blue are either pad parking or curb cuts.
This is the new construction here. There is a curb cut here to allow off-street parking for those.
There is a curb cut here to allow off-street parking for those areas.
There is a double curb cut here for the residential property directly across the street.
This is our site here, Mr. Chairman, in red.
And you can see all of the curb cuts that exist within this area.
Even Columbia Street, which has on-street parking, has a curb cut or two.
But we are not proposing anything unusual with regards to the community.
I do want to show you, this is the floor layout and first floor.
And I want to mention this particular, this is the basement, but what you will see here,
Mr. Chairman, this gets to why we need a, we are asking for a small, what we believe to be
de minimis height variance. This is unexcavated. We avoided, we do have this very, very narrow,
a small basement that would be excavated. But in order to not provide, when you provide
basements, it can result in complicated underpinning. Because we are not excavating, and we do believe
that this is a sensitive approach to the community, by not having to underpin, we will not, we
do not risk any issues with neighboring structures. But that is partly why we are requesting the
height variance. And by the way, the height variance we are requesting is now, we are asking
for a total of 40 feet, six inches. This is in the revised drawings and the proviso form.
We lowered that from significantly more in response to concerns for the community. So we
believe we are now asking for the minimum height variance of two feet, six inches. And that is
driven by the fact we did not want to have basements and we wanted to be able to have a
little bit more critical mass to have livable units. Note here, Mr. Chairman, the depth of
this structure is 40 feet, which is an abnormally shallow lot. That also creates a hardship for this
and why we are also asking for an occupied area variance. I'll show you a cross-section in a
minute so you can see we do have a rear yard, we do have open space, but I would like to note the
existing structure is 100% lock coverage. So this property has existed as a non-conforming
structure both dimensionally and use. This board recognized this hardship in 2007 when
it granted, and let me see if I can show you that. I'll get to it in a minute, but here
I'll show you the cross section. These are our elevations. Anyway, this board granted
variance in 07 for exactly a similar use fully residential height variances occupied area
variances very similar and six units very similar to what we are asking for now i'll pull up the
archives here this is the refusal from the 07 case where this board granted rear yard open area
height and use so this board already found a very similar hardship with this property in 07
nothing has changed since then other than additional failed development attempts by
multiple owners. The property has changed hands quite a few times as it's been vacant for over
15 years. But this board already found this hardship. In 2017, we did do a supplemental
submission. Of course, I'm having problems changing my screen.
Let me keep moving. I'll get on. So I do have with me Rustin Oler, and I do have,
these are some of the cross sections. Before I get to Rustin and the client, this is our revised
plan. This incorporates the changes, the height change. And we did also remove the pilot house,
Mr. Chairman, after complaints from privacy from the neighbors, especially our abutting near
neighbor we did meet with him the client met with him last night i think we have an understanding
but we're happy to work with him to address his concerns he has a lot right here he might be on
the call today but i think we have understanding with him but he can of course address the board
but we did remove the pilot houses and there's just an opening to there is there is roof decks
but they are fully compliant but there is no pilot house you just walk up from the stairway
to that. That's
our revised. I want to show you some photos
of the curb cut so you can see.
Marge, these
photos.
Mr. DeMarco,
the curb cut right there, yes.
The one that shows the neighboring property with the roof deck.
The one that shows the
neighboring property.
You mean the large residential property?
Oh, there.
Yes, that's our neighbor there.
Did it have a pilot house?
Unknown, Mr. Chairman.
All right.
Maybe Rustin knows or...
That's right.
I just was curious.
And you can see we have our own curb cut.
there's a well there's a curb cut right there already existing on the lot for our property
there is a car blocking it uh we do get some parking here along the sidewalk um but that is
a curb cut that is existing and this is the curb cut uh that's next to us this is actually right
next to our property there's pad parking there this is a directly across the street you have
two garages right across the street obviously we feel that the request for curb cuts is not
unreasonable um mr chairman this board um granted those variances the same variances in 07 but we
also attempted and as of right not we prior owner attempted it as of right development
moving too fast for my computer uh you know in 2017 there was an as of right permit
hold which i'll show you in a moment which was never built which the as of right allowed seven
apartment units above a commercial space that is in the archives i'll show you that information
at a moment, but that never came to fruition. So there were two attempts to develop this property
consistent with the code, which failed. The last one was 2020, which my client can speak about,
and I'll introduce him in a minute. They tried to do an actual office space consistent with the CMX2
for like a headquarters of City Fitness that also failed due to market conditions and COVID and
the unusual placement of commercial space within a fully residential area.
Let me ask Mr. Karasavisius to raise his hand virtually, and I'll ask him to speak briefly.
These are other curve cuts.