plans of the property five days in advance of this hearing and have you met with the RCO and do you
have a letter? We have met with the RCO. I've submitted everything within five days except for
the tax clearance which I submitted yesterday and the email in support from the RCO was forwarded
yesterday when I received them. Okay great you may proceed and begin by sharing your screen.
thank you very much thank you okay this is an application to permit a sign
on the property as as indicated um in the plans if i could find the plans
you have a refusal ah show all windows here we go
can you see the sign uh can you see my screen any minute we see it now okay so the seventh
day adventist church has a car um has a sign as indicated um in the photographs that i'll be
sharing shortly the the sign is very old it needs to be replaced and i'm showing you a rendition of
proposed sign, which is 112 inches wide by, if I could zoom in over here, 112 inches wide.
The sign itself would be 48 inches tall, sitting approximately up to nine foot eight inches high.
It would be an illuminated sign, as indicated on the plans,
with welded and painted structural aluminum. Essentially, we're just here to seeking to replace the current sign.
The sign would be located at the same location as the current sign, 45 feet set back from North 46th and 35 feet set back from Haverford Avenue.
you. We've met with the RCO, we have the RCO support, and we hope to have the support of
the community. I would call Mr. David Gordon of the church. Hi, sir. Could you state your name,
please, and spell it for the court reporter? My name is David Gordon, D-A-V-I-D-G-O-R-D-O-N.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do. Proceed, counsel. Thank you. Mr. Gordon, good morning. Good morning, sir.
Have you heard my presentation to the board? Yes, I did. Do you agree with it and do you adopt it
as your own as if you would testify? I do. And can you also tell the board what type of
illumination the sign would have and what hours it would be illuminated? Yes. After meeting with
the community it will be it will be illuminated illuminated for 24 hours but we will not have
moving parts after after eight o'clock um we can adjust the illumination so that it will be
Um, we can adjust the illumination so that it will be consistent with the one that is there now.
Um, the sign is being used to, we have done many things in the community.
Um, we have a soup kitchen regularly on Wednesday.
We have grosser window once a year, once a month.
Um, we have had, um, our location was one where the black doctors of Philadelphia gave the, one of their first COVID vaccine shots.
So we have been partners with the community. We have partners with Allen Lock School, with the Mill Creek. We have done computer training. So we're vested and partners with a number of different entities in the community. And we believe that the sign will help us as we serve the community and even as we share messages of hope as people pass by during the daytime.
okay questions from the board no mr chairman no mr chairman
thank you questions or comments from the virtual audience
i see no hands here hi planning commission
Thank you, Chair. Sarah Bond, City Planning Commission. S-A-R-A-H-B-A-N-H. The proposed use is not likely to cause detrimental impacts beyond what reasonably might be expected. The City Planning Commission recommends that the Zoning Board grant the variance.
Thank you. MI 2022, 004-470-601-41-North 46th Street, I vote yes.
Harold Taneray, my vote is yes.
Thomas Holloman, my vote is yes.
Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes.
Thank you, counsel.
Thank you. That concludes my business.
Thank you. Absolutely.
So, number 15, MI 2022-003-770-3929 North 17th Street.
Bern Anastasio is the attorney.
No RCO letter at this point.
And we're looking at an L&I issue, right, Hillary?
Mr. Chair, excuse me, so there's a concurrent appeal against L&I, but it is my understanding from correspondence with the council that they wish to proceed with the zoning appeal, and the outcome of that will determine whether or not they need to proceed with the appeal against L&I.
Okay, so do we, we'll hold the vote for an RCO letter?
um since the meeting was just held on november 29th um that i think that would be advisable
um in this case and and mr anastasio can speak you know to the meeting um and the testimony if
we do have a member of the rco here that wishes to testify that could substitute um but we do not
have feedback from the rco okay all right good um could you state your name please and spell for the
court report. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Vern Anastasio, V-E-R-N. Last name is A-N-A-S-T-A-S-I-O.
Right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
I do. Could you identify your client in relationship to this property?
I represent 3929 North 17th LLC. Okay. And before our advice share,
You look like you wanted to say something.
is a two family dwelling since the 1960s. We have a basement with mechanicals. The first floor
is a two bedroom apartment and the top floor is a two bedroom apartment. Property historically
was owner occupied on the first floor and the top floor was rented out. It had a rental license
for one unit because it had been historically been owner-occupied.
I'm going to show you the history of the property.
Two-family dwelling, 1961.
Two-family dwelling, 1961.
My client purchased this property after his grandfather passed away.
His grandfather was the owner-occupant of the property since 1960,
the 60s and prior. So he purchased it after the grandfather passed away to keep it in the family.
He purchased it. It was listed by Keller Williams as zoned RM1 and also as a duplex.
He purchased this with the two-family dwelling already in place. And for those reasons,
we respectfully request the granting of the variance as it has a long history of a two-family
dwelling. It was listed by Keller Williams when he purchased as a two-family dwelling,
and there is absolutely no history of use of it being anything other than a two-family dwelling.
And with that, I'd like to have Justin Adams raise his hand and sworn in.
Mr. Adams, could you state your name, please, and spell for the court reporter?
Yes, Justin Adams, last name A, D as in David, A, M as in Mary, Sam.
Right.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Mr. Adams, did you hear my presentation to the board this morning?
I did.
Is it true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
And do you adopt it as your own testimony?
Good afternoon. My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this afternoon's ZBA hearings.
With me is Carol Tenere, our vice chair.
Carol Tenere, yeah, I'm present, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you. Ismail Shahid, our board secretary.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
Also, here is our Board Attorney, Hillary Emerson, and our ZVA Hearing Supervisor,
Lakeisha Dandy.
Here's our virtual format.
By participating, you acknowledge your agreement to be recorded.
The video will be available by contacting TanyaSunkett at phila.gov.
For the benefit of our court stenographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify
themselves before testifying. If you are participating by phone, if 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 finally,
the question answer box on the screen is not for comments or testimony. Any comments should be
directed to our Executive Director, Tanya Sumter. Let's look at continuances for this afternoon.
Number 12, MI 2022-004-087-273 Delmar Street. This case is continued. Is there anyone who has
any comments relative to that case? I see no handshare. Any other requests for continuances?
I see no handshare.
Thank you.
I want to look at number nine, the status of number nine, MI-2022-004-093-3712 Clarendon Avenue.
We're missing several documents in this case.
Is there anyone here from 3712 Clarendon Avenue?
I see no handshare.
So MI-2022-004-093-3712 Clarendon Avenue, that case does continue.
We're going to go to our add-on list.
Excuse me, Chair, a hand just went up for Alice Udovich.
Ma'am, please unmute yourself.
Hi, could you state your name?
Thank you, Chairman, members of the board.
could you state your name and spell for the court reporter please my name is alice udovich
u-d-o-v-i-c-h that's right i'm here from councilman brian o'neill's office okay do you
swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth i do what case
i was here on clarendon i was here to uh voice the councilman support okay so so we're missing
several documents on that and we believe uh that there's an attorney needed to represent the
the appellant so that case is going to be continued
thank you
well let's go to our add-on list
number one mi 2022 003 649 3000 west schoolhouse lane the vote for this has been changed vote will
now be held on wednesday december 14th at 2 p.m number two mi 2022 004 017 5427
Wayne Avenue. This is a re-vote with additional provisos. I vote yes, with proviso. Trash stored
in a dumpster, commercial trash pickup six days a week, temporary special exception to expire 1-1-26.
six. Carol? Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes. With proviso. Carol? It seems like she dropped
out here. If you wanted to pause until she get back in, it's up to you. Yeah, let's,
let's hold, I'll give her a call. Let's hold one minute.
Thank you.
Hillary, do we want to continue this particular case
and then we'll vote on it later?
yeah we'll just we'll yeah we just can't vote without carol so um we'll just have to wait um
but if carol is not here then we should announce we have an alternate board member here so that
we have a quorum and we can proceed is he is he on yes he is okay could he could identify himself
please i'm on chair john munlock from the department of planning and development thank
thank you appreciate it okay you're welcome so also we'll revote 1709 north marshall street
next week okay mi 2022 003 699 1709 north marshall street we'll vote that next week
Okay, so we're going to our regular list. MI 2022-002-384-3125 Page Street. We have a letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion CDC and also, I believe, a letter of opposition from Strawberry Mansion Community Concerns.
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the board.
Alan Nockamson, A-L-A-N, last name Nockamson, N-O-C-H-U-M-S-O-N, 123 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19 Fonserado.
Do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my client is Brandon Ortiz, and he's the owner of the property.
Mr. Nakhansan, for a point of information, this is a request for single residents?
Now it is, yes.
We have revised plans and other alterations to the project.
Okay, thank you.
A few questions for more at Board Secretary, Ishmael Shaheed.
Good afternoon, council.
Good afternoon.
mr knockinson you've you've you've sent in all required forms am i correct including that and
we do have two letters now at this point oh i didn't get the second letter yeah we have we
have a second letter too okay uh yeah and i'll make sure hillary sends you the letter okay if
if Ms. Emerson can send it during the presentation
so I can just quickly review it.
Absolutely. Hillary, is that okay?
That's fine. I'm pulling it up now.
Okay. So we're good. Proceed.
All right. Thank you.
Hi. So I'm here to present 3125 Page Street.
This property is in the Schroeder Mansion section of Philadelphia.
During my presentation, we'll review the notice of refusal.
So the correspondence that we have so far from Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation, my understanding is maybe another RCO has submitted materials.
So we'll review that as well during our presentation.
We had two passionate meetings with the community, I would say, about this project.
Their primary concerns had to do to multifamily use.
They also had concerns about their overlay.
We have addressed as many of those concerns we can to make it a functional viable project and we'll go through those changes as well maps in the area photographs of the property or plans and drawings or RCO meeting notice for the last meeting.
Again, we met twice with the strawberry mansion community development corporation as the coordinating RCO or with other RCOs or application for appeal.
our application for appeal and we followed the cba or deeds of property showing that brandon
And we follow up with the CBA or deeds and property showing that brands and orthopedics.
ortiz is the owner of the property and our certificate of tax clearance in the virtual
audience in addition to mr ortiz who will got my testimony at the conclusion of my presentation
and can answer any questions you may have about this presentation
and the project is chris johnson 24 7 design the architect for the project
Just a little background, Mr. Ortiz is a firefighter with Philadelphia Fire Department.
All right, so this is an RSA-5 property.
Originally, we were proposing a two-family structure, and that's one of our refusals as an RSA-5 property.
We are submitting plans that will revise certain aspects of it, and if the board is so inclined to grant this variance request, we would ask for two provisors.
One, maximum of one unit, you know, a single family structure.
And then the second proviso would be the revised plans.
And we'll go over those as well.
Now, the two other refusals have to do with overlay issues.
Even though it's a RSA 5 property, which typically would allow 38 feet in height, we're in the NCO, Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District,
strawberry mansion too which only allows a height of 25 feet where we're proposing 30 feet six
inches again uh if my philosophy in zoney variance law is this in philadelphia if i walk by the
property built or used as proposed does it stick out like a sort of thumb or is it something that
fits more so with the fabric of that portion of the neighborhood if you look at what we are
proposing especially the rendering and comparing it to what is on that block on that side of the
block it would be something that would you would walk by and you would comment oh that's a newer
version of what's already there so we think it's appropriate uh for what we're proposing in spite
of the overlay you can't put you know a round peg in a square hole and you know that's what's
being asked of us and we just want to make it a viable project because we couldn't build a two
family excuse me a two-story single family structure the second or the third refusal
first one we're dealing with by way of proviso hopefully but the third refusal has to do with
the porch deck where six feet is required a porch deck and we're proposing five feet