Thank you.
And Mr. Thomas, if you're in the audience, can you press the star six to raise your hand?
uh good morning can you hear me perfect tom yeah i'm okay thank you perfect
And Chair, we can begin as you wish.
We're ready to go. Thank you.
Are we recording, Lakeisha?
Yes, Chair.
Thank you.
Good morning. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's ZBA hearings.
With me is our Vice Chair, Ismail Shahid.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thomas Holliman, our board member.
President, Mr. Chairman, and Emily Persico, our alternate board member from Development
Services.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised that proceedings are being recorded.
A video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify
themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And lastly, the question and answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sunkit.
Let's look at the schedule for today.
Do we have any requests for containments?
Good morning, Chair, this is Nadia.
We have two hands.
Is Mr. Orphanides here?
Yes, that is correct.
We have Leonard Ruder and Orphanides.
Okay, thank you.
Bring them both in.
They have been allowed to talk.
Good morning, Mr. Orphanides.
Can you hear me?
I can, Mr. Orphanides.
Could you state your name, please, and spell the court's an article?
Certainly.
David Orphanides, O-R-P-H-A-N-I-D-E-S.
Right.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Is Mr. Reuter on?
Can you hear me? Hi, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court sonographer?
Sure. Leonard F. Reuter, R-E-U-T-E-R, Senior Attorney, City of Philadelphia.
Right. Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Mr. Orphanides. Yes. Mr. Chairman, this case involves an appeal of two violations that
were issued against my client's property at 1711 to 17 Brittenhouse Square. Mr. Reuter and I
have been in communications over the last week or two to see about addressing and resolving the
underlying violations. And I don't know if Mr. Reuter has, I know he's been working hard at it,
working around the schedules of people at LNI as far as their availability with the summer and all,
but I don't know if he has an update regarding the status of those violations as of this morning.
I know as of yesterday, last evening, he did not get out of the office.
Mr. Reuter.
Yeah, I mean, it's it's really the discussions that I had with Mr. Orphanides and also Leslie Gerstein, who represents a neighbor who's not a party, but has been involved in the case.
Yeah, I mean, it's really...
we're trying to reach a resolution of the underlying violations but it's just one of
these things you know we had just a few days notice last week of you know how we were going
to try to approach this and it's the middle of august pretty much everybody is either on vacation
or at least was out on monday so i'm going to keep trying but i think we previously had reached out
to board's council about most likely continuing today.
And I'm pretty certain we will have a resolution.
So, okay, good.
So MI 2022 004 555 1711 to 17 Rittenhouse Square
cases continued.
Thank you.
Any other requests for continuance?
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you.
I'd be excused.
Thank you, please.
Any other requests for continuance?
I see no hands.
So case number one, MI 2021, 004-660, 1233 East Luzerne Street.
This case has been withdrawn.
And we're going to start today with case number four.
MI-2022-003-308-5774 North 20th Street.
Sean Whalen is the attorney.
Letter of non-opposition from the Oak Lane Worcester RCO.
Councilwoman Bass has taken a position of non-opposition.
Sean Whalen has been promoted to panelists.
Thank you.
Good morning, Mr. Whalen.
Thank you.
Good morning, Chairman. How are you this morning? Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court somnographer?
Of course. Sean Whalen, W-H-A-L-E-N.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
Yes, my client is the owner, North, spelled out, 20th LLC.
All right, and our vice chair has a few questions.
Good morning, Council. Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate towards accuracy?
Yes, I do.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that are needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we did.
Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen.
Thank you very much.
I hope that you see in front of you now a Google aerial view just to give you an outline.
This is a corner lot right here where you see the red dot, 5774 North 20th Street, right off of Kimball.
We have a very simple request today for you.
This is just an aerial that you can see, kind of the layout, fully built out neighborhood.
hood. And again, this kind of gives you a better view of this is North 20th and this is Collin.
This is an existing duplex that has been in its current state for as long as anyone can recollect.
And we are seeking to legalize the duplex. My client bought the property at a time when the
property was RM1 and thought and understood from the purchase that he had all necessary approvals
for the duplex. The duplex was by right back then, so no one really, you know, considered it too
closely. It was later remapped to RSA 5. And so my client, upon learning that, has held off renting
the first floor unit and is seeking to legalize this duplex to make sure that he can get all
rental licenses and everything in place. And interestingly, even actually had a duplex rental
license in place through earlier this year to let you know that the city even thought this was
illegal. So we have a letter of non-opposition from the RCO. The RCO meeting was actually held
and chaired by Mr. Charles Richardson from Councilwoman Bass's office, and Councilwoman
also took a position of non-opposition to granting the variance. Essentially, the determination
was since this has been in place as is for again as long as anyone can remember without any real
without any real issues there are a number of other multi-family units in the neighborhood
issues there are a number of other multi-family units in the neighborhood
and this is only a duplex not see we are not seeking additional units or anything like that
that it would be granted so we did receive we filed the application received one refusal
simply that since this is an rsa 5 district uh two family dwellings are not allowed again you
can see the whole area has been remapped. Basically, everything that you can see used
to be RM1, and I think in 2016-17 was entirely remapped to RSA 5.
Here's the unit right here, or the building, I should say. Here's the large corner unit.
There is an entryway. This is the second floor of the property, and the third floor,
There is a four-bedroom existing unit on the second and third floors.
And then as you come around the corner, you can see there is actually a separate unit here.
It has its own entrance and its separate second exit.
There is no basement.
There is no basement living space.
This is entirely on the first floor.
there's just a change in grade from the street frontage to the side street. And so there is an
existing two-bedroom unit on this first floor. Like I said, we did actually even have from the
city an issued two-unit rental license that my client was operating under. Again, at the time,
thought that he had everything in place that needed to be in place. And then what you can see
here is again there's a full rear driveway access this bottom unit is all on the first floor one
floor unit has access to the rear space and one again there is no basement or basement access in
this or basement living space i should say in this property the second level you walk up those stairs
off of south of north 20th street and there's a two bedroom a four bedroom unit that's already
in existence on the fourth floor.
Here are just some current pictures of the vacant unit
showing you kind of the high status
that the client keeps and operates the property.
So that's it.
The relatively simple application before you this morning
that everyone was in port of.
Mr. Whalen, do you want to bring your client on?
Yes, of course.
David Hess, H-E-S-S, should have his hand raised.
They have been allowed to speak.
Good morning, Mr. Hess.
Could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
David Hess.
I spell your name, please.
David, D-A-V-I-D-H-E-S-S.
Right.
Do you swear a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Hess, you're here on behalf of North 20th Street, LLC, the owner of the property, correct?
And did you hear all of the testimony that's already been provided in this case?
And do you believe that my testimony was true and correct to the best of your knowledge, information, and belief?
and would you adopt that testimony as your own yes thank you questions from the board
no chair no mr chairman questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands planning commission thank you chair bergman and good morning david effecto
So F-E-C-T-E-A-U with the City Planning Commission.
Do you swear or affirm, tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I do.
Proceed.
Thank you, sir.
Chair and board members, in 2019, the zoning map was amended from residential multifamily to residential single family at this location in accord with recommendations from the comprehensive plan.
This property received a rental license for two dwelling units in 2016.
The proposed use is consistent with prior documented use as two dwelling units.
The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance for two dwelling units.
Thank you. MI 2022-003-308-5774 North 20th Street, I vote yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Shahid, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you very much, Chairman. Have a great day.
Number 10, MI-2022-004-229-3301 Emerald Street.
Brandon Sabrin is the attorney.
There was an RCO meeting.
We do not have a letter.
This was in Councilman Squill's office
and is being moved to Councilman Driscoll's area.
And we do not have a letter.
And apparently, we don't have anyone at this point
that's in opposition, I should say.
Council, could you identify your client
and the relationship to the property?