I do not. I can email it to you.
i don't have the letter to show now
look if you can email to me i can forward it or if you want to email it direct
yeah or if you do a screenshot from eclipse yeah let's see here
here we go uh we've got it here i'm emailing it to you
and while we're waiting for the email to come through uh exhibit 14 includes the evidence of
prior approvals for the triplex at 1828. Exhibit number 13 provides approved prior approvals
for the triplex at 1826. And 1826 also had an approval before it was or after the triplex
approval for duplex that was approved on November 21, 2012. The RCO letter of support is included
with Exhibit 2 of our packet, and I knew that the support of the community was unanimous.
Beachwood Companies again issued the letter explaining that we had addressed the concerns
of the community.
There was an issue with a property in Ingersoll concerned about property potentially impacting
impacting his view of the skyline because we were able to identify a slope running from north to
his view of the skyline because we were able to identify.
south from Ingersoll down it was it's clear and Mr. Dry can also explain this in probably a little
more detail than I can that there won't be an impact on the Ingersoll owner's skyline view of
property. Let me just pull up and here we go this is the streets department review that
Mr. Dry was referencing approved by Coleman Cosby
with no conditions.
Now that didn't show street department approval.
That just shows zoning approval.
Right, and when we would submit for the building permit,
we'd submit another application to the city,
and it would be a building permit approval
that would then have the stamp on the actual building plans but they gave us this zoning
prerequisite approval from the streets department based upon the zoning plan which we submitted
that has the detail for the flush egress well which was our only sidewalk encouragement
i don't see that on this
logan perhaps if you could just walk through the administrative logistics of submitting for
street department's prerequisite approval at this stage of the zoning application process
sure i don't know if you want to do you want to pull up the zoning plan just to see because
you know basically what we do is we we submit uh via eclipse our application to the streets
department and licenses inspections um so that zoning plan on there includes obviously everything
within our property line as it relates to zoning and then any sort of
encroachments into the public right of way right there you see that egress well if you kind of zoom
in right there kind of the right of the photos so this is what we submitted to the streets department
and then after they review this plan at the zoning level again based on the dimensions we're showing
for the egress wells of the sidewalk and that sectional view again Paul if you want to kind of
zoom up there so you can get a get a glimpse so right there's sort of the the furnishing zone at
sidewalk level that shows the encroachments and then if you go up to where the photos are at on
this they'll you'll see that sectional detail of that uh egress well on the sidewalk it's the
the building yeah there you go nope missed it a little bit to the right yeah there you go
so based on based on the review of this site plan and the stuff we submitted to the streets
department in the egress wall section um at the zoning level they they don't stamp the plans they
just give us that that review approval letter via eclipse and then what happens is we take that same
design then when we submit for the building permit and what happens is the streets department
reviews and gives us a stamped plan at the building level at which point that's that's
what's needed in order then for license and inspections to give us the the actual building
permit so for instance if we submitted to license and inspections and didn't have building permit
streets department approved with the stamp and again a letter similar to what you're seeing here
except it would be denoted as building,
L&I wouldn't give us any sort of building permit for it.
So at the zoning level, they're really just giving us just this letter
because they know they're going to see this plan again for the building level,
and they're going to be reviewing it
and giving us the building approval at that point.
And Mr. Dry, is this the same process
that you and your architectural firm have followed
for similar zoning applications this year
involving egress wells within the sidewalk?
up yep and and i can say you know from from the start of eclipse when they launched it the process
has certainly evolved in terms of what the streets review is comprised of it's it's just sort of
recently gotten to this level where we're actually getting these letters and things like that you
know when it was very you know early launch that it was kind of all over the place so you know now
it's sort of in in a little bit more of a an organized fashion where you know you get this
zoning letter for the zoning and then again with the second submission for the building you know
you'll get your your stamps and things like that but you know that that's a pretty typical process
we follow for any sort of uh sidewalk encroachment whether it be a curb cut a egress well a window
bay anything like that the process is relatively the same i tend to disagree with you you have a
zoning there's no stamp on the drawings for street the previous uh case we had they had a
the previous case we had they had a stamp for streets department approving the curve cuts and
all streets department do a preliminary review you don't have that do we know the stamp date
because with the eclipse roll out this year the process has changed and logan were you
uh were you present for the last application um on columbia street or columbia avenue
that had the the curb cut referenced uh i was and again you know there's for all the ones we've
been doing that literally we the only thing we've been getting from eclipse on all of our on all of
our projects has been this letter at the zoning level we see the stamps when it's any sort of
corner property any sort of property that involves curb cuts and then even especially when it gets
to the building permit level you know that's where we tend to see the stamps but what we've
been getting for everything at the zoning level is this prerequisite letter from Eclipse which
again we wouldn't get unless we uploaded the plans uploaded you know the contractor information
everything else like that that's required for this Eclipse application so again the letter is
based off of site plans that we submitted.
And again, it would be cross-referenced
with those same site plans
when we submit for a building permit.
And I can say from doing this,
we get more stamps on the building permit drawings
because that's what LNI is using
before they issue a final building permit.
At the zoning level,
I don't want to say they're not looking at it,
but it's not the same level of review
for a zoning prerequisite as it is for a building
because things could change between now and then.
But generally speaking,
we don't get any sort of stamps on any of the zoning submissions that we have
through Eclipse which again has to do with the approval dates this one the
approval date was in April of this year and again as I mentioned there's there
have been sort of a change in terms of what streets department does their
ability to stamp drawings over you know since the time Eclipse first rolled out
versus you know where we are today. Let me ask another question this is new
construction correct it's being done by the ibc code correct correct ibc code requires
50 out of the basement is this building 50 out of the basement
uh no however i think the section of code you might be thinking of resolves to whether it's
going to be considered a story above grade or not generally speaking if the basement is
50% or more out of grade, it would be considered a story above grade.
Anything less than that, it's considered a seller, which again can
vary. As long as it's less than 50% out of grade, it's still
considered a seller. If it's above, then this would turn into a five-story
building. I disagree with you, but
that's okay.
Mr. Ryan, when Streets Department
submitted their letter of approval to you were you requested to submit any other plans or documents
no that's i said you know when we submitted this you know one of the conditions of lni
issuing a zoning refusal is that the prerequisites from any related departments such as the water
department in cases of larger projects or streets department in cases of a public encroachment
you know they require that that that prerequisite approval is issued before they even issue
you know the zoning refusal that way when we're going in front of the RCA we're going in front of
the ZBA board you know it's not it's not to say that encroachments are in questions to say you
know the streets department's already looked at this already reviewed and preliminarily approved
um but they didn't request anything additional than the original site plan that we submitted
mr dry for the record can you just state your professional uh qualifications sure i'm a
registered architect in the state of Pennsylvania. And how long have you been a registered architect?
I've been a registered architect since about three years now at this point. And have you
appeared before the Zoning Board of Adjustment before? Yes. Can you estimate how many times
you've appeared before the Zoning Board of Adjustment? While I was licensed or just in
general uh why you're licensed well i was licensed oh probably i'd estimate probably 50 to 100 times
has anyone ever challenged or questioned your competency or qualifications as a registered
licensed architect in the commonwealth of pennsylvania um not not questioned or directly
challenged no i mean everybody certainly has you know questions when it comes to the building
design and and i would think that you know my answers always come from a a code-based knowledge
and you know just experience developing in the city. And the height of this
And the height of this building, what is the height of this building?
building, what is the height of this building?
Let's see, the height of the building here. Can you zoom in a little bit? Sorry, my eyes aren't the best.
Yeah, so with this one we designed, we designed the height of the building to be
38 feet in compliance with the zoning code. You know, we didn't feel like it was necessary to
add any more additional building height. So we've got, you know, from grade to top of roof is 38
feet. And then we have the additional 10 feet for the pilot house, which is permissible under the
zoning code. The question is about the seller at the property. Can you explain to the board
the significance of a distinction between a seller and a basement?
Sure. So, you know, when it comes to the difference between a cellar and a basement, generally speaking, the cellar is something where, you know, you can have livable space in the cellar just like you can have livable space in the basement.
It just becomes a function of how far out of the ground that that basement or cellar is.
The idea is that it's more referred to as a cellar when you're, you know, close to 50% out of grade, but not over, because when you're over, then you're obviously at a story above grade.
And anything less than 50% out of grade, you're considered the basement.
Again, both of which can have, you know, livable spaces in so long as you provide, you know, the required egress window in your 5.7 clear opening area, things like that.
And is there any dimensional component of this proposal that triggered a refusal from Illinois?
Is the height fully compliant with the zoning provisions of the RSA 5 zoning district?
And you were present for the RCO presentation before the Beach Community Services RCO, correct?
Were you asked to make any changes to the height of the building by any member of the community or a representative of Beach Community Services?
No, I mean, in general, it seemed as if the community was appreciative that we kept the building within the dimensional standards, you know, which is something we always try to do, especially when we're asking for use variants.
You know, we try to keep the building dimensionally compliant, you know, envelope wise, height wise, things like that, and really just try to keep the variance to a minimus of, in this case, you know, the use.
I have no further questions than Mr. Dry.
I have just one more, Mr. Chairman. Is it possible to redesign the buildings so that the bedrooms are on the first floor and the living space is in the basement?
So the issue of the bedrooms in the cellar level was an issue that was discussed at length at the RCO meeting.
And all members of the community, including the RCO itself, because of the inclusion of the total of four egress wells, two in the front, two in the back, both thought the plans that include for basement living bedrooms was appropriate for this particular location because of the inclusion of double the requirement of egress wells.
One last question. Is it possible in redesigning to have the basement unit have direct access to the outside with the stairway?
So I think, and Logan can also add to this, but there's a difference between an egress stairwell in the front onto the sidewalk or to the rear.
I think there could be a potential for a design change to allow for egress stairs to the rear.
But on the front, there are certain safety issues to having the open stairwell leading into the basement living space.
Yeah, I would second what you said, Paul.
There's certainly room where we could do a staircase down in the basement, absolutely, because that's rear yard more private.
But in the front, for instance, whereas the streets department allows, you know, a flush egress well, or they allow a staircase, you know, to go up, let's say if the first floor was pulled out of the ground, the streets department's pretty clear about any sort of staircase that goes down or creates a void in the sidewalk.
The only reason being is, you know, one, if you did a staircase that went down into those windows, you'd have to basically do a railing around it with a gate, which goes against their, you know, provisions for egress needing to be flush and walkable.
So then if you kind of take that and say, well, we could do a staircase and do a grate over it, then you run into the issue of, you know, yes, it's safe for the sidewalk.
you know yes it's safe for the sidewalk but if i'm in that staircase trying to get out then i'm
But if I'm in that staircase trying to get out, then I'm with.
lifting a grate that you know is probably not able to be lifted because it's covering the whole
stairwell so in short you know back we've got more options but the front you know based on
streets department standards we really are limited to just the flush egress wells
thank you okay any other questions from the board
Mr. Chairman, I would like to move my exhibits and have Mr. Rahel Raza adopt my testimony.
Please do.
Sir, please identify yourself, spell your full name, and I'll swear you in.
Rahel, if you could raise your hand and be let in.
Yes, sir. Rahel A. Raza, R-A-H-I-L. Last name is Raza, R-A-Z-A.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes sir. Thank you. Mr. Toner. Mr. Raza are you a principal of Raza Thompson LLC? Yes. And did you hear my testimony today before the Zoning Board of Adjustment? Yes sir. Did you do you agree with all the factual statements I made to the Zoning Board of Adjustment and do you adopt them as your own? Yes.
and with that anyone else would like to testify in this case
not from the applicant your honor or yeah understood i'm mr chair uh mr
um shimon kogo has this wait i'm sorry that hand went down um mr brendan harris
has his hand raised hours well he did but it um it was a lowered i'm sorry okay planning commission
thank you chair chico ian hegarty for the philadelphia city planning commission
members of the board this uh in 2017 this area was remapped from rm1 to rsa5 this was done in
accordance with recommendations for the comprehensive plan. I just want to note for the board that the
previous approvals cited by council for these lots were issued in 2012 when the zoning was still RM1.
So we would say the proposed use conflicts with the intent of the remapping, which was to encourage
single-family row home development on the vacant lots in this area. And other than the fact that
was combined to form a larger lot there are no unusual physical conditions to this lot
that could be used to justify a hardship claim here so the city planning commission would
actually recommend that the board deny these variances okay um mi 2021-002097
1826 west thompson street i'm going to recommend that the record be closed and the board will
discuss this at and uh at next wednesday's executive session uh we i've just been asked to
move a couple of these cases around mr reuter uh has another appointment but he's needed for case
number 12 on our list so we're going to go mr chairman mr chairman pardon me this is the court