I appreciate it.
So questions from the board?
No, Chair.
No, Chair.
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson?
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any hands, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you.
Planning Commission?
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning.
David Fechter with the City Planning Commission, Chairman and Board members, the comprehensive plan
recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location. The
dimensional variance for rear yard depth is minor and does not conflict with the spirit and purpose
of the zoning code, and we would argue that the small lot size, 715 square feet, poses an economic
hardship justifying the variance for open area. The City Planning Commission recommends the Board
grant or propose dimensional variances for rear yard depth and open area.
Thank you. MI 2023-005-882-221 Tree Street, I vote yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
LeBron Leonard Palmer, my vote is yes.
Liberian Leonard Palmer, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Number seven, MI 2023-005-881, 226 Washington Avenue.
Zen Jin is the attorney.
There's a letter of non-opposition from the Penn Sports Civic Association.
They'll be coming back in as a pentacle zone.
Good morning.
Good morning, counsel. Could you state your name and spell, please, for the court sonographer?
Yes. My name is Zen Jin, Z-H-E-N, last name J-I-N, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1838,
fellow of EPA 19103 here on behalf of the applicant.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client in a relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is UNHTRIEU, middle initial V as in Victor, and my client is the owner of the property.
Okay, and our vice chair has a few questions, sir.
Good morning, counsel. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to its accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with this case by the advance of this hearing?
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you. I'm going to share with the board what was previously submitted as an exhibit.
Can everyone see my exhibit?
We can, sir.
Thank you.
So we have submitted a copy of the refusal and related documentation for this application.
This is an application for a legalization, well, not legalization, my apologies, for
use of the property as a two-family household living at this location.
This is a Washington Avenue property.
It is part of a small part of a block that is zoned RSA 5.
However, this property is unique in both its history and design, which led to the non-opposition from DRCO with regard to our particular request.
One of the interesting factors about this property is that it was previously legally used as a single-family and a sculptured artist's office and artist's studio.
So it was separated between the front and the upper and lower floors, plus there was initially legal additions done.
So the property is actually substantially larger than the neighboring properties, which are very small, 500 plus square foot lot, single family houses.
Plus, we are actually right next to a commercial use as well.
So this block is a pretty short part of Washington Avenue between two streets, including two in-cap commercial mixed use, and we are the next building.
Because of the larger size and the existing conditions of the separated floors and an existing studio that is now what we're requesting as the second unit, the RCO feels that there's enough existing conditions to warrant not opposing our request for a two-family use.
The upper floor is an existing single family that would remain, and then the lower floor
will become its own single family.
And that is essentially the reason why we're seeking this particular variance before the
board.
I want to advise the board that my client is overseas and would not be present today, but
I have verified all this information with him prior to appearing before the board today.
I'm happy to answer any questions or redirect to any part of the...
And just for the record, could you show the Pennsport Civic Association letter?
Absolutely.
My apologies.
Let me.
So this is a letter from Pennsport.
And they they have they're not opposing the variance.
So we appeared before the Civic Association.
We responded to all the questions because of the size of the property.
relative to the size for two single-family homes,
the neighborhood had no opposition to the idea
of converting this into a two-family dwelling.
Thank you.
Questions from the board?
No questions, Chair.
So, Chair.
It's a comment from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
There's a comment from our attorney, Hillary Emerson.
Not at this time.
Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
Questions or comments from the virtual audience?
I do not see any answer, Mr. Chair.
Planning Commission.
Thank you, Chair Bergman, and good morning.
David Fecto with the City Planning Commission.
Chairman and board members, the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the residential single-family zoning at this location.
The zoning for this block dates to 1999, when this block base was changed from multifamily to single family.
This appears to be a reuse of a former business space within an existing structure.
The City Planning Commission recommends the board grant the proposed use variants for two dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2023-005-881-226 Washington Avenue. I vote yes.
LeBaron Leonard Palmer. My vote is yes.
No, Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you.
Number 10, MI 2023, 005759, 815 North 16th Street.
Olaf Sokoloff is the attorney.
There were no RCO letter at this point,
But there was a meeting held 2-21-24 at United-Francisville Civic.
The applicant also has provided 18 foreign letters of support from neighbors.
Good morning, Chair Oleg Sokolov.
Could you just spell your name?
Did you testify once today already?
Did I have you on before?
I did just on a continuance request.
So you've already been sworn.
Just for the record, state your name again.
Oleg Sokolov, on behalf of the applicant, Clara Perkins, O-L-E-G, S-O-K-O-L-O-D.
Right.
And our vice chair has just a few questions for you, sir.
Good morning, counsel.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal or stipulate to his accuracy?
Good morning, Mr. Shahid.
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed to proceed with
this case five days in advance of this hearing?
i have mr vice chair however as i have just learned from mr bergman the rco seems not to
have submitted the letter yet however i do have an email i did not include it in the exhibit packet
because i was under the impression that they would be sending the letter which they have not provided
to me but the email does outline the vote of the february 21st meeting that we had
Thank you. Council, can you please email that over to our board council?
Yes, I'll do that. Well, I can display it too when I share my exhibit, so why don't I just do that.
Thank you.
Is everybody able to see that?
Yes, yes.
Okay. So, as stated here in the letter, the vote came out to 17 in opposition, 12 in support, and 5 in non-opposition.
And as you can see here as well, this was last Thursday, and I was informed by the RCO that they would be submitting the letter by the end of the week for our meeting today.
why don't you proceed thank you mr chair
so as stated this is an application for 815 north 16th street i'm here on behalf of the applicant
miss perkins um i will have her son alan who oversees her affairs uh on this call as well
This is a request to use the property for the purposes of visitor accommodation in an RM1 district.
You'll also see that this property was previously granted variance for two-family household living in 2014.
Here is the deed to Dr. Clara Perkins.
Ms. Perkins purchased the property in 2021.
It has been run and overseen by her son, Alan, as I stated.
The property is a two-family dwelling.
The applicant has had some difficulty renting it for full year terms.
Currently, there's a six-month lease on the top unit and nobody in the bottom unit.
This has kind of gone on since they've owned the property.
They've been unable to secure any year-long leases and at this time are unable to secure a further six-month lease.
this is just a view down 16th street looking uh i believe this is south and then this is north and
what i would just like to point out here that this is ridge avenue right here that
basically heading north on 16th street the property
basically heading north on 16th street the property properties change into a number of
multi-family properties and this property as you'll see when i display the zoning map actually
is about three properties away from a cmx 2.5 district and also a commercial quarter of various
cmx zone properties on ridge here's some interior photos of the property you can see it's very well
appointed. Some, you know, lovely renovations were done putting marble in the bathrooms,
lovely painting, lovely fixture installations, and this property is very well kept.
Here's a toning map for the property, and this is what I was discussing. So
the property is basically three houses in. These three houses running north towards Ridge Avenue
along 16th Street are RM1 properties, and then the properties abutting 16th Street and at the
intersection of Ridge are CMX 2.5, and then some of the properties along here in Ridge are a variety
of cmx uses i'd also like to point out so this is kind of a display of hotel accommodations in
the nearby area and when i say nearby i would say that's a bit of a stretch there are only
three hotels within even a 20 square block area and they're quite quite far from
anything going north on the property the closest is the dominics at the divine marine
Here's our project information form, our application for appeal, our notice letter to the community.
As I stated, we had a meeting with the RCO, which is the United Francisville Civic Association,
on February 21st, where the results were displayed.
And I'm not sure why there is no letter, but I do apologize for that.
Our certificates of mailing.
I believe this was sent to about 180 nearby neighbors.
We also included in the packet some proposed rules if we are granted this variance.
You know, we've tried to make sure that some of the issues that may come up and have come
up in the past with Airbnbs or visitor accommodation requests are dealt with in the rules.
You know, obviously, no loud music, maximum occupancy, no smoking, things of that nature.
And most importantly, there is a backyard to the property, so all trash will be stored in the backyard, and it is currently stored in the backyard for the current residents.
I also like to include, this is something that my clients have been using recently.
Pardon me.
This is something that my clients have been using recently to be able to oversee certain things within the unit so they can monitor it from afar.
This monitors noise and is able to actually turn off the Wi-Fi system if certain decibel levels are hit.
it's also able to detect how many entries were done
on the keyboard for the door pad lock,
which is going to be an electronic lock.
And as the chair stated,
we have 18 letters of support from nearby neighbors,
including five letters of support from people
on the immediate block,
which I'll just quickly point out here.
These are actually abutting neighbors on Ridge Avenue.
And then here we go, here's one on North 16th, another one, and another one here, and another one here.
So as I said, five. These are pictures of the zoning posters being hung.
And then lastly, just a printout of the Philadelphia tax system showing compliance through 2023.
The applicant actually has her taxes and insurance escrowed with her mortgage company, so we're
unclear as to why the 2024s haven't been paid, but they will be paid very shortly by the
mortgage company.
At this time, if it's okay with the chair of the board, I'd like to bring on Mr. Alan
Perkins just to adopt my testimony.
any mr perkins doesn't own the property no it's his mother's property
hillary can we do that