good morning Mr. Bailey good morning everyone how are you all right uh can you please uh first
uh turn your camera on okay sorry no problem uh please state your name and spell it for the
court reporter Mahari Bailey B-A-I-L-E-Y do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. Yes, I do.
for Holloman have a few questions.
Hi, Chair. This is Tanya.
Sure. May I please ask
if he spelled his first name as well, please?
Thank you so kindly. My apologies.
Mahari, M-A-H-
A-R-I.
Thank you.
Mr. Holloman, can you
ask Mr. Bailey
his questions? Good morning,
counsel. Good morning. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its
accuracy? Yes, I do. Did you email all the exhibits and documents as required five days in advance to
this hearing? Yes, with the exception of the RCO letter of support, which we just received this
morning and sent over. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Will do.
Okay. Can you see the screen?
Okay. Here we are.
Okay. 2637 West Somerset Street was purchased by my client, Dr. Hamira Mobley.
I'm going to just go through the packet and walk through everything. It'll be pretty quick and simple.
Here's a copy of the notice of refusal. It was refused because it's a single family residential district and the property is an existing two family dwelling that she purchased.
So here's a copy of the notice of refusal.
It was refused because...
Here's the application for appeal. All the info is there. It's mostly a financial hardship that she's been paying the mortgage for a year, but can't reside in the unit because it's not a legal duplex.
project information form the deed showing uh she purchased the property from new home investment
properties on uh june 28th 2023 um neighbor notification she um we've mailed out
the required document, the notification tool.
Sorry, I have to zoom out for this part.
We actually mailed out two notifications.
One, here's the corrected one.
Once we obtained the RCO date.
These are all the addresses.
I believe it was 197 addresses.
Here's the tax compliance.
These are photographs of the exterior of the property. It's currently boarded up because after she purchased and hired a contractor, he was unable to obtain permits to do the renovation because of the refusal.
So the property was boarded up because it's been vandalized and squatters and everything. So the property is currently boarded. Here's the other photos.
As you can see, there's two entrances to the front of the property.
The left is the first floor.
Right entrance is for the second floor unit.
The copy of the zoning notice.
Here's the, we hired an architect who I believe may be on the call to do the existing site plan and the proposed site plan.
So the existing plan, as you can see, it's an unfinished basement with utilities.
The first floor has a living room, kitchen, and a bathroom in the rear.
The second floor has two beds and one bath.
And as proposed, she's proposing no living in the basement, utilities, two bedroom, one bath on the first floor.
And then two bedroom, one bath on the second floor as well.
Here are the previous rental licenses that were in place in 2001 all the way through 2015.
Here's a copy of the appraisal.
When she purchased the property, the appraisal said it was a duplex as well.
Title told her it was a duplex.
The original MLS listing listed it as a duplex.
So as you can see, the homeowner just assumed that it was a legal duplex because all of the information pointed towards that.
And then finally, here is the letter from the RCO that was received this morning in support of the project.
They're asking that it be owner occupied, which she intends to occupy the unit.
And then they asked about pets on the second floor. But with the new laws around ESA and service animals, we're unable to, like, comment on pets and service animals on the second floor.
All right. You want to bring your client on?
Yes. Dr. Hamira Mobley, are you available?
haveira bobley has been abuted and allowed to speak
good morning miss mobley good morning how are you all right can you please state your name
and spell it for the court reporter hamira h-a-m-i-r-a-h mobley m-o-b-m-o-e-l-e-y
do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
yes please proceed counsel thank you uh dr mobley have you heard my testimony today
yes was it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge yes and do you adopt it as your
own testimony today yes thank you um yes questions from the
no question no mr vice chairman any uh questions from our attorney uh hillary emerson
Just briefly, Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Bailey, in the email that we also received from the Swamp Wheel RCO this morning, there was a list of four provisos that they requested, one being interior trash and recycling storage, two, a maximum of two dwelling units,
um just briefly mr rice chair um mr bailey in the email
three, no household living in the basement, and four, no rooftop deck.
Does your client have a position on those four requests for proviso?
They're all enforceable if the board decides to add them, if they grant.
I don't believe, Jomera, you have no issue with those, correct?
There's no issue. No, no issue.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Any questions from the virtual audience?
Vice Chair, we have a phone number ending at 3552. They have been unmuted and allowed to speak.
Good morning. Please state your name and spell it for the court reporter.
Yes, this is Adrienne Fernandez, Swampoodle Neighborhood Process Association RCO.
Hello. How are you doing, Ms. Fernandez?
Fine. How are you?
Can you state your name and spell it for the record?
yes um adrian a-d-r-i-e-n-n-e fernandez f-e-r-n-a-n-d-e-z you swear to tell the
truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth yes please proceed okay at this appeal address
um we support the appeal for variant variants and ask the zba to please vote to grant it um
with the four provisos that the ZBA lawyer, Hillary, has kindly read for us.
Understood. Thank you. Anyone else out in the virtual audience?
I see no on the heads, Vice Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Vice Chair, and good morning.
David Vecto with the City Planning Commission.
Vice Chair and Board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
the zoning in this block dates to 1972 this property has a documented history as two dwelling
units the city planning commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variance for
two dwelling units thank you uh mi-2023-005630 2637 west somerset street my vote is yes with
proviso, interior trash and recycling storage, maximum with two dwelling units, no household
living in the basement, and no rooftop deck.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes with the provisos.
James, now my vote is yes with proviso.
All right.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
No problem.
Can we go back to Mr. Doran
and see if he's able to connect now?
That's going to be
1405 Oakmont Street.
Doran, if you're here,
please raise your virtual hand.
He's been promoted to peddlers,
Vice Sheriff.
Good morning.
Mr. Doreen?
Are you ready to proceed?
Yes, sir.
Let me just call this back on for the record.
Number 14MI-2023-005710, 1405 Oakmont Street.
Mr. Doran, can you please state your name and spell it for the court reporter?
My name is Sean Doran.
First name S-H-A-W-N.
Last name Doran, D-O-R-I-N.
And I reside at 1405 Oakmont Street, Philadelphia, 19111.
Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Have you emailed in all the required documents that is needed five days in advance of this hearing?
To the best of my knowledge, yes, I have.
Thank you.
This application is for the erection of a six-foot solid fence around the existing property, size and locations as per plan.
Please share your screen.
Is it being shared now?
Not as of yet.
Should be a button at the bottom of the screen saying share screen.
Can you share?
Click share.
you may need to open up the document
we see that you're sharing the screen but you need to open up your actual document
so you can open up into the document
the things I want to present correct? yes sir
I'm sorry
so if you could show us your tax cert
and your denial letter
and some plans of the property.
All right. This is the
tax cert that I have received.
Okay. And now your denial letter
denial letter
this is the denial
got it
okay we understand we received a uh a letter non-opposition from councilman o'neill so we
have that um the letter to support from the borough hometown watch a civic association
do you have that letter yes you present your rco letter please
I'm sorry
it's my computer
okay all right yeah can you show us some pictures of the actual uh property and the actual fence
that you're trying to uh get installed and be um on the property okay that was the thing i
wasn't aware that a zoning permit was needed so i had put the fence up and in hindsight once i
found that out that's why i was trying to get the variance i think the only thing that i did do
uh which i was advised to do i did get the property survey done uh this is the receipt
for that when i got that done then um this is to uh put the letters up on the fence
I've seen
there's some plans. What was the plans for?
The plans were
It's a
six foot, six by eight
vinyl fence
and it's
going around. It's not in front
of the house, but it's around
the yard uh if you could tell right here i'm assuming everything can be seen um
to the the left side of the house is uh 24 is 24 feet over six foot high fence then it goes
runs along my neighbor's property do you have any picture of the fence next to you and your
neighbor's property i'm sorry do you have any photos of um the fence next to you and your
neighbor's property um here's a old photo this before the fence uh on this side where that wall
is located right there where that wall is right there that's where uh the gate is up now
okay okay um also
these are old photos it was a chain link fence already there and then in the front as you can
see so it looked like you went from a four foot chain link to a six uh foot violent uh fence
correct well right here in the front i guess this is called barn style wooden i guess this is four
feet and this is the front of the property got it would you ask is yes and then here it goes
got it would you ask is yes and then here go photos of the front of the house
okay whereas though even from a um a safety standpoint the the fences you can see it's not
impeding cars coming down the block um and it's just covering front of the yard and i
had got it at the time because my idea was to get
a pool. And just for privacy in the
rear yard, I have a son and a granddaughter here.
And now just believe I was told
that I can change the front of the fence to be
completely in compliance. I was just trying
to get the variance because of the cost that I would incur once again
to change the panel and everything on the fence.
Okay. All right. Thank you. Any questions from the board?
No, Mr. Vice Chairman. No questions.
Questions from our attorney, Hillary Emerson? Not at this time,
Mr. Vice Chair. Any questions from the virtual audience?