uh ron bednar city planning the property is currently indicated for commercial use on the
city plan given a documented use history we recommended the quest of variance
thanks ron okay uh calendar number mi-2021-002180
2240 to 2244 north north franklin street my vote is yes
thomas holliman my vote is yes john munlock my vote is yes thank you mr chairman members of the
board. Great. Have a good night. Okay, moving on. Calendar number MI-2021-002320-3300 St. Vincent
Street. I believe Joseph Consul is the attorney for this. He's been promoted to Panama, sir.
okay great how you doing joe hey how's everyone doing tonight great great can you uh please state
your name and address for the record and spell your name it's uh joe console that's c-o-n-s-o-l-e
my address is one west third street suite 204 media pennsylvania 19063 okay great couple
questions for you uh do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
All right.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
All right.
Also, have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership,
proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, and plans and photos five days
prior to this hearing?
I have.
All right.
And finally, have you met with the RCO and do you have a letter?
It's in the packet.
All right.
Thank you. Please proceed. All right. Joe Consul here, 3300 St. Vincent Street. I'm here with a
lovely Lane Daycare. It's a daycare organization at 3300 St. Vincent Street. Miss Amaya Williams
uh miss amaya williams uh is uh one of the owners and is present on this call to adopt my testimony
is one of the owners and is present.
um just pull up a picture of the front of the building here is my packet on the screen i forgot
to ask yeah now we say upon all right cool uh so she originally applied for this daycare um in uh
she had the lease in 2018 she got a two-year variance uh by the zba in july of 2019 uh that
variance has expired. Between the time that she got it, the variance, and today, she invested
20 grand in the property. She got the property fully approved by the city, fully approved by
the Commonwealth as a daycare. COVID sort of put her out of business for a while, but in August of
2020, she started back up, started accepting kids. She's got 11 kids. She's allowed to have between
15 and 20 depending on whether or not they're in diapers not really relevant to this conversation
but we're here to ask for uh approval to use this property as a daycare into the future
the daycare has never failed an inspection it has no complaints uh no negative reviews uh either at
lni or at the better business bureau i stuck some reviews that we found in the packet i'm not going
to go through them, but they're all positive. We understand that the temporary variance is expired,
but because of the families that are at this property and because she applied for this way
back in April, L&I has allowed her to continue to operate pending today's hearing, which hopefully
will get everyone's approval. We met with the Mayfair Civic on September 20th. Their letter of
non-opposition is in the packet uh we appreciate the letter we wanted to respond to just a couple
of the provisos uh that we uh don't uh believe should be um in the packets or in their letter
such as they are the um special proviso number one that they put um in here is that all yards
including facing roland ave will be maintained um grass in the mowing and grass in the pavement
in cracks. I think that this was some confusion on the part of the RCO. We only have access
to the Roland Ave entrance to the property. The St. Vincent Avenue address, which you can see from
the front here, is two units, two residential units. And that front yard is maintained by
the residential units and not my client's daycare. So while we agree to the proviso to maintain
our yard and our sidewalk area, we don't have the ability or the authority to actually
deal with the St. Vincent facing portion of the property. So that's just one clarification.
Second, they talk about adding and maintaining an outdoor trash can. This was in their original
proviso from July of 2019. We had talked to L&I about that. L&I will not allow us to put a private
a trash can outside of the property. They said that we can't keep it out there. The intent was
to chain one up. We thought that's what Mayfair had wanted, but L and I wouldn't allow us to do
that. My client just wanted to note that since that time, they daily or every other day take
their trash and actually dispose of it at an off-site location that they have a contract with
to dispose of their trash. So we don't believe that trash is a problem. There hasn't been any
complaints about trash um and then they stated uh signage to be kept to a minimum we have by
right signage we're not intending to add any more signage to the property and um that's that's really
it and they also asked that we participate in the safe cam program we have security cameras
already installed i think that some of the general provisos that they put at the bottom of their
letter uh are just are germane to uh all of their commercial uh cases and not specific to ours um
but i just thought i should i should point those out um now i could just call uh miss williams to
to test to you know testify okay yeah have her have her adopt your adopt your testimony
could you raise your hand miss williams
hi good afternoon good afternoon miss Williams could you please uh state your name your full
name and address for the record and spell your last name yes my name is Amia Williams
a-m-i-a last name Williams w-i-l-l-i-a-m-s the address is 3300 St. Vincent Street Philadelphia
The address is 3300 St. Vincent Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19149.
Great, thank you. Do you also swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
All right, thank you. Please proceed.
Good evening, Ms. Williams. Did you hear my testimony this evening, and do you adopt it as your own?
Is there anything you'd like to add to my presentation?
okay thank you i have no further questions okay great and i believe you stated earlier uh but
just for the record uh mayfair civic association uh you know supports this project uh in a letter
that correct yeah not not opposition with provisos which is what i was running through a minute ago
all right sounds good is there uh anyone else who wants to speak on this matter any hands raised
no further answer this time sir okay thanks jason uh about the board any questions from the board
no no questions all right great uh ron planning commission run bednar city planning
well this property is currently indicated for residential and the city plan given
the documented use history to recommend that the Cressor Vance be granted. Okay great. Calendar
number MI-2021-0023203300 St. Vincent Street. My vote is yes. Thomas Holloman. My vote is yes.
John Munlock. My vote is yes. Thank you. Great. Have a good night. Take care. You do the same.
okay calendar number mi-2021-002191 906 south 19th street
leave it's uh tristan and al alexis jones are the owners of the property
Tristan Jones has his hand raised.
Hello, promoting the panelists at this time, sir.
All right.
Thanks, Jason.
Is Tristan there?
Yes, I am.
My wife's not going to be able to join.
She had to catch a flight.
But if we could also get Beth Johnson promoted to panelist, she's our architect and we'll be doing most of the walkthrough here.
Okay, well, let's first get your name and address for the record.
Please spell your name.
Yep, Tristan Jones, T-R-I-S-T-A-N-J-O-N-E-S, and I live at 906 South 19th Street.
Okay, great.
And do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
All right, great.
Excuse me, this is Sharon. Mr. Jones, your architect can share exhibits, but you will
have to do the presentation. Right. Okay.
Ms. Johnson has been promoted to panelists.
Ms. Johnson, are you there?
Yes. Hello, this is Beth Johnson with Brighton Architecture and Design.
Hi, how are you doing?
Good, how are you? Thanks.
All right, can you please state your name and address for the record and spell your name?
Beth Johnson, J-O-H-N-S-O-N, 528 Ford Street, Conchahokan, Pennsylvania, 19428.
Okay, great. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Okay. Have you emailed an exhibit packet with the required documents, proof of ownership, proof of tax compliance, copy of the refusal or referral, plans and photos five days prior to this hearing?
Yes, Beth, did do that.
Okay. Have you met with your RCO and do you have a letter?
We do have a letter of support from them in the packet.
Okay. And who was that? Was that SOSNA?
That was Ms. Sostner yet?
Okay. Yeah. I have a letter of support. Okay. Please proceed.
Okay. Thank you. And certainly if I miss anything as we go through being my first time doing this, please feel free to call me out.
So the variance that we're seeking here today is related to the setback for a roof deck, given that we live on a corner property.
So we're on the corner of 19th and Montrose Street.
We currently have a small deck on the back of our third floor.
we currently have a small deck on the on the back of our third floor that does not have a setback
and I believe that was all done prior to the the setback regulations being put in back in 2012.
We're looking to extend that and add to the the top of the main portion of the house
with this project and whilst we're looking to fully comply with the
setback from the 19th street side of the house. We're seeking a variance to
go all the way to the edge of the house on the Montrose side, so on the long side or south side
of the street. A couple of thoughts there just for why we're seeking that. There are some structural
considerations for feedback from our architects and builders that having the support beams for
for the deck kind of span from parapet wall to parapet wall will improve the structural
integrity of the design and it will also eliminate the need to cut into the roof and
potentially lead to damage in the future that could be quite costly to repair.
As part of the engagement with the community meeting and the architectural review committee
that they had. There were some changes that were recommended to address some of the visual
concerns as well as get support from them which we adhered to generally speaking. So the changes
that we've made were to first of all make the stair on the third floor deck smaller and set
back further just to reduce the visual
burden there. And then also on the roof looking to just have a straight edge of the deck not
coming out over the bay window which was part of the original plans. And then lastly we're
looking to move the pergola structure from the quote unquote front end of the deck or the east
side of the building to the to the rear section again to adhere to or to improve the the visual
aesthetic. We are also proposing to have glass paneling in the in the fencing just again to
to not have that be a visual burden on the community. If we if we kind of that that seemed
to go over very well with the committee from the architectural review to the to the um meeting
they uh we did get their support and had strong support from the community especially from near
neighbors and then in the packet we don't necessarily need to pull up the letters but we
did get three additional letters from um the three houses directly across montrose street from us who
be most impacted by the erection of the deck just broadly speaking that they didn't have any concerns
with with the proposed plans with those modifications being made
so let me check here and then I think we did also include in the packet just for kind of a community
feel there are a large number of houses in the area that either are corner blocks that don't
have a setback off the side of the house or even on the numbered street side for houses in the
middle of the block that don't have any setback at all. A number of these were most of these I
believe were either enacted prior to 2012 so didn't require a variance to do so or have built
um not according to the plans that were submitted um so we're certainly trying to do this the right
way and engage the community and make sure we're not causing any any issues there um but did just
want to highlight that that this wouldn't be kind of an outlier in the community which i think was
evidenced by the the support we had from the community at the the um the community meeting
okay all right and then lastly just from a hardship standpoint i just would call out if
if we did have to do the full five foot setback um that that would reduce our available area by
over a quarter um which wouldn't be an issue if we were kind of in the middle of the the street
um so i just wanted to to bring that to the the board's attention as well well i'll pause there
uh stop my rambling and uh certainly welcome any questions and happy to go deeper as needed okay
Okay. All right. Thank you. Any questions from the board?
No. No questions.
Okay. All right. And this is with revised plans, right? Three pages, I believe.
All right. And this is with revised plans, right? Three pages, I believe.
That's correct. And I think the last revision actually was to lower the gap between the deck and the parapet wall, just to, again, kind of keep that as tight as possible. I didn't mention that earlier in the discussion.
Okay. All right. All right. So is there anyone else here to speak on this matter? Any hands raised?
no hands at this time sir all right thanks jason okay uh let's go to ron with the planning
commission sir ron bednar city planning its property is currently indicated for residential
and city plan given the physical circumstances and the structural conditions of the site
recommend that the request of variance be granted. Okay, thanks, Ron. Calendar number MI-2021-00-2191-906
South 19th Street. My vote is yes, as stated earlier with revised plans, three pages stamped
for that. Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with proviso. John Munlock, my vote is yes with revised
plans. Thank you all very much for the time. Okay, great. Have a great night. All right,
Calendar number, MI-2021-002190, 927 Watkins Street.
Owners are Justin Gaida and Chelsea Deaver.
they being promoted yes mr justin gledia has been promoted to panelists sir all right great
Thanks, Jason. Justin, good evening. Hi, folks. How are you? All right. Could you state your name
and address for the record and spell your name for the record? Yeah. So I live at 927 Watkins
Street. My name is Justin Guida. That's right. You said got it. It's J-U-S-T-I-N-G-U-I-D-A.
and my wife is on the road if you need her I have her the cell phone in case but uh it's Chelsea
Dever now Chelsea Guida we just got married a couple months ago well actually during the
pandemic and then again when we were allowed to in May anyway congratulations now Beth Johnson
is also I thought she was going to be presenting but at least if she can present her screen that
would be great yeah of course uh hold on for one second uh do you do you swear or affirm to tell
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I do. All right. We can get Beth up there
if she wants. We'll get her sworn in as well. Thank you. Hi, this is Beth Johnson again. Okay,
long time no see. Please state your name and address for the record once again.